Iscariote offers up some vicious Swiss metalcore of the darker and more abrasive variety. Their only track herein, "Un Pas de Plus Vers la Gr?ce", differs from much of what I've heard out of Switzerland. The piece starts and ends with loads of feedback, and while there are a few straightforward heavy chord progressions, they generally use a lot more unusual note choices and a sense of tasteful disharmonic intensity. The production is pretty raw, the distortion on the vocals thins things out, but the bass is huge and helps hold everything in place. They would probably benefit from a cleaner, clearer sound, without going too far towards the polished end of the spectrum. The lyrics are in French with an English translation, covering personal rather than political topics. "There'll always be a few inches missing to touch eternity, As beautiful as our aspiration can be, our intentions carry the genes of its own destruction..." Next up is Complete, from Denamark. I had been anxious to hear these songs ever since I came across their last full-length, and these two tracks are incredible! Everything is more melodic to some extent, retaining the heaviness and the diverse writing tactics, and the vocals are still screamed on most occasions, but the overall approach is not so over the top heavy/discordant at all. There are also lots of post-hardcore overtones, but not in the generic sense. The tracks are listed in the wrong order, so "Pointed Fingers", the last song, is actually a bit more dissonant and less "catchy" compared to "Lost Transmissions From the Broadband Conveyor". The recording is even, and a little bit rougher than before, but that could be the vinyl. There's less distortion on the guitars here, but the drums sound awesome. I think I'd turn up the bass, though? The lyrics are rather cryptic, but I enjoy them: "Drowning in syllables and you spelled it all wrong. Repetition is wearing us down. Sleeping with billboard signs for dreams..." The 7" comes in a superbly crisp layout. The outer sleeve has one odd photograph, but most of the imagery is overlapped 3-D line modeling of some sort, and inside there is some simple text and a mechanical diagram or something. Nice. I enjoyed both bands, but I must say that Complete definitely takes this one.
[Shogun]
Running time - 10:00 (approximately), Tracks: 3
[Notable tracks: Un Pas de Plus Vers la Gr?ce, Lost Transmissions From the Broadband Conveyor]
Shogun Records - http://www.burnoutzine.net
