Revenge- Scum.Collapse.Eradication(2012)

Revenge- Scum.Collapse.Eradication

Revenge do not fuck around.

There are a countless number of truly brutal, truly unhinged bands out there, but few can match the napalm-and-vomit that this Canadian duo spew from every orifice. It's all this band know how to do: belch out disgusting abominations that stink of death. Scum.Collapse.Eradication is no different in this regard from any previous Revenge album... in any way.

I know, I know. Revenge are "trve" and "real." Shit like musical progression and exploration are for "posers" and the "untrve." And in many ways that's fine. Some bands find a sound, and stick with it. They make music they want to make for fans who don't want them to change. It's a perfectly harmonious atrocity that never comes off the rails or slows down. Devastation by the numbers; comforting genocide... dependable hatred for humanity. All of this I can understand and even appreciate.

That doesn't mean I can get all the way behind it. Scum.Collapse.Eradication is the definition of competent, and at times elevates itself above it's station. "Parasite Gallows(In Line)" is a crusty slice of Carcass-inspired Deathgrind, with completely unhinged guitar solos to boot, that mixes in a heavy dose of Archgoat-style mid paced riffing that does not fail to crush spines. "Filth Solution(Intolerance)" makes maximum use of the pitch-shifted gutturals(lifted right from Reek of Putrefaction) to create a swampy mess of distorted Grindcore riffs and Blasphemy-infused hatred. All the stuff you expect from Revenge is here. Which is nice...

But it begs the question, a question I have been finding myself asking a lot lately. Do all bands lend themselves to multiple releases? How many Nile albums do you have to buy before you've gotten enough of the same... exact... sound. Or Amon Amarth? Or Hate Eternal? For most people, including myself, the answer is one(except for Amon Amarth... closer to zero). Revenge are in the same boat. Fact is, if you own any of the previous Revenge albums, then you have already listened to Scum.Collapse.Eradicate. You already have experienced this punishing whirlwind of savagery and blast beats. Which is not to say the album is worthless, and I find this album has my favorite production of all the Revenge albums. It's fun and aggressive and heavy. It's a whole lot of things, most of them good.

But all of them have been done before. So yes, Revenge do not fuck around. Scum.Collapse. Eradicate is deadly serious in every way. It's all about the murder, the mayhem and the hatred... and nothing else.

Rating: 6.5/10

Upcoming Releases To Get Horny About: Second Stage

It feels like years since Nuclear War Now! announced the release of an upcoming full length from Chilean witch doctors Wrathprayer. In Utter Darkness turned a lot of heads, but I found the demo's production... essentially broken. But when I heard this new track from the upcoming The Sun of Moloch: The Sublimation of Sulphur's Essence Which Spawns Death and Life, I pretty much shit myself. I mean even the name of the album is killer as fuck. Easily the most anticipated Metal release on the upcoming release schedule.


Is anyone else disappointed with this new Black Breath track? It's pretty obvious Black Breath are going in a more... Thrash heavy direction. Considering I'm not the biggest fan of Thrash Metal, this isn't the direction I was hoping Black Breath would go. Even the cover art looks horrible...


I'm really digging the direction Impiety is going right now. It might be a little pretentious(their songs are getting really fucking long), but it's much more expansive and inventive than their previous material. This particular new track from the upcoming Ravage & Conquer album shows a much stronger Angelcorpse vibe to the whole project. Perhaps Impiety are seeking to give us the Morbid Angel album we all deserve? Increasingly stoked for them.


Time to go completely off the rails. As some of you might know, I have been all about obscure Japanese Post Rock/Post Punk/Math Rock. Not sure how this ended up being the case, but within hours I was completely obsessed with bands like 百蚊(100 Mosquitoes) and Mass of the Fermenting Dregs. One band I have discovered during this unholy and completely ridiculous musical obsession is ハイスイノナサ(haisuinonasa), who play some of the most beautiful and heart wrenching Math Rock/Post Rock I have heard in a long time, with elements of Shoe Gaze and Electronica thrown in for extra tastiness. The bands first two "Mini CDs," about a city and The Child of Imagination And City, are just spectacular, and are available for streaming and "name-your-price" purchase via Bandcamp

Demoncy- Enthroned is the Night(2012)

Demoncy- Enthroned is the Night

In all of American Black Metal, no project is more underrated than Demoncy, the brainchild of the mad priest Ixithra. While Profanatica, Xasthur, Leviathan and Nachtmystium seem to get most of the press, Demoncy has always been the forgotten beast. Part of it has been Demoncy's irregular release schedule, which saw the project produce almost nothing but demo's until 1999. But in 1999, Demoncy gave us Joined in Darkness, an unparralled masterpiece of Black Metal than has never gotten the run it deserves. Sounding as though it were recorded in the bathroom of R'lyeh, Joined in Darkness was the definition of crushing darkness. But when Demoncy followed this up with the utterly worthless Empire of a Fallen Angel, which saw the project head in a much faster, melodic and... ugh... Swedish direction, many feared that we would never again receive a dark blessing like Joined in Darkness.

Enthroned is the Night is the triumphant return of the Demoncy that we rabid fans of Joined in Darkness have been waiting for. Well, sort of... it at least doesn't reek of Swedish melody and triggered drums. Enthroned is the Night is certainly a stylistic revival: a return to the vile concoction of Norwegian Second Wave Black Metal and Canadian/American Bestial Black Metal, making the album feel just as comfortable next to Transylvanian Hunger as Fallen Angel of Doom. Tracks are relentless, aggressive and extremely ugly. "Winds of Plague" explodes with a crushing riffs and thundering double bass that bring to mind an unholy union of Archgoat and early Mayhem, while "Unclean Spirits" invokes the decrepit spirits of Profanatica and Sarcofago, complete with copious blast beats and static-riddled riffs. Every track has a strong emphasis of tempo, featuring plenty of change-up between Blasphemy-like speed and slower, atmospheric riffs, which keeps the listening experience active and relentless.

I also feel I need to write a love letter to Ixithra's incredible vocals. Sounding like Gollum with throat cancer, Ixithra and his vicious, demonic "whisper-growls" have been one of the few elements of Demoncy that we have seen imitated by other Black Metal artists, but never truly matched. Part of what made Empire of a Fallen Angel so utterly and incomprehensibly bad, outside of the whole Marduk-meets-Dissection thing, was that Ixithra ditched his trademark vocals in favor of a horribly generic gruff abortion that lacked any nastiness. But back doing what Demoncy was always meant to do, the vocals on Enthroned is the Night drip with acid and phlegm, as though Ixithra is choking upon his own filth ridden soul.

But for all the joy I feel that Demoncy has returned to the sound that made such a masterpiece, such a brilliant and eternal pitch black jewel, I cannot hide the tinge of sadness that creeps down my spine. For listening to Enthroned is the Night so often has given me a brutal, heart-breaking epiphany, one that flies in the face of everything I have believed about Demoncy so long: Demoncy are a one hit wonder. Enthroned is the Night is a brilliantly played return to form no doubt, but in reviving the sound that made Joined in Darkness what it is, the various weaknesses and failures of the style are brought down hard to bare. This album is so straight forward and so lacking in variety, were this any other band I might pull a Miasmal rating right out of my ass.

Enthroned is the Night could not be any more straightforward or uncreative. The album is even divided into perfect little sections: tracks one, six and eleven could be categorized as "intro," "intermission" and "outro" leaving eight tracks divided into sections of four. I know this seems like a stupid thing to notice, but it is just the first thing that screams "I'm barely trying!" Each tracks sounds almost exactly the same, following same-y patterns that never differentiate between each other.

Not rarely. NEVER.

Without the sudden stops between tracks, Enthroned is the Night could quite easily made into one long song. But honestly, that would have been way too creative. The sound that Demoncy developed on Joined in Darkness is so uncompromising, so unrelenting and truly bleak, it just does not lend itself to any kind of experimentation. It didn't matter with Joined in Darkness because it was just... so... evil. It was so vile, so soul siphoning, that the fact that every track sounded the same didn't even matter. It was a blasphemous tapestry that Satan himself would have wrapped himself in at night as he slept on his bed of burning souls. Meanwhile, Enthroned is the Night feels more like Satan's pillow case that he occasionally drools on... it just doesn't evoke the same sense of dread and abomination.

Yet even though Enthroned is the Night feels so much smaller and slighter than Joined in Darkness, part of me just loves the fuck out of it. Part of me screams for more, and I find myself feeding this hunger very regularly. Enthroned is the Night is my version of comfort music, something I can have playing all day long and never truly tire of(which says something really fucked up about me as an individual). This part of me screams even now as I write this: it pounds furiously on the back of my head, in protest of what my logical brain is now forcing me to do. For no matter how much I love Enthroned is the Night, it is impossible for me to look upon it and say with certainty that this is a great album. It just isn't. It's predictable, same-y, uncreative and pig-headed in it's utter relentlessness.

And I want more!

Rating:
The screaming fanboy: MORE!!!!!
Real score: 7/10

Male Misandria / Malveillance - Split(2012)

Male Misandria / Malveillance - Split

Though Suffering Jesus Productions has,sadly, recently closed its doors, one of its final acts was to getout this split between Italy's oddly named Male Misandria andQuébec's Malveillance. While the uninitiated listener might find itodd to see a split between a grindcore band and a black metalproject, the similarities are apparent immediately upon listening.Both Male Misandria and Malveillance provide unrelenting and viciousblasts of musical violence that go for the throat and don't stopuntil they've tasted blood.

Male Misandria start the split off with“Magister Makeup”, an intense track which balances brutality andspeed with skill and good song writing to great effect. It providesan immediate glimpse as to the showing MM make here. The guitar toneis clear and gives every riff a clarity which allows theirmemorability and heaviness to shine. This is a definite plus giventhat the music depends heavily on the guitar; the bass is inaudible,the drumming provides what it needs to but doesn't shine, and thevocals are impassioned but don't step far out of an often seen mix ofhigher screams and lower growls. There are moments when the screamsget particularly high pitched and out of control, and that's when thevocals shine the most; “Marble Marquinia” and “Mothlife” bothprovide great examples. Though the other aspects of the music aren'tparticularly exceptional the riffing is thankfully strong. As said,they are memorable and heavy, switching up enough to keep the songsinteresting and exciting while not changing up so much that the riffsdon't make an impact. Male Misandria are strong song writers ingeneral; “Marble Marquinia” and “Mannerless Maternus Mo” havedramatic openings, “Mothlife” ends with a high speed solo, andthe way a melodic lead threads its way through tremolo picked rhythmguitar in “Male Model Merge” is reminiscent of certain types ofblack metal. The crescendo of Male Misandria's half is “Martyr”,which nears 6 minutes and is the longest track on the split. It's adramatic and complex song that shows off MM's strength as songwriters. It's full of interesting moments: it opens with an“Egyptian” sounding riff (or at least Egyptian in the bounds ofthe West's musical imagination), before shifting into black metalinspired riffs. The song has many moments that nearly hit epicterritory, and it has a very interesting bridge where atmosphericguitars and distant, echoing vocals mix with shifts between blackmetal inspired riffing and thick chords. They wrap things up with aninexplicable dark ambient/industrial track, “Masto B”, whichdoesn't make a ton of sense, but is at least solid for what it is.

Malveillance's side opens with its ownweirdness. “Rien” is an ambient track over which F(Malveillance's one and only member) simply speaks in a way thatbrings to mind a pissed off, slightly drunk man. If I understoodFrench, I might be able to read more meaning in to it, so I'll giveit the benefit of the doubt. Everysong is named after an individual. A web search got me hits on a fewof the names, who appear to be important figures in Québec of someform or another, so it seems safe to say that Malveillance's half ispossibly dedicated to a variety of influential figures in Québec'shistory. As soon as “Rien” finishes, F immediately kicksinto what Malveillance is known for: filthy D-Beat inspired blackmetal with a raw, simplistic and hateful style that is no doubtinfluenced by the work of Norway's Ildjarn. The guitar and bass havea thick and dirty raw production that I find benefit's Malveillance'ssound even more than the production on his previous release,Consentir a L'absurde. Theonly problem with the production is the drums. The cymbals have avery tinny sound; I can't decide if it's a crappy drum machine, or ifthe recording of real drums wasn't done quite right. If you can lookby it, the core of Malveillance's sound is present and as strong asever. The songs shift between one or two black/punk riffs, with athick, low end sound. As is typical of this style, the songs arepresented in some ways as variations of a theme, providing an intenseand holistic listening experience, rather than one dominated byclearly demarcated songs. I think Malveillance is one of the top actsof this style, and any fan of it should find there thirst sated byhis performance here. It's length of only 14½ minutes gives it lessvariation than Consentir a L'absurde,but it more than provides the visceral experience I look for in thiskind of music.

The split ends witha few bonus tracks from each artist. Male Misandria presents a lessrefined version of the grindcore previously. The production is muchrawer, probably because the songs were recorded in 2007. “Spazio”isn't as interesting as the earlier tracks and “Love” is yourtypical under-10-seconds grind track. “Vivere da padroni” and “ViOdio” are more interesting thrashy numbers with some audible bassactually popping up. Some synth weirdness pops up here at times mostprominently in “Vi Odio”, where it shows up in the break down andsticks around for the rest of the track. The synths are prettyawkward, and I'm glad they dropped them. Those last two song are alsoa bit over long. The bonus tracks aren't totally unwelcome, but theyreally bring to light how much MM have evolved as song writers in 4or 5 years.

Malveillance onlyhas two bonus tracks. “Cloportes Soumis” fits in with the styleof the earlier songs, and it seems like it might have fit betterthere. A cover of Crude SS's “Nazi Go Home” follows, and it'sbeen infused with the Malveillance sound so much that it's not reallyidentifiable as anything but. Still, it's a nice track that closesoff the album well.

Overall the splitis an excellent showing by both bands and I highly recommend it tofans of either, to fans of grindcore or extreme punk/black metalmixtures, or in general to anyone who likes extreme music that boilsdown to a musical punch to the face. Though Suffering Jesus' labelside is unfortunately dead, they're distro is still open, and thissplit is more than worth its cost.

8.9/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives (Malveillance) / Myspace (Malveillance) / Metal Archives (Male Misandria) / Myspace (Male Misandria) / Buy (Suffering Jesus Productions)

Aborted - Global Flatline(2012)

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 Strnad (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)

Ives - Abandon

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

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

From there, each track becomes longer than the last. Second track “Burning The Incense, Amanita Virosa” opens slowly and unfolds into a mix of black metal, crust punk and sludge. It's an interesting mix, like a black metal Dystopia, but the track quickly becomes more blackened Discharge worship, before switching to Mayhem/Darkthrone inspired black metal, and so on. 7 minutes in and one of the key problems with the demo becomes apparent: the music tends towards predictable shifts back and forth between riffs copped from classic Norwegian bands and Discharge inspired punk leading to unexciting ends.

The best parts of the demo occur in the last half. Part way through “Lost In The Pleasures Of Moonlight”, the music shifts into dark and droning chords which accompany a xylophone (!!!) before exploding into 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 dramatic opening displays vocal variance with some yelling taking the place of the standard black metal rasps that dominate the rest of demo. The song sadly turns into another back and forth between punk and riffs that sound like they wouldn't be out of place in Darkthrone's Under a Funeral Moon. Surprisingly though, Ives then does another bizarre 180 into unique territory when fiddle begins playing over melancholy black metal riffing before fading out (albeit somewhat sloppily) into an instrumental passage of folk consisting of acoustic guitars and haunting fiddle. The black metal comes back in, accompanied by excellent cymbal use. The fiddle stays present for the remainder of the track providing an incredibly enjoyable final minute before the demo ends.

Therein, though, lies another one of the problems. The unique moments are caught in a mire of ho-hum punk and black metal riffing jacked from early Norwegian BM records. The crust/sludge/black opening of “Burning The Incense”, the ambient bridge, creative use of xylophone and thrashy finish to “Lost In The Pleasures Of Moonlight” 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 Ash Pool have done) that tastefully displays their various ideas, or by bringing 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 Abandon has some wonderful moments, but as a whole it fails to thrill.

6.8/10

-Faulty

Metal Archives / Myspace

Morgirion- Infinite Retribution Upon Paradise(2012)

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)

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)

                           Goatwhore-Blood for the Master

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

The most obvious contrast that can be made here is to Goatwhore’s previous album, Carving Out the Eyes of God.  While the wicked hooks and punkish attitude of the latter album had propelled Goatwhore at 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 (and had characterized all of Goatwhore’s albums up until that point) was slightly compromised in favor of a catchier, more accessible approach, something that diminished its power relative to earlier efforts like A Haunting Curse. 

To go over why Blood for the Master truly excels in contrast however, I must emphasize how it brings back much of the claustrophobic aggression that had characterized Funeral Dirge for A Rotting Sun and A Haunting Curse and integrates it with the superb songwriting of Carving, creating a work that is simultaneously catchy and abrasive in the ears of the listener.  The thrash influence is stronger than ever, with songs like “Collapse in Eternal Worth” and “Death to the Architects of Heaven” filled with palm-muted thrashing madness that grows repetitive, but works well in churning the collective momentum of the record in a forward direction. 

The second-wave black metal influences have also returned in full-force, stronger than they have been since the days of Funeral Dirge.  While the last two records took much of the power 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 to Nordic shores, with tracks such as “Beyond the Spell of Discontent” chalk full of tremolo-picked melodic melancholy that hearkens back to Darkthrone and Gorgoroth’s earlier days.  Yet amidst the cacophony of classic, yet clichéd influences, Goatwhore never loses their uniquely American identity, throwing in moments of sludgy southern attitude, most prominently evident in “When Steel and Bone Meet,” one of my personal favorites off the record.

Despite its unique atmosphere and tasteful integration of antediluvian influences within a modern framework, Blood for the Master was not without its weaknesses.  First of all, Louis Benjamin Falgoust II (a mouthful more befitting of a monarch of the Anciens Regime than a black metal vitriol spewer)’s vocals have certainly declined since the days of Soilent Green’s Pussysoul, and here he sounds more like a tired old man attempting to maintain a (annoyingly “hardc0re”) façade of true aggression than the mutilated larynx of nihilistically-fueled anger a black metal vocalist is supposed to be.  I found that this uninspired approach often interfered with the motifs and soundscapes the band was attempting to conjure, often breaking me out of whatever necrotic stupor a great riff puts me in back into the shitstain of reality.  Great vocalists like Erik Danielsson of Watain, Mortuus/Arioch of Funeral Mist, and Naas Alcameth of Nightbringer only serve to intensify the crushing wall of oppression that is black metal, but Ben Falghoust’s voice is utterly devoid of phlegm, black bile, and hate, and in their current state sound more appropriate for a dickless metalcore act than a great band like Goatwhore.

The songwriting, while still memorable, doesn’t have quite the same staying power as some records in their back catalog.  The songs, all structured in a similar manner and somewhat lacking in dynamics, have a tendency to mesh together as in many inferior black metal records, and there are no massive standouts like Carving’s title track or “Forever Consumed Oblivion” on Blood for the Master.  I mentioned before that the palm-muted thrash picking grows extremely irritating if the album is listened to as a whole, and indeed, hearing them used in an identical fashion over and over again gives the album an artificial, inauthentic feeling that sadly shatters the black metal spell.   Despite these complaints, my desire for a more brutal incarnation of Goatwhore was satisfied quite nicely by Blood for the Master, and I’d recommend this album to any acolyte of heavy metal for its accessible yet potent approach to the genre, as well as to more seasoned black metal hierophants looking for some originality in their collection.

Rating: 8/10

Welcoming New Authors And Asking For Your Demos

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