Buried Under Noise 001: Dragged Into Sunlight

What is Buried under Noise? Buried under Noise is a segment where we showcase profile of bands that deserve greater attention. These are bands that have created unique, distinct sounds and pushed extreme music in a subculture stereotyped with stagnation.

This week, we look at Dragged Into Sunlight (UK).

Dragged Into Sunlight

Source: Prosthetic Records

Nocturnal creatures reign at night. They lurk behind the shadows, plotting beneath the moonlight. Drag them out during the day, they screech at high pitch and you get a glimpse of how horrendous they are. The wrinkle on the skin of bats, make you understand why they hide behind the darkness.


Dragged Into Sunlight, like their name suggests, are like those bats, vampires or what other ghouls exist in the night. The subject matter of their lyrics is exposed under the light and they crawl back into the darkness.

Source: Bleeder Magazine

If other extreme Metal bands sing about darkness in the supernatural sense, Dragged Into Sunlight uses sound clips from our actual media. Repeating in the background like in a post apocalyptic movie intertwined with white noise.



Dragged Into Sunlight is an extreme Metal band from the UK that manages to combine Black and Death Metal with the knuckle dragging intensity of Sludge Metal. Their aim seems to be to create the most terrifying sounds you can combine from the most evil subgenres of Metal. This band is the British equivalent of Lord Mantis and one the front runners of this new wave of Blackened Sludge.

Source: Exclaim Canada

Playing with a sense of paranoia, the band also refuses to reveal their identities. All members wear balaclava and the band prefers the word "collective" instead of band. Meaning, the band is rotational and no number is fixed, making it harder for people to pin down who's who. So don't bother try figuring out who they are. They probably don't want you to, and hate the breach of privacy in the process.


With the combination of high shrieks, at times furious double bass gets dragged across sludgy fields at a devastating slow pace. Traditional Black Metal, especially the Norwegian branch employ blast beats and snare abuse. Making them good friends with Thrash, thus cross pollinating to create Blackened Thrash. It wouldn't be a stretch to hear Marduk and years later, someone can easily conjure something closer to Skeletonwitch.

Source: Metal Made Fitness

The "Blackened Sludge" Dragged into Sunlight employs, takes a look at Sludge from New Orleans, one of the more underlook genres in Metal. While bands under that moniker sing about drug abuse, depression and entrenched poverty in rural America, Dragged Into Sunlight injects the grim British weather and amp up the psychological torture.


Their debut album, Hatred for Mankind eschews plays upon nihilistic poetry; something that lives up to the name of the album. Even the first few seconds using torturous samples, that are ubiquitous in Sludge and Industrial manages to create that dreaded atmosphere.

Source: Noisey

Dragged Into Sunlight recently released a collaborative album with Gnaw Their Tongues, their French counterpart. This is not your regular split album. This is them writing songs alongside Maurice, the sole member of the band to create the most menacing concoction of this new wave of Blackened Sludge.


They will be touring extensively in 2016 with dates across Europe and the United States. Be sure to check them out if you have chance.


So for those who think extreme music is stagnant, try checking out Dragged Into Sunlight.

The Dead - Deathsteps To Oblivion

Note: Physical CDs will only be released on November 14. This review was done based on a Digital Promo from Transcending Obscurity.

For a genre that is commonly known for challenging rules and convention of music, the fan base for Metal has been very strict in what can be mixed and could not. There are many genre purists who become very vocal of what is not permitted (such as that in Black Metal) and some are implied just out of scene associations (like Death Metal).


In fact, one may joke that the fan base is the most irate rule-obsessed group of fan boys ever. However, all of that is understandable. This whole elitist attitude is a reactive measure towards the encroachment of other influences into the genre that may not be in line of the vision of what its creators seek. It is a culture that a group of young people created and decided to call their own.


To have another person to steal that tag and appropriate it for themselves was blasphemy of the highest order. But what happens when you have a scene that has pre-internet, relatively been isolated to the rest of the world? Their only window to that scene is probably through the tapes they traded across the specific and publications could possibly several months late.


They may have an understanding through reading zines about the respect people have for the purity of genres but they also don’t have the same form of emotional attachment with those who grew up the scene.


Enter, Australia. Implied genre conventions don’t carry the same weight here and Australia’s The Dead pays respect to their American counterparts, but blurs the rules. While Sludge Metal has been an active effort to stay the opposite spectrum of Death Metal, The Dead combines the two while maintaining the characteristics of both subcultures.

This is the happiest band promo photo ever in the history of this blog.

The Dead’s willingness to combine 2 sides of the coin of Metal, is like combining water and dirt; while those two components are easily distinguishable from the other, but the two combine to become mud. That is how The Dead works.


What are two distinct genres becomes into one puddle of filth, with an excess of Sludge, making it the thickest mud pool you have to walk through. From the beginning the guitars are deep down heavy, that reminiscent of the thickest and heaviest doom-laden Sludge riff you can imagine. This is like taking Eyehategod out of New Orleans, and the blues is replaced with an Old School Death Metal layer.


While mentioning Sludge could conjure images of breakdowns into a listener’s mind; this album won’t be filled with the continuous interjection of long dragging depressive breakdown. The riffs resemble a darker Isis with an emphasis of evil sounding melody. While one guitar lays the groundwork and team up with the bass player, the lead guitars create the tinge melody.


It’s like the subtle after taste of flavoured vodka. The thick punch of the alcohol wakes you up but the subtle fuzzy after taste lingers in your throat. They don’t become the dominant flavour but it reminds you it is there. It’s the same with leads here. It never becomes the overpowering narrative that one might expect from say, a thrash album when a solo is about to come in.


Here, the leads follows the main riff on a higher pitch, as the riffs come crawling to you slowly. There are no abrupt changes in speed here, but dirge laden mid-paced riffs. One could say that these guys didn’t read the memo that Death Metal learned to run a long time ago and still stayed at the same pace the slow parts of what Obituary had in 1990.


Despite the Sludge connotations, vocals in no way are like your average Sludge band with Hardcore screams. While they didn’t get the memo on Death Metal’s speed the bad definitely get the memo for deep guttural voices. The vocals could easily work even in a Grindcore context. The drums come pounding in at an appropriate pace, like a riflemen firing at the orders of his official.


Organized and only fired when necessary. While on most parts the drum just plays to keep the flow of the soing going in, it does not mean the band is afraid to play around with percussions. On the track Terminus, watch out for tribal sounding drums and an intro session where one could recall rituals of native Indian tribes, giving off an exotic and trippy vibe.

 I am pretty sure, there is somebody in the crowd that is insisting that they play faster.

However, most of the points this band gets is the creative song writing capabilities. None of the band members get into a spotlight and do their magic but the band worked together to actually create a composition. Every single line has a deliberate method.


At times it is to create a melodic lead or everyone slowing down (after the already slow verse) in the bridge and just mesmerize us into a dark prog-like atmosphere that you could lay back too, then they start to assault your ears again as they step onto the distortion pedal. This has created what should very well be something that is unconventional feels acceptable in this album. (Well, at least in Metal-terms.)


An amazing part of this album and probably the highlight track is during “The God Beyond” where the track starts off with a short (and surprising) Black Metal part, the only “fast” part of the album but the goes into a long droning Atmospheric Sludge Metal guitar melody. Right somewhere in the middle, a weird sound in the background appears to add another layer of hauntingly beautiful melody.


It could be a woman wailing or some weird instrument accompanying the band but that element turned the track into a Sludge Metal, almost Post-Rock equivalent of Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky”. In fact, the whole album does sound like Pink Floyd trying their hand at Sludge/Death and like the Dark Side of The Moon, needs to be listened as a whole to get the whole experience. Every track is weaved into each other but you can still feel where does one start and where does one end.

At the end of the day, what this band embodies is the ability to smash convention and demonstrate to us what happens when you turn around the genre conventions many in the culture grew up with. Not only it breaks down barriers of the genres but it also shatters the image on how Death Metal can be carried. Unlike how most bands go on the mantra, faster is better for Death Metal, this band does the opposite but still sound Death Metal. Like how the isolation of Australia lead to the unique evolution of its animal inhabitants,


Australia has benefited from the mindset of these metalheads from down under. In fact, I would say this is the most exotic sounding album I've heard all year. This is a Isis, Death Metal and Pink Floyd rolled into one.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lordofthelivingdead
Bandcamp: https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/album/deathsteps-to-oblivion-death-metal-sludge

Terence A. Anthony commutes between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Co-Founder of Aural Chaos. He also writes for Greater Malaysia and Opinions Unleashed.

Circaic - False Prophetic Roads

There is something that needs to be said about Melodic Death Metal (MDM). Not only it is pejorative as it assumes that regular Old School Death Metal has no melody, it is commonly used in interval with an even more ominous term, the “Gothenburg sound”. While it’s fair to say that a certain scene may have a certain sound pre-internet age, the term no longer make sense when scenes overlap and the spread of information allows other bands to imitate that specific riff. The question then becomes what constitutes a MDM riff?


Early In Flames has always been categorized as Iron Maiden influenced leads layered on Death Metal riffs. Some bands however call themselves MDM but in turn sound like a Power Metal/Trad band, firing their classically trained vocalist with harsh vocals from a growler instead. That is where the term Melodeath comes in, which can be used in an insulting context for some.


To me, the MDM sound is just Death Metal with the inclusion of harmonics, the usage of minor chords and a slightly more conventional form of song structure to make it sound “poppier” (for the lack of a better term) or easily digestible in comparison.


Now, it is unfair to categorize all Melodic Death Metal bands as so, as the term has evolved throughout the times to include clean singing or even stop-start riffs. Circaic is a band that embodies that evolution of Melodic Death Metal. The band combines catchy clean choruses, extremely melodic guitar leads, layered on Death Metal riffs that do not sound stereotypically “Gothenburg” with a keyboard to finish off that modern Melodic Death sound.

Holy shit, is the 2nd guy from the left Nicholas Cage?

Circaic starts off strong with double bass drums pummelling through and layered with deep growls with an almost At The Gates like riff but then turns into something that could be off from an old Kataklysm album. Despite the ATG reference, the drums don’t go into the Punk or Thrash sounding snare dominated drum work that Slaughter of The Soul had.


They are mainly kept at excellent machine gun drumming when needed and drum rolls that glues different patterns. The lead guitars go up and down as if taking a separate narrative from the vocals, like two different streams next to each other. They flow into the same direction but not in the exact same creek. When the clean vocals come in, the easiest comparison that could be made would be Scar Symmetry. Though the clean vocals are not as deep as Alvestrom’s cleans easily could pull you in to sing along. With an almost nasal like singing the clean vocals won’t be there for long and for those who fear that it might go into Power Metal cheese category, do not fret.


The band manages to keep it on a leash. It however does remind me of the cleaner vocals of some of Soilwork’s mid-era work. Despite the Soilwork or Scar Symmetry analogies, don’t expect constant stop-start riffs and the melodic Groove Metal of the band. There are some but in no way they are dominant or are in control of the band’s sound. In its core the band actively keeps riff after riff within the Death Metal realm and to not keep things stale harmonics kick in and amazing lead work take over.


In fact, the better lead works of Scar Symmetry have their money at stake here. As one could assume from the Scar Symmetry reference, those who are searching for dark sounding MDM should stay away from this. The band has some guitar solos that are uplifting sounding at times. While there are blistering evil sounding parts with machine gun drumming madness, it is only brief and that “positive” sounding notes keep popping back.


The energy of the band does not seem to be halted by the clean vocals as the tempo is kept at a fast pace and in fact throughout the whole EP, the band is able to keep up the speed without being a let-down in anyway.

Somebody lost a bet?

The band has also extensively used keyboards in the background to create an accompanying pseudo orchestra but has never been too dominant. There are some instances where keys do take the centre stage but it is never too long. Just a few seconds here and there, in no way taking the limelight. This could be seen from a positive angle because the band has been at high speed and at the highest gear most of the time and would be distracting to see an overpowering piano solo.


While mainly the keyboards are used as a piece to keep the environment, some parts of the title track, especially in the beginning, the keys do come in a piano like manner. However it sounded as if it was a novelty instead. There is one part that the band allowed the keyboard to take the narrative and it was done in a tasteful electronica outro.

Song writing wise, a listener could easily see that they aim to be catchy and easy listening for those in the genre. To be fair, the genre itself isn’t easy listening to outsiders. Easily spliced into a verse/chorus format rather than going against the grain. Though not specifically in that order, one could easily pick out what is meant to be the chorus or what is meant to be a hook by the band. This is most prevalent in tracks like The Separation Phase.


However, having so isn’t such a bad thing in Metal. Who says that Metal needs to be breaking down barriers all the time? Sometimes art is done within the confine what is already established and that is what the band did. What is noticeable is that the band seems to be influenced to be a latter camp of MDM and move back in the annals of MDM.


They then take parts of various eras of MDM and filtered it into this. The result is an album that could be described as a blistering, lead-centric album that is also clean vocal inclusive that harks the era where MDM bands were starting to be influenced by Nu-Metal bands. While that may irk many, the best assurance that could be given would be that the better elements are cannibalized. For example the electronic keys and catchy choruses that Soilwork had.

There is some stuff I would like to nit-pick though. Firstly, the album starts off with the typical TV static like intro, layered with a compressed sample somewhere in the background. This seems to be a trend in many MDM bands. It sounds as if they are just trying to copy At the Gate’s Slaughter of The Souls over and over again.


Bands need to realize that is probably overdone. There are many other ways to pull off the intro and unless you are an industrial band or it is integral to the sound of the band, then I don’t see any reason to do so. Then again, there is more like a nit-pick than an actual form of criticism.

To wrap it all up, the band can be said to be the exact example how a genre can look back at its past evolutions and then pick the best parts to produce this. Rather than creating new sound, the band uses what works for them and it did. This in no way is for those looking for the darker side of Metal.


If this band were more popular band, it would be easier to say that this band belongs in the beginner camp for listeners. In no way that comment was meant to insinuate that the music is simplistic, it definitely takes a lot of skill to pull off the leads here. But that comment is to show how easily digestible the music is for beginners.


Probably that is what encapsulates the band. While on the surface, the band may sound simple in its verse chorus format, deep beneath the skin, there is always something complex going on. I hope to hear this with clearer production in the future.


PS/ I’m not so sure why did the band release this as an EP when there are many albums at this length. I hope that means the songs will be re-recorded with better production.

Terence A. Anthony commutes between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Co-Founder of Aural Chaos. He also writes for Greater Malaysia and Opinions Unleashed.

Daarchlea - Suns

Daarchlea is one of those bands that use elements that Metalheads are used to, elements that are familiar to the senses of those who dabble in such music yet are able to create something different. On the surface, one could easily throw names like Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir or to a certain extent, Emperor to describe the music played by this band.


While from their past releases there is a slight tinge of Middle Eastern scales in the music, the music on Suns barely has that but move on closer to the modern Black/Death sound, but with light clean vocals sprinkled on top. What is interesting about this band, and made them slightly different from their peers is that the band has decided to use Islamic themes and imagery in Suns.


From the lyrics, touching about creation from an Islamic perspective, to Islamic theology on Qhilav, the band was able to pull it off without feeling as if being forced fed while reading the lyrics or listening to the tracks. Everything is done in a semi-vague manner that uses Arabic terms, giving a sort of exotic feel, like the first time I read lyrcis by Norwegian bands who uses terms from Norse Mythology or how Anaal Nathrakh uses legal terms of Latin origin.

One may say it’s the band’s shtick. Considering how Islam plays a huge role in the daily affairs of a Malay-Muslim in Malaysia, this whole image is honest. In fact, as a non-religious man myself, I would say that this pretty bad ass.

Last I recalled, Malaysia wasn't as cold as Norway.

Since this isn’t an anthropology paper, let’s get back to the record. What struck me most is how every single element is represented greatly in the songs. Firstly, the vocal range by vocalist Al-Matin (Which actually translates to “The King” in French. I have no idea if he knows it though), is amazing. He could pull off deep growls that could very well fit in a Cattle Decapitation record and you could easily hear the words he enunciates. This isn’t some random growls that you could throw in a not figure out the words even when not reading the lyrics.


On the flip side of the coin, the Black Metal influence on the shrieks were done in a tasteful manner, that does not sounds like an annoying Dani Filth but sound closer to what Ihsahn pulled off in Anthems. To me, it was sort of surprising considering the band claimed to have Cradle of Filth as an influence in past interviews. While Nergal could be cited as an influence, none of the vocals were the mid-range bark that Nergal has.


As mentioned above, there were clean vocals here but don’t expect deep operatic vocals like Dimmu Borgir but you can expect vocals that are pseudo-calming like Ulver’s Bergtatt but used in a manner that wants to be operatic. The guitars were crisps clear and the modern production definitely helped a lot here. Every single riff had a purpose the transition between haunting guitar tremolos that they pulled off from a Norwegian Black Metal textbook really shines in between the modern Death Metal punches.


The Death Metal riffs aren’t the old school semi-thrash sounding riffs or even the New York, slam inducing riffs but its closer to the more to the straight up modern Death Metal of Kataklysm. There are NO GUITAR SOLOS here but who says you need guitar solos to create good extreme Metal? The riffs here are amazing enough that I don’t have much to complain.


However at one or two times the band sounds as if they were about to transition into a breakdown, making me fear that all that amazing energy accumulated might just go to waste. Then again, that is just a minor gripe and my bad experience of listening to the multitude of Deathcore clones that just doesn’t try to be different from one another.


Another thing that was ringing through my mind is that I wish the band has the bass cranked up higher. The bass here just sounds as if was a hitchhiker along with the ride. Like any traveller, he might have something interesting to say but at the end of the day he is not in the driver’s seat.

Daarchlea @ Rock The World '13. Sort of like a Malaysian Soundwave or Download Festival where bands of various genres play here so there will be Metal bands like Daarchlea thrown into the mix.

This is all layered by amazing drumming that uses the double pedals sparingly but has a knack of using the snare as every good Black Metal band should. The drum rolls to transition from part to another were amazingly connected that it felt like glue. If it weren’t present, the parts would just sound jarring and might fall apart. A lot of bands just skip the transition and expect that two drum beats could connect, and expect the band to just go on.


There are times it could work, say when the band is trying to pull off a surprise tempo change, just like how Cephalic Carnage does from time to time but a band that tries to put glue to different parts, will have to realize that you do need an adhesive, and that adhesive are those amazing drum rolls. Kudos on that.  


On the keyboards, yes keyboards. This is where the Cradle of Filth or Hecate Enthroned influenced comes in. Not only the keyboards replace the orchestra, they add a whole different atmosphere when the Death Metal sets in. It turns it from the conventional Death Metal to the soundtrack of a decapitator in medieval dungeons. Though I’m sure that is no what the band wants you to imagine with their lyrical themes but that is how it sounds like. The piano at times takes the leads and becomes the driving narrative.


On tracks like Qhilav, the piano sets up the battlefield before the battery charges in, creating that mystical feel, almost Goth-like set up. To add another twist to the band’s style, the piano takes it’s time to shine when all the other instruments are set to rest for a minute and gets accompanied by the sound of a Kompang in the instrumental track, Ascend to Arasy.


Kompang for the uninitiated is a Malaysian folk instrument that is similar to a tambourine with Arab origins, normally played during weddings.


I could assume that in future albums the band would add more of the Malaysian influence into the music.

#Hornthrone
Check out Daarchlea playing Suns in it's entirety on the 27th. Don't forget to stop by.

By the end of the record, it will dawn to you that this is a great example of a great modern sounding album. Everything is glued together without sounding so jarring. While many bands decide to combine various genre to create something unique this band combines the genres to make something that feels familiar on the surface but then later on closer inspection shows something slightly different.


The tone, or probably the musical “accent” that the band has, gives the band identity. I remember a while back in an interview that Mirai of Sigh said that them speaking Japanese 24/7 probably have accidently led to the band putting in their accents or the more melodic elements of the Japanese language into their song writing elements.


That probably made the band sound different from their other Black Metal peers. Daarchlea’s Suns, just like the amazing Malaysian record, Langsuyr’s Asyik has accidentally added the tone, the accents of the language or elements they pick up in life. It sounds Malaysian, it has the musical feel of a Malay-Muslim musical heritage and that is probably what made Daarchlea sound different from the rest. Get it for excellent Malaysian Black/Death Metal.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daarchleaofficial

Hadal Maw - Senium

The Australian Metal scene is a promising one yet it is overlooked. Rarely you Metal bands from the region headlining tours like their American or Scandinavian counterparts. The result being, bands like Ne Obliviscaris don't get exposure, fame or opportunity that's proportionate to their musical capabilities.


However now with the world paying attention to them and music festivals like Soundwave start putting these bands on stage with the international acts, I hope the same does not happen with acts like Hadal Maw. Hadal Maw in general can be considered as a Technical Death Metal band. Despite that descriptor, to let readers judge is the sound of the band as that only is a gross understatement and unfair to the band.

It's either the pollution in Melbourne has gotten really bad or the smoke machine is finally doing its job.

The band's songwriting can be divided into two parts and aptly divided an instrumental in the middle album, consisting of (African? Australian Aborigine?) tribal drums. The first part of the album feels like a cross between Death Metal, that isn't overtly technical (so don't expect Necrophagist like noodling) and Groove Metal sensibilities. Now I'm not referring to the Pantera styled tough guy Groove, I'm referring to the heavy ground pounding Groove that you could hear on a Gojira album.


In fact, I dare say this sounds like a cross between Gojira and old Kataklysm. The drums and leads were the highlight of the first track, where the drums goes on a crazy rampage of machine gun drumming, the leads come in pulls off melody lines that creates a certain atmosphere that haunts the listener. Sometimes to almost a Blackened like feeling but never crossing into the Black/Death boundary too far. It still stays in the realm of Death Metal.


To add up the atmosphere, the band slows down into a Doom like tease, but then only allows you calm down for a minute. Like an interrogator teasing you with a 30 second break yet he continues to water board you right after your attempt to catch your breath. You think there is hope to catch up and let the air into your lungs but it's just the chance for the warden to bark you questions. You won't listen to vocals with a huge range but it does its part and stays consistent despite the division that I mentally made. Mainly comprised of one part barking vocals, almost Obituary like and one part deep growls.


The second half of the album goes into a different level. Continuing from the frantic tribal drum track, a pseudo drum solo enters, rolling away into madness, the band lets the drummer show off and the mad technical riffs comes in a different level. Like the levels of a video game, the riffs played seems to be harder, faster and more complex, screaming at you to catch up.


The composition here is a whole more complicated with even more complex riffing and a bit less groovy, focusing on the conventional Technical Death Metal we are used to, something like Nile to a certain extend. The riffs are more varied and they quell off any connotations that the band is a one trick pony. Groove styled riffs are lesser and take the back seat. In fact, I'm glad that they did this or else the album would be monotonous.


While the band is able to show the full range of their capabilities, the only part there is a sense of showing off is the short pseudo drum solo. The band members focus on creating melodies with a purpose and stuck as a team, working together.

"Do you know the lyrics to African Child?"
Sorry, I just had to make that joke.

Because the fact there is an obvious line in the album that I could split it into two parts, it made me think of several scenarios. Was the track list arranged according to chronological order? Or was the tracks were intentionally arranged in the manner so that they get even more intense as they go up? The doubting part of me wants to think of the one prior, where the band got better through the years, where the bands were able to transition from the Groove influenced riffs into much more Technical song writing.


The art-appreciating side of me though wants think of the later where the band wants to put the listener into a dark journey up a mountain. The higher it gets, the more treacherous it becomes. The deeper you immerse yourself in this slab of Death Metal, the deeper you sink into complex riffs.


There are exceptions on both sides though, where the first track sounds like the more Technical edge on the 2nd half of the album while Altars of Ire starts as something Groovier, then into the complicated guitar work. It is more like an amalgamation of the 1st and 2nd half. Of course, I might be wrong about all this and they just happen to sound constructed like that to my ears.

Lyric wise, the band somehow feels as if, while vague were writing about Earth being destroyed, through the wrongdoings of men. Sounds familiar? I guess Gojira's influence in their mind extends further than just the music. The lyrics even feels like Gojira. In fact, the word senium is an old English word of old, which I assume refers to the Earth being old, not 6000 years that young Earth creationists may want to imply. Then again, I am assuming here. But from lyrics like this;

A bastard child of his own creation
Left to linger and slowly deteriorate

How can you not guess that they're definitely against this whole anthropocentric thing. In fact, I appreciate this than your regular Death Metal gore and violence a bit. Different flavor of the palette for today.


The essence of this album is the excellent combination of devastatingly heavy Groove riffs mixed together with Technical Death Metal. No excessive lead work that leads to nowhere and everything done in a sufficient manner. Despite the introduction of modern Groove sensibilities, the parts don't sound jarring or forced.


When a Groove riff needs to end, it ends. That's one good point about this band in a world that is too obsessed with speed, technicality and brutality, that people forgot about the songwriting element of Death Metal. That is what also separates the finer musicians from the ones who only seek to achieve novelty by pushing a new idea that doesn't fit.


When there is a new element to be introduced, don't try to force it, see if it could fit in naturally. Music and art aren't parts that you buy in a store where you can attach it and assemble together. They're more like gardens where different plants might not mix with each other, or in some cases might be a parasite to each other.

You don't want your riffs to be parasites.


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hadalmaw

Bandcamp: http://hadalmaw.bandcamp.com/

Also, if you are in Australia, do check out their album launch at Wodonga, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Ballarat.

Terence A. Anthony commutes between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Co-Founder of Aural Chaos. He also writes for Greater Malaysia and Opinions Unleashed.

7.H Target - 0:00 Apocalypse

This band is the exact reason why quantifying the quality of an album into a specific metric system is problematic in Metal. When it comes to Metal, there are many things people expect from it. Due to the fact the music was never meant to be easy listening, the desire of most listeners is to get something more extreme, progressive and innovative.


This also includes the fact that because the platform has never been mainstream, everyone looks into the underground and everybody has a shot at "making it." The problem then becomes a perception of over-saturation on the part of the listener. But what happens when a sub genre, like Brutal Death Metal has been into positions so extreme that records that are actually pushing he limits come so rare. Do we judge it according to what it has pushed for or do we judge it within the confines of the art?

In Soviet Russia, post apocalypse wasteland survives you

7.H. Target is a Russian Brutal Death Metal bands that does their art well, but stays within the confines of what a person would think is Brutal Death Metal. I have no idea what the band name means but it honestly sounds like a sci-fi Michael Bay movie with more explosions that the transformers series.


What set this band apart from the others though is the theme that they carry. The band sings about Japanese Horror/Gore B-Movies. Just like their subject matter, the movies aren't anything progressive, they try to push their "extremity" to levels of torture porn. The movies are also not the hot topic of cinephiles, but they do have their appeal in circles that actively seek for those kind of films. The same could be said about this band's music.


You already have to be seeking for music within the constraints of Death Metal like this to begin with. Whats interesting also is that rather than taking the typical Western styled B-Movie gore but the band takes the sci-fi touch and use Japanese B-Movie films as the image instead. At least that's a breath of fresh air from the regular slasher, American gore used by the many other bands. Glad to see death Metal isn't staying with one aesthetic over and over again.


Music wise though, the band mixes high speed Death Metal double bass and not-so technical riffs. The combination of slams and the utilization of break downs where appropriate comes served alongside with very low gurgles with almost like pig squeals. Like most Brutal Death Metal bands, structure is thrown out of the window in favor of machine gun drumming, blast beats appearing in between slam breakdowns and the occasional dissonant riffing. The frantic change of tempo from one another feels like a sense of controlled chaos.


Frantic enough to keep away from monotony, but structured enough to be memorable. None of the tracks over-stay it's welcome so not even the slams are dragged too long. You won't hear a continuous break down through out the songs but you'll hear a band showing all the techniques they picked up from various metal bands. As slams build up, then machine gun drumming come over and tear up your face.


Once in a while, weird leads that sounds like guitar exercises are used in placed of riffs with the bass still focused on the e-string. Now keep in mind though, there isn't much guitar noodling in placed. It has certain sci-fi feel at times, like a gargantuan monolithic machine rampaging through a city, with all the guitar effects in place, dubbed as the sounds of the buttons involved.


This is also heavily emphasized through the sampling that creates that atmosphere as if you're watching Tokyo Gore Police, chuckling with your friends in your dimly lit living room. All in all, what can be said about the music is that it is you standard BDM affair without much variation but done well. It has all the cliches of BDM but nothing that is ear-gratingly horrible. In fact, if this were done in BDM's heyday, it would've gotten more praise than now.

BEEP BEEP Richie! They ALL float down here. When you're down here with us, you'll float too!

The resulting concoction couldn't be judged with the typical metric system we are so used to judge bands. It all depends on what you are looking for. You don't go watch Ichi the Killer and expect The Goodfellas. They both are in different categories and shouldn't be measured with the same scale.


Those who look for Brutal, face hurting punches will definitely enjoy this while some who are looking for another push in the progressiveness in Metal will have to look somewhere else and may very well rate this album lower. In essence, creating art within a limited medium and succeeding.

Sick artwork from the band. The Japanese influence from the Russians just oozes here.

Like DVDs of Japanese Horror/Gore movies, you'll watch them with your friends on the weekends. If your friends are the group of people that watches B-films, you'll probably talk about it for quite sometime.

The same with this band. If the band comes over town, you might go and watch them. But this isn't going to convert anyone into BDM. In this no-nonsense Japanese B-Movie horror/gore/sci-fi influenced Russian BDM band, they'd probably infect you, rather than converting you.

This is Brutal Death Metal, made for those asking for Brutal Death Metal.

Terence A. Anthony commutes between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Co-Founder of Aural Chaos. He also writes for Greater Malaysia and Opinions Unleashed.