| Written by Alex Stojanovic TRACK LISTING Command Hallucination Obsolete Contrition Lost In Despair The Suicidal Trance Seraphic Retaliation Crucifix Revenge Shackled Desire's Hostage Memnoch MEMNOCH IS: Inho Kwak - Vocals & bass Minsu Kim - Guitars Jaeseung Lee - Guitars Seunghwi Confyverse Kim - Drums Release Date: May 31, 2018 Label: Dope Entertainment |  Website: www.memnoch.bandcamp.com |
When it comes to the Korean metal scene, I'm aware that there's a ton of fans, but I was never familiar with any of the bands that hail from North or South Korea. However, thanks to Metal-Archives, I was able to find an abundance of bands hailing from Korea. Death metal outfit Memnoch, hailing from Seoul, reached out to us for a review of their debut album Command Hallucination. In their bio, it states that the band was formed in 1995, making them part of the first generation of Korean death metal bands. As I was listening to Command Hallucination, the album begins with the title track, which is just a beeping of a heartbeat monitor that slowly increases in speed towards the end before it explodes into the crunching riff attack of "Obsolete Contrition". I love the potent combination of thrash-style riffing and gutteral vocals, which makes this track one of the standout moments.
During the breakdown of "Seraphic Retaliation", the band give a nod to Dying Fetus with the slow chugging riffs and the ultra-low gutterals. Vocally, Inho Kwak strongly resembles Frank Mullen of Suffocation, but you can also hear hints of John Gallagher of Dying Fetus and Chris Barnes of Six Feet Under. When it comes to gutteral vocals, I love the style a lot, but when you look at it from a wider angle, they can limit your possibilities, and give the songs very little to no variation. It's always best to think hills and valleys when it comes to the flow of the vocals to make things more interesting. If Kwak added some highs to go with the lows, it would've made the songs stand out a bit more. As I've said several times before, there's only a handful of bands where the vocal style is very linear and monotone that appeal to me.
Towards the end of the record is where we get something a little different, but not that different. "Desire's Hostage" is one of the standout tracks because musically, it takes a more straightforward approach with traditional metal riffing and Kwak incorporates some gritty vocals, adding a different flavour to the record. It honestly felt a little refreshing to hear that. The closing track "Memnoch" begins with a clean guitar passage before heading back into familiar territory with crushing riffs and grooves, and Kwak also includes some dark spoken-word vocals. Towards the end of the track, he finally incorporates some melodic vocals.
I have to be honest like I always am. I love my death metal, but when it comes to discovering new death metal bands, there's very few bands of the style that manage to grab hold of my interest and get me excited. The death metal scene today seems to be overflowing with bands following the same formula in their music, and it gets watered down. I wouldn't exactly call Memnoch one of the new bands that managed to grab my interest completely, because Command Hallucination didn't contain nearly enough variety as I hoped it would. However, there is a good balance between heavy and melodic guitar work and punishing drum work, but if a little more melodic vocals (not too much) were included, to give the album more variety, and the gutteral vocals included more highs and lows, rather than one monotone voice, it would've stood out much more. Wishing all the best to Memnoch for the future! If you love your death metal, I highly suggest you check them out.
Highs: "Obsolete Contrition", "Desire's Hostage" and "Memnoch"
Lows: Vocals can get stale
Final Rating: 7/10
During the breakdown of "Seraphic Retaliation", the band give a nod to Dying Fetus with the slow chugging riffs and the ultra-low gutterals. Vocally, Inho Kwak strongly resembles Frank Mullen of Suffocation, but you can also hear hints of John Gallagher of Dying Fetus and Chris Barnes of Six Feet Under. When it comes to gutteral vocals, I love the style a lot, but when you look at it from a wider angle, they can limit your possibilities, and give the songs very little to no variation. It's always best to think hills and valleys when it comes to the flow of the vocals to make things more interesting. If Kwak added some highs to go with the lows, it would've made the songs stand out a bit more. As I've said several times before, there's only a handful of bands where the vocal style is very linear and monotone that appeal to me.
Towards the end of the record is where we get something a little different, but not that different. "Desire's Hostage" is one of the standout tracks because musically, it takes a more straightforward approach with traditional metal riffing and Kwak incorporates some gritty vocals, adding a different flavour to the record. It honestly felt a little refreshing to hear that. The closing track "Memnoch" begins with a clean guitar passage before heading back into familiar territory with crushing riffs and grooves, and Kwak also includes some dark spoken-word vocals. Towards the end of the track, he finally incorporates some melodic vocals.
I have to be honest like I always am. I love my death metal, but when it comes to discovering new death metal bands, there's very few bands of the style that manage to grab hold of my interest and get me excited. The death metal scene today seems to be overflowing with bands following the same formula in their music, and it gets watered down. I wouldn't exactly call Memnoch one of the new bands that managed to grab my interest completely, because Command Hallucination didn't contain nearly enough variety as I hoped it would. However, there is a good balance between heavy and melodic guitar work and punishing drum work, but if a little more melodic vocals (not too much) were included, to give the album more variety, and the gutteral vocals included more highs and lows, rather than one monotone voice, it would've stood out much more. Wishing all the best to Memnoch for the future! If you love your death metal, I highly suggest you check them out.
Highs: "Obsolete Contrition", "Desire's Hostage" and "Memnoch"
Lows: Vocals can get stale
Final Rating: 7/10
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