More Metal Vol 19

Revocation – Great is Our Sin (Metal Blade Records)

Skeletonwitch – The Apothic Gloom EP (Prosthetic Records)

Quinta Essentia – Initiates of the Great Work (Deathgasm Records)

Dawn of Demise – The Suffering (Unique Leader Records)

Ringworm – Snake Church (Relapse Records)

Jinjer – King of Everything (Napalm Records)

More Metal Vol. 16

High Fighter – Scars & Crosses (Svart Records)

Fistula – Longing for Infection (Independent)

Unmerciful – Ravenous Impulse (Unique Leader Records)

Verowed – Bodemloos (Argento Records)

Scour – S/T (Housecore Records)

Entrails – Obliteration (Metal Blade Records)

False Flag – Nest of Vipers EP (Independent)

Gladiator – The Art of Battle EP (Independent)

Gruesome – Savage Land (Relapse Records)

Maruta – Remain Dystopian (Relapse Records)

Sigh – Graveward (Candlelight Records)

Six Feet Under – Crypt of the Devil (Metal Blade Records)

Skinless – Only the Ruthless Remain (Relapse Records)

The Great Discord – Duende (Metal Blade Records)

Xul – Extinction Necromance EP (Self Released)

More Metal Vol. 16

Abscession – Grave Offerings (Final Gate Records)

Abstracter – Wound Empire (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

Acero Letal – Veloz Invencible/Duro Metal EP (Witches Brew Records)

Aethyr – Corpus (Cimmerian Shade Records)

Artizan – The Furthest Reaches (Pure Steel Records)

Carnation – Cemetery of the Insane (Final Gate Records)

Deathblow – The Other Side of Darkness EP (Self Released)

Deivos – Theodicy (Selfmadegod Records)

Enforcer – From Beyond (Nuclear Blast Records)

Frosthelm – The Endless Winter (Black Work/Alkemy Brothers)

Fulgora – Stratagem (Housecore Records)

Heaving Earth – Denouncing the Holy Throne (Lavadome Productions)

Keep of Kalessin – Epistemology (Indie Recordings)

King Hitter – S/T EP (Restricted Release/Plastic Head Music)

Kneel Before None – Carnal Disfigurement (Independent)

Needless – The Dark Spirit of Ages (Independent)

Psycroptic – S/T (Prosthetic Records)

Sacral Rage – Illusions in the Infinite Void (Cruz Del Sur Records)

Schizoid Lloyd – The Last Note in God’s Magnum Opus (Blood Music)

More Metal Vol. 15

Abstruse – Inner Space-Outer Void/Outer Space-Inner Void (abstruse.bandcamp.com)

Afterbirth – 2014 Demo (afterbirthnydeathmetal.bandcamp.com) Afterbirth was one of the early pioneers of the brutal/slam death metal style that spewed forth from the bowels of NY in the early 90’s. This Long Island based quintet released one demo in 1994 dubbed Psychopathic Embryotomy and counted among their fans such scene notables as Chris Pervelis of Internal Bleeding and Derek Boyer of Suffocation. The band made substantial waves in the local scene and were noted for their twisted, groove based riffing and the extremely guttural vocal style of Matt Duncan. Then, like a ghost in the night, the band was gone. Almost twenty years later, in 2012 death metal label Pathos Productions contacted the band for permission to re-release the band’s original demo recordings, an act that ultimately led to the band deciding to reform. Afterbirth 2.0 is a much different beast than the early incarnation of the band. While it still retains plenty of elements of the brutal/slam genre they helped to spawn, the technicality has been upped exponentially and the band explores much more progressive territory on this 4 song demo than anything the band has done before. Guitarist Cody Drasser, bassist Dave Case, and skinsman Keith Harris have had two decades to hone and refine their skills since the last time they played together, and the results as heard here are definitely intriguing. The production and tone harkens back to the same kind of sonic territory as early Suffocation and Internal Bleeding, but the music itself is much more convoluted and tricky than anything that came from that early 90’s scene. It’s like this version of Afterbirth has taken their roots and combined them with the more modern elements of the current tech-death and avant-garde metal movements to create a whole new subgenre – avant tech-slam. The guitars have this distinctive venomous rasp to them and the riffing varies from sick groove based parts, to finger-numbing fretwork, to psychotic atonal noise parts that combine to form a very unique sound and style. The bass playing is truly extraordinary, and it has to be to keep up with the guitars and fill in the sonic territory that the absence of a second guitar creates. The drumming, though it does not particularly stand out and make you go “Holy shit!”, more than ably provides the rhythmic force to drive this beast forward. Maybe the biggest thing that keeps this thing rooted in their brutal/slam past are the vocals, which still go for that ultra-low, guttural, death grunt that was a hallmark of the band’s style and has been oft imitated since. Interestingly, after the recording of this demo, the rest of the band did not feel that Duncan’s vocals really complimented the band’s music anymore and they decided to part ways with him and carry on as a three piece instrumental group. I’m sure that change will greatly impact the direction of this new Afterbirth and we’ll probably see them go into ever more complex and challenging material. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Child Bite – Strange Waste (Housecore Records) Phil Anselmo’s Housecore Records has become known for releasing some wildly adventurous bands and albums over the years, but they may have just taken the cake with this one from Michigan’s truly strange Child Bite. I have a soft spot in my heart for the weird and different and this band has wormed its way right in there and set up shop. If Jello Biafra and Mike Patton had a red-headed stepchild then it would likely be Child Bite’s totally schizo vocalist/guitarist Shawn Knight. These Michigan crazies combine metal, art-punk, hardcore, noise, sludge, and the kitchen sink into an acid drenched toxic stew of interplanetary proportions. With nearly every song except for the album closer “In A Cloud of Blood – Bog Infinity” clocking in around or under the two minute mark, Child Bite delivers one short, sharp mindfuck after another on this record that combined comes in just under 20 minutes. The guitar riffs are one second all squiggly and squirmy and the next they are beating you over the head like a meth addled caveman with an anger problem, and you never ever quite know what will be coming around the next drum break. Cross Black Flag and Dead Kennedys with Faith No More and Mr. Bungle in their most weird and wild moments and you get the closest approximation as to what exactly is this mutated beast known as Child Bite. This is truly the soundtrack for an escape from an insane asylum. Grab your straight-jackets and cancel your electro shock therapy appointment, you won’t need it after listening to this truly fucked-up-in-an-oh-so-very-good-way album. You have been warned.

Cretin – Stranger (Relapse Records) Cretin actually got their start as a band way back in 1992, although their original incarnation never actually released anything. It wasn’t until the band reformed in 2003 when drummer Col Jones left his gig with goregrind kingpins Exhumed and they were signed to Relapse Records that the world at large was first exposed to the nasty death/grind stylings of Cretin. They released a couple of EP’s and one full length on Relapse before once again being placed on the backburner in 2006. Somewhere in the interim between then and now, founding guitarist Dan Martinez decided to give up his long fight in suppressing his gender identity issues and came out as a transsexual woman, re-christening herself Marissa Martinez. The band re-emerged in 2013 with Marissa once again at the helm, only this time with some help in the six string duties in the form of ex-Dreaming Dead guitar maven Elizabeth Schall. Stranger is the band’s first record since coming back from their second extended hiatus and it is one monster of a platter of death/grind madness. Marissa may have switched genders on us, but that hasn’t tempered the ferocity with which she attacks the guitar or abuses the microphone. If anything, finally being comfortable in her own skin may have just unleashed a whole new level of gnarly brilliance. This band has pretty much mastered the art of that nasty, old-school death-grind metal that mixes just the right amount of technicality in with the brutality. They push the limits at every turn and it always feels like the whole thing is about to get away from them and spin completely out of control, yet upon a more careful listen you begin to get a sense of the method to the madness and it becomes apparent that the chaos you hear is carefully and meticulously constructed for maximum effect and impact. They mix the frenetic wildness of early Slayer, the savage chaos of Napalm Death, the maniacal wizardry of early Carcass, the hack-and-slash attack of Autopsy, the filthy lo-fi grooves of Repulsion, and the blunt force trauma of Obituary into a maelstrom of death/grind insanity that stands as one of the best releases within the genre of the last decade. The inclusion of Schall on 2nd guitar opened up a whole new world of possibilities and her schizophrenic yet strangely melodic at times axe work adds a whole other dimension to the music. This crew obviously has a sense of humor to match their twisted and depraved music as song titles like “Ghost of Teeth and Hair”, “We Live in a Cave”, “Sandwich for the Attic Angel”, “Mister Frye, The Janitor Guy”, and “They Buried the Lunchbox” will attest. Cretin doesn’t fuck around either, with most of these tracks clocking in around the two minute mark, with the longest being “The Ghost of Teeth and Hair at 3:54 and the shortest being “Husband” at only 0:37. They get in and out with a quickness and throw in more truly cantankerous and frantic riffing into every single second than you can shake a severed limb at. Those two tracks I just mentioned also happen to feature the most oddball moments of sheer absurdity here, such as the bicycle bell sound that just comes out of nowhere at the end of “The Ghost of Teeth and Hair” and the whistling chorus in “Husband”. Totally left field stuff and genius in a tongue in cheek, who gives a fuck kinda way. Over 20 years after they first picked up instruments grinded together for the first time, Cretin has finally put out a record that will stand as a benchmark of the genre that true aficionados will be talking about for years to come.

Cuff – Transient Suffering Through the Ergosphere (Gore House Productions) I’ve reviewed a lot of albums in my time - a whole lot. I have been doing this for one medium or another since 1997. One of the things that has always perplexed me is when I listen to a particular record and it strikes me – how in the hell could these guys have sat in a studio and listened to the playback of this and thought to themselves, “Hell yeah! That’s exactly what I’m going for!” Especially in this day and age when any asshole with a laptop and ProTools can make a decent sounding album. I just don’t get it, not at all. Cuff is one of those bands that found me asking myself that question. These guys hail from Canada and play a slightly demented form of brutal death metal that actually has the potential to be pretty damn good. I mean, it’s not the most technical thing you’ll ever hear, but it doesn’t have to be to be good and brutal and these guys can certainly play their instruments. What ruins the whole thing is really three things – first, the mix is terrible. The drums sounds like cardboard boxes, the guitars sound like they were played through a handheld radio speaker, and the bass (when it’s actually audible) sounds like it was strung with rubber bands. And to make that worse, the band throws all these weird sound effects all over the place which mask the actually music going on underneath. But, the worse thing of all is these damn vocals. Remember that fad that briefly ran through the “deathcore” scene a while back with all the pig grunts and squeals? Well, imagine that only with some sort of distorted robot effect on them. And then imagine that pushed up to the very front of the mix to where the vocals actually sit on top of the backing music instead of merging with it. It’ absolutely horrible. Maybe these kind of vocals could work if they are pushed back in the mix and mixed like they were another instrument instead of the giving them the diva treatment where you layer the vocals over top of everything else. Maybe so, maybe not, but I know for damn sure it would have sounded better than what we have here. I’m sorry, but the mix, the weird sound effects that overtake everything, and the absolutely terrible vocals all combine to make this thing virtually unlistenable. Steer very clear of this one.

Dimesland – Psychogenic Atrophy (Independent) The words “eclectic”, “experimental”, “avant garde”, and “progressive” are bandied about quite a bit in this day and age, almost to the point where the true meaning of the words have become at least somewhat diluted due to sheer overuse. If any of those words still do mean anything at all, then please feel free to apply any or all of them to Oakland, California’s truly weird Dimesland. They refer to their music as “abstract” metal, and that’s a pretty decent description, but I think I’ll just stick with weird. And I mean that in the best way possible. Throw artists like Voivod, Frank Zappa, Deathspell Omega, Psyopus, Into the Moat, early era Cave In, Botch, Dillinger Escape Plan, Dysthythmia, Krallice, and Gorguts in a blender and, more than likely, what you’ll end up with would indeed sound something like what this band spews forth on their debut full length album, Psychogenic Atrophy. With technical precision yet a total disregard for convention, Dimesland spit, sputter, spazz, and space out all over this thing with compositions that always flirt just on the edge of madness. There’s been quite a few bands over the years that have aimed at pushing the envelope of extreme experimental/technical metal, and most of those have fallen into three parallel categories – experimental/technical death metal, experimental/technical black metal and experimental/technical hardcore. Dimesland’s real talent here is in the fact that they bridge the gap between those parallel words – one moment they’re sounding like Gorguts, and then the next they’ll go into some jagged Botch style riff only to then burst into some Dillinger Escape Plan style insanity before then truly blowing your mind with some warped out riff from beyond another dimension ala Deathspell Omega. These guys never spend too long on any one riff or motif but prefer to spin and bob, duck and weave with stop-start precision through an endless parade of twisted musical exploration. It’s really hard to fathom how a band writes and performs music such as this, especially for the poor drummer as Dimesland never sits still for a second. The drummer must always be on his toes and ready to completely switch grooves and patterns, sometime several times in the span of a few seconds. Yet, despite the cavalcade of craziness, the band does manage to construct these tunes with a sense of dynamics and purpose so they don’t come across as just a disjointed collage of random bits of music. Just the sheer amount of patience and dedication to their craft that these guys must have to be able to so finely weave compositions such as this together is astounding. Now, not everything the band does in genius, especially when they venture in more psychedelic, ambient territory like in “Xenolith” – they just seem to lose the plot somewhere in the midst of that tracks 8+ minute duration. But, they certainly make up for that with jaw dropping excursions beyond the average imagination in cuts like “Are They Cannibals?”, “Dying Foretold”, “Malfunctioning Gears”, “Bound in Stone”, and the epic mad genius that is “Odd Feats Are Bid and Won”. This kinda thing is certainly not for everyone, but if you’re into any of the artists mentioned above then this one is a real treat indeed.

Einherjer – Av Oss, For Oss (Indie Recordings) I must admit, I have been aware of Einherjer for a long time and I have heard a few of their tracks on radio shows, comps, and parties with my more hip metalsnob friends, but none of their records has ever come across my desk for review in all my years of doing this and I have never actually sat down and listened to one of their albums. I am fully aware of the band’s pedigree and importance in the history of both black metal and Viking/folk metal, but they have still somehow managed to elude me. I’ve seen the name pop up time and again in books on the history of metal and in interviews with other artists but, like ships passing in the night, Einherjer and I just couldn’t ever seem to hook up until now. I tend to dread reviewing a record by a band with such a long and storied history that I have never really listened to before as I am not fully aware of how the band has grown and changed over time and thus I feel like my review is somewhat lacking in backstory and overall context. I am aware that the band has both black metal and folk metal roots and that over the course of their recorded history they have fluctuated to varying degrees between the two extremes, but that is honestly about the extent of my knowledge on the band. Einherjer has been around since 1993 and Av Oss, For Oss is only the band’s 6th record, a limited output for such a long period of time, but it’s all about quality, not quantity. Whatever fluctuations between the extremes of black and folk metal the band has had in the past, with this record they seem to have aimed for a more balanced approach. These guys take their Norse heritage very seriously and the aura of pagan hymns and folkish melodic motifs pervade this disc, but there is a formidable blackened streak running through the whole thing. However, I also hear a lot of classic metal ala Iron Maiden (check out the main riff from “Hedensk Oppstandelse”) and even, dare I say, classic blues rock influences popping up here and there as well, especially in the lead work of guitarist Aksel Herløe. Check out his solos in “Hammer I Kors” or “Nidstong” or the epic ten minute title track, or the lead hook in “Trelldom” that sounds like it could have been lifted from some mid-era Led Zeppelin rarity, and I think you’ll get a sense of what I’m talking about. This record sees Einherjer melding the experimentation of Enslaved with the folk metal stylings of a band like Ensiferum and topping it off with a bit of Deep Purple. And it works beautifully. They don’t paint themselves into a corner and strictly rely on a specific sound or style that runs through each track, rather each song has its own unique character and presence while at the same time you can still tell that each one is from the same artist. Each track is filled with its fair share of catchy hooks, complex arrangements, and meticulously crafted instrumentation that makes each a little masterpiece in its own right. Einherjer have certainly carved their own niche within the Viking/folk metal scene and what they are doing is widely divergent from the mainstream of the genre. Av Oss, For Oss is not only one of the best, most eclectic, and most well put together Viking metal records I have heard in a while, it is also one of the best metal records I have heard in a while, period. This album actually came out in late October of last year and if I had checked it out earlier it would have been a top contender for my Top 10 of 2014 list for sure.

Ensiferum – One Man Army (Metal Blade Records) The whole Viking/folk metal wave might have crested at this point in time, but no one told Finland’s Ensiferum, and we should all bow down and thank Odin for that. If there ever has been a perfect blueprint detailing exactly how to write and perform this style of heavy metal, then Ensiferum’s latest record One Man Army is certainly it. Ensiferum have been at it hard and heavy since their self-titled debut in 2001 so they are one of the OG’s in the Viking/folk metal world and over the course of 5 previous records they have steadily refined and perfected their sound until they have finally unleashed folk metal perfection in the form of One Man Army, their 6th full length longplayer. This record epitomizes everything that is just so damn cool about this particular brand of metal. You have the hard and heavy riffing that hints at both classic/traditional metal and death metal. You have the folk inspired melodic structures that give it that vibe that is at once exotic and familiar, like deep down within your soul’s deepest memory the music reminds you of your own distant past. You have the multifaceted vocal approach that blends harsh and clean vocals and then throws these gloriously majestic choral parts in there that just make you want to stand up with your flagon of mead and sing along. You have the densely melodic keyboard parts that at times gives it a symphonic vibe but mostly reinforces the folkish feel by mimicking traditional instruments and melody. You have the gorgeous acoustic passages that conjure images of late night drinking and feasting by the campfire next to some frozen northern fjord. There are many folk metal bands that are good at one or two of these aspects, but Ensiferum is the only one that can successfully combine them all into the perfect folk metal storm. “Epic” is a word that gets bandied about probably more than it should when discussing metal music, but honestly there really is no better word to describe the might and majesty that Ensiferum lay down here. “Fun” is also a word that instantly comes to mind when I listen to stuff like this. I mean what better style of metal is there to get drunk and party to? I certainly can’t think of one. And this record is most definitely fun, but that certainly doesn’t mean that the lads in Ensiferum don’t take their music seriously. As far as composition, songwriting, and performance, there is none better within the genre as these guys. Every song is meticulously crafted and every note is perfectly placed. All the fat has been cleaned from the bone and all you are left with is a lean, mean folk metal machine. These guys obviously spent a lot of time honing each and every one of these tracks until they had forged them into a mighty blade with which to smite everyone and everything in their path. Songs like “Heathen Horde”, “One Man Army”, “Cry for the Earth Bounds”, and “My Ancestors Blood” all blast you in the face with scintillating melody and crushing heaviness and if you are not inspired to get up on your feet and dance around like a berserker then you have no true metal heart. It all leads up to the epic upon epics, the 11+ minute album climax “Descendants, Defiance, Domination” that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster through many different moods and leaves you thoroughly exhausted. There are a few odd moments here that will take you slightly aback upon first listen, but only reinforce the sense of abandon and devil-may-care nature of the music and this band. Take the track “Two of Spades”. It begins as an absolute ripping folk metal track with a lightning quick and uber-folky guitar melody and lots of double bass, and then out of nowhere these guys break it down like the BeeGees into a… disco part? Yep. Indeed. And you know what? It works. Folk metal disco. Who knew? Then you have “Neito Pohjolan” which is an all-acoustic number with a female lead vocal that has a country and western feel to it. It still has that folk metal vibe, but there’s some pedal steel guitars and an Outlaw Josey Wales kinda thing going on at the same time. We’ll call it saloon folk. Most of the more metal people would probably skip over this track, but it’s actually a really good song and the musicianship on display is absolutely brilliant. My review copy also included 4 bonus tracks, each killer in their own right. You have the “Rawhide” cover first. Yep. Rawhide. How’s that for your country and western vibe? Ensiferum certainly put their own stamp on it and it’s definitely metaled-up quite a bit, but it’s a surprisingly faithful and unquestionably fun rendition. They throw in a killer cover of Barathrum’s “Warmetal” and a song called “Candour and Lies” that is obviously a cover of someone but I can’t find who and has a similar saloon folk vibe as “Neito Pohjolan” complete with accordion. And then there’s the final track, simply called “Bonus Song” that strips the essence of Ensiferum down to its core essentials for a deliciously tongue in cheek anthem that revels in and celebrates all things heavy metal. This one will be drunkenly sung at countless metal bashes from here to eternity, mark my words.

Gale – Vol. 1 (Independent) Evidently there has been a surge in sludge/doom bands from Arizona in recent years and Gale is just the latest monster to be birthed from what is apparently a very thriving scene out there in the middle of the desert. Though it’s roughly on the same latitude, Arizona, with its sand and sun, is a far cry from the dismal, muddy swamps of the Dirty South, which has this far been the biggest hotbed of sludge/doom music in the U.S. Their locale probably does have much to do with the nature of this music which is much more ethereal and atmospheric than their swampy cousins, but that certainly doesn’t take away from the crushing heaviness these guys can unleash. Their debut release, appropriately titled Vol. 1, is a lesson in raw tones, gargantuan grooves, and slowly boiling and bubbling atmospheric/psychedelic freak outs that one moment simmer and sizzle and the next explode into world shaking blasts of primal, archetypal fury. These guys actually remind me of a slightly rawer, more organic version of Neurosis as both bands have that similar otherworldy, transcendental nature to their approach to their craft. There’s some Sleep and Eyehategod in there as well, but I’m definitely hearing more of a Neurosis influence than anything else. All four members of the band contribute lead vocals and each has a distinctive sound and style, which makes for a very interesting listen, especially when they all come together at once, and always keeps you guessing in the vocal department. I’m not sure this actually qualifies as a full album as it’s only 5 tracks at roughly 26 minutes, so it’s really more of an EP. Gale makes the most of those 26 minutes and songs like “To Be Free”, “The Counseled”, “Unsung”, and “Burn Your Person” are some of the best sludge/doom tracks I’ve heard in recent memory. What’s really impressive is the fact that the band apparently recorded most of this thing in one take. That’s virtually unheard of in this day and age and I’m sure that heavily contributes to the organic vibe that permeates this platter. It’s not a total homerun, however, as track 3,”To Build a Fire”, which neatly divides the album in half, is more or less a throw away track as it just kinda ambles about and really goes nowhere. Aside from that, Vol. 1 is a very high quality debut with high marks for creativity and authenticity. I look forward to hearing where these guys take it from here.

Graveyard Ghoul/Cryptic Brood –- The Graveyard Brood (Split EP, Final Gate Records) What we have here is a split EP from two of Germany’s finest old school death metal merchants, Graveyard Ghoul and Cryptic Brood, each pumping out three tracks apiece of total old school death metal magic. Both of these bands live and die by the riff and understand that you don’t have to be a virtuoso to play some really kick ass metal music. It doesn’t matter if you can pack a million 32nd notes in the space of 4 bars or play on 12/8 time, what matters most in metal, especially death metal, is – does it sound evil? Does it reach out with shining metallic meathooks and grab you by the ears and force your head to spontaneously bob up and down in a whiplash like manner? If there’s anything that can be said for either of these bands it is that they certainly know how to sound fucking evil. Graveyard Ghoul is up first and they have a very authentic sounding death metal approach that harkens back to both the American style of bands like Death (in their early days) as well as the European style of bands like Entombed. The production is raw and gritty, with that warm analog feel, which totally accentuates the vibe and aura of the tunes. Cryptic Brood takes a more doom metal approach to their old school death metal and come out with some super tasty jams. These guys are my favorite of the two bands here as the three tunes they lay down are just a tad more memorable than Graveyard Ghoul’s and Cryptic Brood are just a little more adventurous in their sound. They can go from a slithering, slow doom crawl to a blasting double bass part to a quick punk style two step part and back again all within a minute or two and they make it all work cohesively together. I also just love the unbelievably dank and dirty guitar tones these guys dial in. Again, as with Graveyard Ghoul, the production has that warm analog tone and total garage vibe which is just perfect for this style. There is a fine line that you have to dance when you shoot for this type of production values as the music can easily become an indistinct mess, but whomever helmed the boards for both of these bands certainly understood exactly what they were going for and what it should sound like. This is a must have for all of you old school death heads out there.

Hate – Crusade:Zero (Napalm Records) Poland’s Hate have long toiled under the shadow of their more prominent countrymen like Vader, Behemoth, and Decapitated and have never really seemed to garner the same attention or recognition despite a long string of high quality albums going all the way back to their debut in 1996. They have long been praised in the metal press and in their own country but, especially here in the US they pretty much seemed to have flown under the radar. Perhaps one problem has been the revolving door of band members entering and exiting with the only constant being Adam “ATF Sinner” Buszko on guitar and vocals. Crusade:Zero is the band’s 9th full length record and, if there is any justice in the metal world, this record should once and for all catapult them into the upper echelons of Polish death metal along with those bands mentioned above. Perhaps the untimely passing of their bassist Slawek "Mortifier" Arkhangelsky while on tour in 2013 inspired Buszko to new heights of creative passion but, whatever the cause, this record definitely sees Hate reach new heights in chaotic, brutal yet sublimely sophisticated death metal insanity. This is most definitely a death metal album, yet there are streaks of blackness running throughout this thing that gives it that extra edge of evilness that sends this thing completely over the top. With that being said, I would hesitate to call this “blackened death metal” as the black metal touches are more of a subtle twist rather than an overtly prominent element to the music. I must say that Buszko and fellow axe slinger Konrad "Destroyer" Ramotowski (who’s been with the band since 2006) have a very eccentric and distinctive riffing style that maximizes the chaotic nature of the music to utmost effect. Slippery and serpentine, the guitars slice, dice, duck, and weave in and around each other to create a maelstrom of wicked riffery that sounds quite unlike anything else going in today’s metal scene. You can definitely hear elements and influence from their most famous Polish brethren Behemoth, but it’s more of a nod of reverence than strict plagiarism and I would even venture to say that there are places on Crusade:Zero where Hate even trumps Nergal and Co. with their sophisticated, well-articulated arrangements and clever fretwork. In tracks like “Leviathan”, “Doomsday Celebrities”, “Hate is the Law”, “Rise Omega the Consequence!”, and “Dawn of War” ATF Sinner and Mortifer lock horns like two majestic stags and proceed to engage in a frighteningly violent yet dreadfully beautiful dance of six string death as they unleash a tantalizing torrent of blistering riffs that interlock with each other and play off of each other to perfection. There’s not really any traditional verse/chorus structure or anything like that to these songs, but rather they unfold in a very well planned yet entirely organic, storybook way. Few riffs are ever repeated, yet they are constructed and pieced together in such a very musical and dynamic fashion that it doesn’t come across as a mere collection of riffs thrown against a wall, but rather one coherent and thoroughly engaging piece of music. The one and only downfall here is the fact that the band opens the album with not one, but two intros – the first, “Vox Dei (A Call from Beyond)”, being a symphonic style piece and the other, “Lord Make me an Instrument of Thy Wrath!”, is a short guitar/bass/drums instrumental. I understand building the drama, but there is such a thing as overkill. But, when the record finally does kick in with track three, “Death Liberator”, it’s nothing but pure death metal brilliance from there on out. Well, except for the little outro “Black Aura Debris”, which bookends the album with this weird sound collage that just seems out of place and superfluous. If you’ve somehow missed out on Hate before, you should definitely jump headfirst into this one. Nergal should watch out – if Hate keeps it up at this level, they may just dethrone him as the king of the Polish metal scene.

Hateful Abandon – Liars-Bastards (Candlelight Records) Gothic Industrial. That’s a bit of a new one on me. OK, I’ll bite. Hateful Abandon hail from Bristol, UK and have been around since 2004. Liars-Bastards is actually a re-release of the group’s 3rd album, a kind of stop-gap measure after they signed with Candlelight Records while they work on new material. These guys take the sturm and drang of industrial artists like Einsturzende Neubauten and the Swans and mix it with a glossy black sheen of post-punk, particularly the more “gothic” examples of that genre like Joy Division. The two influences do actually meld very well and Hateful Abandon do a fine job of creating a dreary, bleak, and atmospheric ambiance across these 7 tracks. But, what they don’t so very well is write and interesting song. These cuts come across more like audio collages or sound experiments rather than actual songs with melody, a distinct rhythmic drive, and a discernable focus and direction. Vocalist and group mastermind Vice Martyr does a pretty spot on job of aping Joy Division’s Ian Curtis in sound and delivery and if you didn’t know any better you wouldn’t be too far out of line in thinking that someone sampled some old Joy Division vocal tracks and pasted them over the top of some third rate B-grade Sci-Fi movie soundtrack. Honestly, about all this music is actually good for would be as a movie soundtrack. It’s wandering, aimless nature might actually work within that context. Vice Martyr does vary it up a bit with some harsher vocals on a few tracks, but that doesn’t make the music any more interesting or impactful. In order for something like this to work, you have to have a commanding vocalist who draws all the attention to him/her with arresting style and presence, like a Marilyn Manson. Unfortunately, Vice Martyr just doesn’t demand that kind of attention or respect with the performances here. I am sure there is a niche for this sort of thing and I have seen some reviews of this that have lauded the group with praises, but it’s definitely not my cup of tea. Yawn. Next, please.

Horncrowned – Defanatus (Ketzer Records) If anyone on this earth would know about violence and war, then the people of Bogota, Columbia would definitely be high up on the list. That is exactly where the vengeful, blackened beast that is Horncrowned hails from and Defanatus is the band’s fourth full length record. This is no crying in your absinthe or howling with the orcs style of black metal, boys and girls, this stuff is pure blasphemous hatred, violence, and chaos. This is the sound of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse descending from burning skies to wreak havoc upon the earth. This is the sound of the Dogs of War unleashed. Imagine bands like 1349 or Horna, only even faster and uglier. Except for the brief intro and outro, the other 10 tracks that make up Defanatus are fury personified in sound with the band not letting up for one second from the raging onslaught of blast beats and evil riffage. The sheer speed and intensity of this stuff is damn near overwhelming at times. I really don’t know how any band could keep up this level of intensity for an entire hour long live set without the drummer ending up a quivering mass of broken bones and distended flesh by the end of it all. The production here really accents the chaotic nature of the music. It’s not all lo-fi and “necro”, but yet it’s not all spit and shine either. It’s actually a happy medium between the two that gives the music the aura of the catacombs while retaining enough distinction between the instruments that the whole thing doesn’t descend into an incoherent audio miasma. There’s a sheen of ghostly reverb that covers the whole production, and yet it’s not so much that instead of accenting the music it becomes a hindrance to the music, as often happens when bands play with the reverb knob a bit too much in the studio. The rhythm guitars and the drums are all up in your face, with the vocals and the lead guitars actually a little buried in the mix. This gives the vocals and leads this feeling as if they’re echoing down some cavernous tomb from far away, which, believe it or not, actually works. And the leads themselves are like a blackened Kerry King – insane blasts of six string strangulation and mutilation that seem defy any musical sense and yet sound so damn cool. Sometimes you have to strain to hear them underneath the blasting riffs and drums, but that just adds to the sense of claustrophobic chaos that pervades this music. If you like your black metal fast as fuck and evil as hell, then you should definitely pick up this one by Horncrowned and prepare to have your flesh peeled from you bones, track by furious track.

In the Company of Serpents – Merging in Light (independent) Denver, Colorado’s In the Company of Serpents is a two piece sludge/doom duo and this three track EP, Merging in Light, is the pairs’ 3rd official release. The band consists of guitarist/vocalist Grant Netzorg and skin basher Joseph Weller Myer. I’m not sure if it’s the result of some immense studio trickery, but this band puts out a sound that is thicker, heavier, sludgier, and more bombastic that most bands with three times as many musicians in their ranks. The guitar tone is just massive – like a slow boiling volcano that is slowly and inexorably oozing lava down its slopes to envelop that hapless citizens on the plains below. You can see it coming from a mile away but you just can’t get out of the way. These guys must be enjoying the new found legalities in their home state because the influences of stoned out sludge/doom kings like Weedeater and Sleep are all over this thing. The band also had a bit of the sparse, minimalistic, and experimental psychedelic doom stylings of Earth, which is the band that the founding members of In the Company of Serpents initially bonded over and that influence is indeed obvious, especially in the epic 3rd and final entry here, “A Union of Opposites”. I also get a bit of an “outlaw cowboy” kind of a vibe here as well, like the soundtrack to some old school Clint Eastwood spaghetti western crossed with a post-apocalyptic zombie flick. It sounds crazy, I know, but one listen to this and I think you may just hear where I’m coming from with that analogy. Vocally, Netzorg actually reminds me a lot of Kirk Windstein from Crowbar, with a bit more of a blackened touch to his tone and delivery. This a pretty cool release from these Rocky Mountain lads and if you’re into sludge, doom, or any derivative thereof, then these guys indeed deserve your attention.

Innsmouth – The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Crime Records) What self-respecting metalhead is not a fan of H.P. Lovecraft? Lovecraft’s cosmic horror and Chtulu mythos has inspired countless horror writers, movies, and metal music, particularly death metal, for decades. Denmark’s technical deathsters Innsmouth take that inspiration one step further by naming their band and their debut album after one of Lovecraft’s most famous stories. The eight track A Shadow Over Innsmouth is a promising debut from this Danish crew, but it is plagued by some very obvious failures. First, the positives – the most notable being the exquisite guitar skills of Thor Sejersen “Krieg” Riis. You can tell this guy worships at the altar of the 80’s guitar gods and probably has the entire Shrapnel Records catalog on his shelf at home. His fluid, often sweep picked or tapped leads stand out all over this thing and he often pulls out some pretty rad little tricks with harmonics and the Whammy pedal that often add an extra wow factor to the music. I also can’t fail to mention the thrilling bass work of Martin Munch 'Der Mönch' Christensen, who lays down a truly excellent and technically challenging foundation that allows Riis enough room to do his thing all while injecting his own wow factor that lies just underneath the surface. The riffing itself is a blend of highly technical death mixed with plenty of thrash and even some slight black metal influence, particularly on the tracks where they had some background keyboard work. There are moments where the riffing is truly captivating, but they often get a little jumbled and confused and at times on this record it seems as if a lot of this material was just kind of thrown together with only the idea of throwing as many quirky, techy riffs as they could in there while sacrificing the overall listening experience, especially for the non-musicians in the audience. Now for the total downside – those programmed drums gotta go. They just sound too herky, jerky and inhuman and give the whole thing a stiff, almost robotic feel that definitely detracts from the overall quality and impact of the music. It is possible to get a decent, near organic drum performance out of machine these days as new drum programs have come along that have really changed the game in that regard, but Riis’ drum programming here leaves much to be desired. He really just needs to stick with what he does best and shred the six strings. I still prefer a real drummer, however, and I think that with the right drummer here this thing would instantly go from a pretty good, if near fatally flawed debut to a rock solid record that would put Innsmouth right up there with the big boys. This record is worth a listen if not for anything else than to check out Riis’ guitar work. This guy is shredtastic and I have a feeling we’ll be hearing much more about him from the guitar community. Hopefully these guys can find a drummer who can complement their skills so that they can show what they are truly capable of on their next record. I do have to give mad props to the many Evil Dead/Army of Darkness references all over this album. From several sound clips of come choice Ash quotes, to naming one of the songs after the incantation in Army of Darkness, “Clatu Verata Nictu”, I can’t help but love a band that has a reverence for those classic flicks.

Kauan – Muistumia (Blood Music) Kauan are a Russian/Ukrainian group that has only been around since 2007 and have already released 5 records prior to this new one, Muistumia. This is my first exposure to this group and I have to say, if all of their previous records are as good and as interesting as this one then I have sorely missed out. Apparently this album is mostly rerecorded material from the band’s previous works, so it would probably be safe to assume that I have indeed missed out on a lot. What we have here is a very unique melding of doom metal, folk metal, traditional metal, death metal, black metal, symphonic metal, and ethereal post-rock jams that is truly mesmerizing. A lot of times when bands try to throw in so many varied influences into one sonic stew it often ends up a cluttered mess, but not so with Kauan. This stuff is gorgeously constructed with gripping and powerful doom style riffs, epic folk inspired melodies, beautifully layered symphonic parts, and anguished, impassioned songwriting that transcends the mundane. Heavy guitars crash against sparkling piano melodies which morph into lamentably haunting viola parts. The music moves in waves and patterns that draws the listener into a whole new world of doom laden bliss. One moment they’re hammering away at a huge riff and then the next they’ll hit you with these folkish melodies that have been turned inside out and re-translated into something altogether different only to then suck you down into a slow post-rock jam with all kinds of chilling classical inspired melodies dancing around each other like dark nymphs performing some sort of magical faerie ritual. There is no one instrument that shines above the others here as all work with and around each other to weave a flowing and floating tapestry of wonderfully mysterious and darkly exotic compositions The vocals are a real highlight here and they range from a blackened rasp to both male and female clean vocals that are truly beautiful and really fit the music well. All the lyrics are in Russian (at least I assume it’s Russian) so I have no idea what they’re singing about, but it only serves to give the music that much more depth and exotic mystery. This whole thing is just astonishingly well done. If I had heard this record before the end of 2014 it would have most certainly been on my Top 10 list, it is that good and I am that impressed.

Obsessor – Assassins of the Pentagram (Deathstrike Records) To start off, do not – I repeat do not – confuse this band with the Virginia HC band of the same name. This Obsessor is a far different beast than the American band with which they share a moniker. Germany’s Obsessor is like the perfect melding of three different decades of metal glory. Take the 70’s classic melodic power metal of Maiden and Priest, add some 80’s speed/thrash metal, and top that off with the blackened atmosphere and aura of the 90’s 2nd wave of black metal and you have the exact formula that Obsessor takes on this record, Assassins of the Pentagram, the band’s second full length effort. Though the guitar tones are covered in heaps of that necro sounding grime and the recording itself is awash in reverb that adds to that blackened aura, at its heart Obsessor is a speed metal band. You can totally hear the dirty Germanic thrash influence ala Sodom, a touch of the gnarly chaos of Brazil’s Sarcafago, as well as the genre’s American progenitors like Nuclear Assault, Agent Steel, and the early days of Metallica and Megadeth. This whole album is loaded with lightning quick riffs, tons of fist pumping galloping parts, circle pit inducing drumming, and driving bass lines. These guys aren’t gonna bludgeon you to death with immense heaviness, but rather they slice you into a million fine pieces with razor blade precision until you’re left a quivering mass of diced flesh on the pavement. Thankfully, the band found that fine balance between the dirty production values they were aiming for and actual clarity between the instruments as every single guitar lick, thumping bassline, and rollicking drum fill is perfectly distinguishable. Vocalist Shellshokker mostly mines a territory that is somewhere between a deathly growl and a blackened howl, with occasional forays into all out King Diamond high pitched wails that at first seem to come out of nowhere but once you get used to them they serve as periodic exclamation marks to the frantic chaos going on underneath. My only complaint with this record is that every track is approximately the same tempo and has the same overall mix so that after a bit it does tend to wash together, but that only detracts slightly from the record’s overall impact. That one little nitpick aside, this is about as good as black-thrash gets. If you’re into bands like Toxic Holocaust and Skeletonwitch then you should check out Obsessor and find out what black-thrash is really all about.

Posthum – The Black Northern Ritual (Indie Recordings) Norway’s Posthum celebrated their 10th anniversary as a band in 2014 with the release of their third full length album, The Black Northern Ritual. This record is a bit of a departure from the band’s last effort, 2012’s Lights Out, which was a study in ambient blackness that garnered mixed reviews. This time out the band has gone in a much more direct and far less atmospheric direction and has produced an album of solid, mostly mid-paced black metal compositions. This album isn’t breaking any new ground by any means and the band does follow a pretty traditional approach to constructing their blackened opuses, but they do have the ability to shine within the confines of the box they have placed themselves in. Many styles of music have their traditional forms that must be adhered to in order for it to still be considered a “pure” form of the style, (American blues being the prime example of this) and it becomes not so much what you play but rather how it is played that distinguishes the music and the artist’s unique character. Posthum are students of the genre of black metal and have the ability to reinterpret the style into something that is familiar yet all their own. With just guitar, bass, and drums the band creates a richly detailed sound that is enhanced by a tight and focused production that allows for each little nuance to shine through. And it is those little nuances that are so important in a band like this because without them it becomes easy for the band’s music to fade into the background with all the other bands of their ilk. I particularly enjoy the subtle lead guitar playing of Mats Kjeserud who has a spooky and melodic style that really goes well with the music. He doesn’t wow you with sweeps, taps, and a million 32nd notes per second but rather gets under your skin with creepy, crawling melodic lines that are brilliant in their simplicity. His skeletal solo lines in “To the Pits” is a prime example of just what I am talking about. Again, sometimes it’s not what you play, but how you play it. This stuff has all the hallmarks of the more “necro” side of black metal and yet it doesn’t sound “necro” at all. The music contained on The Black Northern Rituals is much too graceful in its dark majesty to be lumped in with all that. Like a good ghost story, it’s subtle grimness and sublimely brooding maliciousness masks an underlying violence that leaves the listener with a sense of haunting anxiousness. This is the sound of old school black metal performed by guys who can actually play their instruments well, have an ear for a quality recording, and are careful and contemplative when building their compositions. If you are a fan of the more underground and raw forms of black metal but you are sick and tired of the crusty, ugly recordings that buries the music underneath layers of reverb drenched grime then you may have just found what you are looking for with Posthum’s The Black Northern Rituals.

Primordial – Where Greater Men Have Fallen (Metal Blade Records) Primordial has been around as band going all the way back to 1987 and over that time they have become Ireland’s most blessed and respected metal sons. (Well, except for Thin Lizzy, of course) That’s nearly 30 years, and over that time they have released 8 full length records that have seen the band slowly grow, develop, and mature in a very organic and, dare I say, primordial fashion. They began as a more straight-up melodic black metal band with their 1995 debut, Imrama, only to begin to include more folk influences into the music on the next few records, including using traditional instruments like mandolins. By their 2002 album Storm Before Calm, the band began to explore a more darker direction and the next few albums saw them beginning to eschew some of the more folkish trappings and go for a more raw, doomy, direct, yet grandiosely epic style that produced two of the best records of the past decade, To The Nameless Dead and Redemption of the Puritan’s Hand. With each album that Primordial has produced, they have steadily built upon their own achievements to create a steady arc of continual creative and artistic development, a feat that is rare in the music world. Most bands usually have peaks and valleys in the history of their recorded output, and all too often a band will put own one really great record and then spend the rest of their careers chasing that dragon yet never quite reaching it. That has not been the case with Primordial and this album, Where Greater Men Have Fallen, is yet another testament to that fact. This album sees the band further expand on their raw yet epic and doomy approach of their previous two albums to create a majestic masterwork of emotionally charged and expertly crafted heavy metal music. There is still an underlying layer of both the band’s black metal roots and their folk metal experimentation all over this thing, which only further enhances the might and majesty of these songs. Each one of these 8 tracks is a unique entity in and of itself and deftly displays Primordial’s ability to forge truly epic metal compositions, but when you take the album in as a whole it is a resplendent, transcendental journey that truly must be experienced to be appreciated fully. Mere words cannot describe it.
The album begins with the title track, which almost has an Amon Amarth in their more dirge-y moments kinda vibe going on with its steady pace and layered riff structure. Vocalist Alan Averill makes his presence known very early on this record with a very commanding performance on this song. While he may not be the most technically skilled vocalist in the biz, you can literally hear the passion he pours into the music with every syllable he utters. Track 2, “Babel’s Tower”, begins with a slow, arpeggiated guitar riff that heaves to and fro like a ship rolling on the waves and features a soaring vocal line from Averill. About the three and half minute mark the song shifts directions slightly as the band navigates through some majestic chord changes only to break the song back down for another, more understated verse section. The song then explodes again into flight as the band rides out the last part of the song with some perfectly executed melodic lead work. “Come the Flood” sees the band first showing their melodic black metal roots with a wonderful tremolo picked riff that also echoes a bit of the band’s folkish melodicism. There’s still a very similar epic vibe here as on the first two tracks, only this time things just feel a little more dark and foreboding. The song traverses through various permutations of the main riff throughout much of the song as the band plays with the dynamics and injects layers of nuance that build the track up steadily into realms of heavy metal nirvana. Where “Come the Flood” saw the band flirting with their black metal roots, track 4, “The Seed of Tyrants”, has them fully embracing it with a pretty much straight up blasting, droning black metal track that just burns everything in its path. “Ghosts of the Charnel House” is next and it definitely has the most straight up “rock” or “classic metal” sound of the entire album, while still retaining that distinct raw, epic, doomy vibe that flows across the whole thing. The way that the band structures this song reminds me of some of the more epic moments of Iron Maiden’s catalog and it has just as much impact as anything that classic band did. “The Alchemist’s Head” is certainly the weirdest and most “evil” sounding cut on this album and for that reason it’s probably my favorite. It has a kinda progressive/avant-garde black metal feel to it and it is definitely the band’s most challenging composition on the entire record. Discordant riffs crash against twisting arpeggios and thunderous chord voicings while Averill’s apoplectic performance is truly riveting. “Born to Night” starts of a bit slow at first with an echoing, melancholy and folkish guitar playing over the sound of a storm for the first few minutes. But when it kicks in, boy does it ever kick in, with a wicked and catchy riff that grabs you right by the balls. This track has a very grandiose and doomy feel to it with its heavy, single note riffing and another splendidly passionate vocal performance from Averill. The band rides out on a galloping riff that features some very tasty harmony guitar parts that would make any Viking metal band proud. The album closes with “Wield Lightning to Split the Sun” which sees the band opening the track by echoing their more folk influenced work with an intro that features acoustics guitars and a steady, ritualistic, tribal drum beat. The body of the song is an epic hymn (I know there’s that damn word “epic” again, but there really is no better adjective to describe it) that features some very richly layered guitar parts that envelop the listener in a swirling cloud of metallic beauty.
Time and again, Primoridial have proven that they can one-up themselves with each successive record. In a career that seems to be all peaks and no valleys it would stand to reason that Primordial couldn’t possibly keep that streak going forever. Where Greater Men Have Fallen makes a bold statement that, while that previous statement may eventually prove to be true, Primordial hasn’t succumbed to reason yet and once again makes an album that takes the band to an even higher pinnacle of achievement in an already storied career. I’m not sure if they can take it even higher on the next go round, but I certainly look forward to finding out.

Shredhead – Death is Righteous (Mighty Music/Target Group) Ok, for starters, I got to give this band mad props for the name. I mean – Shredhead. It’s the perfect thrash metal name. Just when you thought all the good band names were taken, up pops one that makes you go, “That’s brilliant! Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?” These guys originally hail from Israel, but now call Berlin, Germany home (maybe a little irony there??), and they play a hard-charging, violently aggressive brand of thrash that crosses the anger and intensity of Pantera, the precision and melody of Testament, the virulent aggression of DRI, with just a slight European twist ala Sodom and Destruction. Death is Righteous is the band’s second full length album and it stands as a bold statement to the thrash metal world that a new player is on the block. This is not just another retro thrash band, however. The whole retro thrash thing has become hip over the last few years and has spawned a ton of bands trying to recapture the 80’s glory days. Shredhead is a completely modern thrash band that takes its cues from every era and phase of thrash and turns them into something new, vibrant, and exciting. Guitarist Yotam Nagor comes across as the mutant child of Dimebag Darrell and Eric Peterson and completely slays with razor sharp, barbed wire spiked riffage that is catchy as hell while retaining that perfect amount of vehemence and spite that is so necessary for a good thrash metal band. His lead playing is not gonna completely wow you and you can definitely tell the primary focus is on the riff work, but when he does break into a lead he does so with taste and a refined skill that hints at something more while always seeming to hold back just a bit. Just once I would have like to hear him completely cut loose and just go for it, but maybe that’s just the guitar geek in me. Drummer Roee Kahana is an absolute beast and his kinetic yet highly precise playing is a big reason why this whole thing works so well. He complements Nagor’s rhythms perfectly and he knows exactly when to throw down a neck jerking groove and when to put the pedal to the metal and crank the intensity up several notches. Vocalist Aharon Nagoza sounds like and even angrier Phil Anselmo, if that’s even possible, and his powerful vocals, blood curdling screams, and commanding presence are the exact ingredient that pushes this thing fully over the top into metal bliss. My one and only complaint is that Lee Lavy’s bass playing is too often buried in the mix. You can tell it’s there, but it only occasionally rears its head to fully feel and hear its impact. That one minor quibble aside, there’s really not a dud to be found on this 11 track platter, but the songs that particularly stand out to me are “Devil’s Race”, the title track, “Hallucinations” “Walk With the Dead”, “Witness Hell” and “I Hate Myself”. If you’re looking for a quality thrash metal record, especially if you are becoming sick of the whole retro-thrash thing, then you can’t do any better than this one.

Triumvir Foul – An Oath of Blood and Fire EP (Godz of War/Third Eye Temple) The mysterious duo known as Triumvir Foul hail from Portland, Oregon, a surprising hotbed of underground metal of late. This four song EP is the band’s debut release and it is one dirty, ugly, stinking, filthy mess – and I mean that with the utmost admiration and respect. I must admit, of all the ‘retro’ subgenres of metal that have cycled back around and become hip again, I have a particular soft spot in my heart for the resurgence of old-school death metal. Be it of the Floridian or European variety, I just love it all. Death metal just seemed to be more real, evil, and genuinely dangerous back then. Maybe because the bands were more worried about writing hooky, truly evil sounding riffs that melting your face with a thousand notes a second, or maybe it was because of the dank and cavernous production values and gritty aura that permeated many of those releases – whatever it was, it was just so fucking cool, especially to my pubescent mind at the time. (Yeah – I guess I’m showing my bias and my age here.) Triumvir Foul captures all of the essential essence that made underground death metal back in “the day” so damn good. The guitar tone is perfectly dirty and gnarly, with that distinctive mid-range bite of old school Swedish death metal and the riffing is creative and catchy as hell while still retaining that primitive ‘caveman’ quality of the best early Floridian stuff. The vocals are hauntingly evil sounding; all drenched in reverb to make it sound like they’re emanating straight from the depths of Hades itself. The production is crap – but in a really good way. Like ‘necro’ black metal, true old-school underground death metal needs to have that raw, saturated, swampy tone and feel to it to give it just the right vibe. If it’s too polished and pretty it just doesn’t have the same impact and can come across as trite and cliché. No, this EP sounds like it could have just as easily come out in 1989 as 2015. This Ep has three highly contagious originals, “The Vacuum of Knots”, Abhorrent Depths”, “Silence Continuum”, and one genuinely faithful Autopsy cover, “Embalmed”. True old school death metal ‘heads rejoice, this is one you really shouldn’t miss. And this is just a tease of more to come. Word is that the band is currently working on a full length through Blood Harvest Records, to be released at some point this year. Until then, feast your ears on this.

Venom – From the Very Depths (Spinefarm Records)

Baring Teeth – Ghost Chorus Among the Old Ruins (Willowtip Records)

Deconstructing Sequence – "Access Code" EP (Self Released)

Foreseen HKI – Helsinki Savagery (20 Buck Spin)

Horisont – "Break the Limit" EP (Rise Above Records)

Putrid Christ – Burning Temples of the Holy (Times End Records)

Riwen – "Riwen" EP (Indie Recordings)

Sahhr – Altar of Maggots (Domestic Genocide Records)

Sedna – S/T (Drown Within Records)

Spectral Haze – I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains (Soulseller Records)

Vargsang - In the Mist of Night (Obscure Abhorrence Productions)

Witches of Doom – Obey (Sliptrick Records)

Wizard Rifle – Here in the Deadlights (Seventh Rule Records)

The Anthrophobia Founding Fathers – Endgame (DRP Records)

Anaal Nathrakh – Desideratum (Metal Blade Records)

Annihilated – XIII Steps to Ruination (Unique Leader Records)

As Blood Runs Black – Ground Zero (StandBy Records)

Atriarch – An Unending Pathway (Relapse Records)

Hideous Divinity – Cobra Verde (Unique Leader Records)

Icon and the Black Roses – Thorns (Self Released)

Internal Bleeding – Imperium (Unique Leader Records)

Orbweaver – Strange Transmissions from the Neuralnomicon (Corpse Flower Records)

Owl – The Last Walk (Zeitgeister)

Party Cannon – Partied in Half (Gore House Productions)

Skalmold – Meo Vaettum (Napalm Records)

Sodom – Sacred Warpath (Steamhammer/SPV Records)

Well, I for one, have to say we could have waited for the band to release the full length and I hope that this track is not fully representative of what we should expect from the next Sodom record. It’s not bad, per se, it’s just not great by any means and I really don’t understand what the impetus was behind going ahead and releasing this as an EP. It’s only been a year since the band released its last album, Epitome of Torture, so it’s not like the band has been out of the loop for any extended period of time and needs to be introduced to the public. “Sacred Warpath” itself is a mid-paced thrash number that has a pretty non-descript main riff and, honestly, is easily forgettable. There’s nothing here that really jumps out and grabs you by the throat. The three bonus live tracks are nice and are pretty damn good representation of the band in a live setting, but again, does this really warrant its’ own release? That is indeed questionable. I will still give the new record a spin when it does finally come out, but I must say that I am not expecting too much based on this little snippet here. They should have kept this one in their pocket for a while and just hit us all at once with a whole new record. At least maybe then “Scared Warpath” might be able to be put in its proper perspective within the context of a full album.

Voice of Doom – VOD III (Pyrrhic Victory Recordings)

MORE METAL VOL. 12

Noctem – Exilium (Prosthetic Records)

Cannibal Corpse – A Skeletal Domain (Metal Blade Records)

Abazagorath – The Satanic Verses (Eternal Death Records)

Death Penalty – S/T (Rise Above Records)

Gormathon – Following the Beast (Napalm Records)

The Acacia Strain – Coma Witch (Rise Records)

More Metal Vol. 11

Black Trip – Goin’ Under (Prosthetic Records)

It seems apparent at this point that much of Sweden has nearly abandoned their love for black metal in favor of retro 70’s classic metal, doom metal, and NWOBHM style stuff. Maybe I am exaggerating a just a bit, but there have been a plethora of bands from up that way of late that are mining this retro metal territory and Black Trip is just the latest to add to the list. This band was actually conceived about a decade ago in the mind of former Entombed/Merciless drummer Peter Stjarnvind (who plays guitar with Black Trip) but only came to fruition in 2011 when Stjarnvind found vocalist Joseph Tholl (ex-Enforcer, Corrupt). They released one demo in that same year and now in 2014 are set to release their debut album for Prosthetic Records. Imagine, if you will, that Iron Maiden had never gotten rid of Paul Di’Anno and stayed true to their roots of the dirtier, more straight up rock n’ roll type sound that they had on those first few records. That’s exactly what Black Trip sounds like. Tholl even has a bit of that snotty Di’Anno piss and vinegar in his voice that just really seals the deal. Goin’ Under totally comes across as the best album that Maiden never made. And this is a good thing. Stjarnvind and fellow axeman Sebastian Ramstedt are like Smith and Murray reborn and their soulful and melodic guitar pyrotechnics drench this entire album in six string glory. Bassist Johan Bergeback totally worships at the altar of Steve Harris with his crafty bass playing that perfectly compliments and plays counterpoint to the guitars. I mean, just take one listen to a track like “No Tomorrow” with its galloping beat, nimble bass work, dual guitar attack, and Tholl’s whisky drenched wail. If you can tell me that doesn’t sound like some old school Iron Maiden I’ll kiss your ass. Shit, the song is even structured like a classic Maiden epic ala “Phantom of the Opera”. Though they are very obviously trying to sound like their heroes, it never comes across like they’re ripping anyone off, but more like they are paying homage to them and taking this classic sound and style to its logical conclusion. Hell, if you’re gonna try to sound like a classic metal band like Maiden you better be fucking good, and Black Trip manages to pull the whole thing off in fine fashion. In no way are these guys mocking or cheapening classic metal, they’re actually adding to the legacy of this classic style of metal with the skill and care with which they do it. The production even has that same analog warmth and space that pervaded those old records which only intensifies the impact of what Black Trip are trying to do here. The whole package is just damn near perfect; the music, the songwriting, the performance, the production, the artwork – it all just fits just right. Besides the aforementioned “No Tomorrow”, other highlights include the rollickin’ album opener “Voodoo Queen”, the Mercyful Fate meets Alice Cooper meets Maiden vibe of “Tvar Dabla”, the creepy and mystical “Thirst” (which features some of the best harmony guitar work on the whole album), and the epic rock n’ roll masterpiece that is the title track, which closes out the album and leaves the listener with no doubt that their ass has been rocked and rocked hard.

Almost Human – "O" EP (Self Released)

H5N1 – A Time of No Tomorrows (Self Released)

Witch Mountain – Mobile of Angels (Profound Lore Records)

Machinae Supremacy – Phantom Shadow (Spinefarm Records)

Secret Cutter - S/T (Bethlehem Rust)

The Hell – Groovehammer (Prosthetic Records)

Kafirun – Death Worship EP (Self Released)

Phobiatic – Fragments of Flagrancy (Handean Records)

Halcyon Way – Conquer (Nightmare/Massacre Records)

Mutilation Rites – Harbinger (Prosthetic Records)

Bjarm – Imminence (Self Released)

This Will Destroy You – Another Language (Suicide Squeeze Records)

More Metal Vol 10

Crowbar – Symmetry in Black (Century Media Records)

Cannabis Corpse – From Wisdom to Baked (Season of Mist Records)

Mastodon – Once More ‘Round the Sun (Reprise Records)

Fucking Invincible – It’ll Get Worse Before It Gets Better (Atomic Action!/Reflections Records)

Trap Them – Blissfucker (Prosthetic Records)

Septic Flesh – Titan (Prosthetic Records)

Metsatoll – Karjajuht (Spinefarm Records)

Castle – Under Siege (Prosthetic Records)

Marty Friedman – Inferno (Prosthetic Records)

From Below – No Gods, No Monsters (musicfrombelow.com)

Spell – The Full Moon Sessions (Hard and Heavy Records)

Schammasch – Contradiction (Prosthetic Records)

Forest of Tygers – Bruises (Acteon/Primitive Violence)

Eyes of Mara – Akkadia (Imminence Records)

Eyehategod – S/T (Housecore Records)

Hour of Penance – Regicide (Prosthetic Records)

Bloody Hammers – Under Satan’s Sun (Napalm Records)

Space Raft – S/T (Dusty Medical/Bachelor Records)

Psycho Merchants – S/T (self released)

Keep Me Alive – Bear Attack (Got You on My List Records)

Before I launch into this month’s reviews, I just would like to dedicate this installment of More Metal to Dave Brockie, aka Oderus Urungus of GWAR who recently passed away. As some of you may know (or at least, I hope some of you know, LOL) I had a chance to interview Dave for this very website when the band released its most recent album not too many months ago, and I am honored to have been one of the last people to ever get the chance to do so. I had met Dave a few times over the years previously and he was always super kind and gracious and just an all-around cool dude. His impact on the metal scene as the leader of the genre’s most over the top and certainly most entertaining band cannot be underestimated, and his loss to the metal community is staggering. There was never another like him before, and I doubt there ever will be again. RIP, Dave. You will certainly be missed.

Also – I need to issue a correction on one of my earlier reviews. When I reviewed the newest Carcass album several months back, I was under the mistaken impression that guitarist Michael Amott was again apart of the band. Turns out I was wrong as wrong can be. Due to his commitments with Arch Enemy, he was unable to rejoin his ex-bandmates and all guitar duties were handled by Bill Steer, which actually makes the album all the more impressive. If you still haven’t checked out Surgical Steel, then you owe it to yourself to do so. There is a reason it ended up on just about every metal scribe’s top 10 list of 2013.

And now… back to your regularly scheduled broadcast…..

So Hideous – Last Poem / First Light (Prosthetic Records)

Mothers – Panamanian Times (Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen)

Here’s another strange group out of Brooklyn this month, though this time in the completely opposite direction from the previously reviewed So Hideous. I guess Mothers can best be described as a “post-punk” band, but that description doesn’t really do it justice. It’s like the Dead Kennedys meets the White Album- era Beatles meets Sonic Youth meets Public Image, Ltd. Sound weird enough for you? It’s punky, it’s noisy, it’s arty, it’s snide, it’s quirky, it’s high-brow stuff delivered with low-brow sensibilities. Vocalist Ben Mollin lays it on thick with his faux-Johnny Rotten British accent, and it works quite well. In fact, with the inherent tongue-in-cheek vibe I get from this stuff, it wouldn’t sound right any other way. If the Monty Python troupe listened to Sonic Youth and liked the Buzzcocks, then they would probably sound a lot like Mothers. The bass tends to drive the songs for the most part with the guitars providing bursts of noise, sound effects, jarring and angular riffs, ambient textures, with only sporadic snippets of what could be deemed “normal” guitar work. This is certainly not easy listening stuff, but if you’re in the mood for something arty, wild, and different then Mothers might just be what the doctor ordered.

Prong – Ruining Lives (Long Branch/SPV Records)

Animals As Leaders – The Joy of Motion (Sumerian Records)

Conquering Dystopia – S/T (Self Released)

Magnum – Escape From the Shadow Garden (SPV Records)

The Tower – Hic Abundant Leones (Bad Omen Records)

Polar – Shadowed by Vultures (Prosthetic Records)

BEHEMOTH – The Satanist (Metal Blade Records)

EtHERSENS – Your Wandering Ghost (Scarlet Records)

PRO-PAIN – The Final Revolution (Steamhammer/SPV)

VANSIHING POINT – Distant is the Sun (AFM Records)

RIOTGOD – Driven Rise (Metalville Records/E1)

ISSUES – S/T (Rise Records)

IRON SAVIOR – Rise of the Hero (AFM Records)

LEGION OF THE DAMNED - Ravenous Plague (Napalm Records)

LYKEN21 – Konceptus (Self Released)

MOTHMAN – Proboscis EP (Self Released)

TRUTH CORRODED – The Saviours Slain (AFM Records)

RED DRAGON CARTEL – S/T (Frontiers Records)

TEMPEL – On the Steps of the Temple (Prosthetic Records)

NASHVILLE PUSSY – Up the Dosage (Steamhammer/SPV)

ASOMVEL– Knuckle Duster (Prosthetic Records)

I EXIST – From Darkness (Prosthetic Records)

TIDAL ARMS – S/T (Black Numbers)

DARKHAUS – My Only Shelter (Oblivion/Steamhammer)

PROTECTOR – Reanimated Homunculus (HR Records)

MOTORHEAD – Aftershock (UDR)

Twenty-one albums. Twenty-one dirty, filthy, sweat soaked, whiskey fueled, chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out platters of pure unadulterated rock n’ roll. Very few bands can reach the point in their careers where they not only can say they have put out 21 full length records, but who are actually just as relevant (if not more so) at album number 21 as they ever were. Motorhead is certainly one of those very, very few bands. (Honestly, I can’t think of anyone except Zappa who’s put out that many!) bandleader and rock n’ roll icon Lemmy Kilmister has reached the status that only the Keith Richards’ of the world can claim with his decades of babes, booze, and rock n’ roll. Here he is, damn near pushing 70, and still putting out some the hardest rocking music out there and putting dudes half of his age to shame with no signs of slowing down any time soon. He is the living embodiment of everything that is rock n’ roll. There is a reason why many fans proclaim Lemmy as God, because when it comes to living the life and making it count, there is none higher than him.

So, what do we get with album number 21? Well, it’s fucking Motorhead! We get new Motorhead, that’s what! If they tried to change their style at this point we’d have an epidemic of mass denim jacket burnings across the major metropolitan areas of the world virtually overnight. That would be akin to trying to rewrite the Bible. It’s sacrilege! Like AC/DC, if it ain’t fucking broke, don’t fucking fix it. It is what it is and if you don’t like it; fuck off, no one asked you anyway. Take one shot of Chicago blues, one shot of Texas boogie, one shot of 50’s era rockabilly, one shot of 60’s proto-metal, one shot of 70’s punk and the throw in a shot of Jack Daniels and you got Motorhead. That’s what they’ve been doing for close to 40 years now and the recipe hasn’t deviated one bit that entire time. If anything, they have only gotten better with age and have benefited greatly from today’s superior production values. Every gritty nuance of Lemmy’s signature Rickenbacker bass tone and every whiskey soaked, gravel throated groan and growl of his vocals, every machine gun rhythm and bluesy wail of “Philthy” Phil Campbell’s axe, and every bulldozer beat and rock solid groove of Mikkey Dee’s drums come through the speakers loud and clear. It’s pure rock magic. They’ve managed to keep the warmth and analog feel of old while utilizing the tools at their disposal to heighten the overall sound while managing not to kill it with too much studio sheen. Despite all these years and all these albums, these guys still sound like they are having blast doing what they are doing. Unlike most bands at this point in their careers, where it starts to sound like they are just going through the motions, Motorhead sound like they still give a shit; like they still have something to prove. They still have that riding the rails, just-on-the-edge-of-disaster-but-somehow-holding-it-together-through-sheer-force-of-will feel to the music that keeps you on your toes and always leaves you wanting more.

We get a taste of everything Motorhead has to offer here; plenty of full on proto-metal thrashers (“Heartbreaker”, “Coup de Grace”, “End of Time”, “Do You Believe”, “Going to Mexico”, “Queen of the Damned”, “Paralyzed”), a healthy dose of mid-tempo, hard rockin’ stompers (“Death Machine”, “Silence When You Speak to Me”, “Crying Shame”, “Knife”, “Keep Your Powder Dry”), and even a few low down, bluesy burners (“Lost Woman Blues”, “Dust and Glass”). This an album just as strong as any of the bands back catalog. Track by track, it holds its own with classics like Ace of Spades, Overkill, and Bomber and even occasionally, on tracks like “Queen of the Damned” and “Death Machine”, surpasses its predecessors. “Queen of the Damned”, in particular, stands out as this era’s new “Ace of Spades”. It’s that good and rocks that hard. Fans rejoice; the boys are back in town and they’re better than ever. Grab your denim vest, a bottle of Jack, a copy of this album and raise your horns high in salute to the undisputed kings of rock n’ fucking roll. Motorhead. ‘Nuff said.

SKELETONWITCH – Serpents Unleashed (Prosthetic Records)

Every piece of the Skeletonwitch puzzle fits perfectly. The twin guitar attack of Nate Garnet and Scott Hedrick is mesmerizing and you can certainly tell these guys spend a lot of time orchestrating their guitar parts for maximum effect. Whether they are riffing in unison, playing intricate counterpoint lines, or hook up for a majestic twin harmony, they hold ranks with any twin guitar team from heavy metal’s illustrious past. Bassist Evan Linger is an absolute beast. His ballsy, in your face tone, lock tight timing, and nimble and melodic bass fills come off as a cross between Geddy Lee of Rush, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, and Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse. He certainly does not play second fiddle to the guitars and his presence and power is the glue that holds everything together and gives the music its driving intensity. His playing on track 8, “This Evil Embrace”, in particular is a lesson in how heavy metal bass should be played. Not to be outdone, drummer Dustin Boltjes is a machine. Everything he plays is the exactly what needs to be played at that given time and his timing, articulation, and intensity are perfect.

There is not a dud to be found amongst any of the 11 tracks found here. All but two of the tracks clock in at somewhere between the 2 and 3 minute mark, the other two barely flirt with 4 minutes. The band certainly doesn’t waste any time at all; they attack, rip your ears and your neck to shreds, and then leave you for dead without a single wasted note or boring interlude. These guys just can’t seem to do any wrong and they are one of the few bands that is nearly universally hailed amongst all metal fans. If you haven’t been introduced the metal monster that is Skeletonwitch then you don’t know what you are missing. You must run, walk, stumble, stammer, crawl, whatever you got to do, immediately to your nearest record store (or computer) and buy this album immediately. If you’re a true metalhead, you will not be disappointed. If you are disappointed, your membership to the Brotherhood of Metal is hereby revoked and you are banished to the wastelands of Kanye West and Miley Cyrus. May the Devil have mercy on your soul.

TERMINUS – Terminus (Mutants of the Monster)

TRAGODIA – Mythmaker (Kolony Records)

LUMBAR – The First and Last Days of Unwelcome (Southern Lord Records)

MINISTRY – From Beer to Eternity (13th Planet Records)

DAMNATIONS DAY – Invisible, the Dead (Nightmare Records)

THE ICARUS LINE – Slave Vows (Agitated Records)

SARKE – Aruagint (Indie Recordings)

BRICK + MORTAR – "Bangs" EP (Anchor and Hope Music)

ULCERATE – Vermis (Relapse Records)

OLA MADRID – My Fear Is To Be Forgotten (olamadrid.bandcamp.com)

SEIDR – Giggunnagap (Bidrune Recordings)

REVELER– Iridescence (Infamous Empire Records)

RAFTREE – “What I Say (2012 Remix)” (Self Released)

VISTA CHINO – Peace (Napalm Records)

Kyuss is probably best remembered as the band that Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age used to be in, but to many they were the forefathers and originators of the modern “stoner” rock scene. Albums like Blues for the Red Sun and Sky Valley are considered masterpieces of the genre and launched a thousand imitators in the stoner rock boom of the 90’s and early 21st century. Their mantra of “The Riff and nothing but The Riff” and the unique blend of Black Sabbath meets 60’s acid rock that they dubbed “desert rock” was a clarion call across the grunge rock landscape of the 90’s and supplied a healthy breath of pot smoke drenched air to a musical clime that was beginning to become too unamused with itself.

Some people got it, most didn’t, and Kyuss flew under the radar at the time only to become infamous after their breakup once Homme found success with QOTSA and people began to take another listen to his previous work. I was always a huge Kyuss fan ever since seeing the video for “Green Machine” off of the Blues for the Red Sun album on Headbanger’s Ball as a young teenager, so I was super stoked to find this little gem in my email inbox.

Vista Chino is the new project from three fourths of the original Kyuss lineup; vocalist John Garcia, bassist Nick Oliveri (who played in the original QUOTSA lineup as well until a now infamous squabble with Homme forced him out of the band), and drummer Brant Bjork. This is the closest thing to the original Kyuss as we’re likely to ever hear considering that Homme has repeatedly turned down heaps of money for a full reunion. Though the members of Kyuss other than Homme have done various projects over the years such as Unida, Mondo Generator and Slo Burn, to varying degrees of success, none have come close to matching the magic that was Kyuss in their prime. Garcia in particular has long sought to capture the essence of what made Kyuss so special to many (Unida in particular springs to mind) and even did a few tours under the “Garcia Plays Kyuss” banner with various backing musicians.

In 2010, Garcia reunited with Bjork and Oliveri to form Kyuss Lives! and proceeded to tour heavily. In 2012 Homme sued Garcia and the rest of Kyuss Lives! for trademark infringement and after a court battle in which Homme won the band was forced to change their name to Vista Chino. Despite this, or maybe because of this, Garcia and the boys have unleashed the best Kyuss record since Sky Valley and have proven that they don’t need Homme to write some great riffs and killer tunes. Garcia’s wail sounds as strong as it did back in the day, Oliveri’s bass playing bobs and weaves in and out of the riffage like a musical Muhammed Ali, and Bjork’s drumming anchors everything down with the grace of Ginger Baker and the force of John Bonham.

New guitarist Bruno Fevery does his best to conjure the spirit of Homme’s signature style while injecting a little of his own personality in there and does an outstanding job. He manages to capture the essence without sounding forced, trite, or contrived. Tracks like “Dargona Dragona”, “Sweet Remain”, “Planets 1&2”, “Adara”, “Dark & Lovely”, and “Barcelonian” drip with that signature Kyuss swagger and mysticism and make you feel like it’s 1992 all over again. Like the Kyuss of old, Vista Chino can roar and moan like a ’67 Mustang burning up a desert highway and then turn around and lure you into a hypnotic, trance-like stupor as they lock in on a riff and ram it home with elegance and abandon.

The coup de grace here is the album closer “Acidize – The Gambling Moose”, a 13 minute epic that distills everything that makes Kyuss great into one monster track. Fevery’s playing here really shines and this cut is the best example of how he has injected his own unique magic into the Kyuss formula without sacrificing the overall feel and aura of the music. It’s all there; gargantuan riffs, blissed out and dreamy interludes, low down and dirty grooves, and all the while Fevery lays down tasty lick after tasty lick that moan and groan with a lyrical flair and leave you wanting more even after the 13 minutes have expired. This is the album that Kyuss fans have been waiting for almost 20 years now and it would fit right in neatly between Sky Valley and The Circus Leaves Town. If you didn’t know any better, one might even think this was a lost and previously unreleased Kyuss album. Who needs Josh Homme anyway?

WAKING HEROES - One Fight to Fight (wakingheroes.com)

MISERY SIGNALS – Absent Light (miserysignals.com)

LAST CHANCE TO REASON – Lvl. 3 (Prosthetic Records)

MAPS FOR TRAVELERS - Change Your Name (No Sleep Records)

UNMOTHERED – EP (Toxic Assets Records)