3/30/13

Deathwalking - 2013 - Infectados

Introducing Galicia's Finest - Deathwalking: Infectados
 
 

“Infectados” is the latest album release from Deathwalking. They are part of a rare breed too, a Galician/Spanish death metal outfit. Hailing from an area of the world that’s probably better known for its soft, wispy, bagpipe driven folk music than anything else, they do not come much rarer than these guys. When all’s said and done, is Infectados worth the time and trouble of a listen though?
 
Infectados at a glance
First things first, Deathwalking are a duo that consist of Michael Sult on lead guitar and Ederon Korst on lead vocals and guitar. They formed in 2007 and this is their first full length album. Released on 7th March, the album consists of nine tracks and has a running time of around forty five minutes. A preview of the album in it's entirety is available through YouTube, so you can click and have a listen to a little bit of each of the tracks first before you decide whether you want to buy it:


 
 
The album starts with the growling, low slung, infectious “Cae” which is a slow burning thrash that threatens you by the jugular, draws you in and sets you up for the rest of the album.
The second track “Skully” starts off with a really well paced guitar part that actually makes you believe for a moment you’re not listening to death metal at all and that you were hearing something that was perhaps a little more lame indie-schmindie than anything else. However, it’s a falsehood, the track kicks in properly and lets you know it’s wrong footed you. This is what Deathwalking seem to do quite well, not only in this track but the album as a whole. They trick you into thinking they’re something else, then you’re really quite surprised when you hear the tracks in full.

“Esquecer” is a guttural epic, throat grabbing and bloody. For the entire three and a half minutes the track lasts it brings the hairs up on the back of your neck and makes your bones shake.

The mid point of the album sees a track called “Regresion”, which again, starts off in an almost delicate way, bringing you down from the strength of the other songs, before the beat kicks in again to let you know you can’t be lulled into a false sense of security for too long. It’s got such a strong guitar part at it’s heart and feels so well composed and driven. It’s also really well placed in the album too, offering a few brief moments of calm before the next track called “No Bosque” kicks in, which is a thrashy and punked up affair, rushing between high octane guitars and slowed down verses which again, give this feeling of being totally wrong footed by the band. You’re never sure where they’re going to take you from one track to the next. Just as you’re starting to speed up listening to them, they decide to completely alter the pace. Surprisingly, it works really well.

The final track “Fragua” is a total departure from the rest of the tracks, it shows you just what great musicians are actually at the heart of the band, with an instrumental that is almost heartbreaking in it’s beauty and really does leave you wanting to hear more from them. A word of note is that just when you think it’s all over, the track kicks back in again, so keep listening right to the end.

Is it worth a listen?
It’s a really weird thing in many ways, listening to the hard edged, driven guitar sound, flanked by lyrics that are teeth rattlingly bellowed in their native Spanish language. Apart from the fact you might need a set of Spanish textbooks to translate the songs into English so you can have some notion of what they're talking about, it doesn’t really detract from the sound at all. Far from it, it means that they stand out just that little bit more and hearing what is, ostensibly such a graceful and florid language shouted out and bellowed in an almost blood curdling way gives it that real extra edge. It should sound comical, but it just doesn’t. From the very moment the album kicks in with “Cae” through to the end track “Fragua” it’s an aural soundscape that just finds a way of drawing you in and shaking your bones through to the core. Well worth a little bit of your
time if you want something that's a bit different.

(Reviewed by EVE)

 
 Please Welcome Eve with this debut review for Robustfellow.
 

Download Infectados from: 

Visit the band's pages at: 

3/28/13

Pombagira - 2013 - Maleficia Lamiah (Review)


British psych-doomsters Pombagira are back with next full- ength release "Maleficia Lamiah", which I was eagerly anticipating after their previous effort “Iconoclast Dream” proved to be one of the thickest and heaviest releases the world of doom had ever seen. So much was I blown away by it that I can hardly count how many hookahs –smoking evenings had I enjoyed with its tunes chosen as a soundtrack. Not only was it the heaviest stuff the band had ever released, but also something which could easily send Electric Wizard and Lazarus Blackstar in the rearview mirror in terms of heaviness and sound.

However, times have changed as the tunes dominating their next opus are not even near close to what made the Iconoclast Dream so great. Maleficia Lamiah is their fifth full-length album and is composed entirely of two songs: the titular track and the swirling expanse of “Grave Cardinal”. From the very first riff it becomes apparent that UK-based duo has delved deeper into psychedelia and experimentation leaving the plodding doom goodness on the back seat. Gone are 5-minute long heavy –as – hell downtempo interludes and Sleep-like stoned-out riff–fests. Instead, Pombagira takes completely different approach here bombarding the listener with subtle layers of psychedelic tunes which occasionally give way to crushing riff pressure. Rather than bludgeoning with brute force, they deliver heaviness piece by piece, building the songs layer by layer. Some pieces of the songs are set against drone backdrop, while others have a distinct touch of improvisation to them. All this is delivered with raw and apparently feedbacked sound which conjures images of nuked wasteland infested with the ghost of those who were wiped out in the wake of immediate apocalypse. Yes, the album retains a very bleak and unsettling mood with the nearest comparison probably being US Flood’s “Native”. Sound like a good package for amazing psychedelic doom record with a lot to discover and explore with each new subsequent listen but the painful reality is that all this sounds inconsistent and out of place. Take US Flood’s native album as an example of what Pombagira could have achieved with the direction they had chosen, but what we have is nearly 40 minutes of psychedelic mess with almost nothing to reward more careful listening. I hope that next time British doomster will take all these into deep consideration and will not draw the bow before the arrow is fixed.
5/10
(Reviewed by Den)


+Vic Singh who infamously photographed Pink Floyd In 1966 for the Piper At The Gates Of Dawn album was enlisted for this album to take a new set of press photos, and the results are mesmeric and splendid. This is what Vic has to say about Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Maleficia Lamiah.

"I was approached by The Pink Floyd a new and comparatively unknown band in 1967 to take the album cover photo for 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'. The concept for the cover was left up to me, listening to The Piper for the first time surprised me, it was completely original, a complete break from the popular 60's sounds,  which we were all brain-washed into. The concept for the Piper cover photo remained mysterious for a while, finally I decided to use a prism lens which had been lying around in the studio and had never been used by me before.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Maleficia Lamiah have similarities.

Listening to Maleficia Lamiah for the first time I got a similar vibe as with The Piper of originality and the resolve to do something different, creating progression rather than repetition and stagnation.
"

Just two examples are attached, but there are plenty more where they came from and with exclusives set aside also.

+The LP version is limited to 500 copies will be available for pre-order at www.blackaxisrec.co.uk from 5 Feb. This version will contain three extra bonus tracks.

3/26/13

Got Some News for you


Early Mammal


release their debut album 'Horror At Pleasure on 1st April 2013 via Devouter Records. They are launching that very excellent record at this Friends With Records night on 3rd April 2013 @ Catch in London!!



Event on FB

Full album stream :

Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt




 

Probably the best band name for past decade.
Support this incredible Australian band by pre-ordering their upcoming album. Dudes are amazing.




 
Local Tour is coming...

Heavy Glow




The band has just announced the following tour dates:


April 10-San Francisco/Neck of the Woods
April 11-Sacramento, CA/Luigi's Fungarden
April 12-Reno, NV/Shea's Tavern
April 13-South Lake Tahoe, CA/Whiskey Dick's Saloon
April 14-Fresno, CA/Audie's Olympic
April 15-Los Angeles/The Viper Room
Heavy Glow is touring in support of a 7" single release on March 12th. Recorded in L.A. and produced by Michael Patterson and Nic Jodoin (Beck, BRMC, The Morlocks, Spindrift, Trent Reznor.)