Klonosphere Records

Frontal is a French technical death metal war machine. Although nothing in comment with them….you can best compare them to Gojira goes technical death metal. But these guys like to stay underground since there is only just so little info about them on the web…a shame because they deserve so much more attention.

Anyway….the guys have an album out for some time now and it is a gem. It made my days as it made me tap my feet and slightly nod my head up and down. Keep it up guys, I’m looking forward to your next record.

Erlen Meyer are a French combo which I had not heard of before, despite their decade of existence. And with this self-titled album they do really impress me. The quintet (bassist Jérémy Abella, vocalist Olivier Lacroix, guitar players Pierre Berger and Jérémie Noel, and drummer Karol Diers) recorded this material more than a year ago, and the initial release was via Shelsmusic (May 20^th 2013).

Checkmate is one of the many metalcore bands that seem to exist to put out angry sounding records that show a lot of brainless stomping furious energy. What holds me back on this album is that there is a sense of exhaustion that builds as the album wears on. It's all pretty standard stuff that's been done before, and done better.

Hyperdump hail from the north of France and in 2012 the band released their debut full length, called Rational Pain, through Klonosphere as well. A couple of years before, there was a mini-recording too (self-called), but since I haven’t heard that stuff…