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Sickening Horror - When Landscapes Bled Backwards
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Artist...............: Sickening Horror
Album................: When Landscapes Bled Backwards
Genre................: Technical Death Metal
Source...............: CD
Year.................: 2007
Ripper...............: Exact Audio Copy (Secure mode) & Pioneer DVD-ROM DVR-109
Codec................: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version..............: reference libFLAC 1.2.0 20070715
Quality..............: Lossless, (avg. compression: 81 %)
Channels.............: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags.................: VorbisComment
Information..........: Produced by Sickening Horror.
Mixed by Neil Kernon @ Auslander.
Drums and Bass recorded @ Live Studio by Nikos Spyropolous.
Guitars and Vocals recorded @ Zero Gravity Studio by Athanassios Aggelis.
Mastered by Alan Douches @ West West Side.
Record Label: Willowtip/Neurotic.
Ripped by............: shogun on 10/10/2008
Posted by............: shogun on 10/10/2008
News Server..........: news.astraweb.com
News Group(s)........: alt.binaries.sounds.lossless.metal / alt.binaries.sounds.lossless
Included.............: NFO, SFV, PLS, M3U, LOG, PAR v2, CUE
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Tracklisting
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1. (00:01:01) Sickening Horror - Descending The Mind's Abyss
2. (00:03:20) Sickening Horror - An Eerie Aspect Of Us... Drowning
3. (00:03:04) Sickening Horror - This Cold Funeral
4. (00:03:22) Sickening Horror - The Perfect Disease
5. (00:03:09) Sickening Horror - Imprisoned In Apocalypse
6. (00:03:14) Sickening Horror - Forsake My Bleeding
7. (00:03:58) Sickening Horror - Dark One Surreality
8. (00:02:06) Sickening Horror - Virus Detected
9. (00:03:21) Sickening Horror - Filming Our Graves
10. (00:03:59) Sickening Horror - Embrace The Abstract
11. (00:01:25) Sickening Horror - All Perceived Nothing
12. (00:03:44) Sickening Horror - When Landscapes Bled Backwards
Playing Time.........: 00:35:39
Total Size...........: 269.60 MB
NFO generated on.....: 10/10/2008 6:14:02 PM
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Review from: www.metalreview.com
Review by: Michael Roberts
Ratings:
Production - 5.5/6
Songwriting - 5/6
Musicianship - 5.5/6
Before I begin it should be made clear that I only have a passing knowledge
and appreciation of the ‘progressive death metal’ sub-genre. To be more
specific, Death’s Symbolic is about as out-there as my tastes go, and I never
really investigated the likes of Atheist and Cynic. That said, to my ears
Greece’s Sickening Horror have delivered a unique fusion of technical death,
jazz and a dash of electronic accents on When Landscapes Bled Backwards,
the band’s full-length debut. While those with more eclectic and diverse
tastes than mine may not find this aural concoction that big a deal, the
quality of the songs and intensity of delivery on this album should prove more
enticing.
Another thing to mention early is that When Landscapes Bled Backwards
features Nile’s George Kollias laying down the blast before he was whisked
away by Karl and Dallas, which should cause added interest in this disc. After
the ominous ambient intro "Descending The Mind’s Abyss", "An Eerie Aspect
Of Us… Drowning" kicks off the album with straight-up death metal ferocity,
with Kollias’ jackhammer drumming and the charismatic vocals of George
Antipatis making an immediate impression. "This Cold Funeral" introduces the
electronic elements in its intro, as well as the jazzy bass lines and dissonant
guitars which, while jarring at first, soon become comfortably woven into the
whole of Sickening Horror’s sound.
The musical diversity on When Landscapes Bled Backwards is outstanding.
Tracks such as "The Perfect Disease" and "Filming Our Graves" feature more
conventional rhythms and catchy, almost metalcore-styled grooves to
counter the more challenging structures of other songs. Sickening Horror’s
appropriation of jazz rhythms reaches its apex on "Virus Detected", a manic
instrumental that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Dillinger Escape Plan
album. "All Perceived Nothing", meanwhile, is an emotive, genuinely
unsettling piano piece that sounds like something you’d hear at 2am in the
most obscure jazz club, and would be completely out of place if not for this
band successfully incorporating such elements into the actual songs
surrounding it.
None of the twelve songs on When Landscapes Bled Backwards break the
four-minute mark, and that’s a real testament to the razor-sharp songwriting
skills Sickening Horror possess. The production on the album is superb, with
the instruments, vocals and various sounds rendered with absolute clarity
and power. Neil Kernon, who produced Nile’s last two, has done a great job
with the mixing of the disc. Sickening Horror have for me delivered a standout
debut in When Landscapes Bled Backwards and are definitely one of my finds
of the year.
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Review from: www.lordsofmetal.nl
Review by: Richard G.
Rating: 92/100
Producing a refreshing sound within the over-saturated genre of death metal
is quite a neat feat. When you manage to do it without the help of all kinds of
artificially sounding technical tricks or layers upon layers upon layers of
intricate riffings, you are just a pure genius. The Greek outfit Sickening
Horror manages to do just that and their cryptically titled debut record "When
Landscapes Bled Backwards" will definitely get a prominent place in my year
list for 2007.
Take a song like "Forsake My Bleeding". It contains ultra fast blast beats
alternated with freaky breaks featuring jingly jangly bass parts in a jazzy
pattern combined with some subtle electronic background noises. Sickening
Horror manage to avoid the luring cacophony and mend all the parts together
without it ever sounding slightly unnatural or illogical. Their musical
craftsmanship is phenomenal and none of the other ten songs (practically all
clocking in between three or four minutes) sound "difficult" or
"strenuous" despite the more than unconventional paths that are trodden.
Even though the band owes super drummer George Kollias and his
connections a lot (of course his brilliant drumming helped the band a bit as
well), this man has recently been removed from the line-up. We will see
whether the remaining two-piece will manage on their own, judging by their
musical qualities this should not be a problem at all. At least they will keep the
ball rolling, because they have already written a second album, so keep an
eye on them. Technical death metal heads be warned, Sickening Horror is a
band that should definitely be part of any serious collection.
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Review from: www.metal-archives.net
A classic in tech death - 97%
Written by Lustmord56 on January 10th, 2008
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
Thank you Willowtip for licensing this gem this from Neurotic.
Readers, what was the last technical death metal album that truly changed
how you viewed and listened to technical death metal? A mind altering, genre
smearing album that altered the death metal landscape? For me personally, I
have to go back as far as Nile’s Amongst the Catacombs of Naphren Ka.
Before that, Cryptopsy’s Whisper Supremacy, then before I have to revisit
the golden era of death metal with the likes of Atheist’s Unquestionable
Presence, Disincarnate’s Dreams of a Carrion Kind and the ridiculously ahead
of its time, Obscura.
I mention those four albums, in particular the last four, as I hear a lot of
those in this simply stunning debut from Greece’s Sickening Horror (whose
drummer is Nile’s George Kollias) and this album I feel will rub shoulders with
those aforementioned albums if the pantheons of technical death metal
greatness.
Yes, this is that good. Beyond good, beyond superb, beyond great. When
Landscapes Bled Backwards is simply awe inspiring on every level, with every
note, growl, bass twang and blast.
With the mind fucking complexity of Obscura (particularly “Virus Detected”),
the crippling heaviness of Whisper Supremacy (“Embrace the Abstract”) and
the polish, precision and song writing chops if Disincarnate’s lone work,
Sickening Horror blaze through 12 tracks (one intro and one interlude
included) of truly mind bending technical death metal brilliance. From opening
intro, the aptly titled “Descending the Minds Abyss” through the closing title
track, Sickening Horror simply put virtually all other modern technical death
metal to shame. It’s not that it’s more complex or more intricate, its not. It’s
just a perfect balance of twisting serpentine expositions of ferocious
intricacy, melded with a symbiotic semblance of brutality and intellectual heft
and just the right amount of programmed experimentation (“Dark One
Surreality”). Throw in some heaving slower, angular yet devastating slower
tracks like “A Perfect Disease”, “Filming Our Graves”, which while certainly
slower, are no less brain melting and you have an album that will truly change
your perception of death metal. And each track is a perfectly timed slice-all
hovering around 3-4 minutes, making for an immaculately paced 35 minutes
of sonic Armageddon. I’m not going to gush about individual songs as each
track on When Landscapes Bled Backwards is utter technical death metal
perfection. Throw in an organic, symbiotic production and earthy, deep
vocals and you have technical death metal nirvana.
Folks, I’ve made some outlandish claims in my reviewing ‘career”, but even
with the some great technical death metal I’ve heard over the last few years
from the likes of Anata, Psycroptic, Spawn of Possession, Odious Mortem,
Necrophagist, Dim Mak and a slew of others, I’m going to stick my neck out
there and say When Landscapes Bled Backwards is a true modern classic that
simply devastates every technical death metal album you’ve heard in the last
few years.
By Erik Thomas (originally posted at http://www.digitalmetal.com)
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