The Death Metal Thread

Sanguisugabogg - "Homicidal Ecstasy" (2023)

Ridiculously monikered Ohio-based death metallers Sanguisugabogg (Latin for blood-sucking toilet) first entered my world back in 2019 through their debut “Pornographic Seizures” E.P. which I had a bit of time for to be honest. Unfortunately, I lost some of that initial interest following their 2021 debut full-length “Tortured Whole” which seemed to receive a whole bunch of hype but, in reality, didn’t offer a lot in the way of substance. 2023 has seen the band redeeming themselves to an extent though with their brand new sophomore album “Homicidal Ecstasy” seeing Sanguisugabogg hitting on enough quality riffs & grooves to keep my body moving & my face smiling.

You see, a band like Sanguisugbogg isn’t meant to be taken too seriously & the comments I made about their debut album are perhaps defeating the purpose because I’m not sure it was ever the band’s intent to create a package that required much in the way of in-depth thought. I’ve made no secret about my preference for a more serious brand of extreme metal so it ironically takes me a fair amount of effort to come around to bands that focus on simply having a bit of fun. Thankfully that effort has proven to be worth it on this occasion though with “Homicidal Ecstasy” utilizing a lovely thick production & some very tight (if simple) performances to create a chunky set of death metal anthems that are made for live performance.

Strangely, “Homicidal Ecstasy” seems to be being tagging as a brutal/slam death metal release which is entirely inaccurate in my opinion. I can see why people are being fooling into going that way as Sanguisugabogg certainly utilize a lot of heavily palm-muted & mid-tempo death metal riffs that aren’t too dissimilar to those used by most slam death metal bands in their breakdowns. Also, the use of a horribly pingy snare drum sound is one of the signature tools in slam so I can kinda understand the casual listener going down that path. The clear differentiator though is the distinct lack of brutality because Sangisugabogg don’t make much of an effort to savage the listener into oblivion, instead looking to hit on a fun & catchy groove metal riff or create a bouncy beatdown rhythm that’ll no doubt have the masses swarming across the dancefloor in violent worship.

There’s still not a lot of substance here it has to be said & I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to that absence presenting somewhat of a challenge for me. In fact, in many ways “Homicidal Ecstasy” sounds a lot like what you always wished Six Feet Under might sound like but don’t take that as a bad thing because, while Sanguisugabogg may not challenge you from a brutality or a technicality point of view, they more than make up for it in their execution which sees them sitting fairly comfortably alongside other modern death metal bands like 200 Stab Wounds, Frozen Soul & Fulci.

3.5/5

Undeath - Lesions of A Different Kind (2020)

I really like Undeath's modern take on an old favourite, that being the cavernous OSDM style of the late 80s and early 90s as practiced by the likes of Autopsy and Incantation. Their debut, Lesions of a Different Kind, takes the filthiness and looseness of sound typical of the OSDM style and ever-so-slightly clean and tighten it up. The production isn't as cavernous-sounding and gritty as the originals and the playing is tighter, with a small degree of technicality added that the likes of Autopsy never seemed interested in. That said, though, they still retain plenty of the fundamentals of the style and this is no super-crisp technical death metal exercise by any means, but rather a modern upgrade, OSDM v2.0 if you like.

Alexander Jones' vocals (no, not the Infowars idiot) are the typically low-pitched growls of Reifert and co. that have that "gurgling demon" quality that is my favourite incarnation of extreme metal vocalisation as he intones the gore- and horror-filled lyrics of tracks like "Suitably Hacked to Gore" and "Chained to a Reeking Rotted Body", with Black Dahlia Murder vocalist, the late Trevor Strnad, lending a counterpoint to Jones' growling with his harsher shrieks during the title track. The riffs pour out like molten lead and have some nice hooks guaranteed to set heads nodding with enough tempo variations to keep the listener interested. The lead work is concise and efficient with Sanguisugabogg drummer Cody Davidson supplying a more expansive solo on the opener, "Suitably Hacked to Gore". Bass and drums combine well to drive the riffs, with drummer Matt Browning doing some cool stuff without becoming too showy.

Look, Undeath are not going to satisfy those who crave innovation and constant envelope-pushing from their extreme metal, their's is very much a retreading of old tropes that have been with us for three decades or more now, but if you can't ever get your fill of this particular style of OSDM (like me) then they will supply you with a fresh, modernised version of that which you crave. Thanks for the recommendation, Vinny.

4/5

Morbid Angel - Heretic (2003)

Genre: Death

While putting together my recent Top 100 Death Metal Albums chart (ending with all 100 albums ranked 9/10 or higher on my chart), I was getting through an album that a few people here on Metal Academy loved: Altars of Madness by Morbid Angel.  I liked it so much that I decided to listen to most of their first six albums not once but twice.  This really helped me evolve my death metal standards, and can now safely say that my current pick for the number one death metal band for ALL the right reasons is Morbid Angel.  Reasons include: having a better debut than Death themselves, a more surreal willingness to evolve, heavier and darker music, no lightening their heaviness later on and two incredible vocalists with their own classic eras.  The first six are all death essentials, and I even gave two of their albums perfect ratings.  After the glory that was Gateways to Annihilation, their slowest but doomiest and possibly most soul-crushing and psychedelic effort, I was hoping I would once again be going against the metal grain and enjoy Heretic, the first of their albums that is considered unnecessary.

Well, I gotta say it.  For the most part, their heaviness didn't wane from their previous effort.  Morbid Angel went back to death metal roots with this one, and because of that, there's practically no willingness to evolve.  This means that the album is largely made up of standard pounding death.  The album doesn't do anything freaky or surreal until Place of Many Deaths, which is seven songs totaling up to 25 minutes in.  Only then does it go into weird, freaky and creepy background ambiance akin to Blut Aus Nord's The Work Which Transforms God.  Lemme tell you, it was a major breath of fresh air to get away from another mid-to-low-tuned flat-ass pounder with only a couple decent riffs to make it fairly enjoyable.  But deep down I knew that the chances of this continuing through the album were minimal, but not impossible.  Turns out, that minimal chance had a breath left for the two-minute ambient track, "Abyssous."  But as soon as that was done, we went right back to what the band was playing for the first six tracks.  Thankfully, it gets pretty unexpected out wild in the last few shorter tracks, but it would've helped the album if these shorter, weirder bits were more scattered around the album instead of lumped at the end.  Putting some of these unpredictable and shorter bits in with a bunch of silent pauses on,y made it less charming.  They should've been segues.

So in their efforts to remain a relevant death band, they put to much focus on the weirder bits and not enough on the actual point of their career: death metal.  So Heretic shows the band just putting out generic death metal and sticking weirder tracks on for the heck of it without organizing things or making the death metal rock.  It's raw heaviness brought down by riffs of either middling or decent quality and an unfocused teeter between laziness and ambition.  The long and short of it is simple.  The staggering potential of this album by evolution revolutionaries is both untamed and untapped.

63

Xecutioner - "Demo 1986" (1986)

One of the early Obituary demos that I picked up through my early tape trading dealings. It only includes two tracks but is only really interesting because of an early version of "Find The Arise" which would eventually end up on 1990's "Cause of Death" album, admittedly in a vastly superior format. The sound quality is really very good for the time.

3/5

Xecutioner - "1987 Demo" (1987)

The final Obituary demo offers far less in the way of sound quality than the previous two as, unlike "Metal Up Your Ass" & "1986 Demo", it wasn't recorded in a studio. Instead, this is simply a cheap rehearsal recording with a production quality that only an old tape trader like myself could likely appreciate. In saying that though, I get the most enjoyment out of this one & listened to it far more than the other two back in the day. Unlike those two, this recording clearly shows the classic Obituary sound in its fully realized state with all three tracks being a combination of material that would eventually appear on the "Slowly We Rot" album two years later. Ignore the dodgy track titles because they mean absolutely nothing. John Tardy's vocals are far more extreme than they were on the 1986 demo & are probably a little screamier than his monstrous signature sound. It's no wonder Obituary sounded so tight on their first record when you consider that they were perfecting the songs for literally years though. I wouldn't have signed them on the evidence presented on those first two recordings but I certainly would have after hearing this one, despite the awful sound quality.

3.5/5

Note: That's not the cover art for this release. I couldn't find any online.

Obituary - "Slowly We Rot" (1989)

Florida death metal legends Obituary were a huge part of my life in the early 1990’s. I first discovered them while listening to a late-night underground metal radio program shortly after the release of their 1989 debut album “Slowly We Rot” & immediately became infatuated with the vocals of the iconic John Tardy who has been my favourite death metal front man ever since. It was the title track from the album that would be my initial taste & my death metal band Neuropath would cover that song in a live environment for several years during the mid-90’s. 1990’s “Cause of Death” sophomore album would absolutely blow my socks off & would be following up by the very strong “The End Complete” album in 1992, both of which kinda relegated “Slowly We Rot” to entrée status & I feel that I’ve often overlooked it since but I still remember my first impressions & how often I would since Obituary’s debut album back in the day so it’s about time I put my money where my mouth is by formalizing a firm position.

Obituary had been around for a good half decade by the time “Slowly We Rot” was recorded but not always under the same moniker. They began life as Executioner back in 1984, a thrash metal band whose “Metal Up Your Ass” 7” single floated by without much fanfare. They’d adjust their name to Xecutioner in 1986 due to potential legal issues with another band & released their 1986 & 1987 demo tapes under that name. These cassettes would clearly show that the boys had transitioned over to a death metal sound with the name change & the 1987 tape would very clearly showcase the classic Obituary sound, even if it was nothing more than a cheap rehearsal recording. The band would sign with Dutch label Roadracer Records for their debut album & would record it with a young producer by the name of Scott Burns at the now legendary Morrisound Studios in their home town of Florida. Burns was fresh out of making his first genuine production statement with Sepultura & their classic third album “Beneath The Remains” so it was great timing for Obituary who would change their name one last time just prior to the release of the album.

“Slowly We Rot” sounds amazingly tight & heavy for a first up effort. The rhythm guitar tone of Trevor Peres (Meathook Seed) & Allen West (Massacre/Six Feet Under) is thick & deathly, everything you could want from an old-school death metal record really. This is further enhanced by a really tight & well thought-out contribution from the rhythm section of future Nocturnus bassist Daniel Tucker & Meathook Seed drummer Donald Tardy. While West’s lead guitar work is certainly not up to the standard of James Murphy who would bring a new dimension to the band for the follow-up record, he hasn’t completely given up to pure whammy-bar worship just yet so he’s effective enough. The real hero here though is clearly front man John Tardy who contributes a genuinely inhuman & scary sound that no man alive has yet been able to match. He’s simply untouchable & Obituary wouldn’t be the band they are without him. He & (to a lesser extent) Peres are the clear masterminds behind this legend of the Florida death metal scene.

Obituary’s sound is comprised of a few different elements from an instrumental point of view. Firstly, there’s a clear Slayer influence in the faster material which is often backed by a fairly punky beat. I find this material to be the least interesting. Then we have a mid-paced Celtic Frost influence that keeps things very simple yet executes with crushing efficiency. And finally you’ll find smatterings of genuine doom metal that are the clear highlights of the album in my opinion. It would seem that the band felt very similarly because they’d wind the tempo down far more regularly on “Cause of Death” & would reap the rewards for doing so too. The other thing they’d do much better on that album is provide better structure in their song-writing. On “Slowly We Rot” we find them pasting together some fairly disparate ideas in a haphazard fashion, often finishing songs suddenly & well before they’ve fully explored their potential.

While the tracklisting is very consistent with no week tracks included amongst the thirteen songs on offer, “Slowly We Rot” definitely offers a little variation in quality. If I’m being honest I’d suggest that the infamous title track is actually the one that appeals to me the least along with “Gates of Hell” & Words of Evil”. The real classics here are “Godly Beings”, “Suffocation”, “Bloodsoaked” & my personal favourite “Intoxicated”. It’s a really solid late 80’s death metal record in it’s own right but I do still think that it looks & feels a little like a entrée to the “Cause of Death” main course. That may have caused me to unfairly overlook it over the years but I’ve never forgotten it’s importance or the impact it had on me as a youngster. “Slowly We Rot” should be essential listening for fans of bands like Autopsy, Jungle Rot & Asphyx.

4/5

A lot of this is the same as I wrote in my review for this a couple weeks ago.  Same rating, too.

Oh really? Great minds think alike. I shall make a point of reading your review today.

Oh really? Great minds think alike. I shall make a point of reading your review today.

Thank you, good sir.

Darkthrone - "Thulcandra" demo (1989)

The Norwegian legends started to develop the death metal sound that they'd champion on their debut album here with their third demo tape. It's still in its infancy though so still isn't well executed enough to be particularly interesting. Still, it was their most promising effort to the time.

3/5

Darkthrone - "Cromlech" demo (1989)

Ok, so Darkthrone's final demo tape saw them finally coming of age as they approached the recording of the "Soulside Journey". The production & musicianship is much stronger & the material possesses that gloomy atmosphere that their early death metal material is known for. I could have done without the live version of "Iconoclasm Sweeps Cappadocia" that's tacked onto the end but the other three tracks are all enjoyable, particularly the very solid instrumental "Accumulation of Generalization" which was arguably the best thing they'd done to the time.

3.5/5

Darkthrone - "Frostland Tapes" (2008)

The early Darkthrone albums were so pivotal in my childhood that it’s kinda hard to explain their impact looking back now. I placed their “unholy trinity” on a pedestal that very few extreme metal artists can touch & also have a lot more time for 1995’s “Panzerfaust” than many people do too. This general passion for the band saw me hungrily seeking out Darkthrone’s demo tapes very quickly after hitting the tape trading scene & I found that it wasn’t very hard to secure them given their rapidly growing notoriety. I recall having mixed reactions to them at the time but are a little vague on the details so I thought I’d refresh my memory once I discovered this double CD compilation that includes all of Darkthrone’s demo recordings along with some unreleased live & rehearsal material.

“Frostland Tapes” begins with a chronological journey through Darkthrone’s four demo tapes, starting with 1988’s “Land of Frost”. The level of production & musicianship on “Land of Frost” is very ordinary but thankfully the youngsters seemed to have a decent pedigree in underground metal even at such an early stage in their development. This tape is generally regarded as being a death metal release but there’s definitely more to it than that with a strong traditional doom metal influence perpetuating all five songs & giving the cassette a doom/death feel overall. Unfortunately the song-writing isn’t anything to write home about so I was left feeling pretty flat about Darkthrone’s initial effort. The “A New Dimension” demo from later the same year isn’t much better to be honest. It begins with an effective dark ambient intro piece but the bulk of this cassette is made up on a nine minute instrumental piece called “Snowfall” that’s much closer to thrash than it is to death metal. It doesn’t make much sense from a structural point of view & I found myself getting a bit bored so it’s another fail for “A New Dimension”.

Darkthrone’s 1989 third demo tape “Thulcandra” sees the death metal sound they’d champion on 1991’s “Soulside Journey” debut album starting to take shape. It’s still a bit clunky to be honest but I have to say that closer “Archipelago” showcased the potential that the band had pretty well & is the earliest Darkthrone track that I find to be genuinely enjoyable. That potential would ultimately be fulfilled on 1989’s fourth & final demo tape “Cromlech” which is a good representation of the fully-developed product. Darkthrone’s brand of death metal possesses an eerie quality that differentiates it from the Swedes & it’s well & truly on display here, particularly on the very solid instrumental “Accumulation of Generalization” which was a new career high point for the band.

The second disk includes a crude recording of a 1990 live show in Denmark & an instrumental version of 1996’s “Goatlord” album as well as a couple of additional rehearsal recordings. The live show may be pretty rough in terms of both production & performances but it’s my pick of the releases brought together here. The material is very consistent indeed with every track simply oozing of death metal atmosphere, particularly the final track “Neptune Towers” which stands out from the rest due to its particularly dark & doomy atmosphere. The instrumental version of “Goatlord” is a little less consistent & suffers from the flat rehearsal-tape recording quality more than the live stuff did. I still get quite a bit out of it though, mainly because it saw Darkthrone returning to the traditional doom metal influence of “Land of Frost” only in a slightly more sophisticated & adventurous way. I can’t remember a lot about the “Goatlord” album now as I haven’t heard it since the mid-90’s but I do remember finding it to be a little tough going. Perhaps the lack of vocals has actually been beneficial here? I’m not sure but it comes across as a decent enough doom/death record in the purely instrumental format with only “Rex” & “In His Lovely Kingdom” falling a little flat. The two bonus tracks included are very mixed indeed with the instrumental rehearsal version of the title track from “A Blaze In The Northern Sky” being (perhaps unsurprisingly) one of the best numbers on the whole compilation & Fenriz’ drum solo being a complete waste of everyone’s time & space.

Despite what some may have you believe, there’s little to no actual black metal on offer here & I’d probably tag “Frostland Tapes” as sitting somewhere between your classic old-school death metal sound & a doom/death hybrid one. There’s some decent shit here but I can’t say that I find much of it to be essential listening. The first three demo tapes that kick off the release are a little tough-going & bring down my overall impression of the rest of the compilation, despite the rest of the tracklisting being pretty good. When taken in holistically though, I’d recommend that “Frostland Tapes” is only likely to interest the Darkthrone tragics out there.

3/5

Nihilist - "Premature Autopsy" demo (1988)

Another band whose early demos I'd pick up early on in my tape trading days was Entombed under their previous moniker of Nihilist. Their earliest demo "Premature Autopsy" sees them still searching for their signature sound. The production quality is pretty reasonable for a first-up demo & so is the musicianship. Opening track "Sentenced To Death" is a death/thrash hybrid that combines the early death metal of Death with the more aggressive thrash of Slayer, Dark Angel & Kreator. "Supposed To Rot" comes the closest to Entombed's classic Swedish death metal sound & is also the best inclusion. Closer "Carnal Leftovers" is more of a thrashy hardcore effort with not much death metal on offer & sounds a little flat in comparison to the other two. L.G. Petrov's vocals are yet to acquire that deathly growl & sound closer to Teutonic thrash at this point but they're pretty effective nonetheless. It's actually a pretty decent first-up effort overall but I wouldn't say that it's essential listening.

3.5/5

Nihilist - "1987-1989" (2005)

When I first started tape trading back in the very early 1990’s, I remember being somewhat dazzled by the rare demos & live sets that so many of my trading partners had gotten their hands on. I was completely infatuated with the scene & the proper releases that it contained at the time but the idea of discovering hidden gems that only a select few had experienced was enough to see me gorging myself on demo tapes from so many of the great extreme metal bands of the day. You’ve probably seen me revisiting a few of these over the last couple of weeks but one of the more consistent ones comes from Swedish death metal legend Entombed (or Nihilist as they were known in their early days). I vividly remember getting enjoyment out of all four of their demo tapes so the idea of a modern-day reassessment has seemed quite attractive for a while now, particularly given that there’s a compilation that not only draws them all together with superior sound quality but also includes a few unreleased tracks.

The ”1987-1989” compilation (or “Carnal Leftovers” as it’s more recently been retitled) contains fourteen tracks from the period specified & showcases the development of not only the classic Entombed sound but also the Swedish death metal sound in general with each successive release seeing them getting closer & closer to the filthy wall of noise they’d blow the metal world away with via 1990’s “Left Hand Path” debut album. It takes a chronological approach to its programming with Nihilist’s earliest demo tape “Premature Autopsy” from March 1988 kicking proceedings off. “Premature Autopsy” showcases a band that was still clearly searching for their sound with obvious thrash metal & hardcore punk influences infiltrating the death metal we’d come to expect from Entombed. Vocalist LG Petrov (who had been borrowed from his regular position as the drummer in fellow Swedish death/black metal outfit Morbid for the recording sessions along with band mate & guitarist Ulf Cederland) hadn’t quite developed a true death growl yet, instead sounding similar to a Teutonic thrash front man. Opener “Sentenced To Death” is very much a death/thrash hybrid too with a foot in both the early Death & the Slayer/Dark Angel/Kreator camps. “Supposed To Rot” is much more in line with the sound we associate with Entombed & is pure Swedish death metal while the title track is more like thrashy hardcore than it is death metal & is one of the weaker inclusions on the compilation overall. “Premature Autopsy” was certainly the least impressive of the four demos but I still quite like it nonetheless.

Nihilist second demo “Only Shreds Remain” was released early the following year & would bring with it some lineup changes. Petrov had now joined the band on a permanent basis while bassist Leffe Cuzner had switched to guitar which had allowed future Unleashed front man Johnny Hedlund to enter the fold. The sessions were also conducted at the now legendary Sunlight Studios which has become synonymous with the Swedish death metal sound & the result is a slightly more consistent three-song effort that now sits firmly in the death metal camp. Petrov’s vocals are now deeper & more deathly although there has always been some speculation as to whether these were actually performed by Hedlund given how similar they sound to the earliest Unleashed recordings. The guitar tone is much deeper, thicker & filthier too & is starting to resemble the signature Entombed sound. All three songs are worth hearing & I find “Only Shreds Remain” to be a pretty good release overall.

My personal favourite of the four demos though is definitely the two-song “Drowned” which saw the light of day in August 1989, this time recorded at Kuben Studio. It contains one of my favourite Entombed songs in “Severe Burns” which appeared on 1991’s classic “Clandestine” album & is probably my favourite track on the compilation overall. The other track “When Life Has Ceased” isn’t of the same quality but is carried by the quality of the opener to an extent. The production quality shows a step up in professionalism from the two previous demos & Nihilist seem to be becoming serious players in the death metal scene by this stage. This was probably helped by Ulf Cederland becoming a permanent member in place of Cuzner who had now departed.

The three unreleased Nihilist tracks appear before Entombed’s “But Life Goes On” demo in the tracklisting & are a real drawcard for the compilation in my opinion. Unlike so many similar releases, there’s some serious quality here with “Morbid Devourment” & Repulsion cover version “Radiation Sickness” being amongst my favourite tracks on the whole CD. Two of these were recorded as a part of the sessions for “Drowned” which I guess makes sense given that it’s my pick of the demos. “Morbid Devourment” in particular sports a super-thick guitar tone that’s now getting closer to the final product Entombed would go to market with on “Left Hand Path”.

Nihilist split up following the “Drowned” demo, only to be reformed under a new moniker with all but Hedlund. This was clearly a play to remove Hedlund from the band without having to formally sack him but he’d land on his feet & enjoy a long & rewarding career fronting Unleashed. Petrov, Cederland & band leader/drummer Nicke Andersson would record the “But Life Goes On” demo as a trio at Sunlight Studios with legendary Swedish death metal producer Tomas Skogsberg behind the desk & it’d be released in late 1989. Bassist David Blomquist & Nihilist guitarist Alex Hellid would join the fold after the recordings but were credited on the demo nonetheless. "But Life Goes On" is where that classic Boss Heavy Metal pedal guitar tone finally eventuates in all its glory & it gives this demo a slightly different feel & identity to the Nihilist tapes. It’s a very consistent three-song affair but I’m not sure I’d say that any of the three compete with the stronger material I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I’d probably place “But Life Goes On” on par with “Only Shreds Remain” in terms of appeal to be honest.

Overall, “1987-1989” is an interesting & engaging experience but perhaps not an essential one for me personally. The vast majority of these tracks appear on either of the first two Entombed albums & I’ve never rated the Swedish death metal model as highly as the US one either. I prefer a slightly more sophisticated & less punky style of death metal so the Nihilist & Entombed demos were never likely to be as life-changing for me as they were for others. The only essential Entombed release for me personally remains 1991’s “Clandestine”. Don’t mind me though, if you go absolutely nuts for those early Entombed, Carnage & Dismember records then you could do a lot worse than this compilation which is a stronger, classier offering than the Sarcofago & Darkthrone compilations I’ve explored over the last week or so.

3.5/5

Cannibal Corpse - "Eaten Back To Life" (1990)

I got heavily into Buffalo death metallers Cannibal Corpse in the early 1990's & they'd become a major influence on the early works of my own death metal band Neuropath. Despite my getting a fair bit of enjoyment out of it, their debut album "Eaten Back To Life" never seemed to be quite as appealing as their subsequent records though. This revisit hasn't seen that opinion changing much. The band hadn't quite hit on their more brutal signature sound as yet & there's still a decent thrash influence on display but I don't think too many people would be claiming this as a thrash release with front man Chris Barnes now attempting an admittedly fairly crude death growl that is definitely the weak point of the album.

The tracklisting is pretty consistent though with only "Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains" failing to hit the mark. There's a naive innocence about the rest of the record that is hard not to enjoy with Cannibal Corpse throwing the kitchen sink at you with a multitude of memorable riffs. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz's performance is a little loose but is almost refreshing to hear him still feeling the freedom to try new things given his fairly repetitive approach on Cannibal Corpse's later material. I think it's fair to say that songs like "Shredded Humans", "Born In A Casket" & "Buried In The Backyard" have a right to be tagged as death metal anthems for a teenage me & I still connect with them very easily so "Eaten Back To Life" has maintained a similar level of appeal to what it offered me all those years ago, despite being comfortably the weakest Barnes-fronted Cannibal Corpse record.

3.5/5

Carnage - "Dark Recollections" (1990)

I was introduced to the sole full-length from Swedish death metal legends Carnage through late-night underground metal radio programs in the very early 1990's & quite enjoyed it without ever coming close to reaching the levels of adoration that many extreme metal fans seem to for it. But then I can say the same for Entombed's "Left Hand Path", Dismember's "Like An Ever Flowing Stream" & many of the other major landmarks in the Swedish death metal story because that particular sound doesn't appeal to me as much as the cleaner & more sophisticated US model. "Dark Recollections" is a pretty consistent record from four musicians that have all gone on to have long-term music careers in their own right but I can't say that there's anything here that I regard as being particularly classic. "Malignant Epitaph" has always been the one track that I struggle with & my favourite moments come at the extreme ends of the tracklisting through the opening title track & the doomy outro piece which highlights a sound that I would have liked to hear a little more of to be honest. The musicianship is fairly primitive but Carnage certainly hit on the classic Swedish HM-2 guitar tone & unsurprisingly sound a hell of a lot like Dismember. It's worth remembering that "Like An Ever Flowing Stream" hadn't seen the light of day as yet though so that can be forgiven, especially considering the presence of three of their members in the Carnage lineup. If you're a diehard fan of bands like Entombed & Grave then you'll no doubt love "Dark Recollections" too & it's somewhat of a feather in Carnage's caps that I consider it to be just as good as Entombed's 1990 classic "Left Hand Path". It's just that I don't return to either of them all that often. 

3.5/5

Deicide - "Deicide" (1990)

Of all the life-changing musical experiences I can remember from my youth, my first listen to the self-titled debut album from notoriously Satanic Florida death metaller Deicide would be right up there with the most significant. You see, not only was it one of the earlier death metal records to fully capture my thrash-obsessed mind after I'd only recently been converted to the genre the previous year but it was arguably the most downright scary & imposing piece of music I'd ever heard to the time or likely have since to tell you the truth. It's my honest opinion that "Deicide" presents the most accurate musical depiction of Hell that you'll find in this God-forsaken world & not only it left me feeling exhilarated but it also caused me to feel slightly shaken as well. Front man Glen Benton's vocals are utterly monstrous & as angry & aggressive as any in the scene, Steve Asheim's double kick work is relentlessly driving & pummeling, the guitar solos of the Hoffmann brothers are wildly over-the-top & face-meltingly shredtastic & the lyrical content is as blatant & in your face as a day out at Charles Manson's place. Throw in some wonderful production ideas from Morrisound Studios main man Scott Burns & you have pretty much the perfect death metal record in my opinion.

I've actually been a little frightened by the prospect of rating "Deicide" in the modern day, mainly because I simply couldn't bare to find that my childhood illusions weren't all they were cracked up to be. I needn't have worried though because this album is a succession of one gold tune after another. There's nothing that comes close to seeing the intensity drop with the chuggier "Oblivious To Evil" perhaps being a touch less impressive than the remainder of the album which is made of wall to wall classics. "Sacrifical Suicide"... "Dead By Dawn"... "Blaspherereion"... "Deicide"... Day Of Darkness"... "Crucifixation"... They're all here in all their blasphemous glory but it's the utter devastation of "Carnage In The Temple Of The Damned" that takes the cake for mine & it still sits at the absolute pinnacle of the genre more than three decades later. "Deicide" isn't just essential listening for all death metal fans. It's a right of passage & one of the foundations that the genre is built upon. I only dish out full marks a couple of times per year at most but it was a very easy call with a record of this caliber.

5/5

After that delightfully evil walk down memory lane I've been forced to adjust the order of my Top Ten Conventional Death Metal Releases of All Time list a little in order to bring "Deicide" up to where it should rightfully sit. This is how it looks now:

01. Morbid Angel - "Altars of Madness" (1989)

02. Death - "HUman" (1991)

03. Immolation - "Close To A World Below" (2000)

04. Deicide - "Deicide" (1990)

05. Dragged Into Sunlight - "Hatred For Mankind" (2009)

06. Carcass - "Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious" (1991)

07. Dead Congregation - "Promulgation of the Fall" (2014)

08. Morbid Angel - "Blessed Are The Sick" (1991)

09. The Amenta - "Flesh Is Heir" (2013)

10. Morbid Angel - "Covenant" (1993)

I've also moved "Deicide" into my profile Top 20 at number 20 at the expense of Rosetta's "The Galilean Satellites" & moved it up from number 35 to number 20 in my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time list.

Nirvana 2002 - "Disembodied Spirits" demo (1990)

A three-track demo tape I picked up in my early tape trading days. Nirvana 2002 were a three-piece band that played a role in the early Swedish death metal scene with this demo going onto almost legendary status in the underground scene at the time. The band were built around vocalist/guitarist Orvar Säfström who was only 16 at the time of this recording. Nirvana 2002's sound is quintessentially Swedish with a filthy guitar tone that's not quite as distorted as many of the other Swedish bands. Säfström's vocals have a bit of a blackened edge to them too although the most obvious comparisons still point firmly at Entombed/Nihilist, Dismember & Carnage. All three tracks are pretty good but I don't think there's anything particularly essential amongst them.

3.5/5

Grotesque - "Incantation" E.P. (1990)

I think fair to say that the sole release from Gothenburg death metallers Grotesque set the underground tape trading scene alight back in the early-to-mid 1990's & it was that buzz that saw me picking up on the "Incantation" E.P. at the time. I was involved with an Aussie trader that was utterly obsessed with the Swedish death metal scene & he virtually insisted that I get onboard records like this one, although I think it's fair to say that I was usually not as convinced as he was given my stronger penchant for Florida. Grotesque certainly had their moments though & there's no doubt that they were onto something when you take the first three tracks of this E.P. in isolation. There's a grimy, down-tuned layer of filth caked on this stuff that will no doubt appeal to the Autopsy/Incantation crowd only the vocals of future At The Gates/Lock Up/The Lurking Fear front man Tomas Lindberg have a psychotic blackened edge to them that gives Grotesque a unique personality. He really does sound very different to the raspy melodeath tone he'd make a name for himself with several years later & I wouldn't have recognised him had I not already known of his involvement. Strangely though, the last two tracks see the band going in a completely different & nowhere near as compelling direction, this time opting for a blackened thrash sound in a more traditional tuning that sounds much more dime-a-dozen than the earlier material. It's a really unusual change-up & I wasn't surprised to learn that the two sounds were recorded in different sessions with almost a year between them. I can't help but think that the band would have been better off releasing these two sessions separately as they sound so out of sync when packaged together. Still... there's easily enough quality in the later death metal material to justify giving "Incantation" a few spins. 

3.5/5

My Dying Bride - "Towards The Sinister" demo (1991)

Another old demo tape that I picked up through the tape trading scene after falling in love with the Halifax band's early releases. "Towards The Sinister" is a four-song affair presented with a more than adequate sound quality. Three of the four songs are much more death metal than they are doom/death with only the epic "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium" sitting in the doom/death space. The use of violin has not yet been adopted & these songs sound rawer for it, particularly given the regular use of blast beats. All four songs are excellent so I'd suggest that this is a massively underrated release in all honesty. In fact, I'd probably take it over Anathema's very solid 1991 "All Faith Is Lost" demo that I reviewed last week or some of the more widely celebrated My Dying Bride releases from the 2000’s like "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" or "The Dreadful Hours" these days.

4/5

Mortician - "Mortal Massacre" single (1991)

An old single I picked up through tape trading back in the day & a pretty decent one too. These were the days when the New York brutal death metal stalwarts still had a real drummer & were playing a more conventional (if still seriously dark) brand of death metal similar to Sanguisugabogg, Necrophagia & Incantation with the super-deep & ultra-gutteral vocals of former Incantation front man Will Rahmer being the clear highlight. I also like the well-executed blast beats of drummer Matt Sicher & the prominent incorporation of samples from horror films such as "NIght of the Living Dead" & "The Shining" (although they could have cut the length down a touch with the samples playing out for similar durations to the songs themselves). At just twelve minutes, this record flies past in quick time but I don't feel that I need a lot more of this sloppy, fuzzy, filth-caked death metal to scratch my itch to be honest as I didn't go into it expecting a life-changing, emotionally-engaging tear-jerker after all. Mortician simply serve their purpose pretty well without achieving a record that I'd say is essential listening.

3.5/5

Marduk - "Fuck Me Jesus" demo (1991)

I wasn't a fan of Swedish black metallers Marduk's 1992 debut album "Dark Endless". I always found it to be a little flat to be honest but the band's 1991 demo tape was much better in my opinion, despite being made up entirely of material that would be re-recorded for "Dark Endless". It has a cooler atmosphere that I quite like. As with the album though, this is still essentially a Swedish death metal release from an instrumental point of view with only the vocals of front man Andreas Axelsson hinting at the black metal of the band's future. In fact, "Fuck Me Jesus" reminds a fair bit of Darkthrone's early death metal efforts actually. It's definitely worth a listen for fans of Swedish extreme metal.

3.5/5

Cancer - "Death Shall Rise" (1991)

I picked this English death metal record up through a mate shortly after release & gave it a fair bit of attention over the next couple of years, likely due to the involvement of one of my favourite guitarists in James Murphy (Death/Hallows Eve/Disincarnate/Konkhra/Obituary/Testament). Cancer's sophomore record offers a very simple, mid-paced, meat-&-potatoes brand of old-school death metal that seems purposely built around the Florida mould with Massacre, Obituary & particularly "Leprosy"-era Death all being decent comparisons. It was even recorded at Morrisound Studios with Scott Burns but it's not as engaging as the classic works of its clear influences. Despite not containing any weak tracks per se, "Death Shall Rise" does tend to sound a little lethargic at times, particularly during the B side after the A side got my hopes up by kicking off with the three clear album highlights. Some of that may be due to the limited capabilities of drummer Carl Stokes (Unseen Terror/Venomous Contempt) who struggles to create consistent energy but even Murphy's lead solos sound a little repetitive & lacking in ambition at times. There are some great riffs included, even if they are a little basic. I also really enjoy the highly intelligible vocal delivery of front man John Walker so "Death Shall Rise" isn't a bad record but it's not one that I've found myself returning to all that often over the years either. I'd suggest that it was probably as good as Cancer got though.

3.5/5

Benediction - "The Grand Leveller" (1991)

I first encountered Birmingham death metallers Benediction through their 1990 debut album “Subconscious Terror” through late-night underground metal radio programming back in the very early 1990’s. I’d find myself exploring the full album shortly afterwards & didn’t mind it to be fair but I can’t say that it left a lasting enough impression to see me returning to it too often in the future. It did however peak my interest enough to see me purchasing Benediction’s 1991 sophomore album “The Grand Leveller” on cassette shortly after it was released & I found it to be a slightly stronger effort. “The Grand Leveller” received a fair few listens in my Walkman around that time & I can even pick up its influence on the first Neuropath demo tape “Nefarious Vivisection” which I wrote in 1993/94. I can’t say that I’ve revisited Benediction’s second album in decades now though so I thought I’d see how it’s aged.

Make no mistake about it, Benediction are amongst the purest old-school, meat-&-potatoes death metal bands you’ll find. They very rarely break the mould even for a few seconds & you shouldn’t expect dazzling displays of technicality either. That’s hardly the point of this sort of music though, is it? It’s all about creating that classic graveyard atmosphere & Benediction do a pretty reasonable job at replicating that feel too it has to be said. The vocals of future Bolt Thrower front man Dave Ingram are the clear focal point & he does a more than decent job at replacing the legendary Mark “Barney” Greenway after his departure to Napalm Death. In fact, the two bands I mentioned are probably a pretty reasonable place to start when attempting to describe the Benediction sound actually because they share similar characteristics. You’ll definitely recognize the classic tremolo-picked death metal riffs that Bolt Thrower built their sound on here although you’ll rarely be captured by Benediction’s melodic sensibilities in the same way as they’re simply not as professional or capable as either song-writers or musicians. Despite the clear lack of blast-beats, you’ll also pick up a few references to 1990’s Napalm Death in some of the more simplistic hardcore beats too. It’s the slower & more crushing doom/death riffs that see Benediction at their most potent though as they summon corpses to rise from their graves with Obituary being the closest point of comparison.

There’s a fair bit to like about “The Grand Leveller” but it’s also pretty obvious that Benediction aren’t a tier one death metal player & aren’t ever likely to be either. They’re simply too limited in their scope & potential. The guitar solos are a good representation of this as the performances showcase an instrumentalist that is clearly struggling with the idea of writing & executing a memorable & high quality accompaniment for the song-writing. Thankfully though, there aren’t any genuinely weak songs included with all ten of them possessing at least a few really solid riffs to keep me entertained. The clear highlight is the chunky “Jumping At Shadows” which stands out amongst the tracklisting as the only competitor for the tier two competition. The rest of the album sits at a consistent tier three death metal standard & finishes up with a more than acceptable cover version of Swiss thrash legends Celtic Frost’s classic 1994 anthem “Return To The Eve” which clearly showcases the influence that Frost had on the band as it suits the Benediction sound very well.

I’ve certainly enjoyed my walk down memory lane with “The Grand Leveller” but it’s also clear as to why I haven’t returned to it earlier as it struggles to stand out from the pack so I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t cross paths again. There’s no doubt that it’s a stronger record than “Subconscious Terror” but I feel that Benediction’s best work was still to come as I remember their next couple of releases offering a bit more appeal than their sophomore record does.

3.5/5