Arcana Noctis (RO)
Well, Austria never really had an 100% original extreme metal act (except for Pungent Stench and Summoning maybe) but that’s my opinion and not a reason to dislike a well done mix of what has already been…Perishing Mankind are from my town here in Styria, called Leibnitz. I know most of the band members for about eight years now, I saw them live a couple of times and had some discussions with them, especially with Paul, the bass player, so I think I know what their principles and beliefs are… nothing new, the same (true) metal story, most of the time …but I’ll do an interview with them later, if they collaborate after reading this ;)For a debut album „Fall of Men“ sounds pretty good to me… though I have constantly deja-vu’s… like I said, it’s a mix of styles and bands we all should know. Metallica meets In Flames, BUT (!) much more dirty and with angry vocals, and for this reason it seems interesting to me, they are trying anyhow to bring something new in the sound they liked since their childhood….Hardcore/Thrash with some complex arrangements, I'd say. The production is perfect, you can recognize every instrument very well (except for the bass, but almost every band has the same problem...) and again, I’m surprized about the knowledge and skills they have due to the fact that it’s the first album after releasing only a demo, and they’re quite young too…
Most of the positive credits are going to Holger, the one who’s got the crowd in his hands when they’re playing live, the singer… Screams, growls and clean vocals in all kind of depths and heights, you can feel his huge appetite for what he is doing! (maybe the clean parts sometimes sound too much like Autumn Clan, also a band from Leibnitz, which they seem to like very much, but obviously he can do more with his voice… maybe next time)So, we have eight studio tracks and a live one (which at first I thought it’s a Metallica cover) in constantly high quality, lyrically they move between frustration and sickness... broken love, broken promises, broken system, but hey, it’s a cold world... even in Austria! ;) Fits in the concept.
The detailed artwork on 8 pages is also made with love just like the homepage...I’d like to mention an interesting thing at the end. A rather small girl (…yes, she’s pretty too, but that’s not the point) beats the shit out of the drums, in studio as well as on stage… respect!Best songs: “Nox” and “First Fallout” but the more I listen to the cd, the more I like all of them a little more...There are some left of the first pressing, so hurry up and buy the original before they get bigger and Nuclear Blast re-re-re-release them. I think they could make it... Good luck!