Devil Master: Satan Spits on Children of Light (2019)

I can be susceptible to peer pressure.  At times.  I saw a lot of hype leading up to the release of this album.  It was all over Decibel, among many other metal sites.  I kind of liked the cover art as well.  And so, I decided I would give it a shot.  And holy shit.

This Philly group has been making waves in their area for a few years now and have released a couple of minor releases, before catching the ear of Relapse Records.  This is the band's debut full-length and what a way to start things off.

With the absolutely insane cover art and the band's sound, which borrows very obviously from Japanese d-beat bands like GISM and Disclose, one would be forgiven for believing this was a Japanese band.  But they are not and they combine the previously mentioned influences with a variety of other styles, including very strong black metal influences.  Venom is probably the most obvious such black metal influence, but I would probably also throw another Japanese band out there: Sabbat. 

With manic punk energy in the rhythm section and wailing guitar leads, this album is one wild ride from start to finish.  The band never really slows down all that much and they sound like they had an absolute blast recording it.  Everything is up-tempo with some very impressive drumming propelling the songs forward.  The tone of the lead guitar which sort of covers everything else up is slightly unsettling and creepy with a vibe that reminds me a lot of goofy Japanese horror movies like Hausu. 

This is a very strong early contender for Album of the Year for 2019.  There is a lot going on in this album and it gets more interesting every time I hear it.  I bet they would be a blast to see live.

Iron Maiden: Live After Death (1985)

One of my wife's favorite movies is Rock of Ages, which is a musical with an ensemble cast and featuring all rock songs from the 1980's.  As a result, I have seen it a number of times.  In one part, the female lead and the male lead are discussing rock albums and the female lead says that her all-time favorite album is a live album by this fictional band.  That has always struck me as kind of odd.  I have personally never cared all that much for live albums, but maybe I have been listening to the wrong ones.  There are a few live albums that are considered absolute metal classics.  Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East is one and this is another.

There is a reason that Iron Maiden continues to sell out large arenas despite the fact that they receive very little radio or television play.  They are without a doubt, a terrific live act.  I saw them finally a couple of years ago when they made their way into Nebraska.  Their explosive live performance shines through extremely well on this album.  The songs are all performed with a lot of energy and sound great live.  There are some minor issues with some instruments being a little too loud in the mix compared to others, but that is not that big of a deal.

This is a somewhat early release, so the songs are limited to those on the band's first five albums.  There are some questionable choices here.  It is not terribly likely that Iron Maiden will be breaking out the 13-minute long epic "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" too often nowadays.  It is a good song, just not terribly conducive to a concert.  And then there is the closing track "Phantom of the Opera", which is not a song I would have thought would have been a closer in a concert.  There is obviously some editing going on on the release and different versions have songs in different orders so maybe it was not the closing song.

The only complaint that I have is that Bruce Dickinson was having a little bit of a bad night.  He is not quite able to hit some of the incredible high notes that he did on the album versions.  This is particularly obvious in songs like "Aces High" and "Powerslave".  He avoids this issue by doing a little bit more of a hoarse yell that actually fits in well with the music.

There is a reason this is one of the consensus greatest live albums of all time.  Iron Maiden does a fantastic live performance and it comes through quite well here.  I still would not consider this a favorite Iron Maiden album, but it is damn good.  Maybe I will check out that Judas Priest album next.

Drowning the Light: Drowned (2004)

Over the last couple of years, my interest in black metal has skyrocketed.  I do not really have an explanation for it, it has just really been catching my attention so much more recently, particularly when it comes to raw black metal and pagan black metal (Drudkh, among others).  Those are two areas that I had very little interest in previously.  Drowning the Light falls into the former category.

I discovered Drowning the Light after seeing several people on Youtube raving about them.  I had not heard of them before.  Part of my interest in the band stems from my fascination with groups that have massive discographies.  Seeing people on Youtube talking about Drowning the Light's massive number of releases spoke to me, though I may not be trying to focus to a large degree on this band.  Fetid Zombie is my primary interest.  Still though, this is now the fifth release by Drowning the Light to find its way into my collection.

Drowned is Drowning the Light's debut album, and it honestly sounds like a debut.  There are a lot of ideas that do not seem quite fully formed and the production quality is absolutely atrocious.  It sounds like the album was recorded in a cave.  While the musicians were on the other side of the cave.  Underwater.  That is a big shame because the music that is here is actually quite good and shows what the band would eventually be capable of producing.  The band is primarily the product of just one man, Azgorh, and the occasional session musician.  On this release, Azgorh performs all of the instruments and the vocals.   

Musically, Drowning the Light sounds like a cross between Transilvanian Hunger-era Darkthrone, Det Som Engang Var-era Burzum, Les Legions Noires, and Xasthur thrown into a blender.  It is ultra lo-fi black metal with frequently repeating, simplistic riffs and a ton of dark atmosphere.  At times the music comes very close to depressive suicidal black metal, slowing things way down.  There's the Xasthur sound.  Vocals have never been a primary part of the Drowning the Light sound, and I am not even sure Azgorh is speaking words here.  Most of the time his vocals just sound like "Bleurgh" or "Rargh".  At times, the music sounds positively beautiful, in a dark and depressing kind of way.  This is most obvious in closing instrumental track "Suffering".

Ultimately, I probably would not recommend this album to people just diving into the dark world of Drowning the Light.  The production is a very difficult thing to get used to.  But the music is definitely up there with some of the band's best.  So at some point, going back to it would be worth it.  Just don't start here.

Atomizer: The War that Never Ended (2008)

Well this title is a little bit of a misnomer.  I assume the war that the title is referring to is the full-out assault on listeners Atomizer engaged in for a little over ten years.  Atomizer called it quits after their 2008 album Caustic Music for the Spiritually Bankrupt.  And what a ride it was.  This is a compilation album of a number of choice cuts from each of the band's albums, almost all of which I had previously heard.

Next to Deströyer 666, Atomizer was my favorite band in the Australian blackened thrash metal scene.  They were different.  The band's earlier material fit in well with the Aussie groups like D666, Destruktor, Gospel of the Horns and the like.  But Atomizer was not content to put out the same kind of blackened thrash metal as their earlier material forever.  They started to evolve, incorporating more straight-forward rock and punk elements and some impressively weird vocal stylings.  The result was a band that was not content to rest on its laurels and made some very interesting stylistic choices over the years, while not completely turning their backs on what got them there in the first place.

There is something sort of strange about a compilation of songs from a band that has received little to no radio play ever in their careers.  It cannot really be a Greatest Hits album, because the band had no hits.  I suppose you can argue that it is a "Best Of..." album.  I was kind of surprised this release even existed honestly.  I suppose if I were to consider pulling my favorite Atomizer songs for a compilation release, I would include many of the songs found here.  "When I Die, I Wanna Die Violently" is my personal favorite track from them, featuring everything that makes them stand out from other bands in their scene.  Particularly the kind of "campfire" vocals that the band used more and more later in time.  Others like "The Only Weapon of Choice" and "A Song to Swing To" are also essential Atomizer tracks.

I like the idea of this release, it is a decent way to get the better songs by Atomizer, but it just feels unnecessary.  Atomizer was never even close to a mainstream band.  Most people who are into them are just going to go out and get all of their albums.  It is kind of silly to have a compilation album of album cuts.  I could see a compilation of demo tracks or something like that a little better than this.  But hey, I still bought the damn thing, so whatever.

Cobalt: Slow Forever (2016)

It has been quite some time since I have checked in with Cobalt.  Back in 2009, their album Gin was a critical darling of the metal press, coming near the top of several year-end lists.  It was an American black metal album of the highest order, taking influence from mostly other U.S. black metal bands, throwing in some sludge metal and crafting their own sound around it. 

I loved the album too, but I had almost forgotten about the band, and it has been years since I have heard Gin.  I decided to check out their most recent album, apparently the only one I missed.  Some things have changed about the band.  Vocalist and lyricist Phil McSorley, who was an active member in the U.S. Army, is no longer in the band.  Replacing him on vocals is Charlie Fell, who was a drummer for Abigail Williams and is most recently known for his time with controversy magnets Lord Mantis.  

The first thing I noticed upon listening to this album is the increase in melodies and sections that have a very distinct American/Western feel to them.  In fact the album kicks off with one such melody in opening track "Hunt the Buffalo".  The title is also a dead giveaway.  There is also the cavalry cadence of the snare drums in "Animal Law" and the instrumental track "Breath" which sounds like something that would be at home in a John Wayne Western.  These influences and melodies continue throughout the entire album giving it a definite Americana vibe.  It is kind of odd because most of the music is very clearly black metal, with Fell's raspy roar and cold, razor-sharp riffs.

The other thing that I noticed, which is maybe not as much of a point in the album's favor, is the length.  This thing is almost an hour and a half in length and many of the songs eclipse the eight minute mark.  In other words, it is a little difficult to find time to sit down and just listen to this album all the way through.  And that is the way that the album works best, not in snippets, but in one cohesive whole because Cobalt does a fantastic job of having the songs lead into one another.  It just feels complete that way.

It has been a long time since I have heard Gin.  I will have to pull it back out to compare to this one.  I just remember that I really enjoyed it.  And I really enjoy this one too, perhaps even moreso.  I find the Americana elements add a lot of flavor to the still impressive black metal elements.  This is a truly American black metal album. 

Thoughts on The Dirt

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to watch the Netflix original movie based on the book written by members of Mötley Crüe.  My wife has been excited about this movie for awhile now.  I was mostly ambivalent but maybe slightly morbidly curious.  I am not the biggest Mötley Crüe fan in the world, though I will freely admit that they have some damn good songs, particularly "Dr. Feelgood" and some of their earlier material.

The movie covered most of the band's history, from their inception up to fairly recent times.  The movie did not skimp on the debauchery that the band became notorious for.  There was a lot of nudity and a lot of drugs in the movie.  No reasonable story could be told about this band while sticking to a PG rating.  It touched on a number of important events in the band's history, such as the car accident in which Vince Neil was charged with motor vehicle homicide in the death of Razzle of Hanoi Rocks, the descent into addiction of Nikki Sixx which almost resulted in his death, the death of Vince Neil's daughter to cancer, and the failed marriage of Tommy Lee to Heather Locklear (though not Pamela Anderson oddly).  The movie did tend to gloss over a lot of the latter years in the band's career, briefly showing the addition of John Corabi, but it did not mention Neil's solo career at all.  It also did not discuss the years the band members were not even on speaking terms.  There was some implication that it had been awhile, but not specified how long.

The aspect I liked the most about the movie was the element of narration, particularly where the narrator turned out to be somewhat unreliable.  At times, when one of the members was telling a story, one of the other band members would interrupt and explain that this was not how things really happened.  The best example was when Nikki was telling the story about how they met their first manager and Mick interrupted explaining the story was all wrong and there was an additional individual associated with the band that had been written out of the movie.

The casting was somewhat interesting.  The actors playing Sixx and Neil were not familiar to me, but Machine Gun Kelley played Tommy Lee and Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton from Game of Thrones) was Mick Mars.  In an unusual switch from his normal roles, Rheon did not spend every moment on screen talking.

I actually did find myself enjoying the movie much more than I thought I would.  It was by no means perfect, but the actors had decent charisma and it was entertaining.  It dragged a bit in the second half, but it never really became tedious.  After the huge success of Straight Outta Compton, I think the idea was to try to strike big with another movie about a band.  I doubt this will ever come anywhere close to the success of Compton, nor should it for many reasons, but it was entertaining enough.  Now, an Ozzy Osbourne movie could be very good... 

Hellbringer: Dominion of Darkness (2012)

Here we have another one of those very generous metal bands that have delivered something intangible to us.  Previously we have been brought War, Night and Dawn, among many other things over the years.  This band is perhaps less than generous though as all they have brought us is an eternal torment.  Hopefully their return policy is good or they don't mind re-gifting.

Hellbringer is an Australian band made up of a couple of brothers who were previously in a band called Forgery and did some live shows for Trench Hell, a group with whom I am quite familiar.  Based on that pedigree, I had a pretty decent idea of what I was in for when I picked up this album, and it would appear I was quite correct.  This is fast and dirty blackened thrash metal in the vein of the aforementioned Trench Hell as well as other Aussie groups like Destruktor and the latter work of the venerable Deströyer 666.  The riffs are fast and intense, showing an obvious influence from Venom, Slayer, early Sodom and early Kreator.

I would be lying if I said that this was a completely different take or a brand new sound.  There are of course dozens, if not hundreds, of bands out there that utilize the same influences and have come to the same sound.  But I don't care.  Hellbringer's songs are catchy as hell and I absolutely love listening to this album.  It helps that this particular style is a personal favorite of mine.

What Hellbringer lacks in originality, they make up for in aptitude.  This album is a ton of fun.  There are definitely some killer tracks on here, such as "Bell of the Antichrist" and "The Rites of Evil".  This is yet another in a long line of great blackened thrash from Australia. 

Fetid Zombie: Carrion Christ (2011)

I have become a huge fan of Fetid Zombie over the last year or so.  The one-man (with session musicians) death metal band is the brainchild of Mark Riddick, a well-known artist who has provided artwork for a huge number of metal albums, t-shirts and much more.  He even did a Justin Bieber t-shirt, but we won't hold that against him.  Riddick and his brother Mike previously had a band called Excrescent who was also quite good, but Fetid Zombie consistently blows that project out of the water.

This is one of the earlier full-length Fetid Zombie albums, the band's third in fact, and was a bit harder to find.  I ended up ordering it from a distro out of Malaysia (who didn't even charge shipping).  Fetid Zombie does not release many full-length albums, just six to date, but does do an amazing number of splits with other bands.  It is not unusual for the band to release two or three splits a year (last year Riddick had two and an EP). 

The music here is fast-paced old-school, gritty and grimy death metal, though not with ultra-low riffs and tons of distortion.  This has much more in common with the time period when death metal was just rising out of thrash metal.  It has much more in common with groups like Hellhammer, early Death and Possessed than Incantation or Immolation.  That is typically the Fetid Zombie formula, though they do change things up occasionally depending on who guest stars on the album.  For instance, Don of Dead from Nunslaughter appears on the title track, which is a punk-esque death metal romp in the vein of Nunslaughter.  Mark's brother Mike, who is currently in a number of other bands, adds additional guitar and bass to "The Great Pestilence". 

The guitar and galloping bass riffs are terrific and really suck in the listener and the frequent lead solos add infectious melodies to the songs.  The leads occasionally border on a black metal-ish tremolo style.  The vocals are often delivered in a sepulchral growl and spout out some of the most over-the-top evil and blasphemous lyrics imaginable.  This is an album that is not to be taken ultra seriously.  It is clear that Riddick is just having an absolute blast with it and that comes across well.  It is a hell of a fun listen too.

I have accumulated quite a large collection of Fetid Zombie releases in the last year.  The band has quickly become a favorite of mine.  More people should be aware of Fetid Zombie.  This albums is just one reason why.

Evoken: Hynagogia (2018)

First of all, I need to plan better when I decide to listen to albums to prepare a review.  Funeral doom metal is not terribly conducive to listening to while exercising.  The slow pace just does not really lend itself to increasing your heart rate.  That was exactly what I was thinking as I was listening to this while jogging down the county road with Reaper and Jinx (two of my dogs) by my side.

Now, I covered a release by Evoken fairly recently, so I do not need to do much introduction here.  This is the band's sixth full-length album and finds the band making some changes and evolving.  The first thing to note is that the band has quickened their pace overall.  Previous albums have been relentlessly slow and plodding, as is typical of a funeral doom metal band.  This one finds the band, comparatively speaking, with a spring in their step.  I know, odd wording considering how bleak and desolate this album comes across.  But the album reminds me more of something like My Dying Bride's The Angel and the Dark River than their previous releases.  At times, they really kick things into gear, such as the rumbling riffs about two-thirds into "Valorous Consternation".  Drummer Vince Verkay is quite busy behind the kit throughout the album and is one of the highlights of the entire thing.

It is not just the tempo that has changed on this album though.  Evoken also incorporates some piano and strings into their music this time through.  The additional instrumentation complements the somber tone of the album quite well and truly shine through in a number of places.  It is this change in instrumentation that also reminds me of the aforementioned My Dying Bride album.  At times, the strings are the main attraction and the vocals are delivered in a hypnotic baritone.  These moments have an almost gothic-doom metal sound, like something on a Draconian or The Sins of Thy Beloved album. 

I would be remiss if I did not discuss the story line of the album.  This is a concept piece that tells the story of a wounded soldier dying in the trenches during World War I.  He is writing his final words as he is slowly succumbing to his injuries and his soul eventually haunts the pages that he has written in vengeance for dying so horribly.  It is an incredibly dark subject matter that fits the tone of the music quite well.

This is an album that is still slowly growing on me.  It is a little bit different than I expected, mostly due to the faster pace.  But it is still compelling and mournful and beautiful all at the same time.  It is an incredible album.  I just have not decided if it is better than Atra Mors yet.

Overkill: The Wings of War (2019)

Longtime readers of this blog (there are a few of them left I think) know that I am a particularly big fan of American thrash metal.  Of course there are the Big 4.  Metallica was my gateway into metal and Ride the Lightning is the first metal album I ever bought and still probably my favorite.  Megadeth quickly replaced Metallica as my band of choice early on.  Anthrax is probably the best of the four still going.  Of course Slayer is one of my favorite bands as well.  But even beyond the Big 4, I am a huge fan.  Testament is on the short list for my favorite band of all time.  Exodus's Bonded by Blood is the greatest example of pure thrash metal ever, in my opinion.  And then we come to Overkill, probably the most consistently great thrash metal band of all time, a band who has never released a truly bad album, even when they were experimenting with groove metal.  Whenever Overkill releases a new album, I jump on it.  And here we are.

So now that I have first sung their praises, I have to start off with a little bit of a disclaimer.  I did not love Overkill's last album The Grinding Wheel.  It seemed too similar to their previous album and it was a bit bloated and overly long.  It was not a bad album by any stretch and was still better than anything Slayer has put out in a long time.  It was just a mild disappointment.  So now, we get to The Wings of War.

They fixed what was wrong with The Grinding Wheel.  That is the first and most important thing to say about this one.  The songs are shorter, tighter and punchier with the snarling attitude that has made Overkill so potent all these years. The album kicks off with the neck-wrecking "Last Man Standing" and rarely lets up on the throttle throughout the entire 50+ minute album. 

The only misstep on the album is the much punkier "Welcome to the Garden State".  Also, no one in their right minds believes fucking New Jersey is the best place in the U.S.A. as the lyrics proudly announce.

For a band that has been around longer than I have been alive, they still sound just as pissed-off and energetic as they ever had.  It is quite easy to listen to this album back-to-back with something like 1987's Taking Over, and know that this is still the same band.  Their sound has evolved very little over the years.  We need bands like that.  It is comforting knowing that we can count on Overkill to deliver the goods with each album.   

Uada: Cult of a Dying Sun (2018)

Uada is a band whose name I had heard thrown about quite a bit in the last couple of years, particularly due to the hype when they released Devoid of Light a few years back.  But I did not have much of a chance to check them out until just recently, and I have to say that I am damn glad that I did.

Melodic black metal is a style that is not overly popular with the uber-kvlt black metal fans.  I have no idea why that might be.  After all, I'm not sure there is any better genre description for a group like Dissection for instance, and their status as legends in the black metal scene is as unimpeachable as any of the Norwegian bands in the early 1990's.  And so Uada, a melodic black metal band, has as many detractors as they do people who absolutely love them.  And after hearing this album, I fall firmly in the latter category.

Musically, Uada has far more in common with groups like Lord Belial and Naglfar than Dissection.  Their riffs are a bit more simplistic and the focus is on making catchier songs than really drawing out the cold atmosphere as Dissection does.  Most of the songs are fairly long, only two are much less than eight minutes in length, but it never really seems like it is that long.  The songs flow naturally  and freely, making this an easy album to sit down and really delve into.  It helps that the repeated and wandering riffs have the effect of being almost hypnotic, a sure sign that this band is from the metal hotbed of Portland, Oregon.

Despite the ease at which this album can be listened to, it is no less harsh and hostile.  It is a melodic black metal album, but that does not mean the music is particularly pretty.  Uada is clearly influenced by hateful black metal bands like Behemoth and raise an unholy ruckus throughout the release.  Of particular note is the blazing guitar leads in "Sphere (Imprisonment)" and the blistering album closer "Mirrors".  With its tremolo riffing and infectious hooks, "Mirrors" comes closest to matching the cold, wintry sound of Dissection.

This is yet another album I wish I had heard a few months earlier, it would have been very high on my Top Albums list.  Uada is coming to Omaha in a few weeks.  I am looking forward to checking them out live.   

Dysphotic: The Eternal Throne (2018)

Well, we should probably start with the cover art.  That is one of the creepiest fucking album covers I have ever seen.  I really want to know what the thought process was that came up with that thing there.  It is just creepy as hell.  I absolutely love it.

Now that that is over, the first thing I have to say about the music on this album is that the cover art absolutely fits.  This is the sound of nightmares.  Take the echoes-from-The-Void weirdness of Ulcerate, the hellish roar of Behemoth, and the low-end-heavy riffs of Incantation and that is a general idea of what Dysphotic sounds like.  And yet, it is even creepier and heavier than all of that.  The album starts out at high intensity, sounding like the wails at the gates of Hell, and it never lets up from there.

The highlight of the album is the amazing drumming of Ben Durfee.  The drums are constantly in motion, thundering along with barbarous rhythms whether during rumbling riffs or dissonant noise.  And the drumming grabs onto the listener's attention with its punishing brutality and absolutely refuses to relent. 

Dysphotic is at their best when they are playing lumbering, monolithic riffs at ponderous speed.  It is at those times that their heaviness comes through most.  The songs are mostly split between those slow-paced songs and breakneck-paced songs.  The faster-paced tracks tend to sound more like old-school death metal bands like Morbid Angel, which is fine, but they tend not to stand out quite as much.

I was damn impressed by this debut full-length by the New Mexico-based black/death metal band.  It is one of the heaviest and creepiest albums I have heard in some time.  Not many albums can attain the blasphemous spirit of Incantation's Onward to Golgotha, but Dysphotic comes damn close. 

Vvilderness: Devour the Sun (2017)

Yes, that is a double v and not a w.  No, I'm not really sure vvhy.  Maybe sole band member Vvildr (there it is again) has seen The VVitch a lot and liked the cut of its jib.

Normally, I am a little leary of a band vvhose genre lists "post-" anything.  I am not the biggest fan in the vvorld of post metal bands like Isis or Neurosis.  Usually it means the bands is a bit more on the hipster side of things.  But I vvas kind of dravvn to the artvvork and decided to listen to Vvilderness before buying the album.  It vvas a good move.

Vvilderness is supposedly a post-black metal band (although I think atmospheric black metal probably fits them better) vvhose album concept revolves around the formation of a nevv vvorld.  The album opens vvith the slovvly-building "Starless Dark", an instrumental track that sets the tone for the rest of the album.  And that tone is somber, yet vvarm and lush.  This is not a cold and hateful black metal album, as I have previously indicated is my preference.  It is hauntingly melodic and at times, even uplifting and povverful.  Obviously there are still black metal elements present, such as the tremolo riffing and the raspy vocal style.  Vvilderness is, at its core, a black metal band, but vvhere most black metal is nihilist and dark, Vvilderness is much more melodic and vibrant.   

Devour the Sun is a beautifully crafted sonicscape about creation, grovvth and destruction.  It is a povverful experience, much moreso than just another album.  It is alvvays an engrossing listen every time I put it on.  And to think, I might have missed it due to something as silly as a genre tag.

1349: Massive Cauldron of Chaos (2014)

The year 1349 saw the emergence of the Black Death in Norway.  It was of course a devastating disease wiping out a huge percentage of the population.  And it is a fitting name for a black metal band that specializes in devastating riffs and destructive drumming. 

1349, the band, is a call-back to the days when black metal in Norway was dangerous and chaotic.  Very few of the Norwegian bands continued to sound like this.  Darkthrone and Satyricon both went in more of a heavy metal direction, Mayhem went completely bonkers, and Emperor broke up.  1349 came late to the game, but kept the spirit of early 90's Norwegian black metal alive.  The band softened their sound and went in more of an experimental, atmospheric direction on 2009's Revelations of the Black Flame, but that was a critical flop and the band returned to its wicked ways on the next album.

This album features the tried-and-true 1349 formula.  Manic drumming, shrieking vocals, faster than hell riffs, and pure fucking chaos.  The drumming in particular deserves mention.  Behind the kit is the legendary Frost who has spent time in several noteworthy Norwegian black metal bands, including Satyricon, Gorgoroth, Gehenna and Keep of Kalessin.  His abilities are matched by few others in the genre and he is at the top of his game here.  And vocalist Ravn delivers his finest performance yet.

Where this album really succeeds is in the songwriting department.  Where several previous 1349 albums featured a number of great ideas, but struggled to keep things together on an entire album, this album feels like a cohesive whole.  There is not a single weak track on this album. 

I may have to revisit my prior 1349 albums, but I can honestly say that I think this one tops them all.  This is one of the greatest Norwegian black metal albums in years.  It absolutely captures all of the feeling of rage and intensity that the early 90's albums had.  1349 has truly come into their own on this album.  Unfortunately, they have yet to release a follow-up in the five years since this album.  They did release a two-song EP this year, so hopefully we have not heard the last from 1349.

Reader Submission: Into Dark: Tone.Death.Memories (2017)

Polish black metal has become one of the more impressive regional black metal scenes in recent years.  Of course Behemoth has been around for a very long time, but there are several other great bands that have come into their own recently or have been around for years as well, including Mgła, Besatt, Arkona, Cultes des Ghouls and Graveland.  So, when Into Dark contacted me, I was intrigued.

Into Dark's debut album hits the sweet spot between Norwegian and Swedish black metal.  It is punishing in its intensity, and yet it is also dark and melodic.  The band is able to switch gears quickly and efficiently going from uncompromising brutality to a haunting atmosphere at the drop of a hat.  The clear production helps bring clarity to this dichotomy.  The vocals remain mostly consistent throughout the release, delivered in a harsh, deep rasp that actually manages to fit both styles of music here.  There are moments of clean-ish singing (more like bellowing) on "Ruthless Particle of Being" and "Where Havoc Dwells" that shine through.

There are several great songs here.  "Anhedonia Advanced" is a highlight with its schizophrenic drum patterns and general sense of uneasiness.  Of course "Ruthless Particle of Being" is terrific with its varied vocal style.  And "Truth that Liberates" is a terrific example of melodic black metal done right, in the vein of Dissection, Necrophobic, Uada and others.

This is yet another strong black metal album by a Polish band.  The country has been really churning them out lately.  I just have one request of the band: get a physical copy out.  I will pick one up right away.

Massacre: Back from Beyond (2014)

This is a lesson in not making snap buys.  I saw the band name "Massacre" and words in the title "From Beyond" and thought that this was a reissue of the Florida death metal band's classic debut album which I have yet to find.  It helped that the artwork was superficially similar to the debut album cover.  But in fact it was not the reissue, it is the reunion album (of sorts) from Massacre.  Only guitarist Rick Rozz and bassist Terry Butler are actually back on this album.  Notably absent is vocalist Kam Lee and drummer Bill Andrews.

I do not dislike this album, and there are some good songs on here that I do legitimately enjoy (at least while it is playing), it is just not what I expected.  Ultimately this is a fairly run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter death metal album.  All of the typical elements are present: heavy riffs, thundering drums, deep-throated roaring vocals.  And yet it just feels like something is missing.  It is just too generic.

The other big problem with the album is that it seems very long.  That is not actually true, despite having 14 songs on the album, it is just over 45 minutes in length.  But it just SEEMS long.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that there is nothing that really stands out all that much.  I mentioned before that there are songs that I enjoy, and for the most part I do not dislike any songs on this album.  Unfortunately, they do not really stick with me after the album is over.  That is perhaps the biggest problem here. 

It is unlikely that I would have picked this album up if I had been paying greater attention to what I was doing.  I was hoping for the reissue of a classic, I got a pretty safe reunion album. 

Aseptic: Senses Decay (2018)

This was originally an EP that was sent to me as a promo to review from the label Redefining Darkness Records.  I liked it so much after listening to it that I decided to support the band and order a physical copy.  I do frequently do that.

Aseptic is a death metal duo from San Jose, California (a drummer and a vocalist/guitarist).  Given their roots, it is not surprising how much they sound like Possessed.  In fact it is more of a grimier, dirtier Possessed, sort of like if the band decided to start covering Obituary songs.  It is a call-back to a simpler time.  When death metal was truly deadly. 

This is a very short EP, just four songs and just over ten minutes in length total.  The songs fly by quickly, only one of them breaks the three-minute mark.  They usually consist of a slower swampier section, followed by a much faster riff that takes up much of the rest of the track.  There is not a lot of room for frills here, it is just pure, unadulterated, face-melting death metal. 

Aseptic has been around for a little while now and have released a couple of full-lengths.  I would not have heard of this band if not for the promo that was sent to me.  Now I have some more stuff to look into.

Diamond Head: Borrowed Time (1982)

The great Diamond Head was one of the primary influences on Metallica in the early days.  We know this because Metallica's covers album Garage Inc. featured FOUR Diamond Head cover songs.  All of those songs appeared on Diamond Head's classic album Lightning to the Nations (though one is also on this album).  I have that album and was recently curious to check out some of the band's lesser-known material.  Which brings me to this, the NWOBHM band's second album.

This album finds Diamond Head going in more of a hard rock direction on a number of the songs.  There are still definitely some head-bangers on this release, including the re-recording of "Am I Evil?", which is the aforementioned song covered by Metallica that appears on both Diamond Head albums.  There is also "In the Heat of the Night" and "To Heaven from Hell".  But many of the other songs are a little softer and not as riff-driven.  That by no means suggests that they are bad or that the band was going in a direction similar to another NWOBHM band whose sound softened in an effort to appeal to the masses (ahem, Def Leppard).  "Call Me" is the most straightforward rock song here and it really showcases Sean Harris's impressive pipes, which have improved quite a bit since the last album.

"Am I Evil?" is not the only song to appear on both of these Diamond Head albums.  "Lightning to the Nations" is another song that is repeated here.  I do not really know why these songs appear on both albums.  Perhaps the band was not happy with the way they sounded on the previous album.  Maybe this album was not meant to be a full-length and the band had to pad it.  Whatever the reason, two songs appear on both albums.  That makes "Am I Evil?" the best song to appear on two different Diamond Head albums. 

On the other side, "Don't You Ever Leave Me" seems to go on forever and turns into more of a blues/rock tune that has been done pretty much to death.  It reminds me very much of that Jon Bon Jovi Christmas song that had Cindy Crawford in the video.  It just gets kind of irritating the longer it goes on.  Thankfully, it leads into "Am I Evil?".

I like this album a fair bit, but not really anywhere close to as much as I enjoy Lightning to the Nations.  That album is a landmark in the NWOBHM scene.  This one, for all of its good qualities, is more of an afterthought.  And I can't really say that there is anything wrong with that.  The best songs on the album were on the previous album and most of the rest of the songs sound like filler more than anything. 

Master: On the Seventh Day God Created...Master (1991)

Master was one of the earlier death metal bands in the United States, but due to a number of bizarre circumstances were not able to release their first full-length until 1990.  They recorded another their debut album a few years previous, but it went unreleased until 2003.  Master did finally get going and have been putting out albums reliably ever since.  This one is the band's second album.

The band was still playing a hybrid of death metal and thrash metal here, with an almost punk attitude.  The songs are generally fast-paced with little to no melody and a few guitar solos peppered throughout.  There are usually just one or two riffs per song as well, adding to the punk feel to the songs.  The songs are also very short, with only one coming close to five minutes in length.  It is really just the guitar tone that separates this album from thrash metal or hardcore.  It is a much deeper and heavier sound in the riffs.

Vocalist and primary member Paul Speckmann uses a gruff, barking vocal style throughout without much variation.  Everything Master does is fairly straightforward and simple, yet there is an intensity and brutality to the band's sound that was influential on a great many bands in the years to come.  Even the lyrics were not generally complex, with the possible exception of "Heathen" which tells a but more of a story than most of the other songs.  "America the Pitiful" is a parody of "America the Beautiful" complete with the same melody.  That one sounds like something Carnivore would do.  "Whose Left to Decide" is probably the most interesting from a composition standpoint with a number of riffs, some interesting solos and some of the best lyrics on the album.

I have a number of albums by Master now and this one is probably my favorite.  The speed and intensity is unmatched by most of the rest of the band's output that I have heard to this point.  It really finds the band at their most vicious.  I would probably go so far as to say that this should be the starting point to checking out Master.   

Caustic Vomit: Festering Odes to Deformity (2018)

I still consider going back to a subscription to Decibel Magazine.  Just to have something to read and possibly discover some new bands.  Though it is true that my tastes in metal do not always align with Decibel (man, I miss Metal Maniacs), I still like reading it.  I really enjoy the Hall of Fame selections and articles, though again, my tastes do not always align (one month that I had a subscription their pick was The Jesus Lizard which baffled me since the band was never considered close to metal).  I do check out the website fairly often these days and one of my favorite features is the Demo: Listen.  That is how I discovered Caustic Vomit.

Caustic Vomit is a Russian death/doom metal band who released their first demo in the last couple of days of 2018.  Their demo is made up of just three songs, each of which is around ten minutes in length.  Eschewing any sort of traditional song structure, each track lurches and crawls through several distinctive segments.  For the most part, the songs are slow-paced with swampy riffs and a deep sense of foreboding and a waterlogged, gurgling vocal style.  Occasionally, the band breaks into a faster-paced riff that sounds like some great primordial beast shaking itself off after arising out of a murky cesspool.  

This is an absolutely terrific slab of filthy and grimy death/doom metal from Russia, of all places.  Russian metal is typically known for pagan black metal bands, so it is nice to see a damn good extreme metal band from there.  I will be interested in hearing more from this group.