Profundae Libidines: Procès de Sorcellerie (2019)

One day, back in either high school or college, my friend and I had just left Valentino's (a local pizza place) after picking up a carry out order that my parents had placed.  My friend was carrying one of the bags as we were about to get into my car and one of the containers of  French dressing fell out and splattered all over the ground.  Upon seeing this, my friend remarked that it was doomed to fail, because it was French.

Now, why the hell did I tell that story?  Well, mostly because this is my blog and I can do whatever the fuck I like with it.  The other reason is to illustrate that despite being the butt of jokes in the past, I fucking love French metal, particularly black metal.  A number of terrific black metal bands have come from France, including Vlad Tepes, Belkètre,  and Mütiilation, all of whom were part of Les Lègiones.  And then there is the avant-garde Deathspell Omega.  So, I am always on the lookout for some good French black metal.  I was not actively seeking out Profundae Libidines however, this particular album was a freebie in the order that I placed to get yesterday's subject Question and the band that will be covered tomorrow.  But I am happy to get this as a throw-in.

Profundae Libidines is the brainchild of Philoxera, who has done work with a number of other extreme metal bands.  This is primarily his project, although he does enlist help with violins.  Hey, he can't do everything can he?  The sound of Profundae Libidines seems to be rooted in the more melodic and atmospheric tracks of groups from the LLN, and in particular the later material by Mütiilation, with a little DsO thrown in.  It is melodic, for the most part, with repeating tremolo riffs and mostly slower pace.  The songs often feature clean vocals delivered in a sort of chanting tone which work well with the more common raspy vocals typical of black metal.  The whole thing has kind of an odd, off-kilter feel to it that keeps things interesting and fresh, which is necessary when the album is almost an hour long.  There are some sections that are just plain bizarre, such as the bouncy intro to "Les enfants de Veith-Pratzer".  But these sections add a lot of character to something that could just as easily descend into typical black metal tropes.

I have had kind of mixed luck with albums that were thrown into other orders.  There have been some less than impressive ones and others that just do not do much for me personally.  (Goatkraft, Venomous Concept).  This is undoubtedly one of the better ones.  I quite like it.  It fits in well with other French black metal bands.

Question: Question (2018)

The oddly-named Question is a death metal band from Mexico.  Why they did not name themselves "Pregunta" or something like that, I am not really sure.  It is a somewhat bizarre name for a death metal band.  I have lots of questions about it.  Maybe that's the point?

Mexico does not have a real well-known metal scene, though there have been some great bands from south of the border.  Cenotaph and The Chasm are personal favorites.  There is also the blackened death metal band Hacavitz.  Of course the most well-known Mexican death metal band is Mortuary, whose album Blackened Images is an underrated classic.  So with the bands named, there are about four different styles represented.  Cenotaph is a razor-sharp melodeath band.  The Chasm is more of a cerebral technical/progressive death metal style.  Hacavitz, as mentioned, has more to do with black metal.  And then Mortuary is more of an old-school death metal band.  So then, the question is, what is Question? 

Not to try to read Question's members' minds, but their influence seems to be more closely Mortuary.  This is a decidedly murky-sounding death metal album that owes a lot to the early material by groups like Obituary and some Immolation thrown in for the old school crowd, but with some impressive melodic passages and some nice solo guitar work.  The bass is probably the most impressive instrument in the band, doing some very unique lines and generally doing a lot more than just keeping rhythm.  The whole thing is awash with a very sinister atmosphere that is helped along by the occasionally atonal leads.  The gruff vocal style also helps. 

This is a very intriguing EP from a young band from a country not really known for its metal.  I am definitely looking forward to hearing more from the band.

Forest Whispers: Zamieć (2017)

Forest Whispers is another band I discovered through Bandcamp.  I was kind of expecting more of an atmospheric black metal band, in the vein of earlier groups I reviewed like Vvilderness and Saor, not this frostbitten black metal sound that owes more to Darkthrone and Immortal and the early material of their Polish countrymen in Behemoth.

After a spellbinding instrumental introduction, Forest Whispers sets the stage for most of the rest of the album with "Gniew".  The song features tremolo riffing and cold, raspy vocals that will carry forward.  Forest Whispers also utilizes a number of very pretty instrumental interludes, calling back to the introductory track.  This song would fit in nicely on Behemoth's Pandemonic Incantations album. 

It is the juxtaposition of the light and warm melodic passages against the dark and cold obviously black metal sections that is the highlight of this release.  Each song seems to have at least one section where the band lightens things up by including very pretty melodies where the drums and bass drop out.  Even in the band's heaviest moments, some of that melodicism is still present, creating a captivating sound that makes this a very impressive black metal release. 

I thoroughly enjoy this release, particularly the dichotomy of light and dark that is present throughout the album.  Unfortunately, Forest Whispers will likely have limited appeal due to the fact that the band's lyrics are all in Polish.  That's a shame, because the band definitely has talent.

Primitive Warfare: Primitive Warfare (2019)

I kept hearing great things about this demo.  So much, that I finally decided to check it out.  The fact that it kept getting compared to "war metal" bands like Impiety, Bestial Warlust, Tetragrammacide and others sealed the deal.  Also, I kind of love the band's logo. 

This is a very quick, three-song demo, but it will leave listeners exhausted.  It is a high-speed, balls-to-the-wall intense, hyperactive few songs.  And it really does sound what warfare must sound like, with the cannon-fire drums, neck-breaking riffs, and the gruff dual vocal styles, it is absolute chaos.  It is a punishing and brutal demo that hits hard, continues hitting hard and never lets up on the throttle throughout. 

The only issue with the release is that the songs kind of blend together.  I had a little difficulty telling when one song would end and the other start.  The last track is a little easier with the ambient noise lead-in.  But the songs do sound kind of the same.  But that is bound to happen with a band who just beats the listener into submission.  Maybe it's a good thing there are only three songs here?

Longtime readers know how much of a fan I am of the "war metal" bands.  Primitive Warfare fits in with those bands very well.  I am excited to have found another group.  I am eagerly awaiting a full-length.

Ruin: Human Annihilation (2018)

Ruin, or as they are also known, Ruin Death Metal Cult, is a group of musicians determined to bring back the old sound of death metal.  Back when it was intense and scary, and much more of an underground phenomenon.  It is the death metal that was spreading its ghastly wings in the early 1990's.  Filth-ridden and disgusting death metal, long before the mainstream media ever picked up on it.

The members that form Ruin know the sound, because Ruin existed during the time period.  In one incarnation, Ruin released a disgustingly depraved demo back in 1991.  The band went on a lengthy dry spell before re-emerging from the grave in 2015.  Since then, the cult has released a number of demos, EPs and more upon an unsuspecting public.  This is just the band's second full-length.

This is gritty and grimy death metal at its most decayed, most desiccated, and most foul.  There is absolutely nothing pretty here.  It is lo-fi, with a production that calls to mind the sound of early death metal when there were no slick production values.  Everything sounds coated with a layer of grime.  The riffs are ugly and mostly fairly simple, but add to the grimy feel.  The vocals sound like the singer gargled a bottle of acid prior to stepping to the mic. 

This is a particularly nasty release from death metal veterans that still remember how scary death metal was in its formative years.  They take that sound and continue to perfect it.  This thing is disgusting and rotten.  I love it.

Glacial Tomb: Glacial Tomb (2018)

Awesome band name?  Check.  Awesome album cover?  Check.  This is the debut album from Denver-based sludge/death/black metal band Glacial Tomb, who shares a member with the amazing doom metal band Khemmis, and one guy who was in briefly famous, but long-forgotten (despite technically still being active) blackened metalcore band Abigail Williams. 

The sound of Glacial Tomb is hateful and dark.  It is something of a less extreme version of Lord Mantis, but few bands are as extreme as Lord Mantis.  The sound seems to be based in sludge metal, but with obvious leanings toward black and death metal, such as the vocal style and the occasional tremolo riff.  But it is not nearly that simple.  Glacial Tomb reaches out into a lot of different styles and genres throughout the run time of this release.  The only constant is that it is dissonant and intense and ugly as all hell.

Unfortunately, in the band's efforts to combine a number of disparate genres into one big grab bag, the songwriting kind of suffers.  I enjoy listening to the album while it is playing, but after it is done, I sometimes have difficulty remembering any particular passages or songs that really stuck out.  It is not just the lack of hooks and catchy choruses, there just is not much truly memorable about this release.  Certainly disappointing when the group has a member of Khemmis involved, a band who is infectious as fuck.

This is not a bad album, not by any stretch.  It just doesn't stick when it's over.  That's a disappointment.  Glacial Tomb is fairly new yet though.  In time, perhaps they will improve on that deficiency.

Apostasy: The Sign of Darkness (2018)

Apostasy can trace their origins back to the late 1980's.  The band formed in Chile, which has birthed a few metal bands I thoroughly enjoy, including the terrific Thornafire.  Apostasy released just one full-length album, Sunset of the End, before disbanding.  Guitarist Cris Profaner recently reformed the band, this time taking on bass duties, and this is their first full-length since that reformation.

As a fan of thrash metal worldwide, I was all over an opportunity to hear some good South American-style thrash metal and Apostasy definitely delivers.  This album has the feel of classic Sepultura mixed with some Slayer to it.  The first song definitely has a tempo and style similar to pre-Reign in Blood Slayer.  It is fast, with razor sharp riffs, and often air raid siren vocals.  I kept waiting for him to shriek "Hell Awaits".  The entire album possesses a dark, raw and evil atmosphere carried forward by the sinister riffs and hellish wailing vocals.  Even when they slow things down, there is still a sense of unease building, a sense that nothing is entirely safe.

Apostasy builds on that early promise throughout the album.  This is truly a callback to a time when Slayer was still playing Venom riffs as fast as possible and Sepultura was still shedding their blackened death metal sound.  As that is my favorite era of Slayer's music in particular, I am fully onboard with Apostasy. 

I love this album.  I was always a little more partial to this type of thrash, barely skirting the surface of black metal.  This is exactly the kind of sound I was looking for.

Black Viper: Hellions of Fire (2018)

How could you not get sucked in by that album cover?  That thing is ridiculous, insane and awesome all at once.  It helps to justify picking up the album that the drummer was in Deathhammer at one point, so I am fully on board now.

From the opening strains leading into the siren howl of vocalist Salvador Armijo, it is very clear that this is a direct call back to speed/heavy metal classics of the 1980's.  It is a breathtaking cavalcade of riffs and melodies that flies by at blinding speeds.  In fact, the speed is so intense and breakneck, it is a wonder that the individual musicians are able to keep up.  At the backbone of all of this is the aforementioned Deathhammer drummer, one Cato Stormoen.  His ability to keep time while propelling the band forward is amazing and is the biggest highlight of the album.

On first listen, it seems like a lot of the songs are more of a collection of ideas than cohesive songs, but subsequent listens tend to reveal more of a common thread.  There are multiple different sections and speed changes during most of the songs.  But they manage to hold things together and the songs always come full circle. 

This album definitely captures the sound and the fury of 1980's speed metal, without sounding out-dated.  I love it.  It's a ton of fun. 

The Rite: The Brocken Fires (2018)

I was a little surprised by what this band sounded like.  Based on the name of the band and the album cover, I was expecting possibly a traditional doom metal album, maybe something in the vein of The Reverend Bizarre.  Despite the demonic presence on the album cover, the vintage artwork seems to be the kind of thing a doom metal band might unearth.  And so it was a little surprising that The Rite is much more of a black metal band, though with some obvious doom metal in their sound.

This is a short EP with five tracks, one of those being a fairly typical creepy intro.  The last song "Acid Orgy" is a Goatlord cover (that would be the U.S. Goatlord, the more active of the several bands called Goatlord).  Upon examining closer the song titles, I should have expected the cold black metal that emanates from the speakers.  Not many traditional doom metal bands have prayers to Satan and pacts with Hell, and whatnot.

I do love the guitar tone on this release, particularly in the first real song "A Pact with Hell".  It is appropriately dark and doomy, and sinister as all Hell.  The title track is where the real doom metal sound comes in, with its slow-burning malevolence and creeping riffs that builds into a frenetic crescendo destined to break some necks.  It is easily the best song on the EP.

This is a nasty little gem of an EP.  I find myself going back to it frequently.  I am hoping the band releases a full-length soon. 

Hellwitch Demos

Today is a two-fer.  Because they are pretty short and I got them at the same time, I will be covering both Anthropophagi and Transgressive Sentience.  Hellwitch has their own online store where you can acquire most of their recordings in most formats, including demos.  I am still looking for Syzygial Miscreancy on cassette, which is not easy, nor cheap to find.  But the store is very helpful for most things.

TRANSGRESSIVE SENTIENCE (1986)

Starting off, we have Hellwitch's second demo.  The first track is the only one that would appear on the band's first album.  Due to how early in Hellwitch's career this one was released, it is no surprise that this one is a little bit rough.  But most of the elements that Hellwitch would later make up their sound can be discerned.  The band sounds like a slightly more technical blend of early Death and Venom.  Listening to it back to back with the next demo sounds like listening to two different bands.  Despite this, the rawness is endearing and this is a pretty intriguing demo.

ANTHROPOPHAGI (1994)

First of all, love the H.R. Giger artwork on the cover of this.  Of course, it has appeared on other albums before, including Triptykon's Melana Chasmata.  As this demo was released after Hellwitch had already put out their first full-length album, it finds the band in a much more finalized state.  All of the technical elements and the typical whirlwind of riffs that made Hellwitch so intriguing are present.  Oddly, one of the songs, "Fate at Pain's End", appears on Transgressive Sentience as well, but not on the album.  This is probably the better of the two demos, even if only based on how much more mature the band sounds.  This would be the last release from Hellwitch for several years.   

Saor: Forgotten Paths (2019)

After falling for the Vvilderness album a few months back, I decided to seek out some similar bands.  The sound I was looking for was a sort of atmospheric black metal with folk elements, something that reminded me of nature but still had a dark side.  And that search led me to Glasgow's Saor.

This album is full of haunting, sweeping melodies that can go down a more traditional black metal path at a moment's notice.  The opening title track is a perfect example of this as it features impressive tremolo riffing and blast beats on top of some beautiful lilting melodies.  "Monadh" starts off with a stirring piano solo and leads into some heavy use of wind instruments and strings.  These are the folk elements that meld well into Saor's brand of Drudkh-esque atmospheric black metal.

The vocals, when they are present, are often performed in a typical black metal rasp, but they are absolutely never the focal point.  They are often buried deep in the mix.  Saor is one of those bands that might just be more effective as an instrumental band, honestly.  The vocals really do not matter much at all, other than to add one more undeniably metal element to the sound.  It just is not totally necessary.

I definitely got what I was seeking when I picked up this album.  It is an absolutely beautiful sound that Saor pulls off here.  It is metal enough to satisfy that side, yet melodic and emotional at the same time.  Definitely an impressive release.

Dokken: Under Lock and Key (1985)

I guess it is time to discuss "hair" metal again.  I know I had a fairly lengthy post a couple of months ago about "hair" bands that do not suck.  There are definitely some good bands from the time period of massive amounts of hairspray.  Dokken is generally one of those bands.

Dokken's previous album Tooth and Nail is a classic from the time period and features a number of hit melodic metal songs.  This album though finds Dokken headed in more of a mainstream direction.  Not that that is necessarily a bad thing...what the hell am I saying?  This is a far inferior album to their last one, and a lot of that reason is due to Dokken chasing the almighty dollar.  Gone is the nail-spitting vibe of tracks like "Into the Fire" and the title track.  Most of this album is the kind of fluff that was guaranteed MTV airplay in the time period.  The photo of the band members on the cover does not really help things a lot either.

It is not all bad though.  There are some impressive tracks, such as "Unchain the Night", "The Hunter" and "Lightnin' Strikes Again".  While they mostly pale in comparison to the better songs from the previous album, at least they are a reasonable facsimile.  Unfortunately there are far too many ballads on this release for it to come out all that well.  About half of the tracks are power ballads.

I want to be clear that I do not hate this album, I just do not like it as much as Tooth and Nail.  Most of the musical elements that have made Dokken one of the better bands of the style are present.  Don Dokken has terrific vocal range and George Lynch is a fantastic guitar player.  The album just could have been better.  Unfortunately, things would not get any better for Dokken from here on out.  Their best days were already behind them.

Witchfinder: Witchfinder (2017)

With a name that references either a Cathedral song, a Vincent Price movie, or one of the original doom metal bands, you can bet that this is going to be some form of doom metal.  And then there is the hazy-looking band logo and thus stoner doom becomes the obvious conclusion to be drawn.  And so it is with France's Witchfinder.

This is just a four-song album, but each song lasts somewhere around ten minutes.  Witchfinder's influences are pretty clear right from the first fuzzed-out riff.  Take a little Cathedral, mix in some of the most psychedelic offerings from Electric Wizard, some Dopesmoker-era Sleep and a whole shitload of weed and voila, Witchfinder.  The songs are slow dirges with spacy, bass-heavy riffs and smoky vocals that sound like they were recorded in a cave.  Every so often, the band throws in a curve, like the crunchy mid-paced riff early in "Smoke a Weed Prayer", but by and large this is a band emulating the reefer madness of the aforementioned Sleep and Electric Wizard.

Despite the fact that I have never (and I mean absolutely never) used marijuana, or any other drug besides alcohol in fact, in my life, I absolutely love stoner doom.  At least when it is done well.  Witchfinder is highly derivative of some of the genre legends, but that does not mean that they do not do a damn fine job.  There may be no real discernible difference between this and Dopethrone, but it is still damn fun to listen to.  That's all I really want from my metal.

Vessel of Iniquity: Void of Infinite Horror (2019)

Well, this one is perhaps a cautionary tale.  I remember adding it to my cart while placing the order for Mystifier, Altarage and Vltimas as I vaguely recalled reading some positive reviews about it.  I probably should have looked back at those reviews or at least done a little more research on this release before buying it.  Oh well, too late now.

This album is basically like if Altarage completely gave up on any semblance of musicianship.  It is a cross between drone doom, black/death metal and just pure noise.  There are riffs present, but they do not really resemble anything coherent.  They are played extremely fast while drums pound away mechanically and other instrumentation plays extremely loud, resulting in a massive wall of sound that only occasionally relents.

This is essentially an instrumental album.  There are vocals, but I am not sure there are lyrics or any words being conveyed.  The vocals are typically delivered in blood-curdling screams that melt into the larger wall of sound and essentially just become another instrument.

I will say that the title of the album is quite fitting because this release is definitely horrifying.  It is good for what it is, I want to be clear on that, but I just do not believe it has much replay value.  There are no real songs here, just differing collections of noise.  I probably would not have picked it up had I known that.  I will keep it, but I doubt it will be played too often.

Mystifier: Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia (2019)

Brazil's mighty Mystifier has been around for a LONG time.  Though they released their first demo in 1989, they have only released five full-length albums.  In fact, this is their first full-length album since 2001.  Nevertheless, they do not seem to have broken up at any point, though there has only been one long-lasting member.  Beelzeebubth has been the only consistent member, with a revolving door for the other members of the band.

Mystifier's sound is pure, unadulterated evil.  It is a very dark and ominous album that alternates between doomy atmosphere and high-octane Venom-ous riffs.  It is an incredibly dynamic album for a black/death metal release, with impressive songwriting and razor-sharp riffs, while the vocalists growl and wail over the maelstrom.  When the band is not shredding, they utilize creepy organs and chanted vocals in attempts to summon demons.  There is a lot of chemistry between the individual musicians, resulting in an incredibly tight and punishing album.

This is an incredible album that only gets better every time I hear it.  I am honestly not overly familiar with Mystifier's back catalog, but after coming out blown away by this release, I am planning to get into their previous material.  There is a reason that Mystifier is among the pantheon of essential Brazilian extreme metal bands.  Simply put, this album is incredible.  This album is a possible contender for Album of the Year. 

Altarage: The Approaching Roar (2019)

One of the more fascinating death metal albums of 2017 was Altarage's Endinghent, which showed some intriguing evolution for the genre.  It was dissonant and dark, sounding like the soundtrack to the void.  It was incredible.  And so, when I saw that Altarage was releasing a new album this year, I wanted to see where the band would go from there.

There is absolutely nothing pretty or melodic about the music of Altarage.  This album is ugly, abrasive, chaotic and absolutely crushingly brutal.  This is death metal taken to an absurd extreme cutting out all semblance of humanity and becoming a massive wall of sound.  There are riffs present, this is metal after all, but there is so much dissonance and distortion that the riffs sound murky.  Occasionally, there are softer moments, but those just highlight how brutally intense the rest of the album is.

There are vocals on this, but they too are often buried in the rest of the sound.  The vocals are delivered in a deep growl.  The lyrics deal with heavy topics like existential dread, horror and chaotic evil.  The atmosphere of the album fits in quite well with the lyrical topics.

This album does not fit in neatly with any well-known subgenres of death metal.  Rather, it sounds more like a cross between the genre-defying bands Ulcerate and Gojira, yet heavier and more intense than both.  It is a complete mindfuck of an album that should probably not be listened to in the dark for fear that it may just open a portal to The Void.  We wouldn't want that, would we?

Vltimas: Something Wicked Marches In (2019)

Here we have a blackened death metal supergroup.  Only time will tell if this one will be a one-off like I or if it will be a long-lasting one like Bloodbath.  Vltimas is made up of three members, each from a very famous band.  On drums is Flo Mounier, primarily from Cryptopsy.  The guitarist is Rune Eriksen, better known as Blasphemer, from Mayhem and Aura Noir among others.  And finally, playing bass and providing vocals is David Vincent, the better-known singer for Morbid Angel.  That is quite the lineup.

With supergroups, you can never quite tell what kind of quality you are going to get.  Sometimes the group is able to call upon all the disparate talents and release something truly amazing.  Other times, the egos of the members get in the way and the result is a sloppy, overwrought mess.  There was some concern with this release, particularly with the outlandish personalities of the three members.  But even more than that, there is the sharp decline in quality of each of the members' main bands.  Cryptopsy has not been very good in years.  Vincent has been mostly exploring non-metal music with his outlaw country project and his involvement with Genitorturers.  Only Blasphemer has been putting out decent material, but with Aura Noir, not Mayhem.  So there were some obvious concerns with how this album was going to turn out.

Those concerns were wiped away the minute the album begins.  The band members each sound revitalized.  The drumming is absolutely insane with Mounier turning in his best performance since Lord Worm was still with Cryptopsy.  When he was at his best, he was one of the greatest metal drummers of all time.  This album sees a return to those heights.  Vincent's vocals are every bit as impressive as they were during his first turn with Morbid Angel.  He does not deliver his vocals in a standard death metal roar, choosing instead an articulate harsh yell.  He does pull out some of the deep ominous clean vocals as used on "God of Emptiness".  Even Blasphemer turns in some truly impressive blackened death metal riffs.  The members each bring out their own style throughout, rather than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  The chemistry is fantastic as they work extremely well with each other.

The album is mostly a mid-paced death metal release, with some more blackened tremolo riffs shining through at times.  This is not terribly shocking given the members involved.  While it would have been an interesting change of pace to hear the members completely let loose, the album is punishingly heavy, intense and evil as all Hell.  There are some faster moments here, but it never quite sounds like they have truly hit the limits of their abilities.

I was honestly shocked by how great this album really is.  It is a definite contender for Album of the Year.  Supergroups rarely go beyond being a curiosity, but Vltimas sounds like a band that has been performing together for years.  Seldom are supergroups so fresh and vital.  This is one of the best ones I have ever heard.

Hellripper: Coagulating Darkness (2017)

Here we have Hellripper, which is a completely different thing than Hellbringer.  See, Hellbringer brings Hell.  Hellripper is much more dangerous because they are strong enough to rip Hell.  Or something.  I don't really know.

Hellripper is a one-man band from Scotland whose musical influences appear to have stopped evolving around 1983 or so.  The first song on this album, "Bastard of Hades" lifts the main riff from Metallica's "Hit the Lights".  That was probably a tactical error.  It is one thing for a band to take real strong influence from famous bands, but this one is pretty egregious.  Everyone knows the song and it is real obvious.

But once you get past that, the rest of the album is a pretty decent take on black/thrash metal built around early Venom and Slayer, and of course the pre-Ride the Lightning Metallica sound when the band's NWOBHM side was at the forefront of their sound.  Throw in some early Sodom and you have a pretty good idea what Hellripper sounds like.  The songs are all fast-paced and short with blazing solos and the psychotic shrieking vocals.  The riffs are bound to cause broken necks and are absolutely infectious.

This is not the most original album in the world.  Hell, groups like Skeletonwitch and Toxic Holocaust have been doing this same mix of old school metal for years now.  But quality of music is just as, if not more, important than originality and this is a damn fun album.  I'm on board.  Keep ripping Hell.

1914: The Blind Leading the Blind (2018)

Just last week I covered an EP from 1914 during which I lamented that it was not a great representation of the band's sound.  Well, here is 1914's second full-length album that was released last year.  And so this then, is an accurate representation of what 1914 sounds like.  And it is brutal.

Most of the songs on this album are morosely slow with grinding, gargantuan riffs.  The effect is that of a heavily-armored tank slowly creeping across the battlefield.  And to drive that point home, several moments feature samples of just that.  As a result of the songs being so slow and the riffs so heavy, the entire album is definitely a downer.  That fits in well with the lyrical themes though.  It just works for 1914.

There are occasionally moments of light, such as an almost melodic lead during "High Wood.  75 Acres of Hell".  The band also picks up the pace occasionally, such as during the rollicking cover of The Exploited's "Beat the Bastards".  They do put their own spin on it, but it is faster-paced than most of the rest of the songs.

1914 has an obsession with World War I.  Every song by the band deals with the extremely deadly war.  Tanks, trench warfare, mustard gas are all given their due.  The album starts off with what might actually be a recruitment song from the time period.  It also features samples from the movie All Quiet on the Western Front, including a moment in which Ernest Borgnine (who was poorly cast in this) espouses the virtue of using a shovel to decapitate an enemy in lieu of a bayonet.

Other bands have done the World War I theme.  The first band to come to mind is God Dethroned who released the soul-shattering Passiondale.  That album featured the previous best metal song about WWI in "No Survivors" which included a spine-tingling guest vocal performance by Marco Velde.  But no other band quite captures the hopelessness and dismay of the war quite like 1914.

This album was in a lot of peoples' top albums of 2018 lists.  It was due to that that I wanted to check it out, and I am glad I did.  This is a terrific album, though I think one would probably have to be in the mood for it.  It is definitely a dark album, moreso by the fact that everything 1914 sings about really happened.  I have a hard time watching war movies based on real events (Black Hawk Down is particularly rough), and this album hits that same nerve.

Saccage: Récidive (2017)

Quebec has a very rich history of producing amazing metal bands.  There are bands like Gorguts, Kataklysm and Cryptopsy, and of course Voivod is quite possibly the most famous metal band hailing from Quebec.  In fact, there are very few metal bands from the Canadian province that I can honestly say I dislike (though Despised Icon does come to mind).  And so, when I see a metal band from Quebec, my interest is piqued.  Such was the case with Saccage.

Saccage is not as weird as most of the other Quebec bands listed.  Their style is a decidedly old-school mix of thrash metal, black metal and crust.  Think a mix of Venom, early Sodom and Discharge and that is a reasonable approximation of the Saccage's sound.  The songs are all fast-paced with rampaging riffs and the full-throttle roar of vocalist Phat Labrosse.  Despite the ever-present speed and intensity, Saccage have managed to add in a lot of dynamics to the recording.  It never grows stale and retains interest throughout.

The only thing at all unusual about Saccage is that all of the lyrics and song titles are in French.  That is not shocking given the band's home, but it is a little unusual.  Having never learned French myself, I have not the slightest idea of what is being said.

Saccage blends elements of multiple extreme metal and punk styles seemlessly.  This is a filthy and raw release from a band who has thus far made that their calling card.  It is a lot of fun for those interested in the style. 

Altar of Blood: Total Evil and Darkness... (2018)

This was a freebie included in an order with yesterday's Morbosidad and tomorrow's band, which I will not name at this time.  Altar of Blood is a power trio that released their first recorded material last year.  They fit in well stylistically and contextually with Morbosidad.  Altar of Blood is from Mexico and one of their members is also the one-man band Zauront.

This is the band's second release, a four-song demo.  They released a promo a short time before this demo and have since released another demo.  The songs are all very short and the whole thing is over in just over 11 minutes.

Altar of Blood seem to have the same influences as Morbosidad, that being early black metal like Blasphemy.  There is a little more of a death metal influence present on this release though.  The production is murky and the vocals in particular have kind of a cavernous feel to them that adds to the evil atmosphere.  Altar of Blood make usage of a number of samples from horror movies to help with the overall effect.

The music here is ugly and raw.  Once again, there is absolutely nothing pretty here.  The drums are high in the mix, with the guitar riffs being a bit low in the mix.  The songs are fairly simplistic with no real complex riffs or drum patterns, which only adds to the raw feel.  "Malignal Possession" stands out with a little bit of an interlude during which there are no blast beats or crushing riffs, and the band comes closest to a melody.  If they build on that song in the future, they might really have something.

This band is fairly new.  It will be interesting to see where they go from here. 

Morbosidad: Corona de Epidemia (2017)

Despite being from the U.S., all of Morbosidad's album titles, song titles and lyrics are in Spanish.  It is kind of an interesting choice.  I don't fault them for it, but it is somewhat unusual for a black metal band in the U.S. to be playing entirely in Spanish.  Especially since this is pretty much straight black metal with few, if any, other influences.

An initial note.  This band almost has Spinal Tap-esque luck with drummers.  For those who have not seen the movie (shame on you), Spinal Tap's drummers tend to die in strange and mysterious ways, several due to episodes of spontaneous human combustion.  Morbosidad's first drummer Yegros died in an explosion in the band's rehearsal room.  Another drummer Goat Destroyer died falling out of a third story window.  No clue.

Morbosidad is clearly influenced by the early progenitors of the genre, with Blasphemy being a particularly strong reference point.  There is nothing pretty going on in this album.  It is simply raw and hateful black metal that is harsh and violent and over quickly.  There are 11 songs on the album, but it lasts under 33 minutes.  There is no time for melodic interludes or clean singing.  Each song makes the maximum amount of destructive noise possible.

The production is better than a lot of Morbosidad's previous material, but it still leaves something to be desired.  The guitars are a little low in the mix, meaning that the drums are the loudest instrument.  The vocals are in right about the correct place, not too high and not too low.  That is certainly not unusual for this style of metal.  After all, Blasphemy was always pretty much the same way, to the point that they took pride in their low production values.  Morbosidad is not nearly that bad, at least on this release.

This is just pure, hateful black metal.  There are those out there that love that kind of thing and this is definitely the kind of album they would like.  Luckily, I happen to be one of them.

One and Done? Pt. 13: Gorement

I have never seen a less-than-perfect score in a review for Gorement's The Ending Quest.  Given my attempts from a few weeks ago to uncover hidden gems of the Swedish death metal scene, I had to give this one a shot.  This is Gorement's only full-length release.  They changed their name to the significantly less interesting Pipers Dawn in the mid 90's, but never released more than a single demo under that name. 

Gorement is kind of different for a Swedish death metal band.  They do not play the same kind of typical buzzsaw punk-inflected riff style.  Rather, Gorement shows significant doom metal influences, bearing more similarity to groups like Autopsy and Asphyx than to Entombed and Dismember.  The result is an extremely dark and gloomy atmosphere that is at least as impressive as anything their countrymen have ever released.  There are moments where there are gothic metal elements similar to Paradise Lost as well.

Gorement appears to have just missed the boat when they released this album.  By 1994, most of the Swedish death metal landmark albums had already been released and the attention had shifted to Norwegian black metal.  They were just a couple of years late.  Most of the big Swedish death metal bands were entering into the second phases of their careers and were declining in quality.  This is the status of the scene into which Gorement released their sole album.

It is a shame that this album has been mostly relegated to obscurity.  It is a terrific album that pulls together influences from Swedish death metal, doom metal and gothic/death metal.  The Ending Quest should be a classic.  Instead it is a hidden gem. 

1914: Für Kaiser, Volk und Vaterland! (2016)

Okay, so this one is a little odd.  1914 is another Ukrainian band who is named such because of their obsession with World War I.  Of course WWI began in the year 1914.  Before anyone gets any ideas after reading the Drudkh post the other day, I have not gone deep down the NS rabbit hole.  This is a band who has developed their entire sound and content around WWI.

This is an EP, but it is a long one and actually comes close to the length of a full-length album, but there are several demo tracks included and a remix, and the whole thing is just kind of strange.  I picked it up when I was having problems tracking down the band's highly regarded 2018 album The Blind Leading the Blind, which I picked up just a few days later anyway.

So what do we have here?  Well the first track is kind of a weird electronic intro that is not at all a harbinger of things to come.  Most of the proper songs on here are doom-laden death metal that reflect the horrors of warfare.  The second track is a very long one that features a Nirvana cover buried in there somewhere.  Seriously.  "Something in the Way" is a heartfelt song that some feel was about Kurt Cobain's time being homeless.  In the hands of 1914, it is less poignant and more horrifying.  The next track is the aforementioned weird-ass remix, complete with keyboard and techno-esque programming.  It is bizarre and out of place on this release.  Then, we get a collection of demos which are easily the best parts on the entire EP.  The recording is raw on the demos, but you get a real feeling for what this band is all about.  They are devastatingly heavy and shockingly emotional.

So, like I said, this thing is really weird.  It is kind of tough to really get a feel for what this band really sounds like when the songs include a cover, remix and a bunch of demo tracks.  I am not sorry I picked this up, but when looking to listen to 1914, I will likely go for The Blind Leading the Blind far more often.

Reevaluating Arise by Sepultura

Longtime readers of this blog may recall that Sepultura was a hugely important band during my formative years as a metalhead.  They were truly my gateway into more extreme forms of metal, not that they were overly extreme during the time period, but Morbid Visions was my first death metal album.  Sepultura was also the first band who I truly attempted to get as much music as I could find.  I picked up singles, compilations with new songs, EPs and even bootlegs in my quest to add as much Sepultura music as I could. 

But for some reason, despite all these random pick-ups, I could not find Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains, or Arise.  So I missed out on three of the band's best albums.  It was not until much later that I finally added those three releases.  Beneath the Remains quickly took over as my favorite Sepultura album due to the presence of "Inner Self" and the title track.  Schizophrenia never really caught on due to the terrible production.  Arise also did not truly make much impact on me.  That changed recently though.

I am not sure what happened.  One day I was listening to the album.  And I listened to it again.  And again.  And I kept listening to it over and over for several days.  Then I realized it.  Arise is the best album Sepultura ever released.  It is the perfect blend of their earlier extreme thrash and their later more groove-oriented style. 

In addition, this album features some of the greatest songs Sepultura ever recorded, and several of them were favorites of mine from long before I picked up the album.  "Dead Embryonic Cells", the title track and "Desperate Cry" are all incredible songs that are equal parts brutally intense and completely infectious.  There is truly not a weak song on the entire album.  It closes with another classic in "Infected Voice".

I do not know why it took me so long to truly appreciate this album.  I was once a huge Sepultura fan, and yet, somehow their best album eluded me for so long.  Not anymore though.  I have a new appreciation for this album. 

Astriferous: Raise High the Scepter of Indulgence (2019)

Hailing from Costa Rica, of all places, is Astriferous.  The death metal band has released their first demo earlier this year, and has been getting high praise from Decibel, among other underground metal media.  So, of course, I decided to check it out as well.

Astriferous features two members of the impressive Bloodsoaked Necrovoid, so they are not brand new to the metal game.  The band's name means something to the effect of bearing stars and it fits the band well.  The sound of the riffs and the lyrics bring to mind Lovecraftian cosmic horror.  It is a cold and merciless sound with brain-melting riffs and desiccated vocals.

The band's sound is an unholy concoction of old-school Finnish death metal, such as Convulse or Demilich, and some of the dirtier early U.S. death metal bands like Autopsy, Immolation and Incantation.  It is an extremely caustic and volatile mix that results in an otherworldly sound on this short demo. 

The length is the only downside to this demo, but that is to be expected with a quick demo.  Astriferous is extremely impressive.  I am looking forward to more.

Drudkh: Кров у наших криницях (Blood in Our Wells) (2006)

Something has been frustrating me lately.  I have seen a lot of stories in the metal media about bands getting concerts cancelled due to allegations about having NS ties.  Sometimes these ties are real, more often than not they are vague and tenuous, based on members having previously been in bands with members who have been in NS bands.  Or being signed to a label who happens to also release bands who have NS ties.  It is kind of pissing me off.  So, I have decided, I no longer give a fuck.  If I like a band's music, I will listen to them.  Maybe if the band is blatant about their particular ideology, I will avoid them.  So, this is the last time I will mention this issue.  And I have a Burzum album coming, so it will not be mentioned there, except perhaps in passing.

Drudkh is one of those bands with somewhat tenuous NS ties.  Two members of the band were previously in Hate Forest, a group who has also been accused of NS leanings, though those too are unclear.  But members of Drudkh have always been clear that Drudkh is not a political band and one of those former members is a history teacher.  And so Drudkh, from Ukraine, plays songs centered around Ukrainian history and folklore, and has been the subject of backlash because of this so-called nationalism.

But enough of that bullshit.  Drudkh is awesome.  This is an album I have been curious about for a long time.  When I first started truly delving into the metal underground upon taking my first job as an attorney, this was an album that I saw discussed at length and may have been voted the Album of the Year on the Metal Archives forums the year it was released.  Yet, I never got around to checking it out.  Until now, mostly as a result of truly discovering Drudkh on my own recently.

The album is a slow-burning masterpiece of atmospheric black metal.  The riffs are lush and beautiful, which is not a thing said often about black metal.  The album definitely has an autumn feel to it and a lot of folk elements in the style of the riffs and in the additional instrumentation which consists of some wind instruments.  There is an air of desperation in some of the riffs, and in particular in the vocals that is gripping and fascinating.  The vocals are typically delivered in a harsh growl, but even those growls sound natural and fit the tone of the music so well.  The songs ebb and flow naturally, with a rich, earthy atmosphere.  Sometimes they do tend to hang around a little too long, but by and large Drudkh manages to keep things fresh and entertaining.

This band continues to impress me.  It has only been about a year or so since I first checked them out and I am always amazed by their ability to take a genre that is typically ugly and make it sound beautiful and natural.  I am on a quest to hear as much from Drudkh as I can, because each time I get into an album, I am blown away.

Iron Cemetery: Iron Cemetery (2018)

Here we have another band who I originally discovered via a combination of Bandcamp and Decibel's demo reviews.  Iron Cemetery are a young power trio from Montana of all places.  Kind of a weird place to find a death/thrash metal band, but then, I'm from Nebraska, so there you go.

This is an impressive, dirty and raw slab of death/thrash metal with varying influences.  I hear quite a bit of the Australian scene here, with groups like Destruktor and Bestial Warlust being particularly present.  The music is stripped down and incredibly raw.  And incredibly violent.  It is a short and furious assault on the listener that simply never lets up.

The lyrical subject matter is fairly typical for the style.  Iron Cemetery are angry about a lot of things, including religion, which being in a rural area myself I can attest tends to get shoved down your throat.  The isolation and desolation of their home area also tends to fuel their violent and angry lyrics.

This is a very impressive debut recording.  I am anxious to see what else the band will come up with in the future. 

Beorn's Hall: In His Granite Realm (2019)

Bandcamp is a wonderful thing.  I have been spending a lot of time (and probably money) on picking up albums that I can listen to a little on the site.  It has led me to a number of bands I would not have heard of otherwise.  That has recently led me to New Hampshire-based black metal band Beorn's Hall. 

Well, sort of black metal.  Beorn's Hall shows some absolutely clear influences from some of the black metal legends and pioneers, but a lot of those influences are from those respective bands' times as something other than black metal.  Clear as mud?  Yep. 

The primary influence on the sound of Beorn's Hall is none other than Bathory.  However, the reference points are more in the albums like Blood on Ice and Twilight of the Gods.  The more viking metal sound of Bathory.  This influence is shown in the cleaner riffs, dry vocal style and epic, majestic songs.  Beorn's Hall also utilizes lengthy acoustic sections and a variety of unorthodox percussion.  To drive the influence home, the final track is a Bathory cover.  "Foreverdark Woods" appears on Bathory's Nordland I. 

The other influence is Burzum.  But again, this is less of the black metal Burzum and more of their ambient, instrumental songs.  "Bronze Age Spellcraft" is the best example here as it is a keyboard-driven instrumental song somewhat in the vein of Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for the movie The Keep.  As an aside, see that movie if you haven't.

The only complaint I have about this album is the rather flat production.  For songs as rich, epic and majestic as these, it would be nice if the production was a little brighter, fully giving weight to the lush instrumentation.  Unfortunately it comes off a little flat, making it a bit difficult to fully hear what is happening.  But, this does kind of keep with the Bathory influence as well.  Blood on Ice might be Quorthon's greatest album, but the production just kind of ruins it.  So it is with this album.

I really do love this album.  Every time I listen to it, I hear something new.  I like to put this album with nothing else happening and just get lost in it. 

Charged Minds/Fetid Zombie/Wülfskol: Parasitic Nuklear Path (2018)

Like yesterday, we have another split.  And, like yesterday, the primary purpose in picking up said split is the presence of new material by Fetid Zombie.  Unlike yesterday, this is a three-way split, and also, I was not familiar with the other groups present.

Charged Minds is first, and they play three songs, unlike the other two groups.  All of the songs are short, with opening track "The Brutality of War" being just over three minutes.  The other two are less than two minutes long.  Charged Minds is a hardcore punk band whose songs are quick and fast-paced, but with a little bit of a pop sensibility.  They have two singers that I can identify, with a higher-pitched singer who sounds like he is still a teenager, and another vocalist with a rougher voice.  The songs are not bad, but this is not really my style.

Next is Fetid Zombie, who contribute two songs that sound a little different than anything else they have done.  The riffs driving the songs are a little more black metal flavored with more of a tremolo element to them.  Mark Riddick's collaborator on this release is Chris Monroy who has played in Fueled by Fire and Skeletal Remains.  These songs are excellent and Monroy does an amazing job with the leads and solos.  These are some of the best songs I have heard from Fetid Zombie, and that is truly saying something.

Finally, we have Wülfskol, who kind of combines the sounds of the previous two bands.  They are an unabashedly extreme metal band who also has some significant punk elements to their sound.  The production here is kind of lacking, but the songs are decent enough.  At one point in their first song, they provide vocals that sound almost like Danzig during his time with the Misfits and it fits well with their warlike riffing style.  I could see listening to an album of this.

Well, it should be obvious from the review that Fetid Zombie once again wins this split.  Wülfskol comes in second.

Fetid Zombie/Cosmic Void Ritual: Manifestations of Sacrificial Macrocosms (2018)

I have not done a split review for a while.  I love splits but I do not come across them real frequently.  Even less often are those in which I am familiar with both groups.  I have covered Fetid Zombie several times in the past, and will very likely cover them many times in the future.  I love this band.  Cosmic Void Ritual is a band whose demo I covered a year or so ago.  This is a very short split as both bands contribute just one song.

Cosmic Void Ritual is first and their song titles (particularly this one) are shockingly longer than their band name.  The band's song mostly revolve around Lovecraftian horror and their song here, "Omnipresent Tetramorph Oracles (Coliseum for the Dead Astronaut V)" is no different.  The band continues to sound like old-school death metal from Finland with Demilich and Convulse being the primary points of reference.  The composition is fairly simple with just a few riffs in the song, mostly endlessly repeating.  There is no bottom end, the song consisting of just some rudimentary drums and the guitar riff, but it feels cavernous and dark.  We are still waiting on a full-length release from Cosmic Void Ritual.

Fetid Zombie checks in with "Graven Image" and this song is terrific.  It hits the right notes to sound like the kind of song Death or Morbid Angel would have put out on their earliest releases.  The riffs, vocals and even the wailing guitar solo all sound authentic.  Fetid Zombie does a terrific job of paying respect to their influences without sounding like utter copycats and that continues to be true here. 

As is typical of split reviews, it is time to pick which band won the split.  It is perhaps not shocking that that band is Fetid Zombie here.  They usually do win their splits.