Artist: Eufobia
Release Title: Eufobia
Year: 2016
Label: Wizard
Genre: Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1.Graveyard
2.Hater
3.Liquid of Creation
4.Devotion
5.Fat Sack of Shit
6.Unspoken
7.Lust
8.Scarecrow
9.Cyber Pervert
10.Tears of Defloration
Finally coming back to the scene, Bulgarian death metallers Eufobia have managed to take their time away honing their skills on the live circuit to help prepare themselves for their newest full-length release. With a five-year gap between albums during this time, the group finally unleashes their self-titled third full-length album November 1, 2016 on long-time label Wizard.
Even without all the time off it’s still quite clear here that band is still firing along quite nicely here with their furious and charging blend of metal they’ve always been playing. The bands’ main focus is on churning, up-tempo hardcore-style riffing that adds a thoroughly ferocious bent to the music as they’ve gathered plenty of stuttering, confrontational rhythms placed alongside a much more fluid, energetic brand of traditional death metal. This results in explosive, straightforward bursts of short, sharp riffing that maintains an intense, aggressive atmosphere even with the inclusion of melodic elements in here while the choppy, discordant patterns throughout here continually bring about the album’s selected pieces of rhythms that bring about lively and truly explosive angular riff-work here to make it all quite fun. The album’s biggest detrimental factor here is one of coherence as the fact that there’s little about the discordant, chaotic material that makes a lick of thematic sense and comes across as wildly incoherent due to the rapid shifts in tone here. This comes from the punkish riffing interjected alongside it all, and it only adds to the scattershot flow of the album.
Though there are some pretty decent elements at work here, that doesn’t really change the fact that there’s so much of the album really filled with this wildly varied type of material which brings it down enough to leave this one mainly for fans of this kind of jarring, chaotic form of death metal or fans of the bands’ past works as well.
Artist: Rampart
Release Title: Codex Metalum
Year: 2016
Label: Iron Shield Records
Genre:Power/Traditional Heavy Metal
Tracklisting:
1.Apocalypse or Theater
2.Diamond Ark
3.The Metal Code
4.Sacred Anger
5.Of Nightfall
6.Into the Rocks
7.Colours of the Twilight
8.Crown Land
9.Majesty (Blind Guardian cover)
Not usually known for its traditional metal acts, Bulgarian heavy metal act Rampart have nonetheless cranked out an impressive catalog of singles and full-length albums, as well as the odd compilation appearance, on their way to this newest release. The fourth full-length from the group, out April 8, 2016 on Iron Shield Records, continues to cater to their traditional mind-set by delivering another enjoyable release in their catalog.
This here is nicely traditionalist-leaning classic metal in their riff-work, full of tight churning rhythms offering plenty of crunchy patterns and steady, solid rhythms that make for a truly enjoyable ode to the heavyweights of the classic period of the early 80s. The numerous tempo and pace changes on display feature some interesting and enjoyable variations with the band able to change-over into steady, simplistic riff-work or a slightly more up-tempo gallop that doesn’t quite border on thrash but offers that kind of energy and cadence when off-set by the churning rhythm work featured elsewhere here. As well, like most classic metal offerings there’s ripping, fiery soloing and plenty of tight, pounding drum-work on display throughout here that makes this quite fun as well with the more spindly, melodic leads found throughout here as there’s a slew of simplistic rhythms here featuring those melodies running alongside the harder-hitting riffing here. This all leaves the album well-enough if not exactly all that original, though what really tends to hurts this is the light wailing siren-like female vocals that are as an acquired taste as any in the genre. It’s not terrible but it takes getting used to this nasal tone and register over the music as this seemingly cries out for at the very least a gruffer tone than what’s featured here. It works nicely in the context of the music once it gets past the point of familiarity, but overall it’s not so bad.
Though the vocals are something that really hinders this one at times, there’s little else about this one to hold it back here as the sound has enough going on for it that this will undoubtedly appeal to fans of good classic traditional metal as well as those curious about metal from the region on the curiosity factor.
Artist: Enthrallment (Bul)
Release Title: Eugenic Worms
Year: 2015
Label: Rebirth the Metal Productions
Genre: Brutal Death/Grind
Tracklisting:
1.Deserved Fears
2.Few Are Those Who Find It
3.Last Judgment Waltz
4.Totally Dismembered
5.Defame the Incarnation
6.Inspired Lunatic
7.Path to Silence
8.Nature Dose Not Allow Doubling
9.Enslaved by Your Own Seed
The fifth full-length from Bulgarian death metallers Enthrallment continues their assault of grind-laced brutality and bludgeoning musicianship into a tight and enjoyable release. Keeping in fine form with how the band has been since the beginning, this here is basically a combination of low-slung churning death metal rhythms laced with tight grindcore-laced rhythms. It’s a fine, appealing mixture full of blasting rhythms and furious bursts of speed, generating the kind of intensity and flaying rhythm-work expected mixing these styles together. Though the rumbling rhythms here do tend to come off in more mid-tempo paces than would be expected here, there’s an ease with which they fire off the dexterous soloing and lead-work on the album which is a decided highlight. Added together with the blasting drumming and there’s a solid, deep-set base at work here with how it manages to generate that style of brutal death metal and slight grind influences. Still, there’s one major piece running throughout the work here that does tend to hold this one back. As already mentioned, this one tends to stick in the mid-tempo more often than really letting the grind rhythm really let loose, it does tend to come off feeling restrained and held back. On the whole, there’s always the sense that they really could’ve gone further with how they go about the mid-tempo arrangements here that really don’t operate at their most expressive or dynamic, instead feeling more like they’re operating under general rhythms for what’s expected of the genre rather than go through their own distinctive touch. It’s not much of a real problem on several tracks but this does crop enough.
The first half is a solid example of what’s on offer here. Opener ‘Deserved Fears’ blasts through intensive riffing and dynamic drumming with tight patterns offering plenty of full-speed twists and turns along through the churning riff-work leading along through the grinding chugging and frantic blasting drumming into the solo section and on through the charging finale for a great opening impression. ‘Few Are Those Who Find It’ uses a faded noise intro before turning into a series of grinding, chunky riff-work and steady, mid-tempo paces keeping a steady drive into the clanky rhythms and blasting drumming twisting along through the fiery solo section and on into the extended churning final half for an overall enjoyable effort. ‘Last Judgment Waltz’ features funky bass-lines and tight clanging drumming settling into a light blasting series of riffing with plenty of steady grinding riffing leading into the rattling drumming and rather furious rhythms keeping the mid-paced intensity through the grinding patterns in the finale for a rather strong effort overall. ‘Totally Dismembered’ uses rattling drumming and tight, grinding riffing riff-work with steady mid-tempo paces keeping the steady rhythms twisting alongside the dynamic drum-work as the grinding patterns lead into the dynamic, fiery solo section and keeping alongside the chugging mid-tempo leads in the final half for another solid effort. ‘Defame the Incarnation’ uses grinding patterns and rather intense drum-work blasting along through a frantic series of mid-tempo riff-work grinding along with tight, dynamic rhythms along through the frantic solo section and carrying the intensity through the finale for an enjoyable enough track.
The second half continues on with the work on offer here. ‘Inspired Lunatic’ features tight, intense grinding riff-work and plenty of blasting drumming through a fine mid-tempo pace loaded with tightly-wound patterns and plenty of frantic rhythms rumbling along through the grinding tempos leading into the solo section and keeping the rumbling riffing throughout the final half for a solid effort. ‘Path to Silence’ takes rumbling grinding patterns and blasting drumming running along through toughened mid-tempo patterns holding the tight, frantic rhythms along through the grind-laced patterns and full-on intensity of the fiery solo section leading through the fine finale for a fun overall highlight. The instrumental ‘Nature Does Not Allow Doubling’ uses light acoustic work and soft bass-lines for a light, relaxing air as it leads into album-closer ‘Enslaved by Your Own Seed’ which uses tight rhythms and rather intense patterns holding the tight grinding riff-work along through the dynamic leads that flows through the frantic mid-tempo rumbling rhythms as the main solo section leads into the extended instrumental final half for an enjoyable lasting impression.
While it’s not overtly original or dynamically full of innovation, this is still a solid, enjoyable slab of churning death metal that stays the course with the bands’ output and in the end remains a solid choice mainly for fans of the band or the genre for the most part while others will likely find it disposable more than anything.
Artist: Matubes
Release Title: The Return of the Black Metal EP
Label: Distributor of Pain
Year: 2015
Genre: Old-School Black Metal
Tracklisting:
1. War Song
2. Left Hand Path
3. Drink the Poison
The debut EP from Bulgarian black metallers Matubes offers a fine teaser of their straightforward second-wave worship into a solid explosive burst. There’s little doubt here that the band is openly playing with the same arrangements and patterns their Norwegian brethren were doing nearly two decades ago, with the only real choices here being fast up-tempo runs brimming with explosive tremolo-styled rhythms or heavy, thumping mid-tempo workouts with low-slung, raspy riffing for the most part here, and it’s only real sense of deviation comes with the unexpected inclusion of some epic-tinged vocal choirs to great effect alongside the more traditional elements. While it’s highly unlikely that’s a potential avenue of exploration for the band given the placement in one section of one song here over the overwhelming old-school influences, this one just doesn’t really offer up much of a chance to do so otherwise with the short running time.
This here is a pretty solid and to-the-point effort. Opener ‘War Song’ brings along a steady, stylish mid-tempo series of riffing with frantic up-tempo tremolo riffing and pounding drumming that races along with tight, frantic drumming carrying on throughout the explosive blasts of the final half for a solid opening effort. ‘Left Hand Path’ features a straightforward mid-tempo series of swirling tremolo riffing and blasting drumming carrying along at a steady mid-tempo pace that carries through a fine series of thumping, frantic rhythms buzzing with tremolo-laced patterns that continue through the frantic and more intense finale for the best track here. ‘Drink the Poison’ works through a frantic burst of tremolo patterns and tight drumming with a steady series of frantic rhythms carrying through the twisting mid-tempo riffing that blasts through the occasional up-tempo series of riffs while working the more epic arrangements and backing vocals into the final half for another overall enjoyable offering that ends this on a fine note.
While there’s a lot to like on display here with it’s determined old-school style, the fact that there’s just three tracks here does end up underwhelming this one considerably by featuring so few areas of
experimentation that it doesn’t really get much of a chance to showcase anything else, leaving this one only for the most devout of second-wave-worshipping aficionados.
