Monday 6 February 2017

Into Orbit - Unearthing

Into Orbit, the instrumental masterminds from New Zealand, have this month released Unearthing. It comes with a fantastic bit of artwork by an artist called Nick Keller, which perfectly visually displays the impact this band are capable of creating through their music.



Like a heavy post rocking lasagne these two, Drummer Ian Moir and Guitarist Paul Stewart, build up layers of tasty delights with their seemingly limitless musical composition and performing abilities.

I was a massive fan of their first release, Caverns as you will see here, and Unearthing is no different. In fact it's better.

There is still the creation of these stunning musical landscapes in tracks like Stone Circles and the haunting brilliance of Scattering Light. These soundscapes can be breathtaking, inspiring and really set a mood and atmosphere.

But, they are packing more punch now. This was already evident as coming into their writing with the earlier release of Gilgamesh, which is on this album. But is also carried through the album in tracks like the opener Dark Matter and Caldera, my favourite track on the album, brimming with chugging heaviness and spacey lead lines.




What I do like is the varying length of tracks. This is not an album full of 10 minute self indulgent musical masturbation pieces. The tracks do what they need to do and end and are therefore full of impact. There are epic numbers, such as the fantastic  Equilibrium, and there are shorter ones. There's not point where you think 'this is going on a bit'.

Into Orbit still create music you listen to in a dark room wanting to take a musical journey and feel nice and zoned out. But it's now also music you can listen to when driving a fast car or undertaking an epic, dangerous journey.



Both musicians put in a fine display of their very obvious talent for performance and composition. The drumming in the outro of The Archer is something which shows off Moir's range of styles and he brings as much to the table here as the stunningly creative layered guitar work of Stewart.

If progressive heavy post metal/rock and epic soundscapes is your thing, you really need to spend a few quid on this album. Here's a handy link for you to do so!

Follow Into Orbit on Facebook and Twitter




Friday 3 February 2017

Hate Unbound - Plague

Hate Unbound hail from Detroit, Michigan are due to release album Plague on 17 February.

They comprise of singer Art Giammarra, guitarist Daryl Mitchell,   guitarist William Cundiff, bassist Sean Demura, and drummer Franklin “Foot” Hannah.

Their influences range from Death to Lamb of God and it's telling, in the groove and heaviness on show in this thrashy deathy metal band.

Plague


Baptised In Lies opens up the album full of violent intent. A thrash standard with ripping solos, pounding double bass, heavy groove seeped riffs and satanic scales. Just what I was hoping to hear.

There are moments of greatness on this album. Cut's opening riff is simply brilliant, as is the twin style lead section. Puncture is full of drive, anger and groove, a headbangers delight. Grey Skies has and underlieing melody in parts which I love and really adds a great dimension to the music and my favourite solo on the album to see it out.

The track Suffering is unfortunately not for me, however the brutality isn't far away with tracks like Burn your Idols, Plague, Fallen and Soiled, all of which chug along satisfactorily. The outro with a slowed down riff in Burn Your Idols has some brilliant drum and guitar work as something to look out for as well as a batshit mental guitar passage in Soiled which keeps things interesting.

I, Martyr almost made me think I was going to see the softer side of Hate Unbound with a rather subtle intro. If their soft side is a sledgehammer in the gonads, then I suppose I may have been right, but it takes all of 25 seconds to allay any fears of a ballad. This is a strong track with plenty of chops and changes.


Conclusionn


In my eyes this is one for seasoned Thrash fans rather than those looking for anyone breaking the mould. But there's is nothing wrong with that, it's a fucking excellent album. This should go down very well with an old school audience who are fans of aggressive thrash with not overdone wanky solos, but nice short stabs of axe mastery which are well placed and played along with a earth shatteringly growls vocal and some strong drum work. (There's no wonder they call him 'Foot').


Not sure about all this boundless hate, they sound like teddy bears to me. Teddy bears with bloody cleavers and under demonic possession that is us, oh and they look like an awesome live act too!

Find Hate Unbound: Facebook/Twitter

Pre Order on Bandcamp