In what has to be one of the biggest downers ever, Ol Drake has decided to leave Evile. As lead guitarist, Ol Drake has helped mould Evile’s sound into something that is truly unique and helped the band stand out as something more than just a thrash-revival band.
The reason for Drake’s departure is an honest and simple one and one that many a touring band in this day and age can relate to:
“I’ve reached a point where I want a family/kids, a house, a steady and definite income and everything in between, and in regard to my personal preferences, a touring band’s income and uncertainties, in the state that I feel they would continue to be in, has become incompatible with how I feel and what I want/need.
There is no animosity between the rest of the band and I. This is purely a personal and financial decision I’ve been mulling over for a while and I wish them all the best for the future.”
It would appear that Evile are planning to continue without Drake but no announcement has been made as to who will replace him. UK Scumscene wishes both Ol Drake and Evile all the best for the future.
A full stream of The Safety Fire’s new album Mouth of Swords is now available. Click the video below to instantly put 45 minutes worth of tech metal into your ears:
Mouth of Swords is released on the 2nd of September through InsideOut Music. You can pre-order it now if you enjoy the stream that much.
Cleavers may well be on indefinite hiatus now but that doesn’t mean the garage punks haven’t got another release in their back pocket. Cleavers release a split record with The Kimberly Steaks in October and you can now check out the lyric video to Gradually Worse:
Pre-orders for the split will likely go live on Da Da Tunes soon.
A double dose of sludge and punk is now available to stream in the form of a new split release from War Wolf and Sob Story. Check it out below:
Pre-orders aren’t available yet but as soon as they are you should head over to Headless Guru Records and snag a copy. While you’re waiting you should probably pick up War Wolf’s phenominal debut EP Riding With Demons on translucent red vinyl. It looks gorgeous and it sounds evil; what more could you want?
This might be the most difficult review I’ve ever had to write because it’s amazingly frutstrating thinking of different ways to say ‘bland’, ‘generic’ and ‘boring’. If you haven’t already guessed I wasn’t too thrilled by Desolated’s Disorder of Mind and over its 5 tracks the EP did very little to make me think Desolated had any interesting ideas of their own.
Desolated make metalcore but they do it with the sort of metal-meets-hardcore swagger that bands like Hang the Bastard do so well. The difference is Desolated have hardly any melody on display and it’s because of this that the band end up churning out 5 very samey, very dull metalcore songs.
The band structure their songs like this: a constant, one-chord breakdown plays and each chord is punctuated with a bass-drum hit. Vocalist Paul Williams screams some words over everything and in between the one-chord breakdowns guitarist Rich Unsworth occasionally writes something that’s almost like a thrash metal riff. Every song on Disorder of Mind follows this pattern and the almost complete lack of melody and over-reliance on breakdowns makes it a tiresome experience.
The big issue I have with it is Unsworth proves he can write memorable guitar riffs as those small glimpses of thrash-metal are quite promising. Sadly it isn’t too long before we’re back in one chord territory. I can almost visualise the band posturing on stage and shouting at the audience to “open up this pit”. My face is thoroughly in my palms.
Desolated have worked themselves into a rut on Disorder of Mind. Because Williams relies on screaming, this EP needed some catchy riffs to give the listener something to sink their teeth into. What we get is breakdown after breakdown and it’s a repetitive and unvaried slog through music that wasn’t really made to be listened to. This is mosh music through and through and while that’s fine for the sort of audience Desolated are attracting in a live environment it doesn’t make for a compelling listen on record. If Unsworth moved away from the breakdowns and showcased exactly how good his riffs can be this EP could have been saved, but unfortunately we’ll have to wait until next time to see if that hope can become a reality.
Post hardcore/alt rockers New Alaska have made a 14 track collection of live demos, jams and scrapped songs available for free download.
The collection is called Boom Vaults and is available to download via the following link: CLICK HERE
New Alaska are currently in the process of working on their next EP. Their first EP Finer Lines of Tomorrow is still available to download and purchase on limited edition CD. New Alaska’s split with Chestnut Road is also available to pre-order from Speedowax Records now. The Chestnut Road split features 3 tracks from Finer Lines of Tomorrow.
Oh boy. Right, let’s address the elephant in the room; Die No More like Metallica. A lot. They also like the “Rock-tallica” era of the band’s career as well. I’m telling you this because Die No More’s Blueprint EP takes so many cues from everything Metallica have done since The Black Album that I dare say the band are ripping them off.
I don’t want to label a band a straight rip-off and Die No More could’ve gotten away with simply being a decent heavy metal band, but vocalist and rhythm guitarist Marc Farquhar adds some rather Hetfield-esque inflections to his vocals and it means his band aren’t going to escape the Metallica comparison any time soon. Nightmares is so painfully close to Metallica’s signature sound (just listen to those woahs) that you could easily mistake it for a Metallica b-side.
This is a massive shame as well because Die No More have chops. The songs on Blueprint are full of great riffs and melodies that showcase the band’s superb song writing. The real shining light comes in the form of lead guitarist Kev Smith who pulls off some incredible solos. My jaw was on the floor when the Council of War solo kicked into gear. Mr Smith is an extremely talented guitarist who I can see making a big name for himself in the future. Watch this space.
But as mentioned before, Die No More sound far too close to the band they’re clearly the most influenced by. Everyone likes to pay tribute to their heroes but Die No More are just too close in style to Metallica to justify being a different band. There isn’t much the band need to do in order to differentiate themselves either. If Farquhar just tweaked his vocals in a way that made him sound more like himself then Die No More would instantly avoid the Metallica comparison, but as the band are now they simply won’t avoid being labelled a rip-off and that’s a damn shame as Blueprint showcases a huge amount of potential.
6/10
Die No More’s Blueprint EP is released digitally on the 9th of September.
Dark Stares are a 4 piece hard rock band from St Albans who enjoy dirty riffs and big grooves. Octopon marks the 2nd release from the band and it’s a wonderfully accessible and catchy EP that isn’t afraid to get its rocks off.
The EP begins with the huge stomp of Bad Machine. The guitar work by Miles Howell and Harry Collins is wonderfully quirky yet heavy and is reminiscent of Rated R-era Queens of the Stone Age. Howell also takes the reigns on vocal duty and does a brilliant job of creating fantastic melodies and delivering them with a smooth, almost sultry croon that also makes me think this man has a thing for Mr. Josh Homme.
Octopon is in no rush to blast the listener with high-speed tempos and an over-abundance of technicality. This is a straight-forward, rock record that finds its comfort zone and sticks with it. This does mean that the formula of fat guitar grooves and catchy vocal melodies is rarely messed with, but it does mean that over the four tracks available you get a solid, well rounded experience.
The whole thing is also presented with a wonderful production job which makes every chord sound enormous, every bass-beat as chunky as possible and the drum work sound like it was being performed by a body builder. There’s a lovely little megaphone tinge to Howell’s vocals which also adds some texture to his performance.
Dark Stares’ Octopon is an EP that doesn’t diverge from its path and delivers a robust, hard rocking set of songs. You may well have the band sussed by the end of the first song, but thankfully Octopon is loaded with more than just one great rock tune. You can forgive a band for being formulaic when their music is a monolithic as this.
8/10
Dark Stares’ Octopon is available to buy from iTunes now.
I am perplexed as to how metalcore has managed to have so much mileage. Isn’t everyone sick of double bass drumming, one-chord guitar work and vocals which are screamed in the verses and sung in the choruses? Didn’t Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine and Bring Me The Horizon and 36 Crazyfists and As I Lay Dying and the hundreds upon hundreds of metalcore bands that have been and gone over the last 15 years or so already satisfy everyone that cares about this genre?
Enter All to Ruin who make metalcore with double bass drumming and one-chord guitar work and have verses with screamy bits and choruses with sung bits. Sigh. The thing with metalcore is we’ve all heard this style of music done so many times before with varying degrees of success, so if you’re a metalcore band in this day and age then you better have something memorable to your name or you’ll end up trampled under the feet of every easily distracted music fan looking for the “next big thing”.
So what about All to Ruin’s Parables EP then? Surprisingly it almost delivers a memorable metalcore release that fans of the genre will enjoy, but there’s no denying it doesn’t suffer from sounding like something we’ve all heard before in an incredibly over-saturated market.
The big pull on this EP is the vocal work from Aaron Roberts which is extremely powerful. The man has a great set of pipes on him that helps deliver some massive choruses and his screaming is natural and flows into the sung sections effortlessly.
The guitar work actually delivers a few surprises as well. The leads are impressively melodic and their delivery is nothing but exemplary throughout. The King is Dead brings the strongest lead with it and it’s a stunning performance that the band should be hugely proud of.
All to Ruin’s Parables is a decent slab of metalcore loaded with big choruses. It’s also an EP that can’t escape the confines of a genre that is predictable and overpopulated. There’s plenty of talent in the All to Ruin camp, but they really need to break out of metalcore shackles and explore some new ideas if they want to be identified as themselves and not just another Killswitch Engage.
5/10
All to Ruin’s Parables EP is released digitally on the 23rd of September.
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