Judas Priest: Epitaph Farewell World Tour, Live in Singapore 20th February 2012

As we ascended the hill to Fort Canning's big open air "Gate" venue, the sound of Lamb of God wafted bassily down to us. Apparently, they are a band, and come to think of it I think I've seen their records in HMV. But that's not important. The first order of business was to get in, then almost immediately exit (now in force) to secure more lovely alcohol and smokes. With this standard ritual accomplished we reached the venue again to finish our beers just as Sabbath's 'War Pigs' heralded the beginning of the set for the band everyone paid over a hundred Singapore dollars to see.

In the last year and a bit I've seen Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, and now Judas Priest. It doesn't get better. For Singapore this is a fantastic frequency of classic metal acts. Attendance, mandatory.

The band themselves were absolutely lethal. Having heard the live album A Touch of Evil: Live, recorded on tours in 2005 and 2008, I was expecting Halford's performance to be a little shaky, but at 60 years old, that night, he laid utter waste to every ear drum. He's still got the goods. The titanic scream with which he finished 'Victim of Changes' felt like it scraped a layer of tiny dead skin cells from my face, unexpectedly but conveniently exfoliating me during the show. Halford changed a few vocal melodies, presumably to make his job a little easier, but other than that, total venom. He also did fucking bring the motorbike out on the stage. Then draped a flag over it.

The setlist was an extremely satisfying hotpot of the rocking swagger of older Priest Material ('Metal Gods', 'Never Satisfied', the superbly drawn out finale of 'You've Got Another Thing Comin'), and the variously epic and sweep-picked battering of their later epoch ('Judas Rising', 'Painkiller', 'Blood Red Skies', 'Night Crawler'). We thumped fists into the air to the pulverizing drums of 'Judas Rising', roared lustily along to 'Turbo Lover', waved lighters and cigarettes in the air during 'Beyond the Realms of Death', headbanged in a long line to the chugging motif of 'You've Got Another Thing Comin', and screamed the lyrics to 'Night Crawler' and 'Painkiller' with horns raised. The latter song was, obviously, the highlight, sounding as crushing, rousing and undeniable as the first time I switched on that album and hear that drum fill kick off probably the most heavy metal song ever written. 'Breaking the Law' was left entirely to the crowd to sing which, although indubitably fun on the bun, would have been nice if it was followed by a rendition from Halford.

Overall, awesome. On the Thursday of the same week my left ear was still ringing quite nicely, and my larynx was utterly ruined on Tuesday morning. For an 'epitaph', a last hurrah world tour, a final visit to the international locations that have welcomed them hungrily and rapturously for four decades, it was fucking domination. They could not have left me with a sweeter last memory and legacy even if I never catch them live again.

Setlist

• Rapid Fire
• Metal Gods
• Heading Out to the Highway
• Judas Rising
• Starbreaker
• Victim of Changes
• Never Satisfied
• Diamonds & Rust
• Dawn of Creation
• Prophecy
• Night Crawler
• Turbo Lover
• Beyond the Realms of Death
• The Sentinel
• Blood Red Skies
• The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)
• Breaking the Law
• Painkiller

Encores:

• The Hellion
• Electric Eye
• Hell Bent for Leather
• You've Got Another Thing Comin'
• Living After Midnight

Earth Burnt Black: Harrowing Catharsis

68%.

The debut of Colorado prog doomers Earth Burnt Black isn't groundbreaking by any means, but it is a well-packaged and articulate myriad of ideas that hits the nerve more often than not.

The massive and soaring clean vocal-led portions of this epic slab of doom are set off by grisly toilet grunts and the odd black metal rasp. Big phat riffs on 'The March', with the lead and bass playing off against one another compellingly, are set off by extremely low growls and phlegmatic rasps that had me gnashing my teeth at the obvious talent of vocalist Patrick Wickman. 'Adornment' mixes brutish bashing and slavering harsh vocals with fizzing, harmonized guitar riffs - sounds catchy, heavy, dark and aggressive, but with the right amount of light flashing through the slats on the roof. 'Freedom of the Wretched' features a rocking, gleaming proggy riff at its heart. Not to mention a skittish bass solo. Instrumentally these guys are tight, and there are loads of ideas being thrown into the concept.

It all trundles along like a proggy album. Tracks meld almost seamlessly into one another, central musical motifs are returned to in different instrumental incarnations, and the myriad vocalisation techniques make for an operetta feel. At times it's beautiful (the opening of the Isis-like 'Lead or Cyanide') and at others wrathful (the mid-section and end of 'Freedom of the Wretched' in particular). These tracks are often by their nature long, and although the chopping and changing between vocal styles and gradients of viciousness helps keep things fresh, there is occasionally the whiff of a directionless section or a mismatched tune here and there. A little bit too fat on the longer tracks, and not quite the searing emotional manifestations that might form the carapace of an ideal doom album.

This is a solid outfit, I must say. Coming off like a cross between Isole and Monkeypriest, with a few smears of Opeth to round our their eclectic sound, Earth Burnt Black have something to tempt many an explorative doom head. It just doesn't make your balls fly off, and while I found plenty to enjoy on repeated listens, it doesn't beckon irresistibly to be spun again.

(originally posted at http://www.doom-metal.com/)

Graveyard: The Altar of Sculpted Skulls

80%.

Death metal fans can't complain these days. Autopsy are kicking arse again, and there's a new album being recorded by the reliable Unleashed. Classic old school Finnish death metal gems are being re-released in affordable CD form as was Death Strike's Fuckin' Death, and the really picky or half-interested death metaller doesn't need to peek too far into the current underground for a fix of old skull nastiness. But for the warriors rabid enough to sift through the heaps of recent bands playing in the style, output by Disma, Morbid Flesh, Morbus Chron, Vallenfyre, Corpsessed and others is gravely welcome.

Graveyard (alongside their similiarly styled and drummer-sharing Spanish brethren Morbid Flesh) haven't been alive and rotting very long, but have become as essential in my record collection as the latest from the long-runners like Autopsy. One With the Dead set a high bar, and The Altar of Sculpted Skulls has been a long-awaited second helping, no matter how minimal. Four new tracks and two new rendering of songs only previous accessible on rare splits will do for now, especially since it sounds the same and satisfies about as fully as their epically foul full-length.

Graveyard's appropriation of Swedish death metal borrows from the subterranean foulness of Funebrarum or a little Impetuous Ritual, some of the melodic, massive, doomed moroseness of the early Finnish scene, and a little Brazilian bestiality. Straightforward paeans to the grave and the unnatural beings it might well spew forth on such a night as this was recorded, rocking drums and a heavy bottom end with heavy, breathy grunts. The sound here didn't get a mastering from Dan Swano, but the bottom-heavy, filth-encrusted roar of the debut is pretty much intact - instantly evident from the opening title track, which lumbers groovily along in the vein of Entrails and their influences.

The guitars sound great - the solos are expansive, whining slices of virtuosity that once again keen across the band's raw sound to awesome effect. The harmonized intro to 'An Epitaph Written in Blood' is chilling, appealing in its cold and emotionless grandeur before the track's sweating bulk stomps inevitably in. A few melodies spike through the chugging shroud here, before Julkarn's grumbling death growls and Gusi's clattering d-beats come in.

Speaking of which the drums, and everything else, sound really spot-on without abandoning the old skull feeling for anything so treacherous as technicality. The band realize their ancient metal of death tidily and without affectation. 'Deathcrowned' is the most loyally tremolo d-beat-dominated charge here, but with a dark and nightmarish battery of chugging and whining guitars at its mid-section. The band's execution is undeniable, even in the withering three-minutes of the instrumental 'Cult of the Shadows', more mid-paced death marches and thrumming death-doom guitars. After all the gloom, 'Ritual' and 'Howl of the Black Death' are ferociously driving and relentlessly rocking respectively, closing out the album with two well-chosen re-recordings. Both surpass their original limited-run incarnations, so no need to track those down now, unless you fancy the cover art. Which wasn't bad as I remember.

Disappointingly, the record doesn't include one or two other songs by the band that are probably knocking around on 7"s somewhere. Given that it's taken them this long to get around to putting something else out, a couple more re-recordings or cut-and-pastes from more expensive items in their discography might have made it more worth their fans' money. What is here pretty much crushes however, dolled up in a kickass production and sublime monochromatic artwork, and keeps the bar high for future grotesqueries.

Pilgrim: Forsaken Man

The first, second and third things I liked about this demo were the olden-days, transfer-looking logo, the macabre renaissance-esque artwork, and the names of the band members. On drums, Krolg Splinterfist, Slayer of Man (nice), with Count Elric the Soothsayer on bass (deliciously absurd) and handling vocals... The Wizard. No name, no embellishment, just The Wizard. That's all you need to know about this man. Colour me intrigued, kind gentlefops.

Pilgrim are out of Rhode Island, and their excellently packaged demo tape ’Forsaken Man’ sounds as it looks; appropriately dire, dour dirges. The band are essentially a Sleep-worship outfit who paid plenty of heed to Reverend Bizarre during their short but significant career, melding the mammoth Sabbathian riffs of the former with the eloquently expressed despair of the latter. The demo's title song, a nine-minute heap of distortion and desolation, pushes its central guitar riff out like a person giving birth to a small horse. Now that my ghastly analogy is all you can think of, the reprieve in the middle of the song will seem all the sweeter.

'Quest', the other track here, begins and ends much in the style of the title track, but bursts into a jumpy, rocking riff halfway through that is pure, pure Black Sabbath adoration. Total ripoff of 'Black Sabbath'. Insanely great. Another reason Sabs had no need to get back together.

The Wizard howls his (admittedly very good) lyrics with some of the pained zest of Sir Albert Witchfinder (I feel like I'm writing a medieval penny dreadful... not one normal name has come up yet in this review. Dave Mustaine. Aaah. That all furthers the Rev Bizzy feel the material carries of course, although sapping a little originality. He ends 'Forsaken Man' with some much appreciated gasping growls however.

It all manifests with something approaching the zen production qualities of bands like Newcastle's fantastic Bong, or early Ocean Chief. This Soothsayer fellow's work on bass is very tasty, plunking along with the weight and jammy-ness of the aforementioned Swedish stoners and, along with the Slayer of Man, supplying a ton weight of bottom end to the whole thing.

This is on Bandcamp.com for free, so if you have a taste for distortion-drenched retro Doom that sounds like Sleep there's no reason not to check it out. The full-length cometh! Ah, I'm getting the hange of this olde Englishe talke.

Infernal Execrator/ Imperial Tyrants: MCBL Heathen Blood Cult

76%.

Southeast Asia features a notably high rate of bands writing lyrics that target Christianity, while themselves practicing various religions. Entirely antithetical to the whole idea of black metal as a force for the destruction of preconceived notions, essentially. However, not all bands from the region are so hollow by any means - Draconis Infernum, with their mighty decrying of all religions, as well as Southeast Asian war metal institution Impiety, are among outfits who aggressively shun religion of all kinds, while Rudra methodically pick apart Vedic belief to find worship of the self.

All these guys are among the best sounding bands in Asia by the way, and based on my listening experiences, it must be because their real and total hatred of religious systems adds a little something extra in terms of energy and spite to the music. For that reason, I picked this split up as soon as I espied it at a merch stall in Bangkok. I wanted to hear the kind of nuts that were on black metal played by a Singaporean band who have an album cover featuring certain religious leaders being slaughtered by goats and certain places of worship burning in the background. You know the ones I mean.

Infernal Execrator:

'True Anti-Religious Elites' unfurls with a true-to-form bleak and ghastly guitar groaning into life, before rocking into mid-paced black metal territory. The riffs are catchy and aggressive, complementing the furious pace of the bulk of the song well. 'Diabolos Execratus Exescari' is actually the better of the two, hurtling at full pace almost throughout and with a more sinister, baleful earworm riff set. It even features a neat guitar solo. 'MCBL Gloria' features the split's signature musical motif (which closes both band's sides) played on acoustic guitar to slavering, whispered intonements from Ashir. And it sounds great - evil, yet sad at the same time, like the folky moments on the first wave of Norwegian black metal releases.

You could liken these boys to more well-known Singaporean horde Draconis Infernum, with similiarly Marduk-inspired hyperblast drumming and a mix of ominous, slow guitar breaks and frenetic tremolo picking. Great production and drum sound. Perhaps without the same grand and inventive feel - but it's still early days. Ashir's vocals are the expected wrathful rasp, and overall its competent black metal murder and mayhem as standard - with just enough furious energy and compositional cramming to make them another of the dirty jewels on Singapore's black metal crown. If Marduk's Iron Dawn didn't quite quench you get an earful of this.

Imperial Tyrants:

Imperial Tyrants side opt for less pristine production values than Infernal Execrator, and even catchier - at times wistful or desparate - riffs. The blasts alternate with double-kicks for even more melodic sections, while a brutish rasp by way of vocals. It's a little more Under the Sign of Hell-era Gorgoroth. 'Grand Violator of God's Triumph' even features a passionate, flashy guitar solo in the melodic black metal vein, while 'Tyremperian Blood Templar' is driven relentlessly forth by a highly melodic and anthemic Negator-style riff. 'MCBL Triumphus' sees the 'MCBL Gloria' tune given the electric guitar, bawling growls and rumbling drums treatment. Still sounds good, though not as beautiful as in its former incarnation. Overall not quite as much of a keeper as the Infernal side, but worth a listen and makes a good addition for the split. I'll be likely to check out other material under the name still.

The split:

Other than the drummer, Imperial Tyrants had much the same line-up as Infernal Execrator at the time of recording, and it might have made for an even better recording if the Imperial Tyrants songs had been saved a couple of months to be recorded at the same time as Infernal Execrator's under the same name and with the same sweet-ass production values. As it is this is a showcase of two of Singapore's underground black metal outfits and worth picking up for the Infernal side alone, with the added bonus of a pretty quality showing from the Imperial boys. Not to mention as a curio for those, like myself, interested to find blasphemous bands who aren't just going for the exhausted and nowadays somewhat pathetic easy target that is modern-day Christianity.

Torture Division: Satan, Sprit och Våld

92%.

Nearly a year later and Torture Division finally follow up the riotously, raucously top-notch offering Through the Eyes of a Dead. I hate these bastards. They make an honest, normal metalhead like m'self sweat, shiver and drool through months and months for nine minutes of new music. And then make it absolutely worth the wait. I love these bastards.

'Cause where I might be anticipating maybe checking out new efforts from bands like King or Macabra or Horrendous, or still half-wondering whether I should go back and pick up the 2011 releases of Abysmal Dawn or Nader Sadek or Sonne Adam, there's absolutely no doubt that I'll download anything Torture Division post on their website and listen to it over and over again. And get another shirt, when I get my lazy arse round to it. Always fan-fucking-tastic. Raging, blood-spitting, rumbling, barreling death metal with zero tolerance for anything in its way.

Satan, Sprit och Vald is the first all Swedish language release from them, but apart from that its aural homicide as usual. This is even better than Through the Eyes of the Dead. 'Cirkelstryk' opens with sinister muttering grunts and a belligerent, grind-like set of guitar riffs before erupting into pyroclastic blasts, smothered in one of those groaning tremolo riffs they do so very well. And some HUGE chugging. 'Otukt' moves like a field of panzers descending on a slightly worse-armed opposing force - inexorably rolling forth armed to the max. One of the best mid-paced assaults from these guys yet. The title track flattens its own Torture Division style intro with tight, serrated, harmonized riffs that rip along as catchily as they do lethally. Brutal and catchy. Argh!

Mammoth bellowing vocals from Sandstrom, surgically precise yet utterly wrathful guitar riffs, drums that could cave the front of your skull in, all the usual elements are there. I listened to their first few demos again recently and realized how the songwriting, production values and even instrumentation has improved massively since they began in 2008 - although listening through chronologically you don't notice so much, the quality has been so consistently sky-high. Fucking great death metal that will make you want to commit murder and drink beer. Download this one, and then all the others you don't have.

(http://www.torturedivision.net/downloadgraphy)

Sanguinary Misanthropia: Et Lux Perpetua Luceat Eis

80%.

This rather limited cassette release from Sanguinary Misanthropia wields one side of studio tracks and one of live spewings. There's over an hour of material on this thing, all of it true to the band's second wave worshipping brand of traditional Satanic black metal. No melody or mercy, just the vilest dregs of the current century's cult black metal underground. Two of the studio tracks here are available in CD format on the Diabolic Gnosis EP, while all but one of the live tracks are taken from that release and its predecessor Existence Precedes Extinction. For a cassette released in the build-up to the debut album Loathe Over Will, it packs surprising value.

'A Glimpse of the Image of Lucifer Gleaming Beyond the Subterraneous Black Sun' is still a highlight with its malignant riffs and weighty pacing, while 'Sanctification via Sin' and 'The Geist of Satan Sears through the Flesh Impure' are more of what made Diabolic Gnosis a tasty morsel - creakingly nihilistic black metal chords washing across belligerent percussion, rough, retching grunts and rasps, all channeled into a vicious blackened thrust. Snarling guitar pinches and whirling tremolo riffs make 'em memorable, while the repetitive nature lends it a blasphemous hypnosis. Same goes for 'Tetraskelion', lifted from the EP.

The tape's A-side ends with 'The Descent of Enlightenment', the longest song yet released by the band at over eight minutes. It's a pretty neat head-smacking, hauling itself from a languishing, bleak opening into a charging attack. It features faster drumming and vicious, spindly guitar riffs which squiggle like some tech-death noodling before the epic harass of more Darkthrone-like riffs. Probably my favourite song from them so far, alongside 'A Glimpse of Lucifer...'.

The studio material benefits again from the clear, keen cut of the guitars, and Unbeliever's guttural, moaning growls. The drums still sound like they could use a bit more sharpness and energy, with the idea seeming to be that the kit supplies the war metal feel (with a rawer, rumbling report beneath the riffs rather than a merciless rampage). I suspect this is mainly down to the production values, which make for an admittedly appropriate semi-lo-fi abysm of intentional inaccessibility. Overall this helps the grim and grimy atmosphere, but hurts the drumming itself.

The quality of the B-side, "Live Blood Rituals", is harsh - alongside the aggressive energy permeating it, this gives it a pretty good feel for live underground black metal. This is what it's 'posed to sound like after all. The vocals are more typical Pest or Nocturno Culto screeches on the live material, while the drums actually sound better - fuller, obviously on-time and heavy as hell. The guy is obviously good. 'Devil Everlasting' is a track to look forward to hearing recorded on Loathe Over Will - it has an unstoppable feeling, with its ritualistic vocal patterns and atmospheric mid-section.

Basically it isn't a collector's cassette bereft of new material or worth. The band have made a decent effort to pack this out with previously unavailable cuts. Tape collectors might want to make this their first purchase by the outfit since it has most of the Diabolic Gnosis EP on it (sans the song 'Mythos of Havayoth') plus three other quality bashings and some live material. Sanguinary Misanthropia sound the same here as on their previous releases, but the quality of their second EP (better than the first) is maintained and makes this tape quite strong. They're a pretty great band and this is a release that seasoned black metal warriors could do worse than check out.