Darkall Slaves - "Abysses Of Seclusion" CDS

Potent technical death metal from France

A short, limited-edition 3-song single from this new French blastbeat/death metal act, this all begins with the atmospheric "Intro". The frenzied "Mindless Damnation" follows, and is a raging assault of distortion, ferocious riffs, insane rhythms, and gutteral vocals. The title track brings a similar sound, with some unusually odd and complex structures (reminiscent a bit of Meshuggah) and another breakneck pace.

It's all produced very well, with clean highs and lows, and this is some really well-done technical death metal with a precise, almost mechanical assault that reminds a bit of Fear Factory, which works well. Highly enjoyable, but at only 10 minutes, all too short.

Kaotoxin

Darkallspace

Darkbook

Locusta - "Locusta" CD

This American act's full-length debut is a clean and precise battering ram of prog-speed metal riffs, double-kick drumming, and wicked complexity, all wrapped up alongside belchy, gutteral death metal vocals. It's an appealing mix, harkening back to the older days of technical speed/death metal. There is some masterful guitarwork here, too, as the dual battery of Peter Hughes and Dru Silver gel together into a daunting beast of epic soloing and consistently crunchy rhythms. "Mutiny" shows a moment of melodicism before launching itself back into a maelstrom of melodic thrash, whereas "Death Or Devotion" chugs along at the velocity of a bullet, all the while sustaining a melodic precision with rapidfire progressive changes. "2012" is a chaotic blast, and "Dusk At The Mausoleum" is an atmospheric slowdown point, veering a bit into doom territory. The proggy-metal returns with "Into The Tomb" and "Vlad Tepes" before it all closes out with the title cut. Quite a strong showing from this Columbus, Ohio band, and one that should garner them a slew of new fans. (Pragmatic Records)

Locustaspace