Mailday 2/12

In order to get a few more posts going, I am going to start doing a quick and easy write-up whenever I get something in.  This should help getting things going a little bit.

So, today I received four albums in the mail.

BELIEVER: SANITY OBSCURE (1990)
Yes, there are some decent Christian metal bands out there.  Believer is probably my favorite of the bunch, with the possible exception of Trouble.  Believer plays technical/progressive thrash metal in the vein of their antitheses Heathen and Atheist, with a little bit of Voivod thrown in for good measure.  When you look at the song titles and the lyrics, the band's religious leanings are pretty obvious, but the music is so damn good that it is pretty easy to not have to focus on that.  Satanic bands can be just as annoying about their "message" too, but for some reason Christian bands sacrifice quality of music for the message more often.  That is not true in Believer's case.

BOLT THROWER: ...FOR VICTORY (1994)

Fuck yeah, Bolt Thrower.  Honestly, this is probably my favorite name for a metal band, ever.  Plus, it helps that Bolt Thrower is fucking awesome.  Unfortunately, the band no longer exists, so I will never get the chance to see them live, but I am still in the process of discovering some of their older stuff.  Really, I only had a few of their albums previously, so there is a long way to go.  This is one of the band's higher-rated albums and it is not hard to see why that is.  The band's trademarked grinding riff assault is on full display, accompanied by Karl Willetts's gruff roar.  There are some great riffs and songs on this one and it has quickly taken the spot as my favorite Bolt Thrower album.  It only took one listen.  It is that good.

DREAM DEATH: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1987)

A criminally underrated album from 1987.  I first heard about this album from perusing the Decibel Hall of Fame.  I had never heard of this band, so I looked into it a little bit, and then quickly decided I had to find it.  This is possibly a very early progenitor of the death/doom sound, with quite a bit of thrash thrown in for good measure.  The Celtic Frost influence is obvious from the muddy riffing style and singer Brian Lawrence's angry bark.  The Lovecraftian and horror-filled lyrics match well with the band's dark and dreary sound.  How this album managed to escape me for so long is beyond me.  As with many other bands, Dream Death has re-formed in recent years.  I may have to check them out.

GHOST TOWER: HEAD OF NIGHT (2012)

I love finding obscure albums from bands from my home state of Nebraska.  Technically, almost all bands from Nebraska count as obscure as Cellador, Xenomorph, and maybe Narcotic Self are the only Nebraska metal bands to make any sort of impact on the metal scene outside the state, though Garoted seem to be on their way.  Ghost Tower is a short-lived band that released two full-length albums and play a mix of thrash and doom metal with some impressive occult-sounding melodies throughout.  The vocals take a little bit of getting used to, but the music is pretty damn impressive to make it worthwhile.  The band does actually kind of remind me of a thrashier Ghost at times.  It is a shame they no longer exist as they had some real talent.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 16: Bolt Thrower

That's right, Bolt-Fuckin'-Thrower. One of the early bands in the U.K. grindcore scene along with Carcass and Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower changed their sound to go in a more death metal direction early in their career and have been amazingly consistent. Sort of like Amon Amarth, Bolt Thrower just releases classic album after classic album about violence and warfare. Another interesting note is that Bolt Thrower was one of the earlier extreme metal bands to have a female member, bassist Jo-Anne Bench, whose bass playing is one of the driving forces in the band's cataclysmic sound.

FAVORITE ALBUM: REALM OF CHAOS (SLAVES TO DARKNESS)

Flashback Song: Bolt Thrower: "World Eater"

Spurred by Full Metal Attorney's Heavy Week, this is one of the heaviest opening riffs in death metal.

Year in Metal: 1998

BEHEMOTH: PANDEMONIC INCANTATIONS
This album found Behemoth at a crossroads. For years, Behemoth was an underground black metal band out of Poland. However, this album found Behemoth adding more and more death metal influences to their sound. The same death metal influences that would later come to define their sound. Behemoth was still mostly a black metal band, but their sound was undergoing changes. This is a very powerful and aggressive album, and is one of the better albums by the band.

BLIND GUARDIAN: NIGHTFALL IN MIDDLE EARTH
This album is a concept album covering J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Silmarillion". I am not a Tolkien expert by any means so I have no idea of the accuracy of the story, but Blind Guardian does a masterful job of spinning an epic tale. There are short spoken interludes between several of the songs which are meant to further the story along. Such interludes are helpful. Otherwise, this is typical epic power metal by a band that has forged an amazing career at it.

BOLT THROWER: MERCENARY
A comeback album of sorts by Bolt Thrower. This is the first album after Karl Willetts returned. In the meantime, Bolt Thrower had done a few tours with other vocalists, such as Martin Van Drunen. However, the band never released an album with another singer. This is fairly typical Bolt Thrower output, fantastic old school death metal. This album does include one of the band's best songs, the anthemic " No Guts, No Glory".

DEATH: THE SOUND OF PERSEVERANCE
Of course this album was going to make it on here. This is one of my favorite albums of all time. Death's swansong is an amazing slab of progressive death metal. Chuck Schuldiner did a masterful job of songwriting on this release. The album completely transcends the death metal genre to become a certifiable work of art. Schuldiner's riffs, song structures, and lyrics are completely without par. Unfortunately, this was the band's final album.

ICED EARTH: SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
Iced Earth, the amazing power/thrash metal band from the United States, had been around for nearly fifteen years by this point, but this is their first truly great album, in my opinion. All of the elements seemed to come together on this release. Jon Schaefer's riffs have always been the focal point in the band, but Matt Barlow's vocals really shine through on this album. The songwriting is also very strong on this album, and it featured the prelude to the Something Wicked concept in the final three songs.

Honorable Mentions: Cradle of Filth: Cruelty and the Beast; Fear Factory: Obsolete; Hammerfall: Legacy of Kings; Metallica: Garage Inc.; Opeth: My Arms, Your Hearse; Slayer: Diabolus in Musicana

Bands that Formed in 1998: Chimaira, Tyr

Year in Metal: 1989

I was not terribly thrilled with the outcome of 1988's review. I felt it was a little too mainstream. Therefore, this time out, I have five examples of extreme metal albums from 1989. Not that the quality is diminished, these are five excellent albums, but they are not appearing on Rolling Stone's top albums list anytime soon.

ATHEIST: PIECE OF TIME
Atheist is an excellent band that never quite got the recognition that they deserved in their first go-around. The band has since reformed and is releasing a new album soon. This is death metal with some thrash moments, but more interestingly a lot of jazz and fusion influences as well. Atheist was at the forefront of the groups that were taking death/thrash metal and combining it with outside influences to result in an extremely interesting overall sound. It's thinking man's metal. This is the band's amazing debut album.

AUTOPSY: SEVERED SURVIVAL
One of the first real death metal bands, Sein Reinert started this band after leaving Death, and the sound is similar, but heavier and murkier. Autopsy experimented with some doom metal influences, but for the most part this is pure death. The vocals are more extreme than Death's vocals as well. Autopsy utilized a lot of gore and horror lyrics which were extremely influential on the future releases by such acts as Cannibal Corpse.

BOLT THROWER: REALM OF CHAOS
Bolt Thrower has long been one of the most consistent acts in death metal. However, they had a bit of a different sound for the first couple of albums. Bolt Thrower was more of grindcore band on their earliest recordings. This album represents a bit of a crossroads between the old grindcore sound and the newer death metal sound and is my favorite album by the band. "World Eater" is one of the heaviest songs with one of the heaviest riffs ever.

MORBID ANGEL: ALTARS OF MADNESS
Morbid Angel finally released their debut album in 1989 after a series of demos. The album finds the band playing the style of death metal they would popularize and that would be endlessly imitated. This is true occult death metal with some fantastic riffs and blazing guitar solos, David Vincent's trademark extreme vocal style, and some of the best songs ever in death metal. This is a true landmark album for the death metal genre and ranks as quite possibly my favorite death metal album.

SODOM: AGENT ORANGE
From death metal to thrash metal. This is one of my favorite German thrash metal albums. Everything about this is perfect. It's fast, with great riffs, and Angelripper's trademarked raspy, almost black metal vocals. This was the first album by Sodom to go completely in the thrash metal direction. All of the songs are great, including the crossover-sounding "Ausgebombt" and the cover of the Tank classic "Don't Walk Away". The thrash break at the end of "Tired and Red" is the greatest breakdown ever.

Honorable Mentions: Annihilator: Alice in Hell, Blind Guardian: Follow the Blind, Carcass: Symphonies of Sickness, Dark Angel: Leave Scars, Faith No More: The Real Thing, Kreator: Extreme Aggression, Obituary: Slowly We Rot, Overkill: The Years of Decay, Sabbat: Dreamweaver-Reflections of Our Yesterdays, Sepultura: Beneath the Remains, Testament: Practice What You Preach, Voivod: Nothingface, Watchtower: Control and Resistance.

Bands that formed in 1989: Bal-Sagoth, Beherit, Benediction, Cathedral, Dark Tranquillity, Dissection, Edge of Sanity, Gorguts, Immortal, Incantation, Novembers Doom, Pitchshifter, Sentenced, Sigh, Unleashed, Vital Remains, Vomitory.

Weekly Recap: 8/15-8/21

Well I already covered the entire vacation, which took up most of the week. When I got back there was a pile of work to do and two of my cases have devolved into complete messes. Great, that's just what I needed. Other than that, not a ton going on.

Amorphis: Silent Waters
Amorphis: Skyforger
Archgoat: The Light-Devouring Darkness
Arghoslent: Hornets of the Pogrom
Arsis: United in Regret
Arsis: Starve for the Devil
Arsis: We are the Nightmare
Bathory: Blood Fire Death
Bathory: Twilight of the Gods
Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell
Blood Tsunami: Thrash Metal
Bolt Thrower: Realm of ChaosBonded by Blood: Exiled to Earth
Brown Jenkins: Death Obsession
Carcass: Symphonies of Sickness
Decrepit Birth: Polarity
Defeated Sanity: Chapters of Repugnance
Destruction: Sentence of Death/Infernal Overkill
Einherjer: Blot
Enslaved: Ruun
Enslaved: Vertebrae
Finntroll: Jaktens Tid
Firewind: The Premonition
Hypocrisy: A Taste of Extreme Divinity
Iced Earth: Horror Show
Immortal: All Shall Fall
Insomnium: Across the Dark
Iron Fire: To the Grave
Iron Maiden: The Final Frontier
Kamelot: Ghost Opera
Landmine Marathon: Rusted Eyes Awake
Landmine Marathon: Sovereign Descent
Leaves' Eyes: Vinland Saga
Lecherous Nocturne: Adoration of the Blade
Lord Belial: The Black Curse
Mercyful Fate: Don't Break the Oath
Metallica: Death Magnetic
Misery's Omen: Hope Dies
Mors Principium Est: Liberation=Termination
Napalm Death: Time Waits for No Slave
Nevermore: Dreaming Neon Black
Nile: Those Whom the Gods Detest
Orphaned Land: The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR
Revocation: Existence is Futile
Rotting Christ: Theogonia
Sadus: Swallowed in Black
Scar Symmetry: Symmetric in Design
Scorpions: Bad for Good: The Very Best Of
Slayer: World Painted Blood
Sodom: In the Sign of Evil/Obsessed by Cruelty
Sonata Arctica: Silence
Teitanblood: Seven Challices
Terrorizer Fear Candy 82
Type O Negative: The Least Worst Of
Vorkuta: Into the Chasms of Lunacy
Warbringer: Waking Into Nightmares
Waylander: Honour Amongst Chaos
Wintersun: Wintersun
Witchery: Witchkrieg