Quick Update on the March Metal Madness Abortion

Link.

Your Final Four are Between the Buried and Me, All Shall Perish, Carnifex, and Born of Osiris. Wow, just wow.

Poll Results: Favorite Big 4 Debut

Well it's pretty obvious most of you are sheeple. Metallica's Kill 'Em All won in a landslide. I expected as much. I'm just kidding about the sheeple remark but this was definitely a predictable poll.

The full results:
Metallica: Kill 'Em All: 8 votes
Megadeth: Killing is My Business: 3 votes
Slayer: Show No Mercy: 2 votes
Anthrax: Fistful of Metal: 1 vote

My own feelings are that the Megadeth debut is not one of their better albums. It's good, but it's not one of my favorites and I love Megadeth. Anthrax to me is a step below the other Top 3 bands. When given the choice I would pick any of the other three over Anthrax. Not to say I don't like them, Among the Living is a great album and so are several others, they are just not quite as good.

So, to me, it comes down to Slayer and Metallica. Metallica's debut is certainly excellent, fully-formed thrash/speed metal. It is truly an amazing debut. But Slayer has a kind of NWOBHM/thrash hybrid with their debut. Their material prior to Reign in Blood owes a lot to Venom. My tastes change quite a bit. Right now, I would honestly say the Slayer debut is my favorite.

P.S. One of the people voting for Slayer was my fiancee. I was ranting about Metallica having all the votes early on.

Metal as Evidence in Criminal Trials

Link.

Okay, the band mentioned in here is Slipknot. I am not going to get into a big discussion about whether Slipknot is or is not metal, that's not my purpose. Here's the brief rundown. A 17 year old is being charged with murdering his grandparents and then setting their house on fire. The police seized some evidence against the 17 year old including a Slipknot CD.

The report goes on to state in the last paragraph of the article:

He said Smith admitted to investigators when he was arrested that he was into heavy metal music.

The CD was taken as evidence, whether that means that it will be used to possibly establish mens rea or not remains to be seen.

DOES MUSIC CONSTITUTE RELEVANT EVIDENCE IN PROSECUTING AN INDIVIDUAL FOR A CRIME?
To answer this question, we need to know what "relevant" means. I am licensed to practice in Nebraska, so I will be using Nebraska rules. I would imagine Oklahoma's rules are very similar, if not exactly the same.

In Nebraska, evidence is relevant if it has "any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." That comes from Neb. Rev. Stat. §27-401.

It's quite the mouthful but what it means is that there is a very low standard for determining whether evidence is relevant or not. Basically, if has ANY probative value, it will probably be admitted.

So basically, we are looking at whether listening to Slipknot would have any tendency to cause this young individual to kill his grandparents and burn their house down. To prove this, the prosecutor need only explain some sort of rational connection between the listening to Slipknot and the killing the grandparents. The prosecutor may do this by a relying on experience, logic, intuition, common sense, or even expert testimony. Basically, if he can find an expert willing to testify that violent imagery in music makes it more probable that an impressionable young person would commit a violent act, then he can get the music in to evidence.

Well then we have the issue of how to use this evidence. If the prosecutor were to use this evidence, then he would have to draw some kind of connection between the music and the act. For that, he would probably have to look at the lyrics and pull particular passages and then offer the CD into evidence. If he cannot find any violent lyrics, this probably does not get offered.

CONCLUSION
Music tastes have been offered in a number of criminal trials before. Look no further than the famous West Memphis Three cases. As much as we metalheads state that our music tastes do not influence our actions, the fact is that it has been used in courts of law to do prove just that. Our musical taste is potentially relevant information. Whether it tells the whole story is a different matter, but it can be used in conjunction with other evidence.

Reader Submission: Netherbird: Ghost Collector

It's been quite awhile since these guys contacted me. I just recently had a chance to check out their music.

I first heard about Netherbird from a Metal Maniacs compilation album. Intrigued by their take on symphonic black metal, I wanted to hear more. So here we have their 2008 album The Ghost Collector. The Swedish band has a lot of ideas and seems to be trying to fit a whole bunch of them together at once.

There are elements of a number of styles on this release. The band seems to be trying to find a middle ground between the styles of Cradle of Filth, Emperor, The Sins of Thy Beloved, and Satyricon. There are black metal elements, death metal elements, gothic metal elements, and doom metal elements, all thrown together into a caustic mix that can be a little overwhelming at times. But when they succeed, it sounds great.

The music tends to plod along at a medium pace, calling to mind Cradle of Filth. The only problem with this is that the production does not really support it very well. If it is to be slower, the guitars and bottom end need to be beefier. Emphasize the doomy elements for a middle-paced album.

The individual instrumentation is very good. The keyboards add a lot of melody and make up the symphonic elements of Netherbird's sound. The guitar tone is decent, but as I said, it could be a little more prevalent within the music itself. The drums do not really do a lot of interesting stuff but they remain decent.

The vocals are impressive. I actually prefer the vocalist's death metal vocals which are delivered in a very deep roar to his more basic black metal rasp. The backing vocals are very interesting. Sounding something like ICS Vortex's backing vocals for some of Dimmu Borgir's work, they add a melodic, yet sinister touch to the overall sound. It's oddly chilling.

This is only the band's debut album. I have not heard their follow-up yet, but if they improve on just a few things, they could be a very good band. There are not a lot of truly great symphonic black metal bands out there right now. Netherbird could rise to the top of the pack quickly.

Cover Songs That Introduced You to New Bands

A little while ago there was a thread on the Metal Archives forum about this topic. I got to thinking about it and not a lot of things jumped out at me right away. So, I decided to explore it a little bit more.

Here is my list:

AT THE GATES: "LEGION" (SLAUGHTER LORD COVER)
This cover appeared on the reissued version of the Swedish band's landmark Slaughter of the Soul album. Slaughter Lord is an Australian thrash metal band that never released a full-length album but did release a few demos. They are one of the major influences on the war metal scene.

DIMMU BORGIR: "SATAN MY MASTER" (BATHORY COVER)
Appearing on 2003's Death Cult Armageddon on the bonus disc, this was the first I time I had heard of Bathory. This was an ugly, relentless song. I needed to hear more.

DRAGONLORD: "BLACK FUNERAL" (MERCYFUL FATE COVER)
One of the bands responsible for turning me on to Mercyful Fate was this side project of members of Testament, Sadus, and Nevermore.

IN MEMORY OF CELTIC FROST (TRIBUTE ALBUM TO CELTIC FROST)
One of two tribute albums I picked up before I actually heard anything by the original band. This album featured covers from Morgion, Enslaved, Opeth, Mayhem, Emperor, Grave, Slaughter, and several other bands. This had a dual purpose in introducing me to Celtic Frost as well as a ton of other bands.

METALLICA: "IT'S ELECTRIC", "HELPLESS", "AM I EVIL?", "THE PRINCE" (DIAMOND HEAD COVERS)
Metallica was very clearly influenced by NWOBHM band Diamond Head, as can be seen here. There are only three other tracks on their Lighting to the Nations album that did not appear on this cover album by Metallica.

METALLICA: "MERCYFUL FATE" (MERCYFUL FATE MEDLEY)
The other band that turned me on to Mercyful Fate. This medley was so incredible it did not take me long to seek out Melissa.

METALLICA: "BLITZKRIEG" (BLITZKRIEG COVER)
Another NWOBHM band that was covered by Metallica early on, I used to listen to this on repeat, it was such a great song. The original is even better.

NATIVITY IN BLACK VOL. 1 (TRIBUTE ALBUM TO BLACK SABBATH)
This is the first tribute album I ever bought, but it was a damn good one. Not only did it introduce me to Black Sabbath, but it also helped me get into Corrosion of Conformity, Sepultura, Type O Negative, and featured great tracks by White Zombie and Megadeth.

SEPULTURA: "ORGASMATRON" (MOTORHEAD COVER)
Yes, it's strange. The first time I really remember hearing Motorhead was on this cover by Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura.

SWALLOW THE SUN: "SOLITUDE" (CANDLEMASS COVER)
An excellent cover of a doom metal classic by this death/doom outfit on their debut. I was pretty quick to get into Candlemass after hearing this.

THORNSPAWN: "DIVUS DE MORTUUS" (NECROVORE COVER)
The 7 inch record this appears on is a bit of an odd item in my collection. Necrovore never released a full-length but they were instrumental on the development of death metal in the 1980's. This originally appears on a four track demo that is very hard to find.


What's next? I have not checked out these original bands yet, but will be soon.

DAWN OF AZAZEL: "PLATEAU OF INVINCIBILITY" (ORDER FROM CHAOS COVER)

DRACONIAN: "FOREVER MY QUEEN" (PENTAGRAM COVER)

IMPIETY: "READY TO EXPLODE" (VULCANO COVER)

Compilations: Century Media Spring Sampler 2007

I am going to take you on a trip to a faroff time, the Spring of 2007 and see what Century Media had in store for us. I think this shows a little bit of a transition in the label. There are several clearly metal bands on here, but there is also quite a bit of metalcore and deathcore. This was before Century Media completely caved into the latter styles but the warning signs were there.

DARK TRANQUILLITY: "FOCUS SHIFT"
This is a typical DT song. Melodic death with layers of keyboards and Mikael Stanne's deep vocals. I have been a fan of DT for a long time now and even though they are kind of stuck in neutral musically now, have enjoyed all of their albums. I of course have this album.

VITAL REMAINS: "HAMMER DOWN THE NAILS"
Vital Remains HATES Christianity. I know that probably comes as a bit of a shock in heavy metal, but they really do. It's almost cartoonish. To emphasize this, they brought in Glen Benton of Deicide to provide vocals on this album, the only person who hates Christianity more than the band. I like this album, but the production is a little muddy and it is definitely over the top.

DESPISED ICON: "IN THE ARMS OF PERDITION"
Oh, here we go. This was before the deathcore scene became an ungodly parody of itself and this song is actually not too bad for deathcore. It's a shame that the band became a complete farce on their next album. That's not to say that this is good though. Just that it's better than some other deathcore bands.

INTO ETERNITY: "TIMELESS WINTER"
Very good song from this Canadian progressive melodeath band. Singer Stu Block has a great voice and can sing in a variety of styles without skipping a beat. He will be the new singer for Iced Earth. This is a great album as well.

IN THIS MOMENT: "PRAYERS"
In This Moment has risen to prominence mostly due to the presence of Maria Brink and her cleavage-baring outfits. She is not a bad vocalist, just kind of annoying. The music though is extremely stereotypical metalcore. If not for Brink and her breasts, this band would be forgotten.

DIECAST: "NOTHING I COULD SAY"
Essentially In This Moment without Maria Brink. Anyone remember these guys? No? I rest my case.

THE HAUNTED: "THE DROWNING"
I have said it before and I will say it again. I never really got into The Haunted. Their early material is okay, but it just never captivated me enough to get much of it. Their later stuff though shows a real attempt to capture a radio-friendly sound. It just sounds too sterile to me. Thrash is supposed to be dangerous. The Haunted just isn't dangerous enough.

FU MANCHU: "HUNG OUT TO DRY"
Stoner rock, kind of similar to Monster Magnet. I never really liked Fu Manchu even though I did like Monster Magnet. This does not change my mind.

BRAND NEW SIN: "REAPER MAN"
I am not familiar with this band. They sound like a hard rock band with some southern elements. Pass.

FINNTROLL: "KORPENS SAGA"
This is Finntroll doing what they do best, lilting folk melodies playing over some harsh blackened metal. The band is quite good at fun songs and catchy melodies. This is no exception.

NAGLFAR: "THE DARKEST ROAD"
I think Naglfar is a little underrated. The melodic black metal band has put out some great albums, but they get a lot of hate. Perhaps because they are melodic. Not sure. Anyway, this is another very good song by the band off of one of my favorite Naglfar albums.

ABORTED: "THE CHONDRIN ENIGMA"
Aborted, the Belgian brutal death metal band, made an effort to tone down their sound for this release. The result sounds like a really brutal melodeath album. They also added quite a few breakdowns. The result really disappointed a lot of longtime fans. I quite like the sound, but was not terribly familiar with them before this. The band does seem to be following the career path of their obvious idols in Carcass.

IMMOLATION: "WORLD AGONY"
This is off of what I think is one of Immolation's best albums. Their Morbid Angel style of dirty, razor-sharp riffing is at its best and vocalist Ross Dolan sounds even more powerful than usual. Just a terrific album.

FEAR MY THOUGHTS: "BLANKNESS"
Another band I was unfamiliar with. This is basically melodeath/metalcore. Nothing terribly exciting.

CELTIC FROST: "GROUND"
Of course Celtic Frost's reunion album in 2006 ranks as one of the all-time great reunions. Frost did not attempt to recapture their old sound. They released something new and exciting. It's too hard to catalog this under a simple genre tag, it's completely unique and powerful.

SATYRICON: "K.I.N.G."
Satyricon was one of the more unique bands in the Norwegian second wave black metal scene. Incorporating folk melodies and instrumentation into their sound, they really stood out for awhile. By this point though, Satyricon had streamlined their sound into a fairly simple black 'n roll style. It is okay for what it is, but it is nothing like what it was.

FIREWIND: "FALLING TO PIECES"
Firewind is a fairly straightforward power metal band with some great hooks and an impressive pop sensibility. This is definitely radio-friendly and infectious. It makes you wonder why radio stations can't play Firewind instead of Nickelback. Frustrating.

THE TEMPEST: "RISE AND FALL"
Apparently this band changed their name prior to the release of their first album and became The Agonist. Basically a harsher, more metallic version of In This Moment. Same analysis applies from In This Moment. I do like the singer's voice though. Everything else is terrible.

TENET: "INDULGE ME"
I have never heard of this band either. Apparently this is a demo track from an upcoming album that was not released for another two years. Not sure what happened there. Apparently this is the side project of the guitarist for Strapping Young Lad and it is pretty impressive heavy thrash metal. I like this quite a bit.

Initial Impressions: Amon Amarth: Surtur Rising

Amon Amarth is nothing if not consistent. This is their eighth album and the Swedish band still has a knack for crafting catchy songs and infectious melodies. Amon Amarth has always been an impressively melodic band, but that has always been lurking a little bit beneath the surface of their crushing riffs and singer Johan Hegg's deep guttural roars. However, on this release, Amon Amarth actually does sound as if they are focusing on the melodies.

This is not a massive change of pace for Amon Amarth. The band has been stripping away the death metal sound for quite some time. This is just a natural progression for the band. While this is not as heavy of a release for the band, it is still very clearly them. It is still recognizable.

All of the other elements are still present. Hegg's vocals sound just as powerful as they did on their debut album. The dual guitar attack still churns out melodeath riffs and rips off some impressive solos. And the rhythm section still thunders along as the foundation of Amon Amarth's sound.

As I stated earlier, Amon Amarth still puts out some catchy songs. Opener "War of the Gods" is another great leading track from the band and captures the listener's attention early on. "A Beast Am I" is an absolutely crushing song. Most of the rest of the songs definitely have their moments and fall in line with typical Amon Amarth material.

Amon Amarth has switched up the formula a little bit. While this is not an instant classic like some of their other albums, it is definitely a good album. This may disappoint some of the band's longtime fans, but it will more than likely win them many more.

Initial Impressions: Destruction: Day of Reckoning

German thrash titans Destruction recently released their eleventh studio album. Destruction made their comeback from the typical 1990's thrash lull in the late 1990's being way ahead in the game opposed to some of their contemporaries. Despite this, they have not really been able to match their early material. Destruction has pretty much released the same album the last several times out of the gate.

This is pretty much the same thing we have grown to expect from Destruction. Sharp thrash riffs with just a little bit of technicality to them, fast tempos, and of course Schmier's sneering howl. The guitar work is once again very impressive and the new drummer does an admirable job. Everything else is typical for latter day Destruction.

"Devil's Advocate" is the standout track, featuring an impressive riff and some truly great moments. It is one song that sounds like it would have fit on earlier Destruction releases. There is a Dio cover of "Stand Up and Shout", which is decent but not exceptional, but a good way to pay tribute to a metal god who we lost last year.

Ultimately this is Destruction doing what Destruction do. They do not really offer anything new and spectacular but continue with their tried-and-true formula. If you are a fan of Destruction, you will probably like this. If not, then skip it. I am a huge German thrash metal fan, so this is a necessity for me, but Kreator and Sodom's recent releases have been better.

WTF?: March Metal Madness

Anyone seen this wreck?

The short story is that Thrash Magazine is doing a bracket for metal bands made up of the following labels: Metal Blade, Nuclear Blast, Victory, and Sumerian. I am not sure of Thrash Magazine's audience, but we have had some odd results from this.

My list of complaints are as follows:

1. I do not understand the presence of Victory and Sumerian on this thing. Victory is more of a hardcore label and Sumerian is a niche label focusing on technical and progressive styles of metal and hardcore. Why not use Relapse and Century Media or some better-known labels? Metal Blade and Nuclear Blast are fine.

2. Just look at some of the results. Whitechapel over Cannibal Corpse, All Shall Perish over Kataklysm, As I Lay Dying over Behemoth, etc.

3. Amon Amarth is in serious jeopardy of being eliminated by Whitechapel.

So there you have it. March Metal Madness.

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: 2004

2004 was a big year for me. It was the year I first started dating the girl who would years later become my fiancee. We had known each other for a little while prior to that, but not real well. We started dating in June. It was also the year my older brother got married and it was the year the Boston Red Sox, my favorite sports team, finally won the World Series after an 86 year drought.

3 INCHES OF BLOOD: ADVANCE AND VANQUISH
Probably an odd choice, but again, these are not necessarily my favorite albums from the year, just some that I feel like discussing. I was really impressed with this album though. 3IOB got lumped in with the metalcore genre for some reason. The music here is decent traditional-style metal with modern influences. There are two vocalists, one with a falsetto scream and the other more of a hardcore style. The songs are fast and aggressive. None of their subsequent albums have come close to matching this one.

AMON AMARTH: FATE OF NORNS
I keep forgetting Amon Amarth in this series even though they are one of my favorite bands. Any release could have been considered for this, since they do pretty much release the same album over and over again. This album has the classics "The Pursuit of Vikings" and "Valkyries Ride". Other than that, if you have heard anything by Amon Amarth, you know what to expect, heavy melodeath riffs and Johan Hegg's deep guttural growls, and of course, some damn catchy songs. Amon Amarth is NOT a viking metal band, just thought I would clear that up.

CRADLE OF FILTH: NYPHETAMINE
Similar to 2003's Dimmu Borgir in that this was an album I found at Target of all places, while I was working there. This was another album that served as a gateway into harsher black metal, not to say Cradle of Filth was really a black metal band at this time. Their dark, gothic sound and impressive horror-filled lyrics captivated me at the time. Dani Filth's vocals take some getting used to, but the music and everything else was so interesting that I kept picking up more and more releases by the band.

MASTODON: LEVIATHAN
Metalsucks listed this as their Album of the Decade recently. I was somewhat familiar with Mastodon. The song "Blood and Thunder" was on some soundtrack that I got as well as being a featured video on the Target sampler video that was played in electronics for hours on end. I had to be back there quite a bit, that's where most of the shoplifters were. Anyway, this is my favorite Mastodon release, although I only have two, because they are not really a favorite of mine, but this one is quite good and is probably the best overall representation of their sound.

ORPHANED LAND: MABOOL
This is probably my favorite release from 2004. It is an absolutely beautiful and majestic album. It tells an amazing story as well. The progressive metal band from Israel blends elements of Middle Eastern folk music seemlessly into their metal foundation. At times, the music is definitely not metallic, but the music is so impressive and awe-inspiring that that does not matter in the least. The vocals are delivered in a variety of styles to symbolize different characters, going a long way toward helping the story along. This is a very impressive album and is the band's masterpiece.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: BEHEMOTH: DEMIGOD; DREAM EVIL: THE BOOK OF HEAVY METAL; ENSLAVED: ISA; LAMB OF GOD: ASHES OF THE WAKE; MEGADETH: THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED; NIGHTWISH: ONCE; SHADOWS FALL: THE WAR WITHIN; TAD MOROSE: MODUS VIVENDI.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2004: Scar Symmetry, Vreid, Wintersun

Compilations: Metal Maniacs March/April 2009

This was from the final issue of Metal Maniacs.

MY DYING BRIDE: "FALL WITH ME"
Starting things off in gloomy fashion with everyone's favorite doomsters. I am not a huge fan of My Dying Bride, though I do like them okay. This song convinced me to pick up this album so it is quite impressive. It's a little faster and heavier than some of the rest of MDB's stuff I had previously heard so it resonated with me instantly.

CRIMFALL: "WILDFIRE SEASON"
As you might guess from the band's name, Crimfall is a folk metal band. They also have elements of symphonic power metal in their music as well. It's a bit of a different take on things. Not too bad, but probably not something I would spend money on, although the closing minutes are pretty impressive.

HOLLOW: "SLAUGHTERING THE WICKED"
Sounds like groove/thrash metal. The drumming is pretty impressive, but most of the rest of the music is basic groove metal.

VERMEFUG: "THE GRATEFUL SHRED"
Vermefug is a thrash metal/crossover band. They definitely sound like a band out of the 80's and their vocalist has his punk sneer down. The gang vocals also add to the overall sound. They are competent at what they do, but I can't really see myself listening to a whole album of it.

DEATHRASH: "THRASH BEYOND DEATH"
Deathrash has been around for a long time, but have never really released anything other than a demo and the compilation that this came from. They sound a bit like early Overkill and I am completely okay with that because I love Overkill. The vocals are different which is not a problem. You don't want them sounding exactly like Overkill.

LION'S SHARE: "JUDAS MUST DIE"
I was immediately impressed with this heavy/power metal band. So much so that I went out and found this album. This song is not even the best song on the album. It's a damn good album.

MAY RESULT: "HOLD THIS WORLD IN THE HANDS OF SULFUR"
Kind of a stupid band name for a black metal band. May Result is from Serbia, which is not a country I would expect to hear much from. This is a somewhat melodic black metal sound that brings to mind early Dimmu Borgir, before the symphonic elements completely dominated their sound. It does make use of keyboards, but they are not too overpowering. This is pretty good actually.

AUTOPSY: "SEVERED SURVIVAL"
The editor's choice is from a reissue of an album from twenty years ago. This is Autopsy being Autopsy. Early death metal that is extremely fucking heavy. Excellent and somewhat underrated band.

THE PROPHECY: "BELIEF MEANS NOTHING"
Extremely impressive death/doom metal done in the style of the early works of fellow British bands My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost. I really enjoyed this one and will have to try to look further into this band.

FAITH FACTOR: "KEEP IT TRUE"
'80's style power metal with an obvious Christian message. The vocals don't really match up well with the music and get a little grating after awhile. I would probably pass. It's generally not a good idea to name-drop a bunch of much better bands in your song either, it just reminds the listener of who else they could be listening to instead of you.

CASTROFATE: "NIGHTMARES"
This is pretty decent modern-sounding thrash. It has just enough originality to the riffs and vocals to sound decent. I may have to look further into this band as well, being the thrash-head that I am.

BATTLEMASTER: "DEATH IS A WARM CUBE"
Kind of amateurish black/death metal band. Some decent ideas are present, but they are not fully fleshed out here. They have some promise and may be pretty good in a little bit of time, but not yet. The vocals are a little annoying too.

DREAMING DEAD: "STAIRS INTO THE VORTEX"
Dreaming Dead is a highly underrated death/thrash metal band. This is off their extremely impressive debut album which brought comparisons to the almighty Death. Elizabeth Schall is a terrific vocalist and an amazing guitar player. The Death comparisons are apt.

This was the last Metal Maniacs comp and they went out with a bang. I bought three albums because of the tracks included on this thing. Other than those, I was very impressed with the tracks from Deathrash, May Result, The Prophecy, and Castrofate.

Need Some Help

I have until the end of the day today to come up with a decent, wedding-appropriate song for our reception. My fiancee has provided an additional criteria: the lyrics must make her cry. I have no idea.

The only song I have found so far is Sentenced: "You are the One"

Any help would be appreciated. I am stumped. I am pretty sure "I Cum Blood" is NOT going to work.

Initial Impressions: Ulcerate: The Destroyers of All

Kelly, Full Metal Attorney, said I would not like this album. Challenge accepted. I found the CD for cheap when I was in Omaha last weekend and could not find Mitochondrion, so I bought this.

Ulcerate is described on Metal Archives as a brutal death metal band. The reality is significantly more complicated than that. They are definitely not just a blasting, heavy brutal death juggernaut. Those elements are definitely present, but with much more of a free-moving atmosphere and riffs (if you can call them that) that do not feel confined and rigid. The album is not in-your-face with its brutality. Instead the brutality comes from the seriously oppressive atmosphere. It is unnerving and spine-tingling.

The guitar parts are not really delivered as what we would normally call riffs. Instead, they are more of dissonant and ambient chords. They are the major source of the melody but do not really possess any sort of defined structure. They have a bit of a droning quality to them, although the drums and vocals keep it from devolving completely into an unstructured mess. This has been described as Neurosis playing death metal. To be honest, I am not overly familiar with Neurosis, so I will not comment on that comparison.

The drums are completely the opposite of the free-form guitars. Heavily blastbeat-driven and intense, the drumming is extremely impressive. The drums provide the major driving force in Ulcerate's music. They are also the major ingredient signaling that this is in fact a brutal death metal band.

The vocals are pretty standard. Nothing we really have not heard in several other brutal death metal bands, deep growls and little variety. The lyrics though are well-written and interesting and would probably be better served with a different vocal style.

This album is kind of draining, being nearly an hour long, yet consisting of only seven songs, but it is interesting enough to keep attention focused on it. I like it reasonably well, but have a feeling that it is more of a grower. It is kind of similar to the band Portal's releases, although a little bit better structured. All in all, it is certainly a creative album, different than a lot of the other stuff out there. Who knows, by the end of the year this could be a contender for my Album of the Year.

Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 51: Wrathchild America: 3-D

Quite the trippy album cover, huh?

I have not done one of these in a long time. I recently picked up this album from a used record store. Having half-remembered some comments about Wrathchild America being a decent band, and it being fairly cheap, I bought it.

Wrathchild America is a largely forgotten band and that is a shame. They were around for a long time, but only really started attracting notice with the release of their debut album 1989, toward the end of the rein of thrash metal in the American mainstream. This album was released in 1991 and it was not much longer before metal got kicked back to the underground and many bands were forgotten. Wrathchild America falls into this category despite renaming themselves and continuing under the name Souls at Zero for a few more years.

As you might have guessed from the above discussion, Wrathchild America is a thrash metal band. They named themselves after the Iron Maiden track "Wrathchild" and then added the America part to avoid being confused with another band by the same name. Wrathchild America is more than just a straightforward thrash metal band though. They experimented with a lot of progressive structures and other non-metal elements in crafting this album. The band utilized elements of hard rock, funk, and jazz into their thrash metal foundation. It was an interesting collection of influences but would not prevent the band from fading into obscurity like so many others.

This is a grower. It's pretty unique but it was just released at the wrong time so Wrathchild America is barely remembered today.

Initial Impressions: Hour of 13: The Ritualist

I have been aware of traditional doom metal band Hour of 13 for some time, having picked up their debut eponymous album some time back. The band achieved recognition with their 2007 debut album which brought to mind a time when Black Sabbath was really the only metal band. Their old school take on the oldest metal subgenre was refreshing and impressive. Now, a whole lot of other bands are playing in the same style.

Kicking things off with the ominous intro "The Gathering", the album immediately shows the listener that this is old school doom metal done right. The heavy riffs lead the charge on the second track and this is the sound that Hour of 13 would use over the next several tracks. Third track "Naked Star" is surprisingly upbeat for a doom number. The guitar solo in the middle section adds some surprising melody as well. From there, Hour of 13 settles into more of a mid-paced crunch for the rest of the album.

The vocals by singer Chad Davis are sort of a cross between Ozzy Osbourne and the singer for Cirith Ungol, sort of nasally but still powerful. The instrumentation is impressive and the songs are catchy. This is definitely a solid release.

Hour of 13 do an admirable job of sounding like an old-school doom band without sounding like they do not have their own sound. The band should continue to improve. This is one band to watch.

Initial Impressions: Deicide: To Hell With God

Glen Benton is feeling grumpy again. This time, once again, expressing his anger with his favorite whipping-boy, God. Last album was a surprisingly personal album, detailing his frustration with the ongoing divorce and custody battle he was embroiled in. This time, he is back to his old tricks.

Musically, Deicide seems to be making a concentrated effort to play music more similar to their early albums, fast and riff-based death metal with very little melody. The only melody comes from the amazing solo work of Ralph Santolla, who puts in his third appearance on a Deicide album with this release.

Apart from all that, this is standard God-hating Deicide. The song titles tell you what you are in for. "Empowered by Blasphemy", "Servant of the Enemy", and "How Can You Call Yourself a God?" are the most typical.

If you like Deicide, you will probably like this. If not, you probably will not. Deicide is just one of those bands that have always done their own thing and that's just fine. I like Deicide. I therefore enjoyed this album. It's not anything special. It's just Deicide.

New Poll: Favorite Big 4 Debut

I have a new poll up. It's fairly simple. Which debut album from the Big 4 of U.S. thrash is your favorite?

Year in Metal: 2003

DIMMU BORGIR: DEATH CULT ARMAGEDDON
2003 saw Dimmu Borgir break through to the mainstream. I actually bought this album at Target of all places. This is by no means a great album, though it is still my favorite from the Norwegian symphonic black metal band, but it was instrumental in my interest in black metal. It was an album that caused me to look deeper into the genre. There are some damn good songs on it though and I do remember it completely freaked out my girlfriend (who later became my fiancee).

ENSLAVED: BELOW THE LIGHTS
The seventh album by Enslaved is more of a mix of their earlier black/Viking metal style and their later more progressive sound. This album features the haunting "Havenless" which is my favorite song by the band. Enslaved was at the peak of their creativity on this album, crafting several classic songs while retaining the depth and atmosphere of their previous works.

LOST HORIZON: A FLAME TO THE GROUND BENEATH
Yes, the album cover is cheesy as hell, but this is easily one of the best power metal albums of the decade. The Swedish band has thus far only released two albums, this being their last, but it is an incredible album. The vocals really make the album, being technically impressive and incredibly emotive. The music is powerful, majestic, and epic. This is a brilliant power metal album that is unfortunately too often overlooked.

SWALLOW THE SUN: THE MORNING NEVER CAME
I have made my feelings on this album pretty clear for some time. One of my absolute favorite albums in the death/doom genre and a true blind buy. This is the exact opposite of the prior album as it is extremely dark and depressing. It crawls along at a snail's pace and leaves the listener feeling dread and darkness overtaking them. And this was just the band's first album. It also has one of my favorite album covers of all time, perfectly capturing the feel of the album.

THE CROWN: POSSESSED 13
The Swedish death/thrash band released their last album before going on hiatus, the horror-themed Possessed 13. This album featured the return of original vocalist Johan Lindstrand, but was otherwise more of the same from The Crown. Hyper-fast death/thrash that takes no prisoners and leaves the listener reeling.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Akercocke: Choronzon; Arch Enemy: Anthems of Rebellion; The Black Dahlia Murder: Unhallowed; Children of Bodom: Hate Crew Deathroll; Dragonforce: Valley of the Damned; Lamb of God: As the Paces Burn; Moonspell: The Antidote; Overkill: Killbox 13.

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2003: Abysmal Dawn, Korpiklaani, Through the Eyes of the Dead.

Flashback Video: Dio: "Last in Line"

What a cheesy video. Great song though.