METALLIAN - Mazikeen

May 13th, Anno 23

The Solace Of Death – 2020 – Satanath

Members

Vocals

Claret Ash>>JAMES CRONOVRAS>>Claret Ash

Guitar

Hackxwhore, Devolved>>KRIS MARCHANT>>Devolved – ANDREW SHIELLS

Bass

Drum

Vornagar, Jeff Hughell, Anomalous, Abuse, Neurogenic, Vital Remains, The Faceless, Brain Drill, Six Feet Under, Solus Ex Inferis, Sleep Terror, Sobek, A Circle Of Crows, in Asymmetry, Myiacyst, Monumental Torment, Break Flesh, Habitual Depravity, Vile Carrion, A Pretext For Human Suffering, Supreme Banishment, Waking The Cadaver, Absentation, Apterous, Chasm Of Discord, Darkside Of Humanity, Sonivinos, Truth Devoid>>MARCO PITRUZZELLA>>Anomalous, Abuse, Neurogenic, Six Feet Under, Solus Ex Inferis, Sleep Terror, Sobek, A Circle Of Crows, Myiacyst, Monumental Torment, Break Flesh, Habitual Depravity, Vile Carrion, A Pretext For Human Suffering, Supreme Banishment, Waking The Cadaver, Martyr Logarius, Wrath Of Logarius, Absentation, Apterous, Chasm Of Discord, Darkside Of Humanity, Sonivinos, Truth Devoid

Keyboard

ANDREW SHIELLS – Mors Vincit Omnia, Plasmodium>ARETSIKAPHA>>Plasmodium

History & Biography

When a band calls itself “symphonic” nowadays it is a license for having a synthesiser and a drum machine and Mazikeen fits that bill mostly. The band has been around since 2013 and been issuing music since 2017. A couple of songs and a self-titled EP were uploaded in that year. The EP was issued by Iron, Blood And Death Corporation. The group uploaded several cover versions over the next two years for some reason until its debut full-length appeared on Satanath. Drummer Pitruzzella is a mere kit-for-hire.

The band’s monicker comes from a mythological demon. The members live remotely from one another and neither rehearse nor play live.

Reviews

MAZIKEEN - THE SOLACE OF DEATH - SATANATH
Keyboards, piano, synthesizers and so many beautiful melodies! Do you think the demon Mazikeen would identify with a band that has so many melodious and tender moments? A band that has more synthesizing and pop instrumentation than Depeche Mode? Aqua? Emperor? Dummy Burger? Lizzo? Australia-based Mazikeen claims Dissection as its primary influence so here is a quote for the little boys and girls who run this band: "The thing is keyboards are no instrument to be used in metal. Metal has nothing to do with wimpy, soft music instruments. That’s why we don’t use keyboards because it’s wimp music’s instrument. Keyboards are no heavy metal instrument, no death metal instrument, no black metal instrument." Guess who said those words. Jon Nodtveidt he of Dissection.
With that fact established how is The Solace Of Death and why is the rating as high as 40/100? Is it because of the romantic piano-washed instrumentals or the poppy synthesizers, sorry we are not hip, er, I meant 'synth'? No, read on.
The Solace Of Death is a lengthy album owing to the band's inclusion of several cover versions in addition to the album proper in the release. The covers were issued over the course of several years by the band and have been compiled here now. Why anyone wastes time including cover versions is always a mystery. Trying to make your own songs look stupid? Want to fit in? Want to show you are part of a herd? The Dimmu Borgir sound, keyboards, weak and powerless triggered drums are the low points here and they crush the band unfortunately. The band wins points for its evil and menacing vocals and, above all, the guitars. There is some impressive guitar work on this album that tell me the guitarists Kris or Andrew need to dump this poppy nonsense, join a serious metal band and put their talents and strings to good use. The skill and know-how are there. Also there is room for more lead guitars for a band that should have included more. The leads on Cerulean Last Night and Vexation Through The Golden Sun are amazing and all too short. Fractricide clones Dissection without acknowledgement, while the aforementioned Cerulean... ends like an ELO song. Vexation's sweep picking is well done as well. This is an actually orchestral track. Apostate is awash in keyboards. It is melodic and varies its structure quite a bit. As mentioned, the cultish vocals impress, but the uselessly and powerlessly rattling drums do not. Two instrumentals are included of which MORS VINCIT OMNIA is deliberately capitalized and shouted. That is unusual certainly, but not as unusual as covering Dissection, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem and Darkthrone together and back to back. Harrowing Cessation takes one back to Testament's The New Order momentarily. This album has its moments and merits, but overall could the band tell me what the point of growling on top of a piano is? - Ali "The Metallian"

Interviews

Mazikeen