May 2015 ~ Metalhead Spotted

Album Review : Outre - Ghost Chants

Nowadays a lots of excellent black metal albums are releasing.In my opinion previous year was remarkable for black metal.Already a lots of good black metal album released on this year and looking forward till the end of this year. In this extreme metal music genre first wave black metal and second wave black metal bands are full of reverence.But to be honest at present a slew of newcomer bands are doing excellent job and It’s really great when your high hopes are not misplaced. When it comes to notoriety in terms of black metal bands Poland is usually not the first place that comes to mind to a vast majority of people. Although, with a more recent popularity in the underground sphere with bands such as Infernal War,Mgła,Kreigsmaschine Polish black metal has been increasing in numbers, in terms of listeners and new releases. While some clueless newbies attempting to sell their flavor of the month band to potential listeners, there are some bands that simply exist outside of pre-existing molds. Some challengers exist, such as Outre, a phenomenal addition to the Black metal roster.

On this year Cracow based enigmatic Polish black metal band Outre Unveiled their debut release on this year entitled “Ghost chants” via Third Eye Temple record label with 36:41 min running time . This new album consist with 7 tracks . Outre was formed in 2012. In before they had released their EP “Tranquility” and split with Thaw in 2013. Now I am straight going to the point about this new album .

When at first I have heard their latest studio effort for the first time I was overwhelmed and this album sounds so authentic,mature it's hard to believe it's only their debut album . Outre delivers distinctly experimental, atmospherically evil form of black metal with a little bit of the progressive leanings. Deathspell Omega fans would appreciate them for sure.This bands each and every musician did fantastic job on this album in radiant way . This whole album reflects the grand diversity of sound brought together on this album . It is really not easy to describe their musical style . A natural synthesis of dissonant sounds and disparate styles all combined in one bold, enlightened display of unbound creativity Despite the often fast ,furious,cacophonous black metal assaults with a lots of segments of slower tempo too where Outre combines doomier passages with cavernous drum thrashes, melancholic guitars and those effective rasps and chants .

well,their latest opus opening track is “Chant 1 - Departure” . This track starts with atmospheric slow build and eerie chanting vocal followed by an onslaught of tremulous ,dark eerie riffs and a wall of sober,slow drums and then segues with mournful clean vocals . Quickly their quasi opener “Chant 2 – Shadow” song returns to the sonic assailment and the musical style transformed into a whirlwind of guitar noise laced with aggression,deliberate cadence and progression seasonings. Their whole composition and musical style is impeccable also borrow great atmosphere with sour ,dissonant riffs work .

This new albums whole compositions are extremely filthy and unsettling piece of sinister euphoria and unearthly ambiance . Their distinct entity infused me by a lot . Their musical style have a quite soft and smooth edge in the guitar playing which adds to the more atmospheric,unique kind of black metal but at the same time the vocals and other parts of the riffing is straight forward brutal simultaneously . Honestly saying after a multiple listen this album just blew me away with their ethereal abyss,melancholic,the multi-layered,ominous musical style . Each musicians have exudes tremendous effort on this album with excellent diligence and nailed it . I highly cite and embrace this album .

This album is filled with a slew of cadence, apocalyptic, ominous,hellish,doom laden, slow but powerful riffs work . As well bass line up is whopping,intense,strong ,rumbling, slithering . Drumming,percussion line up is bleak, frantic,solid,clattering and powerful . In each track morbidly delicious,slow,macabre,soaring,dark eerie riffs,bass lineups matched in well manner . The most striking thing you’ll notice about the sound of Outre is the air of melancholy that quite literally drips from the noise they create . This whole albums sound deliver a dissonant,grim feeling,sinister,melancholic,gruesome black metal with raw emotion and pure energy . “Ghost Chants” endures beauty of black metal . This album indulge strong songwriting and brilliant musicianship . This album have a hypnotic effect on the listener . Vocals decently large voice that does well for Outre . Especially his chants are menacing and hoarse voice are excellent . Vocals howling scream, snarling, sneering ,immense,deep rasps ,serene chanting voice emerged on this album in a well manner and intertwined perfectly with their utterly spellbinding,obtuse,bizarrely arrogant, mysterious,fully blistering black metal,distant musical style with a lots of melodic,atmospheric,doomy accompaniment and embedded perfectly . Overall you will get sinister,gloomy,desolate,mysterious ambient from this whole album . I really worship this band.

Each song have an energy ,fluency and draw a savage landscape .Stand out tracks are all of them . I personally Cherish each and every single track . “Chant 1 - Departure” is brilliant Opening track . Album artwork is Pretty neat,solid,atrocious,grisly . Overall “Ghost Chants” whole album is Spectacular,engrossing ,significant . This album sounds so authentic and a truly remarkable sonic journey from beginning to end . Indeed this album is such an true gem of this year . Outstanding another one release of this year so far . The Polish bruisers still possess all the necessary skills and hard-won experience to put younger,newcomer challengers in their place.If you looking for something different, epic this debut album will take you on a journey into another universe . so, enter the void and I am sure definitely you will come out stronger,darker than ever before.

My Rating – 4.8/5 . Review done by - Souvik Basu. Published on 31/05/2015

Albatross, a Heavy Metal outfit from Mumbai comprising of Birorshee Das on high-soaring vocals, Jay Thacker on drums, Vigneshkumar Venkatraman, Varun Singh and Nishith Hegde on guitars and Riju "Dr. Hex" Dasgupta on the bass, are out with their 3rd release, 'Fear From The Skies'. After two Concept EPs, last one being a split EP with Vestel Claret their latest release takes 2 stories from the darkest corners of the band minds.
The first story 'Children Of The Cloud' begins with an amazing bass intro and the Albatross narrative style building up to 'The Raptorville Fair', this song gives you an actual feeling of running through a deserted theme park with killer clowns chasing you. A nice ambient touch, some references to the last release 'The Kissing Flies' and a beautiful solo from Varun shows what Albatross is for the new listeners. 'Jugglehead The Clown' the mascot on the artwork of the release shares the title with the next number. Three guitars and the groovy bassline solos make the song a 'must-listen'. The next track 'Children Of The Cloud' was previously released by the band and was received very well. The title track is where the album goes heavy and Biprorshee proves yet again as to why he is one of the best clean singers from the metal community in this country. The story ends with another strong bass piece from Dr. Hex as an outro. The story in this section of the album is more on the descriptive side and doesn't really develop into a solid plot unlike the band's previous works, given that the story has potential. The lyrics for the whole album can be brought to a jist as dark and hypnotizing yet simple at the same time.
'The Assassin's Flight' is the next story with 'In The Lair of Dr.Hex' being its first track. The band has been playing this track live for a while now since the album was announced. Amazing vocal range, intricate bass line, pounding bass drums and the nifty tempo shifts do the trick for this one. Drummer Jay Thacker finally gets to show all the trades from his belt. 'A Tale of Two Tyrants' is up next. The whole album has a superb state-of-the-art-sounding production quality, this track being the perfect example for it. The whole release is a bit slower and melodious compared to the previous works, this is the slowest track of the album with tonnes of experimentation which sound exceptional. The last track of the album named 'The Empire of Albatross' with varied vocal ranges and the grace with which Das switches are nothing but infallible. The second story is conceptually stronger than the first one. The band has returned to their old roots again with this one.
In a jist about 'Fear From The Skies', the band has experimented with this one and they have been successful in most of the aspects. A treat for the old-school fanatic, a content but an unexpected vibe altogether for regular metalheads and a definitely 'must-listen' for an Albatross fan.

Rating: 4.2/5 - ‎Review by Kaushik Joshi - Edited by Navjot Kaur Gill - ‎May 25, 2015

On this year Kolkata based death metal band Purgatory reformed again and put their live show again on 13th May,2015 at Hell Fest. Earlier this Kolkata based death metal band Purgatory served up some devastatingly sacrilegious, old school death metal EP entitled “Thou Shall Be Purged” in 2006. So recently I’ve interviewed Purgatory Vocalist Argo Mitra. I was very keen to interact with him and I’ve tried to enlighten on their upcoming new album and tried to explore more about his bands. Check out the full interview below.Interview done by Souvik Basu.

1. Hello, how are you doing today?

Argo : I’m doing fine,only the sweltering and scorching weather beating me down.Well,How bout you Souvik?

2. Yeah I’m fine and can’t tolerate this disgusting scorching weather.Well, Purgatory was formed in 17th Sep,2003,Can you give me a brief history of how the band got together?Had you been in any bands or musical apparition before Purgatory?

Argo: At First I wanna say Death metal does not stagnate in a constant form. Death metal presented in various forms also you too know about that. Well,Purgatory started as a Death metal band in 2003,Later we have changed our music genre into Avant-Garde death metal then Technical death metal.Now we are in Progressive technical death metal genre. See the basically thing is that we actually planned a larger than life metal act when we are in school because Kolkata did not come across this type of sound before. I want to mention “Aatmahatya” who are very close to us back in the millennium when kolkata had no clue about heavy riff,hyped pedals,guttural aggression of vocal chords.

3. There are two basic ways of looking at music. In the first, there is a mechanism to the arrangement of certain tones ,musical style.in the second, a narration occurs where a story is told or a poetic function completed. In your view of compositions, which is more important? Where were you when you first thought the project had longterm potential for you?

Argo: What I think that both terms are relative in nature and go hand in hand.It is equally important that in compositions,the structures,riff orientations and the tonal quality are very very important but we should keep in mind that the narrative and the thesis of the song is primary infrastructure of a skeletal framework of a story.So,when we started of we kept both these properties in mind.

4. Do you have a preference for type of equipment? In your mind, how important is equipment to the production of music?

Argo: Equipment for me is really very important. As the production quality depends on the usage of high performance gadgets and the gears. So,every composition has it’s preferential aspects related to the tonal quality according to the lyrics and the themes of every single composition.

5.I’ve noticed Purgatory’s musical style reminds late 80’s/early 90’s death metal with the low-pitched screams of mid-80's thrash segments laced with a lil bit old school black metal influence would you agree with this?

Argo: I completely agree with your point of view.The guttural technique used in the compositions of Purgatory is influenced heavily by the late80’s/early 90’s such as Sodom,Necrophagist,Six Feet Under,Immolaton,Cannibal Corpse. I specially want to mention the name of Mr.Chris Barnes founder member of Cannibal Corpse & Six Feet Under,Mr. Muhammed Suicmez from Necrophagist,Mr.Ross Dolan from Immolation,Mr.Glen Benton From Deicide and Mr.Jeff Walker from Carcass. Our track “Elms For The Condemned” for the high experimentation on Avant-Garde metal and guttural technique amalgamated with black metal high pitched screams and snarls.

6. Do you guys have any official videos coming out soon?

Argo: Yeah.Our official video will be coming out in a month or two and we are working on it.Also I’m revealing our upcoming album entitled “Thou Shall Be Purged” which would be consist with some old EP tracks and obviously some head exploding new track.

7. Your vocals style is raspy, aggressive,raw and tortured .appreciate your vocal style.how do you prepare your vocals before the studio or especially for live performances? Did any band in particular inspire you in the shrieking department?

Argo: One of the major exercise before every studio take and every time stage is the tremendous breathing technique where the diaphragm is expanded for more pressure and a bit of smoking and more foods helps me out.That is my trade secret. Smoke more,eat more and growl more.

8. What do you do as individual band members to relax, when not working on music? Do you have jobs or business?

Argo: I’m the one dedicated soul without a fuckin business. I dedicate my time entirely in music,my family and close friends(some now my would be manages the most of it). And I should also mention a lots of computer,PSP games. That’s what keeps me going

9.last one question,what are your future band goals & tell us something about upcoming tour. Lastly, a lots of teenagers aim to be full-time musicians. Many of them might be without any proper guidance, any words of wisdom for them?

Argo: Purgatory is heading for the next album “Thou Shall Be Purged” which is a remake of our old EP but definitely it will come with more brutality,new,fresh track and larger than sound structures and we are also not talking about the things which we used to talk about in the past. This time we have a different theory to portray.We are providing a picturesque view of devastation and apocalypse.Our suggestion and word of advice to the younger bands is to do what they are doing and go to the roots of the genres and lyrical themes that they are trying to showcase on stage or via production labels.

10. That's all I've got right now.best of luck for upcoming release ”Thou Shall Be Purged”.this album would be one of my anticipated release.thanks a lot for enduring this torture haha. Any final thoughts,comments for the readers? If I forgot anything, please insert it in here.

Argo: A big thanks for the interview and your interest in the band. India was not a fairground of metal music back in the days but now it is so. I would request the organizers and gig official organizers improve the metal scene of India and provide us with regular acclamation as musicians of a different and out of the box genres.Get Purged !

Interview done by - Souvik Basu.