____








____



____
REVIEWS
Featuring Legendary, Local and Undgeround Heavy Metal.
NEW UPDATES
THE DEMO CORNER
THE BLOG
REVIEWS
INTERVIEWS
Moonspell          Sepultura            Velnias
Pharaoh                  Vektor             Graveyard
CONCERT REPORT
THE DEMO CORNER
Benetti Projekt, Darasuum, Embers, Gideon Dread, Nekro Morphosis & Pictura
July 31, 2010
CHRIS
All content © 2011 Metal Psalter Webzine  |  Bands, labels, artists and photographers retain their respective © to their logos, artwork and photos  |  Design and Layout © 2011 Dynamico Designs
*Comments:
*By clicking "Submit" you agree to the following Terms of Use. You agree not to post any material that is obscene, slanderous, or threatening, or that may violate any law of your country of origin or the United States or of international law. Should you wish to restrict viewing of your email address by third parties, you must select "Hide My Email." You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Metal Psalter from any claims, actions, suits, damages, or other costs arising out of any breach of these Terms of Use.
Benetti Projekt - Demos
Hey, now this is really cool.

One-man Brazilian band Benetti Projekt has created some intricately serene music quite capable of kicking in your head on a moment’s notice. This young man has the talent and the devices at his disposal to render you pretty damn impressed.

My only complaint is the songs being so criminally short; this makes Slayer’s Reign in Blood look like Ben Hur, and that’s a definitive drawback for such tunes that have great potential. When you get into the song, start feeling the groove and aligning your senses just right, it ends. Other than that, I hope Lucas Benetti takes these ideas and runs with them. His influences are quite evident, especially the Dream Theater aura throughout.

The music here is metal tinged, yet more progressive in nature; it’s really conducive with a sort of Liquid Tension Experiment feel, if you will. There’s some real effort and thought put into the music, but I’m anxious to see what he might accomplish with some longer tracks. I went on his official MySpace page and listened to his demo for a song called “Tonight’s the Knight Idea” and the funk/prog/metal feel of a Red hot Chili Pepper-meets-Dream Theater is really evident, albeit quite elementary. This dude has some serious talents, my friends.

I’d love to hear more from the Benetti Projekt, so hopefully we’ll be on his radar as he’s now on mine.  
Embers - Wrath Demo EP
Release Date:  April 13, 2009
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1.  Awakening  2.  Wrath  3.  Corruption  4.  Suicide  5.  The Reprise  6.  War         -    Total playing time: 41:18
Possessing a very dark aura that systematically entices you to ‘zone out’, Oakland’s Embers fascinates the fan of the more somber black metal sound with a touch of ambient musical weeping that seems to solemnly drape over the tone of the music. With serene violas hemming the edges, dramatic keyboards rounding out the perimeter and guitar chord structures that are just the right amount of ‘heavy’, Wrath joyously submits its stunning compositions for mass consumption.

With six tracks clocking in at just under forty-two minutes the first impression in my mind is This better not get boring quickly, and rest assured it doesn’t. What is ultimately enticing about Embers is the ease with which some musical architecture is created; I hasten to count the number of bands that attempt this type of style only to fall into the gothic Evanescence area or the all-too graying ‘black ambient’ corner these late bloomers are so nicely painted into these days. You either have the muster to make it viable or you don’t; sadly most bands don’t recognize when they don’t. Embers has no worries in this department. Slow passages, with the perfect amount of sullen background build-up create a tremendous collective of music.

“Awakening” is so subtly haunting and all-encompassing that it hits me with the same amount of weight that I initially felt with the first Dead Can Dance CD. While there’s little in way of complete comparison to DCD the feel of being able to transcend the typical listening experience is definitely here; the music can engage you so perfectly. The vocals are of your standard black metal harsh variety, but where little can be built upon that particular style, the music complimenting such vocals is the make-or-break of the deal. The great thing about them is they never appear forced, which is rare these days.

When a band puts forth such efforts into its music it makes me pleased to review something well worth your time as well as mine. For a unique experience that might take you out of the comfort zone of your room, car, or wherever, find Embers for such a deserved journey.    
Darasuum - Demo 2009
Release Date: October 20, 2009
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1.  Seasonal Friends  2.  The Great Glorious Ruckus 
3.  A Dedication         -         Total playing time: 8:40
Once I heard the intro speech from Henry Rollins I knew I was in for either some very serious hardcore music or some pedestrian crap with one of the great icons of punk and hardcore masking the inane carnage to come. Happily, Darasuum provides the former in vast amounts.

The 2009 EP absolutely bashes in your head with its subtle-like-a-bag-of-chipped-bricks assault right from the gate. These guiys have certainly taken a lesson in hardcore punk metal to the nth degree, providing a three-track EP worthy of both inspection and egregious consumption. Calling on some old school influences like Black Flag, Rolling Band, Minor Threat (I definitely hear some overly-aggressive Ian Mackaye here) and all with a metal-driven barrage backing it up Darsuum has created an underground sound that might just be the modern answer to the punk/metal fusion that has been tried and failed more times than I care to recount.

The entire EP is a massive hemorrhaging of destructive, violent and structured chaos that should impress even the most skeptical observer like me. I think you’ll b hearing about these guys more in the future, count on it! These guys have the formula to bring the best of Oi, punk and metal to the same dinner table.
DOWNLOAD Demo 2009 FREE from the band's myspace page (click on link above).
Release Date: March 31, 2010
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1.  Kill the Fucking Drama  2.  Glance  3.  A Razor of Mine       
-         Total playing time: 5:21
DOWNLOAD Demos FREE from the band's bandcamp page: http://benettiprojekt.bandcamp.com/
DOWNLOAD Wrath Demo EP FREE from the band's official website: http://www.embers-music.com/media.html
Pictura - Rebirth Demo
Release Date:  June 12, 2010
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1. Spheres  2.  Ivory Tower  3.  The Equilibrium of Minds Pt. II: Rebirth          -         Total playing time: 21:13
Germany’s Pictura finally manages to accomplish what a million other bands could not: they took the ‘Opethian’ sound and made it their own and not some poor copy of the original. Comparisons abound to the Swedish prog/death masters Pictura is a refreshing light on an otherwise dark sub-genre littered with repetitive imitators. For true progressive death metal, look no further.

My question is to ask why these guys haven’t been signed yet. While we as fans languish in a virtual sinkhole of pretenders and gothic pedestrianism, Pictura is out in Deutschland making some incredibly vibrant music. With a sound comparable to Porcupine Tree, Katatonia, Ayreon and of course Opeth, this EP of three songs is simply not enough to whet my palate; I want, no, need more! This sort of promo just proves that if you pay careful attention to your music, craft it with honesty and vision, you too can create something magical like this. It also helps to have an abundance of talent, and these guys have it.

Some true death metal is heard in here, but surround that sound with some highly progressive elements and sharp-shifting time changes that can literally make your head spin and you’ve got the crux of the Pictura sound. The clean tone passages are serenity-in-musica with such beautiful shifts in tempo and mood. The vocals are clean-to-distorted, both of high quality without boring or predictable pacing. The last track, “The Equilibrium of Minds pt. II”, sounds like Morningrise-era Opeth, complete with haunting Akerfeldt vocal feel and ethereal motif.

If I recommend any demo high this time around, people, it’s this one! You’ll be hearing about Pictura in the months to come, of this I’m certain.      
Destroying the complacency of the upper west coast region, Nekro Morphosis pitches its latest offering in way of a three-song promo of death/black metal. The first track “Under the Guillotine” is a demo of a new track, with the remaining two tracks taken from the band’s Split From the Clit CD. There’s three pretty good pieces here, and while nothing is necessarily classic or poised for legendary status the music will render the more modern fans of the black metal sound pretty entertained with the tracks from the Split CD. The more staunch death metal fan will find the opener to his or her liking.

Musically the band has some good ideas with some really bleak, tempestuous riffs that create a sullen feel. Honestly, I feel the newest demo song is a positive step forward for the band. “The Death of Morality” is a great song to bang to with its raw energy and feel, as is “Walking with the Dead”, but “Under the Guillotine” has that deep, near guttural vocal ala Incantation mixing with the harsh, throaty rasp of any given black metal band of today. The production is also cleaner and more enjoyable, but with time and experience comes better devices, right?

I think for the fan that doesn’t expect a rebirth of the genre, yet is always open to new bands that might go on to some interesting things you might want to check out Nekro Morphosis. They offer up some solid tunes for the more sadistic death metal fan.      
DOWNLOAD Rebirth Demo FREE from the band's PureVolume page: http://www.purevolume.com/pictura/overview
Gideon Dread submits for your enchantment its two-track demo; well, it’s actually one track since the first track is a minute-and-a-half venture into an old pirate watering hole (at least that’s what years of vivid imagination says to me) complete with a little pirate “jig” for measure. So I’m taking it that the second coming of a later Running Wild is upon us?

The title track isn’t bad, but it’s nothing all that original or conclusive. It’s a decent track if you’re into the merriment of reckless drunken pirates mulling around a pub with their ill-gotten booty in tow. The music is decent, save for that incessant keyboard sound in the background that sounds more like a cheap church carnival’s music than heavy metal debauchery. The track is repetitive meandering through the same sing-along chorus that is more cartoonish than musical.

Honestly, I’m not thinking this one song does much for the fan with something resonating in mind. If more songs were available for me to compare and contrast I might rate this one higher. As it stands the one song plays like a cheap beer commercial’s ditty that is fun to sing if your drunk and unusually obstreperous, but after a few minutes your friends are tying you with duct tape and depositing you in the trunk of a car. It does little for me or for metal. 
Nekro Morphosis - Promo 2010
Release Date:  February 23, 2010
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:   
1.  Under the Guillotine  2.  The Death of Morality  3.  Walking With the Dead  
-    Total playing time: 10:28
DOWNLOAD Promo 2010 FREE from the band's myspace page (click on link above).
DOWNLOAD Cutlass Bay Demo FREE from the band'sbandcamp page: http://gideondread.bandcamp.com/
Gideon Dread - Cutlass Bay Demo
Release Date: December 9, 2009
Band Self Released

TRACK LISTING:
1.  To New Beginnings  2.  Cutlass Bay       
-         Total playing time: 5:42
TO THE TOP
DEMO ARCHIVE