Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 73

ARTIST:  White Zombie
ORIGIN:  Haverhill, MA (United States)
TITLE:  Supersexy Swingin' Sounds
LABEL:  Geffen Records
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Industrial/Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Electric Head Pt. 1 (Satan in High Heels Mix)"
NOTES:  There was a time in the 1990's when some metal artists were releasing remix albums.  Fear Factory may have started the trend with their Fear is the Mindkiller EP.  White Zombie picked up on it and ran with it, releasing this album of remixes after the Astro Creep album.  It was basically the last thing the band would release, which is a shame.

Witch Mountain: Witch Mountain

I am beginning to really like Scion A/V.  They put out a bunch of free EPs from some damn good bands.  Over the last year and a half or so there have been terrific EPs from Immolation, Revocation, and Corrosion of Conformity.  This time I decided to check out Witch Mountain, a band I had only a passing familiarity with.

Witch Mountain is a traditional doom metal band from the U.S. featuring a female lead singer.  There is a large discussion over on the Metal Archives forum which is dissecting the merits of having a woman in a metal band.  A large consensus seems to be that many bands use it as a gimmick.  I really do not think that is the case with Witch Mountain as Uta Plotkin possesses an extremely impressive voice.  It is powerful and really gives the band a unique quality that makes them stand out from many of the other retro doom metal bands out there.  Seriously she is one of the most talented vocalists I have heard in a long time.

The music on the EP is somewhat lumbering traditional doom.  It is slow-paced but it allows Plotkin a chance to really shine.  The music is very impressive though and it does not get bogged down in its slow pace.  It remains interesting enough to keep the listener's attention even when Plotkin is not wailing away.

Plotkin is definitely the star here though.  Without her, the band probably would not merit much mention.  I am not suggesting that Witch Mountain uses the fact that they have a female lead singer to achieve any measure of notoriety.  It is not the fact that Plotkin is a woman that makes the band stand out.  It really is her voice.  She is that good.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 72

ARTIST:  Danzig
ORIGIN:  Lodi, NJ (United States)
TITLE:  Danzig II: Lucifuge
LABEL:  Def American
YEAR:  1990
GENRE:  Heavy Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Her Black Wings"
NOTES:  My second full-length album by Danzig and my third overall release.  This is still quite possibly my favorite Danzig album.  At this point, I was really big into his solo band and my interest in his prior projects was starting to increase as well.  He just has a knack for writing dark, catchy songs.

FMA Reviews: War Possession: Through the Ages

Originally reviewed here.

This is another quick and dirty death metal EP from Hellthrasher Productions, the people that brought out the Engulfed EP reviewed earlier. War Possession is a Greek band. I have heard a lot of black, doom, and heavy metal from Greece, but I have not heard too many death metal bands.

War Possession is another band interested more in the old school death metal sounds. Their influences are the more brutal bands from the early days of death metal such as Asphyx and the Swedish scene with groups like Immolation and Incantation thrown in for good measure. Most of the music is faster-paced with a few doom-laden sections to keep things interesting. The vocals are delivered in a sort of decayed and dessicated guttural gasping croak. It is not a style done frequently and it sounds very impressive with the down-tuned and eerie atmospheric style of the music.

The production is a little thin. Some of the sections sound kind of hollow as if there is a wide gap between the guitar-driven melodies and the rhythmic bottom end. War Possession also does not really bring anything new to the table, music-wise. This is a basic old school death metal recording, but it is interesting enough.

FMA Reviews: Engulfed: Through the Eternal Damnation

Originally reviewed here.

I have been able to find virtually no information on Engulfed out there, so I really went into this one blind. The little information I have been able to find is that Engulfed is a death metal band from Turkey and that they are made up of members of Deggial, Burial Invocation, and Decaying Purity.

This is a very short EP, featuring only four songs and being less than 25 minutes in length. But do not mistake its brevity for being an easy album to listen to. Engulfed is brutally intense. Engulfed's style of death metal is most similar to Incantation and Angelcorpse and other more occult death metal bands. The music is a whirlwind of riffs and pounding drums and deep guttural roars. There are some black metal elements thrown in to the point that many will probably call this a blackened death metal band, but for the most part this is just a fast and furious underground death metal band.

Engulfed apparently do not believe in being calm. This EP blasts by with all the subtlety of a jackhammer. It is an absolutely punishing album. One which is bound to cause strained necks and headaches. There are a few moments where the music slows down a bit, but the drums continue to pound away and what the band decreases in intensity, they more than make up for with dissonant chords and atmosphere.

For everyone out there claiming that death metal has become sterile and lifeless, I would urge you to check out Engulfed. It's just a shame this is only an EP and not a full-length.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 71

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Chaos A.D.
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1993
GENRE:  Groove Metal/Thrash Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Nomad"
NOTES:  I have actually had two versions of this album.  The first version was the original with a bonus track featuring demonic laughing.  Kind of boring really.  The second version featured "Chaos B.C.", a remix of "Refuse/Resist" and some live tracks.  My first metal t-shirt featured Sepultura's "Territory".  I have no idea what ever happened to that.

Nebraska Metal: Faith Buried in Flames: Scriptures of the Suffering

I recently had an occasion to meet a member of this band, though I will not tell you how or which one.  As a thank you he gave me a copy of his band's CD and a t-shirt.  I like free stuff.

Faith Buried in Flames is a groove metal band from Norfolk, Nebraska, which is the city in which I am currently working.  It is one of only two metal bands from this area I am aware of, though the other one may be defunct.  I am honestly surprised there is even one.

Groove metal is not really a genre of which I am a big fan.  I like some Pantera, some Machine Head, the Sepultura groove metal era, Exhorder, and a few other random bands.  But for some reason Nebraska seems to produce a number of groove metal bands.  Deadechoes and Seppeku are two such bands that were reviewed on this blog.  More than likely this is due to Nebraska being hopelessly behind the times.  Faith Buried in Flames is a pretty decent groove metal band really.  Their music is not the simplistic, meat-headed style that has become synonymous with the genre name.  There are some complexities in this music with some other elements that keep it from becoming a typical and boring groove metal album.

There are the occasional death metal elements to be found in the music.  That in and of itself makes this far more interesting than the stereotypical groove metal album.  Faith Buried in Flames has some impressive death metal riffing going on in several places.  The guitar work for the most part is very entertaining and keeps things from growing stale.  The band also uses the occasional acoustic interlude to break up the otherwise fast-paced and punishing songs.

The album does tend to drag a little bit by the end, but for the most part it is a bit of a wild ride.  I was overall very impressed by this release.  Hopefully they can keep things going and not get discourage by having their home in an otherwise metal-deficient part of the state.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 70

ARTIST:  Fear Factory
ORIGIN:  Los Angeles, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Demanufacture
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1995
GENRE:  Industrial Metal/Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Body Hammer"
NOTES:  I still think this is the best album Fear Factory has ever released.  And I do not think that I am alone in this.  I first heard Fear Factory on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack as I recall.  I liked the song okay, but it was not something that I was incredibly excited about.  I heard a few other songs then picked this up.  I actually have the digipak reissue with a bunch of bonus tracks.

2012 Lists

Okay the 2012 lists are finally done.  I may have overdone them this year, not totally sure.  Let me know in the comments what you thought.  I may try to streamline them more next year.  But I wanted to get a variety of topics thrown out there because some times one long list is a little boring.

Tomorrow I will get back to my normal posting.

Popular 2012 Albums I Listened to Once and Gave Up

I am not going to get into it.  I just do not understand the appeal of these bands.  I tried listening to them and nothing really clicked.  These are groups I have tried to understand in the past and I just don't get it.

NEUROSIS: HONOUR FOUND IN DECAY

CONVERGE: ALL WE LOVE WE LEAVE BEHIND

DEFTONES: KOI NO YOKAN

BARONESS: YELLOW AND GREEN

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 69

ARTIST:  Misery Loves Co.
ORIGIN:  Sweden
TITLE:  Misery Loves Co.
LABEL:  MNW Zone
YEAR:  1994
GENRE:  Industrial Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Sonic Attack"
NOTES:  I heard "Happy?" quite a bit which lead me to pick up this release.  Honestly I forgot about this one.  I used to listen to it a lot but have not played it for quite some time.  This is real industrial metal.  And there are some great songs here.  It is not really a release to make you think, more than anything it just bludgeons the listener.

Best Albums of 2011 I Heard in 2012

 5.  TOXIC HOLOCAUST: CONJURE AND COMMAND
Toxic Holocaust is a band that focuses on a very specific timeframe in creating their music.  They play old school black/death/thrash metal with nods towards Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, Sodom, and the like.  It is all fast and intense music.  Their albums are short and fun.  This one was no exception.

4.  INSOMNIUM: ONE FOR SORROW
Insomnium's somber take on melodeath can be heart-wrenching.  That much is sure.  The Finnish band has been putting out high-quality albums for years now and they certainly lived up to their past albums with this one.

3.  VADER: WELCOME TO THE MORBID REICH
The pioneering Polish death/thrash metal band has been one of the most consistent bands going for the last couple of decades.  Every album destroys.  You know what you will get with a Vader album, a steamroller of riffs and pounding drums.  They never disappoint.

2.  DISMA: TOWARDS THE MEGALITH
Incantation's Craig Pillard appears as vocalist for this album and the sound is fairly similar to Pillard's other band.  It's grimy, old school death metal with a nod toward the occult death metal that was rising from the grave in the late 1980's.

1.  VEKTOR: OUTER ISOLATION
I am a big fan of Vektor already and this is the only album I have heard to this point.  The band combines styles from Voivod and later Death into a very impressive and original sound.  The album is just a crushing beast of a release.  This one would have easily made my Top 10 in 2011, likely at number two or three.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 68

ARTIST:  Metallica
ORIGIN:  San Francisco, CA (United States)
TITLE:  Load
LABEL:  Elektra
YEAR:  1996
GENRE:  Heavy Metal/Hard Rock
FAVORITE SONG:  "Wasting My Hate"
NOTES:  As I mentioned in a previous post, I remember the massive amount of hype leading up to this release.  Then word starting spreading that Metallica had cut their hair.  Horror upon horrors.  Then the album was released.  I was very disappointed with it personally.  There are some decent songs here, but for the most part, it was completely unlike anything Metallica had previously released.  The thrash was gone completely.  It was some time before Metallica would be good again.

FMA Reviews: Varg: Guten Tag

Originally reviewed here.

Okay this one threw me too. I decided after some bad experiences that I needed to investigate bands before listening to them. Just to get some kind of an idea of what I am in for. So I checked out the ever-reliable Encyclopedia Metallum for some information about this band. I saw that they were listed as a pagan metal band with lyrical themes about Norse mythology and fantasy. I suppose that may have been true at one time, but it is definitely no longer the case.

My first clue was the album cover. It does not look like the kind of moody landscape picture you would normally expect out of a pagan metal band. It looks more like something that a dirty hard rock band would use. So already things are a little strange.

No, this is something else. While the melodies are somewhat folk-inflected, the riffs have an almost NWOBHM quality to them. These are definitely more traditional metal-based riffs. The vocals are more of a black metal-esque raspy growl. The songs are mostly faster-paced and energetic. Not the kind of sullen, atmospheric quality you would expect in a pagan metal band.

So we have established that this is not a pagan metal band. But enough about that. This is a really fun album. The lyrics are mostly in German so I have no idea what they are saying, but it still sounds as if Varg is having a good time creating this album. As I previously mentioned, some of the guitar melodies do have a folk-like lilt to them. And the guitar melodies are surprisingly upbeat for the most part. The happy sound of the melodies does not really match the hateful vocals, so it kind of comes off a little unbalanced, but for some reason it just works.

As the album goes on, more and more folk elements seem to become present, although this is by no means just a folk metal band. The band may use folk melodies, but their foundation is definitely in traditional metal.

2012 Reissue of the Year

I am going with Xenomorph which has been reissued on vinyl and on CD.  The CD also includes the band's demo.  Xenomorph is from Nebraska, my home state.  This is a terrific death metal album that fans of the genre definitely need to check out.  I picked up the vinyl release.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 67

ARTIST:  Sepultura
ORIGIN:  Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais (Brazil)
TITLE:  Refuse/Resist
LABEL:  Roadrunner Records
YEAR:  1993
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Refuse/Resist"
NOTES:  At one point I made a decision that Sepultura was my favorite band and I tried to get as many of their releases as I possibly could.  This was my second release by the band and was an EP that was released prior to the Chaos A.D. album.  This features the "Refuse/Resist" track as well as a number of covers of bands like Final Conflict, Ratos de Porao, and Motorhead, and some live tracks.  It is a pretty decent little EP.

FMA Reviews: Spawn of Possession: Incurso

Originally reviewed here.

Spawn of Possession is yet another technical death metal band. The band has been around for awhile now, though I have not previously had an opportunity to check them out. This is the band's third full-length and their first one in six years. I had heard good things about their prior albums, with some calling them a cross between Obscura and Necrophagist. So I was kind of anxious to hear this group.

The first thing that I noticed with this release is that the band bears a much stronger sonic resemblance to Obscura than to Necrophagist. I have mentioned several times my standard for what is good technical death metal compared to bad stuff. Even though I like Necrophagist, their sound can sometimes come off as cold and sterile. It is as if the band exists to be as technical as possible without much concern for crafting decent songs. Again, I like Necrophagist, but some imitators such as Brain Drill come off as far too mechanical. Obscura on the other hand sounds more human, though still very technical.

There is definitely a lot of alternating guitar shredding and noodling. Despite this, the individual band members do a nice job of making it sound interesting. Sometimes the overly technical groups get too bogged down in throwing a ton of riffs and leads in and the whole thing kind of comes apart at the seems. It is often hard to listen music like that for long. The constant interjecting sounds get to be too much to really handle and interest is lost quickly. Spawn of Possession avoid this by at least keeping tracks grounded in one cohesive idea. The vocals do a nice job of keeping things on track too.

Spawn of Possession's biggest gift is their ability to write songs that emphasize the technicality but are not afraid to be melodic at the same time. The band may shift time signatures and throw riffs out of nowhere, but there appears to be a method and reason for everything. That is often lost in other bands that sound like one long technical guitar improvised jam session. Spawn of Possession have crafted their songs to be stand-alone tracks with the technicality something of an afterthought.

I came away from this release very impressed. Obscura and Decrepit Birth have been two of my absolute favorite technical death metal bands for some time. I would place Spawn of Possession up on that pedestal alongside those two groups. This is simply a terrific example of technical death metal done well.

Latest Addition to the 2012 Albums

This one has not had a chance to fully sink in yet, but it likely would have been a Top 20 album, if not Top 10 album.  And I got it on cassette.  That's right.  A new full-length album in 2012 released on a cassette.

Cataloguing My Metal Collection Pt. 66

ARTIST:  Pantera
ORIGIN:  Arlington, TX (United States)
TITLE:  Vulgar Display of Power
LABEL:  Atlantic Records
YEAR:  1992
GENRE:  Groove Metal
FAVORITE SONG:  "Mouth for War"
NOTES:  This is the album that really caused groove metal to take over as the most popular metal subgenre for a little while.  The music was much more simplified on this release from the power/thrash metal of the previous release.  Dimebag Darrell's riffs and Phil Anselmo's tough-guy snarl were the driving forces of this release and "Walk" proved to be a very popular song.  I just do not care much for this album.

Albums I Missed in 2012

PALLBEARER: SORROW AND EXTINCTION

GRAND MAGUS: THE HUNT

GRAND SUPREME BLOOD COURT: BOW DOWN BEFORE THE BLOOD COURT

EVOCATION: ILLUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

INCANTATION: VANQUISH IN VENGEANCE