Initial Impressions Threesome

Boy I need to catch up on my latest album purchases. I haven't discussed most of my last month's purchases yet and I have a stack of about 10 CDs that I have yet to even listen to. Damn trials taking all of my time.

WORMED: PLANISPHAERIUM

I'll be frank, this album is fucking weird. Essentially, Wormed is a slam death metal band with a strange futuristic atmosphere, kind of a Fear Factory meets Devourment type of vibe. The music really is as weird as that description makes it seem. There is just a massive wall of noise emanating from the speakers on this album, it really is good music to piss off your neighbors. Sounds like something that might be fun to try.

The vocals are extreme, and that's a major understatement. The vocalist for Wormed takes Demilich's vocalist's frog croaks and further deepens them, producing an incomprehensible belching groan. It's pretty amazing really. They do get a little tiring after awhile, but an album of this length is easily listenable.

The music is chaotic, which is fairly typical for the slam death genre, and of course it features lots and lots of breakdowns, oh I'm sorry SLAMZ. Although, Wormed may not be quite as adamant as to their inclusion in this genre as other bands are.

All in all, I enjoy the album, as I do enjoy some slam death occasionally. It's not a genre to think critically about, it's just fun.

ASPHYX: DEATH...THE BRUTAL WAY

Martin Van Drunen reunites his band that he formed after he left Pestilence. Oddly, Pestilence also reunited this year, but not with Van Drunen as vocalist. Van Drunen recently also sang for the band Hail of Bullets which was mostly made up of members of Thanatos performing odd school Swedish styled death metal.

Asphyx was one of the early bands in the death/doom movement, although their death metal influences significantly outweighed the doom elements.

Van Drunen is one of my favorite death metal vocals. He does not simply use a deep growl, he tends to sound even more psychotic, as if he were some sort of a ravenous beast tearing into flesh for a feast. That's a hell of a description right there. Age has not slowed Van Drunen in the slightest as his vocals are just as chilling as ever.

The guitars feature the familiar buzzsaw tone for which the Swedish death metal bands have become known. The album has the overall feel of an early 1990's death metal album, which is perfectly fine for me. All the elements are present to make this a damn strong modern death metal album. Welcome back Asphyx. This is truly one of the better comeback albums this year, which is saying a lot as there have been several strong comeback albums.

NEGURA BUNGET: OM

Negura Bunget is pagan black metal at its finest. Pagan black metal is often far more focused on atmosphere than other black metal bands. The riffs are slightly more restrained and there are often long periods of ambient-like music. The music is not as aggressive and the lyrical themes are typically centered around nature or mythology. Negura Bunget is from Romania, one of the major countries for pagan black metal bands.

This album is a typical album for the genre, and it is probably one of the best more recent examples of it. Negura Bunget's playing is powerful, atmospheric, and emotional, all at the same time. The vocals are often delivered in a hoarse growl but do occasionally change dynamics.

The only real problem here is that the instrumental, ambient parts could be decreased or made a little shorter. When the band is concentrating on delivering a song, they are quite good, but that can sometimes be lost in the random noise that is often present. This is quite a good representation of pagan black metal, but as its genre has some issues, so too does this band.