Here's your weekly breakdown of the free Bandcamp releases that caught my attention:
Demon's Bell - Demon's Bell EP
(https://demonsbell.bandcamp.com/album/demons-bell-ep-2016)
Heavy metal is a tradition, and for every band that's pushing at the edges of what's accepted, there's another celebrating and reliving metal golden days of the 1980s. Demon's Bell is such a band. Armed with classic riffs, old-fashioned speed, and a vocalist with a King Diamond-esque croon (and wail), Demon's Bell hearken back to the days when songs called "Hell's Eternal Wheels" still made parents recoil in terror, devil horns weren't a sick joke at a Creed concert, and heavy metal was still deeply rooted in rock n roll. Their riffs are crisp and quick, recapturing the head-bobbing quality that nearly every variety of metal has lost since NWOBHM faded away. The songwriting techniques perfectly emulate the glory years of bands like Mercyful Fate and Iron Maiden, delivering that delightful mix of nostalgia and high-quality metal music you can't help enjoying, even if you (like me) were born too late to have lived them.
Recommended.
Grimirg - Night Be My Grave
(https://grimirg.bandcamp.com/album/night-be-my-grave)
Night Be My Grave is slow, elegant, and sorrowful. Making careful use of baleful guitars, atmospheric synths, sparse drums, and the contrast between Aki Klemm's low, throaty growl and M. Vänskä's operatic soprano, Grimirg craft an exceptional work of haunting funeral doom metal. The tight, minimal compositions demonstrate Grimirg's musical mastery and ability to create a forlorn atmosphere without relying on theatricality or gimmickry. These are lengthy, sedate songs, but they hold your attention, like the slow steps of pallbearers carrying an ornate coffin to its final resting place. They're also heavy as a stone crypt and desolate as the dry bones it contains.
Highly Recommended.
Leviathan Cross - Demo
(https://leviathancross.bandcamp.com/album/demo)
"This town will be ours!" bellows Leviathan Cross's James Herrholz on "Delusions." It's an apt summation of the brashness and boldness of this Florida band's debut demo, a record that takes the sludgy hard rock aggression of bands like Mastodon or Baroness and injects it with occult spookiness. Not that esoteric doom or stoner metal is some sort of novelty; Leviathan Cross simply take what bands have been writing about since the dawn of doom and add a healthy helping of stoner rock's crossover appeal and sense of fun. These tracks are anthemic, energetic, and full of groovy chugs and rolls. They're an invitation to headbang. Honestly, for a band with a professed interest in the macabre, they might be too fun.
Recommended.
