MangoWave

Picture Credit: Brotthogg Brotthogg - The Die is Cast Release: August 01, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 37:03 Genre: Progressive Black Metal / Melodic Black Metal Origin: Trondheim , Norway Not too long ago, Brotthogg had their first appearance on this site . Today, we can listen to the second full-length release by multi-instrumentalist  Kristian Larsen Moen  and his band Brotthogg. Moen  is responsible for all the songwriting, the lyrics, and all instruments, except for guitar soli ( Stephen Carlson ) and vocals ( Craig Furunes  and Jonas Moen ). The sophomore album features seven new songs with titles in Latin, English and Norwegian. And I will forestall, a significant development is hearable, compared to "Echoes of the Past". While the first album was defined by melodic Black, Thrash and Death Metal, the latter is hardly present on "The Die is Cast". Instead, Brotthogg have implemented the element of Progressive Metal on their new release more...

Picture Credit: MrKill MrKill - Day of Reckoning Release: July 31, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: CD/Digital Length: 26:10 Genre: Groove Metal / Melodic Death Metal Origin: Melbourne , Australia MrKill love to express the extreme. Both music-wise as well as in their lyrics, the quartet from Melbourne exhaust everything to the maximum (I really hope that phrase is not connotated negatively). While the songs on "Day of Reckoning" concern chasms of human interaction such as hatred, war, exploitation, greed, or neglection and ignorance, the musical accompaniment is brutal, too. I can easily quote the band's self-description here: "From deep chugs, sonic high notes, shredding and dark draw moments, MrKill captures such a wide range of energy to be experienced". Yep, Mango-approved! "Day of Reckoning" is MrKill's second release. Last year, the " Untitled " three-track EP (or demo?) marked the first output by Xines   (drums), Baltion Radi  (ba...

Spotify Playlist Martini Police - Nightclub (Indie Rock/Brit Pop from Stamford, England)  The Harriets - Café Disco (Indie/Alternative from Leeds, England)  Jaclyn - Alive   (Indie Rock/Blues from New York City, USA)  Hybrid Kid - Close Up (Indie Rock from Brighton, England) Meggie Brown - Journey of Goodbye   (Alternative/Indie Pop from London, England)  The Rezner - The Jive   (Indie/Garage Rock from London, England)  Tales of Dhvaras - Let the Snake devour (Heavy Metal/Punk Metal from Oslo, Norway)  Bob Varo - Your last Breath (Hard Rock from Ghent, Belgium)  Thomas V Jäger - The Drone (Oh Yeah) (Folk Rock from Gothenburg, Sweden) Ephilexia - Blue Koala (Post Rock/Prog Rock from Veszprém, Hungary) The Mighty Orchid King - Swirling (Psychedelic Rock/Garage Rock from Saint Albans, England) Wax Machine - Time Machine (Folk Rock from Brighton, England) Laura Stevenson - Caretaker (Americana/Folk Pop New York, USA) Hum - Step into you (Alt...

Picture Credit: Unveiling the Skies Unveiling the Skies - IV Release: June 04, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 22:10 Genre: Metalcore / Progressive Metal Origin: Munich , Germany Unveiling the Skies are a bunch of chameleons. Formed in 2010, none of the band's outputs sounds like the other. Might be tough for some die-hard fans, but that screams progress. And I love progress. The newest release by Unveiling the Skies is simply called "IV", a six-track EP combining heavy riffs, harsh breaks, thrilling melodic bridges, and versatile song structures. The style on "IV" can be described as Melodic Metalcore that is influenced by Progressive Metal.Heavy, moshpit-ready passages are decorated with melodic leads and emerge into harmonic bridges and imposant choruses. The vocals are partially screamed and shouted, and partially sung with clean voices. If you think of Fear Facory by that description, you are correct. I am also reminded of the legendary ban...

Picure Credit: Journey into Darkness Artwork: Johny Prayogi Journey into Darkness - Multitudes of Emptiness Release: July 28, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 28:00 Genre: Symphonic Black Metal Origin; Florida, USA Back in the early 1990s Brett Clarin  played the guitar with Death Metal band Sorrow . The band split up in 1993 but Clarin  was still hungry for extreme music and thus founded his solo project Journey into Darkness. The first album " Life is a Near Death Experience " released in 1996 and featured gloomy, doom-influenced synth tracks. Since then Journey into Darkness covered themselves in silence until in 2018 Brett Clarin  rediscovered his urge for Metal. Hence, Journey into Darkness got revived, and this time guitars and vocals were added to the project. The new album features doomy Synth Wave interludes and imposant Symphonic Black Metal songs. Together they make the perfect soundtrack for the apocalypse. While the synthie tracksbuild up tensi...

Picture Credit: The SchytëHawkës The SchytëHawkës - Centipedes Release: July 13, 2020 Label: Billesley Bomber Recordings Format: Digital Length: 03:15 Genre: Crossover / Hardcore Punk / Rapcore Origin: Birmingham , England So what is it The SchytëHawkës are doing? Good question, indeed! As I started reviewing the new single "Centipedes", I also listened to their 2019 EP " Neck of the Woods " to get a better feeling of the music. I would describe it as a savage and spicy salad bowl containing Grime, Hardcore Punk, Hip Hop, a bit of Thrash Metal and a wild hail storm of high kicks. This is Rapcore for the moshpit! Halftime through the track the band gives us some seconds to breathe while the break leads into the next attack. What a powerload! I mean, listen to that popping bass as the tide rises, follow those neckbreacking riffs, and you will not be able to stand still. I love it! The SchytëHawkës Online: Facebook Twitter Instagram Bandcamp YouTube Spotify Looking f...

Picture Credit: At Sacrament At Sacrament - A New Dawn Release: July 16, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 19:38 Genre: Thrash Metal / Death Metal Origin: Ciudad del Este , Paraguay At Sacrament were formed in early 2020 by Nicolás Peralta  (guitar), Renato Zandonai (drums), Alexis Martínez  (vocals), Fabián Giménez  (guitar) and Wilson Paniagua  (bass) in Paraguay's second biggest citiy Ciudad del Este. At Sacrament are hungry - hungry for Metal, hungry for change and hungry for a new dawn. And I am really excited about the first band from Paraguay featured on my page so far. The band's debut EP "A New Dawn" is opened by a cinematic intro that fits the cover artwork perfectly. Let the new dawn commence, I say! The four tracks are coined by raw and savage 80s style Thrash and Death Metal. The third track 'Mental Overload' also features a Black Metal -like motif. At Sacrament create immensely heavy soundscapes. Like a Thrash Metal war machine the...

Picture Credit: Die Silberfische Die Silberfische - Vorsicht! Die Silberfische kommen Release: July 07, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Vinyl/Digital Length: 34:46 Genre: Punk Rock / Indie / Neue Deutsche Welle Origin: Aachen , Germany Die Silberfische (German: fish moths/slickers) are a quartet formed in 2018 from West German town Aachen. On their first album "Vorsicht! Die Silberfische kommen" (German: "Watch out! The fish moths are coming") they invite us on a gorgeous travel through time and make us wander around the streets of pre-Millenium Western European metropoles. With drums, bass, guitar and organ Die Silberfische bring back the sound of the 1970s. Their Punk and Indie Rock is heavily influenced by Neue Deutsche Welle (German: "New German Wave"), a style that was mainly popular in the 70s and 80s in West Germany. Read more about this very interesting genre here . Nostalgia and a bit of selfreflected irony about "the good ol' times...

Picture Credit: Universe in my Yard Artwork: VHummel Universe in my Yard - Holographic Sight Release: July 23, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 34:22 Genre: Deathcore / Progressive Death Metal Origin: Bologna , Italy I must confess, I was a little prepossessed before starting to write this review. Main reason is that I may not be the biggest fan of Deathcore. Anyways, I wanted to give the genre another chance and I absolutely wanted to give the Bolognese band Universe in my Yard a chance. And I am telling you this: I regret neither! Universe in my Yard were founded back in 2011 and have so far released a three-track demo (2011) and the EP " Cold Souls " (2016). The selfreleased "Holographic Sight" is the band's first full-length output containing eight new songs. Interesting side note is, they also released an instrumental version of the album . To my pleasure this is way more than just a Deathcore album. Tommaso Profumo  (bass, backing vocals),...

Spotify Playlist VII-PII - Virus Potus (Alternative/Indie from Paris, France, 2020/05/29) Found Instruments - Cause and Effect (Indie/Shoegaze from Walton-on-Thames, England, 2020/05/29) Anthony James - Holiday (Indie Rock/Pop from London, England, 2020/05/29) Maps and Foils - Les anathèmes (Post-Hardcore from Paris, France, 2020/05/18) Askies  - Easy (Indie Rock/Alternative from Leeds, England, 2020/06/20) Kid Violet - Release (New Wave/Indie Rock from London, England, 2020/05/22) Happy Ghosts - Voices from the Net (Alternative Pop/Dream Pop from Adelaide, Australia, 2020/05/11) Cat Ryan - Blessed through the TV (Indie Rock/Pop from Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 2020/06/30) Lone Deer Laredo - High Noon (Americana/Folk from Helsinki, Finland, 2020/05/22) Voodoo Bandits - Yesterday's Jam (Indie/Surf from Douglas, Isle of Man, 2020/06/05) Pearl's Cab Ride - Change (Funk/Soul from Kingston upon Hull,England, 2020/06/01) Holy Roller Baby - Leper Blues (Blues Rock from Dallas, Texas...

Photo Credit: A good Man goes to War A good Man goes to War Release: April 27, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 39:54 Genre: Post Rock / Ambient Origin: Turin , Italy Fabrizio Paglia  and Flavio Amelotti  are A good Man goes to War, a Post Rock duo from Northern Italian Turin, formed in 2019. Both musicians have made plenty of experience playing with Hardcore and Metal bands when they decided to take several steps back from aggression and fast-forward music. Their band A good Man goes to War stands for the exact opposite of Hardcore and Metal, considering bass, guitar and drums still play a central role. On their first output the band presents reflected, downtempo,but yet intensive Post Rock with a strong impact by Ambient. Seven tracks, each of them between four and seven minutes long, full of reflecting, exalted, and powerful themes fill the band's debut album. The instrumental tracks create great atmospheres with their downtempo beats played by forceful drum...

Picture Credit: Yevabog Yevabog - King of the Worms Release: July 01, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 14:14 Genre: Blackened Death Metal Origin: Seattle (Washington) , USA Joel Hackett  has spent quite some time playing in several bands. Once he decided to create a project in which he could completely and freely express himself and his musical ideas. That's how Yevabog was born. In late 2019 Hackett  began writing, composing, recording, mixing and mastering. The outcome of this work is a four-track EP, Yevabog's debut "King of the Worms". The music of Yevabog is set somewhere between the areas of Black and Death Metal. Blood-sodden drum beats mercilessly go their way while bass, guitars and synths create imposant pictures of darkness and cold. The lead guitar adds beautiful Black Metal-like staccati which emphasize the frozen atmosphere of the hoarse vocals. A feature I enjoy a lot are the choral-like voices in the background creating a feeling of the ...

Picture Credit: Compadre Compadre - Pipe Dreams Release: July 03, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Vinyl/Digital Length: 20:18 Genre: Blues Rock / Americana / Alternative Origin: Nuremberg , Germany Fuzz, sunshine and desert sand. Those are the three first associations I receive from listening to Compadre's EP "Pipe Dreams". The trio from Nuremberg plays music for sunburnt travellers and hopeful dreamers - a fuzz-laden combination of Blues Rock and Americana. On four tacks Compadre create an immense heat. Roy , Sassan  and Steve  build up a heavy momentum in mid- and upper tempo. Distorted Blues- and Folk motifs crack onward as the three Compadres steadily move on. With their fastest track 'Green Screen Sex Scene' the band has created a song for lovers of Desert Rock while 'Adore me' and 'Sing it back' rather aim towards Anti Folk. 'Never waited', the final song, has a stronger impact by Alternative Rock. Each song creates a great and burn...

Picture Credit: BabyShoes Artwork: Bev Acton BabyShoes - Everyone that could've been Release: June 01, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 45:21 Genre: Post Punk / Noise / Alternative Origin: Bath , England Welcome to the crazy world of Sam Cother . The producer has undertaken an intense exploration of his own personality. The outcome is a sort of bizarre yet very catchy and moving album containing seven tracks, named "Everyone that could've been". All instruments were played by Cother  who also took care of production, mix and master. Only on the tracks 'Greyhounds' and 'Kamikaze' assistance in production, recording and engineering was given by Darragh Binchy  and Calum Wotherspoon . BabyShoes' music may appear overwhelming on first encounter. But once you find into it, the music is not chaotic at all. It only takes a bit of deconstruction and a multilayer structure of harmonic, intense and cold but soulful sounds appears. Synthie-la...

Picture Credit: TerraDown Artwork: Mustapha Design Dz TerraDown - Judgement Release: May 08, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 50:06 Genre: Groove Metal / Melodic Death Metal Origin: Breda , Netherlands TerraDown are a five-person band from Noord-Brabant in the South of the Netherlands. Since their formation in 2016 the group has dedicated themselves to Groove and Melodic Death Metal. And apparently, they had some success with that, as they won both the Dutch Metal Battle and the Dutch Wacken Battle in 2019. TerraDown's debut "Judgement" was released in May 2020. The introductory longtrack 'Statement' immediately makes me frown. The grooves kick in very stompy and hectical. With the chorus and its bridge, it kind of sounds like a mixture of In Flames and Amon Amarth - two of the most pathetic Metal bands of all time, as I think. An album starting with a skip-track makes it hard for me to stay objective. Fortunately, it is getting better. With 'V...