Vinny's Reviews

I have listened to a lot of black metal in my time. During my forty-five years of existence on this planet the genre has been born and been split into sub-genres, diverged into more modern and accessible formats even and yet still a core of authentic, conventional and “troo” black metal bands persist in creating the more traditional elements at the front and centre of what they do. In doing so the genre has moved beyond simply taking a core sound and adding a mix of say death metal to proceedings and we have bands such as Winterfylleth who do not give us much of anything we have not heard before and seem to get by on representing an attachment to a different historical and cultural past to the glut of Norwegian, Swedish and French bands within the genre who have applied the music to their iterations of stories, myths and legends that have gone before them.

As such, Winterfylleth offer nothing new to the black metal scene beyond their detail of “Britishness” (in inverted commas because I personally find it a ridiculous concept). Now, before this starts to read like a review that is about to go off on a slur against Manchester’s finest black metal bastards, I will go on record as saying I like the majority of what I hear on The Threnody of Triumph. In terms of the wider discography, I have only heard The Harrowing of Heirdom and feel it is one of the real highlights of acoustic folk music in the past ten years, so my experience of their black metal albums is limited right now to this record. I have no lyric sheet (nor would I read it regardless) but I do not feel this is band who wish to celebrate their homeland with any sense of nationalist pride (none of the high-stepping, arm raised just above shoulder height nonsense). At its core, The Threnody of Triumph sounds heartfelt, well-written and conscientiously performed.

The problem I have is that it blurs into one long, melodic and racing black metal record broken up only by the occasional acoustic interlude (now I see where The Harrowing of Heirdom took shape from at least). I am searching for nuances in the sound; a climbing bass line, a break from the excessive tremolo-picking or a sense that tempo has at least the opportunity for variety. Instead, for most of the album there is just blasting, melodic black metal with the occasional baritone, clean vocal to offer the only sense of slippage from a very dominant theme. Again, whilst there is nothing wrong with this it just sounds incredibly tiresome over ten tracks (interludes aside of course).

A hint of atmosphere would not go amiss here guys, even to frame the melodic elements better in the grander scheme of things and lose some of the overly positive vibes from the sound. In isolation, individual tracks work well, but taken as a whole album it just sounds stifling and uncreative and I am bm fan who loves a straight up no fucking thrills blastfest but this album seems to be touting something more and yet it seems to want to follow a very basic blueprint to get there.

If proof was needed on the occasional success of music streaming service recommendations, then my discovery of Fyrnask’s fourth full-length release is testimony to the random brilliance that algorithms can throw up. The timing of this find is perfect as I have spent much time in recent months trying to rationalise the place that music (namely metal of course) has in my life alongside all the intensity and relentless pace and pressure of work, as well as the general tumult of life. In doing so, I have found the need for me to truly immerse myself in a record to truly reach the level of escapism required to isolate myself from the routine in which I find myself rolling through on most days. That sentence may sound a little too deep, but I think it sets the tone nicely for my explanation of this album and the relevance of it to that mindset I have alluded to.

 VII-Kenoma is an album I feel I can unburden myself with (and perhaps into also). It feels like that escape, a safe place that I can truly become embroiled in. There is an emotional response to most of what the band share on this album and that reaction feels instinctive and at times mandatory. It is not that there is any overwhelming sense of sadness, sorrow or melancholy (even though those things are most definitely present). Indeed, I find that I am not caught on individual parts of the record or tracks. What resonates so well is that the album has a completeness to it as it uses the atmospheres so well to frame whatever feeling I am getting from a track or a particular passage within a track. Nothing feels like it has not been accounted for, like every component to the music is considered essential to the success of the whole.

Whether it is the cavernous vocals that sound almost buried behind lush and rich riffs that create walls of sublimely menacing melodies, or even the choral elements that embed a sense of unholy communion and belonging to something dark and mysterious, VII-Kenoma is a real exploration of sound and texture. The compelling desperation behind the pacing does not lead to unrestrained gushing however and for all the many angles being presented here there is a real understanding of control eminent in the song writing. I believe it is the ritualistic nature of the songs that embed this control, the sense that each track must happen that way to complete the individual parts of the ceremony being performed.

The keening horns at the start of Nidhamykur sound like an orc army’s assembly call, filled with wailing grief for those who will inevitably fall in the ensuing battle as layers of riffs fall over the track. The vocals end up sounding lost and empty as they are decried in the face of unending futility. The dark choral beauty of final track Blótguð are haunting and alluring like some gathering of sirens designed to keep you listening long after the track itself has finished playing.

Since starting to draft this review I have managed to visit bits of the entire Fyrnask discography, and this album represents the zenith of their talents. The rest of the material sounds like a band looking for a direction and being unafraid to push at boundaries to find their path. The reason why VII-Kenoma works so well in comparison is because they set out a clear desire early on to tread a darkly emotive path that sees a careful eye for quality being deployed so that no element detracts from the ethos the band chose to go with.

Initially, Yandring sat higher in my esteem than it turns out it actually needed to be.  Whether I was over-captivated by that haunting artwork ahead of any real sense of quality in the music remains a mystery, but having spent more time with it over recent days it is clear that all is not as well as I had originally thought.  Now, this is not to say that this is a bad record.  Whilst it may be flawed, Yandring still has its successes in the fact that holds the attention and makes for an entertaining listen at various points.

Unfortunately though, the album suffers badly from a consistent regurgitation of black 'n roll coupled with the occasional dash of variety in the form of some vague folk or atmospheric dash to change the pace momentarily.  It is not even that at forty-two minutes the album is particularly overly lengthy, more that its inability to stretch its legs on any regular basis makes it feel longer than it actually is.

Vocally it is predictable and instrumentation wise it pushes no boundaries, and whilst it does conventional black 'n roll well enough this is not a sub-genre that is exactly known for captivation and longevity.  If the album could live up to that desolate artwork then this would have been a far more interesting outing, as it stands though it is a collection of black 'n roll occasionally interrupted by some surge into other realms that is does not sound entirely comfortable inhabiting.  For a more honest showing of the sub-genre I would refer you dear reader to Mork's latest offering which is an unapologetic exploration of its own comfort zone instead of this almost shameful delivery of what feels more like a guilty pleasure.

The debut from US quartet, Felled contains five songs of earthy black metal with a crude level of neo-folk layered over the top.  Having heard two of the band on a radio interview recently it was clear their focus is on nature and the very earth on which we walk, with this theme being a key driver behind their song writing.  Taking the atmospheric folk of Agalloch and then combining this with the more harsh aspects of Panopticon, The Intimate Earth has a real sense of presence.  Haunting and ethereal though this presence maybe, it is so clearly rooted in a consistent theme that it sounds really well connected to the more hoarse black metal riffs.

The folk elements here are largely defined by the violin and viola of Tiffany Holliday with clean (as well as harsh vocals) also being deployed to good affect from a cross section of the four-piece with husband and wife pairing Cavan Wagner and Jenn Grunigen sharing responsibility as well as doing guitar and drums respectively.  The mournful melancholy of the two instruments used by Holliday act as some mist over proceedings; even when in full flow you can hear the stabs of her strings or the undulating whine of them over the more up-tempo passages.  They combine well overall in the mix and are not allowed to drown out anything else.  The only criticism I have of them is that they almost feel obligatory to the songs at times and almost at odds with the guitar on occasion.  Thankfully, such occurrences are rare, however after numerous listens through I am still finding these minimally distracting from my overall entertainment.

The Cascadian style of black metal is something that I am getting more accustomed in recent years and the band clearly have a good understanding of the sub-genre and it is very easy to replicate those mountainous landscapes in your head whilst listening to this record.  Jenn and Cavan had been working on material for a number of years before changing the band name to Felled.  For the bulk of their time as a duo (Moss of Moonlight) they sang about Cascadia becoming an autonomous bioregion and country in its own right .  Fire Season on the Outer Rim is a great track that is full of such auditory imagery and is constructed superbly with a calming interlude in the middle of the song to give this true sense of peace.  The clean vocals do not always fit brilliantly I find though and they do sound a little too monotonous at times.  It is hard to balance clean vocals with such a strong black metal influence present and this is only their debut release of course so some slack can be cut here.

Bassist Isamu Sato needs no introduction really having been in the ranks of Yob previously.  His performance here is urgent yet attentive and it works really well with the equally intense and alert drumming of Jenn.  Whilst there are some improvements to be made, Felled do sound like a cohesive unit and their time together (since 2014) shows on this record.  I am looking forward to future output from them and seeing how a few tweaks here and there can really see them develop even more of that presence I mentioned at the start of this review.

Over the top vocals in death metal are kind of a read, right?  Well, I would argue that in a genre exemplified by extreme vocal performances that you still have those that standout from the rest by having something that makes them more memorable.  Within in 30 seconds of hearing Visceral Mass it is clear that vocalist Jack Scully has a decent set of lungs on him.  Possibly the mic is a little too far down his larynx at times but still his Suffocation-like style is noticeable as the driving force in Visceral Mass' one release to date.

That's not to say that there is nothing else going on here.  The guitar work (also handled by Scully) is a great example of simple riff structures hitting the sweet spot every time.  As an accompaniment to the vocals they do a great job in beefing out the sound of the EP that is a bit lacking in the drumming department it has to be noted.  The skins are most definitely there but are not allowed much space in the mix with those spewing and guttural vocals riding over those bludgeoning riffs taking up most of the available soundscape.

With the longest track coming in at just under the five minute mark, the EP does not run the risk of outstaying its welcome and in a longer format I am not sure how Visceral Mass' consistent approach to tracks would fair.  This is an EP with a demo mentality (as is much of the stuff Maggot Stomp puts out on it's roster) and as such the shortened format works well to compliment the direction of the band.  For a thirteen minute mosh you cannot go wrong with this really.  However, the longevity of it is questionable given the lack of variety on display.

Following 2019's sophomore album, Witch Vomit continue their trend for a full-length followed by an EP schedule with Abhorrent Rapture.  We get four tracks of cavernous death metal that is heavy on the Incantation vibe but still has that Swedish death metal underlying in the mix at the same time.  Sonics spiral as they dash across tracks like slashes of warped melody, but Witch Vomit are varied in their influences and kind just as easily drag tempos down to death doom-like monstrosity level as required.

Funeral Purgation staggers like a possessed coffin march to the grave for the most part, lurching in and out of different paces and dizzying the listener with frantic riffs when the foot is firmly pressed down yet still allowing for an appreciative nod along to the rhythm towards the end to lend an air of accessibility.  The short format works well for these tacks as although there is depth to them, you can just as easily leave this on in the corner for a quick blast of death metal to get the monkeys in your head all awake and ready to face the day.

Things get ugly with track three, Necrometamorphosis as a lingering sense of Autopsy's attitude permeates from the track.  Here though there is an oddly melodic and almost gothic prelude to the trademark blistering shot of sonics.  To close we get the straight up blasting fury of the title track and this is where Witch Vomit seem to be at their best, in their loudest and more extreme moments they seem unable to put a foot wrong.  Overall, they do not do anything that new or different with death metal though and this is another one of those releases that relies on little more than doing death metal well to be considered a success.

In the early noughties I recall me and my peers laughing at the aping of Staind by the band Bowling for Soup who took to mocking the constant misery of their lyrics and depressive outlook on life.  I recall they had imitated Aaron sat on a toilet in one of their videos that was on regular rotation back then on various music channels.  Fast-forward some twenty years and if I am honest this miserable and melancholic tone to the vocals and overly emotional lyrical content that epitomised the bands message is still a challenge to sit through.  I am not knocking the balls it takes to write your deepest feelings and pour your heart out over (seemingly endless) tracks.  To say this was a cathartic experience for Aaron and co is probably selling it short, however there are limits to my patience levels today that are much shorter than the tether I had for this two decades ago.

What does save Break the Cycle (and therefore - ironically - breaks this depressive almost monotonous cycle) is the crisp and yet sufficiently crushing music that accompanies the vocals.  If you think for one minute that Staind are/were just all about Aaron Lewis then you are not listening hard enough to Break the Cycle.  Throughout the album the rumble, twang, climb and drop of Johnny April is like some bastardised prog workout set against a backdrop of nu-metal/post-grunge that rounded out the true depth of the songs more than Aaron's eyebrow ring ever could.  The riffs that get deployed on tracks such as Fade are so melodic it almost overwhelming how effective they are.  At the same time there are tracks like For You were the attack is much more basic in terms of approach, hitting a repetitive and driving riff that suits the brooding aggression of the song.  I would say that my only real criticism of the instrumentation is just the flat and tepid nature of the drums; clearly the levels of attention devoted to their input were not that detailed in terms of consideration for their importance to the sound overall.

Sadly, I have heard Outside and It's Been A While more times than I have me draw my own breath and they are now prime skip-fodder as I listen through.  That withstanding, Break the Cycle has held up well for an album that belongs in a genre that is for me personally more or less long forgotten.  Nostalgia aside, there are still some good moments on here (beyond the "hits") that kept the attention sufficiently enough for me to complete this review at least.  I am a little too old and grizzled to cope with its sentimental and emotional depths nowadays but I accept that at the time this was exactly what this type of music was written to deliver to an eager and equally emotional audience.

Not being at all familiar with Mr Bungle and reading the various comments across the Metal Academy forums on this month’s Gateway featured album makes me think I come to Adultery with a less influenced mind in terms of comparators with the aforementioned band. Taken as a standalone release I think that Dog Fashion Disco manage to deliver a clever, multi-faceted and disturbing selection of songs on their sixth full-length. Along the way they encompass various styles of music, both inside and outside of the realm of metal but at the same time still manage to make the release sound challenging in a very bold and distinctly metal manner.

There is an inherent seediness to Adultery both in terms of the actual concept of “adultery” but also in how the record is written and performed. With a consistent application of corny lyrics, brash riffs and dark cabaret-like arrangements, it is an album that tells its story with a well-chewed, bloody and slightly infected tongue-in-cheek narrative. Although on the surface it does not take itself too seriously, there is in fact no neglect of the requirement to interfere with the normal construct of an album and song structures to still provide a very mature themed album. I would argue it is nigh on impossible to listen to the album through once and not feel its sticky, tacky fingers on your ears for days afterwards.

Whether it is through the dark country music overtones of Desert Grave or the deviously tender and creepy pop sensibilities that seep through across most sections, DFD are constantly sharing their wares with the listener. Urgent horns and racing bass lines keep the attention levels sharp throughout the record and changes of pace to bring in sultrier yet no less threatening tempos are more or less sprung on us like they are all part of one ongoing surprise. The constant sense of theatre is so key to the success of the record as it acts as an almost constant reminder of the need for the listener to put themselves in character for full benefit of the listening experience.

The promise from the artwork of something peculiar and at the same time loosely conceptual being contained in the record is more than delivered over fifty minutes of some of the most oddly charming and humorously riveting music I have heard in a long while.

There are some release that mange to muster such a nonsensical amount of praise and adoration that I often wonder if parallel universes have already been discovered and are being used so regularly that people have routine commutes to them.  Now, before I start to sound all elitist I should reiterate that I still very much abide by the ethos of each to their own.  If you can find enough positives in this release to warrant it being worthy of your praise then that’s fine and you are clearly a better person than I am, dear reader.

I will stand by this opening statement with every last breath in my body though.  The first two minutes of the opening track of this release are the fucking worst two minutes of “music” I have ever had the misfortune to hear in my life.  Genuinely, it sounds to me like a drunk saxophone player has gatecrashed the recording and is fighting with the sound engineer in the middle of the studio.  After this initial fucking terrible onslaught of mindless comedy, the rest of the release feels almost normal.  Normal does not always mean good though and the fact that such a basic structure or form being exhibited is so welcoming a prospect really speaks volumes for the quality of that opening two minutes.

I heard this album described as 30 minutes of progressive-noise, which is not true (out of fairness to both the progressive and noise music genres if nothing else).  The fact is that this artist created a jam session of industrial, eclectic and minimalist music values, touching lightly on black metal here and there.  This occasional bm when coupled with a very bm looking piece of artwork somehow got classified in black metal despite the record clearly being a multi-style experiment that has some black metal in it, not a black metal release that has some multitude of musical style applied to it to make it look clever.

There are reviews/write-ups of this release that talk about it like some holy grail of black metal and or noise and it really is lost on me why.  There’s far too much of an attempt at structure here to justify it being anywhere near noise classification.  It is an interesting take on musical structure and form but it in no way exemplifies any qualities that can justify its cult classic status.

It would be fair to say that my first encounter with Negura Bunget was not a resoundingly positive experience. My review of their 2002 offering ‘N Crugu Bradului alluded to me finding their lack of grounding to be disorientating and confusing. The obstacles that I hit there were in a shortened format for a full-length release at only four tracks and came across as being a gush of ideas without any of them really being developed fully and thus it sounded like they were just there for the hell of it.

Fast forward four years and the band released what many have claimed to be their crowning glory in the equally varied and more expansive, Om. From the off, I get along with this record instantly as it has presence that is felt before we ever get to any music being played. The ambient and haunting opening track might sound to some like a man whispering and eventually shouting in a field but to the more conscientious listener there is a dark undertone set by this opening three minutes on the album that never leaves. In fact, it permeates the album as it pervades all eleven tracks. Even in the “jollier” folk moments there is still this sense of a mournful tone to proceedings.

It is not that Om uses less influences as such or borrows from less genres and styles. It is obvious this time around that this glut of directions gets applied much more coherently on the album. Ideas feel much more well-developed here and not just thrown together. As the album evolves it unlocks folk, ambient, black metal, post-rock and progressive passages that may not always compute as being the next logical step in a track or indeed the track listing itself, but they are executed with such attention to detail that they rarely fail to hit the spot.

This album is far too much to take in on one listen. As a standalone record – which is how I really should be viewing it given my limited experience of the band – this is a truly remarkable opus that requires close and repeated listening to truly understand the extent of its depth. There are elements of symphonia thrown in here that could fall out of any Emperor or Summoning record, but they are not too grandiose to become a distraction.

It is an album that is driven by an engine of drums that at first listen you might not pick up on the quality of. My limited understanding of the band is that the now deceased drummer was the last remaining member of the band following the exit of all other members. The performance here (before the reshuffle) is commanding without being domineering, so the drums feel like they are maintaining the pace but are not entirely steering things on their own. With clever little runs and fills they make for a very entertaining venture when listened to in some sense of isolation from the rest of the instrumentation and vocals.

My overarching thoughts on Om are very positive. The album may well be conceptual in some parts given the epic sense of it being some movie soundtrack. Alternatively, it may just be very well written and could well be the career defining release that I have heard it described to be.

Kvelertak’s sound is the kind that your parents would refer to as being a “racket”. Imagine a teenage you trying to piss your folks and neighbours off and Kvelertak is the soundtrack to that nefarious, hell-raising lifestyle. It is the noise blaring out of the youth’s earphones on the train that the whole carriage can hear because they have it turned up so loud. Whilst I may not one hundred percent get along with it, I can still hear the decadence and anarchism in the sound of a band who bring a bizarre mixture of hardcore punk and metalcore applying a blackened edge to it all for added interest.

The problem for me, being an underground dwelling black metal fan is that the record is just far too accessible with its over-emphasis on the “n’ roll” element of their sound. For all the murky production values here, I cannot help but think that this happened by accident and the expectation of the band was that this would sound cleaner. I am reminded of the Cancer Bats from the start of this record, such is the mainstream direction of the sound. They are earning straight A’s for energy and maintain these levels consistently across their debut album. I can imagine at the time this dropped it was lapped up by a marketplace eager to explore the more blackened side of the core trends that had developed. It has the ethics of a metalcore album played in a blackened punk style that maximises appeal whilst making (subtle) attempts to try and stay as punk as possible.

Tracks like Sultans of Satan are examples of this and how it does not work as they bounce between punk and some soaring rock riffs whilst deploying a chorus line that is near laughable at best. Still though I guarantee you will find your foot tapping along to this track as you listen to it. In many ways, Kvelertak are doing nothing wrong, it is only their association with black metal that sees them at the wrong end of my judgement as the other elements of this record are far more dominant than the bm input. I do not think that the Norwegians set out to be lumped in with the Darkthrone’s of their homeland for one minute – if they did then they are really, really, really misguided folks – instead their sound is geared to exploration of styles and transcending genres all whilst having a good fucking time in the process.

I almost want to enjoy it more than I do, especially given the concerted effort that they put into the record. However, it just is not in my realm to like this enough to even make me curious for a revisit every now and again. Kvelertak set their stall out early on their debut and I am kind of done with it before the halfway point in all honesty.

Before the near flawless Mystification there was The Deluge. There is a line from a sci-fi/fantasy novel if ever I wrote one (all publishing enquiries to my agent please guys). The fact is that during the eighties (well 1983 onwards at least) Manilla Road were unstoppable. Having forged a real unique sound and developed that sound over some solidly written songs and albums, by the time they got to album number five of their career they were a band firing on all cylinders.

After the 70’s hard rock infused with NWOBHM style they used on Crystal Logic, the band continued to carve their own niche in the world of metal with Shelton’s unstoppable prowess on the microphone and guitar leading the charge. Three years on from the aforementioned release, Manilla Road went faster and although not necessarily any heavier, they still landed some killer blows over an album that delivered much of the promise gleaned from its epic artwork.

Adopting a shorter format to most track lengths this time around, there was a sense that The Deluge was also guilty of a bit of a rushed job and at first listen you could be forgiven for believing this to be true. However, stick with the record and you will soon find more of the familiar stuff on here (Shelton’s stellar lead work), just occurring with more frequency. That withstanding, the album does feel a little cluttered in places still, especially around tracks four to six were the gush of tracks does tend to slip by in a frenzied hurry if you do not pay full attention.

Deploying their thrash metal credentials was always going to be a bold move for a band more renowned for their epic songs. Cramming that same “nerd” value into shorter song structures was always going to be a tough call, and I think in the main they do pull it off but not without the listener first taking a few spins at the record to rationalise the offering. The strongest track is the lengthiest one for me. Clocking in at over eight minutes, The Deluge, Eye of the Sea, The Drowned Lands, Engulfed Cathedral might arguably be three tracks billed as one, however they are all part of an intense narrative that ensures they can only be consumed as part of a singular narrative. The tracks (s?) is/are perhaps one of the tightest on the whole album and shows Manilla Road doing what they do best.

So, for all the increased tempos on The Deluge the band do still retain their senses of the epic and exhibit enough of their trademark sound to still have the long-term fans still warm to their stylistic change overall. It is by no means on a par with Mystification which remains the pinnacle of their output for me. However, it builds nicely on the promise shown on Open The Gates and takes the band forward on the next logical step in their career, adding some experimentation whilst still retaining their core traits.

If Belgian psychedelic black metal/ambient is too loose a description of a band for you then probably best read on elsewhere as there is little in the way of conformity in pretty much most of what Wolvennest do. Personally, I think the description I pulled from The Metal Archives is only one third true. Wolvennest are psychedelic but not in a trippy way like say Oranssi Pazuzu are. These Belgians leave no evidence of black metal on Temple to my ears, focussing instead on building soaring soundscapes that are laden with doom-like density and occult intensity. The only elements that link to black metal are the repetitive aspects of the songs and this is confined mostly to the beats.

With the shortest track still clocking in at a shade over six and a half minutes, they write like a doom band too. There is no requirement for the band to go off into the cruelty of black metal when they can build such atmospheric, ritualistic and decadent structures using little in the way of aggression to make Temple a mesmerising album to listen to in its entirety. With hazy guitars and keyboards lay prone throughout the hour and seventeen minutes run time of the album it is not difficult to conjure up imagery of smoky rooms with high ceilings and antique/retro furnishings in lodgings inhabited by dark and yet seemingly harmless dwellers. Over the top of these are the deliciously monotonous and hypnotising vocals of Sharon Shazzulu.

For an album that celebrates the darkness of its existence so openly there is very little in the way of threat in Wolvennest’s sound. Instead, it is an album that plays as a performance, delivered in an intimate and sensual environment. I find it to be a very calming and richly rewarding listen that delivers a real sense of texture on each spin. The only comparison I can think to draw on is Wolvserpent but here the likeness is more around the atmosphere since the Belgians are much more accessible in their style, deploying a cleanliness in their crisp and melodic leads that are able to permeate the at times dense fog that cloaks the record.

Temple feels personal and that exposure is done in an almost tantric fashion. The wonderful simplicity of the brilliantly titled (and written) All That Black is a real high point in the album. It is a track that has a sense of urgency yet also a matter-of-fact tone to its delivery at the same time. Wolvennest are patient storytellers it seems. Smart enough to know that these songs need that sense of mystique but that some driving rhythms and rock riffs are needed to really carve out that Wolvennest shaped niche to allow a real sense of balance to evolve across most tracks.

Shazzulu does not hog the whole vocal performance though. Check out the crude crooning on Succubus, where King Dude guest performs, utilising his dark folk style to perfection whilst the music ebbs and flows perfectly around his vocals to make for an enchanting experience. The other aspect to Temple that is an absolute triumph is the guitar work of Michael Kirby, Mark De Backer and Corvus von Burtle. You would think three guitarists would make for a heavy, almost cumbersome experience in fact, however their input is measured without them taking the front seat nor entirely being in the back either. I am not sure if they deploy three guitars on every track – the density of proceedings suggests so, but von Burtle does keyboards and bass to I recall – but they are without question an integral quality in the sound of Temple.

For a picky doom listener like myself it is odd that I stumbled across Temple, and it stuck so immediately. Even though it does go on a bit at times I still feel I learn more about it with each listen which is the sign of a good record.

If I am honest this release did at first have me more than a little torn. It is not that I do not enjoy Obliviosus, more that it takes such a monumental amount of effort to even begin to digest it that I do find myself somewhat fatigued by it after each listen. This draining effect I can put down to two factors. Number one, it is so emotionally wrought that you cannot fail to be engaged by the sorrow in this tragedy-soaked release. Secondly, it is such a vast record in terms of its influences that you do find the very fabric of its existence to be a much more detailed tapestry than the tags that get put against the release initially suggest.

Were an alien to land tomorrow and I played them his release I would probably describe it to them as follows. An album written on the scale of an atmospheric black metal album with a cacophony of sludge/post-sludge influences all over it, interspersed with some clear funeral doom (a la Bell Witch) in places – especially the opening track. I am not one usually too hot on the concept of genres/sub-genres but to describe this album without referencing thus would be a travesty.

Now, my individual take on this album (knowing its subject matter) is that the turgid nature of the tracks is a perfect representation of the artists personal battle with grief. Never having gone through a tragedy of the nature of what is described here I may well be quite far off the mark here; however, I do pick up a distinct sense of each track representing a differing stage of grief. Opening track O Brother is an angry yet confused sounding affair that cries out the soul of a person coming to terms with a loss they cannot quite process. In the complexity of this period of trying to process the situation anger takes the driving seat and what you get is a very personal insight into the human psyche during one of life’s true tests of a person’s resilience.

Second track Funus, sounds like a reversal of the opening statement and comes across as the artist trying to seek the positives from the life that is lost or to simply dwell (albeit temporarily) in a positive space. Assuming this to be a (Latin?) translation meaning funeral, the track feels like an attempt to give someone who has caused such obvious disruption to your life the best possible send-off still.

By the time track three rolls around we are back to the unenviable task of trying to process again, only this time the anger gives way to a more desolate and hopeless sound, like the inevitability of the situation simply cannot be challenged. This is one of the more draining tracks here. As an individual track it just comes across as so lost and bereft of hope it sticks with me perhaps more than its astray structure suggests it should do when balanced in the sum of all parts.

The final track here is probably one of the best closing tracks I have heard in a long time. It carries through the lost direction of the previous track initially but then slowly consolidates the emotion and energy back into the angry space the album began in, only this time taking that anger even further and giving it focus to what is a perfect culmination to the record. It incorporates so many elements during the opening ten minutes that it sounds like all the conflicting emotions and fathomless darkness are being positioned finally and to some degree accepted.

The reference to Neurosis that Daniel makes is perhaps the nearest comparator for the whole release I can think of. Whilst not identifiable as such consistently in the sound, the elements of Neurosis are present in the heart and soul that has been put into the record in terms of the writing and the delivery of this very personal and draining release.

First off, sterling choice for The Horde featured release Ben. I had never heard any Blood Red Throne before this, and I am kicking myself for missing out on Altered Genesis for so long. I did wonder when doing my research on this band quite how they would incorporate Scandinavian death metal and black metal elements into their sound as Wikipedia/Metal Archives seemed to indicate. I think it is fair to say that I hear no bm on Altered Genesis, this is a straight up, face ripper of a death metal record. Firmly routed in the vein of Cannibal Corpse, Vomitory and Bloodbath this is intense death metal with a groovy set of riffs and some clever technical elements to elevate it beyond those base CC comparators.

In terms of track sequencing, at first glance it just looks like BRT have slammed back-to-back raging death metal bangers for a twelve-track album. However, this is a cleverly put together death metal album that takes in regular gasps of fresh air to reinvigorate itself at various points over the album. For the first four or five tracks they build up the duration of each track, concisely increasing the experience of their scathing death metal style. The band peak out around the five-and-a-half-minute point in terms of the longest track (the title track as it happens) before finishing off the album with a storming culmination of three tracks under four minutes long to complete the experience pretty much how it started.

Around the halfway point the album takes on a slightly more technical edge as the bass seems to become more prominent in the sound, touching on Suffocation like audibility as well as Dying Fetus like runs where the four strings seem to go off on their own tangent. This really piques the interest levels for me at a point where most albums start to lose my interest. It is like the band have held back an element of their sound on purpose so they can tease the listener’s ears further. This technical edge also makes the twelve tracks more manageable as you go through arguably three different stages of evolution with the album overall.

The delivery of the album is exactly how most death metal fans would want to hear their death metal played, fast, heavy and utterly relentless. I cannot remember many albums outside of the early 90s that has this level of energy present from start to finish. It is like a Deicide record mentality played with a Suffocation level of technicality and entertained by some Swedish riffs for good measure. This was the last record to feature the stupidly named Mr. Hustler on vocals and so it will be interesting as I check out to see if there is any noticeable dip in quality on output after his departure because on here, he is superb. The vocals are consistent on the record and are perhaps the one element that does not change across the whole track listing, never adapting to become even a momentary scowl or shriek, opting instead to maintain that guttural style end-to-end.

It is fair to say that I am sold.

Whilst far from ignorant of the existence of Ministry, I would not class my path with them as being particularly well trodden. Industrial metal has a limited space in my library, and I have found in recent years that the likes of Godflesh have appealed less when revisited some years after the event. The last Ministry release I reviewed was 2018’s AmeriKKKant which was frankly fucking terrible and showed me that Ministry were a mere shadow of their former selves. In revisiting The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste I guess I am checking to see if even their former selves still appeal to me.

What I struggle with, more or less from the instant that the record starts is that rap/spoken word vocal style. It is not unusual in industrial metal (I am not expecting harmonious vocals here folks) but it is one of the things I find grates nowadays when revisiting the genre. The album is far more intriguing for its musical content as it tracks through various layers of darkwave, post-punk and proto-nu-metal. The interest in the music is a nice distraction from the vocals and their strained and at times maniacal chants that they seem to intermittently reach levels of crescendo with.

The best example of this is probably Cannibal Song. It has a monotonous bass line and overly simplistic beat from start to finish with some almost psychedelic atmospherics thrown in and the repetition of the track is very soothing in a sultry and brooding way. The vocals are almost like interference on this track, like you have caught two radio stations playing at once with the signal for one being stronger than the other. I find my enjoyment levels of The Mind… are higher on tracks where Al is not at the forefront of proceedings or as dominating in sections at least.

The track that follows (Breathe) is an example of where this imbalance is at cost to my engagement with the record. It has a much stronger percussive element, with the tribal drumming leading the charge firmly on that front. However, the repetition of those shouted vocals just detracts away from the music too much and I switch off.

The other aspect to The Mind… that I find dominant is how meandering it is. At times it goes beyond the comfort of repetition and strays far into territory where reiteration becomes procedural and the initial serpentine qualities of a track are somehow caught in a seemingly endless lane of one-way traffic with no slip roads or turn offs insight. Since the album lacks any true industrial punishment levels to appeal to my extreme sensibilities, I get bored of The Mind… quickly. There are no events that shake my attention back to it at any point, no moments in it where I can hold hope for a more intense experience. Instead, I get directionless rap tracks (Test) that go on for what feels like forever and I am left frustrated and thumbing through my library for something else to listen to.

2003’s EP from Keep of Kalessin saw a completely different line up to their previous outing. Having parted ways with their drummer, bassist and vocalist. I do not know whether this split was acrimonious or otherwise, although it is certainly off to find 3 core members of a band decide they have had enough after two full lengths. Anyway, remaining member Obsidian Claw clearly had friends in high places, recruiting black metal royalty Frost (Satyricon) and Attila (Mayhem, Tormentor,etc…) for Reclaim.

I mean, with such acclaimed individuals present on the EP it is hard to expect much of anything other than superb black metal really and in some ways, you get that. I wouldn’t say that Reclaim is outstanding by any means, certainly not when you take into account who was involved. But it is still a solid blast of bm when it stops fucking around with synths and soaring/uplifting riffs that feel a bit out of place in what for the main part is a blasting bm record. I understand that the band nowadays are more noted for their melodic black metal and this shows clear signs of presence here.

Obsidian Claw handles both bass and guitar duties and keeps up well with Frost who blasts away like a machine behind the kit. Showing deft use of tremolo riffing the guitars lead the charge on this EP with the drums very much providing the thundering hooves. Attila’s grim vocals are low in the mix, creepy and nightmarish as always for the main part but able to develop into trademark howls when the tempo dictates the need to.

When in full flow, the sound has an aspect of suffocating darkness to it building to what I personally find to be a very reassuring sense of momentum across the tracks that are devoid of atmospheric interruptions. The fact that we have a bm supergroup essentially delivering this record means we are starting with high expectations, and it is perhaps these that are not realised for me during Reclaim. There is an obvious thirst to produce something special, but it still sounds a lot like the good parts of Satyricon mixed with the macabre majesty of Mayhem thrown in. When the band try to vary things and make things a little different it seems to conflict with the very ethos they are trying to create. I can happily lose the melodic leads and the variety in structure that seems to disrupt the overall flow of the release as when the guys are at it they are fine just letting it all hang out.

For a short release I was not expecting the band to form much of an identity but it sort of feels like some mates got together and had a jam session that turned into some song writing and this EP came out of the other end.  The session is not bad by any means but there is more than a hint of jumbled ideas in play here and the EP (for me) suffers for it.

As I get older the lines of my listening habits appear to blur all the more easily.  I could have sworn that I had made my mind up a long time ago that Converge were not for me.  All the furore surrounding Jane Doe was completely lost on me. Largely due to Bannon's vocal style just not really convincing me that he had the power in his pipes to punch at this weight.  I don't recall much else about that record if I am honest, I find that if I pick out one element of something that I really don't like I am either dismissive of the whole or spend an eternity trying to look past the element of dissatisfaction until the whole thing clicks or I end up lamenting on losing hours of my life for no real positive outcome.

It's fair to say that I enjoy You Fail Me a lot more than I was expecting to.  The hardcore punk elements shine through really well and keep me interested when things have gone a bit sour (In Her Shadow being a particular sour point on the album for me).  As an album it has a consistency in terms of intensity that is quite alluring.  However, at the same time it has a draining aspect to it also, meaning that I am sort of grateful that it is over when the record finishes.  That is not supposed to be as negative a statement as it probably sounds, more me pointing out that the transferral of emotion from the artist to the listener here is done really well.  Converge give you something to take away and think about, hold in your hands, flip over a few times and remember its ugly yet enticing content.

Still there's moments were Bannon gets on my tits still but his bandmates rescue him on most occasions.  I mean Ben Koller is simply fantastic with his explosive style and is definitely the standout performance here for me.  Ballou's riffing has the standard metalcore/mathcore elements present but I also like the odd groovy riff that comes into play every now and again.  I don't hear a lot of bass on most tracks (maybe this is why they remixed the album and re-released it?).  I mean, I know it is there most definitely but it does seem to struggle for presence on most tracks.

So, I have added this into my stream which is not something that I would ever thought a possibility in all honesty.  The fact is though that this album packs a real punch and the bruising does not fade very quickly at all.

Ah compilations. The money spinner for record labels to milk acts for all they are worth, keeping racks at motorway service stations stocked with CDs for those long drives or (depending on your mindset) to keep the most avid of collectors occupied. Advertised as the “lost” tracks of Danzig, I soon got to understanding that the only thing lost here was the need to release something, indeed anything from Danzig.

This is just a collection of what sound like demo quality jam sessions and tracks that got left on the cutting room floor and just got swept up and dropped in a box that someone mistakenly stored instead of throwing out. It is clear from listening through just a few tracks that most of these tracks are not complete (maybe that is where the “lost” bit comes in) in terms of ideas or the full rounding of what they started out to do.

First touted as a release by Glenn in 1999 these “b-sides, covers & rarities” are of mixed value and it is hard to say that the eight-year wait was worth it. Listening to it as a fan of Danzig who does not usually seek out this level of artefact detail in a band’s discography it is hard to feel anything other than a bit overwhelmed by this release. I mean it is twenty-six tracks long for a start and given the peaks and troughs over that number of tracks it is a bit much to sit through in one go. I found I had to break up the listen into three sittings. In terms of quality, it genuinely is not terrible, certainly when considering most of the content was not always intended for public consumption at first iteration. Considering the years this spans over the bands career (from first demo in 1987 all the way up to 2004’s Circle of Snakes) you would arguably expect more duds in all honesty. It is still very inconsistent though and therefore hard to pick on any thread to latch hold of really.

I genuinely think the release only suffers due to its form as opposed to any overall quality issues. These were tracks already not deemed worthy of inclusion on releases that span over seventeen years, so this review was never about uncovering any end-to-end brilliant record. What it does do successfully is showcase Danzig’s dark penchant for writing gloomy yet infectious music. Hazy and fuzzy riffs seem to bleed across the album as percussion elements beat out their usual thunderous cabaret. Glenn’s trademark throaty croon compliments most tracks well, although on at least one acoustic piece they do grate more than a little. Covering tracks by the likes of T. Rex, Bowie and The Germs there is an element of variety in here and it is interesting to hear Danzig’s take on these. The tracks are stronger when they stick to their own macabre brand of dark rock/metal, blending doom, elements of stoner and traditional heavy metal as we know they can do so well.

This compilation is worth a listen for the collectors out there, however its relevance to the more casual fan is severely diminished in comparison. In the latter scenario you will notice the occasions where Glenn’s vocals don’t appear to be mixed properly and he feels like he is sat outside of the main proceedings. Hard to give anything above a three though.

There’s few death metal bands out there who can boast the list of names that Massacre have had in their ranks over the past thirty seven years. A speed/heavy/power metal band until the arrival of Kam Lee and Allen West saw the band adopt death metal as their chosen style, the band have had one of the most tumultuous histories in terms of line-up changes and legal disputes. Amazingly still active to this day the band for me only ever really put out one significant release, From Beyond in 1991.

This album showcased the layered vocals of Kam Lee brilliantly. Lee is considered by many as being the founding father of the “death growl” on the band’s 1986 demo Aggressive Tyrant. His vocal style has graced the ranks of Death (as backing vocals and he also did drums) as far back as 1984 and his Nattravnen project as recently as 2018. Listen to From Beyond though and you will hear all manner of sounds that showed commonality with existing behemoths such as Obituary, Morbid Angel and Master.

Now let us be clear here, From Beyond is not that unique an album. You won’t find anything on here that wasn’t done on Slowly We Rot, Master’s self-titled, or even Cancer’s To The Gory End the previous two years to Massacre’s debut coming out. What you will find distinctive is Lee’s vocals but also the gnarly edge to proceedings. Those riffs could easily open cuts on your cheeks and brows if you were stood too close to them but overall, the album has an intensity to it that is relentless. They intersperse the odd song with an intro here and there but mostly this is pound for pound a heavyweight death metal record that is out to do some harm.

With Terry Butler handling bass duties, Rick Rozz on guitar and Bill Andrews on drums (the latter two being founding members) it is kind of hard to expect anything else really. These were all established musicians, responsible for some of the most extreme metal of the time who had worked on the superb Leprosy or Spiritual Healing albums with Chuck Schuldiner and therefore brought a wealth of experience to the table (some of it built in Massacre and further developed in Death). This was death metal royalty of the time, and it shows on From Beyond. Notwithstanding that it is not entirely unique in sound it is so very well put together, so clearly thought through and planned in terms of composition and writing that it just cannot fail to make any death metal fan sit up and take notice of it.

Rozz’s riffs have a thrashy edge to them most definitely and probably are nearer to Master’s brand of death/thrash – albeit they are slightly more coherent and stable in comparison. Andrews does a sterling job as you would expect behind the skins, and it sounds like he was able to transpose the energy and enthusiasm he has for the genre onto the record. It is easy to track his performance across all nine tracks and he remains audible in the more intense passages and unobtrusive on the calmer stretches. Butler’s subtle twangy bass is harder to pick out at first but it is there when you knuckle down to the whole listening experience and you can pick it out clearly if you concentrate.

There is a cavernous depth to Lee’s vocals that reverberate around in the same abyss that the rest of the instruments dwell in. The whole album sounds like it was recorded underground, on moving tectonic plates. It has a rumble to it throughout the album but also a feeling of dread and of doom (not sounding like doom though) accompanies pretty much all the album. As a result, it has a grimy feel to it, sounding like it was recorded to make you feel uncomfortable. It is like whilst it is clubbing you over the head with unhindered vigour at the same time it is stroking your cheek or running a clawed finger around the circumference of your lips.

Whilst it holds an undeniable macabre charm to it, From Beyond does still have its limitations and I cannot say I play it all that often when compared with some of the other bands I mention above. At the end of the day, it does not put a foot wrong, but it also does not distance itself all that well from what was available in abundance at the time already and as great as it is there is not much justification for calling it a classic. Most of the band’s members had arguably exhausted their best output in Death by the time they ever got around to committing their own material to tape. Therefore, From Beyond’s legacy seems to be that it will forever be known as an often overlooked death metal album from the genre’s heyday.

With their debut album being my gateway record into death metal, it was odd that I never bothered with their sophomore until many years after its release.  Part of this was due to my inconsistent income as a teenager and also my ever changing tastes/band interests at the time.  Naturally, when I eventually caught up with Cause of Death I was impressed to hear that it was superior to the debut by some distance.  In the course of just over a year Obituary matured a lot.  Whereas Slowly We Rot opened my mind up to reaches of metal that I had never imagined possible, the follow up made no attempt to push those boundaries any further and just focused instead on showing how well they had learned their trade and how devastating they could be with death metal.

If I am honest, I can't remember Cause of Death track by track like I can for (virtually) all of the debut album.  This is in no small part due to the fact that it represents much less of a nostalgia item than it predecessor.  By the time I had gotten to this record I had consumed the likes of Deicide, Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower to name but a few and so was hardly likely to be flat knocked on my arse like I was by their first album where I had heard zero death metal at the time.  However, despite having heard all those other death metal albums there still was an obvious superiority to Cause of Death.  It had taken all the consistent and good parts of what came before it and developed them to masterpieces of death metal.  Whereas the debut at times felt a bit scattergun in composition, this album had clearly much more form to it.  In constructing that well-structured record they had not lost any of their otherworldly appeal either, with Tardy's vocals sounding just as alien and horrific as before.  The main difference this time around was the loss of those tracks that came in at under two minutes or somehow peddled just over three minutes like some grind mentality was adopted at the start, replaced now instead by tracks pushing the five and a half or six minute boundaries.

This spoke volumes for the maturity but also confidence of the band at the time, grasping that unique sound of just fifteen months before and honing into more invested structures.  Now, fresh off his work on Spiritual Healing in February of the same year, James Murphy's inclusion in the band (in replacement of Allen West) is undoubtedly a contributing factor in the success of this record.  We also saw the late Frank Watkins replace Daniel Tucker on bass.  Although still in the very early stages of his career and yet to become well known for the technical focus he had on his music, it is safe to say that Frank's inclusion in the ranks also helped to further stabilise this groups astonishing potential and help that be realised on this record.  Let's also not forget that by 1990 the group had been early progenitors of the Tampa death metal scene for six years in one guise or another so had a god few years of experience under their belt.

Unafraid to use a variety of pace, Obituary could build a looming sense of dread just like the best death/doomsters could before following through on that threat by instantly switching to a frenzied attack like all the best slasher flicks.  The riffs positively motored on early Obituary albums but had real clutch control to boot, with the band able to drop down a gear or two to really emphasise that even in the most furious of moments they still had that constant and underlying menace about them.  The sonics here are woven into the fabric of the tracks.  They don't just start or appear as such, instead they sound like they just pick up momentum and volume, occupying the space around the vocals and other instruments like they have always been there but you somehow have missed them. 

Although a more refined affair, you can still hear similarities with the likes of Autopsy as well as of course early Death (helped in no small part by Murphy I suspect) on the record which altogether gave the album a real grounded, relevant and familiar feel - certainly at the time - like Obituary were clearly running shoulder to shoulder with the big hitters of the fast emerging death metal scene.  This record was the high-point of Obituary's career and one that probably saw them peak far too soon (listen to any of their output from the last six or seven years and you'll hear yards of unexpected quality that just somehow only comes in spurts nowadays). 

As a death metal record this is probably one of the most important in the development of the genre.  Its effortlessly put together and yet sounds like months of prep went into it at the same time, like going into recording this was all second nature to a seriously talented bunch of young guys.

Okay, after my emotional review of the massively overrated Abigail I have elected to get the Mercyful Fate review that is part of the same clan challenge out of the way in the same night.  Now, it is safe to say that In The Shadows starts better than expected.  Opener Egypt has kind of an interesting structure to it and goes through the options of pace and variety (of guitar style) almost effortlessly.  It holds my interest over KD's vocals that for the main part are thankfully not his usual high-pitched keening style and as a result he doesn't distract me as much as usual.

I mean normal service is soon resumed on The Bell Witch with his cringey, spoken word vocals and shrieking wails grating like nails on a chalk board.  His attempts to sound menacing again falling really short on how he probably thinks they sound.  Shermann and Denner's riffing and lead work are exceptional though and are clearly the driving force when allowed some air time over the vocals.  You can feel the fire and venom behind the riffs and melodies that the duo fire on The Old Oak and that urgent, pressing riff really drives the track forwards, kept perfectly in pace with the drums of Nielsen.  This tells me what I always knew to be right, that despite me acknowledging KD to be a poor vocalist, he is carried well by his comrades in Mercyful Fate (on this record at least).  This feels like a heavy metal record instead of some hastily thrown together, shabby riff collection with someone crooning over the top like with most of KD's output.

This is not to say that I am madly in love with In The Shadows - there's still the problem of me just being unable to get along with the vocal style.  However, the other band members are allowed time to shine a bit and this makes for a better album as the real talent starts to come through.  The odd (tango-like) riffing of Shadows is actually a welcome source of drama beyond what usually solely comes out of KD's mouth.  On this track he just ends up mumbling like some demented old man an occasion and it actually works because enough momentum has been built up by the music to give him some relevant space.  This assertion of KD's place in the music is important in helping me (finally) start to gain some entertainment from Mercyful Fate's music.

I still think it is unnecessarily dramatic but I am often snapped back into some semblance of attention on a consistent basis by those guitars.  Detract from the six strings wizardry as they still inevitably do, KD's vocals are marginally more palatable because there is focus permitted away from them.  Lyrically it is a naive record (not sure if this is a concept album but its clunky lyric writing make it sound like one) written to embellish the dark fantasy of the album no doubt but still coming of as laughable overall.  When the band stop fucking around and just play heavy metal it is actually far more entertaining and it is this aspect alone that boosts the rating for the record to the level that it does.  Play it to me as an instrumental only and you might get a half mark more (although the instrumental track on here is a bit too all over the place for my liking).

I know, there's no pleasing me!  

I really hate King Diamond's vocal style.  I mean detest it.  It is the finest example of an artist being all image and no substance that I can think to reference.  Most of my peers fawn over his falsetto, wailing style and laughable attempts to inject theatre into virtually every sentence in every song on every album, blah, blah, blah, but I simply can't stand him.

Seeing Abigail and In The Shadows come up on this clan challenge genuinely made me think about not bothering to complete it but I decided to be a grown up and take one (or two as it happens) for the team and sit through his sophomore (again).  Just in case you are reading this with some hope that something has snapped into place and I am now sat here kicking myself for being a clot for all these years then save yourself some internet time and go and read something more positive than this.  Maybe the obituary page in the local newspaper?

Joking aside I just cannot see the attraction of this album.  Having already decided that Mercyful Fate weren't for me many moons ago, I can see no positive outcome for this album that sounds EXACTLY THE SAME AS ANY MERCYFUL FATE RECORD BECAUSE IT IS JUST KING DIAMOND WAILING LIKE A TRAPPED ANIMAL!!

And breathe.

I accept that not everything on the record is bad, really I do.  Behind the unnecessary constant theatre and incessant drama in virtually every lyric there is a heavy metal album with some half-decent riffs, thumping drums and actually some good ideas on the song writing front  but why oh why does he have to sing like that and just ruin it?  It is not like most of Denner and La Rocque's guitar work is that exceptional either.  In fact I would go as far as to say that on Arrival the guitars are actually out of tune or recorded after one too many beers.

Now, I hear the hardened KD fans shouting at their PC monitors, laptop screens, tablets or phones and telling me that this is a concept album and therefore these amounts of grandiosity are necessary.  They aren't.  I don't know what kind of a character KD is but I would guess that nobody has ever thought to tell him that he's really not up to the mark.  Rob Halford can do this much better, not because he has greater range but simply because he has better control over his voice and knows when to turn the shrieking down.  Bruce Dickinson can also do this much better because he can measure his vocals and offer variety and match mood and pace so well.  With KD we have two levels, wailing uncontrollably or grim spoken word vocals that have more comedy value than metal credentials.

Not even the might Mikkey Dee can hold my interest and his performance here (as it is everywhere he graces the stool with his presence) is superb.  His sense of pace and timing is perfect and his performance is worthy of one whole star on this oh so lowly rated record.

Safe to say I don't like this.

When picking my releases for the featured showcase each month I often come to settle on a particular release for no reason other than I think it is something that others should listen to and experience for themselves.  However, this month's choice was chosen for more selfish reasons in all honesty.  You see I swing easily on my rating of Charnel Passages and find it can change usually depending on which way the wind is blowing on a particular day.  This sounds perhaps a negative assessment on Cruciamentum's debut album (their only full-length in thirteen years), however it is not intended as such.  Anyway, more on my struggles with this record later but the point I wanted to emphasise early on in my review is that this is an album that I was genuinely interested to read other MA member's thoughts on by way of comparison to my own and maybe help me understand my battles with it.

There's a heap of reasons why I would be drawn to Cruciamentum.  Hell, anyone who has been paying attention to my reviews/posts can see this is right up my street.  Enough nods to Bolt Thrower to keep the British Death Metal fan in me tickled pink, coupled with atmospherics applied by what sound like the hands of Morbid Angel themselves and with the addition of lashings of Dead Congregation, Incantation and Grave Miasma to boot, Charnel Passages has my name stamped all over it.  It is important to add that I don't see this band as being guilty of worship of anyone else either (including the bands mentioned above); Charnel Passages is enough of a death metal heavyweight in its own right to be able to stand its own ground in an arena of many other similarly influenced bands.  To my ears this is not mere regurgitation of old ideas done by someone else 30 years ago, instead the four piece offer the application of influence to their own sound which remains at the core of their offering.

It is very easy to draw out influences on most death metal albums (there's only a few genuinely influential bands out there so they are bound to come up often) but I view Cruciamentum as perhaps one of the most responsible progenitors of death metal, taking time to apply their influences to their music as opposed to just pouring them all over it.  For all the Karl Willetts I hear in the vocals I also hear snippets of Portal in the guitars.  For all the Morbid Angel I hear in the sonics I also get the churn of Finnish death metal in the rumbling rhythms and riffs on those very same tracks.  Also worthy of note, Dani Ben-Haim on drums is a fucking demon - I know this already from his work on Grave Miasma, however the contribution to the pace and atmospheres here is astonishing.  Indeed, as a unit the band are tight.  The subtle yet noteworthy changes in pace are all executed well and tracks feel like they are being driven forwards by all the instruments as a cohesive force.  The mournful wail of the guitars on Dissolution of Mortal Perception is s truly hair-raising moment for me and whilst I can make no attempt to suggest that I haven't heard alike before, it is just done so well.

And here lies the conflict of the album.  Some days it is too much like other things I have heard (I listen to a lot of extreme metal in my defence) in the past and I do start to lean towards thinking this is just worship.  But then on other days I hear the quality in the musicianship and can dispel such thoughts with ease.  What I think is needed is probably a little more of a blackened edge to proceedings as this is were the majority of the Grave Miasma influences come in.  The risk here then of course is that we have another Grave Miasma record.  At the end of the day though there is nothing wrong with doing death metal well, regardless of which era/sub-genre you pick from.  Cruciamentum stay authentic to their influences, doing the reference points real justice.

There really is no other era of Skid Row other than Sebastian Bach-era Skid Row is there?  The shit that got put out by the band post-Subhuman Race really bears no resemblance to any of their first three records.  The fact is, Bach was the icing on the cake for a bunch of sleazy cock-rockers with a penchant for making hard-hitting and punchy hard-rock and metal.  For all of Hill and Sabo's efforts on guitar their riffs, licks and leads hardly surpassed average and it was usually Bach's full frontal attack vocals that drove the band forwards.  On their sophomore I would suggest that he (again) more than carries his fair share of the workload, taking some solid enough songs and elevating them that extra mile to make them memorable.

Whilst Slave To The Grind is notably a step down from the quality of the debut album it still retains some of that youthful exuberance albeit it does sometimes direct this into goofy tracks such as the cringey Quicksand Jesus (one of the few tracks that the guitars save Bach) which is poorly written and obviously lacks finesse.  Similarly, Get The Fuck Out screams G n' R wannabees with the emphasis on shock overriding any real focus on album composition.

Single fodders such as In A Darkened Room and Wasted Time haven't aged well in all honesty and are only minorly less of a cringe-fest than the aforementioned Quicksand Jesus, however the one consistent element that in the main makes things more palatable is Bach's pipes.  Yes, the guitars maintain a nice hi-tempo where appropriate and also can cause those melancholic moments to linger a little while longer with their bluesy tone on the slower numbers and Bolan's bass is a virtual ever present plonk and rumble across the record, it is Bach's performance that stays with you.  On tracks like Living on a Chain Gang he utterly delivers, driving the energy forwards across one of the best tracks on the album.

Rob Affuso's drums sound a bit lost in all honesty.  There's a flatness to them that makes them sound like they weren't washed in the same energetic detergent that the rest of the instruments were.  This isn't to say his performance is bad, it just takes a proper sift into the record to kind of pick them up.  For all of my praise of Bach, one thing that occurred to me today was how rushed his vocals can sound on some tracks here.  This gives a sense often of wantonness in terms of the delivery, like he knows how good he is and doesn't really care how well the delivery fits in with everything else.

Fifteen year old me would probably have this album rated higher than a three but then again that's the gift/curse of growing old - you hear things through different ears in all honesty.  When I set aside the nostalgia and really listen, the album doesn't come alive in quite the same way that it used to.

It's 1995 and we have had the technical wizardy of Nocturnus as well as the progressive structuring of Atheist reach the shores of Portugal. Here, death/thrash metallers Disaffected are just dropping album number one after four years of demos (well all in 1992 actually) and the record reeks of both the aforementioned bands to high heaven.  Unable to avoid wearing their influences on their sleeves, Disaffected churn out twelve tracks of technical and progressive death metal that include one Acheron cover and an instrumental to boot.

There's a fair old amount of Death in here also but the keyboards of Fatima Jeronimo (yes really) add a much more atmosphere tinged experience to most tracks adding to this sense of the ethereal alongside the fluid and precise guitar playing which lends from Schuldiner heavily in places but feels like a genuine celebration as opposed to wankery worship.  Nearly all the tracks have this air of mystery to them and use great builds to achieve the dizzy heights of some fine death metal.  Other influences creep in, such as Morbid Angel (just fleetingly, here and there) as well as the more consistent Edge of Sanity references.  Throughout all of this though, Disaffected manage to stand out as talented, skilled musicians who can carry off al these parts and not fluff them or make them boring.

As such, it is an album that defies structure in terms of a consistent form across the record.  The chaos of Phelebotomized minus the slower, doom elements springs to mind when listening to some of the more avant-garde aspects to the record.  Wherever the band's sound takes you as a listener there is absolutely no doubt that the band have some real bite and intensity to their sound, with solid riffing often forming part of some (largely twisted) backbone to songs from which eruptions or off-shoots often form to avoid the feeling of safety ever becoming present.  The disorienting bloops and blips in the middle of The Praxis of the non-Being are unexpected in a track that whilst it most definitely does go off-piste is also very riff based at the same time.  Instrumental track Allusion is an enticing and beautiful piano piece that I have to say is quite unexpected, but the furious and bestial riffing of Dead Like My Dreams that immediately follows this is even more unexpected.  Here, again are the blooping keys (along with some odd tribal drumming) but this time it detracts from the music a little too much in my book.

You are required to focus a lot on Vast otherwise you will miss something and wonder how you went from that swirling technical alchemy to a straight up riff fest.  The prog elements tend to arc of the tracks like solar flares.  You know they are bright and attention grabbing if not potentially very dangerous but you can always see where they originated from.  This is the beauty of Vast, it is a very rewarding album that is not just focused on trying to outwit the listener, more there's a feeling that it is always trying to entertain you.

It isn't perfect, and last sentence before this withstanding, I do get lost sometimes - even at my most focussed.  But for an album I found completely at random, I can't recall how often I have felt this rewarded by a release from a completely unknown band.

The concept of blackened doom is still relatively a new to me.  Having been off exploring Yith and Mizmor in recent months/years I have been meaning to branch out further into this niche sub-genre. The enchanting melancholy of the doom matches perfectly the enchanting melancholy of black metal (fittingly) and I find it odd that I didn't connect the two as a blended form of metal until recently.

This journey of discovery saw me stumble across Lowered.  Hailing from Portland (which increasingly seems to be a geographical reference in most new music I find nowadays) this three-piece play the doom well utilising the kind of sludgy movement and structure to tracks as opposed to outright sounding all that sludgy all the time.  What tends to happen is the blackened elements elevate the doom aspects to the sound, shrouding it in further misery and nihilistic mentality.

The album sounds very destructive and violent throughout, with explosions of surging tremolos over blastbeats being tempered by slower more calculated misery to give a real sense of a dual attack of differing yet equally effective means.  Vocalist Anna has a very dark and raw style that borders on death metal a lot of the time.  The climbing riffs of Nate McLeary (of Ossuarium fame - who also does bass here) add expansion to the sound and the solid yet suitably murky drums of Ian Makau (Black Hole of Calcutta guitarist and sometimes vocalist) are strong in their entrenched mire supporting the rhythm of each song well.

The downside is really that a lot of this sounds the same and only the final song really stands out for me.  Call of the Moon is a big looming monster of an album closer that kills off any last vestiges of hope with its devastating riffs and earth-splitting drums.  In all honesty, overall I would like a bit more atmosphere and a lot less sludge but I can't deny those doomy tones make for an interesting listen.

It is with a heavy heart that I must confess to not enjoying the opening track on Kvitravn.  I have heard a lot of Wardruna in my time and the dark ambience of their equally gloomy folk music is what really appeals to me, this ethereal beauty of their music is mesmerising to me.  Hearing their latest opus commence with an upbeat, positive sounding number, Synkverv is disappointing and unexpected.

Thankfully this is the only track that sets a foot wrong and the rest of the album is absolutely pristine in terms of quality and outright touching and emotive song writing.  Highlights such as the title track with its haunting strings and shadowy female vocals, Skugge with its tribal tendencies and the superbly sultry Grá all land in the first four tracks of the record, setting a high standard which is well maintained through to the end of the album.

This feels like a real coming of age record, which is ironic because for my money Wardruna have rarely put a foot wrong.  This album just has this sense of majesty to it, with the traditional and minimalist instrumentation gelling perfectly with the atmospherics to create a truly consuming experience that is beyond just mere listening to music.  I am fortunate enough to live near some woods and get to walk through them most days and listening to Kvitravn during these morning ambles through nature is one of life's absolute pleasures.

Equally though I can still feel that connection to nature and indeed the history being expressed here just by sitting in my lounge or office and putting this album on.  One of the few real listening experiences I have heard this year so far and it has come from a non-metal release.

My first encounter with Danish death metallers Baest has been interesting to say the least.  Their third full-length release, Necro Sapiens is a strong piece of death metal that is heavy on the groovy riffs and has a big sound from start to finish courtesy of a great production job from Andreas Linneman.  From album opener (proper) Genesis it is clear that this album is brimming with attitude and energy, both of which spew forth in every riff and every guttural gurn.  The main riff to this track in particular mines the very depths of the earth itself it seems whilst being melodic enough to stick in the brain for hours afterwards.

For a band from Denmark, there's an obvious Swedish sound to proceedings with the vocals in particular reminding me of Nick Holmes era Bloodbath but there's also smatterings of Entrails and Vomitory littered throughout the record as well as an excellent penchant to drop into a Bolt Thrower style jog for some real variety as well.  As a result there is a sense of completeness to most tracks, like they have explored many possible boundaries before deciding on the final outcome for a particular track.

Unafraid to launch songs with grand openings, Baest regularly start tracks with huge riffs (Czar) which lean towards a more death/doom style of metal but these tracks don't always maintain the momentum that gets built early on in these instances and as a result there aren't many tracks that as a whole can be remembered - more just bits of the record (but lots of bits).  This sits as perhaps my one criticism of the album.  Although there's variety spread throughout the record that sense of completeness is only in the immediate sense as you listen to the record.  I sit here after listening through a track and enjoy most of it but then can't always remember why.  When I go back and spin through again the same high points hit me but the overall experience lacks the completeness suggested in the individual parts of the track listing.

That having been said, Necro Sapiens rarely actually falters.  As an in your face, banging death metal record it ticks all the boxes and is delivered with a quality that most bands can only dream of (at three albums in to a six year career that's actually impressive enough a feat) and it is clear that these are musicians who know their stuff.  It strikes me as one of the more melodic non-melodeath albums I have heard in all honesty but never once does that melody sacrifice the energy or imposing nature of the sound.  I'm impressed.

This is the first (and perhaps only) Metal Church record I had any time for.  With the departure of David Wayne and the arrival of Mike Howe I heard a settling of the Metal Church song writing - which is odd because the majority of Blessing in Disguise was written by the still present Kurdt Vanderhoof (who wasn't a full time band member at this point), John Marshall and Craig Wells.  Marshall was Vanderhoof's replacement and came from good stead having been Metallica's guitar roadie (already having stood in for Hetfield in 1986 after James went one way and his skateboard the other) and he also had a brief stint in Blind Illusion.

The new blood in the band certainly grounded things in comparison to their previous two full-lengths which to me lacked consistency and power overall (the lack of the latter being due to the lack of momentum from the former).  Although album number three was not perfect by any means it was a step up for me and one that I do find myself revisiting more than any other.  Worth mentioning here is that my attention is grabbed from the off by the great Fake Healer which is racy and aggressive and oozes quality which carries well into the more measured Rest In Pieces...and despite the clunky lyrical structure to Of Unsound Mind it does fit the title well and kind of still fits in with a strong opening.

In fact I only think the album really comes unstuck at around the instrumental track It's A Secret which although is energetic it lacks substance overall and heralds the weaker part of the album over these final three tracks.  Album closer The Powers That Be is perhaps the worst track on here in all honesty.  It feels overall that more thought went into this record than on previous outings, like the band had matured and learned from previous mistakes, exercising some quality control if not entirely managing to pull it off across all of the album.  This album feels like an accurate summary of the band in terms of their career for me.  They always promised so much and got plaudits and accolades galore but I was never entirely sure why, had they been able to make more albums like this and control line-up changes better then maybe they would occupy a more heady status in my opinion.

Grip Inc. and I don’t get on. There, I said it. They are just one of those bands that I have never been able to connect the hype to the output they deliver. I cannot go as far as to say that all their stuff is bad, not by any means but I have always been completely underwhelmed by the late Gus Chambers and he is such an integral part of the band’s sound it is kind of hard to look past his performance.

At times on Nemesis he reminds me so much of a less capable Tom Araya I have to check I haven’t got shuffle on Spotify active and it is playing me post Seasons In The Abyss material from Slayer. This vocal challenge is by no means the overarching experience of Nemesis I want to share. However, the fact is that although the album has some real potential built on some solid ideas and robust performances from Lombardo (is he capable of anything other than brilliance?) this album happens to be one of the worst structured records I have heard in a long while.

Compositionally the record is all over the place which is not something I would always have a problem with but this variety in track-length and tempo is just really confusing and at times the album feels like a demo with a glut of ideas just thrown together. At times it feels like a groove metal record delivered like a Discharge album only without any authentic gnarl or grit behind it. Yes, Soryctha’s guitar work is admirable and (again) Lombardo is as clinical as you would expect him to be but it all just feels like a jam session that got recorded and released.

It is a collection of songs to my ears, not really an album so to speak. It lacks cohesion and structure which results in a disjointed and rough listening experience

I have already seen Celestial Sanctuary heralded as part of the "New Wave of British Death Metal" (whatever that is)?  From listening to the pleasing familiarity of the early 90's death metal sounds present on their debut full-length, it isn't difficult to see where the comparisons to such champions of that style come from.  Thick with the Bolt Thrower and influence, Soul Diminished plays mid-tempo death metal that is groovy and instantaneously memorable.  A real plug in and play record.

Hailing from Cambridge, United Kingdom the band are a mere two years into their existence but sound like a group that has been together a lot longer and a collection of artists who have tread the circuit over a number of years.  With two of the band being members of crossover/thrash metal band Road Mutant there's clear cohesion between the four piece and although I am not familiar with his work or his main band The Infernal Sea, drummer James Burke gives a strong performance.  Likewise guitarist Matt Adnett has played live with Voices and The King is Blind so there's a solid foundation here.

This feels like a beefy record with real power behind the punches that they make no effort to pull.  Built on a solid foundation of death metal influences that aren't hard to decipher there's almost an unapologetic arrogance to the record but at the same time the sheer accessibility of it - without sacrificing grit - makes such an ethos forgivable.  I can't get away from the fact that it lacks some marked differences from track to track and even after a few listens this doesn't offer up any surprises that you might have missed on the first few spins.

Still, for a band so immature in their establishment they are exciting and brimming with promise.  I am unsure if this is a permanent project or a side-project of underground artists but I hope either way we get more smoke out of the chimney soon.

Suffocation's Despise The Sun EP occupies an awkward spot in the band's discography.  Coming three years after the utter triumph that was Pierced From Within and also only being an EP meant that it seemed to get overlooked more often than not in the extensive back-catalogue of the band.  The band split up post this release, taking a break until 2002 and in fairness it does not sound like a release that was short on ideas or one put together by a band under duress.  As a standalone release the death metal here is as brutal as any fan of the band would like and although I would have liked a full-length to maintain some momentum, I'd take this record alongside Human Waste for smash and grab death metal listening any day.

The success of Pierced From Within was never going to be easy to follow up and I think the guys do a great job here of building on from some of the ideas from the aforementioned album and extending the validity of these over the five tracks on the EP.  The release feels a little more measured than its overtly technical yet brutal predecessor.  It feels like the band are gauging the next steps for their sound and balancing how they progress post one of the greatest death metal albums of the 90's (arguably of all time).

On a shortened format, the danger was always going to be that the shadow of their third full-length would loom too big for them to be able to showcase what they had to offer.  I think though that the three year gap worked in their favour as although there aren't any particularly new ideas or hints at some new direction on here, the release does stand up well and probably marks the last Suffocation release that I have much of any time for.  The sound is fresh and full, hinting at lots of promise still being on offer. It has a sense almost of a reminder being sent out to the world of metal that Long Island's finest were still alive and kicking and capable of delivering some fine death metal still.  

In terms of industrial metal there’s probably only Ministry and Fear Factory that I have any level of familiarity with albeit a very limited scope of ambition to explore the genre that much as a whole regardless.  For the record I love most of what Dino does with his riffs being the very embodiment of metal I usually find but by contrast I don’t have a lot of time for Burton’s vocals and this imbalance tends to undo much of the enjoyment I do manage to glean from Fear Factory releases.

The fact is that Demanufacture is a tale of two halves (not equal, neat halves either).  For most of the record there’s banging industrial tunes full of powerful and gritty riffs and when he’s not trying to rap his way through his lyric sheet, Burton is more than manageable.  Conversely though there is a lot of filler on this record.  There’s two short tracks that literally sound like demo recordings given a coat of glitter on the mixing desk that still can’t make the turds beneath as glamorous as they try to make them.  Then we have Burton shouting his lyrics, exposing the lack of power in his voice, therefore trying to sound edgy comes off as being meek and ineffective in the end.

Crazy though it may sound for a review of an industrial metal album I just can’t cope with the start-stop rhythm of tracks that kill any sense of flow.  Yes, I get that is sort of the point but still some flow is permissible guys.  I just get the sense that without Dixon’s riffs to elevate the tracks there’s not a lot of anything else to hold my interest here, hence we have a short and rather grumpy review.

With Erik Rutan now in the ranks as a fully fledged band member my hopes for Cannibal Corpse's fifteenth full-length were quite high.  Acknowledging that he is an artist of vast experience in the death metal world it seemed logical to expect an obvious impact from him as he joined one of the genres most important bands.  And, let's pick up on this point firstly, Cannibal Corpse are massively important to death metal.  Their first three records really stamped a mark in the genre and although they never quite lived up to that standard (consistently) since, they have continued to enjoy career and that whilst it not my reek of variety they are most certainly not at Amon Amarth levels of predictability in terms of churning out the same record every time.  Love them or hate them CC are virtually a household names and not just for the all the wrong reasons you might think.

Since Kill there has been the return of expectation with any imminent CC release.  Red Before Black wasn't anything special, but it was a consistent record if not a little long and at times predictable.  However, it maintained a presence with a sonic footprint to boot, so surely with Rutan now in the ranks this could only be built on, right?  Well, actually no.  No it doesn't.  The tracks that Rutan is credited for writing are in fact my least favourite.  They feel restrained and unimagined (pun intended - funny fucker aren't I?) in comparison to the few standout tracks on display.

However, even with tracks like Murderous Rampage, Inhumane Harvest and Surround, Kill, Devour  the whole record still comes up short with a real feel of the band just going through the motions for another album (and would be tour in normal times) without taking any inspiration from having one of metal's long-standing six stringers now in their ranks.  The fun element is still there but it feels a little tired this time around and as a result it is an album who's excitement levels are stunted somewhat.

Texans Frozen Soul play a cool (pun intended) brand of chunky death metal with a riff catalogue straight out of the Bolt Thrower playbook with a fair old likeness to the mining intensity of a Tomb Mold or at times even Sanguisugabogg.  Having first caught their demo on Maggot Stomp a couple of years ago it is great to see them have progressed to a major label such as Century Media for the debut full-length.  It's full of that nasty vibe of death metal that motors from track to track with a grinding yet powerful engine backed by a deep bass and cavernous drum sound.  In a way it takes me right back to my first forays into DM back in the 90's, like some modern slant on a trip down memory lane.

Vocalist Chad Green is a fucking monster.  A drummer by trade he sounds like he has been in front of the microphone for years already and has a real commanding presence on the record that doesn't dominate proceedings yet firmly places him at the helm of the sound supported by the huge riffs of Michael Munday and Chris Bonner.  As I mentioned earlier though, this is a real band effort and Matt Dennard does a sterling job on the skins, pacing the tempos brilliantly whilst Samantha Mobley rumbles along with a thick and chunky bass sound that rattles the windows in their frame.

My main criticism is that it is all a bit samey overall.  There's not a lot of variety to separate one track from another and after six tracks I don't necessarily feel that I need another four to get the point if I am honest.  As a result there's a sense of a loss of steam even though the foot remains fully on the gas throughout, as some ideas get regurgitated over different tracks and I am guessing in a couple of more albums time the band will mature enough to understand filtering of ideas and variety in structures.  It is still a fucking blast to listen through though to get the blood pumping.

Well, you learn something new everyday it seems.  On a random purge of album suggestions this morning I stumbled across the fifth full-length from US death metal outfit Vital Remains.  It took me a while before I realised the vocalist here is none other than Satan's left tit himself, Glen Benton of Deicide fame.  Glen covered vocals for the band from 2002 - 2009 it turns out, and I had no idea.

What we get here is not a Deicide clone (entirely) as a result of Benton's involvement.  Yes, it is clear that those bestial, layered vocals are exactly the same as what you would hear on any Deicide record from the previous decade to this release and at times the blistering intensity of Vital Remains matches that of the Florida giants of death metal.  The opening track is also a not unexpected film clip around Benton's favourite subject matter, the Son of God.  Comparisons aside, there are some fundamental differences in just a couple of areas that managed to hold my interest long enough to write a review.

Firstly, the sound on the guitars is really thin making them sound like they lack power.  That aside they do manage to get this Morbid Angel-like sound right on a few occasions (At War With God) and are still able to generate a sort of grinding intensity when in full flow.  Second major difference is the lead work is incredibly rich sounding, maintaining the requisite levels of sonics but at the same time sounding clearer and crisper than I first expected.  This gives some welcome melodic respite from the scathing sound of the riffs and introduces some genuine traditional metal sounding leads.

Aside from the novelty of Benton and these leads there isn't a massive amount to get excited about otherwise as the trio just go through the motions under what feels like a stifling production job.   I listened to it the whole way through more out of curiosity than anything else but if we stick with asking if it does what it says on the tin then it most definitely is a death metal album albeit a decidedly average one. 

Königreichssaal occupy a niche in black metal, that although not necessarily an untrodden path is still a passage in which they leave firm footprints as they trudge on through. Here be references to equal part doom against equal part black metal. Equal part Cultes Des Ghoules against equal part dark cabaret.

Strong use of ritualistic spoken word is littered throughout the album and they are clearly artists who like to build atmospheres and draw out their impact, unafraid to use protracted track lengths in amongst shorter tales of putrid existence. Within this record you will hear choral verses, sang in hushed and nefarious tones. The threat of harm or at least an exploration of motives for harm never feels too far away here and this is one of the key successes of the band. This near constant menace and dark mystique embeds a real sense of foreboding.

The band use atmospheres to genuine build effect, often making the tension unbearable, agonizing sometimes in fact. Yet at the same time there is a beauty in this darkness, the glimpse of an ethereal and ghostly white face undulating through the murk. In the times of the slow tempos there exists still an urgency for the record to ignore this balancing act and still use the sheer compulsion of the record to push forward its grim and unrelenting traipse.

Königreichssaal lurch their way through seven hellish performances, keeping their heads immersed in the constant shroud of misery they emit throughout. Playing the occasional mind game along the way they have a distinct penchant for bring the uneasy ramblings of Mayhem and playing them off the most tortuous and repetitive structures you will hear for a long while. This brilliant combination of doom and black metal looms nicely throughout the album.

Yet, despite this menace and sense of dread, I never feel like the threat entirely comes to fruition. For every drawn-out moment of black metal tension, I need a crushing riff or ghastly howl just to emphasize the depth of the record. It all somehow ends up feeling a little too clean overall for me to ever feel like this threat is fully realized. Maybe that is part of the cleverness of the album, and it sets up nicely a harrowing and soul-destroying sophomore by never quite getting to the unstable heights of insanity on this outing. Guess I will have to wait to find out.

I loved Requiem for Mankind - the 5 star review on the site is proof of this.  It had groove, intensity and a gnarly undertone that suggested real guts as well as a great sound.  Inevitably the Bolt Thrower comparisons grew the more I listened to it and I am almost at the point of wondering if as time goes by, whether Memoriam or slowly just morphing back into that great old band inevitably.

Opener, Onwards to Battle could open any Bolt Thrower album in all honesty and if I didn't know any better you could pass this off as a lost or even new Bolt Thrower tune.  Now this isn't a criticism by any means.  I love the fact that this rich heritage from one of my favourite UK death metal bands runs through the veins of a band that came into existence after the appropriate dissolution of the aforementioned legends.  I simply wanted to highlight that the memory of this great band continues to live on and is being done great justice to by Willetts and co.

As To the End continues this theme continues (inevitably), however there's something missing this time around across the record and I have been struggling to put my finger on it as I have given the record a few spins.  I can't help but feel that momentum that Memoriam built on their previous release doesn't continue all that far into To the End.  This doesn't make their 2021 release terrible as such but I feel the band lacks much in the way of presence and identity this time around.  Requiem for Mankind was full of groove and passion and its high points stood out from the legacy Bolt Thrower sound by virtue of this sense of confidence in who the band were and how they could progress out of those historical shadows.  This time around I don't feel this footprint is stamped quite as well.  The first four tracks make a good go of it but the legs don't carry the whole nine tracks over the finish line I am afraid and there's a noticeable dip from the middle of the album onwards.

The major change in the line-up this time around is behind the drums, with Spikey T. Smith (of Sacrilege fame) taking over the stool from Andy Whale and this is one of the standout problem areas for me.  The drums sound quite basic and lacking in real presence for the most part, with their only notable contribution being how rock like they sound as opposed to death metal.  They just don't feel like drums recorded for a death metal album.  But it isn't Smith's fault that I don't enjoy the whole of the album.  The song writing lacks completion on more than one occasion, most notably on Each Step (One Closer to the Grave) which sounds really promising at the start but then proceeds to meander instead of develop into the charging and steadfast assault it promised.

I had high hopes for this album (especially since I missed any news that the band had even been in the studio) but I am left disappointed overall and almost wish that they'd just done an EP instead.

In the world of thrash metal there are many artists I am sure with some USP (unique selling point - for the uninitiated) in their sound, look or ideology.  I can't really name any that are too far out there but I don't know of any that count a mellotron amongst their instruments.  Now, a mellotron is an electro-mechanical piano first produced en-masse in the 60's.  Artists ranging from The Beatles through to King Crimson have used the instrument and so to see it listed on a progressive thrash album has some sense of irony associated with it, based on the King Crimson reference at least, as well as still being a curved ball in 2021.

If you want to hear an example of it, check out the opening of Mindscape on the internet and you will soon grasp its distinct sound.  When deployed, it puts real depth in the sci-fi themed atmospherics that Cryptosis use throughout Bionic Swarm to good effect.  Straight away the Vektor comparisons come in both by virtue of the sub-genre tag and also the construct of the music as well - there's a reason these guys did a split release!  But whereas Vektor go for all out technical wankery and really progressive structures there is an element of that being paired back with Cryptosis and with positive outcomes to boot.

Vocalist, Laurens Houvast has a gruffness in his bark and doesn't try to overdo the ear-splitting shrieks at any point and as such his vocals compliment the flow and roll of the music perfectly.  He drops in the higher end of his range to finish some sentences here and there but they feel part of everything else that is going on at the same time as opposed to some distracting piece that is trying to do out-do the rest of the sound.  His guitar work is busy throughout in terms of riffing and his lead work feels quite restrained without leaving the record devoid of some flair and grandiosity, whilst his use of progressive structure and melody at the same time is virtually flawless.  Meanwhile, the solid and consistent drum work of Marco Prij stands out as another notable part of proceedings.  Although sometimes a little too hidden in the mix he still stands up well in the face of some of the more blistering moments from Houvast.  Mellotron supremo, Frank te Riet also handles bass duties and you can hear him firmly plonking away in the background across the album.

All in all this is great release to usher in the dawn of the band's new name having spent years as Distillator before their increase in progressive focus.  It isn't perfect of course but it is going to be exciting to see where these guys go on subsequent releases.