Cauldron's Frequent Cover of a Classic Venom Track...

Post # 396 

Back in 2013, I heard Cauldron perform this track at Orion Music + More 2013. By the time I found this Bandcamp link the limited edition vinyl was sold out. However you can still stream their cover at the link below!

Shield Of Wings - Unfinished (2022)

 Post #395

It's been a while since I reviewed Shield of Wings on this blog. Their first recording, the EP Solarium, was released in 2011. I reviewed a concert they played in August of that year, and have been following them since then. 

I was pleasantly surprised to hear their announcement of a new, full-length album, Unfinished. I was instantly curious to hear how they sound on this new material. Guitarist and main songwriter, James Gregor, and fellow founding member Patrick Eulitz (drums), have recruited a new lineup, featuring Aliyah Daye on keyboards and backing vocals, Alex Luke on bass guitar, and Lara Mordian on lead vocals. My first exposure to any of the new music was their music video for the first single, "Wetland". After that experience, I was eager to hear more. Their overall sound and style of symphonic metal sounds complete, fresh, and epic! Beyond that, the recording reverberates with top-notch production. Every instrument can be heard crisp and clear.

To reference a couple established bands in the symphonic metal genre, I'd compare Lara's vocal style to Epica's Simone Simons. Lara uses a smooth blending of head-voice and chest-voice throughout most songs. Aliyah adds backing vocals in styles ranging from melodic harmonies to death growls. While this may seem stylistically similar to Epica as well, Shield of Wings doesn't implement the harsher vocal style as prominently. Theirs is a primarily melodic, operatic style of vocals with a small peppering of death growls, and only in a fraction of their songs.

Musically their formula sounds close to mid-era Nightwish, as they use heavy guitars, and synthesized symphonic and folk elements to navigate the mood of each piece. Patrick Eulitz could practically be channeling Nightwish's Jukka Nevalainen, he's so precise with the rapid, double-bass drums, and keeping a tight and powerful rhythm through the heavy moments of the music. Nearly every track incorporates multiple elements, with segments that shift from dark heavy tones, to light operatic phrases and back again. Tempos ramp up to furious paces, only to calm again and build the contrast further. Yet every transition flows so seamlessly, they sound like they've been in this field for years, if not decades.

On the track "Cedar", they introduce elements of folk and Celtic music, with a wide array of instruments to match. Heavy guitars and symphonic elements join in, and make this song an immersing musical experience. It's one of my favorite track on the album.

The closing track, "The Scarred Clay Reshaping" is the crowning jewel. The longest track at seven and a half minutes, and lyrics that bring the album full circle, even referencing their early EP in the chorus: "Unfinished solarium, one more cut of the seeker's tongue." Themes of life, struggle, despair and rebirth abound throughout the album, but culminate in the closing lyric: "Ode to the scarred clay reshaping, ode to the ever-flowing river!"

Prepare to be transfixed... Here is the video for "Wetland":

The overall lyrical composition of this album is truly soul-searching, with themes about attainment on levels both personal and existential. Every element of this album, from the music, instrumentation, lyrics, direction, production, mixing, and performance is truly top-notch. Unfinished is, without question, my favorite symphonic metal album since Nightwish's masterpiece Once. If you have even the slightest appreciation for the symphonic metal genre, you owe it to yourself to listen to these songs. Blending beauty and aggression so seamlessly, I feel Shield Of Wings have a bright future ahead. 

Recommended tracks from Unfinished:

-Crushing Hail (another incredible music video, with lyrics as as well!)

-Frozen Harbor (favorite lyric: "Too old to write of innocence, too young to write of wisdom.")

-Cedar (as mentioned previously, this is the 'folk-symphonic-metal' track!)

-Wetland

-Mind of Myth (A favorite lyric from this one: "If I do Not Die How Will I be Reborn?")

-The Scarred Clay Reshaping

(advance digital review copy provided by James Gregor and Shield of Wings)

Shield of Wings' music is available on several platforms, such as...

Bandcamp

Amazon Music

Spotify

Stream, Download, or Order a CD copy today!

*Unfinished is scheduled for release on February 11th, 2022.

Tetrarch-Unstable (2021)

 Post #394

In 2021, Tetrarch released Unstable, their follow-up to 2017's Freak, and on this release the band show much consistency and growth as they tighten their grip on their trademark sound. They also continue to impress with their music videos, of which they now have for 4 different tracks from Unstable.

Unstable opens with "I'm Not Right", a blisteringly heavy number that picks up right where Freak left off without missing a beat! This is also one of the 4 official music videos I mentioned. I will link to a couple of those at the end of this post.

While Tetrarch are great at writing those fast-paced shred-fest hardcore songs, they also deliver quite a few songs with a more moderate tempo on this album. "You Never Listen" is one of those songs. It's still quite heavy, don't get me wrong, but they can switch up their delivery as good as any band out there.

One of my favorite elements of heavy metal music has always been guitar solos. While most of the time you can hear Diamond Rowe's lead guitar reverberating in the background throughout most of their songs- again channeling an eerie mood-setting vibe in a style similar to Korn, there are several songs here where she shows off her chops with some shredding guitar solos. Check out the tracks "Sick of You", "Addicted", or "Pushed Down" for some of her best soloing techniques. If I'd compare her style to a well-known guitarist, I'd pick a late-era Dimebag Darrell. Keep on shredding Diamond!

Not to leave behind another element of metalcore, blast-beat drumming, you should really hear the song "Take a Look Inside". Staccato power chords mirror the driving beat of the bass drums and bass guitar in this song. Their drummer, Ruban Limas' technical skills cannot be questioned after hearing this one! If I have any song to compare this one to, it might be "Primal Concrete Sledge" by Pantera. I love the powerful, relentless groove it gives!

Lastly I'll mention the closing number, "Trust Me", which is a bit of a departure from the rest of the tracks, in that is slows the tempo way down, and projects dark and ominous moods. This gothic alt-metal brilliance in its own right, and the drummer drives the rhythm mainly with loud cymbal crashes throughout, almost like Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", but slower and heavier.

Recommended tracks from Unstable:

-I'm Not Right

-You Never Listen

-Sick of You

-Stitch Me Up

-Pushed Down (this one has a chorus that just begs to become an anthem: "We are the psychos, the untouchables!")

Now for those promised music videos, but first, you should be sure you check out Tetrarch's Youtube channel and subscribe so you don't miss out on their next awesome video!

Here are their videos for "I'm Not Right" and "Stitch Me Up"

Tetrarch-Freak (2017)

 Post #393

Tetrarch spent their time from 2013 to 2017 relocating (they moved from Georgia to L.A.) and also reinventing themselves. Their early EPs might have fallen comfortably inside the 'metalcore' subgenre, but by the time they dropped Freak it was clear they'd discovered a new calling and were headed in a  new direction...

The album opens with the title track, "Freak"- an aggressive hardcore song that puts some of their new formula on display. Diamond Rowe's guitar leads emulate an eerie vibe that seems to channel Korn's Brian 'Head' Welch. Vocalist Josh Fore pours forth emotion with ever line. His voice could be compared to Chester Bennington when singing melodically,  or Corey Taylor when screaming. If this sounds like a promising formula of sounds for a metal-head, that's because it is! Plus you have to love the bridge lyric: "In the darkness the strange becomes ordinary..."

The next track, "Spit", takes them a step closer to Korn-esque alt-metal, as Fore employs new inflections in his vocal delivery, bringing comparisons to Jonathan Davis to mind. However, as the 3rd track, "Pull the Trigger" unfurls, we are once again blown away with an assault of aggressive metal. 

The rest of the album continues in this fashion, swaying back and forth between hardcore, brutal metal riffs, and eerie, haunting melodies. Drums and bass that bludgeon the senses relentlessly, guitars that can shred in one moment and entice the mind the next, and a masterful blend of melodic and hardcore vocals, this band gives us a great metal album with Freak. If you crave this blending of angst and aggression, then please do yourself the favor of checking out this band!

Their Music video for the title track:

Other recommended tracks from Freak:

-Pull the Trigger

-Oddity

-Break the Trend* (this is a personal favorite- very close in style to their previous metalcore/thrash sound)

-Torn Apart (a little softer sound on this closing track, but still very dark in the pictures painted both in sound and lyrics)

Watch for my review of their new album Unstable coming soon!