{"id":82481,"date":"2023-07-06T22:47:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T20:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avo-magazine.com\/?p=82481"},"modified":"2023-07-06T23:19:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T21:19:33","slug":"cd-review-deathroll-japanese-extreme-metal-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avo-magazine.com\/en\/2023\/07\/cd-review-deathroll-japanese-extreme-metal-art\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review: DEATHROLL – Japanese Extreme Metal Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once the preserve of misanthropic and narcissistic Norwegians, black metal has since evolved to become a global phenomenon. It\u2019s a strange anomaly that some of the genre’s best music is now being produced outside Scandinavia, and in surprising places too, such as Fukushima Prefecture. DEATHROLL is a one-man solo project who has been releasing torrents of sonic fury since 2012. Now signed to WormHoleDeath Records, his latest album Japanese Extreme Metal Art<\/em> does exactly what the title suggests, and holds the listener in a vice-like grip over the course of 30 furious minutes.<\/p>\n

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Kazu of DEATHROLL posing with his guitar on a sofa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Being a one-man project means the music on this album is focused into a laser beam of tightly bound aggression. However, things get off to an unexpected start with an introduction (Lady Banks<\/em>) that includes tinkling, genteel piano overlaid with operatic vocals. You might feel as if you\u2019ve put the wrong disc into your player, yet such a notion is blown away by the bombastic The grey life. This is pure Japanese black metal with neo-classical guitar lines, drums which are dark and cavernous, and guttural vocals that seem to emanate from the very depths of hades. Clocking in at a cool 10-and-a-half minutes, The grey life<\/em> is a track of epic proportions, that is almost progressive in its structure. It\u2019s a song of many suites comprising of distinct sections that, organically evolving, are tightly woven into a collective whole. Like the very best black metal, this song (and, indeed, the whole album) is atmospheric, and has a distinctly glacial feel, it is frostbitten and gives the impression it could crack and fracture at any moment, like a sheet of ice.<\/p>\n

Packed full of great ideas, The grey life<\/em> is a song that feels like an album in itself, and I wondered how DEATHROLL would follow it. The answer is by taking the direct route, and Lost in confusion<\/em> goes straight for the jugular and knocks down the wall of your cranium with brute force. It\u2019s a sonic blast full of epileptic guitar that crawls like a drunken spider, and moves spasmodically as if a planchette over a Ouija board. If Iron Maiden had played black metal, then I imagine it would have sounded a lot like The torture of lying<\/em>. Accompanied by a bloodthirsty video, it was the album\u2019s lead single, and with a heart attack inducing beat, it makes the perfect gateway for the uninitiated to experience DEATHROLL\u2019s dark world. With no hint of redemption, False images of isolation and depravity<\/em> bursts from my speakers like the hounds of hell, and finds DEATHROLL scrawling sound on every surface and encasing the listener in a tomb of sonic steel.<\/p>\n