Epistulum is a melodic death metal band from the Netherlands whose creative origins lie in experiential philosophy on the essence of human suffering. Originally birthed as a solo project back in 2018, which brought forth a debut EP, Epistulum has grown to a full-fledged band whose endeavors led to the production of a full-length album released in 2022.
FROM THE DEAD MASSES is a collection of musical portraits on the primordial aggressions within the human grounds of being, through explosive, synth-driven death metal.
Epistulum released their debut album ‘From the Dead Masses’ last month with an epic release show in Den Haag, but we at MetalFromNL learned about this album only last week. What a shame I didn’t know about this album sooner! Because from the first tones of Black Dawn Above, I’ve had a smile on my face that hasn’t faded since. What an masterpiece! I might be prejudiced since this is the genre I love the most: Melodic Death Metal with lots of synths, but these guys are definately in the same league as major bands like Children of Bodom, Norther and Omnium Gatherum. Lets dive into this band and see what the rest of this album is all about!
Vexation is de enige echte 80s metal band met de sound van bands als Saxon, Iron Maiden, Metallica en Motorhead in hun eigen gerijpte geluid zoals alleen zij dat kunnen. Een muur van geluid en veel tempowisselingen kun je verwachten.
Vexation is een metalband, ontstaan in 1981 in Amsterdam.
Op dit moment is Vexation bezig met het opnemen van een nieuw album, dat hopelijk in 2022 uitgebracht kan worden.
Vexation :
Drums – Benny van den Dam
Gitaar – Andrew Wardenaar
Gitaar – Eef van den Dam
Zang – Harro Ferwerda
Basgitaar – Jeffrey Rijnsburger
The band didn’t provide a bio yet.
Obstruktor brings a no-nonsense mix of death and thrash metal, infected with influences from plenty of other genres.
Young, independent and hungry for more, Obstruktor from Haarlem/IJmuiden (NL 🇳🇱) is ready to take on the world. Whether you’re into oldschool death and thrash or into new bands ‘breaking the rules’, Obstruktor brings it to you.
This is O.L.T.A.S…Slow and dark, sometimes fast and fierce. With an occasional ray of light…our light… Doom metal with a death metal feel seeping through, refreshed by some oldskool thrash and hardcore riffs. Somewhere in time our paths inevitably crossed. With a clear vision of what the world was lacking, our journey began. Now the first EP ‘’Íllusion of Control’’ is emerging. As we dethrone our own inner tyrants, the good in the world can rise. We hope to contribute to a collective change of consciousness from the inside. By combining our creative energy, music with clear intention rises to the surface. Driven by faith we become necessary to the urgency of our times. We hope to see all of you out there someday…
Darkness Within is a Dutch Doom band inspired by oldschool bands from the 80’s and 90’s. They released their 3-track single Dion at the end of last month. Lets dive into this melodical piece of heavyness.
About the songs
Dion starts off with the track Growing Strong. The clean, clear bass and guitar riff accompanied by the clean vocal melodies do indeed remind me of the oldies from ages past. It’s mainly the vocals and the way the vocal lines are written that take this track to the 80’s heavy kinda sound. The doom-aspect of the track is in the slower bpm, but to me it would fit the heavy-metal genre too. All in all a pleasant opening track, but nothing too special.
Bad Dreams is the second track and this track has a bit more groove too it with the bass bringing the the rythm. The backing vocals for this track are so different than the main vocals that I’m not sure it is a good fit, but that might also be the mix. I wonder how this track translate to a live stage. Bad Dreams is a confusing track though. After a minute the song changes to a more straightforward and almost classic heavy metal chordprogression (besides the fact that it’s all really low), only to halt at 2:15 and change to another part of the song. Then at about 3 minutes another change. It doesnt help that the words ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ feel dragged out too much over this piece. At 3.35 there is a bridge part, for some reason in a major scale, which takes away from the Doom-vibe completely.
The final track to this single is To Eternity. This track feels the most dark of them all. It opens with an interesting guitar melody and a low/slow riff. This is also the track that named the single, since it’s about ‘my best friend Dion’. The track progresses in the same, slow tempo until it reaches a bridge part of about a minute of instrumental music. It helps that the main vocals are very pleasant to listen too, ’cause the songs in itself isn’t that captivating.
Verdict
Dion has two tracks that are pleasant to listen too, but nothing too special (yet). If you’re into oldschool metal, this is definately right up your alley. The vocalist has a great voice and really carries the music. And while some of the riffs are interesting, the songs don’t really speak to me. To Eternity would be my favorite track of this single, because of the mainriff and the fact that it’s the most dark/heavy track of the three.
Dutch thrash/death metalband Infantry has released their second album last week, Terminal Society. And we are thrilled to give it a listen! Infantry is known for uptempo thrash and getting the party going. The release of their first album ‘Make war not love’ was allready 5 years ago, so it was definately time for some new tracks. The band previously released Terminal Society as a single, but now they are back with over half an hour of brootal music. Let’s dive into it!