I first became acquainted with Sweden's Unanimated through their debut album "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" which I picked up through one of my Neuropath band mates shortly after it was released in 1993. While Unanimated's initial effort didn't exactly fit inside my traditional extreme metal comfort zone, I nonetheless found myself quite enjoying its unique blend of melodic death & black metal sounds & gave it a few repeat spins at the time. In fact, I still regard "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" as one of my top ten melodeath releases to this day which is really saying something. By 1995, I was more heavily involved in the tape trading scene than ever before so, when I heard news of a brand-new Unanimated record, I immediately went about picking it up through one of my European contacts, looking for more of the same from the Swedes yet also hoping that they might push things up to a new level. Many death metal fans will tell you that they did too. Me? I'm not so sure.

"Ancient God of Evil" is a very polished release for the time with the crystal-clear Dan Swanö production job giving Unanimated the best possible chance at succeeding in their quest for extreme metal stardom. It's also a touch more melodic than its predecessor with the black metal component being a little stronger & taking the form of some pretty cool keyboard-backed atmospheric sections. It's worth noting that these guys were amongst the first to attempt the more melodic black metal sound & were quite influential on that subgenre so they were old hands at it by this point in their careers. Raspy vocalist Micke Jansson (Damnation) does an excellent job as the band's main focal point while the all-star rhythm section of bassist Rickard Daemon (Dismember/Murder Squad/Carbonized/Damnation/General Surgery) & drummer Peter Stjärnvind (Merciless/Murder Squad/Black Trip/Damnation/Entombed/Krux/Nifelheim/Pest/Regurgitate) hold down the back end with aplomb, leaving plenty of room for their band mates to build their instrumental hooks. While guitarists Jonas Mellberg (Therion) & Johan Bohlin (Desultory) may present a plethora of memorable melodic ideas between them though, they aren't exactly virtuosos & struggle to achieve anything above a very basic guitar solo so I think they often would have been better off going without & focusing purely on the riffs.

The song-writing on "Ancient God of Evil" is very consistent in that there are no weak tracks included, mainly because Unanimated were a class act so, even during the songs that sit furthest from my comfort zone, I generally maintain some level of admiration for the scope & execution. Despite the undeniable class & consistency though, "Ancient God of Evil" isn't exactly chock full of highlights. Like most melodeath, I find popular, hook-laden songs like opener "Life Demise", "Oceans of Time" & "Dying Emotions Domain" to be more agreeable than they are exciting. It's the short instrumental "Mireille" & catchy closer "Die Alone" that hit me the hardest & show the full potential in the mid-90's Unanimated sound. There's no doubt that Unanimated knew what they were doing. I'm just not quite sure this sound & style is something that I can get completely onboard with though so I'd probably position "Ancient God of Evil" slightly behind its older sibling "In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead" in terms of my overall enjoyment of the package. It's still one of the better examples of blackened melodeath that you're gonna find though so I've managed to find some space for it at the bottom of my top ten melodeath releases as well.

For fans of Dissection, Necrophobic & Thulcandra.

"Vaenir" is this Gothenburg doom trio's 2015 sophomore full-length, following relatively hot on the heels of the debut, "Empress Rising" from the previous year. They play lengthy distorted doom metal dirges with towering chords, sloth-like pacing and a 'washed-out' vocal style that feels like it is coming to you across huge cosmic distances. Despite the thunderously robust foundation laid down by bassist Mika Häkki and drummer Esben Willems and the undoubted weight of the riffs, the vocals impart a certain ephemeral quality to the atmosphere and act as a spiritual counterpoint to the immensity of the bottom end.

Monolord have a distinct blueprint for how they want to sound and pretty much stick to it throughout. There is very little variation in pacing within tracks, no sudden changes of gear to spice things up, these Swedes being pretty much fundamentalists when it comes to doom metal. If you are impatient for variety and innovation in your listening diet then chances are that Monolord will hold very little appeal for you and you may be better served moving on elsewhere. More recently I feel they evolved a slightly more lightweight sound with hints of psychedelia thrown in, but back in the heady days of 2015 they were all-in on the crushing repetitiousness of 'true' doom metal and were unrelenting in its delivery.

And that, not wishing to sound in any way dismissive, is pretty much everything there is to know about "Vaenir". How you feel about that depends on what you want from your metal. Me, I am more than happy with an album of heavy and uncomplicated doom metal done well and with an unpretentiousness that speaks to a band fully committed to shaking the cosmic walls.

The second full-length from this Canadian war metal duo offers much the same as their debut album "Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist" from the previous year i.e. a short, savage & relentless storm of blast beats & screaming vocals that will invariably get your blood pumping if you're a fan of this niche extreme metal subgenre. As always, Revenge showcase a strong passion for grindcore, although the production job doesn't allow for much in the way of variation or articulation. There's not really much of a need for it though as everything flies by like an out-of-control battering ram, leaving the listener holding on for dear life. I think I enjoy "Victory.Intolerance.Mastery" slightly more than Revenge's other more popular releases like "Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist" & "Behold.Total.Rejection" but there's not really much point in separating them from each other as they're all basically the same shit (as hinted at with the series of very similar album covers). I will say that I was on my way to a four-star rating for the first five tracks here but the quality level just tailed off a bit through the end of the tracklisting which saw me falling just short. The damage was already done though & I'm not sure I ever expect Revenge to produce something deep & meaningful anyway. They're very much a role player whose aim is to satisfy a well-defined need & they do what they do well. I'm just not sure that they'll ever really change my world with this sort of offering.

For fans of Conqueror, Diocletian & Blasphemy.

This is a fully flushed out medieval black metal record with a lot of power and grandiosity, while still having the room/time to leave some space for pieces of reprieve and recollection. Unlike yesterday's review of Stormkeep's newest album, Archvile King are not afraid of their dungeon synth inspiration and use it both as a powerful intermediary, as well as complimenting these strong black metal foundational tunes. Musically, the album is quite diverse while still maintaining strong motifs. Furthermore, the record does not have a moment of wasted space. Production of the album is splendid with plenty of low end to make songs scream and howl. Speaking of howling, the vocals on the record are deliberate and visceral. This sounds like the type of black metal record so many major record label bands wish they could make, but are restricted from doing so. Sometimes it pays to be independent. 

Best Songs: L'excusé, Sépulture, Le chant des braves, À ces batailles abandonnées

For Fans Of: Véhémence, Obesquiae

Kings Cross were another act that competed with the recently mentioned Surrender for the honour of having released the very first genuine metal release to come out of my birth city of Sydney. There's very little known about the timing of the two records though so I've had to take a guess as to which may have come earlier & have generally leant towards Surrender as their self-titled album was far more significant than Kings Cross' three-song effort. It was also miles more enjoyable too as the "Gimme" E.P. is a lacklustre affair that places all of its hopes & dreams on the back of brothers Darren "Jed" McCormack & Matt "Big Bird" McCormack whose virtuosic lead guitar skills are pretty incredible when compared with the overall package. They'd clearly been spending years kneeling at the altar of the late, great Randy Rhoads as there are some striking similarities in style. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save "Gimme" from the second-hand store racks though as two of the three songs are completely disposable (read: garbage) with closer "Love Machine" being one of the worst metal tunes I can remember hearing, thanks largely to the completely out of key vocal effort of front man Mark White.

Kings Cross began life as New England in 1983 before changing their name shortly afterwards. The "Gimme" E.P. would be their only metal release with their 1988 debut album "Psychedelic World" coming after they'd relocated to Los Angeles in search of international acclaim & seeing them dropping the metal component in favour of a more psychedelic glam/hard rock approach. Kings Cross were built around the three McCormack brothers who would later go on to form seminal Sydney thrash metal band Massive Appendage with Jed & Shawn also ending up in Fester Fanatics later on. The early Kings Cross sound sits right in the middle between the LA glam metal one that was so big at the time & a more muscular heavy metal one. They tended to sound closest to Skid Row due to White's similarities in tone with Skid Row's legendary Sebastian Bach in my opinion. Unfortunately, his skill set is not even close to being able to match Bach's though & his failings are the main detractor from me being able to enjoy this release. I do quite like the glammiest of the three tracks in the catchy "Back Street Theatre" but it's sadly not enough to balance out the dire nature of the song-writing on the other two inclusions so I can't in good conscience encourage any of you to actively seek out "Gimme" which should reside solely in the annuls of Australian metal history for all eternity.

For fans of Twisted Sister, Skid Row & Motley Crue.