Leda Spiridon - An Erratic Crusade

Band: Leda Spiridon
Title: An Erratic Crusade
Label: War Productions
Release Date: 26 February 2018
Country: France
Format reviewed: Digital CD quality

Pretend that you are Dante Alighieri, crossing the gates of hell and finding yourself in the Anteinferno. The anteroom of the limbo. A place where sinners run naked, being eternally bitten by insects and wasps. You continue going through the circles of hell and you get to the ninth. What music would be heard in that immense well constituted by a huge lake of ice? Your body freezes, tied, in a desperate cry towards the eternal vacuum of misery. The only thing you hear, when you stop screaming, is the album "An Erratic Crusade" by Leda Spiridon.

The work has only 3 Tracks, although of great duration (one of them reaches to spend the 20 minutes of duration), and starts with "Hellyon My Faith", showing its most energetic facet. Hypnotic programmed drums, raw guitars, very reminiscent of the first wave and rough vocals, sinister and with a certain effect treatment, very satisfactory. I can not help but think of a mixture of Mirkvid with a very Old School Industrial flavor of the 80's, like Un-Kommuniti, when I listen to it. The next song, "An Erratic Crusade" begins to show the true essence of the band, and the feature that surprised me the most about them. The first half continues with the caustic and metallic tone, although from the middle it becomes purely industrial, recalling those sickly and bizarre atmospheres to which I referred earlier. The song crawls, and evaporates like a schizoid ode to the darkest places of our unconscious.

The Odyssey continues, and we reach the star of the album: The suite "Oaze", which starts slowly, almost like a doom lament, as if invoking ancestral spirits, until it ends in a climatic and highly atmospheric passage. The trip lasts just over twenty minutes, and the notion of time and space disintegrates, as our futile attempt to get out of the strange trance. The epic is alternating between black/doom chants, lacerated by synthesizers and the intoxicating coldness of moments closely linked to dark ambient, excellently achieved. It is in these structures of dark narcolepsy that the band reaches the sumum of their synergy. Where the thin line between the Dark and Ritual Ambient find the perfect osmosis between the heavy psychedelia and the most unorthodox black metal of their proposal.

The recording exudes grace and certain references that only the most trained and fine palates will know how to discern. Undoubtedly a different proposal, carried out by musicians who risk going through little explored paths and away from the most accepted and safeguarded standards of today's black metal. "An Erratic Crusade" is an original album, haunting, and full of excellent ideas, from a band that promises to become a future legend of the most original extreme underground music. Totally recommended. 9/10. Sergio

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9/10 Epic Storm

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Esoctrilihum "Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas To Awaken The Blind Sovereigns of Nothingness)"

Band: Esoctrilihum
Title: Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas To Awaken The Blind Sovereigns of
Nothingness)
Label: I, Voidhanger Records
Release Date: 23 February 2018
Country: France

Only eight months after the debut album “Nystic Echo from a Funeral Dimension”, France’s Esoctrilihum delivers another dark opus in praise of the shadows rituals – “Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas To Awaken The Blind Sovereigns of Nothingness)”. The only member of the band – Asthaghul, performing all instruments and vocals, is completely surrounded by unknown facts, but with the new album he opens a titanic gate to the majestic cosmic passages in worship of unholy forces. It is really a gate of the unknown path to the metamorphosis descend. He creates his own visions, gathers the paradoxes of reality, builds a huge monument of nightmares with this record. This is a journey into the nihilistic void through an enchanted black forest, in which the listener drowns in chaos, madness, mysticism. A forest existing only in the darkest dreams, where the listener runs into psychedelia, but can’t escape the fatal end strike which takes him to the dimension of nonexistence. The mystic mesmerizing record consists of 11 chants, “revealing the unmeasurable depths of utter blackness”. It is a horrifying one hour and eight minutes long. The riffs and echoing drumming are accompanied by heavy dreamside guttural ritualistic vocals from the deepest circles of hell, calling the ancient powers and cosmic creations for the Lord of closed eyes. The record has its very own atmosphere. The variety is fantastic. The author cleverly plays with the listener, diving him into the black, then brings him back for a moment, just to pretend he is safe, and suddenly again everything is back into the desperate nothingness and absurd. The record has to be experienced, felt, and everyone alone to discover the direction. “Pandaemorthium” has elements from the both spectrums of black and death metal, adding noir, dreamside, mystic visions of the unescapable void to the unbearable reality of the present day. The gate is opened and the black swallows everything. 9/10 By Count Vlad

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Defenestration "Gutter Perdition"

Band: Defenestration
Title: Gutter Perdition
Label: XenoKorp
Date: February 9, 2018
Country: France

Forming in 2014, Defenestration are a four-piece death metal band from France who have a demo (Ordinary Violence) and a new EP titled Gutter Perdition.
This five-track release features some crunchy guitar tones accompanied by guttural vocals and superb drumming which all together, adds to the fury of this American influenced EP. Palm muted, chugging guitar riffs can be heard at times in both the fast parts and the slower heavy groove parts of the songs, along with fast speed picking and harmonies with occasional breaks where a rumbling trebly bass comes through revealing its snarl. With the type of low guttural vocals applied, to the break downs within the song structures and the tempos used with the drumming techniques, there is a fair comparison and feel of the likes of Cannibal Corpse and maybe a touch of Vader as well. Overall, this has a great combination of old school and brutal death metal that keeps a strong sense of rhythm and catchiness throughout. It will be interesting to hear more from Defenestration and what they will offer us in the future. 9/10 By Wolven Deadsoul


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Croc Noir "Froid | Nuit"

Band: Croc Noir
Title: "Froid | Nuit"
Label: Wolfspell Records
Release date: September 22, 2017
Country: France

Croc Noir, which in English means "Black Fang" come from France and they make a very good Black Metal. This release, is the junction of the two demos "Froid" and "Nuit". With an addition of a song entitled "Outro" that makes the transition from the first demo to the second demo, so I can say that it is a small bonus. eheh. I already knew the first demo "Froid" of 2016 and I liked it as soon as I heard it for the first time. At that time it reminded me of Black Metal made in the 90's but without being so retro and with a personal touch, without being one of the immense copies that go around. So the first 6 songs were nothing new to me, but it was a good (again) listening and it helped to understand, in a manner of speaking, the transition to the following songs. The second demo, yes, was a novelty for me and I hoped it would continue the good Black Metal I knew and I was not sorry. Very good. In both the first part of this work and in the second part (for being two demos, here together in fomato compilation) there is a very well done Black Metal, with rhythms / riffs very well executed and quite pleasant listening, which by the way stayed inside of my head and that made my foot set the rhythm of the music. They can move from faster rhythms, to mid tempo rhythms and even slower rhythms in a very good way and without losing the atmosphere created from the beginning of the music. From the first demo to the second I thought the drums are more "real" (but they have a drummer) and the production, although raw is a little better. Another thing I liked a lot was the use of traditional instruments that can give more "soul" to the songs. They are not all over the album or in all songs, I'll say, they appear in the exact places. Croc Noir is a band that I will follow and pay attention to. I hope they continue the excellent work, as they have been able to do till this day. I strongly advise this band to all Black Metal lovers. 9/10 By Me, Myself & I

Note: Many thanks to the band for their trust and for sending the CD so I can do the review. Thank you so much. Also thanks for the goodies.


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