Genre Discussion + The Healing - Transcendence

Hailing from Ontario, Canada and sliding under the genre of "djent/progressive metal", The Healing  is one of my favorite bands right now. Their debut album Transcendence is a great start to these guys' music career.

The overall feel of the music is fantastic, with hard hitting drums and great distortion on the guitar. I particularly love Garant's vocals - deep and powerful. I won't go into great detail on this album because I would like to discuss something else. However, I highly recommend checking them out - Bandcamp

The main point of this post is that I would like to generate some discussion on metal genres and the seemingly infinite amount of them. I know some genres seem to get slammed continuously (nu-metal and metalcore come to mind) and this gives negative connotations to any band/music that claim to fall under these genres. Which is unfair. For the most part, sub/genres of metal serve as a fairly useful way of giving us an idea of what kind of tuning bands use, vocal style and overall musical themes they may use. But is it fair to ignore a band just because it falls under a certain genre? Do you think the amount of sub-genres is ridiculous? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

LAZER/WULF - A Bandcamp gem.

Trawling through Bandcamp.com, searching through various up-and-coming bands, I came across this peculiar band. Going by the name LAZER/WULF, they are a unique metal outfit as they feature no vocals in their album The Void That Isn't, which is featured in this review.

The album opens with Sacrilicous. This is possibly my favorite track on the album. Featuring great breakdowns and some awesome riff-age (which pretty much sums up the entire album). Running for around six minutes, it is definitely worth sticking around to the end. Really awesome stuff.



Next up is a seg-way song, My Hiss Becomes Your Own that opens for Urine for a Treat. This track uses a heavier cord on the guitar, but is essentially more of the same (which is a great thing).

Next up is Howl Movements I-III. Opening with a banjo then blasting your face off with epic riffs and heavy double bass. Fantastic.

Lagarto is another favorite of mine. The absolutely face-melting breakdown at the back-end of the song is brilliant.

Closing off with an epic nine minute tune, Who Were the Mound Builders is an appropriate way to end a fantastic album.

Honestly, the vocals are not missed when the instruments and implementation of them are done this well. 9/10.

You can find LAZER/WULF at their bandcamp page here.

Full Track List:
1. Sacrilicous
2. My Hiss Becomes your Own
3. Urine For a Treat
4. Howl Movements I-III
5. Lagarto
6. Who Were the Mound Builders

Behemoth - Latest Release is Killer

Behemoth's latest album, The Satanist, is amazing. It is one of those albums that is great from start to finish.
Behemoth continue their traditional style of music, sticking with Latin for lyrics and song names. The album opens with Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, which is one of the highlights of the album. The song opens with a slower tempo with hoarse vocals coming through part way in.

Half way into the album, Ora Pro Nobis stands as another outstanding track. This was originally released as the promotional track which gained great popularity on YouTube.

Overall, this album has a really epic them. Often hymn singing can be heard in the background with great orchestral instruments. Nergal's vocals are as powerful as ever and I sincerely love his growling style.

Highly recommended!

Full Track List:
1. Blow Your Trumpets Babriel
2. Furor Divinus
3. Messe Noire
4. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
5. Amen
6. The Satanist
7. Ben Sahar
8. In The Absence ov Light
9. O Father O Satan O Sun!