Now, here's one that has been lost in the annuls of Australian extreme metal history for a very long time now & that I wouldn't even expect Ben to have heard of. Orgy of Pigs were an Adelaide-based death metal artist from the early 1990's who produced just the one release in this heavily underrated 1992 full-length album. They'd disappear shortly afterwards without much of a murmur, however not before they'd reached the attention of this particular metalhead whose interest was raised upon hearing an associate's CD copy of their "Where Feelings Die" record at a party some time around 1993. I'd pick up a dubbed cassette copy of the album shortly afterwards & would give it a few spins before moving on but not before firming up my opinion that Orgy of Pigs were a seriously underrated act. Listening back now, I still maintain that position too.

Not a lot is known about Orgy of Pigs & I don't recall ever getting the opportunity to see them play live. In fact, I'm not sure they even came to Sydney. The most noteworthy thing about them though is the presence of Raven Black Night bassist Frank Usmiani & drummer Luke Sordillo, both who featured on the early releases from Adelaide black/death/thrash metallers Martire who I've always enjoyed. Don't let that fact be a guide on what to expect from Orgy of Pigs though as this is an entirely different prospect & likely one that you haven't experienced before. You see, "Where Feelings Die" offers a highly original sound that's a little hard to pin-point or describe. Producer Tony Nesci (who had already produced Bezerker's excellent "Lost: album by this point & would later go on to work with acts like Chalice, Deströyer 666, Elegeion, Fury, Long Voyage Back & Zen Venom) gives the record a decidedly filthy & unanimously underground atmosphere that would become one of its calling cards, drawing upon hardcore punk & sludge metal as points of reference. In fact, those two genres are represented in more than just the aesthetic here because Orgy of Pigs are not your average death metal band. If we're looking for complete accuracy then I'd suggest that the only real death metal included is in the gruff vocals of charismatic front man Tony Waters with the instrumentation being a unique blend of the previously mentioned sludge metal & hardcore punk which has been chucked into the mix with some of the more underground grunge acts & even a bit of up-tempo speed metal. You won't hear much in the way of blast beats or palm-muted tremolo-picked riffs but somehow Orgy of Pigs always seem to be able to maintain a central feel that is most in line with the death metal model, reminding me of some of the groovier Pungent Stench records in that way. Hell, I challenge anyone not to think of L7's "Pretend That We're Dead" during the early stages of opener "Stink" but I can't say that I ever think I'm listening to a grunge record.

The eight-song tracklisting is generally pretty consistent with most of the material being worth listening to. The exception is probably "Oubliette" which comes across as being a little too loose & a touch flat. The other seven tracks are all fairly interesting though with "Impounder" being the clear standout & the song that I immediately think of when Orgy of Pigs come to mind. Waters' vocals are the obvious focal point & I think he does a really good job of engaging with the listener. For this reason, I think Orgy of Pigs would have been an excellent live act so I'm disappointed that I never got the opportunity to prove or disprove that theory. The instrumentation takes a lot of twists & turns but is never afraid of taking a risk with the tempos being quite varied & the style changing up pretty regularly. I particularly enjoy the slower material that sees the band having a little more room to move with the riffs taking on more of a groove & occasionally dipping their toes into doomier territory. I have to commend these five guys for pulling this all off with such confidence given that this was just their debut release & I struggle to understand how other underground metal fans have failed to connect with their music because they simply come across as being so damn likeable to me, perhaps due to the fact that they sound like they're having so much fun & also possess an infectious energy throughout the record.

Ultimately, I'm not gonna suggest that you should all run out & purchase an extremely expensive CD copy of the "Where Feelings Die" CD from Discogs as I don't think it's an essential release for Aussie metal enthusiasts. However, I will say that there is some reward here for those that are willing to take a chance. The crudely drawn cover artwork is not a bad point of reference for what you can expect actually as Orgy of Pigs aren't in any way polished but do possess a dark, filthy underground death metal atmosphere that comes with reasonably portioned side-dish of fun which is quite an attractive juxtaposition in a modern-day extreme metal scene which often takes itself far too seriously. 

For fans of Disastrous Murmur, Vomiturition & Pungent Stench.

Formed in 2003 by multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis, Hour of 13 also featured veteran doom metal vocalist Phil Swanson on the first three albums, although he seemed to be in and out of the lineup fairly regularly. This debut full-length sees Davis taking on nearly all the instrumental duties, although the album's recording engineer Corey Leonard contributes leads on a couple of tracks, whilst Swanson handles vocal duties. Musically, Hour of 13 is pretty conservative, its traditional doom metal very much stressing the traditional with fuzzed-up, Sabbathian riffs and Swanson having a fairly high pitch and rough edge to his vocals in the vein of Ozzy with a similar intonation and delivery that suggests Phil very much modelled his vocal style on Birmingham's Prince of Darkness.

The production very much emphasises the riffs with the bass and, in particular, the drums sitting low in the mix and taking a back seat to the guitars and vocals. Obviously guitar and vocals are most often the focus but, especially in doom metal, the rhythm section usually has a deeper and more foundational feel than is present here and it would have been nice to hear a bit more depth and richness of tone in the backing track. There isn't a lot of focus on solos here either with Davis only really letting rip on "Grim Reality" and Leonard handling the solos on "Submissive to Evil" and "Allowance of Sin". I don't know whether Davis' reluctance to take on the leads is down to a lack of confidence on his part or it just being something he was less interested in than riffing his balls off. All that aside, those riffs are generally pretty damn good and although there isn't anything new or challenging, they deliver exactly what you would expect from a fundamentalist trad doom act and should satisfy any adherent of the style looking for a new fix. Phil Swanson's vocals suit the instrumentation exceedingly well and his doom metal credentials would have given the band a leg up in the doom scene that Davis would not have reasonably expected with a less well-known vocalist. Lyrically, once more the duo stick to the well-trodden occult path that is a feature / plague of trad doom lyricists since Ozzy intoned his words of doom on their eponymous opener, oh so many years ago.

Overall, I would have to admit that "Hour of 13" is unlikely to garner much attention outside of hardcore trad doom fanatics, but, despite a couple of reservations, I actually think this is a quite endearing example of the genre that is worthy of your time if trad doom is your bag and you just can't get enough Pentagram, Saint Vitus or Trouble. If you constantly need to be challenged or seek musical innovation, however, you should probably move along as there is nothing for you here.

Dan Swanö has a knack for rewriting the songwriting textbooks. He did it once in 1996 when Edge of Sanity released Crimson, and in 1999, Swanö did it again with Moontower. The heavy emphasis of the synthesizers as a melodic instrument is a huge boost to this album and it provides some remarkable counterpoint between them and the vocals. It had a way of reminding me of Jordan Rudess and the best keyboard moments on the early Dream Theater albums. The vocals are intense and are complimented by a strong backbone. Songwriting is less interested in full on aggression and riffs, focusing more on strong melodic leads and catchiness. "Encounterparts" is one of the best progressive instrumentals because of its insistence on returning to that primary prog hook from the beginning (Dream Theater could learn a thing or two). If this album had fewer harsh screams, I would assume that this was intended to be AOR. Reminded me a lot of the band Nightingale. Moontower, for me anyway, shows a level of maturity from Swanö that is seldom found in progressive music even today. Being able to show off your technical proficiency is one thing, but if you cannot do it in a way that is engaging with the audience, you just look like a try hard. Dan Swanö pulls it off beautifully on Moontower.

Best Songs: Uncreation, Patchworks, Creating Illusions, Encounterparts

For Fans Of: Edge of Sanity, Opeth, modern Amorphis

Croydon's The River formed in 1999 and released several demos before this, their debut album, came out in June of 2006. They have since undergone an evolution into an alternative slowcore / post-metal act, but this was unmistakeably, female-fronted doom metal and a pretty good example of it at that. Built upon highly distorted, rumbling riffs that present a huge wall of sound, even back then they had a degree of a shoegaze influence, an example of what would be called doomgaze, albeit with a bit more bite than I usually associate with the term. Deep basslines that follow the riffs and fairly sparse and wholly functional drumming (with guitarist Christian Leitch doubling up behind the kit) underpin the lethargic riffing and provide a deep and formidable foundation. Over this wave of distorted rumbling, singer Vicky Walters' clear, clean, but oh so melancholy, vocals describe heartbreakingly of a life trapped in a cold, abusive relationship and the hopelessness and despair such a life means for the victim. It is well worth the time to read and get to know the lyrics because it really does twist the experience of the album into a whole new dimension and is as affecting and, frankly, upsetting as any doom metal I have ever listened to. It is heavy stuff, but doom metal shouldn't be afraid to face real-world suffering if it is serious about exploring melancholy and loss, not just loss of others, but of self also. You cannot fail to have empathy for someone who has been stripped of any identity of their own and who are left feeling empty and invisible.

As I said at the start, the band eventually went in another direction, with Vicky Walters leaving around 2010, but with this debut they released one of the most profound doom metal albums it has been my privelege to hear and it still stands as one of my favourite female-fronted doom releases.

I have to admit that I hated the first couple of albums from Norway's Dimmu Borgir when I first encountered them during my mid-90's trade trading days & nothing has changed much in that respect. The experience left me feeling far less than enthused about continuing to follow the band through their creative evolution, however I believe it was Ben that alerted me to the drastic change of musical direction with their third full-length "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" & it tempted me back to see what the fuss was about. I wouldn't say that my initial listens saw my interest doing a swift u-turn as I still found myself struggling to connect with the band's brand-new & significantly more symphonic approach, however I certainly found it to be more palatable than the clumsy, incompetence of records like "For all tid" (1.5/5) or "Stormblåst" (2/5). It's only now though, that I've realised what my main issue with "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" was & started to finally come around to its charms.

Whereas Dimmu Borgir's early releases took an intentionally lo-fi & primitive approach to melodic black metal, "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" is an altogether different beast, this time going for a huge symphonic sound full of gothic romanticism & grandeur. The lineup had changed a little with bassist Brynjard Tristan (Old Man's Child) being replaced by Nagash (The Kovenant/Troll/Carpe Tenebrum/Chrome Division/Covenant) while the other core members who recorded Dimmu Borgir's 1994 "Inn i evighetens mørke" debut E.P. were all still present. The prestigious Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy/Pain/Bloodbath/Lindemann/Lock Up/The Abyss/War) would be charged with engineering & mixing the album & had begun to make a name for himself as a talented producer over the previous 4 or 5 years. This would appear to have been a good decision as he certainly played a role in presenting Dimmu Borgir as a more exciting yet also more accessible option for extreme metal fans.

Upon revisiting "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant" for the first time in decades this week, I was immediately challenged in the same way that I was back in the day, only this time I feel that my increased patience allowed me to overcome an obvious failing that had previously tainted my vision of the overall album. You see, "Embrace Darkness Triumphant" begins with the three tracks that contain by far the most challenges for my personal taste & it had previously been hard to overlook them when assessing the holistic package. It's only with several repeat listens that I've come to this realisation & discovered that the remainder of the record is really pretty decent. The use of Stian Aarstad's keyboards in those earlier songs tends to veer into overblown & cheesy spaces while there is a lot more brutality & substance to the other seven songs, particularly the blast-tastic "Relinquishment of Spirit & Flesh" which very quickly drags things back out of the abyss after the disappointment of the opening trio & is easily my pick of the bunch. All of the remaining tracks are worth hearing although none of them quite reach essential status, generally being let down by a weaker section here or there. It's hardly surprising that the general consensus seems to be the complete reverse of my position on the tracklisting as I'm simply not the target audience for a record like this one. 

The vocals of front man Shagrath (Chrome Division/Fimbulwinter/Nocturnal Breed/Ov Hell/Ulver) are a highlight along with the more frenzied drums parts of Tjodalv (Abyssic/Susperia/Old Man's Child) while the riffs of rhythm guitarist Erkekjetter Silenoz (Insidious Disease/Nocturnal Breed) often draw upon the influence of symphonic black metal godfathers Emperor during their stronger moments. Those keyboards rarely reach a level where I find them to be more than tolerable however they don't often leap over the borderline into theatrical shenanigans outside of those first few tracks, generally staying within spaces that I can at least deem to be acceptable even if I would prefer that they weren't there at all a lot of the time.

There's no doubt at all that "Embrace Darkness Triumphant" was Dimmu Borgir's best release to the time & took their careers to an entirely new level. For me though, their finest hour would not come until the early 2000's with records like "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" & "Death Cult Armageddon" when they'd toned down the theatrics a bit. It's easy to see how some of your more elitist black metal fans might claim Dimmu Borgir as "gateway" act off the back of a release like this one but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, we all needed an entry point & it doesn't immediately mean that Dimmu Borgir are entirely bad. They're not, They're just not the same animal as your Mayhems or Marduks.

For fans of Old Man's Child, Cradle of Filth & Carach Angren.