Ankit Sood

Children of Wrath – “No Flesh Spared”

 Posted by on May 29, 2018 at 21:54  No Responses »
May 292018
 

In 2016 Luke Dinan formed Christian symphonic death metal project, Children of wrath, in Phoenix, Arizona. The one man army behind the Blackened Melodic Symphonic Holy Death metal project, released his debut album “No Flesh Spared” in June 2017. The album took about 9 months from beginning to end. Every step of the writing, recording, production, mixing, and mastering was handled by Luke. He states that “the album has a sonic palette chock full of pummelling riffs, brutal vocals, and hauntingly beautiful atmospheres that are sure to hit that gratification spot in your grey matter”.

Luke went on a mission to record metal, a genre he had listen to since the days of Whitecross. His views of metal changed when a band known as Six Feet Deep came onto the scene. Despite always listening to metal, he and a friend released a pop/rock album under the name of The Future Calling, a project drawing on an array of influences such as New Order, Tears for Fears, and Depeche Mode

In July 2017, “Children of Wrath” alongside “Symphony of Heaven” signed up with Nosral Recordings. Luke also masters other bands material like Symphony of Heaven, Ascending King and The Beckoning, under the name of DinaSound. Earlier this year one of Luke’s Original song was featured in a Star wars Fan film released via The Bearded Dragon Productions. Luke lists Septic Flesh, Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, and Opeth as some of his influences. In my opinion, there is much more flavour that’s yet to be discovered and observed, so without much ado, let me jump on to the album. Continue reading »

Symphony of Heaven – “The season of Death”

 Posted by on April 29, 2018 at 21:48  No Responses »
Apr 292018
 

Logan Thompson, the one man show behind the Death/Unblack Metal project “Symphony of Heaven”, last year released  a couple of songs such as “Anno Domini” and “Of Scars and Soil” which eventually lead to a release of a full-fledged album “The Season of Death”. In July 2017, Symphony of Heaven had joined the roster of Nosral Recordings, alongside Ascending King and Children of Wrath. Luke Dinan (of the Children of Wrath and Ascending King fame) produced the album.

Logan lists Metallica, Dimmu Borgir, Cannibal Corpse, Antestor and Grave Declaration as some of his influences, and I’ve been following him on Facebook, he sure likes to play a wide variety of metal which is always a treat to the ear.  The album was released on the 24th of November 2017.

Without much ado, let me jump on to the first track, “Strategem” which starts off with a blazing riff which is accentuated by clean guitars and the keys giving the chill ambience, the blast beats brings some pace to the track and deathly growls sends a shiver down the spine. Oh! Did I miss telling you about the blitzing guitar solo. “War in the wind” chimes in with a siren warning us of the wind that might shake the earth and unleash other mighty forces, the same can be felt as the screams are heard with guttural expulsions and we experience great energy in the song. The blast beats remain a constant with a bit of variation on the kit and some low guitar chugs of what I would like to call an interlude. Continue reading »

My Silent Wake – “There was Death”

 Posted by on April 10, 2018 at 01:02  No Responses »
Apr 102018
 

Hailing from south west England, My Silent Wake, the acclaimed death/doomsters are back with their tenth full length studio album “There was Death”. The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at 13 Sound in Somerset and Priory Studios in Sutton Coldfield with doom legend Greg Chandler of Esoteric; and released on the 16th of February 2018 under the label of Minotauro Records. The cover print for the album was done by renowned Finnish artist Juha Vuorma.

The band was formed in 2005 by founder member Ian Arkley of Seventh Angel / Ashen Mortality features a variety of musicians(Guest growls and screams from Greg), and is said to be one of the heaviest of their records till date. Having toured extensively in Europe with Norway’s In Vain, Draconian, The Vision Bleak and Saturnus in the past, My Silent Wake has appeared on split albums with The Drowning and Pylon.

The album opens up with “A Dying Man’s Wish” with ploughing chords, heavy guitar riffing and monster growls pulverizing the grey of your head. The subdued deathly growls in the backdrop and the keys play a crucial role in setting up immense doom element right at the outset. The song takes a dramatic and morbid shift as the protagonist finally acknowledges and reaches his end (of life). “Damnatio Memoriae” carries on with the atmospheric soundscape and explains the journey of a soul passing through death as all memory is erased from time, a truly magnificent song with so much depth. Continue reading »

Yossi Sassi & The Oriental Rock Orchestra – “Illusion of Choice”

 Posted by on March 12, 2018 at 00:58  No Responses »
Mar 122018
 

Known to me as the Co-founder of Orphaned Land, Yossi Sassi is an internationally acclaimed musician having shared the stage with a plethora of artists from across the world, such as Metallica, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman and Steven Wilson to name a few. Haven given a TED talk on ‘The power of music to unite people’, he was awarded 4 peace and friendship awards from cities and governments. That’s not all, he invented the unique Bouzouki-Guitar instrument (Electric guitar combined with acoustic Bouzouki) and is known to play 17 different type of guitars and traditional instruments.

While the music has a blend of eastern and Oriental scales eclectically blended with Progressive rock we do hear a lot of experimentation with tones. The band loves to drive inspiration from different cultures in the world, while listing Joe Satriani, David Gilmour, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, and Opeth as some of their influences. To me that’s a wonderful list of progressive influencers and some of my favourites too.

“Illusion of Choice”, a concept album, marks as the 4th Studio album by the band scheduled to release on the 4th of April 2018, the String were recorded and arranged at Yoed Nir String Productions, while the record was engineered, recorded, mixed and mastered by Liron Schaffer at ‘Black Rock Studios’, Santorini, Greece and Jaffa Sound Arts, Tel-Aviv Jaffa. This concept album emphasizes on the illusion of what we think of is our choice, whereas it may be an amalgamation and culmination of multitude of external factors that remain oblivious and hidden from us. The context sounds very promising and I cant wait to queue it in. Continue reading »

Heirs of Isildur – “The Crossroads Conundrum”

 Posted by on March 3, 2018 at 21:37  No Responses »
Mar 032018
 

Matt Knowles, the frontman from Royal Anguish, after a long creative hiatus has come out with a new concept album, ‘Heirs Of Isildur’ having two parts, one that of a Novel/Comic series and the album that follows the storyline. I do not have the comic at the moment so I would stick with reviewing the album alone. The conceptual fantasy universe had been long in his mind and took tremendous effort to culminate. The protagonist wakes up one day to find everything he’d ever known, every place, his kinsmen obliterated from the face of the earth, and he’s left alone to make head and tail of the situation and the times to come.

The album is made available through iTunes, Spotify and Amazon was realised on the 1st of December, 2017.  There are a bunch of artists who have collaborate on this record, having guest appearances by Corey Steger (Underoath), Cassie Morris (Unicorn Death) and Chris Wicklein (Killing Additction). The album was recorded and mastered at Bonespill Studio by Bryan Exkermann (Scars of the Flesh, Screams of Abaddon). I was appeased when I read the Band’s name and mistook it for the legendary fictional character from Lord of the Rings Novel by Meister John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Continue reading »

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