Prosthetic Records

If I have to go by what certain English “specialized “ press had to say about this album then the THE HELL are the future of hardcore…….well  I don’t think so. What is on display here is a bunch of second rate hardcore mixed with blunt English humor. Now personally I am a fan of English humor of all kinds, but in this format spread over 13 tracks and a secret track… and pretty one dimensional (how many times can we say fuck shit dick kill on one album) than it becomes very quickly very boring…..

The Brooklyn-based quartet (Brandon and Chris Cruz, Danny Moncada and Etienne Vazquez) So Hideous are one of the most exciting surprises I met lately. The band, formed in 2008, debuts with Last Poem / First Light, which was originally self-released last year, but now it gets a proper promotion after signing to Prosthetic’s roster earlier this year.

Schammasch are an act from Basel (a historical city in Switzerland, close to the border with both Germany and France), which was formed in 2009. The name is based on the Babylonian god of the sun. The band released a first album, called Sic Lvceat Lvx, in 2011, and they performed live on stage with the likes of Forgotten Tomb, Evoken, Temple Of Baal, Jex Thoth or Vorkreist, amongst others.

Rome-based act Hour Of Penance was formed more than fifteen years ago in the capital of Italy, Rome, and they recorded a first demo in 2000, which drew attention of Xtreem Music. On this label they released two full lengths, Disturbance (2003) and Pageantry For Martyrs (2005), followed by 2008’s The Vile Conception and 20101’s Paradigma, both via Unique Leader Records.

Exmortus are a very heavy formation from California. After some self-released EP’s, the band released two full lengths via Heavy Artillery Records, In Hatred’s Flame (2008) and Beyond The Fall Of Time (2011). Recently Exmortus signed to Prosthetic’s roster in order to release their third full studio album, Slave To The Sword, which lasts for fifty minutes.

While Days of the Fallen Sun certainly ain’t heavy material, it will appeal to a great many of our fraternity. The music is ethereal, beautiful, delicate, spiritual, but at the same time melancholy. It is dramatic and powerful in a subtle way. Emotional intensity does not always equal speed and volume. If you're in a bouncy, moshing round kind of mood this is not a good album. After a few more listens, I did begin to appreciate this album, if not really like it.

I EXIST are a sextet from Australian capital Canberra,   and on there  3th full length they present us a slab of  darkness one would not immediately  link to surfers paradise down under.  What I Exist  offer us is   downtuned    guitar violence , ranging from  doom to stoner  sludge with a hint of death  metal and  some  hardcore.  The vocals can be filed under “guttural”.  Not  all tracks on “From Darkness” manage to   score high on my   “attention span radar”  but when they  let  the sludge & doom  approach take  priority  o

Two years after the excellent full length Forever Abomination, also released via Prosthetic Records (the review was put on the site, now available via the Archive-tab, on October 30^th 2011), the American act Skeletonwitch returns with the fifth effort, entitled Serpents Unleashed, which has duration of, unfortunately, thirty two minutes only (short durations of their albums seem to be standard).

Doomed To Destroy Destined To Die is a pure old school metal album, but it is not only inspired by the thrash death scene (Testament, Kreator, Morbid Angel) from the Eighties. The album also has a strong Entombed touch and parallels to early Suicidal Tendencies and DRI are unavoidable. All the tracks are SS-20 pieces of thrash crossover metal/hardcore and shows how a thrash death core song has to be constructed.

Drones Of The Awakening is the first Eyeconoclast-album with new vocalist Giuseppe Di Giorgio, whom you might know from his collaboration with Black Therapy.