Album Review: SpiteFuel - Flame To The Night (2019, Metal)

Dark, darker, Flame To The Night. A album that reflects upon the feelings of anger and agression.

This record calls for the prize of being as brutal, tricky and heavy as can be. But at the same time there is still a light in the dark in the mood of the music as well.

The skull finally is alive on the album cover of SpiteFuel's "Flame To The Night"

It started out with "Machine" that I realised that the band has made a complete turn with "Flame To The Night". It's a beast of a song with a punishing refrain. I think this will go down extremly heavy on stage also it's hard to imagine that it could get any more bone crushing like on the album.

The new vocalist Phillip Stahl adds a much metalcore-like note to the sound. His growls are blackening the whole sky. But he also adds a twist with a little psycho touch in songs like "Trick Or Treat" - one of the most going under the skin going tunes of 2019.

The second half of the twelve tunes calls out to the older fans of the combo.

"Bad Boys" is one of the them. It's a midtempo rocker with sing-along refrain.The same goes for the compact number "Two-Faced". But they all sound with updated soundpackage through your speakers along with modern refrain structures. This said it's clear that SpiteFuel have changed to a up-to-date soundformat on the new longplayer.

"Firewater" is one of my favorites. It shares big bright riffs brought garned with lots of groove. This feels great and relaxed alltogether. "Silent Guard" goes more straight-forward but has at the same time special in it that will make it hang on the listeners mind later on. It's this feeling of emptiness in it mixed with slightly agressive moments that makes the track stand out.

It all comes to the close on "Try to hate me". It feels like a mixture of new brutality mixed up splitters of melodic elements. This one melts both worlds of the record into one piece of music.

Listen to the heavier side of the album as a teaser right here.

You can pick a copy from the MDD Records / Black Sunset webshop. Since the label has distributors all around the globe I think you can also get it at a local retailer / mailorder which may save you shipping and handling.

Single Review: Drop Oblivion - Damaged Goods (Thrash, 2017)

The last days of the year are running but there's still something going on. This time it's a brutal piece of heavy music coming our way giving a idea of how 2018 could sound like.

The single cover for "Damaged Goods" without background and title, (c) by Drop Oblivion, used with kind permission

Introduction
Drop Oblivion is the brain child of UK based solo composer Ian Mortimer. After getting into the local Metal scene in 2006 performing with various bands over the years, he started an outlet in 2014 for his own heavy creations with Drop Oblivion.

Originally conceived as a “just for fun” project, Ian began working with other musicians on some initial demo tracks,  and created an entire album of material over the course of a few days. As Ian progressed and focused on performing with his other ambient project “Skin For A Canvas”, Drop Oblivion took a back seat for a few years until 2017 when new demos were taken into full production at his home studio in England. The first single taster track for the new album was released in December 2017 titled “Damaged Goods”. The completed album is expected for release late 2018.

Summary
It's a plaesure to see that one man can give heavy music a push into a new direction. The fine thing about this single track is it's continous push it gives. I like the constant going of the drums and the overall song-structure as composed to sound as one piece. Guitars are riff-oriented but not too loud making the listening experience smooth.

It's also fine to hear that the vocals take part on this journey and also it remains sounding as one bold metal track it also changes in it's way of dark tonality. There are many various undertones of the dark vocals that are presented with various pressure. The end comes a bit surprising with a guitar solo offered as part of the song structure instead of forming a own part as usual.

Track-Stream & Purchase-Link
If you're into experimental heavy, let's say mostly thrashy music this one is a ear to keep upon. Devin Townsend came to my mind but also slight comparsions with Trivium rushed in every here and there. Expect raw heavyness mixed with little surprises and lot's of riffs with modern sound well produced for your listening pleasure.

Pick up a copy from the digital plattforms such as Bandcamp, CD Baby and Spotify
Have a listen by checking the visual video below.

Contact-Data
Make sure to follow Drop Oblivion on Facebook. The full album is set for release late 2018.

CD Review: Charm Designer - Everlasting

A dark and mysterious Gothic / Doom record. Besides the typical growling vocals it features a lot of groove, melody and a lot of blistering, haunting atmosphere. If you like a mixture of these ingridents you shouldn't hesitate and take a close look at "Everlasting".

Short Introduction

Charm Designer is a Gothic / Doom metal band located in Columbia. It was the first time for me that I had the chance to listen to a band from that country so I was extremly excited how they would attempt writing songs. Plus I didn't listen to a album of that genre for some time so I felt it would be a good idea to check it out.

My attention was raised even more as I got to know that the follow-up to 2008's “Blood Sounds” was recorded with legendary producer Waldemar Sorychta, known for his work with Samael, Tiamat, Lacuna Coil, Sentenced and Moonspell among others, being the first time for him to produce a Latin American band. The artwork was designed by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu (At The Gates, Arcturus, Vulture Industries, Primordial, Arch Enemy, etc.).

The cover of Everlasting, (c) by Charm Designer, used with kind permission

Summary

Charm Designer did a outstanding job on this one. The album contains eight brand new tracks that will take you on a wild ride through your inner feelings and emotions. It's filled with all that makes us humans and it goes to all the extremes we all endure and are pushed through every day. It sounds extreme and will give you pain at some points but after all the harsh parts and heavyness there's always release and silkness coming back in giving you freezing chills and giving you the breath back. In the end it will strenghten you for all that still is yet to come.

The album lives of it's contrast of dark, brutal vocals and the much lighter contra female voice parts. The same goes for the music. Sure there's darkness and heavyness all around but it never presses you down. It still pushes on forward through the groove and there's always some melody shining through. Black clouds and silver linings. The best way to quickly check out if the record is for you is to see the lyric video of the title track which you can find at the Player and Purchase Link section further down in this review. If you feel like it touches you the you should give the full album a listen, because there's a lot more yet to come so prepare yourselves for the ride...

Album Overview

The album is well balanced but there are some tracks I'd like to point out. Besides the title track my personal favorites are Never After and most of all Inertial Dream for their very heavy attitude and remembering me of old classic Gothic metal times.

Disruption is one of the most flexible cuts of the full length bringing together a good mixture of oldschool and slightly modern elements. But all the modern stuff is kept in a discret way. They are never overused and only taken if they add to the mood so it sounds authentic. Some tracks have a length of nearly seven minutes but never sound lengthy. If you prefer the shorter one's make sure to listen to Mentors, it goes out as a very straight number.

It should be mentioned that the band did a cool cover version of Depeche Mode's "Policy of truth". The song remains intact in it's structure through the cover conversion, but you can heavily hear that Charm Designer put their signature of Doom 'n' Gothic brutality on it. It's a good cover I can see this going down quite well in Gothic or Metal clubs on a saturday night with many people handbanging along to it.

Player and Purchase-Link

The album is available through the store of the band's record company Inverse Records as a physical CD.
There also the chance to buy a mp3 version of the record from Amazon. 

Update 2016/02/20: You can also place your order via the band's Facebook account. Read this info sheet they released for detailed info. They also have some nice goodie packs available with T-Shirts plus CD and you can also ask for other combinations. Just send them a message and they'll put together a nice package for you.

As far as I've seen there's no album stream available so I've added the official lyric video of "Everlasting" here to give you a quick idea of the band's sound and style.

Update 2016/02/22: The album has been uploaded to streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer. I've added the Deezer widget under the YouTube lyric video of the title track. Also if you're not registered to the service you can at least listen to some 30 second clips of the album.


Links

www.facebook.com/charmdesigner
www.twitter.com/Charm_Designer
www.reverbnation.com/charmdesigner
www.soundcloud.com/charmdesigner
www.youtube.com/charmdesignervid