Starting the journey from “Origin” and followed by subsequent, almost immediate pouring into “Silence of Death”, this literal move bears much more sense than anything else that may seem apparent on this album; it ignites the imagination and tunes it the certain way, getting the listener prepared for the rest of the work. Everything deserves dying and must not afford to go the other way.

The music of Ataraxie on their second full-length album, being a fair exposition of the whole spectrum of heaviness and evilness known before, continues demonstrating an ascetic approach to doom metal in terms of the instrumental package: a well admirable atmosphere on this album also has been created without any synth/keyboards involved, only vocals, guitars, bass and percussion.

The comparison with the precedent album is unavoidable and must have sense, in order to assess the band and the amount of work they have done. The more agile debut full-length “Slow Transcending Agony” showed their clear vision of how the doom metal song should sound like. Tampering the listener with the amount of thick moderate tempo doom/death metal, quite occasionally slowing the time-frame down very nearly to the funeral narration, Ataraxie though did not entirely present their own face, their very musicality and the talent they do possess. Notwithstanding the mentioned, band demonstrated the tendency to progress and the ability to develop unique sound and style, giving a very promising augury regarding their next work... and the next work even had exceeded several very particular expectations.

The funeral doom metal, built strictly on a basis of dry, heavy as hell, guitar sound and the pounding rhythm section, after the short intro “Origin” starts shedding its poison. The approaching next song “Silence of Death” tends to stab the listener with darkness so mercilessly and uncompromisingly that limbs begin to shiver uncontrollably and fear enslaves the posterior moves, so deep and terrifying atmosphere these guys are creating on this track. Growls and particularly the neurasthenic screams should be awarded a special attention, because they do create or even do contour the main musical “canvas”, adding contrast and playing with grey tones, mixing everything up with the pitch black darkness of mind’s unsoundness. The composition itself is very neatly done and the required accents and transfers are very craftily arranged that following the track progress attracts the listener and delivers him a true pleasure. Vocal changes reflect the total disaffection of the first face with the whole world which surrounds him, so emotionally Jonathan expresses the inner experience, that shifting towards the faster drums figures so finely shows the peaks of accumulated aggression’s release. They are just sparks, but supplementing and completing up the whole palette so nicely.

Speaking about originality, a little bit of resentment (after a given times of this listened) is dwelling around it. The album starts very uniquely and finishes more as a conventional piece of work, more as a classical one, as has been already mentioned above. However, the listening ears of yours truly wanted the continuation of that darkness started on "Silence of Death" and developed on “Walking Through the Land of Falsity”, but was not destined to hear that. Finding the roots of the band’s music, it is very likely that a big influence here is Evoken, following similar directions and somehow repeating the way of riffing (but guitar sound of Ataraxie is really amazing here), but colouring them individually. In other words, the influence becomes more apparent while moving across the album towards the end, and that became the biggest disappointment here. However, that disappointment may be strictly subjective and obviously should not be lapped up by an impressive reader or a supposed listener. All in all, the heaviness and the strong compositional talent are the main positive sides of the band. There is just a need to keep on developing the ideas for a longer time (hopefully until the end of the album). And of course, bilingual lyrics of the album add another positive point here.
All of this makes “Anhédonie” one of the best releases back in 2008 among the genre.

Strongly recommended to anybody, for whom “doom metal” is not just a bunch of empty words.

I had corrected my review since the last week, can someone see if my corrections are good?
Thanks for your time in advance!
[/b]

Would anyone care to tell me how I did with this?
Aeon's back. I mean, uh, black.

The drum tracks are, for the most part, tastefully brutal (assuming that isn’t a contradiction); Arttu’s skill set revolves around beating the fuck out of his drum set, which is fine in my book – as long as it’s done right. Aeons Black is more proof of what I’ve been saying all along: you can beat the fuck out of shit and be productive, as long as you beat the fuck out of it the right way. Aeon, or more specifically, Arttu, definitely did it the right way.

The guitar fills are a bit more nonchalant, a bit less varied, than the rest of the band’s sound.

guitar’s

the bass itself doesn’t exactly stand out or make itself known. It’s best described as the unsung worker of a big ol’ Broadway production. Or a roadie. Nobody gives a fuck about him, even though he does a big service to the band. Yeah, I just called a band member a roadie. Oh well.

It shows that the band has talent when it comes to forming songs, but more than a few songs feel like they were built around chugging. Though some passages may be technically proficient and melodically pleasing, some of the needless blandness of the record is entirely due to the guitars.

instead of being there for the hell of it (no pun intended, har har)

That’s not to say that they take away from the sheer power of this record – they don’t.

Aeons Black is a very brutal, very vicious, and very powerful release that should be recognised as such – it’s just nice to hear something more than boring brutality.

Thanks for the feedback. A few of the things (mostly humour) is just how I write reviews, mostly because I write for a specific audience and I know what they like to read.

I had correct my review since the last week, can someone see if my correction are good?
Thanks for your time in advance!

but it was accepted, what's more?!

Would anyone care to tell me how I did with this?

hasn't learned to simply accept the over-the-top themes and imagery as background elements.

...It says what? Finish your damn sentence. Penis.

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Testament/Dark_Roots_of_Earth/341071/Subrick

My newest review, just put up today. Any words on it would be most appreciated.

Here's a review I wrote while keeping in mind the feedback I received from my Aeon review.

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/M ... 63/Pr0nogo

Do tell.

Nobody wanted to touch that one, so here's a negative review. http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/B ... 57/Pr0nogo

So something like http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/B ... 82/Pr0nogo is a step in the right direction, but I need to elaborate on how each individual instrument meshes with the rest of the album, and how the album sounds as a whole.

I couldn't focus on anything with the Constancy review, actually. I could barely concentrate on the album because of how bland and generic it was.

Whourkr Review
4247 Snare Drums

Whourkr is an experimental metal/ cybergrind band from France. If you’re wondering what I mean by “Cybergrind” it is when you take grindcore and then add electronic noises and drum machines. When I was first looking into this genre, I started with some of the top artists and one of them caught my attention. I saw the funny name, Whourkr and the silly artist picture and I just had to see what this was all about. Needless to say, I was blown away.

In their third full album, <i>4247 Snare Drums</i>, Whourkr have toned things down a notch or two from <i>Concrete</i>. That isn’t exactly a bad thing, but if you’re a fan of the weirdness from their last album you might be slightly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s their heaviest yet while still having that’s Whourkr charm, but at the same time it’s slightly “normal” sounding and thus easier to get into. Whourkr’s lineup also changed once again as Mulk comes along and introduces guttural growls similar to their debut <i>Naät</i>. He also plays the saxophone (more on that later) and apparently the bass (although this website doesn’t say so). Igorrr, the core of the band, handles the guitar, drums, and electronics.

The album kicks off with “Quadruple Plis de Peau” which has a calm intro but then quickly explodes into an audio assault. Other songs like ”Petits Poneaux” feature unexpected tempo changes and elements of glitch music along with moments where the drums become most prominent. The vocals may immediately catch your attention as they are digitally chopped up in ways you’d never imagine. Usually, he uses regular death growls, other times they are altered electronically the way a hip-hop artist would do that scratching thing with turn tables. I don’t know if that’s what they really did, but that’s certainly how it sounds. The lyrics are gibberish and random noises so don’t try to look them up (the way I did when I first discovered the band, looking like a fool in the process). Because of this, the vocals behave as an instrument that drives the songs along with the guitar. “Ostina”, however doe deviate with vocals as it features Öxxö Xööx , who uses opera singing. It’s one of the most unique tracks here because of that. On the entire album, guitars are mostly dirty death metal riffs that are sometimes electronically altered. Regardless, they always follow a catchy melody. Seriously, they will get stuck in your head, which rarely happens for me especially with more mellow tracks like “Polygroin”.

The saxophone is used for solos. Some songs like “Gastro-equestre” start off with solos then get down and dirty later with crushing riffs and the occasional breakdown. Others like “Polygroin” build up to an epic ending where the sax is digitally chopped up with chugging guitars in the background complementing each other perfectly. The drumming Igorrr does is programmed but this isn’t just anyone using a drum machine. Like his solo work, he incorporates breakcore, (which is like jungle, hardcore techno, and IDM mixed together in a fast and complex style). The drums are one of the best parts of the album as they never do one thing for too long and always stay interesting. The bass does stand out but it’s hard to tell what it’s exactly doing, possibly because of the production (more later). The music is bass heavy, but that’s the inherent nature of electronic music. Electronics are present in all songs adding effects, creating atmospheric openings as in “Pachyderm Catapult”, or completely taking over, as in “Maximum Speed Limit Monotone Snare Audition”. No matter what’s going on, it all flows together, unlike <i>Concrete</i> which had sections where you could tell the band didn’t really know what to do. Pretty much, they traded off experimentation for a more put together album and it worked.

Here’s the bad part. The production for this album is bit weird. The vocals seem a bit high in the mix which isn’t exactly bad, since they behave like instruments, but I wish the guitars were louder. You can certainly hear the riffs, but they can get drowned out by vocals at times. The drums are a bit quieter than they should be too, which is too bad as they are the most refined part.

Overall, I love this album. It’s not perfect as the mixing could have been a bit different but it still has the perfect mix between metal and electronica with good vocals, memorable riffs, excellent and complex drumming, and avant-garde elements. It also Whourkr’s most “normal” album so far. If you want to see what these guys are all about, pick this up.

Not bad for a first attempt!

You may want to find yourself a catchy phrase to serve as the title, you know a small and catchy phrase that somehow relates to the review.

This part: "and apparently the bass (although this website doesn’t say so)" - just drop the side note and fill in a report on the album if the line-up isn't as it should.

And here: "Don’t get me wrong, it’s their heaviest yet while still having that’s Whourkr charm" - remove the possessive, it's a small thing but noticeable.

Other than that I'd say hit the queue.

Finally, don't be posting here if your primary intention is just to receive pats on the back for a review that you know full-well is a solid piece of work.