Showing posts with label Animosity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animosity. Show all posts

5 April 2015

ENTHEOS SHOW THEMSELVES AS WORTHY SUCCESSORS TO ANIMOSITY'S THRONE


Reviewing a release like Entheos' Primal EP is a difficult thing, ever since Evan Brewer announced his departure from the infamous Tech Death group The Faceless I was half begging for the bassist to reform San Fran Deathcore legends Animosity and with Entheos, that is basically what he has done. It would be rather safe to say that I am perhaps a little too invested in Primal.

...All that said, I would be amiss not to talk about it.

In a very real way Primal is exactly what everyone expected from Entheos and in that way alone could it be said to be disappointing. Considering all but one member of the band hails from the aforementioned Animosity, it is not surprising that Entheos sound rather a lot like the later works of their precursor. Animosity were known (or not as the case may be) as an OG Deathcore band, and are one of the few, in my mind, that successfully merged Deathcore and Hardcore into one whole. In the same way 90s Metalcore ala Earth Crisis, Deadguy, Shai Hulud and similar were Hardcore bands playing Slayer, Animosity were a Hardcore band playing Cannibal Corpse; they took the technical aggression of Death Metal and added Hardcore elements to an even greater extent than Suffocation did before them.

It was a very different world back then, when genre names actually had some basis in the music being played and Screamo didn't just mean angsty Pop-Rock.

As has already been said Entheos share many similarities with Animosity, especially their Animal era, though the Hardcore influence has been lessened somewhat. These riffs from Entheos are equal parts pin-point precision technicality and bone breaking, ear destroying heaviness. Guitarist Frank Costa has seemingly lost nothing since his days in Animosity. The rhythm section is comprised of technical and progressive heavy weights Even Brewer and Navene Koperweis. Since their time in Animosity Brewer played bass with The Faceless and Koperweis drums with Animals As Leaders, there are arguably few better places that each could further refine their chops. It is possible that the perfectly balanced production makes it more obvious than the murky fuzz of old Animosity albums, but Evan Brewers bass work reaches dizzying heights on this release. Never content to keep it simple, Brewer manages to find new and interesting ways to match the progressive ferocity of Costa's riffs. The EP’s name sake track, Primal, shows perhaps the best example of this, where Brewer unleashes a slap bass part unparalleled in modern Death Metal. Koperweis’ beats fit in perfectly too, with drum patterns often sounding deceptively simple when compared to their actual complexity. Some of those timings make my head spin. If you don’t believe me, check out this play through:


The odd player out in Entheos, is vocalist Chaney Crabb, who isn’t just in the band because she’s dating Navene Koperweis. Her vocals are absolutely monstrous and Veil of Maya really missed out when they didn’t hire her after Brandon Butler left in 2014. Her audition performance was so good it was considered news worthy by Metal Injection and it’s not hard to see why. Crabb is a great choice to front the second coming of Animosity and I’m sure Veil of Maya are regretting their choice now.

As I said before the only complaint that can be truly leveled at the Primal EP from Entheos is that a band comprised of mainly members of Animosity, sounds basically like Animosity. For those who have missed Animosity has much as I have, this EP is a perfect return to the heights of that band. For those who have never heard of Animosity and like heavy music that knows how to groove as well as tech the fuck out… well where the hell have you been. Don’t wait another second, listen to the Primal EP... and then some Animosity.

4.5/5


13 January 2015

45 SECONDS OF THE FACELESS, ANIMOSITY AND ANIMALS AS LEADERS SUPER GROUP


We briefly touched on the formation of Entheos, a super group featuring ex-members of Animals as Leaders, The Faceless and Animosity, last week. Well now we have 45 seconds of drum cam footage to add to the small riff snippet we had before. It doesn't sound like much but it could have been a minute of Alex Webster staring blankly into the camera and plucking open strings on his bass and it’d still be exciting. This is the best Super Group line up to come along in a while and many are excited for what Entheos aka “Animosity with a different singer”, can come up with. Whatever it is it’s probably gonna be awesome.


6 January 2015

ANIMOSITY REFORM (KINDA) AND RAMMSTEIN GETS PAINFUL

The turn of the New Year has seen a couple of interesting announcements come from the world of Super Groups. That strange realm in which shining examples of musicianship come together to make turgid messes of albums, or at least mostly. These two announcements however, seem promising.


Till Lindemann of Rammstein and Peter TÃĪgtgren of Pain and Hypocrisy have formed Lindemann which makes it sound like Till’s vanity project. Considering that both have a past in Industrial it is not beyond the realms of doubt that it’ll be a Pain/Rammstein hybrid. It also reaffirms the latter groups break period. It looks like Lindemann and Richard Kruspe's Emigrate will be all that fans of the German Techno Metalers will be getting instead of a core release. The duo already have a Facebook page up, but that’s really all the information that is currently available.


While a meeting of Industrial leviathans is interesting, the reformation of Animosity is infinitely more so. Okay well it’s not QUITE a reformation of one of Deathcore’s forgotten heavy weight champions, but it is damn close. Ex-The Faceless Bassist Alex Webster, joins fellow Ex-Animosity members Navene Koperweis (also previously drummer for Animals As Leaders) and Guitarist Frank Costa in a new project named Entheos. Vocal duties are taken Chaney Crabb, probably only known for auditioning for Veil of Maya that one time. It is exciting stuff and many have been praying for something like this ever since Brewer announced his departure from The Faceless earlier this year. This is probably as close as we’re gonna get to a full on Animosity reunion so let’s be thankful. The clip bellow shows what we’ve got to look forward to: