In 2009 Code666 celebrates its 10th birthday. Born in 1999 with the first album of the Russian group Rakoth, it has always aimed to offer original and innovative music, without bothering to follow passing trends but instead following  precise editorial themes which have made it a cult label over the years. In 2003 Code666 produced “Better Undead Than Alive”, a compilation of unreleased and exclusive pieces of its own bands which soon became very popular and was vital for the growth of the label and the concept that has inspired it from the start.
Now the second chapter – “Better Undead Than Alive 2”- is coming out, even better and in a grander style.
code666 thought that offering unpublished and exclusive pieces is not enough; a record should also have consistency and a style of its own. Thus Code666 has decided to resort to the enormous talent of Davide Tiso, mastermind of the Ephel Duath, whose task has been to assemble, edit and merge the various tracks of the code666 bands by means of little songs and interludes acting as links.
The record, in this way, goes beyond the summing up of each piece and becomes an unprecedented concept album, a record with a meaningful course both as a whole and in each song.
We are proud of it as it represents in the best possible way the ideas and the passion that have characterized Code666 for ten years.

“Better Undead Than Alive II” is scheduled to hit worlwide stores in late 2009, featuring new unreleased and exclusive songs by: Negura Bunget, DiabolicuM, Void Of Silence, The Axis Of Perdition, The Prophecy, Fen, The Oath, Damned Spirits Dance, Minethorn, Herrschaft and Davide Tiso!

En este 2009 nos siguen llegando materiales llenos de calidad, de innovación y sobre todo de propuestas que refrescan el universo metalero, una de estas bandas es italiana y desde hace varios años se han encargado de mostrar un paso adelante en sus composiciones, me refiero a Ephel Duath que regresan a la escena con Through My Dog´s Eyes.

Vámonos por partes: estos cuates siempre han destacado por sus extrañas fusiones entre el metal, el hardcore y punk y por ahí elementos más alternativos e inusuales como el jazz fusión y el free jazz. El resultado ha sido catalogado como uno de los trabajos más innovadores de la escena pesada mundial, a pesar de que la música en ocasiones no es fácil de digerir.

Para este disco Ephel Duath, cuyo cerebro es el músico Davide Tiso, se aventaron la puntada de reclutar al “metrónomo humano” llamado Marco Minnemann en la batería, lo cual le da un sentido más abierto a la composición que si bien raya en tintes extremos progresivos, carece de estructuras complejas al escucha pero difíciles de concebir en la práctica.

En pocas palabras, Ephel Duath puede hacer música efectiva, pesada y poderosa que al mismo tiempo no parezca muy elaborada pero que en realidad si lo es, toda una maraña de conceptos musicales derivados de diferentes corrientes convergen acá.

TMDE es un álbum conceptual basado en la visión que un perro puede tener sobre la vida… sí, lo sé, yo también pensé que era un chiste o algo parecido, sin embargo no es broma, el disco basa sus canciones en esta idea, que lejos de ser algo descabellado es un trabajo bien logrado sobre todo con la conjunción de los músicos atacando sus instrumentos en atmósferas extravagantemente agónicas, desoladoras y angustiantes pero llenas de efectividad metalera.

Me gustan piezas como Gift, Bella Morte cuyo trabajo rítmico es de destacar en batería y bajo, Bark Loud en su tónica gris de instrumental cerradora, más enfocada al jazz por momentos y Breed por la cadencia de sonidos y la solidez de la parte rítmica del grupo, en realidad las canciones son muy cortas pero te dejan un agradable sabor de boca… no todo el progre y el avant garde metal debe ser de larguísima duración para ser bueno.

Este material que es un buen ingreso a las filas de este grupo y a sus conceptos voladísimos sobre la música pesada está, como siempre, en el link de este lado.

Carpe diem.

(2009, Earache)

Pur continuando a non lasciare spiragli alla luce, la materia sonora degli Ephel Duath compie una nuova, seppur non radicale, mutazione. Le forme sono rimaste spigolose e difficili da delineare se non ci si applica in ascolti ripetuti ed attenti, ma è evidente un senso di compressione nelle strutture, che adesso ricusano certe slabbrature elastiche del meraviglioso “Pain Necessary To Know” in favore di un discorso più fluido e meno frammentato nei gerghi musicali adottati. Lo stile vocale di Luciano Lorusso si allontana palesemente dall’ascendente dei Converge con un growl fino ad ora non sfoderato in questa maniera dalla sua ugola, mentre le sfuriate metalliche sono contenute e non eccessivamente isteriche, complice anche la chitarra di Tiso, meno aggressiva ma non per questo meno grumosa ed escoriante. “Through My Dog’s Eyes” è un album invero parecchio strano, non tracima mai nella violenza cupa del passato eppure pesa come un macigno, è scuro e vitreo, converte l’aria in materia solida. Le lunghe digressioni jazzate del precedente platter trovano spazio in un amalgama più compatto e fungono sostanzialmente da rilegature per le parti cantate, qui più presenti. Di durata parecchio breve e con le tracce che si susseguono senza soluzione di continuità, si ha spesso la sensazione di trovarsi al cospetto di un’unica suite in alcuni frangenti anche incline ad accogliere melodie strumentali dalla fisionomia più delineata (la coda finale di “Nina”, ma anche “Promenade”, Guardian). Si avverte una maturità notevole in sede di songwriting, pur non essendo questa la prova migliore della band, ed un mutamento d’approccio nelle costruzioni, dirette verso una strana forma canzone che soltanto gli Ephel Duath sanno cosa stia diventando.

Tracklist:
1. Gift
2. Promenade
3. Breed
4. Silent
5. Bella Morte
6. Nina
7. Guardian
8. Spider Shaped Leaves
9. Bark Loud

Marco Giarratana

]]> http://mindinversion.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/ephel-duath-channels-their-dogs-on-new-album/ Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:08:43 +0000 Ryan Buege http://mindinversion.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/ephel-duath-channels-their-dogs-on-new-album/

Progressive metal’s best Italian trio, the bizarre, jazz heavy, avant-garde experimentalists in Ephel Duath, have revealed a bit more of their plans for their forthcoming followup to Pain Necessary To Know. The band will release their fourth studio album, Through My Dog’s Eyes, in January 26, 2009 through Earache Records. Over the past couple albums, Ephel Duath has progressed through a number of (..pardon the pun..) palettes and have never failed to bring something new to the world of music. From the forward thinking progressive-influenced black metal of their early albums, to the off-time chaos of The Painter’s Palette, to the spacecy avant-garde jams of their most recent album, Ephel Duath always keeps everyone (including themselves, it seems) guessing about where they’ll take their sound next. Thus far, it appears that the band’s next album will not be an out of line with this trend…

Through My Dog’s Eyes is a based around a left-of-center concept, created by guitarist and founding member Davide Tiso, in which the entire album is written from the perspective of a dog. “I wrote a few short stories and it was really fun for me to imagine myself as a dog and to imagine the world from a dog’s perspective,” says Tiso. “The challenge was to translate the words into lyrics. Every song is a window into the dog’s mind or an event. The album touches on a lot of things, both deep and sometimes silly.” And it’s not simply the lyrics in Through My Dog’s Eyes that are written from the dog’s perspective – but rather the entire album, including the arrangement, is based around this concept. “The music in this case is the soundtrack of the thoughts of the dog – at times you can hear the dog running,” Tiso elaborates.

The lineup behind Ephel Duath has shifted considerably over the past several years, but through it all the foundation has remained solid. Furthermore, their commitment to musical mastery has continued and their ability to experiment with sounds and concepts has expanded. Additionally, both drummer Marco Minneman of Necrophagist and Dillinger Escape Plan’s guitarist Benjamin Weinman contributed to the album as well. Bandleader Davide Tiso has a clear vision for the future, and even if it is a bit weird, I think we should trust where Ephel Duath is about to take us this time and just go along for the “walk”. Tiso’s description of his album closes, “I see the dog as an animal really full of energy. I imagine this dog, the dog on the album, as a little cantankerous and mischievous.” Even if that’s as clear of a description as Davide’s willing to give, I’ll be looking forward to it.

Until then, enjoy the classic music video of “The Passage (Pearl Grey)” from Ephel Duath’s 2003 behemoth, <i>The Painter’s Palette</i>:

A banda italiana Ephel Duath actua em Portugal, na Fábrica de Som, no Porto, dia 21 de Maio (véspera de feriado). Pain Necessary to Know foi lançado em 2005 e o novo, Through My Dogs Eyes, está para breve. A primeira parte é assegurada pelo colectivo nortenho Lost Gorbachevs. Uma oportunidade para ouvir o primeiro cd-r editado, From Neoliberalism to Totalitarian Capitalism.

Data: 21 de Maio

Local: Fábrica de Som

Início do concerto: 22 horas

Preço: 7 euros, sem consumo obrigatório

Organização: AmplificaSom