The Heavy Metal Saloon

Infernal Execrator/ Imperial Tyrants: MCBL Heathen Blood Cult

2012-02-07T22:09:00.001+08:00

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

2012-02-06T23:14:00.000+08:00

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

2012-02-06T22:18:00.000+08:00

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.

Vallenfyre: A Fragile King

2012-01-15T20:05:00.001+08:00

82%.

Vallenfyre, despite having a shit band name that sounds like it should be attached to a power metal band prone to featuring armoured angels and wizards and the like as cover art, are in fact a bit of a find. Inspired and moved by his father's death, lead Paradise Lost riff bludgeoner Gregor Mackintosh decided to scamper back in time through his tape-trading days as a pupal metal head.

As if the unrelenting deluge of old school death metal bands over the last few years wasn't enough - now there'll be gothic doom guitarists whipping out side projects left and right for a quick buck! It's bound to be a cheap, hollow attempt to cash in on old school fever as well as roping in British doom fans. Bastards. Well no actually. Not only has Mackintosh assembled a crack team of instrumentalists for the outing, including long-time My Dying Bride riff provider Hamish Glencross and At the Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson, but this is really quite good.

It's heavy, chunky and huge-sounding with a killer production job that should titillate people who've been eating up Entrails, Revolting and the new Autopsy. Mackintosh proves himself a swell vocalist from the off, utilising forcefully pronounced, clear barks with a deep, growled edge. His burly intonations of "the grim ironyyyyyy" on the closer kick arse. The Mackintosh-Glencross team is almighty, supplying rock-hard riffs whether bludgeoningly rhythmic or overweight and doom-like, and the occasional tremolo erection out of left field. Erlandsson seems to be enjoying recording some aggressive drums after his recent career of live shows and doom records, seemingly working his Swedish arse off for the battering, thumping, booming, clinking, smashing performance he puts in.

Eerie, whining guitars in the vein of albums like Icon and In Requiem unbless the latter portions of most of these songs, reminding of the band members' pedigree but also supplying a unique touch I find very satisfying. A far cheekier Paradise Lost reference is the almost industrial drum outro to the awesome 'Desecration', and to be honest it's nice to hear an album of death metal inspired by the ancients that has had a few different ideas implemented.

The album's more doom-influenced tracks are very strong and constitute the majority of the highlights. 'All Will Suffer' starts off slow and turns into a groovy feast of rumbling riffs and obnoxious rolling drums. 'Desecration' is my favourite cut on here, sinister whirling guitars and great lumbering death riffs thundering across the band's excellent rhythm section. 'Seeds', 'The Grim Irony' and 'Cathedrals of Dread' have great My Dying Bride circa early '90s main riffs, the latter interspersed with hella-catchy Swedeath grooves. I love the transition from cruising death metal bruiser to downcast doom on 'The Divine Have Fled' - great stuff. A whole album of tracks like those mentioned in this paragraph would have made for a real boner-causing draught of death and doom.

Mackintosh's understandable death metal fanboy excitement when putting the record together does however result in lots of different styles being employed. 'Ravenous Whore' and 'As the World Collapses' take things into Dismember or early Grave territory, thrashing d-beats and a few blasts - while 'A Thousand Martyrs' is like Left Hand Path worship spliced with Draconian Times' guitar leads. Pretty good adrenalin rushes (and the two-minute injection of speed that is 'Humanity Wept' is a fucking awesome downtuned death metal battering) to break up the more mid-paced, hulking numbers, but the real meat of this album is in the aforementioned groovier pieces. 'My Black Siberia' gets a bit too melodic and dull during its refrain, and could probably be cut. Since I usually skip it.

Don't get me fucked - it's not like half of it is good, and half is lame. Even given the album's lurching through death metal's various legendary eveolutions, Vallenfyre have certainly joined Bloodbath as an example of a death metal "supergroup" that lives up to expectations. Not only did they have a lot of good ideas, they worked hard, didn't take the piss, and recorded a fine album. It's competent throughout, excellent in many places, only one song I'd lose and true to form the whole way. No violins or bandmate guest appearances, just straight up extremity and dread. Not to mention nicely-produced and well-packaged. Tasty.

Nuclear Death Terror: N.D.T.

2012-01-15T20:03:00.000+08:00

78%.

I got listening to these guys when they were listed to be playing a punk-as-fuck and small-scale gig here in Singapore, and was recommended to their crusty, filthy brand of death metal. While their records can't quite describe the utter annihilation that is NDT live, they're worth your time if you're into really mean punk or really punky death metal.

This is about the definition of drumming I enjoy. Pretty much all that's happening here is the guy is keeping time and giving you something to bang your head to. Nothing complex, just sounds mighty and brutal as all fuck. A Celtic Frost worship band from this decade covering the Misfits, maybe.

The guitar riffs are pretty punk, just with plenty of deathly metal aggression thrown in. This is what punk should have become. It lives here, in the skanky abandoned caverns of whatever mental space Nuclear Death Terror inhabit. These wailing guitar leads and solos should be trademarked by these guys, it's an awesome sound.

The vocals are nothing short of terrifying, bilious baying that is almost, but not quite, in time with everything else, augmenting the generally uncomfortable feeling. Yup, simple metal can have a dense atmosphere too as you should know -, the simple 4/4 punk attack supplied by NDT brings with it a loathsome mood. The lyrics are what you'd expect, anti- the pigs, anti-fascism and racial bullshit, generally stuff I can get behind.

They'd go on to record some of their most awesome, crushing material on the Ceaseless Desolation and Total Annihilation EPs, but this is worth snatching up if you come across it. Also, since they're fucking cool, they have download links on their website at absolutely no price. Now if only my stomach wasn't get a bit too much for the shirt I bought at the show to handle.

Archgoat: Heavenly Vulva [Christ's Last Rites]

2012-01-09T19:08:00.001+08:00

92%.

Archgoat are easily top amongst the unholy riot of black/ death war metal bands I've been digging the past couple of years. I'd recommend them before Blasphemy, Beherit and even '80s pioneers Sarcofago. Because with this group of unwashed Finnish Satanists, with their bullet belts and offensive t-shirts, the almighty guitar riff is far more revered than in the output of the majority of bands playing in this style. The thunderous slow-paced trudge of their non-blasting moments is actually some of the best and dirtiest doom you can find, and even their fast riffs are generally memorable as fuck.

The band's sound has never sounded more solid. This painfully short EP builds on everything form the recently compiled demo years to the more recent albums, and the result is some of the most appallingly good material Archgoat have shat to date.

Throughout, Angelslayer burps his way through the best Demilich vocals I've heard outside of Demilich, and in fact probably better, while Sinisterror hammers away at a tight, heavy drum performance that is realized through a lumbering, lo-fi yet heavy as all hell production. Ritual Butcherer is responsible for the meat of the EP however, providing more immortal, killer riffs in just over a quarter of an hour than you hear at most big metal festivals.

The trio open Heavenly Vulva with 'Blessed Vulva', a song that crawls ominously forth with a chunky-ass riff that's ritualistic and groovy at the same time, augmented by sinister bells. 'Penetrator of the Second Temple' bursts into ravenous blasting war metal, but breaks for another superb slow section that deserves more like eight minutes to really get into its groove. I can't stop turning these songs up. After the hilarious intro - a woman moaning in pleasure followed by the loud baying of a goat - 'Goddess of the Abyss of Graves' and 'Day of Clouds' are more steaming black/ death torture punctuated by creaking guitar widdles and stomping doom passages. You get the format by now. The dirge-like main riff of 'Passage to Millennial Darkness' is almost Sabbath-like. Nice.

War metal for stoners. The perfect band to get a doom guy into black metal. Undeniable Finnish dourness. More please.

Jerome Bernard's Top Ten of 2011

2011-12-14T00:13:00.001+08:00

Pestifer, owners of both a sweet debut album and sweet review on this very site, are represented by their vocalist Jerome.

ICS Vortex - Storm Seeker
Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All
Cynic - Carbon-Based Anatomy
Virus - The Agent That Shapes The Desert
Ulver - Wars Of The Roses
Obscura - Omnivium
Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt Two
Essence - Lost In Violence
Opeth - Heritage
Unexpect - Fables Of The Sleepless Empire

Serberuz Hammerfrost's Top Twenty-Five for 2011

2011-12-13T11:40:00.001+08:00

The vocalist, bassist and studio drummer for Draconis Infernum weighs in. If you can't find a recommendation here, you're either as well-informed as this gent, or on the wrong website.

In alphabetical and no particular order...

Top 25 Albums of The Year, 2011 Anno Diaboli:

Absu - "Abzu"
Anaal Nathrakh - "Passion"
Autopsy - "Macabre Eternal"
Avichi - "The Devil's Fractal"
Azarath - "Blasphemer's Maledictions"
Blut Aus Nord - "777 - Sect(s)"
Blut Aus Nord - "777" The Desanctification"
Destruction - "Day of Reckoning"
Disma - "Towards The Megalith"
Exhumed - "All Guts, No Glory"
Fleshgod Apocalypse - "Agony"
Havok - "Time is Up"
Krallice - "Diotima"
Leviathan - "True Traitor, True Whore"
Mitochondrion - "Parasignosis"
Mortal Sin - "Psychology of Death"
Morbus Chron - "Sleepers in the Rift
Onslaught - "Sounds of Violence"
Origin - "Entity"
Ravencult - "Morbid Blood"
Rotten Sound - "Cursed"
Shining - "VII: Född Förlorare"
Svartsyn - "Wrath Upon the Earth"
The Devil's Blood - "The Thousandfold Epicentre"
The Furor - "War Upon Worship"

Top 3 EPs of The Year, 2011 Anno Diaboli:

Archgoat - "Heavenly Vulva [Christ's Last Rites]"
Marduk - "Iron Dawn"
Torture Division - "Through The Eyes of a Dead"

IF YOU DON'T OWN ALL OF THESE RECORDS BY NOW, DON'T CALL YOURSELF A METALHEAD!!!
YOU'RE A PATHETIC CUNT WHO'S OBVIOUSLY BEEN WASTING YOUR LIFE THIS YEAR IN VAIN!
GO KILL YOURSELF!!!

Kob Prognan's Top Ten for 2011

2011-12-12T22:07:00.000+08:00

Kob of grim and worthy Croatian black metal outfit Prognan and his top ten picks. Stay tuned for my review of their latest assault Vuk.

Here is the list in no particular order...

Belphegor - Blood Magick Necromance
Vreid - V
Concrete Sun - Sky is High - great stoner/sludge band from Serbia
Deicide - To Hell With God
Vintersorg - Jordpuls
Anaal Nathrakh - Passion
Shining - Född Förlorare
Iced Earth - Dystopia
Vader - Welcome to the Morbid Reich
Christ Agony - NocturN

Kathir Aryaputra's Top Ten of 2011

2011-12-12T21:59:00.000+08:00

Very nice choices from Rudra bassist and vocalist Kathir.

Avichi – The Devil’s Fractal
Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All
Destruction – Day of Reckoning
Cruachan – Blood on the Black Robe
Krallice – Diotima
Autopsy – Macabre Eternal
Toxic Holocaust – Conjure and Command
Insomnium – One for Sorrow
Hammers of Misfortune – 17th Street
Ravencult – Morbid Blood

Scourge Witchfvkker's Top Twenty of 2011

2011-12-12T17:22:00.001+08:00

Exordium Mors' vocalist Mark whips out a quality top 20.

NUMBER 1: ABSU - ABZU. Without a doubt.

Then in no particular order:

Impiety - Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny/Advent of the Nuclear Baphomet
40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
Assaulter - Boundless!
Avichi - The Devil's Fractal
Scythian/Kawir - BEST SPLIT OF THE YEAR
Disma - Towards the Megalith
Draconis Infernum - Rites of Desecration & Demise
Hell - Human Remains
Immolation - Providence
Inquisition - Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm
Mitochondrion - Parasignosis
Necros Christos - Doom of the Occult
Zygoatsis - Satanic Kultus - Unholy Desecration
In Solitude - The World. The Flesh. The Devil
Ramesses - Possessed by the Rise of Magik/Chrome Pineal
Baphomet's Blood - Back from the Fire
Rudra - Brahmavidya: Immortal I
Order of Orias - Inverse

And finally - Lady Gaga - Born This Way :P

Haven't heard the new Devil's Blood yet but I can only assume it'll be on my list too.

Rifki Bachtiar's Top Ten for 2011

2011-12-12T17:16:00.001+08:00

Vocalist of Indonesia's brutal death metal outfit Revenge - check out my review of Prelude to Omega, one of Indonesia's best recordings yet. Since I know he has a constant Watain boner I'll let him include their 2010 album...

-Mastodon-The Hunter
-Opeth-Heritage
-Draconis Infernum-Rites of Desecration and Demise
-Hate Eternal-Phoenix Amongst the Ashes
-Origin-Entity
-Vader-Welcome to the morbid reich
-Watain-Lawless Darkness
-Destruction-Day of Reckoning
-Blut Aus Nord-777-The Desanctification
-Decapitated-Carnival is Forever (dont really agree,but yeah keeps spinning in my cd player haha)

Mike Priest's Top Ten for 2011

2011-12-11T03:16:00.000+08:00

Mike Priest, guitarist and vocalist for death metallers Absence of the Sacred and all-round solid metal dude - here's his top ten.

1. The Devil's Blood "The Thousandfold Epicentre"
2. Agalloch "Marrow of the Spirit"
3. Disma "Towards The Megalith"
4. Autopsy "Macabre Eternal"
5. Blood Ceremony "Living with the Ancients"
6. Exhumed " All Guts, No Glory"
7. Mitochondrion "Parasignosis"
8. Vader "Welcome to the Morbid Reich"
9. Crowbar "Sever The Wicked Hand"
10.Azarath "Blasphemer's Maledictions"

The Balding Blogger's Top Metal Albums of 2011

2011-12-10T22:03:00.004+08:00

Hail ya bastards! Here's my top metal albums from 2011's crop of metallical spewings. Posting early this year since I'll soon be departing for the very birthplace of metal and myself, the United Kingdom, to take one last peek before it is utterly destroyed by rioting retards and cumbersome economic policies. And I won't be spending much time writing articles for a website that no fucker reads. Except you.

The list looks very different this year, to me anyway. No golden trad metal oldies that I still care about won me over with a career twilight gem (well, except Saxon, but they ended in the honourable mentions. Still awesome), and it's mostly death metal, dominated by the Polish. Read on, or don't!

Top Twenty-Five Albums of 2011

[1] Vader: Welcome to the Morbid Reich
[2] Azarath: Blasphemers' Maledictions
[3] Impiety: Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny
[4] Disma: Towards the Megalith
[5] Lord Vicar: Signs of Osiris

[6] Morbus Chron: Sleepers in the Rift
[7] Autopsy: Macabre Eternal
[8] Sabbat: Sabbatrinity
[9] The Gates of Slumber: The Wretch
[10] Draconis Infernum: Rites of Desecration & Demise

[11] Rotten Sound: Cursed
[12] Morbid Flesh: Reborn in Death
[13] Anaal Nathrakh: Passion
[14] Forefather: Last of the Line
[15] Wormrot: Dirge

[16] Rudra: Brahmavidya: Immortal I
[17] Feral: Dragged to the Altar
[18] Ulcerate: Destroyers of All
[19] Goreaphobia: Apocalyptic Necromancy
[20] Cianide: Gods of Death

[21] Cannabis Corpse: Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise
[22] Amorphis: The Beginning of Times
[23] Havok: Time is Up
[24] Monkeypriest: The Psalm
[25] Zygoatsis: S.K.U.D. Satanic Kultus - Unholy Desecration

Top Ten EPs of 2011

[1] Immolation: Providence
[2] Marduk: Iron Dawn
[3] Archgoat: Heavenly Vulva (Christ's Last Rites)
[4] My Dying Bride: The Barghest O' Whitby
[5] Corpsessed: The Dagger and The Chalice
[6] Cruciamentum: Engulfed in Desolation
[7] Torture Division: Through the Eyes of a Dead
[8] Impiety: Advent Of...
[9] Mithras: Time Never Lasts
[10] Crown Ov Horns: Infernvs Dominatvs

Witnessed in 2011

Iron Maiden
Morbid Angel
Impiety
Draconis Infernum
Surrender of Divinity
Rudra
Ironfist
Loudness
Obscura
Toxic Holocaust
Zygoatsis
Remains
Fallengrace
GxSxD
Absence of the Sacred
Exordium Mors
Oshiego
Xanadoo
Nuclear Death Terror
Opposition Party
Children of Bodom
Destruction
Alice Cooper

Honourable mentions to albums by Orestes, Black Sun Aeon, Blasphemophagher (will possibly scale up the Top 25 list once I've listened more), After Oblivion, Oranssi Pazuzu (same as with Blasphemophagher), Ravencult, Endstille, The Project Hate McMXCIX, Jag Panzer, Saxon, Obscura, Omnium Gatherum, Oshiego, Lock Up, While Heaven Wept, 40 Watt Sun Sanguinary Misanthropia, Vomitory, Xeper, and it could go on forever! Hell of a year. Best reissues - fucking Death albums on Relapse with tons of extra shit! I have the shirts.

Other much-listened to material according to Last FM includes Darkthrone (number one spot most of the year), Venom, Immortal, Gorgoroth, Dismember and Wolfsmond.

Stay tuned for some top tens from actual metal musicians, rather than just a balding guy with a penchant for the heavy and retro.

Nightwish: Imaginaerum

2011-12-04T13:34:00.000+08:00

Turns out Jon used to listen to Nightwish and quite enjoy it! What about all the brutal death metal and otherwise Satanic goings on? The bald blogger puts it aside for several seconds to tackle the Finns' latest, and it's not even a low score by crikey. 72%.

Time was I was a big fan of Nightwish. They helped get me into metal, as it were. Come 2011, a few things are evident. Tuomas Holopainen is and always will be a nob-end who's as self-obsessed as Madonna. Anette Olzon's particular motherly brand of ditzy-ness isn't really very metal. And their high-profile, high-budget music has as many non-metalheads listening to it as it does metalheads, if not more of the former. If you can put all those things aside (and many are unable to) they don't actually sound too shabby. For one thing, this latest and long-awaited splurge is about the most ambitious thing I've heard all year, and credit is due for that alone.

The whole thing is written with an accompanying film in mind, and the music fits the idea adeptly - from the less pop-like song structures and spacious arrangements, to the challenging pacing of the record, and even to a closing title track that revisits motifs from throughout Imaginaerum in purely orchestral format.

The amount of ideas shoved in is also impressive. 'Storytime', 'I Want My Tears Back' and 'Last Ride of the Day' are fairly typical for Nightwish in execution. Then basically the whole of the reminder of the album wanders through carnivalesque amusement parks ('Ghost River', 'Scaretale'), jazzy blues ('Slow, Love, Slow'), exotic instrumental ('Arabesque'), an attempt at Swallow the Sun and My Dying Bride style doom ('Rest Calm') and concept album-ready nigh-acoustic storytelling ('Turn Loose the Mermaids', 'The Crow, The Owl and The Dove').

As an exercise in flamboyant songwriting, it very often works fantastically. The opening to 'Ghost River' is vintage '90s Nightwish, whereas the song itself is a loosely-structured opus crammed with time changes, musical-like vocal exchanges, off-kilter film soundtrack breaks and a few groovy breakdowns. 'Scaretale' shows Dani Filth isn't the only one who's been watching too much Tim Burton, with nursery rhymes, polka beats, madcap narration and children's choirs glued into a morass of tense symphony and sneering vocals.

However, at times it seems like the more straightforward pop metal they've been flogging us realizes better than some of the other ambitious stuff. The easy-on the-ears material being? 'I Want My Tears Back' seems to pile just about everything the band is famous for on the radio - Troy Donockley's pipes, the Rammstein-ish guitars, the Marco-Anette double act, a huge chorus - into about the catchiest song this band has ever recorded. This sounds like it would be a massive hit even in the American and British mainstream. And I have to say, I absolutely love it. 'Last Ride of the Day' moves at breakneck speed through its blasting chorus and big guitar solo, providing a welcome breather from the ooze of new ideas.

Breather is the word. 'Last Ride of the Day' is at track 11, and the pacing of the album and its heavy conceptual bent weigh much of it down toward its latter half, to be honest. 'Turn Loose the Mermaids' and 'The Crow, the Owl and the Dove', despite aptly '70s vocals from Anette, ever-pleasant pipes and neat story ideas (manifested through the obligatorily cheesy lyrics), don't give me too much of a Nightwish-boner and the latter in particular is just a bit dull. Speaking of dull, 'Rest Calm' doesn't quite manage its job of plagiarising various Brits' and fellow Finns' more melancholy output, coming across as a bit exhaustive and dry throughout its seven minutes. With some death growls I might go for the atmospheric chugging parts, but even Marco doesn't pull these off somehow.

Not to mention that the outfit's usual live centrepiece and album crowner of an epic song falls flat for the first time. 'Song Of Myself' lets its pretty great, intense "Nightwish-go-even-more-epic-than-usual" first seven minutes (even with what sound like '90s techno-style belting vocals from Anette) or so with a dragging lead-out crammed with British actors reciting Walt Whitman. Why they did this instead of pooping out more 10-15 minute over-the-top goodness I don't know.

I believe Hietala should be reminded of these days at all available opportunities

See, I come to Nightwish more for the film-metal goings on than the vocals these days. That's more to do with the move away from operatic vocals and further into orchestral soundscapes than with anything else, mind - there's nothing wrong with Anette, while the band features one of my favourite Finnish vikings on male vocals. Marco singing in Suomi on the intro 'Taikatalvi' is a stroke of brilliance - the fellow sounds wonderful in his native tongue, as established in various live concerts and side projects in the past. However, the man seems to hold back more on Nightwish songs these days; despite some blazing, brawny vocals from him on 'Ghost River'. Anette Olzon's best moment is on 'Slow, Love, Slow', a jazzy Nightwish blues ballad that's as bizarre in concept as it is surprisingly cool in execution. But I must say throughout she does a really good job, far stronger chops than on Dark Passion Play. 'Last Ride of the Day' is a good showcase of her mixing up soft and full-pelt singing to great effect. Overall, Marco's least impressive performance for a Nightwish album, but Anette's best. Emppu Vuorinen is doing basically nothing by now however, save a couple of folky spins here and there, he basically chugs away behind Jukka Nevelainen's competent, Kai Hahto-mixed drums and Hietala's throaty bass, or throbs along invisibly with heavily distorted rock guitars.

I can't fault them too much with it. It's a mighty impressive concept album and has at least half an hour of stuff I'll be happy to return to on the iPod. Funnily enough, these high-budget Finns, with their kitsch soundtrack metal, Viking-versus-pop vocals and love of poetry miss a few points through ambition and scale rather than by commercialising themselves. Which is what they're usually criticized for. But hearing this album I don't hear them capitulating to mainstream interests, but rather going full-on into folky, musical, progressive, symphonic and conceptual metal. Less easy to digest and radio-ready than Dark Passion Play and Once, and maybe not as tasty at the end of the day, but worth your time if you stayed on board until now.

Funeral Inception: H.A.T.E. (Heathens Against Terrorist Extremism)

2011-11-29T11:22:00.000+08:00

80%.

Like Suffocation's gloomy, technical battery? And Nile's intricately armed assaults of Eastern mysticism and madness? If you fancy something that sounds like Suffocation, talks like Nile and the merchandise for which looks a bit like black metal, Funeral Inception are right up your alley.

The production on this is a soggy, corpse-thumping affair, glistening with meat-hook harmonies and wrathful grunts. It's a fairly old school affair as far as brutal death metal goes, harkening to Deeds of Flesh as well as the already oft-mentioned Suffocation boys. Aside from a song inexplicably given the same name as Slayer's 'Piece by Piece', there are pulsating standouts in 'Surga Di Bawah Telapak Kaki Anjing' and 'Brigades of the Falling Sun'. The drums and bass for these are meaty and the riffs mean, understated yet exciting, while 'Back to the Womb' and 'Fear the Return' feature nice chugging sections with loads of distortion. This last is a real pounding, ending with awesomely atmospheric leads.

The propulsive, rhythmic musculature of H.A.T.E. benefit from some of the most authentic death growls to be had down Indonesia way, I must admit. The drumming and bass-work is as meaty as John Goodman at the deli counter, and the riffs are fairly exciting throughout the album. But one important way in which they stand out from the hundreds of thousands of brutal or technical or brutal technical death metal bands from Indonesia is in their practicing what they preach. Given that these boys are from the world's most populous Muslim country, naming one particularly excellent song 'Surga Di Bawah Telapak Kaki Anjing' ('Heaven is under the heel of a dog' - Muslims aren't too fond of dogs if you didn't know, presumably because dog is "god" spelled backwards) is pretty ballsy. They have also been known to play Nile's controversial 'Kafir!' live. These guys aren't just authentic-sounding. They're legit extreme metal, fucking over gods and bullshit as readily as their better known international counterparts.

For the newly or half-sworn brutal death metal converts this isn't essential, but if you can't get enough and your Human Waste cassette is completely fucked by now, this is among the cream of Indonesia's crop of death metal brutalizers. Selamat metal.

Dead Squad: Horror Vision

2011-11-29T11:18:00.000+08:00

86%.

Indonesia has a long and fruitful history with brutal death metal, however Dead Squad have managed to blast, breakdown and batter their way somewhere near the front of the pack. They have new merch out all the time (which usually looks pretty sweet - I have a singlet) and 'Pasukan Mati', the original Bahasa Indonesian for their band name, seems to have become a bit of a slogan or warcry among Indonesia's death metal hordes.

Where the hell they've been since putting this terror out in 2006 I've no idea, but it's probably first on the shopping list if you want to get into Indonesia's metal underground. It opens with a crazy intro from a spooky B-flick or something for some reason, but after that it's all tight arpeggios, expansive prog leads, serrated chugs and frothing growls and shouts. They fall somewhere between Necrophagist and Sinister, if you can imagine that.

There's a couple of jazz breaks that honestly feel as if they could be left out - you don't have to try so hard to sound technical when you're already playing songs like this. 'Sermon of Deception' has some hardcore-sounding moments as well, and the slow breakdowns on 'Dominasi Belati' should have been left to countrymen Trojan. So the momentum gets knocked off a couple of times, but at twenty-six minutes, a short album with a bunch of good shit packed in, there are few opportunities to complain.

Production sounds good, fairly meaty but with the occasional breath of air for the bass to plonk more loudly through. The solos are cool and funky, as on 'Dimensi Keterasingan' - even if randomly placed. As with a lot of the young drummers in Indonesia, this guy is doing a pretty great job, helping things plough along convincingly. I'd like to bark at this juncture that Indonesian metal recordings very rarely suffer from poor production values or drum sound, just in case you Euros were wondering. They have some very nice recording studios and equipment.

Highlights are the punchy opener 'Pasukan Mati', and the closing title track 'Horror Vision', with its torrent of crisply harmonized riffs and cool, heavy lead-out. As for the cover of 'Arise', it gets a fat thumbs up. Apart from that I'll just say these Indonesian blokes in Dead Squad have good ears for epically ass-kicking moments, and they ought to get round to recording again.

Pestifer: Age of Disgrace

2011-11-21T21:38:00.000+08:00

73%.

Pestifer are straight out of Belgium, plying a Morbid Angel-influenced brand of technical death metal with a pretty nectarine-coloured album cover. Their debut full-length boasts a ton of melody and a decent, propulsive vibe replete with the thick, plunking bass tone popular with bands such as Origin and Obscura at the moment. You know the one I mean. Chuck Schuldiner pretty much invented it.

Age of Disgrace sits this band right in with the still ongoing wave of technical bands looking to later Atheist and mid-era Pestilence for their influences. I can tell you right away that as in all such cases, the drummer, guitarists and bassist are mighty talented, and leave it at that since this sort of music mandates a high level of competency. The drummer plays like he's auditioning for Behemoth, and the fingers of the guitarists and bassists move faster than those of a typewriter on crack who has just been told he'll get more free crack if he hits his word quota in half his usual time.

In terms of songwriting, the record starts out strong with 'Contagious', which is peppered with plenty of epic and melodic moments to set off the technical meandering. Pestifer storm about with cool guitar solos one moment and voracious blasting the next. Win. Now, it must be said I'm not usually one for the sort of jazzy, tripping intro 'Sleepless Century' employs, and Pestifer would instantly lose a bit of its momentum if not for the tense build and proggy bounce later in the track (same story with the similiar 'Carcinogenic Matter'). The album continues in this dappled vein, with songs like 'Tentacles of Damnation' and 'Betrayal of the Light' nothing less than excellent, amass with scintillating solos, catchy arpeggios and tight songwriting. A bit of it floats past a little though, like the mid-paced trawl of 'The Worm', or most of 'Involution Process' despite its healthy number of Schuldiner references, or the self-indulgent closer 'The Clue, the Light and the Death', but overall there is enough a-happening throughout to keep me away from the skip button.

In terms of sound we're doing well. Vocalist Jerome Bernard is fairly mighty to the ears, bellowing his way belligerently throughout the album and setting off the intricate architecture of the album pretty nicely. His performance on 'Betrayal of the Light' is killer, really nicely sustained deep rasps and growls perfect for the song's atomsphere. The mix on the album is pretty spare to my ears, giving the bass and arpeggio-prone lead guitars lots of space, but lacking some of the heaviness bands like Man Must Die and Cerebral Bore drive their painstakingly complex craft home with.

The album slams and noodles through its forty-odd minutes convincingly, and Pestifer are certainly making a good case for Belgian exports, even after the worldwide distribution of Stella Artois and Hoegaarden. If I saw you in a record shop, wearing an Altars of Madness shirt and buying the new Origin, I could recommend you worse. I mean I'd want to talk about Man Must Die and the new Azarath first, but these dudes are on the watch list, and I'd be up for 'em live.

Zygoatsis: S.K.U.D. Satanic Kultus - Unholy Desecration

2011-11-21T20:45:00.000+08:00

81%.

Counting Surrender of Divinity guitarist Avaejee and drummer Sunyaluxx amongst their horde, with established war metal art inscriber Sickness 666 on vocals, this is a deservedly arrogant alliance of Asia's extreme elite.

Impiety's own Shyaithan contributes some extra vomit for a couple of songs as well, and the intro to 'Evoked the Goatphomet' is also noticeable reminiscent of the intro to Impiety's 'Christfuckingchrist', which opened Kaos Kommand 696. AND there's an Impiety cover. So no problem getting the Southeast Asian war metal underground on board. For everyone else, this oddly named bunch of Thai maniacs play bestial war metal under the banners of Sarcofago, Beherit, Archgoat and Blasphemy. It's even more rugged in form than those four ungodly godfathers mentioned, boasting more blasts, uglier vocals and a nasty, gritty mix. And it's pretty solid.

Zygoatsis batter the unwitting listener with frenetic blast beats and scrawling, messy guitar lines. Although seemingly summoned merely to pin the aforementioned kit punishment into place, repeated and or headphone listens begin to unlock some of the meat of these riffs and occasional malevolent pinches. With this sort of black/ death metal outburst the bands who haven't bothered writing proper riffs quickly get caught out upon careful listening, and Zygoatsis aren't among them. Avaejee and Patiwat haven't come up with anything to put Nuclear Desecration out of business, nor do they attempt the same intriguing appropriation of traditional Thai music as Surrender of Divinity, but they provide fittingly solid, droning electric storms for the bleakly warlike atmosphere Zygoatsis are going for. Slower moments reveal some real coolness, as with the Shyaithan-assisted monster 'Black-Forced Khaostorm', or the menacing 'Ritual of Desecration'.

As with quite a number of war metal or otherwise bestial groups, the focus on atmosphere is carried over from the second wave of black metal. Sickness switches between slavering rasps and great gruff bawls for his vocals, sticking clear of conventional death growls or black metal screeches for the morbid, rotting vocal style propagated by the majority of war metal outfits. His patient, ghoulish moans provide a decent contrast against the frantic drumming of tracks like 'Evoked the Goatphomet', or 'Wage War in Blasphemy' with its neat chugging sections. Assisted by the mix, which is rough but provides far more bottom end punch than on their EP Siamese Warmageddon, it all creates a nasty-as-hell atmosphere of Satanic suffering and grim, anti-religious genocide. Which I can get right into.

It's actually entertaining me more than Avaejee and Sunyaluxx's main band, as I find it more intense and punishing than anything Surrender of Divinity have put on record - notwithstanding SoD's imposing presence live. Plus the artwork for the vinyl version of this is hilarious, a gas-masked Baphomet clutching an unrolled scroll that reads 'Hell declares war on:' followed by an A-Z of every country in the world. If you listen to the sort of bands who think that saxophone solos and flutes are the way forward for metal, you wasted your time reading this. If you have vinyl versions of albums by Archgoat and Impiety however, and don't know who Anthony Arjen Lucassen is, you'll probably dig the shit out of Zygoatsis.

Lord Vicar: Signs Of Osiris

2011-11-16T23:40:00.000+08:00

96%.

After three long years, having only heard a quite disappointing Cardigans on a split with Griftegard to tide me over, my favourite post-Rev Biz doom outfit is back. In a fucking huge way. Finally, The Gates of Slumber and 40 Watt Sun get dethroned from 2011's throne of doom.

Signs of Osiris matches the airy, striking painting on its front cover through an appropriately spacious construction. While the debut was a morass, a thundering leviathan soaked in hopeless melancholy, this baby has a bit more of a loose feeling. Fear not, the unearthly weight of Peter Inverted's guitar tone has lost none of its resonating warmth and fuzz, but the songwriting allows for a few more bass-led or acoustic areas, where Jussi Myllykoski and Chritus shine - respectively - stronger than ever.

The album actually opens with the beautiful, twanging acoustic guitar that closed Fear No Pain, before rocking out straightaway with the driving mid-paced rhythms of 'Sign of Osiris Slain' and the follow-up 'The Answer'. Hell of a way to get going, you're more than halfway through the opener before you hear one of those signature slow-burning doom riffs. It fits in with the album's slightly more retro feel, a bit more of the mid-paced rocking 'n' rolling stuff, which itself sounds breezier and funkier, and more psychedelic guitar solos, meaning a definite tip for the stoner/ desert rock crowd. Meanwhile 'Endless November' is entirely acoustic, the guitar (at times reminiscent of Anathema) joined only by Chritus' commiserations and all of it adding to the album's slightly wilder, organic feel.

Peter Inverted still drops plenty of his mammoth, bending doom riffs throughout, on slabs like 'Sinking City' and 'Sign of Osiris Risen' which brings everything together in a quarter-hour epic closer. You have every reason to buy this if you are a doom metal head, especially since towards the album's centre the band start making the Black Sabbath reunion that just happened last weekend even more unnecessary than it already was. The slow, ominous bass creep, muttered vocals and walking drums on 'Child Witness' are as reminiscent of 'Hand of Doom' as they are 'The Wandering Jew' and 'From the Void'. Gareth Millsted's drums are awesome on this track, sounding improvised and as if they were recorded live, especially in the '70s style jam that dominates the middle of the song. The end of 'Between the Blue Temple and the North Tower' reminds strongly of 'Under the Sun - Every Day Comes and Goes' somehow.

Chritus sounds more Ozzy than ever at points, especially with some of his louder or more yelled moments. I should say he sounds like Dan Fondelius, since unlike Ozzy he's holding the note. He whips out some cool, almost choral vocals for the closing 'Sign of Osiris Risen' though, and is still more than capable of the miserable lamentations of Fear No Pain. Particularly for the epic mid-song climaxes of 'Between the Blue Temple and the North Tower'.

The average song length is a little shorter I feel, perhaps a little less imposing, but there's tons going on. Overall it feels like this album was worked over longer than the already great debut, been left to be mulled and mused over by the band, so that the framework of a competent retro doom album could become an early career highlight and one of the best things available this year.

My Dying Bride: The Barghest O' Whitby

2011-11-16T22:30:00.000+08:00

90%.

As if to prove they haven't gotten old and soft after the indulgent three-disc classical release Evinta, My Dying Bride are right back and grittier than they have been in almost two decades. The Barghest O' Whitby is one, impenetrably long song, in line with much older material in terms of sound, and their single most ambitious work yet. Alright, so it was originally planned as separate tracks, but the choice to release it as one makes for a more challenging and involving listen and the piece(s) benefit from the decision.

This is basically the sort of thing I did not expect them to do, but here they are forsaking all the slight differentiations in sound they explored during the last eighteen years and plugging in for basic, brilliant English doom with a cool story to boot. The song is basically slow right until the end, marked by a couple of quiet moments, twice or thrice building into emotional climaxes that suggest catastrophe and tragedy with more aptitude than in a long time. From a more tense, understated first half to the all-out melancholic keening guitars in the song's third quarter to the explosion of death growls, chugging guitars and double-bass drums at the end, this is everything you want from the Bride.

The band is tight. Craighan and Glencross are utterly reliable throughout. Howling wind (obviously) before the creaking, groaning guitars burn menacingly into life at the beginning, introducing the least goth-friendly the band have been for a long time. Heavy and melancholic by turns and at once, and also escalating. At about 8 minutes you get the sort of guitar riff you really need from doom, low, slow and heavy, before one of the band's more familiar melodies breaks through like light over a cemetery, seeming like it was lifted from 1999. The whining, repeating motif that marks the song's middle seems to tip its hat to the memorable opening of 'The Cry of Mankind'. It fades out so that the song can come back in with a highly miserably, keening section that must have been the beginning of a separate track to begin with - but as another chapter to the darker first half, it works brilliantly, utilising the sort of sad, epic and effective leads they were known for originally.

The violins are still there, but now they add the same macabre unease they did for Turn Loose the Swans, rather than the slightly more flamboyant arrangements heard of late. Aaron Stainthorpe sticks to the rasping growls that peppered recent songs such as 'A Chapter in Loathing' to such great, grisly effect, for the song's first six minutes, bringing them back later with some snarled narration to top it off. Simply put, this first section is genuinely a return to the sound of the band's first, never forgotten album. His clean vocals have some of the desperate, perverse poeticism I remember being so chilling on Songs of Darkness, Words of Light and such classic tracks as 'The Wreckage of My Flesh'. The wailed double-tracked backing vocals later on work awesomely, with a big dog's howl sampled at one point for further awesome points.

The drums get more space than they usually do in the band's increasingly compact songs. When drumming slow you really have to sound individual to impress, and particularly in the early minutes of this opus, Dan Mullins supplies some really atmospheric, crashing fills and tumbling drum rolls that sound in line with some of the more experimental sludge drummers. The cavernous, echoing sound afforded by the production helps as well, a far fetch from the sterile drum sound on For Lies I Sire.

The kid who got his hands on a download of The Dreadful Hours all those years ago (bought it since, keep your wig on) would really dig this. It makes me more interested in buying their next album than I have been since hearing the excellent A Line of Deathless Kings five years ago. Mandatory purchase for fans of these old English daddies.

Shade Empire: Zero Nexus

2011-11-02T23:12:00.000+08:00

72%.

After two well-received if, in my opinion, spotty albums, Shade Empire heaved up a massive effort with Zero Nexus. The smorgasbord of melodic thrash, technical death metal and synthesized chaos with an industrial sheen they're going for manifests with a brighter, colder light here. They sound less confused, less influenced and more their own. It ain't perfect, but it's worth a listen. For reasons I shall now divulge.

The opening two bursts of adrenalin, for example, are both tight, technical tyrants, bristling with mechanically precise drumming, pinpricking synths and the slavering, throaty rasps of Juha Harju. Janne Niiranen and Juha Sirkkia can really move their Finnish Finngers, whipping out a buttload of tight-ass riffs and executing volatile pace changes while drummer Erno Rasanen would hold his own in a premier tech death band easily, even though he is downplayed by the clanking mix. Which is deliberate, I can only assume.

The mix sounds great - right from the kickoff, as the needling, modernistic thrash riffs on '9 In 1' bloom with the harshly industrial drum sound and the celestial synths. The aforementioned synths eerily complement the Obscura-like switches between pacey kicks and epic blasts on 'Adam & Eve'. Best possible songs to introduce this album and real iPod fodder.

I've obviously established with my typed masturbation that Zero Nexus opens like a boss. The album's middle is a bit wobbly however, with a few tracks feeling too derivative to deliver the sizzling pizza of technical and industrial promised with the openers. 'Blood Colours the White' clearly has some Dimmu Borgir machinations going on, think Puritanical Miscellaneous Enemas or whatever it was called, a load of power chords and electronic sounds. The ethnic-sounding chants in the mid-section are quality though. 'Flesh Relinquished' and 'Serpent-Angel' get all Nightwish, era-2002ish, with grandiose synth backing, tinkling keys and choral sounds. The vocals on the latter ineptly ape Dani Filth for some reason. 'Whisper From The Depths' tries for and almost achieves a gloomy, schizophrenic switch-back between maudlin mysticism and malevolent chugging, but feels unfinished. Awful male clean vocals.

There's plenty to invest for though, if the idea of techy stuff with extra atmosphere has piqued your interest and you need a fix now that Fleshgod Apocalypse have probably jumped the shark. 'Harvesters of Death' is appropriately tense, and again reminds that behind all the wash of cold keyboards and ambitious trappings is a decent technical death metal band. With, I might add, a penchant for captivating climaxes of atmosphere - the development of this one from aggression to emotion is excellent. 'Ecstasy of Black Light' meanwhile finally catches the same mix of vicious and voluminous the album's beginning had, with great, grinding melodic death metal type riffs and aching leads. Another fucking terrific last minute as the song builds in some post-rock and trance influences.

'Victory' is among the best progressive and or technical death metal pieces I've heard. Here is its very own paragraph. There are nine and a half minutes of very convincing badassery. Huge choral opening. Fuck-you thrash riff verses. Beautiful power chords-keyboards combo in the chorus. Sweet breakdowns. Madcap, sneering snarls. More cool ethnic chants. Fucking saxophone solos. Post-rock guitar strumming and narration for the lead-out. Huge acapella growl for the signoff. Press repeat.

There are some awesome-as-fuck songs, lots of cool guitar riffs strewn around and a host of ideas that clearly have had a lot of effort put into their realization. It's the best things these fellows have come up with. However, partly due to the amount going on, and to a little bit of inconsistency despite the apt way the album's various sounds are tied together throughout, I can't promise an enthralling ride all the way.

Dark Tribe: Archaic Visions

2011-10-16T18:37:00.000+08:00

76%.

I'm not often one for the depressive-sounding stuff in black metal, all these droning chords and sob story lyrics just taking up precious time when I could be listening to a fierce-as-fuck blast beat or a gnarly-ass militant satanic riff. I'll try anything though and when I heard this album playing in a local record store I loved the darkly epic riffs. The fact that they share a country with such bands as Negator, Mor Dagor, Wolfsmond and Endstille, which is called Germany, sealed it. Although they sound nothing like those, I just can't turn down a song title like 'Denn wir sind Nicht Mensch.'

The vocals are either funereal mutters or the high-pitched screams you associate with the DSBM scene. The drums tread softly and steadily, simple rhythms that just provide a frame for the atmospheric guitars. The bass walks or rather ambles gently along, contributing with the drums to the rumbling backdrop to the guitars. It's all about Asordis. He's the guy playing the low, throbbing riff mumbles and the keening melodic chords. At some times it sounds like Sargeist and at others beyond to full-fledged DSBM. His fingers must be moving pretty fast and pretty precisely to create the wall of catchy empathy flowing from songs like 'Children of Forgotten Times' and 'Suicide is the Light', the riffs for which get almost choral or symphonic at times.

This is set apart from the utter ocean of black metal in this style by the extensive catalogue of ideas here. It's almost like in the first half a depressed track is always followed by a more gritty one. The nihilistic patter of 'When Fear Turns Into Hate' travels to the almost post-black atmospheric indulgence of 'Children of Forgotten Times.' 'I See the Coldness in My Eyes' uses a menacing and repetitive bouncing riff to unsettle the listener before 'Suicide is the Light' brings a bleak and watery dawn of downcast riffs, croaked vocals and hissing cymbals. Which is followed in turn by the sinister growl of 'Endless Chains.' Just to prove my point.

It's a top heavy album though, with 'Desperation', 'Die Sauenjagd Ihrer Majestaet' (best song title on the album mind) and 'Endless War' floating past a bit and the schizophrenic song structure of 'The Wrath of Our Tribe' not really having the sort of sieg the band might have wanted from its interchange of subterranean ambience and grimy wrath. The lamely titled 'Praying for Salvation' is a musical highlight of the album though, beautiful, weeping tremolo riffs and pained vocals threatening to strip the orthodox black metal hairs temporarily from my chest and make me forget my mulling over the vocal excellence of Gaahl versus his douchebag persona.

In terms of composition and cohesiveness it's a bit of a nutty, out-there record, but the emotional atmosphere breaks clearly through the many-coloured carapace. This isn't my walking to work, get Jon misanthropic and appreciative of technical capability early in the morning black metal. But for a dimly lit room, and a filling ashtray, there are far worse companions than this.

Sanguinary Misanthropia: Diabolic Gnosis

2011-10-16T16:34:00.001+08:00

83%

Diabolic Gnosis is a beautifully packaged record. I'm not talking about the swastika motif comprised of four mutilated Christs that adorns the inside, but the sleek, black and greyscale artwork that lurks beneath the band's bold red logo on the front. Put me straight in the mood for a second dose of studio Sanguinary, their three-track sophomore EP that features even more ambitious song lengths and mystical track titles than the previous one. Seven and a half minutes of 'A Glimpse of the Image of Lucifer Gleaming Beyond the Subterraneous Black Sun'? Let's do it.

The aforementioned song burns and desecrates with more confidence than their 2008 material, as do 'Tetraskelion' and 'Mythos of Havayoth'. Unbeliever's vocals sound far more wrathful and his guitar riffs are stripped down to a purer, more angry style of picking. These guitar lines waver up and down with a low and malevolent surge of melody, mm-mmm. I'm not sure what's going on with the drums though, since a full-on Germanic blast beat would add much more steel to these songs than the almost mid-paced, Archgoat-like clatter chosen for them. Parts of the second track are more brutally realized in terms of drumming, which is good 'cause I think this sort of black metal needs tight-as-fuck blasts to really reach its potential.

The band still have a habit of changing up the pace, the mood and the atmosphere when the fancy takes them, but this time around these areas are better integrated into the hellish whole - the mean guitar pinches halfway through 'Tetraskelion' for example, or its briefly ascending finale. Diabolic Gnosis forsakes some of the more overtly melodic or epic tremolo glimmers that manifested on the previous EP, and although those weren't exactly bad the compositions benefit overall from a more condensed and tightly calibrated din.

As for that rather interesting inner design, Sanguinary Misanthropia run into problems because of a perceived racist lyrical bent - so I read their lyrics with more than my usual studiousness. All I'm picking up from this, same as their previous works, is a bit of a Nietzschean exaltation of the Übermensch, which combined with a Lemmy-like fascination with Nazi imagery gives something of a bad impression. I'm not excusing the fellows, I just don't find anything blatantly racist here is all. Hence why they get space on my site, and why doing your homework before casting judgment is a good idea.

These compositions whip past faster than the stuff on Existence Precedes Extinction and are more enthralling overall. This Hellbournian horde is cementing an orthodox black metal sound worthy of festivals across Asia Pacific and is obviously capable of plenty of horror in the future. The key difference is that while I will enjoy most of the first EP whenever I happen to play it, I'll be more likely to think of spinning this.

Sanguinary Misanthropia: Existence Precedes Extinction

2011-10-16T16:30:00.000+08:00

71%.

Existence Precedes Extinction is the debut non-demo recording of Hellbourne-based Sanguinary Misanthropia, a band with a style of black metal both as orthodox and indulgent as their band name. A lengthy average song length and a penchant for chucking some war metal influences all over Norway's black metal tableau makes for an Easter Egg of an EP for a learned black metal head, and more often than not a pretty rewarding one, despite the band's apparent distaste for self-editing.

Whirling tremolo-picked guitar lines, throbbing mid-paced blast beats and light rasps announce 'Invokayshn', with a few more blasty and forceful breaks reminiscent of Gorgoroth or older Impiety. For the most part however it streams comfortably along in orthodox black metal territory, the Tooheys drinking equivalent of Norway's black metal school. Gorgoroth's later days glimmer through more in 'Destruction of the Unknowable God', which is all piss and vinegar and blasphemous riffs.

I notice with both songs however that they are structurally bloated, leaving themselves too much space to stretch and losing some of the tightness their brand of black metal might have had. However, 'Blemished With the Rust of Ancient Nails' (what a cracking song title) and most of 'Of Death and Genocide' have some of the same streamlined, propulsive tremolo riffs and technical, cascading drum patterns as Singaporean troublemakers Draconis Infernum, and are generally more compact tracks.

The languid lengths and changing paces of the rest of the EP aren't always a curse. The slower moments, at the end of the openers and strewn elsewhere on this EP, are pretty satisfying and atmospheric black metal guitar creaks over simple drum rolls. I'm a sucker for jangling blackened chords such as the ones which pervade the third act of 'Destruction of the Unknowable God'. 'Of Death and Genocide' even gets a bit groovy with some bouncy mid-paced riffs breaking up the carnage. Makes for a cool-as-fuck motif. 'Human Sacrifice by Fire' comes to a really fucking epic end, some absolute beauts of guitar riffs leading to the final blast beat charge.

I'm very much for picking a direction and then heading that way, and Sanguinary's first foray into a studio has a bit of rambling going on (you could comfortably shave a few minutes from this recording). However when it's good, it's pretty fucking good, and shows a lot of promise. Guitarist Unbeliever (I wonder if he's read Thomas Covenant) is pretty capable, and his occasional sewer-growls compliment his rasps nicely. Drummer Arcana is definitely a keeper and would likely kick arse live. Put it this way, if I was in Australia, I'd go down to a show, and also ask them when the full-length is coming.

Creative Chaos Vol. 1: Nafrat/ Toxic Holocaust/ Obscura

2011-10-03T23:23:00.001+08:00

Another weekday and Singapore's fanatics converged once more upon the unassuming Substation for a highly anticipated onslaught of ugly thrash and elegantly technical death metal. Obscura's headlining set, in allegiance with Portland's thrash revival brute force Toxic Holocaust, brought a fairly impressive turnout for this diminutive peninsula.

Due to some excellent scheduling by myself we arrived a full ninety minutes late, full of soup on the plus side but having missed local boys Nafrat on the other. I heard they were pretty tight and will look forward to the possibility of future abuse from them.

Some beer was chucked mandatorily back as distant thunder announced Toxic Holocaust beginning their set inside. Blonde-haired '80s throwback, main axeman, band centrepiece and all-round friendly dude Joel Grind hollered his way through a crunchy set of highlights from his band's various albums, including the welcome inclusion of 'I Am Disease', an old school and doom-inclined cut from the new album. The set was noticeably free of the usual sound plagues that afflict bands playing in Singapore, with the exception of bassist Philthy Gnaast having to repair his set-up halfway through. Admirably the band raged on with professional belligerence. Songs like 'Wild Dogs', 'Bitch', the whisky pean 'The Lord of the Wasteland' and 'War is Hell' sounded mighty fine and conjured impressive circle pits from the swollen crowd. It was clear what people had come for however, with each between-song break hearing at least two or three people yell 'Nuke the Cross!', and finally they did. Tight, intense and thrash as fuck, the set was a supreme way to bust my Toxic virginity.

Myself, my attractive camerawoman and girlfriend Vanessa and Toxic Holocaust's Joel Grind

Admittedly Toxic Holocaust had been the main attraction for me, although I generally turn up to everything anyway. With several of my friends counting themselves and their bones lucky it wasn't a full on thrash gig, we trooped back inside for Obscura, a Teutonic technical task force replete with ex-members of Necrophagist and currently ascending to the sort of underground following that band commands. Never gelled with these boys on record but holy shit this was a fucking unbelievable set.

Steffen Kummerer is a terrific vocalist. He tore through the Schuldiner-esque rasps that are the staple of his performance with Germanic precision and vigour, while also ready to unleash wonderful belly growls. He and Christian Muenzner's guitar work could not have enough said for it, and as for the drums put in by Hannes Grossmann, I could only stand still with my mouth slack as he laid down the sort of blasts the Terminator would play if his AI was re-programmed for drum kits instead of weaponry. This guy was a marvel to behold, every fill and tempo change awe-inspiringly on-point.

The set itself was ingeniously arranged, 'Anticosmic Overload' making its catchy-ass beauteous presence known early before the welcome and surprise addition of the band's brilliant Death tribute, 'Incarnated.' The threatening trudge of 'Ocean Gateways' with its bowel-quaking growls and throaty guitar riffs was a perfect centre-piece before the band played out with a series of their longer songs, brimming with technicality, laced with marvelous clean interludes and spiralling off into transcendental instrumental sections. It was like watching fucking porn. In fact, have you ever watched porn with your mates and all jerked off together? That was what it was for us black-shirted lot, stood in sweaty awe in front of these German prodigies. Ter-fucken-rific.

Another lovely night out in Singapore! Alas work lay in wait the following morning, otherwise I could have sat in balmy silence with a cold beer, letting the impression of what had just happened wash over me in the sort of ascended state no monk will ever reach. Sieg!

Empatic: Gods of Thousand Souls

2011-09-29T22:19:00.000+08:00

76%.

One striking thing about this album is that the band's hometown, Ostroleka City in Poland, apparently provided financial support for the its release. The likelihood of my getting Hereford City Council to do that, even had I any musical ability, would have been zero. And I fear I would fare no better proposing the same to the government of Singapore, my current host. Seriously, Liverpool can boast great public transport, and cities in Germany have the most solid environmental initiatives in the world, but fuck them, this town sets aside a portion of its budget to finance thrash albums!

In terms of sound, these boys have clearly been in contact with the opuses of Vader and the more death metal friendly thrash acts such as later Exodus and Legion of the Damned. They are more friendly to slower chugging sections and what Metal Sucks refer to as 'elephants walking' riffs than any of those however, perhaps also counting Dimebag and Rob Flynn amongst their heroes. The bro-hootal chugging riffs of 'The Game', 'Tomorrowland' and 'VS' show off the sort of production the good men and women of the Ostroleka city government bankrolled, nice and clear with a swinging bottom end and plenty of space for the vocals to burn.

The thrash comes right through in the heavy, groovy riffs while the vocals of Maciej are pure death metal. He's got a good gnarly voice, opting for an ugly rasp much of the time but fully capable of a lusty grunt when its time to shit or get off the toilet. His chants at the end 'Tomorrowland' are brilliant, reminding me of Kalmah's hoarse swamp metal shout-alongs. Although the riffs Przemyslaw plays aren't exactly blazing new ground, opting for a predictable Vader-Exodus-Megadeth mash-up, his leads and palm-muted adventures are often exemplary. The guitar solos from Jakub are more atmosphere than technical showmanship, great wailing slews of notes that smother the trundling, growling underbelly of this unit's sound with heroism and emotion. Jaroslaw gets going with his double-kick drums for short bursts during songs like 'G.O.T.S.', although he usually opts for rhythmic, crushing beats. Capable but not flashy is what we're going for, keep it heavy enough to cave in the Ostroleka city hall. He sounds particularly lovable on 'Empatic', with some tight as shit double bass and awesome fills.

That song might be the best thing on here, and it's an instrumental. So you miss out on the bowel-rumbling vocals of Maciej, who definitely deserves a beer for his performance on the whole album, but the guitarwork for the band's title song is legendary. It closes a pretty lengthy album (nearly 50 minutes with the cute cover of 'Enola Gay') which may wear some out at times, with songs like 'So What' and 'Dreamer' outstaying their welcome a little, but Gods of Thousand Souls is definitely studded with plenty of quality numbers.

From the get-go with the squealing chug of 'Green Mile' Empatic are a darn sight more melodic and catchy than such luminary countrymen as Vader and Decapitated. The leads of this track are pretty addictive and it makes for a real sleeper of an opener - not the adrenalin-rush I would typically expect from the band description and tortured cover mural, but a decent rumbling into being. 'G.O.T.S.' had my head nodding like one of those little duck toys Homer Simpson once used to auto-operate his work station, while 'False Friend' continues the trend of each of the opening few songs getting a bit more hasty in pace, a double-kick strewn thrash engine with obnoxious, abrupt growls from Maciej. 'VS' is another track that makes a highlight of itself through some earwig guitar leads and pretty solos, and the catchy-ass, noodling leads and solos of 'Fulfilled Dreams' almost penetrate power metal territory at times.

The odd blast beat thrown in here and there before the heavy breakdown comes in, or a thrash break knocks you over, a ton of cool guitar leads and sweet solos, all seems to me like a good combination for a bit of simple fun if you want to listen to some new extreme Polish metal. I shall find it useful in the gym I think. I can't argue that this is going to reinvent the death/ thrash wheel, but then again look around my website, I have a massive appetite for the straightforward shit. If that's your bag than you can do worse than this oddly named Polish quintent. Oh yeah, apparently Empatic is a drug that helps with obesity. I wonder what sort of insinuation they're trying to make? Try headbanging that extra love off yourself! I wish I'd Googled that earlier, I could have opened with a crack about there being no flab on this album. Or the emaciated figures on the cover reaching their ruined arms toward the band logo. Fuck it.

Corpsessed: The Dagger & The Chalice

2011-09-26T21:20:00.001+08:00

83%.

The rotted black flag of Finnish death metal seems to be worn by more and more bands these days. Lucky too since Slugathor decided to call it a day (and apparently, so did Ascended). Lie in Ruins is back, Slugathor lives on through Desecresy, there's Hooded Menace and now Corpsessed and Gorephilia. And some others.

The introduction to the supremely packaged debut EP by Corpsessed is pure and utter doom. It's the reason I bought this. My friend played this to me in his shop, and after several previews for progressive, melodic or otherwise sophisticated bands, he apparently gave up and switched on the brilliantly creepy, Hammer Horror atmospheres of the lonely leads and rumbling drum tattoos that begin this recording. There was to be no resisting. Money changed hands. Same goes for the opening of 'Crypt Infester' - those wailing leads get me every time, even before the arse-brutalizing double bass drumming and face-raping death growls burst through the slightly lo-fi mix. D-beats are to be found infrequently, adding a bit of energetic violence in the midst of the gloom in the good old tradition of Depravity and early Demigod. Excellent. I am part of a small market that Corpsessed are very good at targeting.

Not all of the pull of this album is in its ingenious build-up however. 'Nameless Cult' slaughters in the vein of Funebre, but still makes the most of some Purtenance-style moments of atmospheric dirge. The guitars are grizzly, enough distortion hanging off them for the guitar strings to drag along the ground. 'Altar of Worms' reeks of the tomb, sepulchral moans from vocalist Matilainen echoing forth from his prison of bone-like rattling drums and sorcerous guitar riffs. 'Massgrave' features a few brief, ugly blast beats, grotesquely complementing the ridiculously awesome low register incantations from Matilainen - but always the doom-like outro. The closing title track is more brutal, charging forth with blasts, d-beats and a malignant sense of purpose in the deadly riff set wielded - while in the middle, the lonely, lowing leads of the record's introduction and opening song inevitably well back into the song. There is a lot to be said for records that are opened and closed with strokes of genius, and this is one of them.

I've spent plenty of time listening to Finnish death metal, and being Finnish, and in a death metal band, so have these five boys. Their homework has been put to good use, with a debut recording solidly in the tradition of Finland's small town death metal outfits in the murky years before about 1994. The only thing missing is an ugly logo across the front of the otherwise brilliantly drawn monochromatic album cover.

Revenge: Prelude to Omega

2011-09-26T21:18:00.001+08:00

89%.

A symbolic-looking esoteric cover, more suggestive album title and some mysterious song names is not the only progression afoot with Revenge's second outing. There's an atmospheric intro this time around with almost Obscura-like levels of verbosity in the title, all ominous narration and synths. And a bit of a preview of the blasting to come.

In just a year since the debut this unit has firmed up something amazing. The song titles and lyrics are more determinedly anti-religious this time around, despite the various religions of the band members. Whatever their personal beliefs this seems to have given their music extra drive and wrath. The whole band sounds really tight and more effort has been taken in writing songs that elaborate instead of just escalate, and that build more in atmosphere. Closer 'Massacred in the Name of God' is a really cohesive track and a standout, with its overbearing main riff adding some gloom to the familiar supply of drum kit abuse and rapid-fire riffs.

Rifki's formerly safe-zone gutturals now incorporate wretched screams and plenty more variation in the vocal pattern. In the verses of songs like 'Xenophobic', the vocals drop in and out of sync with the guitars and drums, which is a nice touch for a technical group like this. 'Heaven's On Fire' even has some distorted narration over the excellent pummeling drums and throbbing riffs before the growls get going again. Raja is now joined by a second guitarist, Rabindra, and between them a hail of twisting and perverted riffs are poured forth. The tremolo-picking and arpeggios are more formidable this time, storming forth with extra hunger, while the progressive solos are more memorable. Rizky makes his bass a lot more known this time around, partly due to the improved mix and partly due to his confident, jazzy style. The drums of Auliya are better heard and better played. This guy has some serious chops with his sticks, slathering a song like 'The Antipope' with all manner of concussive blasts and cymbal abuse.

One complaint you might have is that this record is only 23 minutes long. Well it's not really a complaint is it, when you can just thump the fucking 'play' button and listen to these six short but bangin' cuts again. It would sure be nice to have more of this, but the short run time might be a contributor to the fact that every song here is tight as fuck and the band never drops the ball for a second. The tech-erection remains solid throughout! Global.Suffering.Disease is a good record to own if you like your brutal technical stuff, and/ or period marks, whereas Prelude to Omega is a have-to-have. This record is the reason Revenge are among the top recommendations you'll get from Indonesia along with Dead Squad, Funeral Inception, Noxa and Eternal Madness.

Revenge: Global.Suffering.Disease

2011-09-26T21:12:00.000+08:00

74%.

Kicking off your album with 'Abhorrence', a song perhaps named for death metal lords of both Brazilian and Finnish fame is no bad way to go. If that's the case. However it's clear from the relentless widdling leads and torrent of blast beats that Revenge are devotees of technical and brutal masters such as Suffocation and Cryptopsy.

Indonesia is a hotbed of brutal and technical death metal bands, and Revenge's logo is usually fairly obviously placed on posters for festivals in the country. For good reason too. This album is full of articulate ill will, guitarist Raja handling leaps from progressively canted solos to heavy chugging on songs like 'Candle' and supplying seemingly endless and endlessly escalating technical riff patterns. Vocalist Rifki is fairly guttural, belching out low register intonations that rarely vary but make for a decent counter-weight to Raja's guitar athletics, as does the fast-fingered bass work of Rizky. Auliya's drum performance throughout is mechanically able, mean-mannered blast beats and double bass providing constant aural abuse.

Ever the important distinction for technical death, these kids couldn't just play back in 2009, they could write too. The repetitively driving tremolo assaults surging through 'Epigraph of Disease' are pretty involving and twinned with the on-point drumming should get a head or two nodding. Along with the evilly lurching 'Massacre', the title track is probably the most ferociously able cut here, guitars swelling into vicious rhythms and serrated arpeggios, and Rifki's diabolically patient vocals under-pinning the chaos atmospherically. There's a real nice chugging break halfway through the Indonesian language 'Intuisi Kebencian' too, one of a few moments where the meticulous manslaughter is called off for some breeze block simplicity.

The sleeve notes and band pictures from the boys in Revenge reveal them to be fans of bands such as Nile and Origin, but the influences of the aforementioned Suffocation and their brethren temper the indulgent technical flights of fancy found in more modern fare.

Revenge's sophomore album would ascend somewhat past the material found here. However, if you can't imagine life without tons of pace changes, drum fills, blasts up the ass and frantically strummed guitar riffs, and fancy it with a gloomy mood and a tad more restraint than some of Revenge's heroes, this should get your bath wet.

Absence of the Sacred: Era of the Apostate

2011-09-20T01:17:00.000+08:00

86%.

This sort of latter era Dismember melody-driven death metal awesomeness is always welcome, and all too rarely in supply. Outside of excellent albums like The God That Never Was you might look to The Few Against Many or on occasion Nightrage, but out in Singapore Absence of the Sacred do a pretty good job of pwning all but Dismember (who may well never be pwned) at the art of erecting cocks with kick-ass riffs and badass harmonized leads.

The title track to this tasty slab of melodic death and thrash metal is out of hell's gates with a set of memorable, crunching riffs and the now even more pissed, slavering growls of Impiety-famed Mike. Plenty of tension and quick pace changes climaxing in a fuck-you guitar solo. The guy is a great guitarist and he's joined by a second guitarist, Darren, who helps supply a good helping of extra heaviness this time round. Hans gets to rattle away with a bit more fervour than on the debut, hammering home his d-beats and sporadic blasts, and indulging in concussive fills. The sound on this record compares favourably to the debut and does him a few favours with a really heavy and spot-on drum sound.

Era of the Apostate sounds tighter than the debut to me in terms of songwriting, songs like 'Elements of Reprisal' for example piling riffs upon harmonized riffs into an adrenalin-fuelled outburst that doesn't hang around to ask questions. Not that the debut was flabby, but there is much less breathing space here. 'Catalysts for Cataclysms' allows itself a few more seconds to rumble into life with some heroic guitarwork on the intro, before letting loose a streamlined melodic riff. Maybe the catchiest thing on here, the sort of material Gothernburg's failed and fallen fathers would have paid good money for as they turned to the synthesizer and the best of compilation out-clause a decade or so ago.

These boys really know how to close up an album by the way. Where Atrocities That Birthed Abominations climaxed with its nearly 8 minute title track, a beast that bordered on progressiveness, the last three tracks here are nigh perfect. 'A Past Revived' is a lovely instrumental, very simple piano strains and bass meanderings, and makes for a well-placed reprieve. 'Empires of the Fallen' is a motoring exercise in balls-out melodic thrash, an absolute cooker live by the way, and the best headbanger on the disc, and to top it off they cover Atheist's 'Unholy War' just in case you got all soft listening to the instrumental.

When approached regarding the album, former drummer Hans mentioned that these songs were actually written before the material for the debut, and were recorded here with a few refinements and rearrangements. Original research up yer ass! Anyhow, the flavour of the album makes a little more sense once you realize that, with the more compact and straightforward sound, as well as hints of youthful abandon in the aggressive soloing and catchy riffs. Combine that with the improved sound and, it would seem, a couple of years gigging in between albums to make this sound pretty professional, and you're onto a bit of a winner. Locate bitches. There should be a commar in there actually, so it's "locate, bitches." But also locate bitches.

Vader: Welcome To The Morbid Reich

2011-09-19T21:35:00.000+08:00

97%.

This is the album Vader should have followed their lovely anniversary package XXV with. On the one hand, this is so damn good it makes me look more kindly on the spotty Necropolis, and on the other it would just be so much more appropriate for it to be this album that followed two discs of utter, utter classics re-recorded and sounding fucken fresh as ever.

I'm going to start by saying that this album contains a re-recording of 'Decapitated Saints' from The Ultimate Incantation, and that it fits. One of my favourite songs from a debut that delivered a knockout punch with almost each number fits on this album like it was written for it. And that is the best way to persuade the old school dudes that, if you stopped listening to Vader, here is where you pick up again. So enough of masturbating over re-recordings and old triumphs, onto why this is one of the mad Pole's greatest moments.

The return to the old logo is no piss-take. The band is sounding tight, old school, and pissed off enough to be half the comfortable age Peter is by now. The man is joined yet again by a new line-up, having something of the Tony Iommi approach to band leadership it seems. And man are these recruits able.

Not only does Hal set to with some of the best rhythm work to curse a Vader album in years, he fills the album's sound with a constant thunder while Peter winds out beautifully constructed solos like that on 'I Am Who Feasts Upon Your Soul' and the fantastic leadwork on trudging closer 'Black Velvet and Skulls of Steel'. The whole shit makes Necropolis sound like a warm-up. The master craftsmanship here is in line with Litany and De Profundis.

James Stewart wastes no time in ripping out punishing blasts and driving d-beats to power brick shithouses of songs like the title track and its terrorizing follower, 'The Black Eye'. He fills the huge, huge shoes of Daray (that man's name somewhat besmirched by his involvement in sessioning for Demon Burgers) quite capably, and is well worthy of the number three spot after Daray and the awesome Doc. There were other Vader drummers who I don't think really mattered, but this guy can keep the company well.

Peter meanwhile is still the only death metal vocalist in the biz with that particular obnoxious, thuggish bellow, applying it with panache to this record's dark magic warcry. The savage beating that is the thrashed up 'Only Hell Knows' features some higher register snarling vocals as well.

Mmm highlights. Yes there are. The album's first half is crammed with goodies. Aside from the relentless first two tracks, 'Come and See My Sacrifice' is a moment of particular old school Vader brilliance, the narcissistic and masochistic lyrical roars matching the throbbing riff set and creepy mood perfectly. However, there isn't a weak moment on the record and the second half seals the deal. The passionate, bestial roars at the end of 'Don't Rip the Beast's Heart Out' are definitely a moment of epic, while 'I Had A Dream' has nothing to do with Martin Luther King. It's a really nasty primer for the early '90s Vader style bashing you'll receive from 'Lord of Thorns'.

Bloody brilliant. Simply one of the best bits of headbanging to be found so far this year. It'll be the 30-year anniversary of Vader in three years. And they sound like this. Fuck you.

Belligerent Intent: Descending to Abaddon

2011-09-16T00:11:00.000+08:00

81%.

With a band name as brilliant as Belligerent Intent, you expect results. Every now and again a fairly new group happens across a band name that speaks of brutal, irresistible metal, and Belligerent Intent is just such a name. Australians in general have a knack for it I suppose. Did you not want to hear the music of entities such as Destroyer 666, Cemetery Urn, Psycroptic and so forth, just from seeing the band name?

They know how to set a little bit of atmosphere with their intros, with an introduction that has both the distant clamour of a Bolt Thrower lead-in and the ominous church bells most of my favourite doom metal bands have used at some point.

While the promo was all about the beastly drums and the bass line, this gives us a chance to better comprehend the band's agenda when it comes to songwriting and guitarwork. Also Matt and Craig 666 are still supplying the former with copious conspicuousness. Although the man known as Chaos Massacre has apparently said his farewells from the members listing on the Archives, this gives fair warning for the sort of guitar lacerations to expect in the future, and for the purposes of this EP the guy's work is awesome.

By the time we're onto the title track the rippling tremolo-picking and arpeggios have become thoroughly engrossing, the band taking the root of enthralling the listener to their brutal, technical assault through patient atmospheres and careful construction. Outright brutality and kit-bashing is among my favourite food groups, but I definitely have space on my plate for an Aussie group that turns the conventionally frantic opening of a song like 'Unnameable Devourer' into a brilliant piece of layered metallic artwork. 'Prophecies of Pandemonium' has some very tasty guitar licks to be found within its second half, continuing the pattern of songs developing throughout their runtime.

In terms of songwriting and ambition I'm feeling definite growth here compared to the promo CD. Right now Australia seems to be enjoying the kind of bestial death metal underground that Finland did in the early '90s, for example, with an array of quality bands burning beneath the surface. Get involved in this EP if you can find it.

Belligerent Intent: Belligerent Intent

2011-09-13T22:52:00.000+08:00

76%

I was told that after hearing these guys I wouldn't listen to Vital Remains any more. Well, since it seems forever since Vital Remains put anything out, and even longer since they produced something of this calibre, I guess the Aussies in Belligerent Intent are welcome to the slot. For a demo/ promo thing this sounds fucken fine.

The sound on this is pretty hairy, something you would notice if you'd just been listening to the new Vader and Azarath records as I have, but not something you'd moan about if you really dig the sounds of Cemetery Urn and Ignivomous as I do. There is still plenty of space for each instrument to batter you here. The drumming, supplied by Matt from the aforementioned Cemetery Urn, is highly proficient and technical, all relentless double bass and nasty snares. Craig 666's bass is a constant presence, making unpleasant love to your less conventional orifices while the cavorting leads bloody other vulnerable areas. That bass shines unexpectedly when the rhythm guitars drop out for the swirling guitar solos. Nice.

The guitars and vocals sound proper old school - Deicide, Suffocation and Vital Remains certainly operate here, as does None So Vile and Altars of Madness in the songwriting department. A mixture of pummeling and lumbering defines the two songs on offer, as you might expect from the influences mentioned. The riffs on 'Lex Talionis is Their Cry' are particularly unforgiving.

Replete with various atmospheric sounds and samples, all the ingredients needed are there for this diabolical death metal force to fill a fresh hole left by the prematurely disbanded Dawn of Retribution. The Cemetery Urn pedigree should be enough to pique the interest of the veteran in any case. These guys are definitely worth watching out for - although I gather these promos aren't easy to find any more, Australians and death metal bastards everywhere else would be well advised to keep their metal-harassed ears peeled for the full-length.

Singapore Abomination: 4th September 2011, Singapore

2011-09-11T23:30:00.001+08:00

We brought Bangkok's carnage to Singapore the next night, touching down belligerently in Singapore with just enough time to drop the haul from Bangkok's merch stands at mine before getting back in the same taxi and hitting Fort Canning for a second round of GxSxD and Impiety.

Absence of the Sacred

Hell's Labyrinth store-owner Mike Priest's squad Absence of the Sacred were the first on the bill, and once again our timing was perfect as we arrived with enough of their soundcheck left to down a Guinness. Mike proved more than capable of twisting off the gleaming harmonies and rollicking death/ thrash riffs that are the core of this band's sound, replete with a thunderous vocal style belying his very laid back and jokey stage personality. Aside from 'Dawn of a Dead Aeon' (the first from them I heard and the first song from a Singaporean group I listened to outside of Impiety) and the rowdily received cooker 'Empires of the Fallen', the set was dominated by new material from the upcoming third album. The new material sounds more complex, nice and compact and as furious as ever.

Rudra

The fourth time I've seen Rudra live and I don't have much to say. As always, the guitarwork is reliably expert and the atmosphere fantastic. Vocals and lead guitars suffered a little from sound issues, with Kathir having to stop the show for a short while. This continued the weekend's pattern of killer metal bands suffering from engineering balls-ups, but didn't detract from a set that opened with the pounding 'Aryaputra' and ended with the band's eternal anthem 'The Pathless Path to the Knowable Unknown.' This was an encore and by now the band has enough of a reputation that the song's title was yelled out just after they agreed to play one more song.

GxSxD

These guys were fucking amazing again, but here sound really became a problem. The middle mic was full of static and disturbance as the first song commenced, making the vocals sound like the croaking burps of Demilich or something rather than the grave and commanding bellows favoured by the twins. Fortunately this was sorted from the second song onwards and the remainder of the set was terrific again. Vanessa and I agreed we would see them a third night in a row if possible. This time they closed with a medley of 'Raining Blood' and 'Angel of Death' as an encore.. what a fucking perfect climax to the weekend to hear the main riff of 'Raining Blood' starting up like that. I'm not often one for the circle pit but at this point I had no choice. Despite being knackered from, at that point, nine live assaults, numerous flights, drinking, and generally being constantly heavy and/ or metal.

Impiety

This beast of a weekend was brought to its grisly end with another mauling from the mighty ones. After opening once again with 'Advent of the Nuclear Baphomet', a quality-ass cut from 2011's mini-album of the same name, we had to stop for fifteen minutes so that Shyaithan could assume command in the realm of sound. So we got some pics in with the GxSxD boys. This breather was well worth it - along with GxSxD in Bangkok, this set had the best sound of the ten sets we saw that weekend. 'Lords of Apokalypse', 'Carbonized', and 'Torment in Fire' were all well worth hearing again, as well as the welcome rendition of 'As Judea Burns'.

All in all a typical Singapore show - this country is home to some masterful extreme metal hordes, but not, it would seem, a whole lot of venues that can do them justice.

Fucking postscript
Check out Metal Team UK - I met one of the site's writers, Andrew, at the Singapore show. He proved to be a true metal gentleman interested in hearing some Eastern metal, and has also done a great review of the evening at http://www.metalteamuk.net/review-impiety.htm

As mentioned above, Draconis Infernum, Cardiac Necropsy and Zygoatsis will play Singapore in November with Naetu from Australia, at the first edition of Singapore's Carnagefest.

Siamese True Metal Festival: September 3rd 2011, Bangkok

2011-09-11T23:23:00.001+08:00

My girlfriend (responsible for photography) and I flew down to the ancient, untoppled kingdom of Thailand for the Siamese True Metal Festival, in place of the usual God Beheading Live Ritual which has been headlined by such forces as Archgoat and Inquisition. This year the rancid hordes of brutal Siamese death metal joined the usual black and black/ death metal lineup, for a bestial 12 hour, 15 band ceremony. As well as being headlined by Singapore's Impiety, with the Kings of Thailand and festival regulars Surrender of Divinity in a strong slot, the event showcased local brutal death metal bands such as Goreconsumed, Villainous and Savage Deity, blackened outfits such as Zygoatsis and Goatchrist 666, and Malaysia's black-thrashers Saktism.

Unfortunately, of the list of logos on the arm-long festival ticket, we didn't manage to catch the local death metal bands or Saktism, what with merch, drinking, sweet-ass Thai food, and what have you. However, we did arrive just in time for Exordium Mors.

Exordium Mors

A friend of mine had been raving about this group for the entire run-up to the festival, and as luck would have it we got there just as they were sound-checking. These Kiwi blackened badasses immediately summoned a brilliant atmosphere with a commanding stage presence (frontman Scourge looked like he was about to do a Haka, New Zealand All-Blacks style) and managed to get attendees psyched up at the early time of 3.30pm. Despite a couple sound issues, the set itself was beyond brilliant - unbelievably catchy riffs, propulsive and thunderous rhythm sections and tons of innovative sections had me instantly hooked. One of those great moments where a live performance unexpectedly makes you a fan of a band you've never heard before.

We then had a bit of time to check out the venue, and thank Exordium Mors' Matt with whom we'd hung out the night before, and browse tables and tables stacked with merch. There was a ton of obscure stuff from Asian bands, and it was selling rapidly - unlike in Singapore, where I find merch largely tends to lie around untouched during the show, and get packed up after. Cheap bottles of Coke - the proper little glass bottles mind - and plenty of places to sit and smoke set me up nicely for Zygoatsis.

Zygoatsis

Having heard only the Siamese Warmageddon EP, this was when Zygoatsis really clicked with me for the first time. They share guitarist Avaejee with Surrender of Divinity, and vocalist Sickness 666 is responsible for the devilish monochromatic illustrations that adorn not only releases by Zygoatsis but also Surrender of Divinity, Draconis Infernum, Necroholocaust and Impiety. While that disc sounded like pretty cool black/ death bestiality, both old and new material kicked arse in a live setting, with grim, simple guitar riffs booming out over rattling drums. I picked up the debut album S.K.U.D. as soon as the set ended, and having heard this thundering slab of goat metal I'll anticipate their November show in Singapore wrathfully.

We then skipped A Good Day For Killing to get some food, and I must say Bangkok's 7/11's have much tastier hot food than those in Singapore. Exotic eh? We played it safe to avoid bathroom trips during what was to be the most intense portion of the festival. Militant timekeeping on my part broke up a very interesting conversation about Thailand's schools and education policies so that we could get in a good spot for GxSxD. I'm not sorry.

GxSxD (God Send Death)

I've been hearing about these death metal samurais for a year and a half now, along with the seemingly outrageous claim that they are better than Vader. And Vader are one of the bands that got me into death metal in the first place. However it proved pretty tough getting hold of their stuff, so a couple of Myspace sessions was all I had to go on before this live assault. These Japanese professionals even brought down their own wireless equipment making for sonically the best set of the night, unbelievable pounding guitar riffs and visceral death roars making for some of the best live death metal I've ever seen. I'll agree now that they are more intense and crushing than Vader. Twin brothers and axemen Yohsuke and Yusuke took turns belting out the lyrics line by line, stepping back and forth onstage like dancers or martial artists.

Surrender of Divinity

I was still reeling from that when Surrender of Divinity's Christbeheading black metal scourge was unleashed. This was the second time I've seen them live and again their traditionally Thai-influenced riffs sound far better on stage than on record, where the sound is hindered by the obligatory cult mix (I should probably see if there are vinyls available so I can try and recreate the ingenious riffs and quality drumming that shines during the live experience). These guys are a bit like Vital Remains - their last full-length was released back in 2006, and they've been replaying their material over and over during the last five years, always received well and cementing their unmatched cult status in Thailand.

Impiety

The anti-religious rulers of Siam were followed by Southeast Asia's finest, mighty Impiety. Since Singapore's flattening in January a new lineup has formed, with 18 year old Deimos manning lead guitars and the incredibly capable Dizazter replacing Atum on drums. The latter was really a great chap, happy to stand around during the breaks and talk drums even to a non-drummer and non-talent like myself, not to mention that his technicality and brutality brought some more muscle to the already heavily muscled entity that is Impiety. Shyaithan was as commanding as ever and although there was disappointingly (if predictably) no nod to Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny, they raged through a set including cuts from all the Impiety albums, plus a cover of 'Into Crypts of Rays' which garnered a massive response. 'Torment in Fire' made for a storming finish with a proper mosh pit - the likes of which you don't see in Singapore I can tell you. Ave Satanas!

By this time the room was nice and drunk, while we'd settled into a comfy spot next to the band area. Perfect for a close-up and side-on view of the carnage, and sneaky smokes could be enjoyed with some of the awesome metalheads we met that weekend, including Belligerent Intent's Matt, down to drum for Draconis Infernum, and former Dawn of Azazel drummer Martin. I was honoured enough to be armed in the jacket of Draconis' Serberuz Hammerfrost as he got painted up and did his set.

Draconis Infernum

With Matt occupying the stage role of the departed Xamroth, this was the first time I had seen these guys perform with the vicious, technical and all-round brutal performance their hellish old school black metal deserves. This gave a solid headbanging backbone to a set somewhat harassed by some more sound issues with the bass and guitars, somewhat selling short the black wizardry of guitarists Xepher and Niloc. The whole band was clearly tight as fuck however, the vocals of Serberuz truly diabolical, and with the new material - 'Armoured Legion', 'Chaos Infinity' and others - from Rites of Desecration and Demise obviously having massive potential live. Next time I'm hoping for 'Regime of the Underworld'. They join Zygoatsis in November...

After that we left for green curry and Singha beers. The billing had been perfect - with organizers placing Impiety at something around 8.30pm instead of the usual headlining last place to avoid fatigue amongst those present. Having seen Impiety and Draconis before and knowing what to expect (and with another seven months rotation of these Singaporean tyrants in between), the revelation of GxSxD and Exordium Mors defined this festival for me. It's a very pleasing feeling to see bands based on a recommendation and instantly start wondering when trips to Auckland and Okoyama could be fit around work. Although it was a shame to miss most of the local talent, other activities called, and doubtless the best had been witnessed.

Chthonic: Takasago Army

2011-08-07T23:54:00.000+08:00

53%

Mirror of Retribution was already a stride away from the sound of Seediq Bale, the album which introduced me to these erhu-wielding Taiwanese black metallers. Loads of thrashy parts and a heap more heaviness. I still found it as welcome as bread and butter pudding and hot tea on a cold day mind. But Takasago Army takes us into Chthonic's commercially self-aware phase, with legions of metalheads across the globe wrapped in their shirts and albums no doubt being cleared from shelves in Europe as enthusiastically as in Asia.

As is oft the case, the band has changed things up a bit in response. Not that I'd have them hand out copies of old albums with the album titles altered in felt-tip pen you understand, but there's a couple of problems. The first is that instead of sounding like an Asian band with cleverly incorporated historical and cultural musical influences, Chthonic now sound like they could be from anywhere, and have simply laid hands on Asian instruments and a couple of Chinese films for reference. Like Whispered, Finns who are doing exactly that with Japanese influences, or that French band Arkan who have a Middle Eastern sound. The second is not, I have to stress, that there is really nothing blackened whatsoever about this record, but that it's too mid-paced, with too much reliance on chugging and ultra-heavy-brutal-beastliness.

And it's not just that the cover art is more blatantly Asian in feel than anything previous. Opener 'The Island' instantly boasts the more sleeve-worn "exotic" influences, contrasting dramatically with the minimalist eeriness that opened Mirror. I always like to hear the erhu mind. It's a wonderful sound and one of the things that attracted me to this band's earlier opuses. But hereinafter things get a bit kitsch. The zither-strumming on 'Legacy of the Seediq', sounding as if it was extracted from the Kung Fu Hustle soundtrack (awesome movie by the way) pisses me off a bit. It's ridiculously generic. For a band with an erstwhile boner for ancient Mandarin and the nuances of olden-days Taiwanese culture, you're not really integrating this into your sonic political campaign with much panache. Yet more chugging with almost the same zither sounds begins 'Takao', and really track number three is a bad place to be getting this repetitive.

With the vocals sounding a bit more faux-brutal than before, and the guitars at audio-clipping levels of heaviness, the album sounds even more HMV-friendly. One's foot can't help but tap, but there is hardly the same emotional and metallic effect Mirror and Seediq drenched the listener with. Bursts of basic death metal pervade the otherwise cheesy, cute tunes found on 'Legacy of the Seediq', a song which cheekily references the far more immersive Seediq Bale. 'Oceanquake' has some low-slung, groovy thrash riffs going on. Then yet more chugging and yelling. The guitar solo makes itself useful only as a transition into the erhu solo on this track, and the one on 'Southern Cross' is cheesy and generic. 'KAORU' has some great erhu movements, but its use of blast beats sounds clumsy if anything, raucous and unsophisticated blasts surrounded by palm-muted slower sections. 'MAHAKALA' floats by, and 'Quell the Souls in Sing-Ling Temple' sounds like metalcore with an erhu, spliced with some pretty weak blasting sections and an inexplicable and short but very nice power metal section.

'Broken Jade' - didn't I hear this song at the start of the album? Actually it should have opened the disc, at least it's more atmospheric and driving than the other fare, spiked with some awesome melodic thrash breaks, and it's a shame that by the time you get to this truly quality piece you are a bit fatigued. I must say the chant in 'Takao' is fucking cool (especially after the irritating hardcore yells and all the, I don't even want to write this word no more, chugging) and is clearly designed for a rather show-stealing moment live. Apparently there is a version of this with the dude from Ensiferum singing. I feel like listening to Ensiferum instead of this actually.

We all like sticking it to the man, and Chthonic's evidently genuine crusade to raise awareness of their heritage's aggressive subsuming by the Han Chinese speaks to the rebellious nature of metal, in particular Norwegian black metal which was an answering warcry to Christian invasions of their ancestral land. However I'm here to review metal, not motivation, and the Takasago Army is found short a few dozen cavalry and can't really get this siege going. Everyone's allowed a slip-up, especially when the money is finally starting to pour in. Next time round I'll hope for a bit more effort. I would still pay to see them live - having a few of these mid-paced beasts mixed in wouldn't detract from seeing their older songs. So basically, download 'Takao' and 'Broken Jade' in case you get the chance to go see them.

Absence of the Sacred: Atrocities That Birthed Abominations

2011-08-04T23:45:00.000+08:00

78%.

Absence of the Sacred are a shock troop out of Singapore, led by former Impiety axeman Mike, alongside drummer Hans who would later go on to become part of the country's premier black metal outfit Draconis Infernum. Charging their blend of thrash and death metal with a feral production and plenty of catchy sections, the band don't seem interested in messing around on their half-hour debut. Somewhat eclectic, Atrocities that Birthed Abominations largely sounds something like Evocation with some At the Gates harmony and German thrash riffery thrown in for grisly measure.

This abject lack of messing about is immediately shoved in your face - the group are intent on standing out. They are set a little apart from most established Southeast Asian acts firstly through their use of acoustic guitars and synths which bracket and pervade the album. Opener 'I' reminds slightly of Moonlight Sonata, before a nicely chosen vocal sample: "This is your god (gun cocking) - now, pray." Yes. Then, Absence of the Sacred set to with melodic riffs and bursts of Kreator-influenced wrath on 'The Malignant Strain', before further catchy carnage kicks off with 'My Vendetta'. The latter brims with the evil-minded drum abuse Hans would later perfect as Serberuz Hammerfrost in Draconis.

The album continues to trample into the past, perhaps back through the band's influences, as it runs. 'Our Glorious Dead' has the growling riffs and morbid pace of Sweden's cohort of death metal household names. Nice and ugly and unlike the band's other material, even with the surprise inclusion of a pretty acoustic part that bursts into a rush of melodic tremolo-riffs. This track is also a vocal standout, Mike sounding thoroughly unpleasant with some Don of the Dead-like roars. Of the band's albums, and Mike's side projects like Blood Division, the man's vocals are at their most guttural and old school throughout this record, at times ghoulishly thundering ad-libs into the microphone or roughly barking the lyrics during the verses. 'Grifter' is another song with a simple mission statement that gives the impression the boys know their Swedish and early American material well, while 'Deadening the Dispirited' is a heavy fusion of decent melodic death in the vein of early Nightrage and thrashing cult black metal.

The title track breaks the album's old school paradigm and really deserves a mention - the Iron Maiden-like thumping bass guitars, frequent pace changes, blackened guitar chords, racing melodies, furious riffs and epic sound put it above the rest of the material here in terms of songwriting and execution. The short but powerful, driving build in the middle is my favourite moment on the album. Ending with wistful piano notes, even reminding of Eternal Tears of Sorrow, the track boasts the diversity of songwriting experiments on the record and is itself something of a predilection of their sophomore effort, which fuses the rage and melody apparent on Atrocities... more solidly.

The production is just rough enough to sound almost ancient during the groovy breaks and blasting sections of a track like 'Grifter'. The guitars and drums are heard clearly, Mike and Hans evidently the album's two main weapons. Aside from the aforementioned title track and the acoustic sections, bassist Justin doesn't get much of a look in on the record, rarely heard above the keen guitar tone and enthusiastic skin-pounding going on. From the booklet however it seems he's a Darkthrone fan, so he hopefully shouldn't mind too much.

Although the followup would prove a refined and cemented incarnation of the style here, this is a solid, worthy purchase for people who haven't given up on an aggressive and old school usage of catchy, harmonized guitars in thrashing death metal attacks. While all manner of influences and sounds are summoned, it emanates the same old skull sensibilities as fellow Southeast Asian bands. Far more diverse than its admittedly superior sequel, the record does get the band off to a good start in setting themselves apart in the region.

Saint Vitus: V

2011-08-01T21:44:00.000+08:00

78%.

In an act of deserved self-awareness on the level of Black Sabbath's hastily renamed Vol. 4, Saint Vitus' fifth LP is entitled simply V, for two obvious reasons. It's also their third and last (to date) with Wino. It has become even more central and significant than perhaps even they planned - the end of the second era of Vitus, and the last time the vocalist would be carried over from the previous album. As the closing of the band's second chapter and 80s years, it measures up slightly mottled but generally quite marvelously alongside their essential first four.

The group continue to get heavy metal fans wet for the real world dominance of stoned and retro doom some time later. 'Living Backwards' follows in the vein of an opener like 'The Creeps' - rhythmic and rocking, but with far too much lethargy to be considered a propulsive song for many other bands in 1989. It's like a proto-Goatsnake thing they have going on. Same goes for closer 'Mind-Food'. 'Patra (Petra)' is nothing short of a perfect centre-piece, achingly slow and drawling riffs hauling themselves thickly across your ears, bellies dragging over the bassy ground laid down by Mark Adams and the unfortunately deceased Armando Acosta. The way the solo wails plaintively across the top is fantastic - even more so for the completely improvised and garage-shitty demo awesomeness of it. 'Jack Frost' must be pretty much what Reverend Bizarre based their career on, particularly the ominous bass-led opening and menacing vocalisations of "winter is coming... you better take care, for when I'm released... all mortals beware!" The feedback-drenched, almost ambient mid-section solo, devoid of any other instruments or vocals, is mandatory listening for the spliff-inclined or simply old school devoted doom head.

Chandler streamlines his riffs even further, relying on repetition and atmosphere almost exclusively. 'I Bleed Black' is about as basic as you can get. Just the almost bovine low of a classic Chandler doom riff set to some whooshing effects that in hindsight give premonitions of Ocean Chief, Ufomammut and later Ramesses. The solos are where the man stuffs in more than a couple of notes a minute, wobbling all over the shop with lazy rainbows of licks. 'Ice Monkey' sounds as mischievous as its title, a screechy solo intro and rambling bass motif setting up a Chandler highlight of the album. The madcap solos come across as things he just pulled from his brain seconds before they needed to be recorded.

Wino's every-drunk-man roar is hoarse and imposing on this album, the hint of vulnerable laconicism slightly more pronounced on cuts like 'Living Backwards'. He's a little bit strident on 'Ice Monkey', which contrasts with a much-appreciate weirdness with the rhythm section's meandering. There's an early stain on the album's vocal quality however. 'When Emotion Dies' is extremely reminiscent of an Iommi acoustic instrumental, particularly in his Tony Martin years, with Chandler's vocals reminding or forewarning of Dan Fondelius' narrative mutterings across various Count Raven songs. Unfortunately the addition of a female singer, who sounds oddly like a drugged up Dido, makes it pretty unlistenable. When it comes to negative points, 'Angry Man' might also be a bit of an unnecessary rehash of 'Born Too Late' set to a generic rock riff, but outside of those moments this is another reliable slab - the other tracks are basically flawless.

V closes a trilogy that represents without a doubt one of doom's greatest guitarist-vocalist collaborations. It's probably less accessible than the previous two with Wino, and I must admit the weaker of the three, but still an essential piece. Lock your windows, bolt your doors.

Rudra: Brahmavidya: Immortal I

2011-07-27T22:48:00.000+08:00

91%.

I saw Rudra live before I ever heard a recording from them. Since then I've seen them a couple more times and I can't seem to get bored of their impeccable, exotic onslaught. Another Singaporean outfit with a rich, long heritage of quietly churning out albums of knockout quality on the other side of the world from metal's biggest festivals and scenes, this 19 year strong band have dedicated their entire career to Hindu philosophies and writings. For lovers of bands such as Nile, Amaseffer and Orphaned Land for their richly woven lyrical tapestries of mythology and eastern histories, Rudra are a real catch. Brahmavidya Immortal I ends their Brahmavidya trilogy, sealing the deal on a real solidification of their unique sound over three records.

Brahmavidya: Immortal I is the most straightforward attack from the group since Kurukshetra, and the most beastly-sounding album they have ever recorded. It's all grunting rhythms and frantic swirls of tremolo, relentlessly pounding drum rhythms from Shiva and an added level of nastiness in Kathir's snarls. The frequent pauses for chanting sections and acoustic sections on Brahmavidya: Transcendental I have been ditched. You can easily listen to this as simply a face-melting death metal record that happens to have a pleasantly ritualistic tilt to its sound, or as an Eastern answer to the catchy but blackened rage of God Dethroned.

Bristling with everything from blast beats, trem-picked death metal riffs and the odd thrash break, it all exudes the band's Vedic influences and preoccupations. Brahmavidya: Immortal I is an exercise in perfecting the band's statement of what "Oriental metal" should sound like. They work their Hindu sound into the pacey, blackened shredding of songs like 'Illusory Enlightenment' and menacing surge of 'Ravenous Theories of Deception', rather than soaking simple, chugging rhythms with a bunch of sitars (like everyone fucking else does, the majority of whom have no place using such influences). They take the same approach here as Surrender of Divinity, who subtly work traditional Thai music into their bestial black metal riffs and stubbornly refuse to touch any instrument not a drum, guitar or bass. Rudra aren't quite so purist (a few brief traditional portions can still be found), but the concept is the same - each riff and even guitar solo is crafted with an almost obsessive attention to combining metal tropes with Indian atmospheres.

The band themselves are sounding tighter than security around Sarah Palin's email accounts (at least until this year). Drummer Shiva, aptly named for the destructive god of Hindu mythology, lurches between ominously pounding ritual rhythms and unforgiving blasts - and this guy can really play blasts. Check out 'Supposed Sages of Sensuality' and 'Advaita Samrajya'. George Kollias? Inferno? Eh? He'd be a prize for any straight-up black metal horde I tell you, and he gives Rudra a hell of a backbone. The guitars of new guy Vinod and the recently departed Devan are totally on-point, the already mentioned riffs perfectly constructed, the sound heavy with plenty of grit and aggression.

The trilogy is complete, and how. The traditional melodies woven into 'Hymns of the Immortal Self' round out the lyrical concept, while 'Sinister Devotion' recalls the band's biggest stage hit of the entire Brahmavidya cycle, 'The Pathless Path to the Knowable Unknown.' It's an incredibly strong showing in and of itself, never mind about a fitting end to an ambitious project from a group that deserves to be mentioned before the less worthy likes of Melechesh and Arkan when one is asked for exotically influenced groups.

I've seen them play open-air a couple of times, once incorporating a traditional Hindi dance, but what these guys should really do is play in a proper Hindu temple. Never mind about Amon Amarth's talk of Thor and Loki, prepare to get flattened by the wrath of the almighty Shiva!

Amorphis: The Beginning of Times

2011-07-26T23:47:00.001+08:00

70%.

Amorphis might just have had their strongest run ever the last few years, beginning with Tomi Joutsen's baptism on Eclipse. That eclectic splurge of crunchy catchiness, followed by the dark and wooded travails of Silent Waters, left some space for a rather more epic and life-affirming piece with the rich sound of Skyforger. The band has managed to develop their sound with more focus than ever before, and with expectations of similiar excellence I was awaiting yet more pleasant surprises from The Beginning of Times.

After spending what must have been considerable time musing over cuts from their early material to re-record for Magic & Mayhem, Amorphis made the decision not to bring the feral trudge of Tales From the Thousand Lakes with them into 2011, continuing to channel the atmospheric sound born of 'Against Widows' and further brilliances recorded for albums such as Tuonela. With a noticeable dearth of progression compared to the small but satisfying leaps I've grown comfortable with. Now I wouldn't call it a disappointment. But this record fails to prove the same meticulous maturation of sound as its predecessors.

I have to be honest, everything about the record sounds good. From the tender opening piano strains of 'Battle for Light' (no thunderous growl ala Silent Waters opens this album) and its exultant guitar melodies, it's all magic, and a bit less mayhem. The production is just fine with a good bassy sound and a noble guitar tone, even if the vocals aren't quite as strikingly front-and-centre as on other recent efforts.

The whole band sounds tight alongside the obligatory, wistful folk instruments. Melodies straight out of the wilderness sound awesome over the chugging riffs of 'Three Words', and 'Reformation' is just plain lovely. The melody for 'My Enemy' is one of those you can go 'whoah-oaaah!!' to at concerts, while also including some thumping, slow death metal portions. Esa's work on The Beginning of Times is bristling with thick, rocking rhythms and guitars awash with delay, as on Skyforger.

Tomi Joutsen sounds incredible of course. For me he's the best thing that's happened to Amorphis since the first 3 records and no joke. Totally strident in the chorus for 'You I Need', utterly compelling in the heroic wails of 'Song of the Sage', I can barely say a word against him. He still lets off awesome, throaty growls here on tracks like 'Crack in a Stone' - for me he occupies a throne amongst melodic bands as a vocalist who sounds bestial as fuck when he wants to, carrying a little bit of the early '90s Finnish death metal zeitgeist with him onto albums bereft of any other trace of that era.

The songwriting is arguably perfect, if not always striking. 'Mermaid', 'You I Need' and 'Song of the Sage' (the latter two filling the roles of 'Silver Bride' and 'Sky is Mine' respectively it seems) are unbelievably catchy and defy the skip button from falling beneath my tobacco-yellowed forefinger. If there's one criticism that can't be leveled at these Finnish chart-toppers, it's that they haven't put their decades of songwriting experience to excellent use here. However, I find myself far less compelled to return to them than their aforementioned equivalents. The same goes for the epic, pounding, atmospheric, catchy, powerful closing title track - it is all those things, but you won't remember it like the thudding meisterwerk 'Sampo'. That said, I can't pick tracks I'd like struck from the album, even if it does feel long at nearly an hour (including the bonus song).

Amorphis suffer a little from diminishing returns in the less marked developments in their songwriting, and the lengthiness of the album, and holding this up against its immediate predecessor will cast something of a shadow on it. But so ends another pointless review. If you like this band as much as me, you want this record. It's among their weaker ones, but from a band that carry their pedigree as confidently as Amorphis do it's hardly a huge lull in quality.

Draconis Infernum: Rites of Desecration and Demise

2011-06-22T20:26:00.004+08:00

95%

Adorned with a cracking bit of cover art by Sickness 666, Zygoatsis vocalist known for painting the devil on the wall for Impiety, Almighty Sathanas and Deiphago, Rites of Desecration and Demise looks how it sounds. Between old school rumblings from Norway and early Sweden, injected with the fire of the latter country's scene today, and a suggestion of militant German black metal, is the obsessively meticulous and barbarically reckless attack of these Singaporean occultists. The record is steeped in the ritualistic arrangements of raw blackened chaos, while brimming with the utter malevolence and bestiality of Southeast Asian hordes.

The main difference is the move from the mostly blasting chaos of the debut to an album spiked with pace changes and slightly more complex arrangements, while never straying from their incensed brand of straightforward blackened brutality. The transition from scalding blasts and trem-picked ugliness to the rhythmic, old school-sounding riffs and roared chants in the second half of opener 'Regime of the Underworld' is a well-constructed announcement of diabolical intent - from fury to summoning. The bristling riffs of 'Proclamation of Encroachment' are as earwig-like as they were upon the single's release about six months ago. 'Vengeance Unto Thee' also utilizes more plodding sections akin to more grisly acts of the first wave of black metal, alongside its all-out charging sections. 'The Grand Conjuration' reaches adrenalin-fuelled heights of double-kick propulsion like some of the less sane Japanese black-thrash exports before crashing into its doom-like ending (replete with bluesy solo).

As well as advances in songwriting style and quality, the band has had to make a few adjustments to the line-up after the departure of Kount Cider to Blood Division and other projects. Drummer and bassist Serberuz Hammerfrost now mans vocals as well. The disparity between Cider's piercing rasps on Death in My Veins and the throaty onslaught of Hammerfrost contributes to the different atmosphere of this release. His imposing bellows are in full force on 'Vengeance Unto Thee', as well as during the incanting at the end of 'Chaos Infinity'. Hammerfrost's drums are equally relentless, whether it's concussive rattling blasts pouring over you like so much monochromatic magma, thumping double-kicks, punishing fills or pummeling mid-tempo panzer rolls. Not to mention the mix allows them to really punch the marrow from your bones.

The guitars are a bleak but meaty bonesaw, tapping the sound of Morgan from Marduk in sound as much as in inspiration, as on the debut. Draconis employ a fuller and bolder production in general, setting themselves apart in style from other orthodox Asian black metal hordes. While Southeast Asian black metal is rightly exalted for the basic and bestial skullfucking of such bands as Surrender of Divinity, Zygoatsis and Deiphago, this is a bit more of a guitar album. Xepher and Niloc are riff wizards to be feared - 'Armoured Legion' features a set of riffs straight from Satan's balls, flaying and rending with huge conviction. 'Chaos Infinity' blares with unbridled storms of tremolo-picked hatred likely inspired by Panzer Division Marduk, but unlike that album breaks into groaning mid-tempo sections - before its ominously wailing climax. With this record the band has struck upon the key to being old school as fuck - catchy-ass memorable riffs that never stray into anything so forgiving as a melodic sound.

The album breaks away from its concept and usual sound twice - the first is for a piano version of the debut's title track, 'Death in My Veins', with the title '...of Darkness and Solitude'. It's like the thing was written for piano - it sounds utterly despairing in this minimalist form, providing less a break from the surrounding rage than a perverse compounding of it. Not to mention the adaptability of the song proves the versatility and quality of the riffs this band is writing. The second time is for the venomous cover of Bathory's classic, 'Satan My Master'. Sounds incredibly fucking aggressive, with Draconis rising to the task of a thrashier sound nicely, while Kult ov Azazel's Xaphan brought a hole throatful of his trademark bile and a crazy-ass solo to the party.

If the sleeve notes of albums you buy are well-thumbed, you'll enjoy furrowing your brows at the invocations of Draconis. While the vastly huge majority of black metal aims its assault at the increasingly inefficacious manipulations of Christian churches in the West, these guys level bolts of pure hatred at all major religions. You see, living in a multicultural and multireligious society, you quickly realize that in addition to Christianity, the religious texts, practices and proponents of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism/ Taoism and whatever else you can think of are utterly riddled with the utmost hypocrisy and used to mercilessly crush the minds of the weak. The rage of that realization fuels the lyrics of this concept album, coming through particularly viciously in the war cries of 'Proclamation of Encroachment' and 'Armoured Legion'.

Having dwelled in Singapore for nearly two years now, it didn't come as such a surprise for me that a band from such a small scene could forge such a killer album. But for the rest of you, know that old school black metal is well and truly alive in a climate far more sweltering than its birthplace. For those with the latest CDs from Endstille, Sargeist and Urgehal piled a few layers above copies of The Return..., Endless Dark and Under a Funeral Moon, these are the Rites you've been looking for.

Saxon: Call to Arms

2011-06-06T22:48:00.000+08:00

84%.

In the years since their abandonment of shitty AC/ DC derivative commercial stadium rock, Saxon have done a solid job of becoming all things an elder staple in rock and metal might choose to be: a monster of bluesy, grooving rock riffs; a progressively inclined modern power metal outfit; an '80s as ever speed metal beast. The decade past followed the above average Killing Ground with Lionheart, The Inner Sanctum and Into the Labyrinth: three records that increasingly proved this old northern squadron's ability to breathe life into the most leathery moments of the '80s while bludgeoning all in their path to dominating the skies of the new millennium.

As has been standard, there are a variety of different types of songs leaving little room for fillers. 'Hammer of the Gods' is a bouncier, chirpier installment in the series of uptempo songs that open Saxon albums these days, all squeaky guitar riffs and steadily stomping rock beats. 'Back in '79', a lumbering rock and roller celebrating Saxon's love for their fans, is a solid addition to a number of similiar songs, but slightly disappointing in that the recorded presence of said fans in a backing choir is nowhere near as noticeable as you'd hope. The album also features some of the grisliest, sweatiest cookers since 2004's 'Man and Machine', except that 'Surviving Against the Odds', 'Chasing the Bullet', and the awesomely awesome NWOBHM slice 'Afterburner' would be more at home on Strong Arm of the Law or Wheels of Steel than on Lionheart. On that note, the long-time Saxon fan might shed a salty tear of nostalgia into their Black Sheep ale at the opening of 'Ballad of the Working Man', which feels like it is lifted from their eponymous debut.

Some small commitment to a curve of progression is shown, with Saxon expanding slightly on newly introduced sounds as well as smashing the listener with revitalized classic styles. 'Mists of Avalon' takes its cue from 'Battalions of Steel' and 'Valley of the Kings' for a progressively-flecked bit of melodic metal, ablaze with triumphant vocal lines from Biff and romantic lyrics. This epic bent is continued with the powerful symphonic march of the morosely patriotic title track, and then the less interesting 'When Doomsday Comes.' There is an 'orchestral' version of the title track included as well, which doesn't seem too different from the original.

Biff sounds exactly as awesome as he has done the past fourteen years since Unleash the Beast was let loose, barely a pinch of age constricting his voice nor restraining his range. Even the slower songs see him exerting the untroubled authority of a Yorkshire pub local, keening and wailing commandingly over guitar riffs both uptempo and purposefully slow paced. Paul Quinn and now veteran member Doug Scarratt are present and correct with a set of reliably catchy (if not blindingly original) riffs and leads, throwing out the occasional flashy solo while never hogging Biff's centre-stage position.

While the previous three records might be more urgent purchases than this'n, Call to Arms bulldozes anything the band recorded in the late '80s or early to mid '90s. It's yet more proof of how powerfully these northern gents rebounded from their quest for MTV play, firing off album after album of some of their strongest material ever. This is a fine addition to their artillery, progressing the band's sound while keeping their roots alive, absolutely worthy of the band's name in general, basically, it belongs in your collection.

Morbid Angel: Illud Divinum Insanus

2011-06-06T22:15:00.000+08:00

15%

Personally I disagree with the opinion that metalheads are a difficult-to-please lot. It's so very easy to make us happy. Look at this thrash metal revival, or Black Sabbath's reformation as Heaven & Hell, or the massive renaissance of old school-style death metal. With the rise of the internet as a platform for our disparate, fractured and dissenting opinions, the fevered cries of fanboys and the solemn putdowns of purists, it isn't hard to tell what we generally do and don't like. So it's hard to understand why bands keep fucking up like this.

This review is split into two main parts; discussion of the death metal songs, and the non-death metal songs. Let's talk about that latter issue first, since you're nearly nine minutes into Illest Divine Anus (as Global Domination might call it, and boy am I looking forward to the Audio Autopsy this sucker turns up on) before you hear any death metal. Yup.

Parte the Firste. I can handle the menacing synthesized creep of 'Omni Potens' as an intro - it's better than a lot I've heard, including just about every previous one by Morbid Angel. Would be great on an album by, say, Septic Flesh, or Dimmu Borgir. But then 'Too Extreme!' (a song apparently so extreme, additional punctuation was necessary in its naming) starts up, and computerized effects, computerized drums, and computerized vocals are sterilizing everything in sight, until all I can think of is a music video with David Vincent doing crane style in a white jumpsuit and wraparound shades. Then there's 'I Am Morbid.' Is it the plodding rap metal beat or the twattish rock leads which aggravate me the most? I just can't decide. And 'Destructos VS. the Earth/ Attack.' Cut to John Malkovich in Burn After Reading: "What the ffffffffuuck?" By the time I heard this, Illest Divine Anus had become not just a disappointment, but a fucking insult.

Just as a little qualifier, I've no problem with a bit of industrial death metal (I don't mind The Amenta) or with bands reinventing themselves (I love everything by Darkthrone). But when a band reinvents themselves by playing a shitty derivative form of electronic techno-rock unrelated in any way to styles or ideals previously stood for, they can fuck off. The Kerrang-friendly dreck that is 'Radikult' and 'Profundis - Mea Culpa' (latin for 'We're really, really sorry. Profoundly") provide a ridiculous end to a pretty stupid album.

Anyway. Parte the Seconde. Although you already know you don't want this, there are also some death metal songs here. 'Nevermore' is still a great song. It is also now three years old and shouldn't be the only thing really worth hearing from the new album. Unfortunately, that is exactly what it is. Since you've all heard it, I'll move on and allow you to form conclusions. 'Existo Vulgore' sounds like a reject from Heretic. I was um, honoured enough to hear this played live for the first time (at an admittedly awesome show in May 2011 - easily the best thing to come of this album along with the "Hitler's reaction" video on Youtube). Despite how repetitive some slower moments are, 'Blades for Baal', co-penned by DestrucThor, features a great guitar solo and blazing drumming by Tim Yeung. Same goes for '10 More Dead' - mostly dull chugga-chugga, great solo break.

All in all, were there a couple more like this rather than the bullshit described above, this would be a take-it-or-leave-it death metal album with a weak guitar sound (again) under any other bandname, a letdown for Morbid Angel. As it is, the mediocrity of most of the album is actually made offensive by the frequent moments of outright awfulness.

Honestly bizarre. I mean, it has been the first four albums that have given this group of Floridians an increasingly wider fanbase, young converts joining all the time. Hasn't it? Or was it the possibility that, if we buy enough of their old releases, they might come back and do an album that sounds like Rammstein jamming with songs from Heretic - 'cause that's what we REALLY want, isn't it...

I suppose it's even worse that, with Vincent's return, the album is in some ways a successor to Domination, one of the best fucking death metal albums you can own. And this is what they follow it with: artwork pinched from Behemoth, intro stolen from Dimmy Burgers, songs stolen variously from Rammstein, Body Count, Goldfrapp and Marilyn Manson and lyrics stolen from N.W.A. Albums like this don't deserve any more time than it takes to shit all over them in a review. I shall be moving on in much the style of Charlie Sheen's Tweeted reaction when one of his "goddesses" briefly abandoned him:

"Olson has left the building... We're sad... Over it... Applications now being accepted."

The tour shirt is pretty sweet though.

My Dying Bride: Evinta

2011-06-05T18:04:00.001+08:00

81%.

My Dying Bride seem to have really embraced their craft the last few years, playing more live shows than they have in quite a while, putting out live albums, DVDs and all sorts alongside their full-lengths. Now we all know that aging metal bands have to plan for retirement like anyone else, but this a far cry from a band that didn't even want to get on stage previously. Since they are unlikely to appear on MTV or be able to buy gold toilet seats any time soon, I intend to continue innocently enjoying their current prolificness.

This time round they've plumbed the archives for three discs of classically reimagined hits - inasmuch as the word "hits" may be used here. By hits I mean, you know. Songs you or I might recognize. The idea is that, instead of simply re-recording their personal faves in the style of 'Sear Me MCMXCIII' and 'For My Fallen Angel', or as Virgin Black-esque symphonic doom, classical rendering of themes and motifs from old songs have been worked into tracks with new lyrics and titles. That way, we all feel like we're getting something new, and the band can pick the most suitable passages for the project. It's one of the smartest ideas I've come across for a reworking of old material, and a lot of work has clearly gone into it.

There is more than two hours of material here, which consists predominantly of quiet, keyboard-driven atmospheres punctuated with violins, pianos, even flutes and the occasional bit of electronica. 'In Your Dark Pavilion' and 'Vanite Triomphante', with their violins and soaring soprano passages, are at times bleakly exultant, while later tracks like the grim closer 'And All Their Joy Was Drowned' supply a deathly, minimalist climax that is suggested at more and more throughout the album's running time.

Aaron Stainthorpe joins in to mumble distraught stanzas, and occasionally supply a bit of singing. Stainthorpe has been muttering these lovelorn lyrics for twenty years now in his baritone sung lament. However, every now and again the sheer poetic patter of his slow incantations on Evinta can still raise the hair on your arms. For me, it's the sparse moments when he embraces his old, more murderous '90s self for a macabre reminiscence of bitter triumph:

I leave splashed with blood
Your ribbon locks my hair
And all their joy was drowned
Not - of course - that I care

The man should have been on stage with that brandy-soaked voice, the slight northern accent only adding to the various menace and moroseness. But better a loss to theatre than metal.

Part of the fun is the easter egg hunt-like experience of finding and identifying your favourite songs, jumbled as they are into new compositions. These compositions can, of course, never capture the same bleak majesty as the originals they are culled from. 'The Burning Coast of Regnum Italicum' makes me want to listen to the title cut from The Dreadful Hours, and the menacing strings of 'That Dress and Summer Skin' make me want to put on 'She is the Dark.' But the meshing of sequences from albums ancient and recent into classically oriented mood music, with the narration adding to the build of tension throughout, is a very interesting and rewarding experience.

Thing is, you're in the third disc before these sequences from 'The Wreckage of My Flesh' and 'The Dreadful Hours' are introduced, and Evinta's final act acquires a much darker hue. Most versions don't feature this third disc, and for the full experience you need to splash. The packaging makes it worthwhile for collectors, but it's a shame to deprive the un-moneyed or tentative of possibly the best disc in the set.

What with the excessive length and repetitious nature of the material, as well as the complete and utter absence of new songs or guitars, this probably is only something a Bride devotee need pick up. Having heard everything they've done over the past seven years, I'm getting a lot out of it, but it isn't recommended to this feast's latecomers.

Morbid Angel: Heretic

2011-06-05T17:56:00.001+08:00

28%.

I don't like Heretic. Firstly, it has the worst sound of any Morbid Angel album to date. Secondly, if I wanted my metal to be constantly interrupted for some inconsequential bullshit segueing between tracks, I'd listen to Rhapsody, or Rhapsody of Sperm or whatever they call themselves now.

Death metal sometimes sounds really good when the guitar tone is a little off, or the drums are a bit muffled. Like on demos, you know, those little twenty-minute treasure troves of unpolished material that have introduced us to so many underground filthmongering bands and even record labels. On a one-hour plus bonanza of post-Vincent Morbid Angel with few memorable riffs to speak of, nor the bleak, graveyard atmosphere that often characterizes the aforementioned tapes, it doesn't have quite the same endearing effect. After the all-consuming mammoth tread of Gateways, it is all the more disappointing.

Nevertheless, 'Cleansed in Pestilence (Blade of Elohim)' and 'Stricken Arise' feature some satisfying blast charges and grimy guitar propulsion complimenting Steve Tucker's swansong vocal performance - would all be passable with the production of the previous album. Perhaps even 'Curse the Flesh' would sound more efficiently malicious with a) a better guitar sound and b) without the listener having barely noticed the two preceding tracks as they floated past leaving them in a sort of half-sleep. Even the most reverb-ed and atmospheric of early '90s Finnish death metal demos were rotting and evil enough to bind you to their malignant witchery. Where they shamble with zombie-like determination, these songs have a habit of sauntering. The buzzing riffs of 'Praise the Strength' are just plain dull, none of the feral machismo that drove early Morbid releases present, and aside from those mentioned the album is mostly repetitive and uninspired metal with very little death to its name.

Tucker's occasional higher yells are highly unwelcome, shitting all over the aforementioned 'Stricken Arise' (as if it didn't have enough problems anyway) otherwise it's a rarely regulated basic growl. While he's nothing to write to hell about, he probably doesn't deserve the stick he gets, and certainly not any large part of the blame for the band's decline in quality. Some potentially great leads and solos are being snapped off by Trey, but the weak production and stiflingly directionless songwriting betrays them. Pete Sandoval's drums are the only element that stays consistently devastating, making me think I might be better off checking out what he's been up to in Terrorizer recently than listening to this. Overall, at this point I would call this a case of just cutting out about a third of most of the songs and ending up with a much shorter but better album.

The trouble is, by the time you've finished listening to this album, you might think that it is some kind of bizarre experiment intended to drive death metal 'heads to madness through depriving them of their favourite music in the most cruel way possible. Either that, or that you've entered some weird dream state in which things don't make the sounds they are supposed to, so that you spend the next few hours tapping the walls of your room at different points with your ear pressed furtively to their cold surfaces. It's Morbid Angel proving they can't do what Dan Swano can. I'm prodigiously unsympathetic toward pointless intros, interludes and whatnot as it is, let alone when they consume six of fourteen tracks - and that's without counting the worthless bonus disc.

Much like Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, there ain't too much reason to buy this unless you are a Morbid Angel completist and want to hear the path that led to Illud Divinum Insanus. It's poorly mixed, dripping with extraneous instrumentals, aggravating to listen to in a number of ways basically. In a nutsack, A, B, C, D, G.

While Heaven Wept: Fear of Infinity

2011-05-02T17:12:00.001+08:00

91%.

As doom metal bands go, While Heaven Wept are just out there. The loudly cosmic cover art says it: it's not one of those stoner doom type covers with a lot of '70s psychedelia either, it takes the familiar (for doom) image of the downcast human face and throws it out into a fanciful galaxy of colours. There's no retro conventions to be found visually or aurally with them, doom is just the starting point for a wildly eclectic yet keenly focused channeling of emotion via doom, heavy, power, epic and, I'm sure, a bunch of other heavy metal derivations. It shouldn't surprise you, after hearing this, that Rain Irving counts Fates Warning among his favourites, as do Scott Loose, Jim Hunter and, of course, Tom Phillips.

With its obsessively pristine and calculated BIG production, this is awesome to play loud, particularly what is probably the best opening trio of songs I have heard yet this year. 'Hour of Reprisal' wastes no time in getting going, straight into double-bass drumming and blastbeats complimenting the dramatic vocals. No intro or slow build, just pummeling metal incorporating everything from blasts, tremolo-picked riffs and grooving swirls of downtuned guitars into the knife-edge between utter depression and cathartic uplift that the band has struck upon. All clear during the very first song, and it's not even that long - then at under three minutes, 'Destroyer of Solace' adopts more traditionally doomlike vocal melodies, at least until its incredible power metal chorus. Best of all, these first three kings run into one another, making for what seems like one eleven-minute epic that mercilessly batters you with one emotion-charged lead and crashing synth backdrop after another. The pinnacle of this epic is 'Obsessions Now Effigies', a triumphant march of gunning guitar motifs and trawling drum patterns, with Rain Irving sounding lost, broken and stunningly powerful all at the same time.

The second "half" of the album, or rather the last two thirds, takes its time to get going - but still doesn't advance to the same level of eclecticism and energy present in that opening three triumphs. 'Unplenitude', I believe, is an older song, as I've seen it crop in demo form on collections of music by WHW that I, regrettably, do not own. It doesn't really do much here, with a rather saccharine piano thing going on, a repetitive chorus (despite its presentation in Irving's fantastic voice) and general lack of substance. Never mind, its function is to set the scene for 'To Grieve Forever', which completes the mid-album relaxation before the chugging doom and double-guitar march of 'Saturn And Sacrifice' and the closer. 'Finality's eleven minutes features a mixture of metallic thrust and emotionally fragile passages, which gives the preceding twenty-six minutes of this diverse platter some of the context and wholeness it needs.

One remarkable thing about the album to mention is its length. It's barely thirty-eight minutes long, five minutes shorter than its predecessor. For a sound this huge and with such grandiose concepts afoot, the vinyl-friendly run time is... totally bloody refreshing! Anyone else sick of overblown, flabbily conceptual overkill albums spinning out into hours of thinly-stretched material? Personally I'd rather be left wanting more than thinking, fuck, should I bother trying to find the bits I liked and put those songs on my iPod, or just forget this whole thing? Neither! I should listen to this album.

Despite some wavering in compelling-ness in the middle, this album is wonderful as a whole and gets me more pumped than any power metal I've heard in a while, plus its more aptly depressing than any doom I've heard in a very long time. This is by no means as flawlessly perfect as its predecessor, that's all. Play this right after Vast Oceans Lachrymose however, and the resulting hour-twenty of material, bookended by complimenting epics, is very satisfying - not to mention, over before you know it. This band has hit upon the most successful combination of ambitious melody and emotional doom metal since My Dying Bride's The Light at the End of the World. Forget all those hundreds of millions of Helevorns and Mar de Griseses, their overwrought melodic doom melanges have only been pale foreshadowings of your discovering While Heaven Wept.

40 Watt Sun: The Inside Room

2011-04-26T22:02:00.000+08:00

90%.

More than four years since an absolutely genre-essential album with Warning's Watching From a Distance, Patrick Walker returns with a cleverly named new band and five new songs of the utmost misery. What many doom heads will no doubt count amongst their top five albums in the genre finally gets a sequel - key word being sequel. The themes and sound of the previous album has ascended into an entirely new concept and sound for Walker.

Walker's strident, yet fragile voice still communicates vast emotion via his frank, unpretentiously written lyrics. The Inside Room develops emotionally as it plays through, from the abject despair of 'Restless', to the tentative longing of 'Carry Me Home', where the lyrics and vocals dare to reach for some kind of closure, if not salvation. This is the most depressing album you've heard yet this year, and if you like doom as much as I do, you won't be able to put it away. The whole 'catharsis' thing that the darkest corners of the genre have going on is in full force here, thanks to a sound and songwriting aesthetic that moves on from the requiem dirges of Warning's swansong.

40 Watt Sun have something more of a droning sound, partly due to the guitar sound and partly due to looser song structures. The guitar sound is grittier and fuzzier, heavy on bass and distortion, creating a great, vibrating backdrop of fug. It sounds like a guitar tone you might find on an album by maybe YOB, Suma or another stoner doom outfit. Compositionally the whole album flows perfectly, like Isis' Panopticon but with an even more organic feel. The songs seem to be heaved from one crushing motif to the next through some force not their own. Rather than driving the music, the guitar riffs collapse with it, the drums letting loose great concussions underneath. The drums sound like they haven't really been mixed, which also contributes to the organic, stripped down sound. The occasional clean, acoustic moments, that pierce glumly through the mist and fog, all add to the overwhelmingly downcast yet lulling atmosphere.

This is unlike material by Warning, Wheel, Griftegård and what have you, which seeks to drive a sharpened length of pure depression through your chest-plate through its relentless, depressing heaviness. 40 Watt Sun seem to step back slightly, creating a thick and heavy morass but allowing you to fall into it, rather than consuming you with it. The slight restraint shown by the band translates into a very effectively emotional recording, and it is clear that Walker has thought long and hard about the story and feel that he would want this to have.

It seems to be at once a logical progression from Watching From a Distance, and a total flipside to it. That album, too, was steeped in raw emotion and moved at a total crawl, but it had a slight sense of tragedy and dark drama that gave it quite a scale. This is basically the same length (total record and average song length), but the fuzzy guitars, organic mix and less epic vocalization by Walker make it much more intimate. Despite the still big sound, the lyrics could all take place from the titular room, naturally making the music more personal.

"Turn your face to the moon; let me see you that way.
And the way you appear to me now you'd think the moon would hide for shame."

Tarot: The Spell of Iron

2011-04-24T20:52:00.000+08:00

83%.

Let There Be Blood, Stormblåst MMV, more recently Battle Hymns MMXI, aren't exactly big success stories in the world of heavy metal. This rash of "re-recorded classics' has seemed more like embarrassing cash grabs and/ or desperate contractual out-clauses. The only example of severe ass-kicking that came from large-scale re-recording for me has been Vader's XXV compilation, which is tasty. The latest band to do so is Tarot, personal faves and the granddaddies of Finnish heavy metal, reworking their less-known 1986 debut The Spell of Iron.

It works extremely well, considering the poor track record of such attempts and the disparity between Tarot's dual-guitar, single-vocalist scrappy metal of the '80s, and their dual-vocalist, single-guitar mammoth sound of Crows Fly Black and Gravity of Light. The album features a huge guitar sound for Zachary, with even 'Never Forever' sounding a lot heavier than the Iron Maiden copycat original. The athletic scale runs punctuating the track still sound nice and sharp, and Zachary does a fine job of flexing his ability in various styles throughout the record.

Things have been slowed down in places, possibly to allow the release to make more sense alongside the band's recent discography. No problem. Opener 'Midwinter Nights' sets a mid-paced groove for much of its runtime, but this makes the neoclassical shredding of its halfway solo even more exciting. 'Love's Not Made For My Kind' is slowed down and expanded into a crawling epic. Although the lyrics and melody suit the pace, the twinkling keyboards throughout prohibit the new, creaking mid-paced riffs from letting it be as awesome as 'Hell Knows' or 'Warhead'. Without the Nightwish style synths it MIGHT sound a lot cooler, but unfortunately they are all I can hear. The title track is no longer the simple, breathless metal anthem it once was, but rather an eerie mid-paced track that gives the lyrics and tune a more foreboding quality. The chorus, which remains at a galloping pace, still gets the heart thumping - but now with a more sinister vibe. It doesn't always work - 'Dancing on the Wire', which was an absolute standout on the original, floats past here, possibly due to its acoustic chorus and now rather relaxed vocals which sap the tension from the composition.

Tommi Salmela took his time to grow on me, until the release of Gravity of Light actually, but now I dig this guy's vocals big time. His high wail gives a great contrast to Marco's gruff howl. He's had a workout with these songs onstage, but here he's allowed to bellow in unison as well as line-by-line with Marco in the climaxes of 'Back in the Fire' and 'Wings of Darkness' (the former ending with a huge ad-lib roar from both, awesome), and it sounds as epic as it did on songs like 'Satan is Dead'. I think Salmela's voice has even improved, he just slays when he opens 'Never Forever' and sings on the title track, and often rivals Marco for the accolade of most insane sounding Tarot singer on this and other tracks. Marco, meanwhile, who has developed a more varied and above all intimidating vocal presence since For the Glory of Nothing, puts in a far superior performance here to the original (something which I don't think can be said about any other re-recorded album anywhere). He does 'Things That Crawl At Night' solo, and sounds as if he's stood alone on stage in an opera house, he's that powerful, not to mention dramatic.

Aside from Salmela, the greatest necessary contrast to navigate in recording this was likely the fact that Tarot has had only one guitarist since the mid '90s, and their songs have been written for such a setup. The bass has played a bigger and bigger role since the days of the '90s, and the grooving sound of recent albums now pervades these old songs. They adapt well, with slight amendments to a number of riffs giving a more lumbering, heavy sound than the melody-dependent originals. This is also the first time the band have substituted early dual-guitar attacks with keyboard lines on record as they do during concerts, and on 'Back in the Fire' in particular it sounds great, giving a threatening modern twist to what was a decidedly old school sounding track. Now it fits right in with 'Crawlspace' and 'Traitor!'

All in all, a number of tracks actually sound better, due to the heavier sound, the tendency toward ominousness the band has built into their sound over the last decade or so pervading through, and the fantastic vocals. 'Pharao' is melodic as it ever was, the tense riffs sounding unbelievable in this reimagining, and surpasses the original due to Zachary being far tighter and heavier than back in the '80s. 'Wings of Darkness', the band's signature song, is now assisted by a hammond organ and the most outrageous vocal performance on the album (possibly by Tarot in years), both singers sounding totally unhinged and fucking awesome over the newly throaty interpretation of the addictive guitar riffs. It's only 'Love's Not Made For My Kind', 'Dancing on the Wire' and the bizarre acoustic rendering of 'De Mortui Nil Nisi Bene' (which while being cool and catchy, doesn't really make sense here) which fail to impact in quite the same way.

Somewhat sacrilegiously, I've enjoyed a good number of these better than their original incarnations. The original album should still be bought first (for context, or as a friend of mine would put it, for awesome), and I'd even recommend Undead Indeed for a first taste of Tarot blasting out their oldies with their current lineup and sound. Loyal Tarot troopers definitely need this record. It's received a lot of attention from me and is by far the best attempt I've heard at reimagining an old album in its entirety. However, just because this turned out good, does NOT mean Venom and Slayer have an excuse to give me Black Metal MMXII and Reign in Blood MMXII next year.

The Gates of Slumber: The Wretch

2011-04-24T20:47:00.001+08:00

92%.

Total stylistic overhaul even within a genre can go a good number of ways - more often than not, to Hell. And occasionally back again. Here's an example of where it went to Hell in a good way. The Finns in The Gates of Slumber claim they aren't in the mood for their kinda epic, slightly heroic trad doom of yester-disc, and the followup to Hymns of Blood and Thunder, The Wretch, is as much of a change in atmosphere musically as it is in the album title. This sounds so much like Saint Vitus it's like a big Finnish middle finger to the entire Vitus reunion.

I don't recall hearing this particular switch in tact with a doom band before. Gone are any harmonized choruses, galloping drums, 'Mob Rules' and 'Pray for the Dead' style charges and folky interludes. Gone is any semblance of anything that might even slightly resemble victory, hope, happiness, optimism, or even daylight for that fucking matter. This is like all the darkest moments of Born Too Late and Mournful Cries distilled into a thick stout of antipathy and numbness. Coffee followed by Guinness. Next to this, tracks like 'Clear Windowpane' sound jolly. They bleed black, basically.

"As you walked away, my hands they went numb."

Although I was pleased with previous Slumber records, I never thought they would come up with a suffocating Vitusian guitar tone and crushing, mammoth-like pace like this. The Chandleresque riffs stomp forth with agonizing deliberation. These riffs have to literally heave themselves into every next chord, as if being forced into unwilling locomotion, almost like catching your breath before uttering the next words in an exchange you know is ruining you. The quivering riffs in the middle of 'Bastards Born' sound like corrugated iron vibrating in a storm.

Karl Simon has acquired a taste for combining slightly psychedelic guitar solos with turns of scorn and tragedy. As many of the tracks feature solos sounding a bit like Roger Waters as do Dave Chandler's wah-abusing screeches. The former influence really comes out in the mellow opening to 'Castle of the Devil', thoughtful like Pagan Altar, clean guitar melancholy leading into one of the album's more depressed pieces, in the vein of a Lord Vicar epic. The end of the nearly thirteen-minute closer 'Iron and Fire' rouses itself into a bleak series of creaking riffs like something from Reverend Bizarre's III: So Long Suckers, or at a stretch, from the earlier annals of My Dying Bride. Titanic drum climaxes and utter desperation, lovely.

This is so soaked in old school doom metal misery it should have been put out by Vitus in place of C.O.D., especially considering the vocals have a Chritus-like quality during some of the more rocking moments. Chritus (check out the vocals on 'Coven of Cain', then listen to Fear No Pain) meets Wino ('Bastards Born' and the title track in particular have huge vocal and lyrical similiarities) is still a decent way to describe what Karl Simon does, but staying in something of a mid-range here, sounding bitter, coarse and pissed. Both meanings. The drums are more crushing than ever they were on the band's war anthems, McCash battering them into a rocking and heavy-as-shit rhythm on cuts like 'The Scovrge Ov Drvnkenness'.

"All the lies I told myself...make the truth so hard to take."

After a middling 2010 (Wheel and Procession being the two major takeaways) 2011 is shaping up nicely for traditional doom, with this and 40 Watt Sun being mandatory. And all because the dudes from The Gates of Slumber are completely fucking miserable for some reason. Sorry, but they can stay miserable. I have never said this before so categorically, but I hope this band never goes back to their old style of music!

Septic Flesh: The Great Mass

2011-04-24T20:40:00.003+08:00

68%.
The Septic boys' press release sold me rather cleverly on this, with disparaging of market-saturating soundtrack metal leading into a plug for their new symphonic death opus. See here:

"...audible evidence of guitarist Christos Antoniou finishing his studies of classical composition with academic honours and distinction."The Great Mass" sounds nothing like the nowadays all too common application of ordinary soundtrack themes to hard music."

Well, bravo Christos. Despite its abject inconsistency, certain tracks on Communion were very titillating, particularly 'Lovecraft's Death' and 'We The Gods', so I was happy to optimistically assume that Septic Flesh would give us some hearty fare and avoid becoming simply a third pit stop after people graduate from Nightwish onto Dimmu Borgir. Let's meet the band's ambitious public statements with some intellectual masturbation of our own! I think I'm about to use the word integration...

One of the issues with these sort of records is integration. Unless you go for a rather nice and chaotic sound like Sigh, you are generally making "space" for the symphonic parts. Parts where the metal bits have to be shoved to the back a bit. So after the awesome pummeling grindishness of 'The Vampire From Nazareth's beginning, it is necessary for it to slow down for chants and all sorts of string-based instruments. The whole thing is composed well however, with nothing seeming out of place or mismatched, as is the case across the album. 'A Great Mass of Death' features almost ethnic female vocals sharing the limelight with fantastic blasting drums that I wish were given more room, but again the atmosphere Septic seem to be going for is well-realized.

Next issue. When allowing space for a massive orchestra you've spent a lot of money on, do you rip out the most brutally face-melting and ball-bouncing death metal you can possibly write, or ease off the pedal to enable the fuller realization of above-mentioned atmosphere? Most bands go for the latter, except that because they aren't actually composers of classical music (in most cases) the orchestral parts are tedious and unoriginal, while the metal has been reigned in so that the tedious and unoriginal classical parts can be heard. Septic Flesh manage to avoid this level of mediocrity, although examples of correct and incorrect orchestral integration into death metal are present. As well as some meh. Let's take a look:

Correct usage (in addition to aforementioned opening two songs): 'Five-Pointed Star' is satisfyingly explosive, with threatening melodies, guttural vocal grotesqueries and terrifyingly accurate, fill-drenched drumming. Huge standout, and here the combo of symphonic licks and blasting death metal is totally fucking exciting. 'Oceans of Gray' has a great atmosphere, making me think of occult temples and ancient seas. 'The Undead Keep Dreaming' is mostly blasts, blackened guitar melodies and throaty growls met with some cracking, sonorous male clean vocals.

Incorrect usage: I don't like 'Pyramid God' - these rock riffs and "tense" symphonics are simply too Delain (or something), thought the ensuing track mostly reminds more of Samael during their Reign of Light years. There's no death and very little black in this track, and it seems too derivative and too conveniently single-like. It also irritates me by belying the band's claims that they are being like, WELL original, when they include songs of the sort Nuclear Blast's roster has been making music videos with for years. 'Rising' meanwhile pinches some melodies from Iron Maiden, then Egyptian-style leads recycled from 'Anubis' and crap, repetitive male clean vocals. 'Therianthropy' meanwhile was apparently partly written by Depeche Mode, being rather gothic and saccharine. Actually, it could have fit very well on Abrahadabra if it weren't for the still convincing death vocals of Seth.

Meh: 'Apocalypse' has a great, thick atmosphere of warbling tubas and Seth's growls at parts, but doesn't stay with you too much. The slightly carnivalesque 'Mad Architect' adheres the metallic elements of the song to the inane central melody brilliantly at parts, but is a little short of a La Masquerade Infernale - Altars of Madness mashup.

Overall The Great Mass has a ritualistic sound and a bunch of standouts that for some will put it in 2011's top ten, but for others will be simply forgettable. Despite a couple total wastes of space, the good outweighs the bad on this record. However the bad plus the meh is equivalent in volume to the good, hence the rating. In the right mood this will still give me a good blast of menacing symphonic semi-carnage, and worth you getting a boner for if you loved Communion.

Frozen Grave: Battle Requiem

2011-04-24T20:33:00.000+08:00

75%.

It's nice when bands send you something cool that you'd have no chance of noticing otherwise. There are so many new bands out all the time, wading through them to get to stuff this good would be a chore like no other. Or needles in a haystack, etcetera. Frozen Grave are from Canada and just got round to doing a debut demo, seventeen minutes of catchy, satisfying melodic death metal that makes their country's main folky melodic death metal export, Blackguard, sound like the hacks they are. The instrumental opener 'Warcall' is cute if overlong, reminding me of the sort of preludes Ensiferum stick on the front of their albums. Just sounding a bit more 8-bit.

The demo's title track is a propulsive slice of death metal a-glistening with melodies that shine like swords in the sun (the band would probably like that comparison). There is plenty of Amon Amarth on these Canadian boys' iPods, but the core sound is rather that of Unleashed with Suidakra influences. The vocals are full-throttle death grunts from Florida, which complement the catchy, CATCHY, main melodies on the song very nicely. 'Sunless Dawn' features all sorts of squiggling, jumpy melodies that really must be rerecorded if these fellows get around to doing a full album. This is extremely exciting stuff, a demo that gnaws the face off most folky metal you get around these days by merit of straightforward, shredding war anthems. The mix of rapid riffing and triumphant Viking melody on 'By the Treacherous Winds' is almost like a death metal version of Forefather. High praise from any Englishman.

For a demo this has a good sound, although that's not uncommon these days. The guitars are heavy and thrusting, the drums a bit tinny but still carrying the earwig tunes fired off by the lead guitars locomotively. The best track would have to be 'Sunless Dawn', which makes me think that if there were ever going to be such a thing as "old school folk-war-battle metal" (now that the sub-sub-genres have had time to be altered, commercialized and weakened by mainstream presence) it would be like this. You might want to check these guys out if you thought that Suidakra's latest was too inconsistent and Surtur Rising basically gets dull after the opening track. And if you prefer things like Mithotyn and Forefather to those things anyway.

Ribspreader: The Van Murders

2011-04-09T15:56:00.000+08:00

39%.

What with The Grotesquery, Revolting and Demiurg, Rogga Johansson probably had one of his best years yet last year, with strong showings from all three of those outfits. He was on a few other things two but there's only so much time I can give you Rogga. You spend more time making death metal than I do listening to it, which is saying summat.

Anyway, he's clearly got a taste for concept albums after the nicely grisly tale of fatherhood gone wrong that was The Grotesquery's debut, and Ribspreader's latest is about a couple of murderers or something. Unlike The Grotesquery, which switched atmosphere and approach somewhat depending on the part of the story the listener was at, this is another Rogga album, pure and bloodymindedly simple.

From the very opening riff of 'The Beginning of their End', the album is stubbornly old-school, mid-paced trudging moving to d-beat early '90s carnivorousness. Although actually listening to The Van Murders is no bad experience in itself, with 'The Cleaner and Mr. Filth' and 'Silicon Valley of Death' providing plenty of head nodding mid-paced propulsion, and the hairy as Rogga's balls guitar tone makes 'A Morbid Journey's main riffs nice and claustrophobic, I could never see myself hitting repeat. Instead, I'd be likely to turn to last year's Demiurg album, with its numerous easter eggs and clever ideas, or one of the Revolting albums, which are a far more catchy, fun version of the same simplistic Swedeath formula. By the time 'Sick Minds Think Alike' comes along, the album has faded so far into the background I'm absent-mindedly whistling 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' while it's still playing. 'Going to L.A.' scores a few points for being a pretty interesting guitar and bass instrumental and mixing things up a tad.

Somehow listening to The Van Murders gives me the same feeling as looking at the cover art - all the basic ingredients for old school gore and death have been arranged, along with the forgettable variant on old school Finnish death metal logos, but not with particular care or forethought. Axe murderers, poor lighting, suggestions of cannibalism, zombification and so on, there it is, but so what. Heavy d-beat drumming, double blasts, eerie guitar pinches and morbidly growling vocals, there it is. So what.

I'm apathetic towards this. If you get this instead of taking just a bit more time to look into some lesser known old school death metal bands like Eroded, Morbid Flesh, Graveyard, Lie in Ruins, Zombie RItual, even Vomitory, Torture Division or Slugathor, I can't help you.

Suidakra: Book of Dowth

2011-04-04T22:29:00.000+08:00

72%.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a bit sick of folk metal, what with the tedium being peddled by Eluveitie, Korpiklaani (though I'd still bloody love to see them live), Blackguard and Equilibrium these days making the whole genre seem totally cartoonish. That's a bit of a moronic stance for me to take though - like thinking heavy metal has become watered down because of the presence of metalcore, deathcore and tech-fuck. A metalhead is someone who spends their free time weeding out the gold from the crap (although who decided to keep these things together in the first place?) and doesn't even get paid for it. Let's do it again.

Suidakra have had a checkered, prolific career the past decade plus, putting out the rocking, grooving Command to Charge before veering directly back toward folky melodic death-black thing with Caledonia and sticking firmly there with 2009's powerful showing Crógacht. The brilliantly illustrated latest, Book of Dowth, gets going with - of course- pipes and - of course - epic drum-rolls plus chugging guitars. No-one anywhere is surprised at this point, but it's nicely done and gets the head nodding. Just in time for the all-out melodic assault of 'Dowth 2059' and 'Battle-Cairns', both combining the blackened death metal warlust of maybe God Dethroned with exciting shredding in the vein of Ensiferum...plus folk instruments. The production is BIG, the riffs almost badass enough for the folk bits to be dropped and therefore largely avoiding the sub-par folk tune meets sub-par metal riff recipe many opt for.

Listening to the album beyond this point becomes a bizarre experience however. Having triumphed over enemies both fictional and fantastical, Suidakra veer fully into the realm of folk. 'Biróg’s Oath' features a mournful, folky-sounding lady singer crooning some thoughtful lyrics over mournful, folky-sounding guitar leads with a mourn....fuck, it's mournful and folky sounding alright. There's nothing wrong with it - the singer has a great voice - it just didn't really merit inclusion as far as I'm concerned. It's not a good enough take on classic folk balladry to stop me thinking that a Midnattsol album would surely be the obvious choice if I wanted to hear this sort of thing, rather than Suidakra. 'Mag Mell' is another folk song, entirely acoustic, and I must admit that with the excellent clean male singing, the cute symphonic licks and chirpy melody, I like it a lot. What it's doing here, I still don't know, but in itself it's a nice pipe and ale by the fireside tune.

The last half of the album stays in the realm of killer, blast-laced, propulsive metal, gleaming with melodies and harmonized riffs. Arkadius spits up entirely capable rasps and growls, Lars Wehner's drumming is awesomely tight, his presence is needed in a death metal band, and Marcus Riewaldt plays bass. 'The Dark Mound' (heh heh) is a particular standout, fully in the realm of epic, 'Balor' a crushing folk-augmented extreme metal cooker with more great drums. Things slow down toward the end, the final two songs reaching for epic heights but dragging somewhat before the outro plays you out.

Book of Dowth is like a platter of all the things they think their no-doubt wide-ranging fanbase might like: straight-up folk and catchy choruses for the ones who can't make the more aggressive parts out from one another, rollicking metal carnage for the dudes who listen to the album as practice for a beer-drenched Suidakra concert (which does sound incredibly fucking fun, I'd go) and tons of melody for the demographic who got fed up with the onset of rigor mortis in melodic death metal, and switched over to something with the same mixture of aggression and catchy. If you're one of those, or if you got some cash and like the idea of some pretty cool metal with a bunch of different folky things going on, I say why not.

Impiety: Advent Of...

2011-04-04T21:29:00.001+08:00

76%.

Barely a month after the monumental offering of black/death/doom/fuck/bastard/lay down your souls for rock'n' roll ass-kicking that was Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny, Impiety launch another strike on 2011 with an EP entitled Advent Of... All new material, no re-recordings, no covers, nice... although a couple live assaults with the new Italians playing would have been welcome.

The tracks on the EP are like cuts from Terroreign or Formidonis Nex Cultus expanded and darkened to suit the new lineup's rather grave mood - as opposed to the leather-wearing outright insanity of the last few outbursts. 'Advent of the Nuclear Baphomet' is getting near seven minutes of hysterical, drum-punishing, slavering black/ death metal. My complaint about what is essentially a welcome more-of-the-same song is that compared to the rest of the EP, the guitars seem somewhat buried and Atum's drumming (while as equally superb and ridiculously heavy here as on Divine Codex's album last year) takes over somewhat from Shyaithan's frothing vocals and storm of riffs.

For once inconsistency (in mix if not in songwriting, for this is a deliberately crafted record) works in a band's favour. Centrepiece 'Ave Satanas' faces no such issues, with the volume knob on Shyaithan suddenly turned up for a sound as spot-on and imposing as Worshippers... This track slays, yowling tremolo-picked riffs coating the machine-gun rhythm section like black vomit. Pace changes aplenty allow Shyaithan to pull one sadistic riff or pentatonically malevolent solo from his twisted brain after another, said brain evidently still brimming with ideas after an album with, naturally, a far lower riff-count than standard Impiety fare. 'Blood Ritual Defamation', the album's climactic 8 minute closer, continues the trend of expertly chopping and changing, although it is dominated by a Celtic Frost-inspired doom-like guitar riff which acts as a motif, and brings the EP's agenda in line with Worshippers... The riff from about 4:20 fucking rules, blaring, rocking late '80s thrashing doom - get Fenriz on the phone, he'll like this one.

My thinking is that this EP works to provide the band with a few new slabs of torment for their Sarcofago-patch-adorned hordes when on stage. Playing even half of the 38-minute monster that is 'Worshippers...' simply isn't viable when touring, and perhaps the band would rather keep it for special occasions rather than whip out little slices of it medley-style during their set. Simply put, this is an important part of your pre-Impiety concert kit, alongside Terroreign and the Dominator EP. It also proves Worshippers... more than a one-off homage to Venom, as Shyaithan continues toying with longer songs, more grandiose lyrical concepts and slower - not to mention more '80s inspired riffs.

Bottom line, first track sort of washes over the experienced Impiety listener, the second two burn and desecrate as they should; Impiety are looking strong.

Torture Division: Through the Eyes of a Dead

2011-04-04T20:39:00.001+08:00

89%.

Alright, yawn, scratch bollocks, first quarter 2011 up and what death metal have we had so far this year? Nervecell sounds sort of promising, that Morbid Flesh album kinda kicked ass. New Ribspreader sounds meh. Obscura, I don't do techy-death. Is that it? Anyone know any different feel free to come down on me like a ton of bricks and I'll edit the review to make it look like I knew/ remembered all along. But belay those butthurt protests - there's a new Torture Division demo up, fucking fresh meat. First demo in a new trilogy of killer old school death metal? Let's chow the fuck down.

You'll be humming the tremolo riffs to 'Vampire Empire' with enthusiastic nasality loud enough to irritate even yourself during its running time. Seriously catchy, ugly stuff, a murder of riffs flying at you at all times, grind-like chugging mashing the whole thing into a mess of twisted bone and torn muscle.

After its heavy-as-a-mastodon's-balls opening, the title song lopes cumbersomely forth with a low-slung, bouncing guitar riff, punctuated by sinister slower parts. The leads are masterful, almost Eastern influenced wails that sound stupidly kickass coming from K. Philipson's axe through a sweet-as-dopesmoke Dan Swano mix.

'Clark the Monarch' has one of the band's stranger song titles, but its grind-like switching between relentless double-kick bloodbaths and furious blastbeats makes it a sweet as pie closer to another free helping of Torture that has me searching, puzzled, for death metal that is quite as satisfying on so many levels. Never would have seen yourself growling along to "Claaaarrkk, the Monaarrrcchh" with all seriousness would you? If Torture Division can make a Mastodon song sound absolutely merciless ('Iron Tusk', see their website) getting you to do that is nothing.

The demo sounds the same as usual - cracking - Jörgen Sandström's growls are gravelly grunts like he's hanging his arse over the abyss and shitting into hell itself, the guitar riffs have no business being this good given it's 2011, and the drumming from Tobias Gustafsson is belligerently accurate and crushing enough to defy metaphor. In terms of composition, the songwriting is more sophisticated, songs switching up and changing pace more often (while losing none of their compactness) and basically just go fucking download it and wait for them to put the cover art on a t-shirt:
(http://www.torturedivision.net/downloadgraphy)

Yup, I remember now, there was one death metal album out that left my arse kicked to shreds. The new record from The Project Hate MCMXCIX... a band that now has everyone from Torture Division in it.

Hayagriva: Emperor Awaits

2011-04-02T16:34:00.001+08:00

80%.

Four years after the release of Red Heaven, Hayagriva spring back into action with a brand new logo, futuristic cover art and a reunion of their 1993 demo lineup for Emperor Awaits. Despite all this, they're still playing what they call Dark Shadow Metal - very fast-paced, massively melodic black metal with plenty of keyboards and emotion. The EP is a foreboding of an eventual full-length album, featuring four versions of the title song, an instrumental and a cover.

The main attraction is the only actual full-length original song here, for which the EP is named. 'Emperor Awaits' is a seven-minute flurry of charging double-kick drums, scorching vocal lines and the intricate buzzing tremolo-picked melodies Mantheravathee laced Red Heaven with. In terms of songwriting, the track's length and complexity surpasses any previous song by the band. There's a whole bunch of riffs flying at you, twinning symbiotically with the racing drums. The motif of the song is an emotional, leaping series of harmonized guitar licks during the chorus, augmented by orchestral synths. Slower moments involve twinkling keys, familiar serrated guitar workouts and even an uncharacteristic classically-inclined guitar solo. I honestly can't get enough of this song, it picks up right where the 2007 record left off and is kicking with both more emotion and more technical, virtuosic playing. If the full-length record later this year is consistently of this quality it's going to kick serious ass.

The production is fairly similiar, except that where the guitars became a little buried last time round, here guitars, drums and keyboards are mixed nicely, without abandoning the slightly rough-around-the-edges sound that helps to set this band apart from the squishy sounding mass-produced melodic black stuff coming from Europe.

'The Deep Breath Before the Plunge' is a highly atmospheric instrumental played off the keyboards with some computerized-sounding drum tattoos. It's a lot darker, almost industrial sounding, compared to the neo-oriental instrumentals on Red Heaven. 'Intoxicated' is an unusual move, 'Emperor Awaits' remixed with drum and bass beats, guitars occasionally bursting in through a wall of soggy distortion. Interesting to listen to, and the relaxing, ambient nature of this version goes some way to emphasize the improved compositional skills of the band. There are also instrumental and 'practice' (rehearsal I guess) versions of 'Emperor Awaits' at the end of the EP.

Outside of the title song, the best thing here is 'Syurga Di Hujung...', a cover of a local rock band from Ipoh. I like this firstly because it's the sort of thing that goes on in the Japanese scene, bands covering the songs by their mates in other bands. Secondly I am totally into the passionate interpretation of the guitar riffs, with what must have been a hard rock song given full Hayagriva treatment and turned into a blast beat-driven cooker of a melodic, blackened song - but with clean vocals provided by Venkhateswehra and Mantheravathee. The two guys don't sound too bad actually, the singing has the same kind of imperfect frankness of love songs by Gorgon. Combine that with the emotional riffing and this is my favourite cover so far this year.

I am seriously glad I bought Red Heaven on impulse when I got to Singapore - I totally dig this band's sound, and I wish more people outside of Southeast Asia would even have the chance to listen to them. Considering the cheap price of this disc (although don't ask me about international postage) it's a good way to get introduced to the band.

2011-04-02T16:32:00.001+08:00

Preludium: Impending Hostility

2011-03-27T21:11:00.001+08:00

60%.

Preludium hail from Poland. Apparently it is necessary to be a blackened death metal band to get through passport control and out of Poland to tour (Vader change band members too frequently for customs to keep track of and get away with being more death and thrash). Album art and windswept intro are atmospheric and formless, the general presentation of the band is a lot vaguer in concept than the bold agendas of their countrymen in Behemoth.

Shit, said it already. Behemoth! Behemoth would be among the key reference points for Preludium, and rather than keep tiresomely referring to Nergal and the boys throughout this review I'm just going to come out and say, have you got everything since Pandemic Incantations? Don't fancy daring to delve further back into the magical mayhem of Behemoth's seminal black metal recordings? The new Abyssus Abyssum Invocat compilation not going to get you reaching for your wallet? You could get this.

I'm finished being snarky (for a while). As you've probably guessed, Preludium play highly technical blackened death metal, adorned with gruff, layered vocals and stunningly precise, adept drumming. Ain't no drummer, but my flabby legs can't help but jiggle to the damage Mr. Ungeheuer is doing to his drum kit. The general vibe is Behemothian (or maybe Behemothic) but since there is simply no copying Inferno, the guy rampages forth with a skin-smashing series of innovative fills and terrific rattling blasts that could see him go toe to pedal-bashing toe with Poland's best. Lukasz Dziamarski meanwhile opts for a Sandstrom/ Petrov style growl, adding some old school ghoulishness to Preludium's modernized assault. Next to these two elements Dziamarski and Jan Skowron's guitars have a hard time holding their own. The riffs on Impending Hostility just ain't too memorable. However, the guitarists are capable at least and provide a meaty platter that serves as a conduit for the astounding drumwork. The actual guitar sound itself is sweet, from the buzzing hornets of the compact 'Execution' to the weighty, oppressive thrust on 'Death Campaign'.

In terms of songwriting the band is often fairly strong, and I was pleased to find memorable moments and highlights swelling in number as the album played through its half-hour. Some menacing moments on the pummeling monster that is 'Desolation', followed by drums firing off like lines of entrenched soldiers, provide the necessary headbanging and tempt the fingers toward the repeat button. The crawling doom that is 'Bitter Cold', double bass and groaning riffs savaging you at a leisurely pace while sadistic harmonized leads wail atop - this is excellent material. The tracks themselves have little cohesiveness outside of cuts like 'Bitter Cold' and 'Execution' however, which harms the replay value some - compared to recent attempts by bands such as Hour of Penance to up the compositional quality of this technical stuff the kids are into. 'Warfare' is a more carefully written instrumental piece, but unfortunately not at all remarkable outside of a bit of more blatant Behemoth theft during the twanging intro - it feels like filler required to make this an album instead of a 25-minute EP.

Impending Hostility makes for a good listen, and if you really are into techy death metal blackened around the edges, you could do much worse than pick this up. The musicians are totally on point and the drummer in particular absolutely kicks ass, the production is fucking great, but apart from a more interesting logo, band name, cover art and so forth, Preludium could really do with working on their song ideas. The few nice moments I mentioned above aren't enough to make this an essential purchase by any means, as I still struggle to want to go back to any track in particular once it's all over.

Morbid Flesh: Reborn in Death

2011-03-21T22:43:00.000+08:00

90%.

A few days ago a friend o' mine commented, when we were discussing Morbid Flesh, that you know what these new old school death metal bands sound like just from the logo. I agree. It's a good thing, I know which bands I'm going to like. Cover art helps too. Monochromatic, few corpses, maybe a graveyard (or mausoleum, in this case), check check check, I'll probably dig the unliving shit out of this.

Another thing that encouraged me was the band's association with Graveyard via their drummer, Gusi, the very similiar cover art and apparent attitude to the ancient metal of death. One reason the Spanish scene shows such promise for me is that, in addition to the usual comparisons to Entombed, Dismember, Bolt Thrower, Pestilence, Grave and so forth, Graveyard and now Morbid Flesh cast their baleful eyes back to Death's demos and fucking Scream Bloody fucking Gore. I'm sure every death metal band creams over those records, but for a change Reborn in Death sounds like it's coming from a band that's really spent a lot of time with them. The sound is just raw enough, loose and sloppy enough, to evoke those increasingly grotesque middle years of '80s metal. Of course Morbid Flesh also recorded a cover of 'Scream Bloody Gore' on their demo so that makes the worship easy for even you to spot.

Occult death metal albums have an intro mandate, apparently, and 'Soul Sacrifice' is a nice one. Distorted exhortations echo in the background as a man seems to be painfully tortured and possibly eaten. The opening title track is a krusher with a k - slow, doomlike riffs and purposeful double-bass drums underly sinister noodlings on lead. Grisly d-beats make themselves known while vocalist Vali wretches simmering indictments and condemnations upon the whole roughly-produced mess. 'Gulag (Cracked Bones)' is a strong second hammer-blow, monstrously slow riffs complimenting eerie tremolo-picked leads during the nice fast bits. 'Impaled Ratzinger', exhumed from the demo, vomits forth shuddering blastbeats racing along with the hunger of a zombie fresh from a thousand year stint in the earth.

Again like Graveyard's debut, every song here is a winner. I don't know what these Spaniards are doing, but they know that a fucking ancient sounding production and killer cover art only keeps a thick-skulled death metal deviant like me interested so long (a year or two at most). To really secure my knuckle-dragging worship fucking kickass songs are required, and that's exactly what's kicking my ass all over the shop here. From the carnivorous, atmospheric dirges of 'Beneath the Earth', to the propulsive morass of resurrected demo song 'Dying Lapidation' that would simply slay live, I don't find either the middle or the end of the album collapsing in quality after its storming first few tracks. They all storm. A storm of blood and shit and shredded bones.

The real glint in the totenkopf's eye socket however is the closing 'Walking With the Undead.' It's all of nine minutes long, and not only does it stand up to the more compact assaults here, the d-beat and droning guitars followed by nasty-ass tremolo riff format is fucking perfected. Drenched in morbid atmosphere and impaled upon sickly melodies, the song makes the album a must.

There are some fucking awesome guitar solos throughout, such as the one which widdles flayfully over the title track's most evil d-beat, or the one on 'Impaled Ratzinger' that blazes ferociously over the blasting drums, or the longer and more elaborate one on 'Walking with the Undead'. The mix is customarily and appropriately sepulchral, booming guitars tuned right down into the grave and drums rattling like a foul old man drawing breath into his polluted lungs. Other points? The demo Dying Lapidation is included as a bonus to make this a sixty minute record. It's also pretty sweet, despite a couple of repeated tracks (although I enjoy hearing them again with an even rawer production since they fit in with the other demo tracks nicely).

It's all very convenient - after getting slathered up from a good hard War Master session, I can put Reborn in Death on for a bit, and then it's straight back to Consuming Impulse and Left Hand Path. No digitalized production or technicality to disrupt the ruggedness I'm enjoying. If anything Left Hand Path and War Master sound clearer than this.

As I thought when I heard Graveyard's One With the Dead, this is what the entire Razorback Records roster is aiming for, and though there's been some mighty fine attempts every Spaniard I hear seems to blow them out of the fetid water. I don't find it quite as seminal as Graveyard's record, but if you liked that this is pretty fucking essential. I happily listen to this alongside Left Hand Path and War Master, for Christfuckingchrist's sake. Go fetch.

Divine Codex: Ante Matter

2011-03-16T23:30:00.001+08:00

92%.

Divine Codex's debut half-hour of black metal unpleasantness doesn't look like black metal in terms of their simple band logo and the enigmatic, semi-cosmic cover art. However, this right here is blast-driven purification by a fire colder than Gaahl's nipples. And yet more!

Spawned by Italians Guh.Lu and Atum, current Impiety shock troops and former Setherial members, Ante Matter is remarkable on paper. Bristling with vocal contributions from Setherial's M.Svavel and Mysteriis as well as the latter's namesake and almighty bastard son of the abyss Attila Csihar, the album is more legit than you before it even starts spinning. As if that was hard.

No questions are asked as the instrumentalists at the backbone of this squadron begin their assault, Guh.Lu creating a wash of tremolo-picked necromancy that sweeps over Atum's frighteningly energetic and accurate drumming. The riffs throughout the vilifying 'Departure from the Flesh' blast meaningfully forth punctuated by malevolent guitar licks over Atum's sinew-rending fills. I can't say enough about the guy's drumming - the solo toward the middle of this track is heavy as shit. Divine Codex are here to make a statement of wrathful intent, unadulterated black rage coloured very lightly with atmospheres of ambience. Not once is Satan mentioned in these lyrics (although you could read devilry into the lyrical concept of the album), but the level of nihilistic violence communicated by a song like 'Anti Dogma Decoded' flattens every nation and creed in its wake. 'Neuro Sickness Frequency' is a crawling mammoth of a song, bleak blackened chords ending all hope of oxygen or escape.

When the band is in full swing pure black metal is the backbone of Ante Matter's sound, but there is a ton-weight of unsettling atmosphere burdening the album. Attila also contributes to the creation of two of the four thoroughly evil instrumentals, which consist of imposing blackened ambience and add to the album's graves-in-orbit character. 'Lost Chants of the Depths' is a standout in itself, four minutes of disembodied chants and ghoulish whispers echoing from the sort of oppressive ambient noises you might hear aboard the Nostromo. The album's closer 'Outermost Madness' suggests a few crunching riffs before blossoming into an ear-splitting crescendo of noise and then cutting out abruptly.

These elements are blended expertly. I still have this down as black metal, but the atmospheric elements set it far apart. Unlike a band like Darkspace, Divine Codex bring space to black metal, rather than taking black metal up into space. Where the drums cut away for what would normally be the next riff introducing itself, crackling harsh noise fills what was almost a moment of reprieve and reinforces the tapestry of outer space insanity being depicted. Meanwhile, 'Lifeless Void' powers steadily along with blasts and oddly shifting vocal patterns, accented by weird distorted sounds that drown the already eerily minimalist riff progressions.

Like you probably have, I've listened to a bunch of albums that evoke the terror or majesty, sometimes both, of being totally separated from the comfort of Earth by millions of miles of empty space. This has instantly become one of the best, and while it will appeal to fans of Darkspace, Oranssi Pazuzu, Arcturus and Sun of the Blind for that reason, it will appeal to legions of German, Swedish and Norwegian school black metallers for also being a merciless torrent of black metal fury. Find it and have someone hide your record collection. This deserves repeated listens.

Heathendom: The Symbolist

2011-03-14T23:03:00.001+08:00

89%.
Modernized power metal can be fucking potent or totally vapid as far as I am concerned. Generally, where the power is left in the metal and the modern-progressive element colours it rather than being allowed to dissemble the music's energy and thrust, good things happen.

Heathendom veer immediately towards the latter days of Jag Panzer (an era of the band that gets more and more exciting if you've been paying attention up to about last month) as soon as they get going, with the oddly titled 'Endistancement by the Null Position'. 'Alternate Sickness' follows it, and both set vocalist Dimitris Koutsouvelis' alternately harsh and exultant Tyrant-referencing howls to groovy riffs and some jazzy drum detonations. Koutsouvelis is a total asset to this band, later on handling a ghoulish King Diamond falsetto as well as he does operatic wails. His snarling cries and majestic vocal melodies on 'Prescience of the End' are nothing short of marvellous. At times he shares some similiarities with Ripper Owens' ominous hunger, although unlike poor Tim, it seems he's getting the chance to lend his pipes to a band at the top of their game.

Lefteris Vourliotis and Michail Vlavianos burn all in their path with incensed, rocking rhythms and menacing shredding patterns. Despite Koutsouvelis' obvious talent, the dark diversities they loose from their axes are the focal point on the album. While it doesn't have a virtuoso or even "classic" heavy metal feel, the tense and shadowy guitar presence on The Symbolist oozes awesomeness. The melange of Manticora and Nevermore on the crunching title track goes a long way to validating your entry ticket. By the way, I'm liking this more than the latest by either of those outfits so far.

The band's ability to structure original and infectious monoliths of modern metal is impressive, meandering destructively all over the place and avoiding any verse-chorus monotony deftly. 'My Obedience' is further evidence of this, never seeming to repeat itself despite a strong motif running through its five minutes. The quirky chanting and gut-churned sweep-picked riff slaughter on 'Black Euphoria' ditches the conventional in favour of the theatrical. 'Sanctified' and 'The Concept of Reason' indulge the band's epic side rather than attacking with the metallic knives of the album's first half, allowing Koutsouvelis lots of space to pose serious threats to far more established bare-chested metal yowlers. The utter, utter drama of closer 'An Angel a Demon and a Dying God's superb vocal assault and its electrifyingly tense riffs makes for the best album climax I've heard this year.

The album covers a whole range of power metal and progressive sounds throughout nearly an hour of slaying riffery and well-chosen vocal lines, seeming to expand in ambition and scale as it does. Heathendom should go kick ass all over Europe's metal festivals. These guys have some dominating albums in their future.

Wishdoom: Helepolis

2011-03-14T22:08:00.001+08:00

58%.

Wishdoom were previously known to me through an impressively Jon-enticing EP called Winds of War. Some time later, a full-length with the promise of further joys had me expecting the same unapologetic doomful excellence.

It all starts as you might expect, and at first listen this might seem the holy grail of true metal trueness for the first quarter of 2011. The title track plods along with some power metal-flecked riffs bouncing over the very sweet drumming of Dimitris Raptis. Immediately noticeable however are the less-than-titillating vocals of Mr. Paschalidis. Where on the EP he was a commanding figure, a tragic hero embroiled in battle and a hard-nosed warrior, here he fades back into the morass of epic guitars and ambitious melodies a little too readily. Not only is it the mix that's not doing him any favours, he seems to be making far less effort to project his capable lungs across the battlefield.

Throughout, the album struggles to really connect. While the mood is warlike and imposing, the band don't capitalize on their instrumental talents and, as above, cool singer, to set a fire under the doom metal scene's hairy arse. There is something missing in terms of composition and production that stops Helepolis exploding together with the militaristic triumph of Winds of War. When it should be vice-gripping your testicles and shoving its sharp-edged doom riffs down your gullet, the tension and scale of a cut like 'Wishdoom' instead floats harmlessly by.

That said, the songwriting itself is mature and accomplished here, and studded with a few real highlights. The opener grabs the heavy doom baton from Trouble's The Skull with a vigorous charge through catchy riffs and propulsive beats, providing a number of moments one can hum along to. 'Zeus the Thunderer' has a great folky riff halfway through that breaks into a section reminiscent of Slough Feg - fucking love it. You should hear that bit. But outside of these and a couple of other moments however, I struggle to recall much of what is going on in Wishdoom's embattled world when the album has run its course.

As mentioned, the band members know how to play a note or two. Solos from 'George "Samarithan G." (even their fucking names reference Candlemass, hot diggity!) are tight, especially on 'Screaming Blade' and 'Up the Hammers' (even their fucking song titles reference Manilla Road, hot diggity!) As mentioned, the drums are cracking, and the closing eponymous song is marched forward with simple but volcanically executed patterns. It is painfully clear that these are all very talented gentlemen - the riffs on a song like 'Crystal World', while remarkably unoriginal given the metal landscape of the last fifteen years, are performed flawlessly and sound great.

'The Battle of Plataea', 'Guardians of Steel' and 'My Wish Your Doom' were present on the EP - they kicked ass there and they kick it again here. Having already listened enthusiastically to that very EP, and with this full-length failing to give me very many saliva-producing cuts, I don't forecast a whole lot of replays for Helepolis. In fact when 'My Wish Your Doom' begins in all its golden-helmeted majesty, it dawns that it isn't just the law of diminishing returns stopping this from putting a grin on my pasty face, but a disappointing drop in immediacy and verve on these new songs. I could recommend you better doom, and better power metal, but if you are jonesing for power-powered doom metal then Doomsword would be the first port of call.

Children Of Bodom: Relentless Reckless Forever

2011-03-09T00:45:00.000+08:00

82%.

Despite a lame piece of cover art that looks like a poster for a movie directed by Rob Zombie or something, Relentless Reckless Forever heaves the Bodom boys out of the partial slumber they've rested in since 2003's Hate Crew Deathroll. Although Are You Dead Yet? and Blooddrunk had moments of arse-kicking in the form of 'Living Dead Beat', 'In Your Face', 'Hellhounds on My Trail', 'Banned From Heaven', 'Roadkill Morning' and a couple others, they felt a mite sterile next to the feral assaults of Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper.

Turns out Hate Crew Deathroll was just one big fucking party that left them with an eight year hangover. Now they've had their greasy breakfast in the form of Are You Dead Yet? and a stiff coffee with Blooddrunk. So naturally they're back on the cheap beer and approaching the sound of Hate Crew Deathroll, the passionate melodies and flamboyant keyboard runs of early material once more complementing the slightly modernized and thrashing edge of later attempts.

While there aren't any Mozart pieces being blasted out on lead guitar, the album is nice and dark from the get-go. Menacing synths and dramatic harmonized riffs characterize the stone-cold stunner of an opener that is 'Not My Funeral', and the vicious 'Shovel Knockout' accelerates into higher gears than almost any other song by the band. The bizarrely titled 'Pussyfoot Miss Suicide' is fairly disjointed, leaving little impression, but the huge rock-out riffs of the title track and 'Cry of the Nihilist' grab you right by the ball-hairs. Everything sounds a lot more Finnish this time around. Can't explain myself there, except that the intricate shredding of a song like 'Ugly' or the moody, stomping standout 'Roundtrip to Hell and Back' would melt nicely into a live set alongside old timers like 'Taste of My Scythe.'

There is a "commercial" track nestled in towards the end of the album, the overly catchy and chuggingly heavy 'Was it Worth It?' which could have fit on the 2005 album. Tony Hawk is in the music video, I think, or someone a bit like him. This time the band's pop hit floats by without causing offense and I rarely skip - and the charging melodic thrash of 'Northpole Throwdown' blasts it away anyway. The latter song features one of the most exciting Alexi Laiho solos I've heard, pure alcoholic fury and decadence in notated form. Laiho is on 2003 top form on Relentless. Throughout the album he nails a ton of riffs just right for the job, from meaty and atmospheric crunchers to savage cookers.

While Laiho has entered the mainstream eye and become something of a guitar god, with many a cover spot on the rock and metal magazines down your local WH Smiths or wherever it is you go for slashed-price moronic fiction, his vocals have never attracted critical acclaim. Funny that. While the hoarse bark that replaced his old black metal vocals for the last three full-lengths could become unconvincing at times, his sub-Schuldiner screams are more tolerable amongst the metallic battery a-goin' down here.

The remainder of the band obediently supply technically flawless performances, bass guitar spot-on, Roope Latvala providing solid rhythms and Janne Warman once more relevant beyond the odd keyboard solo guest appearance (contributing to the record feeling more Finnish, I guess! Ah, stereotypes). Drums meanwhile are fantastic, mercilessly smashing away all in the band's path toward pentatonic ruination, while the mix offered is thicker, rumbling and less one-dimensional than on the last two albums.

For those who coughed blood upon hearing the band's previous two albums, and certainly those of you who wouldn't even take Hate Crew Deathroll home to meet your mother, this might not get you back into a Children of Bodom beanie. The Helsinki rudeboys are still sluts for super-catchy riffs, a brahutally heavy rhythm sound, rock-out-with-our-cocks-out attitude and the odd bit of glam. Personally I wasn't violently opposed to recent stuff, and so this is a solid offering as far as I'm concerned, proving the band are capable of making very capable and stage-worthy heavy metal with a ton of attitude. Let's hope they keep the party going a bit longer this time, for fuck's sake.

Sabbat: Sabbatrinity

2011-03-02T23:44:00.000+08:00

95%.

The seemingly endless supply of miniscule EPs, splits, and what have you, has no doubt kept many an appetite whetted for Sabbat throughout releases from the more productive temptations of Japan's fucking excellent black/ thrash scene. Eight years on from Karmagmassacre the beer-sodden shoguns of blackened thrash thuggery are finally back on full-length form. This time around they're almost as obsessed with witches as Abigail were with bitches on Sweet Baby Metal Slut, and they're sounding indestructible.

Nine roaring tracks of caustic, pacey Venom-mutating-into-Slayer thrash chaos comprise Sabbatrinity, along with an excellent instrumental outro. True to the hysterical, totally unmixed and raw vinyl vomitings that were Sabbat's Demonslaught series of EPs, the album is almost exclusively hurriedly paced, thrashing speed metal with strangled vocals. Searingly fast thrash riffs pulsate roughly over throbbing basslines, and the drums thump wetly along at breakneck pace. Uncouth rasps and piercing shrieks spew basic choruses, the song titles yelled, bawled, grotesquely wretched forth and so on.

To many an outsider, the exaggerated Venom-from-Japan imagery and general craziness of Sabbat's appearance, playing style, band members and recording habits (it goes on) might give the impression the band is fucking about. The outsiders can stay right there on the outside. The level of musicianship throughout this 40 minutes of frantic, rip-roaring metal is great. The solos throughout the album, on 'Black Metal Scythe', 'Total Destruction' and 'Karmagmassacre', are some of the best from the band yet, managing to be both expressive and exhilarating in true NWOBHM form, racing elaborately over the rapid, rambling bass guitar bashing. The bass, much like the drumming, is uncomplicated, but the synergy amongst band members can be heard loudly given the album's basic production values.

Which brings me to what makes this album as perfect as it could be for the hungry Sabbat fan, who considers the output of the syphilitic samurais throughout their career to have been consistently and significantly better than anything from Venom in the last two decades. It's the sound of the album, the spacious mix with room aplenty for the rumbling bass and snarling guitar leads to complement each other, that makes it a slice of pure old school win. While clearly having had more funds and time available for this than they had for anything recorded since Karmagmassacre, Sabbat shun anything that might make them sound even remotely modern, anything that would upgrade or evolve their sound to even the late '80s, never mind any decade after. It's all for a cause. Stick modern production values on something like 'Root of Ultimate Evil' or the fast-chugging thrash of 'Witch's Torches', use vocals that are anything but intoxicated slurs, and it would lose everything that makes it so totally badass. Sabbat's methods of recording and mixing (such as they are) allow the actual metal to do the talking, not studio wizardry and wankery.

Meanwhile the 40 minutes here, like many an album I hear that's not overlong, seems to be heaving with highlights. In general, the quality and memorableness of the songs is better than on original recordings since Karmagmassacre. Particularly, 'Black Metal Scythe' is one of the fucking best Sabbat songs I've heard, easily one of their best recordings since the early '90s. Gezol roaring "brrakk metarr scythe!!" is priceless and timeless, straight from the '80s - it's that simplistic, and too awesome to be from these troubled years. While referencing '80s speed and thrash most heavily, the faithful Sabbat are more like latter-day Darkthrone in their fierce dedication to all that is old and hoary. 'Karmagmassacre' is a climactic finish, vocals viler than ever, a cacophony of jagged, howling leads and riffs from Damiazell as well as a fist-pumping solo... it's the best track on here, even beating out 'Black Metal Scythe.'

Like Envenom? Evoke? Disembody? Fetishism? Anything else by these nutcases? You need Sabbatrinity. It picks up from Karmagmassacre and does everything that and previous albums did (notwithstanding the epic and doomed leanings of The Dwelling and some of the more samurai metal moments on Karisma, etc) It is one of those very rare albums, by a long-running band with a dedicated - if cult - following, that I really can't see disappointing a single one of their fans. Rendering this entire review pointless. If you like Sabbat, you're getting this. Many listens in and it's becoming one of my favourites by the band.

Before the Dawn: Deathstar Rising

2011-02-22T21:58:00.000+08:00

75%.

Having taken three years off Before the Dawn for very possibly the most solid album of his career, Black Sun Aeon's Routa, and a debut with YET another project, called Routasielu, Tuomas Saukkonen continues in his quest to fill a shelf of your CD collection. Unlike a lot of other highly prolific ladies and gents in the music business hell-bent on flooding their listeners with music, Saukkonen has made the grand decision at some point to not be crap at what he does.

The latest from Before the Dawn once again shows the dude maturing and refining a branch of the core sound in his myriad projects and bands. His interviews show a calm and cheery bloke simply doing what he loves, most hours out of every seven days, and this tireless obsession comes through as Deathstar Rising opens. The sweet melancholy of the acoustic strumming of opener 'First Snow', and the pounding cascade of melodic riffs driving us through 'Winter Within', seems almost effortlessly composed and executed. A neat mix ensures the impact of the crashing bass-kicks and booming clean chorus of the latter.

I'm not even marking this band ridiculously high for this release, but I'm full of praise for their ability to create tight songs that would be tedious in less capable hands. The sort-of title-track 'Deathstar' (that's no moon) features breakdown-like chugging riffs and hissing snare drums, a too-catchy chorus and an all-round feeling of simplicity, but meshes nicely into the album and feels authentic, despite the presence of these commercial tropes.

Standout tracks often stick like glue to Before the Dawn norm and fire on all cylinders. 'Unbroken' propels its mournful melodies and sparkling leads with savagely crunching riffs and fast-paced drumming, growled vocals sounding top of the range and a kickass guitar solo to boot. Another of which is found tearing a path through the gristly riffs of 'The Butterfly Effect'. More please. The harmonized and pumping melodic death riffery of closer 'Wraith' is exceedingly awesome, dialling the band up to tempos and atmospheres beyond their previous attempts to out-Kalmah their brethren.

Given all this praise, why doesn't it get like, hundreds and millions of points from Jon? I have a couple of grumbles. A lot of the clean choruses come in predictably, sounding a lot like choruses from Deadlight and Soundscape of Silence. Adding to that is a firm adhesion to verse-chorus-break and so on song structures, which rankle slightly after the compositional looseness of Black Sun Aeon's material. It sounds great while it's playing, but lacks sufficient ebbs and eddies in its songwriting to fully draw the listener into an appropriate Finnish funk.

The album is packed with sequences and sections that are going to give me lots of gloomy satisfaction during the year, but perhaps no tracks that will suffer endless iPod repeats as I funnel through various public transport systems. I'm always happy to stubbornly compare latest efforts to my old faves, and here I must say no track jumps right at me with the vivacious memorability of 'Dying Sun' or 'Guardian'. But the consistency is stronger than ever, conceptually in line with the superior Routa from Black Sun Aeon. Before the Dawn has grown from a distinctly average goth metal band in its early days, into an outfit that seems to ooze quality material album after album without missing a beat. Definite honourable mention for 2011.

Iron Maiden: The Number of the Beast (according to everyone else)

2011-02-14T21:14:00.000+08:00

Since I'm seeing Iron Maiden tomorrow night for the first time, and I had a bit of time to spare, I decided to fully geek out and see if the album The Number of the Beast has been covered in its entirety. Dream Theater don't count. Here in sequential order is a cover I dug up for each track... this is by no means exhaustive.

I re-listened to them all for objectivity. When an Iron Maiden song comes on at the end of an album by some mere mortals, it sometimes seems better than it really is.

Invaders
Fell on my face straightaway... noone seems to want to cover this underrated, rocking song. Finally found the thrashers in Sadus doing it for a bonus track on their album Out for Blood. Guitars sound nice, meaty and sped-up of course, but the screaming vocals don't work out quite so well.

Children of the Damned
Here we go. The mighty Therion tried their hand at Children of the Damned back in '97, and it's one of the best in this here list. Piotr W.'s warbling operatics don't quite summon the raw emotion of Dickinson's performance, but the crashing guitars and drums in the chorus, as well as that good ol' racing guitar solo, are nothing short of fitting.

The Prisoner
Fozzy felt the need to rerecord the already cheesy film sample at the beginning. For fuck sake. This is taken from their self-titled gimmick album of covers, and the guitars sound bloody great. Again, I unfortunately hate the vocals. A theme is emerging... it ain't easy to follow in Bruce's steps.

22 Acacia Avenue
Back in the days of The Gallery, Dark Tranquillity punctuated their widdling melodic death metalry with a chunky, badass cover of '22 Acacia Avenue'. Guitars sounds great, irresistibly heavy. Stanne doesn't fuck about with any clean vocals here, unleashing great big grunts as he narrates Charlotte the Harlot's continuing trials and tribulations.
"When you entertain your men don'tcha know the rest...get a disease!!" Try that on in a death growl.

The Number of the Beast
Although Iced Earth smash out a dramatic and faithful interpolation of this timeless metal radio classic, the less-known Sinergy might just take this one. Kimberley Goss' vocals are at their most kickass, Alexi Laiho nails the guitars and it's generally a fucking fun song coming from these guys.

Run to the Hills
I can't believe noone really covers this. Invaders I can understand, but this is a massive song in the world of every metalhead. Even some of the hairless whelps who listen to the radio know the first verse of this! There's a sort of semi-AOR version of this by Luis Royo-illustrated Spaniards Avalanch, but Robin Macauley and Michael Schenker kick much more ass on the Numbers from the Beast version of this song. It's a little more flamboyant than the original in terms of additional solos and over-the-top singing, but I can't help but be caught up in the same Maiden-worshipping fervour no doubt gripping the studio the day this was recorded.

Gangland
Steel Prophet seem to be the only ones out there who have covered this. Guitars and vocals fucking rule, and are very faithful to the original. Drums suck, pitter-pattering away with zero strength, which is a shame because this cover could otherwise have persuaded me to pursue Steel Prophet further. I still might anyway.

Hallowed be thy Name
Well this has been covered by fucking everyone. Iced Earth lose out again, as does the apathetic version by Machine Head. Doom metal hasn't had a look-in on this list, but not even the excellent Rob Lowe and his compatriots in Solitude Aeturnus can dethrone the first cover I heard of this song. From the sinister, synthesized opening to the frantically barked vocals and furious guitars, Cradle of Filth's version is bloody fantastic. Adding layers of vampiric atmosphere to an already epic song, the Suffolk boys record the best cover of their career - save possibly Anathema's 'Sleepless'. Seriously, listen to this. It rocks. You never thought you'd enjoy Cradle of Filth quite this much, I'm sure.

Also...
Children of Bodom's 'Aces High' is pretty fun, and Vital Remains have a death metal'd up cover of 'The Trooper' that's hilarious yet enjoyable in a Ten Masked Men sort of way. The only other mandatory ones I can think of right now however, are 'The Trooper' again, by Sentenced, and 'Fear of the Dark' by Graveworm, which is about as good as Maiden covers get.

Omnium Gatherum: New World Shadows

2011-02-07T23:52:00.000+08:00

81%

I only began to prick my ears at the mention of Omnium Gatherum with the recruitment of Jukka Pelkonen, an era that also heralded a move into experimentation and progressiveness. After the satisfying, rugged weirdness of Stuck Here on Snake's Way, The Redshift shifted the band into progressive lands rocky with a suggestion of spaced-out atmosphere and no fear of unusual song structures to match the already bizarre lyrics. The Redshift had a first half which kicked ass, but like Snake's Way it didn't quite mesh into a cohesive draft of metal mastery despite moments of excellence. New World Shadows feels conceptual, cleverly textured and overall well-written. That said, it features three distinct sorts of songs - two 9-minute epic blockbusters, three racing melodeath chargers and a handful of songs that traipse at mid-pace through progressive and indulgent creative workouts.

In all fairness, the expansive and melodic 'Everfields' is a masterful composition. Watery atmospheres building into epic, Insomnium-like climaxes that drive heroically through mournful leads and pretty acoustic flourishes. It even has a fantastic blast-laden acceleration at the end, that spends the tense energy of the slow building atmosphere in one great rush of sorrowful ferocity. Like the equally massive closer 'Deep Cold' the track also treads the doom-scoured pastures of forlorn Finnish brethren such as Hanging Garden, with crawling riffs and heartracing double bass. 'Deep Cold' has more of a doomed feeling, dark and heavy chugging guitars sounding utterly authentic. Rather than merely appropriating the sound of a related sub-genre, this piece sounds like it could stand out on an album full of similiar material by someone like Rapture. It easily beats material from recent albums by The Foreshadowing and Helevorn.

The band take the progressive, epic leanings of the previous album to logical conclusions even when not indulging in 9-minute blowouts. The title track is a rerun of the wonderfully catchy leads and electronic atmospheres of a song like 'The Return' from The Redshift, with some seriously addictive chugging riffs leading through into the song's climax, and a guest spot from Dan Swano. It's a great track and not something I'd have expected just after Snake's Way, but at this point it makes a lot of sense. 'Soul Journeys' continues the sojourn into the slightly gothic, melodic death/ doom Finland specializes in, sounding even more like Hanging Garden on a little bit of meth. I cant argue with it. Omnium Gatherum are great at this, and could easily steal a good portion of the fanbase for bands like Swallow the Sun, Barren Earth and so on. 'An Infinite Mind', while the cute, plonking clean guitars of the verse are perfectly done, meanders a bit once the heavy guitars come in. Had it been merged with the nicer parts of the otherwise unmemorable instrumental 'Watcher of the Skies' or otherwise cut down it could have prevented a little bit of a skip in consistency.

What I wanted to know about though, was the hurtling, harmonizing, headbanging melodic death metal anthems Omnium Gatherum have on occasion nailed - like 'Nail', my favourite. 'Ego' is where the album gets going for me. The 16-year old in me craves for energetic melodic death metal songs that get the blood pumping, no matter how doomed and blackened my tastes increasingly become year on year. 'Ego' is all jagged, strangled harmonized riffs, a happy and triumphant lead melody and tight-as-ever drumming from Jarmo Pikka. I like it almost as much as 'Nail'. 'Nova Flame' punches through the morose atmospheres of the two preceding tracks with its rocking drums and blazing guitar leads, quickly causing neck whiplash with the exciting chugs and crackling riffs. 'The Distance' is similiarly exhilarating, tense and rumbling verses exploding into thrashing drums and yet more silken melodies. And that's it, three fast, catchy songs from Omnium Gatherum. I've decided it's a good thing, they all fucking rock and leave space on the album for a bunch of other ideas to take shape.

Aside from the mostly forgettable 'An Infinite Mind' and 'Watcher of the Skies' its hard to find fault with this. Impressively, the Finnish lads seem qualified to turn their hands to a multitude of melodic stylings, and though it isn't perfect or particularly groundbreaking, and The Redshift is more exciting to me personally, this is their most solid release in terms of songwriting. I can see fans of Insomnium and Dark Tranquillity digging this quite a lot, and for those more demanding I can guarantee 'Ego' and 'Nova Flame' will long nestle on my iPod alongside 'Nail' and 'Into Sea'.

Bouq: Berserk

2011-02-07T22:34:00.000+08:00

90%.

You haven't heard of this band. They are fucking awesome. I have a sizeable boner for albums coming out of Jordan and Saudi Arabia among other Arabic countries, particularly Al-Namrood and the excellent Narjahanam. Once again, and not a moment too soon, I've been confronted with yet another slab of Middle Eastern metal as hungrily metallic as it is atmospherically unique.

For an album that claims to incorporate tribal atmospheres, Bouq's Berserk opens with a percussive blackened charge of needling riffs and throaty growls. 'Berserk - The Grand Raven Feast' is a fucking strong opener, slightly tribal drum beats complementing a grim motif of riffs and gory blasts more at home in the ugly black/ death metal of Australia or Southeast Asia.

Bouq's style is a baleful black/ death metal assault comprising simple but spot-on riffs and appropriately horrific, slavering growls. The tempo varies from vicious charges to slower or mid-paced stretches that trudge without hope of an oasis. Subtle synthesized hums sometimes modestly augment the marching Eastern riffs, such as on 'Desrever Alumrof Ecnetsixe', but your ears are attuned to the relentless guitars. This album means business, and barely a moment of it's 38 minute runtime is squandered on thoughtful folky wonderings when there are instruments to be destroyed and killer riffs to wield. The crashing 'Jormungander', one of my favourites here, is unrelenting in its fresh-blooded blasts and double bass, with whirring riffs cavorting menacingly over the kit carnage - punctuated in a twanging acoustic break and all ending in a harmonized melodic riff saturated in evil and tension.

Quiet moments of folky instrumentation and sound effects are restrained as mentioned, although present. A short instrumental called 'Nature's Cult' passing swiftly before Bouq roar back in with the Behemoth-influenced and massively epic 'Eidolon'. The sinister chants that open 'Heathen' soon make way for wrathful rolling double bass and Immortal-inspired blackened chords. Often the dry sounds of traditional Arabic instruments are forged into the solid iron of Bouq's blackened and deathly assault. 'Wrath of a Warrior's Soul' is a blistering exercise in merciless thrashed up, Deströyer 666-like extreme metal that lays waste with snarling riffs - then a slower mid-section of haunting growled chants. Closer 'Of Ragnarök' thrusts rusted scimitars straight through your heart with its climactic appropriation of Eastern-sounding keys and instruments while discharging one last eruption of lustful riffs and harsh vocals.This is seriously excellent blackened metal showing a fine ear for riffs and melodies that segue from the nihilistically mournful to the vehement and muscular.

Berserk boasts the best sound I've yet heard from an obscure Middle Eastern band, although my listening hasn't been as extensive as I'd like... yet. The perfect balance of bleak and blackened desert guitars, with burly bass guitar thrumming and nicely mixed vocals, not to mention the meaty thrash of Bursheh's drums, are no doubt a result of his activities as a producer and sound engineer in Jordan. He knows just what he wants this to sound like, and possesses the know-how to create according to his vision.

So when Muhannad Bursheh refers to ancient-spirited black metal, he means to say the black metal he creates is as ancient in its genre as the civilizations he writes about are in our history - rather than the carefully grandiose craft of Melechesh or Amaseffer. Good enough to displace Ignivomous, maybe Desaster or even Melechesh at least for a while from the CD players of their listeners.

Asian Worshippers Tour: Singapore January 17th, 2011

2011-01-17T22:00:00.001+08:00

The Asian Worshippers Tour kicked off in Singapore last night, arranged around the historical homecoming of now Italy-based horde Impiety. Assembling to reinforce the 20 year-strong band led by Shyaithan were Surrender of Divinity, Draconis Infernum and Humiliation. My left ear is still ringing quite loudly.

Humiliation

Humiliation are a no-name Bolt Thrower clone out of Kuala Lumpur who were mildly entertaining, although I wouldn't be able to recall any riffs or standout tracks if you asked me. A fair enough primer for the onslaught that was to ensue if it weren't for the fact they had obviously arrived late, since we were sat outside puffing through a pack of cigarettes long after the appointed time of 6pm, awaiting the signal to enter the venue. Bad enough, but they insisted on playing their entire set past what I would judge was their allotted time, possibly leaving the following band with less time for their far superior assault.

Draconis Infernum

That band was Draconis Infernum, readying themselves for the unleashing of their second full-length, Rites of Desecration and Demise. Despite their reduced playing time, the four-piece on stage fucking slew. Xeper and Niloc, cowled in Sunn 0)))-style grimmrobes over their corpse paint, stood out to the side of Serberuz Hammerfrost in his spiked, chained wargear to cut a forbidding image.

With the debut's studio drummer Hammerfrost now handling both bass and vocals as well, Xamroth of Singapore's black/ death metal brotherhood Warsaw sits in on drums when the band play live, and provides a suitable powerhouse behind the three full-time guys.

Death in My Veins was one of my black metal picks for 2008, and Hammerfrost adapted its searing vocal lines with his own grim snarl very capably while glaring balefully down upon the crowd. The debut's expansive war anthems were punctuated by the slightly more compacted attacks from the follow-up. The tracks from Rites of Desecration and Demise currently being wielded on stage are 'Proclamation of Encroachment', 'The Grand Conjuration' and 'Vengeance Unto Thee', spawned from the minds and guitars of Xeper and Niloc. These instantly memorable verses of punishment were meted with merciless energy and (having heard all this on record) equally merciless precision throughout.

Which logically left me wishing they had longer to play, although I anticipate some truly furious local shows from this horde once Rites of Desecration and Demise is enacting just that upon unsuspecting little Singapore.

Surrender of Divinity

I had been lucky enough to get a sneaky preview of Surrender of Divinity at the soundcheck wielding a backstage pass, and was immediately struck by a vigour and venom in their performance that hadn't connected on Oriental Hell Rhythmics, the only full-length I've heard from them. While that album is an impressive testament to Thailand's chief Satanists' compositional and instrumental ability, I had preferred their material on their split with Impiety. Watching the soundcheck I felt all the wretched evil and violence of those three tracks coming through in their other songs.

And the same could be said once the carnage truly kicked off onstage, with Avaejee now drenched in intricate, tribal war paint and looking genuinely savage. The man has unbelievable stage presence, gnashing his teeth, constantly throwing horns and middle fingers, glaring malevolently around the crowd and thrashing his head about whenever he wasn't singing.

The setlist grew steadily more impressive throughout the performance, tracks like 'Immolating the Son of the Fucking Whore' and 'The Triumph of thy Majesty' eliciting massive response from the audience aided by Avaejee's anti-Christian provocations. With the increasing level of brutality in the cleverly ordered setlist escalating things to a riotous level by the end of the band's performance, I can now include the Siamese Christ-Beheaders among the bands that must be seen live to be truly experienced.

Impiety

Impiety, mighty Impiety, took to the stage twenty minutes later with a bloodlust surpassing even that found on their records. Cuts like 'Goatfather', 'Escalate the Pestilence' and 'Dominator' all had the by-now filling room moving more frenetically than at any time earlier, with a fucking tight performance by Shyaithan, who had perfected the art of looking badass on stage, and his band of Italian warriors. Shyaithan's depraved vocal ejaculations and the twin guitar battery of Eskathon and Guh Lu - unforgiving and evil as all hell with awesome guitar solos flaying layers from my eardrums.

What put this above and beyond any Impiety show you might have seen or that you or I might ever see in the future was an almost full performance of the band's not-yet-released new album, Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny. It is one titanic 38-minute track, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the band had made the choice to unleash it live. I hadn't heard this song before last night. This is the most ambitious thing I have heard from this band, period. Among the standard hyperblasting and furious riffing, great moaning doom riffs and slabs of slow riffing bring Impiety to a menacing crawl that is not familiar territory to them. Nevertheless the whole thing fucking owns, I enjoyed this more than anything else from them. The crowd at large didn't agree, with not much movement during the song's duration compared to the frantic pit that broke out as soon as tracks from Skullfucking Armageddon and Paramount Evil followed. Which pisses me off a bit considering this is an almighty fucking beast of a song that almost killed the band trying to get the whole thing right on stage in one go. My own headbanging was constant however, and I'm glad I made the most of this beast since Shyaithan told me after the show that bar a couple more renditions this month it is unlikely they'll play the whole thing through much in the future.

Among the aforementioned old crowd pleasers was yet another new song by the name of 'Ave Sathanas' I believe, that features on an upcoming Impiety mini-album, presumably intended to provide the band with new artillery for concerts that isn't Worshippers. Again, more ambitious, interestingly put together and a bit longer; though built around Impiety's usual whiplash of blackened death and thrash metal, it suggest to me this band has plenty of places yet to go with its sound.

"Asian and arrogant!" - Shyaithan

Nights like this are the reason I have such massive respect for Singapore's metal scene in general - while the flagship bands of most countries are reasonably friendly in terms of melody and vocals, the sort of thing you could about get away with putting on amongst a group of non-metalheads, this country is represented by a couple of the most unholy hordes on the planet. Angelcorpse, Sarcofago, Mayhem and Gorgoroth are the various influences of Draconis Infernum and Impiety, and the Satanic wrath that flattened and burned Singapore last night easily rivals the most disgusting proponents of the undergrounds of countries further West. Satan is alive and kicking in this secular country.

Metal Over Japan

2011-01-07T00:08:00.005+08:00

Konnichi-ahoy-hoy! I was driven to write this scourge of drivel in response to an article I found on the dubiously named metalunderground.com, which despite claiming in its header that 'some music was meant to stay underground', cheerfully posts news updates on Still Remains and other presumably metalcore bands I've never heard of.

The article was all about the Japanese metal underground, a scene which I am into in a big fucking way right now and which has had my attention since I stumbled across Sabbat. The idea was to talk about recent, unknown bands. It failed to do the latter and it sucked pretty hard at doing the former. This one is going to be much better. The article didn't mention X Japan, it didn't mention Sabbat, or Gorgon, or Abigail, or GsXsD, or Coffins. Not that they're all underground, but fuck it, while we're here right? Let's get started.

X Japan
An article on Japanese metal that doesn't mention X Japan? Fucking clue's in the name mate. Let's set this bang to rights. Personally I think any article about the fucking country Japan should mention this band. Many a happy poker game and drinking session was conducted to X Japan in my university days. While 'Forever Love' and 'Tears' are epic ballads with bags of mainstream popularity in Asia, the band also smashes out some real hooky Malmsteen-esque power metal when they feel like it. These songs are usually all about love and sex, in that particularly wry yet passionate way only Japanese artistry seems to convey. The half an hour 'The Art of Life' might just be one of the greatest power metal songs ever recorded. Seriously, fucking forget Sonata Arctica, forget Stratovarius, you CANNOT find something as emotionally, technically and intellectually gratifying as this epic in the more melodic variants of power metal. And check out Dahlia's title track; racing power metal with soaring vocals in Japanese. Fucking mandatory for power metal, the Japanese scene, progressive metal and Japanese art and culture in general.

Sabbat
The Japanese version! I saw the English Sabbat years ago, and though I usually hold to the opinion that English versions of things (beer, crisps, actually potatoes in general) are far superior, these Samurai kick our Sabbat's ass. From the grimy, grunting and blackened thrash of early classics like Envenom and Disembody to the hyperactive, shrieking cacophany of thrash they now peddle through obscure splits, Sabbat is fucking killer. Even taking Venom's lead on At War With Satan to create the seminal one-song album The Dwelling, they are like the Edogawa Rampo of metal. A playful, fascinating Japanese rendering of Western styles that kicks as much ass as any of the bands they number among their influences.

Gorgon
They are obsessed with NWOBHM. These are my people! NWOBHM and various sounds from that era are currently coming back all over the USA and Europe, but before you start buying White Wizzard records (they aren't that great) kneel and take note, Gorgon have been recording some of the most kickass metal in the style since the mid-90s. This is Slough Feg with a Japanese accent. You like underground shit? They've never made an album. EPs, live albums and splits is all you get, a compilation if you're lucky. If these songs had been recorded in 1980 by a British band, they'd be getting played on classic rock radio stations worldwide. Wonderful.

Abigail
My favourite description of the band Kiss is in the film Role Models. "These are four of the smartest guys who ever lived. They're these Jewish guys who grew up in New York, and they put on guitars and makeup to get girls, and all their songs are about fucking!" I'm listening. Abigail is something like that. They're these dudes from Tokyo, and they constantly get wasted and play speed metal with lyrics about Satan, violence, death and Japanese pussy. It's stupidly fast, like Exodus' 'Bonded by Blood' sped up, unmixed, sped up again and performed drunk at breakneck speed. Before being sped up again. The definition of street metal.

Coffins
Is there any Autopsy-worship band heavier, fuzzier, more disgusting, and just as fucking awesome as Coffins? The correct response would be no sir. I imagine Coffins sit in dark rooms constantly spinning Mental Funeral and Severed Survival, occasionally and grudgingly consenting to listen to Last One on Earth by Asphyx. The production is as deep and dirty as the Devil's bowels, and their songs follow a loyal formula of trudging riffs and throbbing drums. Their discography is as ridiculously long as their music is ridiculously great, with a torrent of splits having bridged the gap between full-lengths. These vinyls could make another probably two extremely impressive albums, both in length and quality. Hooded Menace and Acid Witch are the current underground death doom favourites active at the moment, but for consistency and sheer nuclear discography proliferation these guys are second to none.

GxSxD
GxSxD are Japan's answer to Vader in the same way Coffins answers to Autopsy, and Sabbat to Venom. By in the same way, I mean the answer they provide is as solid as God's bones and blows most other mere imitators far out of the water. The enormous battalion of riffs and roars provided by brothers Yusuke and Yohsuke razes through ancient Dutch death metal influences like Sinister's Hate to flavour the Vader worship. With one full-length and a couple other releases out, not to mention a stunning live performance based on Youtube and anecdote, the world outside Japan is just waiting for these Japanese aggressors to take it by the throat.

Concerto Moon
Malmsteen, Satriani, Weikath and Tolkki move aside, move aside now. Norifumi Shima means business with his streams of neoclassical power metal guitar adrenalin. Whether pumping out waves of instrumental bliss or joined by the super-manly voice of Takashi Inoue, Norifumi absolutely owns. You aren't hearing many riffs or solos like these out of Europe no more, let me tell you. There is just something about the abject mournfulness Japanese virtuosos seem to be able to inject into their sound, especially when allowed to prog out for eight minutes as Norifumi does on the song 'Rain Forest'. Just one more reason to move to Japan.

Like I say, I feel like Japan's metal scene is providing me with more joy than any other right now. That's given you a tiny sampling of a few bands, some commercially successful in America and others playing to small crowds around Asia. There's lots more. Sniper, Gallhammer, Sigh, Grudge, Zombie Ritual, Anatomia, Onmyouza and Corrupted all merit immediate attention, as do no doubt several bands I can't think of and any number I don't know. Honestly, this is next to useless except as a list of bands Jon likes. I mean Japan is fucking huge for metal. Maiden Japan anyone? How about the hundreds of bands who see their way to releasing exclusive bonus tracks, singles, live albums, and so on exclusively to the Japanese market? This is the most rocking place in Asia. Stand by for a series of reviews on bands such as the above reiterating, rephrashing and contradicting the opinions and musings in this rant. Or don't. Stand by!

Ecliptic Dawn: Eternal Night of Eclipse

2011-01-06T22:23:00.000+08:00

63%.

I was prepared to give a gothic act from Syria the benefit of the doubt. After all, it's another of those countries where it isn't easy or even legal to be in a metal band. You can get fired for it, or (probably) worse. But as the 'The Ultimate Eclipse' gets going, all throaty growls and burly death doom riffs augmented by Crematory style keyboards... it becomes clear that this is more than an attempt to emulate the sounds Ecliptic Dawn might have heard on recent goth albums, possibly painstakingly smuggled into the country. The nearest comparison I can think of is Keltgar, a disbanded Belgian group who operated mostly through demos and produced some fantastic deathly gothic doom.

Like Keltgar, the usual male narration and female singing accompanies the growls, but the sound on the guitar is good enough to keep those with short attention spans interested. Some interesting lead work later on the opening track has an Eastern feel akin to Melechesh. Sole fixed member Sam is in charge of keyboards (which are fairly ubiquitous here) and has an excellent deep grunt, put to good use again over the death metal propulsion of 'Moonless Nights', which sounds something like early Amorphis.

So Sam belongs in the early '90s with his robust vocals, and with a bit of work his keyboards could be integrated into a very satisfying early Crematory-type recipe. His only problem is instruments. Most people in Syria with an interest in playing metal want to be guitarists (like most people everywhere) and bassists and drummers are hard to come by. So there's a lot of keyboards here, since it is Sam's band after all, there's a drum computer and a number of guest musicians recruited to supply the actual metal. The instrumental 'Prologue into Darkness' is pointless, but then again I'm not the best person to talk to about short, instrumental keyboard prologues and interludes, unless they are stupidly fucking good for some reason. This isn't. It leads into 'Death of Eclipse Poetry', which lacks the frankly boring female vocals of earlier tracks but neither delivers the pounding guitars of the first two songs. This may be as a result of there being different musicians on each track.

It's nudging towards a combination of elegant Eastern-flavoured metal, which is certainly popular these days, and some very nice thrusting death doom. Unfortunately the record's final track is nothing memorable, but I can listen to the first two again for the cool, gruff death/ doom packed in among the soprano and other gothic flourishes. If the whole thing was like the second minute or so of 'The Ultimate Eclipse', just with a human drummer, it would stand a good chance at slaying. There's a lot of hard work gone into this, and the concept behind the band shows definite potential.

The Heavy Metal Saloon Awards 2010

2011-01-03T16:45:00.004+08:00

There just isn't the space to go into the events of 2010 here. Personal, global, and everything in between has been all over the shop. Just in terms of heavy metal, 2010 has been huge. The biggest thing is that we lost some of our dearest and greatest, the greatest and the dearest to me being Ronnie James Dio. I may as well announce now that in the company of Iommi he was responsible for last decade's greatest album, The Devil You Know - which with Heaven and Hell, and Rainbow Rising, means he has dominated three decades. For me, at least. Aside from that we lost Peter Steele. A more dynamic and interesting figurehead will never be found in gothic metal or in the French metal scene. Both Nergal and King Diamond were taken seriously ill, forcing their bands to be put on ice for the near future. And that's just the tip of the ice-berg that was a fairly unfortunate year for those in heavy metal circles.

This is all about the music that we did hear though. After a week of intense reviewing, for both obscurities and tasty nuggets from what is now last year, it's time to list Jon's top treats from what is either the last year of the last decade or the first of the new one. I'm not sure how we do this. All bases were covered fairly thoroughly and overall I'm hard pressed to pick a better year out of 2009 and 2010. A solid year, but you had to be looking in the right places. As for my number 1 album, I haven't reviewed it yet, I didn't expect it to be my album of the year, even after a couple of listens. But after hearing it over and over, I can comfortably say this is Maiden's best work in nine years. Number 2 was very close mind. And by the way, it doesn't completely match up with the ratings I gave albums I DID review, if you compare them. Will I go back and change them appropriately? Fucking maybe!

Top Twenty-Five Albums of 2010

[1] Iron Maiden: The Final Frontier
[2] The Lord Weird Slough Feg: The Animal Spirits
[3] Wuthering Heights: Salt
[4] Dawnbringer: Nucleus
[5] Kalmah: 12 Gauge

[6] Torture Division: Evighetens Dårar
[7] Darkthrone: Circle the Wagons
[8] Overkill: Ironbound
[9] Hail of Bullets: On Divine Winds
[10] Negator: Panzer Metal

[11] Sargeist: Let the Devil In
[12] Triptykon: Eparistera Daimones
[13] Wolfsmond: Wolfsmond III
[14] Sinister: Legacy of Ashes
[15] Al-Namrood: Estorat Taghoot

[16] Suma: Ashes
[17] Tarot: Gravity of Light
[18] God Dethroned: Under the Sign of the Iron Cross
[19] Black Sun Aeon: Routa
[20] Accept: Blood of the Nations

[21] Wheel: Wheel
[22] The Grotesquery: Tales of the Coffin Born
[23] Procession: Destroyers of the Faith
[24] Autopsy: The Tomb Within
[25] Watain: Lawless Darkness

And for the first time, a list of honourable mentions to reflect the quantity of ass-kicking one was able to unearth in 2010. In a less carefully thought out order:

[26] Vomitor: Devil's Poison
[27] Ramesses: Take the Curse
[28] Grave Digger: The Clans Will Rise Again
[29] The Crown: Doomsday King
[30] Blasphemophagher: ...for Chaos, Obscurity and Desolation...
[31] Tankard: Vol(l)ume 14
[32] Cemetery Urn: The Conquered Are Burned
[33] Anathema: We're Here Because We're Here
[34] Gamma Ray: To the Metal!
[35] Chaosreign: Spreading Death
[36] Black September: The Forbidden Gates Beyond
[37] Black Majesty: In Your Honour
[38] Deathhammer: Phantom Knights
[39] Finntroll: Nifelvind
[40] Therion: Sitra Ahra
[41] Thaurorod: Upon Haunted Battlefields
[42] Rage: Strings to a Web
[43] Tristania: Rubicon
[44] Whispered: Thousand Swords
[45] Withered: Dualitas
[46] Sabaton: Coat of Arms
[47] Hooded Menace: Never Cross the Dead
[48] Nominon: Monumentombó
[49] Halford: Made of Metal
[50] Mael Mórdha: Mannanán

Best Cover Art: Triptykon: Eparistera Daimones followed by Ramesses: Take the Curse

Best Cover Song: 'Painkiller', Judas Priest cover by ChthoniC

Best Compilation: Deströyer 666: To the Devil His Due

Fun Songs from Lame Albums: Dimmu Borgir: 'Dimmu Borgir' from Abrahadabra and Made of Hate: 'Lock 'n' Load' from Pathogen

Best Split: Evoken/ Beneath the Frozen Soil followed by Count Raven/ Griftegård [Jon's note: Evoken win based on their crazy-awesome songs on this split. BtFS are yawnsome. See review]

Best Non-Metal Albums:
Sadistik & Kid Called Computer: The Art of Dying
Johnny Cash: American V: Ain't No Grave
DJ Muggs VS. Ill Bill: Kill Devil Hills
Brant Bjork: Gods and Goddesses
God is an Astronaut: Age of the Fifth Sun

Best Live Album: Dio: Dio at Donington UK: Live 1893 & 1987

Suma: Ashes

2011-01-02T19:30:00.000+08:00

91%.

Ashes needs to be played very loud. But don't turn it up all the way yet, because you'll be reaching for the nob repeatedly during this album's duration. This is the sophomore full-length from a totally underrated sludge doom band out of Sweden, where all my favourite unrecognized doom outfits seem to be these days (Runemagick, Ocean Chief, Kongh). These guys are heavy enough to make those three seem easy going. The heaviest thing out for 2010. The sound on this record is absolutely massive, big enough to make you feel small yourself. But this isn't just an hour of obligatory sonic weight going nowhere, the ability of the band members to tear up their instruments in new and threatening ways is second to none, and the composition of the gradually building, ultimately devastating tracks is good enough to put this on any doomhead's 2010 list. I shit you not.

My first impression of this band and album was the drums, so here goes. Drummer Erik is a tribal motherfucker, and the single most important member of this band, at least on these recordings. After the Pink Flamingos sample that opens 'Headwound', the most titanic drum sound of 2010 clothes-hangers you into the ropes and pins you there, while building-high surfs of diabolically fuzzy riffs batter you into the consistency of soup. A colleague once described Behemoth's The Apostasy to me as "drums, drums and more drums!" to which I grinned and agreed. This is the sludge doom equivalent, as far out a comparison as Behemoth is. The drums on this record are more important to the sound than on any other sludge doom album I've heard. It makes Eyehategod's percussion seem pedestrian. While the songs are by their nature slow, the energy vibrating through the kit prevents any lethargy in the music. It's the sound of tribal drums growing louder outside your tent in the middle of headhunter territory, but deep and heavy as fuck. The crashing, cavorting drum patterns at the beginning of the title track before its menacing three-note guitar motif comes in leaves you nailed to your seat with your mouth slack. As will the eight-minute break. After an album of stunningly precise and bowel-loosingly heavy kit-destruction, Mr. Erik breaks out his most enormous performance for 'War on Drugs', a track with drums so tectonically massive every other element of the music is all but blasted away. This has to be heard to be believed. My words are as nothing to the primal power erupting from this man's drum kit. The drum performance of 2010 and no less.

Guitars are by a gent named Pete with the help of Johan on bass. The sound is as often a huge, hairy swamp of growling distortion as it is a ringing drone arcing savagely over the drums. The flanged menace of 'Orissa's opening five or six minutes will burn itself into your brain, with Peter showing a talent for memorable if ponderous riffs. The burning tremolo-picked opening of 'Justice' ignites the album's second shortest and second most driving song after 'Headwound', baying guitars punctuated as always by drums like collapsing buildings. Here as throughout the album Jovan's vocals are almost irrelevant, seeming obligatory while also fitting the sound perfectly. He shouts, screams and whatever from what sounds like a distant place, as if he's being flayed brutally by the instrumental magnitude of Suma.

The songs on Ashes range from seven to seventeen minutes, and not a moment feels wasted or stretched. 'Headwound' is a violent kickoff to this album, determinedly grinding forth with a low-end bass-heavy guitar sound. At less than seven minutes and with no change of direction from rumbling, groovy sludge assault, it's as modest as the album gets in terms of its ambition to be the year's heaviest and most crushing work. Or to put it in Pinhead's words, "down the dark decades of your suffering, THIS will seem like a memory of happiness!" The title track is the highlight of the album, a thirteen and a half minute leviathan that doesn't see vocals until over halfway through. As above, this is all about the drums. Guitar riffs that would be genre highlights for the year on any other sludge doom release simply play second fiddle. An awesome second fiddle that's more a mighty erect penis of primitive fucking doom.

Every time I stick this on I am plunged headlong into a savage and bestial world of sluggish, granite-hard and burdensome riffs raging tempestuously around bestial drums. Easily this sub-genre's titan for 2010, and a genre highlight for the decade simply for its sheer weight and size combined with the inspired animosity of the band members toward their instruments. Endeavour to hear it, get crushed, flattened, condone first degree murder, advocate cannibalism, EAT SHIT!

Goat Funeral: Bastion Lucifer

2011-01-02T19:28:00.000+08:00

69%.

Goat Funeral are a two-man black metal band with a name I am surprised wasn't snapped up before they showed up on the scene. Their country of origin and relatively colourful (sepia, instead of greyscale) album art might suggest propulsive blast-fired chaos in the vein of countrymen Negator, Mor Dagor and Endstille. However the production is neither as loud and heavy nor the music so cacophonous as the expostulations of the aforementioned. In fact, Goat Funeral don't even unleash the raw and basic black metal fury their name would suggest, but rather a melange of several influences drawn from the dark years of Christian torment at the hands of black metal.

The guitar tone of Isaac Goaten is fairly rounded and heavy, particularly in the slower moments of the album. His faster riffing draws on the cold apathy of Mayhem and Darkthrone to the baleful glare of Sweden's roaring Nordic hordes. Von Blutseyn's vocals are sharp, searing and just right for the job.

There is a lot going on in terms of variety, belying the band's presentation. Alongside the continuous fire of the aptly titled 'Continuous Fire', an early Immortal-style workout, several tracks push the boat to shrouded shores. The slower moments punctuating the album allow it a morbid tone. Bastion Lucifer's opening title track opens at an unexpectedly deliberate mid-pace, augmented by some synthesized orchestras or something, setting the scene for the blasting mayhem to come in. 'Slaves of the Frostbitten Moon' opens with vocals wretched over a bass grumble and mournful guitars, running into a slow-paced number with swollen, repetitive riffs in the vein of later Lord Belial.

The better moments for me are the ones where the band do fire at will however. 'Why I Hate the Fruit' is kickass Urgehal-like Satanic black metal from the get go, rough and rocking blackened riffs with hairy testicles over d-beats. 'Goat - Fuck - Perversion' likewise, breaking from the apocalyptic tremolo-picked riffs for the sound of an unfortunate dude getting nommed by some beast. The sort of thing I'd like to see knocked out live, as is the driving and melodically inclined 'Scars of a Nation', all boiling vocals and chilling riffs. 'Church of Genosuicide' opens with more slow bits and a weird, half-clean chant of the title, before moving into faster territories, but as the album's epic it rather fails to titillate throughout it's eight minute runtime.

Despite the amount going on, it doesn't quite connect with the immediacy of other releases out of Germany and Sweden this year in particular, nor does it match up to albums in recent years from more traditionally-rooted bands. Black metal doesn't have to be all non-stop blasting to get me involved, but I would appreciate a higher level of either aggression or morbidity and occultness from this band. About now they are loitering a little between those two branches of the genre.

Gorgon: Gorgon

2011-01-02T19:27:00.000+08:00

85%.

Gorgon are a Japanese band closely associated with black/ thrash legends of the Orient, Sabbat. They are obsessed with the sounds of Britain in the late '70s and early '80s from what I can make out, and despite years of activity and a number of releases, have never recorded a full-length. This two-track EP was released in 1996 as their first recording not on a split, and is sure to make you want to track down more of their music if you are anything like me.

Shigeyuki Koide's vocals are the peculiar and wonderful part of this EP for me. It's really what sets this apart. His thick Japanese accent, which bends his pronunciations into interesting shapes and innovative vocal melodies, is only part of the puzzle. He also has a deep but slightly keening voice, that even on the rocking 'Cold Hearted Woman' adds a mournful feel. His opening verse on 'Ice Angels' is so spaced out and relaxed, it should fit uneasily with the chugging guitars that follow - but he switches to a throaty yell that suits perfectly.

The opener 'Cold Hearted Woman' is straight into pentatonic soloing trickery and thrumming bass runs, before Koide-san even gets a chance to break out his verse. It has the NWOBHM sensibilities of much of the band's work, with some big rocking riffs reminiscent of Saxon's debut album. From what I see on their metal-archives.com profile it is also a staple of live shows, and I'd appreciate them reactivating for some shows now I'm actually in Asia!

The Bitch's Sin cover shows the band's ability to appropriate a slower, more balladic sound with a heart and soul seldom found in groups who are essentially playing homage to far older, more established acts. I haven't heard the original, but the joyful power chords and classic clean guitars sound just right coming from the Japanese boys. The smashing, racing climax shows off the virtuoso guitars and precise drumming of the band, and overall this and the previous song sound like extremely legit , very immediate NWOBHM/ rock songs from a golden age gone by.

Japan has a fascinating heavy metal scene with a ton of bands putting out great music and getting fairly slim recognition for it. Coming across these guys was a bit of luck (via a Sabbat cover - there's that close relationship of theirs)... so I'm doing y'all a favour by reviewing them.

Cirith Gorgor/ Mor Dagor: Demonic Incarnation/ Memento Mori

2011-01-02T19:26:00.001+08:00

63%.

Here's a split between two black metal bands deserving of more attention - the Dutch traditionalists in Cirith Gorgor, and the violently aggressive German band Mor Dagor. Not very helpfully, I haven't heard either of the full-lengths featuring these tracks, but the split is fairly interesting in its own right.

'Demonic Incarnation':

Cirith Gorgor kick off with their 'Demonic Incarnation', a song featuring wonderfully mixed drums for one thing. They have an almost garage-rehearsal feel to them during the clamourous fills, but during the blasts they settle right into a precise and non-triggered beat. Overall the drum sound is better than on the full-length I have by them, Firestorm Apocalypse. Meanwhile the riffs are typically horrendous, in a good way, tremolo glaring forth across the drums with plenty of catchy spite and leaping into faster riffing for the snarling climaxes of the song's second half. Cirith Gorgor compressed into six minutes isn't quite as impressive as some of the sprawling songs on Firestorm Apocalypse, but the mix is nice and evil and it's a memorable track. It's on their self-titled album in re-recorded form, which followed hot on the heels of this.

'Memento Mori':

Mor Dagor keep the ball rolling with 'Memento Mori', a track lacking of some of the brutality and bestiality of Mk.IV - which is basically what I liked the album for - and featuring some of the colder sounds of their debut Bloodstream. There's more what you might call German or Nordic melody, if you are listening to Negator or recent Marduk at all these days. The visage of the track is generally grim, extremely thin and menacing riffs picked with almost relaxed malevolence over the messy, rolling drums. Plenty of snare and bass drum make this a weighty as well as sharp-sounding track.

The split:

I would recommend you do the opposite of myself and check out full-lengths before this split; however Mk.IV and Firestorm Apocalypse should be your priority as those are two excellent albums communicating their cold, hateful agendas far more directly than the material here. I can't think of many reasons to own this despite it making an interesting team up, hence my low rating.

Deströyer 666: To the Devil His Due

2010-12-31T03:02:00.000+08:00

84%.

Deströyer 666 on tour with Watain! To coincide, a new EP was released to follow up last year's Defiance. For those who didn't make the tour, the songs are included on a spanking new compilation of some of their EPs, all wrapped in some excellent Miltonic cover art. Production throughout is rough and unpretentious in the tradition of the band's EPs, although Violence is the Prince of This World and Terror of Abraxas is omitted. The purported theme of the disc is 7"s, and I imagine this is to let the collection play through like a classic speed metal album rather than a compilation, at the cost of missing out on the wonderful 'Trialed by Fire'.

The collection opens with the two tracks from 1998's Satanic Speed Metal - a golden era of the band, being the aftermath of Unchain the Wolves. These tracks have the same rough around the edges Venom-injected speed metal, nasty harsh vocals snarling out blasphemic lyrics. The chorus of the EP's title track is appropriately unforgettably and catchy; with its Motörhead styled drumming and cool solo it has to be my favourite track on here. A lesser known anthem that should be up there with 'Black Metal' and 'The Ace of Spades'. Take this opportunity to get hold of this thing.

Considering the panzer-like heavy assault of Phoenix Rising, 'King of Kings' and 'Lord of the Wild' have an almost demo-like production. This is a weird but charming way for the band to keep in touch with their roots, as if they had a compulsion to blast out some unadulterated and untamed heavy-ass metal after a perfectly-executed and well thought out album like the 2000 full-length. Warslut's vocals are bestial and dirty, and the riffs of 'King of Kings' trundle misanthropically along with lots of groove and spite. 'Lord of the Wild' features some beautiful winding Sabbat-meets-Immortal riffs alongside lengthy screeching solos.

The final nod to past 7" desecrations is the three songs from the saucily illustrated ...Of Wolves, Women and War. 'Ghost Dance' thrashes purposefully in, hungry and blackened with the band's signature corkscrewing leads and some glorious nose-dive NWOBHM soloing. 'Taste the Poison' and 'Levens Bload' are mostly blastbeats and double bass respectively, and considering I'm most definitely in the mood for olskool blackened speed metal at this time sit less easily with the other ruffians included.

Those purchasing this record may well comprise largely of people who haven't heard the two new songs. Well they fit perfectly with the above painstakingly described old skull mobilizations. The See You in Hell EP abandons the epic martial leanings of Defiance altogether, extracts the ungodly energy of a thrasher like 'Weapons of Conquest' and spits it back up onto a pair of menacing '80s homages that sound like they were recorded alongside the two songs from 1998 opening the damn album. 'Through the Broken Pentagram' is all jagged '80s riffs and bass-heavy drumming at a menacing mid-pace, 'See You in Hell' brings the 35 minute record to a crashing close with drunken, shouted verses and a classic NWOBHM guitar solo.

To keep up as a top of the underground band in a live circuit dominated by Behemoths, God Dethroneds and Hail of Bulletses, I suppose some brutalisation and militarisation is needed. This band however, judging by the new songs, this release and their T-shirt designs, seem to secretly want to stay comfortably lodged in the tape trading days. Personally, I wouldn't mind the next full album being along these lines.

Depending on your musical tastes, you might get most of what you need from Deströyer 666 by buying this, Terror of Abraxas and Unchain the Wolves. It certainly showcases their rougher, traditional side and for completists complements the refined and polished Defiance very nicely. To me this is like the ultimate Deströyer 666 fan mixtape, released as an album with sweet cover art.

Sengir: Sign of Devotion

2010-12-31T02:59:00.000+08:00

58%.

Sengir are a now defunct band who played in the style of Within Temptation, with added influences of The Mission and Blondie, if they were to be believed. Their swansong album Sign of Devotion boasts a) a cool cover and b) a few really cool songs. What it doesn't have is enough songwriting consistency or cohesion to live up to the excellent production and apparent talent of the musicians playing.

Their focal point is the singing of Ellen Schutyser, and she really is quite good. She sings in a "clean" style, staving off the usual soprano tendencies of her contemporaries, able to switch between tender, softer singing and imposing wails for her choruses. Guitarists Pieter de Lannoy and Frederik de Dobbeleer plump for big, epic power chords and simple chugging. There's not a whole lot of wizardry going on, but the tone on the guitars is great, as is the mix on the entire album. The drums sound full and powerful, and as usual only the bass guitar gets short-changed.

It starts off promisingly, with the tense synths and chugging guitars of 'Calling' making the perfect backdrop for the vocals. The epic, fast climax is a moment of emotional and metallic WIN rarely found in this genre. Catchy and cool as fuck. Meanwhile 'Time' features a cosmic synth intro, slowly burning into gothic metal with choruses that climax in shredding guitars and d-beats. These are two of the absolute best, most rocking gothic metal numbers I've heard.

Unfortunately most of the middle of the album flops in quality immediately after these two kickass numbers have elapsed. And it's not just the law of diminishing returns, that harsh mistress. I could try switching the order of the songs, 'Conscience Awake' and 'Close to the Bone' are still as mind-numbingly dull to listen to as the directionless 'Back to Reason' and 'My Defense' and most of 'Silver Lining'. There's a couple other worthwhile moments later on. The romantic crunch and soothing but passionate vocals of 'Disbelief' and 'Prove Me Wrong' is more like it, I've got time for this sort of atmosphere-drenched, tuneful gothic number. 'The Day You Take Me Over' reminds me slightly of a lovely The Mission ballad like 'Bird of Prey', but I guess that's just the nice piano and the fact that Sengir got me thinking of The Mission deliberately, fuck! 'Lose the Moment' is a spacey Tiamat-like closer that's fun, if forgettable.

'Calling', 'Time', 'Disbelief' and 'Prove Me Wrong' are all songs that someone weary of Nightwish knock-offs could enjoy for their original approach and excellent composition. Unfortunately this is not all it could be, even given the clever ideas that come through occasionally the massive mid-album slump hurts its impact.

The Gates of Slumber: The Ice Worm's Lair

2010-12-31T02:57:00.000+08:00

75%.

The Ice Worm's Lair takes its name from the track 'Ice Worm', one of Conqueror's more manageable-sized tracks. The addictive and groovy main riff does have a certain wormy quality. Vocalist Karl Simon meanwhile is really reminding me of the bastard child of Chritus and Wino, with some warbling highs recalling Paul Chain very slightly. It's a really solid track and given its size and quality a sensible choice for inclusion on an EP.

The draw for me of course is tasty exclusive stuff! First off is a lovely little acoustic piece called 'Something You Can Never Know', of the sort this band should consider inserting into their full-lengths more often. Heart-wrending guitar plucks make for a very relaxing and thoughtful two minutes. Then there's a cover of 'Flight of Icarus'. The Gates of Slumber, being cleverer than me, singled this out as a Maiden song that would suit a doomed up cover. The pummeling gallop of the main riff and drum tattoo is perfect for it, it's all so obvious now! Simon can't quite pull the vocals off, but instrumentally it combines the mood of the original with chunkier playing with the nail hitting the fucking hammer on the head.

The band continue their careful perusal of my favourite songs with a cover of Dio's 'Egypt (The Chains Are On)'. Like so many Dio and Dio-Sabbath songs this is easy prey for today's traditionally minded doom metal bands, seeing as these very songs are the reason they play like they do. So expect a Campbell-faithful riff with minimal variation from the original. Annoyingly, there is some kind of digital effect or filter on Simon's voice, preventing it from coming even close to attaining the mighty roar of the performance on the original and all existing live recordings I've heard. Still, the guitars are too damn good for me to not enjoy this every time I hear it.

The Gates of Slumber are definitely on my "get more" list of traditional, true, somewhat epically-inclined doom metal bands operating in the here and now, and this EP is a good sampler of what they are capable of. As well as featuring two neat covers.

Swallowed: Swallowed

2010-12-31T02:52:00.000+08:00

71%.

Seems there's still room for proponents of the underground Finnish death metal scene to further deprave the slow and nasty incarnation of the genre in the land of the thousand lakes. Swallowed play music that sounds like the cover of this EP. Greyscale etched messily onto a pitch black background, some horrific cross-breed of tree-roots and vertebrae glowering out at you.

Despite 'Unsavorably' kicking off and finishing with furious blasts, Swallowed like to keep their disgusting brand of deathly metal to a doom-like pace and atmosphere. The track wallows in an Autopsy-like mammoth of a doom riff, treading forward slowly while vocalist Samu Salovaara wretches hysterically in a mid-pitched rasping growl. 'Black Phlegm' almost sounds like its about to rip off Autopsy's 'Retribution of the Dead', which itself ripped off Black Sabbath's 'Black Sabbath', but the third note curls menacingly upwards into a new but still very similiar bit of gore-lubricated doom. There is just something about doom riffs being played by death metal bands like this that's awesome, maybe the way they tune their guitars, or the more hollow and clattering drum kit sound, or at a basic level the grotesque vocals. It works very nicely for me. The six minute 'The Dying Misted in the Bloodstream', despite not possessing the best track title I've read all year, is a nice bit of death doom as well, taking a little longer to rear its ugly head of Australian-sounding bestial death metal from the mire of crawling, swampy riffs.

The comparison to Australian death metal returns to me as I listen to this recording, bands like Ignivomous and Cemetery Urn being the best comparisons for the filthy production and hideously violent outbursts of breakneck death metal, while the country's roots in grim, slow-moving death and the recent convergence of the style with Autopsy-worship death/ doom supplies the band's backbone. All that sound good?