Promoting Bands Part 39

Hey,

We’re back with another part of Promoting Bands for you. Hope you enjoy the bands in here!

If you want to check the earlier parts of Promoting Bands, you can do so at the following links: 
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38

Do you want your band to be part of an upcoming part of Promoting Bands? Don’t hesitate to send us an email, Facebook or Twitter message!

\m/

Tim van Velthuysen

The A.X.E. Project

The first band of this part of Promoting Bands, The A.X.E. Project, is especially for those of you who like symphonic metal. Since 2010 this Bulgarian metal band released a full-length album with intervals of five years. They started this with debut full-length Stories from a Lost Realm Part One, while Stories from a Lost Realm Part Two followed in 2015. Since it’s 2020 now another The A.X.E. Project full-length album is released. Future.Imperfect, as this new album is titled was released on March the 20^th via Art Gates Records. Three positions in The A.X.E. Project’s line-up changed on Future.Imperfect compared to its predecessor Stories from a Lost Realm Part Two: female vocalist Tsveti Kirilova, who already could be heard as a guest on Stories from a Lost Realm Part Two’s Sunrise and Highway To Eternity, Outro, has replaced Petya Plukchieva as permanent female vocalist and, while there are no permanent replacements known, drummer Stoyan Petrov and flutist Sophie Vassileva are no longer part of The A.X.E. Project. While it’s still not really to my liking as a matter of taste, Tsveti Kirilova’s vocals certainly are a big development compared to her predecessor. The other band members are guitarist Rosen Georgiev, bass player/vocalist Georgi Georgiev, lead guitarist Martin Emilov and keyboardist Yordan Todorov. Future.Imperfect in its entirety sounds very powerful, which also is a huge development. Future.Imperfect also sounds symphonic, includes some heavily pounding parts, contains clean male and female vocals, as well as some grunts and in addition to that The A.X.E. Project also shows part of its progressive side on Future.Imperfect. I also have to mention the very nice guitar sound as well as the nice solos, such as can be heard in The Great Beyond and the calmer track Runaway, which is also very recommended to check out for the vocals!

The A.X.E. Project Official Website
The A.X.E. Project Facebook
The A.X.E. Project Instagram
The A.X.E. Project Twitter

Sewn Mouth

The next band is the brutal Greek band Sewn Mouth, consisting of vocalist Theo, drummer Alex and guitarists Thanasis and Miltos. After releasing a Promo CD containing two tracks in 2014 and standalone track Lighthouse in 2015, Sewn Mouth released their debut full-length, titled The Narcissist, in February last year. The Narcissist has become a debut I very much recommend you to check out. Sewn Mouth combines heavily grooving breakdowns, brutally pounding drums, you have to enjoy cymbals though, because those are smashed a lot. Added to that are melodic guitars, such as in Through Conflict, very brutal vocals that sound very gargling ranging in between deep gutturals and a bit higher screams, such as in In Lethargy and the title track, as well as some atmospheric vibes, such as in 80 Years of Solitude, altogether in an very nice mix. Especially due to the melodic guitars and the atmospheric vibes, of which Coffee Drop and Stranded in Celestial Realms are two other very nice examples, as well as some rhythm changes, Sewn Mouth gave The Narcissist an extra layer on top of the brutally grooving heaviness. That’s what makes The Narcissist a quite strong debut album. I am very curious to how this band will grow, while hopefully deepening and expanding these extra layers even more. The cymbals could use a little bit more variation in my opinion though, but it’s not that that makes this album less recommended.

Sewn Mouth Official Website
Sewn Mouth Facebook
Sewn Mouth Instagram

Profeci

Two years ago another black metal band arose in Poland, called Profeci. Since February it’s possible to hear the first studio-material of this band as Profeci released its debut album, titled Matecznik, back then via Godz ov War Productions. Don’t expect any high-shrieking vocals though. Piołun’s vocals are mostly dark-sounding, very fitting clean vocals, at some moment with a bit of a raw edge to them, but when that’s the case his sound is more like raw in a low-sounding way rather than high-pitched. A good example of this can be heard at the end of Wynaturzenie. Instrumentally Profeci’s black metal is mainly of the lingering black metal kind, creating a dark vibe in which you can lose yourself instead of going full-throttle. In addition to that some rhythm-changes are added to bring in a bit more variation, in which especially the different lingering guitar-lines are standing out. To check this out be sure to listen to album opener Ciemna Góra or Wynaturzenie. The combination of this mainly lingering black metal sound, the different guitar-lines and Piołun’s vocals are making Matecznik a very hypnotic album. This sure has turned out to be a nice debut by the Polish black metallers of Profeci.

Profeci Facebook

Spankraght

Everyone who doesn’t want anything electronic in the metal they listen to should better skip this band. For everyone who doesn’t mind a bit of that, be sure to read on. A bit is probably not the best way to describe it though. Spankraght uses quite a lot of electronic aspects in their industrial metal. Two years ago they released their self-titled EP and now they’re back with a full-length titled Thou Shalt Drown in the Blood of Thy Children. The guitars are sounding quite heavy and crunchy, such as in Reset Mankind and Resilient, in which you’ll also hear a guitar solo. The electronic aspects are ranging from Carnivale‘s trance-like intro, to the heavy bass-tunes in Resilient, to more, almost symphonic-sounding synths, such as in Hoop. Sometimes music such as made by Zardonic comes to mind, some aspects can also be described as drum’n’bass-influenced, while for example Die Krupps or VNV Nation are also coming to mind at different times. Quite a few guests are joining the duo of Spankraght on this new album for the vocals: For the news report-like intro Synopsis they got live news reporter Wim Wilri and news anchor Marc Fransen, while Clawfinger’s Zak Tell is rapping in Resilient and Sonic Bastardz’ Yves Janssens can also be heard here. However, two vocalists per track isn’t the max on this album, two tracks on this album have three vocalists: Reset Mankind, in which Channel Zero’s Franky De Smet-Van Damme, PatriarcH’s Mario Cesar and Saille’s Xavier DS are joining, while Droeee, A Thousand Sufferings’ PJ and Dietwin E. Elbers are joining Spankraght on Slaughtered. The remaining tracks all have one vocalist: Elusion’s Evy Verbruggen can be heard in Carnivale, Axl Peleman joined for a spoken word-part in Hoop and Alex Agnew can be heard in album closer Exodus. Spankraght created a very high-energy mix which is very recommend for everyone who has no problem with electronic stuff in the metal they listen to. And for the gamers among those people: with Thou Shalt Drown in the Blood of Thy Children Spankraght also released an accompanying add-on for Doom II.

Spankraght Official Website
Spankraght Facebook
Spankraght Instagram
Spankraght Twitter

Summon

After their formation in 2016 the Portuguese black metallers of Summon released their debut EP, titled Aesthetics of Demise one year later. In 2018 Aesthetics of Demise was succeeded by Summon’s debut full-length, titled Parazv Il Zilittv. This year these lo-fi black metallers from Portugal, currently consisting of guitarists R.T. and D.S., bass guitarist/vocalist N. and drummer/backing vocalist J.S. are back. In February they released their second EP, titled Helios. And that isn’t going to be the only Summon release of 2020, since they also already announced a second full-length album coming later this year. For now, Helios it is. What you can expect of Helios is an overwhelming hellish wall of noise coming at you. Pounding drums, crushing guitars, here and there also screeching as fuck, hellish screams, low and high, all combined in a lo-fi production to give it that extra obscure, filthy, overwhelming, crushingly hypnotizing vibe, without stranding in one constant sound. Rhythm-changes and variations are still recognizable while that crushing vibe remains. Sometimes they’ll crush you at full-speed, while Helios, and especially Helios III, also will get you fully hypnotized and will let your mind sink down into the depths of hell.

Summon Facebook