Grotesque: In the Embrace of Evil (1996)

This is the last of the three Swedish death metal hidden gems Darkness Shall Rise Productions unearthed last year.

Grotesque was an early Swedish death metal band that featured Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates), then known as Goatspell, on vocals.  It also featured members of Liers in Wait, neatly tying all three of the bands together, though Grotesque actually is the band from which the other two flowed, pre-dating both and actually being one of the first Swedish death metal bands. 

This is a compilation featuring most of the recorded output by Grotesque from 1988 through 1990.  Unfortunately the band would not stay together long enough to release a full-length album, just like fellow Swedish death pioneers Nihilist (who basically split into Entombed and Unleashed).  This stands as the best way to check out the works of this highly influential band.

The earlier material features a strong Possessed influence, what with the razor-sharp, high-octane riffing style.  Later tracks clearly start to show that they paved the way for the likes of Dismember, with buzzing guitar riffs and harsh, barked vocals.  Occasionally, a slower, more occult-sounding section takes center stage.  It is clear throughout this release that the band was attempting to find itself.  But one thing never changed: each song fucking slays.  This is absolutely one of the greatest Swedish death metal releases of all time, and I say that as a huge fan of the scene. 

It is a damn shame that Grotesque did not stick around to release a full-length.  They were an amazingly talented group with a lot of great ideas that were just starting to take shape.  Of the three releases I have covered recently, this one is by far my favorite.  And that is truly saying something. 

Liers in Wait: Spiritually Uncontrolled Art (1992)

This is the second of three posts dealing with pioneering Swedish melodeath reissues released by Darkness Shall Rise Productions.

I am trying really hard not to give this band crap about the misspelling of their name.  It is possible English is not their first language though, so I will give them a pass.  Liers in Wait formed when Grotesque broke up.  Grotesque will be covered tomorrow.  This is really a hidden gem in the world of Swedish melodeath.  The band released just this one EP, appeared on a Slayer tribute, and then split.  Some members went on to form the gothic/doom metal band Diabolique.  The lead vocals on this release were performed by Christofer Johnsson of Therion.  Guitarist Khristian Wåhlin later went on to fame as an artist, painting album covers for the likes of Dissection (Storm of the Light's Bane).

This though, is mostly similar to the At the Gates demo reviewed yesterday.  It is a death metal release with a lot of melody.  It reminds me of a more melodic version of Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness.  The songs have something of an unrestrained, chaotic quality to them.  They are a whirlwind of riffs and drums with melodies flowing freely through them.  It is an almost ethereal yet nightmarish sound.   

It is a shame that this release is so short, being a five-song EP.  As I mentioned, this is all there is for this band.  There were a lot of interesting elements here and a full-length album would have been worthwhile.  But sometimes, we simply cannot get what we want.  And we will likely never see more output from Liers in Wait.

At the Gates: Gardens of Grief (1991)

Last year, Darkness Shall Rise Productions reissued three seminal works of Swedish death metal.  Each of the next three posts will cover those releases.

Demos are not normally supposed to sound this good.  The whole point of demos is that they are raw with low production.  The bands have not typically refined their sound.  And yet, we have this one, which arrived shortly before At the Gates released their debut album.  Honestly, this may be one of the best works At the Gates have ever done, and yes, I am including their landmark Slaughter of the Soul album.

Gardens is a simple, four-song demo clocking in at under 20 minutes.  But the ideas present paved the way for an entire subgenre of music, the Gothenburg melodeath sound.  Now, this demo bares little resemblance to the sound that the band later popularized.  This release is much more of a death metal sound that happens to have a fair amount of melody.  The band's songwriting ability and the performances of each of the musicians are all plainly evident here.  The lyrics are surprisingly insightful and the band displayed an ability to craft impressively progressive song structures.  The latter is unfortunately mostly characteristic of their earlier releases.  By Slaughter of the Soul they had streamlined everything in order to resonate more with wider audiences.  The result was reasonable commercial viability, but it sacrificed some of the soul of the band.

It is clear throughout this release that there was some room for the band to grow.  The vocals definitely improved over time to what they were on this release.  On the other hand, some things changed for the worse after this demo.  As I said before, this is likely one of the better recordings the band ever released.  I have not had it for a long time, so I am still assessing how I feel about it compared to Slaughter of the Soul, but it may be right up there.

Sadus: A Vision of Misery (1992)

Sadus is a band that one would think I would absolutely love.  They are a Bay Area thrash metal band with a lot of technical riffs that frequently straddles the line to death metal.  Yet for some reason, I just never really got into them.  I had their monstrous 1990 album Swallowed in Black, and quite like it, but I never really LOVED it.  And that really does not make much sense.

Over the last few months though I have been listening to Swallowed in Black more and more and finding out how much it fucking slays.  And so there came an opportunity recently to add another Sadus album, and just like Swallowed, it is also a massive steamroller of an album.  Sadus has never been known for their melodic sensibilities.  They are much more about pummeling drums and a whirlwind of riffs.  The band comes armed with terrific musicians, including Steve DiGiorgio, the greatest bassist in metal history.  I could seriously listen to DiGiorgio all day long, he has a knack for catching the attention of the listener, which is something of a rare quality in a bassist.  Darren Travis provides the psychotic, howling vocals and teams with Rob Moore to throw riff after riff at the listener, with no real reprieve.  Most of the songs on this album are high-octane and loud as hell.  Toward the middle things slow down a little bit, but the band remained as aggressive as ever, even during slow portions.

What makes this album even more surprising is the fact that it came when a great many of the other thrash metal bands were either softening their sound or trying to copy Pantera.  Sadus did neither of those things on this release, though their latter day material does show an effort to remain relevant in an ever-changing metal landscape.  But that was far from the case in 1992 when this album was released. 

I will definitely be making an effort to check out some of the rest of Sadus's material and will be listening to the two albums I have from the band, which are apparently their better ones anyway, a lot more often.  It took a long time, but I think that I am finally getting into Sadus.

Psycroptic: As the Kingdom Drowns (2018)

This is another album that, had I heard it just a couple months before, would have likely made it very high on my top albums list, possibly even in the top five.  It is that good.  First off, there is the amazing cover art, which is one of my favorite album covers in a long time.  I need to find a t-shirt.  Then, of course, there is the music.

I have long been somewhat critical of technical death metal.  I like the genre generally.  There are some great bands in the genre, such as the mighty Suffocation of course.  It got to a point though where a lot of bands starting getting technical just to get technical, throwing in crazy riffs, sweeps and scales seemingly at random, and forgetting how to actually write songs. 

The Tasmanian devils in Psycroptic though were always an exception.  They used their technical abilities to supplement their strong songwriting.  I have been a fan since I first heard them over a decade ago, but somehow I missed out on their last couple of albums.  When I saw the cover art of this release, I had to grab it.  The album cover did not let me down either as this is actually the best album I have yet heard by the band.  There are a ton of riffs, which is to be expected, but the songs are generally short and compact with great hooks.  There is a bit of a melodic sensibility that had been missing present here, particularly in the vocals.  The harmonization in "We Were the Keepers" and "Beyond the Black" in particular really grab the listener.  Beyond that, I loved the almost speed metal riff in "Deadlands". 

This is a terrific album by a band who has really managed to live up to their potential.  It would have been very high on my top albums of 2018 list.  And I want that damn t-shirt.

Classic Debuts Pt.1: Dark Tranquillity

SKYDANCER (1993)

This was an album that helped kick off the entire Gothenburg melodeath genre.  Dark Tranquillity came out of nowhere with a release that is still highly regarded and hugely influential to this day.  It is true that the sound was eventually bastardized into hundreds of imitators and eventually led to the maligned metalcore sound that dominated American metal in the early 2000's.  But at the time of its release, there was really not much else like it.

Skydancer sounds like a gothic horror movie put to music.  It has an incredibly dark and creepy atmosphere and the strained, growled vocals and tremolo guitar picking add to that atmosphere.  The vocals here are primarily handled by future In Flames frontman Anders Fridén.  DT main man Michael Stanne is present on this album, playing guitar and handling some of the clean vocals.  In a weird twist, Stanne actually is the primary vocalist on the In Flames debut Lunar Strain.  The vocals, while not technically impressive and nowhere near as good as Fridén later proved to be capable of, still match the music quite well.

It is the tremolo guitar picking and lead guitar lines that really make this album.  The leads are quite high in the mix, so the listener cannot help but hear them as they whirl and circle around the vocal lines and rhythm section.  This is an element often found in black metal during this time period, but DT uses it to great effect throughout this album. 

I have likely discussed this album on this blog a number of times, but it absolutely bears repeating how great this album is.  Unfortunately it really does not bear much resemblance to anything else DT would ever do, with the exception of the follow-up EP Of Chaos and Eternal Night.  The band would eventually smooth out the rough edges of the sound, beef up the bottom end and sound like a completely different band by the time the next full-length The Gallery came out.  But it is those rough edges and rawness that make this album so great.  This is still on the short list of my favorite melodeath albums of all time. 

Engulfed: Engulfed in Obscurity (2017)

One of the things I love most about listening to heavy metal is finding bands from unusual countries that one would not think would have a metal scene.  Metal has become such a worldwide phenomenon that scenes have sprung up in places like Africa and the Middle East among a ton of other places.  Here, we have Engulfed, the first band I have ever heard from Turkey.  Technically I have heard them before, I reviewed their 2012 EP several years ago, but this is the first physical release I have from a Turkish band and Engulfed was the first Turkish band I heard back then (somehow I have missed out on Cenotaph so far).  So now we have the band's first full-length.

I had to review my previous Engulfed review to refresh my memory a bit of the band.  Some time ago, the computer that I had that EP saved to crashed so I have not heard it for a long time.  I remember really liking it, which is why I decided to pick up the full-length.  One song appears on both, the ever-charming "Inseminated with Demon Seed". 

Engulfed takes on more of an old-school occult death metal sound.  The reference point I used in the last review and the one that is still the most fitting is Incantation.  The band pummels the listener with riffs and sledgehammer drumming.  The vocals are deep, demonic roars.  And engulfing (see what I did there?) everything is a hostile, hellish atmosphere. 

This is the band's debut full-length and it re-captures everything that made the EP so good, I'm pretty sure.  It has been awhile.  I am looking forward to hearing more from the band in the future. 

Varathron: Patriarchs of Evil (2018)

I mentioned a couple of days ago during my post on Kawir that there would be another album by a Greek black metal band soon.  Well here it is.  This is just the second release by Varathron in my collection and I really must have missed something.  The previous release I had was a compilation of the band's demos and it must not have clicked enough with me so I never picked anything else up.  I have missed a lot.

Varathron manages to perfectly capture the sound and atmosphere of Theogonia-era Rotting Christ here.  This is a perfect example of why I love the Hellenic black metal scene so much.  Varathron's riffs take influence from heavy, thrash and melodic death metal.  The production is terrific, making each instrument and riff clear.  The drumming in particular stands out, with intriguing fills in between keeping time.  There is never a dull moment or a bad track throughout and the band manages to keep things fresh and interesting by not falling into any sort of predictable patterns.  Between the energetic riffing style, dark atmosphere and the grunted vocals of Stefan Necroabyssious, the album really does sound like the Gods of Olympus are angry and taking their fury out on the world.

I am absolutely blown away by this album every time I put it on.  I have definitely missed out on something by not exploring this band more thoroughly.  This album definitely stands up well to the best albums by Rotting Christ.  If I had heard it just a few months ago, this would likely have finished very high on my best of 2018 list.

Entrench: Through the Walls of Flesh (2017)

Even though I am a huge fan of thrash metal, for some reason the Swedish scene has mostly eluded me.  Oh sure, I have checked out The Crown and Carnal Forge, but I still need to hear quite a bit more.  The Swedish thrash scene is not as highly regarded as the German scene or the U.S. scenes, or even the black or death metal scenes from Sweden, but it does still have a following.  And so, I need to check out more Swedish thrash.

That brings us to Entrench, a newer band whose sound is mostly rooted in the German thrash metal scene.  The album cover calls to mind Sodom, and they seem to be the primary influence musically.  The music here is dirty, raw and fast.  It is the sound of warfare, of bullets flying, and bodies piling up.  On occasion, the band comes close to crossing the line between thrash metal and death metal, particularly on the track "Enter the Fray", which sounds like early Death.  The vocalist delivers his lines in a gruff bark, which calls to mind the early works of the German thrash masters Kreator and Sodom.

This is an excellent album that calls to mind early German thrash metal classics.  Yes, it is really nothing new and it is by no means a perfect album, but there is a reason that the early German thrash metal scene was so good and this album captures that.  Entrench has a couple of other albums out there and I will have to check them out.  I do not think the band is terribly representative of the Swedish thrash metal scene due to the heavy German influences, but it is still damn impressive.

Kawir: Πάτερ Ήλιε Μήτερ Σελάνα (2016)

Nope.  No clue what that means.  Not even sure what language it is in, though due to the band being from Greece, I can probably guess.  Readers who have been following me for awhile know how much I love Rotting Christ.  But even I can admit that since Theogonia, the band has been in a precipitous decline.  Luckily, there are a few other bands that play the kind of Hellenic black metal that Rotting Christ had perfected.  Kawir is one of those bands.  Another one will be covered shortly.

This is my third album by Kawir, and it is actually not their most recent release, which is one that I picked up some time last year.  I always thoroughly enjoy their music, but it has only been recently that I have realized just how much.  Part of that is likely due to fading quality of Rotting Christ material.

Kawir in the past has distinguished themselves from their peers by using Greek instrumentation and lilting Greek folk melodies in conjunction with typical Pagan black metal riffs.  But where once these elements were kept separate and often sounded like entirely different bands, Kawir has now figured out how to put the elements together, using rampaging riffs on top of the Greek folk elements.  Thus they have really come into their own on this release.  They built on this for the follow-up album.

The Hellenic black metal scene has been one of my favorites since I heard Rotting Christ for the first time and realized there were other bands like them.  This release shows Kawir reaching their full potential.  It is a very strong album with a number of memorable songs.  If the next album by Rotting Christ disappoints once more, at least I can look forward to more by Kawir.

Root: Kärgeräs - Return from Oblivion (2016)

Root is an odd band.  They can trace their roots back to 1987.  The Czech band is one of the earlier black metal bands and pre-date the Norwegian scene, often called the second wave.  Essentially, they took what Bathory had done before and further refined it.  The music is, for the most part, unabashedly black metal, though with more melodic heavy metal elements.  But what sets Root apart in a big way is the vocals.  Rather than being delivered in the typical raspy shriek common amongst black metal bands, vocalist Big Boss (that's him on the cover) mostly sings in a clean baritone, providing a haunting atmosphere that fits the music surprisingly well.  At times he will still use some sneering growling vocals, but for the most part he uses the clean tone throughout.

This is a concept album.  Not only that, it is a sequel to a concept album that Root released in 1996, titled simply Kärgeräs.  I have not completely figured out what the concept is, and it does not help that I have yet to hear the original, but I will likely explore the lyrical themes as I delve deeper into the album.  One thing done particularly well is that Big Boss uses different vocal styles to portray the different characters in the story. 

The music is incredibly interesting as well.  There are sections where the riffs fly by with incredible speed and precision and the band's early black metal inflections can be plainly heard.  And then there are others where the band manages to sound hauntingly melodic.  The drumming of Paul Dread in particular is amazing as he moves effortlessly from style to style.  But as is always the case for Root (at least on the three albums I have heard and I assume it to be true throughout their history), the vocals of Big Boss is the biggest highlight of the album.  He is an amazing vocalist and is truly underrated in the metal scene. 

The only complaint that I have about this album is that the second half tends to drag a little bit.  It is generally slower and more somber and brooding than the frantic intensity of the first half.  It is also much more emotional.  "Do You Think is it the End?" though perfectly brings closure to the album, slowly fading into nothingness as Big Boss chants the title over and over.

For some reason, Root simply never achieved the same kind of following that other early black metal pioneers like Bathory and Blasphemy did.  This is a very complex and moving album, as all albums by the band have been so far.  I will have to delve deeper into the story on this one and hopefully check out the original.  I need to hear more Root.

Hear 'N Aid: An All-Star Album for Famine Relief (1985)

In the mid 1980's there were a number of benefit projects done in the music world to raise money for various causes, most notably famine relief in Africa.  Of course there was Live-Aid, a huge benefit concert including a number of famous bands.  Then there were the one-off projects like Band Aid ("Do They Know it's Christmas?") and USA for Africa ("We are the World").  A lesser known project was comprised of metal and hard rock musicians and was called Hear 'N Aid.

Hear 'N Aid recorded one song, a track called "Stars", which was written by Ronnie James Dio and his band members Vivian Campbell and Jimmy Bain.  The song features lead vocals from Dio, Eric Bloom (Blue Öyster Cult), Don Dokken, Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot), Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Dave Meniketti (Y&T), Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt) and Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche).  Backing vocals were provided by members from a number of bands from the time period including W.A.S.P., Night Ranger, Journey and really oddly, Spinal Tap.  Michael McKean and Harry Shearer appeared in character as David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls respectively. 

The song was a fairly generic straightforward rocker in the vein of Dio songs like "Rainbow in the Dark" and "Holy Diver".  The vocals are impressive enough given the talent involved, but the best part is absolutely the competing guitar solos provided by Campbell, Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot), Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult), Brad Gillis (Night Ranger), Craig Goldy (Giuffria), George Lynch (Dokken), Yngwie Malmsteen, Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister) and Neal Schon (Journey).  The shredding solos are the highlight of the entire album, much less the song.  The rest of the music was performed by members of Dio, Iron Maiden and Quiet Riot.  I said it was generic, but that in no way means it is bad.  It is a decent song, but the most interesting aspect is definitely the back story, and not so much the song itself.

"Stars" was released in two formats: a single and a compilation album.  This is the compilation album.  Unfortunately, the rest of the compilation fails to live up to the song.  It is mostly a collection of live tracks from groups like Accept, Motörhead, Rush, Scorpions, Kiss and others.  But it is kind of an odd collection of tracks.  Most of them are lesser-known songs from the bands.  For instance, we have "Up to the Limit" from Accept and "On the Road" from Motörhead.  The only one that makes much sense is "The Zoo" from Scorpions, which is a classic track from the band, but was several years old at the time this album was released.  The Jimi Hendrix song makes even less sense as he had been dead for almost 20 years by the time this came out.

Ultimately, the album is worth checking out just for "Stars".  It might be better to just track down the single, if you are really interested, or just check out Youtube.

Bloodbath: The Arrow of Satan is Drawn (2018)

Here is an excellent album to be playing on Valentine's Day.

There are not too many metal supergroups that have been going as long as Bloodbath.  It is kind of the nature of supergroups to form, release an album, do a tour, and that's it.  But Bloodbath has kept going and going and going.  This is now the band's fifth full-length album among a couple of EPs, a live album, a split, and a couple of singles.  That is quite a lot for a supergroup.

There have been different iterations of the band over the years, though Jonas Renske and Anders Nyström (both from Katatonia) have been with the group from the beginning.  Currently the band is rounded out by Martin Axenrot (Opeth) on drums, Joakim Carlsson (Craft) on guitar and Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) providing the death growls.  In the past, Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) and Peter Tagtren (Hypocrisy) have been the vocalists.  This is Holmes's second album with the band, but for some reason I completely missed the first one, so I had no idea he had been with the band before.  Holmes is kind of an interesting choice because Paradise Lost has not had any death metal elements since the early 1990's. 

Enough of the background though.  As has been the case since the beginning and was the original purpose of the band, Bloodbath plays old school death metal that is mostly derived from early Swedish bands like Grave and Entombed, with a little bit of Florida death metal thrown in for good measure (the band's name comes from a Cancer song).  It is not surprising then that the music of Bloodbath is generally faster-paced with buzzsaw guitar riffs and deep, roaring vocals.  There is a general dark and nasty tone present throughout that fits in well with the themes of blood, death, gore and warfare.

The most interesting song on the album is "Bloodicide" due to the guest musicians.  Karl Willetts (Bolt Thrower, Memoriam), Jeff Walker (Carcass), and John Walker (Cancer) all contribute vocals.  Although for those not terribly familiar with those singers, it may be somewhat difficult to tell. 

This is yet another impressive release by Bloodbath.  I still prefer Åkerfeldt's vocals over those of Holmes, but I enjoyed the riffs a little more on this one.  There is a bit more of the Dismember-style buzzsaw guitar tone on this release rather than the murkier tones of Grave.  That has always been one of my favorite aspects of the Swedish death metal and Bloodbath uses it to great effect on this release.  I have seen other reviews call this the weakest of Bloodbath's releases and while it is true that some of the songs are not quite as memorable as on albums past, it is still a damn impressive release.

Orchid: The Mouths of Madness (2013)

For some reason I never reviewed this album when I first obtained a digital copy of it.  Now that I have a physical copy I figured it was time to do so.

Orchid is named after a Black Sabbath song and they wear that influence on their sleeve.  It is extraordinarily obvious that this band's primary influence is the pioneering metal band from the moment the album begins.  It is obvious in the artwork on the cover, the band photos, the production, and of course the music.  There is really nothing inherently wrong with being highly influenced by a band and attempting to sound somewhat like them.  Orchid though takes it to a new level.  

Each of the songs on this album is essentially a deconstruction of Black Sabbath songs.  I am not going to go through track by track but some highlights are "Mountains of Steel", which is essentially "A National Acrobat" and the opening riff from "Leaving it All Behind" is absolutely taken from "After Forever" while the song basically morphs into "Killing Yourself to Live" later on.  I have read a number of reviews of this album that talk about it being influenced by Sabbath, however no one really has touched on the fact that this is basically a Black Sabbath tribute.  The songs really are that close.

I will give the band credit that they are quite convincing at this.  The music sounds authentic and genuine.  Vocalist Theo Mindell does a great Ozzy impression and Mark Thomas Baker nails the down-tuned riffs of Tony Iommi.  I do thoroughly enjoy listening to the songs on this album.  They are catchy and I find myself singing along to them.  I would not have bothered tracking down a physical copy if I did not enjoy the album.  I just wish Orchid had a little more originality on this release.

Decayed: Ataque Infernal (2000)

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I would be covering my favorite Portuguese black metal band today.  Well, here it is.  I do not know a lot about Portuguese black metal, but it would appear that Decayed is one of the longest tenured, if not the very first such band.  Their first release was way back in 1990.

This is now the fifth release I have picked up by Decayed, and it is one of the earlier ones.  Their sound has always been incredibly raw and hateful, but it was particularly so on this one.  This is not a full-length album, it is essentially two small releases put together.  The first side is mostly new material, consisting of an intro, two short barn-burners and a longer track.  The second side is a collection of covers of clear influences for the band.  There are songs here originally released by Kreator, Violent Force, Bathory and Sodom. 

Decayed is a black metal band whose sound much more resembles a cross between early German thrash metal in the vein of the aforementioned Sodom and Kreator, Swedish black metal such as Marduk and Dark Funeral, and South American groups like Sarcofagó.  In other words, it is raw, ugly, relentless, hateful, crushing and evil.  There are not a lot of dynamic moments throughout the original material and it is over a little too quickly.  The covers are done quite well though. 

I do not want to give any sort of negative impression here, because I really do like it, as I do all of the stuff I have heard from the band to date.  It is simply that this is not a particularly essential release by the band (personally I prefer Into the Depths of Hell).  It is a nice short introduction of what to expect from the band.  Decayed has a massive discography and typically put out several releases a year, though they have slowed a bit lately.  Figuring out where to start is not an easy thing to do.  This is not a bad choice, but it would not be one of my recommendations. 

Wømb: Perceptions of Sightlessness (2013)

Last year, about this exact same time of year, I purchased the physical copy of a split that had been previously emailed to me by the record label for a review.  It was a split that I enjoyed and I decided to try to track down a physical copy of it.  Unfortunately, the seller indicated that he was having some difficulty in finding it and then never got back to me.  I got my money back, but not the split.  And so, I decided to keep my eyes open for the physical copy of the split, but purchase what I could of the two bands involved.  Several months ago, I picked up the Hellcharge demo.  And just recently, I received this demo by Portuguese black metal band Wømb.

Wømb is the much more raw and chaotic of the two bands featured on the This Knot... split.  Their sound has a lot of punk elements and call back to the early days when black metal was being formed out of speed, thrash, and punk.  The production is incredibly lo-fi and murky as hell, making it sometimes difficult to fully grasp what is being done musically.  But, let's be honest here, the band is really just making a lot of noise.  There is no real melodies, just riffs and pounding drums with shrieked vocals.  The songs are all very short, with one song just barely longer than three and a half minutes.  So that makes this a very quick and hostile listen.

There is not much information that I can find about Wømb.  Members are not named anywhere.  I get the impression there are two of them, based on very fuzzy pictures.  The band is fairly active releasing mostly demos and splits, no full-length releases.  It is not likely they are seeking fame of any sort based on all of this.

I think the Portuguese black metal scene is somewhat underrated personally.  I quite enjoy this band's chaotic take on black metal and I liked Hellcharge a bit too, though not quite as much.  My favorite band though will be looked at in the next post.

High on Fire Wins the Grammy

I'm a little shocked by this.  High on Fire, a legitimate metal band that is not way past their prime won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance.  I still have not had a chance to listen to their latest album, but if it is anything like their last few, and I assume it is, I'm sure it was great.  I have been a fan of the band for about ten years now.

High on Fire was up against Trivium, Between the Buried and Me, Underoath, and Deafheaven.  I'll be honest, I'm shocked Deafheaven did not get it as they seem to be very popular with the Pitchfork set.  High on Fire was by far my preference as I don't care much for BTBAM or Deafheaven and I can't stand Underoath.  So anyway, congrats to High on Fire.

"Hair Metal" That Does Not Suck

This is a post that I have been thinking about doing for a long time actually.  My wife has really gotten into 1980's hard rock/metal over the last couple of years, so it is the primary thing playing in her car when we go out of town, which is fairly frequently.  Now, I was obviously very aware of the genres for a long time, having grown up in the 1980's.  And for the most part, it is not a genre I care all that much for, though I definitely prefer it to pop, rap and country.  There are definitely a few great bands mixed in there though.  A lot of bands got kind of lumped into the "hair band" category due to it being such a popular form of music at the time, and a lot of those bands did not really qualify.  Basically, if you played rock music and had long hair, you were a "hair band".

Below are some of the better 1980's metal bands that were lumped into the "hair band" genre:

Xenomorph: Subspecies (1993)

Over the last couple of years, I have been keeping an eye out for a few select demos.  I managed to recently add the first demo by Dawn of Azazel, something I have been watching for for almost a decade.  I also picked up a demo by Melechesh, though I suspect it may have been a bootlegged copy, and the demo from Innsmouth, which I previously reviewed.  But none of those demos were as exciting to track down as this one. 

I have talked at great length about the metal scene in my home state of Nebraska, and though it is improving greatly due to groups like Garoted, it still leaves much to be desired.  My personal pick for the best album of all time from a Nebraska metal band is Empyreal Regimes by Xenomorph.  And I am not sure there is really another contender out there.  Unfortunately, due to the obscurity of the band, it is hard to come across any of their recorded output, though Blood Harvest Records re-released their full-length a few years back.  I grabbed it as soon as it was available.  I managed to find an original copy of the band's demo just a few weeks ago for a reasonable price and snagged it as well.

Predictably low production value notwithstanding, this is a very high quality demo that presents the band mostly as they would sound on their upcoming full-length.  Interestingly, none of the songs present on this demo would appear on the full-length released just two years later.  The murky, technical riffing style that the band used to great effect on the full-length is present, as well as late singer Pappshammer's psychotic growl.  The drumming is incredibly interesting, performing an almost endless number of fills among the complex rhythms.  Drummer Chris Haley simply never finds time to slow down and relax.  

The playing on this release was still somewhat raw and there was a little more growth and maturity that occurred prior to Xenomorph releasing their debut, but this band still is very close to the one on the full-length.  Xenomorph remains a curiosity.  I think they could have been a very strong death metal band, unfortunately the untimely death of Pappshammer in 1996 ended the band.  It's too bad, they were really onto something.

Gospel of the Horns Box Set

Over the past year, I have picked up a number of box sets, whether complete or only partial.  The bands have ranged from incredibly obscure (Nuclear Death, Treblinka (who eventually became Tiamat)) to the more well-known, at least in metal circles (Primordial, Cirith Ungol, Possessed).  This one falls in the former category, though it is a band with whom I am well familiar.

As longtime readers of this blog know, and there may be a few of those still out there somewhere, I am a big fan of the Australian blackened thrash metal scene, often known as "war metal".  Gospel of the Horns fits in well with that scene and, as is common in these bands, features members who have played with Destroyer 666, among others.  Howitzer remains the only member of the band that has been a constant in the band's lineup, and he played drums for D666 on Unchain the Wolves. 

This is a mostly complete box set of the Gospel of the Horns material.  It consists of three tapes, and includes both of the band's full-length releases and one album features their 1998 and 2012 EPs.  The only other material out there is another EP and a couple of demos, so this comes close to being the complete Gospel of the Horns experience.  I previously owned both of the full-lengths, so only the two EPs on the first tape were new to me. 

One thing that becomes clear upon listening to all of the material in this set is that Gospel of the Horns has never changed their sound.  The earliest material still has the same thrash-infused black metal sound as any of the later material.  It is still delivered in a blistering crunch and Howitzer's vocals have always sounded like he is gargling with battery acid. 

I can not find any information about Gospel of the Horns breaking up, but they have not released anything new since the 2012 EP Ceremonial Conjuration, included herein.  If they have broken up, this is a relatively cheap and easy way to access all of their vital material.  It would be nice to see something else from them again though. 

*Image was taken from the Invictus website.

Metal Church: Damned if You Do (2018)

I have never understood why Metal Church is not more popular.  Sure, the band's first couple of albums are generally considered classics, by those that have heard them, but there are not nearly enough of them.  After those two, Metal Church managed to continue putting out solid to excellent releases for the next thirty years and counting.

Part of the problem with Metal Church not being better regarded is the fact that the band has changed singers several times.  David Wayne was the frontman on those first two classic albums but Mike Howe has probably been with the band the longest.  Howe has an incredible voice of his own, but is not quite as talented as Wayne.  But since most of the albums I own have Howe on vocals, he is the voice I associate with the band.

Well, enough of that.  This is actually the first Metal Church album I have heard since 2008's This Present Wasteland, which was a tad disappointing due to the presence of neither Wayne nor Howe on vocals.  After I saw them live a year or so ago, I was impressed enough that I considered checking them out again, so when this album dropped, I decided to take a chance.  I may have to revisit some stuff because this album is, by and large, fantastic.  Every song on the album is full of great riffs and catchy hooks.  Of particular note are the anthemic "Revolution Underway" and the title track.

Guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof remains the driving force behind the band, and has become an accomplished songwriter.  Most of the songs here have standard structure, but that only aids in the infectious quality of the songs.  Lead guitarist Rick Van Zandt has come into his own as well, playing well-placed solos and leads that add variety to Vanderhoof's crunchy riffs.  Howe's vocals complete the melodic trio.

Damned if You Do is proof that good old-fashioned melodic heavy metal still exists.

Cattle Decapitation: Medium Rarities (2018)

One thing you can always count on from Cattle Decapitation is that their album covers are never boring.  Everyone's favorite vegetarian death/grind sickos have been going for quite some time now, mostly spreading their message of animal supremacy over human rights and capturing an interesting niche following.  It also helps that their music is generally fantastic.

As the title suggests, this is a compilation of some rare tracks from the group's history, several of which are actually previously unreleased.  There is stuff here from a split the band did with Caninus, unreleased demos, Japanese bonus tracks, a song they did for the Carcass tribute album, and one they did for the Decibel flexi series.  It is actually quite a lot of material, but Cattle Decapitation being who they are, still manage to get through all 23 tracks in under 40 minutes.

So what do we have here?  And is it worth it?  Well, it depends on what you are looking for.  I prefer some of the more death metal-oriented work the band has been churning out lately.  My favorite part of the Cattle Decapitation sound is the extreme vocal harmonizing that the band has worked out to perfection over the last few albums.  Some of that is present here, but by and large the primary material featured on this album shows the band in its infancy or generally very early.  Many of the songs, particularly in the first half, are very raw and chaotic, with little regard for anything other than making noise.  As the album progresses though, the songs become more recent and one can actually hear the band's sound take shape and the musicians refine their abilities.  So, at least from that perspective, the release is interesting.  Unfortunately, unless one is a Cattle Decapitation completist, this is not an essential release. 

Hellwitch: Omnipotent Convocation (2009)

Yes, this album is already several years old.  I just recently picked it up though and that does not stop me from reviewing it now.  Especially since Hellwitch is a band that more people should be aware of.

Hellwitch's debut album Syzygial Miscreancy is revered as an underground metal classic.  Unfortunately, the band split up before they were able to release a worthy successor.  For a while anyway.  The band re-formed, sort of, a few years later, but it still took until 2009 before the follow-up to their debut was finally released.  Only singer/guitarist Patrick Ranieri has remained with the band throughout its history, with a bit of a revolving door of other musicians.  So it is probably fair to say that the band is his brainchild.

The sound of Hellwitch is rooted in the technical thrash that was emerging in the late 1980's/early 1990's with groups like Atheist, Heathen, Sadus, and the like.  But Hellwitch is more extreme with more of a death metal leaning through the heavier riffing style and the rougher vocal style.  Think a thrashier Death on Individual Thought Patterns, and you have a pretty good idea.  But where Death started heading in that direction after releasing a few standard death metal releases, Hellwitch was always on that track.  It seems almost backwards then that Hellwitch covers the Death classic "Infernal Death".

Hellwitch is damn fast, with blindingly fast riffs, pounding drums, and throbbing bass.  The vocals are delivered in an aggressive sneer that Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth would be proud of.  The band keeps things interesting by employing frequent time signature changes, tempo changes, and even the occasional out-of-left-field passage that sounds like an entirely different band.  All of this results in one hell of a good listen.  My personal favorite track on the album is "Epitome of Disgrace" which seems to be the best example of all of the technicality and brutality coming together for one perfect song.  Everything Hellwitch was working towards throughout the album came together with perfect clarity here.

As I said before, Hellwitch should be a more well-known band.  They remain legends in the Florida metal scene for good reason, but they are criminally overlooked elsewhere.  It has already been ten years since this album was released without much new material from them.  Hopefully something else drops soon.

Visigoth: Conqueror's Oath (2018)

I had heard rave reviews about this album from the time that it was released, but I did not really pay much attention to the hype for quite some time.  I considered checking it out if I came across it, but that simply never happened.  Then, on the Metal Archives forum Best Album of 2018 vote, this album came out on top.  At that point, I figured I had to at least give it a shot.  After all, my Album of the Year was also the Metal Archives Album of the Year in 2016 and 2017 (Vektor and Power Trip).

Well this album is definitely damn good.  Visigoth is a power/heavy metal band from that well-known metal hot bed of Salt Lake City, Utah.  Hopefully my sarcasm came across.  Nothing says metal like a whole bunch of Mormons.  Kidding.  I have no idea if the group are Mormons or not, and Salt Lake City actually does not have THAT many Mormons anyway.  Also, apparently they do not like being called Mormons.  And now, I am WAY off track.

So anyway, there are some terrific songs on this album.  Visigoth performs a style similar to groups like Manilla Road and Grand Magus.  Of course Grand Magus is one of my favorite bands these days so I am on board here.  The songs are mostly short and mid-paced, but they are melodic and infectious as all hell.  A lot of bands strive hard to achieve the type of sound that Visigoth seems to achieve effortlessly.

Of particular note on the album is the song "Salt City", obviously an homage to the band's home town.  It is also one of the best songs on the album, with an incredibly catchy chorus.  The band sounds like they are having a great time on the song too.  This should become the city's new theme song.

I definitely understand the hype for this album.  It would not have made my top spot, but it probably would have been in the Top Five.

Internal Bleeding Demos

Last year, two of Internal Bleeding's early demos were re-released by Brutal Infection Records on cassette.  Internal Bleeding is one of the most important bands in the formation of slam death metal, being one of the earliest pioneers in the sound.  They also happen to be one of my favorite slam death metal bands (a genre that is something of a guilty pleasure for me), and so, I had to have them.

Now, technically I have already heard both of these demos.  The first release I picked up by Internal Bleeding was the Alien Breed compilation, which was a collection of the band's first three demos as well as a new song.  I should specify that I did not seek out that compilation.  Instead it was part of a grab bag that I bought from Century Media, which worked out quite well for me.  Internal Bleeding broke up a few years after the compilation was released, but has recently reunited and released new music, including an album just last year.  Unfortunately, I have yet to hear their new stuff to this point.

These two demos are absolute landmarks in the brutal death/slam genre.  And for damn good reason.  They laid the blueprints for how the sound would develop, blueprints that Internal Bleeding themselves expanded upon with their debut album Voracious Contempt and which other bands like Devourment took and made their own improvements.  By and large though, the two Internal Bleeding demos are the foundation upon which the slam death genre was built.

What is perhaps most impressive about these two demos is how fully-formed and professional the music sounds.  A lot of demos have terrible production values, and while I do not know how the demos sounded when they were first released (it is possible they were improved upon on Alien Breed), if they sounded like this, they were damn impressive.  Besides the production values, there is generally the sound.  Internal Bleeding, as founding member Chris Pervelis once told me on this blog, set about from the very beginning to focus on groove and hooks above all else.  That focus is obvious on these releases.

I am not sure which one of the two I would recommend above the other, they are equally good.  I suppose my recommendation would be to get them both at the same time.

2018 in Review: Top Albums

Prepare for a long one folks.  After the jump is every single new album I purchased in 2018, listed in descending order of preference.  I did not buy anything truly bad, so just because an album is last on my list, does not mean it is terrible.  I should also note that I have several 2018 albums still coming in soon that obviously will not make the list because I have not heard them yet (Metal Church, Arsis) and I was never able to check out some albums by bands that I normally would have (Voivod, Skeletonwitch, Psycroptic).  So this should by no means be considered an exhaustive list. 

Enough of that crap, here we go:

2018 in Review: Demos and EPs

I know.  I know.  I have been gone for quite awhile and I have been mostly terrible about album reviews.  As such, my annual late year-end list will be broken into two parts and will show off all of the albums I have purchased from 2018.  I will list the releases in descending order of preference.  For example, of the four demos listed immediately below, the last one listed is my favorite.  This is in lieu of having a numbered system because I am not doing a simple Top 10 or whatever.  The top albums list will likely come out this weekend.  I just have to finish up a few reviews. 

So in this post, I am listing the demos and the EPs.  This is not a huge post.  The next one will be however.  The other thing I should note is that this entire year, I picked up just two CDs, one of which was included with a vinyl album and the other was one my wife bought, ripped, and then gave to me.  I already bought the cassette.  Yes, cassette.  That has been an obsession of mine lately.  Almost every single release in these two posts was purchased on cassette.  There are a few albums I have yet to buy from 2018 because they were never available on cassette and I did not get around to buying them on vinyl.  

So, without further ado, here are the demos and EPs.  I did not pick up nearly as many as I intended, but there are some solid releases here:

DEMOS

BLOOMING CARRIONS: NECROSIS TWILIGHT

Atmosphere is the name of the game for these Finnish death merchants.  Finland has a long history of being a breeding ground for off-kilter metal bands across all subgenres.  Blooming Carrions definitely qualifies.  They are much more concerned with presenting a sense of foreboding than with razor sharp riffs.  Their riffs are murky and the production murkier still.  The structures are meandering and not really headed in any real direction.  It is an interesting demo and their prior one was too.  They have a future.

TELEPORT: THE EXPANSION

I was sort of disappointed with this one, which is why it is placed where it is, moreso than about the quality of the music.  I had their Galactic Usurper/Stellar Damnation compilation and absolutely loved it.  It was a sort of black metal Voivod, a very unique take.  Unfortunately this album is much more straightforward prog death.  The music is very good and Teleport is the most polished of the four bands presented in this post.  Unfortunately they no longer provide anything new and different and are not that distinguishable from any other progressive death metal band.  A shame.  

NOOSE ROT: THE CREEPING UNKNOWN

Okay, now I think we are just taking two vaguely creepy-sounding words and throwing them together.  I'm not sure "noose rot" makes sense.  If it is a rotten noose, it's unlikely to be functional.  Is it rot caused by a noose?  Is that a thing?  Anyway, Noose Rot is an impressive doomy death metal band that has the kind of dark, cavernous sound that Incantation, among other bands, popularized.  It is full of heavy bottom-end and riffs that lurch and crawl.  Second track "Worship the Crypt" is a monster with a thunderous opening riff.  Time will tell if Noose Rot is able to do anything that will separate them from the rest of the Incantation-clone pack.

SUPERSTITION: SURGING THRONG OF EVIL'S MIGHT

The first of two demos from this New Mexico-based OSDM band. I am reminded of the time when one of the support staff women from the first law firm I worked for asked me what was the difference between Mexico and New Mexico. Anyway, Superstition's point of reference is most likely Morbid Angel, with their twisted, crawling riffs and sepulchral vocals, complete with the occasional haunting keyboard melody. They sound like a horror movie. I am certainly impressed with the band. Hopefully a full-length is coming soon, and I may have to find that second demo.    

EPs

FUNERARY DESCENT: OV CHASMS BEYOND

At almost 40 minutes in length over four songs, this is hardly an EP, yet that is its official designation. Black metal and doom metal do not get crossed over all that often, but Funerary Descent is certainly up to the task. The music is morosely slow, sometimes barely moving at all, with rasping, shrieking vocals as is typical for black metal. It is an incredible dark and evil sounding release, which is definitely what the band is going for. Funerary Descent has not been around long, releasing just a couple of demos prior to this EP, but they are unusual enough to potentially catch on, particularly with the recent wave of atypical doom metal bands. Funerary Descent definitely belongs on a play list with Bell Witch.

PROFANATICA: ALTAR OF THE VIRGIN WHORE

Profanatica, the vile and filthy black metal project of former Incantation member Paul Ledney, re-emerges once again to spread its hateful message.  Profanatica has never had a pretty sound, and this EP is no different.  The production is murky, the riffs fast and simple, and the vocals delivered in a typical raspy shout.  This is evil as music gets.  This is a quick and dirty EP, which is frankly how I would prefer Profanatica's releases.  Much longer than 20 minutes and things become a little tiresome from the band.  This is eight songs and less than 20 minutes in length.  It comes on, blasts away in complete chaos, Ledney spouts out some Anti-Christian lyrics, and then it is over.  Just like that.  Profanatica is fun.

DESTRÖYER 666: CALL OF THE WILD

First of all, any year Deströyer 666 releases new music, you can bet they will find themselves near the top of my list. Secondly, if this were a full-length, instead of a four song, 20 minute EP, you can bet this would have been near the top of my Top Albums list. Instead, it is at the top of EP list. The band has ramped up the traditional metal and 80's thrash metal influences on this release, particularly during "Call of the Wild" and "Violence is Golden", respectively. They also close things out with the slow-burning epic "Trialed by Fire". Incorrect conjugation aside, it is a terrific song. This is probably the release I listed to most often this year, it helps that it is so short, but the songs really are some of the best this band has ever released.

Cannibal Corpse: Nov. 20, 2018

I have been to a fair number of concerts, especially over the last few years.  And yet, I have not been to too many pure death metal concerts.  I have seen Suffocation, but they were supporting The Black Dahlia Murder.  I have seen Obituary, but they were with Skeletonwitch and Pallbearer, among others.  So the concert last night was the closest I have been to a real death metal concert.  Cannibal Corpse was the headliner, with Hate Eternal in support, and local band Ezra as the opener.  Of course there was one more band, and I will get to that.

Ezra was the opener, and the Lincoln natives remain one of the longest tenured Nebraska metal bands, having formed some time in the late 80's/early 90's.  I have seen them before and they impressed me once again.  The bassist and guitarist are brothers of former Nebraska football standout Cory Schlesinger.  Just kind of an interesting note.

The next band was Harms Way, a group I had not heard of before looking into this concert.  I was not terribly impressed.  Harms Way is a hardcore band and much of their music sounded basically the same, with chugging riffs and shouted vocals.  The singer is a muscle-bound ball of energy who blasted around the stage.  But I just could not get into them.  I will not be checking them out further.

Hate Eternal, the band formed by former Ripping Corpse and Morbid Angel axe-man Erik Rutan, was next on the stage.  There were no real surprises from them, Hate Eternal has a fairly straightforward sound, with fast-paced riffing, blasting drums, and Rutan's decayed vocal style.  It has been awhile since I have checked in with the band, and I am not shocked that not much has changed.  Their hyperactive blasting style works for them.

And finally Cannibal Corpse took over and delivered a blistering set featuring a wide variety of new and old songs.  George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher was feeling a little under the weather and was not able to hit some of the deep roars the band had become known for.  The other aspects of the band's sound were present from the grotesque lyrical themes and slightly technical riffing.  The band played a number of their classic tracks, such as "The Wretched Spawn", "Skull Full of Maggots", and "Make Them Suffer".  Of course they also had to play "I Cum Blood" and close out the set with "Hammer-Smashed Face". 

It was a fun show and it is great to cross another legendary band off the list of groups I need to see.  I am not the biggest Cannibal Corpse fan, but I enjoyed the show quite a bit nonetheless.  They can definitely still get the crowd worked up. 

Ghost: A Pale Tour Named Death

Last night, my wife and I went down to Omaha to see Ghost.  This is the third time we have seen the band.  The first time was a headlining tour of smaller venues with Tribulation opening up for them.  The second time they were the opening act for Iron Maiden in large arenas.  This time, they were playing on their own, which was a little surprising.

The venue was the Orpheum Theater, which was another surprise.  That theater is most often used for more theatrical, performing arts-type events such as plays.  It was a very sophisticated, upper class venue for a rock concert.  Between the venue and the fact that the tour was listed as a two-act performance, I kind of expected a big, theatrical production.  That was not quite what we got.

When Ghost took the stage, it was immediately apparent that the Nameless Ghouls have multiplied.  There were seven of them on stage.  Tobias Forge's character is now Cardinal Copia, retiring yet another Papa Emeritus.  The mannerisms are mostly the same, though he runs across the stage and generally moves a lot more, and of course the costumes are less elaborate. 

The setlist did not hold too many surprises, other than the acoustic version of "Jigolo Har Meggido", which was certainly an interesting choice.  They played close to 25 songs, so most of the better-known songs were played.  If I had one complaint, it would be that they did not play "Prime Mover", which is still one of my personal favorite songs by the band.  My wife would have liked to have heard them play "Deus in Absentia".  The highlight of the show was the trio of closing songs: "Dance Macabre", "Square Hammer", and of course the encore "Monstrance Clock".  The songs were performed with a lot of energy and that fed the crowd as well. 

This was probably my favorite performance I have seen by Ghost.  There are not many bands I have seen that many times, but due to the impressive live performances, and the fact that my wife loves the band, I probably will keep going out to see them.

Judas Priest and Deep Purple in Council Bluffs: September 21

A couple of years ago I missed an opportunity to see Judas Priest in concert.  At the time, I had a decision to make whether to see Slayer/King Diamond or Judas Priest/Saxon.  I chose Slayer/King Diamond because I did not think the chance to see King Diamond would come back around.  I figured Judas Priest would come around again.  That turned out to be true.  And bonus, they were coming off an absolutely terrific new album, Firepower.

This concert was played at Stir Cove in Council Bluffs, IA, which is where Judas Priest played before and where I saw Slayer and King Diamond.  It is an outdoor venue, which is usually fine, but it was pretty cold Friday night.

The opening band was a blues/rock band from England called The Temperance Movement.  They were pretty good, catchy certainly.  The style is not usually my kind of music but it reminds me quite a bit of rock music from the 1960's/1970's.

Judas Priest was next on the stage and they were absolutely the reason I was going to this concert in the first place.  Even my wife was excited to see them as she has come to enjoy them quite a bit, particularly the early 1980's stuff.  She loves "Turbo Lover" for reasons I cannot explain.  Priest sounded terrific, though Rob Halford's voice is clearly aging at this point.  K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton are no longer in the band so the dual guitars are handled by Andy Sneap (Hell, Sabbat) and Richie Faulkner.  The new duo does a remarkable job at replacing the legendary Downing/Tipton.  Most of the Priest classics were played and though Halford's voice has weathered, he still managed a few blood-curdling shrieks.  The only song I noticed was definitely missing was "Some Heads are Gonna Roll".  The band sprinkled in some of the new stuff off or Firepower, which is currently one of my contenders for Album of the Year.  Priest was absolutely worth seeing live.

The final band of the night was Deep Purple.  Despite their status as one of the early influencers on heavy metal and even bordering on metal themselves, I was not overly familiar with most of their music.  I have of course heard "Smoke on the Water", "Highway Star", and some of the other certified classics, but I do not own any albums.  Ian Gillan's voice has also aged, but the band sounded amazing considering they are mostly in their 70's at this point.  The highlight of their performance was the extended keyboard solo by Don Airey.  I was never really excited to see Deep Purple, not nearly as much as Priest, but I was very glad I saw them.

I would have probably preferred the band lineup from when I missed Judas Priest a couple of years ago.  I enjoy Saxon more than Deep Purple, but this was a terrific concert and I was glad to finally see Judas Priest live.  Priest was a bucket list band for me, and one of the last truly legendary metal bands I had yet to see live.  There are a few black metal and death metal bands still out there, and a couple of international thrash metal bands, but that is about it.   

Lamb of God and Napalm Death in Omaha: August 17

Honestly, I am not much of a Lamb of God fan.  There is only one reason I went to this show, and that was to see Napalm Death.  I missed a couple of chances to see them recently and determined that I was going to see them the next time.  I would have preferred to have seen them as the headliner, but this was fine.  Lamb of God was the headliner this time and the show was at Sokol Auditorium in Omaha.  My wife declined to go to this one with me again.  So I went alone.

Narcotic Self was the opening band, a fact I was unaware of prior to arrival.  The band is a local one and this is the second time I have seen them.  They are one of the better Omaha-based bands, with a sound rooted in a more modern thrash metal sound.  They also put on a terrific show.  They were excellent as they were when I saw them opening for Exodus last year.  Unfortunately I was a little late to their performance because I honestly had no idea there was a band on stage before 8.  Websites need to get a better handle on this.

Napalm Death was next on the stage and they were the only reason I went.  I was curious as to what their setlist would consist of as the band has had a number of sound changes over the years.  It turns out that most of the setlist was fairly recent, with a few songs from their early grindcore years sprinkled throughout.  The band members were fairly entertaining in their performances, Barney Greenway moves around the stage like a five-year old throwing a tantrum, and the other members look like guys you would see passed out at the end of the bar at last call.  The highlights of the performance were "Suffer the Children", one of the band's best songs, and of course, "You Suffer", the one-second song that had the band listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.  They actually played the song twice, to the delight of the people in the crowd who understood what was happening.  They ended with the fantastic cover song "Nazi Punks Fuck Off".  As promised by Greenway early in the performance, Napalm Death was unapologetically noisy as fuck.

I stuck around for Lamb of God though I am not the biggest fan of the band.  I enjoy Ashes of the Wake quite a bit, but most everything else I have heard from the band was mediocre.  They have some great songs, and played most of them: "Omerta", "Walk with Me in Hell", and "Now You've Got Something to Die For", in particular.  They were definitely an energetic live band and put on a decent performance, but they did not really play anything that made me want to check out more of their music. 

It was definitely worthwhile to see Napalm Death.  Had ticket prices been a little lower, I may have skipped on Lamb of God.  I'm glad I did not, but the band did not really change my opinion of them that much.

YOB and Bell Witch in Omaha: July 11, 2018

I almost did not get to see this one.  I was scheduled for an evidentiary hearing on a kidnapping case late in the afternoon yesterday.  I resisted the urge to buy the tickets right away with the concern that maybe, I would not be able to see it.  That would have been pretty disappointing.  I have really taken to Bell Witch over the last year, starting with their impressive Mirror Reaper album and leading to me picking up each of their previous releases as well.  So I was pretty excited to see them.  But I had that hearing potentially in the way.

After my hearing went quickly, I rushed out of court and to my office to buy my ticket (my wife did not attend this one with me), and I was off to Omaha.  The venue was the Lookout Lounge, an entertaining place to look at all of the flyers from shows years in the past.  It is kind of hard to imagine Machine Head playing in such a small venue for instance. 

Omaha natives Processions was up first and the singer announced that this would be the band's final show.  Upon looking at their Facebook page, it appears the members just want to start a new project and stop doing Processions.  The band played some pretty decent death/doom and I have to say I was pretty impressed with their slow-paced, rumbling sound.  It is a shame that the band is stopping a real release.

Bell Witch was next and I made an effort to get closer to the stage.  Bell Witch is an interesting band, consisting of just two members: a drummer and a bassist.  No guitars, no keyboards.  Yet the result is some absolutely devastating funeral doom metal.  I was kind of surprised that the band ended up playing the only track from their latest album, though a somewhat abbreviated version of it.  I did not expect the band to play one hour-long song for their show, but they absolutely killed it live.  It is difficult to make such a long, slow song interesting in a live setting, but the ebbs and flows of the melodies worked and it built up to a crushing climax. 

YOB was next, and I have never really gotten into them.  This was my first extended exposure to the band and they were decent enough.  Their songs were a little long, which seems like an odd complaint from someone who was just praising Bell Witch for one hour-long song, but I knew what to expect with them.  YOB was definitely heavy and interesting enough, I just do not know if I will be checking them out further. 

I am glad I managed to make it to the concert.  Bell Witch alone was well worth it.  This is one of the more unique concert experiences I have had to date, but it was a great time.

Ghost: Prequelle (2018)

It has not been often that I can say that a band that I have been following for a few years is about to hit it big, but Ghost really has some hype building around them.  They won a Grammy two years ago and after a small headlining tour, turned some heads by opening for Iron Maiden last year.  Later this year, they will be embarking on their own major headlining tour.  This album released a couple of weeks ago and hit #3 on Billboard right away.  They also have a gimmick that may be losing its luster with underground metal fans, but which might just bring in a ton of new fans as the band's visibility increases.  Stardom beckons at this point.

This is the band's fourth full-length album and probably their most mainstream-accessible, a direction they have been heading for a little while now.  A lot of the Satanic lyrics have been toned way down and some of the songs are downright poppy, such as second single "Dance Macabre", a song which I would not be surprised to hear on Top 40 radio.

Prequelle is also Ghost's most varied release, an impressive feat since the band has not stuck to one single style since their debut full-length.  Lead single "Rats" features terrific Maiden-esque leads and follow-up track "Faith" bears a strong resemblance to Swedish doom legends Candlemass (a statement that I made a couple of weeks before singer Tobias Forge appeared on stage with members of Candlemass to perform "Enter Sandman").  "See the Light" is a microcosm of the album as a whole, going through a number of stylistic changes.  Then we have "Miasma", which is as close to spacey prog rock as the band has ever gotten, complete with a saxophone solo.  Several years ago I compared Ghost to Blue Oyster Cult, a comparison that seems to be becoming more and more apt.  Like BOC, Ghost has not been content to rest on their laurels with one genre with straight-ahead rock tracks, experimental tracks, and poppy classics.

One criticism that I have though is that the album feels a little bit rushed.  I get the sense that the band was knocking on the door of mainstream acceptance and decided to try to kick it down.  There was some bad press with several Nameless Ghouls leaving the band and suing stalwart Forge for breach of contract and Forge hiring all new musicians in response.  There are three instrumental tracks on this release.  The intro is not surprising, and I would not be turned off by an additional instrumental, but then the band throws in another one toward the end.  A track like "Pro Memoria" feels like the band tried too hard to get another "Monstrance Clock".  This would have made a great EP with just "Rats", "Faith", "Dance Macabre", and "Witch Image", but that may not have been commercially viable.

There are some great songs on this release, but I do feel like it was somewhat rushed.  That being said, it is clear to me that the band is headed for mainstream success.  "Dance Macabre" in particular is a song I think will catch on in a big way.  I am not one of those metalheads that would turn against the band for doing so, I really hope they do make it big.

Obituary in Omaha: May 16, 2018.

It has been a little while since I have posted.  Things have been very busy at work and I have not gone to many concerts lately.  I have a ton of new albums, but no strong desire to post anything about them.  But on Wednesday I attended a concert at The Waiting Room in Omaha, this time alone as my wife decided to stay home.  Obituary was headlining with support from Pallbearer, Skeletonwitch, and Dust Bolt.

Dust Bolt was the first band of the night.  I was not familiar with the band other than initially hearing of them when I heard about this show.  The German thrash metal band has been around for about a dozen years now and released three full-lengths so far.  Not many people had arrived at the venue yet by the time they took the stage, which is a shame because they were the most welcome surprise of the night.  Just some terrific old-school thrash metal which was surprisingly inspired more by the Bay Area scene than their countrymen Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction.

I was a little surprised that Skeletonwitch was the second band of the night.  Honestly, they were the band that I was the most excited to see.  I love all of the stuff they have put out to date and am looking forward to their first full-length since 2013's Serpents Unleashed.  The band has since replaced their original vocalist and released a pretty damn good EP in 2016.  Their new vocalist does a damn good job on the prior material.  Skeletonwitch delivered a blistering set that was every bit as good as I had hoped when I saw they were playing nearby.

It seems kind of strange that Pallbearer was on the same bill as the other much more high-octane bands that played.  Pallbearer's sound is a much slower, more melodic style of doom metal.  Their music is somber with tortured vocals.  The vocals were more tortured than usual as one of the singers was having some health issues that prevented him from reaching some of his normal range.  Pallbearer sounded good, but it definitely felt like a massive shift going from Skeletonwitch to them and then to the headliners.  I really enjoy Pallbearer's albums, but they seemed a little out of place.

Legendary death metallers Obituary were the last band to take the stage and they delivered exactly what one would expect: grooving death metal that sounds like it rose from the swamps.  Every aspect of their sound was terrific, from the desiccated vocals to the bass-heavy grooves to the searing guitar solos.  They did not do much speaking to the crowd, they just got up and played.  The band finished things off with arguably their best songs "Chopped in Half" and "Slowly We Rot".  It was a quick performance but definitely made an impact.

Skeletonwitch was definitely the highlight of the night for me.  I enjoyed the other performances, but honestly I may not have attended had it not been for the presence of Skeletonwitch.  I wish my wife would have come with me, but she may not have cared much for this concert.

Is Anthrax the Best of the Big 4 Right Now?

Honestly, throughout most of my history with metal, Anthrax has never really been one of my favorite bands.  They did not even make it into my 100 Favorite Bands series.  Even among the Big 4, Anthrax was rarely among my top two favorites.  They were my third favorite for awhile only because it took me a long time to start getting into Slayer.  A lot of this may have been due to the fact that when I started getting into metal, Anthrax had replaced singer Joey Belladonna with John Bush.  I do still think Sound of White Noise is a good album, but it simply does not hold a candle to the better works of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, or even any of Anthrax's earlier albums. 

That has been changing over the last several years though.  First came their 2011 reunion album with Belladonna which is honestly probably the best Big 4 album of the last ten years, and only really in competition with a couple of Megadeth albums.  Then came their live show with Killswitch Engage last year.  I enjoyed Anthrax more than any of the other Big 4 bands.  I have seen Metallica twice, Megadeth three times, and Slayer once, but Anthrax blew them all away.  Their energy is infectious and they sound terrific on stage. 

So, in the last few months I have been making an effort to plug in some of the holes in my Anthrax collection.  Two of these holes have been State of Euphoria and Spreading the Disease.  I can honestly say that I should have checked these two out a long time ago because they are easily my two favorite Anthrax albums right now.  Previously, that spot was held by Among the Living, which is still a damn good album, but these are better.  "Medusa" is probably the band's best song and I heard it for the first time at the concert last year. 

That brings me to the title question.  Is Anthrax the best of the Big 4 right now?   I honestly believe that the answer to that question is yes.  Here is a look at each of the others:

SLAYER

Obviously, Slayer has recently announced that they will be retiring from touring, but even before that, they have not released a great album in a very long time.  I have enjoyed all of their albums to varying degrees over the last twenty or so years, but nothing has come close to the heights of Seasons in the Abyss, Reign in Blood, or even Divine Intervention.  That coupled with their somewhat lazy live performances (Kerry King notwithstanding), and Slayer has been in decline for a very long time. 

METALLICA

Inconsistency has been the name of the game for the venerable thrash titans in Metallica.  Their Black Album signaled the death knell of thrash metal as we knew it in the 1980's and tons of bands tried to follow suit.  Metallica themselves disappeared for a few years before re-emerging in the mid 1990's with haircuts and a completely different sound.  They released three very odd albums in a row, a covers album, and a collaboration with a symphony, before a return to form of sorts in Death Magnetic.  But after that they released a forgettable EP and the ridiculously awful Lulu collaboration with Lou Reed.  Their most recent album was decent, but bloated, and nowhere near as catchy as the Anthrax material.

MEGADETH

Probably the closest competition among the rival bands is Megadeth who at least continues to put out some quality new material.  Their most recent release Dystopia is strongly rooted in their Rust in Peace sound.  But Megadeth has put out a couple of regrettable releases as well, most notably Super Collider.  They do still put on a great live performance, but they pale slightly when compared to Anthrax.

ANTHRAX

And so that brings us here.  Since reuniting with Belladonna, Anthrax has put out two great albums and has been absolutely on fire live.  Megadeth may be close, but Anthrax has definitely been the more impressive group over the last decade or so.  That is really all that matters at this point and makes them the band to beat among the Big 4.