Ragestorm - A Thin Line Between Hope and Ruin

Artist: Ragestorm
Release Title: A Thin Line Between Hope and Ruin
Year: 2013 (2016)
Label: Self-Released/Independent (Sliptrick Records reissue)
Genre: Death/Thrash Records
Tracklisting:
1. The Meatgrinder Theory
2. Debt Ritual
3. Polysilicotetrapropryvinylfluorethalene
4. Moloch
5. Idiocracy
6. Acid Tears
7. Interlude: Hari Seldon's Speech (feat. The Boylerz)
8. The Thin Line Between Hope and Ruin
9. Soldiers of a Lost War
10. New World Disorder
11. Reaching the Impossible

The debut full-length from Italian death/thrashers Ragestorm shows the effects of a band in such a situation while also offering plenty of promise for what’s to come in their career. For the most part this one carries along the type of melody-infused riff-work that seems to play through that style without any deviation. Switching between tight chugging and extra-sloppy swirling melodic runs in the guitar-work, there’s a pretty simplistic energy attributed to the tracks here that occasionally brings up some fire from time-to-time, though the majority of this one gets stuck with those chugging rhythms holding the paces down in the mid-tempo for the most part. These tend to feature so many rather bland and plodding rhythms that they’re wholly lifeless at worst, while the best effort about them is that they’re decent-if-unspectacular. This applies to an overwhelming majority of the album as well, which tends to leave this staggeringly overdone and seemingly just filler material on the whole. Even more to the point there’s a wholly unneeded and just plain needless interlude to the album which is a droning and endless industrial collage that plays over a sampled speech that’s just pointless and seemingly included for no real reason which makes this a deviation to the whole effort since this one doesn’t bring up the points in the speech overall and the whole thing is just such a painful experience. This pointlessness of this really showcases the early point of the bands’ career at the fullest and should not be continued in the future.

The first half here is decent enough if not all that impressive. Opener ‘The Meatgrinder Theory’ features a sampled chainsaw reviving intro leading into driving drumming and stellar riff-work through the steady mid-tempo series of riff-work through a fine charge as the soaring melodic leads carry through the solo section and bringing the tight chugging through the final half for a solid opening effort. ‘Debt Ritual’ brings tight, crunchy riffing and blistering drumming churning along through a frantic, mid-tempo pace with plenty of slight chugging rhythms and steady riffing carrying along through the stuttering main patterns carrying into the solo section and working through into the finale for a somewhat decent if overall unimpressive effort. The short and brutal ‘Polysilicotetrapropryvinylfluorethalene’ features immediate blasting drumming and rather frantic swirling riff-work charging along at butal, blistering charging patterns with the choppy rhythms leading to the tight, driving final half for a rather enjoyable effort for the album’s clear highlight. ‘Moloch’ features light acoustic riffing amid crackling noise before quickly turning into a simple, straightforward plodding chugging series of riff-work with plenty of pounding drumming keeping the simplistic elements firmly along through the utterly ferocious finale for an impressive finish to a bland effort previously. ‘Idiocracy’ takes churning drumming and swirling riff-work through the mid-tempo chugging paces with simplistic rhythms and frantic patterns churning along with the chugging riff-work leading along to the fiery solo section and bringing the energy back into the final half for a decent if unspectacular effort. ‘Acid Tears’ immediately blasts through frantic razor-wire riff-work with plenty of solid swirling patterns charging along through the simplistic paces charging along into the dynamic, fiery solo section and carrying the straightforward rhythms along throughout the finale for a rather enjoyable effort.

The second half isn’t that bad and manages to make for a far more impressive effort. ‘Interlude: Hari Seldon's Speech’ features a sampled speech over a droning industrial sound collage that doesn’t in the slightest bit need to be there and really just eats up time on the album overall. The title track takes militaristic pounding drumming and simple chugging rhythms that swirl around through rather tepid plodding paces with the occasional flurry of stellar melodic leads that whip along through the fiery solo section and continue swirling along through the melodic chugging patterns in the final half for a solid if generally decent effort. ‘Soldiers of a Lost War’ takes heavy melodic riffing over a gradual build-up style drumming that leads to the simplistic chugging riff-work bringing along the simplistic charging rhythms with plenty of rather dynamic, dexterous drum-work bringing along a sense of energy on through the finale for another wholly unimpressive effort. ‘New World Disorder’ uses thumping riff-work and charging drumming carrying along through the swirling frantic rhythms with plenty of melodic charging flying along through the stylized twisting rhythms that lead along through the solo section and bringing the tight chugging into the final half for a decent-enough effort overall. Lastly, album-clsoer ‘Reaching the Impossible’ takes frantic swirling riff-work and plenty of chugging patterns whipping along through the frantic up-tempo rhythms whipping along through the rather dynamic stuttering patterns holding along through the charging solo section and leading into the extended soulful piano finale for a somewhat enjoyable lasting impression.

While the band is clearly still going through the learning curve when it comes to their style and energy, there’s enough elements at play here to work with in the future that it could serve them well whenever they carry on which leaves this one still only for the most devout fans of the style as a whole at this point.

Score: 64/100

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Dimlight - The Lost Chapters

Artist: Dimlight
Release Title: The Lost Chapters
Year: 2015
Label: Sliptrick Records
Genre: Symphonic Gothic/Death Metal
Tracklisting:
1. The Inception
2. Spawn of Nemesis
3. Shattered Idols
4. Invoking the Hunter
5. Dark Things of the Desert
6. Children of Perdition
7. Torrents of Blood
8. Fear of Heavens
9. Clash of Immortals
10. Fields of Carnage

The third full-length from Greek gothic/death metal unit Dimlight offers even more to like here with the bands’ take on symphonically ornate gothic overtones with death metal ferocity. As can be expected here, lush, grandiose keyboards swirl around throughout the majority of the work here which makes for an over-the-top display of orchestral work here from the keyboards being accompanied rather nicely with the operatic vocals being featured. Mixing the striking clean female soaring vocals with the raspy male counterparts may seem like gothic metal basics but it works here with the slow, pounding rhythms at the forefront of the bands’ other attacks. Coming complete with pounding drumming and the occasional deluge into romantic arrangements within the rest of the music here, it’s all quite fun and dynamic here with this one mostly utilizing the up-tempo work and offering plenty of gothic-tinged symphonics to put a lot of enjoyable work on display here. For all this good points, though, the band does tend to fall into minor trouble with the fact that there’s nothing really unique or creative about this kind of symphonically-charged gothic/death metal as it’s pretty basic and by-the-numbers styled work generating all the rather familiar notes here with one-note blistering drumming, up-tempo riffing and orchestral-styled keyboards offering a bombastic symphonic undertone. They’re clearly competent and cohesive enough but not without a lack of identity to really stand out here even if the songs themselves are enjoyable.

The first half here sets this up quite nicely. Instrumental intro ‘The Inception’ features a deep droning noise intro with a spoken-word storytelling set-up that leads into proper first track ‘Spawn of Nemesis’ featuring blistering drumming amidst grand orchestral keyboards charging along into a frantic series of symphonic flurries while keeping the Gothic rhythms at the forefront with the over-the-top keyboards and drumming continue swirling along into the light choppy rhythms throughout the final half for a fun overall effort. ‘Shattered Idols’ uses grandiose symphonics over blazing drumming and tight riff-work carrying along simple rhythms while keeping the over-the-top symphonics buzzing along through the series of thumping patterns with the extended instrumental interlude carrying the symphonics throughout the finale for a dynamic highlight. ‘Invoking the Hunter’ features a dark, haunting swirling series of riffing alongside the sweeping patterns and pounding drumming into a steady mid-tempo attack as the swirling rhythms lift for romantic keyboards and soft riffing that off-sets the quiet energy throughout the final half for a decent enough effort. The instrumental mid-album breather ‘Dark Things of the Desert’ simply serves as a brief storyline segue to lead into the next track.

The second half is rather enjoyable much like the upper half. Bleeding through the previous effort, ‘Children of Perdition’ opens with swirling riff-work and a blistering series of orchestral symphonics alongside utterly raging drumming that soon settles into a mid-tempo series of meandering rhythms and light melodic work carrying through the slight variances in tempos throughout the finale for a solid if unspectacular effort. ‘Torrents of Blood’ takes a swirling operatic intro with the symphonic keyboards leading into blasting drumming and sweeping riff-work leading the tight chugging riff-work and light symphonics plodding along to a slow, sluggish pace with plenty of sweeping orchestral work in the final half for another overall solid-if-unspectacular offering. ‘Fear of Heavens’ uses strong swirling symphonic keyboards alongside blasting drumming with plenty of tight riff-work that flows into a steady mid-tempo series of chugging symphonic patterns with blasting drumming carrying the bombastic keyboards along into the charging symphonic-led finale for a strong and impressive offering. ‘Clash of Immortals’ features light, soft romantic patterns before exploding into furious drumming alongside sweeping majestic symphonic keyboards and light gothic riff-work that deviates nicely between several strong tempos with sweeping orchestral work coming through into the final half for an overall fun effort. Lastly, ‘Fields of Carnage’ takes epic symphonic keyboards and haunting melodic notes to gradually build into crushing drumming blasting throughout the sweeping majestic keyboards that turns into driving mid-tempo symphonics with plenty of tight rhythms and ornate symphonic orchestral movements leading throughout the grandiose finale for a solid lasting impression.

For the most part, there’s a lot to like here with this one that ends up making it one of the more impressive and enjoyable entries in the style and as long as those can stand to overlook the flaws here with this one it’s a solid listen for those who enjoy impressive gothic-tinged metal or symphonics as well.

Score: 85/100

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Cold Raven - Equilibrium and Chaos

Band: Cold Raven
Release Title: Equilibrium and Chaos
Label: Sliptrick Records
Year: 2015
Genre: Black Metal
Tracklist:
1. Intro
2. No Mercy
3. In Worship With My Inner Darkness
4. Equilibrium and Chaos
5. Trapped in a Cult
6. Eons of False Prophets
7. The World is Doomed

The debut release from Italian black metallers Cold Raven  offers a pretty intriguing and enjoyable take on traditional black metal that is an effective first offering here. Still based on quite dynamic tremolo riffing filled with the prototypical brimstone-sounding rhythms that are quite at home with the originators of the genre, these are effectively balanced in here with the more mid-tempo paces which brings along a far more melodic bent to the material than otherwise expected. Though the fiery sections here make this one contain a deep, heavy thumping rhythm section that propels the tracks forward, the fact that the slower tempo here ends up rendering these rhythms more melodic by default comes off rather nicely here by making the tracks much more restrained than just simply blasting along through the same repetitive rhythms that are usually featured throughout the genre which is a fine feat. That does tend to make this one seem a bit more lethargic and plodding at times when it goes for the lighter arrangements, and while that in itself does give the band a fine identity going forward there’s still a minor stumbling block here with that stylistic choice.

The first half here does manage to get this one going nicely. The opening instrumental ‘Intro’ features a quiet melancholy riff over sampled rainfall and bird calls leading into proper first track ‘No Mercy’ which features a slow-building series of tremolo riffs into a fine melodic mid-tempo turn with tremolo rhythms and a steady series of thumping drum-work taking the gradually-increasing amount of fire-packed riffing through the thumping up-tempo riffing in the final half for a solid opening effort here. ‘In Worship With My Inner Darkness’ features a simple droning series of tremolo riffing alongside the series of mid-tempo riff-work that takes a series of stylish rhythms and dynamic drumming through the melodic sections brimming with tremolo sections throughout the finale making for a solid overall effort. The fiery title track uses a simple, stylish mid-tempo pace with tight rhythms and thumping drumming as the rather charging mid-range tremolo riffing offers a heavy, simplified charge with blackened blasts and furious riff-work twisting along through the heavy, thumping rhythms of the final half for a rather enjoyable and impressive effort.

While packed with their epic-length tracks, there’s not a lot of difference between the sections here. ‘Trapped in a Cult’ takes a slow, extended droning intro with a series of stylish mid-tempo rhythms with pounding rhythms and the fine occasional blast of tremolo riff-work alongside the majority of the mid-tempo paces charging along through the series of twisting heavier rhythms and tight blasting that continually swirl through the mid-tempo paces throughout the finale for an enjoyable if somewhat overlong effort. ‘Eons of False Prophets’ brings heavy, thumping drumming and a strong series of swirling tremolo riff-work in strong spurts along through the briefer blasts placed alongside the more intense series of rhythms as the tight blasts and tremolo riffing carries on through the charging, thumping rhythms of the final half for an overall enjoyable track. Album-closer ‘The World is Doomed’ features a slow-building tremolo riff that leads into a steady mid-tempo series of blasts that feature more up-tempo rhythms and blasting drumming that manage far more intriguing arrangements with the simple charging rhythms carrying the blasting fury through the light droning of the finale for an enjoyable lasting impression here.

For the most part this one here wasn’t all too terrible but certainly does have some minor flaws for those who prefer their black metal far more of the fiery and explosive side here, though there’s still plenty to like here in this style which in the end makes this one a non-essential choice for those who prefer more relaxed and melodic forms of black metal.

Score: 78/100

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