Amarna Reign – Atonement

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 No Comments

Atonement has been an album I’ve been craving for months. I asked everybody I could find, scoured the internet, and pestered everybody and their mom about it. When I found that it was released the other day, I immediately went to Amazon and queued it up to download.

I was definitely not disappointed. These guys have a unique blend of heavy as hell and soft, almost to the point of emo. Normally I hate that kind of music, but something about these guys just makes me all warm inside. Or something. They’re a pretty badass sound.

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Suicide Silence – No Time To Bleed Reviewed

Friday, June 26, 2009 2 Comments

The teaser videos, the little puzzle on the website, the merch. The anticipation for the new Suicide Silence album has been increasing more and more lately. On 4/20, the band released the track “Lifted” on their myspace. On 6/1, they did the same with “Wake Up”.

I pre-ordered my copy of the album through cmdistro.com. They told me it would ship on 6/23, a full week before the album officially releases. I figured that even with a few days shipping I’d still be able to get it early. Yesterday, it arrived. I tore open the packaging and plugged it in to give it a complete listen.

Here’s the tracklist:
  1.  Wake Up (3:48)
  2.  Lifted (4:08)
  3.  Smoke (3:08)
  4.  Something Invisible (2:57)
  5.  No Time To Bleed (2:22)
  6.  Suffer (3:56)
  7.  …and Then She Bled (3:55)
  8.  Wasted (3:13)
  9.  Your Creations (3:59)
10.  Genocide (2:17)
11.  Disengage (4:04)

Runtime 37:47

The first couple tracks, Wake Up and Lifted, are both heavy as hell, but I’m assuming you’ve all heard these already. Track 3, Smoke, starts out with this horror movie sounding effect, which is sure to shatter your eardrums if you turn it up too loud. A little drumming, and then the song starts. It’s loud, it’s angry, and it’ll throw you all over the place.

Right now, my favorite track on the album is No Time To Bleed, by far. This song is packed with so much brutality it’s insane. Some of the lyrics are “AND THIS IS NOT A CHURCH, AND I DO NOT PREACH, AND I HAVE NO TIME TO BLEED”. About 1:45 into the song is what I love so much about it. This breakdown is so immense and loud it’s hard to fight back the desire to destroy something whenever I listen to it.

Track 7, …and Then She Bled, is a bit of an interlude. This track has no vocals, overlaying what sounds like a 911 call where a woman is getting murdered. Ironically, this is probably one of the more relaxed tracks on the album. Wasted has one of my favorite ways to start a metal song; a loud blast from a drum and then the whole band starts in with all the grindcore rage that they do.

Overall, this album is an easy 5/5 from me. The vocals on this album have a bit of a different sound to them, but overall it definitely still has that brutal unique sound that only Suicide Silence seems to have. I think back to The Cleansing, with tracks like Unanswered, The Diseased, and In A Photograph, and I realize that they don’t really have directly comparable tracks. Some may dislike this, but personally I love it. The whole album is fresh, I don’t feel like I’m listening to The Cleansing, and that’s definitely a good thing.

For Today – Portraits [Review]

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 6 Comments

Representin’ Sioux City, Iowa and the big dude upstairs,  For Today is a very well known Christian Metal band. Their new album Portraits hit the shelves today,  and now it’s time to give this bitch the Butters Rundown. What does such a rundown consist of? I don’t know, but it sounded sweet at the time…so let’s press play on track one and see what comes to me…

As previously stated, For Today is pretty popular in the Christian community, but don’t let that scare you off if it isn’t your thing — whether you bow to Budha or Mark-Paul Gosselaar, there’s something here for everyone. A great follow up album since their release of Ekklesia (2008),  Portraits is everything that I could hope for from a new release. Vocals, guitar, drums, and bass — they’re all a bit more polished this go-round, and all-in-all it’s pretty tight.

As I’m writing this, Drew would like to contribute from the peanut gallery: “That album art is awesome.” Seconded.

Hit the jump to read more.

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Belie My Burial – Self Titled Reviewed

Tuesday, April 14, 2009 No Comments

I, like so many others, have been eagerly awaiting the release of a Belie My Burial album. Once I heard that a release date was scheduled for today, I got excited. Scratch that, I got AMPED.

Well, today is here, I have my copy of the album, from Amazon. I’ve been listening to it all morning, and I must say it’s a good album.

We start with The Greyman. This is truly the way to introduce your record. Running 1:12, without words, and full of badass, I was immediately impressed. The double bass here is perfectly timed, as I have come to expect, and overall the track gets you amped.

The first thing I notice once we get into the tracks with vocals is that the vocals have changed drastically from the Persephone Demos. Personally, I find this new “shouting” style to be inferior to the previous growling, and for me this detracts from the overall sound.

That’s not to say that it’s bad. The rest of the band continues to deliver that totally badass brutal sound, and while it’s different and I don’t personally like it the vocals are still pretty good.

All said, I’d rate it at a 4/5, and definitely advise you pick up a copy