Review by Fernando on September 2, 2019.

From the ashes of Vorum comes Concrete Winds, and members P.J. and Mikko continue where that band left off into a much more chaotic direction with them unleashing the unrelenting and unapologetic Primitive Force.

This album is a master class of pure and raw death metal that near crosses into war metal but make no mistake this is a death metal album, through and through. The aggressive riffs and shredding from Vorum's last EP "Current Mouth" has been dialed up exponentially, the music here is very abrasive and the focus is on speed. The album opens with an explosion and it never lets off the intensity for a second; all the songs are very short and follow the mindset of less is more, making the most out of a short length all the while maintaining a lo-fi “no bullshit” approach that is very punkish in a good way. They manage in keeping a simplicity that also leaves room for innovation in this very aggressive style of death metal. This album’s main ambition is to push forward the extremity of death metal without the need of incorporating blackened elements and the band succeeds in spades.

The lion share of the music is handled by P.J. who handles vocals, guitars and bass. His guitar work is devilishly impressive, showing relentless shredding and tremolo picking, howling and screeching guitar solos which he compliments with a thunderous and pulsating bass; his vocals are also excellent and are a natural evolution from Vorum, his death growls are much more intense and vicious and are much more present than his echoing approach of his past band, and the added layers of echoes succeed in making the vocal work sound much more demonic and wrathful. Mikko’s drumming is no slouch either, he perfectly complements P.J.’s compositions with unswerving force and brutality, while also adding a layer of complexity, giving this album more variety. The songs Tyrant Pulse, Volcanic Turmoil and Transmission is where Mikko truly flexes his talents and as a whole both members give excellent performances that make this album a quick but satisfying trip to hell.

However the album is not without some issues. While this album does succeed in pushing death metal’s extremity to its logical conclusion on repeated listens it can get a bit repetitive; a common trapping of the genre and while the band does make good use of the short time lengths, the album as a whole ends abruptly. The main flaw however is the production. The band purposefully went with a lo-fi approach that does give the music that underground and dissonant vibe that this type of music benefits from but the downside of this is that the music sounds extremely loud and succumbed to the dreaded loudness war, which whether intentional or not makes the album very inaccessible and hard to listen, especially on headphones. All these issues while not a deal breaker to versed metalheads are a major hurdle to overcome if you’re uninitiated on death metal or if you’re accustomed to the cleaner and slicker production on bands like Death or Morbid Anger, if you’re either of those, this album would require multiple listens with the volume lowered.

Overall Concrete Winds have made a killer debut album, continuing their ambitions from where Vorum left off and being its own unique and distinct project with a lot of promise.

Best tracks: 'Sulphuric Upheaval', 'Tyrant Pulse', 'Volcanic Turmoil', 'Death Transmission'

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Fernando on September 2, 2019.

From the ashes of Vorum comes Concrete Winds, and members P.J. and Mikko continue where that band left off into a much more chaotic direction with them unleashing the unrelenting and unapologetic Primitive Force.

This album is a master class of pure and raw death metal that near crosses into war metal but make no mistake this is a death metal album, through and through. The aggressive riffs and shredding from Vorum's last EP "Current Mouth" has been dialed up exponentially, the music here is very abrasive and the focus is on speed. The album opens with an explosion and it never lets off the intensity for a second; all the songs are very short and follow the mindset of less is more, making the most out of a short length all the while maintaining a lo-fi “no bullshit” approach that is very punkish in a good way. They manage in keeping a simplicity that also leaves room for innovation in this very aggressive style of death metal. This album’s main ambition is to push forward the extremity of death metal without the need of incorporating blackened elements and the band succeeds in spades.

The lion share of the music is handled by P.J. who handles vocals, guitars and bass. His guitar work is devilishly impressive, showing relentless shredding and tremolo picking, howling and screeching guitar solos which he compliments with a thunderous and pulsating bass; his vocals are also excellent and are a natural evolution from Vorum, his death growls are much more intense and vicious and are much more present than his echoing approach of his past band, and the added layers of echoes succeed in making the vocal work sound much more demonic and wrathful. Mikko’s drumming is no slouch either, he perfectly complements P.J.’s compositions with unswerving force and brutality, while also adding a layer of complexity, giving this album more variety. The songs Tyrant Pulse, Volcanic Turmoil and Transmission is where Mikko truly flexes his talents and as a whole both members give excellent performances that make this album a quick but satisfying trip to hell.

However the album is not without some issues. While this album does succeed in pushing death metal’s extremity to its logical conclusion on repeated listens it can get a bit repetitive; a common trapping of the genre and while the band does make good use of the short time lengths, the album as a whole ends abruptly. The main flaw however is the production. The band purposefully went with a lo-fi approach that does give the music that underground and dissonant vibe that this type of music benefits from but the downside of this is that the music sounds extremely loud and succumbed to the dreaded loudness war, which whether intentional or not makes the album very inaccessible and hard to listen, especially on headphones. All these issues while not a deal breaker to versed metalheads are a major hurdle to overcome if you’re uninitiated on death metal or if you’re accustomed to the cleaner and slicker production on bands like Death or Morbid Anger, if you’re either of those, this album would require multiple listens with the volume lowered.

Overall Concrete Winds have made a killer debut album, continuing their ambitions from where Vorum left off and being its own unique and distinct project with a lot of promise.

Best tracks: 'Sulphuric Upheaval', 'Tyrant Pulse', 'Volcanic Turmoil', 'Death Transmission'

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Fernando on September 2, 2019.

From the ashes of Vorum comes Concrete Winds, and members P.J. and Mikko continue where that band left off into a much more chaotic direction with them unleashing the unrelenting and unapologetic Primitive Force.

This album is a master class of pure and raw death metal that near crosses into war metal but make no mistake this is a death metal album, through and through. The aggressive riffs and shredding from Vorum's last EP "Current Mouth" has been dialed up exponentially, the music here is very abrasive and the focus is on speed. The album opens with an explosion and it never lets off the intensity for a second; all the songs are very short and follow the mindset of less is more, making the most out of a short length all the while maintaining a lo-fi “no bullshit” approach that is very punkish in a good way. They manage in keeping a simplicity that also leaves room for innovation in this very aggressive style of death metal. This album’s main ambition is to push forward the extremity of death metal without the need of incorporating blackened elements and the band succeeds in spades.

The lion share of the music is handled by P.J. who handles vocals, guitars and bass. His guitar work is devilishly impressive, showing relentless shredding and tremolo picking, howling and screeching guitar solos which he compliments with a thunderous and pulsating bass; his vocals are also excellent and are a natural evolution from Vorum, his death growls are much more intense and vicious and are much more present than his echoing approach of his past band, and the added layers of echoes succeed in making the vocal work sound much more demonic and wrathful. Mikko’s drumming is no slouch either, he perfectly complements P.J.’s compositions with unswerving force and brutality, while also adding a layer of complexity, giving this album more variety. The songs Tyrant Pulse, Volcanic Turmoil and Transmission is where Mikko truly flexes his talents and as a whole both members give excellent performances that make this album a quick but satisfying trip to hell.

However the album is not without some issues. While this album does succeed in pushing death metal’s extremity to its logical conclusion on repeated listens it can get a bit repetitive; a common trapping of the genre and while the band does make good use of the short time lengths, the album as a whole ends abruptly. The main flaw however is the production. The band purposefully went with a lo-fi approach that does give the music that underground and dissonant vibe that this type of music benefits from but the downside of this is that the music sounds extremely loud and succumbed to the dreaded loudness war, which whether intentional or not makes the album very inaccessible and hard to listen, especially on headphones. All these issues while not a deal breaker to versed metalheads are a major hurdle to overcome if you’re uninitiated on death metal or if you’re accustomed to the cleaner and slicker production on bands like Death or Morbid Anger, if you’re either of those, this album would require multiple listens with the volume lowered.

Overall Concrete Winds have made a killer debut album, continuing their ambitions from where Vorum left off and being its own unique and distinct project with a lot of promise.

Best tracks: 'Sulphuric Upheaval', 'Tyrant Pulse', 'Volcanic Turmoil', 'Death Transmission'

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Alex on April 30, 2019.

Canada’s doom/traditional heavy metal scene has seen its share of great releases coming from the surge of new bands revamping the genre. New comers Smoulder joins the pack of bands that play to the age of epic doom/heavy metal fantasy. Comprised of four members including a familiar face (Sarah), I was interested to hear what exactly Smoulder offers in comparison to many new acts performing within the same vein. Upon first hearing the material on Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring I was not sold, but with repeated listens I latched on to what Smoulder was trying to accomplish with their sound. The reason for my dubiousness came due to Sarah’s voice which is not bad by any lengths, it's just that it somewhat lacked the velocity/power I was looking forward to hearing, given the epic metal tag. However, with multiple spins, I found where her vocal strengths lay. I'm aware Smoulder have a release prior to this but I avoided listening so as to let the current release have its space and create a slate of first impressions.

From the onset of “Ilian of Garathorm” the bass heavy beefy production is made present; the mid-paced groove stirs the atmosphere for some enjoyable headbanging that is in turn supported by a decent guitar solo. It opens on a high note and closes on one, great track and definitely a highlight of the record. Immediately after, comes “The Sword Woman” that showcases the doom metal aspect of Smoulder’s approach; the lead guitar work is again descent that is amplified by the splendid solo towards the end and Sarah’s better use of range. Hence noted, her vocals seem to be much stronger on slower tracks than on the faster mid- paced ones such as on the opening entry and “Bastard Steel”. Her voice is more effective when the lyrics are sung in a slow fashion, as room is given for her vocals to ascend to impactful heights.

The best entry on Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring takes the shape of “Voyage of the Sunchaser” that lifts the momentum to a peeking height, one that exhibits all the strengths of Smoulder. Catchy choruses, confident vocals and just yet another fantastic display of guitar soloing. I found the final 2 songs to be a bit lacking in comparison to the prior, especially when one (“Shadowy Sisterhood”) sounds similar to prior tracks despite the powerful short opening solo heard. I didn't really like the way in which the lyrics were constructed on that occasion, sounded unorthodox in retrospect to what had already been played. Those two were not bad but didn't do enough to compete with the preceding. And though the drumming being noticeably more technical on the final song that is doom metal dominated and the longest stretch of the record, still it appeared to have more filler than necessary. Looks like Smoulder put their stronger tunes up the order; if so, the decision paid off given the high replay ability of tracks 1 through 4.

Sarah’s vocals do have their share of flawless moments and faults; with the former outweighing the latter. The guitarist on the other hand gave a blistering performance in support of Sarah's vocals and the resonant drumming. There’s a good balance of doom and traditional heavy metal on Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring; however I would have preferred to see a mixture of the elements on the songs as opposed to having each song be exclusive to any of the mentioned genres.

Overall Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring is a good full-length effort that has enough quality content to satisfy myself at least. It’s a good record that holds close the values of epic heavy metal.

Rating: 7 out of 10