UPON SHADOWS - New single Coming up this April! (exclusive)

New single from the extreme symphonic dark metal duo Upon Shadows Coming This April!

New updates and posts can be found @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Upon-Shadows/128947133826217

Here is a video and a small sample of the sounds of Upon Shadows at facebook, reverbnation and MorbidFenris their personal youtube account!

This message is brought to you by, Upon Shadows!!!! \m/ please pass this URL around, thank you. - Danny owner of TF ZINE

Nekropsy / Spiritus "Death Arrival" Split (review for AEA Zine)

Well, its been quite awhile since I sat down and got a chance to review something. Been too damn long because this album I am listening to now is kicking my ass!!!

Nekropsy is a very loud, very determined one man project that hails from Chicago Illinois USA with a brash assault of wicked death metal vocals, guitar work and blistering drum/bass back up punishment. The quality is tight sounding, mind numbing, and retard strength inducing. The main man behind this project Frank Garcia tries to make it come off as a very flashy technical death metal band but it really is not and is more about the revival of old school death metal I personally think. A+ for the revival, B+ for the direction these songs are heading. The tracks are filled with very lively solos, growling vocals in the vain of Brutal Truth and also has some thrashier elements such as Nuclear Assault but the vocals are completely and only deathly to be found.

Relentless and grinding unstoppable riffs mixed with a very upfront and personal glimpse into what death metal represents and what he personally thinks of society in general, this is what the main concept of all the songs, is all about. All the negativity and bad aspects of this world are all mixed up into a big tsunami wave that is Nekropsy, instantly destroying all that is in its path. Did I say it has excellent production sound? By jolly freaking doo it sure does, and I love it. I cant wait to hear more from this mad man Frank Garcia (aka backing vox and guitar in Waking Chaos) and delve into more hideous sounds like Bed of Nails, and Dawn Of The Explosions. Deff a keeper in a death metal fans collection, as I am a huge one myself. Keep up the awesome and grinding work, Frank.

p.s. only 40 LIMITED copies of this Split have been pressed so I am pretty darn happy to have one!!!

Next up on the split album is a little unknown band from the UK called Spiritus that are also in the mists of making black metal total warfare, all over their own tunes. I am indeed a HUGE black metal man, and do play the music but it does not neccesarily label me as the death vs black metal type of guy. Both bands fit well with each other actually, and that is what split albums are all about, strutting your stuff to one another! But having a good time of course.

The first track is very old school sounding as well but in a black metal sense with vocals that sound a lot like old school celtic frost but with a megaphone in front of the singers mouth. The music overall is something to deff enjoy as it is another band with another revival of the sorts with the old edge sound but adding there own twist and turns within it. Once again, A+ for the revival, B+ for what direction their heading in. I am not totally sure if its a one man project, but not alot of info online is telling me different, so I shall consider it as so. Wait, looking at the artwork, and yes, another one man project. Now arent we full of surprises???

With the flesh torn and the bones bare, the sound is melancholy, serene, revealing, and riveting. The way black metal should be. The songs At War, and Angels Bidding is a circus of riffs and blackened melodies, all heavy and all pure evil. Frozen In Time is very focused, like Nekropsy in a way but very mysterious and comforting to me. I can just sit down and listen to it on repeat forever. The song is one of my favorites off the split next to Nekropsys Bed of Nails. The band has a lot going for them quality wise and have a lot of potential in the underground scene to become one of those next big bands to arrive, but I would prefer if they kept the underground alive opposed to working against it. The last tune DIE is a barrage of screams, whimpers, riffs and cries, the track is significant in a sense that its the last tune of the split cd and what you just heard is the equivalent of death itself. Keep up the good work Spiritus, you are a deff keeper in my black metal collection as well.

If you wish to purchase this album if their is copies still available, I suggest you contact Frank or Spiritus at these links please, every band needs help now and then and this is the best way to go about it, getting their cd and showing your support to the bands themselves. That is the golden ticket! Thanks for making this album guys and if any more new material arises, be sure to let me know about it and I ll make a exclusive about it.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nekropsy/51557640073
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spiritus/169404613110827

Anachronaeon - The Ethernal Throne (Review by Stephen Latimer)

I was glad to find out about two tracks into this masterwork that Anachronaeon are in fact from Sweden. At the start of Mary, I was saying to myself this will be an epic American take on Scandinavian Metal, but in fact it truly is Scandinavian Metal, and is littered with several flavors of the scene. In just what I’ve been exposed to, I hear several of the following. Trial this simply as you would the back of a wine bottle, or if your American, the contents of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s:
Emperor:-Prometheus
Mayhem-Chimaira
Deicide- One Upon the Cross
Marduk- World Funeral & Panzer Division Marduk
Enslaved- Below the Lights
Opeth-….just pick one from the last 12 years…’nuff said!
Vocally styled like Amon Amarth

DISCLAIMER! IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM DOES THIS ALBUM SOUND LIKE, OR EVEN COMPARE TO ANY OF THE MENTION ALBUMS ABOVE! These are just flavorful notes that I, the author, can compare some similarities. This album can easily stand alone on its own merits of prestigious valor. This is a quick review based on a one time listen, while examining the lyrics (a must, to fully understand). At first I was afraid this was going to be a Christian Metal album, and slightly questioned the source of recommendation (Not that I care what an artists preferred faith is, just wasn’t expecting that caliber without fair warning). To my ecstatic surprise, it hit closer to home, and turns into an enticing psychological thriller. The protagonist of the story is on a schizophrenic trip under directions of the divine, franticly slaying with blessings above. In graphic detail, these events are painted in seaman and blood. This ends up in estrange fashion similar to the movie “Identity” without giving too much. It’s just something you must experience yourself. 

As for the sonic assault, I’ve already mention some flavorful notes. But as a little better detail, this is a cacophony of complexity. There are everything from 70’s arena rock solos, to bombastic black metal of the 80’s, to the shrilling riffs of 90’s black metal. But bar none, the saturation of death metal is practically homage to most of the history of the genre. The riffage of the Florida scene shines alongside the Swedish melodic forefathers. Technicality blisters along with brutality, and all is blended progressively along in a vocal style compared to Amon Amarth. The music is a jet and onyx in value and beauty. The story is fabulous, as is the vocals. A must have album for anyone that’s into Death, or Black….or Prog, or Technical…or even some Doom. Honestly, only those strictly into punk or grindcore may have a problem with this album, but if most metalhead’s are like this author, they’re willing to venture out. Also, some may have a hard time to get into another melodic Swedish band, but should be given a try with is heavy notes of black.

https://www.facebook.com/Anachronaeon

Hoyland-Dreams within a Dream (Review by Stephen Latimer)

So this is a different way I’m doing a review. I’m listening and commenting as I go. This E.P. starts off with a track called “Celestial”. Clocks in just under 4 minutes, and is a promising instermental intro that is filled with long, deep (and clean/clear production) layered with some female Gregorian chants that is nothing short of a Tolkien ecstasy; all ambient and ethereal.
Staring on the longer “Journeyman”, a repetitive pattern scales back and forth across a few octaves melodically eases in the nocturnalscape. A vivid image of gliding through the cosmos shines beyond hope, like nebular facades surrounded by rays of darkness. A violin is heard midway through the intro, and loops back to the “octavated” lullaby. Bringing in the long stretch, another lute (a cello, perhaps?) adds something almost cliché, however deeper emotion. This track seriously glistens the beauty of the night and of darkness as a whole. Through the darkness, it illuminates the bullshit shadows of the light.
A more haunting intro transcends in the first few seconds of the title track, suggestive that something extraterrestrial is lingering in the dark hopes of man. Something that is desired, yet feared; similar to the meaning of these velvety dreams that we dream. Scarcely exotic is the somber tune, culminating the idea that possibly dreams are no more than an outer body, even an outer dimensional, experience. This bravado interpretation through this babbled audio language is only my deepest conclusions, but surely considering the subject matter, muse to author are probably on probable terms .
A deathly organ fills the aura with dank audacity mid song, that is followed closely to the end with evermore chants and slow bass plucks until the end. After only a split moment to breath, its on to the next track “Season of the Fall” beckons an awakening in heathen fodder. Almost a melancholy experience to leave this realm of enjoyment, but cannot ignore the shattering beauty of sunrays through thicken woods to truly arouse the stark realities of a dreadful world; like the wrath and lust of a woman, joy and sorrow of labors, treasures and debts of comradery.
I want to say, or I should hope, the ending track “Cthulhu Rising”, is a sense that when we face the Reaper and pay the Piper, it will be a never-ending dream. A queue of dread and frightfulness is hinted in the melody, almost a juxtaposition of the previous song (A fear of dying as opposed to a fright to awaken). However, I’m doubtful that is the intent of this track. Though the format is similar to other parts of this album, and blends well with the others…a part of this actually seems to resonate to a different idea almost all together, perhaps a concept to be dealt with a future release. Regardless, the damnation of the intro is breath taking to say the least, as it resembled those tones of what entering the first few realms of hell may sound like.
Overall, this album starts out in a mode where everything is fantastical and mythical, and turns to the truths of mankind in an equal amazement; however ends up in sheer gloom as the realization the nothing is forever. A startling album, that literally only took less that an hour to venture through, that lead through some emotions I though only possible through archaic orchestration. A fine diamond hidden in a heap of coal! This is a journey I wish to visit again, hopefully with my head rested on a well fluffed pillow with a cool breeze to wash me away in lucidity!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoyland/279760546182