Catching on 2014 Music : Young and in the Way – When Life Comes to Death (2014)

Music Review : Young and in the Way – When Life Comes to Death (2014)

Formed in Charlotte, North Carolina, YAITW are a blackened crust punk band or a crust punk band playing black metal. In fact, they are using various elements of each genre to form their own particular sound.

As one would have guessed it this makes it for a very aggressive album and a very somber used of many themes like the title Whe

n Life Comes to Death would suggest. With songs like Fuck This Life, Be My Blood, We Are Nothing, Final Dose, and Embrace Extinction don’t expect any joie de vivre. The revolving of those themes reminds of old school punk  and makes it for a very homogenous record. Surprisingly, this is somewhat of an accessible piece for fans of each genre because of the easy mingle between crust punk and black metal and the opened path by the recent releases of the legendary Norwegians of DarkThrone.

Finally, since this is a crossover of two hermetic genres, When Life Comes to Death reminds us how bands that mix many genres like the finnish power/black/heavy metallers of Children of Bodom have gained many non-metal fans or non-fans of each genre to rally and be the poster boys of metal, well YAITW despite their dangerous attitude are kind of giving a similar message of entry into the genres but not completely immersing into the core of both of the infamous music.

6.0

Catching on 2014 Music : Primordial – Where Greater Men Have Fallen (2014)

Primordial – Where Greater Men Have Fallen (2014)

This late 2014 release from the Irish outfit Primordial was an awaited album that is the obvious continuity of their discography. First, there’s no surprise here and no shift in their music. This is the same formula of long songs, strong vocals, and a solid overall offering.

While Redemption At The Purtian’s Hand was an instant classic, Where Greater Men Have Fallen (yes the band continues on a strike to name its albums with long titles) is more in the average section of my personal rating. Still a good disc. There’s a certain monotony and a lack of passion or aggression that the previous Primordial efforts had in their core. As I often explain in my musical reviews, I’m okay with a certain homogeneity in the form of an album but I what I fear the most is monotony and filling. Sadly, some moments of WGMHF contains one or both of these elements.

With the quality of released in 2014, Primordial isn’t in the upper section neither it is in the lower section of my ratings. This is the kind of highly expected records that let you on your appetite.

7.4

Catching on 2014 Music : Indian – From All Purity (2014)

Indian – From All Purity (2014)

Blackened Doom metal masters, Indian have released though Relapse a very engaging record that blends mostly doom with sonorities and ambiances of Black Metal. However, both genres/labels don’t seem to be obvious for a mix. Indian plays their own music and it feels right in the entire album.

From slow beats to heavy guitar riffs, From All Purity contains six tracks of pure heaviness and incomfort. Those four musicians beat the shit out of their instruments and seem to know no limits when it comes to spare notes.

One of the best records to come out of 2014 while getting doom enthusiasts a nice challenge, black metal fans will scratch their heads to know how violent and heavy an album could even be that deranging and beautiful. A cacophony of great proportions that takes the pattern that Unsane opened and it is as if the New York Hardcore band had a black metal twin that was hidden all that time and was discovered and unleashed.

8.3

 

Catching on 2014 Music : Godflesh – A World Lit Only By Fire (2014)

Godflesh – A World Lit Only By Fire (2014)

As an metalhead since almost twenty years I am often asked by people what is the heaviest band in the world. If I had a dollar each time people have asked me the same question I could only do things I like and not work anymore. Seriously, the common answer to that is to say Black Sabbath since they were one of the earliest bands carriers of heavy music. With nowadays’ resurgence of sludge, doom, noise, and the followers it is more a question of taste in genres. However, one of the heaviest bands of all time and of any genres is Godflesh. With a thirteen years of absence, A World Lit Only By Fire takes the torch at the same point they left the musical scene. This might be one of the best albums of 2014 along with Swans’ To Be Kind (review coming soon by the way).

Sounding as heavy, loud, and angered as ever Godflesh beats the crap out of every songs on this record. A lesson in metal and pure understanding of underground music. Labeled as industrial metal and post-metal, Godflesh makes what I would call their own genre and I find those labels too restrictive for the wide span of Godflesh.

Godflesh is part of the evolution of underground heavy music and must be taken as leaders of the cultural movement that is Metal. A World Lit Only By Fire is another proof that when artists like Justin Broadrick and G.C. Green are creating they always will be ahead of the mass offering of musicians. Whenever the time or trends.

8.6