I am not sure
why the label bothered with a promo sheet as the info on there is
scant and mostly useless. It is just a lot of talk about how much
they love their Hermetic beliefs. It took me a little while to get
used to the vocals of Blood Moon. They are sort of a strange mix of
Mortuary Drape, early Immortal, the deeper growling portion of King
Diamond’s style and more. They will likely be an acquired taste. But
I found after a couple of listens they really grew on me. Yes it may
be a weird mix, but I am a fan of all those vocal influences I
named, so it was probably no surprise I like them. I think this
vocalist was also once in Crimson Moon and also has done the logos
of bands like Black Funeral & Xasthur. I guess I would call the
music itself sort of ritualistic & mystical in nature with a touch
of the theatrical. The way they use the drums definitely helps
re-enforce the ritual like feel. If they were trying to create a
soundtrack for an HP Lovecraft book as the band name might suggest –
then they have achieved their goal in my opinion. “In Desolationem…”
is not the most digestible and easy to get into music, but that is
not necessarily a bad thing. This is the case with Dagon and each
new listen brings the whole picture into clearer view for me. But it
will of course take some patience. Some of the riffing sections
definitely remind me to early 90s Norge black metal. Which when it
is me who is reviewing, it is never really a bad thing. This is a
pretty interesting piece of work that should appeal to those into
strange atmospheric black metal with old school 80s touches and many
layers to attempt to peel back. - Dale
http://www.cultofdagon.com/
http://www.myspace.com/cultofdagon |
|
As I understand
it this album was released on a limited run of 100 CDRs, then the
mighty I Hate Records picked it up, had the band re-record the bass
and some guitar solos were added, then re-mixed for this final
product. Damnations Hammer are a UK Doom / Death metal band that
seems to be heavily influenced by the superb authors H.P. Lovecraft
and Robert E. Howard. The simple description I gave above of the
band playing Doom / Death actually covers what you will hear on
here, as it is pretty straight forward music. But it is good; it is
fine, that is it, just very simple music that is also quite
effective. The bio uses the description of Celtic Frost (as they
were entering their avant-garde period I assume they mean?) and
Candlemass (which I can hear as well, but to a lesser extent). Those
influences do have a doomy death metal element added to them. The
music itself is slow to mid-paced, almost pulsating in its
crushingly heavy and hypnotic pounding fashion; this music
completely grinds you into submission in slow motion. It is kind of
repetitive and a one trick pony in some respects, but that one trick
works very well for them and they create a very cool atmosphere. The
vocals are fairly clean, slightly gruff, spoken-sung vocals, nothing
remarkable here but they seem to suit the music okay and it works.
We get some good stuff on Disciples Of Hex, not mind-blowing or
overly amazing, but something the genre fanatics will eat up. I Hate
Records just keeps finding these good to excellent doom bands I have
never heard about. - Dale
http://www.reverbnation.com/damnationshammer
http://www.ihate.se/ |
|
Yet another
grindcore band from Malaysia, I like that scene, but I had no idea
that grind was this prolific over there. Damokis are more about
speed, than the other Grundar releases I have reviewed, certainly
more on the speed tip than the great Chelation Intoxication. But all
the same, they do mix in some more mid paced parts, which add more
dynamic and definition to their brutalizing speed. I can not help
being reminded of an old grind band I love named Groinchurn, when I
am listening to the sweetly entitled “Grinding Mother Whore”
material. I like how Damokis mix things up, they are not just
mindless one note racing, no they have some hooks in there, some
thrashy sort of riffing pops up now and then, some breaks and slow
downs really helped keep my interest and enjoy level on this album.
I have to give the band credit, they are staying true to their grind
roots, but changing things up and trying new things here and there,
just enough to accent the music and never lose what they love, and
we love, about grind in the first place. This is some good shit,
pick this one up and Chelation Intoxication too, you will have great
double bill that satisfy your grindcore lust for a long time to
come! - Dale
http://www.reverbnation.com/damokis
http://www.grundar.com/ |
|
Dark Celebration
are Paragon Records latest signing/release and what a monumental
metal release it is. This Brazilian band is pure old-school Death
Metal through and through. Mid-to extremely fast chaotic drumming
and insane whirlwind guitar riffs and some solo's thrown into the
mix. The vocals are just as extreme and unpredictable with some
gruff growls, screams/shrieks and the deeper brutal sounding growl.
Fans of (old) Incantation, (old) Morbid Angel, Krisiun or pure Death
Metal in general will want to find and this release as soon as
possible! – Patrick
http://www.paragonrecords.org
http://www.myspace.com/darkcelebration666 |
|
This newly
formed band is an old school death metal band in more ways than one.
It is the style they play, but also it’s members go waaay back in
the UG scene as the line up consists of Hempa Brynolfsson (Ordo
Inferus, ex-Excruciate etc…) on guitars, Daryl Kahan (Citizens
Arrest, Funebrarum, ex-Abazagorath etc…) on bass, Andy Whale
(ex-Bolt Thrower, Memoriam etc…) on drums, Linus Nirbrant (A
Canorous Quintet, The Ending, The Dead etc…) on guitars, Gord Olson
(Ye Goat-Herd Gods & Demisery) on vocals. That is one hell of a
group of musicians, but damn how did they get Andy Whale, drummer of
Bolt Thrower from 1986-1994 on board?! Besides that it is quite an
international cabal of musicians from the UK, Canada, America and
Sweden. Anyways, onward to the music, shall we? Darkened play what I
would call straight up death metal, it is not technical, it does not
have progressive elements or song structuring, yes of course it is
brutal yet not ultra brutal – as I say just straight up death metal.
The guitars have add a dark aura to the sound that reminds me a
little to earlier of Benediction or Grave with that sort of guitar
sound. Speaking of which, there is some fine classy guitar fills in
some of the songs, a superb example of this starts a minute or two
into the song “Unredeemed”, the fantastic emotive guitars there give
me chills. The vocalist Gord Olson, despite him being from the same
area I am from in Canada, I do not think I have heard any of his
bands before now. I can now see why this accomplished congregation
of musicians chose this young man. I mean fuck, he is one of the
best death metal growlers I have heard in years, he has a deep
sounding classic growl yet he has real range within that style, his
enunciation and articulation while staying within that brutish growl
is superb! This ep is just growing on me more and more with each
successive listen. I will be interested to find out if this band is
a project band or something these guys hope to do full on?! I would
most definitely be into hearing a full album from this killer
grouping of musicians. If, when and until that happens, you will
have this cool ep to listen to! - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/darkeneddeathmetal
https://edgedcircleproductions.com/ |
|
Well now, I am happy to see Darkened have
answered my question in my review of their recent debut ep, and they
have answered in spades! I wondered out loud with the impressive
international gathering of musicians, whether Darkened was going to
be a once in a while project band or even potentially a one-off. As
you see they have answered back very quickly with their debut
full-length album. I listed them last time, but I love knowing this
stuff personally, so I will list again the members band history as
they are current or ex-members of bands like bands like A Canorous
Quintet, Bolt Thrower, Excruciate, Ordo Inferus, Memoriam, Divinity,
AngelBlast, This Ending and a bunch more! Since the ep Daryl Kahan
has exited the band and has been replaced on bass by Tobias
Cristiansson (Grave, ex-The Dagger, ex-Dismember). It should come as
no surprise that music and performances from all members are top
quality with their collective experience shining through. I pointed
out last time within their memorable brutal death metal riffing is a
lot of guitar fills and nuances, even solos, which are really
emotive and stylish adding a classic feeling and tasteful depth to
their sound. Those elements add a certain measured, all turned up an
extra level to produce a dark aura that suits this heavy music
perfectly. As I mentioned last time around the band play straight up
death metal, it is not super technical, nor is it excessively brutal
or watered down with too much melody, no it is just straight
traditional death metal that I enjoyed very much. I gushed a little
last time around about Canadian vocalist Gord Olson and it was with
good cause, as I view him as one of the best death metal growlers to
come along in a long while, for me he is on the level with legends
like Dave Ingram, John Tardy, Jorgen Sandström, Matti Kärki, David
Vincent etc… Yes I enjoy his vocals that much! Darkened proudly
continue the classic Swedish death metal sound / style (my personal
favourite style of death metal) taking that great sound and mixing
it with various other influences like Benediction, Bolt Thrower and
the like. I came into this release, coming off their impressive ep
with some pretty high expectations, and I am happy to report that
those expectations were met in a very satisfying way. Highly
recommended! - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/darkeneddeathmetal
https://edgedcircleproductions.com/ |
|
There is really
nothing critical or negative, which I can muster to tell you about
this album. Darkest Era play free flowing heavy metal with an epic
feel atmospherically speaking. The riffing is catchy, the drums top
notch, the song writing and arranging are exceptional. The vocalist
fits the music perfectly with his smooth, soaring clean vocals and
harmonies. This style of music needs a top shelf vocalist and
Darkest Era has that, matched with the amazing music and song
writing, they create some magic together. You can look as hard as
you like, for a weak link with this band, but you will come away
empty handed. I can not recommend this album high enough, to fans of
epic heavy metal, with slight prog overtones. I thoroughly enjoyed
this one. - Dale
http://darkestera.bandcamp.com/
http://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com/ |
The guys at
Paragon never cease to amaze me whether it be mind-numbing slow
Doom, harsh Black Metal or crushing grind these guys know Metal
inside and out. Germany's own Darkestrah play a nice blend of
atmospheric Black Metal and cold/pagan Metal mix. The vocals are
shrieks and some deeper growls blended in with the musicianship that
is above average. Mid paced semi-raw guitars and even some acoustic
parts added in to keep the dark feelings alive. And mid-paced
drumming. I was a little worried when I saw the band had a synth
player but the band uses them to their advantage mixing them right
in with the other instruments to create a dark, haunting atmosphere.
For fans of dark pagan Blackness. – Patrick
http://www.paragonrecords.org
http://www.myspace.com/officialdarkestrah |
Ha ha! Darkthrone!
Now here is a much deserved tribute album and personally one that I have
been waiting some time for. Hopefully Darkthrone will be releasing some
new material sometime soon though. All the covers are pretty much
strictly true to the originals with the exception of Thorns version of
“The Pagan Winter”. Now, I’ve heard Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto was
impressed with this version but I am not at all. Not only does it
utilized computerized effects w/ vocals and instruments but it
completely loses the hateful, misanthropic feeling of Darkthrone, which
for me, is the main ingredient. The Enslaved and Gorgoroth covers of
“Natassia In Eternal Sleep” and “Slotter I Det Fjerne” respectively are
my favorites. Both are also carbon copies save for the production. In my
opinion, there is no way to do a Darkthrone song better than the
original as no band can re-create that feeling, so a strict cover is
nothing to mock. Other songs consist of Satyricon’s “Kathaarian Life
Code”, Emperor’s “Cromlech”, Dodheimsgard’s “Green Cave Float”,
Immortal’s “To Walk The Infernal Fields” and Gehenna’s “Transylvanian
Hunger”. Besides Immortal’s thick bass heavy production and Gehenna’s
noticeably sped up version of “Transylvanian Hunger” , these songs are
very close to the originals, just the way I think it should be done. It
is great to see these bands pay their respects to the mighty Darkthrone
and if you are listening to any of these bands and not Darkthrone you
should remedy that fast! - Jeffrey Kusbel
PHD Canada, C-1445
Crown St., N. Vancouver, B.C., V7J 1G4, CANADA Email = phdcan@axionet.com
|
To say DT are known as re-creating the same album time after time
and just changing the album titles to tell the difference is like
masturbating cattle with two finger's rather than three! Thus, people
are confusing the 'Thrones with the burly Bolt Thrower in some
unknown assertion. Musically I hear mainly hints from Soulside (not
DM either) and a Blaze...and a-back to slow to mid-paced drum-fare,
except the old-school as fuck DO NOT BELIEVE THE PUNK ELEMENT, as
"Graveyard Slut" and "Whiskey Funeral" are just true rooted BM
hymns. Journalist's must have their heads up their collective assess
these days. The debut Buldozer meet's early Bathory vocals of
Nocturno Culto simply kill, and any true Black Metal Warrior would
condone. DT pugilizes fake BM on "Too Old To Cold", as "Shut Up" is a
huge middle-finger to Satanic Wanna-Be's (Dimmu and COF come to
mind). Piggy of old-school Voivod would not be happier in a song
dedicated in his name than" Atomic Coming" pulling lyrics straight
out of Voivod's titles themselves (Mainly RRROOOAAARRR!!!"). Ripping
out the Booklet is the killer part. They mention Piggy and Voivod
(Especially the 'Tornado' song), while hailing-"MAKE WAY FOR THE
INCINERATOR!", a fuckin A homage to Canada's Slaughter! Which shirts
deck's Nocturno Culto in the live CD-ROM Interviews on the
Peaceville re-issues of past DT albums. That pure fucking devotion
deserves eternal hails!!! Alas, all of you 'Throners that are
besides yourselves of the DT camp, quit reading, get off your boiled
butts and buy this evil and raw fucking album today or go pose out
to Dimmu or something, and join the crowd! In a scene were BM is
faltering to poserdum and before it became a campaign for what often
tries but fails to pass as Horror show's today, DT make an
exclamation mark that at least as long as they are breathing, The
Cult is very much Alive like the days of yore.
- Clayton
|
|
These slow
moving Germans have been at it since the very start of the ‘90s,
when they formed as Cemetery, then changed their name to the current
moniker and released a handful of demos. Since then though, in the
2000’s, they have only released two ep’s and two albums including
this one in nearly 20 years. Though the main man and vocalist in the
band Gerrit P. Mutz, also keeps busy in a few other active bands
like Battleroar, Sacred Steel and Angel Of Damnation. Dawn Of Winter
play classic doom metal dirges, performed at a slow glacial pace
that I found very enjoyable. The band have a real talent and feel
for crafting very emotive and moving songs, whilst at the same not
losing that pounding heaviness especially in the guitars and drums
in unison. The marvelous vocals are clean yet gloomy and sinister,
both dripping with emotion and adding a delicious sinister
atmosphere to the musical whole. The excellent vocals and the
equally excellent music remind me to bands like Candlemass, Solitude
Aeturnus and Saint Vitus. I am a big fan of all of those bands, and
Dawn Of Winter do put their own stamp on that classic sound, not to
mention always keeping the overall quality very high. For me, if you
are a die in the wool fan of classic melancholic dark doom metal
then “Pray For Doom” has to be close to a must have in your
collection. - Dale
http://www.dawnofwinter.de/
https://www.facebook.com/ihaterecords |
Wow! It took a few
listens before it sunk in, but damn this is some bad ass shit. The sound
on here is rather organic and rich. Mix a heavy Iron Maiden influence
with some of the best facets of thrash & death metal alongside small
hints of black metal and sharpen the point ever so slightly with a
progressive edge. That is a basic overview but doesn’t but doesn’t do
just to the skills of this heavy band or the maturity they display with
imaginative songs structures. Vocals by John and drummer, Chris are spot
on and run the gambit of growls/screams/cackles to powerfully deep and
commanding clean which highlight the cover tune (which I cannot place
but surely know it!) “Untold”. Great album and I only see this band
getting better, which is scary! – Dale
Twilight Records,
P.O.
Box 416, Devault, PA.19432, USA
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|
Now this is kind
of interesting, some death metal bands take old school elements into
their sound, but Day Of Doom re-create the classic American death
metal sound from the late ‘80s / early 90s. I mean this album,
sounds like it is was released, in 1990 to 1993 era, minus the more
modern production. This is just very straight forward, middle paced
brutal death metal. I could see this not being enough for fans of
more modern dm, where they are used to a million riffs and time
changes and technicality, packed into the album wall to wall. The
riffs just chug along, sometimes accompanied with underlying guitar
accents, along with plenty of blast beats and bestial growls, to the
point of peeling the wallpaper off your walls. Now and again, there
are some cool manic guitar fills / leads, which add a little bit of
adrenaline and intrigue to the proceedings. You know, the more I
listen to this, the more I realize I miss this straight forward, old
school death metal sound. I would suggest this to fans of early 90s
death metal releases, from bands like Baphomet, Goreaphobia,
Incantation, Deceased, Master, Death etc… It is interesting listing
some of those bands, because it makes me think of the classic early
‘90s dm festival in Buffalo, NY named the Day Of Death festival,
possibly inspiration for the bands name? - Dale
https://www.reverbnation.com/dayofdoom
http://www.lavadome.org/
|
I am stoked to have
gotten this! I had no clue this band was still around! I enjoyed this
bands demos “Far Beyond Your Imagination” & “Slaves To The Abysmal
Perversity” and later their split CD with Regurgitate. Now here is their
2nd album (the 1st eluded me completely) . Dead
are wicked sick, crusty death/grind that even brings back sweet early
Autopsy flashbacks. Dead always were known for their warped sense of
humor and that is presented here on tracks like “Evil Go-go Babes From
Outer Space”, “In Gang-Bang City”, “Chew-in-cum (Sperm-int mix)”.
Fucking classic and a must have!
– Dale |
|
Oh hell yes! The
mighty German sickos Dead return to the pages of Canadian Assault. I
became a fan of this band through their Far Beyond Your Imagination
& Slaves To The Abysmal Perversity demos in the early 90s, as well
as their splits with Gut, Meat Shits and Regurgitate. As you may
have guessed I am a fan of their crusty death metal and they have
been mixing it with porn and just general debauchery about as long
as anyone and longer than most. The clips and the lyrics to songs
like “Cock-A-Hoop”, “Liquor Store Goddess”, and “Possessed Soldiers
of Luv” set the mood and atmosphere. But make no mistake these guys
also make great fucking death metal. It is catchy, filled with
morbidity, flat out crushing music with some old school vocals that
vomit straight from the pits of hell (some of these vox might remind
you to early Carcass, even though they have been around as long as
that band). I am not even sure what else to say, this just rules and
is for fans of old school death metal ala Incantation, Autopsy type
stuff who enjoy some porn and alcohol mixed into the presentation.
Well then go get Dead bitch!. – Dale
http://www.dead-slaves.com/home/
http://www.fda-rekotz.com/
|
|
If you have been
reading Canadian Assault for a long time, then you might know I am a
big fan of the band Dead from way fucking back. I tape traded for
some of their early demos, EPs and their split album with
Regurgitate in the early to mid 1990s and have followed them, on and
off ever since. I am sure at least a couple of their releases from
past decades are reviewed somewhere on this site. This as you can
tell above is a re-release of their first album “You'll Never Know
Pleasure... Until You’ve Tasted Pain” released originally by
Poserslaughter Records way back in 1995. This album is a minor
masterpiece of death metal, porn and grindcore. I love this quote
from the bio and it is so true, I am paraphrasing a bit but it goes
something like ‘Napalm Death created Grindcore, Carcass created
Goregrind and Dead created Porngrind’. It is so true these guys were
degenerates from the start creating this filthy and depraved
sub-genre (The Meat Shits may rightly so argue that point, but never
mind that) and perfected it, setting a blueprint for extreme metal
sexual sickos to go by for decades to come. It is amazing to think
these brutal and sleazy Germans have been going strong and never
split up since they first formed in 1990!! I have nothing but
absolute mad respect for that fact. I must give kudos to Xenokorp
for christening their new Kvlt Series sub-label by making Dead’s
debut album one of their first releases. If you worship this band
then you need this album, and if you are new to them then this is a
damn fine place to start making up for lost time. - Dale
https://deadxxx.bandcamp.com/
https://xenokorp.bandcamp.com/
https://www.xenokorp.com/ |
I read a review
of this Australian band from Unbound fanzine. I could not agree more
that The Dead seem to have adopted the slapping bass sound of
Cryptopsy on their first two records “Blasphemy Made Flesh” & “None
So Vile”. It is a great sound when used right like Cryptopsy do. I
guess The Dead agree with that and have implemented it. They kind of
go over the top with its use though and in general, it sounds really
good. But there are times when it becomes the focus too much and is
a little too pronounced and hurts things. Thankfully those moments
are few and are far enough in between so as not to hurt the overall
enjoyment. But make no mistake it is a central part of their sound
so you need to like it as I do. That is where most of the Cryptopsy
comparison stops however. The Dead amble their deceased corpse at a
slower pace and decidedly less technical. But it is still some solid
brutal death metal that has its own style and dynamics. There is
also some tasty emotive guitar work that kept my interest up. There
is some groove mixed in as well, but thankfully that is not too
overdone either as when it is I do not have the stomach for it. Just
like the music the vocals are fucking thick and chunky growling and
kind of remind me a little to another old, but little known Canadian
band I dug named Immortal Possession. Somewhat garbled and gurgled,
but they have a really infectious tone to them. The more I listen to
this record the more it is growing on me. If you like some
memorability and depth to your death metal with little bit of
adventurous flair then The Dead is something you have to get. If you
are purist put your head down and do nothing but straight forward
brutal blasting then you might want to pass it up. – Dale
www.obsidianrecords.com
www.myspace.com/lordofthelivingdead
|
|
I like that Dead
Shape Figure paid their dues before releasing an album. In my view
you do not see enough of that these days in the UG scene worldwide.
But probably it is most evident in Scandinavia where it seems like
any band that has had a few rehearsals and maybe a live show gets
signed for an album. This is the bands second album after forming in
2003 and releasing an ep and a couple of demos. The music on here is
fast, sometimes technical high octane modern thrash metal that is
heavy and riff driven. There is a plethora of weighty riffs that are
memorable and fairly catchy. The sound on here is crystal clear, I
almost feel like I am sitting right next to the drummer. The vocals
are death metal style yelled growls and hurl out like the spray from
buck shot rifle blast and really kill in a good way. However the
clean vocals that are interspersed to a lesser (though not enough
into the less ledger) extent are almost laughable in how terribly
bad they are. A word of advice to the band, either drop those or get
someone who can do a more competent job. Those clean vocals are
really are the only real black mark on an otherwise solid and
enjoyable album of rocking thrash metal. – Dale
http://www.myspace.com/deadshapefigure
http://www.dynamicartsrecords.com/
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|
That band name
is a little misleading on what you will find beneath the surface.
You know upon first listen of this album, I have to be honest; I was
not sure how keen I was on it. But with each successive listen, it
is growing on me, steadily moving the needle upwards on my
estimation of its positive qualities. I would describe Deadly
Carnage, as blackened doom death metal band, with less prominent
goth interludes and influences. These guys certainly have talent and
craft some introspective, emotive melancholy material, which is nice
to get lost within, but this good counterpoint of the heavy doomy
element. This more crushing material, I would like to see the band
focus on increasing this element, in their sound or at the very
least, when have that steam roll started simply not abandoning it so
quickly. The vocals are deep, but not too deep, smooth death growls,
I liked some of the timing on the vocals and deft interplay between
the song structures with that silky smooth growling. During some of
the choice heavier, doomier parts, I can not help but reminded to
classic early Paradise Lost. I would submit that fans of early works
of death doom from pioneers like the aforementioned Paradise Lost,
My Dying Bride, Katatonia etc… will find this album of interest. So,
don’t let that band name fool you, it is not break neck thrash or
gory brutal death metal, as you might expect when you read it. -
Dale
http://www.reverbnation.com/deadlycarnage
http://www.atmf.net/ |
|
Italy’s Deadly
Carnage return to the fray with their fourth release “Through The
Void, Above The Suns”. They start things off with a short
introduction of chants and screams, then the music picks up,
beginning with a mid paced to slow-ish doom style with some
moderately tempo black metal elements sifted into the musical mix.
The guitar work is accomplished with some very well performed
patterns, moving within the aforementioned slower black doom style.
The vocals are a mixture of whispering low end vocals, but also add
some screams and hollering throughout the body of the album. The
band does do a good job of combining newer generation black metal
and doom influences, so if you are a fan of these genres or if you
are familiar with Deadly Carnage then be sure to check this release
out soon. - Patrick
https://deadlycarnage.bandcamp.com/
https://www.atmf.net/commilitones/a-sad-sadness-song/ |
|
This is a grand
compilation cassette, it looks great and the man who assembled the
band obviously has some good taste. For the general genre of this
comp. album, it is the old school metal ways & sounds ancient death
metal, thrash and heavy metal music worshipped and played by mostly
newer / young bands. I would say the bands that stand out the most
for me were Atomicdeath, Blood Legion, Sectioned, Hereafter,
Varathron and Sickness. But honestly I did not feel like there was a
bad or boring song on the entire album. For a complete list of the
bands just check out the cover I scanned above. I think with most
people you are either a fan of compilation albums or you are not. If
you are and you love old style death / thrash / heavy metal and want
to hear some excellent new bands who just get it, then this is one
you need to own. By the way inside the fold-out cover you get write
up on each and every band giving you background which is really cool
and handy. If you are in North America and want to check out this
tape Paragon Records is promoting it or contact the releasing label
directly of course. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/Faithcraftproductions
http://faithcraftmobile.blogspot.com/ |
|
Atlanta’s Death
Of Kings return, with a brand new full length release “Kneel Before
None”, featuring nine songs of intense and savage thrash anthems.
The vocals are a mix of high pitched screams and some raw death
growls used in a few of the songs. The guitar work is done with a
lot of skill and good songwriting ability. The music goes from
hyperspeed fast guitar riffs, to a more controlled mid paced style.
If you are a fan of Death Of Kings earlier work then be sure to pick
up a copy of this new release. If you are new to this band, take the
most extreme aspects of Kreator, Slayer, Exodus along with the bands
ability to put their own touches within the solid barbaric thrash
metal making this album one you guys need to check out today. -
Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/deathofkingsmetal https://borisrecords.bandcamp.com/ |
|
Deathcult seeps
forth from the mind of Tim Pearson (also the main man behind label
mates Relentless), who controls every aspect of the band, from music
creation to performing all instruments. Yes, a one man Chicago band
and a competent one at that. “The Test Of Time”, is a marriage of
‘80s thrash metal and late ‘80s / early ‘90s black death metal, with
the thrashing side of things sitting firmly in the driver’s seat. I
hear a lot of little bits of influence in their sound, but not too
many really stand as ‘oh that band or this band are big influences’,
I guess that is a good thing. The songs, from one track to the next,
have a very consistent quality to them. So I do not really have a
preferred song and that is likely the way it was meant to be, the
quality comes from the sum of it’s parts, likely not as effective
split into isolated chunks. The music on here gets my head banging,
more like a strong nod as it is not bombastic or super energetic,
but it is heavy and slightly hypnotic, chugging along in a driving
consistent middle pace. The music itself, is fairly simplistic
really, there is nothing wrong with that sometimes music is just
flat out better that way. Though I must confess the drumming at
times seems a little too one note and predictable, also I am not
crazy about the drum sound, but honestly that is my only one minor
complaint with this quality album. I definitely have to recommend
this album to fans of very old school thrash alongside early 90s
black death devotees. - Dale
https://www.reverbnation.com/deathcultchicago
http://www.doordierecords.org/ |
|
After a nice
torturous, flagellating and unsettling intro, this Massachusetts
band launch into a harsh and murky brand of warring black death
metal mayhem. The vocals are ferocious, evil gurgling growls and
inhuman snarls, clearly conjured up from the pits of hell itself! I
mean, I have not heard vocals this bestial and possessed, since the
early glorious days of Impaled Nazerene. The pacing of the guitars
and drums are relentless and vicious in their intent, but there is
actually more nuanced guitar work than you would expect from a
blackened war metal band, which adds a lot of depth to the sound. I
can hear, amongst this barrage of heavy fucking death metal guitar
riff bits, some actual short parts where they slow down to almost a
standstill glooming up the atmosphere, not to mention we get a
couple wild frenzied guitar leads! Speaking of influence, the three
most profound influences I hear are the early works of the legendary
bands Blasphemy, Beherit and Impaled Nazarene, all melded together
in superb fashion. Listening to this, I feel like I am experiencing
a depraved Occult ritual mixed, with an orgy in audio form. It has
covered me in vomit, blood and cum and I do not want the experience
to end. - Dale
https://novisiblescars.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/deathgodmessiah
|
|
From the
opening riff of onwards it is obvious the members of Deathhammer
are influenced by the classic black/thrash sounds of the mid
80's,early 90's. With the aggressive, whirlwind guitars mixed with
the drummers aggressive blasts of fury. The band does draw from
their influences but without
being a total clone band. Their is enough
originality and well-thought out guitar patterns to keep the
old-school fanatics happy without having to rip-off any one elder
god band or certain country from the golden era of speed/thrash
metal. If you crave chaotic, insane blackened, speed metal then look
no further Deathhammer is here to crush all. - Patrick
www.myspace.com/savageposerhunt
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ |
|
This is the
third release from Norway’s Deathhammer. This album is a great mix
of old-school thrash, with hints of death and black metal whispering
in and out of the musical whole. Fast and furious, are words that
come to mind, when describing the guitars of rage, charging through
each song like a bulldozer. The guitarist manages to weave, even
within that furious riff attack, some well played solos. The
drumming is done in the same vein, with crazed drum patterns, that
are both chaotic and extremely high-speed. “Evil Power” is a great
release of unrelenting thrash metal I am proud to recommend. -
Patrick
https://www.reverbnation.com/deathhammer
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ |
|
These Austrian
thrashers used to go under the name Damage, releasing a couple demos
in 2008 & 2009, before changing their name and releasing an ep and a
mini-LP through I Hate. This brings us up to date with As Death
Awakes, the bands debut album. The listener is immediately hit right
from the opening seconds with a non-stop, raging thrash assault,
true high speed octane destruction! I mean these guys are fucking
heavy, they make you headbang, but they hardly let up for a second,
you will wreck your neck trying to keep up. A million miles a second
riffing, then they slow down briefly from time to time, by slow down
I mean like shifting from all-out Blitzkrieg and slowing it down to
frenzied carpet bombing speed. These guys must be in great shape to
play this shit live. Just think of bands like early Kreator, Sodom,
Sadus, Forced Entry and bands like this. The vocalist is almost as
manic as the music as he screams / yells his thrashed out voice like
some serial killer in the middle of an attack. I am not sure how
else to describe this band, but if you love old school thrash metal
in the way it is rarely played these days, if you love it faster
than fast, look no further than Deathstorm, they are easily near the
top of the heap in the thrash metal scene in this modern age. -
Dale
http://www.myspace.com/damagewebsite
http://www.ihate.se/ |
My copy of this CD
arrived cracked and broken. W.R. was nice enough to send along another
copy. I hated this bands last CD, also on W.R. reviewed last issue. They
played a death/hardcore/industrial hybrid. Now they dropped the
industrial element thankfully. Now doing the death and hardcore mix or deathcore as they call it. This time around we have some very rhythmic
music and it is pretty quality stuff. As opposed to their last release
“Bitter” which was awfully generic and boring. I’m not floored but I am
impressed by the large progression in a short amount of time! Deathcore
freaks will masturbate over this one. – Dale
W.W.R., 22O7 W.
Whittier Blvd., Montebello, CA. 92085, USA or band website = www.pcpltd/deathpenalty/
|
 
I was struck by
the beautiful packaging, absolutely stunning on both releases but
the colours on the digi release are mind blowing brilliant. I can
only imagine the band are very happy with the labels work here.
“Doomsday Comfort” is on seriously raging, a maelstrom of furious
blast beat death metal splatter platter, ala early classic Napalm
Death mixed with the frantic insanity Nasum. Punch you in the face
juggernaut death metal from these Swedish denizens of barbarity.
With “To Cure The Sane….” we get much of the same, these boys are
getting better and better at turning a heavy riff ass over tea
kettle and making you head want to bang along with it. I was
surprised just reading that “To Cure…” was actually released on the
Finnish Woodcut records (being the main label of black metal legends
Horna) back in 2003. Man oh man, is the drumming (apparently this is
the Rotten Sound drummer?) on here vicious and relentless, not to
mention the vocalist sounds like a mad dog getting to chew through a
fence to maul you. This guy is a really good death metal singer. I
think I may hear some Vomitory influence on this one in the riffing
and I like it. It is not the easiest of tasks to remain brutal yet
not lose memorability or melody but Deathbound manage this just fine
and wrap it up in tidy but brutalizing grind package. It is hard not
recommend this band to followers of the death / grind scene. –
Dale
D.A. Records,
Box 168, FIN-33101 Tampere, FINLAND
www.dynamicartsrecords.com |
“We Deserve…” is
the bands 3rd album from this Finnish band of savages. I
know them quite well as you can see I have reviewed those as well.
As time passes Deathbound are becoming masters of able to insert
some catchiness & groove into the body of their sound. That being
technical, fast and fucking brutal death metal, all backed up with
fantastic pounding drum work. The vocals of Kai Jaakola are splendid
yelling growls with energy and are decipherable. I would say fans of
Napalm Death & Benediction vocals will love his work. Deathbound
are just a well rounded great band – Dynamic Art indeed. – Dale
www.officialsear.com
www.dynamicartsrecords.com |
|
I am quite
familiar with Deathbound thanks to Dynamic Arts. They have sent me
most of the bands releases over the years. In turn, they have made
me a fan of this bludgeoning bastard band from the wintry lands of
Finland. While I am at it I should commend DA Records on the superb
job they do promoting their bands. Having co-founded a record label
myself and worked on some of the promotion end of things, I can
appreciate a job well done. Deathbound never let down, they never
quit and just keeping churning out raging blast beat death metal
grindcore intensity. I think the energy on here will remind you of
the adrenaline rush you get from a band like Nasum for example. The
vocalist is amazing, a real growling beast with semi-decipherable
vocals that just roar at you. I would put these vocals up with the
best dm vocals in the history of the genre. Some bands that jump to
mind vocally I would put in the same category are Dismember,
Benediction, Napalm Death, Grave etc… I worship those bands and
their vocals so that is no hollow compliment or comparison. These
guys are such a killer band. They are well rounded and have it all
really, from brutality to technicality to excellent song writing and
topped off with superb vocals. Without doubt Deathbound are one of
the elite level bands in the death and grind scenes today. A must
have. – Dale
http://www.dynamicartsrecords.com/artists.php?Deathbound
http://www.dynamicartsrecords.com/
|
Svart Records has only released a handful of death metal releases
{that I know of}, but the few I have heard have been nothing short
of excellent. Finland's DeathChain are no exception releasing their
sixth release Ritual Death Metal DeathChain seems to mix old school
death metal with some modern brutality. The guitars are fast, semi
raw with tempo changes in some songs. The drumming is done
flawlessly, extremely fast with some breaks that give the band a
nice range of extreme old school style and mid-range old-school
death metal. The vocals are a nice mix of brutal death growls and
raw screams that go perfectly with DeathChain's style of dm. I can't
really think of any certain bands that DeathChain sound like but the
band does seem to draw inspiration from the early 90's Swedish and
Finnish death metal gods and mixes them together with the
musicians talent to write original extreme death. Fans of
uncompromising, old school Finnish and Swedish styled death
metal will love DeathChain!!
- Patrick
http://www.reverbnation.com/deathchain
http://www.svartrecords.com/
|
|
The “Lords of
Battle” kicks off the bloodbath with a catchy, righteous olden head
bang designed sound. It is replete with traditional title, chorus
repeated chants. Yes, make no mistake, the vocals are still brutal
death metal and the song structures themselves mix in some dynamic
elements among the ritualistic repetition. One thing I enjoy about
Debauchery is how they employ their guitar solos. Just a short ‘n
sweet running hit attack which is as quick as it is lethal, which is
kind of a microcosm of their style overall. Debauchery make sure
they always keep it heavy, catchy and flat out simplistic. Even the
lyrics are as eloquent as a spiked baseball bat upside the head. For
example the catchy in the song “Butcher Bitches! Slaughter Sluts!” a
Neanderthal chorus which would any sadists charcoal black heart. No
buttering you up and sneaking up behind you with a length of piano
wire, no, Debauchery just bash you over the head with a spiked bat.
“Back In Blood” is not shy to slip once in a while into a nice
hypnotic groove adding some dynamics and depth. Okay they are not
the most amazing band in the world but I still get pleasure from
simple things in life and death.
– Dale |
|
Coming out of
Indonesia's brutal death metal scene is the young Decayed Flesh who
were formed in 2019. After releasing their self-titled demo in 2019,
the band has wasted little time unleashing this debut full-length
through their countrymen’s respected label Brutal Mind who is
starting to really promote their bands hard in the USA. Decayed
Flesh play some intense and brutal death metal that is achieved with
a lot of skill and you can feel their dedication coming through the
recording. The guitars and drums on this 10 song album is a mix of
extremely fast, brutal guitars and drum patterns. The music does
slow to a heavier mid paced range at times in a few of the songs.
The band do a good job of combining mid 90's U.S death metal with
some newer elements intertwined together to deliver a masterpiece of
aggression and brutality. - Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/decayedfleshiddm/
https://brutalmind.bandcamp.com/ |
|
I reviewed this
album for Canadian Assault, the first time was back when it was
released in 2000, now some twelve years later it gets it’s
re-release through the cult label Hells Headbangers. Actually that
brings back a memory, as I got the promo for the original release
one day, listen to it, then go to the NJ Metalfest the next day and
I end up hanging out with King Fowley himself briefly and letting
him know I loved it. This album really featured the death metal
kings Deceased feeling and sewing their heavy metal oats, which is
where they came from. If you know much about these guys they were
just as into heavy metal back in the 80s when this band formed as
they were into thrash and death metal. They could have went either
way, but chose to form a death metal band, what I am saying is this
was no retro jump because it was cool at the time, these guys had
lived it for decades. As for the music as I said this is a heavy
metal record, not a dm record, though you can kind of tell it is a
death band at times playing it. But they do it so well, so fucking
smoothly and write such catchy riffs and harmonies, that it blow
your hair back. King Fowley’s vocals are great as ever, he is a
talented drummer, but he really showcases his vocal talents on this
album, sure you have a slight base of his gruff growl, but he
conveys such emotive range on here, that I am just hypnotized and
haunted by his vocals. The lyrical content on here sort of reflects
the bands music choice, they reach back into classic metal for this
album and the lyrics similarly reach back into classic horror of
it’s early days, you know Poe, Lovecraft and that sort of old school
horror story telling. If you made the mistake of missing this the
first time around, you have received a second chance in this life to
correct your mistake. - Dale
http://www.myspace.com/undeadmachines
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ |
I know very little about this about this U.K thrash metal band but
after hearing Chains Of Delusion it's easy to understand why Shadow
Kingdom signed and released them. Deceptor embrace everything that
made metal so pure and great back in the early days of thrash, the
lightning fast guitar riffs and extremely fast yet catchy and
memorable metal solos. The drums are just as catchy and pummeling in
their approach with fast thrashing beats. The vocalist keeps it in
the traditional thrash metal realm with hollering/screaming vocal
patterns and also some higher pitched screams. Definitely
recommended for fans of {old} Megadeth {So Far, So Good, So What
era}, early Priest, Slayer, I even hear a little Bruce Dickinson
influence in some of the vocal patterns and Maiden in the guitars.
- Patrick
http://www.myspace.com/deceptormetal
http://shadowkingdomrecords.com/ |
|
Sweden’s
Decomposed are back with their third cd “Wither”. This is my first
encounter with Decomposed, so I can not say, if this is different
from their previous releases. This is a very good sounding band;
there is not a whole lot of the early Swedish death metal sound in
the music, but it is well written and performed. The guitars are
played with a little variety, going from a heavy slow pace to a mid
paced style in some of the songs, but the guitarist is not afraid to
go for faster chaotic sections at times. Whether the guitarist is
playing extremely fast, or at a more controlled middle pace, it
displays a level of experience and talent. The vocals are heavy
death metal growls that really fit this bands music perfectly. This
is a great release, filled with heavy mid tempo death metal, with
some faster guitars and drum sections mixed into the songs. -
Patrick
https://soundcloud.com/Decomposed-swe
https://www.facebook.com/chaosrecords |
|
Defeated Sanity are a German band that have
been around a long time and have a catalog of releases stretching
back to the late 1990s. They label themselves as progressive
technical death metal. I would say, generally speaking, that is a
rather apt description. My favourite part of their sound is brutal
death metal, it is so barbarous and crushing and I love that. That
core element is followed in a close second by their vomitous,
indecipherable and throaty growling vocals, which sound like an
angry caged beast that is overdue for a meal. Some of the elements
that would be considered progressive and more adventurous, while
inventive and at times impressive, they also tend to interrupt,
stunt or impede the actual song flow (and go off into noodling
territory ala a guitar shredder’s solo album), which flow is
something that is important to me. But I understand what they are
going for, and at times it really works, but admittedly there are
other times where it feels schizophrenic to me. I think to myself,
at times, fuck that was a killer punishing riff let’s ride it and
sit on it for a while and they do not. But that is just me and
obviously that is not what the band is going for here. I sort of
feel the same way with some stuff like John Zorn, Naked City,
Electric Masada, PainKiller etc.. The musicality and talent level
with a Zorn is so high I appreciate it a little more I guess. To be
fair while those bands are a fair reference point, I think Defeated
Sanity are more brutal death sounding and also lack the big
avant-garde jazz influence of those bands. So yes, for me, it is a
mixed bag, but I think that is also partly due to when D.S. are
playing straight up brutal, guttural death metal it is just so good
that I want more of it and do not want to have it interrupted so
often. If you are a big fan of this sort of thing (ala the style of
bands I listed above) you can probably not go wrong with Defeated
Sanity, as they are very talented and creative to be sure. -
Dale
https://www.facebook.com/DefeatedSanity
https://willowtip.bandcamp.com/ |
|
The Ukranian
Defiant play what is commonly known these days as power metal. Back
in my earlier days, power metal was a bit of different animal, the
base of old power metal and heavy metal is still there, but these
days power metal is commonly applied to very melodic heavy metal
bands which use liberal amounts of keyboards. Within those
parameters, Defiant plays this style and they play it well, the
talent is there and the song writing is pretty impressive. I enjoy
Defiant the most, when they put the synth slightly more in
background (I wish they did more of this), letting the guitars
gallop and showcase themselves with some good chugging heaviness.
They keep the energy high and the flow silky, everything blends
together skillfully with some interesting structuring on display,
while never forgetting to keep things very melodic. “Time Isn’t
Healing” is the bands first attempt, to translate their lyrics, and
conversely their vocals into English. They seem to have changed
singers in the process, replacing the previous lady who handled the
duties, with a new male counterpart. Considering they apparently do
not really speak much English, it must have been quite a challenge
to make this move to reach more people. Due to that transition, I
try to give them a break in this area, the vocalist you can tell has
tried very hard to translate this performance in this more universal
language. It can be a tad clunky at times, his accent bleeds through
pretty strong (this could make it an acquired taste for some), but
generally it is very well done and impressive under the
circumstances. The only thing is, with this kind of music you kind
of need a singer with a lot of range, and variation in his voice,
vocalist Stanislav does not posses that sort of range but he does what
he can and he has the lower end of register well covered and varies
things decently within his limited range. But as I said on the
musical side, and the song writing side of things, Defiant is
nearing world class within this newer power metal movement. I think
fans of newer melodic synth heavy / power metal will really dig this
album. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/DefiantBand/
http://www.ferrrum.com/
|
|
This Belgian
band, is dripping wet with early to mid ‘90s, American death metal
worship. They do what they do well, there are plenty of crushing
riffs, and blasting frenetic drums all played at rapid speeds and
kept as brutal as possible. I like some of the tasty, panic-stricken
guitar fills and accents; they add a nice dynamic and depth to the
raging barbarity. The vocals are well done, and are slightly deeper,
but very decipherable growls, in the Chuck Schuldiner style. Getting
back to my opening point, these boys loved their old North American
death metal, and you can pretty clearly hear a melting pot of
influences, from bands like Death, Suffocation, Morbid Angel,
Malevolent Creation, old Gorguts, Master, Morbid Angel, Obituary
etc… They do it and do it extremely well. This is an album for 90s
US death metal fans, who just can not get enough of that sound, when
it is done well. - Dale
https://myspace.com/dehuman
http://www.kaotoxin.com/ |
Deicide, at the
House Of Blues in Chicago. There’s not too much more to say about this
release. Although, I’m sure it has been anticipated for years from the
die hard fans. I for one enjoy this first live release of their career
as Deicide are a great death metal band, blasphemous to the core. The
production is not as bass heavy as one would expect, but still as heavy
as satan would appreciate. All albums are visited here fairly equally
but the majority of the tracks are taken from “Once Upon The Cross” and
“Serpents Of The Light”. Not much between song banter from Glen here
just a straight- forward death metal concert, just the way I like ‘em.
- Jeffrey Kusbel
|
It is hard to
believe they Deiphago apparently have been around for 20 years and
this is the second album?!?. “Filipino Antichrist” is some heavily
influenced Blasphemy mixed with Sarcofago chaos metal from the
Philippines of course. I hate to say it, but this comes off sounding
a little like a train wreck, a real mess and not in a good way. You
almost get the feeling with it being so loud and chaotic, if each
member can even hear the other playing. As much of the individual
instruments do not sound like they belong together or that they all
got confused and started playing separate songs (or ‘things’ might
be a better word than songs). Do not get me wrong I love Blasphemy
and Sarcofago and that style for a long, long time. Yet, compared to
those bands this kind of sounds just a tad better than the
equivalent of warmed over garbage. Probably the most interesting
part of the presentation is the maniacal, heavy breather vocals
which convey a lot of confused emotion and raw anger, while
ultimately going nowhere. The production is loud, but kind of
treble-y and hissing which for me is headache inducing. I do not
think I can listen to this mess any longer as just because you can
play noisy, chaotic and loud does not automatically make it any
good. Deiphago are a sparkling example of that and after twenty
years of practice too! I think I will go listen to the real deal and
put on some old Blasphemy and Beherit. – Dale
http://www.deiphago.hellsheadbangers.com
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/
|
|
The war machine
known as Deiphago once again returns with their newest release of
primitive, vicious blackened war metal mixed with noisy grinding
guitars and blasting drums. The album starts off with a intro
of air-raid sirens which is a perfect beginning to the attack that
Deiphago has planned on 'Satan Alpha Omega'. Deiphago embrace the
best qualities in the classic raw, primitive black metal scene (Sarcofago,
Beherit, etc.) and mix them with noisy, raw thrashy guitars and
blasting chaotic drums. Deiphago (like all of Hells Headbangers
bands) hold the old-school values and sound close to their metallic
heart. If you enjoyed the past releases of the band then check out
'Satan Alpha Omega' this will not disappoint you!! Or if you
enjoy intense, raw, uncompromising blackened war metal that takes no
prisoners then definitely be sure to check out Deiphago!! No other
band does it better. - Patrick
http://www.myspace.com/deiphago
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/
|
|
This is my first
time hearing about this Canadian band and my introduction is their
debut full length recording. First off, it is good to see record
label CDN is still going strong, back when I first had contact with
them a long, long time ago; it was called the Civilian Death
Network. I believe they shortened it to initials, because some
idiots in the Canadian gov’t and elsewhere, thought it must be some
kind of terrorist organization Ugh…haha. Anyway, on to Deity, who
have unleashed a power house of a brutal death metal debut album. I
am struck right away by the speed and brutality of the thick
churning guitar riffing. It blew back my hair, so to speak, and was
only a sneak peek at some of the great guitar work to come. The
second item that caught my attention was the tight as fuck, super
precise drumming. So, I check into their bio after that thought,
where I realize they have hired drumming god Flo Mournier, as a
session musician to play the beats on this album! You can definitely
hear the bands Canadian influences strongly from bands like
Kataklysm and Cryptopsy. They probably are a little more musically
mournful and introspective than those bands in some aspects though.
By the way, I do not mention Cryptopsy only due to the Mournier
drumming, as you can hear it in the guitars and song structuring as
well that they are a big influence. The vocals are really good deep
ass growls, making me think of the roar of a savage bear going into
for an attack. Yes, I dig the vocals, I do not say this often about
death metal records, but they are actually a little under used at
times. There are no less than three instrumental tracks on here; the
first is a short gloomy and beautiful piano intro track to set off
the album. The second instrumental is an epic whirlwind of a classy
death song, which balances adventurous technical playing, alongside
straight ahead brutality and atmosphere. That song is possibly the
bands finest section of the record (alongside album ending opus “In
Turmoil”) and displays the bands top end song writing skills. The
third instrumental song, “Of Time” is a guitar only instrumental and
I could not help but think it may have come about due to a cash
flo(w) problem, if you catch my drift, as in they could only afford
to use Flo for so much time and had to fill in time. The album is
nearly an hour long, so I guess time fill idea of mine does not make
that much sense, but it feels a little like this song is that. Which
is not to say the instrumental is not good because I did enjoy it,
as it is pretty poignant and moody, but it also drags on for far too
long and could have easily been cut to half of it’s nearly seven
minute run time and been much more effective because of it. I do
forget sometimes this is a new band and this is their debut release,
it is easy to forget that fact with this level of quality. All the
same, I can assume some of the necessary reworking and editing,
which would take this excellent young band to another level, will
likely come with time as this young band mature as song writers.
That is my one and only critique, really, on an otherwise impressive
debut by this up and coming future death metal beast. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/DeityMetalCA http://www.cdnrecords.com/ |
|
This is a
re-release of this Russian bands debut album, released back in 2014,
originally for years only available as a digital download, but a
year or so ago it was re-released on CD and now it receives the
cassette treatment. Dekonstruktor are a different animal than most
bands I review. I guess you could call them progressive or somewhat
avant-garde doom metal that achieves a dark atmosphere through
sludgy droning feedback doom metal as a mainstay, as well as other
elements from bits of crazy grind to industrial sounding effects
tweaking and reverberating mental audio wash. The vocals tend to be
like audio lifted from demented, trippy scary ‘70s exploitation
movies, far off, haunting and echo-y and a little disorienting, but
in a good way. For the most part though everything is extremely
atmospheric, meant to set you off traveling into that grey area of
your brain where you are in a fog, caught between sadness,
confusion, anger, melancholy journey through a hallucinogenic
hypnotic lens. It is not the easiest thing to describe in a review,
but damn, I like it an awful lot and can recommend this if you like
any of the above descriptions and as a doom fan are not adverse to
something a little different and a little mentally challenging. I
see the bands second album came out just last year in 2018, after
listening to this now, I hope I get a chance to listen to it and see
where Dekronstruktor took this interesting soundcape and style they
have fashioned for themselves. - Dale
https://visceralcircuitryrecs.bandcamp.com/
http://visc.tictail.com/ |
If one is
planning to pay a visit to the crypt those Danes have been dwelling
in for the last two decades, now the time is right as you'd be
greeted by their most accomplished work to date. Sure, metal is a
young man's game, we all have heard that saying more than once, yet
the old guard is more than capable at times to dismiss the cliché
and Denial Of God are one of the better examples of that. The band
has easily morphed all their different influences to create a creepy
vibe that's presented throughout the whole album, silently
whispering all but forgotten names from the glorious past of our
beloved metal in the process. Black metal, doomy psychedelics, heavy
metal - you name it and rest assured you'd be able to discover all
these in 'Death And The Beyond' (amazing title IMO!). Fans of modern
day super-duper 'technical' playing, triggered-to-death drums and
brick walled sound, please, stay clear of this - you'd not get it,
anyway. Good riddance. Die. However, all those who love the genuine
atmosphere of good old metal done with clarity, class and dignity
should invest their time and listen to this - you'd be rewarded,
that's much certain. This album is a definitive keeper for a whole
generation of fans, fiends and immortals. Chapeau, Denial Of God!
- Vladimir Petrov
http://www.denialofgod.net/
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/
|
I have not seen
a logo that hard to decipher for a while. It brings back some
nostalgia from the early to middle 90s with all the great brutal
death bands. That feeling is well founded musically as well as
Denouncement Pyre’s brand of death metal harkens back to some
classic early ‘90s dm. I love the production on here, really heavy
but old school sounding. The drum sound has that deep in your chest
thud quality on the bass drum and the nice pitter patter timbre from
the tom toms that I love and is so often missing these days. It is
an organic sounding production; unlike many an album today that
sounds like each instrument has a layer of slick plastic wrapped
around it. The vocals are not your traditional death metal growls,
but rather most of the time an evil and dark sounding hiss / rasp
with an undertone of the old stand-by growl. Those vocals really
suit the ominous malevolent atmosphere the music creates. They have
a little different style, but think of the atmosphere created on the
masterpiece album “Rites Of The Black Mass” by Acheron or maybe some
earlier Ancient Rites stuff. All these damn Australians seem to know
how to do is make great UG metal! - Dale
http://www.myspace.com/metalarmour
http://www.myspace.com/denouncementpyre |
Australia's masters of death metal Denouncement Pyre return with
their second full length for Hells Headbangers. Denouncement Pyre
like to mix up their old-school metal going from furious
thrashing guitars to more controlled heavy, raw mid-paced death
metal guitars without ever losing their intensity. The production of
Almighty Arcanum is perfect for this style as it is
not demo/rehearsal raw but it is not the modern day over produced
either, where a lot of bands seem to loose their metal aura and
sound. If you’re looking for pure aggressive, authentic death/thrash
done in honor of the masters nobody does it better then Australia's
Denouncement Pyre.
- Patrick
http://www.reverbnation.com/denouncementpyre
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ |
|
Australia's
Denouncement Pyre has returned (to Canadian Assault see archives for
some past album reviews) with their fourth full length release
‘Forever Burning’. The band features members from well known bands
like Hunters Moon & Nocturnal Graves, The new release contains eight
songs of well executed and delivered black and death metal at it's
finest. The guitars are played with some very well written and
performed passages that range from aggressive to a more controlled
mid paced range. The guitarist does show is ability to create some
memorable guitar patterns with both the extremely fast and more
controlling paces I spoke of above. The drummer also showcases his
ability to perform a variety of styles with skill. He goes from a
heavy fast and chaotic drum style to a more restrained material
smoothly showcasing his experience on the kit. Denouncement Pyre has
created a masterpiece of well delivered blackened death metal that
should please all fans of this style. - Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/DENOUNCEMENTPYRE
https://agoniarecords.bandcamp.com/ |
The Polish death
metal scene just continues to grow and expand. I had no idea until
recently that scene was producing this many bands. Depopulate add to
that total and of course play death metal, which grinds along at a
mid to fast pace, mostly pretty straight forward stuff. The yelled /
growled vocals are pretty prolific and prominent in the songs
overall focus. To be honest I have listened to this album a couple
times now and not much really interests me or grabs me. It is not
that it is bad, because it is not, it is just solid death metal, but
also kind of uninspired and sort of mundane sounding. I guess that
sounds harsh, but I am just being honest, it is not bad material,
just nothing stands out for me either. An album for the total genre
diehards only to digest I would think. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/depopulate
http://www.myspace.com/depopulateofficial |
|
 
Despite having a previous EP and a
full-length, this sophomore album from these Australians is my first
taste of their brand of debauchery and Depravity. The band plays
very skilled and extremely brutal death metal in the early to mid
’90s tradition. Their influences derive largely from the American
scene of that time period. Depravity’s music is dark, fast,
energetic and brutal yet also technical and at times nuanced. They
always keep an ominous aura across it all and as intricate and as
busy as it can be at times, they also manage to not lose focus on
the memorable attributes and strong flow. Which to me, results in
music you sit back and enjoy the detail of the song construction and
impressive performance of the individual members, or just revel in
the cruel barbarity and headbang furiously. The varied growling
vocal attacks and growling are beastly and somehow manage to keep up
with the intensity and adrenaline of the music. I think this will
surely please fanatics of the early to mid ‘90s North American death
metal scene as the band clearly worship that time and bands like
Morbid Angel, Immolation, Suffocation, Incantation, Cryptopsy, Vital
Remains, Monstrosity, Hate Eternal, Nile, Gorguts etc… For those
people into those bands or if you just love old school death metal
period then you need to check in on this band. - Dale
https://depravitydeath.bandcamp.com/
https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.de/shop-en |
I am highly
impressed with this, melodic but still heavy and aggressive death metal
from Slovokia. Their music is highly sophisticated and the musicians
obviously are talented. The catchiness grabs you and draws you in to
Depresy’s world, the sheer emotion of their music keeps you there
listening for more than 50 minutes. The sound of this disc is very
pleasant, a professional and class release all around. Drahos’ vocals
are deep and semi-descipherable growl/whispers that are commanding and
well suited. Depresy are also solid song writers and this album as a
reference point reminds me at times of Hypocrisy on their “The Final
Chapter” opus. If that doesn’t make you want to listen to this, I don’t
know what will! – Dale
Shindy Prod., c/o
Martin Brzbohaty, Sandova 17, 579 04, Adamov, CZECH REPUBLIC
|
|
I seen these
guys band name, then seen these blokes are from Germany and I am
thinking gotta be a straight up old school German thrash band. I hit
play and I heard some slashing, powerful guitars build to a
crescendo and busting through my headphones. Nope I was wrong this
is some really good old school Swedish death metal influenced
sickness. I mean not entirely that sound, you can hear some old
school American influence like Repulsion or Autopsy going on, so in
other words only the finest do they draw from. Just like those
influences the vocals kind of differ from the usual but also sound
rather similar to the bands vocals above, plus maybe some Martin Van
Drunen from Pestilence thrown in for good measure. These guys know
how make some killer riffs, not going a million miles a minute, no
they sit down on a good riff and milk it, I like that. My Empire has
a cool as a rotting corpse atmosphere to it and it really takes me
back to the old days, which is a place I like to be with my music.
Check this the hell out. - Dale
http://www.myspace.com/deserted-fear
http://www.fda-rekotz.com/gx/ |
|
I am usually a
little worried when a bands very first output is an album released
through a record label. It is usually an inferior product by a band
not yet ready for this step. I am a firm believer in bands cutting
their teeth by releasing demos, eps and the like. I have to admit
this is a pretty impressive release on the bands first recording
attempt. We are treated to some fine dirge-y doomy death metal with
dark, black metal like overtones to the sound. Desolate Shrine
employ the two vocalist approach and it seems to work pretty
seamlessly, though admittedly neither sound that different from the
other, most bands it seems do this when the styles contrast, such as
a high pitch / low end combination. For a young band their song
writing chops seem smooth and show a certain level of maturity.
Tenebrous Towers has a very moody, monolithic type atmosphere at
work, yet it is remains extremely heavy in an obscurely evil sort of
manner. Fuck man I would break my own rule and sign this band myself
without them ever having released a demo too. One of the more
impressive debuts I have heard in some time. - Dale
http://desolateshrine.bandcamp.com/
http://www.hammer-of-hate.com/ |
|
Hmm... This is
labeled as "Death Metal"? This sounds more like "Black Metal", to
me. I'm kind of liking it, really. The production is a bit "thin"
compared to the last album I reviewed - but, the song structures -
here - are more interesting, to me. But yeah...this is kind of
"Blackened Death", maybe? More "Black Metal", in my opinion. Even
the production seems more to that area of the spectrum, really. Kind
of early Samael? A little Handful of Hate? The flowing of the music
is pleasing...albeit, not that "original sounding". The vocals are a
bit muffled in the mix. Which is fine. They fit fine the way they
are. A little more pronounced than "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk"
by Emperor...but - slightly - reminiscent of that? The music isn't
to that caliber but it has "feeling" to it, at least. There's a
longing in a Transylvanian mountain range forest type of vibe to
this music. "Desolate Shrine" is a good name for this band. They've
captured the atmosphere, here, quite readily. This music SOUNDS like
a "desolate shrine". Artistically, this is a fine achievement.
Kudos! These are some long songs, I've just noticed. This one is
over nine minutes! Wow! Almost ten, actually! It's got a driving
force to it. A menacing presence! A ghost circling it's
victim...swirling...swirling...arms outstretched...grasping
maniacally. Haunting chaos - madness! Insidious! - Anders
https://www.facebook.com/desolateshrine/
http://www.darkdescentrecords.com/ |
|
I find the Finnish Desolate Shrine has quite a
unique line up in some ways, a line up that has stayed the same
since their inception in 2010. By that I mean this three man band is
made up of Lauri Laaksonen who writes most, if not all of the music
and he plays all the instruments. The other two members Markus
Tuonenjoki & Roni Sahari are both full time co-vocalists and play no
instruments. The other thing with this is it is not like Markus and
Roni are just vocalists as musicians. I mean Roni is the vocalist of
Lie In Ruins yet he is the drummer in Sargeist and Perdition Winds.
Then on the other hand Markus is the vocalist in Sargeist and The
Crescent yet Markus is the drummer in two other current bands (not
to even mention the drummer in the past in bands like Uncreation’s
Dawn & Urn). So yeah, this is why I find this line up fascinating
because of that and it has lasted over a decade and across five
albums, so clearly this unique roster make up works very well. Sorry
I really like digging into interconnected band histories and find
guys who play various roles in each extremely fascinating. But let’s
finally move to the music on here, it is really interesting and
multi-layered dark death metal with decided influences rearing their
heads from the second wave black metal style and even more
prominently so from the doom metal arena. This all originates from
Laaksonen’s sole mind, so I guess I should not be a surprised as his
other two bands are Convocation who play funeral death/doom and
Ordinance which is a black metal band. I find it very appealing that
while the music is oppressively gloomy yet always brutal, also has
more layers, as I mentioned it still manages to convey a lot of
dynamic emotion. The music also possesses an underlying sense of
melody that makes it very memorable and even can even make you want
to headbang from time to time. I find this impressive that Laaksonen
was able to strike such a strong balance of all those elements. I
would be highly remiss not to talk about the strong dual vocal
performances, which feature a high quality myriad of styles from
deep rousing magnetic growling vocals, rasping evil acidic bm
vocals, caustic visceral shouts and so much more that I probably can
not do justice in describing. It may have ended up being a five year
wait between albums, but I can assure you ‘Fires Of The Dying World’
has made that wait well worth your while by delivering a masterful
album indeed. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/desolateshrine
https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/store/ |
|
The band has
taken their name from a Monstrosity song title, so you might guess
they play early to mid ‘90s death metal. The riffing, and song pace,
alternates from a plodding, crushing slower mainstay to sped up
bursts, but always in a very controlled technical fashion. I can not
help, but think of, especially the first handful of Immolation
albums strongly, when listening to this, plus mix it with some old
Monstrosity and Sinister style stuff. I can also hear small touches,
and influence from Morbid Angel, which pop up briefly, attacking
then retreating for the next strike. I like the deep growling
vocals, though they are not varied at all, and rather monotone,
lacking emotion in the delivery. The drummer is a whirling dervish
on the kit, turning in a powerful and very precise performance. This
is a good death metal album, which I can recommend, but all the same
it is nothing overly special, the recommendation is for the diehards
that can not get enough old school death metal. - Dale
http://www.last.fm/music/Destroying+Divinity
http://www.lavadome.org/
|
This is a re-release
on this bands classic debut w/ no less than 6 (4 studio, 2 live!) bonus
tracks not on the original. This album fucking rages and reeks of pure
power/heavy/speed metal. They bring to mind peers of the time such as
Iron Maiden, Dark Angel, Hallows Eve, Metal Church and the like but in
the Destructor style. This album has all the ear marks of an overlooked,
under appreciated blazing heavy metal classic! Get this yesterday!
– Dale |
Bands from down
under have always owned their own style and sound, Destruktor is no
exception. Indeed, they are an apocalyptic brew of barbarous,
bestial old school death cult speed spewed with Aussie tradition and
perform like a well oiled machine. 4 songs, 1 intro totaling 16:34
may seem short yet it is better than 70 minutes of poser crud!
Nuclear mushrooms are pictured here and features (on this recording)
ex-Destroyer 666 skinsman Jarro, but you couldn’t tell as there are
many great ways to describe the mighty Destruktor. Jarro does vocals
with main man Glenn (on guitar) on the title track and on “Fight
Like The Devil” in an all out attack of BM hatred, bands from this
continent can only execute. Is it the drinking water, isolation,
heat or all three that creates such windpipes? All out brutal
fukking DM from Glenn on “Nuclear War” and “Strive To Conquer” is
seasoned and heavily salted, laced with years of work resulting in
near perfection. The intro is a metallic masterpiece of a battle
march which showcases the extreme talent this band possesses. Great
MCD and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Support Destruktor or
I’ll have you gang-banged by a pack of demonic red eyed Kangaroo’s
you sluts! – Clayton
www.destruktor.cjb.net
www.hellsheadbangers.com |
I must say
getting a new release from Destruktor, for me, is like hearing from
old friend you lost connection with for a time. In way, it literally
is as the mainman of Destruktor, Glenn was an old friend of mine. We
used to write letters on paper to each other, not sure if anyone
remembers archaic tradition? We lost touch, but he still reaches out
with his music and reminds me he is still around the scene from time
to time. Glenn definitely has an old school sort of mind set and it
shows in his music. This is some fine dark, but brutal death metal
just like in the early days. It grinds you down with rolling riffing
and death marching drum runs. Glenn’s vocals are tortured and
guttural growls which compliment the raging music nicely. It all has
a very organic feel to it and the band will probably be well pleased
to hear that. As if fans of modern metallic plastic machinations are
unhappy, despite the sound being well clear on here, it likely is
too rough and heavy for their slick ears and mass media junked up
minds. Then again Australians always seem to have a deep respect for
the old metal traditions. If you are looking for something fresh and
innovative and smooth, well, just keep on looking. If you want
something that is vital and heavy and dark as it is mean, then you
have found what you were looking for. I mean who does not enjoy a
spiked glove first to the teeth? It is hard to believe Destruktor
has been around for over a decade releasing demos, eps and a split.
Yet, this is their debut album and they did it up right. Congrats
Glenn and get in touch you old goat. – Dale
http://www.destruktor.com/
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ |
It is cool to
see American Line is still going strong. I was really into one of
their early bands by the name Disgorge back around 1997-ish. I
picked up one or two of their releases afterward, but had not really
heard their name again since then. But the label has been going
strong and this is the South American release (US and Europe handled
by another label) of the album. I had previously reviewed and very
much liked the demo material of this Danish band. I never tire of
brief movie clip intros or mixed into songs, so The Shining excerpt,
one of my fave movies helped set the tone for me on this album.
Murderer sees the band with a slightly cleaned up sound and a
stream lined style, a sound that is more their own than on the demo.
They play a vicious mixture of thrash and death metal, a two headed
monster that is well met. Deus Otiosus surely know how to write some
great head banging riffs, they are really heavy but seemingly always
retaining that shroud of darkness that whispers around the edges
like a creeping fog. Some parts remind me of Grave, if you slowed
them down a pace or two and added a doomy feel to it all. I find it
rather impressive that the band is able to marry the brutality of
death metal, the heavy neck cranking aggression of thrash with a
dark doom metal atmosphere. The vocals of Anders Bo Rasmussen are
great deep growls that are frightening and forceful in their
delivery and tone. Deus has a decidedly Scandinavian sound, but you
can also hear some American influence. There are some great guitar
leads on here as well and they add a nice dimension to the sound.
All in all a very well crafted album that is highly recommended and
not easily forgotten, those riffs will be ringing in your head for
ages! – Dale
http://www.myspace.com/deusotiosus
http://www.alprods.net/
|
I knew after hearing the Deus Otious debut "Murderer", it would not
take long for this band to find an honest/good label to work with
for release number two. And the u.s label Deepsend records {which
seems to be a small but growing label if you haven’t checked them
out before and enjoy the more old-school dm, brutal side of dm/grind
I suggest you check out their site - Patrick} stepped up. And here
we have Godless, eight tracks of well-played death metal with
touches of thrash and a hint of black metal, but only in some of the
guitar tones. There is a whirlwind of raging guitars riffs and
solo's, the drumming is top-notch beats with both faster beats and
more controlled beats. Deus Otiosus has released a perfect follow up
to Murderer carrying on the raw, aggressive old school death/thrash
style heard on their debut album. This is recommended to all
metal fanatics.
- Patrick
http://www.myspace.com/deusotiosus
http://www.deepsend.com/
|
|
Everyone should
know deep inside the depths of Sweden, many a moons ago and ages
since the festival fires to the gods burned bright - out of those
ashes was born a legendary band named Pagan Rites. Now Pagan Rites
raped the scene with delight and always staying true to their
Autopsy Torment-ed roots. The lead tormenter of the rites and
rituals and heart of those old bands was Devil Lee Rot, after a time
of in-activity the Mr. Rot decided to strike out on his lonesome,
naming his latest and at the risk of backlash unto me, greatest band
yet, aptly named after himself. Deeply rooted in traditional metal
both clean and dirty, everything from Judas Priest and Saxon to
Piledriver and Anvil – yes I admit the black metal roots of Devil
Lee Rot appear to have been shed, though the Satanic image was not,
yet the band is no less lethal for sharpening it’s focus further
down the deep root systems. Yes, yes my demons, this is pure old
school heavy metal hellfire that will have you breaking out your
spiked wrist bands and drawing sick logos on your tattered school
binders! I fucking dare you to listen to songs like “Man Made of
Steel”, “Prepare For War”, “Blade In The Night” and “Metal Avengers”
and not want to headbang, and not want to sew a Devil Lee Rot patch
on your Denim and not play air guitar!! Do not let my retro chants
and nostalgic musings fool you, this album has depth, it is gloomy
emotion where called for and the vocals have dynamics to them in a
way bands of today just can not understand, that is not even
mentioning some of the tasty guitar work and timely ‘n tasty drum
licks. A classic record in the making, this much is certain. Though
that seems to be becoming a mere routine for Devil Lee Rot, can this
legend do no wrong?! Maybe I am becoming stuck in my ways, but I
live for this stuff, a lot of other new music in an interesting
distraction but this is the kind of music that lasts and that is the
greatest honour I can bestow! – Dale
Iron Fist
Productions, c/o Thomas Nyqvist 8a, 417 02 Goteborg, SWEDEN
ironfist@hotmail.com www.ironfist.cjb.net |
I usually do not
complain that much about production. But sometimes the mix is just
not good or at least well done. The recording is fine and clear, but
the drums are too loud in the mix and over power the guitars,
especially when the drums are really active which is often. Also
most of the time it seems hard to hear that there is a bass player
on here and that hurts the bottom end of their sound a great deal.
The only thing that seems to be at a proper level is the vocals of
female vocalist Antonie. She does a solid job with some great hoarse
yell growling that shows some depth, she also mixes in some squeals
and higher pitched stuff from time to time as an accent. The music
seems to present itself as death metal, but there is no denying a
heavy thrash metal influence that bleeds through the constantly
blasting loud drums. There is a quite a lot of melody injected in
there, yet I almost hesitate to throw them into the melodic death
genre. But I would not argue that hard against it either. I would
posit they are a little heavier and rely on aggression a little more
than most meldodeath bands. At the end of the day nothing special
but not a bad listen either. So I will leave it up to you if you
love this style enough to go for it. I enjoyed it, but still it will
be one of those records for me that is easy to forget and not reach
for to have repeat listens. – Dale
http://www.myspace.com/damnmetal
http://www.unexplodedrecords.com/
|
Nice heavy & brutal
death metal (never slipping into the grind area ‘tho) on this east coast
Canadian bands debut. I was surprised I had not heard of this band,
being so, quality and being of course Canadian. It’s all here for the
extreme fan. Fast parts, momentary slow parts, deep growls, precise and
pounding drums & a nice production to boot. Dichotic like to throw in
some cool counter flow guitar noodling parts ala Gorguts or Cryptopsy.
– Dale
Send $10 CDN/$15 US to:
Lost In The Fog, 86
Nelson’s Landing # 216, Bedford, Nova Scotia, B4A 4C6, CANADA.
Band contact:
Dichotic, 2476 Robie St. # 8, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3K 4N1, CANADA
|
Die Hard are a great Swedish band playing metal the way it should be
played dirty, aggressive old-school death/thrash. Fast, raw guitar
riffs, fast drumming pounding is amazing and well done. Gruff growls
and blackened screeches spew out the lyrics. Die Hard are definitely
fanatics of the old-school sound and I must say they play it with it
a lot of aggression and passion. In an endless sea of bands who play
old-school metal nowadays Die Hard are definitely at the top of the
list of greats that will still be standing tall once the trend has
passed and all the posers are either gone or crushed by the true
metal warriors of the underground scene. Definitely a band for fans
of old-school, raw aggressive death/thrash will enjoy this band and
their releases.
- Patrick
http://www.myspace.com/diehardthrash
http://www.officialabyssrecords.com/ |
|
Well I got this
album and the new album that followed in the same package. For some
unknown reason I went and reviewed the new album first, foregoing
chronological order. So I guess you can refer to that review on more
of the background on the band and their history with Canadian
Assault. The recording is not quite as nice or fitting as the new
record Collapse The Void, but it still gets the job done coming
across heavy and dark. The musicianship is solid and the music
itself is challenging to perform, but not overly so. Hossanas is a
rough, mean beast that punishes with little discretion, yet there is
some level of control among the black/death chaos. The vocals from
Mike as can always be expected are purely maniacal, forceful and he
puts every ounce of everything he has got into them. Dimentianon at
times employ touches of unusual structuring and timing to their
songs which creates a lot of introspective and tortured atmospheres.
These unique qualities often help them to not sound much like anyone
else I can think of to be honest. Something which is in this day and
age is a compliment all by its lonesome. My view is this band is
quite underrated and deserves more attention within the scene. They
deserve at the least not to get lost in the shuffle like so many
quality bands. – Dale
http://www.ncmrecords.com/
http://www.myspace.com/dimentianon
|
Dimentianon (and
prior to that The Forgotten) make their return to the pages of
Canadian Assault. We are both getting old and crusty now as I recall
reviewing their listening / reviewing their demos a decade ago! I
kind of lost touch with the band and label and missed out on them
for a while. The line up has changed since I last heard them. In
fact, the band is still made up of old member Mike and Maureen (from
the home base in NY), but the rest of the band is in the band
Sectioned from the UK. The album was recorded in Deer Park, New
York, so apparently the British invaded America rather than the
reverse to make this happen. Dimentianon sound a little different my
last experience with them. They have a cleaner, heavier sound and I
think you can see maturity creeping into their songwriting. Vocalist
Mike still sounds great, powerful and more controlled than previous.
I have not seen the band live lately, but this guy Mike was pretty
fucking intense live and left his guts out on the stage. I have
heard hundreds of bands try to mix intense black / death metal
together with stripped down melodic breaks and introspective
interludes. But very few have mastered the art of doing it well like
Dimentianon have and they do not need to simply drench you in piles
of synth (though there surely is that element present) to achieve
it. A testament to their vision and talent. I can recommend this
strongly to anyone who loves black / death melded with reflective
somber soundscapes and good musicianship. The recording really does
the music justice as well, it is full and heavy and not overly
slick, a mistake in my view many bands make these days. - Dale
http://www.myspace.com/dimentianon
http://www.themetalunderground.com/ |
|
I can just about
guarantee you these guys, are a little more adventurous shall we
say, than most of the bands readers of this site listen to. Dinner
Music For The Gods, are a supremely talented group of musicians,
that thankfully, do not just wank their way across an albums worth
of material. No there is quite a bit of thought and skill put into
the arrangements, which for me, only serves to enhance and showcase
their individual and collective talents much better, rather than
ripping off into a hundred solos or going in too many directions,
just to show off they are talented enough to do that. Did I mention
this is an instrumental record? No? Well don’t worry, these guys are
skilled and smart, keeping the arrangements interesting enough and
the flow moving constantly forward enough. That amazingly, and I do
not say this often with instrumental bands, it is more than enough,
to make me forget or not care that there are no vocals. The band,
stay in the metal spectrum consistently enough, that I think that is
the main crowd that will be pleased by this material. But make no
mistake, they have a wide range of influences and you will hear
little tidbits of everything, from a jazzy bit, to some cool Frank
Zappa influenced nuances, to full metal headbang induced by a
dexterous riffing attack. Bringing up those influences, probably
under sells how much of a metal based record this is, but rest
assured it is metal. If I had to throw a label on them, it would
probably be prog heavy metal. You should really check out this
talented band if that sort of thing floats your boat. - Dale
http://www.dinnermusicforthegods.com/
http://www.reverbnation.com/dinnermusicforthegods |
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Dipygus may come
from California, but they play dirty, grimy and depraved jungle
cannibal loving sewer death metal with touches of doom conjured up
straight from the depths of hell itself. They sound like a vile
mixing pot of bands like Impetigo, Autopsy, Repulsion and the like
that is as potent and powerful, as it is ingenious in it’s pure
degeneracy. The music is just so heavy, guttural and rough
possessing this great suffocating heinous aura across it all. I mean
not to drive a point into the ground, but talk about chainsaw
guttfuck, just listen the song “Long-Pig Feast”, and that riff in
there is the audio equivalent of sawing through flesh and bone, it
is damn thick and heavy as an anvil. I love it. The vocals are like
a throaty whispery version of the great classic Autopsy style gutter
growls that I worshi. The doomy sequences really throw some
emotional weight upon the listener, which then adds even more of an
expressive dynamic when they start to turn up the tempo and the
pummeling brutality. I really enjoyed this album quite a bit, I
think diehards of the bands and their sound I mentioned above will
probably love basking in this blood spray afterglow long after
hitting stop, assuming you still have the strength to do so. -
Dale
https://dipygus.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/memento.mori.label |
|
I heard this
Dutch bands debut album way the fuck back in 2001. I remember liking
it well enough, but I did not realize the band was still kicking, I
now see why I thought this with their long absence between releases.
But more on that later, let’s dig into new full-length courtesy of
this Indonesian label (that interestingly enough is run by a
transplanted American!). Disavowed are not like a lot of death metal
bands these days, as they do not throw a bunch of fancy song
structuring, nor ultra technical parts for the sake of it, nor do
they inject a bunch of melodic elements to tamper down the extremity
and make things more palatable. The band plays straight up older
school brutal death metal where heaviness and brutality is king and
they punish you to a pulp with it! That is not at all to say there
are not some memorable riffs, brief catchy instances or some
technical segments woven into their monstrous, brutish sound. But, I
will say it once again, above all brutality is king and the king
rules with an iron covered fist. I must mention a couple other
stand-out elements of this band’s composition and performance, which
is the commanding, formidable drum work that is superb and provides
that devastating backbone that makes up Disavowed’s sound so strong.
The second being the vocals, which are deep, intimidating growls
that remind of me what a pissed off, caged bear bent on tearing
apart his captors might sound like. The sound and production on
here, for me is a picture perfect marriage to the bands overwhelming
destructive, bestial brand of severe and relentless death metal.
This is the bands third album, their first album in 13 years!! With
the high quality of this album I suspect long time fans of the band
are well pleased with the result their patience produced. Check this
out as soon as possible if you love straight up death metal that is
high quality. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/Disavowedofficial/
http://brutal-mind.com/
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Ever seen that
footage of the atom bombs being dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki? Ever
seen it in slow motion? It is all re-created with the mighty impact of
doomy death metal known as Disciples Of Mockery! I praised this bands
last disc in issue # 4 and now I have the new stuff to salivate over!
Think of a doomier version of early Incantation (No surprise as there
are no less than 3 original Incantation members in D.O.M. – Craig
Pillard, Jim Roe & Ronny Deo) that will melt your ears like lava. Craig
Pillard’s mighty beastial vocal grind is as sick as ever. I cannot seem
to get enough of his blasphemous growls! Buy this piece of vile sick art
and be obliterated! – Dale
Web = http://artcon.rutgers.edu/artists/say10/dom.html |
|
Ehh…Latvia's Diseim are ok, but not what I was expecting. I'm not
sure if my expectations were too high but I've listened to "Holy
Wrath" about 3 times and just can't get into it. Boring and
bland death metal that really doesn’t really stand out, there are
some doomish parts but that really can't help the bands sound. Maybe
on the next release Diseim will have a better standing of
musicianship or musical direction. Personally I'd say pass on this
and grab yourself one of Abyss Records many other great releases
there are available.
- Patrick
http://www.myspace.com/diseim
http://www.officialabyssrecords.com/
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|
The Visions of
Death, was apparently originally scheduled for release on Reaper
Metal Records. But subsequently was, due to reasons I do not know,
handed over to the capable hands of Hells Headbangers. This album,
for me is a very entertaining listen. For me, it brings back
memories of my early days in the UG and just before that. You know
the very late 80s and early 90s, there was that link between thrash
and what would become brutal death metal. You would call the style
death metal, but there were definite signs of the bands thrash metal
roots. When I think of that time and when I listen to Disfigured
Dead, it immediately brings to mind bands from that time like Death,
Autopsy, Repulsion, Nihilist, Slaughter, Immortal Fate and the like.
It is obvious that is what Disfigured are going for and are not
ashamed to wear their influences on their sleeves. This is what they
are, take it or leave it. That is what you can expect a relentless
death thrash attack, replete with Scream Bloody Gore vocals and
pubescent gore lyrics. There is definitely nothing groundbreaking,
but I still fucking love it. As I said it is was a fun listen to be
sure and I banged my head a time or two.
– Dale
http://www.myspace.com/disfigureddeaddeathmetal
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/
|
|
Atlanta’s
Disfigurement, a young band that is hitting the underground scene
running. I was pretty quickly taken, by this impressive five song ep,
which features a maturity and control in the songwriting that seems
beyond this bands two year existence. Despite what the band name may
conjure up in some peoples minds, this is not mindless bludgeoning,
there is bludgeoning to be had, but there is a lot more nuance and
intricacy here than just that. The brutality and growl are sewn
together, with some subtle refinement, which serves as superb
atmosphere, as well as punctuating the brutality and in turn, giving
it more meaning and effect. The drumming is controlled chaos
excellence, alternatively providing the backbone and jumping in to
stir up the insanity when called for. There are brief flittering
moments, but there are times when I hear doom influence in some of
the guitar parts, which mix surprisingly well with their highly
contrasting main sound. That may be something the band may want to
explore further in the future. The vocals are a two pronged affair,
with the higher, slightly nasal rough yelled growling and the deep,
frightening, menacing growl, which sounds pretty killer in tandem. I
don’t know, if I can say much else except this is a great ep /
mini-album, that needs your attention. I am looking forward to
hearing more Disfigurement! - Dale
http://www.reverbnation.com/disfigurement
http://www.boris-records.com/ |
|
The first time I
read that album title I swear my brain saw it as Blood Red Testicle
ha ha. The music however on this French bands debut album is no
fucking joke let me tell you. I mean this is my kind of shit! By
that I mean old school death metal that takes some of the best parts
of the American and Swedish death metal scenes of the days of yore.
The band produces grimy, brutal and high energy musical depravity
that punishes and pummels you with delight through indiscriminate
audio violence. I am also a big fan of author H.P. Lovecraft and
their lyrics are inspired by his works, which are brought to life
here by the maniacal and superb growling vocalist Renaud Mann who
puts in a tour de force performance here. The music is really heavy
and al is permeated with this oppressive gloomy atmosphere that I
find very inciting and infectious. My only minor complaint on here
is the drums as they are a little too tinny sounding at times with
the oft used cymbals. When I mention influences above from the US
side of things think Repulsion, Autopsy, early Death and from Sweden
bands like Nihilist, Carnage, Grave and Dismember. It is also
cyclical in some ways as even though Swedes put a different spin and
sound on it, the bands I mentioned were all very much influenced
first by the above mentioned American bands especially Repulsion and
Autopsy. So maybe Disfuneral are not doing anything new, but as
mentioned I am diehard devotee of this style and when a band like
Disfuneral does it this well I just can not help myself but love it
to death. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/Disfuneral/
https://shop.redefiningdarkness.com/ |
|
This is a bull-dozering brutal death metal record along the lines of
old Regurgitation, Disgorge, or Lividity, but of course with their
own little twist on the genre with some modern technique and
recording. I won’t tell you that it will floor you with originality,
or destroy your will to live with ridiculous technical prowess, or
is unlike anything you’ve ever heard. No, this one is just a
straight up sledgehammer to the face, and it brings the pain hard,
fast, and repeatedly. The vocals are guttural but thankfully save us
the pig squeals and instead stay low and sick the entire album. The
drums are a whirlwind and when combined with the guitars that are
tuned all the way down to sewer the effect is hypnotic and crushing.
It really is a wall of sound approach, and I would imagine it could
be tough to hear all the instruments on stage if there’s a shitty
sound engineer! You can pretty much judge this one by its cover, but
in this case it really isn’t a bad thing. I’m always looking for
bands in this style, especially bands that check all the boxes and
add something new to it. DA does that, and it’s a step above their
last release on all fronts. I will be waiting to see what these guys
do next. Keep an eye on the label, too, if you like brutal death
metal - Lord of the Sick Recordings brings it almost every time.
– Andrew Parrish
https://www.facebook.com/disgruntledanthropophagi
http://lordofthesick.com/ |
|
Indonesia strikes again with another great
sounding brutal death metal band that mixes in both 90's style death
metal with some newer elements. “Prahara” is the debut release
featuring eight songs of solid well delivered death metal, which is
both brutal and well written. For the most part the band plays at a
very fast pace, but is not afraid to slow it down and give the
musicians time to shine with more mid tempo playing. The musicians
can play both the faster paced music and the mid paced equally very
well, but I would say the band seems to be more at home with the
more aggressive faster paced material. The vocals range goes from a
more old school growl to some deeper, low growls that you hear more
in today death metal scene. Disintegration has delivered a great
debut of pummeling and intense death metal that should please fans
of both the old school and newer breed of brutal death metal bands.
This album comes highly recommended from me. - Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/Disintegration-549326705241809
https://brutalmind.bandcamp.com |
|
I have to admit when I did a preview listen to
this album to decide whether or not to review it, I was not sure I
could adequately describe and convey what ‘Degenerations’ is all
about. But I decided to take up the challenge and hopefully I can at
least somewhat succeed in my goal, here we go. A lot of what you
hear on here is familiar bones with bits of sinew and tissue
sporadically attached, yet you have likely never heard the base
music old school brutal death metal, techno death, grinding death
and just extreme metal twisted into a Frankenstein form quite like
this. Some might call this progressive or avant-garde, but for me
Diskord is heavier, more vicious and dark in a grimy way than most
bands that use or are pinned with that tag. The songwriting is
masterfully twisted and quirky, it is surgically reordered into
something that sounds quite unique and creates an atmosphere for the
listener while gratifying on one hand by being heavy and brutal and
familiar, it is also disorienting, foreign and exigent on the other
hand. It is easy in some cases to pick out influences and difficult
in others, it sounds like what I have heard before and nothing like
I have heard before yet some influences that come to mind are
Gorguts, Demilich, Atheist, Pungent Stench, early Cadaver, Cynic,
Afflicted, Disharmonic Orchestra and Atrocity. Some of the
off-kilter timing signatures and rhythms of the music is taken to
almost demented and eccentric levels, there are times when it is in
danger of snuffing out the song flow entirely, but they just manage
to always just keep it on the rails and not go completely against
the current, so to speak. An extra little content warning (warning
for some haha) there is plenty of little weird yet infectious sound
samples and effects that proliferate throughout this release. The
vocals remind me a bit to some of the above mentioned bands as well,
they are growled vocals, but also clear and have a strong edge of
gruff thrash style vocal. There is also this murky edge to vox with
that echo-y effect, they are mainly aggressive in delivery yet do
convey emotion quite well. I will not sugar coat it for you, this
may not be for a lot of extreme metal fans, as it is a particularly
challenging listen to be sure. Yet I think there is enough crushing
heaviness to keep many from refraining from hitting stop, as they
let the layers of this impressively constructed, technical and
highly unconventional music get its hooks into you and work it’s way
into your brain and your good graces. For those always complaining
it all sounds the same, you need to get this album and I dare you to
say that with what Diskord have created. - Dale
https://diskordband.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/torecords
https://tometal.com/
|
I was sent a review
of this, by C.A. writer, Jeffrey Kusbel, my apologies to him for not
printing his review here. I have a disturbing story to tell you about.
Besides the fact that all of my dealings in the past with Necropolis
Records (and Necropolis ‘zine before the label formed) were either
negative or just non-existent as they never wrote back a number of
times, even after I sent I.R.C’s to them. I won’t bother to mention his
name (but it should be easy to figure out from my past issues who I am
close friends with that has a label & ‘zine) but I was talking to him on
the phone and I greatly respect this person. He is a longtime
underground supporter (back into the mid-80’s!) and I trust his word
100% as he is no shit talker. Well, this gentleman told me a story he
about his dealings with Necropolis. It started with him ordering a vinyl
version of a Nifelheim album - he was returned his money in the form of
a credit slip and no explanation. So he sent back the credit slip to
Necropolis with a flyer he kept that the label themselves had put out
and he circled where it said “Vinyl LP version now available”. They once
again returned his credit slip again with no explanation. Pissed by now
my friend sent back the credit slip once again and said “Just send me
the CD”. As a side note here each time he wrote, he put flyers for his
label and ‘zine in each letter to them. Then and here is the kicker,
FINALLY sent him what he asked for the, which was the CD. The package
had lots of padding in it, THE STUFFING AROUND THE CD WAS THIS DEDICATED
GENTLEMAN’S LABEL/’ZINE FLYERS ALL SHREDDED UP INTO PIECES!!! Beware of
Necropolis they don’t care about you or the scene, only themselves and
the money they can take from you! There will be no support from this mag
to Necropolis. They can just FUCK OFF!
– Dale |
|
Distant Sun
comes out of Russia presenting their sophomore album for perusal.
The band play power metal, with touches of thrash influence
flittering in and out, here and there. They are clearly skilled
musicians, capable of creating some good riffs and nuanced emotive
and introspective guitar parts, as well as some solid lead guitar
and fill work. Within this framework, you will find that melodies
abound, which are often of the bright, bouncy and happy variety. I
must admit I am not always the biggest fan of what they consider the
new power metal sound (which for me is veering off what old goats
like me considered power metal back in the day), but I find newer
power metal is at it’s least desirable to this listener when the
melodies are on the happy and lighter side. Though I will admit at
other times, I am saved, as now and then they mix in heavier thrash
elements that remind me of Annihilator or Iced Earth. An example of
this is in the middle section of probably my most liked track on the
album, entitled “Andromeda”, where it really picks up the song and
gives it some guts and much needed sandpaper. It is during these
moments, and sections, Distant Sun are at their best, unfortunately
those cool thrash moments are too few for me. I would say some of
the more clear influences I can hear are from bands like Blind
Guardian, Angra, Gamma Ray, and Running Wild during their “Victory”
period. The vocalist, kind of sounds like a mix between middle-era
(Load / Re-Load) James Hetfield, and Dave Mustaine, mixed together,
which at times works and other times just did not work for me. The
pronunciation of the vocalist, much like the overall musical
compositions themselves, seems over thought, too forced and lacking
a certain needed flow. It is a mixed bag for me, some stuff is
brilliant, while other elements I would be okay with deleting from
their sound altogether and going back to the drawing board haha.
Despite that, I could see a fair number of newer power metal style
fans, who also like a little thrash getting into this more than I
did. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/distantsunband http://metalism.net/
|
|
This is a new
young band coming out of Detroit, Michigan. Earlier this year the
band released their debut demo, but now they present to us their
first label offering and what an excellent label they have already
landed on so quickly! There are six songs on this mini-album,
consisting of well executed and performed black metal that praises
old black metal and it’s early traditions. Yes, it is black metal
intertwined with influences of old heavy metal and thrash where you
can hear some direct reverence of the early masters like Venom,
early Bathory, early Mayhem and a little Master’s Hammer thrown in
for good measure. The vocals are a nice mix old style gruff growls
and screams that fit the bands dark malevolent music perfectly. The
evil music flows along mainly with mid pace passages, but things do
speed to a quicker pace at times throughout infectiously good
release. I can not help but strongly suggest you pick this up, if
you are a fellow die hard of the early days of the black metal then
you should pick up a copy of ‘Strange Passions’ today. - Patrick
https://divineecstasy.bandcamp.com
http://www.ironbonehead.de |
You just mix up Deicide
(hello Glen Benton vocals) and Repulsion with a small dash of original
spice and you have Divine Empire. Extremely heavy and ploughing death
metal, that is well played and comes with a nice production. Not ground
breaking but a damn good listen and I like it. – Dale
Olympic Records,
P.O.
Box 7217, Elgin, IL. 60121, USA
|
|
When I read the
band name, it made me immediately think, oh this is going to be some
generic thrash or metalcore. I can happily report, it is absolutely
nothing remotely like that whatsoever. Dogbane play, spirited heavy
metal, in the late 70s/early 80s NWOBHM tradition, but mix it with a
pinch of old school doom metal. The vocals tend to lend themselves,
more to the old heavy metal ways, than doom. Which, I am sure will
grate on some people’s nerves, but I dig that style of vocals, now
granted, there are moments on here where the doom element is
stronger, and they do not fit as well, as they do on the old heavy
metal mainstay. They know how to rock and write some good riffs, and
arrange the songs to create some good emotional atmosphere, at
times, before eventually kicking things back up for a good headbang.
I could see fans of bands like Manilla Road, Witchfinder General,
Cirith Ungol, Angel Witch, Savage, Liege Lord etc… really getting
into this band. So, if you are a fan of those bands, just ignore
that awful band name and listen to the great music! - Dale
https://www.reverbnation.com/Dogbane
http://www.heavenandhellrecords.com/blog/ |
|
 
Dogs of Scum are
just a straight up raunchy hard rock / metal band (maybe with a hint
of hardcore) that has a good time with their metal, and love to
party and just live up to the name of the band. The first song is
entitled “A Tsunami Named Peter North”, for those who are not
aficionados like me of ‘80s & ‘90s porn, North was a porn star known
for shooting massive loads of cum that just seemed to keep on coming
and coming haha. Some other songs, to give you a vibe of the
atmosphere and attitude of the name and the music are ones like
“Secaucus Sucks”, “Drugs, Booze & Fast Food”, “The Smell Of Sodomy”
etc… You get the idea, definitely nothing too serious. Their
attitude and a little of the music reminds me of Gang Green, who I
like a lot, but these guys are a little more bravado metal and less
punk and skateboarding than a band like Gang Green. The vocals are
clear gruff, slightly growled sorta tough guy sounding vocals, a
little along the lines of ANTiSEEN or something. They even do an
acoustic cover of GG Allin’s classic song “Guns, Bitches, Brawls &
Bottles”, which is pretty cool, they even sing the vocals in GG
style vocals. I like that though I did not find it so cool that they
do not list it as a cover or credit GG anywhere on the tape itself
or on the packaging. Hopefully that is just an oversight and not the
band trying to pass it off as their own to those that might not know
any better. It was an enjoyable cover though for sure. The music is
mostly slower to middle paced, punctuated with the odd brief speedy
section, as the music kind of caters a lot to what is going on in
the vocals/lyrics which are often catchy with choruses ala Macabre
or similar bands. It is generally some pretty good stuff that I
enjoyed and this is a different release to what I usually get in for
review and a nice change of pace for me. If you do like different
shit like GG Allin, ANTiSEEN, Macabre, The Mentors, Eat My Fuk,
Dayglo Abortions etc… Then you will probably dig the 18 minutes of
sleaze and depravity on this tape. It comes on a nice pro pressed
piss yellow tape. Feel free to send orders of physical copies of
this tape to either of the following: Doomsday Today Records,
Eternal Darkness Creations, c/o Keith Dempe, PO Box 268,
Coraopolis, PA.
15108 and also thru Ralph's Records, c/o Doug Stapp, 3322 82nd St.,
Lubbock, TX.
79423 USA - Dale
https://myspace.com/dogsofscum
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com |
|
I am not even
sure what genre you would say Dolores plays within, but I did dabble
with a few Power Violence bands (ala Man Is The Bastard, Capitalist
Casualties, Crossed Out, Black Army Jacket, Charles Bronson etc…)
back in the mid to late ‘90s and listened to them back then, but not
much since as it never grabbed me enough to keep up with that scene.
I might say that is where I would place Dolores, it has some Sludge
similarities too for sure, but Power Violence is a more apt
descriptor to give readers an idea to know what they might be
getting into if they ordered this. Dolores plays a lot of chunky,
heavy, slow to middle paced riffs that seem like a series of calm
before the storm sections strung together into a song. This formula
of the more brooding emotive bits lead into bursts of raw, scathing
angry screeching half sung/half spoken vocals which largely makes up
the staple of the Dolores sound. This is pretty some pretty solid
shit in this kind of niche sub-genre, it would be worth checking out
for most extreme metal fanatics, but it may be more of an acquired
taste for those types. But devotees of Powerviolence would be the
ones that can really appreciate this band. Feel free to send orders
of physical copies of this tape to either of the following: Doomsday
Today Records, Eternal Darkness Creations, c/o Keith Dempe, PO Box
268,
Coraopolis, PA.
15108 and also thru Ralph's Records, c/o Doug Stapp, 3322 82nd St.,
Lubbock, TX.
79423 USA - Dale
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com |
|
The infamous
Swedish black metal band Domgård are back, after a five year
absence, presenting their third album "Ödelagt". The band formed
back in 1997, soon afterwards became notorious in the scene and
outside of it, when nearly the whole band were imprisoned for arson
after burning down a number of churches. Their sentences ranged from
2 ½ to 5 years each in prison. The singer, a couple years after his
five years in prison ended, took his own tumultuous life when he
hung himself from a bridge. So, as you can see not even counting the
music, the band has quite the turbulent and chaotic history. I am
not sure what brought on the five year gap between albums, but
Domgård have stormed back on to the scene with an excellent hour
long album. The music on here is surely rooted and steeped, as you
may expect, with the early ‘90s Scandinavian black metal sound and
tradition. Anyone who knows me well enough knows I am a sucker for
this time period in bm and this sound. Domgård use that sound as
their base at all times, but are actually more imaginative as far as
using time changes, structuring and the odd eccentric elements
(while still employing traditional instrumentation) than your usual
second wave of black metal band would venture to do. They also
incorporate some small viking metal type tropes with some cleaner
gang sung choruses and musical nuances. As well, this is not new or
different, but I also hear some moderate Celtic Frost influence such
as you might hear on some Dark Throne releases ala “Panzerfaust”,
though not overly pronounced or over used. No, in fact, despite the
frost dripped black metal hate and darkness clearly present, this
ends up being a moody, somewhat atmosphere driven record at times.
This is partly due to the epic sixteen minute second to last song
entitled “Förgånget”, as well as album closer “Ødhe Vi”. All in all,
they furthered their malevolent legacy, by delivering a strong,
multi-faceted yet decidedly dark and evil sounding black metal
record that is worth your time. - Dale
https://www.facebook.com/DOMGARD http://www.carnalrecords.com/ |
|
Doomsday
Ceremony is a band from Brazil that play a nice mix of early black
metal and traditional heavy metal. The songs are written very well,
with a mix of both fast played guitars, and some very well done mid
paced sections. The guitarist also plays writes and performs
excellent solos in a few of the songs. The drumming has a diverse
range in the beats, ranging middle paced to a faster, which cycles
back and forth throughout each song. The vocals are a mix of clean
vocal patterns, and some well done old school black metal screams,
along with some talking sections. If you are a fan of old school
black metal, and traditional heavy metal, then be sure to add
Doomsday Ceremony to your collection. - Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/DoomsdayCeremony/
http://www.cogumelo.com/pt/
|
|
 
Joe Buck
Yourself “Devil Is On His Way” + “Demon In My Head” Cassette
I did not know anything about Joe Buck going into this review, he
apparently has been doing this a long time, a notable item with him
is he is or has been the upright bass player for Hank Williams III
(as well as other bands like Ass Jack & The Legendary Shake
Shakers). These two tapes are basically re-releases of 3 or 4
different cd releases, put out back in the years 2004, 2007 & 2008
for a total of 25 songs combined, so essentially each tape is a
full-length albums worth of material. I seen this online described
as punk and country mixed together, which sounds like a terrible
idea to me, so I was pretty apprehensive (expected to hate it to be
honest) entering into this review. I am pleased to report what is on
here I would not call punk or country, at all, maybe some punk
attitude there, but not musically. This first tape is some moody,
but catchy and memorable rock music that is very stripped down, like
just a guitar, a kick drum and mic to sing into. I don’t know much
about this particular sub-genre, but at a guess, maybe you could
call a pessimistic and raunchy contemporary Rockabilly music? As
mentioned, it is really simple, stripped down music, but they do
sometimes say less is more. This is definitely not my kind of music
that I would listen to probably rarely, if ever, but I will admit I
liked some of the attitude and the guy does write some catchy,
memorable songs and lyrics that will probably stick in your head. I
will let you decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing haha. If
you are the open minded type musically and like stuff similar to
hard Rockabilly then you will dig this, but if you are looking for
metal or anything musically extreme (though the guitar in the newer
“Demon” material is a little heavier & distorted you could say) then
move along son. As always, with all Doomsday releases the cassettes
and packaging are pro pressed and quality printed.
Spoiled Humanic
Waste “Broken Hate Addict” Cassette
So you know how you read reviews all the time that say things like I
can’t believe this is a one man band, or you would never know this
is a one man band, it is so well done and complete sounding? Well,
this release is the opposite of that, this is a one man band and it
sounds like one, painfully so to honest. It is very sloppy, confused
sounding, all the parts in the songs vaguely sound like they do not
belong together and are not even trying to perform the same song.
The songs do not just sound sloppy, but they are played really
sloppy and kind of sound improvised on the spot, but I do not think
they were, at all. Having said that, surprisingly to me in a sort of
Venusian Death Cell sort of fashion they have a certain charm to
them, like they are so bad that they are good and slightly addictive
to listen to in a weird way. One of the strongest elements is the
almost constant raw, fuzzy, indecipherable caustic yelling vocals,
it is almost like they are the main instrument and also the tightest
performance on here. It is bad, don’t say I did not warn you it is
bad, but it still has a charm to it that eventually turns into
monotony as it goes on for too long. I know I have not described the
style played on here, not sure what you would call it, like
distorted noise/crust style music or something maybe? This release
and the two Joe Buck tapes, as well as all Doomsday’s Today Records
releases are available through Ralph’s Records (info at end of
review) as well as Eternal Darkness Creations at c/o Keith Dempe,
P.O. Box 268, Coraopolis, PA. 15108, USA. ***Just
an update on Doomsday here, they have lots of things in the cooker
due out soon from bands like Static Of Masses, Zothgorgven, Ov Blood
And Mockery etc…***
Finger Of God
“Release The Wolves” CD
Oh my, this is a huge contrast to the Spoiled Humanic Waste tape I
just reviewed, the recording, playing and song writing are on such a
higher quality level that there is absolutely no comparison. I have
been getting a ton of releases lately it seems that are re-releases
of old material, but this is not even a re-release, it is an old
release, as it came out it appears nearly a decade and a half ago?!!
But I guess it is still available so... I tried as many google
searches as I could as I figured if it has been out this long there
must be old reviews, chatter, promo, a website or something for the
band, but I could not find a single word about them in any searches,
which is really amazing and strange to me. But anyway, F.O.G. write
songs that range from 7-9+ minutes each, for a totally of about
forty minutes of music. It is kind of sparse, winding music that
usually centers on what is usually a pretty killer riff that changes
up here and there, to keep the interest up, as the long songs do
create an enjoyable soundscape that includes somewhat subdued but
tasteful drumming that supports the rolling continuous riff well.
This album is almost entirely instrumental, there are some
exceedingly sparingly used spoken word bits here and there kept
obscured and laid back. This is some pretty good metal music, to
just sit back, chill and let your mind wander through the bands
satisfying slightly doomy audio ambience.
Doug Stapp
“Static” CD
So I tried, like Finger Of God above, to do online sleuthing to try
to find anything I could on this band, as the website listed on the
disc is no more apparently. But unlike Finger Of God, I did find a
couple hits this time, not a lot, but at least there is something to
find and go on. I did already know coming in that Doug Stapp owns a
big new & used record store, in Texas, called Ralph’s Records (why
not Doug’s Records, not sure but I am sure there is a good reason
for it
J).
Cheers to Doug for keeping the physical formats alive and well. This
release is even older than the one above having been released nearly
20 years ago, but like the one above it is apparently still very
much available for purchase on line and in store. This is an
instrumental guitar shredder record, nothing against it, but I have
never been a big fan of guitar shredder albums they are fun to watch
play on stage, but on record it does not float my boat so much.
Having said that, it is clear that Doug is a killer guitar player!
Also, one thing I did like is Doug (and his backing band) do keep a
semblance of actual song and song flow, which for me makes the
actual guitar shredding more enjoyable and impactful, helping keep
it from coming off as just mindless guitar wanking, which gets old
fast. So, kudos there to Doug for that, also for the tasteful
overall performance on here. He even in one song, every now and
then, he pulls out a Nugent “Cat Scratch Fever” riff, briefly
popping in and out which I got a kick out of. The music itself is
rather diverse going from just fun silly numbers, to heavy songs
that shred it up, to introspective and moody songs. It really shows
Doug’s range of skills, both in his playing and song writing. Again,
it is not my thing, but if you like diverse music and dig shredding
then you are sure to like this quality album. This guy deserves to
be better known among shred fans for sure. Inquire at (this Stapp
disc and Finger Of God above online (link below) and are available
in store for $6 a piece at): Ralph's Records, c/o Doug Stapp, 3322
82nd St., Lubbock, TX. 79423 USA - Dale
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com
https://www.facebook.com/dougstapp |
|
A Hanging “Food
For Rats” Cassette EP
A Hanging on this ep reminds me both musically and definitely
vocally of The Accüsed (who I am a big fan of). Like The Accüsed
they have their roots in thrash metal the most, but other influences
creep in (heavy metal & hardcore). Despite the thrash influences
their material is generally slower to mid paced with the odd little
speed run. No, they are not as good as The Accüsed, not quite as
insane, not quite as intricate musically, but all the same I enjoyed
this tape.
Spoiled Humanic
Waste “Broken Hate Addict” Cassette Album
Another release by this one man band to be reviewed in the pages of
Canadian Assault. From what I remember of the previous release I
reviewed, this is actually a slight step up in recording quality
(and I generally like raw, low-fi recordings more often than not).
But I am not sure that is saying a whole lot. It still sounds like
someone who has not really learned how to play guitar yet, but is
still doing his best to go through the motions and sound as close as
possible to someone who does know how to play, at even a very
moderate level. This is not what I would call good, but all the same
the part I liked most is the raw, fuzzy, indecipherable caustic
yelling vocals. They have a certain charm to them in their
repetitive nature. For me, this enters the so bad it is almost good
territory, yet I can only listen so long before it starts to become
an overall grating listening experience for me.
Zogthorgven
“Zogthorgven” Cassette Album
I am not sure what to say about this band / project. I will give
them this, on the positive side, with a very minimalist type of
approach they do manage to create some affecting atmospheres. Not
that that means I am necessarily a fan of it. I could see this as
being the result of a band mixing Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch
Nails, but were told by a big name studio it is a soundtrack for a
suspense / Scifi style movie, so it is has to be commercial and
palatable enough to be easily accepted by a wide audience. This is
not so much my sort of thing, and I did not enjoy it, but I could
see this having some appeal out there among a wider audience.
...Ov Blood &
Mockery "Heaven... Eternal... Damnation..." Cassette EP
This band features members of Static Of Masses, Invertia and
Nihilistic Outlaw Criminal Order. Ov Blood & Mockery play slow and
plodding bass guitar heavy doom metal with a lot of samples, as well
as a healthy sprinkling of synth and industrial music ingredients.
They do an interesting and good Crowbar cover song on here. It may
be a tried & true mix of styles, but I must say this band creates
something with that gives off an own dark vibe. Despite me not
listening to this type of music a lot, I found myself appreciating
this more than I would have ever guessed I would.
Doug Stapp “The
Earth Says Hello” Cassette Album
I reviewed Doug’s other old solo album “Static” a while back. This
tape is a re-release of another of his past albums, this one was
released, near as I can tell back in 2006. Doug is a world class
guitarist, really I am not a huge shred guitarist fan, but this guy
should be listed in the same breath as some of the shred heroes like
Marty Friedman, Ted Nugent, Satriani, Steve Morse, Tony McAlpine
etc… I would like to say to others that are not necessarily big
shred fans or die hards that Doug writes songs that shred, yes, but
he also writes actual metal songs with a flow and style that any
metal fan could get into. This album stylistically is probably a
little less adventurous and more hard rock / metal based than
“Static”, while his chops and style range were impressive on that
record, I think I enjoyed this album more than that one for it’s
overall cohesiveness and flow. If you like guitar shredding and
actual listenable songs then I recommend you pick up this top
quality instrumental album. - Dale
Doomsday’s Today
Records releases are available through Eternal Darkness Creations at
c/o Keith Dempe, P.O. Box 268, Coraopolis, PA. 15108, USA or in
person at Ralph's Records, c/o Doug Stapp, 3322 82nd St., Lubbock,
TX. 79423 USA dougstapp@gmail.com
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com
https://doomsdaystodayrecords.bandcamp.com/ |
|
Sylent Storm
“Sylent Storm” Limited Cassette Edition
This was originally released by this Oregonian band as a CD EP back
in 2018. It is the bands first and only release, so far to date, but
now Doomsday is releasing this re-mastered edition on cassette to
give this band more attention. ‘Sylent Storm’ features six songs on
this twenty-eight minute tape of traditional old school ‘80s heavy
metal. Some influences I can hear are bands like Loudness, Riot,
Judas Priest, Virgin Steele, Ratt, Iron Maiden, Warlock, Rage etc…
Generally they stick to the heavier material of the bands I
mentioned above, but they do dip down into that commercial, glam-y
area at times, albeit briefly. These guys have talent and write some
quality, catchy and skillful music. The vocalist is good, but I
sometimes wish he had a little more grit in his voice, and he was
more forceful in the mix. Check this out, it is of definite interest
to classic hard rock and heavy metal fans.
You're Fired
"Warning / The End"
As is the case often with Doomsday releases, these two previous Ep’s
were released ago (2002 and 2012 respectively in this case). I
have to say these guys are consistent and stuck to their roots, as
honestly, despite there being a decade between releases (and the
improved recording) on the 2012 seven inch the two releases
stylistically sound like they were recorded back to back from the
same time period. Being the purist I often am, I can appreciate that
dedication and resolve to stick to their roots. I did not mention it
yet, but the band play high energy, high speed hardcore with some
ferocious individual and collective performances. I guess you could
say their music is a little one note with most songs sounding the
nearly the exact same. At the same time though, hardcore to me is
often more about the energy, about the raging rancor and revolves
heavily around the lyrics and the vocals, more so than most other
extreme music styles. I am sure this is a treat for long time fans
of You’re Fired, not to mention if you are a hardcore fanatic and
are always looking to flesh out your collection, this would be a
solid addition. The tape inlay has a nice layout and all lyrics are
included – so check it out.
Bush Hog Suicide
"In A Skeleton Pose”
This was originally released about a decade ago; I must say it is a
real eclectic mix of sub-genres. As mentioned in the previous
review, I am a purist in a lot of cases, so this definitely tested
my boundaries in that regard. As just to give you an idea, think of
a crazy melting pot of Pantera and Crowbar mixed with little
dissolving chunks of punk, thrash, and death metal alongside a big
hunk of sludge (the style not the muddy slime) all liquefying
together into one sound. That is the Bush Hog sound and even if it
is not necessarily my thing, and it is not - I still have to admit
it is well done, the music itself is pretty imaginatively
constructed. The production on this is heavy and spot on for their
style, which helps enhance their material. - Dale
Doomsday’s Today
Records releases are available through Eternal Darkness Creations at
c/o Keith Dempe, P.O. Box 268, Coraopolis, PA. 15108, USA as well as
Ralph's Records.
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com
https://doomsdaystodayrecords.bandcamp.com/ |
|
Insanity's Reign
"Insanity's Reign" Cassette Album
This is this Oregonian bands first release after having been around
the local scene since 2013. I feel a ton of dedication and passion
bleeding through this recording and everything I see / read about
this thrash metal band. I like all of that a lot. Which makes this a
bit hard to review, as honestly there are good elements, but also a
lot that I feel is kind of substandard in my view. Some of the good
is the heavy chug riffing on a lot of this album is pretty killer
and the bands backbone, also some of the singing from Omar Rodriguez
is fantastic and he has a certain charisma to his voice and
delivery. The other side of the coin is as good as some of the
vocals are, there are a lot of moments vocally that are clunky,
crackly sub-par and a touch amateurish sounding yet always sung with
passion. Some of the overall songwriting to my ear is under
developed, rudimentary and a little uninteresting honestly. Some of
the critics are partially down to individual performance at times,
and what seems to a disjointed, un-cohesive mixing job along with
the cymbols on the drums sound annoyingly tinny. As I mentioned, I
really like a lot about this band, so that is all a little hard for
me to write, but I try to be as honest as possible. I have a feeling
these guys are probably more effective and in their element in a
live setting in a club.
Chains of
Belmont “Toxic Hangover” Cassette EP
Chains Of Belmont present here their debut release in the form of
this 25ish minute EP. Their style is crossover thrash and they kill
with it on this beautifully packaged cassette tape. The band drips
in old school crossover goodness with fast, punchy and catchy songs
with an attitude that put a smile on my face and had my head
banging! There are some killer riffs on here and they vary the song
writing just enough to keep things interesting and flowing along
while staying true to their roots. Doug Greens vocals are kind of
half sung, half spoken hollering that is so classic sounding!
Listening to this brings back memories of my early days with
crossover in the mid to late ‘80s listening to shit like early DRI,
Cryptic Slaughter, The Accüsed, Gang Green and the like. I would
definitely recommend getting your hands on this tape if love classic
crossover thrash. - Dale
Doomsday’s Today
Records releases are available through Eternal Darkness Creations at
c/o Keith Dempe, P.O. Box 268, Coraopolis, PA. 15108, USA as well as
Ralph's Records.
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com
https://doomsdaystodayrecords.bandcamp.com/ |
|
This is another
big round up review for a Doomsday’s Today Records, but this time it
is a special two part round up. So let’s dig in…
EL Pecado “El
Pricipio… Del Final” Cassette Album
El Pecado was an Illinois band, who existed from the mid to late
‘90s. They released two demo tapes in 1994 & 1995; those two demos
and two newly recorded songs were to be combined to comprise their
debut album. The album was scheduled to be released in 1997/98 by
the infamous WildRags Records, but alas label owner Richard C. (who
was always cool with me in our dealings for years) went to prison
for tax evasion. The album was shelved and never happened, they
split up shortly afterwards. But, Paul from D.T. did not forget
about the band and had main man Mike Coles (who did a print fanzine
back in the band timeframe called The Outcast, which is now an
online ‘zine) dust off the recordings, so they could finally be
released after all these long years. El Pecado play dirty and speedy
deathrash metal that is a bit loose, but in a good filthy way with
chunky riffing and a dark aura to it. The vocals also have kind of
gruff thrash style mixing with a shouted dm growl and all the lyrics
are sung in Spanish, actually even for a non-speaker like me sound
really cool. This is a nice little diamond in the rough to be
unearthed, if it sounds like it could be your cup ‘o tea I urge you
to support this great dedicated tape label!
Catharsis
“Catharsis” Mini-Album Cassette
I am not familiar with this band, which was around from 1994-2002,
but this re-release of their 1996 mini-album is a pretty nice
introduction for me. Catharsis hailed out of North Carolina playing
pretty intense, heavy and crisp hardcore. Now, I am not huge
hardcore fan, but I do like hardcore and have been treading along
the periphery of this scene since I guess the early ‘90s with stuff
like Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Sick Of It All, Slapshot (also stuff
like GBH, Black Flag etc.. but I consider those more hardcore/punk)
and later moving on to some bands like Capitalist Casualties, Earth
Crisis, Converge, Madball etc… But beyond those types of bands I am
not super knowledgeable. Catharsis definitely falls into the
straight up traditional hardcore band category, for me at least, by
not mixing in punk or much metal into their sound. There is some
pretty quality music on here, it is probably more for the dedicated
hardcore fan than just someone who likes to listen to the classic
stuff. It is fairly harsh (it could have a bit more punch to the mix
for me) and energetic hardcore, they are at their best when they
play pissed off and up the emotion like they do in certain songs or
parts of songs on this release. This mini-album is probably a must
have for die hard hardcore fiends.
https://www.facebook.com/CatharsisOfficial
https://crimethinc.bandcamp.com/
 
Underground
Guerilla Compilation Cassette Album (Doomsday’s Today Records & Eternal
Darkness Creations)
I was excited to get a copy of this compilation. It is done of
course by Paul from Doomsday, who is a long time contact of mine.
But this particular release is a co-production with Eternal Darkness
Creations, which is run by Keith Dempe, who full disclosure is one
of my oldest and greatest friends in the UG scene, not to mention a
mentor from my early days at the start of the 1990s. I believe it
was Keith that compiled the line up of bands on here. It is a really
extreme, dark and raw mixing of bands, sounds and styles that often
differ from each other, which makes for a good contrasting listening
experience. It is a diverse listen, but everything tonally is gloomy
and sinister in one fashion or another. The line-up of this thirteen
track album is as follows: Mannequin Cellar, Devoured Christ,
Leagues Below, Vilently Ill, Warghoul, Breathilizor, Nihilistic
Outlaw Criminal Order, Dimentianon, Dungeon Beast, Nameless Tomb,
Queenie, Withered Icon & Ov Blood & Mockery. It all is all
professionally done coming with a glossy fold-out cover, and a white
cassette with black printing on it. It is well worth your time and
only costs $5 below on their bandcamp site. You will surely find
something new and interesting with this release. Cheers to my metal
brothers Paul and Keith! Keep The Ancient Flame Burning!! - Dale
Doomsday’s Today
Records releases are available through Eternal Darkness Creations at
c/o Keith Dempe, P.O. Box 268, Coraopolis, PA. 15108, USA as well as
Ralph's Records.
http://www.RalphsRecordsTX.com
https://doomsdaystodayrecords.bandcamp.com/ |
|
I listed this as a
Doomsday round up review as label owner Paul Sanchez not only sent
three of his labels cassettes to review, he also sent along three
additional tapes released by other labels, so I include them
together under that banner. Cheers Paul!
Pornohelmut
“Bang Lord” Cassette EP
(Show & Tell Records)
I do not really listen to stuff like to be honest. I am not even
sure how to describe it? Maybe like psychedelic sample music
consisting of mainly sound samples, synth, computer generated FX.
Yet, having said that there is some guitar and drums mixed in, but
it is almost like they are accents only, there is also some
industrial but not heavy and not metal industrial, more like hard
rock bits. The overall vibe is very light and airy, and well again,
a psychedelic trippy feel to it all like the soundtrack to some old
‘70s hippy drug film, where they are high and seeing outer space and
galactic battles haha. Again, this is not something I listen to or
to be honest normally would want to listen to. But all the same I
have admit it is well done and really creates an atmosphere all it’s
own. https://pornohelmut.bandcamp.com/releases
Shitstormtrooper
“Shitstormtrooper” Cassette EP
(Baby Rakin Records)
This is a nice transition listen after the Pornohelmut review /
experience. Shitstormtrooper are a noisy, lightning fast and pissed
off mix of powerviolence, grind and punk rock. It is in your face
and heavy as shit, they are certainly not scared to give unfiltered
and/or un-PC opinions with the lyrics. I loved the Trailer Park Boys
samples, with one revealing that they took their name from something
a perpetually heavily sauced Mr. Lahey said in one of the TPB
episodes. This was a blast to listen and is some good solid shit
with no nuts or corn in it. Check ‘em out. https://shitstormtrooper.bandcamp.com/
Violent Legacy
“General Genocide” Cassette EP (Barf Bag Records)
Violent Legacy produce really straight forward, heavy and raging old
school crossover thrash metal emanating San Francisco, California.
The riffing on here is stout and energetic, with chunky bass guitar
and some cool blitzkrieg solos. I definitely get some welcome vibes
of the early works of bands like Exodus, Testament, Vio-lence,
Slayer, Nuclear Assault, Suicidal Tendencies mixed with say a bit of
Cryptic Slaughter and later day DRI. If you are an old school thrash
and crossover fan then come get some because the Bay Area is not
dead yet baby!! - Dale
https://barfbagrecords.storenvy.com/ |
|
Draghkar comes
out of the Californian death metal scene with a brand new ep. ‘The
Endless Howling Abyss’ is played and written in the same vein as the
bands previous ep and split ep release. The guitar work is played
with tremendous skill and puts on display some excellent writing
ability. The guitars are mainly played in the semi fast range, but
do slow down to a more heavier middle paced guitar style and tone
within a few of the songs. The vocals are gruff and raw death metal
growls that fit the bands music perfectly. If you are a fan of
Draghkar’s previous couple of releases then do yourself a favor and
pick up a copy of ‘The Endless Howling Abyss’ as soon as possible.
- Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/DraghkarBand
https://www.facebook.com/ixcraneonegroxi |
|
“At The Crossroads Of Infinity” is this
Californian band Draghkar’s debut full-length after releasing two
demo's and a few ep's. The record consists of six tracks of old
school death metal with some elements of thrash, and even some black
metal influences incorporated into the musical mix. The guitars are
played with a high level of skill and the individual members
experience (in bands like Plague Bearer, Drawn And Quartered,
Skullsmasher, Ecferus, Acephalix etc…) within the guitarists writing
and playing abilities and in the musical whole. The guitarists play
a mix of heavy mid paced guitar patterns with some faster more
aggressive passages at times. The vocals are a mix of gruff, old
school growls and some raw, rough screams that fit Draghkar's music.
If you are familiar with the bands previous releases and enjoyed
them then do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this impressive
debut album, you will not be disappointed. - Patrick
https://draghkar.bandcamp.com/
http://www.unspeakableaxerecords.com/ |
I must confess I
missed this band the first time when they were around, and had not
even heard of them. I am little sad about that fact – I wish I heard
them decades ago. I am able to find little information on this band,
they are from the Czech Republic (the second I heard the vocals I
already knew this, more on that later), and this particular release
was originally set loose on the world way back in 1990. I think it
would be fair to call them a slower paced thrash metal band with a
lot of old heavy metal influence. Their sound though is so distinct,
instant classic sounding, and the odd quirky speed of the songs
makes it sound so cool and it just sticks in your head. There are
some superb guitar leads and fills and they really help round out
the songs without sounding like a wank at all. Now back to the
vocals. The second I heard them and the phrasing of the words, I
knew these guys were Czech. It often reminds me to the cleaner, dark
sounding parts from the legendary Czech band Root. I worship Root
and am fully obsessed with their vocals delivered via the talented
Big Boss. I can not get enough of the vocals on this album. The fact
that it is all backed with wonderful, classic sounding songs only
further takes this record to elite levels in my view. The only track
I do not like on here is the one with the English chorus called
“Crazy Boy”, it is a more upbeat happy sounding song than the other
material, but the English sung vocals are horrible and ruin the
song. Apparently this is limited to only 500 copies. A magnificent
record and I am thrilled I have finally found this at after missing
out for all these years. I consider myself lucky to have a copy and
I am also happy I got the Czech language sung version. The two disc
in case you wondered are the Czech and English versions apparently. – Dale
http://www.drakar-metal.eu/
http://www.ihate.se/
|
|
I’ve known of these
crusty fuckers for a while, but the only material I have by them is was
their ’92 demo and ’96 split 7” w/Morticite. I thought they were decent
but nothing special. After hearing this new killer release I would have
to say they are one of the best grind bands in the US. This is a really
interesting album in that it spans their career but most of the old
songs have been re-recorded for this and thus the production throughout
is pretty even. In all there are 29 tracks of ‘explicit grind’ for over
60 minutes for us freaky mothers to writhe to. Drogheda really like
straight-ahead ball busting grind as evidenced on tracks like “Terror,
Fucking Terror”, “Stygian Nightmare” and “Clean Up The Chunks”. Then
there is another side to the madness where they mix traditional sounding
catchy metal riffs and structures with their trademark grinding with
good results. Great garage band grindcore, I mean they are no Venom but
what do you expect!?
– Dale |
|
This is my first
encounter with Drowned. The band does a great job of combining old
school death metal, heavy metal and even some elements of thrash
intertwined within their sound. That is an unusually short, and to
the point album title, which features eleven tracks of straight
forward heavy metal. The guitarist has a talent for knowing how to
write and create some memorable passages. The guitars are mainly
played in the mid paced heavy style, with some faster interludes
punching in and out throughout the album. The vocals are mainly a
mix of raw screams, even with some growls being used in some of the
songs, as well as a smattering of clean singing employed throughout
the recording. This is a solid release for fans of old school heavy
metal that do not mind some early death and thrash elements mixed in
on this unique release. - Patrick
https://www.facebook.com/DrownedMetal
https://www.greyhazerecords.com |
|
Druid Lord are
finally back, I am not sure what caused the long delay (five years
since the last EP and eight years since the debut album), but was it
worth the wait, let’s find out. For those unfamiliar, with this
Floridian band, they play death doom and have been doing so since
2010. But the members, especially guitarist Pete Slate &
bassist/vocalist Tony Blakk, have been in some excellent bands
mostly together for a very long time. We are talking all the way
back to the start of the 1990s with bands like Acheron and Equinox.
This is a little indulgent geek out moment, for me, but Pete Slate
was the main guitarist for one of my all-fucking-time favourite
albums with Acheron’s “Rites Of The Black Mass”, released way back
in 1992. I have always liked Acheron, but in my opinion, that was
their best release and their sound changed a bit after that, which I
now wonder if it was due to the departure of Slate, as I hear some
underlying “Rites…” masterful guitar sounds/tones on here. Okay,
sorry, now back to the album at hand. It is a record that is a
depraved mix of crushing sinister doom as it’s foundation, upon that
foundation are building blocks of straight up brutal death metal.
There are some extremely well done and tasteful elements, more
accents of old school ’80s heavy metal (ala Omen, Witchfinder
General, Satan, Lucifer’s Friend etc..) in the guitars, along with
some nice fills and soloing that almost seem like they should not
belong in this music. But those elements are so seamlessly woven
into the into the death doom maelstrom, that it becomes hard to
imagine this music without them. As far as the death and doooom
influences I hear things like old Celtic Frost, Winter, early
Autopsy, early Paradise Lost, Goatlord, Grave, Necrovore all
combined in a very brutal and filthy fashion. Yes, it is as cool as
those descriptions sound; the atmosphere this creates is extremely
moody, haunting and suffocating in a damn good way. The vocals are
good extremely decipherable growls, which are half sung / half
almost spoken word, they add to the creepy vibe and compliment the
cruel gloomy music so nicely. The lyrics and various movie audio
clips are interlaced smoothly into the music, serving as a sort of
love letter to some of the old great evil and degenerate 1970s
exploitation and horror B movies upholding another old metal
tradition. If you can not tell, the verdict is yes! This was worth
the wait, and yes, it is damn good and you should check it out if
you love brutal death/doom with some heavy metal touches. Here is to
hoping the wait for the next release will be much shorter! -
Dale
https://www.facebook.com/DruidDeathCult/
https://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/ |
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I have to admit
I am slightly surprised to have a new Druid Lord album a little over
3 years after their last album “Grotesque Offerings”. I say that as
it was eight years between that and their debut full-length “Hymns
For The Wicked”. It almost felt like a comeback album even though I
do not think they ever split up or anything. “Grotesque…” was a
massive comeback / follow up effort in my books, one that I would
think is hard to match. Druid Lord features two (Tony Blakk & Pete
Slate) ex-members of Acheron from their great period of the early to
mid ‘90s. Pete in particular you can hear his distinct guitar
playing / writing was a big part of one of my all-time favourite
album 1992’s “Rites Of The Black Mass”. That duos seasoned playing
truly shines through, as does guitarist Chris Wicklein who brings a
boatload of experience and skill from his 25 years in his other band
Killing Addiction. It is showcased with some massive crawling heavy
riffing, as well some excellent emotive fills and classy classic
metal sounding solos, which often have a creepy dark vibe instilled
into them. Maybe I just need to go back and give the last album
another listen, but it feels like to me a little more traditional
heavy metal influence has crept into this album yet fear not that
trademark Druid Lord doom death metal sound is still alive and
kicking. Tony Blakk’s growling vocals are very much to my liking,
they remind me somewhat to Mike Perun’s vocals from the mighty
Cianide, they fit the music so well. Through the stream rolling doom
death the band mix in slight elements of melody and catchiness now
and then, just enough for you get a headbang going as you are slowly
egulfed by the oppressive doom at a bit more than a snail’s pace.
This record is great listening experience throughout produced by a
skilled group of talented veterans. I did not think they could top
the last album, I am not sure I can say this album has managed that
feat, but it is damn close! This is an excellent release. - Dale
https://druidlord.bandcamp.com/
https://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ |
Now how can you
not get a kick out of a band with members who go by monikers like
Gaylord Shemale, Bitchy Rockmore and Alcoholic Sperm?! They also
claim they are “Too metal for punk and too punk for metal” – that
sounds about right and also sounds like something I would like. I
did not look at the running time but I would guess it barely hits
the twenty minute mark. Drunken Bastards deliver like they promise,
adult beverage soaked raunchy speed metal ala Cryptic Slaughter,
Gang Green mixed Agnostic Front and some crazy other bands that are
on the tip of my tongue right now but will not come out. These boys
just rage full speed ahead on every song with some nasty heavy riffs
that are catchy and sound cool as hell with the rapid fire drums and
gang shouted vocals back ups. Yeah I really dig this. But I have
always dug bands like this. Some metal purists might not. How can
you go wrong with song titles like Drink With Satan, Baptized In
Speed And Blood and Posercrusher. These Hungarians are right
twisted. - Dale
http://www.myspace.com/drunkenbastard666
http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/
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