Music review: New metal releases to make your Holy Week a little less holy

If heavy metal is more your kind of music, check out these capsule reviews of new CDs. For best results, remember to play at discreet levels or through personal headphones. SOULFLY ‘Enslaved’ Joyful proof that very few can beat Max Cavalera and Co when it comes to grit and attitude. If it wasn’t for the whole Sepultura fallout we’d never have Soulfly or Cavalera Conspiracy so I guess a smidge of sibling feuding is good for musical evolution. “Enslaved” is like the spectacle of a tribal ritual complete with human sacrifice as a means of communal apotheosis. The single “World Scum” is a balls out pit churner but the veteran skill for subtlety and complexity is where it gets interesting, as in “Gladiator” and the exquisite “Plata O Plomo,” sung in Max’s native Portugese.    WHAT THE BLOOD REVEALED   'Harbour of Devils' What I like about this album is that it brings so much song craft to the table. You can actually hum some of the hooks in this instrumental release. What the Blood Revealed are from Irvine on the West Coast of Scotland and I have no idea if they’ve been shooting up strong stuff ala “Trainspotting” but this LP straddles melodic thrash in the post-metal vein with overtones of political activism, the dangers of science gone awry and a keen dystopic vision. There’s even some black metal chromaticism here. “We find our inspiration in science, and the truths it reveals,” says their MySpace profile and you can actually hear their misgivings about the future, especially in my fave, longishly titled track “The Corporation As We Know It is Dead, Dead, Dead.”    SUNPOCRISY 'Samaroid Dioramas' They took copious notes from Tool and A Perfect Circle and then used it as a lodestone to chart their own exploration into heaviness. Obsessed with celestial bodies, their formations and the occult significance thereof, there’s a wry, space metal affectation in their songs but that doesn’t mean they’re just a drugged out new Hawkwind (they do have projected images and choreographed lights at their gigs). The hunger and rage of “Apophenia” or the freight train speed of “Samaroid” is all too modern in its technicality. Hear Jonathan Panada’s growl and tremble at the prospect of the end times which, according to them, are well nigh.    LORD MANTIS 'Pervertor' Like it came out of a viral swamp with a guitar marinated in entrails and lichen. You can almost smell the reek of malodorous rot coming from your speakers. This is the sound the Horseman of the Plague would endorse and bang his head to. These songs (especially “At the Mouth”) are just chockfull of diseased odium, loathing and repugnance. If you are new to extreme, aggressive music then this is definitely not for you, but if you like your heavy stuff in the colors of repulsive, “Pervertor” takes death metal to new levels of debased morbidity.      CURSIVE 'I Am Gemini' Jagged riffs, razor sarcasm, and tongue in cheek emotionalism could easily spell disaster but Cursive do pull off a decent range for their seventh LP. I don’t know if they were going for too wide a breadth but I just can’t reconcile how the smooth cohesiveness of “This House Alive” can stand shoulder to shoulder with what sounds like a B-side in “This House a Lie” and the confusing mess of “The Cat and Mouse.” Yep, even with the whole Gemini theme. Still, there’s excellent, deeply moving stuff here that indie rock enthusiasts should check out like “Gemini” and “A Birthday Bash.”   LES DISCRETS 'Ariettes Oubliees' A post-rock band that actually has the range and technicality to vacillate from sweet and meditative tunes, to shoegaze fuzziness, and then all out metal mayhem. They’re probably closest to Blut Aus Nord in eclectic style but they do have a very unique, dare I say French, sound that’s filled with fanciful trills and imagistic turns of sonic phrase. All these tasty things we owe to the artistic genius of Les Discret’s main man Fursy Teyssier. This album paints scenes of dark romance and madness, stark against the contemplation of empty rooms and those details you fixate over when in the grip of misery. Tracks here are simply excellent in their execution, poetry and timing, like the gorgeous “Le Mouvement Perpetuel.” Do not, I tell you, miss this one. –KG, GMA News Karl R. De Mesa has been a journalist for the past 14 years. He is also the author of the horror books “Damaged People” and “News of the Shaman,” available in print and international e-book formats. His collected non-fiction is forthcoming very soon in “Report from the Abyss.” He plays guitar for the post-beat, drone metal band Gonzo Army. When stumped, he lets a stud-collared Snoopy push him around and call him names because it's better than having a polar bear do it. The views expressed in this article are solely his own.