Utopia Platafórmica

Burning Strong “Here Until the End” (From Within Records, 2022) I came across this band not long ago, and again, it happened while browsing on YouTube. Burning Strong is a SXE Hardcore band from Pensacola, Florida, and have been around since 2019. Since then, they have released a Split (via Patient Zero Records), a Demo, and two Full-length albums, all on From Within Records (which reads quality in my book). “Here Until the End” was released last year, and it is a melodic thunderstorm of around 26 minutes, which is more than enough to smack you in the head and get your attention. The great thing about this release is the ability the band has, to merge melodic riffs with more aggressive vocals. And when I mean aggressive, I do not want you to imagine overly aggressive and furious vocals, but it is pretty neat when you get the vocal harmonies, or the acoustic guitar and the vocals pair up and it offers a very nice moment. The band has these moments that could have softened their musi...

A T H A N A S Y Doom Visions “The Sick Die by Sunrise” (La Casinha Records, 2022) Well, well, well. I like my Death/Doom like I like the first Anathema albums. That is what I call quality Death/Doom. Athanasy… I first started with their EP, and I can see now that the Full-length should have come first, at least in terms of understanding the journey they portray with their works. “The Sick Die by Sunrise” tells the final days of a dying man, confined to bed, alone with his thoughts and reservations. The idea of a final rest, the end of one’s life, a closure to the existence of a person. Musically speaking, I venture say they sound more classic Death/Doom here than in the EP. A more classical structure, perhaps, less Shoegazy, less “modern”. Nonetheless, all tracks sound amazing, and “Life Support Lullaby” has this addictive guitar riff that carries the listener, slowly, into his resting place. The whole LP revolves around the last days of a dying man, all his ups and downs, his chan...

Evilfeast “Mysteries of the Nocturnal Forest” (Eisenwald, 2018) It is not easy, in my modest opinion, to review a release like Evilfeast’s first Full-length. And why, you ask. Well, I have always looked at the project, and the project’s mentor - GrimSpirit - as very under looked and underrated. I have always looked at the project as a special entity. The music, the aura, everything around it. We look for honesty within the Black Metal circle/scene/universe, but many lack that quality. I have always looked at the project as having that honesty. The way Jakub Grzywacz crafts his pieces is a showcase of honesty and love for the artistic path he chose. In that sense, Evilfeast has always been looked at, by me, as this precious musical expression. “Mysteries of the Nocturnal Forest” is the band’s first album after the release of the Demo, “Thy Abhorrent Emerging”, in 2002. Two years later this masterpiece of 21 st Century Black Metal was released. Polish Black Metal has this grandiose ...

Sacrificio “Guerra Eterna” (Iron Bonehead Productions, 2016; Down With the Most High, 2022) Sacrificio was a 3-piece band that was put together by lads from Proclamation, Prophets of Doom, and Teitanblood. All these projects have given us enough quality material for us to expect excellency from this new entity. Do we get excellency? We might not get excellency, but we get a very good replica of early Black Thrash Metal, and that is fine by me. Hellhammer and Bathory are amongst the bands I consider essential in the creation, and development, of the Black Metal genre. They might not have been to most creative ones, but their ferocious and almost visceral approach to Music was more than enough to craft this so special genre. Plenty of bands have tried to emulate the sound of those special bands, those “Founding Fathers”, and many have been able to do so. Obviously, one will always feel that there is something missing, but we are still able to enjoy ourselves, and feel nostalgic. I di...

Arma-X Destrozando las calles de Madrid... y del Mundo Desde Madrid, para todo el Mundo: Arma-X. Tuve la enorme oportunidad de hablar con el chico por detrás de  Tambores de Guerra  y saber un poco más sobre Arma-X y la label. Ha sido un placer. Dejo la entrevista en su idioma original para que no se pierda información. Bienvenidos a Madrid! ¡Eh! En primer lugar, ¡enhorabuena por Tambores de Guerra, y como ha dinamizado la escena Hardcore madrileña! Muchos grupos excelentes han estado saliendo de esa escena. Esperando a que crucen la frontera occidental con España, porfa. Muchas gracias jajaja ¡Gracias a ti por invitarnos a hacer esta entrevista Daniel! Estamos muy contentos con cómo está evolucionando todo. El sello se siente que va a más, y lo mismo pasa con la escena y nuestras bandas. Cada vez aparece mucha más gente interesada en nuestros proyectos, organizarnos conciertos, etc. y eso me encanta. No es que haga nada de esto buscando la aprobación de nadie, pero adoro qu...

Metallica “The 72 Seasons Singles” (2023) When we mention Metallica and a new release in the same sentence, people get nervous. Some want to desperately listen to new music; others desperately want to badmouth the band. It is a Love/Hate relationship, I guess. I remember being young and loving Megadeth, and for that you would have to hate Metallica! Like you need to ignore one to prove you love the other. Childish things that, thankfully, some people are able to put behind. Musically speaking, I have to say that I honestly enjoyed the band’s last 2 releases. Are they Thrash Metal? Well, “Hardwire…” has some pretty aggressive tunes. But Metallica has not been a Thrash Metal band since the 80ies. And this is not badmouthing the band in any way. I do not consider “Metallica” to be a real Thrash Metal album. Yes, its name is not “Black Album”, people! Is it a cool album? Yeah. It was my gateway to Metallica, I still like it, and went to the Portuguese show that celebrated the album, bu...

  Kastiphas “Intense Bewitched Instinct” (Brazilian Ritual Records, 2022) The South American scene, especially the Extreme Metal scene, is populated with… extreme bands and extreme musicians. From Sarcofago to Mystifier, and the many more in between, the Brazilian scene in particular always had a tendency for the most abrasive fringes of Black Metal, and Kastiphas might be an exception. I only discovered the band today, so I have no background to support more than my opinion on this release, but I was expecting something in the line of the bands mentioned above and the Finnish scene (Beherit, Archgoat, etc.), and things are not that similar. The band is composed of 2 musicians: Ocvltvs Saatanallivs F.D.S.C.F. (vocals and drums) and Sado Baron Zsandor Kastiphas (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards). Sado Baron has a long record of involvement in the Underground scene in Brazil, in fact he did vocals for Beelzeebubth’s 2020 EP, “Saeculum Obscurum” (Mystifier’s main man), along with many...

Machine Head “Burn My Eyes” (Roadrunner Records, 1994) Well, dissecting an album, especially an old one, from such a renowned band, is always a hard task. Machine Head is a band I like a lot up until the “Burning Red”, an album that made plenty of fans drop to their knees and cry. The amount of backlash that the band got almost made people forget that Slayer released “Diabolus in Musica” … now think about that. Back to topic. Machine Head released their first, and probably best album, in 1994, via Roadrunner Records (that label that went on to spread the Nu-metal virus throughout the planet…). Groove might be the word that better describes the album, in my opinion. This is a Thrash record, no doubt; nonetheless, it has this stomping groove that is electrifying. Konto’s drumming plays a major role in that. The power, the attitude, the pace… everything about this album works perfectly. The band has not yet been able to top this release, in my opinion. Robb’s vocals have never sounded...

Noel Gallagher “Dead to the World” (Single, 2023) Those who know me, those who truly know, know my "relationship" with the Gallagher brothers. It began in the first half of the 90's and will continue until the day I die; it's like a wedding: there are good days and bad days. Moments of ecstatic joy, and flashes of tremendous sadness and betrayal. Curious. This brother was never my favorite. And that sounded a lot like a boy band fan. "Which of the 5 is your favorite?" For fuck’s sake, people. The 90s were a special decade. Many will say that it was one of the worst ever for music, I say it was one of the best, having as rival the 60s and 70s. The emergence of new currents, of experimentation, of risk... priceless. The 90s were also the explosion of the Manchester scene that had been concocting something since those 4 guys got together and created Joy Division. But... fast forward to 2009 and the end of Oasis. After a series of years, the Chief moves on t...

Diabolical Fullmoon “The Depths of the Slavic Land” (Total War / Medieval Prophecy Records, 2022) Poland has been, for years and years, a treasure in terms of good Black Metal. We are all very much aware of how the scene is composed - or at least at a certain moment in time - and all the controversy that exists within it. Politics aside, even if one must never forget about it, we have Music and a relatively young band: Diabolical Fullmoon. The band started out in 2020, with Leszy (instruments & voice) and Nott (lyrics). Clearly influenced by some of the most controversial bands from the Polish Black Metal scene, like Veles and Infernum, Diabolical Fullmoon encapsulate the atmosphere and the melodies that made both mentioned bands as good as they are. Slow to mid-pace, dark atmospheres, haunting vocals, rotten and raw production, this is how the band operates; an old sound, classical sound, dusty sound, as I like to call it. “The Depths of the Slavic Land” is a 9-minute homage t...