Album Review : Insomnium – Heart like a grave

Insomnium is a grest band from Finland people need to check out more.  They’re style is definitely melodic death metal, but quite atypical melodeth, being way sadder sounding than most.   By far my favorite melodeth band to listen to now, they are also one of the darkest and listening to their depressing lyrics about suicide, heartache, lovers dying, really gets me a little depressed sometimes. But it’s all good because their music is so amazing that it’s worth feeling a bit depressed after hearing their music.

Insomnium has amazing guitars. Their style is doom/melodeath and it has a lot of doom elements thrown in to their music.  It is also quite dark lyrically to fit that. Their latest cd “heart like a grave” is a total masterpiece! This cd is by far their best ever and their most depressing at the same time. Wail of the North kicks in with piano then some heavier riffs. Then you get valediction a catchy opener about suicide apparently. It’s dark but not as  dark as their later songs. it is great however, as most insomnium openers are, but isn’t the best on the cd either. The next song, “Neverlast” is amazingly heavy for an insomnium song and has a very sad guitar solo near the end. Then you get the best track on the cd, Pale morning Star!

Pale Morning Star, is the best song they’ve ever done, potentially, blending in black metal, prog metal, and death metal together. It’s also quite sad, about a guy dreaming about his dead girlfriend. Or trying to contact her in a dream This is kind of reminiscent of real life for me, long story short.  The song is dark and is quite depressing but is so good sounding that you don’t care. The guitar melody near the end of the song is downright Beautiful.

Then you get the song I always skip on the cd. This song is strangely not too depressing but is also very slow and ballady, and I always skip it for that reason. Not a bad song, because insomnium just doesn’t DO bad songs, but definitely not their best. The song is called “and bells they toll”

Then you get their next song (“the offering”) which makes me scratch my head. Number 1, It IS a good song but it’s just so heartachie that it makes me cry sometimes. Maybe the saddest song on the whole cd, it deals with someone sacrificing themselves for their lover’s health. Maybe in battle. And not just their body, their very soul!  The song is really well written though, so it isn’t bad, it’s just SUPER depressing, because NOBODY would do something like this, unless people in finland did this, I don’t know!

The next song “mute is my sorrow” is a great song about someone searching for someone he wanted to love him back but would not.  This song is actually quite proggy and is one of their best. I like it a lot, and it’s a favorite of mine on the cd. Then you get twilight trails. The song is great, don’t get me wrong, but I find it SLIGHTLY boring. Not a bad song, it’s got some epicness thrown in but I usually don’t like it nearly as much as stuff like the offering, Pale Morning star and neverlast. Still, I will give insomnium credit, it’s a damn good song, just not their best.

Then you get the title track and 3 bonus tracks. The 3 bonus tracks are ok but are kind of forgettable so I won’t review them. The title track, heart like a grave, is one of their most sad songs on the whole cd, dealing wtth someone who regrets causing a bad relationship and breakup afterwards.  This song is really dark sounding and it fits the mood the songs’s lyrics try to portray.  The music is top notch for the final track as well, with a really good melody in it too. Overall this is insomnium’s GREATEST CD ever – 9.9/10

Album Review : Chthonic - Mirror of Retribution

This is a band that everyone needs to check out – Chthonic! Chthonic, is an Asian Band from Taiwan that plays vicious blackened death metal with some slight leanings of asian music thrown in. A folk metal band some people call them. I am hesistant to call them that on this cd however, for it is so much heavier than most folk metal that it’s not funny. This cd’s music is very death metal oriented, far more so than any of their other cd’s.

The First Track, Blooming Blades, is an example of why no one should call this cd folk metal! It’s do brutal It can only be death metal. Maybe Oriental Death Metal is a better name for them, but even that is misleading, because oriental usually in music means middle eastern music influenced NOT asian music influenced.   It is still a great song with a sick chorus. The Second Song, Hearts condemned is actually more black metal than death metal and sounds really somber. The Er-hu (Asian Stringed instrument that kind of sounds like a deep fiddle) helps to make this sound sad.  The next song however is my favorite on the cd, and it’s called “venom in my veins”. This song totally kicks ass!
The riffs here are catchy as fuck and it’s so heavy!  Incredible song!

The Fourth Song, The Aroused, is actually a bit slower and is more dark sounding musically and lyrically.  It is good, but isn’t really their best song. The song after that sing-ling temple is a skip for me. It’s super heavy but has very little good melodies. The one after that, 1947 is an instrumental in traditional asian music with no guitars. It is actually quite good and sad sounding.

The Next song 49 Theurgy Chains, is another awesome song from this cd. The riffs are so catchy and heavy. The melodies are great too. The Song after that, called Rise from the shadows is another pretty good song by them. It’s heavy as hell and has good melodies. The song after that is actually one of their heaviest songs, entitled bloody waves of sorrow. This is the last song on the cd I like. There are 3 other songs but I am not a big fan of any of them. This song however is quite good. It has 2 halves, a very heavy first half and a lighter, more melodic second half with female vocals.  That second half is why I like the song but the first half is kind of forgettable.

Overall, this is a great introduction to Asian Metal for people who want to try it. I would also recommend Demonic Resurrection, and Valendusk as well for Asian metal bands to check out. Overall – 8/10

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Album Review : Orphaned Land - The Neverending Way of ORWarrioOR

If you think melechesh is the only middle eastern metal band I like than you are wrong. I like 3 big ones now, Melechesh, Odious, and Orphaned Land. I got into them in that order, and I will do a review of what I think Is Orphaned Land’s best cd, the epicly titlted “The Neverending Way of ORwarriOR”. This is by far their best cd. I’ve heard them all but their second cd, and there is a reason thy are considered the best Middle Eastern Metal Band, it;s because of music like this!

The Opening Track is called Sapari and the lyrics are all in Hebrew minus the break.  The Music is really dancy on this song, and sounds by far, the hardest intro to get into.  It’s just TOO dancy! It has some neat drum beats though, the one that kicks in at 1:18 is pretty damn good sounding, but still dancy. The Music is pretty good too, but this is not their best song.

The next song is far better. It’s called “From Broken Vessels”. This one has growls and is an epic Prog Metal Song with some damn good death metal riffs.  The song is long too, and gets a little bit folkier near  the end, but is mostly a death/prog song. It’s a good song. But still not their best.

It gets much better with the ballad called “Bereft in the Abyss”. This song has some amazing oriental leanings in it and is actually my favorite song on the cd. The next 2 are a 2 part thing called “The Path Part 1” and “the path part 2”. Part 1 is actually very good. It reminds me of a middle eastern version of Opeth a little and is quite epic. Part 2 is even more epic, with the epic choir/chant near the end of it that makes it sound incredible.

The Next song is something that sounds very middle eastern and has all the lyrics in hebrew.  It is decent but not really favorite. The Song after that is called The Warrior and was my introduction to the cd. It is quite amazing, a symphonic oriental metal song with a SICK solo by Yossi Sassi!  It has amazing guitars and a great atmosphere, not being too heavy. It’s definitely one of their best songs. But one person on youtube said it’s their best, I disagree on that. But still not bad. Excellent even.

The Next song is a little ballad that is an introduction to the song after it which is an epic song called “Disciples of the Sacred Oath II”.  This song is one of their most epic songs ever, if not the most epic. It’s a proggy song and has this one part where a battle cry is put into it.  A sampled battle. It was my favorite part of the song by far.

The Next song, New Jerusalem, is another great song by them, being very oriental and having a lot of traditional middle eastern drumming. The vocals both male and female are amazing. The Song after that is called “Yayehi Or’ and is actually a song that a documentary on them was named after. This song is epic and short however and the song after it is actually a bit better. That song “M I ?” is a ballad but a great one with a sick guitar solo at the end.  It really sets  the mood.

There are 3 more songs on this cd, and they’re all amazing. The First, Barakah, is filled with some neat moments including a part where some oriental melodies play on some middle eastern stringed instrument half way through. That Part is really really good sounding.

The song aftr that, codeward : uprising, is good but not their best, it is pretty much a straight death metal song. However “Epilogue (In They Never ending Way)” Is a highlight for it’s oriental instrumentation and female vocals.  By far one of their best songs. I  saw them perform it live once and I was blown out of the water.

This band blew me out of the water on this cd. I wasn’t expecting them to be this good. The previous cd I bought by them, “Unsung Prophets and dead messiahs” had a lot of keyboards and ballads, this one was better because it wen’t away from that a bit.  Still think it’s their best cd, even Mabool isn’t as good. Seriouly. Check this cd out – 9.7/10

Album Review : Melechesh – Enki

Melechesh is a Band I love so I am doing this review. They were my introduction into middle eastern music influenced extreme metal. Or Oriental Metal as it’s called. The sound at first for them was hard to get into, lots of odd drum beats and really weird sounding melodies. But Eventually I started to like it. It took around 7 months to get into them and when I did I realized just how good they became.

Melechesh was actually introduced to me at some record store in 1998. Someone had Djinn playing then.  At first I hated it. I hadn’t gotten into extreme metal yet. It took me a while to get into it, even when I tried out Death for the first time.  The vocals turned me off and the drum beats didn’t sound right.

I heard them on an internet radio station later on and they sounded good but weird sounding. I eventually bought a few of their albums around my birthday in 2017 and then something happened. I couldn’t stop listening to them. I played their music so much that I had 700 plays on last.fm in  6 months!  This cd I am reviewing today, was the first cd I got by them.

Enki starts out with a song called Temper Tempest Enlil Enraged. This song is fucking heavy at the beginning as blast beasts and oriental melodies blast through. Then it gets a little bit softer, and then a massively heavy thrash riff just rips through and sick sounding black metal vo.cals come in.  It’s a heavy intro.

The Next song is much more black metal than the first and has some interesting drumming. The One After it , Lost tribes, has Max Cavalera from Sepultura doing vocals. It is a good song, but it actually was one of the hardest ones for me to get into, mainly because it’s riffs were very hard to digest.  I Still Like it, bitt it’s not their best song.

The one after it, Multiple truths, is fantastic though. It has one of the catchiest melodies they’ve ever written to start up the song.  Then The Drumming Kicks in. It’s pretty good for the melechesh song it is and is probably my favorite song on the cd.

The Title Track Enki, is excellent too, being very long and epic. The Singer of Rotting Christ is one this one. It’s  a pretty epic song with a lot of oriental instrumentation and drumming. It lasts a long time and has some really cool proggy styled stuff half way through.

The Next song just Rips!  Metatron and Man is fucking heavy and at one point it gave me a real bonafide earache.  I guess I blsst Sumerian Blackened Thrash Metal too loudly. Don’t worry It was on headphones, the neighbors didn’t complain about my devil music habits. The song however is thrashy as fuck. It has a great riff near the beginning which is brutal.  The whole song is really well written too, and at the end you get this almost vintage melechesh sound as the whole song starts to shift toward oriental metal and a middle eastern drum beat kicks in and the melodies sound more arabian then.

The Next song is a cool song but is not all that great overall. A little boring sounding, probably my least favorite song on the cd. Then you get the instrumental. It’s long, and very intricate. I have no clue what kind of middle eastern music it is but it’s amazing.

Next up is the final epic track “The Outsiders”, which sounds really atypical for a melechesh song. I don’t know what kind of music it’s inspired by but it can’t be typical middle eastern stuff. It sounds kind of bizarre, but cool in a way too. Long and epic, this song also has some cool prog elements in it. At one point a blastbeats rips through. Before it you get this proggy drum beat that sounds like Melechesh were trying out a new style. It’s neat, proggy oriental metal? I guess that exists. Need to hear more of it.

Overall this cd was amazing. Only 1 subpar song, the rest were great or good, and it shows you that this band is NOT slowing down, they’re still good, even in 2015! I can’t wait for they’re new one, I bet that will be even better. They have gone through some lineup changes, where moloch, their lead guitarist has left. Now they have some new musicians in, and I hope that change pays off. We will see. Overall, Kickass CD! 9/10

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New Metal Themed FPS "Onslaught" released

New Metal Themed FPS just released called Onslaught

This announcement may shake the ground of the metal scene. Remember brutal legend? That game was one of the FEW Metal themed Games out there.  There is yet another metal themed game out there, and this one is a FPS game that is free called Onslaught.

Onslaught began it’s life as a game idea developed by me and a close friend who was also a metal head. We wanted a FPS where you played as a badass metal anti-hero cyborg mercenary and fought mad cultists who were trying to eliminate mankind.  They used mutations for this mostly and  had bombed most of the cities into a post apocalyptic wasteland and only you and your super human abilities could stop them.

We named our character “Bastard” and he is one of the most obnoxious anti-hero’s any game has ever gotten, spewing out one liners like:

“Metal is for real  men, Dubstep is for pussies!”
“I am 200% metal!”
“Fox News Sucks!”
“Downton Abbey Sucks!”
“Common you Pussies!” (said at a metalica concert by James Hetfield once in the 1990s)

The Game has you play in 30 Maps and you get to slaughter your way through hundreds of enemies per level sometimes, with an insane arsenal of 20+ guns, some of them being nuts like :

Nailgun
Rocket Chaingun
Shotgun/Flamethrower hybrid
Auto Shotgun
Semi Auto double barreled shotgun
Homing bullet machinegun
Chaingun/Shotgun Hybrid
Stun gun (knocks enemies unconscious)
many more

The Game was constructed using free-to use resources from doom addons like a free to use texture pack, free to use guns for zdoom and free to use enemies from the same site, so It’s not ENTIRELY Original, but still is quite good, nonetheless.

The enemies in this thing are HARD. Some do tons of damage to the player, like instakill damage.  Which is hard to deal with. Luckily your cyborg powers help a ton in this. One makes you get invulnerability via a forcefield erected around your body for 60 seconds.  That helps a lot.  Others like heal and weapon damage increase help a lot too.  It helps to use these.

The Game uses a soundtrack written by unleashing vengeance, my Black Metal Solo Project. The music for it was originally written for albums in 2018 and 2019 and was remixed without vocals for the game.

To read more about this game, go to here or my twitter for the game development here

Welcome to Fracking Metal

This is a new metal blog I am opening, I am doing this to replace an old one. I am a metal fan at heart. Right now I am wearing a Melechesh Shirt and have listened to Myrath and Iced Earth today. I write metal as a hobby. It might not be the best metal written out there, but its good at least. It has minor production issues, being self produced, and is mostly done with tracking software. If you want to hear it go to @unleashingVG on twitter.  It’s mostly blck metal.

I will be writing about metal related things a lot here, that includes metal crap I wrote, but also includes other metal bands I like, and various different takes on metal, and what kind of metal is good, one kinds are not. Stuff like that.

Anyway,  I hope metal fans will enjoy this blog because it’s my last blog I’m ever going to write. I don’t want to write any more. It’s far too much work to get a blog out there You have to blog a LOT to get it noticed.  Even then it’s not a guarentee, as lots of blogs of mine have failed.  I’ve had 1, that’s right ONE successful one, that one is a doom modding blog that’s done well. So I hope this one can join it soon, metalheads! As always, stay metal!

Bands I like (for future reference)
Windir (Folk/black metal – origin : norway)
Melechesh (Black/oriental metal – origin : israel)
Death (Death Metal – Origin : USA)
Summoning (Black Metal – Origin : Austria)
Iced Earth (Power Metal – Origin : USA)
Blind Guardian (Power Metal – Origin : Germany)
Slayer/Metallica/Testament/Anthrax/overkill/megadeth (Thrash – Origin : USA)
Kreator/Sodom/Destruction (Thrash – Origin : Germany)
Insomnium (Death Metal/Doom Metal – Origin : Finland)
yngwie Malmsteen (Neoclassical Metal – Origin : Sweden)
Orphaned Land  (Folk/Oriental Metal – Origin : Israel)
Myrath (Folk/Oriental/Progressive Metal – Origin : Tunisia)
Be’lakor (Prog/Death Metal – Origin : Australia)
Many many others