V2 Music

Psycore
The Zoo

The Zoo is Psycore's new single from their second album I'm Not One Of Us, and one of the most amusing songs I've ever heard. The single contains three versions of The Zoo, a song about a boy allergic to fur!?! The Utah Saints mix is better, having a cool dancey sound, but that's just my personal opinion! All in all a pretty catchy new single from a band I've never been too fond of in the past. Also included on the single are two extra songs. Friends And Family just sounds a bit too mainstream. Too much Korn in there! As for Inside My Universe, a bit of a slower, trippier start - for all you stoners out there, but nothing as impressive or funny as The Zoo

Verdict: A novelty song, but one which I'm sure will soon wear off

Serenade
Plague Of Time

Serenade are one of our boys, in other words they’re from Glasgow. Strangely though, Serenade aren’t really part of the local scene. They rarely play live performances (what with the local scene being piss poor this is not such a bad policy) and Plague of Time is their third proper release, albeit a self financed one, but Serenade are a band who have a slight profile outside the boundaries of Glasgow. Having said all that, this is in fact the first chance I’ve had to hear the band, so perhaps their profile could use some work in their hometown.

Plague of Time is a three track EP but don’t let that fool you into thinking that this is a short affair, “to the point” is not in the Doom Metal vocabulary. Depth of the Bleeding Angel kicks off with a slight eastern feel, and when the singing enters the fray, the first few bars actually reminds me a little of Hawkwind. However shortly after, the singer swallows a wasp and the rest of the demo is pretty much grunt-happy. The vocals fall more into the Death Metal category of grunting (Oh I know my guttural throat sounds well!) with Chris Barnes springing to mind, not necessarily a bad thing. Taken as a whole, Plague of Time, is refreshingly original. Serenade do not really follow the traditional British slant on Doom Metal, although the tracks do have a slight touch of early My Dying Bride, but in my opinion they’re more rooted in what the rest of Europe do with their darker emotions. The tracks are heavy and meander from full on power to more moodier introspection, with the singer seeming to be looking out of windows or something on Casting the Flesh/Say Hello to Hell (sorry guys but that really is a bad title!). Overall the sound could do with a little tweaking, the guitars occasionally seem a little flat, but for a self financed project this is a minor gripe.

Plague of Time is actually a pretty fine release, although I would imagine that a whole album’s worth of this stuff could be pretty dull. Overall though, this provides a tantalising taste of what the band can do, and if you fancy a little bit of misery to while away your time to, then why not check this out.

Rating: **********

Century Media

Sacramentum
The Coming Of Chaos

This is another one of our old reviews which never seemed to get done for some reason. It's been kicking around Attitude Towers for over two years now, so I figure it's about time to give it an airing and scribble a few words about it - before I get my arse kicked (again) by Century Media!

Opener Dreamdeath put me in a good feeling for the rest of the album. It's very competent, mixing thrash and black metal with style and ease. There's no wall of noise, no brain damaging out of time drumming, no horrible wails, and generally nothing which makes me want to turn it off instantly. If you think of Exodus (maybe even early Metallica), add a pinch of black metal, and bring it into the 90s, this is what you might come up with. Followup ...As Obsidian continues this trend, and again is a cool song. Unfortunately they seem to lose track from hereon in. The rest of the album turns the formula on it's head, with black metal often being the predominant sound. Shame really, the outlook was promising. Abyss Of Time, the token 'soft' track is not very interesting either, and manages to get dull well within it's short 2m32s innings. I'll not even mention the tedium of the 13m title track.

What they do on Dreamdeath, ...As Obsidian, Burning Lust, and others holds real promise if they would just keep the thrash as the main influence.

Verdict: Leaning to the dark side

Century Media

Various
Serial Thriller 5

Yet another one of those label taster compilation albums from Century Media retailing at a pittance. This one's a 16-tracker featuring an incredible variety of bands signed to the label.

There's something to suit everyone's taste here, and the obvious description is a "mixed bag". We've got The Gathering with their soft melodies, Cryptopsy rattling away at an aggressive pace, and Stuck Mojo with a catchy Faith No More-ish tune called Reborn. My particular favourites were Morgul's The Murdering Mind (cheesily creepy horror-movie music), Pentagram's Anatolia (a strange choral-rock track which defies classification), and Strapping Young Lad's Room 429 with it's symphonic qualities.

I really didn't rate the Comecon, Asphyx or Grave tracks at all, but perhaps that's more my musical leanings than anything else.

As with any album of this nature I don't see anything wrong with forking out a couple of quid to find out what these bands sound like, then investigating the ones you enjoy further.

Verdict: Definitely a 5/10

Moribund Records

In Memorium
An Ancient Word

website

We all know Graeme likes to moan about how he gets all the mediocre stuff to review, don't we? Yep, he'd doing it again in this issue. Well I'd like to tell him that he's not the only one. Being Ed of this here publication, you'd think I get my pick of the reviews - 'fraid not. No, I end up with all the leftovers. Graeme at least (usually) gets to pick his ones! Oh, and I also get to do all the reviews which other people were meant to do and for whatever reason didn't. This is one of those reviews people. Our resident deathster has spend the last few weeks basking in the putrid stench that is Florida, home of Death Metal. He's that dedicated. Hopefully he'll have enhanced his collection of sick and twisted materials (video, music, or otherwise) on his journeys and so have much new review material. Meanwhile, I'm covering this one for him.

An Ancient Word is a four track Black Metal EP, with none of the songs being shy of 6 minutes. Thankfully, there is quite a variety within the songs - starting off slow and atmospheric, moving through to the full on barrage you might expect. Despite all the songs basically sticking to this structure, they carry it off quite well and manage to make it listenable all the way through. I dare say there might even be bits I wouldn't mind listening to again!

Production is fairly good, though at times the vocals sound reminiscent of Sepultura's Bestial Devastation EP - which as anyone who has heard it will tell you, is not exactly top notch! It doesn't ever sink quite that low though, and overall works with the rest of the sound quite well. Subtle keyboards deepen the sound well, and the competent if quiet drumming can't be complained about too much.

Verdict: Good effort, and time should improve the band.

Century Media

Kickback
Forever War

Right, once again I think that what we’re dealing with here is one of those Golden Oldies that’s been inhabiting Attitude Towers without anyone ever bothering to review it. And why would that be the case you ask. Well songs titles such as Long Live Death, No-one Gets Out Alive and the like don’t inspire this reviewer into thinking that Kickback are going to be the next big thing. However, our esteemed editor with all his wily tricks and schemes, somehow managed to get me to volunteer to review this relic. So far this issue everything’s been so dull, so middle of the road, so uninteresting to review. Will Kickback force some extreme reaction from me? Well no, cause once again we’ve got a case of the mediocre blues.

Kickback kinda sound like hardcore meeting death with some thrash thrown in for good measure. They remind me a bit of a Merauder, although I’ve only heard one song by that band. And I guess that’s the point. There’s no shades to this album, just one blinding light of fury, which is flogged until the listener cries for mercy. Even Slayer add mellow touches to keep the listener guessing. Kickback are one of those bands that you’ll see supporting Pro-pain or someone. Full head on aggression, with some interesting guitar riffs, but nothing brilliant to really grab you. The secret track is in fact the best moment, simply because the band have decided to sample a few lines from the excellent Taxi Driver - I bet they didn’t get permission for that one.

I guess that’s all I can really say. It’s not terrible, it’s far from amazing but it certainly is, as its name suggests, very brutal. But lets face it, I doubt anyone who reads this is going to go and buy Forever War, so I might as well say it’s shite just for the fun of it. Maybe our dear editor would think that unethical and I would lose my job, which of course would distress me dearly. Then again maybe he wouldn’t notice, and I’d get away with breaking the honesty code which all us journo’s must adhere to. Christ I really am bored of this.

[Not notice? Are you implying I do not fulfil my job description? How dare you! For that I might just give you lots of mediocre releases next time too - Ed]

Rating: **********