Dol Theeta at Myspace

Dol Theeta is Thanasis Lightbridge’s second project. His first, Dol Ammad, was unique among metal bands in that it employed a 14-member choir and relied heavily on electronics. Dol Theeta is different, as it lacks a choir and is quite a bit more laid-back than either of the Dol Ammad albums. And there’s the rub- to me, this seems more like a straight-up electronica album with a few metal influences than a metal album. While Dol Ammad straddled the line between “metal” and “not metal”, the choir and epic nature of their songs at least reflected metal aesthetics; the metallic content on “The Universe Expands” is limited to the occasional guitar solo. It’s not a bad electronica album by any means, and open-minded metal fans might enjoy it, but metal purists will want to pass this one up.

Heaps of Dead at Myspace

This is the debut release from Heaps of Dead, an Ontario-based quintet that plays brutal death metal. “Deceased, Dismembered, and Left to Decay” starts off fairly well; the first few tracks are fairly simplistic, but they’re effective despite their simplicity. They reminded me a bit of early Six Feet Under (I know they’re a controversial band, but I enjoyed their first few albums a lot.) The singer does a pretty good job with both high-pitched screaming and death growls. I got the impression that Heaps of Dead was a young band that needed improvement, but had lots of potential.

Unfortunately, starting on track four, a new vocal style rears its ugly head- horrible “BREEE!” pig-squealing. I don’t know what possessed them to incorporate this  awful style, but it just doesn’t work one bit, and should have been left out entirely. These vocals rarely take center stage, but they’re horrible enough that they ruin the tracks where they’re used, and completely ruin what could have been a decent album. Aside from that, I really liked the use of samples from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. If the singer quits the horrible pig-squealing/toad-croaking vocals, Heaps of Dead could be a band to watch in the future. If he keeps using them, though, not even wild horses could get me to listen to this band again.

Giant Squid at Myspace

Giant Squid’s second album is similar in style to the first, with layers of keyboards and cellos supplementing the more traditional metal instruments, although they’re just that, supplements, rarely taking over completely. The album just oozes with atmosphere, both in the metallic sections and quieter passages, and the unusual instrumentation is a big factor. Both male and female vocals are utilized, and I greatly preferred the latter; there’s something about the male singer’s voice I find a bit irritating. When he sings high, his voice has an annoying nasally quality to it, and when he tries to sound gravelly, the result is just cheesy. This doesn’t come close to ruining the album, however. Most of the songs have subtitles which are the scientific names of sea life; I’m not sure what that fact is supposed to mean.

My favorite track on the album was one which stuck out as being atypical- “Throwing a Donner Party at Sea” isn’t a stereotypically slow doom metal song, as it clips along at a nice pace. I also liked the song’s use of harsh backing vocals, which is fairly unusual for this band. Another standout track was “Mormon Island;” I enjoyed its near-ambient use of the piano. If there’s one thing I didn’t like about this album, it’s that it lacks an extra-long track like the title track on Metridium Fields; I loved that song and its extremely repetitive but undeniably hypnotic groove. All in all, though, it’s a worthy second effort, and it’s well worth checking out.

Cannibal Corpse at Myspace

Cannibal Corpse’s latest is pretty typical of the Corpsegrinder era. It certainly starts off well, with the insanely brutal “Priests of Sodom” and “Scalding Hail,” but some of the other numbers are unmemorable. “To Decompose” starts out strong, but the rest of the song feels awfully like they were phoning it in, a feeling I get from some other tracks on this album. Other strong tracks include “Evidence in the Furnace,” “Carnivorous Swarm” (which has a great intro and solo which evoke the titular horde), and the title track, which manages to convey CC’s trademark sense of hatred without being especially fast.

I don’t think the band’s albums with Corpsegrinder are terrible or anything, it’s just that they’re not as consistent as the Barnes albums (particularly the first three). If I listed my favorite Cannibal Corpse songs, there would be plenty from the later albums, but more recent albums just have more throwaway tracks, and Evisceration Plague is no exception. I do prefer the rougher production that the disappeared after “Tomb of the Mutilated”; producer Erik Rutan makes things sound just a bit too clear, although it’s not like this is the first CC album where that’s the case. As usual, Alex Webster’s bass is buried in the mix, which is a shame since he was so good with Blotted Science’s “The Machinations of Dementia.” Fans of the band will enjoy it, but newcomers should start with one of the Barnes-era albums.

Frate Cesare Official Website (Italian)

When I heard that there was a metal band fronted by a Capuchin monk, I was almost afraid to hear the result. This was because I was sure that there was no way that the music could possibly live up to the awesome premise. And guess what? I was right.

Friar Cesare Bonizzi is a 63-year old monk who fronts this band; he has recorded albums in various musical genres in the past. He puts in a pretty good performance; some of his screams are great. The lyrics are all in Italian, so I can’t understand them, although I’m familiar enough with Latin that I can tell that the lyrics to “Venere” are a hoot. It’s the rest of the band that’s the problem. They play some of the most generic European-style metal that I’ve heard in my life. It’s a shame that Friar Cesare Bonizzi couldn’t have found some better collaborators to work with; he’s pretty much the only memorable part of the record. Hopefully, he’ll have a better backing band if he decides to release another album in this style.