It's interesting that many of our members rate the debut album from French black metallers Blut aus Nord extremely highly but it's never impressed me as much to be honest. "Ultima Thulée" was recorded when band leader vocal, guitarist & main musical mastermind Vindsval (Ershetu/Forhist/Yerûšelem/Children of Mäani/Eitrin/Karras/The Eye/Vlad) was just 15 or 16 years old so it's not surprising that its approach is a little less original than Blut aus Nord would later become known for but it still represents a more than decent example of the atmospheric black metal sound with Vindsal's tortured screams being a highlight & reminding me of Varg Vikernes performances on the classic Burzum records. The youngster's riffs are shrouded in frostbitten, lo-fi noise & often rely upon the basslines of session musician Ogat (Antaeus) & keyboards of W.D. Feld (Yerûšelem) to become fully intelligible. Like most of Blut aus Nord's releases, the drums are entirely programmed & I do feel that this is a slight weakness as I would have preferred a more organic feel to them.

The atmospheres presented on "Ultima Thulée" are suitably icy & most of the tracklisting is fairly engaging with songs like opener "The Son of Hoarfrost", my personal favourite "From Hlidskjalf" & the excellent "On the Way to Vigrid" being the clear standouts of the eight tracks included. I must admit that I find "Till' I Perceive Bifrost" to be fairly lackluster & the only genuine disappointment with the others all managing to maintain my interest in some capacity. Some of the transitions in these pieces are pretty jarring & disjointed though which is perhaps understandable given the age of the main composer while the keyboard-driven interlude sections aren't anything terribly special but are certainly passable.

I've gone on to become a big fan of Blut aus Nord over the years as they always manage to create fresh & original yet still inherently dark soundscapes for me to get lost in. "Ultima Thulée" doesn't achieve the same sort of otherworldly majesty but it's still a passable black metal release that perhaps suffered from the time it arrived on the scene as 1995 sits towards the back end of a five-year period that represents the peak for the genre with loads of important releases appearing either side of it. Still... "Ultima Thulée" is certainly worth a listen & should satisfy most punters who enjoy the wintery European atmospheres of the time.

For fans of Burzum, early Emperor & the first couple of Enslaved albums.

I could go into one of those shitty AI music program software and ask it to generate a djentcore album, and it would likely be less generic, derivative and boring than ERRA's Silence Outlives the Earth. Silence would have least been variety.

Best Songs: Cicada Siren, I. The Many Names of God

For Fans Of: Periphery, Currents, Invent Animate

Dorso formed in 1984 and remain a going concern, releasing eight full-length albums with quite a wide range of genres from thrash/speed metal, grindcore, progressive rock, heavy metal through to black metal. "Bajo una luna cámbrica" was the band's debut full-length, being released in June of 1984 and featuring the only ever-present band member, bassist / vocalist Rodrigo "Pera" Cuadra, alongside guitarist / vocalist Gamal Eltit. Drum duties were shared by four guest/session drummers with Eltit also manning the kit for the track "Críptica visión".

What we have here with "Bajo una luna cámbrica" is principally a thrash metal album, but it is also a fair bit more than that with some quite impressive progressive touches. The album's longest track, "Cíclope" is a really nice piece of progressive metal with some legitimate Seventies' touches and a distinct latin flavour. The song writing is ambitious, certainly compared to their peers, with the band being more interested in keeping things interesting than trying to be as extreme and fast as possible. This certainly doesn't translate to the album being at all lightweight, they can be plenty aggressive and thrash with the best of them when the mood takes them with some pretty killer riffs, check out "Vuela en tu dragón" or "Hidra" and hear for yourself, it is just that this isn't the be all and end all here. I guess this could be termed as technical thrash metal and the guys do seem to be technically very adept, but I think of it as being more progressive than technical with even a jazz influence at times. The short "Suite", for example, is basically a guitar workout in the vein of a heavy Robert Fripp or even Frank Zappa and Gamal Eltit's guitar solo work is generallyxcellent, utilising a number of variations of style as well as really shredding when required to do so.

Sadly, the production doesn't really do the guys a lot of favours and its muddiness does blunt the edge a little, but not enough to cause any drama, being more of a niggle than a major issue. The songwriting really is fantastic and has impressed me mightily. I can't help wondering whether this was an influence on modern chilean thrash legends Demoniac and the curveballs they like to include in with their thrashing mayhem. I am really glad to have stumbled upon this and I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in hearing a quite unique album from the Eighties' South American metal scene that offers a bit more than straight ahead metal charges.

Released in 1991, ‘Gothic’ is the second studio album by British gothic metal legends, Paradise Lost. I didn’t like the bands’ first album, finding it too gothic, growly, doom and gloomy, but perhaps things have developed on from there with this follow-up album?

Nope. Not really. 

There’s no doubting the impact Paradise Lost had on the British death/doom metal scene in the early 90’s. But this music just isn’t for me. I find it too dreary. Too depressing. Too boring. The endless, guttural growling ruins everything for me. The guitar work has improved since their previous album, but not enough for me to really dig any of the tunes. 

It’s listenable, in the background, and mainly because it’s only 40 minutes long! But overall, this isn’t for me. Their later stuff, which incorporates keyboards and more melodic vocals are more my thing. I’ll stick to those instead. 

My first experience with New York brutal death metal outfit Dehumanized came through their 1996 "Terminal Punishment" demo tape (4/5) back in my mid-1990's tape trading heyday & it made a significant impact on me, receiving regular replays over the next couple of months. I was a huge fan of the New York BDM sound at the time & these five guys offered a very solid example of it without ever really pushing the leaders of the scene like my very favourite metal band ever Suffocation. Dehumanized's debut full-length wouldn't land until my interest in metal was already tailing off during the late 90's so our paths wouldn't cross until a good decade later. The experience was similarly positive though & "Prophecies Foretold" & I have exchanged blows several times since then, appearing to enjoy each other's company quite a bit. When I first heard the record in full though, there was something a little fishy about it. You see, halfway through the tracklisting I started to get a strong feeling of deja vu & there's a good reason for that because the final four tracks are essentially an untouched version of the "Terminal Punishment" demo I'd enjoyed so much as a kid. The first five songs sound vastly different to the demo though which gives "Prophecies Foretold" a bit of a split personality. Both personalities are certainly worth knowing but I hold a slight favour for the demo material.

The new material that kicks off the album sees Dehumanized taking on a sound that splits the brutal & conventional death metal styles, never quite deciding on where it wants to reside. There's just as much Disincarnate & (dare I say it) Neuropath in their sound as there is their New York counterparts with a stronger melodic component & a little more nuance & tempo restraint being shown. The demo material is pure New York BDM though with those signature palm-muted slam riffs in strong effect throughout. The vocals are more gutteral & the tempos whiplash between slow & chuggy, hardcore-inspired Dying Fetus style slams & light-speed blasting. It doesn't appear as if drummer George Torres was using triggers as the kick drums sound fairly messy due to the disparities in their sound. Surprisingly, Torres is the only member of Dehumanized that I recognize from other projects, having contributed to slam death metallers 420 & Artery Eruption as well as BDM legends Skinless over the years. Frontman Jerry Barco's vocals differ quite a bit between the two releases too, being more gutteral on the early material with the brand-new songs all sporting a brighter production job.

Regardless of the split personality, I still really dig "Prophecies Foretold". It champions everything I enjoy about death metal & arguably does it better than they managed to do on either of their subsequent albums. Don't let the terrible cover art fool you. There are easily enough chunky riffs & spasmodic blast beats to satisfy your average brutal death metal nut included here. 

For fans of Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia & Mortal Decay.