2023-11-30 23:00:30

From the first song it’s clear that BAD TOUCH haven’t lost any of their bite. The influences of modern classics like the BLACK CROWS are noticeable. Nevertheless, the record sounds more mature, even if the sound is just as lively as in previous albums.

The first few seconds of “Slip Away” make you think of JIMI HENDRIX before the song drifts towards blues-rock. “Nothing Wrong With That” sounds like the closing song of a film in which the actors find their happy ending following many problems and hurdles. “Tonight” is actually the song you want to use to convince your loved one to have fun with you once more. And this is what all the songs sound like: They want to celebrate with us.

The band’s interaction is really great, it’s not for nothing that they’ve all known each other since college. Steve Westwood’s voice is like his appearance: extremely impressive.

BAD TOUCH began their journey on the road, playing up to three concerts in a weekend, and proudly stand for what they preach: fun with music and respect for the listeners.

Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Author: The virus (01.12.2023)

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#BAD #TOUCH #Bittersweet #Satisfaction

2023-10-25 22:01:47

Intro

Funeral Doom is endlessly sad slowness, desperate whimpers from a rugged chasm that is rushed through by whistling winds, the deep nothingness of the desert, of space, of the deep sea and always of the human soul. Funeral Doom is gloom, nihilism, death. Funeral Doom is wonderful music!
On our trip around the world we have already dedicated ourselves to Funeral Doom on almost every continent. Only the Americas are still missing. And so we drag ourselves painfully slowly through the vastness of the endless double continent to hear and introduce you to as many funeral doom bands and projects as possible.
We take our data set from Encyclopedia of Metals and try to give our attention to every band in the funereal genre that has produced active output in roughly the last five years.
Did we forget a band? Has a band hidden too well from us in their trveness? Write us!

USA

U as the first letter, which we have now reached. S for die, because that is ultimately the core of Funeral Doom. A for Ready, Set, Go!

AND

No, UN is not regarding the United Nations, but regarding a sludgy funeral doom quartet from Seattle, whose last LP is now five years old. The good piece is called “Sentiment”, i.e. feeling or mood. And it is actually a very good piece! Not desperate, not rapturous, not torture, but a nice excursion into guitar-heavy grunt levels. A hike through vast and swampy nature. Funeral Doom can be so musical!

USNEA

Portland, Oregon, 2011. USNEA, a genus of lichens, comes together. Four dark souls who want to send Blackened Funeral Doom into the world together. With their latest work they don’t bring darkness, but the opposite: “Bathed In Light”. But it remains very dark, especially in the breathy guttural vocals. The guitar-centered music, on the other hand, has an almost cheerful melodiousness for the genre. In addition, lost figures scream out of demonic torment, their torn despair through the hopeless emptiness.

VACANT EYES

Also in 2011, Josh Moran began the funeral doom project VACANT EYES in Massachusetts, which grew over the years into a six-piece band. In 2020, her only album to date was released with the title “A Somber Preclusion Of Being”. And what an album it is: not one that exhausts extremes, but one that explores nuances of nameless feelings with infinite sensitivity. Complex, intelligent, but not spiritualized or frivolous, but very close and yet with a certain barrier to entry. Give the album more than one listen and it will eat into your sad existence like maggots through lifeless flesh! Send these artists on a world tour!

LEGAL GUARDIAN

VORMUND from Pennsylvania is played single-handedly by Jason Schlossmann. The first and – apart from a split – current EP “Eidetic” was released in 2020, which has an extremely raw, creaky, rushing, dirty sound that is constantly overdriven and complemented by coarse roars and whining screams. Of course the underground can sound like that, but the awkward drums will be a challenge for even many of the most dreary Funeral Doom fans. So we leave this rotting ulcer in its swampy self and move on.

VOUNA

At the end of our stage, we dive into a very special project with VOUNA. Although Yianna Berkis sometimes uses funeral doom elements, she finds her very own style on the second record “Atropos” (in Greek mythology, the goddess of fate who cuts the threads of life). It mixes Funeral Doom, black metal subgenres such as Cascadian, Atmospheric, post-black metal and blackgaze, folk and gothic metal. And the distant, clear singing gives the whole heavy, deep, big and yet fleeting, floating, opaque music a uniqueness that moves it far away from the genre of our journey, but without losing the connection. Whether acoustic-clear, dark-black or doomy-nihilistic: Berkis has mastered her art in all facets!

So we’ve already reached the initial letter V on our journey through the United States of Funeral Doom Metal and yet we haven’t reached the end. Once once more we will plunge into the desperate darkness before we can leave this hideously painful land.

All stages of our Funeral Doom journey can be found here.

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#FuneralDoomJourney #Stage #USA #XII

2023-10-17 22:02:52

The metalcore band WE BLAME THE EMPIRE, founded in Vöcklabruck in 2014, has made a huge name for itself in the local metal scene in almost 10 years of existence. The band’s journey began with the album “These Waves Won’t Take Me” and the second album “Aero” immediately earned them an Amadeus Austrian Music Award nomination.

In September the band released their third album called “Inferno”. So the band first went into the water, dried themselves in the air and now it’s time to release the energy of fire onto the listeners. What hellish fiery sounds you get served with it should now be the topic.

With “A World In Flames” the album opens in an impressively hearty way and with a successful collaboration, because the band invited former NOVELISTS singer Tobias Rische for this song. The opener actually shows where the journey is going, as WE BLAME THE EMPIRE bring out their strong mix of calmly melodic and heartily pressing passages.

A really impressive video was also released for “A World In Flames”, which you should definitely check out:

With “Hope (Flower In The Sea)” things continue a little quieter, as the focus here is initially on the clear vocals, although the hard vocals then break through. The song brings an interesting dynamic once more. The rhythm section provides a strong background for the flattering melody and thus ensures a very broad sound.

“Inferno” follows and begins with a clip that immediately builds up tension. With the sentence “Fight Fire With Fire” Then it starts and you really feel like having a wild mosh pit. When I listened to this song, I immediately pictured singer Borsti jumping around like crazy on stage. The melodic chorus is a real delight and “Desperate Rainbows” features no less sophisticated riffs.

After the very hearty songs so far, there is some time to rest with the atmospheric interlude “Ephemeral” until “As I Fall” is tackled. The song maintains the calm that has arisen for a short time and then continues with merciless heaviness.

The album ends with “Heart Eater” twice, because the band added an instrumental version of the song at the end. This is how the album “Inferno” comes to an end in a brilliant way.

Conclusion: WE BLAME THE EMPIRE have remained true to themselves and still deliver solid metalcore, “Inferno” is a really successful album and definitely recommended to every fan of the genre. I’m more at home with death metal, but the band’s compositions are so well balanced that I really learned to appreciate the melodic parts. All in all, I can only thank the band for this masterpiece and give it a whopping 5 out of 5 points!

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#BLAME #EMPIRE #Inferno