Curse Of The Great White Elephant

Aborted - Global Flatline(2012)

2012-03-05T04:45:00.002-08:00

About fucking time. Aborted has dabbled in melodic experiments for far too long (not that they were bad, Strychine.213 was pretty good) and has finally went back to its splanchnic roots of goregrind. Goregrind is an oversaturated genre nowadays, with all these back-alley bands that think that a bunch of 900 BPM blast beats, mindless detuned grooves, and horrible guest vocals by frogs, dogs, and bulls make a goregrind band good. It's like an abortion with a kick in the stomach compared to a suction-aspiration one. Well, the master-butcher has returned, and he definitely showed these superfluous dilettantes how to wear the apron and use the power-tools without disemboweling themselves like fucking idiots.

This album is a welcome relief; feels like the goregrind of the old pantheon, tinged with obvious modern (in a good way) influences. This album is great because it completely revitalized the genre, and can easily bring together the veteran metalheads with the younger generation, without causing them to kill each other in order to prove which one's the scenester. It takes the medical-malignancy theme, low-pitched vocals, and firm velocities, chops them up, cooks (or keeps them raw, if you will), and serves it in a dish of blood-drenched human bones and skin.

The album also features solid guest vocals from Keijo Niinimaa (Rotten Sound), Trevor Strnadc(The Black Dahlia Murder), Jason Netherton (Misery Index), and Julien Truchan (Benighted), all bands I love. Even though TBDM's Strnad doesn't really fit in the "grindcore" setting, he still executes his role like a freshly manufactured scalpel, yet to cut the skin. The album starts with some apocalyptic news, a dying heart monitor, and basically impending doom. And that shit delivers. The album feels like being chased by a horde of ravenous flesh-eating zombies, or getting a premature autopsy, whatever floats your boat. Superb songwriting combined with neckbreaking speed with actual song structure is an obvious choice of a soundtrack to a zombie apocalypse.

Aborted definitely delivers in skin-cracking lashing, without killing your ass, but making sure you're going to suffer until the end. Lo and behold, high and low pitches, fast and slow playing, guitar and bass solos. Creepy 80s B-Movie horror-like guitar harmonies and just a general atmosphere of blood, gore, viscera, and everything pathologically erroneous make this album awesome. Relish this goregrind masterpiece; there's enough entrails and guts for everyone to sink their hungry blades and teeth (or... other stuff, if that's your thing) into.

Rating: 9/10

Ives - Abandon (2010)

2012-03-04T02:18:00.001-08:00

Ives - Abandon

Black metal has always had at leastsome peripheral relation to punk. Early bands like Ildjarn andCarpathian Forest used it, and when you think about it, the raw blackmetal style is very DIY. Still, from the past decade to the present,a much stronger surge of bands playing a black metal/punk mixture hasarisen. Many of these bands have brought together the raw energyfound in both punk and black metal, to vicious and often interestingends. Florida's Ives are another recent band to try their hand at theblack/punk mix, and Abandonis their second demo. It's a svelte 20 minutes with some interestingmoments, though unfortunately more trite ones.

Opener“The Taste of Severity” starts with a God awful sound clip aboutcannibalism before breaking into some decent enough but veryunsurprising black/punk. The music alternates between blackened punkchords backed by D-beat drumming and riffs that sound like Mayhemcirca 1994. The vocalist growling “smear the blood on my face /taste the blood in my mouth” fails to have the emotional resonancethey were going for.

Fromthere, each track becomes longer than the last. Second track “BurningThe Incense, Amanita Virosa” opens slowly and unfolds into a mix ofblack metal, crust punk and sludge. It's an interesting mix, like ablack metal Dystopia, but the track quickly becomes more blackenedDischarge worship, before switching to Mayhem/Darkthrone inspiredblack metal, and so on. 7 minutes in and one of the key problems withthe demo becomes apparent: the music tends towards predictable shiftsback and forth between riffs copped from classic Norwegian bands andDischarge inspired punk leading to unexciting ends.

Thebest parts of the demo occur in the last half. Part way through “LostIn The Pleasures Of Moonlight”, the music shifts into dark anddroning chords which accompany a xylophone (!!!) before explodinginto some absolutely fierce black/thrash riffing that blew me away,especially coming right after the down tempo bridge. Titular track“Abandon” provides interesting moments as well. Its dramaticopening displays vocal variance with some yelling taking the place ofthe standard black metal rasps that dominate the rest of demo. Thesong sadly turns into another back and forth between punk and riffsthat sound like they wouldn't be out of place in Darkthrone's Undera Funeral Moon. Surprisinglythough, Ives then does another bizarre 180 into unique territory whenfiddle begins playing over melancholy black metal riffing beforefading out (albeit somewhat sloppily) into an instrumental passage offolk consisting of acoustic guitars and haunting fiddle. The blackmetal comes back in, accompanied by excellent cymbal use. The fiddlestays present for the remainder of the track providing an incrediblyenjoyable final minute before the demo ends.

Therein,though, lies another one of the problems. The unique moments arecaught in a mire of ho-hum punk and black metal riffing jacked fromearly Norwegian BM records. The crust/sludge/black opening of“Burning The Incense”, the ambient bridge, creative use ofxylophone and thrashy finish to “Lost In The Pleasures OfMoonlight” and the violin use, folk break and melancholy riffing in“Abandon” are excellent, but are caught between trite filler.Ives definitely shows promise on Abandon.They have the potential to pull together an interesting full length,either by making an eclectic album (similar to what Akitsa and AshPool have done) that tastefully displays their various ideas, or bybringing it all together into a more cohesive style. Either way,they'll need to root out the generic aspects of their song writing.I'd definitely be interested in a debut album from them, and Abandonhas some wonderful moments, but as a whole it fails to thrill.

6.8/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives / Myspace

Morgirion- Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise(2012)

2012-03-03T22:25:00.003-08:00

Morgirion- Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise

Wielding one of the best covers of the year so far, Morgirion's Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise sounds as black and wicked as that Skeleton Mage looks. Mixing elements of Second Wave Black Metal, Bestial Black Metal and Death Metal into a viscous goo, black as charred remains and colder than ice, Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise signals the coming of wicked things. Hailing from Connecticut, this trio of blood mages form slithering incantations of malice and sin with plenty of verve and excellent musical chops, if also a penchant for excessive compositions that wield far too many sacrificial daggers for far too long.

My first thought when listening to Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise was "this sounds a lot like Gyibaaw," and it remains an apt comparison. Both bands love serpentine song structures and drawn out, The Chasm-like riffing sections with plenty of old school Black Metal thrown in. But while Gyibaaw are prone to sudden bursts of wild experimentation and unhinged vocal abominations, Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise is a more straight forward and traditional affair, albeit a varied one. "The Final Incantation" starts off with an Emperor-like funeral procession before bursting into blast heavy Death Metal and then bringing on more Emperor, complete with keyboards and minimalistic guitars, dripping with grimm atmosphere. "Pyroclastic Warfare" drops a heavy dose of Blasphemy, then without warning shifts to a keyboard hymn, with an explosive wave of Raw Black Metal churning beneath the surface.

The Chasm are an obvious influence here, and it shows on tracks like the finale, "Inception Revoked," a thirteen minute epic that;s over-flowing with Blackened Occult Death Metal riffs and demoniacal invocations. Keyboards also make their way into this track, but they feel forced and underwhelming, as though the band were trying to force even more atmosphere where it doesn't belong. This is a common occurrence with Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise: forced and unnecessary keyboards. When it works, like on the aforementioned "Pyroclastic Warfare," it's great, but more often then not the keyboard compositions sound same-y, uninspired and perhaps most disappointingly shoe-horned into the track. "Suffer Before Me, Forsakened Hordes" reeks of cheese, mostly due to the lame keyboards filtering beneath a fairly standard Black Metal track that features far too much Swedish-style melody: a rare-low light on an otherwise impeccable album.

If not perfectly written all the time, Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise is stellar most of the time. It does the proper job evoking thick, demonic atmosphere's and unholy sonic landscapes with all the zealotry and energy you could ask for. It may not be the fire that will burn down the decaying, rusted gates of Heaven, or the spear that again pierces the side of Christ, but without question Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise is a weapon finely crafted for late night angel slaying and gloomy sojourns into the unknown and horrifying.

Rating: 8/10

Axis of Light- By the Hands of Consuming Fire(2012)

2012-03-02T21:28:00.005-08:00

Axis of Light- By the Hands of Consuming Fire

The shrill wails of By the Hands of Consuming Fire will peel the skin away from your flesh, revealing your inner weakness and filth. It shines a burning, unholy light over you as the sonic waves of madness riddle you with suffering. Not since last years emotionally affecting No Help For The Mighty Ones has an album had such a profound effect on my mood and psyche. Bubbling with sheer rage yet flowing with inner beauty, By the Hands of Consuming Fire represents everything truly awesome about Black Metal at it's most raw and unrelenting.

As though moving through each track if carried by veins and arteries, melody and harmony filter just beneath the thick layers of static and the tortured screams of vocalist Axiom; his unhinged an maniacal rantings worthy of praise alone. But there is also a certain amount of sadness in his voice, a sense of actual loss that you can feel in his super-high-pitched shrieks. This same emotional brevity comes through in the compositions as well. Warped-speed rage and blistering wrath gives way to short lulls of cavernous depression before the rising hate spills over the edges and brings us back to pure anger. Those aforementioned moments of melody and off-kilter harmony stab like daggers from beneath, and bring with them a coating of spiritual poison that seeps into you and suffocates your very blood. By the Hands of Consuming Fire will leave you agitated and very fucking cold.

It's also a step away from being a sloppy, unlistenable mess. The second member of this twosome, Origin, plays all the instruments and does so with lots of energy. Also sloppiness and without much in the way of technical proficiency. The timing isn't always spot on, and the drums have a tendency to miss their marks. Yet all this does is add to the appeal: By the Hands of Consuming Fire is a purely cathartic experience that throws traditional musicianship out the window in favor of pure emotional electricity, and I for one an a sucker for stuff just like this. I'm not as in love with the production. Complaining about production on a Raw Black Metal record is like complaining about the taste of alcohol; quite literally missing the point. But the drums are almost completely lost in the mix, and that lack of pulverizing low end makes this album feel much more high-pitched and screech-y. For some, this might be a major turn off.

But for me, By the Hands of Consuming Fire is anything but a turn off. Listening to this album is akin to shooting cocaine straight into my brain: it leaves me on edge, fried out and full of conflicting desires. And if you are not left totally frazzled and exhausted after this screaming nightmare, then you are truly cold and without feeling... perhaps the person that this album was made for.

Rating: 9/10

Goatwhore-Blood for the Master (2012)

2012-03-02T16:03:00.001-08:00

Hearing the latest effort by the Louisianan masters of blackenedswampcore, Goatwhore, made this February 15^th possibly the mosteventful Valentine’s Day in my (thus far) grimdark, loveless mortal existence,and while I wasn’t immediately floored by the slightly thrashier approach ourfavorite bayou crawlers chose on their latest opus, repeated listens ultimatelycumulated in an album that I can see myself returning to in aeons to come.

Themost obvious contrast that can be made here is to Goatwhore’s previous album,Carving Out the Eyes of God. While thewicked hooks and punkish attitude of the latter album had propelled Goatwhoreat last onto the radar of the metallic mainstream, I felt that the sullen,bitter miasma that characterizes the work of so many Louisiana metal bands (andhad characterized all of Goatwhore’s albums up until that point) was slightlycompromised in favor of a catchier, more accessible approach, something thatdiminished its power relative to earlier efforts like A Haunting Curse.

To goover why Blood for the Master truly excels in contrast however, I must emphasize how itbrings back much of the claustrophobic aggression that had characterizedFuneral Dirge for A Rotting Sun and A Haunting Curse and integrates it with thesuperb songwriting of Carving, creating a work that is simultaneously catchyand abrasive in the ears of the listener. The thrash influence is stronger than ever, with songs like “Collapse inEternal Worth” and “Death to the Architects of Heaven” filled with palm-mutedthrashing madness that grows repetitive, but works well in churning thecollective momentum of the record in a forward direction.

Thesecond-wave black metal influences have also returned in full-force, strongerthan they have been since the days of Funeral Dirge. While the last two records took much of thepower chord-laden style of Celtic Frost and interpreted it in a modern context,Blood for the Master sees these swamp dwellers once again making a sojourn toNordic shores, with tracks such as “Beyond the Spell of Discontent” chalk fullof tremolo-picked melodic melancholy that hearkens back to Darkthrone andGorgoroth’s earlier days. Yet amidst thecacophony of classic, yet clichéd influences, Goatwhore never loses theiruniquely American identity, throwing in moments of sludgy southern attitude,most prominently evident in “When Steel and Bone Meet,” one of my personalfavorites off the record.

Despiteits unique atmosphere and tasteful integration of antediluvian influenceswithin a modern framework, Blood for the Master was not without itsweaknesses. First of all, Louis BenjaminFalgoust II (a mouthful more befitting of a monarch of the Anciens Regime thana black metal vitriol spewer)’s vocals have certainly declined since the daysof Soilent Green’s Pussysoul, and here he sounds more like a tired old manattempting to maintain a (annoyingly “hardc0re”) façade of true aggression thanthe mutilated larynx of nihilistically-fueled anger a black metal vocalist issupposed to be. I found that thisuninspired approach often interfered with the motifs and soundscapes the bandwas attempting to conjure, often breaking me out of whatever necrotic stupor agreat riff puts me in back into the shitstain of reality. Great vocalists like Erik Danielsson ofWatain, Mortuus/Arioch of Funeral Mist, and Naas Alcameth of Nightbringer onlyserve to intensify the crushing wall of oppression that is black metal, but BenFalghoust’s voice is utterly devoid of phlegm, black bile, and hate, and intheir current state sound more appropriate for a dickless metalcore act thana great band like Goatwhore.

The songwriting,while still memorable, doesn’t have quite the same staying power as some recordsin their back catalog. The songs, allstructured in a similar manner and somewhat lacking in dynamics, have a tendency to meshtogether as in many inferior black metal records, and there are no massivestandouts like Carving’s title track or “Forever Consumed Oblivion” on Bloodfor the Master. I mentioned before thatthe palm-muted thrash picking grows extremely irritating if the album islistened to as a whole, and indeed, hearing them used in an identical fashionover and over again gives the album an artificial, inauthentic feeling thatsadly shatters the black metal spell. Despite these complaints, my desire for a more brutal incarnation ofGoatwhore was satisfied quite nicely by Blood for the Master, and I’d recommendthis album to any acolyte of heavy metal for its accessible yet potent approachto the genre, as well as to more seasoned black metal hierophants looking forsome originality in their collection.

8/10

Welcoming New Authors And Asking For Your Demos

2012-02-29T22:33:00.005-08:00

First of all, I would like to welcome FaultyClockwork and Nihilistic Rust to The Curse. Faulty already introduced herself, so you know what she is about: Blackened noise-y shit that will never get her a husband and kids. Something tells me neither fact bothers her in the slightest. She has some of the best taste in music that I know, so I have no doubt she will be reviewing some trve kvlt shit for da blog.

Then we have Nihilistic Rust... who I really don't know anything about. Good person(unsure of gender) with great taste in shitty underground hipster metal like me, so that's all I really need to know. Already wrote an excellent Asphyx review, so check it out.

Also, if you are in a band and would like your demo material reviewed, or represent a record label and would like any of our writers to review your upcoming releases, please contact me through the Curse's new e-mail in the upper corner. A Facebook page is also forthcoming, so that should be a total disaster...

I'm really super positive, and I want all you cool underground musicians to like me. So chances are I will give you a good review. The blog has been really positive lately... lots of high scores. I can't help it though, for cynicism and nostalgia have not fried my brain and prevented me from liking anything just yet. Soon I imagine. But not today.

Cheers,
Sharpy

Asphyx - Deathhammer(2012)

2012-02-29T11:32:00.003-08:00

Asphyx- Deathhammer

Asphyx's new album, Deathhammer, is like a sledgehammer to the teeth, from the beginning to the end. From its apt cover art, where some heavily wounded and torn bloke unleashes Lovecraftain abominations and spirits to feast on our world, to the final track, that slowly burns you in scorching volcano-spit. Every song simply grabs you by your spine from the front and bashes you in rugged concrete until every bone is shattered and every organ is burst.

As soon as you enter the cruel timewastes, cryptic beasts introduce your face to a skull- splitting mace and a stampede greets every fiber of your being. Fast paced death metal supremacy fucks you into dust. Deathhammer(itallics needed) brings forth thrashy death riffs that maul you into submission, piss on you, and then bury you alive in some doomy moments. And then, you step onto a minefield. An epic sludge dirge that truly shows the opening of this unholy chasm of explosive rancor. A brilliant guitar tone that takes your feeble corpse and places it on the table of a sadistic killer, that slowly disembowels you while peeling off your flesh, with morbidity sparkling in his eyes. His blade eventually turns blunt, and he starts hitting your head with some more fast and typical death-doom madness.

"Der Landser" is another "dirge," remindful of that minefield. The brute stomps on you like a cockroach and then the flood fills every orifice you have with thick, sludgy filth. "We Doom You to Death" is probably the second best song on this album, that heavily reminds me of Last One on Earth. It has one or two basic riffs, but they're executed perfectly along the heavy drums and the raspy vocals. "Vespa Crabro" is a small stop before you face the igneous gem of the album: "As the Magma Mammoth Rises." A behemoth whose skin is made of perdition, his eyes ablaze and his breath fire. Hurling fireballs at your feeble form, it's truly the highlight of the album. It combines all the good stuff of this album; the thrash, the doom, and the death, and together cements it into a colossal beast that burns and annihilates everything with brutality.

In a non-metaphoric way, this album is genius. Combining excellent riffs and licks of Baayens with Bagchus' excellent simplistic (but powerful) drumming, Zuur's dense auricular "basscraft," and of course, Van Drunen's tortured and guttural voice is as memorable as it gets, this album is a death/doom masterpiece. The only flaw in this album is that it gets somewhat repetitive at times, but this is fucking Asphyx. That's part of the charm. It is a brilliant release and if you like your ears getting crushed by sonic artillery, this is your perfect place to be shelled into oblivion.

8.5/10

Blood Cult: We Who Walk Behind the Rows (2005)

2012-02-26T21:32:00.002-08:00

Hey folks! I'm Faulty, and hopefully you'll be seeing me around from now on. Sharpshooter has been kind enough to offer me blogging privileges, so I'll be throwing down some reviews of music I love, hate or am otherwise indifferent towards. While Sharpshooter tends to review recent releases, I'll be covering plenty of less recent material. I mainly listen to black metal, with some noise, power electronics and death industrial thrown in, so that's what you'll be seeing from me, more or less. To start things off, here's a review of Blood Cult's 2005 debut album, We Who Walk Behind the Rows.

There's been no end to songs aboutblack metal. I've heard “Unholy Black Metal”, “ChristrapingBlack Metal”, “Black Metal ist Krieg” and, of course, “BlackMetal”, but “Redneck Black Metal” is something I never expectedI'd hear. Illinois' Blood Cult have made it though, and their blendof old school black metal with a Midwestern sensibility and soundtakes what could be ridiculous blend and turns it into music that isboth unique and excellent. Having been around since '94, it's notsurprising that Blood Cult's core sound and often Satanic lyrics areinspired by the second wave Norwegian bands, but there's a twist toit that's evident from the start. The cover looks like the scene of aSatanic sacrifice amidst fields of corn, complete with an ominouslooking scarecrow. The title, We Who Walk Behind The Rows,produces imagery of evil cultists, dwelling in the plains, stalkingthe rows of corn and fertilizing them with the remains of theirsacrifices, and the music follows suit.

BloodCult's sound is a fusion of a filthy take on old school black metalwith a Midwestern stew of rock, heavy metal and thrash, with agenerous use of solos. Opener “Psychic Vampire” starts with arock beat and evolves into a groove-laden mid-tempo track with agrungy atmosphere and excellent bass work, complete with a rockguitar solo backed by stoner rock inspired rhythm guitar. “TheMorweaqua Coal Mine Disaster” is an old school black metal track,complete with the Gorgoroth inspired trope of having one guitar playthe pertinent riff before the rest of the music comes in. The songsurprisingly ends with a variation of Chopin's “Funeral March”,which is genuinely touching given the lyrical theme of the song,namely a disaster in a coal mine that left tens of miners dead.“Cheap Guitars” is a catchy as Hell blackened rock song with athrashy chorus and a wild thrash solo, as well as some backgroundsinging for variance at one point and King Diamond inspired falsettoat the end of the track. “We Who Walk Behind the Rows” is anotherblack metal blaster that ends with a rock inspired solo. “Owl” isa slow and brooding track that provides a breather before anotherintense old school black metal track, “A Cult of Blood”, whichsports a dynamic second half centred around an interplay betweenmelody and lead guitar. The tongue-in-cheek “Redneck Black Metal”is a mid-paced, Midwest track complete with cowbell, piano and ablues rock guitar solo that gives way to a more intense heavy metalsolo that brings the track to an energetic end. Finally, “IllinoisanThunder” closes the album with final blast of black metal andthrash soloing. The mix is completed by the aforementionedcombination of Satanism and a Children of the Corn-esqueMidwestern horror theme (e.g. “the crops are alive and they wantyou to die”).

Whilethis wild mix could come off as awkward, Blood Cult's unique riffingand their ability to draw all the influences into a concrete wholeturns it into an uncanny and interesting mix. Tongue-in-cheek songslike “Cheap Guitars” and “Redneck Black Metal”, andMidwestern themed tracks like “We Who Walk Behind the Rows” and“Illinoisan Thunder” point to why their mix is so effective; theyembrace the feel of their home state, rather than aping Norwegianthemes of dark nights and freezing forests. The mix is, in essence,completely natural. They are clearly serious about their art, butdon't take their art too seriously. In that sense, their attitude isreminiscent of Darkthrone, which is in no way a bad thing. The albumis also helped by its short length, which prevents any track or ideafrom outstaying its welcome. Unfortunately, this is also a downsideto the album; it leaves you wanting more, at least another track ortwo. Still, it's slightly preferable to their sophomore album WeAre the Cult of the Plains,which is ever-so-slightly too long.

All inall, We Who Walk Behind the Rowsis an incredibly unique album. Its fusion of the sound and Sataniclyrics of old school black metal with themes and stylings drawn fromtheir Midwest upbringing leads to a listening experience you'reunlikely to find elsewhere. It won't blow your mind, but it's sure asHell enjoyable, and any fan of interesting takes on black metalshould give it a try.

8.6/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives / Myspace

Doctorshopper- Degenerate Utopia(2012)

2012-02-26T19:15:00.005-08:00

Doctorshopper- Degenerate Utopia

Can you believe the quality of the very deep underground scene? The sheer number of awesome demo's and tapes available is staggering. It's almost overwhelming really... maybe this is the feeling all these old-curmudgeon Metalfags have about the early 90's scenes...

Hailing from Los Angeles, Doctorshopper are just more proof that those decrying our modern scene as under-achieving are just cranky old men and thirteen year old's. A dug-fueled rage-er of Eyehategod, His Hero Is Gone and Darkthrone gone too far, Degenerate Utopia packs all the right parts into tight and heavy gutter hymns for the disenfranchised: "Cognitive Fog" blisters with Sludge-y Crust Punk bravado, while "Live Low And Prosper" drops the temperature of the room to "frostbitten" with it's raw moans before a little D-Beat kicks in near the end. Extended sections of feedback is an obvious crutch for transitional composition, but it's hard to find too much fault with the overall songwriting. Degenerate Utopia also hits all the marks lyrically, avoiding played out grimmness in favor of strong social commentary on such tracks as "Affordable Health Act" and "Recreational Emancipation," both of which reflect the hopelessness that many in this generation experience on a daily basis.

I find it difficult to progress beyond this point. Degenerate Utopia doesn't lend itself to paragraphs of explanation: it's brutally honest simplicity and skull-caving guitar tone do much of the talking for the albums twenty nine minute running time. This is not a bad thing, but it makes detailed compositional breakdowns difficult. With so much rage blasting at you from all directions, coming up with a phrase beyond "Hehehehe... evil" seems all but impossible. In the end, it all breaks down to this: Degenerate Utopia is a filthy slab of Blackened Sludge that will appeal to anyone who appreciates Extreme Music, and you should go ahead and get it.

Simplicity is pure fucking bliss.

Rating: 8/10

Muknal- Muknal(2012)

2012-02-24T20:57:00.005-08:00

Muknal- Muknal

As though it were some sort of nefarious artifact, cursed by the Ancient Old Ones with a specter of Death, Muknal creates an air of unease. Filtering through your headphones or speakers as though it were made swamp matter, it furiously suffocates the room. Atmospheric is pretty much an understatement here. Muknal's debut EP is as mature and massively evil as it can possibly be, and shows a conceptual strength that so few bands maintain over an album, or even achieve. And to think this is the bands first release sends chills down my spine.

Musically, it is pretty easy to place Muknal; firmly entrenched in the massive Occult Black/Death movement taking over the underground. But one listen to this EP also shows just how much separation Muknal has from the greater pack; it's all here. All of it. Unlike many contemporary releases spawned from this vile pit at the heart of the underground, Muknal hits all the major stylistic high-points, then exceeds them in the following composition. Not since Dead Congregation's Grave of the Archangels have I heard a single album just nail every single thing that makes a genre truly great: the perfect combination of atmosphere, aggression and compositional complexity.

Seems like a lot of praise for a three song EP no? I mean come on: it's not like this sound hasn't be done to death. Impetuous Ritual released the same damn album in 2009 for fuck's sake. Dense, static choked Occult Black/Death is as played out a genre as any in music today. You can't turn around without awkwardly rubbing up against the ass of an Incantation and Portal clone. True enough. Muknal are not treading new ground here. And this is something I can be critical of... when done is an obviously generic and lifeless way.

Muknal is anything but generic or lifeless. It's practically static with sheer electricity. Everything about is so perfectly calibrated: the tortured guttural vocals, the dense guitar tone, the meaty and massive production. The whole thing is done with such masterful attention to detail and genuine attempts at originality. The heavy use of electronic sounds and noise, the perfectly drawn out atmospheric compositions, the true sense of dread and hopelessness... all of it is just brilliantly realized and maximized.

Muknal may not re-invent the Atmospheric Holocaust, but it certainly commit atrocities and forces intense introspection like no other end time's dirge that I have heard. And what's even more impressive is that despite this level of density, there is also something so inviting about the album. This album doesn't leave you feeling breathless and exhausted like so many inhumanly thick and bleak albums. It's a crushing piece of perfect genre crafting that you can listen to again and again. What more can we possibly expect?

Rating: 9/10

Witch In Her Tomb- Witch In Her Tomb(2012)

2012-02-23T15:34:00.002-08:00

Witch In Her Tomb- Witch In Her Tomb

From the bleak, wind blasted forests of Illinois, comes a grim funeral procession; a dirge for the wicked and wild spirits. Witch In Her Tomb’s self titled debut invokes the frost-bitten, Hessian roots of Black Metal’s history with skillful imprecision and gloriously underproduced intensity. Sure, if you have listened to pretty much anything from Darkthrone, Mayhem or Burzum, then Witch In Her Tomb holds no secrets within it’s musty crypts. It speaks to Witch In Her Tomb then that despite the nostalgia, the demo more than stands on it’s own merits, thanks to it’s modernized and Punk-injected edge.

I am not sure you could have a more powerful, static riddled bass sound than the ridiculous low end present on Witch In Her Tomb. Like the death rattle of Cthulu, the bass rumbles with a wet, jagged slice and overpowers much of the instrumentation. That’s not a complaint; “III” would be nothing without the thundering hammer strikes of bass chords. The only thing that can stand up to this Scepter of Suffering in terms of volume are the vocals; monotone perhaps, but dripping with hate and powered by the immolation of the soul no doubt. The guitars and drums have their place in this mad symphony, and play their roles accordingly, though they rarely star in this performance.

The real star here is the songwriting, which blends the classic Norwegian sounds with a sense of progression and modernization. Crust Punk and the early Norwegian Black Metal sound have always been a hop-skip-and-jump from each other, and Witch In Her Tomb further blurs that line, both musically and lyrically. While far more mired in the grim, Witch In Her Tomb reminds me of a more primitive, Mayhem-worshiping Young And In The Way album; tortured, bleak and very, very angry. This anger comes through in the lyrics, as songs deal far more with wrath and rage than Ragnorak or Rites of Summoning.

I would be remiss not to praise this demo not only for the quality, but also it’s distribution. Witch In Her Tomb are showing us the future of Extreme Music distribution, one that includes both profit and accessibility. Witch In Her Tomb is available on tape for a very fair price, so that collectors and hard copy enthusiasts can add to their massive hoard of limited edition content, but also available free of charge as an mp3 download. I shouldn’t have to explain just how wise this move is, and we can all hope that other bands use this model in the future.

And what a glorious and grim future indeed, for Witch In Her Tomb have the kind of sound to make waves in the current scene. Punk-edged Black Metal is big now, but unlike some of their contemporaries, Witch In Her Tomb have a stronger command of the actual Black Metal elements, not merely a layman’s understanding after a few hours of Darkthrone binging. It’s hard not to get excited about this band and their potential, and it has been hard for me to put down this demo. It’s cold, icy fingers are firmly gripped around my throat, and this aural asphyxiation is all I could ask for.

9/10

Purchase the Tape or Download the Album at Crippled Sound's Bandcamp

Abyssal- Denouement(2012)

2012-02-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Abyssal- Denouement

The UK Death Metal scene is as rich with talent and innovation as it has ever been. The country of colonization and Big Ben has never been particularly well known for its expansive Death Metal scene: sure, everybody knows Bolt Thrower and Akercocke, and the well informed can name Benediction, Korpse and Cancer, but in comparison to say Sweden or Florida, the ol' Land of Limey's has never been at the forefront of Death Metal. But these last few years has seen an explosion of new talent in England's Death Metal scene, from Cruciamentum to Spearhead to Grave Miasma. And now Abyssal can be counted as another of these young, up-and-coming acts looking to make waves with their debut album Denouement.

Rich with texture and dissonance, Denouement fits in beautifully with the current trend in Technical Death Metal: using complexity to create dense, Occult atmospheres. Elements of Black and Doom Metal add layers to the listening experience, but Abyssal also toy with some of the more brutal elements of Death Metal throughout Denouement. A consistent guttural growl, sudden bursts of blast beats and palm-muted riffs bring elements to Denouement that other bands in this burgeoning sub-genre lack(often on purpose). Just as we saw Flourishing do on The Sum of All Fossils with Post-Hardcore and Gigan on Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes with Noise and Grindcore, Abyssal bring these Brutal Death Metal elements to the forefront to give Denouement a bit of distinction from the growing number of Ulcerate clones, though one should not expect too many breakdowns or pinch harmonics throughout Denouement(though the breakdown near the beginning of "Detritivore" is hard too miss).

There isn't a whole lot of fault with Denouement, but it never quite breaks through to the next level. The intensity and songwriting can be uneven, with less appealing sections of songs dragged out far too long. In fact, many of the tracks on Denouement could use some self-editing, particularly the final track "Swansong of a Dying Race," which could have used some of it's massive eleven minute run cut away. Bloated songs filled with too many unessecary concepts are the pratfalls of many a new group, and while Abyssal artfully dodge many other mistakes, they trip up in this regard.

Denouement is a brilliant start regardless of these minor mistakes. Abyssal have their own sound, a sound which I can honestly say I have never heard before, other than perhaps early Ulcerate before those New Zelander's dove head first into a sea of formless dissonance. All this band needs is time to develop their sound and their songwriting, and I have no doubt that Abyssal will be one of the bigger acts in progressive Death Metal in the near future.

Rating: 8/10

Abyssal are also among the more progressive bands in their distribution, as Denouement doesn't have any label support. The band are giving the album away through Bandcamp. If you are not familiar with Bandcamp, then this is the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with arguably the most important website in independent music today.

Download Denouement Free And Legally From The Band, Via Bandcamp

Plague Widow- Plague Widow(2012)

2012-02-17T11:23:00.000-08:00

Plague Widow- Plague Widow

Slathered in suffering and darkness, Plage Widow's self titled debut EP is a powerful conceptual force, because while sounding thoroughly modern and extremely brutal, it is also rich and dense with atmosphere and musical complexity. Spawned from the sunny pits of Sacramento, California(My family is from there, which says something about the cities population...), Plague Widow have given us a small window into the future of Extreme Metal with this brilliant, caustic little noise abortion of an EP, one where the lines between modern brutality and old-school intensity are blurred completely.

Plague Widow is at it's heart a very modern sounding, ultra fast Deathgrind album with a strong Brutal Death Metal influence. From the moment the blistering drums and deep guttural growls of "Womb" kick in, the Circle of Dead Children and Deeds of Flesh influence becomes apparent. But as Plague Widow progresses, we see an attention to detail and atmosphere grow and become more enveloping. These disparate elements begin to twist and contort, forming a vortex of desolation few acts can match. "Void" blisters with elements of Adversarial and Portal, before ending on a breakdown Suffocation wish they could have written, while "Operating the Segmental Apparatus" is mixes in a heavy dose of atmospheric Black Metal between spouts of Deathgrind flame. Smart use of samples and atmospheric noise, like the intro to "Assimilated Subconscious," just adds to the bleak tension and monolithic blackness.

In just over fifteen minutes, Plague Widow delivers more death and Satan than most bands entire discography. One would be hard-pressed to find a more uncompromisingly dark and blasphemous slab of Grindcore and Death Metal than this masterful and dense piece of musical Sadism. Plague Widow have stumbled upon a sound that is as important as it is deadly: one that takes the decayed, evil spirit of the past and infuses it into the powerful, muscular frame of the present. This new creation, this new affront to God and Nature itself, could become unstoppable. For now, this small but bloody atrocity is a more than terrifying harbinger of things to come.

Rating: 9.5/10

Horrendous- The Chills(2012)

2012-02-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

Horrendous- The Chills

Devoid of any original concepts or ideas, The Chills is yet another milestone in forgettable(and super hip) throwback Death Metal that is all the rage right now. Hailing from all across the US East Coast, Horrendous could not have picked a better time in Death Metal than right now... especially since they can't go back in time and release this in 1989, where it firmly belongs. Highly dated and inconsistently performed, The Chills feels old and tired right out of the gate, and although it picks up steam near the end, the album never escapes the miasma of "been there, done that, moved on."

Slow, ponderous Thrash beats lead this exhausted march through Death Metal's gloomy history. Horrendous drummer Jamie Knox deserves a medal for putting up with this affront to his ability as a musician. Or perhaps he lacks ability? Hard to say, but the soul crushing boredom he must have endured is worthy of legend. How many Thrash beats can you fit into a single album, and more importantly how do you convince a drummer to play almost nothing but them for an entire album? The Chills is ingloriously mid-paced for much of it's running time, and never reaches that sweet spot of tempo and aggression that makes for the best Death Metal. It just kind of plods from one riff to the next, held together with the bare minimum of connective tissue like so many horribly shredded arms caught in so many grinding gears. It doesn't help that most of the vocal delivery is firmly in the John Tardy school of mentally disabled yelping and grunting. Occasionally the band make use of a perfectly competent guttural growl that sounds powerful and deep, but never long enough.

This of course leaves the guitar and bass work, and in total fairness to The Chills, it is obvious from the beginning that this album was built as a guitar driven one. And at times the guitar work on The Chills is pretty impressive, particularly the solo work. At times channeling the early work of Chuck Schuldiner, the creepy, soaring guitar solos and leads on tracks like "The Somber(Desolate Winds)" and "Fatal Dreams" evoke the proper kind of nostalgia: namely, reflecting on that which was worth reflecting on. I have no problem admitting that for me, Death Metal did not exist until New York and Finland started making it. The early First Wave Death Metal bands from Florida and SwedDeath bands have never played a style of Death Metal that I prescribe to: too Thrash-y, too slow and too devoid of atmosphere. The Chills is firmly planted in this school of Death Metal... for the first half anyway.

The Chills takes a surprising turn when "The Ritual" kicks in. The Entombed and Obituary influence gives way to the crushing rhythms of Asphyx and Rippikoulu. All the postured darkness becomes actual evil, and the lessened presence of Thrash becomes a God-send. Doom infused and full of Hell, "The Ritual" is a massive highlight, and kicks off a much stronger second half of The Chills. It's as if the band realized the first half of the album was little more than toothless genre worship, and unleashed all of their inner hatred into a second half designed to blot out the first tracks as though they never actually existed. Too bad they did.

The Chills is not without charm, particularly with the albums strong second half picking up much of the slack, but it still feels tired and uninspired. A notch above pointless genre rehash like Morbus Chron and Misasmal, but well below the likes of Morbid Flesh or Execration, Horrendous have managed to keep themselves from drowning in a sea of imitators with The Chills. But the sea is rising, and those who cannot swim shall be swallowed up in the deluge. The Chills would not be my choice of flotation device.

Rating: 6/10

Desecravity- Implicit Obedience(2012)

2012-02-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

Desecravity- Implict Obedience

Desecravity might just be the best Brutal Death Metal band on Earth right now. Of course that claim requires perspective, as Suffocation and Deeds of Flesh still rule this very brutal roost. What I mean is that in terms of debuts from young, up and coming Brutal Death Metal acts, Implicit Obedience is the best I have heard in a long, long time. Hailing from Japan, which has a fairly vibrant Brutal Death Metal scene, Desecravity pile on all the "brutalness" any fan could possibly ever hope for. They just do it while also having actual..um, riffs.

So few Brutal Death Metal bands seem to have them nowadays, it come as a shock. Implicit Obedience has honest-to-God riffs, and is not just a mish-mash of breakdowns, sweeps and pinch harmonics. It has all of those elements no doubt, but tempers the sheer insanity of it all with powerful, brutal guitar riffs that just make all the other insanity that much more satisfying. Compared to sheer stupidity of some of acts in the genre, Desecravity are like a bunch of Asian Motzart's, though I imagine Motzart could never muster a more inhuman guttural growl than Yujiro Suzuki. Mr. Suzuki has some of the most impressive pipes you will find in Death Metal today, and his performance is one of many highlights found through-out Implicit Obedience.

Thoroughly modern sounding, nothing about Implicit Obedience is likely to change die-hard haters opinions on this genre. But for those of us who can appreciate a good breakdown and some serious guitar acrobatics, Implict Obedience delivers on all accounts. The aforementioned guitar acrobatics are met with equally impressive(and modern sounding) bass work and the furious blasting drums(fully triggered) that one comes to expect from the genre. Again, it just comes down to the riffs: those are what set Implicit Obedience apart from contemporary Brutal Death Metal albums. Halfway through "Enthralled in Decimation," the track unleashes one of many head-banging, blistering riffs that do a fantastic job of keeping the "stupid-but-awesome" brutality in check. At times, these riff heavy sections bring to mind Incantation, Immolation and even Bolt Thrower, although they rarely last too long before the weedely-weedely kicks back in like a furious cyclone of virtuosity.

And as a fan of quality Brutal Death Metal, I would not have it any other way. Implicit Obedience is great because it finds that fine line between utter, incomprehensible brutality and competent Death Metal songwriting that so few in the genre ever seem to obtain. But when that sweet spot is hit right between the eyes like it is here, it becomes something pretty fucking awesome. What sweet brutality Desecravity have unleashed on us. Just sit back and be reduced to base atomic particles.

Rating: 9/10

Wreck And Reference - Black Cassette (2011)

2012-02-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Note: This review was originally posted at Court In The Act, and any reference made to any facets of a blog is linked to that blog.

Due to technology, this EP (released on cassette – hence thename – through Music Ruins Lives) has been sitting in my inbox unnoticed forseveral months. For that, I apologize. From the name of the band, one mightguess that they played post-something, and you’d be sort of right – the influencewhich jumps out instantly to me is Jesu, in the shimmering semi-industrialshoegazey sense. Jesu are always better on EPs due to their albums becomingboring over their full duration, and I suppose this is the same.

The aforementioned elements create quite a haunting ambienteffect – but despite wholly miserable lyrics, the music is uplifting to somedegree; consider the musical form of being haunted by a nice ghost who singsmelodically rather than attempting to scare people. However, at times the rawproduction makes it somewhat difficult to discern individual melodies,particularly when notes used are chromatically close to each other. Althoughthis rawness gives a warm feeling – like that of an LP – overall it probablystrays far enough to slightly detract from the music. That said, it’s acassette release, and therefore one should not expect outstanding production.

A point of particular similarity with Jesu in particular asopposed to many other practitioners of this kind of music is the choice to usesomething roughly resembling popular structure (verse-chorus-verse orvariations thereon), particularly on the pleasing opener ‘All The Ships HaveBeen Abandoned’. The vocal approach, however, which is integral to the qualityof the music, as many of the instrumental patterns are a little uninspired, ismore similar to that utilised by SubRosa (although from my guess the vocalisthere is male). Unfortunately, for the most part they sound a little frail – andin a way that is more weak than ‘woe is me’, something which is particularlyevident when they are brought to the forefront of the music by quieterinstrumentation.

Speaking of the instrumentation, the email from the band, aswell as the label’s website, informed me that no guitars were used in thecreation of this, which they are still calling ‘rock music’ (a tag that I wouldloosely agree with). To be honest, I really don’t see the point in bringingthis to our attention. The timbre of one of the instruments used (presumablyone of the synthesisers mentioned) sounds so much like an electric guitar (amatter that the mucky production aids little to clear up) that it may as wellbe one. I’m not criticizing the use of alternate instruments, more so theparticular highlighting of this factor which has so little effect it ultimatelyamounts to little more than a gimmick.

An unusual, but effective, use is made of the juxtapositionof what, at the end of the day, is inherently catchy music (although one wouldstruggle to call any of the motifs and melodies used strictly ‘poppy’, theylean that way at times) with industrial (we’re talking Throbbing Gristle, notCombichrist here) and noise elements in middle eight sections. This blendssmoothly rather than clashes awkwardly as one would expect – a true success ontheir behalf, and something that’s not really been done before (no, Merzbeat doesn’t count).

There is a fine line to be trod between suffocating emotionand tedium in music, and Wreck And Reference manage to trample haphazardly onboth sides of that line with roughly equal proportion. Where their style works,it moves towards ‘stunning’, but there are simply too many sections of the EPwhere I’m looking at the second hand on the clock to justify too much positivityabout the good parts. The same feeling comes from some of the odd diversionsthey go on in the EP – they’re of decidedly mixed quality, and some leave ajarring effect and hamper the continuity of the individual piece or the EP as awhole.

A good last track on a release is probably more conducive towishes to listen to it again than any other track – that last impression is alasting one, and fortunately the closer here, ‘A Lament’, is the standouttrack. The drones and synths bring a shimmering quality to it, and the vocalscome across as sufficiently strained to introduce some real heart-rippingemotion to it. This may be so, but many other sections of the EP go through themind as though it were a sieve, and although this EP shows promise, and futureWreck And Reference releases could be something indeed, to those with a busylistening schedule it’s definitely one that can be passed on with no harm done.

Charon- Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principle) (2012)

2012-02-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Charon- Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principle)

Standing firmly on the precipice of chaotic, Satanic orgy yet never quite diving into the blood and semen, Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principle) achieves an unbelievable level of intensity and destruction while remaining thought-out and self-controlled. This is a rare feat in Metal today, as bands either ape older acts for their ideas or become so lost in creativity as to lose purpose. Germany's Charon have delivered something truly wicked and evil with this album, yet also something purposeful and driven. The maturity of the song-writing here is incredibly impressive, and without a doubt Sulfur Seraph is the first great album of 2012.

What makes Sulfur Seraph so great is how dense with ideas it is without ever feeling over-wrought or directionless. At just under forty minutes, this album packs more murder and madness per minute than just about any album I have heard. Moving effortlessly from Black Thrash to Bestial Black Metal and Occult Death Metal, Charon wield their ideas like finely crafted blades. Each track flows into the other, creating a thick atmosphere that is surprisingly varied. Charon display the ability to drown you in death ala Incantation, before exploding into a Thrash blitzkrieg that would make Sarcofago proud. Even the vocal attack is varied, coming at your from all directions with vicious shrieks, cavernous gutturals, madden chants, tortured screams and demonic whispers.

Sulfur Seraph provides so much, yet asks so little from the listener, another rarity in today's underground Metal scene were reverb and static rule supreme. The production is appropriately raw, but also even and competent: this was not recorded at the bottom of the ocean. And there is something oddly accessible about this album, despite it's density. At times, Charon bring to mind early Belphegor(although Charon are much Thrashier and more occult) in how they present such brutal and blistering ideas in ways that don't come off as forced or purposely unappealing. Song-writing just doesn't get much better than this.

The year has just barely begun, but already a surefire contender for album of the year has emerged. Sulfur Seraph(The Archon Principle) is one of those rare albums that hits all the marks for greatness. Bestial, brutal, dark, atmospheric, creative, inventive and accessible. The complete package if there ever was one.

Rating: 10/10

Better Late Than Never...

2012-02-01T02:35:00.001-08:00

The Top 50 Albums of 2011

Better luck this year...

Upcoming Releases To Get Horny About: It Begins...

2012-01-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

Anyone hear the new Rottrevore tracks? Were you as disappointed as I was? Fear not, for Denmark's Undergang are here to sate your hunger for primitive, static choked Death Metal. An early favorite for Album of the Year, no doubt.

Some seriously hateful Bestial Black Metal here from one of the best in the business, Spain's Proclamation. The trvest static you will ever listen to.

Sweet, sweet weedely-weedley-screech. Oh how I missed you. I love wank, and I love Spawn of Possession. Sure waited long enough for this, and my expectations are through the roof.

Martin Van Duren is the worst vocalist I have ever heard, but fuck if Asphyx don't have riffs. The riffs are so good, I can ignore Duren's retard grunts.

Spearhead- Theomachia(2011)

2012-01-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

Spearhead- Theomachia

A blistering whirlwind of Blackened Death Metal hate, Theomachia takes square aim at both originality and your cranium and pulverizes them to dust and chunks. Their patron god Angelcorpse would be highly impressed with this dominating, jack-hammer Death Metal, and so am I. I might have heard this album before, or three times to be exact, but damn it all if Theomachia doesn't beat me to a joyous death every time I listen to it.

A powerful new player in England's suddenly burgeoning Death Metal scene, Spearhead make no bones about their Angelcorpse influence, but over-come their creative short comings through sheer inhuman intensity. Drummer Torturer(what a fitting name) embodies the war machine, hammering your senses like a trench is hammered by artillery fire, again and again and again. His performace behind the skins(no doubt crafted from the flesh of his fallen enemies) is the highlight of this monstrous slab of pure death. Everything else follows suit: the guitar work is fucking fast, the low-end rumbles and the vocals are mad with anger and fury. Theomachia moves like clockwork from start to finish, delivering the goods in classic all-killer-no-filler style. It's hard not to step back and listen in awe to how tight, purposeful and violent Theomachia really is. A better crafted piece of worship you will not find.

Worship, however, is all there is to be found on Theomachia. With the exception of the final track, this album follows the well obliterated path of Angelcorpse most of the way. "Aftermath," the purely instrumental final track, has Spearhead toying with melody and dissonance, but as the title of the track explains, this is only after the war is over and the corpses have been piled so high as to block out the Sun. And what a glorious mountain of corpses it is, even if I have seen more than a few in my day.

Rating: 8.5/10

Teitanblood- Purging Tongues(2011)

2012-01-25T20:06:00.000-08:00

Teitanblood- Purging Tongues

Slithering from the bottomless pits of Hades, Purging Tongues is the sound of corruption itself. Busy, blasphemous and relentless, Teitanblood have adopted a take-no-prisoners approach to songwriting with their newest EP, the bands first new material since their brilliant Seven Chalices LP from 2009. Seven Chalices established these Spaniards as one of front-runners in Occult-themed Black/Death Metal, but it really doesn't compare to Purging Tongues in terms of sheer misanthropy. This EP flat out hates your guts, and makes no concessions.

A single track spanning fifteen minutes, Purging Tongues sees an already chaotic and atmospheric band devolve into pure chaos noise and Satanic incantation. The music flows like sacrificial blood down a slopping altar, moving from unhinged noise and devilish chanting to bursts of Blasphemy-meets-Incantation grinding and back again, never giving the listener one second to even comprehend the machinations at work. None of the individual elements are particularly surprising or new for Teitanblood: Seven Chalices featured all the same insane sounds. It's the density of the composition that makes Purging Tongues that much more inhuman.

This density is also as much a curse as a blessing. Purging Tongues has Teitanblood entering Portal territory here, for better or worse. Following individual song elements becomes very difficult in this blistering haze, and it's pretty much impossible to pick out any individual riffs or sections as highlights. Purging Tongues must be taken as a whole or not at all, and at times the whole affair feels over-wrought and directionless. It doesn't help that the production is so uneven: the bass, drums and vocals are very loud in the mix, and they almost completely drown out the weak guitars that grasp for any hold they can find beneath crushing reverb. And holy hell, talk about reverb. The vocals echo for miles and the bass sounds like clattering bones, which while charming in their own way also destroy any hope for the guitars to have a real impact.

Purging Tongues is a ten-tone slab of pure inaccessibility. Just getting your arms around this clusterfuck is an endeavor worthy of legend, but burrowing into this solid black husk will be the real challenge, one perhaps not worth undertaking. Purging Tongues does not lack for ambition, but the busy and bloated compositions left me somewhat cold in comparison to the much more subdued and thought out Seven Chalices. Tetianblood are perched on the edge of Chaos, and hopefully they avoid the temptation to leap into the abyss.

Rating: 7.5/10

Mournful Congregation- The Book of Kings(2011)

2012-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

Mournful Congregation- The Book of Kings

I would be lying if I said that Funeral Doom was my favorite style of Doom. Sure, I love disEMBOWELMENT(the sounds precursor) and dig Thergothon, Evoken, Ahab, etc. But I am not particularly wild about the super slow, simplistic riffing and over-wrought atmosphere most Funeral Doom bands peddle. How so many bands can stretch three individual riffs over twenty minute songs is a mystery to me. And how unlucky for me that Mournful Congregation happen to be one of those bands.

The Book of Kings is well over an hour long, yet has no more than a dozen riffs sssssttttttrrrrreeeeettttcccchhhheeeeddd over it's incredible run-time. Your average Morbid Angel song has more riffs than this album, which is pretty impressive for both bands when you think about it. But who said it was about quantity? It's all about the quality right?

Right?

Much like the number of riffs, the quality here is lacking to say the least. Melodic intros lead into soft and... melodic riffs that crawl at a snails pace against the backdrop of bells and moans. Mournful Congregation have thrown musicianship and songwriting out the window here, and are putting all of their collective eggs into the "atmosphere" basket. The production is thick and inviting, and is by far the best part of The Book of Kings. It also helps that the pointless vocals are mostly lost underneath the strength of the guitars and the fuzz of the bass.

This is a war of attrition: how many minutes can you listen to the same riff, with the same melodic lead over the top of it, and the same bells in the background? I get the point of is all. The music is meant to hypnotize the listener, transfix them, until the fall into the waves of sound. Yet The Book of Kings failed to have anything close to this effect, and with so many superior alternatives abound in a genre not lacking in practitioners, it becomes increasingly hard to justify spending over an hour with this album. Where is the adventure? Where is the song-writing? The Book of Kings fails so miserably because instead of using the genre as a jumping post to greater ideas, it instead falls into Funeral Doom's biggest trap: incredible and relentless boredom.

Hardcore fans of Funeral Doom are sure to enjoy The Book of Kings. It follows every single genre convention to a T, never leaving the well trodden paths laid out by their forefathers in anyway. If that sounds incredibly boring to you, go ahead and just skip this one all together.

Rating: 3/10

War Master- Pyramid of the Necropolis(2011)

2012-01-16T01:23:00.000-08:00

War Master- Pyramid of the Necropolis

Straight up worship is pretty tricky. Most of the time, it is incredibly terrible and pointless genre fellatio that only manages to cheapen the genre as a whole. Occasionally however, a channeling occurs: a band hits the right notes, get the right attitude, and instead of merely imitating a band or sound they become an extension of it. Putrevore's Morphed From Deadbreath was Rottrevore's follow-up to Iniquitous. Codex Incubo felt like a lost Demilich release. And War Master's Pyramid of the Necropolis is the newest release from Bolt Thrower.

Hailing from Texas and featuring former members of legendary Grindcore masters Insect Warfare, War Master make no bones about their sound. If not taking the name of a Bolt Thrower album as their moniker doesn't give it away, the bands Last.fm page declares War Master succinctly as "Death Metal. Bolt Thrower worship." Clearly, this band hate surprises, which is odd, considering Pyramid of the Necropolis is such a surprisingly excellent debt. The formula is taken straight from the Bolt Thrower-textbook: brutal, low-end driven mid-paced Death Metal with tons of groove, bursts of relentless Grindcore and a no-nonsense attitude to songwriting. The hypothetical cudgel in musical form, used on your not-so-hypothetical cranium with relentless force. So ya know... Bolt Thrower.

War Master are the perfect worship band because they have the right attitude. There is not one ounce of pretentiousness or any confusion about what they are doing. War Master treat the sound and the property like it is their own, and do justice both to themselves and to Bolt Thrower with this album. Pyramid of the Necropolis is merely an open love-letter to the legends of English Death Metal, one that we all can enjoy and commit mass murder to.

Rating: 8/10

Best of 2011 Genre Awards: Black Metal

2012-01-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

5.) Amnis Nihili- Christological Escalation

Already topping my best EP's of 2011, Christological Escalation also brings up the back end of my top Black Metal albums of 2011. This album is just a tour-de-force of dissonant, complex Black Metal. A brilliant EP, and a sign of things to come.

4.) The Best Of The Apocalypse- Henosis

Static choked and slithering to an fro like The Serpent Himself, Henosis takes the well trodden formula of mid-tempo, Doom-y Bestial Black Metal in the vein of Archgoat and Beherit and adds even more layers of inaccessible blasphemy to it, until it becomes too dense to see through. Like a thick fog, Henosis clouds your vision and dampens your senses. It engulfs you in it's misty waves of Satanic splendor.

3.) Goatpenis- Depleted Ammunition

If you judged this album based solely on it's aesthetic, you might think this is another straight-forward Blasphemy/Revenge worship band. You would be wrong. Goatpenis have put a lot of effort into making themselves stand-out in a crowded Bestial Black Metal scene through inventive songwriting. Sure, they can Blasphemy-worship as well as the next band, and sometimes do. But it's the little details that make Depleted Ammunition special. Sudden bits of melody, complex guitar interplay, sudden tempo shifts. This album takes the Bestial Black Metal formula and does something different with it, and uncommon occurrence in today's scene.

2.) Nightbringer- Hierophany of the Open Grave

Listening to these guys mature over three albums into a force of Orthodox Black Metal, and in my opinion the best Black Metal band in the US today, has been a wild and bloody ride. From the depths of the Colorado wilderness, Hierophany of the Open Grave comes crawling forth, spreading disease and sorrow in it's wake. Dissonant does not even begin to describe this album, and the guitar acrobatics on display are nothing short of astounding. Essential.

1.) Cloak of Altering- The Night Comes Illuminated With Death

Jarring. Haunting. Unhinged. Beautiful. Just a few words that fail to do justice to this masterpiece. This is the Best Metal Album of 2011, hands down. A fully realized concept in hopeful misanthropy. Metal just doesn't get better than this.

Best of 2011 Genre Awards: Death Metal

2012-01-09T18:11:00.000-08:00

5.) Antediluvian- Through The Cervix of Haawh

No band has taken as large a step forward as Antediluvian this year. Out of nowhere, this Canadian band went from over-done and pretentious Incantation worship to full all, Occult Death Metal masters. No doubt, the move to a 4-piece was the major reason for this. Through the Cervix of Haawh is smart, dirty and demonic Death Metal at it's finest.

4.) Disma- Towards The Megalith

Mmmmmm. Finnish and New York Death Metal, extra raw and bloody. Just the way I love it.

3.) Baring Teeth- Atrophy

As dissonant and jarring as any album released this year, Atrophy is also an atmospheric force. Doom-infused, Jazzy Death Metal that proves Technical Death Metal is anything but wank. Honestly, blows the new Ulcerate out of the water.

2.) Sonne Adam- Transformation

Ritualistic bleakness without over-wrought production and static, Transformation is not only a brilliant slice of blasphemous aural destruction, but also proof positive that Death Metal can be recorded in a professional studio and sound professionally recorded while being atmospheric and heavy.

1.) Gigan- Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes

A distorted, twisted vortex of sonic disasters, Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes is the equivalent of standing naked in a hurricane and letting the debris lash and smash into you. Basically, if Discordance Axis were to play Death Metal, they would sound like Gigan. In a year dominated by old school worship, Gigan stand out with their blistering originality.

Best of 2011 Genre Awards: Punk/Crust/Hardcore

2012-01-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

5.) Weekend Nachos- Worthless

Nasty and discordant Powerviolence the way it should sound. Weekend Nachos just consistently deliver feedback fueled Crust Punk every time they touch their instruments. Effectively disposes of posers like so many Uzi rounds.

4.) All Pigs Must Die- God is War

Basically the same album as Darker Handcraft. So yeah, I guess I am emotionally disturbed and prone to brutal violence. Nothing else can describe these vomitous waves of pure rage. I am off to mutilate my genitals.

3.) Trap Them- Darker Handcraft

Crusty, nasty, filthy hate sounds. That is all one should expect from Trap Them and Darker Handcraft. I mean really, how many mentally unstable and unhinged people are in this world, making and listening to this kind of hellish bowel rumbles? Are there really a legion of pissed off and slightly psychotic 17-25 year old's just jamming out to this and carving manifestos into frozen sides of beef? And most of all, what does this say about me?

2.) Defeater- Empty Days & Sleepless Nights

Few acts in Metal or Punk set out to tell a story. Defeater are one of those rare acts who seek to ditch the typical tough guy/sensitive guy aesthetic and tell a real story about real people. Doing this through chaotic, enraged and ballsy Melodic Hardcore just makes it that much better. The final four tracks are all acoustic and clean singing, which just makes this album that much more adventurous.

1.) Young And In The Way- V. Eternal Depression

Dripping with melancholy and despair, overflowing with anger and hatred, V. Eternal Depression is one of those records that opens your eyes to the potential of Punk and Metal. I can't think of any band that has endeavored to mix Depressive Black Metal with Crust Punk, but Young and In The Way did just that in the most beautiful and intense way imaginable. It's only flaw? It ends.

The Best Of 2011 Special Awards: Best Cover Art

2012-01-02T01:35:00.000-08:00

5.) Noisear- Subvert the Dominate Paradigm

Much like the music itself, the cover art of Subvert the Dominate Paradigm is one busy piece of art. There is a lot of strange, violent and messy shit going down here, complete with skulls, mad surgeons and the fucking Illuminati imagery. Unlike the next cover, this one tells you exactly what to expect from this album: a clusterfuck of noise-blood-death.

4.) Weekend Nachos- Worthless

I know album covers that give no indication of the genre of music located on the album is a "hip" thing to do right now, as are understated and simplistic images. But this cover art is just so fucking irreverent, it is impossible not to love it. The idea of some kid wearing an Animal Collective shirt and sporting an ironic mustache buying this album in some shitty local record store because the cover art screamed "Faux-Retro Surf Rock" brings me endless, endless joy.

3.) Morbus Chron- Sleepers In The Rift

I don't know whether to love or hate this album cover. On one hand, it is all kinds of awesome: the pink and red hues are striking, and the unholy Lovecraftian abomination adorning this swirling blood mist vortex is all kinds of wicked. The whole color palette is impressive, and leagues beyond many of the futuristic, Dan Seagrave-esque Death Metal covers than dominate the scene. On the other hand, it only adds to how shitty this album is: all style, all flash, without any substance or unique ideas. Truly, this turd was painted gold and shined like the sun from a distance.

2.) Disma- Towards the Megalith

Does anyone remember the cover art for Path of the Weakening?

Well now we know where all these crazy looking old men were going. They were heading for the Ziggurat of Baal to sacrifice their first born sons in exchange for unholy powers. I cannot be the only person who saw a connection between these two cover arts.

1.) De Magia Veterum- The Divine Anthithesis

Pink is in this year when it comes to crazy hipster internet Metal, and the cover art for The Divine Antithesis fits perfectly with this growing trend. Much like any work of art, this album is a package deal, and the striking cover art depicting an inverted Reckoning perfectly enshrines the point of this album: your God is nothing but a creation of man, who is inherently evil. Or maybe Jesus was just running late and slipped coming down the Golden Escalator, and all us blasphemers are bound for a dip in the fire pits of Hades. Either way, the whole thing will be very pink.

The Best of 2011 Special Awards: Top 5 EP's

2012-01-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

5.) Adversarial- Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation

The follow up to my favorite Metal album of 2010, Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation is a perfect piece of fan service. Featuring the Thralls demo, some new material(complete with better production) and some killer covers, Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation is a good hold over for more material from these Canadian angel hunters.

4.) Corpsessed- The Chalice & The Dagger

If you mix New York Death Metal and Finnish Death Metal, chances are I will like your band. If you do it with passion, attitude and a smidgen of originality, I will love your band. The Chalice & The Dagger fits the latter description.

3.) Cruciamentum- Engulfed In Desolation

Crafting ridiculously sharp riffs like Vlad the Impaler's black smith, Cruciamentum escape the "Incantation clone" tag and develop a sound as inspired by Bolt Thrower and Benediction as Incantation. Engulfed in Desolation is a bit long winded, but the riffs are too delicious to ignore. Another young English Death Metal band making waves.

2.) Archgoat- Heavenly Vulva(Christ's Last Rites)

I love Archgoat, so any new material was going to be high up on my list. And sure enough, Heavenly Vulva(Christ's Last Rites) delivers the Satan in great supply. The mid-tempo crush of the riffs, the Demon Goat vocals, the cavernous bass distortion. I can literally hear the lambs of God scream out in agony amongst the Hellfire.

1.) Amnis Nihili- Christological Escalation

Equal parts scathing and haunting, Christological Escalation is a pitch perfect mix of technical, dissonant Orthodox Black Metal and atmospheric, dissonant "Blackgaze." Equal parts Aosoth and deafheaven, Amnis Nihili have the kind of caustic occult edge that screams trve grimm kvltness, but also indulge in layered, shoe-gazey compositions to lend bereavement to the frost bitten brutality. These Greek youngsters have developed a fluid synthesis of two sounds hugely popular in Black Metal right now, and done so in a very organic and way. An achievement not to be missed, and certainly the best EP I have heard this year.

The Best of 2011 Special Awards: Top 5 Demos

2012-01-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

Here we go with Curse of the Great White Elephant's Best of 2011. We will start at the beginning for all bands: the demos.

5.) Heresiarch- Obsecrating the Global Holocaust

I actually much preferred this demo to the bands EP. The lo-fi production added a lot more dirty, visceral charm the the somewhat cleaner EP. Heresiarch are not a life-changing experience, but probably closer to a life ending one. Mix the brutality of Angelcorpse, Bolt Thrower and Path of the Weakening Deeds of Flesh, and you get the storm of fiery shit that is Heresiarch.

4.) Beyond- Relentless Abomination Vortex

The band asked me to review their demo, and I never got to it, so here is the review: this is some pretty wicked shit. Not particularly original, but the band mix Incantation, Blasphemy and various Finnish and Swedish sounds into a very solid little Old School Death Metal demo. The guitar work is particularly impressive.

3.) Angelcrust- Pet Semetary

This demo is about as Punk Rock as it gets, and the more time I have spent with it, the more I like it. The Black Metal influence is more distinctive and brutal than most, while the Punk elements are incredibly gritty and lo-fi. I look for Angelcrust to be the next big thing in Black/Crust.

2.) Artificial Brain- Artificial Brain Demo

Featuring members of Biolich and Revocation, Artificial Brain have the kind of pedigree that makes you excited. And sure enough, the bands demo is tremendous: brutal, dissonant and complex, it its all the high water marks for Technical Death Metal. The production is also as professional sounding as some major label full lengths. My expectations for this band are huge.

1.) Void Meditation Cult- Sulfurous Prayers

This demo is pure fucking Satan. There is no other way to describe this caustic, swirling mass of Doom-infused Bestial Black Metal. The Demoncy influence is strong here, and as an unabashed Demoncy fanboy, this demo is pretty much built for me. A must have demo, and a sign of things to come from this awesome American Black Metal one-piece.

Subrosa- No Help For The Mighty Ones(2011)

2011-12-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Subrosa- No Help For The Mighty Ones

Often, the joy of discovery is blunted by how much of what you end up discovering is recycled, carbon-copy genre worship with no new ideas and middling intensity. You search and search and search, but for all your effort come up with a few competent and enjoyable, but also pointless and forgettable, albums from bands who won't be part of your listening rotation a few weeks past their initial spins. However, from time to time, the endless search for something new, something powerful and substantial comes along that reaffirms your love for musical discovery. No Help For The Mighty Ones certainly had that effect on me. By taking the basic Doom/Sludge formula and turning it upside down while classing it up, Subrosa have created something incredibly somber, rich and emotional without ever coming off as corny or over-wrought.

Like the wails of a long lost lover roaring from the mist, No Help For The Mighty Ones immediately attacks the gut and twists it into all sorts of uncomfortable knots. The off-key, distant crooning of Rebecca Vernon and Sarah Pendleton hypnotizes you, while the shriek of electric violins jar you back into a cold, harsh reality. The guitars act in tandem with the rhythm section to create the fuzzy, ballsy and oddly warm backdrop for the violins to do their masterful work, rarely moving to the forefront. This might be a turn off for some, but Subrosa pull if off so masterfully it is hard to find any fault with it; the tracks meander on achingly from walls of symphonic noise to accessible Fuzz Rock to haunting, heart-string-tugging classical glory all in the same song. Try not to feel the pain on "Whipporwhill": emotional assaults are a very real part of No Help For The Mighty Ones.

This is an incredibly ballsy album, and considering that three-fifths of the band are quite literally without testicles, it becomes all the more impressive. It takes serious guts to have an a Capella English Folk song on your Doom/Sludge album, yet "House Carpenter" feels right at home on this album, a tale of lovelorn loss and demonic intervention that so beautifully exemplifies what makes this album such a triumph. All throughout the album, the listener comes face to face with truly fearless songwriting and powerful tones, both musical and emotional. No Help For The Mighty Ones is a once in a decade type album, one that should and hopefully will have a profound effect on the genre as a whole. These Utah sad saps have really touched on something here, something glorious, wonderful and real. Not to be missed.

Rating: 10/10

St. Vincent- Strange Mercy(2011)

2011-12-26T04:46:00.000-08:00

St. Vincent- Strange Mercy

Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, has always been what a football scout would call a "5 tools prospect." She has it all: talent, songwriting skills, an absolutely stellar voice. She is also a total stone cold fox:

I mean Jesus H. Christ. That is the kind of girl who you fall in love with. But she wouldn't love you back. In the end, she would rip your heart right out of your chest, bite it in half and then spark up a cigarette.

Yet despite all of this incredible talent, Ms. Clark never delivered on it. Most of her musical output has been under-achieving at best. Take 2009's Actor. A handful of brilliant Pop songs mixed in with copious amounts of forced quirkiness and disingenuous artsy garbage(no doubt her time with the Shithead, aka Sufjan Stevens, had something to do with this.) The whole thing felt unnatural, and Ms. Clark seemed forced into a box too small and confining for her obvious abilities. The effort was there, but it was wasted effort on a project not worth the time. It was starting to look like Ms. Clark would never be more than a competent, but mostly inessential, Indie Pop Gurrl who would never compare to her contemporaries. But Strange Mercy finally sees Ms. Clark deliver on her talent, in about the biggest way possible.

Strange Mercy is a lean, mean Pop machine, the perfect vehicle for Ms. Clark's sultry voice, which oozes pure sex appeal while never once sounding slutty or stupid. Thankfully free of worthless ambient Noise, unappealing Freak Folk and forced quirkiness, Strange Mercy is all about the hooks, and boy are there a lot of hooks: not one single song gives you any room to breathe before you are singing along with another perfect chorus or flawless verse. Take "Cruel," a Pop fused Indie Rock tune that will get your ass moving, or the Funky and steamy "Dilettante," which has Ms. Clark winking and nodding as she sings "Your like the party I heard through a wall/Invite me." Strange Mercy has seen Ms. Clark go from fairly standard Indie Gurrl is flat out sex symbol, and it is an aesthetic that works wonders for her and her music. Ms. Clark also knows when to turn things down a bit for more somber, softer hitting moments, like the title track, a haunting Electro-Rock ballad that gives us the best pure vocal performance on the record, or the whisper quiet "Champange Year," a spaced out Electro-Pop chill out from all the Funky Indie Pop that most of the record delivers.

Indie Pop has become so ironic over the years, with more and more artists going for "Zooey Deschanel" faux-awkwardness, it is such a breath of fresh air to hear an artist this confident in her music and her lyrics. Confidence. That is the key word here. Strange Mercy is an album from a very confident woman who has finally found her voice. This is such a massive improvement from Ms. Clark's previous work, it becomes difficult to quantify. What I can easily say is this: Strange Mercy is about as massive, as gorgeous and as perfectly made as a Pop album can get. Strange Mercy has completely dominated my listening cycle since the very first note, and will continue to do so for a very long time. It doesn't get any better than this people. Strange Mercy, and Ms. Clark, will dominate your dreams with this one.

Rating: 10/10

A Quick Look Ahead: The Best of 2011

2011-12-24T16:24:00.001-08:00

Well I have been doing this thing for the past few months, and for the most part it has been a stellar experience. I have recieved a lot of positive feedback through Last.fm and lots of anon-ative feedback on the actual blog, which as we all know is super fucking negative... and often brutally retarded. I actually got a "fake and gay," which contrary to what the anon might have thought, I loved. It is sort of an internet badge of honor to have a played out and pointless meme thrown at your shitty blog, one I wear somewhat proudly. Anyway, to those of you who have hit me up via Last.fm with positive comments, your support is greatly appreciated. And make sure to hit me up via Last.fm at anytime. I always try and get back to you.

To those of you following the blog, you might be curious as to when I plan on revealing my Best of 2011. Unlike some others, I prefer to wait until after the year is over before revealing my list, so that is the plan as of now. My cut-off date for listening to new stuff will be December 31st, when the new Wrathprayer and Disgorge(US) drop for my listening pleasure. Those will be the last two new albums from 2011 I will be reviewing, and possibly including in my top 40 of 2011.

In the mean time, I will be throwing as many reviews on here as possible, mostly for my top albums of this year so my top 40 list doesn't look so strange... I have a lot of work to do. I will also be mixing in Non-Extreme Reviews in with my shitty Incantation worship bands, so expect lots of different stuff. Be forewarned: the new St. Vincent and Kate Bush are pretty much the best shit ever.

Thanks for reading,
Sharpz

Execration- Odes of the Occult(2011)

2011-12-22T19:15:00.000-08:00

Execration- Odes of the Occult

Norway is not well known for it's contributions to Death Metal. Outside of the criminally under-rated Molested, I struggle to name another act from the country of 20 hour work-weeks and very cold weather. But a band like Execration is very likely to generate some serious hype for the country seen as the birthplace of Black Metal. Operating out of Olso no less, Execration are band who have hit their stride with Odes of the Occult, a titan of a sophomore effort that vastly exceeds the bands previous efforts.

Odes of the Occult is an album that is hard to pin down: it is not the most original effort ever in terms of new ideas, but it mixes so many classic sounds together all at once, it clouds the way to the source of influence. Highly dissonant guitar work brings to mind Immolation at their most demonic, while sections of skull crushing Doom bring Asphyx into the picture, before mid-paced muscle riffs draw upon the soul of Bolt Thrower. Musically, everything about Odes of the Occult screams atmosphere, power and pure fucking aggression. The production is flawless, the guitar work equal parts technically complex and brutally substantial and the rythm sections does its job with the efficiency of an experienced serial murderer. The vocals are the definition of a mixed bag: at times the band makes use of a very competent guttural growl, but mostly the listener will be subjected to the vocal stylings a Martin Van Duren/John Tardy impersonator. I am aware that I am of a different opinion than most: a friend of mine describes this vocal style as "a madman with mercury in his throat, trying to scream it out." I describe is as a drunk and angry man with mental disabilities screaming for his Stretch Armstrong. Regardless, the vocals are a turn-off for me, and keep Odes of the Occult from reaching withering heights of greatness that musically it so clearly deserves.

Yet despite my disappointment with the vocal attack, Odes of the Occult remains one of my favorite releases from this year. If not strikingly original, it is as finely a crafted Death Metal album one can expect to listen to this year. An album that really doesn't need many more words than fucking excellent.

Rating: 9/10

Abbey ov Thelema- A Fragment ov the Great Work(2011)

2011-12-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

Abbey ov Thelema- A Fragment ov the Great Work

Sometimes, you hear something that leaves you at a loss for words. Maybe because it is so fucking awesome, you can't think of a word to express the level of awesome. Maybe it was so bad, you fear speaking because vomit may be released instead of words. And maybe you are speechless because you don't know what the hell you just listened to.

A Fragment ov the Great Work fits with the latter description.

Slovakia based Abbey ov Themelma are certainly shooting for something new and unique with A Fragment ov the Great Work. Black Metal is certainly part of the equation, but how much of it is a bit uncertain. The album makes heavy use of keyboards and synthesizers, which may not sound all that strange off the bat. Lots of bands Black Metal bands make heavy use of electronic instruments, and electronic music has always fit well within Black Metal. What makes A Fragment ov the Great Work is strange is that this is not a slow, atmospheric and noisy affair: this album is fast, melodic and not all that inaccessible. The synth moves fast and hard, while the keyboards move at a blistering pace. Sure, things slow down from time to time, but not all that often. Guitars also seem entirely optional: some songs feature barely any guitar work at all. About the only standard thing about this album is the two-pronged vocal attack, which alternates from a shriek to a guttural grunt, while occasionally clean vocals come into play.

Trying to find a way to describe this album has been the biggest hurdle for me, but I can no long deny what this album is: Blackend Techno. That might sound horrible, and before I heard this album I would have agreed with you. But A Fragment ov the Great Work is not terrible. In fact, it is pretty damn good. When this album works, it works incredibly well: "Unearthly Theophagia ov a Nonexistent Deity" starts off with a blistering, pulsating beat that combines synth and a drum machine to awesome effect, before a grooving, Medieval rhythm kicks in, which is more awesome than it might sound. The whole album has a cool Medieval vibe, which I normally hate but here works well. At times, Abbey of Thelema take a more traditional route, like on "The Hidden Wisdom & Clandestine Legacy ov the Black Arts," and that song also works: dissonant, complex and with an excellent drum machine sound, the song is a nice change of pace from the Techno-fueled insanity that much of the album unleashes.

It has taken me a long time to review this album, mostly because I had no idea how I wanted to tackle the bands sound. A Fragment ov the Great Work is certainly one of the most unique and original albums I have heard in a good long while, but the album also delivers where many experimental albums fail. And I have no doubt that when Blackend Techno takes over the Rave scene in a few years, we will have Abbey of Thelema to thank.

Rating: 8.5/10

Beherit- At The Devil's Studio 1990

2011-12-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

Beherit- At The Devil's Studio 1990

Few albums are as influential and beloved as Drawing Down the Moon. Beherit had created something that no one had ever quite heard before: drowned in a mist of darkness and doom, these Finns did Bestial Black Metal like few others(I would argue the US band Demoncy did it a lot better, although they never got the accolades Beherit did.) But for all of the brilliance of Drawing Down the Moon, Beherit themselves never repeated the success, of even came close. Between 1994 and 1995, the band released two Darkwave albums, a genre which I do not feel qualified to judge, then disbanded. They reformed to released Engram in 2009, but that is an album which does nothing for me. In the end, Beherit were a one album wonder, even if that one album has stood the test of time and remains as relentlessly evil and powerful today as it did in 1993.

Don't let any Beherit fans know about this fact though, as they are likely to crucify you for such an offense: Beherit are a band who before 1994 was the greatest Black Metal band ever, and have not done any wrong. Which is why I am sure At The Devil's Studio 1990 is likely to cause more than a few fanboy freakouts: this album was actually intended for release years ago, but was shelved at some point and only recently rediscovered by the bands drummer. Basically, At The Devil's Studio 1990 was intended to be the bands debut album, but never saw released. Recorded three years before Drawing Down the Moon, At The Devil's Studio 1990 is a much more traditional Bestial Black Metal album, and it certainly is ferocious. It is also basically unlistenable. Sure, Drawing Down the Moon was poorly recorded as well, but at least the low-end was there: At The Devil's Studio 1990 has not discernible bass work, and the kick drum sounds flat and lifeless. Overall, the drums are completely powerless, drowned out by guitars that overwhelm every other instrument, while tired and barely involved vocals can be heard from time to time, if only to disappear under a wave of amp static.

What makes At The Devil's Studio 1990 even less appealing is that the actual music involved in really not all that interesting: without many of the progressive and Doom-ish elements of Drawing Down the Moon, Beherit are incredibly typical... and incredibly boring. There is nothing here that compares with Blasphemy, Profanatica or Sadistik Exekution, at least nothing you can make out through the atrocious production. Beherit certainly made the right call trying to move the genre forward with later releases, but at the bands inception they were not much to speak of, and neither is this album.

At The Devil's Studio 1990 is likely to make a lot of fans very happy, but for those who do not obsesses over this band, this capitulates inessential. Lost in horribly broken production is a collection of so-so Bestial Black Metal songs from a band whose legacy is built upon the back of a single incredible album, and who cannot seem to damage this legacy, no matter how many piss poor compilations and Darkwave albums they seem to produce.

Rating: 4/10

Cruciamentum- Engulfed In Desolation(2011)

2011-12-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

Cruciamentum- Engulfed In Desolation

It has finally come.

There has not been a bigger hype train in, um, obscure old school Death Metal than the one moving England's Cruciamentum. The Convocation of Crawling Choas demo made serious waves in 2009, as the bands suffocating, Incantation-esque Death Metal fit perfectly with what was hot in Death Metal at the time. But on this years split with Vasaeleth(which I reviewed previously), one could hear a not too subtle stylistic change, and not just in the vocals: there was a greater sense of groove and several chuggier riffs that to my ears sounded like Bolt Thrower.

Engulfed In Desolation continues that sound, with four tracks of rock solid old school Death metal that evokes the masters of New York Death Metal as well as Crucimentum's fellow Brits Bolt Thrower. You know the drill then: tons of skull caving riffs, liberal use of insane blast-beats, and a bass sound that quite literally moves you. Crucimentum are some of the finest riff smiths out there right now, and just picking one brilliant riff on Engulfed in Desolation is a Herculean effort.

It is a tad unfortunate that Crucimentum feel the need to hammer those riffs into your skull long after it has already been pulverized to mush however. If Engulfed in Desolation is not without sin: these songs are seriously too long. It is not a surprise that the best song on the album, "Thrones Turned To Rust," is also by far the shortest. Cruciamentum do not make dozens of riffs: they make five to seven utterly perfect ones, then abuse your face with them. The problem is, when the songs are in excess of six minutes long, you get diminishing returns. The final track, "Unsanctified Temples," is a whopping eight minutes long, and I wish I could say that it needed to be. In truth, most of it is made up of repeated riffs in an effort to create atmosphere, when Engulfed in Desolation is at it's best when cutting the shit and ripping your arms off. This album is a nuclear bomb trying to act as a tranquilizer dart at times, and it just doesn't work.

But when Engulfed in Desolation goes for the throat, it works. Cruciamentum are a band with a lot to offer, who had a lot of success very early, and are still trying to find their sound. I am in love with the fact that the band take less from Incantation with this album, and when the riffs are working they work. All this band needs is time, experience, and a little bit of self-editing to reach song-writing Nirvana. They are pretty close as it is.

Rating: 8.5/10

Vomitory- Opus Mortis VIII(2011)

2011-12-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Vomitory- Opus Mortis VIII

When it comes to Swedish Death Metal, a scene which I am well known for mostly disliking, Vomitory are an act I can get behind. Blood Rapture and Raped In Their Own Blood remain the defining Swedish Death Metal albums for me personally, and the band have never released an album I could not listen to. Which is a big reason why Opus Mortis VIII is such a tough listen: after two or so decades of producing consistent quality, Vomitory have struck out with their newest effort.

Opus Mortis VIII makes a bad impression right off the bat with it's production, which sounds far too clean for me. Part of what made Blood Rapture such a masterpiece was the production: filthy, vile and wet , like the basement of a cannibal serial killer with a massive porn library and a lack of tissue paper. Opus Mortis VIII just doesn't invoke the same images, and instead comes off like a much cleaner, less violent affair. And that is exactly what Opus Mortis VIII is: all talk, no actual violence. This album feels slower, and is more melodic, than any of the bands previous albums. This album sounds much closer to the Entombed/Dismember style of Swedish Death Metal that leaves me very cold. The slower paced, Doom-ier elements on "Shrouded in Darkness"(easily the best song on the album) are actually pretty cool, but for the most part Opus Mortis VIII is a sickeningly standard affair.

Opus Mortis VIII is almost self-aware in it's own generic, focus group Death Metal status. Everything about it is cleaner, more presentable and less threatening than the band has ever been: from the stupid album art, to the generic song titles("They Will Burn" might have been awesome in 1989, but now I am sure As I Lay Dying would use that in a song about other religions), to the songs themselves that no long have any balls. I realize that I am talking about Vomitory here, a band who have been releasing same-y albums for most of their career and will never go into a more experimental direction. But what made Vomitory so awesome was their energy: they may have been one of many mass murderers marauding about Sweden in the early 90's, but they rose above a crowded scene through sheer force of attrition.

Opus Mortis VIII is an album from a band that is tired. Their zeal for slaughter has subsided, and the rigors of making this music, which we all know is a recipe for at most lower middle class status and Tinnitus, have taken their toll. This is the album of the old man, on his last legs, still churning along in hopes of one more payday so he can rest his weary head. Opus Mortis VIII is merely a product, machine made for mass consumption. The joy of the kill is dead.

Rating: 5/10

Liturgy- Aesthethica(2011)

2011-12-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Liturgy- Aesthethica

So far, my forays into so called “Hipster Black Metal” have left me incredibly confused about two very important things:

Who the Hell is labeling these bands as Black Metal?
What the Hell about these bands are so irredeemably terrible as to generate such vitriol against them?

And so far, both off those seemingly important questions have remained unanswered. It is a predicament that has left me with only one real option: listen to a lot of “Hipster Black Metal” and come up with my own damn opinion: an opinion that up until my time with Liturgy’s Aesthehtica has been a very positive one. After Liturgy’s Aesthethica, my cool has been damaged. Aesthethica helps me understand my second question a little bit more.

Lets get the positive out of the way right off the bat, because there is some positive to be found. There are some really, really cool individual riffs on this album. The dudes in this band clearly know how to play their instruments and clearly love dissonance as much as I do. Liturgy are not afraid to experiment and do not fear creativity, two qualities that is not common enough in today’s Metal scene. A lot has been made about the bands views on Black Metal, and issue I am not going to bother discussing, but I will say this for Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and Co.: they are fearless, and Aesthethica is a monument to the bands fearlessness.

It is also a testament to the bands arrogance and pretentiousness. Aesthethica is wealthy with ideas and barren of anything to keep these ideas from being utterly useless. Imagine a leg with no tendons; a book without a binding. Aesthethica feels like a recorded jam session: impromptu, herking and jerking to and fro, occasionally thrilling but mostly filled with throw-away material not worth remembering outside the heat of the moment. It is not hard to draw parallels between Liturgy and The Dave Mathews Band, which might be the most “insane-like-a-fox” thing I have ever had the (dis)pleasure to type. But the more time I spent with the amorphous blob of something vaguely Black Metal that is Aesthethica, the more that comparison makes total sense. Also, both bands feature some of the most horrid vocals ever recorded, which just makes the whole situation that much sadder.

And as with every one of these albums I have reviewed so far, I have a hard time with classifying this album as Black Metal. Is shrieking vocals and tremolo picking all that is needed to slap the Black Metal label on a band now? Aesthethica does have it’s moments where is sounds kind of like Black Metal, but the often cheery arrangements evoke a very positive sound. “Returner” sounds more like a Converge on anti-depressants, while “Glory Bronze” starts with an upbeat intro that for some fucking reason reminded me of Green Day played at inhuman speed. That song later heads into one of the most Black Metal sounding arrangements on the album, but the intro of the song could be a Weezer hit if the band slowed it down from warp speed. Yeah, I did just write that.

Aesthethica represents the dark side of unbridled creativity: when self-absorbed and self-serving experimentation destroys self-editing and common sense, it often creates something that can’t stay grounded because it is too insubstantial. Aesthethica stands up to listening like a whisp of smoke stands up to a stiff breeze, and leaves about the same impression on the world around it. I give Liturgy points for their effort, but Aesthethica is the kind of wasted musical effort that comes about when the only people the band are trying to impress are themselves.

Rating: 5/10

Heresiarch- Hammer of Intransigence(2011)

2011-12-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

Heresiarch- Hammer of Intransigence

Torrid storms of punishing, golf ball sized hail and the sonic screams of victimized demons being raped in Hell is all one can expect from Heresiarch’s debut EP, Hammer of Intransigence, a title which would be almost hilariously appropriate for the product on display if it weren’t so painful. The weak and the lame shall be obliterated under the heel, and the strong will merely live long enough to suffer for their endurance and foolish hope for survival. Blood will pool underneath your shapeless, mushy remains, and your final thoughts will be of pain.

Too bad Hammer of Intransigence isn’t more fun.

While no non-sense brutality is always a nice thing, New Zealand’s Heresiarch are a force of massive destruction that leaves no actual room for anything else but frankly ridiculous chaos. Hammer of Intransigence is a mostly unoriginal piece of dime-a-dozen Death Metal, drawing from Deeds of Flesh, Angelcorpse and Bolt Thrower without grabbing any charm along the way. Points must be given for not ripping off Incantation, but merely exceeding an already sad expectation will not win anyone any medals. For all of its Hell fire and brute strength, Hammer of Intransigence cannot break free from the chains of conceptual inadequacy.

There are certainly some redeeming qualities on display here: the band are tight, know what they want and play with a clear zeal for Sadism, and the spectacle this album makes of mass annihilation is something to behold. But unlike the bands this group clearly idolize, or even unlike the bands that sired Heresiarch(fellow New Zealander’s Witchrist and Diocletian), this group just can’t help but destroying themselves along with everything else around them.

Rating: 6/10

Nuclearhammer/Begrime Exemious- Heretical Serpent Cult(2011)

2011-12-13T18:26:00.000-08:00

Nuclearhammer/Begrime Exemious- Heretical Serpent Cult

Nuclearhammer and Begrime Exemious are two names I have picked up as I perused the various forums, blogs and distros in my ever eternal search for music. Both bands have built up a solid reputation across the internet, which we all know is the final authority on what good Metal is, so when I saw these acts had a new split, Heretical Serpent Cult, I thought this was a good chance to check them out.

And once again, the old school curmudgeons that stalk the internet’s various dank and lifeless holes are rewarding old school sensibility and image.

Forgettable and basic, Heretical Serpent Cult is as generic and lifeless as the albums title. On one hand we have Nuclearhammer, who unabashedly steal ideas from Blasphemy and Archgoat at every turn. Devoid of any personality or creativity, Nuclearhammer blast through the first half of this split like a barely functioning jackhammer, beating on the eardrums without any reward for your endurance. The band even throw a Taxi Driver sample at you on the opening track “Storms of Wrath,” which while adding a certain irony to the bands utter lack of creativity, is just as generic as the bands plagiarized and lifeless sound.

Begrime Exemious make an even worse impression. While Nuclearhammer might be pointless, they are at least tight and nasty. Begrime Exemious can’t even play as a band: sloppy, listless old-schoolish Death Metal that lacks any attitude or real brutality. Clearly influenced by early Floridian Death Metal, Begrime Exemious are a scattershot and inorganic mix of Obituary, Morbid Angel and Deicide. Everything about Begrime Exemious’ side of the split is offensive to the ear and so poorly played, it is a wonder the band were ever allowed to record for any label. No doubt the fact the band are perceived as “old-school” is likely the bands only leg to stand on.

Listening to Heretical Serpent Cult has me wondering about the state of Death and Black Metal in 2011: is creativity and originality truly dead? Does all it take to make a record nowadays is your ability imitate older bands that are exponentially better? I understand that everything has already been done, and I also get that originality is not always good. I can get behind blatant worship as well as anybody(I have listened to Putrevore’s Morphed in Deathbreath an ungodly number of times), but what I cannot get behind is a total lack of personality. Heretic Snake Cult has about as much personality as Kobe Bryant on Valium. A truly horrifying, and boring, vision

Rating: 3/10

EDIT: Well, I knew it would happen eventually. I made a mistake, important enough to bare mentioning: this split features four covers, three by Nuclearhammer(three original tracks) and one from Begrime Exemious(five original tracks). I stand by everything I wrote in this review 100%, but it was pretty dumb for me to forget to mention that the split featured covers. Rather than merely edit the review and try and cover up the mistake, I am gonna own up to it with this edit, as a reminder of my hubris... or whatever.

You can find an edited version of this review on Metal-Archives.

Sonne Adam- Transformation(2011)

2011-12-05T19:15:00.000-08:00

Sonne Adam- Transformation

Like ritualistic chants from an ancient and powerful cult, Transformation comes from a dark, dark place. Pulsating with evil, thriving on blood sacrifice and devouring all hope and light in its path, Transformation is a truly atmospheric force of occult devastation. These Israeli's have created and album and crafted a sound which feels familiar without really emulating any Death Metal band before it. An album steeped in the old school yet fresh and modern feeling, Transformation is a rare album indeed, and one that delivers on multiple levels and through multiple listens.

No album I have heard this year would sound more appropriate during a reading of Satanic Rites than Transformation. Everything about this album is meticulously designed to create an atmosphere of hatred and death, yet it never feels over-wrought or forced: the entire album is organic and powerful from the first note to the final, torturous moments and it never relents. It's easy to come up with a list of influences evident on this album: Incantation, Thergothon, disEMBOWELMENT, Autopsy, Morpheus Descends. Yet none of these disparate influences really describe what exactly Transformation sounds like, as Sonne Adam have developed a truly unique sound; one that invokes pure blackness and true Satanic worship. Even the song titles, such as brilliant tracks like "We Who Worship The Black" and "Take ME Back To Where I Belong" are crafted with the express purpose of layering as much blasphemy and demonic wrath on the listener as possible.

The fact that Sonne Adam have so easily evoke atmosphere without layering on tons of static or that Transformation doesn't sound like it was recorded under-water is what makes it so fucking impressive. Unlike say Portal or Ritual Necromancy, whose entire atmosphere comes from production and not composition, Sonne Adam create a suffocating and soul crushing atmosphere through song-writing and creative design, despite a strong and modern production(courtesy of Century Media no doubt). Transformation is far from clean, and there is no extra fluff or drum triggers, but the mix is even, all the instruments sound fantastic and the whole thing feels professional. Transformation proves that quality, atmospheric Death Metal can still be recorded in a studio, by bigger label professionals. The vocals are also a real treat: while pretty much just a mono-tone low growl, they are incredibly clear: unlike the vast majority of Death Metal vocalists, Dahan is easily the most understandable I have heard... well, ever. No doubt the professional production quality and perfect mix has something to do with this, but Dahan's pronunciation is pretty much perfect, and gives Dahan the vibe of a preacher, spreading his heretical word across the land.

And what heretical words indeed. It is rare for me to discuss lyrics in my reviews, mostly because they are not worth discussing. The vast majority of Death Metal vocalists have such trouble with pronunciation, and the production is often so uneven, they might as well be saying "RRRRRRRRRRRRRR" or "OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH". But with Transformation, Sonne Adam's brilliantly dark lyrics add another level to the listening experience. "Take Me Back To Where I Belong" features my personal favorite moment on the album(both musically and lyrically):

It's a day of celebration
Death erases all that was before
And those who fought for alternation
Be served as king before before their human forms
This is the time of procreation
And I shall teach the way of the Sadus god
All the cult is by my side
Together we shall rise to claim the throne

You can look forward to being able to clearly understand every single word, and it is a joy indeed to hear such well constructed and evil Death Metal poetry in all its unholy glory.

I have heaped a lot of praise on this album, and for good reason: Transformation is a masterpiece, a modern day Death Metal classic, deserving of all the accolades it might receive. No other Death Metal album this year has left such a permanent mark on me, or my listening rotation, than Transformation. This album also represents a greater purpose: that professionalism is not dead in Death Metal and that production does not have to be lo-fi and static choked to be atmospheric and demonic. Quit reading this review, and get this album. The dark Gods are calling to you. Answer them.

Rating: 10/10

Double Review: Noisear- Subvert the Dominate Paradigm and Defeatist- Tyranny of Decay

2011-12-02T21:28:00.000-08:00

Noisear- Subvert the Dominate Paradigm

Defeatist- Tyranny of Decay

Over the past few years, Grindcore had been a genre of segments: on one hand, we had the purist Grindcore inspired by it's roots: Rotten Sound, Magrudergrind, Wormrot and others were doing it they way Napalm Death used to do it back in 1989. On the other, we had the progressive elements of the genre, toying with dissonance, technicality and time signatures: Discordance Axis, Pig Destroyer, Fuck The Facts. It has become a shit tossing war of fanboy attrition, as the two sides bicker over where the genre needs to go from here.

That question has been answered with Subvert the Dominate Paradigm and Tyranny of Decay: they will be smashed, molded and melted into one. Both of these albums represent the future of Grindcore, one grounded in the genre's past while at the same time embracing it's future. New Mexico's Noisear and New York's Defeatist have both released incredibly impressive albums, mixing the purist, crusty Grindcore of Rotten Sound with the hyper technical and dissonant guitar work of Discordance Axis to create a new kind of Grindcore. And boy does it fucking rule.

Of the two albums, Subvert the Dominate Paradigm is the stronger record. In fact, Subvert the Dominate Paradigm might be the finest Grindcore album of the last five years. Each of the thirty songs(minus the last song, "Noiseurption," which is mostly Power Electronics) are perfectly crafted pieces of this new kind of Grindcore. The basic riffs, song structure and tempo are classic Grindcore: fast, brutal, crusty and reeking of Punk Rock attitude. But Noisear often break into burst of technical, hyper dissonant riffing that brings to mind Discordance Axis and Fuck the Facts at their most inhuman and enraged, and the band often toy with Jazzy and complex song structure, if only for a few fleeting seconds, before going back to the Grind with a furious vengeance. The vocal attack is also incredible: varied, pissed off an bubbling with pure shit spewing hatred, the alternating high shriek and low guttural growl is as impressive as any you will ever hear. This synthesis of two styles is incredibly fun to listen to, and kept me on my feet for the entire album, wondering what Noisear were going to throw at me next.

Tyranny of Decay does not lack for truly awesome moments. Defeatist are the more traditional of the two bands, and this 12 track LP does feel dirtier and crustier. Defeatist are not quite as technically sound as Noisear, but they heap the rage on by the truckload(and in the end, that might be the most important thing). At times very Doom-y, and occasionally bringing to mind a more primitive Immolation, Tyranny of Decay is a force of sheer destruction. Its technical moments are less pronounced, but when they hit, it often creates a sea of dissonance that would make Ulcerate proud. I also prefer the overall production of Tyranny of Decay: Subvert the Dominate Paradigm has a very even mix and a ridiculously perfect snare sound, but Tyranny of Decay feels nastier and more filthy in an early Rotten Sound kind of way. On the other hand, the fairly mono-tone, screamy vocals of Tyranny of Decay are not the album's strong suite.

If this is the future of Grindcore, then a bright future it shall be. Both of these albums, but particularly Subvert the Dominate Paradigm, represent an aesthetic synthesis that I wish other genres would at least attempt(I am looking at you, Death Metal), and continues to prove that for sheer unbridled creativity, Grindcore is the superior genre to just about any other form of Extreme Music. I love the proclamation of Subvert the Dominate Paradigm's title: Noisear(and Defeatist) have done exactly that: taken the dominate ideas in Grindcore today, undercut them, and then popped a squat and took a shit on them.

Rating: Subvert the Dominate Paradigm: 10/10
Tyranny of Decay: 8.5/10

deafheaven- Roads to Judah(2011)

2011-11-28T16:38:00.001-08:00

deafheaven- Roads to Judah

This is not Black Metal.

I hate to break the news to deafheaven's supporters, or vindicate their detractors for that matter, but in my time with Roads to Judah one of my dominating thoughts was simply: "This is not Black Metal." Nothing about Roads to Judah fits the genre for which it is most commonly associated with, no matter how much justification their fans may try to provide. This is not about the bands appearance, their ideology or their "kvltness": from a purely musical standpoint, any Black Metal that might be found here is negligible at best. The bands over-arching sounds hems much closer to the progressive Sludge of Neurosis and the melodic intensity of Defeater(not to mention the shoegaze-y elements of bands like My Bloody Valentine) than anything Black Metal.

Which is not a bad thing: while not Black Metal, Roads to Judah is still a fantastic record. Haunting, technical and at times very beautiful, Roads to Judah is as fine a progressive Metal album as to be released this year. At times, like the absolutely gorgeous intro of "Violet," Roads to Judah is an emotional experience, one that does not evoke feelings of cold grimmness, but almost a hopeful tone. This in an of itself might be enough to disqualify deafheaven as a Black Metal band, but more likely it is the moments of obvious Melodic Hardcore influence, like on "Language Games," when the band enter a low-key section, complete with clean guitars and a drumroll that would do Defeater proud. The vocal attack is the closest thing to Black Metal here, and I actually find it a bit disappointing, considering how amazing Kerry MecCoy and George Clark were at them with Rise of Caligula, a fantastic Technical Deathgrind band you should check out post haste.

There is something about this shoegaze-ified, people-call-it-Black-Metal-for-some-reason Progressive Metal that keeps me from completely getting in to it: at times, riffs and sections run together, and I lose entire sections of songs, committing them to the Recycle Bin of my memory as soon as they enter my brain. Roads to Judah does not evoke that same feeling in me anywhere near as often as many of these other bands, which makes it such a joy to listen to. It still happens: about a 3rd of the way into "Violet" I had completely tuned the song out on pure instinct, only to be drawn back in later, but compared to say Litugry(a review is... forthcoming), deafheaven maintain a level of interest that few acts within this sub-genre can match. I should not be surprised, considering the connection to Rise of Caligula, but after reading much of the haters perspective on deafheaven, and similar bands, my expectations have been consistently skewed to the negative.

I can't really explain where the band picked up the Black Metal label: maybe it is self produced(in which case, I would recommend the band change their perspective), maybe others are forcing it on them. What I can say is this: Roads to Judah is a damn fine record. For what it is, this album is an emotional, musically complex and consistently interesting. For those looking for some progessive, thought provoking Metal, I would recommend Roads to Judah in a flash.

Rating: 8.5/10

Encoffination- O' Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres

2011-11-28T12:45:00.000-08:00

Encoffination- O' Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres

Lurching from the mist, each step a belabored and murderous endeavor, O'h Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres is in no hurry. Much like Death itself slowly creeps upon us all, so too does this album, unabashedly fearless in its sheer slowness. And if a slow and painful Death is what you seek, than Encoffination are more than happy to provide it, so long as you don't ask many questions or have a preference on how you wish to die.

By the logo alone, one can assume Encoffination are influence greatly by Incantation, and sure enough you can find those mighty New Yorker's fingerprints all over this record, mostly in the mostly tremolo picked riffing style and Ghoat's guttural vocal attack. But among Incantation's obvious influence, one also finds Thergothon and to a lesser extent disEMBOWELMENT. So if you are imagining punishingly slow Incantation worship songs with the occasional use of things like bells, organs and ritualistic chanting and moaning, you have imagined O'h Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres.

And that is all you can expect from it as well. Each track sounds pretty much the same as the other(which would have been fine if they did not have breaks between each song), with the only distinguishing factors being the use of other sounds. If not for the occasional bells or chants, each song would be mostly indistinguishable from each other, often following similar patterns(slow intro, a slight pick up in speed near the middle, a lurching outro). The album might be slow, but it falls into a rut quickly and never bothers trying to escape: like Death, Encoffination will never stop doing what they do... slowly.

O'h Hell, Shine In Thy Whited Sepulchres is a massive step up for Encoffination, a band I have never been crazy about. The production, and the album in general, absolutely demolishes the paper thin, bedroom kvlt shit-fest of Ritual Ascension Beyond Flesh, and at times the band can evoke some truly nasty atmosphere. But riff for riff, there is just not a lot going on here, and while the bands commitment to their sound is admirable, the lack of any unique ideas makes it hard to sit through this record multiple times. Death is coming for us all, slowly and surely, but in my time here on Earth, I don't imagine I will be spending too much of it with O'Hell, Shine In They Whited Sepulchres.

Rating: 7/10

Antediluvian- Through the Cervix of Hawwah(2011)

2011-11-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

Antediluvian- Through the Cervix of Hawwah

While much of the bands previous work left me either cold or indifferent(refer to my review of Revelations in Excrement), Antediluvian have left me in shock with Through the Cervix of Hawwah: this is a band with a lot more to offer than I first gleaned from their previous, mostly standard work. As cavernous, blasphemous and suffocating as any album released this year, Through the Cervix of Hawwah represents a massive step forward for Antediluvian. The songwriting is much more distinct, the riffs far more complex and the atmosphere is more natural and less forced then it has ever been. No longer can we call these Canadian plague-wielders mere Incantation clones lost in a sea of static, but a band with serious purpose and the chops to see their will be done.

Clearly, the move from a two piece to a four piece band has brought many needed ideas and improved musical chops to Antediluvian, as Through the Cervix of Hawwah is in many ways a style and identity shift for the band. There is a much greater sense of rhythm and tempo then before: where early releases tended to grind on at full speed, we see a desire for ideas to grow and flesh themselves out, without the forced and noisey pace. Through the Cervix is much more deliberate, and it adds a new level of polish and attitude to the bands sound. The mid-paced, head banging intensity of tracks like "Scions Of Ha Nachash (Spectre Of The Burning Valley)" and "Luminous Harvest" blew me away when I first heard them, and were not something I ever expected from this band.

The production on this album was also a big surprise: an even mix, devoid of unnecessary static to force that cavernous sound and drums that sound polished and balanced is another sign of increasing maturity as songwriters. The expanded technical chops on display are also impressive, as the band sound far less primitive. Some may see this as a bad thing, but with so many bands taking that route, it is nice to hear someone doing something a bit different. Which is not say that Through the Cervix has moved into Technical Death Metal territory, but this album has more in common with Portal or Mitochondrion than Innumerable Forms or Putrevore in terms of riffs. In fact, the comparison to Portal is a good one: imagine Portal without all the bullshit and decent production, and you have something close to Through the Cerix, though in truth this album trumps anything Portal have ever done.

I did not expect such maturity, complexity or creativity from Antediluvian, having pegged them for another in a long line of mindlessly over-wrought Incantation worship bands. But Through the Cervix of Hawwah is something to behold; a band growing up right before our eyes. A surefire contender for the top Death Metal album of 2011, anyone seeking intelligent yet blasphemous Death Metal should be on the hunt for this surprising gem of this year.

Rating: 9/10

Adversarial- Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation(2011)

2011-11-23T20:30:00.001-08:00

Adversarial- Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation

For all of its faults in terms of production, Adversarial's All Idols Fall Before The Hammer was arguably my Album of the Year for 2010: the combination of bestial intensity with an undeniable creative edge made it a joy for the active listener, even if the demonic ping from the Asshole of Hell itself at times impeded the experience. I won't defend the paper thin production or abysmal snare sound, but fuck all if All Idols Fall Before the Hammer was not some of the finest fucking Death Metal released the last decade.

Prophetic Plains of Abyssal Revelation is purely fan-service: a repackaging of the bands 2009's Thralls demo, two new songs and two covers(of Incantation and Archgoat). The three Thralls demo tracks have even worse production than All Idols, and the fourth s/t track comes from the same recording. The Thralls demo is all together solid but mostly unnecessary if you have All Idol Fall. Of the three new tracks, only one, "Impending Eternal Blackness," is a new original track, and it is fantastic: Adversarial take the most brutal sounds in Death and Black Metal and mix them in a bloody grinding mess of pain and suffering. But the band have a penchant for deep, complex guitar interplay, making them one of the more fascinating bands in Death Metal today. The production on this track and the two covers is a vast improvement from All Idols Fall: Adversarial seem committed to truly low-fi recording, so a fully even mix may never come from these Canadians brutalizers, but the production is a step up regardless.

While mostly inessential in its content, Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation could be the turning point for those who could not escape the snare sound of All Idols Fall. The bands talent, creativity and massive brutality are undeniable, and with the more consistent and less jarring production sound on the new tracks, Adversarial are in a position to convert the non-believers. For those of us who already believe, this EP gives us much needed satisfaction until the band feel the unholy need to bless us in blood once again.

Rating: 8/10

Review Round-Up: Gardens of Golgotha

2011-11-23T17:35:00.002-08:00

I am back, but my time was well spent listening to many different albums. Album with different names anyway, since about half of them sounded like Incantation. And I got to thinking: how the hell am I going to write so many reviews about the same fucking sound?

Easy.

Be Lazy.

So here are a number of short reviews describing my feelings of each album, with the pre-text that they all sound a lot like Incantation

Gorephillia- Ascend to Chaos
An album lacking any originality, charm or heart, this cleanly produced, lifeless Incantation fellatio is an insult to the listeners tolerance for blatant genre worship. There is not one thing found on this album that you cannot find anywhere else, and often other places will offer a better product. Devoid of atmosphere and energy, this EP is 5 tracks(and one predictable Intro track, which is a trend that is wearing thin on me) of pointless drivel. The final track, "Tower of Bones," provides the only juice.

Rating: 4/10

Cryptborn- In The Grasp Of The Starving Dead

In The Grasp Of The Starving Dead is also far from original, but the little things keep it floating and delivering some decent listening. Cryptborn mix some Finnish Death/Doom into their Incantation-style songs, and the fuzzy guitar production gives everything the correct sizzle. A touch of Rippikoulu is a nice touch indeed. The production is properly low-fi and brutal, but also uneven with the vocals mostly lost in the mix. And this is still some very typical stuff, if plenty competent.

Rating: 7/10

Grave Ritual- Euphoric Hymns From the Altar of Death

This was one of my favorites for the past few months, even though it is fairly basic Incantation worship. The main reason is the energy and atmosphere are in full supply here: each riff is played with blasphemous conviction and the muddy production elicits the feel of a cold coffin shivering with the struggles of its now active occupant. There is nothing of groundbreaking importance to be listened to, but the effort and bleakness of the album is worthy of your time.

Rating: 8/10

Corpsessed- The Dagger And The Chalice

This EP also impressed me, for many of the same reasons that Euphoric Hymns of From the Altar of Death. The Dagger and the Chalice is filthy, mucky and evil sounding to the extreme, and this young band have fantastic confidence in their sound. The vocals are a particular delight: they are not merely imitating Craig Pillard, and instead seek to bring some uniqueness to the band. Again, nothing groundbreaking or original, but damn tasty regardless.

Rating: 8/10

Blessed Offal- Blessed Offal

Blessed Offal offer a doomier, more Finnish sounding alternative with their standard Incantation grooves, similar to Cryptborn in a way. But Blessed Offal are clearly a more talented and inventive band. Blessed Offal is slow, suffocating and purpose driven to ruin your sunny day. A fine EP from a band clearly on the rise. The production is a bit clean for this sound, but not as sterile sounding as Ascend to Chaos by any means.

Rating: 8/10

Antichrist- Sacrament of Blood(2011)

2011-11-17T04:06:00.000-08:00

Antichrist- Sacrament of Blood

Lost to the Sands of Time until it finally found its release this year, Antichrist's Sacrament of Blood is a blistering, demonic mass of Satan worshiping Bestial Black Metal circa 1994. For whatever reason, Sacrament of Blood remained unreleased for sixteen years. I did a little research as to why this was, but found nothing: an acquaintance of mine who has shared correspondence with members of Blasphemy said that real life got in the way at some point and the band never got around to releasing the album. And it is interesting to think about the possibilities had this album been released on time: it was recorded in during the infancy of Bestial Black Metal, and the band hailed from the same horrific crib as Blasphemy(the hellish landscape of British Columbia). Would history have looked as kindly upon this as they did upon Fallen Angel of Doom?

But what could have been means little now, and Sacrament of Blood is a slab of filthy misanthropic noise that feels right at home no matter the era of it's release. The sheer Satanic aggression on display here is truly impressive: each track is short and leaves little room for things like breathing or humanity. Antichrist are here to kick down the door of the local coven, rape the nuns and burn the fucker down, and that is exactly what they accomplish here. The riffs are the highlight: plenty of tempo changes keep things interesting, and few albums will create as many sudden explosions of head-banging this year. The vocal attack is impressive and varied, even if the reverb is a bit on the obnoxious side. It is also worth noting that the entire album was recorded live in a single day, which considering the very even mix and the nasty guitar and bass sound, is massively impressive.

There is a real Crust Punk vibe to the entire thing: it feels like one should be sucking down a beer in some basement while watching the band go through their set and after the show going out back and smoking a joint. Sacrament in Blood is not trying to suffocate you with overly done atmosphere or open portals to Hell in your kitchen. The band are trying to kick your ass and have it be as much fun as possible. In a scene that has become incredibly serious, self absorbed and frankly internet hip, Sacrament in Blood stands out aesthetically from the rest of the pack, and pretty much shits all over many of the super-serious, Occult-and-HP Lovecraft obsessed bands peddling their Blasphemy worship out there today. Only Morbosidad seem to have the same vibe, and no doubt the guys in Morbosidad would have loved this had it been released in 1994(and should be loving it now).

There are no real fault here, other than the vocal reverb and the rather corny samples that will evoke Goregrind more than Bestial Black Metal, but those are small things in the face of the overall package. My final score is not indicative enough to point out that you, as a fan of Bestial Black Metal, should be getting this album right now. Truly required listening, with an attitude and approach that hopefully a few bands will imitate in the future.

Rating: 9/10

Ritual Necromancy- Oath of the Abyss(2011)

2011-11-17T03:24:00.000-08:00

Ritual Necromancy- Oaths of the Abyss

At this point, we may never escape the the cavernous, blasphemous miasma of Incantation. After just reviewing the most recent Dominus Xul album, I can turn right around and review the new album from Portland, Oregon newbies Ritual Necromancy. To be honest, I could spend the next week reviewing albums that sound almost exactly like the seminal New York Death Metal act. The whole thing has gone officially over the top, and Oaths of the Abyss fits right into the endless sea of imitators as neatly a coffin fits into a grave.

Oaths of the Abyss is not devoid of charm or redeemable qualities: the stiflingly thick production is particularly impressive, and the atmospheric waves of static and churning riffs creates a strong hypnotizing effect. This is the production sound Portal was shooting for with Swarth but failed to obtain, which is a major part Oaths of the Abyss appeal. The rest depends of(I am saying this again, and likely again in the very near future) how much you like Incantation and their recent sea of imitators. Do you love Vasaeleth, Antediluvian, Father Befouled, Grave Ritual, Dominus Xul, Vorum, Grave Upheaval, The Wakedead Gathering, Cemetery Urn, Ignivomous, Impetuous Ritual... ugh. Do you see where I am going here? Oath of the Abyss is perfectly competent and effective, but at this point it is hard to justify the existence of this album.

Here is the thing: Ritual Necromancy are not better than most of the bands I just mentioned, and they have few of the progressive elements that the forward thinking members of this movement have. Oaths of the Abyss is as straightforward and joyless as any album released this year: there is no spark of creativity of adventure here, but instead a methodical snuffing out of all light and hope. There is something to say for that, but it is a mission that only takes me so far. I very much enjoyed Oaths of the Abyss; this is a sound that appeals to me on a base level and one that still has not worn out it's welcome. But one cannot objectively look at this album, one that has already been written before, and consider it anything more than a chant of worship.

Rating: 7.5/10

Dominus Xul- To The Glory Of The Ancient Ones(2011)

2011-11-12T04:16:00.001-08:00

Dominus Xul- To The Glory Of The Ancient Ones

There is something to be said for doing something first, or in the case of Dominus Xul, doing something second first. Well before every other band on the planet was worshiping Incantation, Dominus Xul released The Primigeni Xul(I Condemn My Enemies) all the way back in 1998. In many ways, they were the first Incantation worship band, so it makes perfect sense for the band to reform in 2011, the Year of Incantation, and release their first new material in 13 years with To The Glory Of The Ancient Ones. And just like their first release, To The Glory Of The Ancient Ones is a slab of rock solid, professionally played Incantation love.

To the untrained listener, it might be impossible to tell the difference between a Dominus Xul track and an Incantation track, as all the hallmarks are here: cavernous, demonic riffing, a sense of Doom-laden dread, Satanic aesthetic, and the fantastic vocal performance of Caludio Salinas, who does one of the finest and most powerful Craig Pillard impersonations I have heard in a long time. The somewhat clean and clear production is curious, and is really the only thing that stands out about this album. It really isn't too much of a hinderence to the quality of the work, it just isn't the norm right now and makes an impression. It all adds up to rock solid and well played Occult Death Metal that is all the rage right now amongst the elite of the Death Metal crowd.

Which begs the question: how much longer will this sound retain it's dominance? I hate a debate with a acquaintance of mine: I say the whole thing really kicked into gear back in 2008 with Dead Congregation's Grave of the Archangels. He said the fad started a few years earlier in 2005 with, sure enough, Dead Congregation's Purifying Consecrated Ground. Regardless, the reign of Tech and Brutal Death Metal as the choice of the elite Death Metal fan has been over for a few years, and the static choked offerings of bands like Vasaeleth, Encoffination, Father Befouled and countless other acts are what the "in" kids are listening to. But how much longer before all this worship wears thin? Before another band takes Incantation's place as the Demigod of Death Metal?

Dominus Xul are clearly cashing in now and striking while the iron is hot, and To The Glory Of The Ancient Ones feels right at home amongst the endless sea of Golgotha's. It is played with much more professionalism, experience and conceptual strength than many of the new worshipers on the block, but worship it remains. How much enjoyment you get from this will be based on how much you love Incantation, and as an unabashed fan of the might New York Masters, To The Glory Of The Ancient Ones tickles all the right nerves, if even only in the fleeting sense.

Rating: 7/10

Decrepitaph- Profane Doctrines Unburied(2011)

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

Decrepitaph- Profane Doctrines Unburied

Like the ash laden dust of long lost tombs getting caught in a frozen wind, Decrepitaph come crawling from the caves of the long dead, bringing with them the delights of the rotted and suffering deceased. Profane Doctrines Unburied is a suffocating miasma of lost and angry spirits hitting with the full force of the demons that terrorize their every un-living moment. Few albums this year, or ever for that matter, are so skull crushingly heavy and loaded with suffering. This California two-piece of Sinworm and Elektrokutioner(already too brutal for most people) have been summoning the undead of old school DeathDoom at a blistering rate, with three full lengths and a dozen or so demos , EPs and Splits since their horrendous creation in 2005, and all this practice has paid off with Profane Doctrines Unburied.

The production is the thing that stands out the most, in that everything sounds musty, old and decrepit. The guitar tone is incredibly thick and choked with distortion, and the stumbling pace of the bowl rumbling bass remind one of the shuffling steps of a monstrous undead abomination. The bass drum sounds like it is made of freshly butchered meat: a wet thump of a hammer coming down onto the brain cavity of a hapless victim. This attention to detail is impressive, and the songwriting takes maximum advantage of the sound of the album. Each track is written like the slow, deliberate steps of the undead: with a flesh devouring purpose. Only occasionally, like the opening flurry of "Convulse In Eternal Agony," to things speed up somewhat. But expect no blast-beats here: heavy influenced by the sounds of Finnish DeathDoom, Profane Doctrines Unburied takes its time to inflict its damage on your soul and ear drums. The solo work is also fantastic: off-kilter, sloppy and with a guitar sound as close to a wailing banshee as you have ever heard, the solos are creepy and used to brilliant effect, particularly on the song "A Suffocating Evil."

It is hard not to be massively impressed with Profane Doctrines Unbruied. While it won't win any awards for originality or inventiveness, the album is incredibly polished and focused: Decrepitaph know exactly what they want to do and implement their ideas to almost complete perfection. The occasional dragging song length or over-use of riffs is a small price to pay for the near perfection that Profane Doctrines Unburied gives the listener. If the dead rise in our lifetime, this will be the Clarion Call that leads them on their endless rampage for flesh and freedom from their pain.

Rating: 9/10

Miasmal- Miasmal(2011)

2011-11-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

Miasmal- Miasmal

I almost didn't review this album.

Full disclosure: I was never a big fan of the traditional SwedDeath sound. Dismember, Grave, Entombed, Unleashed... they put me to sleep. They lacked much of the brutality, technicality or progressive elements that made American Death Metal so amazing, but also lacked the pure insanity and suffocating atmosphere of Finnish Death Metal. SwedDeath has always sounded stale, boring and lifeless, and it doesn't help that every band from Sweden seemed to sound the same. The lack of variety and ingenuity from the Swedish Death Metal scene has made it my least favorite of the major scenes.

Miasmal is quite literally a monument to the many accomplishments of Swedish Death Metal: every riff, idea or lyrical concept ever touched upon by any Swedish Death Metal band in history is located within this album. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, searching for any originality: these Gothenburg(GAH!) Swedes cannot be bothered to come up with anything on their own.

It really is a marvel of scene worship: Miasmal has not one original idea. Not a single one. I have listened to a lot of pointless worship and drivel over the years, but Miasmal takes the cake of complete unoriginality, shits on it, then marries it and spawns a dozen cute little cakes of unoriginality. The whole thing is one gigantic fucking blur of Sweden, with no songs, arrangements or riffs that ever stand out or leave a lasting impression. The vocals? Exactly like one would expect. The guitar sound? Buzzsaw... yawn. Drum triggers? What the fuck are those? It is all so predictable, I am literally dumbfounded by the whole thing. How the band ever released this album without getting slapped with multiple lawsuits is completely beyond my ability to comprehend. Inoffensive and utterly forgettable, Miasmal is one of the few albums I have ever heard where I wonder why it even exists.

Miasmal has left me wondering what the fuck to do. I have no real grounds to grade this album: after admitting that Swedish Death Metal bores me, it would be obvious that Miasmal would put me in a coma. Why bother? Or more importantly, why bother reviewing something you know you will hate? I can sum it up like this: if you live for Swedish Death Metal and hate originality, than Miasmal is the greatest accomplishment in the history of music: the genetically pure synthesis of everything you love: the Dream of the 3rd Reich. For the rest of us, Miasmal represents another eulogy to originality in Death Metal today. Truly, a triumph and a tragedy rolled all into one.

Rating: ?/10

Double Review: Morbus Chron- Sleepers In The Rift(2011)/Morbid Blood- Reborn In Death(2011)

2011-11-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

Morbid Flesh- Reborn In Death

Morbus Chron- Sleepers In The Rift

I could not think of a more appropriate time to write my first double review then after listening to these two new LP's. On one hand we have Spanish Death Metal band Morbid Flesh, and on the other we have Swedish Death Metal band Morbus Chron. Both bands play a very similar style of Death Metal, one that hems closely to the very roots of the genre: early Obituary, early Death and most obviously early Autopsy. The sound is unmistakeable: blast-beat free and decidedly Old-Fucking-School. So what is the difference? Only one is worth listening to.

Sleepers In The Rift, the first LP from Morbus Chron, fits the aesthetic perfectly while at the same time being utterly worthless. Inoffensive, safe and completely listless, Sleepers In The Rift goes through 9 tracks in the most painfully uninteresting way possible while mindlessly ripping off Severed Survival for it's entire 34 minute running time(which feels much longer and elicits more yawns and feelings of total disinterest than any album barely over half an hour ever should.) Add in a vocal attack which brings to mind a mentally-disabled and dangerously drunk John Tardy(a fully-functional Tardy is unbearable enough) and you have a recipe for a headache and a shitty album. The phrase "all style, no substance" was made for an album like Sleepers In The Rift, which is an embarrassing symbol to the obsession with Old-School credibility and 13 year old metalfags who talk like they saw Death in Florida just after they released Scream Bloody Gore. Only in this time when scene credibility matters more than competency or creativity could an album like Sleepers In The Rift ever find a legitimate audience.

Reborn in Death is everything that Morbus Chron failed miserably to accomplish with Sleepers In The Rift: each riff has power and heft that smacks the listener right in the head like the pick-axe of an inbred psychopath, while the ferocious vocal attack alternates deftly between a solid and very old-school sounding guttural and one of the more unique, and awesome, high vocals I have heard in a long time. The drums carry weight and smash against your ear-drums, and the grim and Doom-laden atmosphere creates a feeling of impending and ever encroaching death. Imagine a faster, more technically active Decrepitaph, and you have some idea of what to expect for a portion of Reborn in Death. Despite being an incredibly young band, with only demo before releasing their debut LP, Morbid Flesh show a comprehension of Death Metal that is hard to deny. While using early Death, Obituary and Autopsy as a baseline, Morbid Flesh jump around almost the entire early history of Death Metal: "Gulag(Cracked Bones)" has an overwhelming Altar of Madness feel, while "Impaled Ratzinger" brought to mind early Suffocation at certain points. Meanwhile, Morbus Chron fearfully stick to Severed Survival and never let go, living in dread terror that any semblance of originality or uniqueness will draw the ire of quick little fingers behind a keyboard.

I wish I could say something positive about Sleepers In The Rift, or mention a specific song as a highlight, but after a dozen listens I was tuning it out on instinct: in contrast, I have listened to Reborn in Death almost two dozen times for the sheer enjoyment of it. Reborn in Death is more powerful, more adventurous, more technically proficient and flat out more interesting. Throughout the whole process, Sleepers In The Rift had only one thing over Reborn in Death: a superior album cover. Score one for aesthetic, hype and internet credibility, score a whole hell of a lot more for good music.

Rating: Sleepers In The Rift: 4/10
Reborn in Death: 9/10

The Antlers- Burst Apart(2011)

2011-11-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

The Antlers- Burst Apart

Following up on perfection is impossible.

That was the task that Brooklyn Indie Pop purveyors The Antlers had when they had to release a follow up to 2009's Hospice. Hospice was, for all intents and purposes, perfect: one of the most powerful, inventive, heartfelt and sincere musical releases of the decade, a literal and hyperbole-free tour-de-force. With it's heart wrenching sincerity and inescapable hooks, Hospice represented a massively high plateau for the band to try and reach with any follow up album. Burst Apart was doomed from the very beginning.

And that grim foreshadowing has indeed come to fruition, as Burst Apart fails in every conceivable way to match Hospice. Instead of an amazing ode to life and love, we get 10 Indie Pop tracks, no more and no less. The whole thing is a very standard and somewhat lifeless affair. Which is not to say Burst Apart is incompetent: the band understand how to write an instrumental Pop song, and each track is a well made and sturdy piece. So is your table, and I doubt your table got you very excited today. Burst Apart exists, but the question becomes does anyone care?

There are a few tracks that float up above the mediocrity of the whole affair. "Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out" is by far the strongest track and is a fantastic mix of lightning fast guitars and ridiculously catchy verses, while "Hounds" has that haunting quality that made Hospice such a masterpiece. But most of the rest of the album is severely nondescript: The Antlers are incognito, much to the listeners chagrin.

Burst Apart is, for lack of a better word, boring. It comes and goes without any real staying power, and even if the band had not released Hospice, it would be hard to find a lot of love for this record. It is not bad, just functional. Like a toothbrush, or your crappy car in High School.

Rating: 6/10

Feist- Metals(2011)

2011-11-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

Feist- Metals

There is not a more powerful and distinct set of pipes in all of Indie music than those possessed by Leslie Feist, or know by most as only Feist. Ms. Feist has without a doubt one of the most beautiful and insanely powerful voices to have ever been recorded. But her Siren-like vocals also stand apart from most of her contemporaries for their uniqueness: the slight rattle and throttle she gives every note makes her voice stand out in a sea of incredible female singers. And she has ridden those golden vocal chords to the top of her profession, while becoming one of the most recognizable and beloved Indie stars in the world.

Metals is Ms. Feist's newest release, and it sticks closely to the sound she established with 2007's brilliant The Reminder: lo-fi, quiet and dream like Pop songs that act as vehicles for her voice to soar. Whether it is a bit of horns and violin on "The Bad In Each Other," sugary sweet instrumental Pop in "The Circle Married The Line" or smokey, run down bar themes "Anti-Pioneer," Ms. Feist shows that she can sing the holy hell out of any song, any genre and any emotion. Metals somewhat lo-fi production also does wonder for the album: compared to many of her squeaky clean contemporaries, Ms. Feist is the one who still seems to be recording at the local studio instead of the multi-million dollar music factory.

There really is no comparison to the sheer power of emotion that Ms. Feist unleashes with each note. The only one I can honestly make is to the legendary Joan Baez, although whether that is unfair to either party has been difficult for me to assess. Her voice is one that must be heard, but how much enjoyment you get from Metals will be on how much you enjoy amazing vocal performances. Ms. Feist is a singer who can match the best, but her song-writing is rarely as adventurous as her voice. Which is not to say she is generic: any songwriter who has the guts to write a pop song driven by the banjo(as she did with "1234") is not one who understands the meaning of the word safe. It is more that Metals is very similar to The Reminder musically, and The Reminder was very similar to Open Season. Ms. Feist has been playing with the same instruments and similar arrangements for 3 albums now, and it is clear that she may lack the conviction to take the massive changes that artists like Bjork and Joanna Newsom have been willing to make. It doesn't take much away from Metals, but it bares mentioning.

I was hoping for a slightly more adventurous release from Ms. Feist, but my issues are nearly pointless in the face of the overwhelming beauty of her voice. Metals works because Ms. Feist simply won't allow it to fail: she will merely carry the whole damn record on the back of her Siren Call. We should all be so blessed as to listen to, and appreciate, this voice that will not be silent.

Rating: 8.5/10

Bon Iver- Bon Iver(2011)

2011-11-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Bon Iver- Bon Iver

It must be just awesome to be Justin Vernon.

The figure head and main creative force behind Bon Iver, which contrary to the various promotional photos is not a solo Vernon project but a band featuring Michael Noyce, Mathew McCaughn and Sean Carey(who released a solid solo album this year), Vernon is a huge fucking deal. And the thing is, he always has been: this meteoric rise to the top was destined since high school, when Vernon fronted the band Mt. Vernon, whose music was utterly fantastic and was miles ahead of anything you would expect a band whose members were still taking Algebra 2 classes to ever pull off. He then fronted deYarmored Edison, which released a few critically acclaimed albums before Vernon left for solo stardom. It is debatable how much influence Vernon had on the song-writing process at this time, since the rest of dYE would go on to form the incredible Megafaun, but regardless Vernon used his previous experience as a stepping stone into a log cabin to write For Emma and become the Indie darling he is today while kicking it with Kanye West. The whole process reeks of an ego almost as big as the hype, if not bigger, but then again it takes a serious ego to make an album like Bon Iver.

A complete departure from the Iron and Wine-influenced For Emma, Vernon has taken the band in an entirely new direction without any real warning. Synth, electronic music and electric guitars, drums: Vernon bought out the local music shop and jammed it all into the recording studio. Yet it speaks to Bon Iver that despite this new found love all things musical, it remains one of the softest, most sincere releases this year. Ego aside, Vernon just fucking gets it. As here proves here, he can out Dream Pop the Dream Pop-players in one album, with no real practice at is. He remains an idiot-savant for all things hook infused and beautiful. Vernon remains one of the best singers in Indie music: his ability to move effortlessly from a powerful baritone to a charming, if off-kilter, falsetto remains unmatched by any singer in Indie music. This is displayed perfectly in "Minnesota, WI," while the floating guitars of "Holocene" evoke Vernon's criminally over-looked solo album Hazeltons.

I was more than ready slap a 9.5 or even a 10 on this album as it winded down. I was flat out blown away how easily Bon Iver had transitioned from Freak Folk to Dream Pop, and started musing my writings as the song "Beth/Rest" began blasting from my headphones.

I had to pause the record, for I could not stop laughing.

In another absolutely wonderful and wholly misguided effort of the ego, Vernon crapped the bed with "Beth/Rest." The synth will instantly cause you to sing "I can feel it coming in the air tonight..." should be a deadly foreshadowing of the shitstorm that is to come, but when Vernon's auto-tuned moans come groaning over the top of them, it is time to board up the windows and invest in some plastic gloves. It takes serious balls, and frankly a belief that anything you write will be loved automatically, to make a song like "Beth/Rest" and use it as the closing track! It is like Vernon took us on a magical journey we would never forget, only to end at a 65 and over singles bar, complete with slow dancing. No doubt "Beth/Rest" will make it into some High School proms DJ rotation, but for the rest of us this is completely insane and a serious atmosphere killer.

The closing track is a big deal on just about any record, but the way Bon Iver ends is a little inexcusable in my book. This album still has some of the most finely crafted songs of the year, and I would still recommend it to anyone. Just make sure to hit stop before Phil Collins starts his set.

Rating: 8/10

Patti Smith - Horses (1975)

2011-11-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

‘Jesus died forsomebody’s sins, but not mine’. Thus opens ‘Gloria’, the opening track fromPatti Smith’s seminal debut album Horses.The track itself is actually a cover of a Van Morrison song, originally writtenfor Them, but Smith recreates it – including a reinvention of lyrics to includesaid opening line – in such an idiosyncratic manner that the song sits quitehappily among the rest of the album, well-disguised as a Smith original.

But idiosyncrasy was always one of the main objectives ofthe then-budding punk movement; a fact which was somewhat forgotten by thebetter-known English bands after the original rush of ’77. Smith used the lyricas a method of rebellion against the institutionalized religion she felt hadbeen forced upon her; the three-chord progression was the style which came tobe known as the ‘punk style’, sure, but by the time the likes of the SexPistols attempted to see commercial success past the surprising success of Never Mind The Bollocks, their attemptsfell flat – not so much, I believe, due to the lack of another full-length, butmore so because the style had had its 15 minutes.

So when the Pistols came stateside, performing just down theroad from Patti Smith one night and frontman John ‘Rotten’ Lydon talked about ‘somewoman singing about fuckin’ horses’ (or words to that effect), it was evidentthat they had lost touch with the roots of the movement. The diversity in Smith’sinfluences is evident throughout this album – for instance, second track ‘RedondoBeach’ takes a bouncy approach akin to reggae, predating ska punk by severalyears, whereas the first 9-minute epic of the album, ‘Birdland’, is looselybased around a piano ballad throughout.

When she actually becomes violently passionate during asong, therefore, it comes as quite a surprise – the first chorus to ‘Free Money’comes out of seemingly nowhere, as does the vocal attack when past theintroduction to ‘Land’, which for all intents and purposes is the title track.The point is this; although the instrumentation is interesting, sure, the focalpoint of this album is Smith’s outstanding vocal performance – one which hasnot since been paralleled in popular music.

This performance demonstrates quite capability the sheerrange of Smith’s vocal styles – although upon one’s first listen to the album,one might remember the ‘monkey noises’ during the chorus of ‘Gloria’ and Smith’stendency to take her pitch sharply upwards at the ends of vocal lines, butequally memorable upon repeated listens are the cavernous vocals utilised in ‘Land’and the percussive approach used in many verses, which really aids in theappreciation of the quality of the timbre of her voice.

In essence, the variation in this album means that thepost-punk genre is here before much of the groundwork of punk itself had beenlaid down. It may seem strange, a ‘post-‘ genre being spawned before its suffixwas fully created, but that is the only way to demonstrate aptly the full levelof innovation of this album. This album was, and is, one of a kind. Patti Smithdid indeed go on to make more wonderful music with the likes of Radio Ethiopia, but this is by a longshot her best. An absolutely wonderful album.

9/10

Iron and Wine- Kiss Each Other Clean(2011)

2011-10-31T12:30:00.001-07:00

Iron and Wine- Kiss Each Other Clean

Sam Beam, better known by his performace moniker Iron and Wine, is without a doubt one of the most influential modern American Folk artists to ever strum an acoustic guitar. His string of highly influential releases, starting in 2002 with his debut LP The Creek Drank The Cradle, led to an army of imitators and was the stepping stone for dozens of modern Folk artists to enter the semi-mainstream. His legendary "whisper Folk" sound perfectly evoked the feeling of listening to a light wind rustle a Georgian oaks branches as dogs barked in the distance.

Yet since Beam released his most successful album, the unforgettable Our Endless Numbered Days, in 2004, he has done everything in his power to completely abbandon the sound he pioneered and the sound that made him such a legend. When Beam dropped the truly incredible The Sheppards Dog on his unsuspecting fanbase, it was met with as vicious a reprisal as any album has ever received from a belegured fanbase. The Sheppards Dog was so massively different from anything Beam had done before: no longer was Beam strumming a guitar or banjo as he whispered poetry over the fleeting notes. Now, with a full band of musician, Beam went into a smokey, psychedelic Country Rock direction, and many of his long time fans were disgusted. Which of course was insane, as The Sheppards Dog was an adventerous masterpiece the likes of which has not been seen since(opinions are grand, no?).

Now four years later, Beam is back with Kiss Each Other Clean, and the neon-colored and LSD-influcence cover art was to many a grim foreshadowing of what was to come for Beam, who seemed to delight in angering his original fanbase. But the glory of Kiss Each Other Clean becomes evident from the first track: loaded with synth, electric guitars, layered vocals and keyboards, "Walking Far From Home" would seem to be yet another slap in the face to the old fans while high fiving those fans who embraced The Sheppards Dog. But it isn't. In fact, much of Kiss Each Other Clean is a synthesis of Beam's early work and his new, progressive style. "Walking Far From Home" is the perfect example of this: a soaring, high volume love-letter to the lo-fi solo folk of days gone by.

Throughout Kiss Each Other Clean we see this stark, beautiful contrast. One minute Beam is mastering soft rock with "Tree By The River," then returing to his solo Folk roots with "Glad Man Singing," right before upping the Funk to 11 with "Big Burned Hand." Beam no longer whispers his cryptic poetry however: his vocal strength is better than ever on this album, and no Beam's mild falsetto has the power and emotion that his earlier work was missing. Beam is never more haunting then on the final track, "Your Fake Name Is Good Enough For Me" as he declares "we will/become/become" to a crescendo of static, saxaphones and blaring electric guitars. This is not the Beam you discovered back in High School.

Despite an eternally grim chorus of detractors, Beam has easily shaken his past and embrace a future eterally bright with possibilites. No longer limited by his own innovation, Beam is free to explore whatever he wishes to explore, and we are all invited along on his journey. Consider me one of those ready to follow him to wherever his path takes him.

Rating: 10/10

Krypts- Krypts EP(2011)

2011-10-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

Krypts- Krypts

As insane as it sounds, I really was not enthralled with Krypts 2009 demo Open the Crypt. You may not know me that well, so let me explain how insane this is. I love Death/Doom and I love Finnish Death Metal. I worship the mighty disEMBOWELMENT and place Finland only behind The United States as the best scene in Death Metal history. Open the Crypt should have been like injecting sweet, sweet eggnog(I FUCKING LOVE EGGNOG) right into my veins. But I just could not get into it: something about the whole demo seemed lacking. Compared to acts like Hooded Menace and the sadly defunct Ascended, Krypts had the look of a second fiddle bandwagon jumper in a Finnish scene loaded with talent.

Still, my blood oath to listen to anything from Finland behooved me to give Krypts new s/t EP a serious listen. Not that this was hard: Krypts has only two tracks, while clocking in at a solid 12 minutes. Not a major investment of time or effort, and Krypts was worth it: I found this solid little release a major step up from the listless, carbon-copy demo. Krypts continue to invoke the Old Gods of Death/Doom: Autopsy, disEMBOWELMENT, Thergothon, early Demigod. Dense and highly polluted with crushing riffs and coffin crushing vocals, Krypts is a solid foreshadowing of the future for the young Fins. Some impressive leads also evoke fond memories of Transcendence Into The Peripheral ,which is always a wonderfully dreadful feeling and one I have not had since Ascended's Temple of Dark Offerings EP.

There is not a whole lot more to say about such a short and very straightforward offering. I still do not consider Krypts one of the elite: not even close. Two solid tracks, neither of which bring anything new to the table, is not enough to convince me this band is the next Hooded Menace. But Krypts has at least given me a window of some understanding into the incredible fanboyism the band has evoked so far in such a short career.

Rating: 7/10

Anti-Extreme Week Coming Up

2011-10-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

To be honest, I have no idea if anyone is reading this thing or not. Regardless, a reminder that after this weekend is Anti-Extreme Week. I will be reviewing some of my favorite Non-Metal/Punk/Noise albums from this year. So be on the lookout for reviews of Iron and Wine, Bjork, St. Vincent, Feist, Fleet Foxes and all the other stuff.

Cheers,
Sharpy

Young And In The Way: V. Eternal Depression(2011)

2011-10-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Young And In The Way- V. Eternal Depression

Blackend Crust Punk is a relatively new phenomenon in Punk music right now, and one that is frankly spawning some of the best Punk on Earth. Hitting it's apex in popularity last year with Kvelertak's self-titled debut, the logical and natural mix of Crusty Swedish and American Punk with very early Second Wave Norwegian Black Metal is all the rage. I say logical and natural because one only needs to listen to Mayhem's legendary Deathcrush EP, or the recent work of Darkthrone to see how much Crust Punk and early Black Metal have in common. This correlation shines through even on recent, pure Black Metal releases(Ravencult's Morbid Blood is about as true to the early Norwegian sound as it gets, and I felt like skunking my way through most of the record and throwing Molotov love letters at cop cars.) Young And In The Way, a very young group from North Carolina, are firmly entrenched in this movement. Yet their most recent release, V. Eternal Depression, sounds like no BlackCrust I have ever heard.

With an obvious ode to Depressive Black Metal, V. Eternal Depression is a pitch black little LP. There are no rainbows, high school sweethearts or big eyed Golden Retrievers bringing light into your life. Instead, there are gnarled trees, dead birds being picked to pieces by armies of black ants and overcast skies foreshadowing an even bleaker tomorrow. The tortured shrieks of Kable Lyall do not evoke a desire to mosh and fuck shit up, but to hang out in the bathroom with a bottle of sleeping pills and some Sylvia Plath collections. The opening track, "Descending the White Mountain," never moves faster than a crawl, and ends with a somber piano piece. Right before exploding into the next track "Times Are Cold" with all the fury of a drug addled and depressed rage.

Young And In The Way clearly have a higher, more somber purpose for their music. Not that there is anything wrong with the Kvelertak or Martydod method of mosh pits and 30 packs of domestic brews: an admirable mission if ever there was one, I assure you. But Young And In The Way are seeking to push an already fairly new and only recently popular genre in new directions. I never thought the words would cross my lips, let alone be typed on my keyboard, but Young And In The Way have managed something incredible: an atmospheric, multi-dimensional and layered Punk Rock album.

This is a tremendous feat no doubt, and V. Eternal Depression has become one of my favorite albums of this year. Everything about it is finely crafted and perfectly tuned: each track flows into the other, creating a constant flow of sadness and carnage few albums can compete with. How unfortunate it ends so quickly: the whole album is over in 23 minutes, with an incredible 11 minutes taken up by the last song. True, this is the bands second major full-length this year(the other titled I Am Not What I Am, which I have not heard yet.), but the whole thing ends too quickly. The last track, "The Gathering," is mostly ambient noise and drumming, and although it is sufficiently atmospheric and fits the album, I can't shake the feeling that the band could have delivered a few more tracks here.

Length aside, V. Eternal Depression is a must own album. What these young, obviously unhappy North Carolina natives have accomplished here needs to be heard by any fan of music period. No album this year has taken me to such dark places, places sealed in the confines of the mind, as this fantastic LP. You will be touched: the question is, how will you react to it?

Rating: 9.5/10

Antediluvian- Revelations In Excrement EP(2011)

2011-10-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

Antediluvian- Revelations In Excrement

As if there was never another Death Metal band to ever exist in the genres history, Incantation have become the most imitated band in Death Metal over the past few years. Spewed forth form the mighty loins of a New York scene in the early 90's that also spawned to more infamous -ations, Incantation were doing something just a little bit different from their peers in 1992 when they unleashed their magnum opus Onward to Golgotha: excruciatingly thick with distortion, choked into Doom-laden grooves and crusty with blackend, blasphemous filth, Onward to Golgotha was for its time the most extreme Metal album ever. While Suffocation mastered their brutality and Immolation implemented the discordant, Incantation sought only to drown you in suffering and death. This aesthetic has been the driving force behind the Old School Death Metal Revival that stared around 2005-06 and kicked into high gear in 2009, with Incantation, or more accurately their various immitators(and a few innovators), have been the flag-bearer of this movement.

Antediluvian are another in an increasingly large group of Golgotha's, or newer artists adhearing to the sounds of Incantation, who are making waves in the Death Metal scene. Last years compilation CD Watcher's Reign got the hype train rolling for these corrupted Canadian cadavers, whose aesthetic(this has been coming up a lot lately) is spot on and whose sound is a dead ringer for Golgotha style Incantation. Revelations In Excrement is the bands new EP, and it is 3 tracks of Antediluvian doing what they do: play Incantation.

Revelations In Excrememnt is short, no non-sense worship of New York's reviled blasphemers, as well a less than subtle wink-and-a-nods to earlier purveyours of the sound before it became popular, like Dominus Xul and Molested(one of the few classic bands who were able to match Incantation atrocity for atrocity without mindlessly imitating them). Cavernous, demonic ritual Death Metal with hints of Doom Metal groove and Black Metal imagery, textbook style for a soild A+ on the grading scale. If the scale was merely getting the sound and style right anyway. Revelations In Excrement is, for lack of a better phrase, well worn and played out. These tracks have the smell of "been-there, heard-that," delivered with a deadly serious attitude and as little joy or exploration as possible. With bands like Mitochondrion, Witchrist and Adversarial doing so much with the basic concepts and expanding them into something new and exciting, it is hard to get up and feel the evil here. There are only so many cavernous, Lovecraftian static-fests with Craig Pillard impersonators one can absorb before the whole thing grows a bit stale.

I am a huge Incantation fan, and the inherent enjoyment I get from that sound rubs off on me with Revelations In Excrement. Despite my somewhat tired stance, I still got up for this one and still found some primal comfort in the bands brutal and primitive style. If you are a hardcore fan of this sound, I would recommend Revelations In Excrement to you in a flash. The rest may be better off with the original, while we of less discerning taste deploy our cookie cutters and shape our own little piece of Golgotha.

Rating: 6.5/10

Altar of Plagues- Mammal(2011)

2011-10-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Altar of Plagues- Mammal

A full disclaimer: I am not really all that familiar with the whole "Blackgaze" or "Hipster Black Metal" or whatever the fuck it is called. Weakling and Wolves In The Throne Room are the only acts connected to this scene I have ever listened to(and very much enjoyed), and beyond the whole Hunter Hunt-Hendrix debacle that was impossible to ignore as it exploded across the internet at speeds that make celebrity sex tapes jealous, I was largely unfamiliar with the players. But this whole review blog thing kind of forces you to open up your musical world a bit, so I thought I would dive into the scene with an album that has been getting a lot of buzz, Mammal, from Ireland based Altar of Plagues. I really had no idea what to expect going in.

Color me impressed... and confused. Confused because I don't hear any Black Metal here.

Mammal consists of four tracks, and all are finely crafted, musically adventurous mixes of Doom, Sludge and Math Rock. The guitars have an eerily distant and dissonant quality; in fact, all the instruments sound slightly away from the listener, creating a unique effect of distance without being too soft or sounding terrible. All of the instruments are also expertly played, with a nice attention to detail that is greatly appreciated. There are also some wonderful, and often times beautiful, ambient sounds and noises that add to a dark, foreboding atmosphere.

None of this praise equates to Black Metal however, and I continue to struggle with this: I just don't hear any fucking Black Metal here. Not in the guitar tone or the riffs. Not in the drumming style, nor in the song composition. And certainly not in the vocals, which are more akin to the Post-Sludge screams of acts like Isis than Varg or Atilla. In fact, when listening to Altar of Plagues, I hear far more Isis than Emperor, and much more Neurosis than Burzum. This does not detract from the album in any real way, but leads me to question whether Black Metal suddenly left me behind and evolved into something completely different from what I understood it to be.

Mammal is not perfect. The first song, "Neptune is Dead" drags on near the end, and the vocals never elicit the level of emotion of depth that they seem to be attempting. By far my favorite track "When The Sun Drowns in the Ocean," features several female vocalist singing in a languages I don't recognize, while the yells of vocalist Dave Condon are absent. And while Mammal is certainly impressive and inventive, not all of the various ideas mesh or gel the way the band intended and some fall rather flat.

My confusion will persist for now, as Mammal is both very good and yet devoid of any discernible Black Metal aspects. The sheer vitriolic hate that some in the Black Metal community have for bands of this ilk is quite hilarious and alarming, but from my time with this album, may in fact be severely misplaced onto a band not deserving of it as well. Perhaps Altar of Plagues claimed some affiliation with Black Metal in the past, or toured with Liturgy or something. Regardless, as an inventive progressive Metal record, Mammal has the goods.

Rating: 8/10

Bastard Priest- Ghouls of Endless Night(2011)

2011-10-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Bastard Priest- Ghouls of Endless Night

Everything about Bastard Priest screams "credibility." The Entombed inspired logo, the perfectly blasphemous and anti-everything song titles, the horror-inspired cover art. The bands moniker? A slightly immature fuck you to Gods and The Man. Even the bands photos are appropriately black and white, grainy, and the band are decked in more scuzzy leather than a biker bar hooker. In an era of Death Metal hungry for a return to the late 80's, Bastard Priest can generate hype and cause uncontrollable salivating from sheer aesthetic alone. Not that the music diverges in any way from the look and feel of it: Bastard Priest are old school, extolling the virtues of buzz saw guitar tone and a time when blast beats were not a part of the formula. This is all an equation for mega-hype, and Ghouls of Endless Night(more of the damn aesthetic) was a wish-list topper for a large portion of the Death Metal community.

And if effort, attitude and style was enough to carry your record, than Bastard Priest would be the greatest Death Metal band on Earth, and Ghouls of Endless Night would be a once in a lifetime masterpiece for the ages. As it is, this is merely competent early Entombed fellatio with a few d-beats. Short and to the point, Ghouls of Endless Night waits for no man or beast. Or idea for that matter, as good riffs are either ditched in an effort to speed up the process or mercilessly hammered home to the point of diminishing returns, while weak, breathless and monotone vocals grunt their exhaustion over the tracks(and struggling to keep up with the songs). While sloppily hammering neckbeards in a mosh pit with 10 beers in your gut would make any of this a moot point, in the wrong setting(ie, not doing what I just described), Ghouls of Endless Night feels like well tread territory.

Which is not to say that this album is a complete waste of time. At times, like on the self titled track or "Last Scream," the old phrase "when it works, it works" comes to mind. Ghouls of Endless Night is also short and filthy, with the standard production all the kids love today: no triggers, no pitch-shifters, no fluff. And I have no doubts that Bastard Priest live is a whirlwind of destruction and beer unlike any other. But since my only experience with Ghouls of Endless Night is sitting in my home or heading to work, the feel of sweat and cheap domestics elude me.

It should be noted that the level of enjoyment one would get from Ghouls of Endless Night hinges largely on how much you love Swedish Death Metal. If Left Hand Path, Like an Everflowing Stream and Into Your Grave are your top 3 favorite Death Metal albums, in any order, than stop reading this now and purchase Ghouls of Endless Night right away. My bloviating on the band will mean jack shit, and my complaints will fall on deaf ears. For the rest, Ghouls of Endless Night is not without redeemable qualities and fails not from a lack of effort, but from a lack of ideas. And with bands like Trap Them playing a similar sound, only with far more brutality, creativity and adventure, Bastard Priest remains the cool kid that is only cool because he copies the other cool kids. Who are not so cool anymore.

Rating: 6.5/10

Archgoat- Heavenly Vulva(Christ's Last Rites)

2011-10-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Archgoat- Heavenly Vulvua(Christ's Last Rites)

To describe my excitement for Archgoat's new EP Heavenly Vulva(Christ's Last Rites) as unbearable might be an understatement: I will openly admit to being a huge fan of these Finnish blasphemers. They were, like many, my first Bestial Black Metal band, and along with Blasphemy and Beherit, helped breed my demonic fascination with bands who play this style of crusty, inhuman and Death Metal-influenced Black Metal. So I will admit right now, that being objective about Heavenly Vulva was not easy for me. But after spending plenty of time with this EP, I can safely say that not only have Archgoat settled on a sound that allows them to stand out amongst the crowded scene of Bestial Black Metal(or War Metal as some of you might refer to it),they have mastered it with satanic purpose.

Archgoat, unlike many of their peers, were never one to mindlessly ape Blasphemy(who we can credit for creating this fusion of Death Metal, Black Metal and Grindcore that is Bestial Black Metal) at every turn to fill a CD: this band had a unique purpose and have always delivered, and whether it was their brilliant Angelcunt(Tales of Desecration) EP or their first full length Whore of Bethlehem, Archgoat sought to separate themselves from the legendary Canadians. But starting with the unbelievable Light Devouring Darkness(their first full length after a long split), Archgoat set out to create a sound that was uniquely theirs, to decidedly mixed reviews. The addition of unique, Demilich-style vocals and a heavy emphasis on mid-paced, groove-laden songs turned the historically fast Bestial Black Metal genre on it's head. Heavenly Vulva is a continuation of this sound, and a further refining of its madness.

Heavenly Vulva is loaded with plenty of fast, Blasphemy-esque sections of insanity, but continues to showcase the bands ultimate strength: mid-paced, head banging riffs that create a dense and demonic atmosphere. These mid-paced sections are the highlights of the album, and on songs like "Goddess of the Abyss of Graves" they are short, sudden shifts in between the blistering speed riffs that adds a level of depth to the music. This is helped greatly by the production: this is the most balanced and heavy sounding production Archgoat have ever received. Heavenly Vulva is thickly produced, with rumbling bass and a nasty kick drum keeping things low and dark. The vocals are also more powerful and inhuman than on Light Devouring Darkness, which will please many. Heavenly Vulva is by far the bands most full sounding, powerful and brutal release so far, a big compliment considering the bands formidable back catalog of some seriously vile material.

About the only problem with this EP is the length: including a frankly worthless intro, Heavenly Vulva last only 16 minutes, and considering it has been a while since the bands last release, there was hope for more content to this long awaited new EP. The whole thing is over so quickly, it leaves you wanting more, something no album should do. I know that EP's are rarely as long as LP's, but 16 minutes of Archgoat is frankly not enough, and left me disappointed.

Despite its short running time, Heavenly Vulva is still one of the finest Black Metal releases of this year, and certainly my favorite EP released in 2011. Archgoat have never sounded so evil, so vile, so disgusting as they do on this short, not-so-sweet EP. The future is pitch fucking black for Archgoat, and hopefully we won't have to wait long for more.

Rating: 9/10

2011-10-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

A Hill To Die Upon- Omens

Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way first: Illinois Black/Death band A Hill To Die Upon are indeed a Christian band. For the most part, it is not hammered down your throat, but it becomes pretty obvious quickly(a song titled "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" pretty much spells it out for you).

This is me not giving a fuck.

Anyway, Omens is the new full length from AHTDU, and it is surprisingly solid, if mostly forgettable. The band, which consists of brothers Adam and Michael Cook and whoever else they can get, have gone through various and massive sound changes throughout a very difficult career, before finally settling on technical Blackend Death Metal with their first full-length Infinite Titanic Immortal in 2009. Omens is a continuation of this sound: technical, dissonant riffs that remind one of Deathspell Omega with bursts of Angelcorpse and Bolt Thrower type speed. These riffs are complex and interesting enough to hold your attention, and the solid production has everything sounding good.

There is nothing I would describe as "life-changing" here: this band is not doing anything you have never heard before, and they are not doing anything better than anyone else. The talent and desire is obvious, but the execution is lacking to an extent. Omens has the needed pieces to be something special, but the bands inexperience with this style of music shows in the rather lackluster moments when picking out specific riffs or concepts becomes difficult.

If you can deal with the whole "Jesus" thing, I would still recommend giving Omens a listen. There is nothing here for the die-hard or elite, but for everyone else, Omens provides a mildly entertaining listen for a few spins, and puts A Hill To Die Upon on my list of bands to watch out for in the future.

6.5/10

Jungle Rot- Kill On Command(2011)

2011-10-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Jungle Rot- Kill On Command

I am not sure I would have ever considered Wisconsin Groove Death purveyors Jungle Rot to be "legendary." They are certainly old enough and certainly prolific enough to garner such praise, as many old bands do(often without deserving it). But Jungle Rot were never one of those "must listen" acts that changed the face of Death Metal forever. But damn it all if they were not fun as hell: punishing grooves, vicious vocals and catchy rhythms have been Jungle Rot's M.O. for a long time, and they always delivered.

Which is why the knuckle-dragging idiocy of Kill on Command is so fucking baffling.

True, Jungle Rot have never been the smartest band in Death Metal, but Kill on Command is completely devoid of brain cells: a night of binge drinking has produced more intellectual results. Take the absolutely stunning lyrical prowess of "I Predict a Riot":

"bodies flailing round, human flesh surrounds
abyss, torture bound, beaten to the ground
violence without fear, getting quite severe
distress offered, learn to persevere

I predict a riot

raging is your goal, you jump in the hole
furious, darkened soul, losing self control
savage, fists held high, take one in the eye
victims, weak they lie, you cannot deny

twisting, turning
dervish whirling
vortex taking
souls consuming

tramples, best shake it off
broken, weak brittle bones
crushed by the weight of human walls
down in the pit, you can't escape

assault, no constraint, and make no complaing
savage, not a saint showing no restraint
rampage, storming through, skin is black and blue
brutal fucking zoo, what'd I get into"

I posted the entire thing, since bits and pieces don't quite do this song, or this album, the justice it so deserves. A "brutal fucking zoo" indeed, only the chimps are running the show it seems.

Some will say I am being too hard on Jungle Rot. I mean, they are Jungle Rot, not Ulcerate. This is not thinking mans Death Metal. This is music meant to be experienced live, in the mosh pit, while smashing into some large drunk Metalheads. Too bad Kill on Command lacks any of the fantastic grooves that made Dead and Buried or Fueled By Hate such rock solid releases. This album is barely coherent: a few solid Death/Thrash riffs lost in a mass of chugs, "motherfuckers" and crystal clear production that robs any visceral edge the music might have had when the band actually wrote the damn album. If they even wrote it: to be entirely honest, a drunken jam session at the local practice space comes up with similar results. The whole thing reeks of amateurism that one would never expect from such a long running, professional act.

My first instinct is to somehow blame Victory Records for this mess, but the record label had no impact on Pathology, so sadly Victory are a poor scapegoat. In truth, the fault must lie with the band: Jungle Rot have flat out mailed this one in, something they have never done in the past. Maybe they lack passion for what they are doing. Maybe they are out of ideas. One thing is for sure though: Kill on Command is a disaster.

Rating: 2/10

Pathology- Awken the Suffering(2011)

2011-10-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

Pathology- Awaken the Suffering

Although I grew up in the hay-day of Brutal Death Metal, I was never a fan of Slam Death Metal. I preferred the blast-heavy, guttural machinations that Deeds of Flesh and Krisiun spewed out than the chunky, snail paced gurggle non-sense of Devourment. There have been a few exceptions: the Space-Slam-Jazz-Grind of Wormed is nothing short of perfect, and Technical Slam Acts like Embryonic Devourment and Dripping have been good. But bands like Cephalotripsy, Katalepsy and Abominable Puridity do very little for me, and at its worst(Waking the Cadaver) it crosses over into War Crime territory.

Pathology, a younger band who are coming in during the Old School Death Metal resurgence(they released their first LP in 2006, near the end of Brutal and Technical Death Metal's reign over Death Metal as a whole), are intriguing though. Although firmly rooted in the realm of Slam Death Metal, Pathology do some cool things: melodic and technical riffs pop in from time to time, and the band write riffs with meat on the bones, while the vocals have actual power, unlike many inhale vocals that sound pathetic and wimpy. These Slam butchers are not the light squishing of bowels, but closer to a chainsaw slicing through a torso. They may still hem to closely to Slam Death for me to ever love them, in small doses Pathology deliver more than most Slam acts not named Wormed.

Awaken the Suffering is another rock solid release from the band, and by now they have mastered their sound: Tech Death riffing with a heavy dose of chunky breakdowns and the occasional moment of melody. There has been very little deviation from this sound over the bands 5 LP's(and impressive number in 5 years). And it works: this is far from the finest composition or most masterful stroke of genius, but in the right situation, Pathology hit hard and with purpose. The production is thoroughly modern: the click click click of drum triggers, the silky smooth guitar tones and the perfectly pitch shifted(slightly, thankfully) vocals are all present, but at least the bass is audible, a nice plus. It is still over-produced, but at least not maddeningly song.

Haters need not apply: there is nothing for die-hard haters of Slam Death, who at the very possibility that a breakdown MIGHT have been played will instantly begin bashing and bashing until they are blue in the face. Pathology might play this style with more authority, talent and song writing skill than most, this is Slam Fucking Death, and it offers few compromises.

I was plenty entertained by Awaken the Suffering. I admit, I am not as picky about my genre's as others might be, but I know shit when I smell it. This is not shit. This is rock solid, fun Death Metal that entertains, not amazes.

Rating: 7/10

Demo: Artificial Brain- Demo(2011)

2011-10-13T00:38:00.001-07:00

Artificial Brain

Fuck, I missed my deadline for my new review. Oh well, I got a quickie demo for you guys anyway.

Artificial Brain is quite literally a Technical Death Metal super group, featuring members of Revocation, Biolich and Cyanide Breed. Those are some serious technical chops, but these are dudes from some of the best Technical Death Metal acts ever. My love of the might Biolich is well known(I FUCKING MISS YOU!), and Revocation are as solid as any act in around. Have not heard Cyanide Breed, but I will be checking them out asap, especially after hearing this awesome 3 song demo, which is free for download from both the bands Bandcamp page and their Last.fm page.

This demo is fast, inhumanly technical and fairly modern, but the band avoid the Nintendo-esque guitar wankery that ruins a lot of modern Technical Death Metal. These riffs are nasty and have plenty of meat on their bones. The drums are triggered, but the fantasic production(this demo sounds more professional than most full lengths) gets rid of that nasty clicking sound that ruins a lot of modern acts(unless you are Mithras.) This demo is over fast but kicks you right in the teeth, and has plenty of hidden depth to keep you coming back.

Needless to say, I cannot wait for a full length from these cats. Be sure to support this band by getting on this demo and sharing it with your friends.

Bandcamp

Last.fm

Cloak of Altering- The Night Comes Illuminated With Death(2011)

2011-10-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

Cloak of Altering- The Night Comes Illuminated With Death

Another release from Mories de Jong, the sick mastermind behind Gnaw Their Tongues and De Magia Veterum, Cloak of Altering is a fairly unknown project from the Mad Man of Black Metal. Yet for its relative obscurity, Cloak of Altering may be Mories best musical endeavor to date. That is a tall claim, considering the vast and powerful catalog Mories has put together over the years. But Cloak of Altering is something different from anything Mories has done: there is a sense of direction and wonder not quite reached by his previous efforts.

The Night Comes Illuminated With Death is six of Mories most complete and fully realized songs. Musically, the closest thing to this album would be the inhumanity of De Magia Veterum. However, unlike De Magia Veterum, who seek solace in complete chaos, Cloak of Altering are perhaps Mories only band to have identifiable song structure. While one should never expect a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure, the tracks have a clear beginning and ending, and do not devolve into a mass of notes and shrieks of anguish. Each track on this album is meticulously crafted with a deeper, darker purpose at heart. The riffs are almost entirely tremolo picked, but the extensive use of dissonance and melody(yes, that thing) keep the music fresh and exciting from riff to riff. It helps that the production favors the haunting and powerful guitar work, allowing the bass to pulsate ominously in the background while the drums play their part quietly and effectively. As for the vocals, if you have listened to any of Mories projects, you have the expectations of grief riddled moans of suffering, but The Night Comes Illuminated With Death surpasses any expectations you may have had. The track "Cloak of Altering" in particular has some of the most maniacal vocals every put to music.

But what makes The Night Comes Illuminated With Death such a success is the use of keyboard and ambient sound to amplify the inner... beauty(there is really no other word for it) of each composition. I know what you are thinking: fucking keyboards? But remember, Mories is a master of electronic music, and it shows here. The expert use of orchestral elements, electronic noises and chanting vocals create an incredible atmosphere of blindingly bright dread. Occasional electronic interludes also add another layer of compositional complexity to each track and help each song feel like a complete journey through a fully realized concept.

A fully realized concept. This is something so lacking from much of Extreme Metal today. Yet Cloak of Altering so completely nail every single idea in every single track, it is a marvel to behold. In such a strange twist, while creating one of the most insane releases I have ever heard, Mories has created by far his most accessible and human music to date. The shee beauty of the compositions is so overwhelmingly awesome, so fucking complete, they are impossible to ignore. All I can hope is that this small masterpiece is not lost to time and obscurity like so many others. A must listen and a must own.

Rating: 10/10

Prosanctus Inferi- Red Streams of Flesh EP(2011)

2011-10-10T15:58:00.001-07:00

Prosanctus Inferi- Red Streams of Flesh EP

Boiling over from the pit of filth and semen that is Columbus, Ohio, Prosanctus Inferi is yet another spawn of Jake Kohn, the man behind Father Befouled and the legendary Black Funeral. If you have ever listened to those bands, you have some idea of what to expect here, and Prosanctus Inferi deliver in all their nonsensical fury.

Red Streams of Flesh, the bands new EP, is so straight forward in its blasphemous intentions as to be admirable: songs take no longer than needed to reach the point, are always going at 120 miles per hour, and cast away concepts like melody and harmony like used condoms. I keep making allusions to bodily fluids for a reason: listening to Red Streams of Flesh is akin to filling a crusty black cauldron with shit, piss, semen and the tears of children who just got their dogs run over by a drunken mall Santa Clause in a Geo Metro, then having sex with Cuthulu in it. There is absolutely no compromise for the listener in this mess, and in a way it is certainly endearing. Fans of inhuman Bestial Black Metal like Archgoat, Blasphemy and Revenge will certainly enjoy this, and elements of early Morbid Angel and Incantation peek through the mess from time to time to add some rare dynamic elements to the grinding. The production on Red Streams of Flesh is also surprisingly accessible, even more so when compared to the strangely quiet Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation, but I would not call this sucker "over-produced" by any stretch of the imagination. This stuff is as filthy as ever.

The whole thing is over in exactly 19 minutes, and for what it is, Red Streams of Flesh is a solid little EP. Prosanctus Inferi are unlikely to ever be more than the some of its parts however: the total lack of humanity also leads to a lack of imagination and adventure. I understand that this is the point: you are meant to be lost in the brutality of it all. But even when compared to their peers, Prosanctus Inferi are not the most adventurous band around: even Archgoat have done a few different things with their music, while it appears Prosanctus Inferi can't be bothered.

Regardless of my qualms, Red Streams of Flesh is still worth your time. It's too short to ever get boring, and the bands sound remains as ferocious and uncompromising as ever. So grind forth, and slaughter all that is good. Or pink. I bet the guys in Prosanctus Inferi hate pink things.

Rating: 7/10

Morbosidad/Witchrist- Split(2011)

2011-10-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

Morbosidad/Witchrist- Split

Thought I might as well knock out another split, this time a split from Bestial Black Metal demons Morbosidad and Occult Death Metal monsters Witchrist. Both acts have seen a huge spike in popularity over the last few years. Morbosidad are one of the busiest and most talented purveyors of Bestial Black Metal on Earth, and unlike many of their peers don't merely comp Blasphemy every other song to fill up albums. Witchrist's impressive full length Beheaded Ouroboros has made them one of the hottest up and coming bands in Death Metal. So a split from these two acts seems like a great idea.

And it works on this very uncreatively titled Split. The two Morbosidad tracks, titled "Plagarias Ceremoniales" and "Horda Del Apocalipsis" are both under two minutes and are fairly straight forward Black/Grind tracks, but they are a ton of fun and very much up to par with the blast beat heavy aural assaults Morbosidad are known for. The two Witchrist tracks on the other hand are a bit different from what we heard on Beheaded Ouroboros: the production is still very cavernous and thick with distortion, but more balanced. The songs themselves(titled "I" and "II" in another fit of anti-creativity) are much more straight forward Death Metal romps. Seeing as this is a split with a band as no nonsense as Morbosidad, it makes a lot of sense and the Witchrist tracks are actually pretty bad ass. This more stripped down machine Witchrist are running with this release, but it's still pretty interesting.

All told, this four song split is actually shorter than the split I just reviewed(clocking in at barely 8 minutes, with the Witchrist track "II" taking up most of the run time), yet I found it much more satisfying. These are two of the best bands in their respective genres, and hearing them together on the same release, even a mostly insignificant one, it still a blasphemous delight.

Rating: 7/10

Cruciamentum/Vasaeleth- Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh(2011)

2011-10-09T01:20:00.000-07:00

Cruciamentum/Vasaeleth- Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh

Cruciamentum and Vasaeleth are two of the more solid young acts involved in this Old School Death Metal Revival that is in full swing. Vasaeleth's debut full length Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin was well received by many, and Cruciamentum have generated a lot of excitement with their Convocation of Crawling Chaos demo. Both acts are heavily influenced by Incantation, but load their albums with plenty of tasty riffs to keep listeners tuned it. I was pretty excited for this split, mostly for new material from Cruciamentum.

Unfortunately, Eroding Chaos Unto Ascendant Flesh features only two songs, one from each band, and neither are world breakers. Vasaeleth's track, "Profane Ceremonial Exudation" is a fairly standard affair: distortion choked, primitive Occult Death Metal with a strong Doom Metal influence. It would have been the weakest track on Crypt Born & Tethered to Ruin, but it's still a solid song. The Cruciamentum track is more interesting, if only because we don't have a full-length from this young group yet. The track, titled "Rites to the Abduction of Essence," it a bit of a departure from Convocation of Crawling Chaos: the track is more cleanly produced, although it remains cavernous and heavy. The riffs are still excellent, and it is clear the guys in Cruciamentum are skilled song writers. The vocals are perhaps the biggest change however: no longer indiscernible guttural growling, the vocals remind be more of Bolt Thrower, a mid-low growl that is much louder in the mix. Overall, it is little more than a taste of what to come, and not enough of one to really get wild about.

I fail to see the purpose of releasing a split featuring only 2 songs, but I suppose there is nothing wrong with the idea. It does make grading something like this difficult. In the end, neither track is awe-inspiring, but neither are bad. A decent little split, and a window into the future of Cruciamentum at the very minimum.

Rating: 5/10

Disma- Towards the Megalith(2011)

2011-10-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

Disma- Towards the Megalith

Bubbling up from the depths of a swamp littered with the corpses of the lost and the screams of their damned souls, Disma's Towards the Megalith is thick with suffering and death and almost completely suffocated in a horrifying cloud of distortion and bass. The legendary vocals of Craig Pillard, the man who made the mighty Incantation one of the most beloved Death Metal acts of all time, acts as the demonic and insane Greek Chorus to this blasphemous drama. A veritable super group of Death Metal musicians, which also includes Shawn Eldridge and Daryl Kahn of New Jersey Devils Funebrarum, Disma have summoned one of the most incredibly sludgey and Doom ridden Death Metal albums in years, much to your listening delight.

Musically primitive and simplistic, Towards the Megalith will instantly remind listeners of the early days of Death Metal: one hears elements of Autopsy, Incantation, disEMBOWELMENT and even all female Death/Doom "what-could-have-been" legends Mythic. Incredibly distorted riffs and gut wrenching bass drive each riff, while expert use of creepy melodies and leads give the album an atmosphere of dread and bleakness that few can match. The band almost never head into blast beat territory, and instead seek to smother the listener in their evil as slowly as possible, often to deliciously demented effect. As for the vocals of the masterful Pillard; all one can say is "wow." The man who made guttural growls look almost too easy, Pillard superhuman grunts are as deadly as ever.

It's hard to imagine that this was once the norm for Death Metal in the early 90's, considering the incredibly technical direction the genre started going in for the late 90's and early 00's. If you are looking for a Tech Death hater here, you won't find one in me: I love the inhuman precision of Necrophagist as much as the sloppy and distorted riffs of Disma. But after Tech Death's unfortunate slip into the realm of absurdity over the past few years, Death Metal needs a band like Disma: one that does not merely recycle Old School Death Metal cliches over and over for internet credibility, but one that expertly crafts original works inspired by the rich history of Death Metal so that future generations don't miss out on what makes Death Metal the genre that it is: the fucking blasphemy of it all.

The fucking blasphemy of it all. That is by far the biggest take away from this brilliantly designed piece of Satan worshiping insanity: this is not for the faint of heart. Towards the Megalith is so claustrophobic with the evil stuff it hardly leaves any room to breathe. We would not want it any other way.

Rating: 9/10

Demo: Angelcrust- Pet Sematary

2011-10-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

Angelcrust

We here at the Curse love Crust Punk. We also love Black Metal. Combine the two, and we are creaming ourselves with uncontrollable sexual pleasure. So we have Angelcrust to thank for our now very "crusty" underwear.

These Philadelphia scuzz punks have their new demo, Pet Sematary, available free for download from Bandcamp.com, so I jumped right on the chance to check it out. I was not disappointed. Pet Sematary is a acidic mix of Disrupt and Deathcrush-era Mayhem, with a dash of His Hero is Gone for good measure. Pet Sematary is 12 minutes of unmitigated street punk blasphemy that fans of Martyrdod, Naked Whipper, or early Mayhem would be proud to jam. Some of the shorter tracks are so short, the real Black Metal influence may be lost in the fuzz, but the 2 best tracks, "Sneer" and "Dissonances of Exquisite Morbidity" take a few minutes to flesh out the blackend crust and gives the band some distinction amongst the crowd.

You can get your free copy of the demo at the bands Bandcamp page, and if you are in the Philadelphia area, make sure to head out to a show and create some hell in the pits.

Last.fm

Bandcamp page

New Lows- Harvest of the Carcass(2011)

2011-10-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

New Lows- Harvest of the Carcass

Part of the new wave of Metallic Hardcore bands inspired by legendary acts like Integrity, Earth Crisis and early Hatebreed, New Lows play crusty, filthy and extremely heavy Hardcore Punk mixed with elements of Death Metal, Thrash Metal and Grindcore. Thick with distortion and bowel-rumbling bass, Harvest of the Carcass is one of the most flat out heavy releases from this year.

If you have listened to any of the recent stuff from Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die or Nails, you have an idea of what to expect with this one: guitars so crusty you can hear the grime on the guitar strings, bass so low it rattles the rafters and drums so punishing the band might as well come over and kick in you the face, since they both feel about the same. Few acts can match New Lows pure aggression: the band expertly shift from two-step tempos to sludgey breakdowns to blasty Grindcore sections and back again, often all in the same song. The album moves at full speed, although the bands best tracks like the opener "Stagnant Strides" takes time to reach their extreme apex and reward the listener in full for it.

And if you have listened to any of the recent stuff from Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die or Nails, you have heard this all before. Which is not to say Harvest of the Carcass is not worth checking out: but the complete lack of originality is bound to turn some people off to New Lows well worn brand of Metallic Hardcore devastation. In truth, other than maybe the Grindcore heavy Nails, all of these modern Metallic Hardcore acts owe their sound to the work of the mighty Integrity, who were not only one of the first bands in Hardcore Punk to embrace Death and Thrash Metal, but were one of the first bands to embrace Metal's imagery, much like New Lows do with Harvest of the Carcass. That feeling of "been there, heard that" is perhaps the only issue with Harvest of the Carcass, because as a piece of entertainment this album is about as well crafted as it gets.

In the end, quality wins out over originality with Harvest of the Carcass. New Lows may not be "new," but the level of polish and intensity on this album surpasses many of the releases this year. The sheer, grimey intensity of Harvest of the Carcass is more than enough to give this album a listen, as long as one tempers their expectations.

7.5/10

Fukpig - Belief Is The Death Of Intelligence [2010]

2011-10-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

Sharing past and present members with Anaal Nathrakh andMistress, one can predict the level of ferocity to be provided by this, Fukpig’ssophomore album, before going anywhere near the ‘play’ button. Although thedisdain for religion shown first by the album title is getting a little old,the musical ideas, which I assure you are nothing original, are not.

My point here is that although much of this is in a similarvein to guitarist/drummer Mick Kenney’s ‘day job’ Anaal Nathrakh, there residesan altogether crustier, and even a more vicious feeling to this. Blastbeatsgalore permeate the album, and riff-wise, there is a clear crustcore influence,although two of the most recognizable riffs on the album, the opening ones tothe title track and ‘This Is The News?’ respectively are evidently borrowedfrom two of the most famous tracks within extreme metal – Mayhem’s ‘DeMysteriis Dom Sathanas’ and Slayer’s ‘Angel Of Death’.

Not that anyone minds. Even if you’ve worn your LPs of thoseto death, bought a replacement CD and somehow worn that out too, those two fitin so snugly here that it wouldn’t seem at all out of place to someone whoinexplicably had found Fukpig without being aware of those two. Also ‘borrowed’is the Sunlight Studios-esque guitar tone offered – and this sounds right athome too. We’re all aware how heavily the Stockholm bands borrowed from theSwedish hardcore punk scene of the time, and this is a chance to hear theirtone given back to an altogether punkier context.

What I’m not saying, however, is that this album is a rehashof ripoffs. No, there are plenty of original factors – although mathematicsdictates that all three-chord riffs must have been used by now, the bassiertone used here makes them all seem highly original, as they cut through the mixlike a hot knife through butter. Relentless aggression here is done well – the usualtedium factor that starts to kick in after 25 minutes or so is not present hereat all.

Drum-wise, the patterns alternate between blasts and d-beats– this is a grindcore album after all. The production lends the drumming a niceorganic sound, which should please the crusties around to no end. As a point ofcomparison for the drumming in particular, but also for the vast majority ofthe album, imagine a combination of Disfear and Anaal Nathrakh.

One of the main things which makes this album appeal to methan many other black metal/grindcore hybrids is the way in which each individualsong has hooks within it to make it stand out from the rest, despite them allbeing stylistically similar. I’ll point you in the direction of the gang chantswhich start ‘This Is England’ (which are followed by one of the most frenziedvocal performances I’ve ever heard) and to the desolate feeling, borrowedequally from crust punk and black metal, which is particularly apparent in ‘DawnOf The Dumb’.

Altogether, I’d say that although it’s completelyderivative, Belief Is The Death Of Intelligenceis a fantastic album – marginally better than Fukpig’s first effort Spewings From A Selfish Nation, andcertainly way above par within its genre. Although it’s long been sold out,this is an album worth seeking out at most costs. One of the best of last year.

9.5/10

Nightbringer- Hierophany of the Open Grave(2011)

2011-10-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

Nightbringer- Hierophany of the Open Grave

As caustic and demonic as anything released this, year Hierophany of the Open Grave is an unstoppable mass of swirling black carnage that is immediately haunting and intense. Nightbringer have always flirted with greatness in the past, but it was often a shortage of ideas coupled with songs too long for their own good that doomed solid albums like Death and the Black Work and Apocalypse Sun into the dreaded, "good but not great" category. At most, Nightbringer had been a furious, albeit under-achieving, young act still trying to find its way in the American Black Metal scene.

Hierophany of the Open Grave leaves no questions about where Nightbringer stand amongst their US peers now: they have arrived as one of the finest and most powerful young acts in Black Metal today. By taking the classic Norwegian sound and adding the dissonant, technical leads popular with French(and French sounding) Black Metal acts, Nightbringer stand apart from any of the Orthodox Black Metal acts that are all the rage right now. The guitar work on Hierophany is something to behold: almost completely tremolo picked, they are technical and dissonant, but not without some meat to them. Thankfully, Nightbringer also tone down the blast beats on this album: they will still cut loose hammer through dozens of notes and beats in seconds, but Hierophany shows a new maturity in song writing that was not on previous albums. Ideas and riffs are given enough time to work their black magic and hook listeners in for the long haul. Song lengths remain extended on Hierophany, but now songs are not running out of ideas 3 minutes before the end of the song.

The atmospheric elements of Hierphoany are the strength of this record. "Eater of the Black Led," easily the strongest track on the record, begins with an acoustic interlude before heading into a slow, demonic riff that layers on the evil before things speed up. But they never get too fast, and the fantastic vocals keep the air thick with darkness. To think that this is the same band that released 7 mintues songs on Apocalypse Sun that were entirely driven by blast beats is pretty hard to believe.

Every band has to "grow up" to reach that next level. Nightbringer have done just that with Hierophany of the Open Grave. But not only have Nightbringer grown-up, they have shown wisdom beyond their age with this release. Without a doubt the finest Black Metal release of the year, Hierophany of the Open Grave is the kind of album that transcends its own era and stays with listeners well past its initial listen like all truly great albums do.

Rating: 9.5/10

The Beast of the Apocalypse- Henosis(2011)

2011-10-04T02:14:00.000-07:00

The Beast of the Apocalypse- Henosis

While the bands poorly chosen moniker might lead to a few raised eyebrows, the quality of the work will outshine the oddity. TBotA's newest release, Henosis, is one of this years finest experiments in the occult. Reeking of evil and the stench of Brimstone, the ritualistic ramblings of Henosis are immediately fascinating and all consuming, while repeated listens bring more depth and intensity to the forefront. There is a certain comfort in the bands bestial barrage, but at the same time Henosis is unafraid to challenge listeners with a thick, static laden production and blasphemous noises straight from Hell.

On the surface, TBotA is straight forward enough to be instantly accessible: a healthy does of early Beherit and Archgoat is apparent from the first riff, and provides the demonic lubricant for Henosis to really get its engine moving. Once sucked into the blackness however, Henosis is filled with nice surprises: snippets of melody, crushing rhythms, effective use of symphonic elements and hypnotic use of riff repetition create a level of immersion unmatched by most albums released this year. Clearly influenced by Mories various projects, particularly in the manic vocal attack, as well as acts like Mitochondrion and Ulcerate, TBotA channel their various influences in such a way as too be greater than the sum of its parts.

The level of accessible complexity in this album is what makes it stand out from a lot of bands in this newly crowded genre of Occult Death and Black Metal: unlike other bands in this vein, TBotA have the songwriting chops to draw you in instantly and keep you interested, as opposed to merely challenging the listener every step of the way and depending on their endurance to get something from the album. A truly great feat for a relatively young and unknown band.

Part of the reason this band may be so unknown is that in a crowded genre, they fail to stand out in certain areas: from the bands awkward name, to their cover art which seems lifted from various other bands(Henosis has cover art that looks almost exactly like the cover art for Parasignosis, Swarth, and the Aethyrvorous demo), to their Deathspell Omega/Mitochondrion-esque song titles, TBotA have done a terrible job selling themselves to fans who would gladly eat this stuff up if they knew about it.

Truth be told, nothing about Henosis is inherently original: all of its disparate elements have been done and done very well by countless bands. What makes Henosis so damn good it that the band have found a way to present all of these well worn aspects in interesting new ways. TBotA are not inventors: Henosis is not the work of men looking to bring forth something we did not know we wanted. Henosis is the product of a master-craftsmen, using the ancient techniques handed down by those in the past to create something viable and quality.

Rating: 9/10

De Magia Veterum- The Divine Antithesis(2011)

2011-10-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

De Magia Veterum- The Divine Antithesis

Mories de Jong is on a mission. A mission to see the human race, that which he so obviously despises with all of his shriveled heart and blackend soul, completely and utterly wiped out of existence. His increasingly popular Black Noise project Gnaw Their Tongues has been a fantastic and brilliant start to his mass genocide of humanity, but with his side project De Magia Veterum, Mories is going into Total War mode.

Almost completely devoid of song structure and human feeling, The Divine Antithesis is the definition of inhumanity; the ultimate artistic expression of misanthropy. Each track blasts through millions of nearly indecipherable riffs, drums and vocals. It creates a wall of pure destruction that comes erupting out of the speakers, decimating all in its path. Complete sonic devastation is all this album offers. This is both a positive and negative for this fascinating but ultimately limited release.

To talk about this album as specific tracks would not only be doing a dis-service to the album, but also would be a bit pointless: taken as individual tracks, The Divine Anthithesis is not much to talk about. The constant, unending tremolo picking and relentless blast beats are more hypnotic than head banging, and there are few truly memorable individual riffs. Occasionally, demented hints of melody peeks it's desiccated hand from the black soil, and often in brilliant and fascinating ways. But the blast beat rules the day here, and the guitars are trying to race them for most of the record.

But when taken as a whole, The Divine Antithesis is something of a hypnotic, swirling mass of hatred: an endless sea of tortured souls screaming out for release. The guitar playing at times is very technical, and those aforementioned moments of melody and slower tempos allow for seriously awesome listening. The vocals are fantastic, and the bludgeon of sheer dread this album hammers your skull with is impressive and worthy of any listeners time. At the very least, this should be a curiosity listen for anyone looking to discover something totally unique and wholly demented.

As a work of art, The Divine Antithesis is something of a flawed masterpiece. But like any work of art, the visceral nature of the work lessens with time. Without a truly classic concept hidden beneath the surface, it becomes something of a curious novelty as opposed to a timeless work. A painting too impressive to ignore, but not too impressive to end up under a horse-blanket in the attic.

Rating: 8/10