MARK

Music:

Member Since: 1/10/2006
Band Members:
Influences: Reviews for Carnivean's In Todes Banden Metal for the Living Dead. - 80% Written by hells_unicorn on December 17th, 2007 This is the second project of my fellow West Chester alumni/lead guitarist Mark Warnok, known affectionately in both Florida and Pennsylvania as Mark Warlokk; prognosticator of demonology, the undead, and all things death metal. Although I was quite partial to the work he did on the Wykked Wytch debut, this album is definitely not worthy of shelf, which sadly it has become after 5 years of being in circulation.The death metal genre has been in a recession since the mid-90s, which saw the experimentation in the melodic realm over in the Scandinavian region and the further brutalization of the genre by most in the States and elsewhere in order to try to keep the genre fresh. Sadly, most of the better thrash and technical elements that made the late 80s and early 90s style so unique were abandoned, even and especially by the surviving bands from those eras.Carnivean is in many ways a throwback to that older style, so much so that one wonders if 2002 was a clerical error and that the original release date should have been 1992. Although many made comparisons to Cannibal Corpse when this initially came out, in truth the style present on here is closer to the older Death and Morbid Angel approach. Indeed, the principle flaw in this album is that it is even produced like it was recorded 15 or 20 years ago, with the drums sounding extremely thin and the vocals often overpowering the rest of the instruments. It does well to avoid the ridiculousness of most of the brutal acts and focuses on a balanced lyrical presentation; including dark imagery, anger and unrest to complement the profane gore that is essential to the genre.Unlike with Wykked Wytch, Warlokk’s approach to soloing has been scaled back to a humbler style, while his tone has become darker and muddier. He had told me about the threshold between a dark sound and a sludgy mess and how the half-step drop-D tuning was the limit before crossing over, and that approach to down tuning has served him well on here. The guitar presentation, as well as the overall musical presentation varies mostly by tempo, as the progressive/neo-classical elements of Mark’s former project are not to be found on here.Of all the albums I’ve listened to, this one is likely the hardest one to pick a favorite from because they all pretty much listen the same. The best way to approach this album is as one big book of horrors with 9 chapters, each one being essential for the sum to be understood. Tempos pick up to the point of faster Slayer thrash, and then slow down to a doom-driven post-Sabbath groove, not all that dissimilar to down-tuned songs like Overkill’s “Skullcrusher”.This is a solid little album if you are a fan of the early death metal style pioneered by all the bands mentioned above. At the time Mark was extremely proud of it, mostly because he and the others in this outfit were about to go on tour to support it right after Mark’s graduation from West Chester. Since that time I have not spoken to him, and the last I heard he was giving music lessons down in Georgia. Although the status of this band is still listed as unknown, my gut tells me that they’ve disbanded and that Mark may have retired from the music scene. Although it’s a bit sad that this was such a short-lived stint, having 2 full length releases that are still out there is more than what most people manage to pull off in the RIAA dominated music world, my hat’s off to you Mark.------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------
Sounds Like: Reviews for Wykked Wytch's Something Wykked This Way ComesWykked Thrash/Death/Prog. - 91% Written by hells_unicorn on December 17th, 2007 Back during my tenure as a guitar student at West Chester University was when I truly understood how vibrant metal still was in the USA underground, in direct contrast to what the radio kept vomiting out of course, even and including college radio. It was during my tenure that I met Mark Warnok, better known by his stage name “Mark Warlokk” to the fans of the two projects that he was involved in over the past 2 decades. He had been a student in the late 80s and an avid fan of shredders like George Lynch, Rhandy Rhodes, and Marty Friedman, but had left before completing his performance degree due to personal obligations and returned to complete his major in the early 2000s, while I was a junior working on a dual degree.Before meeting him I had not been a real big fan of metal styles featuring harsh vocals, mostly because all the stuff I had encountered had either been diarrhea sounding tremolo riff drenched or 3rd rate Slayer worship with 10th rate shriek vocals so poorly produced that it sounds like its being done through a megaphone. After sampling some music from his 2 projects my taste in metal was given a huge evolutionary leap. The primary catalyst was Mark’s keen sense of organization, the 80s sensibility of a well structured solo that doesn’t simply meander on a few perpetual speed licks, and the lack of creative inhibition in the songwriting.The “Wykked Wytch” of the Mid-90s and the one of today are radically different musically, although lyrically they still put forth the same gothic influenced lyrics. A good deal of this is likely due to Mark Warlokk’s presence as guitarist on this album, though the entire band going through a complete overhaul with only Ipek as the remaining founder likely played a role. I can still recall Mark telling me while he was touting his latest project called “Carnivean” that the reasons behind the band’s break-up were due to clashing egos, and that he suspected that the new Wykked Wytch would probably not bear much resemblance to what he had shown me. Indeed, the newer incarnation of the band sounds more like a quasi-Cradle of Filth extreme gothic band than anything else.“Something Wykked This Way Comes” doesn’t truly conform to the gothic metal genre in the sense that exists today or has since it was popularized by Type O Negative and a few others. Musically it listens like a progressive death/thrash hybrid with a heavy dash of Bay Area influences and a few hints at 18th and early 19th century classical guitar maestros like Fernando Sor and Mauro Guiliani, no doubt the result of Mark’s tenure at West Chester years before this was recorded. The vocals are just downright evil sounding; just picture a female Chuck Schuldiner meets a more reserved Danny Filth and you’ll be part of the way there. It can be plainly stated that those who pioneer a genre rarely get the credit they deserve, especially considering that Ipek was pushing a female presence in the death metal style at around the same time that Angela Gossow’s work with Asmodina was taking shape, completely independent of each other I might add.Mark Warlokk’s lead playing is heavily different from most of the death and thrash metal outfits I’m familiar with. Rather than relying on a lot of feedback noise, whammy bar gimmicks, and rapid pentatonic runs the way Kerry King does, his solos are quite clean and structured, yet simultaneously avoid the monotonous sameness of Kirk Hammet’s epic pentatonic calisthenics. Most of the old 80s shred gods and NWOBHM axe men have a bit of a presence in Mark’s solos, including Yngwie Malmsteen if you listen to several of the lead fills on the instrumental outro “Farewell to the Coven”.If I had to pick a best song out of all the impressive work on here, it would definitely have to be the album opener “Wytch’s Sabbath”. The stormy atmosphere and melancholy Fernando Sor inspired classical guitar intro is the perfect prelude to a downright wykked song, from start to finish. It has riffs aplenty, an extremely memorable solo that invokes some of the old baroque maestros of the clavier such as Handel and Telemann, and enough vocal drama and evil to fit in with the progeny of Venom and Mercyful Fate. The rest of the stuff on here draws heavily from 80s thrash and death acts with the occasional classical interlude or neo-classical inspired solo, all consistently following the precedent that is set up by the album’s opener. The one flaw in this album is that they put their best song first, which diminishes a good deal of the work that follows, despite it being excellent as well.It is somewhat interesting to note that when I mentioned that the album had the same title but a different spelling to the well known Iced Earth album Mark immediately told me about how he and many others believe (I’m somewhat suspicious myself after noting the similarities in the album art) that they ripped the album concept and title from them. Although I can’t confirm this, I have noted that many I’ve met have since cited this as a reason for losing respect for Iced Earth and that they had lost a measure of credibility amongst the Florida scene at that time because of it. To this day I still enjoy Iced Earth’s music, but just remember that anyone who accuses this band of ripping off Iced Earth when encountering this album should be aware that they will sound equally as stupid as people who accuse Ayn Rand of ripping off George Orwell when she wrote Anthem (1984 was written 10 year later so the opposite was likely true).Anyway, if you’ve encountered this band but not this album and you’re of the thrash/death persuasion, this is one to look for, and surprisingly I’ve found there to still be a good many copies of it floating around on various online CD stores. The thrash and death genres have been in the gutter for a good while and are just now starting to crawl back into prominence, and with luck many will rediscover this album and maybe it will finally have a chance to be as influential and revolutionary as it should have been in 1996, where it was quite ahead of it’s time.
Type of Label: Indie