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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.

My relationship with Katatonia has been distant at best. As documented in my review of their debut, it took many, many moons before I finally got to grips with it. In terms of the rest of their discography, well, I was approaching it at the same pace that I had the debut until recent life events led me to look for some music with a little more of an emotional connection to reflect my strife. Soon, The Fall of Hearts was not only on consistent rotation, but it more or less immediately adorned a spot in my vinyl collection.

I do not often listen to alternative metal, and although I get the connection here, still I do not feel The Fall of Hearts is necessarily justified of this tagging. Playing as a progressive rock record in the main, the album is certainly not my usual bag of extreme metal listening. Its more challenging aspects are still what draw me in though. That awkward structuring that forbids catchiness without sacrificing memorability is a welcome inclusion for me. Similarly, the expression of feelings, without the grandiose and minus the tedium is an honest share that I can acknowledge and respect in equal amounts. There are still some big riffs in here that inject real depth into tracks, often unexpectedly. A solemn and yet obvious bass presence also has great effect on proceedings, keeping the mournful and sorrowful themes of the album true against a background of solid if not all that remarkable drumming.

Vocally, I should not get on with Jonas Renke’s vocal style, having a usual disdain for clean vocals sung by a less than tuneful vocalist. However, his monotone style with those occasional harmonies that only half work is well suited and only adds to my enjoyment. The lyrics are what speak to me more however in terms of their content, seeped heavily in themes of uncertainty and turmoil, Jonas’ vocals only seek to enhance the appeal for me. I was not looking for something soulful, more the need was for an honest, rawer expression without the instrumentation necessarily leading this for once.

Suffice to say that this album struck the correct chord with me at the perfect time, standing out from the wealth of other music I was going through at the time to try and find some connection with. There truly is no greater feeling than finding such a record and on reflection I can honestly only say that this has happened on a handful of occasions over the years. Getting on for nearly forty years of listening to music, this has been a very unexpected yet incredibly rewarding find.

Times are not good for the Greek black metal outlet, Rotting Christ. After the bands change of style in the late 2010s began incorporating more symphonic elements into the music, many fans of the group stopped watching this band from a distance and began to turn away from them entirely. I, on the other hand, saw it as a nice change of pace for the group that felt like they were turning a new leaf on their career instead of staying the course with some pretty forgetful melodic black metal.

Unfortunately, Rotting Christ have not seemed to do anything with this sound beyond the initial attempt. I think that Pro Xristou has a diverse sound palette, but it sounds remarkably tedious and boring. The album is less black metal than ever before and much closer to a gothic doom metal, but Rotting Christ have only picked up on the most basic traits of that style of music. In short, Pro Xristou has no personality of its own. The vocals are performed even more dramatically artsy than even the last album, The Heretics as it transforms almost into ritualistic hymns. The melodic leads on this album are non-existent and it quickly turns into background noise after just a few tracks. This Christ has been fully composted.

Best Songs: La Lettera Del Diavolo, Pretty World, Pretty Dies

Capilla Ardiente are a five piece from Santiago, Chile and features a couple of members of doom crew, Procession, along with vocalist, Felipe Plaza Kutzbach, of Deströyer 666, who also provided vocals for this years "Ancient Doom Metal" album from legendary russian epic doomers, Scald. They play epic doom metal, and I mean with an emphasis on the EPIC. Only one of the four tracks on offer here clock in at less than ten minutes and musically and aesthetically they have as much in common with power metal as they do doom. Sure, the riffs are pure epic doom metal, but the overwrought and histrionic vocals, the shred-like guitar solos and the melodramatic songwriting all scream power metal to me. I can hear where they have clearly taken influence from the likes of Rich Walker's Solstice or Solitude Aeternus, in fact Kutzbach has toured with Solstice as the band's live vocalist on a couple of occasions, but where the great epic doom acts succeed is that they keep the inbuilt pompousness and excess of epic metal under control and exercise restraint when utilising the more overblown aspects of the genre, whereas here the chileans give free rein to all the most bombastic elements of their sound. Make comparison, for example, between Felipe Plaza Kutzbach's performance here compared to that he turned in for "Ancient Doom Metal" and I think that most people would agree his performance is more OTT and less controlled than that he gave on the Scald album. sounding eminently more like a power metal singer than a doom metal vocalist. For my money, epic doom is best when built around the aesthetic of a mournful and sombre yearning for lost glories, whereas "Where Gods Live and Men Die" feels more like power metal's grandiose and bombastic celebration of hegemony.

This certainly isn't a bad record by any means, when they get it right, such as with the hugely mournful riffs and more reflective vocals of "Now Here. Nowhere." it is actually very good, but too often it emphasises the epic side of the genre at the expense of the doom-laden and that will always illicit are more negative response from me. Performance-wise, the guys are technically very good and the production is nice and meaty, occasionally allowing the more doomy moments to shine through. The songwriting is quite good, although they go for a bit more complexity than is the norm for the genre, giving the individual tracks somewhat of a progressive feeling. Undoubtedly, it is a more memorable affair than the previous album with some very effective riffs, but its overly bombastic approach leaves me unlikely to be returning to it too often in the future I think. Still, if your tolerance for this more overblown approach is higher than mine, then there may well be plenty of meat for you to get your teeth into here but for me it's all a bit too much.

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.

Those readers that are regular contributors to the Metal Academy website would likely have witnessed my recent indulgence in the back catalogue of a relatively unknown Melbourne hardcore punk band from the mid-to-late 1980's by the name of Depression over the last couple of months & have wondered what all the fuss was about. Well, the truth is that I've been taken aback by my discovery that there is a lot more to Depression's legacy than I'd given them credit for back in the day. You see, I only ever familiarized myself with Depression's final studio effort "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" in my youth, trusting the consensus that the remainder of their discography stayed predominantly within the constraints of the hardcore punk sound. The reality is a bit different to that though & I've actually found a lot more that would be of interest to your average metalhead than I'd bargained for. In fact, I've uncovered the true roots of the Australian extreme metal scene along the way with 1985's "Australia, Australia" E.P. being the very first thrash-based release to be recorded in this country in my opinion. It's been a really interesting journey & one that I've found to be universally rewarding too but I've purposely left "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" to the end, electing to take a chronological path through Depression's back catalogue in order to gain the appropriate level of context along the way. Depression's sophomore album made quite an impression on me as a kid & I've returned to it a number of times over the years as a result but I've been wondering how it might stack up against some of Depression's earlier works, particularly given that it apparently saw many of the band's longer-term fans jumping ship due to the increased focus on metal.

"Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" arrived a year after Depression's previous release in the excellent 1987 "Ultra Hard Core Mega Heavy Punk Metal Thrash" live album which documented the band's first live show in two years. Depression had parted ways with former vocalist Spike following the ground-breaking "Australia, Australia" E.P. & returned with a three-piece lineup fronted by talented guitarist Smeer (also of Melbourne hardcore act Gash) who first tested the waters behind the microphone on 1986's highly enjoyable "Big Brother" single. Producer Mark Woods (who was also responsible for producing Nothing Sacred's 1988 debut album "Let Us Prey") would once again oversee the recording sessions after the success of the "Ultra Hard Core Mega Heavy Punk Metal Thrash" exercise & he does a reasonable job here with the album sporting enough clarity to allow all of the instruments to be easily discerned but maintaining enough raw grit to adhere to the expected hardcore aesthetic. The guitars are vibrant & full of life while the rhythm section offers plenty of power, particularly the bass guitar of Liddy & snare drum of Dakka (Persecution) which add some driving bottom-end depth to Depression's audio assault. Smeer's vocals sit beautifully over the top with his higher-register delivery cutting through the instrumentation with great vitriol.

As with the last few Depression releases, this material is pretty much as showcase of the breadth of the band member's various influences, rarely sticking to the one subgenre for too long. Metal & punk are both well represented but on this occasion we find the metal component outweighing the punk one in around a two-to-one ratio which could perhaps explain the loss of some of Depression's more punk-oriented fans. I'm a little confused as to why those fans didn't drop off earlier though as I'd suggest that both "Australia, Australia" & "Big Brother" followed a similar musical trajectory with the crossover thrash tag being more than appropriate to encompass the sound of both of those records & I don't think "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" is much more metal than those two in all honesty. It does, however, explore a few more of the various styles of metal music than Depression had touched on in the past with "Instrumental" toying with a more technically structured thrash metal sound, "Masters of the Universe" being a synth-backed heavy metal number that pays homage to the great Iron Maiden & closer "Spiritual Warrior" even reaching genuine speed metal status. The more straight-forward crossover thrash material is where the true gold can be found though with the incredible ode to heroine "Fifty Bucks" (one of my all-time favourite crossover tracks & the clear album highlight), the wonderfully short & violent "Civilisation of Destruction" & the powerful "Have a Look Around" being my picks of the bunch. As with most of Depression's back-catalogue, there are no weak moments to be found here as these guys were a class act & must have absolutely killed in a live capacity, particularly given that Smeer's guitar skills are pretty amazing for a punk. I mean, this dude can easily compete with (if not outclass) the best the local metal scene had to offer at the time. His ability to sing this stuff at the same time is pretty amazing really.

What can I tell you? This is really a case of another Depression record, another unheralded gem. I'm not sure whether my long-time affiliation with this album is seeing me holding any subconscious biases but I'm gonna suggest that this is Depression's best work & have now had to find room at the top of my Top Ten Crossover Thrash Releases of All Time list with "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" managing to usurp all but Slaughter & S.O.D. at number three on my list. It's also worth noting that Depression now hold a previously unheard of THREE places in that list which makes them arguably my favourite crossover band of all time now. Wow! I never would have thought that might end up being the case when I undertook for my first casual listen to their earliest demo recordings a few months ago now. But that's why our beloved metal scene is so great now, isn't it? No matter how experienced & knowledgeable we think we've become, there's always something unexpectedly incredible around the corner to pull us out of our own arses.

For fans of D.R.I., Discharge & Municipal Waste.

I am quite the fan of the short-lived Aussie war metallers, but with only two full-lengths to their name I wouldn't say they are my favourite war metal band. The more prolific Archgoat probably take that title, but Bestial Warlust did release my favourite war metal album, that being 1995's follow up to this month's The North feature, Blood & Valour, which is still my only five-star rated war metal album to date.

Vengeance War 'Till Death is a brief burst of blasphemic violence. With it's seven tracks clocking in at a mere 31 minutes it is an unrelenting salvo of blastbeats, frantically manic riffing and howling roars that is so murderously intense that half an hour is more than sufficient a runtime to satisfy the deeply primal instincts that live deep within us. Bestial Warlust must be one of the most aptly named bands in all of metal, their monicker perfectly summing up exactly what the band deliver. War metal is always a visceral and almost physical experience and few encapsulate this call to the animal side of us better than these guys. The production plays a massive part in the success of Vengeance... being filthily noisy and distorted enough to give it that seat-of-the-pants, chaotic sensation, whilst maintaining sufficient clarity to allow the individual contributions to be discerned and prevent the whole from descending into one godawful messy blur.

The drumming is a withering machine gun stream of blastbeat bullets that is testament to the indefatigable power of skinsman Markus Hellcunt and is prominent without swamping the guitars. The riffs are each distinct, which is not always true of many war metal releases whilst maintaining the supercharged and frantic pacing the genre requires. The solos screech like tormented souls, obviously having roots in the Slayer school of six-string torture, but taken to the absolute extremes where even Kerry King feared to tread. Bloodstorm spits fire and venom in a torrent of vitriolic howls and roars that encapsulates the sheer demonic evilness of war metal's blackened heart and leaves no one in any doubt as to which side of the "eternal struggle" tha band's music sits.

I am not going to pretend for one minute that this is going to appeal to most metalheads, I understand that war metal is an acquired taste, but for those who worship at the filth-strewn altar of extreme black and death metal, this is damn close to as good as it gets. In fact I have got so heavily into this album over the last day or two that I am going to up my otriginal four-star rating by half a mark.

I've never really listened to much Sepultura. I've listened to most of the albums from the classic period, and while I've liked some, I've never really revisited them. They're certainly one of the oddest groups, going from near death metal to nu metal sellouts is one heck of a career trajectory. I haven't heard anything since Roots or so, but people love these guys again, so clearly they did something right.
What surprised me when I first listened to this album was how much it sounded like modern Testament, which forced me to ask the question, who did it first? I mean, Testament did start off like Metallica before getting heavier, so I took a moment to check. The answer's complex, since I think Testament hit on the exact package first, but vocally they only thing they really stole, as such, was the way the vocals here sounded. It's very clearly an influence, since both are gruff, deep guys who frequently do near growls.
As an album, it's pretty good, feeling like a mix of their best moments. Songs tend to blend more sell-outy parts with harsher bits. Normally, that's not really a combination that I think works, usually the style differences seem awkwardly sewn together. But these guys make it work, which I find amusing since I gave up on them because they were getting crappy because of some elements. Here they blend the two pretty well, sometimes even in the same song. It comes off as unique, like if it weren't them you'd get something incredibly mediocre.
What I was surprised at was the occasional bits of prog leanings that sneak in. Never an entire song or anything, but a strong undercurrent. Even some of the requisite tribal music is thrown in. That said, a lot of times it feels less like a genuine attempt at expanding and more like someone got really into listening to Joe Satriani during the recording of this album. Sometimes it seems like passages are copied note for note.
I ultimately enjoyed this, as the negatives generally seem minor. I daresay this might even end up being my favorite Sepultura album.

Finnish black metallers Impaled Nazarene & I got off to a rip-roaring start to our relationship back in 1993. I'd been recommended their debut album "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." by a close associate of mine who worked at a Sydney metal record store by the name of Rock 'n' Roll Warehouse & had subsequently purchased it blind, culminating in a very positive & enjoyable few months of beer-drinking blasphemy. The follow-up album "Ugra-Karma" achieved almost as enthusiastic a response ten months later & saw Impaled Nazarene being confidently carved into my preferred band list. It also resulted in me religiously checking out the band's work for the rest of eternity, initially through their 1991 "Taog Eht Fo Htao Eht" demo tape & 1992 "Goat Perversion" E.P., both of which I quite liked. So, needless to say that I was feeling pretty hopeful when I returned home from the shops with Impaled Nazarene's third full-length CD in two years "Suomi Finland perkele" in October 1994 but my first few listens left me a little cold if I'm being honest. I would give the album a red-hot crack over the next month or so but it failed to capture me like the first two albums did & I'd soon cast it aside as a decent but inessential inclusion in the band's back catalogue. Yesterday's revisit is the first time I've returned to "Suomi Finland perkele" since the mid-1990's & I was hopeful that my reduced level of expectation might allow me to connect with the album on a deeper level.

July 1994 would see Impaled Nazarene returning to the same recording studio that had been so successful for them with their first two records in Kemi's Tico Tico studio. The strong production job on those two releases was certainly a selling point for me & "Suomi Finland perkele" doesn't disappoint in that department either with legendary Finnish metal producer Ahti Kortelainen once again affording Impaled Nazarene a clear yet powerful black metal sound with a huge snare drum. In fact, I feel like Kortelainen's contributions to the early Impaled Nazarene records were almost as important as that of the instrumentalists to be honest as he gave the band an accessibility that they may not otherwise have achieved. There had been no lineup changes between debut album "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." & third album "Suomi Finland perkele" & I feel that this could only have had a positive effect on the Impaled Nazarene's ability to naturally evolve from the battering war metal-inspired sound of their early works to a more traditional & slightly more melodic black metal sound over the course of those first few releases. The tongue-in-cheek element that was so obvious on those early releases is still very much at play on "Suomi Finland perkele" though & it once again feels like it's not intended to be taken all that seriously.

Critics of the band will likely refer to Impaled Nazarene as simplistic, one-dimensional &... well... a bit dumb... & I can certainly understand that point of view as there's not a lot of depth to a lot of their back catalogue. There is a level of creative integrity here though with the Luttinen brothers branching out from flat-chat black metal a little here & there. The melodic "Blood is Thicker Than Water" sees them taking a crack at a more atmospheric black metal sound while "Let's Fucking Die" gets its Motorhead on big-time with a pure black 'n' roll approach. Neither appeal to me much though which is fairly telling as I've always preferred the more intense & often grindcore-influenced end of the Impaled Nazarene spectrum. You get a bit of that here too but not nearly as much as we'd seen on the first two albums. With the exception of those two songs I already mentioned, the majority of the tracklisting is quite enjoyable with the fairly straight-forward "Ghettoblaster" being the only other dud. There aren't any certified classics here though & that's a major flaw with "Suomi Finland perkele". Hell, there isn't even anything that I'd suggest is crying out for playlist inclusion either to tell you the truth with the band failing to break out of the third tier on this occasion. "Steelvagina" (my personal favourite) & "Genocide" come the closest but even they only seem to achieve a mild amusement as opposed to an emphatic fist in my musical face. I dunno.... I certainly find "Suomi Finland perkele" to be a predominantly enjoyable experience but I can't say that it compares well with Impaled Nazarene's first two albums & I can completely understand why I haven't returned to it in so long as there has been a clear step down taken from past glories.

Perhaps it's simply a matter of taste as I've always favoured a darker & more intense form of extreme metal than your average metalhead but "Suami Finland perkele" seems like a slightly watered down version of the Impaled Nazarene that I so enjoyed during their early days. There's no doubt some enjoyment to be found in it if you allow yourself to overcome the tongue-in-cheek elements of the Nazarene approach but the added touch of melody doesn't work as well with these very straight forward song structures in my opinion. The blackened doom track "Quasb/The Burning" was an interesting inclusion but even then it stops short of commanding repeat listens which kinda sums up the appeal of an album like "Suomi Finland perkele". I see it as more of a supporting cast member in the feature film of Impaled Nazarene's early albums which is a bit of a shame but it's still a fun listen for those members of The North who can see past the mystical shadows of their maces & candelabras for a while.

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Impiety & Belial.

From St. Louis, Summoning the Lich are making death metal for scene kids. Now that might sound like a humongous insult, but The Black Dahlia Murder have been around and always managed to stay hip with those hardcore kids. So it's only natural that someone would come along and double down on this audience.

Many other metal forums say that Summoning the Lich are just Black Dahlia Murder worship, but I'm not sure I get that impression from Under the Reviled Throne. There are a lot of fast moving, technical passages here; plenty of high intensity riffage, blast beats and alternating between death metal howls and deathcore screeching. What Summoning the Lich does well with this album is not making these songs just sound like technical wanking and have some well composed songs on display. They might not be the most memorable in hindsight, but in the moment they sound well composed with some detail given to melodic dominance. It almost gives me a hint of Allegaeon in its presentation, which I was certainly not expecting. The breakdowns are not as intimidating as the modern deathcore breakdown; they act more as momentary reprieve's before the heavier death metal returns, which is how breakdowns should be incorporated into death metal anyways. 

Under the Reviled Throne is an album that shows a lot of promise on the outset, but in execution, the album seems to have run out of tricks in the bag about half way through. I was getting tired of the triplet feel transition on every song, I was getting frustrated that almost ever track followed the same structural format, and I really wasn't a fan of how Summoning the Lich disguised this lack of variety through key shifting. The bass lines are also severely lacking and makes the mix of this record feel less heavy as a result. It's a decent album with some good moments, but not worth the full runtime given how repetitive it becomes.

Best Songs: Reviled Crystal Wielders, The Carrion Fleet, The Void Gate

Kaatayra is one of the solo projects of brazilian multi-instrumentalist Caio Lemos who released his debut under the name in 2019 and went on to release 5 full-length albums in two and a half years. "Toda história pela frente" ("All History Ahead") is the fourth of these, being released in August 2020. Kaatayra plays atmospheric black metal infused with Caio's native brazilian folk music that makes for a refreshing change and adds a nice twist to the genre, bringing a different aesthetic to the music away from the euro-centric folk most usually encountered within the genre. Gone are the frigid, icy soundscapes more readily associated with european and north american black metal, to be replaced by a warmer, more celebratory atmosphere, where the natural environment is not so much a hard and inhospitable setting which must be endured, but a life-giving and nurturing domain that is to be acclaimed.

"Toda história pela frente" consists of three lengthy epics and was Kaatayra's most black metal album up to that point. I also think it was the album where he best integrated the black metal and acoustic elements together, with a noticeble increase in consistency as his songwriting matured. Not that I am saying there was too much wrong with his previous albums, but there was sometimes a jarring feeling that the two disparate elements were being forced together rather than the tracks evolving the relationship between the metal and the folk-led in a more organic way as they do here. Sometimes he takes a completely fresh approach to black metal and even plays the riff on acoustic rather than electric guitar, complete with accompanying blastbeats which works surprisingly well. Elsewhere he weaves some nice synth-led ambient threads into his musical tapestries, with an especially soothing section coming in the latter part of opening track, the 17-minute, "O Castigo Vem à Cavalo", giving the listener a moment or two of calm which lends an even greater impact to the final climactic blackened explosion.

When Caio let's the black metal side of things rip, then he sounds more savage and visceral than he had at any point up until this, with his ragged shrieks, frantic tremolo riffing and pummelling blastbeats providing an aggressive, red-blooded assault on the listener's ears with the opening minutes of second track "Toda mágoa do mundo" being the prime example. Yet, despite this, there is a rhythmic quality to the riffs on even the most vicious sections that prevents the tracks from sounding spiteful or hate-filled, but rather impart the notion of a more wholesome "nature red in tooth and claw" ethos instead. The latin rhythms of the folk-led parts are also one of the major distinctions between this and the vast majority of the atmospheric black metal pack. The euro-centric folk incorporated by most black metal acts oftentimes gives a menacing, ritualistic and even occult vibe to proceedings, but the dance-oriented latin rhythms deployed here make for a much more positive and celebratory atmosphere.

I don't think I can give this more praise than saying that, in certain respects, it reminds me of Austin Lunn's Panopticon. Similar to Panopticon it has taken the local folk music of the artist that sits outside the scope of black metal that we are used to and has incorporated it in such a way as to impart a different, more positive and human ethos into what can so often be a misanthropic and negative style of music, giving the listener an entirely different experience of black metal than they may have expected.

I think it's fair to say that 1994 was pretty much the peak of the Norwegian black metal boom. That particular year spawned so many of the greatest releases for the genre which kinda makes sense when you consider that it came two years after Darkthrone & Burzum's had placed the world on notice with their seminal first-up contributions. In a fast-moving movement where live performance was not valued highly, that would prove to be just enough time for the influence of the early gods to be filtered down to other creative & ambitious musicians & to see those influences resulting in new & original sounds. The Swedes were paying close attention too & 1994 would see the likes of Marduk, Dawn, Dark Funeral, Abruptum, Sacramentum, Ophthalamia & Arckanum all having a crack at black metal glory. Amongst the Swedish scene we would find Dissection, a group that had changed the face of black metal with their 1993 debut album "The Somberlain" which had combined the genre with the melodic death metal of their homeland & it would be Dissection's notorious band leader, guitarist & front man Jon Nödtveidt that would be the creative force behind The Black, a pure black metal trio from Eskilstuna, Södermanlands län.

I noticed The Black's debut album "The Priest of Satan" on the shelves of my local record store as soon as it arrived but, given the wealth of exceptional releases that were perpetuating the fast growth the black metal genre was experiencing at the time, I steered clear of committing to it for a couple of months until a close associate of my death metal band Neuropath decided that it should be him that finally made the purchase. I would rip a copy from him right away & would give "The Priest of Satan" a few attentive listens over the next week or so. I don't recall being blown away but I do remember it being a very basic & fairly generic record that focused on the more pure end of the black metal spectrum, a sound that I've grown to value enormously in a world where every man & his dog is now trying to dilute the true essence of black metal with any number of external influences. Despite being mildly entertaining, the album failed to compete with the classic records that Burzum, Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone & Enslaved were dishing out at the time (which was admittedly a tough feat to accomplish) & my dubbed cassette copy of "The Priest of Satan" would quickly drift to the back of my tape trading collection. This will be my first revisit since that time, a gap of around three decades.

Recorded and mixed at Underground Studio during April/May 1993 with unknown producer Kribbe Lagerwall collaborating with drummer Make Pesonen (Eternal Darkness/Karjalan Sissit) behind the mixing desk, "The Priest of Satan" achieves a faithful rendition of the classic black metal sound. Pesonen (also known as The Black himself) had self-produced The Black's 1992 "Black Blood" demo tape so he already had some runs on the board when it came to recorded sound production. The result is an uncluttered black metal sound that doesn't try to reach too far outside of the tried & tested model that bands like Mayhem, Marduk & Darkthrone had already traversed but does it in a professional enough way to keep the listener engaged throughout. The occasional addition of atmospheric keyboards from Nödtveidt in order to break things up is most welcome but for the most part the three-piece group tend to stick to the same pathway as their highly celebrated forefathers. 

Apart from Nödtveidt & Pesonen, The Black was made up of bassist Marcus Pedersén (Crypt of Kerberos) & the trio had completed the "Black Blood" demo tape with another guitarist who went by the name of Black Demon. That individual had been dropped from the lineup by the time "The Priest of Satan" was recorded but the material had not with all seven tracks included on "Black Blood" having been revisited for the album which amounted to twelve songs at just under 39 minutes in duration. The material is extremely consistent & if you find yourself enjoying the first proper black metal song "The Book of Leviathan" then you'll likely find enjoyment in the remainder of the album as well as it doesn't stray too far from the formula showcased in the opener. In fact, it's really hard to pick out any highlights here as the album is simply so similar in terms of quality. If pushed though, I'd probably suggest that “Black Blood”, "After My Prayers" & "The Goat of Mendes" might be the most memorable inclusions for me personally. Admittedly none of them really get me going all that much because, I'm not gonna lie, The Black have produced a fairly middling record here & one that's the very definition of a 3.5-star album in that it's unanimously enjoyable but rarely all that compelling.

Nödtveidt's riffs are purposely kept very simple with only a few chords changes within the predominantly tremolo-picked assault. You should be able to pick up the basslines of Pedersén fairly easily but they generally only double to bass notes of the riffs while Pesonen's drumming alternates between some fairly basic blast-beats & some equally simple lower-tempo 4/4 beats. The blackened screams of Nödtveidt are the clear highlight of The Black's sound but even they don't sound all that dissimilar to any number of other black metal front men. As boring as all that sounds though, I can't deny that The Black pull it all off really well & rarely disappoint. Perhaps that's not too surprising given the presence of Nödtveidt but what is surprising is that one of his projects is so happy to stay within the lane of what had already been done so many times before, even back in 1994. Still, for a third-tier black metal release, you could certainly do far worse than "The Priest of Satan" as there's a clear & consistent competence in the way The Black handle themselves.

Look, if you're looking for an unheralded gem of the black metal underground then I'm not sure you'll find it here but you could also do a lot worse than "The Priest of Satan". The inclusion of a few well executed ambient sections can't hide the fact that The Black had opted for pure emulation over any attempt at creating an original take on the genre though & I'm not surprised that I haven't returned to the album over such a long period. Still... there's nothing terribly offensive to be found on this old Swedish black metal release & it ticked most of my boxes for an entertaining drive to & from work on Friday.

For fans of Armagedda, Throne of Ahaz & The Abyss.

Supergroups largely suck as a concept. Adrenaline Mob start out stronger than most others by they had drum aficionado Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater in the line-up and long serving Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen front and centre. Oh, and a couple of guys from Fozzy (meh). On paper then there was the promise of something interesting at least. Inevitably though, what is on paper is much better than reality, and this most definitely the case with Adrenaline Mob.

For a start, I don’t like Russell Allen’s, straining whilst having a poo style of vocals at all. They fall short of any operatic/epic metal standards and are by far the most annoying aspect of the record. When these guys were all sat round having a beer and going “Hey man, we should record an album together!” at least one of them should have gone “Hang on, do we actually fit together?”. As a result of missing this simple sense check, this album lacks any coherent form or substance. Allen’s vocals take the groove metal prowess of the group and dumbs it down to some indifferent (pun intended – read the tracklisting) mish mash of heavy metal vocals over some potentially interesting riffs and rhythms.

Considering I have zero time for Fozzy, Rich Ward does a great job alongside Mike Orlando on the guitar front. Great leads get pulled out of what are otherwise laborious and poorly conceived structures that are let down largely by a very tame and underwhelming vocalist. Can you write groove rock? Well, no in all honesty. This does not stop the mindless pop/country/rock of All on the Line getting an inclusion here though. Evidence of predictable ego playing an unwelcome from a bloated bunch of metal “celebs”?

For his part, Portnoy is as good as you would expect him to be. I doubt he breaks sweat here though and I cannot help but think of the image of him pounding the skins with one hand, whilst the other sips from coffee cup, the rest of the band looking like they have run a marathon to keep up with him as they puff hard, chests wheezing and faces all ruddy.

Somewhere after the aptly named Hit the Wall, I drifted into a coma in all honesty. It is arguable to me that this is even metal in some parts but I care so little about this album and all the layers of cheese that accompany it (even Lzzy fucking Hale gets an appearance, FFS) that the Hall of Judgement nomination can stay untouched.

As if the excessive snare drum of St. Anger era Metallica needed any further reminders of why such overuse of the instrument was a poor idea, it is worth noting that Acid Drinkers already went down that cul-de-sac five years before Lars and co. ever put stick to skin. It is not that this is even the main issue with High proof Cosmic Milk either. That list is near endless for me. Dull song structures that tickle alternative tentacles far too often (even for a groove metal record), horrible production that makes the whole thing sound sterile and borderline lifeless, vocals that constantly sound like they are straining to be heard when in fact they are already far too clear in the mix…I could go on, but I won’t.

According to other scribe son the internet, this album is a departure from the band’s usual conventional thrash metal sound, and it seems that the trend of venturing out of that familiar pen into the groove metal stall just across the farmyard was being followed by this quartet of Poles just like seemingly many long-standing trad thrash bands before (and after) them.

Unfortunately, Spotify offered up the bonus track version of this album when I searched it and, not content to simply numb my mind with their own material the band butcher Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival. A truly awful discovery right here folks.

Searching through groove metal over the past twelve months or so has churned up a mixed bag of releases. Crossing into core, death metal and of course thrash metal, the journey has been one that has broadened my horizons from my personal (and seemingly insular) belief that the genre consisted of Pantera and (early) Machine Head as its brief contribution to the metal world before it was consumed by the arrival of nu metal. Hitting a search on Metal Academy for releases in the genre up to 2020 pulls fifteen pages of results containing household names such as Anthrax, Overkill, Decapitated, Lamb of God as well as at least three bands containing one or more of the Cavalera brothers.

By the time Quadra was released, both Max and Igor were no longer in Sepultura. Andreas Kisser and Paulo Xisto were the only long-standing members left (although I often smirk at Paulo’s status under that banner given, he played nothing on Schizophrenia, Beneath the Remains or Arise). With the now familiar voice of Derrick Green fronting the band and Eloy Casagrande starting his third album on the drum stool, Quadra had a stable line up and this shows in abundance on the record for me. Kisser was always lauded as a great guitarist back in the day and I never really got onboard with that sentiment if I am honest. Yet on Quadra I find his work is consistent and versatile. That slightly detuned solo on Capital Enslavement could have really been butchered I sense, but despite it risking teetering on the brink of plain amateur, Kisser carries it off nicely. Likewise, his riffing maybe a little too familiar, resulting in some sense of there being a lack of variation across the riff and rhythm sections of Quadra, but it is entertaining enough when the vocals and song structures add the necessary depth to the album that is at times lacking.

The above having been said, Quadra may not be my favourite Sepultura release. But having heard everything up to an including Chaos A.D. on a consistent basis over the years, Quadra is the most interesting release from the band to my ears. The thrash metal elements are sparse, and the groove metal takes more of a centre stage. This is no bad thing. Based on my groove metal exploration to date, I would say Quadra is one of the better releases I have heard. Within these progressive structures there is no loss of the urgency I would seek in the tempo of the record. The orchestration of tracks like Guardians of the Earth are done against an obvious metal backdrop and blend well. The crowning glory of the album is without question for me the well-balanced, Agony of Defeat. Here the choir arrangement is professionally done to add depth to the tack, giving it a sense of the epic. Bestial Devastation fans need not apply.

I prefer this record to Roots, an album that whenever I have attempted to delve into has resulted in some horrible combination of confusion and disappointment. Indeed, I would go as far as to say that I prefer Quadra to pretty much anything Max and Igor have put out since they departed the band. If, like me, you had assumed Sepultura’s better releases where behind them after 1993 then you would be mistaken. This is not Arise or Beneath the Remains, it is something else altogether, and whilst it will never trump those two it is still a very strong release based on its own merits.

The first couple of times I listened to this, I didn't really get much out of it. Do I still like epic doom metal, I thought to myself?
But as I listened to more of the album, it struck me that my problem wasn't me, it was the album. It's not exactly epic doom metal, at least not as I recognize it. It's not epic doom metal, it's doom metal with epic metal attached. It's a doom metal album with a strong Manilla Road influence, and I don't think that combination really works. The crushing, heavy guitars combined with that heroic fantasy feeling is just jarring.
It doesn't help that the four songs on this album don't really do much to distinguish themselves from each other. Without distinguishing themselves, how can they be distinguished against others? Beyond that sense of heaviness, this album doesn't really have much that sticks out in my mind. There are no interesting riffs, heaviness is the point, and the solos are decent enough. The vocalist even just sounds like he's taking after someone else, but not doing it in an interesting way.
While I obviously didn't like the album, I do like that they tried to do something with their music that's just a bit out of left field. I think if they continue in this direction, they should go for something shorter. As contrary as it might seem, the greats used a mix of both short and long songs. Endless epics aren't necessarily better than short songs, and getting your point across in three minutes are as much a skill as making something ten minutes long.

I've been a bit of a fan of Dutch death metallers Gorefest since very early on in their recording career which has seen them becoming an artist that I've followed with keen interest throughout most of their existence. They did lose me for a period during the late 1990's when their transition towards more of a death 'n' roll sound reached its ultimate culmination but their early days as a chunky death metal band were unanimously rewarding with 1990's "Horrors in a Retarded Mind" demo tape, 1991's "Mindloss" debut album & 1992's "False" sophomore record all being pretty interesting, if not particularly essential. "False" has always been my favourite of Gorefest's studio albums but I was recently left a little disappointed when my latest revisit only resulted in a 3.5-star rating which left me wondering whether I'd overrated Gorefest a touch over the years. At that point I committed to reexamining 1994's "Erase" third album which was a record that I spent a fair bit of time with at the time of release but haven't returned to since. My memories of it were largely positive but I've always considered it to be the point in which Gorefest started their death 'n' roll transition which culminated in 1998's disappointing "Chapter 13" fifth full-length & that would perhaps explain why I haven't been so keen to return to "Erase". Regardless, I held significant hope for it going into my first listen as I remembered it being pretty solid in its own right.

"Erase" would be Gorefest's second album for the illustrious Nuclear Blast label & would see them venturing outside of the Netherlands for the recording sessions for the first time, this time choosing to record in Germany at T & T Studio in Gelsenkirchen with English producer Pete Coleman who had made a name for himself working behind the mixing desk for bands like Cancer, Demon, Discharge, Disincarnate, Napalm Death & Paradise Lost. The result is another heavy-weight death metal record with a thick down-tuned guitar tune & a bottom-heavy rhythm section. I love the bass guitar tone & the depth that's afforded to the toms & kick drum with the snare drum being really punchy, all of which works really well in support of bassist Jan-Chris de Koeijer's ultra-deep death grunts. The band lineup had remained stable from the one that recorded "False" two years earlier which is a real positive that has seen Gorefest able to continue their musical development unhindered. The guitar solos of Boudewijn Bonebakker that were arguably the low point of "False" have improved significantly here, still being fairly basic from a technical point of view but this time having much more direction & structure than they did on "False". The drumming of Ed Warby (Demiurg/Elegy/Hail of Bullets/The 11th Hour) is rock-solid too & gives the rest of the instrumentalists a beautiful platform with which to work off. He never over-plays his hand here & clearly knew the true meaning of the term "rhythm section".

Gorefest's sound definitely wasn't as deathly on "Erase" as it was on their previous work & it's easy to see why some fans may have been a little put off by the overall direction. Unlike some critics, I wouldn't say that it was a death 'n' roll record as such though. It's still a death metal release for mine but it's certainly one that showcases a fair amount of groove in its controlled & unanimously mid-paced approach. I feel that Carcass' classic 1993 fourth album "Heartwork" has played a significant role in the riff structures on "Erase" actually, not in a melodic sense but in the way they've structured their riffs, always keeping things simple & open in order to maximize the impact of the song-writing. Entombed's "Wolverine Blues" is another record that I find myself calling upon as a point of reference while the more pure groove metal riffs have me reaching for comparisons to California's Machine Head. It all works very nicely although I will say that de Koeijer's vocals don't sit as comfortably over this sound as they did over the more intense death metal of their roots which does limit the appeal of the album a touch. The more intense sections (such as the beautifully executed blast beat riff on "Peace of Paper") definitely see me perking up a lot which is an indication of where my allegiances lie but the band use those parts well in order to create climaxes within their more controlled song structures.

The tracklisting is generally pretty consistent with only the slightly clunky "I Walk My Way" failing to capture my attention. The more hard-hitting & deathly tracks tend to be the ones that grab me more than the rest with the excellent title track, the previously mentioned "Peace of Paper" & the brooding downtempo atmosphere of "Goddess in Black" being the clear standouts. The rest of the material is all pretty entertaining but rarely sees me wanting to stand up & applaud & I think that's the thing that hinders the album's chances of becoming a genuine favourite. It's all professionally written & produced but it's also fairly easy-listening when it comes to extreme metal, instead seeming to target the same sort of crossover appeal that the Carcass & Entombed records I mentioned earlier managed to gain. It does a pretty reasonable job at it too as I've bought into what its selling & that's no easy feat when it comes to my fairly extreme taste profile. But I can't deny that the heights that it's possible to take me to with this sound are limited by the very same thing that gives "Erase" the potential to break through the boundaries of the death metal audience i.e. its accessibility.

"Erase" is another decent death metal record from Gorefest but, as with all of their previous material, I still find myself falling short of claiming it as an essential one. There's no doubt that they were a well-oiled machine who knew what they were doing but they simply can't crack into that second-tier consistently enough to see me wanting to return to them very often. In saying that, I do think that "Erase" is a touch underrated because it doesn't sit all that far behind Gorefest's more obviously deathly early works in terms of quality in my opinion. I'm actually surprised that it didn't make more of a fist of cracking into more commercial metal market to be honest but I think some of that is due to de Koeijer's vocals in all honesty as they're hardly Top of the Pops stuff now, are they?

For fans of Pungent Stench, Entombed & "Heartwork"-era Carcass.

Neurotech had been built up slowly and steadily at that point. The releases Wulf made for the project are all good though starting off a bit rough in the debut Antagonist. It seemed like he had his own mission to achieve, which was to try to find the right balance for his sound, one that would truly show what his project is all about. And with his second album (3rd if including the Decipher Volumes), he's just about got it!

Infra Versus Ultra greatly defines Wulf's contribution to the futuristic industrial metal subgenre that is cyber metal. It is something so unique, so mesmerizing. Neurotech has perhaps pushed Mechina off the epic cyber metal throne, at least with what the two bands were doing at the time.

The album and its story begins "(Infra) I", a smooth galactic intro that slowly rises. The buildup leads to the kickoff, with "Atlas" hitting the stage hard. The guitarwork sounds like it has practically been taken from 90s Fear Factory. I was almost expecting Wulf to unleash his earlier growling vocals. What's different compared to Fear Factory is, Wulf prefers to make his style more melodic than mechanical. Although he has distance from his earlier growls, his cleans have multiple layers that are like angels transcending from the cyber heavens. No matter which vocal style he goes for, it lets him stand out amongst the cyber/industrial metal crowd. "The Longest Time" is a truly catchy hit. As is "Unleashing the Dead" which is another unique standout.

"The Art of Forgiveness" takes the Fear Factory influences further, this time from one of that band's longer ballads. Only one track has left me stumped, that one being "(Versus) You". That interlude isn't all that uplifting. In saying that, "Sacrifice" isn't much of a metal track either, but it mixes other sounds so beautifully.

Next track "Transcendental" indeed transcends through different dimensions as Wulf guides you through, "Let's go, let's hide away, for a while". Then "When the Night Falls" starts with dramatic symphonic synths that almost made me think it would lead to an Eternal Tears of Sorrow song, before having the usual Neurotech drift. The melancholic closing track "(Ultra) Us" has the perfect music and lyrics to end this cyber metal adventure.

What more can you ask for from Neurotech?! Metal anthems, melancholic ballads, electronic samples, catchy beats... Everything you want from this band! We're in a century where the music realms have much more than in the past, and any open-minded listener should listen to Infra Versus Ultra and add it to their playlist. The future is here!

Favorites: "Atlas", "Unleashing the Dead", "Sacrifice", "Transcendental", "(Ultra) Us"

Would you consider an album compiling 3 EPs with all-new tracks an extensive studio album? I sometimes would. This artistic man from Slovenia, Wulf had made a series of EPs for his project Neurotech throughout 2012 and early 2013, each of them titled Decipher. Vol. 1 came out in April 2012, followed by Vol. 2 in September. Vol 3. came out sometime in early 2013 though it wasn't released as widely as the first two volumes. And finally in June, all 3 EPs were put together as The Decipher Volumes.

I gotta say, it's a great improvement from Neurotech's good but problematic debut Antagonist, and brings it to the same level as Blue Screen Planet... on average. The direct harsh cyber metal is given more variation, and it's balanced out with songs of different styles, ranging from heavy to poppy to atmospheric. Adding to the diversity is the talented female singing by Tanja Ravljen (I almost wrote Tarja, but that's what happens when you've heard of Nightwish longer than Neurotech). The atmosphere shines the most in 3rd volume, finally sealing the deal on the variation cyber metal has to offer.

Each volume starts with a prelude, and the "Vol. 1 - Prelude" is a nice place to start. It segues to "The Cyber Waltz" which greatly picks up where Blue Screen Planet left off. It's a true cyber metal anthem, with everything you can ask for from the symphonics, synths, electronics, pianos, guitars, drums, beats, and vocals. The perfect memorable beginning of this spacey journey, and done much better than the heavier first part of Blue Screen Planet. Next, "Damage is Done" has the cyber metal aggression leftover from Antagonist. "Home" has smooth piano melancholy, with nice lyrical flow, "Where is the price to pay for the life you've thrown away? Could you believe it's gone?!" The more otherworldly "Below These Scars" is a more atmospheric highlight. The first ever exploration of clean singing fits greatly with the serious lyrics of pain and guilt.

"Vol. 2 - Prelude" is nice. But I don't see much of the point of splitting off part of the beginning of "Let the Healing Begin", which is already an intro, and an amazing one at that. Atmospheric synths and Tanja's serene singing take your breath away. She continues her vocals in the beginning of "The Race of Recovery", "Erase me, don't tell me, I'll take you far away from here". The song is the ultimate highlight of the second volume. The beat and synths may bring the sound closer to dance-pop, but who cares?! The vocal duet between Tanja and Wulf stands out here! It departs from the harshness of Antagonist while still having heavy riffing, allowing that masterpiece composition to dominate. We have some nice verses in "A Clouded Mind" with cool industrial beats. Lots of amazing synths and vocals to add more electro-industrial to the metal. "Is the Sunrise Coming" shows that industrial/cyber metal doesn't have to be as heavy as Fear Factory. Departing from Antagonist the most is "Unconditional", heading into early 2000s Theatre of Tragedy. The complex "This is the New Age" adds to the bridge from the first volume. "A Separate Way" is a magical conclusion to this part.

"Vol. 3 - Prelude" is cool but again should've been part of the actual intro... "Closure" is a nice calm before the storm. "No Turning Back" blasts off with amazing melodies, rhythms, and synths, for another soaring cyber/industrial metal experience. That one actually triumphs over "Triumph" which is starting to get predictable at this point when attempt to add background ambience behind guitar riffing. Then we have a different highlight "The Difference" which peaks as an adventure within an adventure. Everything's so mesmerizing in the beats, guitars, and vocals, and the synths and piano add to the gothic melancholy. "A New Tomorrow" leans a little too far into electropop, more fitting for a club hit. The ultimate highlight of this entire playlist is the 7-minute instrumental epic "Decipher". It's surprising because it's just the soft ethereal new age of Enigma and Vangelis. This atmospheric mini-journey is in a similar vein to the softer half of Blue Screen Planet. Beautiful and suitable for the end or near-end of a Sphere playlist.

The Decipher Volumes is for any metalhead who wants both atmospheric and heavy. The structures and production in these dynamic songs are pretty much what the Neurotech sound is all about. This project should really get more attention and bring honor to the cyber metal name....

Favorites: "The Cyber Waltz", "Below These Scars", "Let the Healing Begin", "The Race of Recovery", "A Clouded Mind", "This is the New Age", "A Separate Way", "No Turning Back", "The Difference", "Decipher"

Novembre is one of those bands I can't actually recall, but sounds like one I've probably encountered in passing. Anathema in the suggested bands on M-A, probably vaguely popular enough that I've seen them without really knowing what it is.
The vocalist and some of the earlier songs really reminded me of the sort of vaguely metal alt rock that seemed to fill pop music during the decade this was released. It's the clean vocalist who really sells it; He's one of those whiny guys who you usually hear singing about another breakup or about how they're really going to do it this time. I think it's a shame because the lyrics are far too good for the guy singing them.
This isn't to say I don't like the album, it's nice, but as a package it's missing something else. It's just...fine. It definitely has that doom metal Pink Floyd vibe that Anathema had, so it isn't that. Despite the album taking a while to get going, even on the second half I get that eh feeling. I'd say the material doesn't quite work with the production it has. That said Swim Seagull in the Sky, even with this lifeless feeling, still works.
With that said, it has been done many different ways, since I'm hearing a remastered version, and even this album is a remake of an earlier album. The question is, did it change because the earlier productions were worse, or because they didn't quite like it and ended up here? I think for now, I'll be content to just wait to answer that question.

Melbourne thrash metal legends Hobbs Angel of Death first came to my attention some time in 1989, shortly after I'd discovered that there was a local extreme metal scene through Sydney thrash establishment Mortal Sin. It was while perusing a Metal For Melbourne (a seminal Australian metal record store, promoter & label) end of year list that detailed all of the top releases from 1988 (likely in "Hot Metal" magazine that I bought religiously) that I noticed a record that I wasn't familiar with in Hobbs' self-titled debut album. It was a pretty amazing list to be fair & would lead to me seeking out a number of albums with "Hobbs Angel of Death" being one that I'd pick up from the older skater kids at my school. My positive experiences with that dubbed cassette copy of the record would lead to me also seeking out the two earlier demo tapes from the band in 1987's "Angel of Death" & 1988's "Virgin Metal Invasion from Down Under", both which really floated my boat. Slayer were basically my gods at the time (& arguably still are) so Hobbs' sound was always gonna appeal to me given the very close alignment with Slayer's aggressive thrash sound & Hobbs has stuck with me ever since. In 2003, Victorian extreme metal label Modern Invasion Music would go through the exercise of remastering & re-releasing the two Hobbs Angel of Death demos & I've had the absolute privilege of checking them out this week.

Both of the Hobbs demos were recorded at Doug Saunders Studio in Melbourne during the mid-to-late 1980's & the sound quality is excellent compared to other demo tapes of the time. Front man, guitarist & band leader Peter Hobbs had previously enjoyed some time studio time with his earlier thrash band Tyrus who are equally revered in my home country so it's perhaps understandable that the Hobbs cassettes sounded pretty decent. For the recording of "Angel of Death" he'd recruit Nothing Sacred guitarist Mark Woolley, Renegade bassist Steve Scott & relatively unknown drummer Darren McMaster-Smith. Hobbs Angel of Death was essentially a solo project for Peter though so that lineup changed fairly dramatically by the time "Virgin Metal Invasion from Down Under" was recorded with Nothing Sacred/Non Compos Mentis bassist Karl Lean (aka Karl Monara) & Nothing Sacred/Depression/Non Compos Mentis drummer Sham Littleman joining the fold temporarily before Woolley & McMaster-Smith returned for the recording of the self-titled full-length along with Bestial Warlust/Deströyer 666/Mass Confusion bassist Phil Gresik. Despite the consistent personnel changes though, "Hobbs Satan's Crusade" sounds really good with modern day ears. It harnesses the raw intensity of the underground thrash scene of the 1980's beautifully with the two tapes sounding a little different from each other but with neither really achieving any sort of ascendancy.

Hobbs Angel of Death's early sound was clearly built around their gratuitous worship of one classic thrash metal act & it won't be very hard for you to figure out which one that might be upon switching on this compilation. Peter was obviously quite enamored with Californian thrash gods Slayer because Hobbs' sound is so closely aligned with Slayer's 1984-1985 period that it's almost impossible to stop yourself from consistently drawing upon your memory for comparisons while listening to their recorded output. While Hobbs may not sound exactly like Slayer singer Tom Araya, the fact that he mimics Araya's phrasing so accurately makes him trick your mind into thinking that their tones are very similar. The lyrical content only amplifies those comparisons as it's also very well aligned along with the riffs & song-structures. I'll be honest, I miss classic Slayer virtually every day of my life so if anyone can pull off their sound with any sort of success then I'm well up for it & that's certainly the case here. Just listen to opening track "Lucifer's Domain" & try not to draw comparisons to Slayer's "Chemical Warfare" or dare to question the influence of the title track from "Hell Awaits" on "House of Death" or "Satan's Crusade", not to mention the searing blaze of Kerry King & Jeff Hannemann that runs right down the middle of highlight track "Chainsaw Massacre" which is one of my favourite Aussie thrash anthems of the 1980's.

Almost all of Hobbs' debut album appears on "Hobbs Satan's Crusade" with the only exception being "Brotherhood". It also includes rejigged versions of several old Tyrus tracks with "Bubonic Plague", "Crucifixion" & "Liar" all being live favourites from what was one of the original bands in the Australian thrash metal live scene. Both "Bubonic Plague" & "Liar" sound a lot better here though with the Venom-inspired latter being much thrashier & more aggressive than the original which was more of a speed metal number. This is a really consistent tracklisting actually with no duds included & plenty to get excited about. It simply feels so underground, despite the performances all being excellent. If pushed, I'd suggest that I slightly favour "Angel of Death" over "Virgin Metal Invasion from Down Under" but there's very little in it as they're both excellent thrash releases in their own right so I'd encourage all of our The Pit members to check them out through this excellent compilation CD.

For fans of Infernäl Mäjesty, Black Shepherd & 1984-85 period Slayer.

From Chicago, Huntsmen's brand of sludgy post-metal can be interesting at times, but I feel like this band lets the more progressive compositional techniques get in the way of decent song structure more than they would like. While the band has some really good ideas on The Dry Land, it has a tendency to sound like these motifs haven't been fully realized before the tracks move into a completely new pattern, while leaving the first motif to rot. It leaves me with a bad first impression as "This, Our Gospel" is ruined by a floundering theme. The album does objectively get better as it progresses, but they still do peak through the poor songwriting throughout the record.

The biggest thing I think is the drastic dynamic sways on The Dry Land. Songs like "Lean Times" and "In Time, All Things" have solid crescendo's and work wonders for individual song pacing, but as a full album, the intensity of the percussion and chordal guitars, mixed with doom-y post-metal interludes creates a bit of a whiplash effect. Add to that a very hit-or-miss production where the bass is alarmingly absent for many of the records most important moments (i.e. the intro of "In Time, All Things") and we find ourselves feeling quite underwhelmed.

What we are left with is a band and album that shows plenty of potential; earworm/progressive songwriting, dual vocals, and phenomenal sense of dynamic control, while still being held back by some tired progressive trends, spotty production and meandering. 

Best Songs: Cruelly Dawns, In Time, All Things, Rain

What the fuck is going on in Chile nowadays? It must be something in the water or the mountin air! They seem to have captured the spirit of extreme metal better than almost any other local scene on the planet as we hit the 21st century's quarter-way mark. Churning out album after glorious album of extreme metal nirvana, the area of Chile centred on the capital Santiago and nearby Valpairiso leads the vanguard of the world's Trve Metal Hordes seeking to conquer the despised Legions of the False. OK, all good-natured hyperbole aside, there is definitely a healthy and burgeoning metal scene centred around Chile's capital that is currently pumping out some of the most exciting and aggressive metal to be found on the planet, in my opinion.

Invocation are yet another relatively new band throwing their hat into that swirling maelstrom of a scene with this their debut full-length, which follows a couple of EP's released in 2018 and 2020. They are a three-piece from Valparaíso, the three members only going by aliases, bassist Sense of Clairvoyance, drummer Sense of Clairaudience alongside guitarist and vocalist Sense of Premonition. Unusually for the chilean scene, the three don't appear to be members of at least five other bands, with Invocation being their only outfit from what I can tell (but who knows).

The Archaic Sanctuary is a fairly brief affair, it's eight tracks clocking in at under 35 minutes, with most hovering around the four minute mark. Invocation play a traditional form of death metal, but one that has a sharp-edged savagery derived from blackened edges with an overall filthy tone and a demonic darkness that reminds me somewhat of war metal aesthetics, albeit slower and cleaner. The riffs are heavily distorted buzzbombs that come thick and fast, varying from ripping burnups to hulking, mid-tempo, chuggier affairs. The solos are fairly functional with no self-indulgence or flashiness to distract the listener from the relentless assault the riffs are subjecting them to. Drum-wise, Sense of Clairaudience has a busy and energetic style with an impressive array of blasts and fills at his disposal and a ready willingness to deploy them, but despite the manic energy he displays, he doesn't swamp the riffs. Possibly the snare is a little too present at times and may occasionally distract, but not that much and it certainly isn't a big deal. The vocals are probably the most black metal aspect of the sound, with a harsh, barking roar that reminds me of Marduk's Legion and which sharpens up the bludgeoning edge of the guitar tone and the drum battery.

In truth The Archaic Sanctuary doesn't do much that most extreme metalheads haven't heard before and may leave those seeking the latest Ulcerate-worshipping opus being dismissive, but this is a band who understand the fundamentals of extreme metal and who have served up a withering and pummelling experience for any ardent moshpit denizen to lose their shit to in the knowledge that it will not let up even for a second.

My cyber metal journey is a bit of an odd one when it comes to exploring the most underrated bands in this genre that's also underrated. I've come across impressive blends of guitar, synths, and symphonics that make up the genre, but at the same time ended up encountering some near-failures. Neurotech's 2011 debut Antagonist has that strange phenomenon. Though in Wulf's defense, this was before he started adding more variation in the EPs that followed.

Thinking positively, I'd like to point out how otherworldly the synths are. I'm talking about the epic orchestral programming that has reminded me of what Mechina started doing in their second album Conqueror that year. However, just like Conqueror, not everything is good...

The title opener tries to combine Insomnium-esque mid-paced melodeath with string-infused EDM, but it doesn't come out as well as it should. We get a better deal of cyber orchestra in "Inject Me Now". That and "Nonexistent" have synth melodies taking you through the universe. If The Kovenant and Sybreed made their own cyber metal collab, that's what it would like. "Awaiting Deception" tries a little too hard to cram in the piano/strings of Fleshgod Apocalypse into that gothic cyber metal track.

"The Angst Zeit" has a greater sense of extreme, with more dramatic keys and black metal-ish growls to remind me of Shade Empire. Those vocals are well-delivered but can only please metalheads who have gotten used to Sybreed, variation and all. Still that doesn't mean the strength of Sybreed is present, when it' s more atmosphere-focused. "The Mannequin March" is unlike the other tracks that are all within the 4-minute length, this one being a short two and a half minutes. And it's just a weak failure. "A Hollow Impression" impresses me with the progressiveness of 90s Anacrusis, yet it sounds too hollow for a track from a debut album. First impressions are important, metalheads!

"Towards Tedious Nightmare" sounds too tedious in their attempt to add the electronics of Crossfaith and Sonic Syndicate into the mix. The better side of the album comes back with the best highlight, "We are the Last". The first 45 seconds have a sweet blend of epic orchestration and heavy riffing. "The Sky is Always Open" closes the album greatly to show that there's hope in the later part of Neurotech's career.

It takes talent and creativity to make something wonderful. Wulf certainly has those skills in Antagonist. The production is so smooth and let the guitars and synths shine. The balance between the keys and chords create a mystical sound that anyone should find. On the other hand, it sounds a little too tame in some songs, like you can't listen to them without trying to find something else to do to pass the time. This kind of flaw is problematic when making an album filled with the industrial/symphonic combo that is cyber metal. Antagonist is still good, just needs to be better improved. Neurotech would start building its way up afterwards....

Favorites: "Inject Me Now", "Nonexistent", "The Angst Zeit", "We are the Last", "The Sky is Always Open"

I've seen the name Future Palace float around, especially when my brother was listening to one of their songs and I liked it enough to submit it to a Gateway playlist earlier this year (as of this review). Now I decided to check out and review one of their albums. I think I've gained the incentive after Saxy's review for their new album Distortion appeared on the site. Of course, the album I've chosen isn't that, but the one that starts with that song...

As the 2020s train rolls on, modern metal bands are not afraid to tear down the barrier between metal and mainstream even further. Future Palace has helped out with their metalcore-ish alt-metal style. With clear production and consistent sound, their second album Run is a lot of fun! (cheesy rhyme, I know)

"Paradise" is that song I've hinted at above. Nice glitch-ish effect to go with this female-led alt-metal/rock sound. Once we get into "Dead Inside", I thought it was going to lead into Trivium-esque melodic metalcore of last decade, but then I'm reminded that this is a different band with the charging vocals of Maria Lessing, placed together with the powerful guitarwork of Manuel Kohlert and drumming of Johannes Frenzel. The members have all done their part well and in-sync. "Flames" sounds catchy and exotic at the start before switching into strange electro-trap verses. Fortunately, the strong rock-on chorus makes sure this song is impossible to hate, especially when it gets heavier in the bridge. The heavy punky balance is exemplified further in "Locked". I suspect songs like that are a key influence to the heavier tracks in Linkin Park's From Zero.

Next track "Heads Up" has taken some ideas from the more recent releases of Bring Me the Horizon, plus some of the greatest vocal aggression from Maria. Then things slow down in "Sleep Tight" as Maria sings through a dark dream, allowing listeners a chance to unwind after all that heaviness. "Defeating Gravity" brings the heaviness back in a blend of catchy and vicious. "Roses" can sound so melancholic and malicious, sometimes at the same time. This dynamic track is one of, if not THE, best of the album. However, other songs may fight for that position...

Case in point, the following track "Wounds" has some rawness as the lyrics warn you about internal weak links of a relationship. "A World in Tears" puts forward the band's ideas into a dreamy state while jumping through another strong chorus. With "Loco Loco", the listener is pulled through between melody and heaviness. The finale "Fever" reminds you of how fun modern metal can be. Rather than going all-out heavy, a dance beat leads to upbeat instrumentation for a great catchy ending.

Run is filled with hooky energy that is bound to make you up for more rounds. No matter how much electronica/hip-hop is added to their rock/metal sound, even the classic metalheads can make their turn into the modern scene here. An answer to the question of what a heavier rapping-free take on Linkin Park's From Zero would sound like!

Favorites: "Dead Inside", "Flames", "Heads Up", "Roses", "A World in Tears", "Fever"

Much like my all-time favourite metal band Suffocation, Maryland brutal death metal outfit Dying Fetus represent one of those rare artists that I've followed since way back at their earliest demo tapes, a relationship that has now eclipsed three decades. The global tape trading community first brought them to my attention when I picked up a dubbed cassette copy of both of their early demo tapes (including 1993's "Bathe in Entrails" & 1994's "Infatuation With Malevolence") following some enquiries into what bands might give Suffocation a run for their money in terms of brutality. My source wasn't wrong either & Dying Fetus would go on to have an influence on the direction of my own death metal band Neuropath over the next couple of years. I remember those days fondly but I can't recall returning to either of the Dying Fetus demos until only recently when I gave "Bathe in Entrails" another look. It still offered me a fair bit of enjoyment too so I immediately positioned myself to complete this review of the compilation of the two demo cassettes.

The "Infatuation With Malevolence" CD originally contained just the ten proper death metal tracks from the two demo tapes, excluding the short instrumental "Visualize Permanent Damnation (In E Minor 440)" from the second cassette which is essentially just John Gallagher trying to show off his lead guitar skills & offers no real creative value. The sound quality is very good for this type of release which is largely down to the quality of the original recordings more than it is any post-production or mastering. The compilation was re-released in 2011 along with a slew of additional unreleased live, rehearsal & demo material as well as the inclusion of the previously mentioned instrumental piece. Both demos fall well inside the parameters of the brutal death metal sound with hints at the technicality Dying Fetus would employ later in their career already being quite evident. "Bathe in Entrails" certainly sounds more like demo tape than the second cassette does, particularly due to the poorly executed blast beats of Gallagher who was handling the drumming on top of his guitar duties in the absence of a capable skinsman. That would be improved on significantly for "Infatuation With Malevolence" with Rob Belton joining the band behind the kit. Original second guitarist Nick Speleos had also been replaced with Brian Latta joining Gallagher & bassist Jason Netherton (Misery Index) in a more polished & professional configuration of the band.

Both tapes are surprisingly brutal for the time with Suffocation obviously being the primary influence. The impact of the early Cannibal Corpse records can easily be detected in the first tape but it's less obvious on "Infatuation With Malevolence". Listening back now, it's easy to be critical of the terrible drumming of main man John Gallagher on "Bathe in Entrails" but his guitar work was very accomplished (particularly the James Murphy-ish solos which are surprisingly proficient for such a young dude) & the multiple-vocal attack is as gutteral as all fuck so it can't be all bad now, can it? It's interesting that Dying Fetus really haven't changed their sound all that much at all over the 31 years since their earliest demo recordings which says a lot about why I found it so appealing as a young fella. Dying Fetus would certainly get better though & I tend to dig their albums a bit more than this first up effort these days but I can't deny that I still get a fair bit of nostalgic enjoyment out of a good half of the six songs included. The others simply suffer a bit too much from Gallagher's inability to play double kick in time. I wouldn't say that "Infatuation With Malevolence" is exactly a step up but it is definitely better & I'd actually suggest that it's still my second favourite Dying Fetus release to this day. Their sound is generally tighter with the improved production job being pretty much in line with most proper releases to come out of the underground at the time. The dual vocal attack of Gallagher & Jason Netherton is pretty devastating but I would have appreciated a little more in the way of intelligibility from the ultra-deep delivery as it can sound like a parody it itself at times.

The tracklisting isn't without its blemishes, mainly during the "Bathe in Entrails" material which is fairly hit & miss. I can't say that "Wretched Flesh Consumption", "Vomiting the Fetal Embryo" & "Tearing Inside the Womb" do much for me these days but thankfully the other three songs are strong enough to carry that cassette. The four proper songs on "Infatuation With Malevolence" are more consistent in their quality with opener "Eviscerated Offspring" & the excellent "And the Weak Shall Be Crushed" being the clear highlights of the release in my opinion. The New York hardcore influence that would perpetuate Dying Fetus' later releases makes the odd appearance but I wouldn't say that it's as obvious as it would become in later years, even if the boys clearly already knew how to hit on a bad-assed groove riff at times. As with all Dying Fetus records, they do have a tendency to balance out the killer riffs with some fairly flat ones which has been a long-time gripe that I've held with the Fetus but boy they can be crushing when they get their slam on. In fact, their influence on the slam death metal scene is as plain as day, even on these demos.

If you're a big fan of Dying Fetus' albums then you probably need to check out "Infatuation With Malevolence" at some point, if only to satisfy your curiosity. Personally, I still quite enjoy it & would probably reach for it over some of the band's later releases like "Killing On Adrenaline" & "Wrong One To Fuck With" these days if I'm being honest. Despite always having been a great live band, it is worth noting though that Dying Fetus are very much the epitome of a 3.5-star band for me personally in that I invariably enjoy their releases but never find them to be essential listening, mainly due to the gratuitous use of technicality which adds very little of substance & sounds more like a practice exercise most of the time. That's less of an issue on "Infatuation With Malevolence" which sees it able to compare quite favourably with the band's wider discography when looking back over the more than three decades of Dying Fetus' existence.

For fans of Suffocation, Misery Index & Skinless.

From Germany, I was surprised when I was going through my year end lists for 2024 and noticed that I had not reviewed the Future Palace album, Distortion. I found this very surprising because one of this albums promotion singles, "Malphas" did cross my desk last year and I figured that would be enough to at least have this record come to light. Better late than never I suppose.

However, I'm not sure that is a net positive for Future Palace since I've now spent half of the year with Reliqa and it leaves Distortion feeling hollow. If it isn't the production sounding super thin and tinny in the guitars, or the predictable song structures, it's the album structure slowing the album to a crawl by its conclusion. They are able to save it with "Amethyst," if only barely. I don't like how this album thinks it's more epic than it actually is. The inclusion of synth strings on a number of tracks (i.e. "The Echoes of Disparity" and "They Take What They Want") feel forced and unnecessary for an album whose main guitar contributions are wall of sound trance grooves. I do like the vocals from Maria Lessing and the variety that is on display here, as she alternates from warmer singing style to harsh metalcore belting. The rap vocals aren't bad per se, but compared to Monique Pym of Reliqa they act like they've been given forced intensity and it loses some grandeur. And I can admit that Future Palace do know how to write a good chorus once in a while. But once in a while doesn't cut it when the rest of the album is cookie cutter octanecore. Beyond a couple of early album singles, Future Palace turned out to be much more forgettable than I would have hoped.

Best Songs: Malphas, Dreamstate, Amethyst

Coffin Curse are a chilean duo comprising guitarist, vocalist and bassist, Max Neira and drummer Carlos Fuentes. Both are members of Lovecraftian death metallers, Inanna and although this is my first exposure to CC, I am quite a fan of Inanna (and chilean metal in general), so positive vibes all round going in. The Continuous Curse is the duo's sophomore full-length, coming four years after the debut, a significant amount of that time presumably taken up working on Inanna's 2022 album, Void of Unending Depths, before they could get to work on this.

The Continuous Nothing is forty-odd minutes of energetic, old-school death metal with a no-frills approach and as such, is exactly my cup of tea. I like CC's unfussy approach here, they just get on with delivering bludgeoning riffs backed up by really solid rhythm work. The basswork is thick and well presented in the mix, as is quite often the case with chilean metal of all genres, while Carlos' drumming is a big feature, being busy with all manner of fills and blasts, whilst mainting excellent timing and driving the tracks along at a fair old clip.

Max's guitar work is mostly about the riffs. To be sure there are solos, but they aren't really that big a deal, they are decent enough, but are functional and are not an aspect that particularly stands out. Producing riffs is most definitely what Max is about and at this he is very accomplished indeed, the album's runtime being absolutely chock full of 'em. The album has an inbuilt aggressiveness about it that leans towards the early brutal death metal bands, but the riffs also have a melodic accessibility alongside a fair bit of tremolo riffing that tempers that brutality somewhat and which, combined with a "looser" approach ensures that it sits well within the realm of the old-school rather than the brutal. Max's vocals are in the deep, gurgling, growling style with which I am sure we are all familiar, but which he delivers with conviction.

So, overall, The Continuous Nothing delivers no surprises to anyone even remotely interested in death metal. But Max Neira is an astute writer of riffs and the duo's delivery brings out the best of a tried and tested formula that is admirably heavy and threatening-sounding. If you are just looking for some good, old-fashioned death metal for a headbanging frenzy session then Coffin Curse have the prescription you need, but if you are looking for challenging brain food instead, then maybe look elsewhere.

Anywhere in the darkest depths of the universe lies a massive vortex of terror and doom. Nothing close to it can escape, and it can even engulf light. It can pull things apart and stretch them thin until they break and scatter particles all around. And when it's all over, the dark void remains. If an offering of progressive death-doom can really work as a soundtrack to this bleak deadly phenomenon, this band knows how to do it right. Welcome...to the Black Hole District!

Two years after their previous album Kosmodrom, this Paris-based doom band, founded by guitarist Sylvain Bégot as a side-project to the defunct Anthemon, released a new album via Hammerheart Records. Black Hole District alternates between one-minute intros and EXACTLY 10-minute epics (a similar aspect to Neurotech's Symphonies II).

In atmospheric mist stands "They Wake Up at Dusk", a soothing intro. "Sentience Amidst the Lights" begins this dark heavy experience, guiding you with spoken vocals before descending into slow rhythms, melodic leads, and vocals ranging from growls to cleans. Next interlude "Elusive Whispers" has melancholic ambient keys. Adding some gentle touches is "To Wander the Labyrinth", then heavy riffs and rhythms touch down alongside the growling delivery, while balanced out with clean harmonies.

The energy is never lost, even when interlude "Suspicion" only consists of spoken vocals over ambience. "Unveiling the Illusion" unleashes guitar aggression in contrast with the string tranquility. Truly one of the greatest standouts here! Calming things down is interlude "Benefit or Hazard", though not without some anxiety-inducing suspense.

"On the Run to Nowhere" is filled with gothic harmony and interesting progressiveness for the more adventurous metalheads' pleasure. One more interlude "Moonfall" opens the entryway to the darkest part of the void. "Those Moments Lost in Time" is the perfect climax of slow doom, as growls and cleans battle it out once more. Sometimes it speeds up slightly while keeping the slow pace. And in the end, all fades away as you hear the spoken voice for the last time.

Black Hole District is for those who want to end the year in the darkest, most melancholic way possible. Sometimes, progressive death-doom can be so intriguing, and just like a black hole, it can grasp every soul it can find. Even the brightest soul!

Favorites: All 5, but the best of them are "Sentience Amidst the Lights", "Unveiling the Illusion", "Those Moments Lost in Time"

During my early tape trading days, I developed an obsession with exploring everything that the Australian underground metal scene had to offer, even more so after joining that scene with my own death metal band Neuropath. In order to facilitate that indulgence, I started communicating with a lot of other bands from around the country, usually by mail. One of the plethora of bands that I picked up on through that exercise was Adelaide blackened death metal four-piece Martire & their 1991 self-titled debut E.P. which I quite liked & would see me keeping track of the South Australians throughout the remainder of the 1990's. Martire's chaotic take on extreme metal fell very much into line with the signature Aussie sound I was hearing at the time in that it combined my three favourite metal subgenres (i.e death metal, black metal & thrash metal) in a raucous style full of energy & authenticity & I would continue to comb the scene for more bands like that over the years. For one reason or another though, the "Martire" E.P. wouldn't end up being one that I haven't returned to much so I've been looking forward to revisiting it in the modern day to see how it holds up to my more mature ears.

"Martire" is a very short six-song release that's built for immediate impact. It would receive an initial run of 1,000 as the first metal release to come from local label Dominator Records who also put out records from other local Aussie artists like Deadpool, In:Extremis, Nocturnal & Orgy of Pigs (who shared bass player Frank Usmani with Martire). The band had recorded two unheralded demo tapes prior to the release of "Martire", the second of which contains the track "Peace Keeper" which would be re-recorded for the EP. The production job is kept very raw which suits Martire nicely given just how chaotic & noisy their sound is with the performances being quite loose by today's standards but never allowing the arrangements to completely get away from them. I enjoy the sound of this record actually. It oozes of underground credibility while allowing enough clarity for all of the key components to be heard quite easily so it's got the balance right even if it's a long way from the glossy US death metal model.

I'd describe Martire's sound as being blackened death metal with the release starting off in conventional death metal space for the first couple of tracks before expanding its arsenal into hybrid territory. It's interesting that the blackened side of the band's sound sits very close to the classic black metal model that we all know & love yet "Martire" was released a year before the Norwegian scene even took off through Darkthrone & Burzum. This fact alone gives "Martire" an extra layer of intrigue for someone like myself. Short instrumental opener "Slut" reminds me quite a bit of Autopsy's faster material but the remainder of the record sees drummer Dave Hopgood opting for a blast-beat heavy maelstrom that seems to be in a real hurry & is over in the blink of an eye. The vocals of guitarist Vince Feleppa alternate between a death grunt & a blackened shriek while the riffs tend to drift in & out of the three genres with the end result simply being too extreme to call thrash even if there is a clear thrash component to Martire's sound. I'd hazard to guess that early Morbid Angel was an influence on the guitar work based on some of the techniques on display. I have to admit that the temptation to want to call this release war metal appears quite often too but, despite sharing similar elements, it never quite gets there. You can easily see the influence on Aussie war metal artists like Bestial Warlust though.

The opening track "Slut" isn't terribly interesting to be honest but the remainder of the E.P. is universally engaging. While it may be a feather in Martire's cap at times, I have to admit that the lack of precision is a limiting factor for me in how far I can allow the E.P. to connect with me though. I certainly enjoy all of the vocal tracks but rarely find myself feeling like I can allow myself to fully commit to this record. The excellent closer "Thou Shalt Burn" is the only track that I'd suggest manages to crack the second tier with the rest of the material simply being mildly enjoyable extreme metal with a decidedly underground attitude & aesthetic. I can see other metalheads connecting with it on a grander scale than I have though as I feel that Martire fall into a space that perpetuates somewhat of a cult status. It's visceral, relentless & savage while always maintaining a level of naivety.

It's easy to see why Martire might still be talked about in the Australian underground scene as they were definitely breaking new ground on a local level. It's also not hard to appreciate why they may not have reached the global metal masses to the same extent that Slaughter Lord & Sadistik Exekution did. Still, I've quite enjoyed my revisit to "Martire" & have penciled in some time with their other demo material in the coming months as a result too. If you're looking to discover what the Australian underground extreme metal scene of the early 90's was all about then look no further than this largely forgotten piece of hectic barbarity because it's certainly not lacking in intensity.

For fans of Abominator, Anatomy & Decrepit Soul.

Black Hole District is french doomsters Monolithe's tenth album and marks yet another step in the band's musical and conceptual development. There is a narrative structure to the album, with the story taking influence from science fiction sources such as Blade Runner and Dark City. The story's protagonist, living on an Earth that faces annihilation due to the Moon having left it's orbit and falling inwards towards the planet, discovers, by a convoluted series of events, that he is in reality an android, not a human and this discovery looks set to cost him his life as the powers-that-be seek to terminate him for his knowledge.

The band have always made a "thing" of the track timings on their releases, which ties into their concepts, with Black Hole District's ten tracks alternating between one-minute instrumentals and exactly ten-minute long main tracks. Thankfully, as is always the case with the band, the specificity of the track timings doesn't feel forced and they never feel over-extended or truncated to accomodate these timings. I have a feeling that the band see themselves as storytellers every bit as much as musicians nowadays and, to this end, they have incorporated even more progressive elements into their music to the point where the progressive and the doomy are now held in perfect balance. This balance allows them the freedom to convincingly weave epic science-fiction tales without compromising on the inate heaviness of death doom metal, which is still, despite all the progressive flourishes, the heart and soul of Monolithe's sound.

A new element they have brought in, presumably specific to this story, is 80's style synths, in particular they have used the Yamaha CS-80 popularised by Vangelis, who is particularly influential here, especially (but not exclusvely) on the one-minute interludes which act as intros to the five main tracks, each one sounding like a snippet from the Greek's Blade Runner soundtrack. They have also brought in guest vocalist Frédéric Gervais of french progressive black metallers Orakle to provide clean vocals alongside new guitarist and vocalist Quentin Verdier's deathly growls, which gives the album a nice textural variation, vocally. Alongside the vocals a number of spoken word sections serve to advance the story and act as introductions to the events of the main tracks.

All this is the vision of the main man behind Monolithe, guitarist and keyboard player, Sylvain Bégot, who is the person solely responsible for all the band's songwriting and lyrics since their earliest days. I think that Sylvain's single-minded control of the artistic input imparts a cohesive consistency to Monolithe's output that may have become diluted by more diverse inputs. It has been obvious since the first album that, similarly to Ivar Bjørnson with Enslaved, Bégot's vision has always been beyond the boundaries of the genre conventions within which he works, even as he has no wish to completely set those conventions aside. He has now become exceedingly effective in how he weaves the doom and progressive aspects together and produces legitimately progressive doom metal as a result, with very few peers in the field. He is now able to convincingly produce a cinematic version of doom metal, that is able to impart the emotional and atmospheric highs and lows of great cinema. The poignancy of the closing track, "Those Moments Lost in Time", for example, is heart-wrenching, despite the heavy, looming main riff, as it references the Blade Runner death scene of Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty.

Black Hole District may not be unrelentingly heavy enough for some death doom acolytes, but for doomsters who love a cinematically conceptual tale, musically well-told with exemplary musicianship and songwriting then Monolithe are very much at the head of the pack. Although Blood Incantation will take all the plaudits for 2024 in this field for their new album, I don't think anyone should dismiss Black Hole District's claim to progressive extreme metal's science fiction concept album of the year.

From Finland, Counting Hours are making some of the best gothic doom metal I've heard this decade. Each song on The Wishing Tomb has a superb atmosphere and melancholy. The vocals are very engaging and very memorable, and the harsh death vocals serve as accentuation instead of being the records focal point. Compositions manage to remain tuneful throughout the project as they modulate between the guitar and vocal leads. The Wishing Tomb does not meander either; this is still doom metal, but even then, Counting Hours keep songs concise and on topic, even the longer tunes like "The Wishing Tomb" and "This Well Of Failures." Production is pristine with a fruitful bass with its own independence from the power chords of the guitar. And the synths act as accents to an already solid foundation instead of overwhelming the entire mixing of the album. I know there isn't that much to say about The Wishing Tomb, but it encompasses nearly everything that I love about gothic doom metal and I can't believe it took me this long to hear it.

Best Songs: Timeless Ones, All That Blooms (Needs To Die), The Wishing Tomb, No Closure, This Well Of Failures

The 80s thrash tsunami occurred mostly in the US, the UK, and Germany, but one band from Brazil has propelled that country into the scene. Sepultura brought Brazilian thrash metal forward with albums Beneath the Remains and Arise. Though longtime thrash fans were turned off by their switch to groove metal in Chaos A.D. and the more Korn-ish nu metal of Roots. After that, frontman Max Cavalera quit the band, followed by his brother drummer Igor a decade later. The band has continued to stay active, all the way up to this year (as of my review), when they started a farewell tour that will last until 2026. I actually hadn't experienced an entire Sepultura album, not even during my ultimate Pit test a couple years earlier, until now. Although it's unusual to start with the band's possible final album before retiring, let's hear what they got in Quadra!

More often than not, when a thrash band tries to relive their 80s era of destruction and mayhem, it doesn't reach the same glory as that era. However, the thrash sound in this album has been given more modern depth, and whether or not you've only heard one of Max Cavalera's other projects like Nailbomb or Soulfly beforehand, you can't resist the tribal heaviness of this band now led by top-notch vocalist Derrick Green. Bassist Paulo Jr. and guitarist Andreas Kisser have kept the band going throughout their history, heating things up with the riffing and shredding. And we have the rocket-powered drumming of Eloy Casagrande, who didn't stick around for the farewell tour. Quadra is an album of 4 different 3-track sections that practically pay tribute to their different eras. I'll name them after 4 of the classical elements; the "Thrash Fire", the "Groove Earth", the "Progressive Water", and the "Melodic Air".

The "Thrash Fire" section kicks off with the blazing epic opening track "Isolation", where an orchestral march leads into high-speed chaos. "Means to an End" blasts through with the thrash/groove metal of The Haunted, though the verses remind me of the heavier tracks by Demon Hunter. "Last Time" is filled with relentless shredding.

The "Groove Earth" section starts with "Capital Environment" which can go progressive and deathly without going far into the stylistic territory of, say, Job for a Cowboy. More groove-ish riffing can be found in "Ali". That, along with marching beats and bellowed vocals, brushes aside the shredding leads without losing too much melody. Stomping in again with that groove is "Raging Void", with lots of mid-tempo rage and none of the nu metal tomfoolery.

The "Progressive Water" section begins with "Guardians of Earth", as orchestral/choral sounds rise just like in the opening tracks of the first two sections, evolving into an epic progressive groove/thrash fest. It's only surpassed by the progressive thrash instrumental "The Pentagram", one h*ll of a journey that can be considered the Quadra Crusade. "Autem" is once again as progressive as Waltari, though sometimes it has the more melodic yet deathly verses of Mercenary. The other two tracks in this section still reign in the progressive throne though.

The "Melodic Air" section is introduced with the acoustic title instrumental. The rest of this section has two melodic heavy metal/hard rock tracks that are so unlike the other 3 sections. "Agony of Defeat" is a soft while still heavy power ballad, like a metallic Led Zeppelin. Far From Alaska vocalist Emmily Barreto guest appears in the "Fear, Pain, Chaos, Suffering", though her vocals don't really sound powerful compared to Derrick Green. The song is a bit underwhelming, and I prefer the other track in that section.

Sepultura's career has made it up to album #15 with Quadra. Anyone who has enjoyed Sepultura since before their move out of thrash 30 years ago will find something to love, and those who came here for progressive energy and/or earthly groove will be in luck. This blend of thrash and groove is similar to Slayer's final album Repentless, only lightyears better and more progressive. I think Quadra can win back earlier Sepultura fans while also bring newcomers who have spent time with music from bands like Machine Head and Gojira. The possible final offering from these Brazilian thrash masters shall be worth it for any metalhead!

Favorites: "Isolation", "Means to an End", "Raging Void", "Guardians of Earth", "The Pentagram", "Agony of Defeat"

As a diehard fan of the most extreme end of metal, there are often found to be releases that offer a lot of appeal to me that would no doubt have your average metalhead questioning my sanity. Where the music is so intense that it teeters on the edge of no longer being music & the experience is more about the undying worship of metal music in its purest form than it is about catchy hooks or memorable riffs. Legendary Melbourne war metal outfit Bestial Warlust are one such band for me. From the moment I first heard them on late-night metal radio shortly after the release of their 1994 debut album "Vengeance War 'Till Death", I knew that this was an artist that held a deep understanding of the rush I received from the most underground metal imaginable, a character trait that could only be earned through a dedicated background in the global tape trading scene. I very quickly picked up a dubbed copy of the album from one of my trading buddies & caned it for the remainder of that year, often returning to it in the future whenever I felt like indulging in the most extreme of the extreme. I was already aware of Bestial Warlust's precursor band Corpse Molestation through their 1992 "Descension of a Darker Deity" demo tape but I'd quickly see myself seeking out anything else I could find in that space too, resulting in a few more crudely recorded cassettes that I received universal enjoyment from. "Vengeance War 'Till Death" would go on to be highly influential in the global war metal scene, as would its follow-up in 1995's "Blood & Valour", so I count myself as being lucky to see Bestial Warlust play live a number of times during the middle of the 1990's. Their shows were always an experience, often being more about the concept than the music as their sound would regularly test the capabilities of your average venue's sound system & end up sounding like an immense wall of white noise. Still... each time I return to Bestial Warlust's debut album it takes me straight back to that wonderful period of musical discovery I undertook in my late teenage years.

Bestial Warlust's debut album was recorded at Studio 001 in Carlton, Melbourne in December 1993 & January 1994 with producer Scott Horne who wasn't anyone in particular when it comes to metal music. This is interesting because I'd imagine it would have been an incredible challenge for an extreme metal novice to reproduce this music in a palatable format on tape. I mean how would they even know where to start? But to Horne's credit, he's done a wonderful job of it here in harnessing the band's incredible violence & energy with the balance of riff intelligibility & white noise being just about perfect. Joe Skullfucker's guitar solos sound suitably over the top & the vocals of front man Damon Bloodstorm (Abominator) are unbelievably confronting & savage, taking the listener down into the very pits of Hades. Bestial Warlust's lineup was a little different to the one that had produced the three or four Corpse Molestation cassettes with drummer Marcus Hellcunt (Vomitor/Gospel of the Horns) having replaced Rick Zrna who had appeared on the last few demo tapes. Hellcunt produces one of the most relentless displays of blast beats you'll ever hear too, a trait that would go on to become one of Bestial Warlust's calling cards too.

Bestial Warlust's sound is the very epitome of the war metal subgenre, perhaps even being the most suitable point of reference when defining the term given that it's about as war metal as war metal gets. I mean, just listen to the classic intro to "Hammering Down the Law of the New Gods/Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse" & tell me that you can't picture the wolves all in a line at the top of a snow-covered hill, preparing for the onslaught that is about to ensue. And when those super-intense blast beats take off you can almost smell the bloodshed with Damon's vocals becoming the ring-leader for some of metal's most horrific slaughter scenes. In fact, I have to reiterate what a wonderful exponent of his craft Bloodstorm is actually because his vocals are just about the most evil thing I've ever heard in my life &, when combined with the psychotic Kerry King-on-speed guitar solos, I consistently find myself receiving maximum metal jollies. Much of the material on the album was drawn from the Corpse Molestation tapes with "At the Graveyard of God", "Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse", "Heathens" & "Dweller of the Bottomless Pit" all being known to fans of the underground before the band's change of moniker. The way they're presented here is spectacular though & shows clear evidence of a band that knows their sound well & are hellbent on shoving it down the global metal scenes throats in the form of a huge demonic goat phallus. As someone that values extreme metal as a concept & a lifestyle as much as I do a style of music, "Vengeance War 'Till Death" represents a clear celebration of everything that the tape trading scene stands for. It's as shocking as it is unapologetic, both characteristics that give this style of music an additional edge.

Look, I'm not saying that "Vengeance War 'Till Death" is the perfect metal album because it's not. There are a couple of tracks that are much less successful than the best material with both "Heathens" & "Storming Vengeance" being more acceptable than they are exceptional. The less impressive moments generally come when the riffs don't coalesce as well with the drumming, seeing things descending into the chaos that this band tend to flirt with. But when Bestial Warlust get things right there are few exponents of the war metal sound that can match them. Just check out album highlights like "Bestial Warlust", "Hammering Down the Law of the New Gods/Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse" or "At the Graveyard of God" (one of the greatest achievements in extreme metal ever put to tape & the best closer ever for this genre in my opinion) for examples of what this niche sound can achieve if it's placed in the right hands. Many people are probably unaware of this but the Australian scene has been just as influential on the creation & subsequent direction of the global war metal scene as any other location in the world. Those lucky enough to be in the know will tell you that our signature sound is a chaotic blending of the death metal, black metal & thrash metal with a clear understanding of how to produce that with maximum underground credibility. Bestial Warlust is the result of these young dudes having been raised in that scene with the influence of local bands like Sadistik Exekution, Martire & Slaughter Lord being as clear as that of Canadian war metal godfathers Blasphemy.

"Vengeance War 'Till Death" should be essential listening for fans of the war metal genre. It's really that important a record in what followed. I'm thankful that I've been able to separate the fact that I harbour a deep dislike for guitarist K.K. Warslut from my enjoyment of this record following a drunken night out with Deströyer 666 some time in the mid-90's as it would have been a real shame to allow that to tarnish what is essentially of pinnacle of Australian extreme metal. The highlights may carry this album but they're so unanimous in their ability to break down my defenses that I have no alternative but to give in to the demonic assault that is thrust at me with unmatched barbarity.

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Blasphemy & Conqueror.

Red Circuit are back with 2009's 'Homeland', which follows in the same vein as their 2006 debut, with the only notable difference (though not entirely noticeable) being a new guitarist, a new bassist, and a much more polished sound in both songwriting and production.

What we have here is some high-quality melodic metal. Sometimes referred to as progressive metal, Red Circuit's music lacks the over-ambitiousness often associated with the genre, and instead focuses on hooks and catchy choruses. Full of breathtaking guitar work and tasty keyboard melodies, 'Homeland' is an incredible album that demonstrates why progressive metal doesn't always need to be 20-minute songs with 16/9 polyrhythmic time changes.

As on their previous album, despite overflowing with excellent musicianship, the main focus of the album is vocalist Chity Somapala, who's powerful and soaring voice really gives the band its own identity. And with only one song exceeding the five-minute mark (and only by mere seconds), each track here is short and sweet, without needing the repeated number of listens progressive metal songs usually require. This is best evidenced in songs like 'Homeland', 'Absinth', 'See the Light' and 'Canonize Your Sins'.

'Homeland' is a strong sequel to a strong debut. Catchy, heavy, and not a filler song in sight. A must-have for any metal fan looking for that hidden gem that never gets the recognition it deserves.

From New York, Grey Skies Fallen have been around for a while and have stayed relatively obsolete in the greater doom metal scene. But seeing a positive review from Sonny gave me confidence that a smaller act could make a dent in my Fallen year-end-list for 2024. So what did we end up getting with Molded by Broken Hands? Well, a lot actually.

Molded by Broken Hands is death doom, epic doom, gothic metal and perhaps a little funeral doom with its compositional techniques. Grey Skies Fallen have a wide soundscape in their music and makes this record oddly progressive in a way. And the album is very well put together all the same. Just listen to those wild tempo/style changes during the bridge of "No Place For Sorrow." Normally I wouldn't be the biggest fan of such wild changes (especially on a doom metal album), but despite the lack of preparation, their incessant nature makes them super endearing. 

I won't lie, first impressions of this album were not great with the opener "A Twisted Place in Time" for the reasons that were mentioned previously. But as I already mentioned, Grey Skies Fallen have a way of making these seemingly unrelated phrases work together through songwriting and repetition. And through that songwriting, the album stays engaging up to its final notes. A few of the doom metal albums I've reviewed recently all have the same problem; where the record does not do nearly enough in the soundscapes/compositions and leaves the album staggering to its conclusion. Grey Skies Fallen, fade out ending withstanding, end Molded by Broken Hands with the same level of commitment to the work as they did at the start. "Knowing That You're There" has the same heart and soul as the opener because it hasn't been bogged down by seven similar sounding doom dirges previously.

The production can be a little shaky at times, but it's mostly good. I like how the synthesized strings are not present throughout the entire album and only appear occasionally for additional weight. The bass presence is felt tremendously helping the albums thematic arc. If anything, it's probably the harsh vocals that sound the most out of place. They aren't horrible, but they tend to sound too fry and hushed, while the booming, gothic cleans tower over the instrumental. At least the record has a decent mix of harsh-to-clean vocals so it isn't as upfront of an issue.

The albums ending on a slightly optimistic tone only exemplifies this albums variety and why I enjoy this album as much as I did. Grey Skies Fallen are making high quality doom metal under almost everyone's noses and yet no one bothers to stop and smell the roses. 

Best Songs: Molded by Broken Hands, I Can Hear Your Voice, Cracks in Time, Knowing That You're There

Brazilian thrash metal gods Sepultura had a life-changing impact on me as a kid. They could literally do no wrong in their early days as far as I’m concerned with their first couple of releases playing a role in defining the early death/thrash sound, their next few taking thrash to heights that no one suspected the movement still had in the tank at the time & their 1993 fifth album “Chaos AD” closely competing with Pantera for the groove metal crown. I can’t deny that “Chaos AD” scared me a little though because, even though it was undeniably a high-quality & universally engaging metal album, I had to admit that it had moved slightly away from my musical sweet spot which saw my defences coming up a bit with Sepultura’s next full-length “Roots”. In fact, I didn’t even end up checking it out in full until only relatively recently. Although I have some time for “Roots”, it wasn’t exactly my bag in terms of style & the exit of Max Cavalera only exacerbated any qualms I may have had with the modern-day Sepultura. I haven’t enjoyed much of what I’ve heard from them in all the years since to be honest but that changed with their 2020 fifteenth album “Quadra” which offered me significant appeal. I haven’t returned to it since giving it a couple of well-received spins at the time of release but I’ve been looking forward to affording it the full-length review it deserves after it was nominated as this month’s The Pit feature release.

There’s a fairly sizeable gap in my knowledge of Sepultura’s back catalogue as I never gave the releases from 1998-2006 a chance after I returned to metal in 2009. Instead, I saw myself progressively checking out each subsequent full-length with a feeling of apathy being the general outcome, so much so that I didn’t even bother with 2017’s “Machine Messiah”. But the buzz around its follow-up “Quadra” saw my intrigue being strong enough to have me throwing my hat in the ring again & I had to admit that I was glad I did too as it saw Sepultura returning with their strongest release since “Chaos AD” in my opinion, perhaps not the potent statement the world was hoping the Brazilians still had in them but a decent enough effort for an old-school act nonetheless. Max’s brother Igor had also moved on by that point, calling time on his childhood band more than a decade earlier in order to work with his brother on their Cavalera Conspiracy project. Bassist Paulo Jr. (aka Paulo Xisto as he’s known here) & guitarist Andreas Kisser were still onboard from the classic Sepultura lineup though so I was a little surprised at just how far “Quadra” saw the band venturing from their classic sound. There seemed to be more ambition on display than we’d heard from Sepultura in a very long time & I had to admire the energy of an artist that had already been around for an impressive 36 years by that point.

As with “Machine Messiah”, Sepultura recorded the “Quadra” album at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with renowned metal producer Jens Bogren who’d accumulated a huge resume of metal credits by that point in time. You can certainly hear the class in the production job here too although I can’t deny that I was a little surprised by just how clean the album sounds. This seemed to be a far more crisp & clinical Sepultura than I could recall encountering in the past & I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that to be honest. I mean, they were always very capable in terms of musicianship but here we see them sporting a production that’s more suited to a progressive metal band than a thrash/groove metal one but perhaps that’s in part due to the brand-new musical direction the band were taking because it was certainly more ambitious than I was expecting too.

The main musical feature of “Quadra” that I wasn’t expecting was the progressive component that is incorporated into a large enough chunk of the record, enough to see me claiming it as a genuinely progressive groove metal record which came as a complete surprise. As with the production, the musicianship & arrangements consistently exude a shiner & more sophisticated edge than I can remember hearing from Sepultura in the past. The regular use of progressive tools like odd time-signatures & symphonic orchestration gives “Quadra” a different look & feel to anything I’ve heard from the Brazilians in the past, so much that it’s taken me some time to come to terms with it. I’ve never been the biggest groove metal fan so I was thankful for a few thrash tunes early in the tracklisting (see “Isolation”, “Last Time” & “Ali”) although a couple of them were admittedly all progged up. Things get even more progressive through the back end of the album though, reminding me quite a bit of Devin Townsend’s more expansive work on several occasions & even heading into symphonic territory a couple of times. There are a number of more traditional groove metal numbers spread across the tracklisting (see “Means to an End”, “Capital Enslavement”, “Raging Void” & “Autem”) & it’s clearly those that I get the least appeal out of, particularly the first two which do very little for me. I definitely prefer it when Sepultura either thrash out like they did back in the day or opt for a more creative & interesting approach. The aggressive vocal delivery of front man Derrick Green is a strong contributor in tying Sepultura to their adopted groove metal sound though & I feel that my Phil Anselmo (Pantera) meets Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke) comparison is pretty much on the money. Young drummer Eloy Casagrande (currently of Slipknot) does an excellent job behind the kit, occasionally even crossing over into blast-beats when things reach their most violent. It’s the lead guitar solos of Kisser that are the real highlight here though & he proves himself to be a wonderful exponent of his craft these days, no longer opting for short bursts of dissonance like he did back in the day. These solos are beautifully crafted examples of melodic yet highly proficient musicality that may not sound like the Sepultura we grew up with but hit my metal spot hard nonetheless & with great force too. His lead tone is nothing short of brilliant here.

While “Quadra” isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it is the best thing I’ve heard from Sepultura in the last three decades which has gotta count for something. I do have to question whether I want the Brazilians to sound like this though as this record doesn’t sound much like the Sepultura I grew up with. It’s also lacking any genuine classics which was always gonna see it struggling to see me considering for my higher scores. I’m not sure I can see myself reaching for “Quadra” again in the future but it has opened me up to the idea of exploring 2021’s “Sepulquarta” album at some stage which I hadn’t considered up until now. I’d suggest that groove metal nuts will get a bit more out of “Quadra” than I do but I’m pleased that I gave it a crack nonetheless.

For fans of Machine Head, Pantera & Devin Townsend.

From Spain, gothic doom metallers Helevorn's fifth studio album is decent, if a little formulaic. Everything that you could expect out of this kind of a record is here, with very little in the way of growth. The instrumentation stays standard with its guitars, bass and vocals most of the way, with only a handful of synthesizer passages for variety. Even the vocals have a lifeless, bass-y delivery like Type-O-Negative. I would not disparage anyone who stopped listening midway though.

I think Espectres' biggest issue is that the opening three songs all seem very predictable and all have similar traits. However, the album makes modest changes to the formula during the second half and reignite my interest. The fact that it takes that long to get going is the real issue here however. So structure takes what may have been a okay album, into one that feels even more forgettable.

Best Songs: The Defiant God, Unbreakable Silence, The Lost Futures

Sydney industrial metal duo Deathless are an act that I've had on my radar for many years but had never gotten around to exploring until now. My main reason for wanting to check them out is fairly simple really. I used to frequent legendary Sydney metal store Utopia Records for many years & one of the two band members Damian Bennett (16-17/Khost) used to work there so I came into contact with him on a regular basis. I'm not sure why I didn't commit to exploring Damian's band at the time but I certainly always intended to. Perhaps it's just the fact that you don't see Deathless' name floating around all that much that caused the extreme delay as I can't say that I was regularly reminded of my omission. The other thing that's intriguing about Deathless though is that they don't have a guitarist in their lineup with the band being comprised of just two bass guitarists (both of who handle the vocal duties at various stages) & a drum machine which is a rare but interesting configuration. Those sort of setups can go one of two ways & I wasn't too sure which direction I'd see Deathless going so this month seemed like a good opportunity to finally answer that age-old question.

Deathless is the brain-child of Bennett & close friend David Quinn of Adelaide noise rock band King Snake Roost. The duo may have first started in Sydney, Australia but Deathless has become somewhat of an international act given that they spent some time in England & are now based in Switzerland. It would be on one of those trips to the UK that Deathless would record their debut album "Anhedonia" which was put to tape in collaboration with co-producer Lee Rumble at Von's Studio in London in July 1992. Rumble wasn't anyone special in terms of metal at the time but the resulting production job is serviceable enough for an early industrial metal act. There's no doubt that the lack of any sort of melodic instrumental component can be fairly grating upon first listen though & I have to admit that I found the album to feel a little flat early on. Industrial metal can be quite cold at the best of times but Deathless take that to a fairly extreme level given the obvious lack of any brightness or melody in their sound to give you some light at the end of the tunnel. Subsequent listens saw me becoming used to the sound of the album though & I'm pleased to say that it opened up progressively more with each revisit.

"Anhedonia" is quite a lengthy release for a debut with the nine tracks running for a fairly substantial 52 minutes. All of those tracks are given ample time to get their message across & there are a couple of examples where two songs run into each other which makes the tracklisting a little difficult to follow, particularly given that the listing on the back of the album isn't reflective of the actual CD track numbers. I managed to figure it out after a couple of listens but it was initially a bit confusing. The record is book-ended by two pieces ("God in the Political Asylum" & "In Heaven") that sit further into the traditional industrial or post-industrial space & I really enjoy both of those inclusions as they have a dark & brooding atmosphere that I totally dig which leaves them sitting as two of the three highlights for me. The other is the excellent industrial rock/metal hybrid piece "In Unmet Chambers Slain I" which snuck up on me over time after initially being one of those that went over my head due to its inherent coldness. There are admittedly a couple of songs that didn't enjoy the same privilege & remained fairly inaccessible for me throughout the whole exercise though with "Sun Turns Through Ash" & "Under the Wood" being a bit of a struggle but generally I found the album to be pretty enjoyable & there was some additional interest added for me in the inclusion of a cover version of Trouble's wonderful "Victim of the Insane" from the American doom metal masters' classic self-titled debut album from 1984, a piece that I regard as being one of my favourite doom tracks of all time.

While I definitely got more into "Anhedonia" more with each listen, I did eventually find that its appeal was capped a bit by the lack of any real melodic hooks. Unlike English industrial metal godfathers Godflesh (who would seem to be the most obvious source of inspiration for Deathless), these Aussies don't even have higher register feedback or noise at their disposal so everything can sound a little bleak (which is perhaps the point thinking about it now). The two bass guitars are used in an interesting way & don't tend to get each other's road while the drum machine sounds completely artificial which I'd imagine was always the intent. Neither of the two band members sport much in the way of vocal talent but then when has that ever stopped an industrial metal artist from having a crack (see the afore-mentioned Godlfesh for a prime example)? The incorporation of a doomier sound during the back end of the tracklisting was interesting but had mixed results with the Trouble cover version working nicely & the previously-mentioned "Under the Wood" falling flat. The rockier moments that appear through the middle of the album suffer from the same sort of inconsistency with "Sun Turns Through Ash" failing to meet the same heights of "In Unmet Chambers Slain I".

Look, there's no doubt that "Anhedonia" won't be for everyone & if you're one of those people that's too impatient to give a record a few spins before casting judgement then I'd hazard to suggest that this won't be your sort of album but I have to admit that do kinda dig it, perhaps not enough to see me returning to it in the future though. I may let my interest get the better of me & see what Deathless' later releases with Godlfesh's Justin Broadrick sound like at some point as he's always been an amazingly captivating & consistent producer but, until then, I'll have to be satisfied with my experiences with "Anhedonia" which is probably Australia's first genuine industrial metal release.

For fans of Godflesh, Bloodstar & Pitchshifter.

Black Curse follow up their 2020 debut with another slab of blackened death metal that displays the pedigree of the band members who perform this unholy racket. For a quick update, Black Curse have members of Khemmis, Primitive Man and Spectral Voice. An eclectic if not consistent range of metal music is gathered here yet the music itself could not be more basic in all honesty. Here be the realm of no fucks to be given and Black Curse are right in their sweet spot inhabiting such a space. With all the best elements of Teitanblood, Grave Miasma and a smattering of Revenge and Archgoat for good measure, Black Curse have grown into a real tour de force come record number two.

For performing with sheer abandon alone, Black Curse get a five-star rating. The wall of noise that underpins their sound is a swarming entity that envelopes all in its path. The whole record sounds like it was recorded in the bowels of the earth itself, erupting from its core like volcanoes spewing utter despair and blatant disregard for life. The chaos is so tightly contained it borders on being overwhelming. The music swirls around your head like taunting demons, undertaking pretty much the same dizzying exploits as they fly into your ears, disorientating your senses.

To infer that Burning in Celestial Poison is nothing more than pure, blunt-force trauma to the head metal is unfair a reflection as this feels a very calculated level of clawing stealth. These five tracks make for a complete experience. Without checking the lyrics, I would go as far as to say there is something of a concept at play here (technically tracks 4 and 5 are one song – according to the booklet anyway). If it is a rampant blackened death metal journey you are after to close out 2024 then look no further folks. However, do not think this as simple an offering as you might first think.

Holy sugar honey iced tea! System of a Down's Shavo Odadjian decided to go on a more metalcore route with his new band in which the title is an acronym for his first name, Seven Hours After ViOlet. He has formed a solid lineup that includes American Idol runner-up Alejandro Aranda and members of deathcore bands Left to Suffer and Winds of Plague to create a good album of alt-metalcore, released via Sumerian Records a couple months before this review.

Shavo still has what it takes in the nearly two decades after System of a Down's last duo of albums. His latest entrance into metalcore has given the scene more exciting light. A creative impact has marked this territory...

Kicking things off hard is the heavy "Paradise" in which fast rhythms and grooves stick together with some clean melodies. Then we have "Alive" which marks a wild melodic metalcore standout. After that one-two punch, "Sunrise" doesn't impress me so much when the heaviness and melody lack balance. At least the clean/harsh chorus keeps it interesting. Still it's not really a track to start with on a whim.

Now we really go hard in "Go!" which, f***ing h*ll, is so insane! Lots of speed and destruction from the music and vocals, with a fun anthemic chorus. Then "Float" floats by with forced melody that comes out a little too plain. But I love the short intense beast that is "Glink". Forget "Cry...", it's too much of a dramatic sh*tter.

Stomping through is the mesmerizing "Abandon". The grand "Radiance" can lure any listeners in, and you can't escape its grasp of power. As we reach the album's final leg, "Gloom" sounds compelling though doesn't reach its potential strength. Neither does the finale "Feel" while still having some power to engage listeners. Pretty much a decent ending for this cool offering.

Any fan of System of a Down would be curious enough to discover this band and album. It's a love it or hate it kind of album, but for me it's somewhere in the middle. I'll see you all later, perhaps after Violet....

Favorites: "Paradise", "Alive", "Go!", "Glink", "Radiance"

From Colorado, The Flight of Sleipnir's brand of doom metal is listed on RateYourMusic as "Pagan Black Metal." Does it have melodic leads in the guitar constructed by tremolo picking patterns? Yep. Does it contain the patented harsh, shrieking vocals? Absolutely, although not as frequent as previous records. But that alone does not make Nature's Cadence a black metal album. Just because it borrows from a band like Panopticon when incorporating dark folk/country techniques, does not make it black metal by comparison. 

The music itself though is brilliant. I am a big fan of the country interludes on "Madness" and how they help that song change themes before building the song back up in intensity. Of course those themes are closely related so it never feels like the band has just shoehorned two separate ideas together. In addition, the album flows very well between each track; never leaving the impression that these songs weren't meant to be played collectively. Even "The Woodsman," which can barely be classified as metal, is a great track because of how well it is prepared by its predecessors.

That being said, even though the albums structure is superb, I can't really stay engaged with it because just as it starts getting good, the album ends. I think a lot of this has to do with the ten-plus minute "North" to open the album. It almost gives me the impression that the band were planning on giving "North" all of their love, while the remaining four songs were just to fill out the runtime, when that really did not need to be the case. Songs on this album are warm and lively; they don't need to be bogged down by almost twelve minutes of droning.

Nature's Cadence is a solid piece of doom metal that should be right up my alley with its folk-y roots and pristine production. But the album seems to contain too many small things and not enough time to rectify them. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic and this album will grow on me with more listens.

Best Songs: Madness, The Woodsman, Wanderer

I really don't know how to tag Oranssi Pazuzu anymore. The avant-garde metal tagging assigned to their latest seems a bit of a cop-out for material that sits outside the scope of existing genre understandings, especially as I generally find avant-garde metal to be unlistenable, which this patently is not. But, in reality, I can't currently come up with anything more appropriate. It seems that these Finns are so far ahead of their time that it is questionable if their music is even earth-based anymore, sounding like the kind of stuff I would expect them to be listening to in the more unsavoury areas of the gigantic space orbitals of Iain M. Banks' twenty-fifth century Culture civilization.

The black metal aspect of their sound is merely vestigial at this point, surviving only in the harsh, shrieked vocals and the psychedelic element so prevalent on their last couple of albums is also consigned to history for the most part. I always felt that the psychedelic component gave them a bit of warmth and even hope, but Muuntautuja feels like a more depersonalised and bleak affair. Oranssi Pazuzu have leant heavily into atmospherics for some time now, but here they go even further, taking elements of noise, sludge, electronica and drone to weave tracks that are all about the texture and atmosphere rather than any kind of song and, as such, are far more akin to post-metal than they have been before. Atmospherically, Muuntautuja gives off dystopian sci-fi vibes within a threateningly malevolent industrial landscape, sounding as if influenced by the more pessimistic science fiction writers such as Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson, in whose worlds the overly mechanised "system" oppresses the spirit of those living under it.

The opener "Bioalkemisti" kicks off with a throbbing drum and bass line accompanied by Juho Vanhanen's throat-shredding shrieks and from the very beginning it is evident that things have taken a turn for the darker. Frantic riffing and siren-like synths join the affray and the track becomes more and more apocalyptic and menacing with machine-like industrial stylings that scream "Dystopia". The title track feeds further into this narrative with it's trip-hop beats and spacey electronic embellishments, especially when the robotic spoken word section kicks in early on, dehumanising the atmosphere even more before it explodes in a frustrated-sounding, heavier, sludgy industrial second part. I don't want to do a track-by-track runthrough, but highlight the content of the first two tracks to try to impart some flavour of what to expect from Muuntautuja. The heavier sections are loaded on bass and distortion which pushes the instrumentation in a noise-driven direction, with a favourite trope here being overlaying these heavy sections with a tinkling piano and Juho's manic shrieks. The lighter electronic parts are based on hypnotic, industrialised beats that can occasionally come off as almost ritualistic, as if in praise of some almighty Machine God and I feel that the layering of these heavier and lighter sections is fundamental to the success of the album. Pacing and tempo also varies massively from hulking, sludge and drone-like parts to frantic blasts of unhinged mania that provide further stark contrasts in atmospherics.

Ultimately, no amount of words I can spew on to this page will give you an adequate picture of what Oranssi Pazuzu have served up with Muuntautuja, so you owe it to yourself to fire it up and experience the album firsthand. I must admit I am unsure where to place this in OP's discography. I think it is an endlessly fascinating release that has seen yet another redefinition of the band's sound, but is it better than the amazing Värähtelijä and Mestarin kynsi albums? For the time being I am going to proffer a "no", but that does not by any means infer that I don't like this, because I love it. It's just that I am unsure how much just yet. One thing is for sure, every new Oranssi Pazuzu release is an event worth getting yourself up for.

In a futile attempt to clean up my metal listening in 2024, December (and likely into January) is the month I will be bolstering the more extreme clans here at Metal Academy that I frequent the least (i.e. Fallen, Horde and North), so there are going to be a lot of short little blurbs about a handful of records I heard in 2024. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something a little bit more timely come 2025.

From Sweden, Kvaen is a one man melodic black metal project with pagan tendencies. This is the third album and the first to be released under publishers Metal Blade. Being one of heavy metal's most prominent record labels left me cause for some concern at first, and then I heard "Tornets sång" and it all made sense.

Sure, this might be a black metal album at its core, but you cannot listen to "Tornets sång" and tell me it does not sound like In Flames. I think that song in particular brings to light many of this records technical deficiencies. When the album has the black metal aesthetic on singles like "The Formless Fires" and "The Ancient Gods," the record sounds fantastic. When Kvaen starts to delve too heavy into those In Flames-esque melodic death tendencies, the guitar becomes too intrusive in the mix and become far too centric.

What may come as a surprise to newcomers is the thrash/speed callbacks on "Traverse the Nether" and "Basilisk" as they did with me. I know that these genres form the basis for the original black metal sounds, and I think the intensity is warranted and well executed, but on they can feel a little too spaced out as part of a full listen. Even then, calling The Formless Fires spaced out is a great misrepresentation of the album since most of the songs here feel cut short or missing a final chorus or something. Most of the album consists of fadeout endings on "The Wings of Death" and "The Formless Fires," but they never feel like they've reached the end of their statement. It makes an album that is already quite short feel even shorter.

Within The Formless Fires is a decent framework of a melodic black metal album. Good variety, strong melodic form and a mostly decent production. Compositionally, this album is desperately lacking; give a couple of these songs one final refrain and you have an excellent release. As it is, The Formless Fires has potential, but just like a fire, it loses its form after all the firewood has burnt up.

Best Songs: Traverse the Nether, The Ancient Gods, Basilisk

Oslo's Abhorration are a four-piece death metal band with members (or ex-members) of bands such as Nekromantheon, Purple Hill Witch and Condor, amongst others. They play an old-school style of death metal that contains a noticeable thrash metal component, played with an infectious energy that makes it feel new and fresh, rather than a tired harking back to "olden days".

Flying straight out of the blocks, spitting fire and venom, Abhorration make their intentions known as the title track that opens the album kicks off in brutally vicious manner before settling down into a more controlled, thrashy riff. The ensuing thirty-six minutes sees them continuing in much the same manner, switching from pummelling and adrenaline-fuelled death metal blasting to groovier, and fairly melodic, thrash-like riffing with each of the six tracks taking this approach to a greater or lesser degree. Into this maelstrom, at the drop of a hat, the band throw a seemingly endless stream of searingly intense guitar solos. The soloing comes very much from the King / Hanneman school of tortured howls, only guitarists Arild Myren Torp and Magnus Garathun use them more frequently and they last longer. Magnus is also the band's vocalist, his style being a harsh, barking style that has a bit of a black metal edge to it. The rhythm section is quite busy, drummer Øyvind Kvam in particular being all over things and this increases the chaotic, seat-of-the pants adrenaline rush that most of the album's runtime provides.

The obvious touchstone for an album such as Demonolatry is early Morbid Angel and Altars of Madness more specifically, and that is a lofty parent to emulate, but I think these Norwegians have given it a good go and have produced a lively and adrenaline-fuelled blast from the past that doesn't feel out of place here in the third decade of the twenty-first century either.

In a futile attempt to clean up my metal listening in 2024, December (and likely into January) is the month I will be bolstering the more extreme clans here at Metal Academy that I frequent the least (i.e. Fallen, Horde and North), so there are going to be a lot of short little blurbs about a handful of records I heard in 2024. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something a little bit more timely come 2025.

From Germany, the fifth release from the atmospheric blackgaze group Ellende starts off broodingly slow and melancholic through the intro in order to prepare the listener for the depressive state of the rest of the music. When the black metal instrumentation enters on "Ballade Auf Den Tod," you can feel the hauntingly sad beauty behind this dance. And that emotion comes through in the production which is full in its scope; a fully functioning bass line to give this album some weight in its lower half. Songwriting is kind of lackluster, but for this style of black metal, where texture rules the day, the repetitive, droning nature of the tremolo guitar leads allows for these emotions to remain stagnant, which I assume was the bands intention.

Unfortunately for Ellende, I feel like they have this emotional technique down a little too well. With the depressive lyrical themes and tempos that only seem to get progressively slower as the album continues, Todbringerin is dangerously close to transforming into a doom metal album. This album would certainly benefit from having more tracks like "Verachtung" in the middle of the tracklisting to compliment the brooding of "Scherben" and "Versprochen..." And perhaps this is a personal anecdote, but I'm listening to this album on the first major snowfall of the season, which comes with its own emotional weight, so perhaps a record this emotional was not the best choice for a end-of-the-year cleanup.

Anyways, if doom metal is up your alley, but you wish it could have more tremolo picking guitars and shrieking black metal vocals, then you'll likely find a home inside the cold embrace of Todbringerin. Otherwise, I can tell that this is a good album, but something about it just doesn't sit right with me.

Best Songs: Ballade Auf Den Tod, Scherben Teil I, Verachtung, Am Ende Stribst Du Allein

This month's The North feature release was beautifully timed given my very recent revisit of Novembre's 1994 debut album "Wish I Could Dream It Again...", a release that I've enjoyed for a full three decades now. Surprisingly, I've not ventured any further into the Italians' back catalogue before now but the unique combination of whispy, dreamy atmospheres combined with a progressive black metal backbone still offers me plenty of appeal so I had definitely placed 2002's "Dream d'azur" fifth full-length on my to-do list just before discovering that Ben had selected it for feature releases status. I had no idea that it was a re-recording of "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." before this week though so the last couple of days have served as a beautiful point of comparison & one that has spawned some unexpected & perhaps controversial results.

While "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." was recorded in Sweden with Dan Swanö, "Dream d'azur" would be re-enacted at home in Italy at drummer Giuseppe Orlando's (The Foreshadowing/Deinonychus) Outer Sound Studios in Rome where he collaborated with guitarist Massimiliano Pagliuso behind the mixing desk. The resulting product sounds way cleaner & more polished than the fairly raw debut album which accentuates the progressive nature of the song-writing a lot more. The keyboards play a more prominent role in the mix which is one of the main differences between the two albums. The other is the improved performances with the clean vocals of guitarist Carmelo Orlando being far stronger than his naive delivery on "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." where he seemed to intentionally waver in pitch in a relaxed way that reminded me of US college indie rock bands. His black metal screams are slightly more intense here although I did really like them on the debut too. The instrumental performances are also superior with the guitar solos having had their progressive nature ramped up significantly in terms of sophistication & technique, thanks largely to the addition of Pagliuso. The drumming of Carmelo's brother Giuseppe is once again a highlight with his delivery having been tightened up significantly but the real star of the show is session bass player Fabio Fraschini whose pure & powerful tone & unique note selection is one of the main drivers behind Novembre's fresh take on this old record. The dreamy, almost gazey atmospheres of the debut have been maintained beautifully, as have the aggressive black metal passages that are just strong enough for me to be claiming "Dream d'azur" as a progressive black metal release in much the same way as I did for "Wish I Could Dream It Again...".

But is "Dreams d'azur" really light years ahead of "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." as a point of creative expression? And does it sound as drastically different to the debut as it's often reported to be? Well, the answer to both questions is no as far as I'm concerned which I know will surprise a few people. If you look closely at "Dreams d'azur", you'll actually discover that it's a pretty faithful reenactment of "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." in terms of style & structure. Sure, there are a few tracks that have had their titles adjusted as well as a couple that have been combined into the one lengthy piece but I don't feel that the actual music being played has changed all that much apart from the more precise performances. As with the debut, I have to question the genre-tagging that's generally dished out for "Dream d'azur" though. "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." is often referred to as progressive doom/death but I couldn't find a trace of doom metal or death metal on it & the black metal component that's hardly mentioned elsewhere was strong enough for an additional primary tag. The same goes for "Dreams d'azur" with most punters tagging it as a progressive take on gothic metal, a label which is drastically out of line with reality. Once again, there's hardly a second of gothic influence on this record which generally goes in the complete other direction by shunning any semblance of darkness outside of the more aggressive black metal parts & a one-off piano section. A good portion of the riffs were quite clearly written in a dissonant, open-string black metal style & their regular combination with Carmelo's harsh screams & Giuseppe's blast-beats is impossible to overlook as far as I'm concerned. I'm absolutely baffled as to why most other fans seem to overlook these obvious character traits.

While there's no doubt that "Dreams d'azur" is a step up in terms of production from the much rawer & more primitive "Wish I Could Dream It Again...", I dispute the claims that it's some sort of classic while the debut is left floundering as immature folly. As someone that has spent three decades with its elder sibling, the younger record simply seems like a different take on it more than a drastic improvement. I'm not saying that "Dreams d'azur" is not the better record because it is but not by anywhere near as much as some critics would have you believe. Yes, the production & performances are superior but that doesn't mean that the song-writing wasn't just as unique & captivating back in 1994. The main advantage for "Dreams d'azur" is in the ability for the stronger tracks to have their impact maximized as we see in the wonderful versions of "Let Me Hate" & "Neanderthal Sands", both of which manage to reach genuine classic status here when they had that potential curtailed a bit on the debut where they didn't even sit amongst the best few tracks. I do think that I prefer the closer "Christal" a bit more on "Wish I Could Dream It Again..." though where it was shorter & a touch darker. The comparisons for the remainder of the tracklisting leaves me feeling fairly similarly to be honest with the cleaner sound & execution not really equating to Novembre reaching greater creative heights.

There's no doubt that "Dreams d'azur" is a very solid progressive black metal album full of intrigue & atmosphere though. While I clearly hold a soft spot for "Wish I Could Dream It Again...", I will comfortably concede that it's not nearly as accessible a listen as the re-recording is & I'd recommend that any Novembre virgins proceed directly past GO! & collect their $200 at the shinier 2002 model. Overlook the debut at your peril though as it's not the handicapped cousin its often touted as being. In fact, all of the elements that make "Dreams d'azur" so great were already there but they just needed a little coaxing to come out of their shell.

For fans of Green Carnation, Opeth & Alcest.

In a futile attempt to clean up my metal listening in 2024, December (and likely into January) is the month I will be bolstering the more extreme clans here at Metal Academy that I frequent the least (i.e. Fallen, Horde and North), so there are going to be a lot of short little blurbs about a handful of records I heard in 2024. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something a little bit more timely come 2025.

From the budding Montreal black metal scene, Spectral Wound return following 2021's A Diabolical Thirst with another audible assault of classically influenced black metal. Songs of Blood and Mire hits you right out of the gate with a cacophony of sound from the blast beat percussion, tremolo guitars, an actual bass line, and barely audible screeching vocals. And in this case, it actually works to Spectral Wound's benefit since it directs most of melodic focus on the guitar, which does sound quite fruitful in its presentation, execution and development. The punk aesthetic that shows up on "At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls" is a stylistic choice for the band and leaves the listener with a different style of intensity than experienced before. What's more is that these punk grooves do appear sporadically throughout the rest of the album for some nice reprieve. "Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal" is the, relatively speaking, cooler song on the album where melody reigns supreme and rage takes a backseat. It likely would have been a better track if it had been saved maybe a song or two later.

I will say that Songs of Blood and Mire is a better record than A Diabolical Thirst and that will likely be enough for most. However, like with the last album, I found the record to get a little stale during its second half as many of the variations to the sound became less prominent as the record dipped back into a very comfortable melodic black metal approach. The first four track of the album are worth the price of admission alone, but the record goes on for too long with not enough variety to warrant the extended runtime. 

Best Songs: Fevers and Suffering, At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls, Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal, A Coin Upon the Tongue

In a futile attempt to clean up my metal listening in 2024, December (and likely into January) is the month I will be bolstering the more extreme clans here at Metal Academy that I frequent the least (i.e. Fallen, Horde and North), so there are going to be a lot of short little blurbs about a handful of records I heard in 2024. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something a little bit more timely come 2025.

From Nashville, Saidan are making black metal that has ties classic heavy metal sounds with the catchy guitar riffs, complimented by visceral vocals, pummeling blast beats and a relentless energy. Visual Kill is a grandiose album, but gives the listener some breathing room with some post-rock interludes on "Switchblade Paradise" that sound amazing, The key is the tunefulness and I haven't heard a black metal album this tuneful since...probably Sojourner's Premonitions in 2020. Production wise, it is black metal so the treble in the guitars, shrieking vocals and the bell chime of the ride cymbal sound great, but a underwhelming low end means that the overall power feels restrained. Overall if you're looking for an album that is melodically epic as well as musically intense, Saidan might have what you're looking for.

Best Songs: Desecration of a Lustful Illusion, Switchblade Paradise, Veins of The Wicked, Visual Kill

Hilariously titled Austrian death metallers Pungent Stench & I have always shared a positive relationship. I got onboard with them fairly early on in their recording career with both of their first two albums receiving a tonne of plays from me as a young fella while I also quite liked their split record with countrymen Disharmonic Orchestra. They'd started to dick with their sound a bit on 1993's "Dirty Rhymes & Psychotronic Beats" E.P. though with their filthy take on the classic death metal model having been infiltrated by the death 'n' roll sound that bands like Entombed & Carcass were pushing at the time, along with some further experimentation with electronics. Many fans couldn't get into their new direction but I still found enough to keep me interested. It did put my guard up a little when it came to the Stench's next release in 1994's "Club Mondo Bizarre - For Members Only" though. Still... while it may not have been the Pungent Stench I'd developed such a strong affiliation with during their early days, I can't deny that it still offered me a reasonable level of appeal & remember the experience quite fondly, despite not having returned to the album since the mid-1990's. I wouldn't say that I've been absolutely busting to return to the album this week but I was a little intrigued to see if I'd still find it a positive experience in my more mature years.

As with all of Pungent Stench's previous material, "Club Mondo Bizarre - For Members Only" features some seriously sick themes & cover art which is perhaps the main reason that they had even become known to me in the first place. I picked up my copy of the album on CD from the local metal record store upon release & had no idea of what visual delights I was in for based on first impressions with the cover's true identity only being fully unveiled upon removing it from the jewel case & unfolding it to reveal an image that my mother would no doubt have been horrified to know her teenage some was casually perusing. The band had maintained the same three-piece lineup that they'd traversed their entire back catalogue with to the time & had recorded the album at Sing Sang Studios in Vienna, Austria during the middle of 1993 with front man Martin Schirenc (Hollenthon/Kreuzweg Ost) sharing the production duties with Gregore Schwarzenegger who had worked with the Stench on all of their previous records. The resulting sound is a little less disgusting & metallic than we may have come to expect from the band but isn't all that different to that we heard on "Dirty Rhymes & Psychotronic Beats" with the guitar tone having as much in common with grunge/alternative rock as it does with metal. This suits the style of the riffs quite well & gives the album some additional swing which was an important component of Pungent Stench's mid-90's sound. In fact, this element alone is almost enough to tell the casual listener that they shouldn't take things too seriously when it comes to this band.

From a stylistic point of view, "Club Mondo Bizarre - For Members Only" sees Pungent Stench completely dropping the sickly death metal sound of their roots in order to fully indulge themselves in the death 'n' roll sound that they'd begun exploring on the E.P. from the previous year. Schirenc's death grunts have been maintained but the instrumentation has taken a more groove-oriented approach that sees the rhythm section of Pitbull Jack & Rector Stench combining to give the Austrians a healthy swagger while Shirenc does his best to repulse the listener with his humorous yet still unashamedly disgusting lyrics. Martin clearly had a real knack for this sort of shit & I can't help but find the appeal in his clever way with words, even if they were often used to describe scenes where people were consuming each other's waste amongst other things. I don't generally go for a more satirical or comical brand of metal but there's just something about the way that Pungent Stench have angled their approach that seems to overcome any hesitation I might normally maintain for this sort of thing.

In saying that though, the tracklisting is fairly inconsistent with all of the material hovering either side of my enjoyment threshold. Thankfully, the wins slightly outweigh the losses here to see me affording the album a respectable score but it was a fairly close call to be honest. A good half of these tracks aren't really all that enjoyable to someone that takes their extreme metal as seriously as I do but the other half offer just enough messy fun to make the whole experience palatable. It's really pretty hard not the smile while listening to the stronger inclusions here, even if they'll hardly change your life. "I'm a Family Man", "True Life" & "Fuck Bizarre" are probably my pick of the bunch but "Treatments of Pain" & "Rape - Pagar Con La Misma Moneda" are also pretty decent. There's nothing too horrible amongst the material that sits on the other side of the line though so the lack of any genuine classics hasn't had the impact that it might have in the event of anything truly awful having been included.

Look... death 'n' roll isn't really my thing but I'll be damned if Pungent Stench don't know who to do it right. While "Club Mondo Bizarre - For Members Only" may well have been the weakest Stench offering to the time, it still manages to put a smile on my dial & that's really the intent of this sort of outfit, isn't it? In saying that though, I do think a large chunk of our The Horde members might struggle with it a bit so if you don't have much time for the artists I've listed below as points of reference then you may wanna steer clear of this one.

For fans of Xysma, mid-to-late 90's Gorefest & "Swansong"-era Carcass.