South WalesSounds

Bringing you the freshest sounds in South Wales

Issue #125/11/09

Brutality Will PrevailWe review “Forgotten Soul” inside ...

Storm The Walls

Dead SwansPlus Hoth •Nihilist•Crown of Athos

2 South Wales Sounds

ContentsIssue #1 25/11/09

“ Hello there! Welcome to the first ever edition of South Wales Sounds. In this publication we hope to bring you an insiders view on the whole South wales music scene showing you exactly whats happening in this beautiful land of ours music wise (obviously). In this issue we have some sweet interviews with the likes of Storm The Walls , Chaos Trigger Kryophere and much much more we also have live reviews and album reviews of some of the hottest albums to ever hit the shelves. Enjoy! RJ

InterviewsStorm The Walls 3In the Firing Line4Coburn CrewdemCrown of Athos

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Iconoclast6Nihilist7

Gear89

ESPIBANEZ

Reviews10

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11

BTBAMThe FacelessMastodonVeil of MayaCynicBWP

BelphegorDead SwansBorn of Osiris

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South Wales Sounds3

Storm The Walls We recently hooked up with Michael Collins ti find out what’s going on in the world of Swan-sea’s Storm The Walls. How has the gen-eral response been to overtones of despair? Pretty cool! The funny thing is that the cd came out not long after i left the band to do my first year of uni, so didnt really get to hear about how well it did. But, im back now, and our new cd “Versus” is going to be out asap. Faces shall be melted!Cool! What’s your favourite track off it? Probably the first track “hunters” the end part is pretty chuggerific!

Bleak: Storm The Walls giving Cradle of Filth a run for their money

You guys have played heaps of gigs all over the place. What has been your best gig and why? One of my favourite gigs ever was my leav-ing gig in 2007, which happened to be on the same day as my birth-day. It was awesome, everyone was really hyped up, drunk and out to have a good time. I remember people jump-ing off the stage and me feeding people in the crowd directly from a bottle of Jagermeister. I felt like Phil Anselmo or something haha. What about your worst? There has been many, many shitty gigs, all for loads of funny reasons. Old men falling over pis-sed into our drumkit, me being too drunk to play and spewing all over the

and spewing all over the stage, bands leaving us with no equipment and being forced to use 15 watt practice amps on stage, and power cuts are some of the reasons. It seems to always happen to us! Myspace revolution-ised the way bands get their music to people but now the emphasis seems to be on Facebook as a social networking site nowadays. Do you think myspace is still relevant to bands? I guess Myspace is still relevant to people in bands. I havent used my personal myspace in months, but still regu-larly check the bands page. A lot of business such as gigs, photo-shoots and whatever are all sorted out over myspace. We’d be stuck

up shit creek without a paddle if myspace was shut down and we had to properly communi-cate with people again haha What’s your most em-barrasing band related story? Hahah errm ...... Theres not really that many embarressing band moments, apart from stuff like shout-ing “WHATS UP PORT TALBOT!” at the start of a show in Neath. My pri-vate/sex life is another story .... Describe your dream show... Anywhere the vibe is good, people are actu-ally looking forward to watching some bands, and the beers are flowing. Line up wise, it doesnt matter, but the best shows are normally done with bands your close with.

Hoth Hoth have begun writing for their debut album which is yet untitled. The unknown duo from somewhere in South Wales (believed to be the valleys) have a lot of hype surrounding them as they have invaded gigs wearing cloaks and had alot of back-ing from bands such as “storm the walls” and “crown of athos”. It is believed that the album will be packed full of drone anthems...lets hope!

VocalsSouth Wales metal has had a drout recently in the vocal depart-ment with bands Nihilist , Nochaa, Islands in the Sky and Crown of Athos all departing with their vocalists. Little is known about why the four bands have parted ways with

their vocalists. However Nihil-ist have spoken out about their current situa-tion. “when you write music like this its difficult to have some absoluite clown about all of the times. So we all decided wed had enough”. HarshRealm maan!

Interviews

South Wales SoundsInterviews5

CoburnCrewdem

I hooked up with Guy Cle-ments from the Cardiff city grime squad-ron Coburn Crewdem to find out what the crew has in the pipe line Guy what in-spires you most when writing your bars? basically my thirst for fame and my aspirations to slay all other mcs What do you think of your competi-tion in South Wales. Murkage man or chippy for instance? ain’t no competi-tion. Murkage man ain’t shit just because people all upon him because he shot the peng

man. That chippy kid needs to stop touching himself man. what would you say to the other youths on the streets trying to get a break in the grime scene? keep ya head up kids. Don’t stop grinding. You can get what you want if you know how to get it. Make moves man keep making moves. If you know you got the skills you’re gonna be earning dolla bills. Peace out youths. Inspiring words! If you could have a grime battle with any mc, who would it be and why? I’m gonna slam that pup Ghetts from the 0T crew kids from that yard ain’t got ting on me ain’t got nothing on our ends we pull the strings

down here. Ghetts ain’t no big ting. Bar Grime what would you say is your favourite genre of music and why? Id say new romance. I’m a real fan of the new romantics. Spandau got that shit on lock. Duran’s holding it down. I always save a prayer for the Eurythmics man. Would you ever adopt a similair style to Simon Le Bon? If only. Simon Le Bon should be everyones idol. He’s epitomises the 80’s and is all that eve-rybody should long to be. If you could col-labarate with any artist who would it be and why? The guy that wrote the Bond theme tunes man. John

Barry! He’s a musical craftsman the likes of which the world will never see again. If I could only get Barry and Le Bon into a room to-gether with a jupiter 7. I think we could forge basslines which the world isn’t ready for yet. The urban circle has called you out recently saying your rythms are too old school and need more bassline influence and say that it lacks the scouse house edge of tiny skidz’ work. What is your response to this torrent of abuse? Tiny Skidz can lick my ring. I’ve got the basslines that are shaking the founda-tions. If those kids want scouse house then i’ll drop some round to their house on my way to fame.

Grimey: Guy Clem

Crown of AthosUp and com-ing progres-sive metal band Crown of Athos are currently on a writ-ing break. I caught up with Grant to see how things where going. You’re still without a vocal-ist. Are you any closer to finding one?if you could have any vocalist in the world who would it be? we are a step close to finding a vocalist for our band, who is inter-ested in our music. the one vocalist i would love to have is the dude from the faceless As a band what are your primary influences? our main influ-ences are; pink Floyd, between the butied and me, the arusha accord, the facless, in flames, veil of maya Out of interest Who is the big-gest smackhead in your band? i would say me because they all call me a smack-head. but i don’t touch drugs. so that’s got to be gavin sutton as the smack-head.What has been

best show and why has it been your best show? TJ’s may 2009. first gig as crown of athos. and there was alot of support from other bands and the crowd and what has been your worst show and why? milkwood jam, swansea. we looked like idiots because of the lack of people there. and we took the bullet for nihilist!! what would be your dream gig to play. Who else would you have on the bill? download. mas-sive place and a whole lot of people to play too, and get smashed and watch all the other bands. what are your views on the South Wales music scene. Recently it’s had a lot of criticism and has some-what died down. your thoughts on the matter? too dead, we need to get it go-ing by being the best. better than the rest in the uk. and have better bands.

Shred:C O Aworst band in your opinion? enter shikari. there’s not much to say except the’re rubbish!! and wanna be Dj’s who are wrecking the metal scene!!!!

South Wales Sounds4Interviews

I T F L We had a chat to Tom Vaughan of In the Fir-ing Line to see what the dudes had been up to. So you guys have just joined the origin agency. What does this mean for ITFL? As a band we are so chuffed to bits to be asked to be part of the Origin Agency. It came as a bit of a surprise too, we were ap-proached after a gig in Newport with a bunch of local bands, well I say after, more like half way through because the PA blew up after a few songs into our set! Us joining the agency hopefully will help us ‘break the border’ more

often into England for gigs and what not. Hopefully we will become friend-lier with some of the great bands on this agency! You still haven’t got a bassist. Are you any closer to finding one and what kind of person would be ideal? Ye, we still are without a bass-ist, which kind of sucks! We still have Gav filling in, which is cool for now. We all love that shaggy haired, greasy mosher to bits! I have tried looking on a few websites and stuff, but it seems no one is interested in being in a prog/metal band anymore. South Wales music scene is going down the pan, well so it seems. We’re open minded about

people joining the band really, as long as they’re not a complete beginner to their instrument and can actually write good quality METAL! It would be handy if we all got on with him/her too. We booted the last bassist because, well he was a dooche! He messed everyone about in the band and then slept with my ex mrs, which was like the straw that broke the camels back! Rough! Who is the biggest smackhead in your band and why? Dan because he deals. short and sweet! Whats been your best gig and why?well I have only been in the band since april and I

I have had the pleasure of playing with some great bands already. My first gig was with Devil Sold His Soul, only a week after I joined the band. I was panning it, but we pulled it off and had some great feedback from the boys who had come to see us. The only bad thing about that gig was the fact that it was really empty, doors hadn’t long been open when we went on, so the room was dead! That was one of my favourite gigs I think. I also had the pleasure of playing a gig with a band I really love, The Ghost Of A Thousand. Again, it was really empty, but was cool that some of my close friends and my brother came to

watch. I think one of my favourite gigs we’ve played recently was in Le Pub for the Boys With Xray Eyes EP launch. Before we went on there was a showing of Dainton from Dirty Sanchez’ new skate movie, which kind of set the atmosphere. We played a tight set, and it was a really good show. Havn’t seen Le Pub that packed in ages! and your worst? Honestly, I don’t like playing any-where in Bridgend. We’ve played a few times in Hobos, supporting the likes of Fei Co-modo, but no one EVER shows up to gigs in Bridgend unless they are in the REC, but kids who go to the REC only really go to meet up with

their friends off myspace, and not to watch the bands breaking a sweat and trying to grab the crowds atten-tion! What would be your dream show to play? think my dream gig would have to be a mas-sive house party, with a line up of Underoath, Misery Signals, Architects, August Burns Red and us. Drunken house party gigs are the best, espe-cially if the house is packed with old chums and lots of hot girls! Last but not least what is your most embarras-ing story as a band? All I can say is, we’ve pretty much named a song after her!check them out in a town near you!!

Battered: You know a band gives it their all when they end up covered in their own blood

South Wales Sounds6Interviews

Iconoclast: Shredding it out

Iconoclast We talked to up and com-ing tech metallers Icono-clast’ Mike Wood to see what their plan of action is for the year ahead. Dudes tell us how the band started... I joined later on in the mix I came down to try out on Vocals believe it or not...as a screamer LOL! ... then things wern’t working out creatively with Aled, and then they offered me down on guitar, it was like the first band I’d ever been in and I knew that Aaron had been doing the music thing for ages and I heard that ken was a maestro on drums, so when I came down I was very nervous first off. Ken brought a more technical/progressive influence to the mix I gathered from what the boys told me. At first it was kind of going down a heavier more darker Autonomy Within route, when he came he showed Joe a band called Textures and it all changed from there. We don’t directly rip them off but they definatly influenced us from go-ing down a straighter heavier direction. It could of been a melodic Black Dahilia, and good God I would’nt wish that on my worst enemy. Now we write so like semi conceptual ideas and things, it’s very intricate. When are you planning on releas-ing the cd dudes? During the summer we recorded five songs, well everything got put down apart from the bass on the tracks. We self recorded just to get something done and to have something we could put up on the myspace. We recorded it at Ken’s crib he has got a sound proofed room and him and Joe got their “producer/engineer” on LOL and

we recorded the tracks (well apart from bass). We still got the tracks and are waiting on the bass to be done, but that’s gunna have to wait now consider-ing. To be honest though the general feeling, well from myself and Joe any-way the first three songs we wrote do not really feel anywhere near Iconoclast songs, they were the first three songs that were written as a band. They were range finders at the time to see where technically we could push ourselves and personally they are nothing to what we’ve been writing recently and the ideas individually or collectively we have been putting forward. The fourth and fifth song are more like it but even they will end up looking basic to what we want to achieve with the new stuff. The idea is to go and record with Jonny from Devil Sold His Soul early in the new year, do like a 6 track ep of new songs with him, and record a sepa-rate single track with Dan and Justin from SikTh at Wellerhill (I think) and to release that on the E.P as a bonus track so it doesn’t stick out production wise from the rest of the tracks. The plan is to have the E.P and merch out by the summer of 2010 along with merch and goodies LOL How do you rate the welsh Metal/hardcore scene at the moment? I think it’s a good time for the metal scene in Wales at the moment, espe-cially in South Wales, I mean there seems to be like a strong group of bands that are gigging and touring at the moment, and all the bands seem to have good friendships going on, like Ourselves, Storm The Walls, Nihilist, The Kept, Chaos Trigger, Island In The Sky etc, we are all out to play good music, have fun and party. I mean there is always competition to put on a good

but there is no ego’s anywhere which there shouldn’t be considering most of us are unsigned and even if any of us were signed to a label I don’t think Ego’s would appear then. I mean you get the odd band that turn up at a show who think they are the dog’s bollocks, I mean we played a show recently with a well known local band and you’d swear they had been selling out festivals and arenas for years. The truth is they were old and tired and had achieved noth-ing in music, and we blew them off the stage which was great for us. So yeah it’s a good time for Welsh metal I think, I seen a band called Shaped By Fate play a few months back at a free show in a small venue in Bridgend, and they blew my mind they were a monster live and along as bands like that keep coming out of Wales I think the future is looking good. you are currently without a bassist. Is there a shortage of people with enough skill to play technical metal in South Wales? Hmmm, not skills as such, ‘cos there are a lot of amazing musicians out there. I think creativity is the hardest thing to come by. I’ve listened to people shred for fun in the past whether it be exercises they have learnt on guitar or whether they are jamming along with guitar virtuosos on CD’s. Put those same people in a creative situation and ask them to write something, some-times they come up short or what they do write seems to emulate their heroes. Originality is hard to come by and good bassist’s in general, especially bassist’s who can contribute to the writing proc-ess in such a way where he makes the bass a separate entity. Kind of like the bassist’s from SikTh and current Protest The Hero. We are optimistic though!

South Wales SoundsInterviews

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Nihilist are a new progres-sive technical death metal band from South Wales who have already played a few shows in England and have gained some pretty influen-tial fans. We spoke to them to see what’s going on..... Guys firstly.....how and when will you get a new vocalist and why did you get rid of Swan? Ok, firstly let me just clear the air about all of this Swan business. we’ve been getting alot of abuse about getting rid of him for a while now and have people come up to us in shows telling us it was a bad choice. Well I hate to tell you all that you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s probably our greatest decision as a band ever. Basically Swan isn’t really into music he is into trying to look cool infront of all of his friends and being a gigantic cliche. We want someone who genuinely digs the music and can contribute to the band and bring something fresh. Not someone who doesn’t show up to practice, makes us cancel shows for stupid reasons and gives a half arsed effort in the studio. The End Wow! Strong words! How were your shows in England then dudes? Get any abuse? Nah man it was amazing! Our first show in England was a bit shakey because it was in some village Hall in Kent but we played with Hang The Bastard and our bro’s in Storm The Walls and Crown Of Athos and had a radical time so no regrets. Our second show on the other hand was in Bristol Motion and it was amazing. We had some great feedback from people i’ve always respected in the UK metal/Hardcore scene like Shadow Law, True Valiance, Evita you know the big Bristol bands. We had a bbq outside aswell on the river with some filthy dubz playing. One of the phattest days of my life. Sounds good! When can we expect the E.P? we’ll we’ve almost finished writing now but regardless we’ve got the studio all booked so we need to find a dude who

can do the vocals or our ass is grass haha, What bands influence you the most as a band? for me i’d say The Faceless. Their new album completely changed the way I think about the genre and shown a stale , cliched million bands that you can be heavy and melodic without being a faggot and singing about dragons and all that shit! In many ways it has restored my faith in the genre proving that it is still producing quality bands. How would you rate the South Wales Metal scene? I think it’s full of fruits. There! I’ve said it! I think people need to wake up and stop being such a bunch of stupid cli-ches. How many times have I said cliche in this interview now? I’m sick of me and the boys getting stick for wearing Adidas and Nikes and stuff...it’s things like that which make metalheads the running joke of most societies. I actually think it’s quite funny how they always harp on about judgemental people and preaching all the time when their the most judgemental people on the entire planet. All this “KiLL DA EMOS” shit needs to stop soon be-cause it sounds pathetic, looks pathetic and is pathetic. Band - wise on the other hand there are some amazing bands who are literally out doing their own thing! It’s just a shame that the majority of kids would rather just ignore all of these bands then pay 45 pounds to see a band like Amon Amarth play an hour long set of boring shitty viking metal in the C.I.A than actually listen to decent music. Their loss! What were your reactions to the UK metal underground review? There were alot of laughs...all that stuff about us sounding European haha we’re from Europe! And I missed the part where Arch Enemy influenced anything we do. Still it was a pretty complementary review and was humbling to read. I agreed with the guy about the vocals because they are dreadful...no wonder it took him a while to get into them haha! Basically I will never take much notice of reviews anyway. Unless they are into Allan Holds-worth and epic scores I doubt they will ever be feeling us that much. Boo Hoo! We’re just out to make some good

music. If you like it..RAD! If you don’t oh well! What’s the reception for you like in Welsh metal shows? If i’m honest quite cold at times! We get alot of glaring looks from the elitist guys who think you can’t wear certain clothes and allof thatt...get a life! We usually get the best reception off people who knows their music well and are genuinely into good stuff not boring, gash tunes like a lot of bands put out. The difference between us and them is that we take the time to think about the song and dont just throw together a load of stock riffs and put some awful patternless vocals over the top. I suppose thats born out of our perfectionism thopugh... apart from Metal what influences you as a band? so much music! Alot of it would be dismissed by the mainstrem population of metal fans but I don’t care. It’s their loss missing out on all of these tunes! We draw alot of influence from Jazz fusion in our music and stuff like Allan Holdsworth which is just out of this world! I strongl;y suggest any guitarists that haven’t heard of him go listen right now because he will blow your mind! Also we get down to some old school rap aqnd some dub step and grime when the mood takes us..uum old soul and funk..anything really aslong as it’s good music..even some bands of the new romantic movement haha! What advice would you have for a band that’s just starting out? I’d say get to know your local promoter well because you wouldn’t believe how much they can help you! Just go and talk to them and drop them a demo and make sure it’s a good one! Another thing I would say is drop the whole “rockstar” shtick and people will respect you a whole lot more. You see a lot of new bands that are l;ike “LETS SEEM THE HORNS RAISED IN THE AIR” and all of that crap and it’s just laughable...I see bands doing that now and it makes me cringe to see some leather glad gooch in the audience following their commands blindly. Anyway learn to play your instru-ments aswell..no one lieks a band that can’t play. Oh and try your absolute best at being original because nobody likes to hear stolen black dahlia riffs

8 South Wales SoundsGear: Guitars

ESP:FM-418

SPECS# Neck-Thru-Body# 25.5” Scale# Basswood Body# Maple Neck# Rosewood Fingerboard# 55mm Standard Nut# Thin U Neck Contour# 24 XJ Frets# Black Hardware# Grover Tuners# Hipshot Fixed Bridge# EMG 808 (B&N) Active p.u.# Finish: BLK

Finally LTD have produced a quality 8 string guitar at an af-fordable price for all of the progressive mentalists out there who want to take it down a whole baritone. I’d suggest this guitar for fans of Meshuggah, Animals as Leaders and any other drop b fanatics who like it low and mechanical. It is suprising to see a neck-thru body on a guitar for such a low price and it also comes fully equpped with 24 frets for all you shred fanatics. The wide neck will take a while to get used to the mere mortals who have only ever dares dance along a 6 string before but learning to cope with such a wide berth becaomes extremely rewarding when you can spiral your riffs lower than ever before

ESP:JH-600

Specs * Neck-Thru Body * 25.5” Scale * Alder Body * Maple Neck * Ebony Finger-board * Locking Nut * 41mm Neck Width

This is the new signature model of Jeff Hanneman of Slayer fame and is probably more suited to those who prefer noiseabove tech-nicality. It comes with the usual ESP specs of neck thru body and some quality pick ups intact but I can’t help but feel the price has been dramati-cally increased just because of Jeff’s reputation in Slayer amongst the metal community. It does however pack the Hanneman logo on the inlays. A must have for Slayer fans

South Wales Sounds9

IBANEZ:XP300FX

SPECSNeck type:3pc Wizard Il Maple neckBody:Mahogany bodyFret:Jumbo fretBridge:Fixed bridgeNeck pu:INF3 (H) neck PuBridge pu:INF4 (H) Bridge puHardware colour:Cosmo Black

Calling all guitarists who are sick to death of their sweet licks being masked by a muffled tone. This is the guitar for you! As played by Mohhamed Sucamez of Necrophagist fame this guitar was partly designed for his lightning quick licks and has aa clear a tone as you could ever imagine. Ibanez has been made famous by some of the most prolific guitarists of all time. Think Joe satriani , Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and the list goes on and on . If you’re looking for a guitar thats sleek, powerful , clear and above all ( after all it is the credit crunch) affordable then this is the guitar for you!

IBANEZ:RGT6EXFX

SPECSNeck type:5pc Wizard II Maple/Walnut neck-thruBody:Mahogany wing bodyFret:Jumbo fretsBridge:Fixed bridgeNeck: puEMG® 85 (H) neck puBridge pu EMG® 81 (H) Bridge puHardware colour:Black

Here we have a guitar that tries to appeal to the “less is more “ outlook. This Ibanez model has stripped most of the things it has become a sort of trademark for. It’s got a fixed bridge (rarely seen on an Ibanez model) does not have 24 frets and is very much a cry to the “indie” guitarist. It’s a shame really that people often do not like to experiment with a tremelo arm or anything other than 12 bar blues. Still if this style of music is your thing then this guitar will do you no wrong! Just try and play past the first 7 frets ok?

10 South Wales SoundsAlbum Reviews

We review some of the freshest releases of 2009 and take a look back at the good and the truly awful...

Between The Buried andMe“The Great Misdirect”

A new Between the Buried and Me album means a new locomo-tive, and this time the hype-train is chugging along faster than ever. For most fans of the band, Colors was a landmark release. Alaska was, in a lot of ways, just another take on The Si-lent Circus. A shittier one, at that. But Colors brought something new. Not only did it finally make full use of one-time session musicians Blake, Dan and Dustie, but it pushed the band further into their earlier hinted progres-sive tendencies. Problem is, Colors was actually kind of a mess. Most of the songs were too long, they fea-tured awkward, sloppy (or sometimes nonexistent) transitions. The heavy parts were regurgitated from their past works (sometimes verbatim) and the off-kilter, ‘wacky’ parts in “Sun of Noth-ing” and “Ants of the Sky” seemed like they were only there to fill up space and show us that the band has a fun side. Of course I’m nit-picking, Colors was still pretty fucking good, but it was obviously the beginning of a transi-tion, one I think they’ve completed on The Great Misdirect. While some of the band’s lingering faults poke their heads in throughout the album’s hour of power (derp), they’re less of an issue than ever. There are fewer awk-ward, forced transitions than before (the only one that comes immediately to mind is what separates “Disease, Injury, Madness” and “Fossil Genera”) and each song works as well on its own as it does in the overall scheme of things. Tommy’s vocals are better than ever; his throat doesn’t sound like it’s exploding when he goes harsh and his cleans aren’t as robotic and

as they’ve been in the past. There’s also less of him than ever, something that should appease the sceptics. Blake finally learned some unique drum patterns for the heavier parts and, most importantly, each song finally feels like it has a distinct begin-ning, middle and end. Between the Buried and Me have refined their sound and improved their songwriting ten-fold, and while The Great Misdirect may not match The Silent Circus’ raw energy and intensity, it might be their most coherent album yet.

These days everyone can play fast. It’s hard to listen to modern death metal without noticing the usual fare of blistering solos, pummeling blast beats and technical verac-ity. While it’s easy to find pleasure in these things, it’s also saddening because the joy in musical virtuosity has been dampened. Death metal bands now simply can’t just rely on their speed and flashiness to get the job done; something else needs to be brought to the table. Luckily for California’s The Faceless, they bring in a solid combination of catchy melo-dies, genre-hopping and an all-around knack for enjoyable songwriting. Plan-etary Duality is a more than solid next step and a logical progression for the group, but it does fall just a bit short of its predecessor, Akeldama. Planetary Duality isn’t a classic by any means, but it’s still a solid technical death metal release that should grab the attention of any shredder out there. The Faceless have clearly matured as musicians and show potential for complete perfection with “Xenochrist”, which I consider to be the band’s

The Faceless“Planetary Duality”

strongest song to date and possibly my favorite song of the year. A few imper-fections aside, this should be heard by any fan of heavy or progressive music.

Mastodon“Crack The Skye” When dealing with a genre like metal that prides itself on extremes, there’s the issue of escalation to worry about. How does one follow the most face-melt-ing and brutal album ever? Fans expect more than the same riffs but played faster and heavier, which leads bands to expand their sound in a variety of ways, both successful and unsuccessful. Dillinger Escape Plan’s Calculating Infinity was technically mind-blowing but also a difficult pill to swallow in its inclusion of free jazz harmonies, diminished scales, and time signatures gener-ated randomly by rolling a 20-sided die. Instead of pushing themselves towards even more alienating but impressive territory, they released Miss Machine, an album that embraced accessibility and a few normal musical conventions, which helped them undercut fan expecta-tions and release an album that was more or less positively received. Other metal bands haven’t been so successful. For every DEP there are countless Triviums, Avenged Sevenfolds, and Protest the Heros that find themselves trying to one up their past success or exploring unfortunate creative avenues, which is just a euphemism for hair metal or prog rock. Admittedly, for many listeners, breaking down Crack the Skye’s crests and troughs will be a futile and unnecessary task. Despite how little control Mastodon have over their meandering storyline and patchwork songwriting,

South Wales SoundsAlbum Reviews

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Veil of Maya“The Common Man’s Collapse” For starters if you’ve never heard of Veil Of Maya they are a Technical Melodic Deathcore band from Chicago, they have had one other album All Things Set Aside, released in 2006 on Cor-rosive Recordings.For fans of their previous album the first thing you will notice is the change in vocalists.After the departure of the previous vocalist Adam, he was replaced by ex Mirror,Mirror vocalist Brandon.One other thing you may notice if you were a fan of their previous album is the production,while their guitarist did a good job of recording their debut on his own, it had that “self produced” sound to it. Luckily this album was produced by none other than Michael Keene of The Faceless fame, the same guy who did Born Of Osiris’s cd. On to the music well first off the drums are extremely technical and give off a Meshuggahish vibe this is most apparent in the instrumentals “Wounds” and “Pillars”, the guitars are very fast, technical, and at times very melodic ala Misery Signals it’s definitely very orignal, these guys arent some The Black Dahlia Murder ripoff thats for sure.Some of the best examples of their guitarists skills is in two of their more melodic songs “It’s Not Safe To Swim Today” and “We Bow In Its Aura.”

On to the Bass...well whats to say this IS a deathcore record and is for the most part inaudible.On to the vocals, as previously stated this is NOT the same guy as before. If your expecting a clone of their last guy your sadly mistaking.If you’ve heard Brandon before in Mirror,Mirror than you know what to

expect here.He mostly uses growls and occasionally switches to high pitched screams but not so much as Adam. He knows when to balance the two to keep from being monoto-nous.One thing I like about Brandon is he is always easy to understand, no matter whether he’s screaming or growling it’s understandable. On to the breakdowns...All the breakdowns on here are well written and are defintitely not your stand-ard chug-chug breakdowns.Some of the best ones are on “Mark The Lines”,”All Eyes Look Ahead”, and album closer “It’s Torn Away.” The lyrics are well written and deal with what else...The Common Mans Collapse, some key lines i find very memorable are “If these are the wounds we suffer than we are the lucky ones” from Crawl back and “If we can’t even trust ourselves how can we trust anyone else?” from “It’s Not Safe To Swim Today.” So in conclusion despite it’ short run time and some times overly technical playing this is a great effort in the deathcore genre. if you like your metal technical,melodic, and full of breakdowns than this cd is for you.

Cynic“Traced in Air”It’s hard to go into Traced in Air with-out lingering memories of Cynic’s original masterpiece, Focus. Focus was a landmark technical metal album, deftly combining heavy metal with elements of jazz and alternative rock to form what is still regarded as one of the pinnacles of the metal scene in the early ‘90s. This leaves Traced in Air with two sets of shoes to fill: it first has to live up to how great Focus was quality-wise, but it also has the anticipation of perhaps being another genre-fusing and building album like its predecessor. While some may have expected the 15 years and band member changes to perhaps cause a giant shift in sound

all that happened in 15 years was the maturation of Paul Masvidal, Sean Rein-art and Sean Malone to the point where Traced in Air sounds like the older, futuristic, spacey cousin of the already futuristic, spacey Focus. Which means it’s arguably the weirdest metal album released this year, and almost undoubt-edly the best. Beyond what I have stated, attempting to describe the album could only end up in two ways; either a 3 page dissertation of their sounds and goals or a messy jumble of metaphors and analogies that only serve to indulge my urge to write. It is safe to say Traced in Air is a unique album in the world of both metal and rock music, and one crafted with such love and fondness it would be a wonder if they don’t continue on to write more material. Its short length means you don’t get burned out on the riffs or Mas-vidal’s airy singing, or annoyed at the slapped-on growls (which aren’t bad, but just aren’t necessary anymore). Traced in Air is the most impressive record I’ve been able to hear in years, one in which I can mindlessly headbang too a riff one minute, and then sit back mouth agape the next minute at an extended jazzy guitar solo with nothing lost in transla-tion. While some may wonder where the corn is, most will find enough to appreci-ate to make them come back time and time again for more. A truly exemplary

Brutality Will Prevail“Forgotten Soul”From what Brutality Will Prevail used to be when they first came on the UK Hardcore scene compared to what they are now, is like seeing your own child, but not seeing him from the age of 6 and now stands in front of you at the age of 21. When he was 6, he would often break all his toys, cry at anything he didn’t get, and wet the bed more times than you can remember, but now looks refined, sharp, and has an extremely well paid job and a pleasure to

South Wales SoundsAlbum Reviews

12well paid job and a pleasure to be around. Brutality Will Prevail were in their child-like years as a “mosh” band, a hardcore band that focused more on people swinging their arms about and how fresh your new pair of Nikes were. But now, stand tall, grizzly, and scary, with a treasure chest of dark and groove-laden riffs and barks of pure monstrosity that has sent shivers up the spine of the hard-core scene in Britain. The problem is that after remov-ing the dark atmosphere and trying to install it back in again in such a small space of time doesn’t work, but is still a good track in it’s own right, and shows a little more of that black metal influence with the rain effects at the end, similar to found on Burzum’s “Filosfem” ambient tracks. Overall, a great album that shows immense amounts of poten-tial, the guitars creating a brilliant atmosphere as well as sounding crushing, and the vocals creating a distinctive scream that adds to the amount of texture on this album. Downfall is probably the lyrics, as with such a distinct influence from genres that feature original and thought provoking lyrics, they seem to follow in the same steps a lot of hardcore/metalcore bands do. But, if they’re new track on their myspace “Life” is anything to go by, the next set of recordings are going to destroy and possibly earn the title of being the heaviest band in the UK hardcore scene.

Born Of Osiris“A Higher Place”

I approach the building with a skep-tical look on my face. I’m a business inspector, and that’s my job. Being skeptical. The front window has “A HIGHER PLACE” painted on it in menacing font. I am not impressed.

Reaching down for my trusty clipboard, I make a little jot and continue my way across the parking lot. Through the doors, and I’m in the store. I visited it often before, but it’s now under new management, account-ing for the new name. The building is average sized, divided by thirteen straight aisles, a single checkout, and a front desk where a short portly man is waving enthusiastically my way. I look over my shoulder to see if there’s anything highly interesting behind me, but alas, there isn’t. Deep sigh. I was hoping there might be. The next few aisles are the same, and comparing my notes to the ones of the previous store, I notice few improvements. Drum Man appears to have been medicated, as requested by the management. I rather liked him last time, although he seemed fairly desperate for attention. This time around, he dutifully puts products where they belong, and takes cues from guitars A and B. The difference between the old system and the new one was that they all seemed to be coordinated, working towards a coherent store. I happily jot that down, as I stroll through aisle five, which appears to have some totally different items in it. The look and feel is almost relaxing at parts, if it weren’t for the fact the dolls on the vocal shelf keep yelling at everything. There’s better variation in theirs voices this time, at least. All the aisles unfortunately have the same feel, even extraordinary parts in the shop fail to remove the samey-ness of everything. Although it’s not my place to close a store for that reason, sometimes this job makes me want to. I leave the last aisle happy, but not overly. I expected some-thing more out of this store. I walk up to the front desk to give a permit, when something catches my eyes. Outside the door is thousands of fans, pre-sumably either scene, or faux-metal heads. They are wearing their best merch, as I see, and some of them have even washed their hair. The shopkeeper comes up and stands proudly next to me.

Dead Swans“Sleepwalkers”

For most heavy music fans, Roman Saenko isn’t a name that has reached the same recognizable status as some other heavy hitters in the black metal community, that’s probably because he hasn’t killed anyone or fucked an effeminate man-purse aficionado, even though his most well known project, Drudkh, is one of the few acts at the forefront of the genre. Before Drudkh came into existence Saenko and fellow Drudkh band mate Thurios first worked together in the ridiculously named Hate Forest.. Any fan of the rawer side of black metal should get a kick out of Purity. Even though it does tend to meld together after a while, Hate Forest play off of their influences but don’t use them as a creative crutch, creating an album that has enough pissed off personality to stand on it’s own without sounding like a derivative mash of the Nor-wegian scene from a decade prior.

Belphegor“Walpurgis Rites”For those of you unfamiliar with Uwe Boll, allow me to explain the significance of this quote. Uwe Boll is a director who has grown infamous for adapting mediocre video games into even worse mov-ies that are completely devoid of substance and he thinks his films are utterly brilliant works of art. He’s known for having butchered Bloodrayne, Alone in the Dark, and House of the Dead, among others with his filmographical atrocities. This quote, to me, exemplifies everything wrong with his movies and it seems to be what he thinks makes them masterpieces. What does this have to do with Belphe-gor’s Bondage Goat Zombie? Well, everything. You see, if Uwe Boll were to make a blackened death metal album, it might sound more than just a little bit like this.. Simply put, Bondage Goat Zombie is an example of how far a band can plummet after releasing consistently solid material for such a long time.

South Wales Sounds13

The Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries brings together the creative disciplines within the University of Glamorgan, including Design, Media & Com-munication and Drama & Music.

This diverse, multidisciplinary grouping supports a rich cultural and scholarly environment, and provides specialist and hybrid undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree programmes.

The faculty has a number of world-class visit-ing professors from a variety of disciplines. This advisory board, headed by industrial designer, Professor Nick Butler OBE, is made up of actor Daniel Evans, composer Karl Jenkins, anima-tor Robin Lyons, film director Marc Evans and theatre director Terry Hands.

Our campus, ATRiuM, is situated in central Car-diff. This specially-designed building contains cutting edge technologies and industry-standard facilities, enabling like-minded individuals from a broad range of subject areas to work together in an environment geared to sharing expertise across the creative disciplines.

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South Wales Sounds15

The Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries brings together the creative disciplines within the University of Glamorgan, including Design, Media & Com-munication and Drama & Music.

This diverse, multidisciplinary grouping supports a rich cultural and scholarly environment, and provides specialist and hybrid undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree programmes.

The faculty has a number of world-class visit-ing professors from a variety of disciplines. This advisory board, headed by industrial designer, Professor Nick Butler OBE, is made up of actor Daniel Evans, composer Karl Jenkins, anima-tor Robin Lyons, film director Marc Evans and theatre director Terry Hands.

Our campus, ATRiuM, is situated in central Car-diff. This specially-designed building contains cutting edge technologies and industry-standard facilities, enabling like-minded individuals from a broad range of subject areas to work together in an environment geared to sharing expertise across the creative disciplines.

South Wales Sounds16Out now...