Bullet Point Metal Reviews

Concise Summary: When I started listening to KVEN, I thought, "Wow, this really sounds like Raubtier." After some quick research, I was somewhat unsurprised to find out that Hulkoff is Pär Hulkoff's solo project, and that he is the lead singer and guitarist for Raubtier. With that perspective, I suppose it's not surprising that Hulkoff sounds almost identical to Raubtier, but I still would have liked to see something different from Hulkoff. As is, KVEN could easily pass as a Raubtier album; there's not much to make it unique. The guitars are extremely heavy and the singing is very guttural, just like Raubtier. The songwriting is based on chugging guitars more than intricate riffs and there isn't much for variety in instruments, again, just like Raubtier. Because Hulkoff is basically one-man Raubtier, it has the same issues as Raubtier. The mixing on KVEN is oppressively balanced toward the low end, the guitar sounds muddy, and half of the songs sound li...

Concise Summary: Well, after Beast in Black released Berserker last month, I thought I'd heard the best album of the year. However, Nemesis, from relatively new band Defecto, gives Berserker a run for its money in my book! Nemesis is incredible . The start of the album is extremely heavy and sounds amazing, but near the end of track three, I started to tire a bit of the heavy sound and began to want a reprieve. Unlike 98% of albums that would have just continued the barrage, the guys from Defecto must have realized that the heavy sound wasn't maintainable, and they brought in a style change on the fourth track to a lighter, more straight-up metal sound without tons of instrumentation. The rest of the album continued that pattern of changing styles to avoid boredom and/or ear fatigue, but it never lost coherency. Absolutely brilliant songwriting and arranging. Especially considering the fact that this is only Defecto's second album, I'm completely blown awa...