I thought it would be fun and hopefully interesting to take
a look, from time to time, at metal from all around the world. Lately, we have
received quite a few promos from India, which makes sense. A country
with over a billion citizens probably has enough fans of any genre you can name
to have some quality performers. Let's look at a couple of bands the do the
death metal thing.
Chronic Xorn have been around long enough to release three
albums. This one, titled “For These Sins Who Must Die”, is their third and has
been out since December of last year. These gents play a form of metal often
referred to as deathcore. For some odd reason, those who are “trve” and “kvlt”
treat deathcore with a lot of derision, and for those who are not terribly
familiar with the code of metal, claiming to be a fan of deathcore is akin to
standing on a street corner with a megaphone proclaiming your undying love for
the presidency of Donald Trump.
I, however, think deathcore is pretty swell, and I love the
fact that a band can be brutal but also have some catchy and melodic stuff in
their music. And breakdowns too. Nothing wrong with breakdowns. Chronic Xorn
have some really well written and played music and they do this sub-genre
really well. The lyrical theme is the commoners who are suppressed by the
“reign of a corrupt helm”. I think we can all relate to that. Good, solid music
with some surprising twists and turns, so its not all just a paint by numbers
approach to everything you've heard before in the genre. It might take a little
looking to find this one, as it is self-released, but I promise you will dig
it.
Killibrium, on the other hand, bring the death metal more in
the meat and potatoes style of Cannibal Corpse, with a little technicality
thrown in. I really like this album, which is called “Purge”. If you know the
movie franchise of the same name, this could very well be the soundtrack to
those movies. This is a newer band and this is their first release. This is
also brutal and crushing and very, very good.
Two songs especially stand out for me. “Denominator” starts
out slow and menacing and then pushes into full on furious death metal, with
all the tempo changes and rhythmic mayhem that we all love from this genre.
“Mental Illusions” starts off with about 10 seconds that just gets your head
nodding at one speed, then they double the BPM's and all hell breaks loose.
That sudden tempo shift and change in riff just about put me in traction, but I
think I'll be back to full speed headbanging soon. I loved it so much that I
listened to the song 3 more times and it still gets me. This one is also
self-released so you might have to put some effort into finding it, but you
efforts will be well rewarded.
Just remember, kids, when you are thinking of metal, its not
just in North America or Europe that you will
find the goodies. Keep your ears open and search the globe, there is good
quality metal to be found everywhere.
-ODIN
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