Tempest of Eternity
Apnea
This is our very first review and we are doing it on a great local act. long time veterans of the local metal Ozarks scene from Springfield Missouri, apnea. Composed of steve allington on vocals and guitar, Robbie valentine on bass, rob close on rhythm guitar and jake norman on drums. apnea is a brutal metal killing machine that annihilates the senses, makes ears bleed and destroys everything in there path. there music is a crushing mix of death, thrash, speed and doom metal. they manage to not sound contemporary but not sound “old school” at the same time yet not stuck somewhere in between in limbo as well. they don’t sound like a trend while not sounding like a “no trend” trend type band. they are very unique and include things which you would and would not expect for there style of music as you are about to find out. we will be reviewing there brand new effort, tempest of eternity so lets get started.
Tempest of eternity has some great artwork which is done by steve and the evil interwebz.The cd was produced by apnea and local metal legend greg ponder at gregs home studio the funeral home in Springfield Missouri, which may be a home studio but the production is awesome. greg ponder did a great job on this cd and all the cds he does. pretty top notch. Tempest of eternity is a full on extreme metal assault. Vocals which range from guttural growls to cleanly sung. the guitars combine fast tremolo picked brutality, chunky ball busting grooves, thrash mayhem and apocalyptic doom riffs and chaotic shredding guitar solos in traditional death metal fashion. the bass follows suit with the guitar, has parts where the guitars drops out and the bass takes the lead and its actually audibly throughout the whole cd. the drums are fast brutal and insane. Machine gun double bass, wicked fills, pummeling blast beats, plenty of technicality and style. Definitely off the wall. There lyrics are generally based on real life everyday situations and events and things we all go through. no lyrics about disemboweling young women and raping there dead corpse here.
They kick out a song from steve allingtons old band, cyanide rainbow, which if your familiarly with the older metal scene here you should know them .its called tempest of eternity.The minute the thunder kicks in you know your going for a ride then straight into the chilling lead melody. and from there it’s a fast, brutal escapade of apneas aforementioned style.Predator unto prey follows the same area but with a clean sung part that’s style and vibrato is reminiscent of kind diamond. the mantra is another great song. one of my favorites. maybe just cause its the first song I ever heard off the tempest of eternity but it’s a great song all the same just like all the rest. next is delusions of grandeur which is done in the same old apnea style .then killing ambition which is just a crushing song….not that the whole cd isn’t really but this one always gets me head banging.On to the forgotton on no more which has a really cool bass intro part before segueing signature apnea. weakened embrace is real interesting. it features willie wardlaw on keyboard who is in or was in too many bands to name but you will probable know him best from backhoe butchery. its the closet thing apnea has ever done to a ballad I believe along side never weep, a song off there last cd, tainted purity. but I think this one comes closer…but it cant stay that way forever, about close to halfway through or so it kicks back in so some chugging brutality before going back to a bit more mellow part, a bit I might add. A unique song with a lot of great clean singing. then comes the last song to finish the cd off, chronic infection. a greatly done cover of a song by death metal legends pestilence from the album consuming impulse. ann from backhoe butchery and also steve allingtons wife does vocals on this track and let me just say she is very brutal and can keep up with ANY guy ANY day. also some great guitar lead work from matt glasser on this track.Overall this is a really good original and unique metal release from one of the best undiscovered metal bands out there. its only five dollars, six dollars if you order it through mail so I suggest you check there song the mantra off of this release on there myspace to get a decent feel of the cd and then get a copy of it if you are into it. I promise you wont be disappointed.
www.myspace.com/ozarksunderground
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