The Temple of Sharkuel

Hello readers and followers of my blog. First of all, sorry for my absence. I am not done with my blog as some may approached me about it. I have been sick lately, and had been in the Hospital doing some exams and stuff. But I am all better now, and I am back to share some more stuff with you. I am going to share a project of mine that I have with a friend. It is a black metal act named Daemon Forest. I play drums, and the band is made out of two members: Sharkuel (Me) and Azazel. Azazel handled the lyrical work, as well the vocals and the guitar. Honestly he is the main creative force behind the project. I was the drummer in this project, and also I handled the recording, mixing and master of the EP. We released our 1st EP on April the 24th, and we are selling some physical copies of it. We have a limited, hand numbered, tape edition if you are interested on our project. If you desire a physical copy, we can arrange it if you send us a request through the band's e-mail ad...

Grab your bike, your beer, and your inverted cross boys!!! 95% Black n'Roll. Never in my life I was happy for having something that I didn't even knew I wanted it. Okay, this up there may be one hell of a hyperbole, but truth is that I always loved when black metal bands implement rock influenced riffs and rhythms into their song writing. Darkthrone did it. And so did Carpathian Forest, and even Craft. This dude take the whole rocky black metal to a new level. Plaag is different. It is a one-man black metal act from a guy that is known as "Somber". He decided to give his own twist in the genre by including some rock n'roll guitars, punk drumming, and lyrical content that is not common in the overly serious genre that is black metal. Haven't seen a twist so interesting to the black metal genre since Lifelover decided to include some indie rock in their depressive black metal. The opener starts strong, with a cool guitar shred and then blast...

A good amalgamation of ideas that fall short at the end 70% So, Morvheim. I actually found this one-man-band via Youtube suggestions, listened to this, and the previous album. And the previous one, due to it's production, I simply can't get into it. And I feel that I miss a lot. But this album makes me appreciate what is in the mind behind the album to some extend, and I gotta say, there are some neat ideas here. This is a melodic death metal act that resembles more of a melodic black band with some pop influenced melodies. You have pretty and catchy melodic keyboard sections, and clean vocals. The instrumental side of the album is quite creative and original, within the standard melodic deathmetal scene. This album has a great opener, I love the build up it has, and his voice is superb. Also, the violin effects, though quite evident they are VST or some low quality keyboard, it gives a sense of magic and supernatural. The harsh vocals, also very cool, they have mo...

Okay, so today I decided to go a bit off the album review pattern, and decided to embrace a topic that goes along with one of the many things that I love: Anime. But fear not, my fellow followers, this is not too much out topic. Today I will post about one of the most funny, and yet, genius anime I ever saw in recent years: Detroit Metal City. Mainly, the plot revolves around Soichi Negishi, who moved to Tokyo to chase his dream of becoming a musician playing stylish, Swedish-style pop. Instead, he finds himself leading the death metal band Detroit Metal City, or DMC, as the costumed and grotesquely made-up "demon emperor" Johannes Krauser II. Although he hates the role and the things he has to do as a member of the band, he has a definite talent for it.  The Anime is made of 12 episodes, and each episode has a length of 12 minutes or so, but each ep is so full of content that you will not believe how can anything be so rich with such a low time spam. The animat...

Darkness, Machinery and Human Disgust - 95% This review came as a request by Rachid Abdel Ghafour, the man behind Zebulon Kosted. He sent his request by e-mail, asking me if I could review his last album "You Have No Race You Have No Culture", released in June 6th, 2017. I only have good things to say about this record.  This album is, as a matter of fact, a taste of black metal of a strong flavor. This is epicurean music, and one must have a special mood to digest this. Once you get through the superficial layers of the album's structure, you can achieve the subliminal paths that Rachid wrote within this masterpiece. I gave this album two runs. One I listened while working, and the other I took my cellphone and listened with my headphones while I traveled through Lisbon, in circles, on the suburban bus. Why? Because this is an absolute tone setting album, and is better that you prepare your own setting to truly appreciate this piece of work. The a...

A beautiful album to die for - 95% This is a warning, if you are used to Blazing Eternity with growls, like I was, this isn't the album for you. This is a different kind of beast. Why such warning, you may ask? Simple. This isn't a doom metal album. But a depressive rock one. Shocker, isn't it? But wait. This is the first physical copy that I got from them. I knew what they were about and when I found this album on sale, I had to buy it (actually, it was my brother who purchased, I was only 16 at the time), and I didn't expect this. I simply adore this album, and it is a shame they didn't follow up this route and are now on hold. (at least, at the time this review was written). They did okay doom metal, they didn't bring nothing new to the mix, aside from the melancholy and sadness that is constantly present in their atmosphere. I like sad music, and they deliver in that regard. But "A World to Drown In" is a different kind of heavy. Not h...

Blackthrash with that Latin fire we all love - 85% This review came as a request by Karl L., Guitarist of the band. He approached me via e-mail, after he checked some of my reviews in Metal Archives, and asked if I could review them. I happily complied.   I gave a brief listen to their second demo "Maldita Nacion", and boy, it got me hooked.  Gotta be honest here, I have a thing for Latin American bands, due to their combination of melody and heaviness on whatever they compose metal related.  This fits the description of your typical "latinoamericano" metal. Letal Cross just drips oldschool thrash, with some cool hints of heavy, all drenched in the darkness mass that only black metal can provide.  First thing that will get to you is the vocals. They are harsh and high pitched. I can only imagine some mad men galloping on a black mare from hell, with a baseball bat, cracking heads and screaming is lungs of out of satisfaction. And that horse gal...