Find the coverage and some great photos of this year's Devilstone Open Air written by our Lithuanian contributor Inga here>> www
Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved.
For me, death metal should be heavy as fuck, brutal (which doesn't necessarily mean "fast"), atmospheric and evil. If the "evil" thing is not there, you can't label yourself death metal, that's a fact. I'm so fucking close minded when it comes to metal music... I listen to the SAME hard rock, heavy, thrash, doom, death and black metal that I used to listen to 15 years ago.
Forming in Milan, Italy in 2000 and having since released three independently released demos Kernel now present their debut "Servant Of God". Musically, this is traditional thrash metal in the vein of the Bay Area luminaries and bands such as (early) Megadeth and "Kill em All" era Metallica with a slight hardcore influence. Kernel isn't especially accomplished musically, but singer Ivan Ciavarella is the weak link in this band. Most of material of "Servant Of God" is played at midtempo with occasional faster parts and some excellent groove sections. The playful and cheery leads/solos are a nice plus. Overall, Kernel is good throwback retro thrash band that doesn't do a whole lot wrong, but doesn't warrant more than a conforming nod. Recorded and mixed at Dissonant Studio by Luca Minieri "Servant Of God" comes with a relatively sober but fitting production. The snare drums sound hollow, but this is a minor qualm. Artwork, design and lay-out by Giuliano DelMoretto are a bit too modern for an old school minded act like this. With the huge amount of retro thrash bands on the scene today, it will be hard for Kernel to get noticed outside of their native Italy, but still great to see them keeping the ancient flame burning.http://www.kernelband.comcomment itWouter 6
