My Top 5 Slam Albums

These are my favorite slam albums of the moment. Some of these could easily change at a moment's notice:

WORMED: PLANISPHAERIUM
I have alluded to it before, this is an utterly unique album by an utterly unique band. Wormed does not sound like any other band. They do science fiction-based slam death metal with an unusual almost dissonant atmosphere to their riffs. As I mentioned on the Initial Impressions post of last year's teaser, the band sounds like Demilich's singer fronting a combination of Devourment and Voivod. It is a truly unique sound. Wormed is one of a kind.

DEFEATED SANITY: CHAPTERS OF REPUGNANCE
German slam/brutal death metal band Defeated Sanity is also highly unusual. The band uses a variety of influences worked into their brutal style of metal, including some almost jazz-like experimentation and sections at times. The vocals are extremely deep and guttural and the riffs fly by at lightning-quick speeds. Defeated Sanity is another example of a highly unusual slam band.

SARCOLYTIC: THEE ARCANE PROGENY
Sarcolytic is one of a number of great bands from the Texas Death Metal scene. Most bands from the scene exist on the border between slam and brutal death and Sarcolytic is no exception. While this album, their first full-length, has lightened the slam influences from the earlier material, they are still definitely present and absolutely crushing when they are there. The almost Lovecraftian sound of the band makes this an album to check out.

DEVOURMENT: 1.3.8
Now we get to a more typical slam album. Technically this is a compilation album including the band's fantastic Molesting the Decapitated debut and some demos and of course the infamous "Babykiller" track which is the band's most well-known song. This is exactly what slam should be: short and brutally intense with extremely heavy breakdowns, which are of course the slams. The vocals of Wayne Knupp were also extremely influential on the genre.

DYING FETUS: KILLING ON ADRENALINE
Dying Fetus was one of the first bands that got me into slam and of course the band was hugely influential on the formation of the subgenre as well. This is, in my opinion, their finest album. It was not the first album I checked out by the band, but it is the one that convinced me of their influence. The band has been softening their sound somewhat lately, but this is brutal as it got for them. Just an incredible, furious album.

Initial Impressions: Wormed: Quasineutrality

The best slam bands are those that take a different viewpoint on the genre. Bands that are not obsessed with ultra-gory violence and have something to say and bands that are a bit more technical with their music while avoiding the overly simplistic style that slam is known for.

Enter Wormed.

Wormed has still not released the follow-up to their fantastic full-length debut album Planisphaerium from 2003, but they did release this two track teaser last year. It has just taken me a long time to get around to checking it out for some reason.

Imagine Demilich's vocalist Antti Boman fronting a band that sounds like a cross between Devourment and Voivod and you have a pretty good idea what Wormed sound like. That is a pretty unique sound if you ask me and Wormed pull it off incredibly well. As I mentioned, their debut album was incredible and, if anything, they have just gotten better on this short release.

There is not much more to say, this is amazing.

My Favorite Metal Band from Spain

I said yesterday that brutal death has been a bit underrepresented in my discussion of Slovakia's Sanatorium. Well, now we have two countries in a row, because Wormed is awesome. Wormed is something of a cross between technical death metal and slam, but does not fall into any of the pitfalls of either genre. The vocals are delivered in a croaking style that sounds like a mixture of Lord Worm and the vocalist from Demilich. The sound is unrelentingly heavy and intense. I am still eagerly anticipating a follow-up from these guys.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Dark Moor
Dawn of Tears
Teitanblood

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.