Written By Kevin McSweeney
Welcome to Seven Deadly Songs Metal Lair’s weekly feature in which we highlight seven devilishly good ditties to make your week less shitty. This week, we’ll be looking at seven of the best songs from hotly anticipated albums due to be released between the 19th and the 25th of May. We hope you have as much fun checking them out as much as we had compiling them.
Animalize – Armées de la Nuit
There’s been a few French artists cropping up in this feature recently, and this week’s edition is no exception as we kick off proceedings with Lyon’s Animalize, who may or may not be called thus in honour of the Kiss album of the same name. Armées de la Nuit (Armies of the Night) is the opening track from their second full-length album, Verminateur, released on May 23rd via Dying Victims Productions. It’s an upbeat 80’s-style hair metal hellraiser of which Mötley Crüe would be rightly proud. They are unashamedly old-school and unashamedly French. Like Rammstein, they sing in their own language and make no apologies for it, and I can’t help but admire them for that.
Krematorium– Scream ‘N’ Shout
There’s five different metal bands of this name in Europe, apparently. On this occasion, we’re concentrating on the thrash metal band from Croatia, who release their second full-length album, Sinister Seduction, on May 23rd via Witches Brew. This song is the second single from the album, and, like the previous offering from Animalize, it’s gloriously old-school, particularly in terms of vocal delivery, style of riffing and production. It could easily have been drawn from Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All, so similar in vibe is it to something like, say, Hit the Lights. I particularly enjoyed the switch to 6/8 time in the middle, and the guitar solo is one to savour. I can’t wait to be seduced sinisterly by the rest of the album.
Noizzy – Dreamland
I don’t know much about this Brazilian band, so excuse me if this is a little short on detail. From what I can gather, they’ve been around since 2009 and are about to release a concept album named Dreamland on May 23rd via Electric Funeral Records. Beyond that, I can tell you that the title track is an absolute banger. Frontman Romeu Dreadcore has a vocal style that reminds me of Dez Fafara (Devildriver/Coal Chamber), and while billed as an alternative metal band, they’re not averse to some black metal-style tremolo picking, which is never a bad thing for me. There’s also a System of a Down-style surreal section in the song performed in waltz time, which presumably ties in with the sinister funfair theme alluded to in the album artwork. I’m looking forward to delving into Dreamland!
Onslaught – In Search of Sanity
The city of Bristol, located in the South West of England, is a place that I know well. It’s possibly a location where any search for sanity is likely to be fruitless, judging by the benevolent but barmy locals. It is home to the venerable veterans of vitriolic music known as Onslaught, who started life as a hardcore punk outfit back in the early 1980s, but morphed into a UK thrash metal institution who have been relentless since returning from a 13-year hiatus in 2004. They are due to release Origins of Aggression via Reigning Phoenix Music on May 23rd. The album features rerecordings of some of their earliest material, and also a number of covers of the punk and metal bands who inspired them. In Search of Sanityis highly technical thrash, not unlike that of Megadeth’s classic album Rust in Peace, and it bodes well for what should be a fascinating glimpse into the origins of this acclaimed band.
Pythia – Unhallowed
And here we have another band from the UK – this time from London. Pythia have been producing symphonic power metal of the finest quality since 2007. They are to release an EP titled V PT.1: Unhallowed independently on May 23rd, and the title track is replete with dizzyingly fast fingerwork on frets and keys alike, in addition to indefatigable drumming and the stunning ethereal vocals of Sophie Dorman. They have four full-length albums to their name, and this forthcoming EP is shaping up to be a fine addition to their discography, judging by this song. I particularly enjoyed the keytar solo. There’s simply not enough of those in modern music.
Sexmag – Sexorcyzm
(You’re not really including this, are you, Kevin? Oh, you are! Well, go on then if you must, but proceed with caution!)
It was with no small amount of trepidation that I found myself Googling this band’s name, but it was well worth the risk, as what the results yielded was a death/thrash metal entity from Poland that is strongly reminiscent, in both sound and aesthetics, to the earliest incarnations of extreme metal in Europe. I’m thinking of the likes of Venom and Celtic Frost here, influenced in no small part by the raw, old-school production. This is the title track from the band’s debut album, released on May 23rd via Dying Victims Productions. The album’s cover art is quite something, featuring what I can only describe as a highly unconventional depiction of the Roman Ritual. May the power of Polish metal compel you!
Sin of God – Black Waves
We complete our list by turning to Hungarian death metal, as Sin of God have returned with their third full-length album, Blood Bound, released on May 19th via Pest Records. Black Waves is the second track on the album, and it’s an absolute maelstrom of jarring time signatures, machine gun kicks and larynx-wrecking gutturals. Both the song and accompanying video remind me very much of the Floridian death metal of the early 1990s. In particular, they bring to mind Covenant-era Morbid Angel, in terms of lyrical content, sound, aesthetics and overall vibe with their unambiguously Satanic imagery. The video has also put me off Spaghetti Bolognese for life, and it takes a lot to put me off food!
