The Everscathed-Scars To Bare (2015)

Most of this album is steeped in the slower grooving character mixed with maddened frenzies of thrashing beats and tremolo riffing. The intermingling of slower grooving sections with pummeling chug riffs vs. the faster, mid 80s Slayer-inspired thrashing is marked by a somewhat moderated sense of build up through mid-tempo bridge sections. as well as some midpaced riffs that are absolutely crushing. "The Grand Leveller" is most reminiscent of the band's fellow countrymen (and woman) in it's creeping, midpaced mayhem but the title track here shows off the band's ability to go at much faster tempos and it sounds good. Vocal performance here adds a darker atmosphere to the sound. The drumming on here does it's job just fine so no complaints here. The bass is pretty good throughout, thumping along audibly while also providing some nice fills. A cool death metal record, so if you haven't heard these guys then you now have some homework to do.
www.facebook.com/TheEverscathed
www.THEEVERSCATHED.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Inverted Serenity-Integral (2015)

Speed with loud, ear-splittingly heavy snare drums and torrential blast beats, brutal voice, guitar chops and solos, and you get intimidating songs. One of the reasons I fell in love with death metal many years ago was because right from a very young age I’ve had a thing for no-holds-barred, unapologetically violent music. That’s not to say I like brutal music just for the sake of its brutality, or the gory lyrics; there are countless brutal death metal bands as lacking in shame as in talent doing just that. But when the violent tone is subordinated to quality songwriting, and innovations in sound engineering subordinated to musicianship, out comes a rare album this deserving of praise and preservation. Death metal today is better than it ever was. Inverted Serenity testifies to the validity of that statement. "Integral" is the album I’ve been waiting for !
www.facebook.com/invertedserenity
AsherMediaRelations.com
ashermedia@gmail.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Silent Line-Shattered Shores (2015)

What impressed me the most is the music, vocals, production and mixing as well as the lyrics. I can't see myself writing off this release to just be total crap because I wouldn't be being honest, but I'm not. So keep in tune to what I have to say here, there are heavy guitars, talking more about the music,melodic death and groove metal. They also throw in some thrash sound into it showing their influences of genuinely. This I think is good. and made the music so much more desirable. I like every song on here. I think the rhythm guitars show their brutality even though they're not playing at fast tempos much. The riffs here are thick, but they still have that melodic feel to them. They're expressing art-work with this one.  Definitely worth checking out. Don't just consider though what I think or others think of this album, consider what you think. I don't think that I'm totally off on this, I think that this album is a "A" to me, but it's just what I think. Think "melodic/groove/thrash" and you'll have all of those styles in here. Silent Line put out quality music!
www.facebook.com/silentlinemetal
AsherMediaRelations.com
ashermedia@gmail.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Synapses-Devoutness (2015)

It actually surprises me that I like this so much. Yeah, this might happen to be a death metal album, the obvious industrial influences are here. This album is pretty awkward, very clumsy and perhaps a bit compromised in its weirdness, but it still manages to hold up well against more obvious death metal sounding.Yes, you read it right though, "Devoutness" is a death metal album, and a very unique one at that, but there's also the obvious industrial elements that characterize the band's sound, but what's arguably even more unique is that there's actually a healthy dose of early grindcore found here as well. Vocalist does a nice job at imitating Napalm Death's vocals. I have to say, the brutality actually works pretty fucking fantastic. Sure, this album is unintentionally somewhat pretentious and awkward as a result, but again, it's that charm that keeps the majority of the album very enjoyable and most of the time the result is great no matter what.Technically, this album gets the job done. It's not anything special as it's somewhat basic for death metal riffing standards, but these italians made full advantage of their supreme knowledge of how to make simplicity work by creating what is hands down one of the catchiest death metal albums in 2015. It's obvious that this doesn't need stark technicality or complexity to be good, as this isn't really a riff-dependant album, the fact that the riffs are pretty catchy is a nice bonus, but I feel the complete package of a band mashing as much as they could into basically every song here is largely responsible for what makes this such a joy to hear.This is a work of immense depth, songs are somewhat clumsy but it's obvious that a lot of thought and care went into making each song awesome in its own right.I urge basically everyone to give this a spin, this album is just well-rounded and doesn't really lack anything it shouldn't lack. It's clumsy, awkward and probably not very self-aware, but it doesn't hold the album back more than strictly necessary. This is one of the most diverse death metal records ever, succesfully combining brutality, and it sounds awesome. This is Synapses,experimentation done oh so right.
www.facebook.com/Synapses.official
synapses.death@live.it
cimmerianshaderecordings.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Caelestia-Beneath Abyss (2015)

Caelestia are not that impressive to say the least but their music is beautiful enough to keep me interested for another listens. Well at least they sound hell a lot better than Lacuna Coil of today.This record shows significant originality. Dimmi V exhales some of the most enchanting yet powerful melodious air of noticeable talent. Yes. She is gifted with quite a decent vocal that fits for this type of music that borders between extreme and melodic metal. Instruments wise, there is a remarkably sound for the fact that band members use quite one-dimensional approach to their sound in general. Thankfully, Caelestia are able to add some spices to their offering, employing decent amount acoustic plucking. For a young band from Athens to play in this style, it may not really take much to create a fairly standard art. The vibrant production allows enough room for each member to breathe in life to their weapons. Drums are quite in the mix, so do the cymbals and the guitars. Everyone is on top of their game here, which is a plus as well. keyboards are performed well. The primary instruments are so powerful that keyboard got quickly drowned by the enthralling cacophony. Well, that again is good thing for me because a lot of purists tend to assault Keyboards as mere faggotry driven by nothing but excessively cheesy sound to cover up band members’ lack of talents. Again, this record is not entirely keyboard driven. As I said, I am not sure where the keyboards are anyways 'cause the guitars and drums are powerful. Most tracks are good and memorable. Decent performance. Each song provokes visual hallucinations to those who can actually appreciate minimal but in-depth works of art. An overall enjoyable release by this band that incorporated hard rock elements into their extreme outlook. If you like straightforward, fuss-free, simplistic approach to Gothic metal / rock, extreme metal go and buy this full length.Track highlights? None in particular. Each song is good enough for repeated listens. This means the band had invested all their best to produce this decent record. Check them out !
www.facebook.com/caelestiaband
caelestiaband.com
www.facebook.com/clawhammerpr
clawhammerpr@gmail.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Nuclear-Formula For Anarchy (2015)

With the thrash metal resurgance of late a lot of old bands have been coming back to party one more time. Original thrash metal stahlwarts like Kreator, Death Angel and Testament are releasing up to par new albums and newcomers such as Havok, Hatchet and Toxic Holocaust are carrying the torch for the next generation. Nuclear from Chile belonged to a small new wave of thrash bands that never really broke through yet who released a decent album that unleash their thrashing metal upon the world...and the world is better for it! There was a sense of concern when first sliding the disc into my cd player. Those concerns where immediately blown away however by the stellar riffing of opening number "Offender". Pure f'**king thrash metal!!! The main influences here are no doubt Exodus and Kreator. The backwards type of riffing ala Gary Holt is vicious and the aggression of mid-career Kreator is ever present. The vocals however remind me of the mighty Schmier (Destruction) at his angriest and most vile. The album is absolutely jam-packed with anthemic tracks. The slaying riffs and the catchy chorus make this an immediate classic! The songs are ballcrushers for the books but it doesn't stop there. There are no weak points to this album. I think anyone into true and honest thrash metal will enjoy this disc immensly. No matter if you're into the "old school" or the "new school" this oughta please your urges from start to finish. Southamerican Thrash Fkn Metal direct to your skull !!
www.facebook.com/nuclearcl
www.nuclear.cl
www.facebook.com/clawhammerpr
clawhammerpr@gmail.com
Review by Paul Caravasi

Sonick Plague (2015)

From the late 80's, Sonick Plague bring the classic Thrash Metal sound. Sonick Plague have finally managed to re-recorded a consistent thrash metal album that is well produced. Overall this album is not "amazing", but is certainly great! By point of fact, just about every song on this album is worthy to be heard, the drumming on this album is rather impressive, especially in the double bass department where the drummer delivers speed and power. This album also seems to be aggressive in the lyrical department, as its "in your face" type of record. Check out the tracks "My Gun" and "I don't wanna relax".  Lyrics definitely lean towards a rebelious realm and the message is lound and clear...Fuck You! This album is actually very heavy, both in terms of songs as well as the production, and that's definately a good thing. Overall a decent Thrash metal album with some very memorable tunes.
www.facebook.com/sonickplague
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clawhammerpr@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/Pavementent
Review by Paul Caravasi