Sliptrick Records

Kill All The Gentlemen, Black Canvas (Sliptrick Records 2022)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

The sophomore album from Kill All The Gentlemen is a crunching, thumping metalfest: Black Canvas.

The Loss and the Rapture (2018) was the first long-player from the UK death metal band Kill All The Gentlemen, following a couple of EPs in the preceding years. I have seen their music labeled in the “melodic” category but they sound pretty loud to me. There are complex passages along with pace and tone changes along the way, but this is mainly head-thumping metal. The band is Adam Martin (vocals, guitar), Ben Andrew (bass), Mikey Precious (guitar), and Thomas Arne Rørstad (drums).

There is an intro piece at the top and eight tracks following. “Claw Marks” is the first punch to face – it is a ragged crank with a rusty hammer that does indeed have a hook in there to go with the blazing percussion and gruff vocals. You hear that song and you’re glad you’re at the show. “Eyes For Medusa” has some of the same elements, but it also contains clean vocals in places and beautiful lyrical ideas. Hot on its heels is “Snakes,” and that one is an all-out attack. It is definitely one of my favorite tracks of the set.

Every song has something about it that makes it memorable, from the reflective middle of “Giving Gets You Nothing” to the relentless sodden allegations of “Doomsayer.” There are no low or slow moments anywhere on the album. The final flourish is “Death Black.” It is a chunky avalanche of metal notions and with caustic dressings hung around for good measure.

Kill All The Gentlemen will surprise you. There is a good chance their music will not be what you expect. There is an even better chance that you will like it so much you’ll remember their name. Recommended.

Black Canvas is out now through Sliptrick Records. Touch the links below.

Links.

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/killallthegentlemen

Sliptrick Records, https://sliptrickrecords.com/

Kill All The Gentlemen, Black Canvas (Sliptrick Records 2022)

Gods Of Decay, Collective Psychosis (Sliptrick Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , , , ,

Tokyo-based metal band Gods of Decay release their first full-length album, Collective Psychosis.

The musicians in the band are listed as Anna (vocals), Frost (guitar), and Yorke (bass). Regarding the new album, Anna remarks: “On this album we scattered a myriad of shards of meaningfulness lost in the abyss of absurdity of our day and age. We hid them with metaphors and double entendre and we hope that our listeners enjoy the ‘treasure hunt’ on their journey through the mesmerizingly sinister spaces that make up the world of Gods Of Decay. Seek, and ye shall find.” That tells you a little something about the band, too. The music is a modern metal amalgam.

Listening to these songs in order is like walking down the aisles of a flea market in an aging armory – there are all sorts here. “Self-Castigation” is a club music intro. In “Collective Psychosis” you can really feel the mental state fray as the song progresses. The vocal harmony, which gets regular use on the album, is a deep enhancement. “Metamorphosis” has a great groovy riff and a somewhat squealy vocal. There’s that harmony again in there, too. “Plague” starts on a rolly-polly riff with a sting plus a shock vocal. After the bracer, clean vocals propel the story on. And then the very next track is something else entirely, and on and on.

Different looks; different takes. According to the band, that is the conscious intention. Some of the music reminds me of a smoother version of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black but with considerably more polish and far greater detail in its assertions. There is a center to all of this that the galactic material orbits. You can hear it in every song. No matter how different one is to the next, you can feel that gravitational pull towards the essence of the band. That is where the cohesion comes from and why I recommend this album. It is heavy and delightfully variegated throughout.

Collective Psychosis is out now from Sliptrick Records. Give it a spin.

Links.

Website, https://www.godsofdecay.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/godsofdecay

Sliptrick Records, https://sliptrickrecords.com/gods-of-decay/

Gods Of Decay, Collective Psychosis (Sliptrick Records 2021)

Frau Fleischer, When The Sun’s Down (Sliptrick Records 2021)

Wayne Edwards, , , , , ,

French industrial cabaret metal band Frau Fleischer turn the world up a notch on their new album, When The Sun’s Down.

The band is made up of Gabriel Daimon (vocals), Greg Lambert (guitar), and Franz Schultz (electronics) . The core of the music is industrial dance metal, but it branches out in all manner of directions from there, most interestingly, as far as I am concerned, toward the cabaret. When The Sun’s Down is their first album.

The band describes their musical intentions, in part, this way, “Like the sound of a steak thrown heavily on a white canvas, we must bleed out the darkness to reach the dancing floor and, together with you, transform this pain into our own powerful cry.”

There are nine rambunctious tracks on the album, every one filled with hypnotic hyper-energy. “Sacrifice” is the first crack in the assault on all that is. Clearly, this is snarling dance music – a club take on industrial metal that channels the ethereal spirit of Soft Cell. Catchy, insistent, repetitive in exactly the intended way, the music is designed to make you move.

The addition of a strong theatrical element to the compositions is a significant innovation. Without it, Frau Fleischer might blend in with the many others trying to attract attention. As it is, this band stands out for their ingenuity in combinatorics and for the confident beauty of their presentations. I am attracted to the guitars and the harsh aspects of the industrial elements. And the vocals, too, as in the fashionably rolling “Holy Crown” and also in the somewhat more mechanical “Bloody Curls.” The different tones and takes provide a warming friction.

Frau Fleischer is outside my musical comfort zone and I didn’t know what to expect from the music going in. What I heard made me want to know more. Recommended.

When The Sun’s Down is out now from Sliptrick Records. Poke around the links below and you will find what you are looking for.

Links.

Website, http://fraufleischerband.fr/

Bandcamp, https://fraufleischerband.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/fraufleischerbandofficial/

Sliptrick Records, https://sliptrickrecords.com/

Frau Fleischer, When The Sun’s Down (Sliptrick Records 2021)