ALBUM REVIEW: Xenotaph – Fallujah

ALBUM REVIEW: Xenotaph – Fallujah


Despite suffering a myriad of changing personnel over their near two-decade career, it’s remarkable that FALLUJAH remain at the summit of technical and progressive death metal. The San Francisco-based band’s blend of intricate and visceral tech death alongside serene atmospherics is a match made in heaven that has been more refined with each subsequent release. 2022’s Empyrean saw a welcome return to form after 2019’s divisive Undying Light, album number six Xenotaph sees FALLUJAH ascend to a height previously thought unfathomable.



Largely, this down to the brave, organic, and effortlessly natural evolution of the FALLUJAH soundscape, spearheaded by vocalist Kyle Schaefer, who consistently impresses with a wide and dynamic vocal range throughout the record. From sultry opener In Stars We Drown, that gives the first glimpse into the band’s new and expanded palette, through to the alluring chorus in Labyrinth Of Stone, a track which ebbs and flows from blistering technicality to reflective passages, leading from the front in a career defining studio performance, Schaefer‘s ability to twist and contort vocally helps drive the record’s lasting impact across its lean 42 minute run time.



It’s not just vocally where we’ve seen an expansion of the band’s greatest traits. Musically, Xenotaph is a bountiful buffet of atmospheric heavy tech death. Kaleidoscope Waves boasts a passage of play where guitarist – and sole original member – Scott Carstairs leads a jazz-fusion dance of elaborate technicality which will have you desperate to hit the replay button. Similarly, the way in which The Crystalline Veil allows each component of the band’s makeup to shine is incredibly slick and the elaborate musicianship is quite simply, a joy to listen to.


But, where Xenotaph really excels in the way in the band take each individual component and present it as one exhilarating cohesive listening experience. The way in the band demonstrate their multifaceted personas is quite simply, astonishing, and when it unleashes, it packs the force of a tsunami. Take Step Through the Portal and Breathe, for example. A staggering piece of brilliance, the way in which the band twist and contort their musical maelstrom whilst maintaining pinpoint precision is devastatingly brilliant and it’s closing solo is nothing short of stunning. Elsewhere, A Parasitic Dream duels and dances against a dizzying amount of shred and it’s supporting atmosphere is wholly immersive, whereas The Obsidian Architect has enough ferocity and technical shred that feels akin to 2011’s The Harvest Wombs.
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At this point, we’re wondering just how far FALLUJAH can ascend to, as their trajectory and musical craft is in a league of its own. Building upon the renewed sense of purpose achieved through Empyrean, Xenotaph sees the San Francisco natives at their creative zenith, delivering a record that sets the benchmark for technical death metal in 2025 and beyond.

Rating: 9/10



Xenotaph is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.

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LANDMVRKS: The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been

Assembling the dismembered limbs of their single, Creature, well over a year before beginning the production of their latest record, the members of French metalcore collective LANDMVRKS realised that in order to create life, it needed to meet its maker. The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is an album that embodies the damaging spiral of mental health, whilst putting yourself into your art becomes as much of a struggle as it is an enduring strength.



“We had a bit of time off, but it wasn’t enough.” Bassist Rudy Purkat explains on a video call with guitarist Paul ‘C Wilson’ Cordebard. On a much-needed day in the sun away from their US tour, the pair are lounging in a lakeside Airbnb somewhere between North Carolina and Virginia. Alongside vocalist Florent Salfati, guitarist Nicolas Exposito and drummer Kévin D’Agostino, they are a long way from their Marseille home. Since the release of 2021’s Lost In The Wave, they’ve rarely had a moment away from the band.



As the band were touring for much of the production for their latest record, The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been was mostly made on the road using their own “carry on” recording station, with parts of the album coming together anywhere they could – in the US, in Europe, and even ten minutes before going on stage.

Taking advantage of every opportune moment possible was key to its creation, including their feature with Matt Welsh from WHILE SHE SLEEPS for their track A Line In The Dust. Paul says, “he’s a very good friend of ours, like when we wrote that song, we knew that we needed a feature of a very specific voice. We were playing a festival together, and we had the recording station back in the bus and so we just asked him to come over and lay down vocals.”

The band were keen to experiment with incorporating new genres into their music, Paul explains. “We didn’t know where we wanted to go at first, so we just tried a whole lot of different things we hadn’t done before. Like I remember on the first demos, we tried pop, synth wave, dance and then we found our way through the process to find a sound that was good for the album.” Taking influence from KENDRICK LAMAR and French hip-hop, the band’s love of rap would add texture to the album, just as much as their love of 2000s rock like BLINK-182 and BOXCAR RACER. Paul’s favourite record off the new album is Blood Red. “It is the most powerful emo vibe we have ever done.”
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Staying true to their metalcore roots, the band have polished their signature sound, with Reqiem becoming one of the heaviest tracks they have ever made. “People are going to be surprised by the chorus,” Paul starts. “Flo is taking a whole different range of his voice, it’s like a very deep growl with blasting and shit.” Of course, the band took great influence from GOJIRA whilst producing the track. Since COVID, the French metal scene is the strongest it’s ever been. Citing bands like RESOLVE, TEN. 56 and NOVELISTS, Rudy describes their relationship as family. “We’re all really close friends. We are very lucky to have that scene growing and GOJIRA as a leader of that scene internationally.”

The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is no doubt the darkest record they have written to date. The record is brought to life with the creation of their single Creature, which Rudy describes as “an embodiment of fears and emotions, the behaviour we don’t want to continue to have, embodied into a creature and [physically] becoming its home. This is the process of trying to fight it and overcome it.”


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In conversation about the final track of the record, Funeral, Rudy adds, “we kind of liked the fact that the album ended with a funeral. There is nothing after a funeral. There is just death.” The descent into a bad mental health state- a spiral of negative thoughts and feelings – is the ongoing story of the album.

Paired with vocalist Flo’s meaningful vocals, the hope for the record would speak to their audience, as a collective struggle that everyone could have during their life and the strength to overcome it. Whilst he didn’t believe the record was a ‘concept album’, the band had a lot of fun putting together visuals, messing around with playing god for their dark creation.

When asked what is next for the band, Rudy jokes, “taking some time off. Maybe?”

However, this will have to wait a little longer. LANDMVRKS are heading back on tour this summer for the European festival circuit, with a stop in the UK for Slam Dunk. “It’s like our European Warped Tour. It’s very short, but you get all together with the bands you listen to and make a lot of new friends. It’s very easy to make friends there.”

“I think it’s a very special festival, compared to all the others in Europe. Slam Dunk is more of a mix of all the different genres of music in our scene. It’s really cool to be able to connect with bands like THE STARTING LINE and NECK DEEP. You’re able to watch their set and talk to them. It’s a very cool experience.”

The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been is out now via Arising Empire. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:

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ALBUM REVIEW: Subnormal Dives – Byonoisegenerator

While mixing jazz and extreme music may be old news to some of the more discerning metal fans out there, no band has ever done it like Russian quintet BYONOISEGENERATOR. With abrasive grindcore colliding with avant-garde jazz, the group’s latest album Subnormal Dives is a challenging yet exhilarating experience.
While heavier acts throwing in a sprinkling of jazz isn’t unheard of, BYONOISEGENERATOR take the concept to its logical extreme by stacking unpredictable sax and jazzy drums on top of their harsh grindcore. Their second album Subnormal Dives isn’t for the faint of heart, launching a barrage of chaotic noise at the audience which only rewards the most fearless or masochistic listener.



While BYONOISEGENERATOR are hardly aiming for a wide audience, there are a handful of unexpected choices that narrow their target listener into an extremely specific niche. The Saint Anger style trash can snare for example may put off some listeners with its harsh bounce that cuts through the mix like a pickaxe or the oddly placed math rock inspired tapping on deBroglieNeverExisted that sticks out in the jazzy groove in a way that could either come across as intentionally mismatched or a little messy. Although any sane person would be put off well before noticing these small annoyances, the same kind of deranged maniac that would willingly listen to an album as strange as Subnormal Dives is bound to nitpick a few inconsistencies.

Subnormal Dives is the kind of challenging listen that should be included in Navy Seal training programmes, clashing together two already difficult genres into a migraine inducing cacophony. For the tiny fraction of the population who can push past the initial shock of BYONOISEGENERATOR’s sound there’s plenty of tight performances and fascinating musical choices to pick through from the comfort of their windowless padded cells.

Rating: 7/10

Conan: A New Dimension

For almost two decades CONAN have been tearing up the extreme metal rulebook with their own unique brand of sludge-heavy ‘Caveman Battle Doom’, as the band themselves have called it. With new album Violence Dimension about to be released, erstwhile frontman and riff master general Jon Davis sat down with us to discuss the band’s new songs, new lineup and new label.



Before we got onto talking about the new record though, we took the opportunity to ask exactly where CONAN’s super-heavy, super-distorted sound originally came from. “I think, when you look at my contribution to that sound, a lot of it comes from the fact that I’m actually quite limited in my ability as a guitarist,” Jon laughs. “Over time I’ve definitely become better at what I do but what I do is quite narrow, really. I couldn’t play you a MEGADETH riff, I couldn’t play you a CANNIBAL CORPSE riff but in a way that’s been a blessing in disguise. It’s enabled me to just focus on doing what I can do, unapologetically, and just to focus on making that hit as hard as possible.”



And boy do they hit hard, although the bands that influenced those earliest songs might come as a surprise to some. “When I first started coming up with what is now the CONAN sound, really I was just writing punk riffs that were just really slowed down and really distorted,” continues Jon. “Up until that point though I’d only really been listening to GREEN DAY, FOO FIGHTERS and NIRVANA so my early ideas were kind of coming from there. It wasn’t until after that I discovered bands like FUDGE TUNNEL and Chaos A.D.-era SEPULTURA and then they became the kinds of bands that really moulded that early version of CONAN into what it ended up as. I can’t say I’ve really broadened my musical horizons that much since then to be honest – I’m like an old worn-out sword that just gets sharper because it’s used a lot!”


It’s probably no surprise to see Nottingham legends FUDGE TUNNEL named as an influence on the early CONAN sound. What might be more of a surprise, though, is the fact that founding member of FUDGE TUNNEL David Ryley is CONAN’s new bass player, having replaced the long-serving Chris Fielding in 2023. As a fan of the band in his youth, this must have been quite an experience for Jon? “Yeah, it was quite strange really. I ended up being put in touch with him through a mutual Facebook friend, so we became friends on social media first before anything. But it was actually through (Jon’s industrial side project) UNGRAVEN that we first started working together. I started that project off with just me and a drum machine and I hated doing that live, so I approached Dave to see if he’d be interested in joining me for that and fortunately he was. Then, when Chris couldn’t make a couple of CONAN festival shows, it made sense to see if Dave was able to step in for him and it all went from there really.”

Jon goes on to say that, despite having one of his biggest influences now playing in his band, it hasn’t really changed the way the band approaches writing new material. “It hasn’t changed a massive amount to be honest. We don’t rehearse together very much being as I’m in Merseyside, Dave is in Nottingham and Johnny (King, drums) is in Dublin, so jamming isn’t really a big thing for us. The way we write has pretty much stayed the same for a while though. Loosely, I’ll come up with a few riffs that I might record with a drum machine and then I’ll present them to the guys and we’ll develop them together in the studio before we actually start recording. Some of those ideas will end up on the album but actually a lot of the new album was just pulled together by all of us on the spot and that’s been the way we’ve worked for a number of years now. Revengeance in 2016 was probably the last time all of CONAN sat down together and made a concerted effort to sit and write a full album together before we went into the studio to record it.”



New album Violence Dimension, perhaps unsurprisingly given its title, continues to explore violence in its many forms, a running theme throughout the band’s back catalogue and one that is becoming more prescient given the current state of the world. “When I was a kid, I just thought wars started because one country didn’t like another country. I think as you get older, you realise there’s a lot more to it than that, although of course most of the time it’s just about money and resources,” Jon explains. “I think you just get more aware of how violent the world is as you get older. And, if the resources we’ve always fought over are becoming more scarce now, it stands to reason that the violence that exists in the name of owning those resources will only become more widespread and persistent. I’m not a big politics person but when you look at the people that we have in power in the world now, it’s insane how unsuitable some of those people are to be in the positions they’re in. It’s no wonder the world feels much less stable and much more violent and that’s definitely something that’s reflected on the new record.”

With a new lineup and the album set for release on the band’s new home Heavy Psych Sounds, it feels like an exciting time for CONAN to be ushering brutal new music into an increasingly brutal world. Just sit back, relax and allow the band to provide the perfect soundtrack for the apocalypse.

Violence Dimension is out now via Heavy Psych Sounds. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:

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Air Drawn Dagger: Releasing Your Inner Witch

Album release days can bring out a variety of emotions for different artists, especially when it’s your debut full-length being finally put out into the world. Months of writing, recording, producing, all resulting in the final form of your debut record, now ready for everyone to hear. It’s something that electro-emo trio, AIR DRAWN DAGGER, have recently experienced when they put out their debut album, A Guide For Apparitions, a record that not only follows what we’ve come to expect so far with their genre-bending and sound experimentation with the main consensus being there are no rules, but also brings in themes of the supernatural and mysticism.



Ahead of their hometown album release show at Sheffield’s Corporation, we were able to attend and speak to the Yorkshire trio, witnessing the general excitement for the upcoming show and acoustic set for their Patreon supporters. At this point, the album had been released a day prior and, apparently, today’s fast-paced nature is in direct contrast to what took place on release day according to guitarist, Lewis Budden, who mentioned how, despite the build-up and the general anxiety-infused excitement in the days leading up to it, the actual release is mostly one filled with emails and social media; “Album release days have quite a lot of admin as, unless you’re playing a show on that day, it’s just like posting things and spreading the word, doing PR and stuff. It was such a positive reception though.”



Frontwoman, Maisie Manterfield, agreed with Lewis’ description yet still acknowledged the worry whenever a response comes through in reaction to the album, “I think you kind of hold your breath every time you see like a comment, or you get a message come through, but literally every interaction that I’ve had so far in regards to the album has been like really positive which is really nice.”

Yet the overall atmosphere is good, and you can feel the excitement from the moment of setting foot in the venue. When asked how they feel to finally have the record out, Lewis said that they are ‘chuffed’, “It’s been like bizarre, I didn’t know like really what to expect but it’s just been like a lot, I’d say. It’s just been a lot because we’ve been like so focused on the show it’s been a really good distraction having a big album release show. That’s the main focus rather than the album coming out and getting worried about what people think.”


Looking at the credits for A Guide For Apparitions sees some familiar names with producer Neil Kennedy (CREEPER, BOSTON MANOR) and visual direction from Aaran McKenzie (WHILE SHE SLEEPS), both of whom AIR DRAWN DAGGER have worked with numerous times in the past, so including them in the creation of their debut album was an easy decision. Lewis said, “We worked with Neil (on their last EP, Songs To Fight The Gods To) kind of knowing that we would probably create an LP afterwards, it was on the roadmap internally. What we love about Neil is that he’s really good at maximising what’s good about each band he works with. He doesn’t have a sound as a producer, but he really good bringing out what’s special about each band he works with and what’s unique about them. Whether it’s CREEPER or BOSTON MANOR, he worked with them at their early stages, whether it was EPs into albums, so they can bridge over that, so to speak I guess that was something we had in mind working with him initially. And Aaran is just ingrained in what we do now.”

Maisie then added on about how Aaran’s creativity both supports their visual ideas and takes it even further, with the trio laughing how it feels like there’s no adults in the room when it comes to bouncing around ideas. “We just wouldn’t make a video without Aaran as I can’t imagine working with anyone else at this point. I think that with everybody that we work with is that they are just really good at what they do. So, when we go with like really ridiculous ideas, we’re comfortable at being like, ‘Oh, we want to do like XYZ’, and they’re like, ‘well, why don’t we just do Y?’. They kind of take everything and zone in and make that one thing really, really good.”



As mentioned, A Guide For Apparitions features heavy themes relating to the supernatural, witchcraft, dark fantasy and the gothic, unsurprising given that AIR DRAWN DAGGER’s name comes from a Macbeth quote. And the visuals weren’t just reserved with the album with posters put up around the venue linking to the “church of AIR DRAWN DAGGER” from their website, and the live show featuring characters, fake blood, a ghost, and a narrative relating to the burning of a castle.

According to Maisie, the supernatural concept was something thought of long before a single song was even created; “So, I wrote the concept for this before I wrote a single lyric, I kind of already knew where I wanted to go with it. So, we kind of built all of the imagery, all of the branding, like the album covers around the same concept, so it was an easy win for us. It was always going to be supernatural, I don’t think would ever make an album that was not supernatural.”

“I really love like supernatural stuff and I’m really into like all like witchy things stuff like that. So, for me that’s quite like an easy thing to lean into and I think you guys are kind of the same.” Both Lewis and drummer, Ross Dore, nodded eagerly when Maisie looked over to them with Lewis adding, “It was always going to have a concept for sure like everything like when you look back to the mixtape of the EP that sort of mysticism and stuff has been like building for quite, I think we needed to like round it off and like push it and see how far we could take it, I guess, with the narrative.”

“Like we’re fucking nerds as well so like any time to like explore fantasy and world builds then we’re going to go for it.”

A Guide For Apparitions is out now via Long Branch records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:

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Helloween announce new album ‘Giants & Monster

Photo Credit: Mathias Bothor


HELLOWEEN have announced a new album!



Titled Giants & Monsters, the upcoming album from the veteran German power metal band is the follow-up to 2021’s self-titled album, and is scheduled to be released in August this year, via Reigning Phoenix Music.
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The upcoming album was mixed at the legendary Wisseloord Studios in Hilversum, Netherlands (IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, DEF LEPPARD etc.).



“What keeps motivating us is the fact that we’re extremely different. It generates creative energy,” says guitarist Michael Weikath. Vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen adds, “we try not to take ourselves and everything around us too seriously.” Vocalist Andi Deris sums it up: “In the end, we’re just seven guys who want to make music and enjoy the incomparable force that arises when we’re together. HELLOWEEN is way more powerful than the sum of its parts.”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, HELLOWEEN have released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; This Is Tokyo.

Speaking about the new single, Deris shares, “I’ve always wanted to write this song. Japan plays a special role in my life because I had my first big successes there. I wanted to create a tribute to Japan for a while now and finally found the right lyrics. Because ‘Tokyo’ sounds better than ‘Japan,’ the city stands for a whole country that is very important to me.”

Watch the official music video for This Is Tokyo here:
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Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. Giants On The Run
2. Saviour Of The World
3. A Little Is A Little Too Much
4. We Can Be Gods
5. Into The Sun
6. This Is Tokyo
7. Universe (Gravity For Hearts)
8. Hand Of God
9. Under The Moonlight
10. Majestic



Giants & Monsters is set for release on August 29th via Reigning Phoenix Music. Pre-orders are available now and can be purchased here.
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For more information on HELLOWEEN like their official page on Facebook.

CRADLE OF FILTH Reveals Music Video For New Album Track “Demagoguery”;

Following the release of their brand new 14th studio album, The Screaming Of The Valkyries (Napalm Records) – which made stellar debuts at #2 on both the US and Canadian Hard Music Albums charts, #4 on the US Current Rock Albums chart, and more – Grammy Award-nominated extreme metal institution, Cradle Of Filth, have unveiled another surprise. A brand new music video for driving album track “Demagoguery” is out now, providing an eerily disturbing backdrop to the song, which blends dark beauty, blast beats and slaytanic groove as only Cradle can combine.

The video comes just in time for the band to kick off their UK/European headline tour, featuring support from label mates Nervosa, later this week. See below for a full listing of current tour dates.

“Demagoguery” music video director Shaun Hodson says about the video’s concept: “Subject Eleven, a marionette puppet, is controlled by the media, government, and television, her every move dictated by their unseen strings. As a charismatic world leader rises, cloaked in promises of peace, the truth behind her manipulation becomes clear: she is part of a dark orchestration guiding the world toward the rise of the Antichrist.”

Watch the music video for “Demagoguery” below:







On The Screaming Of The Valkyries, Dani Filth’s recognizable scream and equally identifiable growl stand mightily alongside twin guitar attacks, symphonic flourishes and explosive rhythm section, implemented by drummer Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka, bassist Daniel Firth, guitarists Marek “Ashok” Smerda and Donny Burbage, and keyboardist/vocalist Zoe Federoff. Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk, England, The Screaming Of The Valkyries beckons the brave into a new era of Cradle Of Filth misadventure, celebrating massive melancholic melody, blackened thrash, and apocalyptic existential dread with a grinning smattering of unbridled revelry. The Screaming Of The Valkyries is a bloody dark love letter to the longtime legion of Cradle Of Filth faithful and a stunning entryway for fresh lambs to the sonic slaughter.

Menacing album opener “To Live Deliciously” hits immediately with rhythmic urgency, built around a Libertine lyrical hook that twists and writhes with aggression, atmosphere, and melody. Across the album’s blunt and unforgiving yet inviting expanse, Cradle summons the succulent flavors of classic albums like Dusk And Her Embrace and Cruelty And The Beast with the galloping (but no less fierce) thunder of recent entries Hammer Of The Witches and Existence Is Futile. Flashes of early metal influences coalesce with carnivorous glee into unapologetic death ‘n’ roll. Anchored by arguably the most mournful melody in their catalog, “Non Omnis Moriar” (“I shall not wholly die”) could be a cousin to Paradise Lost or Anathema, inverted through Cradle’s thorny prism. “You Are My Nautilus” is the darkest song Iron Maiden never wrote, spinning an epic tale with dueling guitars, while “Ex Sanguine Draculae” conjures Dusk-era atmosphere with imaginative new colors.


Order your copy here.



Tracklisting:

“To Live Deliciously”
“Demagoguery”
“The Trinity Of Shadows”
“Non Omnis Moriar”
“White Hellebore”
“You Are My Nautilus”
“Malignant Perfection”
“Ex Sanguine Draculae”
“When Misery Was A Stranger”

“White Hellebore” video:




“To Live Deliciously” video:



“Malignant Perfection” video:



Cradle Of Filth’s upcoming live dates are listed below.