UnhinderedbyTalent's Reviews

The rampant energy that greets the listener on the title and opening track on this record sets the tone for what to expect over the coming album.  It's full on intensity summarises the intent of the band from the off.  They are here to entertain most certainly, deploying a brand of heavy metal tinged with power metal vocals to give variety or annoyance (depending on your viewpoint of Tony Moore).  I find the majority of the vocals remind me of a less capable Rob Halford but it is obvious that they fit the music and the guitar work of Mark Reale, whilst never reaching Downing or Tipton levels of brilliance, is skillful enough to keep the JP reference relevant.

Structure-wise, songs are very anthemic in their build giving a core focus across most tracks even if you aren't concentrating enough to enjoy the whole array of solid percussion and riffs on display.  This makes the album great background music. That's not a criticism either.  It is unlikely that I will spend much of my life sat studying the intricacies of any Riot album, so it is refreshing to be able to tune out of the detail and still enjoy an album whilst my main focus is elsewhere.

It gets the foot tapping and on some occasions the fist gets raised also, as I allow  the album to provide momentary distraction from whatever it is I am doing.  The only criticism comes in the sense that it is all too similar overall and to some extent I get track creep where I don't necessarily see the beginning of one track as being an actual difference in comparison with what just ended.

Mild repetition aside, this is enjoyable enough and one of the better releases I have heard from the band in al honesty and would probably make a great addition to most hard rock/heavy metal fan's library.

I genuinely want to like early Cynic more than I can ever muster my levels of enthusiasm too.  The level of talent on display is nothing short of remarkable on Focus yet it has never sat well with me and this has nothing to do with the mind bending complexity and torrid fusion aspects on display.  I will come clean early on in this review and say that I just do not understand why they had to deploy that fucking annoying alien/robot voice with such regularity throughout the record.  I mean look, I get the cosmic theme but after the first time of hearing it I knew I never wanted to hear it again, so the fact that it is on there a few times killed this record for me.

Masvidal and Reinert made one of the most important contributions to death metal when they took the already clear and present promise of Death to outer universe places with their contributions to Human making one of Death’s finest records and showing the genre as a whole what was possible in what to many was a very closed book when it came to the possibility of expansion.  I think what made their contribution there so effective was that they had some reins to hold them back from going completely bonkers and they very much had the inhibition settings turned to the “off” position when they got around to their debut record some two years later.

Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the balls to be able to release this record and for the most part I like what I hear.  The time changes, the searing and spontaneous leads, the engine build of the bass and whatever the fuck rhythm Reinert is creating in there is a feast for the senses for virtually the whole record.  It just the curve of the ball that eventually takes it away from my receptive hands is the irritation of the excessive use of what to all intent and purpose is a sound effect.

It is a one of a kind record for the time and one that rightly deserves recognition but for me it is not one that can get anywhere near five stars.

Following on from The Warning wasn't that much of a challenge in my eyes as I found it to be a largely flat album with only Tate showing any real sign of enthusiasm for the performance.  Going into Rage for Order therefore it was safe to say that my expectations were low.  Still only able to really enjoy Empire I didn't rate the sophomore's chances of replacing that release as my preferred listen or even coming close.  The fact is though that Rage for Order is a half decent record with some good ideas let down only by the execution.

First off, the album feels more like a band effort this time around as opposed to a further extension of the Geoff Tate Show that was the debut.  Yes, the drama and at times cringey warblings of the frontman are still by far the most memorable aspect of the release but also this time you can hear the other guys putting in an actual shift.  DeGarmo and Wilton make their presence known and fire their fair share of licks and riffs around to spice up the feel of the record.  Scott Rockenfeld puts in a solid performance on the skins also driving the machine of the band well and Jackson and DeGarmo do a stellar job in supporting Tate with their backing vocals.  All in all things feel a lot more cohesive this time around.

Sadly though the band appear to overreach themselves on the songwriting front, failing to deliver the progressive side of their sound with any real panache.  Instead some the songs feel clunky in structure and underdeveloped.  By far the better moments on the record are when they just go for a straight out rock tune or a swoony ballad.  It seems harsh to criticise them as the willingness to try and mix things up is commendable in itself but I just feel their overall ability didn't quite support the means they were trying to deliver in the end product.

As a result of these tracks that do little to impress the album feels a tad bloated as it goes on and there's a definite feel for me that we could leave a couple of tracks on the editing room floor.  Still a much more promising effort than what came two years earlier.

For a band fronted by one the most reknowned exponents of brutal death metal, Six Feet Under's debut feels almost muted in comparison to what the world was accustomed to hearing Chris Barnes normally deliver.  There's no feeling here of any real intensity and that is obvious from track one.  No artist can get away with such a monotonous riff selection and expect much in the way of plaudits from a death metal fan such as myself.

There's an obvious Obituary influence on Haunted which given Allen West's involvement isn't that unexpected, but fuck dude you know more riffs surely?  At times it does play like an Obituary record with Chris Barnes on vocals instead of Chief Spewer Tardy.  The mix on the guitar sound leaves it with an odd grating edge to it that belies something that sounds like death metal but reminds me of the sound of a White Zombie record in all honesty.

When the album does pick up it soon loses any mojo it manages to muster and falls back on dull and lifeless riffs played against mid-tempo drums and vocals.  I mean Terry Butler was in fucking Death five years prior to this and although you can hear him plinking away on here he literally must be bored to tears and Greg Gall sounds like he is only using one arm on the drums.

I have heard lots of death metal in time but I cannot remember anything else as dull, lifeless or uninspiring as this record.  It sounds almost simplistic as opposed to just stripped back, like the band are all new to death metal and are learning how to play full DM songs together (badly).  What we end up with on Six Feet Under's debut is what sounds like an Obituary cover band who don't really know the band that well (other than the guitarist who can play all the riffs in his sleep) and deem it okay to just write their own tracks (badly).

It is hard to remember Gorguts as anything other than boundary pushing, avant-grade and unique purveyors of some of the most challenging music out there. But everybody has to start somewhere and their debut was a straight up death metal record. No evidence was shown in 1991 of much of anything in the way of technicality with the focus instead being on the release of the familiar sound that was infecting much of the metal world in the early nineties.

It was well-played stuff most definitely with the band having retained three quarters of the line up from the ’89 demo …And Then Comes Lividity barring the replacement of Chouinard on guitar by Sylvain Marcoux. Here on the debut full-length there were obvious Florida influences in terms of the established death metal scene which is grest to hear on an album from a Canadian band that clearly knew the genre they were entering into very well.

By no means should this be viewed as an inferior release in the extensive and increasingly technical (from the next album onwards) albums of one of the grestest death metal bands ever to tread foot on the earth.  Considered Dead does what most bands fail to achieve on their debuts, making a splash in an established scene without being bloated or turgid.  In a world that was accepting the inevitable infection of death metal, the debut from Gorguts was reliant only on established traits within the genre.  It wasn't interested in being that different because the ability of the musicians was more than sufficient to lay down this excellent foundation stone for the band to build their discography from.

As they drifted into their follow up release you could still hear the influence of Considered Dead throughout The Erosion of Sanity giving a real rooted and grounded feel to the added technicality they were adding at that time.  For a fan of the band throughout their career the importance of the debut album from Lemay and company cannot be underestimated.

I have long been a fan of the title track from this record.  It always strikes me as full of menace and is structured well, but for some reason this promise had never taken me to a full a listen of the record until recently.  Bearing in mind I do find the discography of the Black Sabbath frontman to be patchy at best I still feel sorely disappointed by No More Tears overall.  The patchiness that plagues a lot of his records appeared to grow at an exponential rate for this one leaving a flat an uninspiring feel to the offering.

Things start off promisingly enough with the bite of Mr Tinkertrain a track which sets a good pace and energy for the record, Wylde's solo adds real power to proceedings and sets the bar high for the rest of the record.   Unfortunately it tails off immediately with the mediocre I Don't Want to Change The World and then the drab Mama, I'm Coming Home.  Only three tracks in things feel very inconsistent and badly arranged, like things have immediately gone off the boil.  Other than the aforementioned title track, things don't ever really get going again.

Even Hellraiser feels underwhelming considering the wealth of metal legend that contributed to it.  I don't get much of the clamour around Zakk Wylde to be honest.  He is a competent guitarist most certainly but his work here is average at best and does nothing to alter my opinion that he is one of the more overrated players in metal.  The timing and pace of his leads are often out to my ear and go beyond quirky pretty quickly.  Not even the late Randy Castillo can do much to hold my interest here as I find myself reaching for the skip button with an all too frequent regularity.

One of the worst traits an album can leave you with even a whiff off is that it is just a collection of songs, stuck on an album without thought to consistency and quality control and this is exactly what No More Tears feels like.  It fails to build up any momentum and just ends up lost in its own mediocrity.

As with many of The Guardians releases, Pretty Maids walk the thin line between hard rock and metal for much of Future World.  This is by no means a bad thing and offers a welcome respite from my daily dose of death metal, grindcore and black metal that currently inhabits my routine rotations.  There are elements to this record that do make it standout from the throng of hard rock acts out there that espouse this type of music to a large enough fan base, namely the hi-octane delivery of the tracks and the sheer velocity of the pace of most of the record makes you sit up and take notice.  You can also hear the quality elements in terms of the guitar playing.  The brilliantly named Ken Hammer's guitar sounds layered on the production job which works great as it fills the air with its ferocious leads and melodic and catchy riffs.

Vocalist Ronnie Atkins (come on Ronnie, make an effort, your guitarist is called Hammer FFS!) does appear to strain a little bit when trying to sound more aggressive in his delivery of the vocals.  His voice sounds forced in these moments but when doing the more clean vocals he is perfectly competent.  The keyboards of Alan "Stevie" Owen sit in what at first feels like mostly silence but as you listen more closely to proceedings they are there in the background, subtely mixed to shine when the lulls in pace dictate opportunity to do so.

It does feel very commercial orientated and I have no issue with that, in fact it is done very well and for a first venture into the band I have already added this to my library for return visits.  I don't think I will play it regularly but when I do get out of lockdown and back on the road, the first sunny day I get, the windows are coming down and this shit is gonna be blasting!

The first death metal album ever.  End of debate here.  There's so much here that breathes the very essence of what we all now know to be death metal that any other search for the first DM album is just redundant from the off once you have waded through the various thrash elements of Possessed on Seven Churches.  What Chuck and Chris did here was simply define a whole new level of intensity and created a potent and vehement new branch of metal that to this day continues to inhabit music collections across the globe.

It's memorable as hell too.  Nobody listens to Zombie Ritual, Mutilation or the title track and forgets them for the rest of their lives.  Reifert's drums alone see to a large proportion of that memorability factor.  Pounding and powerful throughout they bash a thunderous roadmap into the listener's brain like some warhammer crushing skulls.  They sound full and assertive yet never steal the show, blending in perfectly with the rumbling bass, well-positioned in the mix against the backdrop of Chuck's maniacal and uncompromising vocals.

The guitar is a raging torrent of rampant noise that seems to swarm and consume the space it surges into, applying melody just enough to temper the storm when required but never being afraid to unleash those now trademark solos to do their nefarious acts.  All helped by a solid and assured production job it should also be mentioned.  The blueprint for death metal could not have been more clear or definitive really.  There's a genuine sense of this album being due at this point in history, with the thrash metal masses having done their bit with the "death to all posers" attitude, this was the older brother of them all who'd been missing for a few years and had turned up again all bat shit crazy and with a lot of hours honing his evil plans for world domination with a guitar and some scrawled lyrics on a human skull.  Arriving unannounced for dinner one evening carrying a dead cow on their back with teeth marks in it, they had thrown down their ghetto blaster watching the family lose their fucking minds.

It isn't five stars because of the overall quality of the music and the performances of the artists.  It is five stars because of what it represents in the world of metal as a whole.  A massively important album driven by the unwaivering determination of Chuck Schuldiner to deliver his own vision of what metal should be.  Challenging and terrifying.

The pounding fury of album opener Tree of Suffocating Souls indicates immediately that this is anything but your standard doom metal album.  Delivered with an almost punky attitude, the track hammers its way into your brain and leaves a memorable benchmark at this very early stage of the album.  If you have heard anything else by Triptykon you will already know to expect variety from any offering of their's.  Previous album Eparistera Daimones enchanted my ears well enough to make it a read that I was going to be straight into Melana Chasmata at the earliest opportunity and it is just as endearing in its own twisted little way.

There's a patient intensity to their 2014 offering that in no small part is obvious due to the gothic leanings of their sound.  Between Tom's monotone and grim delivery alongside the ethereal beauty of Simone Vollenweider's siren like performance on Boleskine House there exists a perfect marriage of opposites.  Likewise the death metal like chug of the guitar on Altar of Deceit is framed by the hazy psychadelia of the other guitar as it drones on throughout the track creating an atmosphere of subtle tension, of fury being kept on a leash, steering it into consistent and ordered release that builds around the song.

I don't really get along with Celtic Frost that well in all honesty.  I don't hate their output but it has yet to set my world on fire and as a result I came to Triptykon a tad pensive about what to expect.  In comparison though Tom's later years are seeing him produce much more creative and expansive material in my opinion.  The album title is Greek for "Black Chasm" and this perfectly describes what the album is.  Vast in scope without becoming trendy or boring.  Full of perilous content and glowering talent, each track offers variety of pace and tempo yet never leaves me feeling lost or unsure of how we got to any particular point.  

Replete with Giger artwork on the cover Melena Chasmata offers a whole experience on all fronts and shows a band that is more developed and mature than their debut offering.  It feels forbearing without ever being constraining, the songs genuinely do breathe in a dense atmosphere that stimulates the brain beyond the music itself.  Tracks build overtly and you find yourself encouraging them in your mind to develop branches and off-shoots and (in my brain at least) they often take that direction you are predicting.  The sublime growth of Aurorae is a great example of this, starting off almost as an instrumental before a short progression of verses that build the lush notes of the guitars making this my favourite track on the whole album.

Fischer's range goes between grim, almost spoken-word delivery to rabid and demented ramblings.  Again, they always feel controlled and measured to suit the overall intensity and atmosphere of a track at any given time.  They integrate into the gloomy picture that is painted and flow with the brushstrokes perfectly.  The band feel unified and their obvious experience shows across all nine tracks with the guitar work being of particular note, but the percussion and bass section but in one hell of shift also.

At just shy of hour and ten minutes the album feels quite long despite my enjoyment of it and a couple of tracks do seem to go on for a bit longer than necessary, over-egging the sombreness a tad and oustaying their welcome a bit as a result.  Still mighty fine stuff though.

The file marked "grating vocals but simply fantastic metal music" is perhaps one of my most frequently visited in recent years.  A couple of pints of Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol and I am anybody's really, you can take me home and have your wicked way with me leave before I wake and never call me again, I will still be content.  Pagan Altar fit nicely into the same bracket of metal as the aforementioned two other legendary groups.  The late Terry Jones' vocals manage to appeal to me in the same nerdy way that Tim Baker and Mark Shelton's style also work for me.  Aside from them taking a while to get used to (my experience of Tim and Mark definitely making them more manageable in terms of me coming to Pagan Altar), the other similarity that can be drawn is the excellent musicianship on display also.  Full of thick 70's "rawk" riffs and bluesy undertones to the melodies deployed the sound of Pagan Altar draws paralells on more than one front with their fellow metallers.

Lords of Hypocrisy was the second offering from the UK based band coming a full 26 years after they formed (their debut was recorded in 1982 but only came out in 1998).  It is full of slow to mid-paced plodding doom and stunted NWOBHM riffs that take you back to crumby pubs were bands like Pagan Altar got to play in their day, yet these same sounds would work just as well on a bigger stage.  Notorious for their early performances being of equal epic proportions as their songs I imagine the band would have been quite an experience in their day.  Tracks like the eleven minute Armageddon would have been a real treat live (as it was on the record too).

There's clever use of atmosphere throughout the album and the album feels like it fills a lot of space as a result.  From the more energetic and upbeat moments through to the near ambient momnets, Pagan Altar cover a lot of ground in just over 50 minutes.  Along the way they weave a tapestry of nuclear annihilation, telling stories of man's demise, religion and all manner of unpleasant times.  The darkness to the lyrical content gives a wonderfully morbid sense to some of the slower, more doomy tracks.  Songs like The Aftermath track a harrowing and melancholic tone that hammer home the despondency of the lyrics perfectly.  

Paul Jone’s guitar work is nothing short of phenomenal throughout the album, full of emotion and depth, the notes fill the air around you as you listen.  I even sit in admiration at the banjo work on the instrumental piece The Devil Came Down To Brockley, which despite being a curved ball to some degree still works brilliantly.  A shout out also needs to go to Valerie Watson for ethereal and eerie backing vocals thorughout the record.  They are just as important as Terry's are in buildig the atmosphere mentioned.  The keyboards and chruch organ (on the title track) are also tegral at various points in the album to make this a fulfilling experience.

The French have a penchant for popping up at unexpected points in my music library.  I mean thrash metal (or more death/thrash in this case) doesn't automatically take one's mind to France when we talk about a European scene, with Germany firmly at the forefront of the genre here.  But when I stumbled across Agressor recently I was more than pleasantly surprised.

The mention of Teutonic thrash just now draws some reference to Agressor's sound as they do border on some of the rabid paced thrash of Kreator (for example) during the forty minutes of Neverending Destiny.  The album feels like a late eighties thrash album, notwithstanding the big and clunky drawing that adorns the album cover that reminds of the kind of stuff I used to draw on my school books, it oozes that style of the period with the band having been around since 1986.  By the time they got aorund to a debut full length they had numerous demos under their belts.  They honed their sound to give plenty of weight to the thraashy side of things but as mentioned above there is a massive amount of death metal influence here also which serves to feed that rabid nature that I also have pointed too already.

Reminiscent of the ferocity of Massacra or Merciless who also released great records in the same year, Agressor channeled their efforts into a similar wall of razor sharp riffs and frenzied tempos that rivalled their fellow French and Swedish artists.  They could pull a neat solo out the bag too and maintain that rampant pace at the same time.  All the while the military sounding drums of Thierry Pinck brought up the levels of intensity to even higher proportions.  Alex Colin-Tocquaine's vocals were a raspy and gruff affair full of threat and menace that sat perfectly in the mix here, not drowned by the raging inferno of guitars and drums around them nor at any point stealing the show.

As with most death/thrash records the levels of intensity are as much a gift as they are a curse.  The thing that keeps this rating under four stars is the fact that there is very little variation in the album which over eleven tracks becomes a bit of a slog in the long term.  That having been said there's enough entertainment here to still make this is a riot to listen through.

I have made some great discoveries using this site and Matando güeros rates as perhaps one of my favourites.  My experience of the grindcore scene is limited to my Carcass albums and the occasional blast of Napalm Death.  As I get older, I feel the need to discover more of the branches of metal that I have neglected to pay too much attention to all the more and as a result encounter a lot of shite.  Sites like this give me great filters and can lead to some pretty neat finds.

Boasting a line up of multi-tudinous "stars" of the metal scene, with Dino Cazares of Fear Factory fame on guitars (he was in the band for 16 years), Shane Embury of Napalm Death fame on bass and additional guitars, on more bass and guitars is Faith No More's Billy Gould and the legendary former Dead Kennedy's vocalist Eric Reed Boucher narrates and is a founding member of the band also.  What a fucking line-up!

As you would expect for the genre and the talent on display the album is a fucking blast from start to finish and just sounds like a bunch of guys hanging out at one of their houses jamming in the basement or garage and having a great time doing so.  It is nineteen tracks of pure shit off a shovel intensity that covers thirty two minutes run time and slaps you silly during the process.  Literally no fucks are given on this record and I love it for that one fact alone.  You can feel the relaxed nature to the whole delivery.  It is unapologetic for the bastard child that it is and just wants you to come along for the ride.

Standout moments are the riffs that chop away at the listener throughout the record but Molestando niños muertos sounds like they loosened up the bass strings to the point were they are slapping the living hell out of the fretboard, creating a raw and filthy sounding roar that planes the skin off your face if you sit too close to the speakers.  It is more like a shockwave than a simple reverb.

This is entertaining for me no matter what I am doing.  Whether it is working and being unable to focus too much on an album or simply just sat drinking in my garden treating the neighbours to some Mexican based grindcore it is just like a soundtrack that fits my life brilliantly.

I recall a time when I had been away from the metal scene for a couple of years, away in fact from music altogether.  Upon venturing back into metal one of the first albums I downloaded was Machine Head's The Blackening, the band's sixth offering.  I had based my decision to buy this cold entirely based on their debut from some fifteen years earlier, an album that was very important in my metal development as well as being a widely recognised key release generally.  The band had strayed off into nu-metal tinged releases more or less immediately afterwards and I had long lost touch with their output by the time I made this impulse purchase.

For an impules purchase, it wasn't too shabby.  Coming back to the genre, at the time I though it was heavy as fuck, certainly closer to the original sound of the band that peaked my interest back in 1994.  It made excellent gym music for my (then) regular early morning workouts and as such became an important part of my daily routine for a good number of months.  Without reinventing any wheels, the album was just what I needed at that point in my life.  It was a straight up, no frills , balls to the wall metal album that immediately reignited my taste for the genre. 

From the opening throes of Clenching The Fists Of Dissent the album instantly began constructing a solid structure that was (largely) consistent throughout the whole album.  The impact of the album went beyond just a couple of tracks, maintaining pace well for what at first glance of the tracklisting looks to be a short album, clocking in at just eight tracks but actually has a run time of just over an hour.  Even when the album hits lulls or dips in quality it quickly re-establishes itself finding firm footing more or less immediately.  After the lacklustre Slanderous for example, the album picks up straight away with the fan favourite Halo which then sets up a fine run of a trio of tracks that close out the album brilliantly.

Arguably Machine Heads last good album with the line-up of Flynn, Demmel, McClain and Duce the focus on more groove and thrashy elements makes The Blackening stand out from what came before.  It fills in the gaps that were present on Through the Ashes of Empires and gave fans of the debut one last hope that the band were going to hark back to the intensity of what they delivered in the early nineties.

Okay, so I will admit that the prospect of an acoustic only Winterfylleth album didn't exactly fill me with joy. The pagan, black metallers have long existed on the fringes of my radar but never somehow managed to make much more than a fleeting blip historically.

The fact is that this is one of the most heartfelt records I have listened to in quite a while. I have more than once found myself stood stock still, completely captivated by the atmospheric beauty of what I have heard on this record. The album opens up with "The Shepherd" a track which starts with a rendering of the Christopher Marlowe poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and this is an indication of what you are in for as a listener. There's not one bit of BM on this record and it doesn't need any in any way, shape or form. "The Hallowing of Heirdom" is more folk than anything even remotely resembling metal. Imagine if Fleet Foxes dropped the irritation of that constant "hippy" vibe and showed some actual capable instrumentation also and you are loosely on the right track.

There's variety to it which is as unexpected as it is welcome and it means you never get bored despite the record clocking in at 55 mins plus. Over 12 tracks you are actually taken on a journey that stays with you long afterwards, which is what all good journeys should do, be memorable for all the right reasons. But don't get me wrong, it isn't OTT on the emotion front, that's not the strength on display here. No, this is one of the most balanced releases in my recent memory. It's like a picture album where the first picture is given to you (that cover) and then it takes over your head with numerous captures of the very essence of the land itself. You can smell the pine of the trees, the earthy tones of the fields and almost feel the breeze on your face even though you are sat in your front room with all the windows and doors shut.

As usual with Winterfylleth there's a theme of the old ways being lost, the album title itself harking back to the importance of "heirdom" as we all exist with clear ties back to people stretching far back into history but seem to rarely give that much thought. "The Hallowing of Heirdom" seems a fitting tribute to the ways of yore regardless.

I don't mid unpleasant listening experiences.  I am happy to listen to extreme outputs that defy shape and form at the best of times with Portal, Diocletian and Mitochondrion all being far from strangers to my ears.  I take pleasue in trying to squeeze under the oppressive layers of such music trying to piece it all together in my puny human brain.  Based on this, the assault that Dragged Into Sunlight deliver should really float my boat.  However, it leaves my boat moored to the dock side with little intention of setting sail anytime soon.

First of all, although I referenced those three bands earlier, it is unfair to compare DIS to any of those titans of extreme death metal.  DIS have a reasonable sense of structure to their sound with discernible blackened/punk influences present in the mix.  They aim for the throat from the offing with their frenzied and uncontrollable approach to putting a track into full-flow but can build and vary the configuration of a track, dropping into death/doom pace and back out again in the blink of an eye.

Where they fall down in my eyes is the length of songs on the record.  Arrangement wise this is far more an uncomfortable listen than any of the harsh and abrasive notes or vocals on the album.  The times vary from just under three minutes to over eleven minutes, and there's only six songs on the record.  As a result the album feels very disorientated and struggles to maintain any momentum.  It feels like the quality filter is definitely not switched in the "On" position and virtually all ideas are considered valid resulting in drawn out and unnecessary content that feels like it should end long before it actualy does.  The band deploy a lot of spoken word excerpts that only really add to this sense of chaos.

From reading their bio on the internet the band appears to be made up of various artists from all over the UK so I am not sure how often they get together to rehearse or what process they go through as part of the songwriting stage but it souds like a band that is fragmented and almost in opposition to themselves in a way.  It's an example of how you can push something to the nth degree of extremity and eventually make it no longer challenging to listen to.  For all the racket going on here I am very distracted by most of my surroundings throughout this record because my mind is just not interested in trying to decipher what's going on.  There's no layers here for me to squeeze under because they are all balled up in piles everywhere due to the complete lack of cohesion present on the record.

The Progressive Heavy/Power Metal tag that seems to be attached to Crimson Glory is accurate enough in describing the sound on their sophomore release, Transendence.  Coming two years after their well-received, self-titled debut, the band were already showing what mature and accomplished songwriters and artists they were in their own right.  The depth of the quality on their 1988 release indicating that this band had fast become a force to be reckoned with a relatively short period of time.  They had been around since 1979 though (as Pierced Arrow) and had changed their name after three years to Bewoulf before settling in 1983 on Crimson Glory.  Famous for their silver masks (later becoming half-masks) the band was more than just performers though.  Genuine talent sat in the ranks of the band, most notably with their vocalist, Midnight.

The late vocalist joined the band in 1983 and had bedded in well by the time they got round to recording their debut.  His unique and challenging vocal style was an initial obstacle for these ears to overcome but once I understood their overall place in the arrangement of the tracks then it all fell perfectly into place.  His vocal style fast became the unique identifier of the band's souund, backed up by the flair and skill of the rest of the band this all combined to become a formidable force.  What Transcendence showed was that the building blocks of the debut had been used to construct a memorable and genuinely interesting record full of storytelling but never straying into the boundaries of bluster.

Guitarists Jon Denning and Ben Jackson are the other real standout performances on Transendence.  The duo exchange licks throughout the ten tracks on the album keeping things energised and focused, delivering capable and consistent playing that maximises the entertainment value.  From the opening track, Lady of Winter it is clear that this is not an experience the listener will forget very easily, the hooks are sunk in early on and are around for the duration of the record.  The overall feeling of solidity is cemented by the drum work of Dana Burnell and bass musings of Jeff Lords.  Both keep pace well with the overall development of the record and ensure that the whole experience feels like a real band effort.

For an album who's title espouses some existence beyond the physical form, there is a real sense of things feeling grounded and sensible without ever getting boring.  The band sadly took on a more commercial sound after this release, leading to fractures in the band and the departure of Jackson and Burnell.  The band never reached the proportion of brilliance they hit on this record again and sadly Midnight passed away in 2009 bringing down the curtain on a band that had so much promise but I feel peaked too early.

It is no secret by now that I have a lot ( i mean a fucking lot) of time for Ulcerate.  I have been listening to metal for over 30 years now and I am sadly at a time now were very little excites me in the way of new releases.  I have over-indulged in the past, trying to consume as many new releases as possible in a given year and just ended up stuffed with underwhelming music that makes no impact on what little hunger of mine still remains for the pursuit of new releases.  If I look at the music library of today and compare it with the music library of 30 years ago it is clear that I had a lot less back then, relying on a family member's collection to get me going on my metal journey and saving what little money I had to buy music of my own every few months or so.  Back then buying a record, CD or cassette made me feel excited, awash with the hope that I was about to be treated to several tracks of metal mayhem that would keep me entertained for months to come.  I long for that feeling again more than I acknowledge but what is clear to me is that there are only a handful of bands whose pending releases can make me feel that passion for metal rekindle again.  Ulcerate sit in the top two of such bands (Gorguts lead).

To say I am astonished by the continued development of the New Zealand death metallers is an understatement.  They have consistently put together intricate and involuted music for virtually their entire recorded careers.  Their music is now in such a hybrid state that it is equal parts monstrous as it is complex; impenetrable and labyrinthine beyond any puzzle the mind could fathom yet still conveying enough atmosphere and emotion to speak volumes to me.  The past two releases that precede Stare Into Death And Be Still have been nothing short of superb, with both Vermis and Shrines of Paralysis sounding as fresh and challenging today as they did when I first purchased them.

Putting into words the success of their latest offering is difficult, since depsite multiple listens to it there is still so very much that I am learning about this serpentine coil of explosive and expansive death metal.  It is however an obvious success in terms of it following the aforementioned two albums and it still displays so many trademarks of the band whilst also pushing their sound forwards and in more exploratory directions.  What is massively obvious here in 2020 is that Ulcerate have found the perfect means to apply rich and voluptuous melody to their sound without sacrificing any of their trademark ferociousness and clinical pursuit of swarming and menacing music.  The ariouse nature of some of the music on display across the eight tracks available here border on being dulcet.  They pinch like the disscordance of a Blut Aus Nord yet give a warmth akin to some of the more ethereal elements of Drudkh.  The placement of melody in this huge wall of noise that the threesome generate is in itself a massive achievement.  Musically the album feels like it is shifting like tectonic plates, giving the rumble of impending doom yet when fissures crack they spew canorous jets of calming and emotion enducing moments that temper the overall threat of the album beautifully.

This isn't technical for technical's sake.  It doesn't feel obtuse or showy at any point it just simply smells of well written and well thought out songs that encompass an array of ideas that are arranged to deliver optimal impact.  Quite where it leaves Ulcerate as a musical force is frightening because surey at some point they are going to hit a wall after nearly ten years of flawless music?  I don't have any criticism of the album, which is rare for my grumpy old ass.  The only fear that I have is this unwillingness to consider that I will ever stop being excited as I was as a teenager about the release of any future Ulcerate material, and I hope that they continue with their God like powers for years to come.

For a period I worked with a guy who put me onto Slipknot.  He was quite into nu-metal and was the only other metalhead at the place were I worked at the time.  Although I was never completely enamoured with much of the nu-metal scene that he talked to me about, I did develop a soft spot for Iowa during the early noughties.  Recently, I stumbled across the album again and found myself wondering if it rang true of having any appeal some twenty years after I first heard it.

It isn't bad per-se. However it is not something I find I can take entirely seriously, which might be the point (I am unsure exactly how seriously Slipknot take themselves).  Lyrically it is very juvenile and angsty, which makes absolute sense of course given the target audience and sub-genre of metal we are dealing with.  In terms of being on point lyrically you could probably award the album five stars based it on it reaching the interested demographic.

Musically it fairs better than I expected.  There's more than just nu-metal here with elements of death metal and groove metal making their presence felt throughout the abum.  The hi-octane delivery suits the variety of the influences well and maintains a real sense of energy and momentum throughout the record.  The riffs are infectious and groovy and do get my old assed head bobbing along on more than one occasion.  I am not a fan of clean vocals alongside guttural growls or more throaty rasps like we have throughout the record though and for the majority of the record the vocals act as a distraction unfortunately from the parts of the music I enjoy.

I won't be revisiting this again I suspect but I think that is more a me thing as opposed to anything the band did wrong on the release.  I might not be in love with it but there are a few things on here that do grab my attention and deserve recognition and acknowledgement even if the whole package doesn't entirely float my boat.

Seven years of recorded output into their shocking and graphic career, W.A.S.P. started to show some signs of mellowing.  The energy levels would be the same on their fourth album but here for the first time was evidence of the band coming of age.  Songs had a little more structure and the offering overall felt a little less "in your face" this time around.  Thankfully none of this was at the expense of the unadulterated entertainment value that tracks from the group always brought; the band seeking to maintain the memorability factor despite the advances in song writing so obviously apparent.

By the end of 1989 Blackie Lawless would disband W.A.S.P. for the first time (the other occurrence being some four years later) and had they gone out on this record then it would certainly have been a high note for the time.  Here was the upward swing in terms of improvement of Lawless' penchant for characterisation in his song writing.  Credited for writing seven of the tracks here, Blackie introduced fans to the likes of Neutron Ronnie and Maneater as well as the stereotypical Mean "Motherfucking" Man.  As with earlier outings these were all nefarious and vivacious characters that exuded a nonchalant and frisky lifestyle that most fans longed for.  The difference this time around was that things just felt a little more focused in terms of social awareness; a tad more grown up, missing some of the "ha, take that Grandma!" attitude of the first three albums.

The randomness of The Who cover at track two is perplexing though as is the pointless "Mephisto Waltz" that precedes the EP release "Forever Free" .  This instrumental piece really grates and just feels like filler from the first listen.  Like wise the aforementioned ballad is highly overrated despite being well placed in the album to maintain interest late on in the track listing.  That having been said the big tracks more than make up for these slack moments with "Mean Man", "Rebel in the FDG" and the title track all making loud and positive noises over the course of the ten tracks.

A definite step up from the first three albums and the start of a more mature and reflective style of song writing, The Headless Children smelled of a band going places and showing some real promise.  A promise realised in full three years later with The Crimson Idol.  Although this album doesn't stand up well in comparison with the follow up in terms of pound for pound stature, it still remains an important release in the progression of  band who had already left a virulent and obtuse mark on the world of metal and were now looking for a different spin to progress with.

If I have a metaphorical draw in the music filing cabinet in my brain, there is most definitely a folder in their (probably in the bottom draw, or at the very back of the one of above it) marked “Overrated Metal Everyone Loves Bar Me”. Notwithstanding that some of the entries in that folder are down to my own stupidity and ignorance for not listening to albums fully or when in the right mood/not giving them proper attention etc.

Savatage occupy some space in that folder and are probably one of the more undeserving dwellers in there given that my problem is purely with the lyrically naivety of the album. The instrumentation is in the main fine, with Criss Oliva doing a sterling job throughout Hall of the Mountain King. Wacholz drums are all but lost in the mix for the most part I find and the thunk of Middleton’s bass is like an occasional throb you pick up on occasion in each track. As I allude to above though, my main beef is with Oliva senior’s vocals.

I get the intent. Sound menacing and theatrical as much as possible and play your riffs with the same sense of threat to emphasise the danger. Unfortunately, only the latter part of the equation works. Jon’s vocals are just grating and over the top to the point of distraction. At times the lyrical quality is terrible also. I quote from Beyond The Doors of Dark:

“Beyond the doors of the dark

Demon in your heart

Scream and thrash your head

Turn around, now you're dead”

Really, rhyming head with dead was the best they could come up with (I accept that Criss Oliva could well have been involved here as well, so I am not entirely blaming Jon)? For a band four records into their career by this point I just expect better. Albeit that Hall of the Mountain King was arguably the high point of their career it doesn’t bode well that we get Prelude to Madness on here that sees Criss emulate Grieg in a total show off instrumental after just four tracks, its only success being how well it sets up the title track that immediately follows it.

Even though I am bitterly disappointed by this record, Criss Oliva keeps the stars at three for this rating exercise as he is the outstanding talent in the band and truly shines across the album with fantastic lead work and sharp riffing (which does lose some edge to the keys often present alongside them). Constantly though he is let down by his brother. What the fuck is Jon doing just before the solo in the title track? He sounds like a mute child in an emotional frenzy and totally removes any serious edge to the track.

It is genuinely like Jon knew he was second rate in comparison to his brother and was just trying to make his presence felt unnecessarily and, in the process, brings nothing but cringey comedy to the album. The best moment on here for me is the track White Witch, being the one moment that the basic structure and disjointed vocal style compliment each other for one of the more positively memorable moments on the whole record.

I find myself wanting to enjoy this record a lot more than I actually do overall and it genuinely does showcase all that was good and bad about Savatage but the conflict is too much for me.  Needless to say they are staying in the bottom drawer of that filing cabinet.

I have seen endless debates on forums over the years as to whether this album is one of the best live metal albums of all time.  Whilst I place it in my top five most certainly, a lot of this is due to the fact that it was the second live album I ever heard (right after U.F.O. Strangers in the Night).  Now I have some thirty years of metal listening under my belt it is hard to find the same excitement levels when tuning into this nowadays as I managed back in my early teens but I think it still stands up well in the grander scheme of things overall.  It has stood the test of time well, remaining the very essence of a live performance caught on record that oozes the stage presence of a band capable of commanding an audience well.

You can't help but feel like you are in the audience either at Long Beach arena or at the Hammersmith Odeon itself when you listen to this double disc affair.  More importantly you wish you were actually there, baying with the crowd.  Enjoying the majesty of one metal's biggest ever bands in their absolute heyday.  You find yourself singing along with most tracks, getting caught up in the interaction of the encores with Bruce skilfully playing the crowd like some crazed conductor leading an orchestra of thousands.

Although it would be a push to call it perfect, the bits that make you cringe slightly (Bruce's at time strained vocals for example) only add to the authenticity of the record.  These sublime moments of metal royalty showing their human side are as entertaining as astonishing dual lead work and as visually important as any eight foot high Eddie stalking around the stage area making his presence known.

Up there with Made In Japan, Unleashed in the East and the aforementioned Strangers In The Night this album thoroughly earns it's place in this exclusive club of dynamic and enthralling live albums.  Maiden truly were at the top of their game at this point, releasing strong and consistent albums and this confidence showed perfectly in their live performances of the time as so brilliantly captured here.

W.A.S.P.'s finest moment came in 1992 with the release of their fifth studio album The Crimson Idol.  Ambitious in scope and grandiose in delivery, the album marked a step up in maturity for a band notorious for the "tits n' blood" shock rock/metal had dominated most their output to this point.  This time around we had a concept album of sorts that told the tragedy of fame through the eyes of protagonist Jonathan.  It worked well too, despite not being flawless.

Opening with the rather boldly named "Titanic Overture" it was clear that the band still had the dark and macabre undertones that it had become infamous for, only this time around it was restrained much better and not allowed to run the proceedings exclusively.  The songs had depth and structure as well as (and perhaps most importantly) a clear purpose in the overall album arrangement.  This album felt less like a gang of horny teenagers trying to piss of their parents and the PMRC just for the hell of it.  We had seen this on the The Headless Chiidren some three years earlier but this time around it all felt a lot more focused without being at the expense of the fun elements of the band's sound.

There are anthems galore on here ranging from the well known "Chainsaw Charlie..." to "Hold On To My Heart" that were released as singles, along with "The Idol" which is my preferred of the three singles.  But away from the world of 7" releases there were memorable and catchy tracks like "Arena of Pleasure", "I Am One" and "Doctor Rockter" that did equally sufficient a job of keeping the concentration held for the duration of the record.

On the downside there were other tracks that just didn't hold up as well and whilst they don't detract heavily from the quality of the record overall, they do standout as being weaker and I am not sure they can be justified as being essential to the story line either.  "The Invisible Boy" does have a place yes but it is not a strong track and lacks the maturity that is obvious across most of the album.  Being placed as track two makes it stick out all the more so unfortunately.

It is still one of my most frequently revisited albums of the last nearly 30 years and this is testimony to it's longevity and importance not only to the W.A.S.P. discography but to the world of metal in general.  The band haven't topped this since (in fact I think it has been mostly downhill since in all honesty) but left an impressive and incredibly well executed talisman release before the decline in the quality of their output generally began.

dISEMBOWELMENT. There, I said it already. One word into a review about Inverloch and I thought I should just get it out of the way early on. Not that I wish to appear in anyway negligent of the legacy of aforementioned band but if, like me, you prefer to focus on the output at hand from the current band that is actually alive and kicking and recording music then you will want to read about Inverloch not dISEMBOWELMENT.

It is a hard legacy to get away from I grant you but the fact is that as a piece of death/doom metal "Distance Collapsed" is superb, regardless of how many quarters of another (now defunct) band are involved. It is a clear step up from the "Dusk/Subside" EP from 2012, which although praised by most sections I did find a bit dull and safe. It never really went anywhere despite the length of each of the 3 tracks I could never remember any actual crushing riffs just lots of atmosphere heaped on far too much.

On their debut full-length Inverloch unleash an absolutely crushing experience. They still engage atmosphere throughout the record but they use it effectively alongside monolithic song structures instead of smothering them unnecessarily. There's no getting away from the fact the whole record is positively dripping with dirge. Whether it is a slow or more pacy section of a track, it is still there in the background,an almost endless procession of the true weight of mourning. That's not to say that this bores me or is too slow or too deliberate, no my point is how well it fits. On a good piece of death/doom you should be able to track that morbid vibe and whilst being able to pay attention to other sections of the music you shouldn't really lose track of it. 

Album opener "Distance Collapsed (in rubble)" is as monolithic as the title suggests, yet immediately what is also obvious is the mastery of the instrumentation. Inverloch clearly know what they are doing with their weapons of choice and although it may seem like a very odd comparison, the level of mastery is akin to that of Ulcerate - not in terms of pace or style - in terms of fluidity and focus.

In my notes for track two on the album I have written " almost a funeral ballad" which sounds ridiculous but the pace and combination of the melancholic notes, crushing riffs and slowed picked intro on "From The Eventide Pool" do make for something truly beautiful yet desolate at the same time.

The assuredness to proceedings continues with "Lucid Delirium" which after a slamming start drops to a slower more familiar pace like dropping down through gears. "The Empyrean Torment" shows that well balanced used of atmosphere although is the only track on here for me that could actually do with a trim (there's only so many riffs a guy can take ya know)? 

Closing track "Cataclysm of Lacuna" is full of seeping vocals and riffs of incalculable weight which again uses the melancholic notes of the guitar to perfect effect and ends with a long fade out that leaves the impression that the band could still well be going playing out that song such is the feeling of vastness and expanse. Overall five tracks is a very good fit in terms of length, it seems fitting to let the music fade out slowly and leave the promise of future dreadful beauty to come. Inverloch have done themselves proud with their debut, it is accomplished, well balanced and a very strong statement of what is yet to come.

"Odori Sepulcrorum" took forever to click with me. It was obvious that there was a beast of serious intent in there but for so long the swampy, squally chaos of GM's sound took over and I never felt I could get to the true centre of the band. Now I am all grown up and understand complicated things better I own the entire back catalogue of Grave Miasma and instantly dipped in for "Endless Pilgrimage" upon release.

It starts with what sounds like a sitar, before crashing into the now familiar occult atmospheric death metal that we all know to be Grave Miasma. The demented vocals are instantly recognisable as they babble and growl their way through the incantations and hexes that the band cast with each song. Yet there are also some new bits/elements going on as well as the experimentation with middle eastern sounding instruments there is also an overall feeling of the sound being a tad more accessible than previous outings. Now, before the murk loving masses amongst you decry "Endless Pilgrimage" a failure for using more obvious (yet by no means anymore predictable) melodies just hang fire. What Grave Miasma do this time around is take all the recognisable filth, murk and deluge in the weight of their sound and form within it a spiralling melodic edge that is shaped into some menacing bends and grooves or sinister leads . 

They open track two, "Utterance of the Foulest Spirit" with a slow picked intro of evil intent before unleashing their monstrous churn upon the listener. The main riff is perfectly traceable beneath the silt yet the track soon twists away into frantic DM territory before you can say "chop n` change", then before you know it we are floating through some dark atmospheric passage before - in complete Morbid Angel worship - we get hit with a frenzied sonic attack. 

"Purgative Circumvolution" begins much more frenzied than it's predecessors but quickly settles down into a familiar dirgey plod and murk. I would compare it to a ritual in which the victim already knows their fate yet are forced to wait agonisingly for the end to come as their tormentor teases them with the pace of the ceremony. From scathing sonics to blistering blastbeats, it is all on show on this track.

"Glorification of the Impure" is as the title suggests a turgid affair, thick with the mire of the "impurity" it celebrates. The lead work here is one hell of a party piece too. Closing track "Full Moon Dawn" is an absolutely perfect ending to proceedings. The vocals seem more ritualistic with their demented chanting style, the guitars seem to blend perfectly into a black looming wall of dark perfection supported all the way by the superb plonk of the bass and thunder of the drums. When the track slows down it is you stepping back and appreciating all that has been lain before you for your auditory pleasure, before it tears off again building itself ever higher, ever darker. It is the closing act that brings down the curtain on another piece of brilliant death metal, dripping with occult styling and full of evidence that this is a band that are still growing. Growing not just because they use a fancy instrument but growing because the sound and trademark style of the band is still very much present on this, yet it is also crystal clear that they have developed as musicians and songwriters also.

This is a filthy affair, full of nods to a variety of bands ranging from Incantation (predictably) to Morbid Angel yet never once slipping into just worship territory.  The intensity of Witch Vomit's sound belies a spectrum of death metal styles in fact.  With the guitars taking on the buzzsaw Swedish style, the vocals offering the cavernous depths of death doom and the sonics of the early 90's scene.

The band vary the pace well on this EP making the changes in tempo subtle yet noticable, well-timed yet still interesting.  It is encouraging to find a band not afraid to do intro tracks and use horrific sounding atmospheres to sensible effect without overstating such content and making it centre stage.  This is all about the music folks with the band not afraid to drop in some d-beat/punk drumming when needed to realty get the impact levels up.  

With the explosion of OSDM bands in recent years, Witch Vomit don't hide their influences but don't just copy them either and as mentioned the variety here is what holds the attention whilst still being able to maintain that really nasty edge to the ploughing chops of the riffs and the guttural grief of the vocals.  In a way, even for an EP, it is over too soon but I sense that in a full length offering my attention span wouldn't compliment the effort quite so well and I imagine would need a couple of sittings per full album spin to digest better.

As a short, sharp shock of dirty and repugnant death metal this floats my boat no end.  As a band who seem to follow a format of EP followed by a full length I feel there's more to come here that I will find appealing and will build up nicely my repertoire quick fix death metal hopefully for years to come.

There's an art to good storytelling.  I don't just mean the prerequisites we all got taught in school of ensuring all stories had a beginning, a middle and an end though.  Nocturnus AD as a band are a story all in themselves after their name change way back in 1999.  By that point we had already had the much lauded and praised The Key which had given us a first taste of what the band where capable of as far back as 1990.  The complex, twisting, progressive and constantly shifting narrative that the debut album encapsulated was always going to be a challenge to build on and the band struggled to come close to matching the levels of mastery when it came to Thresholds and Ethereal Tomb.

The good news is that after some twenty nine years of waiting, fans of the group finally got an album worthy as a successor to The Key.  Whilst not perfect and notwithstanding the fact that conceptual/technical death metal is a niche listening market, Paradox is grand in its scope and polished in its delivery covering lots of information and requiring close attention to detail to really enjoy.  For the first few tracks I had to adjust to the production job as it feels underwhelming at first and lacking in power, but once you realise that this is deliberate so the style can flow as intended and let the power come from the leads and soaring keyboards to elevate the power organically then it all makes sense and instantly becomes more palatable.

The thought that has gone into this record is noticeable as it does not just tell a story for storytelling sake.  Just as much attention has been paid to the instrumentation, arrangement and song-structure in order to ensure the album does not rely on just words to tell the tale.  The musicianship is excellent on here with the band playing well collectively as well as also letting the individual musicians shine where needed.  The guitar work is shredding perfection and the keys make a fine effort at trying to match them to give a real sci-fi edge to proceedings.  Browning's vocals are measured enough to add the required depth to the songs but not entirely steal the show and his drumming feels understated throughout.  The only mystery is Daniel Tucker's bass.  The former Obituary man isn't present at all in the mix, I mean we are talking ...And Justice For All proportions of a lack of bass here.

It is a great album and I don't know if it is to be termed as a debut, a follow up or just a plain old new release.  Whichever view we take the presence of the album is more than welcome regardless of how overdue it may be.

In their work to blend the rabid sound of death metal with the punk/hardcore beats that so clearly influence them, Creeping Death spread a fair smattering of Swedish death metal over proceedings also to provide a release that I certainly want to listen to.  Whereas never quite dropping into worship territory for any particular group or style the band pull together ten tracks and display an aggressive if not predictable performance throughout.

With songs titles like Blood lust Contamination and Peeled from Reality we know we are not listening to a band who are happy with the world at large with their album full of references to violence, war, insanity and death (perhaps not in that order).  They had taken long enough to drop their debut full-length, with 2019 heralding their fourth year of existence and their fifth release to date including singles, demos and EP's in the near half-decade that they had been around.

In that time though the band have simply just blended the styles and not really done anything new or unique with their sound that a handful of other bands do just as well.  Now that's not to say they have to do anything new or unique, they might be perfectly happy with this output.  But all of the "old school" or retro tags that we apply to our death metal nowadays can lead to over saturation of the market with hundreds of bands all sounding the same or very similar.  Yes this nods firmly to Entombed just as much as it does Gatecreeper and so it is obvious that the band have an array of influences, but I don't think Creeping Death themselves ever get to really shine on Wretched Illusions which is a real shame as they are a talented bunch.

Listen, boxes get ticked, i's get dotted and t's get crossed most definitely on this release.  Will you remember it half an hour after finishing listening to it - probably not.  But you'll have fun at least I suppose.

One listen to Mefitis and you'll soon hear where their heart lies.  Mining the depths of Finnish death metal whilst espousing some melodic Swedish influences also the band have both feet firmly rooted in the early to mid-nineties scene.  Even going as far as having their album artwork done by Rantanen (of Demigod, Demilich and Adramlech cover fame) the band wear their influences from this era of expansive and bold death metal on both sleeves, leaving just a little room for Emperor-like touches also.

Comprised of just two members, the American partnership of Alex Mitroff and Jake Dawson show a myriad of talent on the nine tracks on offer here.  Full of galloping energy and racing speed pace they certainly do take you on a journey back through the last three decades to a time when brutality and heavy upon heavier just wasn't giving fans of death metal enough.  The influence of early At The Gates is obvious more or less from the word go, but this is not just mere ATG-worship.  There's enough of that Finnish influence in the sound also to add some further depth as well as smatterings of the more atmospheric and subtly flamboyant elements of In The Nightside Eclipse to really make things interesting.

Most tracks feel like they are always building with the guys making excellent use of the progressive elements of their songwriting prowess.  In so many ways, when in full flow at least, the album feels like a sustained attack on the senses delivered in the most efficient and calculated manner.  It's like bits of blades used in the frenzy break off and stay stuck in yourvwounds as a bloody reminder of the experience you have undergone.

The album has a range of instrumental tracks (three in total) that build the atmosphere and prowess of the record well, they never get showy or turn into guitar wank-fests but act instead to emphasise the lush darkness of the metal being played here.  I should add that the band have been around since circa 2007/2008 and it took them twelve years to get a full-length released.  I feel that during this time they have honed their skills nicely and given a complete and authentic death metal album that has real layers of nostalgia for the more experienced of metal fans to enjoy peeling back 

Finnish death metal has crawled onto my radar this week, completely unannounced.  After my mid-week flirtation with Lantern today I am sat down with death/doom mob God Disease.  With a range of influences obvious, from Paradise Lost to Incantation to Runemagick, there's little surprise at the melancholic and desolate tones of this record.  Man those guitars club at the soul itself, leaving long-lasting bruises that take a while to heal.  There's parts of this record that will be ringing around my head for days after just one listen.

It's fair to say they have that cold and yet somehow enriching Finnish dm sound in the bag here, if anything the album positively drips with it.  The sadness from those guitars saturates the tracks, drowning them in their cloying viscosity.  The vocals growl and grumble over the top in perfect Incantation worship and compliment the slower sections really well.  The problem I have is with the bass.  It is far too twangy in the mix to the point of being distracting, in fact it gives the tracks a very mechanised feel like we are all of a sudden listening to a Fear Factory record.  I am not sure if this is by design or is an unexpected outcome of the mixing process, but either way it is a massive stumbling block for me.

The album is perfectly capable of standing up on its pillars of solid riffs and pummelling drums without this.  On the occasions that the bass does calm down and allow the other instruments to breathe the album is in fact at its finest; dragging and lurching itself forwards nicely with the bass sat as part of the instrumentation, the rest of the time the bass is all I hear above everything else. It is a shame because there is real promise here but in a way you just can't get at it.

Some things cannot be digested, absorbed or truly understood in just one sitting. Most of my favourite records are ones that I glean something new from with each spin. Whether that is the “clicking” of a track that I have been wrestling with for some prolonged period of time and suddenly understand the brilliance of it or simply just hearing notes or even instruments that I had no previous recognition of.

Other records are simply too long for my tiny human mind to take in all at once. Bell Witch’s last two records are great examples of this. Rightly championed for their punishing and emotionally dredging output those albums set a theme and constantly progress it and evolve it whilst maintaining an absolute dirge throughout. I cannot sit through them in one sitting as I need the breathing space to absorb the music, process it and return for more.

Eremit, as well as sharing the shame artist for their album cover as Bell Witch also share this lengthy format to their debut album. Opening with a twenty three and a half minute track is a fucking bold move for your first release and certainly sets their stall out well for anyone in hearing distance. The dead march pace to the album encapsulates the very essence of sorrow and grief. Although not nearly as clever as the aforementioned Bell Witch (which is perhaps an unfair and inaccurate comparison on my part), the consistency to Carrier of Weight is undeniable and unapologetic.

For straight up, no thrills doom/sludge you could hardly hope for more. With an all-round sound that is very reminiscent of Conan the band still carve out an interesting niche just for doing such a solid and impressive job on their opening foray into the world of metal. Vocally, the style is almost blackened. Raspy and throaty utterances are the order of the day here and they match the pacing well across the three tracks. The hazy and heavy riffs are like huge waves smashing against rocks, their vapour absorbing into the atmosphere, adding thickness to the very air.

For a long while after listening this record stays with you, like weighty cobwebs or cold residue on your skin. If I close my eyes I can hear it still, and even pick out some of the transitions from the individual tracks. This is one of the albums key strengths, the three tracks all feel like separate entities, inextricably linked together though they inevitably are, they still feel like all have unique elements and bring their own value to the overall piece.

It may work better for me in piecemeal but inevitably you always end up appreciating the bigger picture that much more when the component parts are so well put together.

There was some clamour around this release I recall when it was released. A few internet forum acquaintances waxed lyrical about it and encouraged me to lend an ear to it. At the time I felt it to be quite unremarkable, resulting in it being consigned to my pile of forgotten albums in the lower dungeons of Castle MacabreEternal. But still to this day I am haunted by the ghost of this record as I continue to expand on my knowledge of death metal releases as I get older and more bitter and twisted, the internet and peers still telling me there is something special lying in wait for me should I be tempted to pick up this record again.

Revisiting the album again immediately helped me understand why it didn't click a few years back. The mix is very unique in terms of it is not the incumbent style you would perhaps expect on a blackened death metal album. Its reverb shrouded mix makes for a very dank sounding record that feels in contrast to the frenetic tremolo picking of the guitars and the blasting of those drums. At first it is quite disorientating until after a few spins you start to grow accustomed to it, at which point it actually becomes the trick that sets the album apart from other releases. Imagine being hit constantly on the right of your body and also having to contend with a constant shroud of suffocating material on your left hand side. This almost juxtaposed pace versus mix is a battle that enriches the experience, it keeps you reassessing and re-positioning all elements constantly. 

This compressed sound works well with the Finnish dm sound, with the band's home roots showing the influence of Adramelech-esque riffs and cavernous chords. Necrophilos’ vocals are grim and hint at Jon Tardy like breathy delivery minus the spewing part. They echo in the mix like dark incantations of the blackest magic. The pace of the lead work on here can be torturous, relentless in its level of melancholy inducing agony. At the same time the frantic riffing can also let in a fiery lick of lead work. The drums splutter in the background like some fleshy skinned tribal drum kit adding to this feel of density and weight. 

Structurally the songs have a monolithic feel to them – even with the more up-tempo parts considered. As a result the album feels longer than it actually is when it times out at just shy of forty minutes. I have to say the revisit has been a success with a little more time to listen through a few times and understand the more complex elements of the release. I don’t know it well enough still to be madly in love with it and have a feeling that this will grow more over repeated listens.

Billed as thrash metal/hardcore/crossover, New York's All Out War first appeared on the radar in 1992 with their debut release on Gain Ground coming five years later.  The band had been around for seven years by this point and had undertaken various demo, EP and Split releases prior to committing a full eleven tracks to record.  I am not a big follower of this crossover scene and therefore don't really have much to draw parallel with when reviewing it but I can tell you that overall it isn't very good.

Let's start on a positive.  The band should get an A+ for effort as their blending of the styles works well, with breakdowns and thrashy riffs providing the required contrast.  But herein lies the problem because that's all this record is.  It might as well be one long track as unless you are paying any particular attention to it you won't notice one track stop and another begin.

The band just didn't have enough skill or invention at this point in their careers to really go for such a lengthy release, their material would have worked so much better in continuing with shorter format releases.  In fairness, if I were more of a fan of this style it might work better for me but I am guessing most fans would struggle with this even.  The punk/hardcore beat that the drums give keep the energy levels up nicely despite the laborious nature of proceedings and the guitars do stray into more mid to slow-paced territory on the odd occasion but still nothing to break the monotony overall. 

I spent the morning looking for something different to review as I try to expand my metal horizons so All Out War just got unlucky perhaps that I dropped on them but other than the fact that vocalist Mike Score sounds like Steve Reynolds from Demolition Hammer, I found little to like.

Gatecreeper's debut full-length offers enough Swedish death metal references to please anyone sat reading this in their "...Everflowing Stream" pyjama set.  It also cemented the bands relevance in relation to other styles of death metal including some elements of crust, death/doom as well as smatterings of thrash here and there.  Upon first few listens the album sat high in my regard, more so because it blended all these elements together well and came across as fresh sounding and authentic.  On reflection, spinning back through the album for the purpose of this review its longevity is questionable.

I think this is largely due to two things.  Firstly, for an album with a lot going on in terms of styles it sounds generally the same throughout.  Tracks tend to merge into one another as a result of this, and at times it is hard to find high points on the record.  This I suspect is down to a bit of naivety in the songwriting department (so my second point) and the band trying to lavish the various influences across the record but not letting them fully develop into standout moments.  I don't make any suggestion that this is easy to achieve mind.  They are a talented bunch of guys in the band and they perform their art form well, it just needed a bit of restraint applying here and there to really let the influences shine properly.

For a nine track record it is over soon enough, clocking in at just over thirty minutes, yet it somehow feels longer like it is getting close to outstaying its welcome and your constantly looking at your watch and tapping your empty beer glass whilst yawning a lot to drop sufficient hint that the night is over for you.  It still does retain that fresh sound though with the riffs being of such high quality that they alone provide enough memorability to make up for the other structural weaknesses present on the record.  It will be interesting for me to revisit the sophomore release now I have spent some more time with this one and see if there are any obvious improvements in song structure and arrangement overall, but in conclusion the debut effort really tries fucking hard and shows a band full of work ethic but just needing to find their feet a bit more before starting to be able to truly perfect their offering.

Could any list of 'essential' FInnish BM releases be complete without the first full length venture of Impaled Nazarene present? Not that this is an easy listen by any means, even for the most extreme-loving metalhead, 'Tol...' is a full on assault that takes some unpicking before you can recognise the dexterity behind the slashes and blows it deals.

Upon first hearing this some five years ago, I immediately dismissed it. Not because of the sound but more due to the structure of the album. It had no flow, no cohesion and no rationale as a result. The fact is that this is one of the main raison d'etres of the record. This isn't meant to be an orderly, structured affair. 'Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz' is supposed to be an explosion of chaos, a nailbomb of perverse occult worship detonating in the ears of the listener. Nobody was ever supposed to feel comfortable listening to Black Metal and in that regard this delivers. 'Tol...' is one ugly looking, sounding and feeling motherfucker of a record. 

If you need structure in your life then the only comparison I can think to give is to say that 'Tol...' is put together like a grind record. Short, sharp and abrasive bursts of musicality are interspersed with horrifying sounds of ritual sacrifice, occult procreation and hellish mantras. It is perhaps metal's one and only BM/Grind album in structure at least. It is cluttered to say the least yet the jumble and litter all has relevance and contributes to the aesthetic well.

It's claustrophobic, demented and at times downright terrifying. Yet somehow the mix lends the drums and vocals centre stage (on the actual music tracks) and as a result the traditional cold feel associated with BM is somehow warmer in atmosphere, like some vigorous worship is in constant performance against a backdrop of intense flames. The production job is actually quite good considering the genre and year this was released in. Although raw sounding, the uptempo pace of the tracks are solidified superbly by the drums and vocals being pinned at the core of the sound giving them more depth than the abrasive riffing might suggest available. At times it sounds like a death metal record but its delivery is recognisably BM, dripping with misanthropy and hatred throughout.

There is question about how seriously Impaled Nazarene should be taken with some identifying them as a band merely making a parody of the BM scene (they even stopped wearing corpse paint after deeming it "too trendy"). Regardless of the meaning behind the intent of the artist, 'Tol...' delivered a wake up call to the BM scene in 1993 that continues to alienate and astound new listeners in equal measure to this day.

One of the many bands that I flirted with the material but have never actually dipped in for ownership of any of their releases, Armored Saint certainly tick all the right boxes from a heavy metal perspective.  Their 1991 release was the first of theirs I had heard after now familiar anthems like Reign of Fire and Dropping Like Flies got air time on BBC Radio One's rock shows on a Friday and Saturday night.  Whenever I got around to attempting to sit through a full-length offering I found myself all too easily distracted though and soon gave up.

Symbol of Salvation starts off strong enough with the aforementioned two tracks opening proceedings well enough.  However, I remember there being more power behind the sound back in the day and these now aged (and battered) ears don't get quite the same level of bite from these two former favourites of mine.  That's not say that they are in anyway awful of course, just not aged well for me at least.  Last Train Home carries on the familiarity of yesteryear with its catchy chorus still ringing in my head for days after just one listen.

The odd yet somehow addictive Tribal Dance continues the strong start to the record, the lead work's blistering delivery planting a smile firmly on my mug.  The slightly flashy delivery of the track also adds something unexpected, I mean the song practically screams radio play list but I don't recall it from last visit to the record.  There's definitely the prospect of some sleazy-edged (almost cock rock) metal to The Truth Always Hurts as it smoulders its way through four minutes plus of catchy licks and infectious hooks.  Bush's strained vocal style works brilliantly on this track, trading blows with the guitars nicely, vying for space and both managing to steal their own slice of the limelight.

At this point the album takes a bit of a dip.  The brief and pointless instrumental Half Drawn Bridge seems a half-arsed attempt at an intro for Another Day.  The latter track itself is a half-ballad that does nothing other than show Bush's limitations until the guitars of Sandoval and Duncan rescue things with some more sterling lead work, the pace change around halfway through heralding an overall and much needed improvement in the direction and quality of the track.  Thankfully the title track lives up to expectations somewhat better even if the chorus feels a tad laboured.  The track stomps and bites better than the previous two that precede it most definitely.

One the main problems here is the album length, largely because of the quantity of filler that lines the album listing.  As well as the aforementioned tracks that seem weaker, Hanging Judge has a similar story of a half-baked structure that is barely rescued by the guitar work.  This is followed by the excellent Warzone which oozes classy songwriting with that sultry rock-tinged style again deployed to good effect.  Burning Question tries to keep this fire going but comes up short with its clunky structure and unnecessary labouring on the verses.  We don't need Tainted Past with its unnecessary length (I get the sentiment behind it for Prichard - his solo is the best part of the track by far) and album closer Spineless is a fine end to proceedings with its stompy rhythm and cutting riffs despite us having to wade through a bit of deadwood to get it.

Overall, a mixed bag but when the record is on point it is bang on point.

The voice of the vocalist immediately leaps out at you from the opening of the full-on album starter Middle Ages, it's equal part Steve Souza as it is the more gruff aspects of Paul Di'Anno also.  I can only assume there's two vocalists here as track two (the title track) seems to have a different style, more sung and rock-edged.  This is the story of the album really, a mixture of galloping speed/heavy metal with Motörhead like rhythms thrown in for good measure.

The amateur vocals actually do suit the style of the album overall it has to be said.  For all the comedy I find in them they suit the loose and bouncy song structures that do seem to indicate that whilst the writing process might not have been the most hybrid of systems much fun was certainly had by all during the recording of this album.  The artwork belies a hint of seriousness that isn't actually present for the most part  This is bashy heavy metal that is delivered with blunt force trauma to the listener as opposed to any calculated attack.

The other real standout part of the record is the guitar work with the dual attack working well to make the often average songs develop a whole new dimension showing skill that might not be as obvious on first spin/s.  As mentioned, the drums just thump along in the background - perhaps a little too low in the mix actually - but you can hear their contribution to the metal frenzy on display for the majority of the album.  The bass for the main part is lost though, either mixed in behind everything else or just overwhelmed entirely.

Pace wise, there's little let up.  Tracks just charge on after each other like troops going into battle.  The titles are in the main adversarial in naming convention, Steel Meets Steel, Highway Killers, Evil On The Road and the superbly named Kick On Your Ass all give a good indication of the mindset of this bunch of Belgian metalheads.  Brute force aside though there's only so far that the relentless attitude can get you with an album like this.  The token comedic value of the lyrics and vocals gets old real quick when every track is full of them and the attempt at a slower paced track, Lift Me Up, is just terrible and painfully shows the shortfalls of the vocal ability available on this record.  The tits on the cover art are more attractive than most of the vocal content of the aforementioned attempt a ballad.

It still gets three stars just for the sheer bloody-minded determination to take a game plan, however basic, and stick with it for ten tracks.  But this was something that they might have gotten away with at the early end of the eighties and this album was released in 1990 when most metal fans knew and expected much better.

The reality is that Accept where virtually untouchable at the time of this release.  Coming one year after the general good reception to Breaker, their fourth album had a great foundation to build from and Restless and Wild summed up perfectly the flavour of this record.  It is a fine display of brooding and rampant metal/hard-rock from a band brimming with confidence.  This is reflected in the quality of the songwriting and the arrangement of the album as a whole.  It's all on here from memorable anthems to slow-burning numbers that writhe and slither like hungry serpents.

Within fourteen months of this release the band would push on again in their quest for metal royalty status with the equally barnstorming Balls to the Wall showing that they were truly hitting their stride.  The level of intensity that was now delivered on Restless & Wild had a maturity and control that made it more potent and compelling.  The vigorous and authoritative poise of the playing showed this was a band firmly in the driving seat of their own destiny and they had their foot to the floor.

The title track alone with its rampant gallop stamps enough authority on proceedings to let the listener know Udo and the boys weren't here to fuck around.  The real hook of the album though is how they maintain that intensity but manage to vary the pace of tracks, switching from chanting choruses and blistering leads to more moody atmospheres effortlessly.  Always there is a feel of there being something on the boil here, simmering with a passionate and unwavering flame beneath.

Udo as ever is superb and it is he who steals the limelight on this record intermittently as he jousts for supremacy with the excellent leads of Hoffmann.  The band as whole though are a tight and unified front, charging mercilessly forwards and delivering my favourite record of the Udo era.

The debut from Running Wild ticks all the boxes in terms of balls to the wall metal intensity.  Considering what the band were to become over the years it does stand out as a weak point also.  Despite the points it achieves for effort the delivery is poor and one-dimensional.  You are essentially listening to the same track over and over again, such is the lack of variety on the album.

It is hard to tell where one track stops and another begins as at times breaks between tracks seem like pauses on one long track as the next rack that starts adheres to pretty much the same pace, tempo and structure.  The songwriting criteria on this record did not have the bar set very high at all it seems.  Now, this is not to deny the credentials of the musicians involved.  What quality is here is delivered by obviously individuals, the guitars in particular save the day on more than one occasion but they can only do so much I am afraid.

I think considering this was their debut and maturity clearly was lacking there is perhaps an argument to give them a little more slack but when your thought process is to regurgitate the same riffs and occasionally say menacing words like "satan" then the game plan is too flawed from the off.  Yes, the core heavy metal component parts are here but they feel force-fed as opposed to being offered in any discernible menu format.  Imagine a meal where all four courses are the main meal, you get the same meat dish over and over again and this pretty much is what Running Wild serve here.  

1983 and album number twelve for Lizzy and by this point we have already had the likes of Nightlife, Fighting, Jailbreak, Johnny The Fox and the superb Black Rose.  Things have gone off the boil a tad with Chinatown and Renegade and so we are on a downward spiral now, right?  Actually, half right.  Lynott's last album is not a high point by any means.  Overall it is a patchy affair with the odd snippet of catchy brilliance and well played hard rock music to give the listener some flashes of what once was.  You have to sit through some nonsense also unfortunately.

The album does open strongly with the title track stomping its authority early on with its stomping keys teeing things up nicely.  Lynott's gruff vocal delivery complimenting the fast-paced track well.  Unfortunately the album takes a sharp dip after this with the clumsy This Is the One stumbling along with a slight off-kilter rhythm seemingly a stretch too far for Phil to pace with and at times the track almost feels like the lyrics are somehow a word or two short forcing other words to be stretched out uncomfortably.  The excellent guitar work of Gorham and Sykes makes up for this to some degree though but overall it's a poor track very early on in the track listing.

To follow this with a slow-paced ballad seems to throw lacklustre after poor in all honesty, not that The Sun Goes Down is a sterling piece of songwriting with its over-brooding bass line quickly becoming overbearing, particularly alongside the underwhelming chorus.  Again the lead work goes some way to performing a rescue job but it is glitter on a turd at the end of the day.  The more catchy The Holy War  ramps up the pace again soon enough with its arrogant lyrics and thumping skins supporting the choppy riffs well.  The track gets the blood pumping nicely after the early lull in the flow of the record.

This upward turn continues with the pounding rhythm of Cold Sweat driving the record along with an engine like efficiency, not afraid to mix up the structure along the way and fire in a few licks to keep things interesting.  This is perhaps the finest moment on the record kicking off side B superbly.  Unfortunately though, as with side A we immediately get lost in the overly melodic Someday She Is Going To Hit Back which even the guitar work can't save.  The cheesy Baby Please Don't Go lacks maturity and it suffers badly from poor lyrical content and a lacklustre pace.

Closing out the album strongly is one of the reasons why this rating kept the right side of three stars and didn't slip to a half star in the wrong direction.  Bad Habits is another one of those infectious tracks that slap away the memory of the albums weaker points and gets head and foot going again.  Similarly closing track Heart Attack, although not sterling in quality, hits with enough punch to leave a mark as things draw to a close.  Not terrible but would have been nice for Phil to have left us with a more consistent swansong.

Here's an odd one.  I have heard of Satan of course but never really been swayed by the praise that surrounds them.  So having stumbled across this album again today as part of my current clan challenge I didn't have high hopes.  The band name is synonymous with the NWOBHM movement of course and rightly so, there's some hi-octane galloping tunes on here for sure.  There's also obvious talent across the group with the vocals of Brian Ross and dual guitar attack of Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey being of particular note.

Somehow though, it is still a bit dull.  This may be down to the production or mixing job as opposed to the actual band themselves as somehow it sounds like the album was recorded at two different levels. So the guitars are rampant, high in the mix, clear and audible for all to hear as they fire of super-charged licks and riffs.  However, the rest of the instrumentation sounds like it was tracked from a different studio.  If sounds stifled or muffled and it is only really the piercing cries of Ross that usually manage to permeate the low ceiling and sound like they are on the same record as the guitars.

It makes for a very disjointed sounding record.  Literally it feels like two mates in one of them's bedroom playing guitar well over an otherwise half decent record because they haven't got anything to satisfy that particular six string itch they have both got.  It is a genuine shame the album sounds like this as despite the sound issues (to my ears at least) the band has a real sense of being full of energy and being eager to impress.

If you can deal with the sound then you are probably in for an enjoyable NWOBHM experience - and I did listen to this via YouTube so that won't have helped most certainly - given they have the content and credentials most definitely.  For me though the album doesn't hit the spot and feels muddled despite its strong points.