Review by Felix on December 11, 2023.

Do you agree that this band’s name is misleading? Instead of the promised suicidal winds, these Swedes always love to unleash a homicidal storm. Sometimes they fail while doing so, but “Misanthropic Anger” belongs to the better releases of the horde. Nevertheless, there is reason to criticize this 7”, because its playtime is ridiculous, even for this format. And things don’t get better with regard to the fact that almost one third is just a Beherit cover.

But let’s ignore the (missing) quantity, because quality is what really counts. (How many times has this sentence already been written?) The dudes show their typical hideous face and give us three ugly black / death bastards. If the miniature songs of the B side would be a bit longer, we could speak of conservative patterns. Anyway, they are stormy and brutal enough for a little venomous infusion. Fortunately both tracks benefit from the gapless sound which offers both a truly dark touch and a tight interplay. Well, the latter is probably a matter of course. Swedish musicians without great manual skills are probably no Swedes at all.

The title track fills the A side due to its excessive duration of almost three minutes. It’s somewhat sad that it does not last longer, because the guitar lines are strict, coherent and aggressive. No frills, no experiments, no risks, Suicidal Winds stay within their comfort zone in order to deliver some uncomfortable, ugly tones. The double bass and the bass guitar add value to the track and the same must be said about the solo. “Misanthropic Anger” with its clearly defined lines and chorus is one of the really good songs of this Swedish horde with the unknown current status. Too bad that the songs of the B side are over before they have begun.

Rating: 7.1 out of 10

Review by Felix on December 11, 2023.

Do you agree that this band’s name is misleading? Instead of the promised suicidal winds, these Swedes always love to unleash a homicidal storm. Sometimes they fail while doing so, but “Misanthropic Anger” belongs to the better releases of the horde. Nevertheless, there is reason to criticize this 7”, because its playtime is ridiculous, even for this format. And things don’t get better with regard to the fact that almost one third is just a Beherit cover.

But let’s ignore the (missing) quantity, because quality is what really counts. (How many times has this sentence already been written?) The dudes show their typical hideous face and give us three ugly black / death bastards. If the miniature songs of the B side would be a bit longer, we could speak of conservative patterns. Anyway, they are stormy and brutal enough for a little venomous infusion. Fortunately both tracks benefit from the gapless sound which offers both a truly dark touch and a tight interplay. Well, the latter is probably a matter of course. Swedish musicians without great manual skills are probably no Swedes at all.

The title track fills the A side due to its excessive duration of almost three minutes. It’s somewhat sad that it does not last longer, because the guitar lines are strict, coherent and aggressive. No frills, no experiments, no risks, Suicidal Winds stay within their comfort zone in order to deliver some uncomfortable, ugly tones. The double bass and the bass guitar add value to the track and the same must be said about the solo. “Misanthropic Anger” with its clearly defined lines and chorus is one of the really good songs of this Swedish horde with the unknown current status. Too bad that the songs of the B side are over before they have begun.

Rating: 7.1 out of 10

Review by chrisc7249 on May 9, 2022.

For as much as I love technical death metal, it's no secret that, in any genre of music, bands start to sound the same after a while. There's nothing wrong with bands sounding similar, but, when someone breaks the mold and you get a band that's truly unique, it's a special experience. Peripheral Cortex, from Germany, is a relatively new act that fuses mathcore and technical death metal to create one of the most bizarre sounds in the genre's history.

God Kaiser Hell is a sweet blend of viciousness, technicality and experimentation. Firstly, the vocals are all over the place. The low growls aren't too brutal, but they get the job done - the high pitched screeches are insane. This guy sounds like a madman when he screams out hysterically, sometimes at random over the various tracks. There's clean metalcore singing, which would turn me off 9 times out of 10, but has actually grown on me in the context of this record. There's spoken parts, falsettos, you name it, it's in here somewhere.

Instrumentation is this album's high point, however. It has an almost video game-like feel, similar to The Beast of Nod, but this is an entirely different monster. I guess the best mish mash of bands I could come up with to describe this would be Archspire, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Unhuman, and First Fragment. Yes, this is that all over the place. The riffing isn't necessarily mind blowing, but the lead guitars and fretless (?) bass makes up for the mediocre riffing plenty. There's whirling dissonance, explosive melodic sweeps, breakdowns and, of course, sick pinch harmonics.

As one could imagine, the individual performances are incredible. Every band member is a master of their instrument, and their songwriting plays to their strengths for the most part. Rarely do you get a breather from the relentless onslaught of wankery and extraterrestrial vocals. This creates what could easily be perceived as just a wall of notes, but with repeated listens, a pretty good tech death record is revealed with plenty of fun and intriguing ideas.

Ultimately, it is a hard album to digest and I'm not even sure I've let it sink in enough just yet. But, about 15 listens in, I can firmly say this is one of the most unique technical death metal albums I've heard in a long time. This is definitely not for everyone, but those who don't mind wankery and are looking for something "quirky" and different might find some enjoyment in checking out this beast. Not for the faint of heart.

FFO: Unhuman, Atlantis Chronicles, Shadow in the Darkness

Favorite song: '#Selfiewithgod'

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Death8699 on May 30, 2019.

These Swedish natives have been existence since 2008 and this is their first full-length death/doom metal release. The lineup here is as such: Niclas Ankarbranth on vocals, Wilhelm Lindh on guitars, Francisco Martin on bass, and Juan Pablo Donoso on drums. The main beef that I have with the release is the production quality, but this is the band's first full-length effort and I think that they did a good job in the songwriting department, though it took repeated listens to in order to get into the music. Some Opeth influence here on the guitars.

The music isn't blindingly fast, but there are some tracks that are pretty memorable. The tempos to the them are moderate and I'd consider the band to be more of a doom metal act than a death metal one. The leads are fantastic, and Wilhelm can really shred. His writing on the guitars riff wise feature complex overtures with palm muted outputs mixing in some clean tone guitar with it. I think that the vocals ruin the guitar though because Niclas can't really sing too well. His vocals range from low burly segments mixed in with screaming outputs.

I really dug the music despite the vocals however. The band needs to get someone that can augment their melodic sound to better fit the music. Niclas just needs to have better vocal segments than anything else. The guitar riffs were interesting and moderately tempo based. There aren't any songs on here that were fast and furious. They were mostly slow paced and fit the doom metal genre more so than the death metal one. The vocals make the band into being a dual genre act.

The production was decent, though the snare drum sounded flat. That's the only negative really to say about the album in this department. The guitars featuring the clean tone, heavy distortion and bass were all mixed into this release pretty well. The vocals suited the music, but I just couldn't get into Niclas's voice. It could be that it's because I'm not a huge fan of doom metal. It pretty much bores me. The guitar melodies make up for the boredom that I experienced listening to this album.

I wouldn't say to run right out and purchase this release ASAP and before you make any kind of conclusion as to whether or not you like the band just give it a listen. I think that they're decent like Moonspell just not as much quality as that band. The melodies were amazing though. Wilhelm really put forth rock solid guitar work both on the rhythms and leads. I think that because of his efforts it got me more into the band on a whole scale. If you want decent death/doom metal, this album does cut it.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10