Soils of Fate: Sandstorm v. Soils of Fate: Crime Syndicate

I have not done one of these faceoff posts for awhile, not since the last slam week in fact.  So here's one, since I recently added both Soils of Fate albums to my collection.  Since we are talking Soils of Fate against Soils of Fate, picking a better album is not going to be easy.  But here it goes anyway.

SOILS OF FATE: SANDSTORM
The debut album from Sweden's impressive slam death metal band was released in 2001.  The band is a little divisive due to their somewhat thuggish image, just look at the band picture on the Metal Archives for an idea.  Soils of Fate establish their reliance on rhythm early on in this album.  While it is not as pronounced as on their second release, the band clearly shows some rap influence.  The Goodfellas samples early on are definitely entertaining.  The vocalist also experiments with some raplike vocals here and there.  Soils of Fate do throw in some impressively fast songs here, most notably the title track.  To switch things up a bit occasionally, Soils of Fate do throw in some decent, if short, guitar solos.

SOILS OF FATE: CRIME SYNDICATE
If I did not know any better, looking at the album cover and song titles, I would assume this was a rap album.  Seriously, when was the last time you saw a metal album with a song title like "Killaz Beware"?  This is groove-laden slam death metal with several instances of raplike vocals delivered in a grunting death metal style.  Sgt. D used to refer a lot to "wigger slam", something of a derisive term for slam death that clearly has a lot of rap influence.  Well, here is a good example.  There are breakdowns that sound very similar to rap songs in which the vocalist does his death-rap thing.  This album is as close to a rap album as slam death metal can possibly get.  I bet you never expected to see that sentence in writing.  The most impressive moment comes in "Vs." when Ruben Rosas of Devourment shows up for some exceptionally brutal roaring vocals.  They also do a decent job of covering Suffocation on the final track.

THE VERDICT:  It is clear from the debut album what Soils of Fate were attempting to do, which is slam death influenced by rap.  They perfected it on their second album.  The second album is probably my favorite based on the more complete ideas here.

Infernal Revulsion: An Epic Conviction vs. Putrid Pile: House of Dementia

For Slam Week, I revisited my Now That's What I Call Slam compilation and found my two favorite tracks. I then checked out both of the bands: Infernal Revulsion for "Rot in Peace" and Putrid Pile for "Dead".

INFERNAL REVULSION: AN EPIC CONVICTION
This is a compilation made up of each of the band's two previous full-length albums. As such it is a little on the long side, so those of you who can not put up with this for very long should be wary.

Infernal Revulsion is another Japanese slam band. Japan seems to have a lot of good slam death bands, with Rest in Gore, Gorevent, and Vomit Remnants being other good examples. As with other Japanese slam bands, Infernal Revulsion has a slightly different take on their genre of choice.

Infernal Revulsion keeps listeners on their toes by throwing in the occasional thrash metal or tremolo riff. Pretty unique for this style of metal. They are also typically faster-paced with some somewhat bouncy riffs and impressive guitar solos thrown in occasionally. The vocals are very deep and froglike, occasionally sounding like Demilich's vocalist.

This is pretty impressive stuff. Infernal Revulsion avoids a lot of the traps that other slam bands tend to fall into. Their music sounds fresh and original.

PUTRID PILE: HOUSE OF DEMENTIA
The melodic intro sounds like the kind of thing Air Supply would have done, but then it kicks into the frenzied brutality of "Dead", which is one hell of a song, let me tell you. It is extremely heavy with the opening riff reminding me of some of Gojira's work. The heaviness continues throughout the album. Putrid Pile do the Deicide-style layered vocals quite a bit, to great effect.

Making things even more impressive is that Putrid Pile is the work of just one person: Shaun LaCanne, who provides all of the instruments and vocals, as well as the programming. This is one talented individual. Putrid Pile is one of the best slam/brutal death metal bands I have heard in awhile.

This is an extremely impressive album. I will definitely be keeping an eye on Putrid Pile.

CONCLUSION
I preferred the Putrid Pile album personally, though Infernal Revulsion was also great.

Gorevent: Worship Paganism vs. Rest in Gore: Culinary Buffet of Hacked Innards

I get Gorevent and Rest in Gore confused. Both bands are slam bands from Japan, and they have similar names. I had a chance to listen to each band's newest album in an effort to determine which Japanese "Gore" band was better.

GOREVENT: WORSHIP PAGANISM
This is plodding-speed slam death with ultra-low guttural vocals and some extremely bass-heavy slams. I generally prefer the stuff that is not over-the-top violent and this album qualifies more than a lot of other stereotypical slam bands. Notice the cover art is not soaked with gore and the name of the album is not referencing some horrible act of violence.

Musically, Gorevent lacks originality, but how many truly original slam bands are there (other than Wormed)? That's not why people listen to slam at all. Nevertheless, the album does tend to drag a little bit and the songs kind of bleed together. When it's good though, it's very good. It is an absolutely crushingly heavy album.

The vocals are a little bit interesting on this one because they are not always delivered in typical slam style. Sometimes they bear more similarities to old school death metal vocals.

REST IN GORE: CULINARY BUFFET OF HACKED INNARDS
And there's that cartoonish violence I referred to in the above review. We have a really messy album cover and quite the grotesque title. We also have song titles like "Pus from Rotten Sutures" and "Pierced Eyeballs".

However, musically this band is much more interesting than Gorevent. The riffs are almost bouncy. The music is a little bit faster and there is a lot more energy in it. In addition, the band experiments with some unusual, almost funky rhythms, particularly on "Splattered Slime" and "Putrid Autopsy". The clicking drum sound is interesting as well, but gets to be a little grating at times. It is present throughout the entire album.

The vocals do not really do anything. They stay the same throughout, deep guttural growls. Fairly typical for the style.

This is a bit more original than the Gorevent album. It is certainly a slightly different take on a mostly stale style.

CONCLUSION
Despite the gore and violence-filled lyrics, I prefer the Rest in Gore album.