Album Description

The 2nd addition of the Loudest Compilation of heavy music on Canada's East Coast.

Reviews

HERE NB Our region of the country isn't exactly known as being a keeper of great metal bands, however Josh Hogan and his record label Diminished Fifth Records are doing their best to change that perception. Assembled here are 19 of the region's finest metal and heavy rock-influenced acts with great representation from all three Maritime Provinces. Diminished Fifth acts Gallactus, Iron Giant, Orchid's Curse and Dischord are all featured here alongside other New Brunswick acts Coffin Birth, Something Delicious, We The Undersigned and Tempting Tragedy. A total of eight previously unreleased tracks dot the collection, contributed by bands including Fredericton's Celeta, [TheDaisy] Anthesis, Gallactus and Nova Scotia's Cephalectomy. Volume II of The Music Of Artisanship & War proves that the Maritime's metal scene is a vibrant one offering some of the most punishing and relentless metal music in the country. Support your local and regional heavy metal acts by checking this out. Earshot Online Various The Music Of Artisanship And War Volume II Diminished Fifth Generally, when people are asked to think about music from Canada’s maritime provinces, the first thoughts that likely come to mind are folk and country singers Anne Murray or Stompin’ Tom Connors, Celtic fiddle music, jam bands, or indie rock. Tucked away in the bars and basements of small towns on Canada’s East Coast, however, hides a thriving underground metal scene from Saint John to Summerside to Sydney. The Music and Artisanship of War: Volume II, released by Dartmouth-based Diminished Fifth Records, is the label’s second compilation of the maritime region’s heaviest bands. On Volume II, Diminished Fifth exposes listeners to thirteen artists not previously featured on the label’s earlier 2007 release, such as Coffin Birth, Black Moor, Amnesty, Iron Giant, and Cephalectomy. Recurring favourites – perhaps back by popular demand? – include Hellacaust, Gallactus, and Orchid’s Curse. The compilation boldly explores the spectrum of loud sounds, from hardcore, death and thrash metal to sludgy, fuzzy, heavy, stoner rock. Even a few melodic, new-school, technical metal acts from Fredericton make the cut. Certainly, keep the compilations coming – they’re for anyone that loves metal, and especially for those looking to expose themselves to underground, independent metal from the maritimes. Any self-respecting ‘banger should surely be familiar with at least one of the featured artists on this comp, so give the others a listen, come out to a show, and be truly blown away by the maritime metal music scene. By Candace Mooers Jan 1, 2009 Peacedogman.com # VARIOUS - "The Music of Artisanship & War: Volume II", 2008 (Diminished Fifth) # The tritone-worshippers unleash a solid comp. Compilation CD's are a tricky beast, being so dependent upon the quality of each individual band to make it a worthwhile investment in time and money. Fortunately, once I saw that this bad boy came courtesy of the metal madmen at Diminished Fifth records, the monstrous purveyors of East Coast metal mayhem, I rested comfortably knowing I was in good hands. Just take a look through the peacedogman reviews of various Diminished Fifth artists like IRON GIANT and GALLACTUS and you'll see what I'm talking about. Throw in a bevy of underground metal tracks with a whole host of those being previously unreleased and my attention was fully piqued. What we got here is a veritable opened bleeding vein of all things metal, ranging from the 3 INCHES OF BLOOD-que NWOBHM meets thrash of COFFIN BIRTH to the violent assault of death metal brutality of bands like HELLACAUST and BLACK MOOR. At 19 tracks and a full hour in length, it's too much to detail each band here. Suffice it to say, my personal tastes diverge more towards the sludgy quasi-stoner metal of IRON GIANT and GALLACTUS and the freaky metal meets funk of SOMETHING DELICIOUS, but there's really nothing weak here. No matter what brand of headbanging gets you off, you'll find something to pump some blood to your member. For you completists, the previously unreleased tracks come from ANTHESIS, ORCHID'S CURSE, CEPHALECTOMY, UIGG, GALLACTUS, UNHALLOWED EXISTENCE and ARCHAIK. To these ears, some of the death metal gets a little repetitive, but in the end, D5R do an admirable job of chronicling the vibrant East Coast Metal Scene. Horns high! - Severin Cosmos Gaming At some point or another, just about every record label puts out a compilation of some sort. But whether or not fans will support a particular label’s compilation can depend on the quality of songs it offers and variety of artists. Canadian label Diminished Fifth Records is now on the second volume of their The Music of Artisanship and War series, and offer plenty of acts from the Canadian scene that listeners may or may not be familiar with. And thanks to the strength of the material offered, this is definitely a release worth checking out if only to get an idea of what the metal scene in Canada has to offer. Diminished Fifth is a relatively newer label with only five artists on their roster so far, but they made sure to grab as many talented acts for this compilation as they could. The resulting disc has 19 different artists encompassing genres such as death metal, stoner rock, and thrash which gives it plenty of variety. In addition to this, eight of the nineteen songs are previously unreleased ensuring that listeners who are already familiar with some of these groups will be able to find something new. I have to give the label credit for doing this, as quite a few compilations I’ve reviewed in the past have featured songs that can be found on numerous other releases. But of course, none of this matters if the songs aren’t worth listening to right? Thankfully, Diminished Fifth seems to have had a good ear when picking the artists and songs as nearly three quarters of the material here is worth checking out. The Music of Artisanship and War Volume II is a compilation with a purpose, and it definitely succeeds. The Canadian metal scene (particularly its underground circuits) may not be as well known as its American counterpart, but this release showcases that many of these artists can certainly hold their own. I plan on checking some of the groups on this disc out further in the future, and if you’re looking for some new bands to listen to that are related to metal in some way, this compilation has more than enough variety to satisfy. http://www.diminishedfifthrecords.com Chris Dahlberg November 10, 2008 Exclaim! Magazine Many record labels have a difficult time gathering enough passable, let alone great, songs/bands to create one compilation. Halifax’s Diminished Fifth is the anomaly. While The Music Of Artisanship & War Volume I seemed unsurpassable in its depths of metallic genius and great underrated bands, the 19 tracks on this follow-up feature even more bombast, genre variety and impact. It makes a ’banger sick to realize that the likes of Coffin Birth’s Carcass adoration, the black metal of Hellacaust, Iron Giant, Gallactus’s beefy groove metal and more are going virtually ignored everywhere west of the New Brunswick border. One feels left out of the loop, or not cool enough to be privy to what is some of the Great White North’s best music, metal or otherwise. Thankfully, we have DM5 looking out for our best interests by amassing such powerful collections. Like an older, wiser brother, they’re letting us into their room and introducing us to an amazing unknown world. (Diminished Fifth) Abort Magazine There’s too much good music around to keep track, let alone listen to all of it. While we come back repeatedly to our favorites, we keep digging through endless names and albums, dividing sparrows from the nightingales. It takes a humongous amount of time and the taskitself is of gargantuan proportions, even though we like it. This is true for any genre, but Diminished Fifth Records proves that even in such a particular case as the East Coast metal scene, there’s a lot to look into. A compilation of songs, labeled “The Music of Artisanship & War: Vol II”, is the second in the eye-opening series and contains 19 songs from bands the world is missing out on, as the label put it. The CD presents a rather diverse metal landscape, ranging from thrash and death to power and even doom. Some of the bands are young and maturing, others are more than a decade old like Cephalectomy. Their song “The Igniting Tempest” is one of the records that have never been released before, so fans can get their hands on some exclusive material here. The overall quality varies from song to song, same can be said about the genres. Check out Something Delicious, who have a very unusual mix of funk and hardcore. Tempting Tragedy presents an early-90’s style epic doom metal with additional stylistic changes worth attention. Some of the music is relatively novel, while the influence of some famous bands can be felt in general, be it hard rock or sludge. This compilation would be interesting to just about anybody who likes metal, giving an insight into a vast number of genres and East Coast bands, which are still in the shadows. It’s all very different, but damn if it ain’t heavy. If you want to get into the very underground metal world – this is your ticket. DiminishedFifthRecords.com By Arceon The Telegram (St. John’s, Newfoundland) Loud? Ooooh yeah. Now, I’m no fan of the screaming, growling, regurgitated ly ric, but I am, apparently, an old, old man. Instead of banging my head along to this compilation of Maritime metal, I found myself giggling at the audacity of cuts like “Pretty and Pitied” by Saint John’s [The Daisy] Anthesis (that’s New Brunswick, kiddies), or the Hellacaust cut you can’t name in a family newspaper. Still, it’s be tter to laugh than cry, and there are some excellent cuts on this 19-song collec tion. Black Moor’s “The Blood Moor” tastes like Megadeth; Iron Giant boasts a singer, at least on “Black Hides the Sun;” Amnesty has the players to make you sit through just about anything the vocalist might dream up; Cephalec tomy (really, the names are worth the price of admission) has a grunt- along hook in “The Igniting Tempest” that must be a great air-puncher live .