Sulphur Aeon is a German Death Metal band, founded in 2010. “Deep Deep Down They Sleep” is their first EP, which was released in 2012. Lyrics of their songs are based on H.P. Lovecraft’s works, mainly on Cthulhu mythos.

From the first seconds of the title track listener is greeted by fast and intense Death/Black metal in vein of early Behemoth and Morbid Angel. Guitars create an impenetrable wall of sound with tremolo riffs upon it, drums provide thunderous blast beats as well as more intricate parts in slower fragments and vocals by Martin Hellion are powerful and furious. Yet another important part of the bands’ sound is production – it is rough and a bit muddy, and its contribution to the atmosphere of this EP is immense. Slightly hissing guitar sound along with crushing drums makes you think about roaring sea, in whose unfathomable depths ancient horrors from beyond the stars are sleeping.

Despite of overall brutality of music here, there are plenty of simple yet hauntingly beautiful guitar lines, providing a necessary contrast with rhythm parts. In the second track they also act as small leitmotivs: a pulsating two-note pattern with a periodic change in pitch is all this band needs to create ominous atmosphere.

Summary: a very solid work, skillfully capturing the mood of Lovecraft’s writings. This record is only about 9 minutes long, but it’s packed with amount of fury and raw power worthy of full-length album.

THE FACELESS is a Technical Death metal band from Encino, California, founded by guitarist Michael Keene and bassist Brandon Giffin in 2004. Their debut album “Akeldama” (“Field of blood” in Aramaic), released in 2006, turned out to be very mature and well-written work, showing immense potential of the collective.

To say that music on “Akeldama” is diverse is to make an understatement. This album can serve as an encyclopedia of technical extreme metal, incorporating almost any trick from its arsenal you can think of. Differently sounding parts replace each other in quick succession. At one moment we hear NILE-like tremolo riffs with recognizable oriental mood, at next – a NECROPHAGIST-styled part and then – Deathcore breakdowns. To keep all these different fragments consistent and prevent songs from falling apart is a difficult task by itself, but most of the time the band is capable to do just that, thanks to Michael Keene’s songwriting talents (and small length of the songs, I guess). Despite of being influenced by some colleagues from tech-death scene, on this album THE FACELESS already developed their own style – cascades of intricate riffs, rapid changes in rhythm and tempo, sudden stops, intense, aggressive drumming, very neat use of keyboards, providing additional coloration and depth of the music, and using both clean and harsh vocals.

Production of the album is amazing: guitar tone is thick and edgy, bass is audible, drums are clear and loud. Musicianship is impressive – from guest drummers’ great performance to spectacular guitar work by Michael Keene, who delivers tons of technically challenging riffs and several tasteful solos, without slipping to mindless shredding. Derek Rydquist’s vocals, both screaming and growling, fit music perfectly.

My personal favourites from this album are “Horizons of Chaos I: Oracle of the Onslaught”, starting and ending with a very memorable “flowing” riff, “Leica”, containing some cool harmonized solos (if Halloween played Technical Death metal, they would probably sound something like that), and a title track, a brilliant Fusion Metal instrumental (reminding of some songs by Counter-World Experience), featuring great solo parts by all players (especially Keene and the drummer) and dreamy atmosphere.

Summary: a very solid debut, complex and diverse, marking the beginning of the way of one of the most interesting Technical Death metal bands nowadays.

This band from Buchholz, Germany, is pretty obscure, despite having five full-length albums in their discography. Their fourth album “Decay”, released in 2006, continues in the direction of “Poetry of Illusions”, which had been issued three years earlier, offering quite interesting Death-Doom metal, where heaviness of the former genre perfectly balances and complements sorrowful atmosphere of the latter.

It’s hard for me to name some famous band as an influence to this. It’s obviously rooted in Old School death metal, but their approach to songwriting doesn’t remind about any particular band. As for similar bands, another not so well-known German collective, Valborg, comes to mind.

First half of the album consists of heavier and more complex songs with mid-tempo riffs, pretty straightforward drums and captivating atmosphere of depression, grief and anger. It is notable, that SCYTHE creates multi-layered soundscapes, easily conjuring images of autumn, without keyboards – some well-placed clean guitar parts and leadfills work wonders on this record. It feels like music sounds in vast open, breathing space. Just listen to opening of “Pretending not to see”, with clean arpeggios evoking a feel of falling raindrops, backed up by crushing riffs and steady drums. Another important part of SCYTHE music is vocal performance of Sven Hosan. He does a terrific job, providing both furious growl (sounding similar to Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth) and clean parts. He is also responsible for guitars and bass on this album, delivering lots of catchy riffs and mournful solos. As for the structure of these songs, all of them consist of several distinct parts, containing some memorable elements, which helps to rivet listener’s attention from start to finish. A good example of this approach to songwriting is the longest track on the album, 13-min long epic “A Glimpse of the Eastern Sunrise”, with orientally-flavored opening and calm, slumber-like fragment in the middle and false ending. At the same time, different parts flow seamlessly one into another, creating a feel of continuous narrative. Frequent using of recurring themes helps reaching completeness and wholeness of the songs.

Second half of “Decay” opens with “Das Leben, das ich selbst gewählt” (lyrics by German writer Hermann Hesse), fast and furious, the only song on the album with elements of Black metal in it. “Cogwheel” is the least heavy track, with prevailing bass and interesting echoing guitar sound. “While everyone sleeps” is one of the most depressing song I’ve ever heard, with hauntingly beautiful intro which suddenly gives way to powerful riffs and harsh vocals, expressing, aside from sadness and anger, resignation. Album concludes with a ballad-like track “October”, which perfectly conveys all spectrum of emotions associated with autumn. Omnipresent clean guitars, Sven’s thoughtful vocals, devoid of its rage (“I want to lose my wrath”), long crying solo in the end (reminding of some songs by SATURNUS), makes it a great way to end this journey. Summary: highly underrated album from highly underrated band. A great soundtrack for long autumnal evenings.