Daniel's Reviews

The funeral doom metal subgenre & I have a long & rewarding history as it’s a movement that I got involved with very early in its evolutionary timeline back in the early 1990’s. I really bought into the feeling of isolation it promotes & felt that it was just what I’d been looking for at the time. Over time though, I tended to find that it wasn’t the type of thing that I could listen to all that often without becoming restless & also that there weren’t nearly enough bands that were doing anything particularly different with the original prototype so these days I opt for an occasional return to key bands & releases that I find to be genuinely rewarding. After the last couple of days though, I’ll be adding French four-piece Monolithe to my list of agreeable options.

Single-track albums haven’t been something that I’ve had a particular interest in over the years. I rarely see the point in extending a single piece to those levels of excess with only very rare examples of releases that genuinely manage to captivate me by taking me on a cohesive journey that’s worthy of my undivided attention. Green Carnation’s “Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness” & Meshuggah’s “Catch Thirtythree” immediately spring to mind however for every win there are several examples that fall by the wayside. In order for a single track of that length to achieve a consistent level of intrigue it must take the listener through a number of rewarding movements that are easily differentiated from each other but still work together as a fluently flowing piece in its own right. Does the fifty minute “Monolithe II” work in this capacity? Well yes & no. Unlike Edge Of Sanity’s “Crimson”, this is definitely one long piece rather than sounding like a bunch of different parts pasted together & whether that’s something that you have the patience for is up to the individual really. “Monolithe II” certainly doesn’t stray too far from the theme it begins with but, at the same time, it’s not all that hard to identify highlight sections of the album such as the significantly more intense & climactic period that appears at around the 25-30 minute mark. It just takes a fair amount of building to get to that point with the atmosphere tending to sneak up on you so that when the peak finally arrives you’re not all that sure how you got there.

Monolithe champion a melodic brand of funeral doom metal that’s not unlike that of many of their peers however they do offer a point of difference in the consistent use of accordion as a melodic centrepiece along with the strong use of keyboards for atmospherics. There’s a conscious sense of grandeur about this album. It isn’t the most desolate example of the subgenre as the tempos don’t get as ploddy as some of their contemporaries & the overall concentration on melody gives it a lighter feel. For this reason, I often find myself reaching for comparisons with the death doom metal subgenre as there are some easy comparisons to be made with the simple melodic guitar themes of bands like My Dying Bride & Paradise Lost here. The death-growled vocals of Richard Loudin aren’t the most original you’ve ever heard either but they’re certainly serviceable. I do feel that he could have opted for a little more variation though as he doesn’t really command the listeners attention all that often, instead tending to compliment whatever melodic concept the instrumentalists are exploring at the time in order to accentuate the big atmosphere that Monolithe are trying to create.

Ultimately, “Monolithe II” is a very strong example of the funeral doom metal sound & I can understand other members awarding it some of their higher scores. For me personally though, there are a couple of things that will always keep it grounded in the upper realms of the also-rans. Whilst the use of accordion certainly creates an interesting point of differentiation, I can’t say that I think it fits the funeral doom format all that well as I find it to sound a little bit cheesy at times. In fact, I regularly find myself thinking that it might sound more at home on a Summoning record which isn’t a positive thing if you know my feelings on that particular artist. I’d also like to see Monolithe making a greater effort to change things up a bit. A stronger focus on light & shade might have made the 50 minute run time seem a lot less arduous in my opinion. Regardless of these minor blemishes though, “Monolithe II” definitely possesses enough atmosphere to successfully maintain my interest for its duration. It just doesn't peak in intensity enough to command my higher ratings. It’s an impressive accomplishment from a classy outfit but it’s not as emotionally engaging as the premier releases in the funeral doom subgenre.

For fans of Ea, The Howling Void & Remembrance.

Oh…. My…. Fucking…. God… !!!!! It’s amazing how extreme music continues to surprise me after all these years. Just when you think that all of the good stuff has already been done, an underground release comes along & obliterates all of the walls that you’ve so carefully constructed to protect the eras you’ve placed on the highest pedestals. 2015’s “The Dreaming I” sophomore album from Colorado-based black metal duo Akhlys is one such release for me. I’ve always had an enormously strong passion for the darkest & most brutal end of extreme metal & my chosen brand of black metal is no exception. I like my drums blasting, my lyrics blasphemous & my vocals searing with an atmosphere that’s as cold & suffocating as a séance in an arctic snow storm. It seems that I’ve found a couple of kindred spirits here in Naas Alcameth & Ain too because this record couldn’t be more up my alley if they’d set out with the sole intention of satisfying my evil fantasies.

I have to admit that I had a little bit of a head-start on “The Dreaming I” as I gave it my first spin in late July after seeing Vinny name it as his all-time favourite black metal release. I got to know Vinny a bit on other metal-focused internet forums for a number of years before Metal Academy became a thing & over the extended period of time that we've been connected I’ve realised that we share some pretty similar tastes when it comes to black metal so my interest was immediately tweaked upon noticing that he held a release that I’d never heard in such high regard. The amazing cover artwork was also a major drawcard but I didn’t even manage to get halfway through the opening song before realising that I was experiencing something pretty special. In fact, the only reason that I haven’t mentioned it up until now is because my feelings were so strong that I had to get my head around just how much praise I could deem to be appropriate for a release that I was still so new to & the answer to that question has been… well…. all of it really!! Every bit of praise I can muster.

I’ve noticed “The Dreaming I” being labelled as atmospheric black metal which is interesting. Sure, there can be no doubting the all-encompassing power of the atmosphere of sheer darkness however this is much too brutal & the riffs are too upfront for that tag in my opinion. I’m much more comfortable with the conventional black metal one. Perhaps these links are encouraged by the dark ambient sections, the densely layered wall of guitars & the slow pace of the longest piece “Consummation” but they seem a little unnecessary to me. In saying that though, I can certainly see the irony in the fact that my brain wants to link Akhlys to other bands that receive the same sort of comparisons.

This 45 minute album contains just the five tracks & begins with a couple of absolute blast-fests. I’m a total sucker for insanely overthetop extreme metal drumming & you won’t find too many better examples of it than this one. I was actually wondering whether I was listening to a real drummer at times, such was the precision intensity on display & I’m still not entirely sure to tell you the truth. I suspect not though given the tone & timbre of the drum kit which has impressed the pants off me. Then we get a 17 minute epic piece that sports a slower tempo & gradually builds through a cacophony of intentionally warped melodic ideas & eventually culminating in one of the truest realizations of pure evil I’ve ever encountered. The dark ambient component is executed outstandingly well at various times throughout the tracklisting which is another key element of the album &, as someone that’s spent a lot of time with that particular niche subgenre, I was blown away by how well Akhlys understand the intricacies of ambient music. The use of twisted higher register melodic motifs is another important element of their sound & it’s unnerving to hear just how dark these can come across at times. The screaming vocals of Naas Alcameth are quite brilliant too as he works his evil magic & engulfs the listener in unholy contempt.

I’m completely unable & unprepared to find fault with “The Dreaming I” to tell you the truth. It’s as perfect a representation of the modern black metal sound as I’ve heard in many years &, after giving it the time to really sink in over the last couple of weeks, I’ve decided that it’s a top three black metal release of all time for me. In fact, it’s easily forced its way into my all-time top ten for metal in general & I don’t take a statement like that lightly at all after all these years of obsessive musical exploration. Akhlys have managed to truly capture every last inch of me with this record. I’m fully invested & it’s actually left me wondering if I should reverse my decision to leave The North given that I so clearly hold such a strong passion for black metal.

For fans of Blut aus Nord, Darkspace & Leviathan.

I was a little late to discover the wonders of Norwegian progressive metal high-achievers Leprous to be honest. When I returned to metal in 2009 I was simply too focused on making up for lost time in the extreme metal space & it seems that “Tall Poppy Syndrome” may have floated by right in front of my face without me ever bothering to look up. It wasn’t until 2013 that their “Coal” album saw me getting onboard the Leprous train & the experience impressed me enough to entice me into checking them out on their first Australian tour three years later when they co-headlined with Perth’s Voyager at the Factory Theatre here in Sydney. Leprous were really solid in a live environment too but didn’t play anything further back than 2011’s “Bilateral” & that may well have contributed to me never having felt the urge to venture any further back into their back-catalogue which, as it tuns out, is a real shame given the results of the last couple of day’s listening sessions.

“Tall Poppy Syndrome” certainly gave me a solid nudge but I wouldn’t say that it knocked me off my feet on first impression. I was undoubtedly struck by the overall class of this record however I didn’t find myself reaching for elite level comparisons until subsequent listens & I think that has a bit to do with the fact that it relies so heavily on a few highlight pieces. The 63-minute, eight-song tracklisting is extremely consistent with the shortest & most laidback inclusion “Fate” representing the least impressive of the eight tracks but still being quite enjoyable. It’s interesting that Leprous have opted to hold back on drawing from their best material until a good fifteen minutes into the album though & I think that’s one of the reasons that it took me a couple of listens to see my feelings reaching their fullest realisation as I found that my initial impressions were already set by the time I got to those tracks the first time around & I needed time to let it all settle in my brain before being open to the finer nuances that became more evident with a great level of exposure. The first two tracks are both highly professional & are really very strong in their own right however they simply don't prepare me for the wonderfully constructed & more obviously hook-laden pieces from a little later in the tracklisting with “Dare You”, the title track or “Not Even A Name” all being superb pieces of progressive metal that saw my score rising into the stratosphere.

You won’t see the wheel being reinvented here by any means & the tendency for people to want to toss around terms like “avant-garde” are completely misguided, as are the references to progressive rock as there’s not a single track here that branches outside of the metal spectrum. “Tall Poppy Syndrome” is simply a very high-quality progressive metal record that presents its influences fairly openly for all to see but manages to match its more widely celebrated peers pretty comfortably in the process. It’s not hard to identify the sort of Dream Theater-isms that have been essential ingredients in virtually every clean-sung progressive metal release since the early 90’s but there are also moments when Leprous flirt with the more extreme territories that the band’s Norwegian homeland has built its reputation on. Opeth is clearly the biggest influence on “Tall Poppy Syndrome” though & it’s the moments where they drift closest to their Swedish idols’ sound that I get the most excited about to be honest. The title track is a great example & I often caught myself wondering whether a good half of its huge appeal is due to a sense of comfort built on familiarity or nostalgia.

I’m not sure that Einar Solberg’s vocal hooks are as consistently potent as they would become in later years (particularly on their classic “Live At Rockefeller Music Hall” double album which is my all-time favourite progressive metal release these days) & this would see me holding back from fully engaged worship for a period. However once Solberg starts to nail those melodies I find myself getting dragged in pretty quickly & it was really hard not to let those few genuine highlight tracks guide my rating to be honest, particularly given that the rest of the material is so blemish-free & invariably displays an undeniable class in its execution. Eventually I just gave in as it was clear that my subconscious had strong enough feelings to warrant it. Above all else, it’s important to note that Leprous never forget about the importance of song-writing & composition within a progressive structure. In fact, they get the balance of technique & accessibility just right on this occasion & in doing so create a stunning piece of art that will stay with me for some time yet.

For fans of Opeth, Haken & Ihsahn.

Well what do you know!? I do actually like a Savatage record after all! It turns out that if you drag the microphone away from Jon Oliva & his overly theatrical banshee shrieking & then strip back some of the symphonic schmaltz in the arrangements that you're left with a more than decent heavy metal album, particularly when you insert the very capable Zachary Stevens & his more traditionally impressive hard rock voice. The influence of Jon Oliva isn't completely removed here as his voluntary step back from the band in order to concentrate on overcoming his demons didn't see him being able to completely separate himself from his lifelong passion & here we see him making a good fist of the song-writing, production & keyboard duties. I was genuinely surprised to find that the consistent use of Jon's piano within the context of a heavy metal record has actually worked to add colour rather than diminishing the impact of the heavy guitars.

Guitar virtuoso Criss Oliva is unsurprisingly in fine form & "Edge Of Thorns" would prove to be a fitting swan song for him with his untimely death in a car accident only just around the corner. The arrangements may not be as complex as they were on the previous couple of albums but there's more of a progressive edge to this material than we'd heard from a Savatage record in the past, so much so in fact that I'd be tempted to give "Edge Of Thorns" a dual subgenre tag. Tracks like "Labyrinths", "Degrees Of Sanity", Conversation Piece" & "Miles Away" have a glistening shine to them that would see them fitting more than comfortably on a Queensryche record. On the other hand, Savatage haven't completely been able to let go of their penchant for commercial hard rock & there are a few moments that remind me a fair bit of Skid Row which isn't as bad as it might sound as I don't mind a bit of Sebastian Bach & co. at times.

Unfortunately though, "Edge of Thorns" has left a bit of its potential in the tank due to the inclusion of a couple of very cheesy ballads, the worst of which (the God-awful "All That I Bleed") sees my score dropping by a half star which is disappointing given the impressive strength of highlights like the title track, "Degrees Of Sanity" & my personal favourite "Conversation Piece". Still.... credit where it's due & this is easily the best Savatage record I've heard to date.

For fans of Queensryche, Virgin Steele & Crimson Glory.

Music is such an amazing part of the world in that it can play so many different roles & satisfy so many urges depending on your mood & environment. Sometimes you just want something to throw on in the background in order to fill the space & create an atmosphere while at others you want to fully immerse yourself in the ambition & artistry of the composer by sitting in a dark room with headphones on or attending a live performance. There are times when you want to hear something familiar that doesn’t challenge you too much while the next day you may want to be opened up to something completely foreign. Well trust me when I say that Melbourne-based progressive metal outfit Lucid Planet’s 2020 sophomore effort (simply entitled “Lucid Planet II”) offers so much compositional complexity & musical ambition that you’ll be doing yourself a disservice by not giving it your full focus.

I’d never heard of Lucid Planet before one of our most highly regarded & valued Metal Academy members Xephyr nominated it for The Infinite feature release status a week or so back which is unusual for a band from my homeland & particularly for one of this quality. There hasn’t been a huge amount of buzz in the metal scene around the release of “Lucid Planet II” as far as I’m aware so I had absolutely no idea of what to expect going into it other than the general connections to Tool that seem to be a commonly used reference point. But having now sat through the entire 68 minute duration of the album in full a few times I can honestly say that I’ve been left dumbfounded as to why this artist is not a household name in the world of progressive music in general. Perhaps I’m just still too stuck in my extreme metal bubble to notice but I don’t think that’s the case & it’s left me a little saddened that a record like this one can slip through the cracks as easily as it could have if it hadn’t been brought to my attention by the wonder that is the Metal Academy website (see what I did there? I saw an opening & I took it.) This is a very real reflection of the impatient & unappreciative music market we now have in the age of internet streaming in my opinion although it's hard to deny that the internet has made up for it by drawing me to this release in the end anyway.

While looking at the album cover before pressing play for the first time, I was intrigued as to what image & identity it was trying to portray because it combines a number of disparate elements that shouldn’t really work together but somehow do. You’ve got the eye of “Lateralus”-era Tool, a band name that’s very much aligned with an ethno-ambient aesthetic & a highly complex & psychedelic image of a tunnel into a world that’s simultaneously both organic & alien. It seemed very strange for a metal release at first but after sitting through the album a couple of times it all seemed to come together beautifully & now I look at the same image in amazement at just how perfectly it has sums up the musical experience the album has in store for you.

You see, although “Lucid Planet II” is generally referred to as a progressive metal record, metal is only a piece of a much larger puzzle. Sure, it forms the basis for Lucid Planet to build their expansive array of ideas around but you certainly don’t have to be a metal fan to enjoy this record. In fact, I’d suggest that ANY fan of high quality, cerebral music & art in general should find interest in it, regardless of taste or demographic. It offers a superbly devised concept that’s been stunningly executed with the result seeing the listener taken on a journey through numerous fascinating & exotic landscapes without ever feeling unfocused or self-indulgent. It’s really fucking impressive that a relatively unknown band from Melbourne have been able to pull this off actually & I’ve been well impressed to say the least.

As I suggested earlier, the basis of the Lucid Planet sound is built around the rhythmically complex riffage of Tool & you won’t struggle to hear their trademark alternative metal crunch at numerous times across the tracklisting. But unlike most Tool copy-cats, it’s worth noting that Lucid Planet also have a good understanding of the art of tension & release & this sees them being able to build atmospheres slowly over time before reaching well-timed crescendos of significant weight. But at the same time, almost all of the eight tracks on “Lucid Planet II” incorporate a diverse palate of influences. The sounds of the natural world clearly hold a strong place in the hearts of the band because there’s a noticeably organic feel to most of this material with the tribal ambience of artists like Dead Can Dance & Steve Roach popping up time & time again, particularly on “Entrancement” which is made up almost entirely of this sound. The production style is super crisp & bright which may not highlight the heavier aspects of Lucid Planet’s sound but it certainly accentuates the psychedelic elements at play & often reminds me of artists from the electronic music scene. Just check out the second half of “Organic Hard Drive” for example where Lucid Planet don’t even try to hide their passion for psychedelic psytrance artists like Atmos & Andromeda. But the amazing thing about this is that they’ve managed to match their influences in terms of quality while also integrating the influence into their sound so beautifully that it not only sounds entirely natural (despite having likely never been attempted before) but becomes a highlight of the piece in general. “Digital Ritual” is another example of this as it wouldn’t sound out of place on an album from psybient artists like Carbon Based Lifeforms or Shpongle but also sounds quite natural when presented in the context of a tracklisting that includes melodic prog rock tunes like “Offer” which sounds more like Porcupine Tree than it does Tool but still manages to take a brief dalliance with the sort of dub that Leftfield liked to experiment with on their classic “Leftism” album. It’s astounding that Lucid Planet have been able to achieve this really, particularly given that they’re a band from my country that I’ve never even heard of & one that’s only on their second album. The ambition & musicianship here is nothing short of astonishing.

The vocal skills of front man Luke Turner probably aren’t anything truly special when viewed in isolation if I’m being honest & that could be viewed as a weakness but I think that would be a harsh assessment. Not everyone can possess a truly captivating voice as that requires a level of x-factor that really doesn’t have all that much to do with the ability to sing in key. But even though Luke may not reside in the elite tier of prog vocalists, Lucid Planet have managed to accentuate & enhance his contribution through some incredibly precise doubling & harmonizing in the studio & this proves to be somewhat of a master stroke. In fact, when combined with the addition of the gorgeous backup vocals of Jade Alice it becomes very easy to forget those initial feelings of skepticism & by the end of my second listen I was already finding Luke’s vocals to be a lot more endearing.

Overall, I simply can’t fault “Lucid Planet II”. It’s a complete musical experience that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. The tracklisting is very consistent & it’s only the fact that the couple of the more ambient works (see “Entrancement” & “Digital Ritual”) probably don’t tick my boxes quite as much as the more substantial & heavier tracks that stops me from awarding full marks but trust me when I say that it was definitely something I considered & I don’t say that lightly. Epic pieces like “Anamnesis”, “On The Way” & “Zenith” represent perfect examples of heavy progressive music in my opinion & I challenge any member of our The Infinite clan to find a way not to love this album after giving it the repeat listens required in order to fully understand its unique charms.

For fans of Tool, Karnivool & Soen.

Back when the Metal Academy website first went live a few years ago now, I had the opportunity to choose my clans of choice & honestly thought it would be a complete no-brainer. I’ve always been an extreme metal fan first & foremost so the option of allocating myself The Pit, The Horde, The Fallen & The North was an obvious one. But over time I began to realise that my preferences within The North weren’t as broad as they were for the other three clans & I opted to drop back to three clans. High quality black metal still clearly sat amongst the most elite genres for me however the scope of the black metal sound had expanded significantly since the 1990’s & I found that the modern scene included a whole plethora of different variations or sub-subgenres that often offered me very little appeal. Sometimes I’d even find it hard to understand the appeal in an artist that was generally well-regarded by the audience for your more conventional black metal & 2019’s sophomore album from US multi-instrumentalist Funereal Presence is a pretty good example of this.

“Achatius” is made up of four lengthy pieces that all exceed the ten minute mark with lone member Bestial Devotion (also the drummer for fellow US black metallers Negative Plane) producing a package that offers considerable structural variation & always keeps the listener on their toes through consistent changes-ups. The Funereal Presence sound is certainly built on the old-school mentality of classic black metal bands like Darkthrone & Bathory however there’s a greater level of complexity in the use of melody here, at times even bordering on the melodic black metal subgenre. It’s this use of melody that gives Funereal Presence their own unique sound as it often feels a little unusual or avant-garde, despite the fact that there’s nothing all that obscure happening when you examine things closely. The use of non-traditional instruments like church bells also contributes to this & is a noteworthy feature of the album as a whole.

The production job is clear & accessible without ever moving away from the lo-fi black metal aesthetic & I think it does the material justice. It’s interesting that the performances are often pretty dodgy though, particularly the drumming which sounds very much like poor Bestial is pushing himself a little further than his technical limitations should really allow for & the same can be said for some of the guitar work which struggles for timing (check out the clean section in “Wherein Seven Celestial Beasts Are Revealed To Him” for example – yuck!), a flaw that was perhaps accentuated by to the inconsistencies in the drumming. For this reason, I definitely think that “Achatius” had the potential to be more than what we’ve received. The inclusion of some more highly skilled & instrument-specific third parties could have taken this material to another level however you would usually have thought that a one-man band would be very tight given that its conforming to just the one overarching vision. That’s certainly not the case here & I find myself struggling a little bit as a result. Perhaps Bestial Devotion simply found it tough to get his tracks down tightly without the backing of other instrumentalists during the recording of each track? It’s certainly possible from my experience in the studio.

The other thing I struggle with is the more melodic material which I find to not only take me outside of my comfort zone further than I’m comfortable with but also to sound pretty sickly at times. Bestial Devotion’s decision to utilize cow bell at various points across the tracklisting was never a good idea either. I’ve always been a strong detractor of that particular rhythmic instrument’s metal credentials & would actually go so far as to suggest that it should be banned altogether. It probably won’t come as any sort of surprise that the more extreme sections of the album offer me the most appeal though with second track “Wherein A Messenger Of The Devil Appears” being my clear highlight. The other three tracks simply fall short of the mark for me, particularly the two tracks that close out the album which were a clear step down from the A-side.

I don’t think too many black metal fans will have trouble with the vocals which sit comfortably within the safe confines of the genre however they’re also not particularly engaging & don’t really serve as the focal point at any stage in my opinion. If you’re going to buy into “Achatius” then it’s likely for the melodic complexity in the guitar work rather than the extreme nature of the vocals though. The occasional rough-shod yet psychotic Quorthon-esque guitar solo is a nice touch which probably could have been explored a little further although Bestial Devotion’s limited capabilities in this area are probably a large part of the reason for this & that kinda sums up my issues with the album to be honest. I don’t mind a black metal album that’s low on technical skill but caters for it with pure darkness & evil. “Achatius” aims significantly higher than that though & doesn’t stick within its technical limitations which leads to this ol’ metal musician sporting a fair few cringes throughout the 49 minute run time. There’s enjoyment to be had when Funeral Presence keep it simpler & more aggressive but I struggle with his more ambitious moments & this has led to an underwhelming overall impression of the album.

For fans of Negative Plane, Cultes des Ghoules & Darkthrone.

My knowledge of Liverpool-based metalcore outfit Loathe was pretty limited leading into my first sitting with their sophomore album “I Let It In & It Took Everything”. I’d seen their name tossed around the traps for a few years & had definitely noticed the attention that this record had drawn from the metal press however I’d never felt the urge to check them out before. Unlike many of my old-school peers though, I’ve always had a soft spot for high quality metalcore & the idea of cross-pollination with a Deftones-influenced alternative metal sound certainly sounded appealing as I’ve slowly become a big fan of Deftones over the last decade or so.

My first impressions of “I Let It In & It Took Everything” were very good. This was clearly a quality record that had been produced by an imaginative & ambitious group of capable musicians. Even the opening ambient piece “Theme” gave a strong indication that Loathe meant business. In fact, all three of the short ambient pieces scattered across the tracklisting offer deep & full synthesized tones that attest to a strong pedigree in atmospheric music & I found them to be a really nice contribution. Then once the proper songs kicked off I was surprised by just how intense Loathe can be. Up until that point I’d been expecting the more accessible Deftones-influenced alternative metal material to represent the stronger side of the equation based on the vast majority of the reviews I’d read however this was definitely not the case in practise. Loathe’s metalcore sound is not only well produced but it’s also as abrasive as fuck with front man Kadeem France absolutely screaming his lungs out &, in doing so, topping most of his metalcore contemporaries for sheer electricity & aggression. Then, when you throw in his ability to sing in a sweet Chino Moreno style you get a captivating & exhilarating performance.

In saying that, I can’t say that Loathe manage to match Chino’s classic material with Deftones. The hooks simply aren’t as strong & I find myself looking forward to the more abrasive metalcore material like the classic duo of B-side monsters “Gored” & album highlight “Heavy Is The Head That Falls With the Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts” which even features an intro section that sounds uncannily like Deafheaven style blackgaze. These two seem to press a lot harder on my musical sweet spot & remind me very much of a less complex Dillinger Escape Plan. As far as percentages go though, “I Let It In & It Took Everything” is unquestionably a combination of the two sounds with the alternative stuff often characterized by those signature down-strummed shoegaze chords & the more intense material regularly employing a simpler version of the rhythmic riff structures of Meshuggah’s djent sound. The way that Loathe combine their variety of different influences into the one glistening package isn’t always fluent & collaborative however it’s always of a high quality & never fails to lose my attention.

Overall, I find Loathe’s second full-length to be a very solid release that’s completely free of duds & has been particularly well produced, particularly the powerful bass guitar sound which drives much of this material. Loathe clearly possessed a broad palate of musical ideas by this point in their careers & I really enjoy their artistic vision for such a new band. I’ve noticed that the album also comes in an instrumental version & I have to question the merit of such a release when Kadeem France’s vocal delivery is such an integral component of the band’s makeup however it’s hard to deny that Loathe is capable of pulling it off from a purely instrumental point of view. “I Let It In & It Took Everything” is a high quality alternative metalcore record that represents the best example of that particular combination that I’ve experienced to date.

For fans of 36 Crazyfists, early Issues & the last couple of Northlane albums.

Sometimes a release comes along that leaves you wondering what rock you’ve been hiding under. A release whose qualities are so profound that it immediately adjusts the way you think about the world & has you considering new directions that you previously didn’t know existed. I usually find these sort of recordings to be those that question the musical status quo by taking on our stereotypes & showing us that we don’t necessarily know everything just yet & the fifth album from Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu certainly does that.

I’ve been aware of Oranssi Pazuzu since their 2009 debut album “Muukalainen puhuu” but haven’t really given them much time until now to be perfectly honest. I guess my experiences with other supposed “psychedelic black metal” outfits haven’t been all that positive over the years which is unusual given my huge fascination with psychedelic rock & its incorporation into other subgenres like doom metal, sludge metal, post-metal, stoner metal & drone metal. But the overwhelmingly positive critical response to “Mestarin kynsi” has tweaked my interest & its unusual subgenre tagging has finally convinced me that it would be an interesting discussion topic for Metal Academy so I’ve finally bitten the bullet & awarded it feature releases status for The Infinite off the back of its “avant-garde metal” tagging on other sites.

Sometimes releases that challenge the listener’s existing understanding of what extreme metal can be can taken a few listens to fully grasp & can be real growers but “Mestarin kynsi” hit me from the word go, so much so that I immediately started wondering if I might have to rethink my album of the year nomination with only a couple of weeks left in the year. The sounds coming from my speakers were like nothing I’d heard before but also felt so fully realised that I never felt uneasy or required any sort of adjustment period & that’s the sign of a next level artist. The other thing that sprang to mind fairly early on was just how little justice the genre-tagging on other prominent internet sites has been giving Oranssi Pazuzu as they really seem to be clutching at straws. Psychedelic rock? Really? Can you see fans of The Doors or Jimi Hendrix going nuts over this release? They’d likely run for the hills in terror. Avant-garde metal? Well, yes it is avant-garde by the very definition of the term but that tag is usually reserved for releases that sound inherently weird & that require time & familiarity to get comfortable with. The combination of disparate genres you’ll hear on “Mestrin kynsi” is so well executed that you almost feel like you’ve been listening to this stuff your whole life & I found myself instantly comfortable so I don’t regard that tag as being particularly relevant either. And then there’s the black metal thing. There is absolutely no doubt that the vocals of front man Jun-His fall firmly into the black metal camp. In fact, I’d argue that they’re some of the most definitive & powerful in all of black metal & I think that’s a strong enough statement to warrant the album being lumped in with the darkest of metal genres but I hear very little else that hints at genuine black metal from an instrumental point of view to be honest. Interestingly, the subgenre that I feel has the strongest claim on “Mestarin kynsi” is post-metal & it baffles me that this element isn’t more readily referred to. The lengthy periods of repeated motifs while other elements gradually build around it, the huge crescendos, the use of atmospheric ambience, the fact that the music utilises the signature tools that of metal but has you questioning whether it’s metal at all… all of that is in line with the classic post-metal model & if you replaced Jun-His’ vocals with some sludge/hardcore ones I think you’d find that the public perception would change dramatically, particularly as there are various riffs utilised across the album that sound pretty similar in style to the leading players from the atmospheric sludge metal movement. The psychedelic component is worth mentioning but I don’t actually feel like it’s too strong for the post-metal tag to cover & the same can be said for the electronic element which beautifully colours the music in various different ways but never comes across as sounding overly quirky or forced.

Back to those vocals, one thing that I find truly amazing is that Jun-His can get away with growling & screaming like a demon over this music which doesn’t often hint at black metal’s darkness. The instrumentation has an ethereal beauty about it that I would generally have thought would have been in conflict with your more blasphemic of vocalists (think Deathspell Omega) but here they seem to work perfectly & I put that down to Oranssi Pazuzu having complete clarity of what they’re trying to achieve & total confidence in their abilities to make it stick. I’ve rarely heard a more imposing front man & he really does make this album a lot more appealing than it may have been with your standard black metal fodder. The way the instrumentation builds gradually in subtle ways underneath his unrestrained brutality is a talent that the band milk for all it’s worth with each track obtaining the required crescendo in different but equally abrasive & intense ways. It’s kinda their thing. Sure there are a few jerky transitions included here & there where it sounds like the band have attempted to paste two disparate sections together but those individual sections are simply so compelling that it’s very hard to argue a case against them residing in the same piece. The three tracks that make up the A-side are nothing short of audio perfection & you’ll rarely find a more gripping & transcendent side of metal. The quality does taper of just a touch at the start of the B-side with “Oikeamielisten Sali” being the clear low point of the album but even then it’s a very high quality piece of work & this only leads into further glories over the last couple of tracks with the final climax of long & repetitive closer “Taivaan portti” representing the most violent yet euphoric end to an incrediblly creative album.

“Mestarin kynsi” brings together a large quantity of influences that should have no place together in theory but in practice come across as pure genius. The jangly noise rock guitars, the Massive Attack style filtered electronic bass lines, the krautrock experimentation…. there's even a question around whether a lot of this stuff is even metal but it all works wonderfully well & has left me feeling somewhat embarrassed that I’m only just coming to this release now when it is so clearly something that I should have invested the time in earlier. Oranssi Pazuzu are an absolute breath of fresh air in a scene that’s so chock full of pretenders who are simply trying to emulate their idols. They’re not only ground-breaking but have also presented their unusual sound with such fluency that they still achieve a greater level of accessibility than most extreme metal outfits & this is the key behind their surprising success. I can’t stress enough what a magical experience “Mestarin kynsi” is for a music tragic like myself & I’m genuinely grateful that I’ve discovered it. Better late than never as they say. And yes, this is my album of the year. No one will catch it at this late stage & I’m not sure I’d want them to anyway. It’s a fitting & deserved champion in my opinion.

For fans of A Forest Of Stars, Hail Spirit Noir & Sólstafir.

The classic doom/death sound has always been something that I’ve been heavily attracted to as it combines two of my favourite sounds for a result that generally equals or transcends the sum of its parts. In fact, it could be argued that I wasn’t all that big on your more traditional doom metal sound until the more significant doom/death exponents appeared in the early 1990s with England’s My Dying Bride sitting amongst the most important & influential in my musical journey. It took exactly one song to leave me hooked with the title track from 1992’s “Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium” E.P. leaving me completely soul-destroyed & begging for more, a task which they willingly proceeded to fulfill with aplomb over the next four years. My Dying Bride’s best work was not only gripping enough to play a significant role in the greatest period of musical discovery & exploration in my life to date but, so profound was their impact on me, that they also assisted in my emotional development as a young man. By the late 90’s however, the doom/death explosion had reached its peak & begun its descent & my interest in metal as a whole was starting to wane which would see me spending most of the 2000’s immersing myself in the world of electronic music. When I finally returned to metal in 2009 I had some catching up to do so I quickly turned to my beloved My Dying Bride for guidance. I would soon find that 2001’s “The Dreadful Hours” album was held up in the highest esteem by fans & critics alike so my hopes were lifted at the prospect of another life-changing musical highlight from the leaders of the game.

“The Dreadful Hours” can be regarded as an album that’s very much representative of what your average My Dying Bride fan was wanting to hear from them at the time & it depends on where you stand in regards to that statement as to whether you’ll be overjoyed or underwhelmed by it. When I first reviewed it back in November 2010 I found that I fell comfortably into the latter camp. I certainly saw some appeal in what I was hearing but felt that the band was simply revising past glories in a less-inspired manner, an opinion that was provided additional weight by the fact that more than 20% of the album was taken up by a re-recorded version of a past classic. It all sounded like a band going through the motions & trying to force out the album their fans were all wanting & the seemingly unanimous praise the album seemed to draw from the global metal community has left me confused ever since. My confusion reached a new peak recently when I discovered that “The Dreadful Hours” was My Dying Bride’s top ranking release on another prominent music ratings website, sitting clear of bona fide classics like “Turn Loose The Swans” & “The Angel & The Dark River”. I immediately raised my wretched face to the heavens & muttered “What is this madness?!” It was a clear indication that the time was right to reassess my position.

I once again found myself struggling a bit during my first listen to be honest. The production is excellent as you would expect but I wasn’t really able to connect all that well with the song-writing & delivery. It certainly sounded like My Dying Bride but…. there was something missing. That was until the stunning re-enactment of the epic fourteen minute “The Return Of The Beautiful” from their 1992 debut full-length “As The Flower Withers” (this time renamed “The Return TO The Beautiful”) which not only represents the clear highlight of the album but also sits up there with the greatest pieces of work for the subgenre as a whole. Yyyeessss….. there it is. That’s what I’ve been missing. I quickly returned to the start of the album to see if I’d just overlooked the quality in the other material & my second listen saw me starting to identify & come to terms with my qualms.

One of the most magnificent features of the classic MDB material was the inclusion of the violin which added a truly majestic aura & an overall beauty to the music. "The Dreadful Hours" is really missing that aspect. The band have attempted to replace it through the use of keyboards which generally work quite well but are rarely as emotionally engaging. There’s also not as much consistency in the quality of the riffs as there was during their classic period with some of them sounding a touch generic & this element sees most tracks falling a little short of their potential. I think "Black Heart Romance" definitely achieves the classic MDB sound best of the new material & after several listens I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a classic in its own right however the fact that "The Return To The Beautiful" clearly takes another step up from there shows that My Dying Bride aren’t quite what they were, despite leaving clear proof that they’re still a tier one player.

Probably my major gripe with latter day My Dying Bride is with Aaron’s clean vocal delivery though. On “The Dreadful Hours” we see him alternating between his powerful death growls & his more melodic & gothic-tinged clean singing & my feelings on the two are like chalk & cheese. Where his growls bring the more sombre material a genuine sense of desolation, his clean stuff comes across as very limited & repetitive. His phrasing is always the same & I feel like he’s about to cry a lot of the time. Now that may appeal to a lot of people but I’ve always found that sort of thing to be overly melodramatic & emasculating. Label me as the classic cold-hearted male that’s detached from his emotional side if you like but I don’t like to hear grown men whimpering & whinging all that much, particularly in my extreme metal. Aaron does a lot of rehashing of old material here too. The phrasing in "My Hope, The Destroyer" is simply too close to earlier material for example & the lyrics also make me want to kick him in the nuts & tell him to harden the fuck up. "The Deepest Of All Hearts" is a fine example of this too & the up-front position the vocals take in the mix doesn’t help much to be fair. Why do so many of the lines have to end with “me” & “you”?? It’s all a bit annoying as the death growls inevitably see my ears pricking up & my general attitude soaring but I have to admit that repeat listens have seen me able to look past Aaron’s performance a lot more than I used to.

Having had my whinge, this is musically a pretty heavy record. The instrumental performances are all very tight & chunky & there’s only the one track that I don’t enjoy in the dreary nine-minute "Le Figile della Tempesta" which sees Aaron at his worst over a repeated lead guitar motif that’s been pulled straight from their classic “The Cry Of Mankind”. I can easily see how “The Dreadful Hours” offers a fairly universal appeal & I do enjoy it more than I did previously, mainly because I’ve had time to get over my qualms a little bit & just take in the positives a bit more. I mean there is still a lot of the classic My Dying Bride sound here. It’s just that I’m left with a numbing feeling that cries out "you’ve heard it all before". I guess I just think that it’s a bit overrated rather than harboring any doubts about it being a strong record in its own right. It’s a high quality doom release & is deserving of a higher rating than I gave it previously but it doesn’t entice me to listen to it over their past classics & its closing masterpiece serves as a reminder of the real depth & magnificence that My Dying Bride are capable of at their very best.

The industrial metal sound was essentially invented by two fairly different but no less forward-thinking artists on opposite sides of the globe during the late 1980’s. On the one side you had former Napalm Death guitarist Justin Broadrick’s Godflesh project coming out of Birmingham, England which was potentially the first to combine a genuine metal sound with industrial music. And on the other side of the globe you had Chicago four-piece Ministry who had slowly integrated a metal component into their sound over many years after beginning life as something entirely different. Both have maintained their presence in the scene for the more than three decades that have since passed &, as is so often the case in music, the originators have not only retained their relevance but are still the benchmark with which all industrial metal is judged. I love them both but it’s interesting that the emotions they are each capable of drawing from me are quite different &, despite utilizing similar tool sets, I wouldn’t say that they sound particularly alike either. 

Ministry actually predate Godflesh by many years, having first formed as a synthpop act way back in 1981. The band is centred around the musical genius of multi-instrumentalist Al Jourgensen who is a complex & constantly evolving human being, not only from a musical sense but also from a personal one. It’s interesting that he’s given drastically contrasting accounts of how his extreme change in musical direction took place. At one point Al had downplayed his early stylistic approach & he was quoted as saying that his original record label Arista Records had assumed total creative control over the product that Ministry were producing & that the musical direction was the result of Arista having engaged external writers & producers. During another interview he changed his story slightly by stating that Arista had pressured him into adopting a sound that was more likely to be commercially successful in the market of the day. Then thirdly, there are various accounts of Al simply saying that his discovery of hardcore punk in the mid-1980’s had led to him consciously making the decision to change his style which would indicate that he had actually never had any ambitions towards a heavier sound during the early 80’s. The third option sounds the most likely to me & also seems to be backed up by his ex-wife Patty Marsh. Regardless of which story is true though, Ministry’s transition to a new label in the Warner Brothers affiliated Sire Records would see the new wave synthpop of their 1983 debut album “With Sympathy” being converted into a noticeably more industrial, electro-tinged sound for 1986’s sophomore album “Twitch” with the influence of his co-producer Adrian Sherwood & some recent touring with EBM masters Front 242 having a significant impact on the result. It would see Al becoming progressively more open to aggressive & abrasive sounds over the coming years with 1988’s “Land Of Rape & Honey” testing the waters with a significant metal component before 1989’s “The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste” album took things to their next logical extreme with Ministry finally committing to a fully integrated industrial metal sound.  

My first experiences with Ministry came through the singles that were taken from “The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste” with both “Burning Inside” & “So What” getting regular plays on late-night metal radio during the early 1990’s. I liked what I heard too. It all sounded so fresh & exciting although I have to admit that I was absolutely enraptured with the extreme metal scene at the time so I don’t think I ever sought out the full album until my brother Ben picked it & “The Land Of Rape & Honey” up shortly after becoming obsessed with Ministry’s 1992 album “Psalm 69”. Both of these records were very strong & important releases that played a huge part in the creation of a steadily growing US industrial metal scene that saw the likes of New Jersey’s Old & Boston’s Skin Chamber competing head to head with English industrialists Godflesh & Pitch Shifter. 

So this brings us to the before-mentioned “Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed & The Way To Suck Eggs” album; a release that would see Ministry taking further steps into the commercial stratosphere & one that is generally regarded as Jourgenson’s finest hour. It would also be Ministry’s last full-length with Sire Records as its subsequent success would see them being promoted by Warner Brothers with their next couple of albums receiving major label backing. “Psalm 69” would be produced by Al Jourgensen in conjunction with full-time collaborator & bass player Paul Barker with recordings taking place in both Chicago & Lake Geneva over more than a year from March 1991 to May 1992. The album was originally intended to be titled “The Tapes Of Wrath” however this would change over time with Al eventually opting to go with a title derived from the 69th chapter of Aleister Crowley’s 1913 text “The Book Of Lies” which is essentially a reference to the 69 sexual position.  

The cover artwork for “Psalm 69” was created by photographer Paul Elledge who had hit it off with Jourgensen after being employed to shoot the band on their tour for “The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste”. The two men had stayed up all night partying & this eventually led to a long-term business arrangement that saw Elledge providing the artwork for several Ministry releases over the coming years. Jourgensen gave Elledge a copy of the album recordings & Crowley’s book as reference points & the piece that eventually made the front cover was a triple exposure that Elledge felt best represented the imagery he’d uncovered in Ministry’s music & concept. It’s quite a striking image & I’m not sure it really suits the sound of the album as a whole but it certainly suits the dark majesty of some of the more easy-paced tracks like “Scare Crow” & particularly the title track. The image of the alien-esque angel has an uncomfortable quality to it that I find to be quite similar to David Lynch’s seminal “Eraserhead” film. It’s interesting that Godflesh mastermind Justin Broadrick has been quoted as saying that his classic 1989 industrial metal album “Streetcleaner” was the result of late-night “Eraserhead” viewing sessions whilst under the influence of LSD so the film seems to be in some way linked to the development of the industrial metal subgenre. It was a huge film for me personally too so perhaps that’s why I feel such an attraction to this sort of record given that the more industrial material almost mimics the tension & uneasiness of the film, although admittedly not as closely as Broadrick’s vision would. The front cover wouldn’t feature any reference to the band name or album title & I have to admit that I always question the sense in this practice as it seems to me to be a little self-indulgent. 

As with all good industrial metal, the production job that Al & Paul achieved for “Psalm 69” is almost as important as the music itself & is a magnificent example of its type. Warner Brothers had given Ministry a huge budget to work with as they’d been anticipating a major breakthrough hit following the underground buzz around the band’s previous album. Jourgensen, his wife Patty & guitarist Mike Scaccia apparently proceeded to blow most of the budget by purchasing around $1,000 worth of drugs a day but it doesn’t seem to have had a negative effect on the result. The guitar tone they achieved is absolutely superb & it gives songs like “Just One Fix”, “Jesus Built My Hotrod” & the title track an electricity & power that is impossible to ignore. It really does announce the band in no uncertain terms & then proceeds to grab your head & stuff it down your neck. Paul’s bass tone only accentuates this effect as it possesses fantastic weight & ties in beautifully with the album’s industrial themes. Bill Rieflin’s drum kit sounds suitably mechanical but if there’s one weakness to this overall production I’d suggest that it’s Bill’s snare sound which stands out in the mix very obviously. I’d describe it as a tinny slap &, although this sound would be repeated on dozens of industrial releases over the years, I can’t help but feel that Ministry might have been better served to go with something a little more bottom heavy. But fear not… the wealth of professionally layered & processed samples are nothing short of astonishing & the use of doubled & heavily effected vocals is also a major selling point that adds substantially to the unhinged & drug-addled atmosphere of “Psalm 69”. The overall package is a huge feather in Jourgensen & Barker’s caps & it shows the advantages of having a diverse array of experience to draw upon across several disparate genres. I’m honestly not sure that the album would have been quite as successful had it not been presented in such a professional & cutting-edge manner. On a side note, I'm not sure if it's just the Spotify version of the album I've been revisiting this week or not but there's a noticeable difference in volume between the various tracks & this isn't something I remember from the CD copy I'd grown up with so perhaps it's just a quirk in the streamed rip.

Musically, this was definitely the fastest & most exciting sounding Ministry record to date with the metal component having been turned up to ten on the majority of the tracklisting. In many ways it represents the most perfect union of Jourgensen’s industrial & metal influences with both components playing an equal role in the success of the record. The drum tracks have been tailor made to provide a consistent (& at times hypnotic) pulse that gives the simple yet extremely high-quality metal riffs plenty of room to inflict maximum damage. I can only imagine that the increased involvement of Scaccia in the recording process has had an impact on the riff-heavy style of many of these tracks because there’s been a noticeable step up in this department, particularly in the repeated references to thrash metal in some of the tremolo-picked bottom-string chug riffs on songs like “Just One Fix” & “Jesus Built My Hotrod”. A couple of the slower & more lumbering riff sections strangely remind me very much of early 90’s Bathory which can only be a compliment & the level of variety that’s been achieved without ever feeling like they’ve sacrificed on focus is a real highlight. 

Jourgensen & Barker were masters of tension & release & you can easily see that in their layering of the lead guitar parts which are used more as a textural tool than a melodic one most of the time. I can pick up more than the odd nod towards dance music in the band’s command of the dancefloor whilst never losing sight of their underground metal appeal. The transitions are a brilliant example of this with well-timed single-bar adjustments being used to introduce a switch back to the main theme in a similar way to that employed by techno producers. In fact, several of the big hits from “Psalm 69” would go on to become dancefloor anthems at goth & alternative clubs for decades to come given their strong beats & danceable tempos. The samples showcase a very well-defined theme with the whole record having a dark & ominous atmosphere but also dripping with a drug-crazed insanity that reminds me of a Rob Zombie horror flick. This would be an element that would be borrowed by not only Zombie himself but also by hundreds of industrial metal wannabes over the years. The slower material like the epic doom monster “Scare Crow” very effectively draws me back to my drug-fueled nights spent in Sydney goth clubs during the mid-90’s with Jourgensen seemingly tapping into the cerebral power of that sort of environment. He really is the clear ring-leader of this psychotic circus & there’s a unquestionable genius in his madness.  

It’s interesting that the album gets more industrial as it goes on & culminates with the last couple of tracks being completely industrial-focused & offering very little in the way of metal. In fact, “Corrosion” is very similar to the intense & noisy industrial techno I used to play whilst DJIng in dark underground clubs during the 2000’s. Both of these tracks were produced by Paul Barker in isolation amidst stories of a significant divide between Jourgensen & Scaccia & the rest of the band with Al claiming that the two groups recorded their parts completely separately & that he & Scaccia erased 80% of the material the other three members had recorded. Given this information, you’d have to think that it was a minor miracle that anything of value was achieved, let alone a genre-defining classic like this one. Perhaps it was simply through weight of numbers given the lengthy duration of the recording sessions & the fact that we only end up with nine of the thirty tracks that would eventuate. 

Personally, I find “Psalm 69” to be a very consistent & extremely high-quality metal record that doesn’t require flashy musicianship or an over-the-top image to make its point. There is a slight lull after the first couple of mind-blowing tracks with the short & gimmicky blast-beat driven “TV II” & the simple & thrash speed metal tune “Hero” both representing some mildly enjoyable filler, however the rest of the album is as classy, adventurous & breath-taking as you’ll find in this form of metal. For this reason, I feel that “Psalm 69” is worthy of its elite status amongst not only the industrial metal crowd but for metal music in general. It’s easily Ministry’s finest work with only Godflesh’s classic “Streetcleaner” album standing in front of it for the genre overall. 

For fans of: White Zombie, Nailbomb, Strapping Young Lad

The 1991 sophomore album from Swedish death metal godfathers Entombed is a release that I’ve been looking forward to dissecting for some time now & much of my excitement is due to the fact that the development & subsequent success of the local Swedish scene was something that practically took place in front of my young teenage eyes. In the early 1990’s, my life almost entirely revolved around the underground tape trading scene &, as a result, I feel very well equipped to tackle this record within the context of what was going on around it. Things were happening so quickly & it would only be a period of four years that would see Sweden’s earliest forays with the death metal sound being transformed into a globally recognized sound that was being copied by hundreds (if not thousands) of bands globally.

For anyone that hasn’t already read Daniel Ekeroth’s excellent historical book “Swedish Death Metal” (& I highly recommend that you do), it’s probably worth noting that whilst Entombed are generally regarded as the originators of the Swedish death metal scene, that’s not entirely accurate. The true root of the scene was arguably fellow Stockholmers Morbid; a blackened death metal outfit whose reputation is mainly built on their association with their legendary front man Dead. Morbid’s 1987 demo tape “December Moon” would achieve somewhat of a cult status in underground metal circles however many people probably aren’t aware that it also featured future Entombed members Ulf Cederlund (guitar) & LG Petrov (drums), possibly because they took on the silly pseudonyms of Napolean Puke & Drutten (Swedish for “one who tumbles down”) respectively. Morbid would eventually peter out following Dead’s defection to Norway to join Mayhem with Cederlund & Petrov staying onboard for 1988’s “The Last Supper” demo before leaving to join Nihilist (i.e. the famous precursor to Entombed) a short time later.

Nihilist was formed in 1987 by drummer Nicke Andersson, guitarist Alex Hellid & bassist Leif Cuzner with the “Premature Autopsy” demo tape being released the following year. 1989 would see it followed up with the “Only Shreds Remain” cassette with Cuzner exiting the fold shortly afterwards, but not before he had achieved a significant milestone in death metal history for it was Cuzner that had invented the infamous guitar tone that that the Swedish death metal community would make its signature for many decades afterwards. This had been accidently achieved by maxing out all of the nobs on a Boss HM-s Heavy Metal pedal which I’m sure every guitarist that owned one must have tried at some stage (me included). Clearly none had looked at it as a legitimate possibility before though. Interestingly, Leif would be replaced by Jonny Hedlund for 1989’s “Drowned” demo before Andersson decided to disband Nihilist altogether as a way of easily removing Hedlund from the group. Hedlund would subsequently form Unleashed while the other band members would adopt the Entombed moniker & record the “But Life Goes On” demo before the year was out.

“But Life Goes On” would see Entombed signing a recording contract with English death metal & grindcore label Earache Records who had risen from relative obscurity to become the leader in their field over the previous couple of years. After unearthing the UK grindcore scene through albums from Unseen Terror, Napalm Death, Carcass & O.L.D. in 1987/88, label head Digby Pearson had then cottoned on to the steadily growing death metal obsession that was simmering away in the underground tape trading community. 1989 would see him releasing a string of important records from bands like Morbid Angel, Terrorizer, Bolt Thrower, Carcass & Godflesh; all of which would have a significant impact on the global extreme metal scene & would see fans flocking to every subsequent Earache release as if their very lives depended on it. The death metal bubble was expanding ever further & it was this environment that would see the Swedish death metal scene exploding onto the scene in 1990.

Entombed’s “Left Hand Path” album is certainly known as the most significant point in that story. It really did pave the way for other Swedish bands to follow in Entombed’s foot-steps with many taking on similar attributes to give Stockholm its signature death metal sound. Many of these attributes would become attached to the work of producer Tomas Skogsberg & his Sunlight Studios in Stockholm with Grotesque’s “Incantation”, Carnage’s “Dark Recollections” & Tiamat’s “Sumerian Cry” releases all being products of Sunlight recordings at around that time. Things would further escalate for the Swedes in 1991 with Tiamat’s second album “The Astral Sleep” seeing the light of day along with a whole slew of debut releases from exciting new bands such as Unleashed, Grace, At The Gates, Carbonized, Megaslaughter, Sorcery, Therion, Authorize, Edge Of Sanity &, most notably, Dismember who were born from the ashes of Carnage & were close associates of Entombed. Dismember’s “Like An Ever Flowing Stream” album would gain them worldwide acclaim & would kick off a running argument in the death metal community as to whose debut was the best example of the Swedish sound for decades to come. It was in this creative environment that Entombed would not only need to continue making quality death metal but would also need to find another gear if they were going to hold on to their title as the premier Swedish death metal exponent.

Unfortunately for Entombed, drummer & band leader Nicke Andersson & front man LG Petrov were not seeing eye to eye at the time which culminated in Petrov being fired at an inopportune moment. Earache were keen to get some new material into the market to capitalize on the buzz around the Swedish scene though so Andersson employed Nirvana 2002 vocalist Orvar Säfström for the recording of the “Crawl” E.P. in April 1991. The union would prove to be short-lived however with the release receiving only a luke-warm reception & by the time band re-entered Sunlight Studios for the recording of “Clandestine” later in the year with Carbonized bassist Lars Rosenberg, Andersson had decided to take on the microphone duties himself.

It’s worth mentioning that my initial experience with Entombed was through a late-night metal radio program in 1990. “Left Hand Path” was somewhat of a favourite with the DJs who ran the show that I recorded each week so I was aware of the band quite early in the piece. I have to say that, while I generally enjoyed what I was hearing, Entombed’s debut never connected with me in the way that it seemed to with the rest of the death metal audience &, for this reason, it was one of the few Earache releases that I didn’t hurry out to buy. Instead, I would pick it up through tape trading & give it a few spins before moving on to sounds that were more in line with my taste at the time. The same can be said for Dismember’s debut actually. I put this down to my ears being far more interested in the more polished & proficient US strain of death metal being championed by bands like Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary & Deicide & the dirtier, punkier feel of the Swedish model didn’t interest me quite as much. When “Crawl” was released I gave it a passing glance but it also didn’t get past the cursory few spins.

“Clandestine” would be released in November 1991 & would make an immediate impact on the death metal market. The buzz around the record & the attractive cover art of Dan Seagrave would see me reconsidering my position with the band & it would become the first Entombed record that I’d purchase on release. Interestingly, my initial listens would prove that I’d timed my run very well too as this was a different beast to the ugly, stinking one that had assaulted our ear drums only the previous year. There is much more polish & precision about the production job on “Clandestine” with Skogsberg having achieved a more glossy & accessible sound by refining & improving the signature Entombed guitar tone & adding additional weight to the rhythm section. Although your ears immediately associate the guitar tone with the Sunlight Studios sound, playing “Left Hand Path” & “Clandestine” back to back shows a remarkable difference between the two. The “Clandestine” tone is noticeably cleaner & has much more definition. There’s less of a bottom end push & a greater dynamic range has been achieved through a stronger mid-range component as opposed to the noisier “Left Hand Path” sound which possessed more high end. The two sounds are equally powerful however I definitely prefer the fuller “Clandestine” one which seems to have more purity of sound. It engulfs the listener in a wall of distorted fuzz which I’m not all that comfortable to remove myself from.

Skogsberg had also employed a number of other production improvements too though. The drum sound on “Clandestine” is nothing short of phenomenal & is arguably the major selling point for the record. Andersson’s toms possess enormous depth & the whole kit is beautifully balanced while Rosenberg’s bass guitar sound is full & powerful & combines beautifully with the guitars & drums during the crunch moments to really accentuate the enormous heaviness of Entombed’s sound. Andersson’s vocals have received a lot of attention in the mixing phase too with individual phrases having been layered over the top of each other & coming from different positions in the stereo spectrum which is very effective indeed. As is the use of keyboards & movie samples to add additional atmosphere to the mix; an attribute that this record possesses in spades. To summarize, Skogsberg has dusted off a bit of the dirt from Entombed’s exterior, sanded off some of the rough edges, polished it up & given it a new coat of paint which has given “Clandestine” a lot more nuance. It not only sounds more polished than the other early Swedish albums of the time but It enabled Entombed to start competing with the Americans for overall professionalism & accessibility. I’d suggest that it really does depend on personal preference as to which model you’ll prefer but there’s very little doubt as to the one that floats my boat more & I think the production is one of the key factors in what makes “Clandestine” such a great & important death metal record.

A lot is made of the musical direction Entombed chose to take with “Clandestine”. Particularly from detractors who favour the debut. But in truth, the differences are much more subtle than we saw with the band’s subsequent leap into death ‘n’ roll territory with 1993’s “Wolverine Blues” album. In hindsight, I think it’s fair to say that we could see the early signs of that transformation here if you look closely enough. That cleaner production, the more accessible & melodic song-writing, the added groove in some of the riffs & the increased use of more controlled tempos were all elements that Entombed would draw on significantly in the coming years. But in saying that, there is really very little doubt that “Clandestine” is still a death metal record in the classic sense of the term. It’s just that some people see it as a dilution of “Left Hand Path” while others view it as an expansion on the foundations it had built. The punky back bone is still clearly visible with numerous examples of d-beat drum patterns being utilized across the tracklisting although there’s less of a reliance on it this time which can only be a positive for someone like myself that isn’t terribly interested in hardcore. Instead, Entombed have gone for a lot more variety in tempo & atmosphere which makes for a much more interesting listen in my opinion. I particularly dig the increase in doomier breakdowns with Autopsy having clearly been a big influence on the band. Some of those sections are crushingly heavy & are dripping with blood-soaked death metal pedigree. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the slower tempos work better with the signature Entombed guitar tone as the crunch is unbelievable. That’s not to say that the faster material has lost any of its potency though & I think it’s the two extreme ends of the spectrum that give Entombed the most bang for buck as far as tempo goes. Just check out the re-recorded version of the old Nihilist track “Severe Burns” for an example of just how much this band kills when they let the shackles fall to the ground & put the pedal to the metal.

“Left Hand Path” was relatively simple as far as song-writing & structure went but “Clandestine” sees Entombed lifting their game significantly in this regard with a noticeable increase in compositional complexity enabling the band to reach new heights of professionalism. Unlike the debut which was more of a collaborative affair, Anderrson was responsible for writing the entire album this time & I believe that this is significant. Nicke has often been quoted as saying that he had a strong fascination with US technical death metal masters Atheist at the time &, although you won’t hear anything particularly technical here, you can see the influence in the more expansive composition. He & Skogsberg really threw the sink at the arrangements with a whole range of frills & finer details being explored, particularly in the drumming. The album was already a total riff-fest but this extra attention to detail has really helped to maximise the impact of the transitions. The riffs themselves are generally still quite simple when viewed in isolation however they’re much more measured & deliberate in their attack & this is further highlighted by the quality of the production & performances. Even at their most brutal though, Entombed seem to have captured the perfect balance between melody & savagery here. The melodies are better constructed &, as a result, are more memorable. There are even some examples of riffs included that strongly indicate that the early Swedish melodic death metal bands like At The Gates may have borrowed a fair bit from “Clandestine”.

The vocal performance has always been a talking point when discussing this record & it seems to have been quite a divisive topic for many metal fans. There are certainly those that can’t stand Nicke Andersson’s more erratic delivery. Possibly because, despite the fact that he achieves a suitable amount of aggression, what he delivers isn’t technically a death growl. To my ears, Nicke meanders somewhere near the border of hardcore punk & death metal without ever really committing to either side. It’s interesting that Earache decided to try to fool people into believing that former Carnage bassist Johnny Dordevic was behind the microphone by showing him in the band photograph included on the album sleeve. It was true that Johnny had been performing live with the band but he wasn’t responsible for the vocals on the album. Perhaps this is an indication that Earache could see that the vocal delivery might not go down all that well with some fans & they wanted to shield Nicke a little bit? I dunno but I actually love Andersson’s vocal contribution to tell you the truth. I don’t think the difference between his & Petrov’s tones is as striking as many people seem to want to make out & I actually didn’t realise it wasn’t Petrov until I read it in a magazine some time after release. There’s a lot more variety in Nicke’s approach & he definitely brings a fresh vibe & accessibility to the table that saw Entombed becoming somewhat of a gateway band for potential new death metal fans at the time. I honestly have no idea why people get stuck into him as the vocals on a track like “Crawl” are miles better than the E.P. version with Säfström’s effort sounding weak & thin in comparison over the murkier production.

The value that Entombed placed on execution & technique seems to have increased dramatically since “Left Hand Path” too as this is a much tighter band than we’d heard previously with a substantially stronger focus being given to precision. The transitions have been expertly engineered to crush the cranium of anyone in the vicinity & the breakdowns show a true understanding of the death metal atmosphere at its most empowering & disgusting. Check out album highlight “Sinners Bleed” for example, with its “Raining Blood” style drum beat signaling the coming of something truly ominous. Entombed’s prime objective was no longer to out-violence the violent. It was to create an oozing atmosphere of pure death, in much the same way as their heroes Autopsy, only with a little more polish, class & finesse. The lead guitar work has been improved since the debut which was probably helped by the more musical platform they had to work over. They’re still not all that technically proficient but they overcome that by employing a stronger song-writing aesthetic in their composition & through the clever use of filtering in their tone. Rosenberg’s bass work is rock solid & plays a big part in driving the band’s sound to its heaviest possible extreme but it’s Andersson’s drumming that’s the real star here. This really is his record to be honest & his performance is nothing short of sensational! He brings Entombed so much of their energy & magic & it’s a credit to his technique that so many of his best moments go by without much fanfare due to his skillful compositional skills & pin-point execution. I’m certain that it was he that brought many of the interesting production additions to the table too. Some of which were a little risky like the outro section of “Crawl” which fades in gradually over the main track only isn’t exactly in key or in time, despite ultimately proving to be really effective.

So, given everything that you’ve just read, why isn’t “Clandestine” is no-brainer for full marks. Well in truth, it’s more of a decision based on taste than on quality. The remnants of Entombed’s hardcore-influenced roots still pop up just enough to prevent me from reaching complete musical euphoria which isn’t a major criticism as I still regard it as the pinnacle of the Swedish death metal sound & a good couple of steps up from its older sibling or Dismember’s debut for that matter. Where “Left Hand Path” had defined the Swedish death metal sound, “Clandestine” showed the world what it was possible to do with it. It’s a genuine classic that all death metal fans should own.

For fans of: Dismember, Grave & Carnage

1987 was a very active year for minor league Californian extreme metal label New Renaissance Records. The business was owned & run by Hellion front woman Ann Boleyn who had created the brand a couple of years earlier but commercial success would initially prove to be challenge with New Renaissance’s early releases generally passing the metal public by with little to no fanfare. 1987 would see things starting to take shape though with the label now having noteworthy releases from At War, Indestroy, Dream Death, Kublai Khan, Necrophagia & Blood Feast on their books. None of these were overnight sensations or made their artists into household names mind you but the more obsessive thrash & death metal fans out there were now starting to become aware of these names & the sounds they were pushing & amongst them would be a young Portland-based crossover thrashcore outfit by the name of Wehrmacht.

Wehrmacht were only 17 or 18 years old when their debut album “Shark Attack” hit the shelves & with a moniker like theirs you would think that there would have been a little bit of implied pressure on them to bring the violence & aggression. After all, “wehrmacht” (pronounced “vair-mahkt”) is German for “armed forces” so one would naturally expect to hear something suitably attacking. The cover artwork certainly fit the mould with “Shark Attack” sporting a cartoonish image of a zombified warrior waterskiing on the backs of two huge sharks. It’s not a high budget effort by any stretch of the imagination however it does have that authentic 80’s underground metal vibe going on & I think it kinda suits this sort of release & the market it was targeting. Interestingly, the wall behind this scene has the words “Spazztic Blur” written across it in red paint in reference to vocalist Tito Matos & guitarist Marco Zorich’s other band of that name.

“Shark Attack” would be a self-produced affair which would seem like a very strange way to go for a debut album. Especially when you consider the age & recording experience of the various band memebrs. One would have to think that there must simply have been no budget for a producer & it’s actually a bit of a shame because I think the album possesses a fair bit of untapped potential. New Renaissance releases weren’t known for their flashy big budget production jobs & this one would have to sit amongst the furthest away from that concept. What you can expect is one of the rawest & noisiest sounding records you’ve heard in quite a while but in its defense, do we really want ultra-aggressive thrashcore to be presented in a polished & clean package? I don’t think so. We just want to be able to make out all of the riffs but that’s not always the case here with all of the instrumentalists making an almighty racket & fighting over who could make the most noise. Tito’s vocals often find themselves struggling to stay afloat above the raucous cacophony that’s surrounding them & I can’t help but think that “Shark Attack” could have made a significantly bigger impact under the guidance of a decent producer.

Wehrmacht may only have been young but they certainly knew what they what they wanted to achieve & that was to be the fastest band that’s ever existed. And fuck me if they haven’t achieved that goal here because I can’t think of a single release to rival it for sheer, unbridled velocity. These chaps go absolutely flat-chat with their pedals to the metal pretty much 100% of the time so I wouldn’t go into “Shark Attack” expecting too much nuance or variation. In truth, they do lose a bit of the musicality in their song-writing in the process but every subgenre of metal has its time & place & the crossover thrash & thrashcore subgenres were never created for in-depth analysis & drawn-out emotional exploration. They’re about getting drunk, having a few laughs & thrashing out like a bastard & Wehrmacht certainly achieve that.

Musically, there are a couple of different sides to Wehrmacht's sound with thrash metal & hardcore punk continually playing off against each other. The thrashier side of the band sounds a great deal like “Darkness Descends”-era Dark Angel with front man Tito coming across a lot like Dark Angel singer Don Doty. I quite like his style but he can tail off a little bit during those times when he starts to get drowned out by the instrumentalists. The rest of the band concentrate all of their energy on playing as fast as is humanly possible & this comes at the expense of precision. The performances here are pretty sloppy for the most part & it sounds a lot like a live-in-the-studio affair. This is another area where a good producer could have made a major difference in my opinion. I mean the guitars aren’t even completely in tune with each other during some of the key melodic moments.

Wehrmacht’s riffs are played with an unbelievable amount of urgency & ferocity with inspiration being drawn from bands like Cryptic Slaughter & DRI as far as pure speed goes. The twin guitar attack even trade high intensity Slayer-style solos which are some of the highlights of the album in my opinion. Drummer Brian Lehfeldt (who later went on to play with Cryptic Slaughter & commercially successful alternative rockers Everclear) must have been one tired dude after these sessions because he absolutely fucking destroys his kit. He was very fast for the time & his consistent use of blast beats makes for a particularly brutal listening experience. It is worth noting that if you listen closely you can hear the guitarists struggling to keep in time with him on more than the odd occasion though. In fact, there are various stages where things start to go to mush but somehow the raw energy in Wehrmacht’s delivery seems to make this significantly less important than it might be with a more sophisticated thrash outfit.

The opening title track is an absolute belter in the vein of Dark Angel & is the clear album highlight. It’s sheer attitude & outrageous speed manage to overcome a humorous attempt at emulating the theme from Jaws in guitar form which ends up creating a build-up that reminds me of the beginning of the Bathory classic “Equimanthorn”. Weeelll…. a poor man’s version to be fair. Unfortunately this is not the only attempt at humour on the album though. Wehrmacht never take themselves too seriously & there are a few intrusive melodic concepts explored that see the band heading in strange directions with unusual circus-style melodies sometimes appearing, presumably for pure comic value. I can’t say that I’m too keen on this sort of humour in my metal & I’m especially not a fan of hearing a recording of dude throwing up in front of his overly enthusiastic mates which is what we’re subjected to at the end of “United Shoe Brothers” (which also seems to rip off the chorus phrasing from Overkill’s “Rotten To The Core” just quietly).  

Overall though, it’s hard not to like “Shark Attack”. Sure there are four or five duds included & the production isn’t wonderful but the youthful enthusiasm & incredibly high velocities that drive this music offer quite a bit of appeal for an audience that’s not looking for a long-term fix & are much more inclined towards a quick-fire solution to their drunken party needs. And besides…. If you can find me a faster metal record than this one I’ll be very damn impressed.

For fans of: Cryptic Slaughter, DRI, “Darkness Descends”-era Dark Angel.

By the mid-to-late 1980's, the Brazilian city of Belo Horizante had become a small hub of activity for young bands with an appetite for increasingly extreme music; presumably being encouraged by 1985’s split album from local heroes Sepultura & Overdose as well as Sepultura’s 1986 full-length debut “Morbid Visions”. This would see 1987 becoming an important year in the development of the local scene with the next wave of bands graduating to full release status in quick succession. Amongst the pack were several key performers in Sarcofago, Mutilator, Chakal, Exterminator & the subject of today’s review, Holocausto. 

So ya know the old phrase that says that you can’t judge a book by its cover? Well it’s fucking lucky that this is generally accepted to be the case because I don’t imagine the cover art for Holocausto’s debut studio album “Campo de exterminio” would instill too much confidence within the context of a modern metal marketplace now, would it? I mean deciding you’ll go with that sort of moniker & then calling your record “Extermination Camp” & putting a picture of a Nazi soldier setting a vicious dog onto a naked & clearly emaciated civilian isn’t exactly something that people would commonly accept these days now, is it? Not to mention the two-minute intro track which samples historical Nazi recordings. But in a way it was a fine representation of just how few fucks Brazil’s extreme metal underground gave back in the 80’s. There didn’t seem to be any rules whatsoever & that is very well illustrated by the music this sleeve contains within too. 

Now any Brazilian extreme metal release simply MUST possess a couple of key attributes & the first is a production job that sounds like it was recorded with a handheld Dictaphone & this is certainly true with “Campo de exterminio” but perhaps not to the extent that people seem to make out. Maybe it’s just that I’m revisiting this release through the digitally remastered version that’s available on Spotify (which also includes the bonus track “Massacre” which seems to be a precursor for the war metal subgenre) but I can’t say that I find it terribly easy to match up the online consensus that this is amongst the worst of the worst with the product that’s reached my ears this week. Sure, it’s raw as hell & sounds like a cheap demo tape but it’s not unlistenable by any stretch of the imagination. As is quite often the case with Brazilian death/thrash, the guitars are mixed too low & the drums do their very best to drown out the rest of the instruments but I find that I can make out the riffs most of the time & that’s no mean feat given the messy guitar sound. I mean if there’s one element that gives “Campe de exterminio” its necro feel it’s that ultra-ugly guitar tone which ensures that it’s pretty much impossible for single axeman Valério "Exterminator" to present the results of his toil in anything close to a tidy fashion. If you’ve already conquered the guitar tone on the early Hellhammer & Sodom recordings & are looking for your next challenge then perhaps this might be just the sort of thing you’re looking for i.e. a rhythm guitar tone that would see even the most skilled champions of their instrument struggling to lay down even the slightest hint at complexity.

The second key characteristic of any underground Brazilian death/thrash metal release is a very basic level of musicianship & once again “Campo de exterminio” is often highlighted as being on the more extreme end of the spectrum in this regard. Look I’m not saying that it’s not warranted but perhaps not for the same reasons as most people seem to think. I mean unlike Belo Horizante locals Exterminator, Holocausto do have the physical skills to perform at a reasonable level but this is often obscured by the fact that they appear to have received absolutely no theoretical training. To elaborate a bit on that point, the drum beats employed by Armando "Nuclear Soldier" are reasonably performed & are generally quite powerful however the riffs that they’re accompanying often have no correlation to them whatsoever so you’ll regularly find yourself wondering how the band members ever thought they’d work together. There’s probably not a song on the tracklisting that doesn’t include a riff that makes no sense from a rhythmic point of view & despite coming up with some pretty brutal riffs at times, it's very clear that Valério has never been taught how to count his beats through in his head. It’s actually a miracle that the whole thing doesn’t fall into complete mush a lot more than it does & it’s often up to front man Rodrigo "Führer" to help keep the rhythm of the riffs together through the use of his phrasing. In fact, I’m not even sure how he manages to stay in time himself to be honest so it’s a significant problem that’s been majorly impacted on by the muddy guitar tone which makes it almost impossible to produce a precise performance. Valério’s incompetent use of palm-muting is also a contributing factor though it must be said & it’s left up to Armando to try to hide his deficiencies. 

“Campo de exterminio” is generally regarded as sitting somewhere between thrash metal & death metal however I’d argue that this is a legitimate death metal release with Holocausto’s sound being an amalgamation of Sarcofago, early Sepultura & the first couple of Sodom releases. Despite what you may read, there’s not many references to black metal included although the slower sections were almost certainly inspired by Hellhammer & there’s a noticeable hardcore punk streak to a lot of the more brutal tracks included. I think there’s really only one track where I find Holocausto working from a predominantly thrash metal palate (see “Vietna”) with the rest of the tracklisting sporting blast beats, death grunts & frantic tremolo-picked solos. The grim death metal atmosphere is definitely there & that’s the main source of appeal for an old school death metal fanatic like myself. In fact, it makes me really try hard to like this record even when the obstacles are blaringly obvious. Armando’s vocal delivery is a definite positive though & I really enjoy what was a particularly brutal performance for the time with the obvious reference point being the early efforts of Sepultura’s Max Cavalera. Armando’s holocaust-related lyrical themes are not exactly your standard grisly gore-ridden death metal fodder however they’re delivered in Portuguese so I don’t understand them &, given the subject matter, perhaps it’s better that way anyway. 

To be honest, I can’t help but be a little disappointed that I haven’t been able to get myself over the line with “Campo de exterminio”. Given my background, I would have thought I was as likely as anyone to be able to get into this ultra-raw & super-primitive South American stuff but the lack of structure & cohesion in the riffs has proven to be too great an obstacle for me so I only end up enjoying about half of the tracklisting. Still… I’d take this record over the Exterminator, Vulcano & Chakal’s releases from the same period so it isn’t the worst example of Brazilian extreme metal I’ve ever heard but my lack of enthusiasm for it has meant that I’ve never considered checking out Holocausto’s other albums & that’s unlikely to change any time soon. 

For fans of: Sarcofago, Vulcano & the first couple of Sepultura releases.

I got on the Pig Destroyer train a little bit late to be honest. The Washington grindcore outfit began their recording career at a time when I was starting to temporarily lose interest in the metal scene & it wasn’t until 2009 that this delightful piece of blasting insanity would grace my ears but it made an immediate & lasting impression. Grindcore & I have had our moments over the years to be honest. I tend to find that for every energized burst of pure aggression comes a generic & artistically unambitious release of little consequence but when I hit on a gooden I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it & “Terrifyer” fits into this category very confortably. 

For me, it’s always important that regardless of how brutal a band might be or how raw a sound they might be aiming for production-wise, I still want to be able to make out the nuances in order to give myself the chance to become physically involved with the riffs. And Pig Destroyer have done a fantastic job at achieving that here with the guitars & drums seemingly leaping out of the speakers, grabbing you by the hair & bludgeoning your cranium with a force somewhat akin to a sledgehammer. The rhythm guitars are right in your face & have an abrasive yet vibrant tone that’s chock full of life. They also possess enough weight to remove the need for a bass guitar. That’s right! Upon first listen I remember trying really hard to identify the bass lines but found that I couldn’t pick them up for the life of me. It wasn’t until I did a little bit of googling that I realized that Pig Destroyer don’t actually have a bass player at all. On the evidence of this record though, I can see why they didn’t bother with one as it’s simply not required. The layering of Scott Hull’s guitar crunch & the sheer athleticism of drummer Brian Harvey seems to fill out the sound adequately enough. I really love Brian’s drum sound actually. There’s so much electricity on his cymbal work & the blast beats are commanding & authoritative without ever becoming overly dominating. This is what a grindcore record should sound like in my opinion. It’s brutal for sure… but there’s an overall professionalism about it too. 

Some of that is undoubtedly due to the impressive musicianship of the two instrumentalists. Agoraphobic Nosebleed mastermind & former Anal Cunt guitarist Hull was clearly a well-seasoned veteran by this stage in his career & it’s very evident in his execution. The benefits of having a single rhythm guitarist performing multiple layers of tracks is clear as day on “Terrifyer” as it results in a very tight & focused delivery of the riffs. And wow! There are some serious riffs on offer here. Scott doesn’t ever dwell on the one thing for two long & despite the short duration of most of these pieces you’ll find that they contain as many riffs as most traditional metal bands can fit into a track that’s two or three times as long. The constant changing is a major contributor to the feeling of urgency that Pig Destroyer achieve & this wouldn’t have been possible without a class drummer of the caliber of Harvey. In fact, despite Hull’s riff-fest, Brian’s actually the best thing about “Terrifyer”. I find myself spending a lot of the album immersing myself in his interesting drum fills & precision blast beats. You won’t find too many better grindcore drummers to be honest. At least not for this particular band. 

Stylistically, you’ll be left with little doubt that Pig Destroyer are a grindcore band but that’s not to say that “Terrifyer” swims only in that particular pool. Hull’s riffs showcase a variety of influences & I often find myself imagining that he’s been taking a peak at Machine Head’s groove metal playbook or is trying to emulate Cannibal Corpse’s techy half-time death metal assault. Often in the same one minute song too! And it’s ultimately the quality of these riffs that makes “Terrifyer” so appealing. There’s a genuine groove that the band locks into very regularly with the musical visions of Hull & Harvey seemingly being completely in tune & while these moments may seem fleeting at the time, it’s never long until you’re back there once again. Sure there are some more generic & less ambitious thrash & hardcore style riffs employed here & there but they never stay around for too long & are usually replaced by something a lot more exciting so I couldn’t say that there’s a single track included in the 21 of offer that doesn’t give me some sort of enjoyment. The short 32 minute album run time doesn’t leave any room for boredom either. 

If there’s a weakness in Pig Destroyer’s sound, it’s the fairly monotonous shrieking of former Agoraphobic Nosebleed vocalist J.R. Hayes. Most grindcore bands go for a more varied vocal delivery than J.R. delivers here & you can see why too. Hayes spends the entire album screaming his fucking head off & I’m gonna have to give him an A for effort but it would have been good to get a few more attempts at variety. Fans of metalcore certainly won’t find themselves feeling alienated as Hayes would sound right at home on a Converge record but I can’t say that this really fits into my musical comfort zone if I’m honest. In fact, if I look at my score here, there’s a reasonable chance that I may have scored “Terrifyer” slightly higher had the vocals slanted a little closer to my preferred taste palate but that’s not to say that I find myself cringing or anything so this is just an observation more than a major criticism. 

Overall, I think Pig Destroyer have delivered a top class grindcore record here. It’s blasting yet classy, abrasive yet professional, complex yet accessible. Grindcore may not be high on my list of extreme metal subgenres but “Terrifyer” may just sit at the top of the pile these days. Perhaps even usurping my beloved Terrorizer in the process. One thing’s for sure… if you’re a fan of the genre then you’re gonna love this shit. Play it very loud & only when you’re doing something physical. Otherwise you may just make a dick of yourself on the train or at church. 

For fans of: Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Nails 

2007's final release from Georgia-based US drone metallers The Angelic Process has always been a challenge for me. Whilst "Weighing Souls With Sand" has been universally claimed as a classic by the rest of the world, it's never sat completely comfortably with me for a number of reasons. Some of its defining characteristics represent significant obstacles for me & it's taken me just over a decade to be able to reach a level of acceptance.

For starters, The Angelic Process' material is based around several common elements with each track offering lush ambient sections interspersed with dinosauric walls of abrasive noise that seem hell bent on averting the listeners attention from some apparently sweet melodic content. Tracks often start & finish with a gorgeous sweeping ambience that reminds me of German ambient techno maestro Gas before the heavy guitars kick in & the musical soundscape changes extremely rapidly into one that sees the listeners head being continually belted with an unparalleled sonic barrage. There are moments when I fear that my eardrums simply can't tolerate any more noise & I find myself literally cringing to protect myself. But at the same time there's this unusual beauty sitting in the background that seems to be being intentionally masked by layers of analog fuzz. 

The vocals of Monica Henson leap between innocent but soaring melodies & the sort of screams that cause me to wonder if she'll ever speak again. It's really pretty hard to tell if that's being achieved mainly by production trickery or not but I suspect it is. The riffs of her partner in crime Kris Angylus are very simplistic but the brutal & at times overwhelming production job sees them packing a punch that is sure to induce migraines in many listeners. If I'm honest I don't really enjoy the ultra-fuzzy guitar sound. It's not my bag at all. But it's the quality of the melodies that lurk beneath the surface of this abomination that draw The Angelic Process' audience deep into the hazy mist of their sound with the end result being that many people get lost & never want to return home again. The drums sound like they're programmed to my ears & I feel that this was an area that could have been improved as they sound a little bit artificial when the rest of the music around them is trying so hard to portray a warm analogue feel.

"Weighing Souls With Sand" is most commonly referred to as drone metal. I can see why but it's never seemed to me to be a very accurate label to be honest. There's a lot more going on here than there is in your average drone metal release, particularly from a melodic point of view. The noisy analogue hiss that shrouds most tracks reminds me a lot of the noisier works of ambient artist Tim Hecker while the huge crescendos indicate a love for post-rock artists such as Sigur Ros. There is most definitely a shoegaze element at play here too with a lot of these tracks seeing Kris strumming open downstrokes repeatedly in a melancholic fashion that reeks of My Bloody Valentine's classic "Loveless" album. The droning bass notes take my mind more towards the ambient variety of drone only more from a textural point of view than a stylistic one. Overall I find that the post-metal tag is the more appropriate way to label the album & I'd feel much more comfortable if "Weighing Souls With Sand" was separated from the drone metal charts as it inevitably fairs quite well but doesn't sound anything like the records scattered around it.

It's taken a very long time & many revisits to achieve but I'm only just now starting to see the value in The Angelic Process' piece de resistance. It nicely portrays its theme of the death of a partner with the instrumentation always possessing a melancholic grandeur that seems both sad & enlightened at the same time. It's simply heart-breaking to think that Kris made the storyline into a self-fulfilling prophecy when he took his own life the following year after falling into a deep depression following a severe hand injury that prevented him from playing guitar any more. Unlike my initial attempts with this album, I actually think I get some enjoyment out of every track now whereas I struggled to sit through it a few years back. I'm glad I've finally come round but there's still a limit to how much "Weighing Souls With Sand" ever has the potential to captivate me. I think I respect what it's trying to do more than I actually enjoy the result. It's certainly an experience that you won't forget in a hurry but it's also a very repetitive one with the same tools being used in every song. The Angelic Process are indeed a one-trick pony. It's just that no one else has even tried to perform that trick before. That's the appeal of a record like this one. You'll be sitting so far outside of your comfort zone that it's easy to forget you even had one.

The thrash metal movement was fairly quick to plant its roots in Canada following its explosion onto the scene in 1983. Voivod & Razor would burst out of the blocks the following year but in truth the first couple of releases from both bands sported a sound that had much more in common with speed metal than it did with genuine thrash. Fans of a more pure thrash sound would have to wait until 1985 when a small underground scene would develop in the city of Toronto; one that would see crossover bands like Slaughter & Sudden Impact & speed metal merchants like PileDriver competing in the race for the highest velocities yet achieved by a Canadian metal band. And it was this environment that would spawn the debut studio album from five-piece thrash outfit Sacrifice; a record that would take a more focused approach to the subgenre than we’d heard from the Canadians previously & one that had much more in common with the more aggressive US bands of the time than it did with the bands that surrounded them. 

The first thing you’ll notice about 1985’s “Torment In Fire” album is the awful production. It’s extremely noisy with the guitars sounding very messy & the cymbals receiving an undue amount of high end which leaves the overall result sounding very crashy indeed. Thankfully though, the style of music this record pushes on its audience isn’t all that bothered by such aesthetic trivialities with the band showing very little care for subtlety & producing a raw & energized beast of an album that makes up for any lack of nuance through fire & brimstone. Any nu-school metalheads out there beware though. If you’re not already accustomed to the sound of underground extreme metal from the mid-80’s then you might struggle with this one. 

Instrumentally, Sacrifice aren’t the most talented bunch of musicians you’ve ever heard in your life but they don’t let that hold them back from achieving their desired result; a result that would appear to be to produce a reasonably high quality emulation of their idols if I’m not completely mistaken. I mean these guys were only in their late teenage years at this stage but they’d clearly been extremely diligent in their analysis of what it takes to produce compelling thrash metal because they make a very good fist of it here. There is certainly a case for claiming the regular use of plagiarism but in this case it fits into the category of helping you to revisit some of the great metal experiences of your lifetime rather than tarnishing anyone’s legacy. Slayer are clearly the most obvious recipient of Sacrifice’s worship as almost every song on the tracklisting is overflowing with elements that span the entire course of the Slayer back catalogue. Even the lead guitar tone & performances are decent emulations of Kerry King & Jeff Hannemann at their most chaotic while the drumming of Gus Pynn is filled to the brim with Dave Lombardo-isms. There are even a couple of particularly violent sub-two minute hardcore punk numbers towards the end of the record that wouldn’t have sounded out of place alongside Slayer’s more brief excursions (like “Necrophobic” for example). Given that Slayer are my all-time favourite metal band, I was always destined to find the positive in all of this rather than sulking about how Sacrifice were ripping off my idols. I mean I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t crave more of that classic Slayer sound in my life even after all these years. 

The vocals of guitar-slinging front man Rob Urbinati are a real focal point for the band too. Rob does a great job in delivering a performance that sees him comfortably sitting in both the traditional grunty thrash camp as well as the more extreme & overthetop proto-death metal one that housed the likes of Possessed & the Teutonic thrash bands. His screams are particularly searing & there’s rarely a moment where Rob holds anything back. This attribute was clearly never going to allow Sacrifice to become a household name but I find that adds a little extra appeal if I’m honest. The metal-as-fuck attitude is a real drawcard for me. 

The tracklisting isn’t without its blemishes however. The opening intro track “The Awakening” does a pretty poor job of trying to sound scary. There’s a definite lack of maturity in its execution & it ends up sounding like something some pre-pubescent boys threw together on a late-night sleepover. The simple & slightly out of tune mid-paced chugging of “Homicidal Breath” is also lacking in class & falls a little flat but apart from those two duds the rest of the record is generally pretty consistent with the B-side being particularly strong. In actual fact, I think there could have been one or two genuine thrash anthems here if not for the previously mentioned production issues which definitely limits the level of appeal “Torment In Fire” is able to offer. For this reason, it’s hard to pick out any obvious standout tracks from this lot. Instead we get a bunch of tunes that are generally very enjoyable but never quite reach the tipping point to become genuinely great. 

I’m a big fan of “Torment In Fire” overall. It’s the sort of underground metal album that old tape traders like myself can really relate to & that we see far too rarely these days. At least not with the same level of authenticity that we see here. Don’t expect anything too original but fans of Slayer, Kreator & “Beyond The Gates”-era Possessed should really dig this. 

1984 was a huge year for Slayer fans. Not only did we receive the classic "Haunting The Chapel" E.P., but Metal Blade Records also felt the need to put a live release out to showcase the sheer violence & electricity of a live Slayer show. It would be recorded in New York City but as with Warlord’s “And The Cannons Of Destruction Have Begun…” live album they'd released only a month earlier, Metal Blade had unusual ideas on how it would come together, not feeling any necessity for the record to reflect a truly live club show. The Warlord record was advertised as having been recorded in an empty theatre & was billed as the very first Warlord live show which ended up being completely inaccurate as it eventually came out that the whole thing was put together in a recording studio & was poorly mimed for the accompanying video that came with the album. Well the circumstances around the recording of Slayer’s “Live Undead” E.P. have a few more unknowns about them & it’s really up to the listener as to how much they let these effect their overall enjoyment of the record.

For starters, we know that this isn’t a legitimate live show. The band’s management have been open for many years about the fact that it was recorded in a studio with 50 friends of the band in attendance to add the audience noise. But what’s not 100% clear is whether that audience was in the same room at the same time that Slayer performed this material or whether they were simply screaming their heads off for the fun of it & inserted at a later stage. From the hints that producer Bill Metoyer has given in interviews it sounds like he wants us to believe that the crowd were in the room with the band but the audience noise didn’t get picked up well enough in the recording so it was re-recorded & pasted over the top of the band. This makes sense to me on the evidence on display on the recording so I’m gonna go with that story & I’d imagine that our audience will be a little divided about whether they can accept this as a genuinely live recording under those circumstances or not.

The other major talking point is the necessity to put out a live release at all given that Slayer had such a small amount of material at the time. I mean the original release of “Live Undead” featured six songs; five of which appeared on their debut full-length “Show No Mercy” from the previous year & the other one having seen the light of day only two months earlier with the “Haunting The Chapel” EP. And when you take into account the fact that these arrangements are all very similar to the originals & recorded in a studio it begs the question on what the point of the whole exercise was. Apparently the six songs that made it to the record were selected from 19 that were recorded in total across three sets that included a maximum of nine different songs with the tracklisting being completely out of order from their usual live sets.

Well……. now that we’ve got that all out of the way, it’s lucky for me that I’m able to see past all of those topics pretty easily & I subsequently  find “Live Undead” to possess some unique characteristics that make it an essential part of any Slayer fanatics collection. One of the bigs pluses is that the production is excellent for a "live" release. It really showcases the electric energy of a live Slayer with all of the instruments being well defined. The two guitarists sit at either side of the stereo spectrum & achieve tones that are both raw & chaotic & searing & modern at the same time, with the solos being presented in emphatic fashion. Tom’s bass guitar can actually be heard which is more than I can say for many Slayer studio outings & he sounds thick of warm here. And Dave Lombardo’s drum kit sounds more powerful than we’ve heard from him to date with a kick drum sound that went a long way to defining the path forwards for extreme metal. There’s more click to it than we'd heard previously which makes it more defined & gives the rhythms more precision. In fact, Lombardo’s performance is a big differentiator for “Live Undead”. His ability behind the kit at this stage in the game is simply light-years ahead of where it was for “Show No Mercy” & this gives these songs more life than they had previously. Particularly due to the drastically improved double kick work which is a real highlight & gives the songs a lot more urgency than they had previously.

The only “Haunting The Chapel” track included is “Captor Of Sin” & it benefits greatly from the cleaner production afforded over the original recording. Tom’s vocals are harsher & more evil sounding than they were on “Show No Mercy” & you would honestly never know that this wasn’t a real live club gig on the evidence of his performance as he genuinely seems to be interacting with the crowd. I actually think this performance places him way ahead of the rest of the thrash front men metal fans had experienced to the time. His ability to balance sheer aggression with melody is unparalleled & his between-song banter is totally bad-ass & would definitely leave a live crowd riled up & ready to attack each other. The sound of the audience certainly leaves you feeling like they actually do too. These dudes sound like complete psychos throughout the recording & that’s pretty much in line with what my teenage self always imagined from a Slayer club crowd. If you want to hear what Hell sounds like then this is as close as you’re gonna get with the audience being mixed a little louder than you’d usually expect for a live release which seems to be a bit of bug-bear for some listeners but personally I really enjoy it & think it gives the E.P. a unique character.

Perhaps the fact that I was introduced to “Live Undead” before I’d ever heard “Show No Mercy” or “Haunting The Chapel” has had an impact on my overall feelings on this release but I have to say that I fucking love it. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it just slightly eclipses “Haunting The Chapel” for my favourite Slayer release to the time. I honestly couldn’t give a fuck about how the recording came to be. I didn’t have any idea of those circumstances when I first became acquainted with “Live Undead” & I’m not sure it would have made a difference anyway. I just base my judgements on the music coming from those speakers & the way it makes me feel & on that basis alone it’s hard to deny that “Live Undead” is a showcase for the elite thrash metal of one of the greats of the genre when they were just hitting their straps. I’ll never get the opportunity to see them at this early stage of their career but this E.P. serves as a very nice insight into what a live Slayer experience might have been like at that point in time.

I've always favoured Crimson Glory's debut over this sophomore effort however there's not much in it as they're both really high quality metal records. "Transcendence" sits somewhere between the classic Iron Maiden/Judas Priest heavy metal sound & the more progressive Queensrÿche/Fates Warning one. There's some great vocal hooks & guitar solos & the song-writing quality is very consistent throughout with no weak tracks included however there's probably not enough genuine classics to have me reaching for the higher scores. Vocalist Midnight is pretty amazing though & is the obvious focal point with his operatic style being heavily influenced by Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate. "In Dark Places" is the clear highlight for me & is a perfect example of this style of heavy metal. It stays with me for days after each listen.

Motorhead’s “The Golden Years: Live” E.P. is a relatively unknown four-track live E.P. featuring recordings from their 1980 European tour. It includes renditions of the old Motown track “Leaving Here” which they’d previously covered on their initial studio album “On Parole”, “Stone Dead Forever” & “Dead Men Tell No Tales” from their classic “Bomber” record & the heavily underrated “Too Late Too Late”; an exceptionally strong B-side from the “Overkill” single which had been criminally overlooked for album inclusion. This release paints the perfect picture of Motorhead in all their glory, warts & all. Lemmy sounds grindier & nastier than ever before with a performance that highlights his abilities as a master showman. His vocals are a little soft on “Leaving Here” but this issue is rectified for the remaining tracks. That dirty yet powerful bass sound makes it perfectly obvious as to why Motorhead don’t need a second guitarist as Lemmy doesn’t need any assistance in filling out the sound beneath Eddie’s impressive guitar solos. In fact, the guitars are huge on this recording & take songs like “Leaving Here” & “Too Late Too Late” (my personal favourite) to another level from their studio counterparts. I really enjoy this E.P. & would thoroughly recommend it to any Motorhead fans out there.

I came into "The Work Which Transforms God" having never heard Blut Aus Nord before. My brother & I made a deal that he would review an album of my choice if I did one of his & this was what he chose. I had no idea of what to expect although I'd seen plenty written about the originality & weirdness of this band. But after giving it a few listens I am really glad I gave this a go because most of it is nothing short of genius.   

The album opens with one of three dark ambient tracks spread across the album ("End", "The Fall" & "Devil Essence"). These are really effective & fit in nicely with the overall feel of the album. If anything they enhance the already crushingly dark atmosphere & I could see these pieces sitting comfortably on a "Silent Hill" video game soundtrack.   

"The Choir Of The Dead" opens the flood gates & the intensity pours out. I haven't experienced a truly evil black metal atmosphere like this in quite a while. I would describe it as combining the cold, primitive majesty of "Det Som Engang Var"-period Burzum with the experimental beauty of Ved Buens Ende. One of the many highlights, it ends with some chilling church bells. "Axis" continues the black metal onslaught in fine fashion with some serious blastbeats & loads of twisted riffs. It leads into "Metamorphosis" which settles into a more progressive Ved Buens Ende-style sound that is both truly beautiful & very heavy at the same time.   

Unfortunately "The Supreme Abstract" is the only real let-down of the album. It is just too twisted, dissonant & messy for my taste. Vocally it sounds like they've gone for an Attila Csihar (Mayhem) moany groany sort of thing but it hasn't worked & doesn't suit the blasting music behind it in my opinion.  It just doesn't gel like the rest of the album & it's probably the only thing stopping a five star rating. "Our Blessed Frozen Cells" hits straight back though with a slower, deeper atmosphere that again brings to mind Burzum & also introduces a more industrial Godflesh-like drum style which can be heard on & off throughout "The Work Which Transforms God". After a dark ambient interlude mid-track it sweeps into atmospheric sludge/doom territory with soaring guitar melodies that are quite uplifting.   

The intro riff from "The Howling Of God" strongly reminds me of "Transylvanian Hunger"-period Darkthrone which can never be a bad thing in my opinion. There are lots more industrial elements on show here too which are both dissonant & unsettling as well as captivating. Godflesh again comes to mind in the drum loops. "Inner Mental Cage" is truly bizarre & amazing. There is a definite druggy, psychadelic feel & a wall of sound that engulfs the listener as they descend slowly into Hell. It is probably the highlight of the album & will continue to intrigue me for some time yet. Truly original & beautiful! Finally the album ends with a gargantuan mammoth of a doom/sludge epic in "Procession Of The Dead Clowns" with effects-drenched guitar melodies demanding your attention. Immeasurably powerful stuff & a marvelous way to close out the album! 

 Overall I was blown away by the focus & depth of "The Work Which Transforms God". There is plenty of variety & the album flows surprisingly well when you consider the amount of territory it covers. There is also plenty of variation in the vocaleft me wanting more. I totally recommend this to all open-minded metalheads who don't mind a shudderingly dark atmosphere & a head-fuck or two.

Rage Against The Machine’s sophomore album “Evil Empire” was a bit of a disappointment for me. Their self-titled debut had been an impressive release from a band with a fresh, well-defined sound. A band that obviously had a lot to say & presented their message with an in-your-face delivery that was hard to ignore. Unfortunately the follow-up failed to capitalize on the solid platform they’d built for themselves. It was lacking a bit of bottom end in the production & the song-writing was pretty inconsistent. They’d tried a few things to add some variation to their sound but these experiments had some mixed results & the best parts of the album ended up being the tracks where they just concentrated on doing what they do best. Before giving it my first listen I was thinking to myself that RATM’s third album “The Battle of Los Angeles” could go two ways. They could either put out a safe album in the style of the debut or they could try some more variation & hope for some more successful results.  

Shortly after pressing play it becomes obvious that the production is significantly better than that of “Evil Empire”. In fact “The Battle of Los Angeles” sounds very much like the debut. This gives the rhythm section a lot more clout & makes for a generally heavier experience. Secondly, the style of the song-writing sits very much within their comfort zone. There isn’t as much variety as there was on “Evil Empire”. The riffs & structures here are very familiar, Tom Morello is still taking his guitar “solos” to the weirdest places he can possibly come up with & Zack de la Rocha is spitting out his lyrics in his typical aggressive fashion. But this is not necessarily such a bad thing. If you liked the debut album then you should also get some enjoyment out of this one as they follow very similar paths.  

If you look at the individual tracks on offer here you can’t see any obviously weaker songs. In fact I’d go so far as to say that this is Rage Against The Machine’s most consistent record. “Born Of A Broken Man” is clearly the high point of the album in my opinion. It’s a real monster of a track & is amongst the best couple of songs the band ever wrote for mine. “Calm Like A Bomb” is also a standout. The rest of the tracks are generally solid & engaging. They’re quite heavy & possess plenty of energy. It’s just that by the end of the record they’re all starting to sound a little samey & for this reason “The Battle Of Los Angeles” can feel a bit longer than it actually is. It definitely doesn’t have as many highlights as the debut album either.

I quite like this record & think it’s a pretty good comeback after the disappointment of “Evil Empire”. If you look at it on an individual track-by-track basis it’s actually not too far behind the debut album in terms of overall quality but the fact that it loses a bit of momentum late in the album due to a lack of variation causes me to rate it a little lower. Still… I’m much happier with RATM going with what they do best rather than throwing in outside influences that only end up diluting the aspects of their sound that make them great. It was probably a wise decision for them to leave on this note. Another similar release would definitely have been overkill. 

"The New Order" saw Testament taking on a fresh new sound which included a growing reliance on melody & a more mature approach to song-writing. There are still plenty of the energetic thrash riffs that made "The Legacy" so appealing but the numerous acoustic sections & extra melodic content accentuate the heavier moments which gives them greater significance. Alex Skolnick's guitar solos are the clear highlight here & they lifted him to legendary status with me as a budding young shredder. His ability to create truly memorable lead solos without compromising on the technical wizardry was mind-blowing. Greg Christian's bass performance has plenty of energy & should not be overlooked either. He reminds a lot of Anthrax's Frank Bello at times while Chuck Billy's vocal display is top notch. Unfortunately there are some negatives to speak of though. The production is well short of the mark (especially in the rhythm guitar department) & this removes any chance "The New Order" had of reaching true thrash classic status with me personally. Louie Clemente's drumming is also pretty basic which leaves much of the material feeling like there's some untapped potential that could have been uncovered with a more adventurous & exciting approach.  

As for the songs themselves, we have a pretty consistent record overall. The Aerosmith cover "Nobodys Fault" is the clear weak point & sounds more like Skid Row than a thrash band. It should certainly have been omitted as it's simply not at the same standard as the originals but I think the rest of the material is very solid. Of the proper songs my highlights include the title track, "Disciples Of the Watch" & "Into The Pit" but the real highlight for me is two-minute instrumental "Hypnosis" which shows Skolnick's lead guitar skills at their absolute best. It's a soaring & highly emotive performance that easily manages to overcome the production issues that hold back the rest of the album (which is partly due to it's lack of rhythm guitars in all honesty).

Overall, "The New Order" is a quality thrash metal album that had the potential to be a real classic with a bit more care in the production department. It's certainly a worthy follow-up to Testament's more widely celebrated debut which has a slight of edge over it's younger sibling with me these days thanks to its raw & aggressive tone. 

For fans of Metaliica, Exodus & Death Angel.

I've been aware of Kentucky metalcore outfit Knocked Loose for three or four years now. I picked up on their highly regarded 2021 "A Tear in the Fabric of Life" E.P. shortly after it hit the shelves & found myself quite liking their heavyweight take on the genre. It would appear that the promise the five-piece band had shown on that earlier release was not a one-off either with Knocked Loose's recent third album "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To" taking the hype register by the scruff of the neck & dragging it into rarely explored territory, even seeing the album becoming arguably 2024's most talked about metal record. After my experiences with "A Tear in the Fabric of Life", I felt pretty positive about the prospect of returning to Knocked Loose for another dose of aggressive metalcore, this time in a full-length album format.

The "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To" album would once again be released through Californian punk label Pure Noise who Knocked Loose had been working with for a number of years by this stage. It would be produced by American Drew Fulk & is the first Knocked Loose full-length to feature second guitarist Nicko Calderon. The result is a huge, loud & in-your-face sound which makes the listener instantly stand up & take notice. The over-saturated guitars are bright, vibrant & extreme, very much enjoying the backing of a heavyweight rhythm section that drives this material with a no-holds-barred approach that is further accentuated by the consistently violent contribution of front man Bryan Garris whose vocal chords must have been a complete mess after this throat-shredding collection of anger-fueled tunes. He absolutely screams his fucking head off for the entire runtime of the album to be honest but, while some may say that he's s a little bit of a one-trick pony, in the context of such a short record (whose ten songs clock in at just a little over twenty-seven minutes) I never find him overstaying his welcome.

This stuff isn't anything terribly original but it's stunningly executed by an artist that is clearly one of the leaders in their field these days. If you find the classic metalcore breakdown to be tired & difficult to sit through then you may find yourself struggling with "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To" because it's absolutely stuffed full of the fuckers. They're admittedly done very well though & the ADD-fueled arrangement ensure that they never hang around for too long before moving into something else either. The transitions are actually very well done when you consider how hyperactive & chaotic the song-writing is & I never get that jarring feeling that I inevitably experience when a band simply slap two widely disparate musical ideas together in a haphazard fashion here. Knocked Loose are a more professional act than that with even the odd jumpy nu metal riffs appearing to be fairly well placed.

Look... "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To" certainly isn't gonna change too many people's opinions on the metalcore genre as it's more of a celebration of everything that its existing fans love about it & does it with a cheeky wink & an element of class & efficiency. It's a whirlwind of violence & vitriol which is generally what I'd suggest the genre was built to showcase in the first place, wasn't it? It pleases me that Knocked Loose don't fall into the growing glut of metalcore acts that seem to have forgotten their hardcore roots too with this material being built on a gritty base of punk urgency. The inclusion of a couple guest appearances help to break things up too with Poppy & Motionless in White front man Chris Motionless making effective contributions that help to ensure that the short album doesn't feel one-dimensional. It all works well as an holistic package & leaves me with the distinct feeling that all members of our The Revolution clan should be across this album which represents one of the more important & effective statements that metalcore has made in recent years.

For fans of Jesus Piece, Kublai Khan TX & Varials.

The brutal tech death subgenre is an interesting case to observe really because there doesn't seem to be any necessity to create something original in the modern-day market. The appeal comes more from just how pummeling & complex the compositional work is & that's rarely so apparent as it is with highly regarded German four-piece Defeated Sanity who have been a mainstay of the scene for a good couple of decades now. I've always enjoyed these guys since first discovering them through their excellent 2007 sophomore album "Psalms of the Moribund" upon my return to metal in 2009. Since then, Defeated Sanity have been extremely consistent in their ability to dazzle death metal aficionados with incredibly brutal yet wildly technical arrangements that push the limits of song structure to breaking point. At times you can even see these Germans jumping straight over that threshold & looking back at you with maniacal smiles on their faces while giving your expectations an emphatic middle finger. They certainly did that with their last record "The Sanguinary Impetus" which I really enjoyed & they do similar things with their brand-new seventh full-length "Chronicles of Lunacy", so much so that I think I could probably cut & paste my review of the former given that my feelings are almost identical.

"Chronicles of Lunacy" marks Defeated Sanity's first release with French metal label Season of Mist & was recorded at The Thousand Caves, Queens in New York City in January last year. The band's lineup has changed slightly following the acquisition of American guitarist Vaughn Stoffey who joins band leader & drummer Lille Gruber (Ingurgitating Oblivion/Cenotaph/Sinners Bleed), bassist Jacob Schmidt (Metharoma) & vocalist Josh Welshman to create a new four-way attack that's a better fit for live performance with Gruber handing over the guitar duties he largely handled himself on Defeated Sanity's previous album. You wouldn't know it from results as things come together in a very similar fashion to the way they did five years ago with the Germans producing another record that lean hard on the boundaries of the genre from a purely technical point of view while never being tempted to vary from the description on the box. You see, Defeated Sanity simply do what they do & if you don't like it then you can politely fuck off. They create incredibly brutal music which is covered in light-speed gravity blasts, classy bass licks & unapologetically complex rhythmic arrangements that are clearly designed to make the listener stand up & take notice. As usual, there are times when the band goes too far with their commitment to unusual time signatures for their own good & there are a good few riffs on offer that simply don't make sense but you can accept that from Defeated Sanity as it's somewhat of a trade-off for the relentless & violent assault that brutal death metal fans will no doubt be frothing over. Producer Colin Marston (Gorguts/Krallice/Dysrhythmia/Encenathrakh) does a great job at ensuring that the arrangements stay together all things considered.

"Chronicles of Lunacy" doesn't offer anything you haven't heard before from Defeated Sanity but it does do it all with efficiency & consistency which makes it an invariably entertaining listen that I rate very similarly to the band's last album. If pushed I'd probably take "The Sanguinary Impetus" over it just slightly but I can't see too many brutal/technical death metal fans not enjoying this record, perhaps only those that struggle with the continuously changing, ADD-fueled arrangements. The genre's calling cards are all there though with the brutal vocals being a clear highlight. Brutal death metal fans are generally starved of significant releases that the rest of the world pay much attention to but it's nice to have a band that inevitably have the underground scene talking & can be relied upon to deliver a high-quality product every few years, isn't it?

For fans of Wormed, Deeds of Flesh & Disentomb.

Swiss atmospheric black metal solo-act Paysage d'Hiver has been somewhat of a mainstay of my extreme metal diet since first discovering Darkspace guitarist & Kunsthall Produktionen label owner Tobias Möckl (or Wintherr as he likes to known as) through the 1999 self-titled Paysage d'Hiver demo some ten years after initial release. While I do think that demo was a touch overrated as I'm not sure I can say that I believe it to be a genuine black metal classic, a number of Paysage d'Hiver's subsequent releases have seen me being taken further into the deepest depths of some of the darkest & most frostbitten Scandinavian landscapes in existence. I should highlight 2001's classic "Winterkaelte" demo & Wintherr's spectacular 2020 debut album "Im Wald" (my personal favourite) in particular as well as 2013's excellent "Das Tor" as essential examples of the atmospheric black metal sound although there is plenty of quality to be found across the vast majority of Paysage d'Hiver's esteemed back catalogue. Which leads me to the Swiss icons latest release, the 2024 sophomore album "Die Berge", another immense & undeniably lengthy slab of icy black metal designed specifically to take the listener to unfamiliar & very imposing places. My anticipation for this record was very high so I wasted no time in checking it out as soon as it was released a couple of months ago but knew full well that it would require a significant investment of time to fully understand so waited until my traditional January new release purge to review it in full.

"Die Berge" sounds very much as you would expect from a new Paysage d'Hiver record to be honest. Wintherr maintains complete creative control of his project, producing every second of the album himself & releasing it through his own label. The production is (unsurprisingly) as cold as ice, fully embracing the traditional lo-fi aesthetic that Möckl has played such a role in popularizing over the years to great effect with the textural guitars blurring together in a wall of fuzzy noise which sees the synthesizers often being tasked with maintaining the melodic component. Wintherr's vocals are certainly more deathly than you would usually expect on a black metal release, sitting largely in space that's usually consumed by the death metal crowd, but his truly monstrous tone & unnerving delivery is one of the clear highlights of this admittedly fairly indulgent release. My main gripe is an obvious one however. It's not surprising to find Wintherr employing a drum machine to produce the drum tracks as that's a very common thing amongst the atmospheric black metal crowd these days but it's the way that he's done it that bothers me a little. The slower material isn't such an issue but I can't deny that the faster pieces (particularly the relentlessly brutal "Ausstieg") are effected by the fact that the drums sound so obviously artificial & offer so little in the way of fills, rolls or variety. In a seventeen minute track that rarely ceases in its use of blast-beats, that can be a challenge & I can't deny that it's affected my overall score which is a testament to just how incredible Wintherr's understanding of the black metal genre is. You see, the rest of the music here is nothing short of historic with some of the pieces even challenging the great Burzum records of the mid-1990's for sheer dark & otherworldly atmosphere. I honestly don't think there is anyone in the modern scene that can touch Paysage d'Hiver in this regard.

The tracklisting is without blemish but there are a number of songs that need to be highlighted as genuine black metal classics in my opinion. The best of these can be found in the savage "Verinnerlichung" & the trance-inducing "Transzendenz III", both of which are about as perfect as representation of the black metal genre as you'll find. Opener "Urgrund" & the more stripped back, Burzum-inspired "Transzendenz II" aren't too far behind either & would surely be lapped up by any self-respecting member of our The North clan. Epic closer "Gipfel" is worth mentioning too as it takes an instrumental doom/death approach that stands out as being a bit different for Wintherr. It's done very well though & makes for a solid way to end the 103-minute journey through the some of the least habitable places on the planet.

"Die Berge" is another Tobias Möckl masterpiece as far as I'm concerned which makes the impact of the drum programming even more frustrating than it might otherwise have been. You see, I can easily see this record being one of the great black metal albums of all time but it's taken down a peg by those mechanical rhythms that often detract a little from the precision that Paysage d'Hiver goes about creating his transformative art. The rest of the instrumentation is simply so primitive with the vocals being summoned up from the very back of the darkest cave in all the world so the mechanical, artificial nature of some of the beats seems to fight against it to an extent. Thankfully, Wintherr is a master technician of his craft so I still can't help but to buy into the product he's pushing. No one has come this close to touching Varg Vikernes in all the years since 1996's life-changing "Filosofem" fourth Burzum album but I'll be damned if Möckl doesn't match him here on occasion which has resulted in my second-favourite Paysage d'Hiver release behind "Im Wald". "Die Berge" should be essential listening for devotees of the more atmospheric end of the black metal spectrum.

For fans of Darkspace, Lunar Aurora & Burzum.

While my initial experiences with Oranssi Pazuzu certainly showed some promise, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve been blown away by just how far the Finnish extreme metal act have taken their sound over the course of their eighteen-year existence to date. They were clearly always one of the more ambitious black metal artists in the scene, even going right back to their 2009 debut album “Muukalainen puhuu” which already displayed some of the psychedelic attributes that the band would build their reputation on, but that doesn’t really prepare you for what’s in store for you on the last couple of Oranssi Pazuzu albums because they’re a completely different animal these days. My early experiences with their debut saw me marking the Fins as a band to keep my eye on & I’ve kept up that commitment in all the years since. While I struggled a little with their 2011 “Kosmonument” sophomore record, things started to take a steep upward trajectory with 2013’s “Valonielu” before hitting an incredible creative peak in 2016 which is still showing no signs of relinquishing its hold on me. The “Värähtelijä” & “Mestarin kynsi” albums were utterly sublime, particularly the latter which I now regard as one of the most perfect metal releases ever recorded. 2017’s “Farmakologinen” E.P. was also brilliant & I got a great deal of enjoyment out of the “Live at Roadburn” live album too so it’s not terribly surprising that I’ve maintained a huge level of anticipation for Oranssi Pazuzu’s brand-new sixth full-length “Muuntautuja”, a release that's been a long four years in the making. That faith has been rewarded too as Oranssi Pazuzu’s latest effort is another triumph for the Finnish group.

“Muuntautuja” represents Oranssi Pazuzu’s second album for well-known German label Nuclear Blast & would see them once again collaborating with Julius Mauranen who produced “Mestarin kynsi”, this time handling the majority of the production duties themselves. The resulting record is another masterstroke of class & creativity that further blurs the boundaries of the black metal genre. In fact, I’m gonna have to suggest that, not only have Oranssi Pazuzu finally done away with black metal as an instrumental tool (they arguably had on the last couple of albums to be fair), but they’ve actually transcended metal music in general with the vast majority of “Muuntautuja” exploring a vastly more expansive palate of musical influences. While my take on both “Värähtelijä” & “Mestrin kynsi” was to label them as blackened post-metal, “Muuntautuja” draws upon a wide variety of noise rock, trip hop, dark ambient & progressive electronic sounds for inspiration, often in unusual ways too. It’s only the imposingly dark black metal shrieks of guitarist Juho Vanhanen (Atomikylä/Grave Pleasures/Haunted Plasma/Waste of Space Orchestra/Kuolleet Intiaanit) that remind the listener that they’re actually listening to a product of the extreme metal scene but they’re brutal enough to maintain the metal link for the time being in my opinion & I think, when taken as an holistic piece of art, the best tag for a record like “Muuntautuja” is probably avant-garde black metal. The last couple of Oranssi Pazuzu records have seen people (incorrectly in my opinion) wanting to utilize that avant-garde metal tag but this time I feel that it’s genuinely warranted.

As for who has provided the musical inspiration for a record like “Muuntautuja”, I don’t think the album does much to hide the Oranssi Pazuzu’s influences. The driving & repetitive rhythms come fueled by a noisy aesthetic that’s been borrowed from artists like Sonic Youth, Death Grips & My Bloody Valentine with the electronic beats & basslines have clearly come from the Bristol trip hop scene that spawned incredibly creative acts such as Portishead & Massive Attack, two of my favourite artists of all time. The most significant influence I pick up though, & one that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere to date, is that of Radiohead’s more expansive & experimental post-1990’s releases which sees the band playing in spaces that I hold very closely to my own heart given that I also regard Radiohead as one of the most significant bands in my lifetime. It all works splendidly too with the sum of those influences being portrayed in new & exciting ways. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the majority of Oranssi Pazuzu’s lineup have been together since the band’s inception as it’s clearly allowed them to gradually take the indulgent musical journey they have & it’s once again resulted in a fascinating & captivating listen. There's just something about an artist that can soak up a broad array of styles & present them so successfully with their own spin that commands my utmost respect. I think it's something that I recognise as something that I always struggled to achieve personally, too often simply making decent replicas of my favourite records but rarely creating something entirely new that's just as compelling.

The highlights of the album come through the cripplingly savage vocals of Vanhanen & the driving basslines of Toni Hietamäki (Atomikylä/Waste of Space Orchestra) in my opinion but those trip hop beats are also exceptional with keyboardist Ville Leppilahti (Waste of Space Orchestra) doing a wonderful job with the atmospherics. The tracklisting is chock full of spectacular moments too with the vast majority of the record falling into transcendent territory. My picks of the bunch include opener “Bioalkemisti” (my personal favourite), short dark ambient interlude “.”, repetitive post-metal builder “Ikikäärme” (which I'd suggest falls closest to the last couple of albums in terms of style) & dark progressive electronic closer “Vierivä usva” but there are just so many incredible inclusions in this star-studded lineup of material that I could just as easily have picked belters like “Voitelu” or “Hautatuuli”. This album simply sounds so fresh & new, despite its sources of inspiration largely having been around since the start of this century or earlier & that’s what truly great artists can do. They manage to bring a timelessness to their art that others can only dream of achieving.

As Sonny mentioned in his review, it's a little hard to compare a record like “Muuntautuja” with past glories as it’s so different to anything we've heard before, concurrently challenging the listener from a number of different angles which sees it taking a while to fully sink in. Like him, I think I’m gonna place it slightly behind “Mestarin kynsi” & “Värähtelijä” in the pecking order (at least for the time being) but the gap to the latter isn’t a big one & the fact that I’ve still had to find space in my Top 100 Metal Releases of All Time to cater for “Muuntautuja” should be as strong an indication as any of just how highly I regard Oranssi Pazuzu as an elite artist. This is truly next level stuff from one of the true creative geniuses in the modern scene & it’s only the clear strength of 2024 as a pillar in the metal timeline that has seen it unable to take out top spot in my Album of the Year race.

For fans of A Forest of Stars, Blut Aus Nord & Ved Buens Ende…..

I was quite a fan of Oklahoma City four-piece Chat Pile's 2022 debut album "God's Country" going back a couple of years now. It commanded my attention off the back of some seriously relentless street buzz & didn't disappoint with its exciting industrial sludge metal sound offering me a great deal of appeal. I haven't gotten around to exploring any of the band's other releases since that time but 2024's "Cool World" sophomore album seems to be receiving a very similar amount of hype to the debut so I felt that it would be a good time to check it out with the Metal Academy Awards taking place at the start of February.

"Cool World" is Chat Pile's second full-length for American label The Flenser who pride themselves on showcasing the more experimental & artful artists in the scene. It seems to be a good fit too as "Cool World" isn't by any means a straight-forward record. It marks the first time that Chat Pile have allowed an external influence into the studio with Uniform's Ben Greenberg being responsible for the mixing. Where I felt that "God's Country" was inaccurately being tagged as a noise rock record (mainly off the back of the band's own statements as far as I can see), "Cool World" sees Chat Pile embracing their Sonic Youth influences more holistically with the noise rock sound now being the protagonist in the majority of the tracklisting. In fact, upon my first listen I have to admit that the album sounded much more rock than it did metal. Subsequent listens saw me better understanding the relationship that "Cool World" has with metal though & I can now easily identify the metal component. It's simply masked a bit by the fact that the rhythm guitars are dwarfed by the powerful bass guitar which is the sole element driving the metal flag most of the time, reminding me a lot of the filthy bottom-heavy tone of Godflesh's G.C. Green. The industrial metal influence that was arguably the strongest component of "God's Country" is still identifiable on a couple of tracks but this time I'd suggest that Chat Pile's borrow more from the English industrial metal legends sludge metal side, combining it with the noise rock of The Jesus Lizard, the post-hardcore of Big Black & the alternative metal of Helmet for a unique amalgamation of sounds. You'll definitely pick up on a number of other influences across the duration of the album too with the experimental rock of Primus & the nu metal of Korn popping up from time to time as well as other subgenres like gothic rock & post-punk. It all makes for a very interesting listen that may not be as obviously intense as the debut from a musical perspective but more than makes up for it in artistic credibility with its thematic content taking things further towards the darkside than they had previously.

The tracklisting is generally very consistent with Chat Pile proving themselves to be a class act when it comes to song-writing. There are no obviously weaker tracks included but the more experimental approach takes a bit of effort to get into & highlight tracks are rare, despite the assortment of different styles & influences on offer. The heavier alternative metal of "Masc" is the clear standout for me personally & is the best thing I've heard from Chat Pile to date but I also really enjoyed the one-two punch of "Shame" & "Frownland". "Funny Man" & "Tape" offer a little less appeal than the rest of the material but, even then, they're still pretty entertaining so I can't complain much. Sure, front man Raygun Busch doesn't go to the extraordinary lengths of aural violence that he did on Chat Pile's first album but his performance is still unanimously captivating nonetheless. I've always been a big fan of Sonic Youth's raw, experimental edge & Chat Pile exude that aura in spades with all of their musical endeavours oozing of class & integrity. They're a top-notch act that's built on a variety of influences that all command your respect, even if you may not dig each & every artist that's being drawn upon to create this unapologetically artistic record.

Overall, I think I "Cool World" might be a slightly more mature listen than the very enjoyable "God's Country" was to be honest. I've always been one that's drawn to a darker & more gratuitously artistic brand of rock & metal music so I was open to taking the leap of faith required to fully understand a record like this one. It's certainly not the most metal of releases you'll hear this year but will likely be one of the most challenging with each subsequent listen allowing the intricacies of the song-writing to open up more & more. It still maintains the psychotic elements that made the debut so great but presents them in a darker & more subtle & restrained format that promotes longevity through its additional depth. In saying all of that, I do think labelling this music as sludge metal is missing a large part of the picture as I think there's possibly even more alternative metal on "Cool World" than there is sludge. Still... as the cover says... this is a cool record that shouldn't disappoint fans of the Cat Pile's earlier work.

For fans of Helmet, Wrong & Sonic Youth.

Denver-based progressive death metal four-piece aren’t the most prolific of extreme metal bands but they certainly don’t skimp on quality, invariably rising to the occasion when they do finally get around to releasing something. For that reason, there is always a huge amount of anticipation around just what it is that they’ll bring to the table creatively, perhaps even more so on this occasion given that their last release was a space ambient E.P. entitled “Timewave Zero” which I’m still yet to get around to checking out. There are certainly reasons for the group's lack of regular activity though as all four members have a number of significant musical pursuits going simultaneously &, when you look at each individual’s credentials, it’s really no surprise that Blood Incantation are a class act. I’ve been aware of them since first discovering their highly regarded debut album “Starspawn” back in 2016 & have explored all of their proper releases (with the exception of the previously-mentioned E.P.) in the time since, even going back to their less impressive 2014 “Astral Spells” demo at one point. The last full-length Blood Incantation release (i.e. 2019’s immense “Hidden History of the Human Race” sophomore album) was a massive hit in the underground metal scene & you would probably need to have been living under a rock to have missed that one. I really enjoyed it too, although I have to admit that I’ve never rated it as the undeniable classic that most extreme metal fans seem to these days. It was certainly a very enjoyable & rewarding listen though & I’ve found myself returning to it on multiple occasions since. It saw Blood Incantation reaching further into their creative pockets than they had on their debut &, in doing so, becoming a fully-fledged progressive death metal band for the first time. Off the back of that successful experiment, I think most fans (including myself) were wondering just how far they’d take things with their much-anticipated follow-up.

“Absolute Elsewhere” was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios in Germany during the summer of 2023 with American Arthur Rizk who is not only known for being a member of several prominent US bands (including Eternal Champion & Sumerlands) but is also a very experienced producer, mixer & mastering engineer with a slew of high-profile releases under his belt. The results of those sessions (which would become the band’s first release for the legendary Century Media label) represent another impressive release that sounds as professional as you’d expect. Although the album attacks a variety of disparate musical angles, it always maintains its death metal integrity & whenever the band return to their more conventional sound for a period you feel a warm rush of comfort fill your body. That’s not to say that the progressive exploration isn’t exhilarating though because it certainly is. “Absolute Elsewhere” sees the four band members tackling a variety of well-executed progressive sounds & genres, mainly drawn from the rock & electronic space. The transitions to & from the purely death metal parts can be a little jarring at times though & I think it’s fair to say that Blood Incantation rarely mix their original sound with the outside influences, instead tending to draw clear lines of delineation between the different sections.

The performances are all excellent of course. The extreme vocals of guitarist Paul Riedl (Chthonic Deity/Leech/Spectral Voice/Münn/Velnias) may not be the most unique of death growls (in fact, they are a touch generic if I'm being honest) but they are still menacing enough to be fit for purpose. His riff work with fellow guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky (Spectral Voice/Black Curse/Nekrofilth) balances old-school death metal with more expansive progressive metal structures very well which means that, despite the added sophistication, you won’t struggle to identify Blood Incantation’s classic death metal roots (see Morbid Angel, Gorguts, Death, etc). Bass player Jeff Barrett (Spectral Voice/Velnias) bubbles away just below the surface without really attempting to take the spotlight at any point while the contributions of drummer Isaac Faulk (Lykotonon/ Stormkeep/Wayfarer) tend stay within the confines of the conventional death metal model for the most part, not extending all that far into progressive indulgence which is another reason that Blood Incantation always maintain strong links to their past.

The album consists of two lengthy tracks that are broken into three parts each. The first of these pieces is called “The Stargate” & is a wonderful example of Blood Incantation’s unique style. The first & third parts of this special track take the form of your more standard progressive death metal sound with some spacey prog rock additions here & there but it’s the instrumental track that sits between them (known as “Tablet II”) that’s the real gold on this album in my opinion, seeing the foursome indulging in an exhilarating array of sounds from space ambient to progressive rock & finishing with a huge post-metal crescendo. It’s one of the best things that Blood Incantation have done in my opinion & has been something I’ve returned to a number of times on top of my usual three or four listens per visit. The second of the two long pieces is called “The Message” &, while it may not be as holistically strong as “The Stargate”, I’s still a very solid & interesting listen in its own right. Like the opener, you’ll no doubt pick up on a very strong Pink Floyd influence at times. In fact, there are parts of “The Stargate (Tablet I)” & “The Message (Tablet II)” which might as well be plagiarism to be honest because it’s just so obvious as to what Floyd songs they’re trying to emulate. I have to say that they do pull it off extremely well though & that’s saying something coming from the massive life-long Floyd devotee that I am. I’m also a really big fan of 1970's progressive electronic & ambient music & it’s pretty amazing that they manage to achieve what they have in that space here too actually as this material could easily have been pulled from some of the better releases from those genres, even feeling uncannily like the eras that have influenced them from several decades ago too.

“Absolute Elsewhere” is another excellent release from Blood Incantation but, as with their previous album “Hidden History of the Human Race”, I’m gonna have to stop short of claiming it as the classic it’s being touted as by most critics. It’s consistently strong & exudes an air of competence throughout but I can’t say that I feel dazzled by the experience. I recognise that that’s likely just a taste thing but it wouldn’t surprise me if Blood Incantation managed to break through my defenses a little more in the future given the class, vision & efficiency they conduct themselves with. I think I’d just like to hear them combining the various elements a little more to create something truly unique rather than simply pasting a lot of disparate (if admittedly very well-conceived & fully realized) parts together in a slightly jarring fashion. More attention to the transitions is also on my wishlist for the future, despite my clear adoration for the excellent progressive metal riff work on offer here. Overall, I don’t think there’s much between “Hidden History of the Human Race” & “Absolute Elsewhere” but I’ve found myself slightly favouring the former. Regardless, I don’t think there will be too many old Blood Incantation fans finding themselves disappointed with this very solid release from one of the heavyweights of the underground scene.

For fans of Timeghoul, latter-day Tomb Mold & “A Conscious Creation From the Isolated Domain: Phase I”-era The Chasm.

There are many theories about where metal music originated from in my home country of Australia & there are a generally a few different names that tend to pop up in such discussions, from Ash to Buffalo, to Taste & Bengal Tigers. But the truth is that none of those artists managed to produce a significant enough release that consistently tapped into the metal sounds we’d been hearing from other parts of the world in the first decade of the heavy metal genres existence. There were certainly of few genuine metal songs included here & there (Hell, Ash’s 1971 “Midnight Witch/Warrant” single was basically stoner metal) but there wasn’t a full album or E.P. full of music that I would class as being predominantly metal. That is, until a Melbourne four-piece by the name of Storm appeared on the scene in 1981 with their live shows doing enough to convince renowned Melbourne record store Central Station Records & Tapes to release a four-song E.P. on 7” vinyl. It would be here that we’d find the earliest of the true metal releases to come out of this country.

Storm would enter York Street Studios in Melbourne late in the summer of 1981 to record the self-produced E.P. with Central Station Records owner Jo Palumbo overseeing the project as executive producer. During the sessions, it would be discovered that there could potentially be legal implications in continuing on under the Storm moniker which had been copyrighted overseas so the band elected to change their name to Taipan, a highly venomous & distinctly Australian snake that seemed entirely suitable for the band’s incisive sound. There are conflicting reports about when the E.P. would eventually be released though, some claiming that it was later in 1981 & others suggesting that the band would have to wait more than a full year until June 1982 to see the fruit of their efforts hitting the shelves. I tend to believe it was the latter but it’s of little consequence in the grand scheme of Australian metal folklore as that still gave Taipan at least a year’s head-start on their competition.

The self-titled Taipan E.P. (or “Breakout” as it would be retitled for the 1984 Bullet Records 12” vinyl reissue) certainly sounds pretty rough & ready by modern standards, instead tapping into the DIY aesthetic that most of the British NWOBHM scene was built on. It’s quite noisy & unceremoniously announces itself as a raucous racket that’s chock full of live rock ‘n’ roll electricity & the energy of youth. All of the instruments can comfortably be made out though & you can easily picture the various band members rocking out on the sweat-soaked stage of a small, smoky suburban pub while listening to it. Like the majority of the NWOBHM that the band were no doubt indulging themselves in at the time, there’s a clear hard rock influence to Taipan’s sound although the regular use of chuggy, palm-muted bottom-string pedal notes & upbeat tempos should leave you with no doubt as to Taipan’s metal credentials. The influence of the first Iron Maiden album is undeniable, particularly the impact of it’s opening song “Prowler” which I’d be very surprised if Taipan didn’t cover prior to this release given the similarities to many of their riff structures. Guitarist Dave Zerafa’s vocals present themselves with a similar punky vibe to Maiden front man Paul Dianno, perhaps with more of the naïve, snot-nosed arrogance of Tygers of Pan Tang’s Jess Cox or Holocaust’s Gary Lettice. Zerafa & Chuck Vandenbelt’s guitar solos come more from the bluesy Motorhead camp though & are really effective, proving both exponents to possess a clear understanding of what made 70’s hard rock so exciting even if neither are as accomplished as many of their overseas peers.

The tracklisting is very consistent, particularly for a debut release, with all four songs awarding the listener with the sort of energy hit that might see a younger audience using it as a backdrop for all sorts of ungodly mischief. The driving basslines & rhythms play a strong role in that effect as they command a physical response. I can’t say that Taipan’s sound is particularly my thing given that my roots lie in the latter part of the decade when metal had already dropped all of its bluesy hard rock influence but it’s pretty much impossible not to identify the appeal in this material nonetheless. In saying that, I’m not sure that I can say that my life would have been any worse off for not ever having experienced Taipan which is perhaps the main reason why I couldn’t muster a higher score than the 3.5 stars I’ve dished out here. Of the four songs included, I’d suggest that the first songs from each side (i.e. “Breakout” & “Tired of You”) are probably the strongest but there’s not much between all of them to be honest. Closer “The Cellar” feels a little different to the other three tracks, partially because bassist Emilio Sarpa handles the vocals on that one but possibly more because it’s comfortably the most metal track of the four, dropping the bluesy hard rock influence & focusing purely on chunky down-picked metal riffs. You know what? It also sounds very similar to Metallica’s “Seek & Destroy” which I always felt had been written as a variation on some of the ideas presented in Judas Priest’s “Victim of Changes” & Diamond Head’s “Dead Reckoning” but are now wondering whether Dave, Lars & James might also have heard Taipan’s debut at some stage too. Admittedly “The Cellar” sounds very much like Diamond Head too though & I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an influence there.

Look, I’m not sure too many of you will find the “Taipan” E.P. to offer terribly much that you haven’t already heard but it’s certainly a fun listen that provides a rewarding look into the roots of the Aussie metal scene. It’s a shame that Taipan didn’t go on with things after it’s release given that their next release (1985’s “1770” E.P.) didn’t arrive until several years afterwards & strangely showed Taipan to have dropped their metal sound altogether in favour of a more sophisticated progressive rock one. They would, however, reform in 2007 when they’d return to their heavy metal roots & I believe are still applying their craft today. I’d encourage all of our The Guardians members to check the band’s debut effort out though, if only to enjoy fifteen minutes of the sort of beer-fuelled, hard rock-infused heavy metal shenanigans that would no doubt have Lemmy smiling over his whiskey glass.

For fans of Black Jack, Trilogy & early Iron Maiden.

My earliest encounters with Danish thrashers Invocator came way back in my tape trading days. I’ve always been a huge fan of the more brutal end of the thrash metal spectrum & I was hearing that I needed to check out Invocator’s 1991 debut album “Excursion Demise” as there were comparisons floating around with all of the bands that I was loving at the time. Those comparisons were certainly warranted too with the four-piece outfit's first proper release proving to offer a sound that was right up my alley. Admittedly, I don’t remember placing it on the same sort of pedestal as the bands I would instinctively reach for whenever I needed a brutal thrash fix but I recall it being a very solid second-tier record that ticked all of the right boxes. That experience would subsequently see me checking out Invocator’s 1993 sophomore record “Weave the Apocalypse” which I’d find to be a little less relentless & a touch more groovy. There's no doubt that it's an enjoyable enough record but it didn’t command as many repeat listens & I haven’t returned to it since. Perhaps that’s why I’ve never given 1995’s “Dying to Live” third album a chance but I did check out Invocator’s 2003 comeback album “Through the Flesh to the Soul” shortly after I returned to metal in 2009 & found myself really struggling to connect with it in the same way as I had the Danes' earlier material. It’s been many years since I’ve thought about Invocator now but I have to say that I’ve been really looking forward to revisiting what I consider to be their finest work ever since Ben reminded me of its existence by nominating it as this month’s feature release.

Invocator first formed way back in 1986 at the height of the thrash movement. They’d release a few largely overlooked demo tapes (none of which I’ve heard) before signing with the brand-new extreme metal label that Bathory mastermind Quorthon had created in Black Mark Records. This would see Invocator venturing into Montezuma Studio in Stockholm, Sweden in June 1991 to record their debut full-length under the guidance of Quorthon’s father, an experienced metal producer by the name of Börje Forsberg (or Boss as he was widely known). The result of those sessions was a very raw record that could have been a lot better with a more appropriate production job in my opinion. The rhythm guitar tone is the main issue I have with it as it’s noticeably tinny & thin which limits the heights with which the album has the potential to go.

Invocator had clearly come from a very similar musical background to myself which certainly helps their cause. The material included on “Excursion Demise” sits very comfortably in the same space as brutal thrash titans like Dark Angel, Sadus, Demolition Hammer & Exhorder although the thing that differs from those artists is the ability to create their own sound. You see, Invocator simply sound so much like those acts that it’s hard not to reach for the plagiarism card at times, particularly when it comes to “Darkness Descends” & “Leave Scars” era Dark Angel which Invocator seem to have meticulously modelled their sound on. The claims that “Excursion Demise” is a technical thrash metal record are largely misguided though. There are techy moments here & there but they’re nowhere near as consistent as is required for a tech thrash tag. Neither does the inclusion of the occasional tremolo-picked death metal riff warrant a death/thrash tag. This is straight down the line brutal thrash that doesn’t test the waters in any previously untouched creative space but still does the job very well indeed. I will say that this is likely the reason why I was championing the cause of the other bands I mentioned with Ben & my mates over Invocator as they simply felt like they belonged predominantly in the second tier.

There’s a similarity to a lot of this material with the tempos remaining high throughout & the riff structures regularly drawing upon the same Dark Angel riffs for inspiration. “Forsaken Ones” is probably the track that stands out a little as it is likely the source of those tech thrash associations given that it presents similar attributes to bands like Atheist & Sadus. The guitar solos of front man Jacob Hansen (Anubis Gate/Beyond Twilight/Maceration/Pyramaze) & Jakob Schultz (Maceration) come very much from the Kerry King/Jeff Hannemann & Trey Azagthoth school of showmanship in that there is very little attention given to composing memorable melodies. Instead, the duo simply go for broke with the light-speed shredding & it works really well for them too as Invocator clearly understand how to make a solo into an intensity peak for each track, a crescendo of sorts that sees everything coming together in a chaotic release of energy. Hansen’s aggressive vocals are certainly fit for purpose, siting somewhere between Dark Angel’s Don Doty & Exhorder’s Kyle Thomas, but it’s the drumming of Per Möller Jensen (Artillery/Konkhra/The Haunted) that’s the real highlight here with his relentless, yet controlled, rhythmic barrage keeping things tight & finely honed throughout.

The tracklisting is generally without blemish but the thing that stands out to me the most is that Invocator have chosen poorly when constructing the order of the tracks. You see, the first three pieces are clearly the least impressive of the ten on offer in my opinion & this has perhaps led to me feeling like Invocator were more of a step down from the top tier exponents of their craft than was actually the case. Things pick up very quickly from there though with “The Persistence From Memorial Chasm” & bonus track “Alterations” being genuine brutal thrash classics. I’ll also mention “Inner Contrarieties” as the back end of the album is really very strong which only amplifies the reduced impact of earlier songs like the title track & the previously mentioned “Forsaken Ones”.

Look, if brutal thrash is your thing then you should definitely be checking out “Excursion Demise” as there’s no doubt at all that you’ll get a lot out of it. It could definitely do with a little more originality & variation but if you’re like me then those things are not in any way deal breakers in whether you can appreciate a record like this one. It certainly helps that there’s not nearly enough high-quality brutal thrash in the market to choose from so I’ll always be able to appreciate a release like this one.

For fans of Dead Head, Dark Angel & Sadus.

My initiation with London-based black metal five-piece Code came at around the time I returned to the metal scene in 2009. I was doing my best to catch up on & indulge myself in as much of the new extreme metal as I could get my hands on which saw Code’s brand-new sophomore record “Resplendent Grotesque” venturing onto my radar. I quite enjoyed it too with it’s forward-thinking & progressive take on the black metal sound showing the band to have a clear talent in both musicality & creativity. The experience saw me checking out Code’s earlier debut album “Nouveau Gloaming” from 2005 shortly afterwards, a record that I ended up slightly favouring over its younger sibling & one that I would ultimately become my Code release of choice over the decade & a half since. Admittedly, I haven’t really gotten into the later Code material I’ve heard to date much although I can’t recall ever checking out their 2015 “Mut” record which is supposedly more of a progressive rock release than it is metal. Regardless, I’ve been very pleased to revisit “Nouveau Gloaming” this week & it’s ultimately led to me discovering that my affection for the album has only grown in the many years since its release. I mean, Ben can occasionally be right about these things but don’t let him know that I said that, OK?

Although they’re generally claimed by the English, Code were somewhat of an international act which brought together members from not only Britain but also aboard. Lead vocalist Kvohst (Beastmilk/Dødheimsgard/Void/Grave Pleasures/Hexvessel/The Deathrip) & guitarist Aort (Hexvessel/Indesinence) are both English while second guitarist Vyttra was American & bassist Vicotnik (Manes/Naer Mataron/Dødheimsgard/Doedsmaghird/Dold Vorde Ens Navn/Strid/Ved Buens Ende…..) & drummer Aiwarikiar (Ulver/Uruk-Hai) were both Norwegian. As you can see, most of these individuals came from a strong metal pedigree & you can easily hear that in the class with which they go about their craft on this debut album as it’s a beautifully realised piece of work from a purely artistic point of view. The album was recorded in Savonlinna, Finland with Vicotnik handling the production duties himself. He’d already gotten a taste for production while co-producing Dødheimsgard’s 1999 “666 International” album & does an excellent job here too with the band’s sound achieving an imposingly dark atmosphere while also maintaining a level of precision in the performances. All of the instruments can be easily identified in the mix & I particularly enjoy the layers of bright, trebly guitars & the competently executed drums which cut through the mix extremely well. The way the clean vocals are presented is nothing short of splendid too & creates somewhat of a transcendental feel.

Code are often referred to as a progressive black metal band & those claims are not without merit when examining their later material either but I don’t feel that those sort of labels are appropriate when describing “Nouveau Gloaming” as it’s a bit more conventional, even though it certainly doesn’t stick to the tried & tested black metal mould. The majority of this material still clearly sits in the black metal space but it’s the clean vocals I mentioned earlier that give Code’s debut its unique character. I can only imagine that these were influenced by the presence of Vicotnik as they sound very similar to those from his highly acclaimed avant-garde metal project Ved Buens Ende….. & I find them to be just as impressive & powerful here too. Despite my feeling that “Nouveau Gloaming” sits best under a conventional black metal tag, there are a few tracks that see Code taking their creative endeavours a little further & it’s perhaps no surprise that the band would eventually go on to explore a more expansive sound in the future as these three songs are the clear standouts of the album. “Brass Dogs” sees them opting for more of an atmospheric black metal approach while “A Cloud Formed Teardrop” is perhaps the inclusion that best hints at what was to come for Code as I’d describe it as a genuinely progressive black metal piece. It’s closer “Ghost Formula” that is the most emphatic creative statement of the eight on offer though & I absolutely love its wall of melodic guitar dissonance & tension-filled post-atmospheric black metal format.

“Nouveau Gloaming” has really surprised me this week. I’ve always really enjoyed it but have rarely thought of it when reaching for the more elite examples of the genre. I think I’ve under-estimated it though as the base quality level is invariably very solid & the highlight pieces are significant enough to drag it up into modern-day classic territory in my opinion. Sadly, I’m not sure that Code would ever manage to equal their debut in terms of impact, at least not with the three subsequent full-lengths I’m across. There is, of course, another album as well as a number of E.P.’s that I’m yet to explore though so perhaps I need to pencil those in for future investigation.

For fans of Aenaon, Ved Buens Ende….. & Dødheimsgard.

As some of you have probably realized over the last year or so, my taste in the more conventional brand of metalcore tends to lean quite heavily towards the 1990's as I'm firmly of the belief that the metalcore scene has largely lost its direction in more recent times with most of the hardcore influence that defined the genre having now been lost, rendering the genre title almost completely redundant at this point. I mean, I can't honestly believe that many hardened punks get all that much out of the modern-day melodic metalcore record with its crisp production & technically precise performances, not to mention the generic, cookie-cutter vocals that sound virtually indistinguishable from the last metalcore record you listened to. I'm not saying that people shouldn't enjoy that stuff as it certainly has its positives. What I'm trying to say is that, outside of the vocal style, it has very little to do with hardcore punk which is kinda the point now, isn't it? Anyway... that's the reason that most of my time in The Revolution clan is spent seeking out unheralded gems from the early scene &, to be fair, it's been a fairly rewarding exercise of late. Over the last few months my attentions have been directed towards the earlier examples of the metalcore sound to come out of my home country of Australia, partially because I was in & around the live metal scene at the time & had some exposure to some of the bands it contained. One artist whose name I saw floating around the Melbourne scene at the time was Callous, a band that was partially formed by past & current members of some of the more extreme Melbourne metal bands I was listening to at the time, namely Christian death metallers Mortification & underrated doom/death exponents Paramæcium. On paper that idea has always seen my curiosity being tweaked so I've had Callous' sole 1997 album "In the Memory of..." on my list for many years now & it's time to finally see what these guys have to offer.

"In the Memory of..." was one of the very first full-length metalcore albums recorded in Australia but you'd never know it as it's a very professionally composed & executed piece of art in its own right. The production is excellent for a self-released debut with the accomplished song-writing benefiting from a bright & attractive production job. The guitars are right upfront in the mix & hit you across the face in just the right way while the rhythm section offers plenty of bottom-end depth. The vocals are suitably vicious too which is a big drawcard for Callous, even if you will have to overcome one obvious obstacle if you're to fully appreciate this record. That's right, it's the unapologetically Christian lyrics which can sound pretty preachy at times. Thankfully, I've never been one to worry too much about what a band is going on about in my metal music but even I found myself struggling to hold back a cringe through a few of the tracks from the B side so if that's a real deal-breaker for you then don't say I didn't warn you.

The Callous sound is made up of a few different components but I think it's fair to say that it mainly sits somewhere between metalcore & hardcore punk so the use of the metallic hardcore tag I see being used across the internet these days is just about spot on. This record sounds a little bit more flashy than your average hardcore record with the guitars have a cleaner & more metallic sound but many of these songs are built around what are more or less open-string hardcore riffs. There's a little more melody included than you'd generally expect from hardcore too though with tracks like "Lost Hope" & "Twice Begun" feeling as much like alternative metal as metalcore to tell you the truth. Through the back half of the album you'll also notice the band taking a little more creative license with their arrangements by veering over towards post-hardcore for brief periods. I appreciate the effort but feel that Callous are at their best when they're at their nastiest so I tend to gravitate towards the more traditional hardcore-based numbers, even more so than the chuggier metalcore material.

The tracklisting is very consistent & one gets the impression that the various band members that made up Callous had already paid their dues over a number of years because there's a class to their delivery that I find quite attractive & which leaves me of the belief that they were probably incapable of producing anything that was noticeably subpar at this point. In saying that, the tracklisting does seem to look like an inverted bell curve when you look at it in fine detail. The best material is loaded towards the front & end of the album with the first four songs getting things off to an excellent start. The weaker material is still pretty decent though so it's not a major big deal but you'll certainly notice when things pick up again for closer "No Apologies" & the excellent hidden track which should definitely have been better highlighted by inclusion in the proper tracklisting given that it's one of my favourite songs overall.

While "In the Memory of..." may not be the most memorable metalcore record you'll ever hear, it was certainly a fine way to kick off a recording career, particularly given that it was self-released. It's a shame that Callous didn't go on to much in the future. To be honest, this album was very close to a four-star rating & it was only the slight drop in quality through the middle of the album that saw it falling just short. Still... it's a travesty of justice that this release has seen so little publicity over the years because I'd take it over some of the more widely acknowledged 90's metalcore records like Earth Crisis' "All Out War", Converge's "Petitioning The Empty Sky" or Arkangel's "Prayers Upon Deaf Ears", not to mention Aussie metalcore godfathers Mindsnare's 1995 debut E.P. "Under Fire". I can only think that it was Callous' religious messaging that cost them greater commercial success which is a real shame & yet another blemish on the record of the Christian faith.

For fans of Mindsnare, Day of Contempt & Ultimatum.

Melbourne crossover thrashers S.I.C. (or Screaming in Churches as they were also known) were yet another underground Australian act that I discovered shortly after I joined the local metal scene & started associating with older & more experienced metalheads. I believe I came into possession of a cassette that contained all three of their releases in their 1987 “Sick” demo, their 1988 “Screaming in Churches” E.P. & their 1989 “Spastics Inflicting Carnage” demo on the one side along with a bunch other Aussie crossover stuff on the other. I’ve recently sought out those two demos to see what they sound like in the modern day but I’ve been unable to find them anywhere online thus far so I’ve had to satisfy myself with the E.P. which I had some fairly foggy memories of enjoying when I was a kid.

Much like the two demos, the “Screaming in Churches” E.P. is a short burst of thrashing hardcore energy that includes eight fairly brief songs across just a thirteen-minute runtime. The band members co-produced it with a trio of external contributors including Vicious Circle front man Paul Lindsay, Reactor Records owner Phil MacDougall & Warwick Thomas who had worked with Lindsay on the last few Vicious Circle releases. The result of their efforts is a rough & ready record with all of the sharp edges having been left on in classic hardcore fashion. It sounds very live yet you can easily discern all of the instruments & it simply feels very appropriate for the content its attempting to showcase. The record would end up being released through Melbourne punk label Au Go Go Records which surprised me as they weren’t known as a metal label, instead making a name for themselves through more accessible artists like The Scientists, God, Spiderbait, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Magic Dirt & The Hellacopters.

S.I.C.’s sound was nothing new for the time & one gets the feeling that that wasn’t really the point either. They were a straight down the line crossover thrash band that closely emulated their US counterparts, particularly those who also went by initialist monikors like S.O.D., M.O.D. & D.R.I. There’s a similar sense of fun & not taking yourself too seriously here with the surf & skate themes that those bands often pushed being evident as well. Each song contains moments of sheer violence that work to offset the silliness & its those moments that make “Screaming in Churches” an enjoyable listen for someone like myself. I can do without all of the tongue-in-cheek bullshit & prefer a more serious approach to my metal so I’m thankful that S.I.C. obviously know how to thrash out with sheer hardcore aggression. Front man Luke may not be a technical wizard but he certainly knows how to spit out a compelling hardcore performance while his band mates (who interestingly included bassist Damian Gardiner who would later go on to experience significant local success with Victorian alternative rockers 28 Days) throw themselves into a series of lightning-fast thrash riffs.

The tracklisting kinda hovers over that line between mildly enjoyable & fairly disposable to be honest but the wins just manage to outweigh the losses which has left me with a generally positive taste in my mouth. As you may have gathered already, it’s the sillier moments that see my interest waning a bit with “Skatehead”, “Don’t Nag Me” & “Gadgetry” (complete with its rendition of the “Mr.Gadget” theme song) all leaving me fairly cold. Opener “Radiation”, “Brown Paper Bag Man”, the short hardcore blast that is “S.I.C.” & “Little Boy” are all pretty entertaining though & make up for S.I.C’s failings through uncompromising spurts of violence & vitriol.

Look, there are no doubt better crossover releases out there but I think there should be enough quality here to satisfy most fans of the subgenre, particularly those who have enjoyed a drunken laugh with their skater or surfer mates on occasion. Crossover thrash has never played a particularly major role in my listening habits but S.I.C. make a good fist of that sound here & are worthy of a few casual spins if you’re partial to that sort of thing.

For fans of S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies & M.O.D.

I’ve wasn’t even slightly aware of Swedish black metallers Dark Funeral when Ben brought home a CD copy of their self-titled debut E.P. shortly after it was released. I’d only recently been successful in converting Ben to the dark art of black metal & we were now collaborating in our blasphemous indulgences. Dark Funeral were one of the rare crop of extreme metal artists to appear without first paying their dues in the underground tape trading scene through cheaply recorded demo tapes so it’s not too surprising that I hadn’t come across them previously. They were already a very professional act though & I found myself really digging Ben’s new purchase, perhaps even more than he did to be honest. I think I’ve always been a little more inclined towards the more pure & faithful reenactments of the core extreme metal genres whereas Ben seems to command a little more in the way of innovation. Whatever the case may be though, I harbour many fond memories of the “Dark Funeral” E.P. & have returned to it several times over the years so I’ve been looking forward to this week’s revisit for some time now.

“Dark Funeral” was recorded & mixed at Sweden’s Unisound Studios in January 1994 under the watchful eye of renowned metal producer Dan Swanö & would mark the initial release for the newly formed Sweden extreme metal label Hellspawn Records. Swanö ensured that Dark Funeral received a suitably bright, clear & exciting production job here too with the E.P. sounding very professional for a first up effort. The drums cut through the mix nicely while the guitars are beautifully unified & the vocals are positioned in a commanding position at the front of the black metal assault. The four-piece band also show themselves to be quite capable musicians who clearly had a good understanding of their craft, not just focusing on writing cool riffs but also creating catchy hooks through intelligent song-writing.

“Dark Funeral” certainly isn’t the most original black metal release you’ll find & there is merit in those that claim it to be generic, even for 1994. If you need something fresh & different in your metal then I’d suggest that this record may not be for you. If you simply enjoy well-executed black metal with an authentic atmosphere though then you’ll no doubt find plenty to enjoy here. Dark Funeral had clearly spent a fair bit of time with records like Marduk’s “Those of the Unlight”, Immortal’s “Pure Holocaust” & Emperor’s self-titled E.P. when they wrote this material as there are regular points of reference included but there’s also an underlying melodicism to Dark Funeral’s sound that hints at a strong affiliation with Dissection’s classic debut album “The Somberlain”, particularly in closing track “In the Sign of the Horns”. This isn’t as brutal a Dark Funeral release as some of their later material would have you believe either. It’s simpler & catchier than a lot of their back catalogue which arguably makes it a more accessible listen as it doesn’t require the listener to absorb a constant wall of blast-beats.

The four-song tracklisting is quite consistent with the quality levels ranging from pretty decent to very solid. None of these pieces threaten to reach classic status & I think that was always gonna be a struggle when you settle for such a tried & true (not to mention fairly simple) format. Opener “Open The Gates” & my personal favourite “My Dark Desires” are excellent examples of their type though, only being held back a little by some fairly immature lyrics. I mean, “Open the Gates…. Sataaaaaaannnn” isn’t exactly poetry or gothic literature now, is it? The best moments come when guitarists Lord Ahriman & Blackmoon (Necorphobic/War) hit on a genuinely dark riff with bass player Themgoroth’s searing black metal screams summoning you towards a life of evil. Themgoroth is a real highlight here actually, despite the fact that his basslines are pretty hard to make out in the mix. It won’t surprise too many of you that I find the darker & more brutal parts of the release to be far more enjoyable than the more melodically inclined ones though with drummer Draugen (Sigrblot/Svartsyn) making a reasonable fist of his task, even if he’s not in the same league as some of his replacements like the infamous Dominator who is one of the best in the business.

Look, “Dark Funeral” certainly isn’t the most remarkable of black metal records but it does make for an entertaining sixteen minutes of blasphemy & hellfire. The extra space & greater concentration on song-writing make it arguably Dark Funeral’s most memorable release too which has led me to keep checking out each subsequent record the band have pushed out over the three decades since. If you like your black metal in the classic style of the Second Wave with that signature Swedish melodic twist then “Dark Funeral” should definitely be on your list.

For fans of Marduk, Setherial & early Emperor.

By the middle of the 1990’s, I would definitely class myself as a complete shred-head. I simply couldn’t get enough soaring guitar solos & searing technique in my life at that point & would go well out of my way to keep track of what the key players in that field were doing, despite my obvious affiliations with the extreme metal scene. That passion would see me continuing to purchase each successive Yngwie Malmsteen release as they hit the shelves, having first discovered him through 1988’s excellent “Odyssey” fourth full-length. Yngwie had been pretty consistent in his ability to keep me interested over the five or so years too with just the one blemish in 1990’s fairly flat “Eclipse” album. But I have to admit that my patience was weighing a little thin given that each record was generally pretty similar to the last one & offered little in the way of innovation or experimentation so I could definitely see my enthusiasm wavering a touch with each record. I think I was just starting that descent when 1994’s “The Seventh Sign” hit my CD player & I’d only stay with Yngwie for another year before admitting that I owned more than enough of the Swedish guitar god to keep me satisfied. I do remember “The Seventh Sign” being a little flat anyway though so perhaps that played a role in my defection? I thought I’d find out this week.

“The Seventh Sign” was recorded at New River Studios in Florida & was his first album for Japanese record label Pony Canyon after leaving his US label Elektra Records who had released 1992’s “Fire & Ice”. I’m not really surprised at the move given how massive Yngwie has always been in Japan. As with “Fire & Ice”, Malmsteen would once again elect to produce the record himself & the results are pretty decent with all of the different elements being very well balanced. There are a few moments when I’d suggest that the rhythm guitars are a little dirty & could have been cleaned up a bit but, in general, “The Seventh Sign” sounds bright & in your face with a big rhythm section & suitably anthemic vocal hooks. As was often the case with Yngwie records, the band lineup he’s gone with for his seventh album had changed significantly from the one we’d received on “Fire & Ice”. Hired gun vocalist Goran Edman (Madison/Time Requiem/Brazen Abbot/Glory/Johansson/John Norum/Karmakanic/Nikolo Kotzev’s Nostradamus/Talisman/Vinnie Vincent Invasion) had departed after contributing to the last two Malmsteen records with another vocal journeyman Michael Vescera (Loudness/Magic Kingdom/Obsession) jumping in for the next two. Yngwie elected to handle the bass guitar tracks himself this time with Svante Henryson moving on to Brazen Abbot while drummer Bo Werner had been replaced after just the one record with prolific skinsman-for-hire Mike Terrana (Artension/Avalanch/Axel Rudi Pell/Emir Hot/Hardline/Iron Mask/Masterplan/Metalium/Rage/Savage Circus/Tarja/Tony MacAlpine/Vision Divine/The Ferrymen). In fact, keyboardist Mats Olausson (Ark/Glory/Iron Mask/Silver Mountain) was the only remaining member from the group that recorded the “Fire & Ice” album & I’m gonna presume that he & Yngwie were fairly tight as Olausson would remain with the band for the entirety of the 1990’s.

If you have even a vague understanding of Yngwie’s previous work then you won’t be terribly surprised by the musical direction of “The Seventh Sign” although it admittedly traverses a number of different subgenres along the way. As with most of his recent releases, we get a mixture of power metal, hard rock, glam metal, heavy metal, neoclassical metal & classical guitar pieces with heavy metal being the thread that ties them altogether in my opinion. That being said, I see no reason to throw any additional primary tags at this record. As with the vast majority of Yngwie’s work, the tendency to want to go with a neoclassical metal tag is overstating the importance of the classically-inspired solos with most of the song structures being more traditionally metal or rock based. Those solos do make the album more cohesive than it might otherwise have been though given the genre-hopping that takes place but Yngwie is most certainly guilty of self-plagiarism as there’s very little that you haven’t heard dozens of times before in that regard. He’s no doubt the finest exponent of his craft that we’ve ever seen but the scope of his creative ideas is very limited & I think this contributed to me tiring of him over time.

Most of “The Seventh Sign” is pretty good to be honest & it certainly starts in solid fashion but, as with most Yngwie albums, there are a few genuine stinkers thrown into the mix & this time I’ve found a couple of them to be disastrous enough to taint my overall impression of the album as a whole. The utterly disgusting attempt at glam metal commercialism that is “Prisoner of Your Love” is by far the worst of them & sits amongst the worst travesties ever attempted in metal in my opinion. The cheesy neoclassical instrumental “Brothers” isn’t much better though & I think it’s fair to say that “The Seventh Sign” would have been a pretty decent Yngwie record without those two. Neoclassical heavy metal number “Forever One” is pretty flat too but it’s not in the same post code as that detrimental duo. The best material can be found in Yngwie’s heavier power metal efforts on this occasion with opener “Never Die”, the doomy “Pyramid of Cheops” & the exciting “Crash & Burn” being my personal highlights but I’m afraid that all that good work has been tarnished by the previously mentioned shockers which have simply left too bad a taste in my mouth.

Up until this point, 1990’s “Eclipse” album was the only Yngwie record that I’ve struggled with but I’m afraid to say the gratuitous repetition & my general tiredness of Malmsteen’s approach have collaborated with the ill-advised commercial indulgences enough to see me painting “The Seventh Sign” with the same brush. The experiences of this week have seen me finding it completely understandable that I would only give Malmsteen one more crack before moving onto new musical challenges. The better material here is easily up to the task but the album’s failings sit solely with the few duds which overpower the album’s strengths, seeing it simply commanding more cringes than I’m comfortable with in my metal.

For fans of Cacophony, Axel Rudi Pell & Alcatrazz.

Underground Australian metal band Aggressa aren't the most well-known of local acts to come out of my home country. Hell... if you weren't deeply involved in the early movement over here then you'd almost certainly have missed them as they weren't the most prolific of artists in terms of recorded output, having only put to tape one crude demo & an almost as crude E.P. that sounds like it was recorded with a handheld cassette recorder. But that level of inaccessibility can often become a source of attraction for some of our more devoted metal aficionados so it's probably worth revisiting Aggressa in the modern day, if only to make sure that there isn't some sort of unheralded gem sitting undiscovered between the two pieces of cardboard that originally housed its charms. My own experiences with Aggressa came through the E.P. rather than the demo which has only recently been made available as a bonus inclusion on the re-release of "Nuclear Death" & I'm gonna guess that the presence of a certain drummer that I had a mild association with back in the Sydney metal scene of the early 90's was likely the catalyst for me becoming aware of it at the time. I can't say that "Nuclear Death" made all that big an impression on me back then though & I was hoping that I might be better prepared for it in the modern day, particularly given the context of my recent explorations into the earliest roots of the Australian extreme metal scene.

Aggressa recorded the self-financed "Nuclear Death" E.P. at Sydney's The Loft Studio in 1987 & would release it to the public in a vinyl format that didn't even come with a proper cover the following year. I'd be very surprised if there was a producer involved as the sound quality is so raw that it could easily be mistaken for a rehearsal tape or cheap demo recording. In fact, I'd suggest that there was almost certainly no mastering done at the time as the tracks often contain count-ins or brief snippets of pre/post-track discussion. The start of "Tunks" even hints that it was recorded at a live show but I don't believe that to be the case so it was a strange decision to announce the song in that way. The Spotify version of the release was clearly taken from a vinyl rip too as there are obvious vinyl crackles running all the way through it. In saying all of that, all of the instruments can easily be identified & are reasonably well balanced. The rhythm guitars do drop out while some of the guitar solos are taking place which is a little annoying but the recording captures Aggressa's live energy pretty well & I'd imagine that they must have been a force to be reckoned with on stage.

Aggressa's style sits somewhere between heavy metal & thrash metal most of the time with many of the seven songs included containing elements of both genres in classic US power metal fashion. Many critics would call that sort of hybrid speed metal but I don't think that's entirely warranted. It's more accurate to simply use a dual tag in this situation as there were clearly two sides to Aggressa's sonic arsenal with the overall aesthetic generally leaning a little more to the heavy metal side than the thrash one. The riffs aren't terribly inspired & neither is the song-writing but I do really enjoy the vocals of front man Darren Jones as he possessed a muscular rasp that would have worked really well with a band like Exodus. The guitar solos of Craig Martin & Carl are frantic & chaotic without being too polished which works well in this context while the drumming of Sadistik Exekution/Reverend Kriss Hades drummer Sloth (who had only recently replaced original drummer Adam Marsh who had left to form prominent Sydney thrash metallers Frozen Doberman) is quite accomplished with his occasional use of blast beats representing some of the better moments on the release.

The tracklisting isn't exactly star-studded but one gets the feeling that a decent production job could have improved things significantly. The previously mentioned "Tunks" is really the only one of the seven tracks that I find to be genuinely enjoyable with its short & violent crossover thrash format working pretty well to get me throwing myself around my lounge room. The more intense material is certainly were I find the most appeal though with speed metal opener "Torture & Pain" & the more expansive death/thrasher "Voo Doo Doll" not falling as far short of the mark as other inclusions with the sub-standard heavy metal of "Break Down the Walls", "Phantom Stage Diver" & the title track failing to capture me much at all. Closer "D.O.A." is probably the best of the more traditional heavy metal on offer but even then I wouldn't say that it manages to raise much of a sweat. There's nothing all that horrible here but there's also not much to write home about either.

It's not hard to see why Aggressa failed to break out of the underground because "Nuclear Death" is really a pretty inaccessible listen. The re-release of the record was clearly intended for a niche market of dedicated fans who crave a simpler time when the tape trading scene was at its peak & was the only way to discover lesser known or unsigned artists. Although I was very much a part of that demographic, I can't quite see past the fact that there was so much better stuff out there than this at the time, even in the fairly isolated Australian scene, & this has left Aggressa floundering in obscurity for the most part & not without justification either. Perhaps a stronger production job & some label backing might have helped a bit but I think it would be a mistake to place the blame in that area as "Nuclear Death" simply isn't a particularly sophisticated release & is best served as drunken background music if I'm being honest.

For fans of Nothing Sacred, Metal Church & "Acid Storm"-period Rampage.

While the early releases from Swedish death metallers Hypocrisy may not have changed my life, they did offer me a fair amount of enjoyment as a young fella during the early 1990's. I'd first discovered them through their 1992 debut album "Penetralia" which Neuropath vocalist Mark Wangmann had brought to my attention shortly after it was released & I'd subsequently followed them through their 1993 sophomore album "Osculum Obscenum" & 1994 "Inferior Devoties" E.P., both of which had performed a similar role in providing a fairly traditional brand of death metal that stayed largely within the limited capabilities of the various band members. "Inferior Devoties" had seen Hypocrisy further reducing their lineup from the five-piece they originally started as though with band leader Peter Tägtgren (Pain/Bloodbath/Lindemann/Lock Up/The Abyss/War) taking over the vocal duties from original front man Masse Broberg (Dark Funeral/Demonoid/Obscurity/Witchery) on top of his existing guitar & keyboard responsibilities which would see Hypocrisy going to market as a trio for the first time. They must have liked the simplicity it provided them with as the Swedes would return with that same lineup for 1994's "The Fourth Dimension" third album, a record that is known as being somewhat of a transitional record for Hypocrisy & one that I remember fairly fondly. A recent read of Ben's review of "The Fourth Dimension" has seen my interest being renewed though as Ben expressed that this record was somewhat of a step up for Tägtgren & co. with the adjustments that had been made to the more traditional Hypocrisy sound being most welcome. Let's see if I feel similarly then, shall we?

"The Fourth Dimension" was recorded & mastered at Park Studio in Stockholm during March & April of 1994 with Tägtgren once again handling the production duties as he had on all of Hypocrisy's previous releases. Those first three records all sound a little different from each other but there seems to be a feeling amongst fans that "The Fourth Dimension" sports a cleaner sound in terms of production. I see things a little differently though & would actually suggest that Hypocrisy's third full-length sounds a little weaker than the Swedes first two records with the murkier guitar tone not really complementing the powerful bottom-end of rhythm section, although it admittedly works better than it might have due to the slower tempo range that Hypocrisy tend to work within compared to their earlier work. Tägtgren had handled the vocals on several tracks from the band's earlier releases so he doesn't sound completely foreign here but I do have to mention that I prefer Broberg's more sinister tone over his deeper & slightly more gutteral growls which don't summon as much darkness & energy as his predecessor.

There's been a lot said about Hypocrisy's transition from a very conventional death metal sound to a far more Swedish melodic death metal one over the years with "The Fourth Dimension" most often described as the link between the two but, while I'm not disputing that theory, I will say that it's a fairly narrow-minded view to claim Hypocrisy's third album as a genuine melodeath release because it's not nearly as simple as that. You see, Hypocrisy tackle a few different sounds across the thirteen-song track-listing with classic death metal, melodeath & a slower doom/death style all receiving a decent airing. The album is bookended by the two excellent doom/death tracks in "Apocalypse" & the title track, both which form the highlights of the album along with the beautifully executed neoclassical darkwave closer "The Arrival of the Demons". That's right folks, the slower tempos & more atmospheric soundscapes employed here actually work very well for Hypocrisy & are somewhat of a highlight of the record. The remainder of the album sees the band switching quite regularly between their conventional death metal sound & the more melodic one their countrymen had been making into a national calling card at around this time. Unlike many punters though, I'm gonna have to bring things back to reality a bit by stating that this is still more of a death metal record than it is a melodeath one. In fact, I don't even think there's enough melody here to justify a dual primary tag & are comfortable for Hypocrisy to maintain their traditional death metal status at this point in their recording career. I feel that the fact that most of the more melodic material appears during the early parts of the album has certainly played a role in people incorrectly tarnishing "The Fourth Dimension" with the melodeath brush (depending on your preferences of course).

Given the dalliances with extra melody though, it was perhaps inevitable that I'd struggle with parts of "The Fourth Dimension". In fact, I'm gonna have to suggest that it was Hypocrisy's least consistent record to the time with the quality levels fluctuating as often as the band's stylistic direction did. You could easily respond to those claims with statements about my affiliations to the melodeath subgenre & I'd face a serious challenge in attempting to defend my position as there's no doubt that the more melodic A side is where I see my attention wavering. Thankfully there are a couple of the best tracks on the album (see "Apocalypse" & "Black Forest") mixed in with the flatter material during the early stages of the record but the B side is noticeably heavier which appeals to my taste profile much more than the more open & commercially accessible song structures presented on tracks like "Mind Corruption", "Reincarnation" or "Never to Return". It's not that I mind the reduced tempos & greater focus on atmospherics. In fact, I really enjoy those attributes when they're done well. It's more that the more melodic material sounds a little basic & lacking in sophistication which could perhaps be explained by Hypocrisy's still fairly limited technical abilities which are left more visible by the more open structures. Tägtgren's vocals aren't as unique as Broberg's either & I find them to be merely serviceable than they do genuinely engaging.

Despite these failings, I can't deny that there's still plenty to enjoy about "The Fourth Dimension", particularly during the back end of the album which tends to drag it out of the mire that I felt it would almost certainly end up in during parts of the record. I can't agree with Ben's statements about this being the first Hypocrisy release that's worthy of your purchase though as I actually think it was the Swedes weakest full-length to that time with their more US-inspired debut "Penetralia" still (perhaps unsurprisingly) being my pick of the three. I don't think this just comes down to the added melody though folks. While Hypocrisy may have expanded their repertoire a little with "The Fourth Dimension", they hadn't necessarily nailed those adjustments which leaves it feeling a little patchy as an holistic artistic statement. The first two Hypocrisy albums may have been less ambitious but I feel that they were more consistently successful at what they were trying to achieve, even if neither should be considered to be essential listening for our The Horde members either. 

For fans of Kataklysm, At the Gates & Bloodbath.

Melbourne thrash metal trio Rampage are definitely one of those bands that you would only have come across if you were heavily involved in the underground Australian metal scene back in the latter part of the 1980's & first half of the 1990's. They released just two demo tapes & a single full-length album across a four-year life span but wouldn't manage to achieve much commercial success & eventually decided to call it quits two months after vocalist/guitarist George Mitrov found God & promptly left Rampage in May 1988. The Spotify age has seen the band's legacy being revitalized for a new generation of Aussie metalheads to indulge in though & the question is now whether that commitment is actually worth the effort or not. My recollections of Rampage's "Veil of Mourn" album weren't that great if I'm being honest but I have been wondering whether a little context might see it taking on some additional importance. My recent revisits to the two Rampage demo tapes have done nothing for my confidence but I did recall "Veil of Mourn" sounding a little different to those two releases so I decided to grit my teeth & battle my way through one of the less understood records from a time when the Aussie thrash scene was still in its infancy.

Neither of Rampage's 1986 "Acid Storm" or 1987 self-titled demo tapes received a lot of record label attention which was a critical ingredient if you were going to take things to the next level at the time. Young bands rarely funded their own full-length albums & some of that came down to a lack of belief & understanding as much as it did anything else because the option was always there. But the lack of hype didn't stop Rampage who self-funded & self-produced their debut album in 1988 with a run of just 600 vinyl copies being manufactured after the recordings were completed. A gentleman going by the name of Rock was responsible for assisting the band through those sessions & I can't say that I'm surprised that he hasn't gone on to bigger things because the production job on "Veil of Mourn" is nothing short of a dog's breakfast, failing to even compete with that of the band's two demos, particularly the self-titled one which sounded much better than this mess which comes across more like a crude rehearsal recording than an album. The guitars are much too far back in the mix in comparison to the bass guitar while the cymbals possess a boomy white-noise characteristic. The performances are really quite loose too with guitarist George Mitrov's pitchy high-pitched vocals regularly seeing my face struggling to prevent a cringe. Rampage were far from a well-oiled machine at the time but, to be fair, they had other things going for them.

Rampage's lineup for the album was a little different to the one that had recorded the "Acid Storm" demo tape two years earlier. Original guitarist Mark Bailey had left the scene by this stage with Mitrov taking on the guitar duties on top of the vocals while drummer Rick Sorrentino had been replaced by future Hobbs Angel of Death skinsman Bruno Canziani. Former Tyrus bass player David Frew (who would join Canziani in Hobbs Angel of Death during the mid-1990's) was still onboard but it's worth mentioning the differences in sound between the two demo tapes & the one we receive on "Veil of Mourn", despite it containing a few of the same tracks as the demos in "Acid Storm", "Sinister at Sunrise" & "Producers Edge". The "Acid Storm" demo saw Rampage hovering somewhere between thrash metal & traditional heavy metal while the self-titled saw that heavy metal component heading more towards power metal. There isn't any heavy metal on "Veil of Mourn" while the power metal influence is limited to "Sinister at Sunrise". This time Rampage have expanded their sound with a very interesting progressive rock influence which sees them hitting on some highly unusual song & riffs structures & it's this element that would become the band's calling card. On the evidence here, I'd have to suggest that Rampage had been listening to a fair quantity of Voivod records in the lead-up to these sessions as I can clearly here the Canadian progressive metallers impact here, although I wouldn't suggest that it's enough to see me reaching for a dual tag as the thrash side of the trio's sound still sits comfortably in the ascendency.

Despite the intriguing complexities of Rampage's new sound though, I have to admit that I've once again struggled with this release in much the same way that I did with the two demo tapes. Yes, the band's sound certainly keeps you on your toes by maintaining the electricity of a live performance throughout but the obvious production & performance issues are simply too much to overcome the majority of the time. It's only really closing track "Transgression to Sin Under the Invisible Empire" that sees me able to look past the album's inadequacies & achieve true enjoyment but that's not to say that Rampage didn't come close on material like opener "Terrortaphobia (Fear of Giving Birth to a Monster)", the previously mentioned "Acid Storm" & prog thrasher "Autopsy". The other half of the album falls well short of the mark but has somehow managed to keep my attention in a similar way to a fatal car crash. You don't really want to see the horrors inside but you struggle to look away nonetheless. It's for this reason that "Veil of Mourn" has managed to avoid a more embarassing rating but I'd still suggest that the simpler "Acid Storm" demo is perhaps the release that saw Rampage coming the closest to producing a genuinely rewarding experience. Even it didn't quite get there though so I can't say that I'm disappointed to have finished my exploration of Rampage's quietly spoken back catalogue. While I seriously doubt that I'll be returning to them in the future, I do give Rampage some credit for producing one of the more unusual debut albums in Aussie thrash history.

For fans of Bezerker, Tyrus & Midas Touch.

By the middle of the 1990's, I was absolutely obsessed with extreme metal to the point where my entire life virtually revolved around it. I had finished high school at the end of 1993 & was now attending an Electrical Engineering course at the local TAFE college during the week but the reality is that I couldn't have cared less about that & was 100% focused on living a life of metal glory. My tape trading addiction had grown so intense that there were few major bands that I wasn't well across so I'd begun searching out ever more underground acts in order to secure that much sought after adrenaline rush. This would lead me to reading a kazillion reviews of little-known artists in order to identify those that might offer me some level of appeal & it would be through a very positive write-up in Terrorizer magazine that I'd uncover Dutch death metallers Altar whose debut album "Youth Against Christ" was being touted as the most evil thing since Deicide's highly celebrated first effort. Ironically, Deicide were very much like gods to me at that point in time so a statement like that was always gonna see my interest being peaked & I'd find myself very quickly racing to the local record store to order my imported CD copy of Altar's first full-length which would arrive a month or so later. Unfortunately though, it didn't make the impact that I'd hoped & I'd end up casting it aside after a few listens in favour of more accomplished releases. It wasn't that it was bad as such. It was just an also-ran in the grand scheme of the thriving death metal market of the early-to-mid 1990's, a third-tier release that was obscured by the dazzling array of more significant ones. It's been three decades since I listened to "Youth Against Christ" now though so I thought I'd give it another chance to impress me this week. Perhaps I'd been too harsh on it given the landscape at the time?

Altar were a five-piece outfit that released a single demo tape called "And God Created Satan to Blame for His Mistakes" in 1992 & maintained the same lineup for their first full-length which was released on Dutch extreme metal label Displeased Records in 1994. The album was recorded at Franky's Recording Kitchen in Nieuwleusen during March & April of that year with Berthus Westerhuys & Dead Head/Asphyx/Beyond Belief guitarist Ronnie van der Wey sharing the production duties. Westerhuys was a very experienced & well credentialed contributor to the Dutch metal scene & the result that the duo managed to produce here is very clean & precise for a debut from a relatively unknown act which has perhaps given Altar the extra initiative it needed to reach people such as myself who resided on the other side of the globe. I have to admit that it certainly sounds like a decent death metal record which has given the band a great opportunity to make a significant dent in the scene. The guitars are very tightly performed with the blast beats of former God Dethroned drummer Marco Arends remaining well-articulated & cleanly presented throughout while the vocals of front man Edwin Kelder sit comfortably over the top. The basslines of Nils Vos are probably the only loser in this space as they aren't exactly highlighted in the mix but you can certainly feel the bottom end so there's very little to complain about in relation to the production.

Altar's main calling card is their anti-religious & unapologetically Satanic lyrical approach which was likely the reason I encountered them in the first place. With titles such as "Jesus Is Dead!", "Divorced From God", "Hypochristianity" & "Cauterize the Church Council", Altar weren't exactly subtle about their attitudes towards the Christian faith & one gets the impression that they'd been majorly influenced by Deicide in that regard because there a whole bunch of musical references to the Florida's most blasphemous group of nutcases here too. I'm just not sure it's anywhere near as believable as it is with Deicide whose self-titled debut sits amongst the most intimidating records of all time. It probably doesn't help that Kelder's lyrics are so blatant in their approach as there's no sense of poetic artistry about them. They're far more obvious than that but Kelder's vocals are reasonably decent with his delivery being more of an angry bark than a growl. The song structures are quite ambitious compared to the lyrical themes with the track durations being a lot longer than they needed to be. Many of the songs simply feel like they've been needlessly extended. There's enough brutality here to keep me interested though & I think Altar are at their best when they're really going for it. Their mid-tempo material seems to highlight their limitations a little more while the guitar solos of Marcel van Haaf & Bert Huisjes are fairly primitive, lacking a bit of class, polish & control. 

Altar's rhythm section were originally a part of another short-lived Dutch death metal band by the name of Manticore who produced a single 1990 demo tape called "Cauterize the Church Council" & it would seem that the duo didn't harbour any loyalties to their former band mates as they've taken a couple of the tracks from that obscure cassette across to Altar in the title track & "Psycho Damn", the latter having already been re-recorded for the "And God Created Satan to Blame for His Mistakes" demo. A couple of the better tracks from the record were taken from that demo tape too in opener "Throne of Fire" & "Forced Imprudence", both which sit amongst my album highlights along with "Divorced From God". It's interesting that Altar had been around for a good six years by the time the album was recorded so one gets the distinct impression that their material needed a fair while to mature & develop. There aren't any weak numbers included though with the shiny production job doing a good job at allowing the weaker material to offer some sort of appeal, even if there are definitely some parts of the album that are obviously lacking in sophistication & ambition. I just think that Altar needed to focus on what they do best which is blast away with relentless abandon rather than trying to be too clever. I don't think that they ARE all that clever & it kinda shows during the more subdued moments.

I think it's fair to say that "Youth Against Christ" was up against some formidable competition at the time so it's easy to be a bit harsh on it. It's not a bad death metal record after all. It's just not an outstanding one so I don't think it would have made too many end-of-year lists. Displeased Records were obviously hoping that Altar's Satanic imagery would be enough to see Altar receiving a level of underground notoriety but I don't think they sounded authentic enough to see that eventuating & they ended up drifting off into obscurity after this album. In fact, I don't think I've heard any of their other releases & they're still around today as far as I'm aware. Still... you could do a lot worse than "Youth Against Christ" & I'd suggest that most of our The Horde members will get a bit of mindless enjoyment out of it.

For fans of Deicide, Infestdead & Sinister.

A few months ago, I decided that it was well past time that I revisited some of the earliest roots of the Australian extreme metal scene in the interest of confirming or denying some suspicions that I'd long harboured about the true origins of the genre in this country & that exercise led me to Melbourne's Nothing Sacred almost immediately. Nothing Sacred are often referred to as being band one in the grand scheme of Aussie thrash metal but, looking back now, I can't say that either of their 1985 releases (i.e. a live demo & the infamous "Deathwish" E.P.) should really qualify as thrash. To be honest, I've always thought of the demo as being traditional heavy metal with "Deathwish" falling somewhere between heavy metal & power metal & I didn't recall Nothing Sacred's "Let Us Prey" debut album being all that different in that regard. I revisited it only relatively recently actually but didn't afford it the dedicated time required for a full review so I thought I'd rectify that now & also see how it compares with Nothing Sacred's earlier releases.

The "Let Us Prey" album was recorded with producer Mark Woods a good three or four years after the sessions for "Deathwish" are reported to have been taken place. Woods is the cousin of Graham Owens who was responsible for producing some of the 1970's releases from Aussie hard rockers Taste & he'd also produce Melbourne hardcore punk/crossover thrash outfit Depression's 1987 "Ultra Hard Core Mega Heavy Punk Metal Thrash" live release & 1988 sophomore album "Thrash till Death - Studio Tapes" during this short period of activity with the local metal scene. Sadly though, the results of his labour on "Let Us Prey" weren't terribly successful as it's a very raw & primitive sounding metal record with a thick layer of white noise left sitting over the top. The guitars in particular sound tinny with a lot of high-end & the performances are a little patchy too which doesn't help. Still... this flaw is more of a hindrance than it is a deal breaker as Nothing Sacred clearly possessed enough class in their ability to write captivating metal songs with the oomph to overcome a few sound issues. That wasn't really in question though as they'd already proven that with the live demo which sported a very dodgy sound indeed but was somehow still reasonably enjoyable.

While "Deathwish" didn't offer much in the way of genuine thrash, "Let Us Prey" at least sees Nothing Sacred achieving a few songs that tick that box with the title track & the cover version of S.O.D.'s "Freddy Kruger" being clear examples of the mid-to-late 80's thrash sound. I'd suggest that opener "Warheads" & the excellent "This is War" should also qualify although both are more hybrids than they are pure thrash, the opener with speed metal & "This is War" with power metal. But given the fact that the album contains a healthy twelve tracks, that's not really enough to command a primary thrash tag in my opinion. The main genre at play here is heavy metal with early Iron Maiden being the most obvious influence, particularly in the vocal delivery of front man Mick Burnham whose performance is more than a bit patchy but manages to capture the listener through sheer charisma, despite his struggles from a purely theoretical point of view. He really does sound like Paul Dianno at times & has that rough & ready, punky hard rock vibe that the NWOBHM became known for but his pitchiness definitely holds Nothing Sacred back a little when the instrumentation is generally very well composed with each song containing a fair amount of class & ambition. The guitars of Mark Woolley (Hobbs Angel of Death) & Richard Snape exude a strong pedigree in metal music while the rock-solid rhythm section of bassist Karl Lean (Hobbs Angel of Death/Non Compos Mentis) & drummer Sham Littleman (Depression/Hobbs Angel of Death/Non Compos Mentis) provide the perfect driving platform for the band to work off.

Nothing Sacred cover a fair bit of creative ground across the thirty-six minute run time. 1980's speed metal gets an airing on the previously mentioned "Warheads" & the punky Motorhead style anthem "Dogs of War" while the more epic power metal sound that made up half of the "Deathwish" E.P. is represented on "No Tomorrow", "This is War" & "Guardian". There's even a more ambitious progressive metal number included in the very impressive "The Dark" which sits amongst my favourite tracks alongside "This is War". The rest of the album is best described as classic heavy metal & Nothing Sacred are very good at their craft too with the majority of the record being fairly entertaining. Things only start to tail off a bit across the back end of the tracklisting with the two thrashiest songs (i.e. the title track & "Freddy Kruger") both being fairly disappointing & closer "Damaged" seemingly having been phoned in. One gets the feeling that the band didn't quite have enough material to fill the album as a couple of the tracks included sound decidedly half-baked compared to the more fully realised material that preceded it. Still... there's more than enough decent heavy metal here to keep me interested & I've generally found this revisit to be a worthwhile exercise.

While I can't agree that "Let Us Prey" is in any way a classic Aussie metal release, it does offer a rewarding look into the roots of the local scene & proves that we would have had plenty to contribute to the global scene if we could have overcome the obvious geographical obstacles. Let's be very clear though that Nothing Sacred were NOT a thrash metal band with The Guardians being a much better fit for a record like this one. After revisiting both of Nothing Sacred's 1980's releases in quick succession, I feel that I slightly favour "Deathwish" over "Let Us Prey" these days as it's simply a little more consistent, even if Burnham's struggles behind the microphone were perhaps a little worse. Fans of the more metallic end of the NWOBHM could do a lot worse than to explore this old record as there's certainly something about Nothing Sacred that leaves you feeling like they may have been able to accomplish something special with a bit more financial backing & a decent international studio & producer.

For fans of Taramis, Iron Angel & Paul Dianno-era Iron Maiden.