Review : Equipoise - Demiurgus by Capital Chaos TV

Via Capital Chaos TV : Following up to their 2016 EP Birthing Homunculi, Equipoise’s first full-length “Demiurgus” sets the bar even higher with relentless talent and in-depth compositions. An album cover that depicts a possessed, space-traveling leviathan is fitting to the intense soundscapes. The flawless musicianship on this body of work can leave even non-metal listeners speechless and humbly perplexed.

The tech-death elite band members on “Demiurgus” include guitarist and main composer Nick Padovani, vocalist Stevie Boiser (Inferi/Ashen Horde/ex-Vale of Pnath), fret less bassist Hugo Karout (Beyond Creation, Brought By Pain), guitarist Phil Tougas (Serocs/First Fragment/Chthe’ilist), keyboard/pianist Jimmy Pitts(NYN and Eternity’s End), guitarist Sanjay Kumar (Wormhole), and former Hate Eternal and former The Faceless drummer Chason Westmoreland.

The short but sweet album opener “Illborn Augury” starts off with a dark classical piano that leads to progressive drumming, boastful and unique fret less bass phrasings, and a spiraling void of melodic guitar solos. “Sovereign Sacrifices” is the next track that comes in with blast beats and a roller coaster of low and high-end guitar wizardry.

Jazz fusion vibes along with intricate syncopation’s are present in the song “A Suit of My Flesh”. A very funky and diverse fret less bass solo plays on it as well. The next track “Shrouded” calms the mood with flamenco guitar passages that make for a great intermission from the tech-death current. “Sigil Insidious” has insane fret less bass melodies and a sinister vibe from the keyboards. A track that overall resembled Spawn of Possession, one of tech-death’s forefathers.

Phenomenal guitar solos are everywhere on the LP but the most notable ones would have to be on “Dualis Flamel”. Mind blowing scale runs that are as crafted and diverse as a Shrapnel Records circa 1980’s artist. We are talking twenty-four astonishing solos on this one. There is a frenzy of shredding from the keyboards as well.

The more prog-esque song writing of “Waking Divinity” is filled with catchy guitar harmonies and breathtaking transitions into solos that progress into epic riffs. Another track that stands out from the rest is the short instrumental “Ecliptic”. It leaves you in a dream like state at the end of it. “Cast Into Exile” would probably have to be the most chaotic song on the album. The hellish deep mid-range vocals hold out for an impressive amount of time towards the end of it as well.

Not only are the physical instruments on “Demiurgus” out of this world but the orchestral/string programming composing is as well. Extremely intuitive notes weave in and out and you can tell just how many hardworking hours were put into them. I would have to give this beast of an album an 8.5 out of 10 rating. My only complaint of the album is that the fret less bass seemed louder than the other instruments, especially when the vocals were going.

Other than that, this is top-tier tech-death that goes down in the top 5 best tech-death albums of all time. Equipoise is the perfect example that tech-death is alive and well in 2019 and is here to stay.

Originally written by Tom Sundgren

Review : Eternity's End - Unyielding by YourLastRites

Via YourLastRites "More often than not, it’s metal’s immortal mainstays and the bands that pushed extremes into thrash and death that get the glossy treatment when people choose to commemorate what happened in heavy music throughout the 80s. For good reason, too—there’s plenty left to say about bands such as Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Kreator, Morbid Angel and the like that keep the fires burning and still pack venues. But what gets overlooked time and again is the phenomenon that occurred in the 80s at the behest of a fellow named Mike Varney from the Bay Area that lead to: A) a lot of people picking up an electric guitar for the first time, and B) a lot of people throwing an electric guitar into a raging tire fire for the first time.

Introduced in 1980, Shrapnel Records was the first U.S. label on the block fully devoted to heavy metal, beating both Brian Slagel and Jon & Marsha Zazula to the punch by two years. Similar to Metal Blade, Varney kicked things off with compilation records that showcased what he felt represented the best of the hard & heavy this hemisphere could muster at the time. Bands such as The Rods, Wild Dogs, Exciter, Virgin Steele, Keel, Steeler (featuring a very young Yngwie Malmsteen) and Vixen/Hawaii (Marty Friedman’s first bands) got early pushes, but an ever increasing emphasis on fostering “ultimate guitar gods” in the mid 80s truly landed the label on the map. Fiery collectives such as Chastain, Vicious Rumors, Racer X and M.A.R.S. all championed the U.S. power and speed metal style the scene was pushing and ran with notable panache, and a string of furiously over the top (mostly) instrumental records by the likes of Tony MacAlpine (M.A.R.S.), Vinnie Moore (Vicious Rumors), Joey Tafolla (Jag Panzer), Greg Howe and Marty Friedman / Jason Becker (both solo and collaborating through Cacophony) helped set Shrapnel apart from most of their peers. It was those records that inspired piles of pups to dream of Charvels, Schecters, ESPs, Jacksons and Ibanezeseses, and it was those records that resulted in blunt reality checks and considerable incentive with equal respect. Put differently, people like yours truly became very aware of a cruel but realistic hobby degree of six-string aptitude, while others, including Christian Münzner, discovered substantial motivation and aspiration. Biology, you cruel bastard.

Hopefully the name Christian Münzner rings a bell for you. If you’re a fan of tech death, you’ve probably heard him play guitar on some great records: Epitaph by Necrophagist, Obscura’s Omnivium and leads on Spawn Of Possession’s Incurso, among others. He’s still involved with death metal in a very progressive kind of way through Germany’s Alkaloid, alongside fellow Obscura alum Hannes Grossman, but Eternity’s End is, as a whole, Münzner & company’s reverent nod to Mike Varney’s era of glorious shred, plus the kitchen sink. So much so, the band’s name is taken from the lead track from Joey Tafolla’s extraordinary debut solo record, Out of the Sun. And just like their namesake cut and the entirety of that Tafolla record, the goal of Eternity’s End is to flatten the listener with enough dueling leads—guitars and keyboard—that one has virtually no recourse beyond grabbing the nearest human and screaming “THEY’RE TRYING TO BLOW UP MY BRAIN” as the record plays. [Note: exercise caution when listening to Unyielding at your kid’s dance recital.]

Critical point: this is far from just The Christian Münzner Show. As pointed out in one of our Most Anticipated Albums of 2019 pieces earlier this year, the pedigree behind Eternity’s End is expansive and includes Phil Tougas on 2nd guitar / 2nd songwriter (Chthe’ilist, First Fragment, Equipoise, Zealotry), Hannes Grossmann on drums (Hate Eternal, Alkaloid, Blotted Science, Triptykon, Dark Fortress, Howling Sycamore), Mike LePond on bass (Symphony X and 100 other bands), Jimmy Pitts on keyboards (Equipoise, The Fractured Dimension), and the superb vocal talent of Iuri Sanson, a fellow responsible for singing on one of the best power metal records of the last two decades: Hibria’s grossly under-appreciated Defying the Rules. We generally avoid the word “supergroup” around these parts because it’s a horseshit term that habitually equates to something that looks much better on paper than it ends up sounding through speakers, but this group is indeed super, and Unyielding delivers as true a representation of “combined critical talent” as one could hope for in heavy metal in the year of our Lord 2019.

Putting a record like this into a single box is challenging. It will ultimately end up branded as power metal by most because it adheres to that off-shoot’s penchant for otherworldly themes, triumphantness and choruses that hook. Plus, Iuri Sanson’s vocals are as epic as an eagle battle in midair. So yes, the power metal label is a fair analogy when you have songs like “Blood Brothers” that are as galloping and melodic and infectious as ten Iron Saviors caught in a Helloween hailstorm.

Other cuts lean more on power as well, like the uplifting “Triumphant Ascent” and the closest thing to ballad you’ll hear on the record, “Horizonless.” But similar to classic power metal boundary-pushers of old (Persuader’s Evolution Purgatory, for instance) Eternity’s End throws enough else into the blender that Unyielding ends up typifying a class of power you might hand to someone who generally steers clear because of (misguided) preconceptions. Aggression is a huge part of that—speed reaching into straight-up thrash reinforces the combustible opener “Into Timeless Realms” and the leveling “Necromantic Worship,” and there are almost as many holy shit moments with riffs here as there are leads, particularly at the start of the record’s sole instrumental “Dreaming of Cimmerian Shadows” and the filthy kick off to “Cyclopean Force.”

It’s the shred that takes home the prize in the end, though. The interaction between Münzner, Tougas and Pitts is superlative, so shredders approaching in hopes of hearing something that will inspire them to take their playing to the next level are in for a merciless treat. And coming in from a different angle, folks who wouldn’t know a sweep-picked arpeggio or diminished scale if it hit them on the front end of a speeding garbage truck would have to walk away equally impressed. The way all the leads mingle with what LePond and Grossman bring to the table (bassists and drummers will find plenty to chew on here as well), and the way it all does so within so many slants of heaviness—speed, thrash, power, hard rock, traditional, neoclassical—make the whole of Unyielding sound very much like a modernized version of what Shrapnel would’ve killed to sign back in the day. Hell, the band’s Force even manages to challenge the Rise of classic Yngwie on cuts such as “Beyond the Gates of Salvation,” “Cyclopean Force,” and “Under Crimson Moonlight,” and that’s coming from someone who continues to hold Marching Out in extremely high regard.

The necessity level of a record like Unyielding ultimately depends on how you feel about the prospect of cranking the bejesus out of music that’s best branded as “Aggressive Power Shred.” This record is equal parts combative, soaring and intricate, and the central storyline that involves an adaptation of our species from 900 years ago that accidentally stumbles across hugely advanced alien technology and (of course) commences to fuck everything up for the entire galaxy is delivered with superb vigor by one of the more underrated power vocalists currently in the game. So yes, this is as close to a pure 10/10 in the bombastic shred field as you can get in the present day.

There was a time when more than a few labels would’ve immediately jumped on a record like Unyielding, especially considering the added bonus that the members collectively count around fifty records via umpteen projects to their names. But all bands spanning every level of skill have to work like the devil to get their music heard in the modern age, and that includes a project like Eternity’s End that’s stacked to the rafters with talent. They’ve done their part—your task, if you choose to accept it, is to find a way to make sure they know we appreciate their efforts. Buy it, crank it, and then crank it a little higher to make sure those around you are aware of it."

Originally written by "Captain" for yourlastrites

Live Report : First Fragment @ Leipzig, Germany by Silence Magazine

Via Silence Magazine (Translated) : FIRST FRAGMENT will be on stage from 8:30 p.m. A fairly young band that cannot be taken away from the bread in the cutting-edge, crystal-clear sound. Thanks to neoclassical structures such as inserting waltzes, it not only stirs, but also grooves and sways to itself. Growls and screams are served alternately, pushing the whole story into the death track. FIRST FRAGMENT do not miss the opportunity to present detailed solos after two thirds of their season, to celebrate and cheer each other on . I see they're having a blast! And that's contagious.

They also take their own guitar runs, which they sometimes double and perform in a highly ironic manner. A swipe at power metal? Perhaps. In any case, I have to laugh a lot. The set is - as freaky and tiring as it is - entertaining as it were . After 30 minutes the boys are done with their performance. Meanwhile, the Conne Island his eagerly awaiting the next chapel. The sound check promises one thing, namely music of the brand.

VACUUM CLEANER.

ALLEGAEON rumble off properly and do not deny their penchant for death. The bass drum is given such a thick trigger that the sound makes all hairs shimmer . In addition to growls, higher shouts are installed, which bring some variety. The rest are rather uninspired and predictable . The guitar solos are quite generic, as are their songs in general. Only one or the other pelvic freak makes me listen briefly. And yet - there is no atmosphere at all . At least not for me. The engagement of one of her colleagues, who jumps across the stage with a whiskey bottle and handheld camera, films and provides the guitarists with alcohol, offers slight entertainment potential.

POSING IS VISIBLY CLOSE TO THEIR HEARTS

If it weren't for the hackneyed moves ... Well, the main thing is that the boys have fun. And they clearly have it. The theater makes me smile rather wearily . Shot changes to Uffda changes to vacuum cleaner via hair dryer back to shot. I don't want to question ALLEGAEON's technique or precision . Emerging mistakes are routinely dubbed. Only they do not meet my taste in their musicality. Perhaps subtleties are made dead by the consistently prevailing extreme volume. And yet, the club continues to fill up. People seem to like what they see and hear. Before the half-hour set ends, I go out to relax my head a little - until FALLUJAH release the steamroller onto the crowd.

I can feel the break immediately after starting the game. The Californians get started and are from the first moment of the show much more differentiated and varied on the road than their predecessors. The voice is powerful and goes well with the rest of the band. The growls prevail and bring a pleasant roughness to the thing. As already mentioned in the previous report , I can not do anything with FALLUJAH so far . Here it turns out, however, that the change in sound that comes with the change of vocalists knows how to pick me up. But there was also an innovation on the guitar front. After Brian James left the band recently, ALKALOID guitarist Danny Tunker jumped in for the tour. 

I ACTUALLY LIKE WHAT I HEAR.

The drummer is just a precise beast on the set and cuts everything away at a hell of a pace. It pushes properly under the flat basic sound. The band knows how to keep a good mix between grit and atmosphere. I am extremely pleased that the latter has air at all. And that it is not just being jested. I remembered their structures much more clearly. But what dampens my enthusiasm a bit is the fact that the atmospheric parts are sometimes very wide and I have to resist a slight yawn . And that there is still a deafening volume in Conne Island .

I get advice from people who are more into the material of the band that the set mainly plays songs from the second and third albums. In between, they present two new songs, which have found their place on the upcoming album. As the band is live today, it could actually be something with me and the new album. I'm curious! At least they leave me completely satisfied after their almost three-quarter hour set. I could say the same about the headliner - if I didn't look and listen too closely  . And, if I don't recall their much better show of the “Acroasis” tour .

THAT READS WORSE NOW THAN IT IS.

Before OBSCURA enters the stage, two concert goers camp in front of the stage. A bit silly, if you look at the rather loosely filled location. But maybe this is a fitting picture to show the affection that some may feel for the boys. Anyway. During the set, these two young people should not remain the only ones who adore the chapel for their playful achievements . The middle-aged men in front of the stage are also remarkable. "Told you so! The boy is great! He's really got it! ” and the camera is being handled by Linus Klausenitzer , who then aligns and interacts with his posing. Yes, he is probably one of the good proofs that bassers don't always at the bottom of the show’s food chain .

Overall, I feel that there is a lot more posting and messing about than two years ago. But somehow the band doesn't seem to be quite at it . Maybe it's frustration with the number of visitors, their laziness, or something else. Frontman Kummerer quickly complains that it is too quiet in front of the stage. It seems to me to be less frustrating and encouraging than rather frustrated. Maybe I'm wrong with the assessment. In the course of the show, he then begins to belly-killing . He was happy to be back in Leipzig and that people came to the concert during the week.

Yes, it is probably a well-known place, this Leipzig. Even today there are two counter-events. MADRUGADA are playing in the  sold-out Plant II and HEXVESSEL is making  guest  appearances in the band house . Not bad for a Tuesday night!

But something is wrong tonight. Schießbuden- Lanser is dreaming, must be addressed because he simply does not start a song. And at times he and the rest of the band are miles apart - happens to the best and is simply outplayed alongside a few confused and amused looks between the other band leaders . Guitar solos are also gambled. Perhaps at this point the extension of posturing goes at the expense of quality. Maybe this is just a trick, another level of progressiveness . Who knows?! 

OR THE BAND JUST HAS A BAD EVENING.

In addition to these obvious failures, the band brings the well-known performance on stage. OBSCURA create atmospheres. Floating bass lines flow under  difficult guitar frills  - Rafael Trujillo is wonderful to look at again - and a rough, but still pleasantly audible voice. I just like the mix they present. They only put four songs from “Diluvium” into the set - less than half of the total of eleven songs played. “Emergent Evolution” is used directly as an opener and works well as a straight show start. Some would say: hit after hit a hit.   Between “Akroasis” hits like “Ten Sepiroth” and “Perpetual Infinity” “Omnivium” opener “Septuagint” (unfortunately the only song on this album this evening) and an extensive bass solo find their place in the set. They keep the crusher “Anticosmic Overload” for the addition of their 90-minute playing time and thus noticeably increase my mood.

I drive home a little euphoric (when do you feel you can hear all the notes on the evening ?!) and I am happy to have been able to experience a successful band package again. The fact that it had to be so loud all evening is a downer. And I'm curious whether this impression will come up at the next concert in Conne Island - or whether it is due to the genre or traveling sound engineers. The fact that OBSCURA lagged behind my expectations in retrospect is wailing at the highest level. However, a comparison to the 2016 tour is allowed. And at least FIRST FRAGMENT knew how to entertain and FALLUJAH took me with them. Originally written for silence-magazin.de