Probably Smug.

Wait, these guys are from Montana?

Like many, this was my first thought when reading about them. Given that much metal comes from barren and desolate places, aside from North Dakota, what better state than Montana to encourage such an environment for some potentially great metal? Here we have Martriden, a young band with members from Montana and neighboring states who have converged to make one brutal beast of an EP. Following in the footsteps of the 90’s melodic death metal wave, these guys definitely have a touch of the Gothenberg virus in them. But don’t let that put you off, because it’s by no means 1990’s In Flames worship. In fact, it’s quite a bit more brutal than that, despite the interlaced melodies throughout the songs. The drumming contributes to this by packing a punch, and thanks to the production, isn’t drowned out nor are they drowning out any subtle melodies. The production might be a bit too clean for some metal heads, and while it will definitely put some off, it doesn’t hinder Martriden’s dominant strength which is their song writing.

Without trying to be obviously progressive, Martriden has pulled off some extremely great song writing. Rather than using your typical song writing pattern, each song varies between five and seven minutes long, and all have several things special about that sets them apart from the others.

“In Death We Burn” sticks out to me as the best track on the release. While the first minute of it grabs the listener with ease, it quickly calms down with a short acoustic interlude. When it picks back up, the rest of the song is one of the most thundering and terrifying sounds that will ever come out of Montana. While you might not hear any new techniques that haven’t been done before, this release still gives me hope that Martriden could be one of the more promising Death Metal Acts of 2007 to come out of America. If I don’t see them getting out of Montana and opening some shows for Arsis within a year, I’ll be quite surprised.

Martriden’s Myspace.
Siege of Amida Records

Reverb. This album has a lot of it. However, the more I listen, the more I’m convinced that it’s extremely effective for Elysian Blaze’s unmistakable style of Black Metal. Like the album cover hints at, the music in this release quite literally sounds as if it’s coming from down the hall of a large cathedral. Listening to it is recommended only with headphones, and as Mutatiis has stated in interviews, total darkness is also encouraged.

But there’s more to this release than meets the eye. Although some may argue that the production could be used to cover up sloppy playing, or a sign of lazy recording, it’s obvious that the haunting echo is intentional. It effectively has a way of making the drums seem even more intimidating than your standard metal blast beat. More often than not, the drum beats are accompanied by percussive piano melodies. The drumming makes great use of the cymbals as well, creating a crashing barrage. I have a feeling that Elysian Blaze will often be compared to Xasthur, even though they’re quite different. While Xasthur’s synthesized drumming is extremely prominent, Elysian Blaze’s seem quite a bit more subtle. But that’s what makes the drumming intimidating in the first place, because it’s hard to notice it at first, but after several listens, you may start to pick out more and more drum hits.

The vocals range from steady growls, chanting and almost a hissing shriek, but tend to stay fairly minimal in their inclusion to the record. Most of the writing is instrumental, letting the piano and drums take care of most of the percussion. The guitar at times can be a little bit on the quiet end, but I’m almost certain this was done so as not to drown out the piano melodies. In fact, it’s quite strange that an album with such little prominent guitar work would be considered Black Metal in the first place. However, the appeal of this album is downright blasphemous, and will definitely appeal to anyone looking for an atmospheric experience.

I don’t think this will be Mutatiis’s best work yet, but it’s certainly a strong one, and worth many listens. It can be extremely haunting and invokes a great deal of energy, despite being somewhat of a slower tempo than normal Black Metal album. Much respect.

Elysian Blaze’s Myspace
Asphyxiate Recordings