UnhinderedbyTalent's Reviews

I prefer Di’anno era Maiden to a lot of the Dickinson era if I am honest.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike Dickinson as a vocalist but I believe that the first two Iron Maiden Records capture a raw energy of a young band about to leave an obvious and indelible mark on music as whole let alone heavy metal as a genre and Di’anno’s vocals fit this aesthetic perfectly.

My main criticism of the debut seems perhaps harsh or paltry but still has stuck with me since my first listen some 27 years ago and that is the arrangement of the record is a little off for me. ‘Remember Tomorrow’ (great track though it is) sits too early in the track order for me and would a great track for the latter half (or side b if we are going old school) of the record although this would then endanger the impact of ‘Strange World’.

My OCD aside I simply love the content on this record and my only real regret is that I wasn’t around in 1980 to experience the release at the time (I was 4 when this came out).  There’s literally 8 memorable and well written tracks here with a feel of real grit to them.  Whether it is the grim characters referenced (Phantom Of the Opera, Charlotte the Harlot) or the tangible menace of tracks like ‘Prowler’ or the title track, the sense of threat remains a virtual constant that only gets tempered by the occasional dreamy if not creepy verse of the albums more looming parts.

If Tom Angelripper is to be believed, Sodom never look to recreate past sounds when writing new material. Perhaps after thirty five years it is hard to record anything that isn't fundamentally Sodom in sound because album number fifteen is unmistakably Sodom through and through. Fundamentally it is as familiar as it is energetic and fresh sounding, as though the prevailing three decades of releases have somehow left enough room for eleven more tracks of "more of the same" just delivered with the intensity of a band much younger in years.

"Decision Day" nods to the "old-school" like a plastic doll on the dashboard in an off road vehicle. Angelripper is in superb form with is particular brand of blackened growls and the record drips with distinctly Sodom thrash riffs from start to finish. However there's an infusion of groove there too to accompany the familiar crunch and BM atmosphere to proceedings.

Album opener "In Retribution" with its dissonant opening guitars sets the tone perfectly for what is to follow and the quality of the song writing is obvious from the outset. Check out "Caligula" for a catchy piece of thrash metal, or the equally contagious "Blood Lions". Balance these with the more varied outbursts such as "Who Is God?" or "Strange Lost World" and it is soon obvious you are weighing up a strong record.

It has flaws as well as of course. A lack of memorable lead work for one. I would expect something sharper in this department from Sodom even though being showy has never been their thing, there is a sense at times that some of the lead work is just going through the motions. Also, for these ears at least I would like a shorter running time. Tracks such as "Vaginal Born Evil" and "Sacred Warpath" would be my particular choice of trimmings for the cutting room floor.

The fact remains however that for any band to be capable of this quality of output after thirty five years is extraordinary.  That artwork alone is cause enough to pick it up and stare like a teenage boy.

Those of us old enough to be fortunate to have been listening to metal in 1990 will remember what a fucking cracking year it was for albums. Among all the obvious choices like Judas Priest Painkiller and Danzig Danzig II:Lucifuge sit some lesser recognised gems and high on that list is Sadus Swallowed In Black.

My penchant for pure ripping thrash was more than realised here with an album that to this day sounds as ferocious and intense as the first time I heard it. However there is more to this album than just an all out balls to the wall assault, throughout the entire record the mastery of Steve DiGiorgio on the (fretless) bass is breathtaking and he compliments the guitar work perfectly. One of the most technical players of his time his contribution on here is nothing short of superb. Blend the wondrous complexity of the music with Rob Travis' harsh and scathing vocal style and you have a near perfect combination for one of thrash metals best ever records.

There's a tech death edge throughout most of the riffs on Swallowed in Black and its delivered with all the speed and fervour you'd expect from such a release as well. The songs are well composed and show a real maturity from the writers which compliments the musicianship perfectly.  It's very easy for technical thrash metal to become blunted by the twists and turns deployed but because the band utilised this death metal element so well, the pace and tempo lose no edge whatsoever and the whole combination is one vintage blend of varying taste notes.

It does go on a bit though and the album composition overall doesn't sit right with me in some regards, hence it didn't quite get full marks.  Still have a must have album for me though.

In conversations about "Top Ten Thrash Metal Albums", Nuclear Assault's debut full-length tends to get mentioned in hushed tones as being "just outside this list.." or in the honourable mentions at least.  Revisiting it for the purposes of this feature review I certainly do not disagree with that sentiment and have heard no reason to change my review from my original four stars that I awarded this album on the site however many months ago off the back of this run through.  Considering this came out the same year as Master Of Puppets, Reign In Blood and Pleasure to Kill it is most certainly not on the same par as those classics.  However, I think what it lacks in a sense of refinement or focused aggression it more than makes up for with attitude.

What this album reminds me of is the chaotic sonics of the aforementioned Slayer with the energy and ethos of Overkill.  The gruff vocals of John Connelly have a different level of intensity to a Tom Araya and a much less sneery style than Blitz has, but the sheer determination in the riffing, drumming and plodding bass suggests a band who are doggedly forging their way in a genre where the early pace setting has already been done and they are simply just here to stay slightly ahead of the chasing pack out of pure enthusiasm alone.

Tracks come thick and fast on Game Over delivered in short bursts of two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half-minute rumbling thrash metal that has the requisite political, anti-religious or social commentary running through it.  This feels like an thrash album done with a grind mentality if we focus on the ludicrously rampant Hang The Pope or the tongue in cheek Mr. Softee Theme.  Immature though these tracks appear to be they are certainly not out of place on an album that feels it was written just for the band themselves and anyone else getting onboard is just a bonus.

So, whilst it may not be the pinnacle of eighties thrash metal, Game Over certainly comes across as honest and authentic to the genre vibe of standing up for what you believe in and making a lot of noise whilst you do so.

Seeing this fall under the Guardians clan on the MA site is an interesting take most certainly.  I think it retains enough thrash metal credentials to still please the regular Megadeth fan but I accept at the same time that there's a lot of straight up metal in here as well.  It most certainly is one of the clearest attempts by the group to be more accessible and commercially successful, with an overall sense that the aggression had been paired back and the edges of things polished more than we were used to.  This polish was clearly evident on Rust In Peace but it was more around being showy and technically proficient, not that these elements disappeared altogether on Countdown to Extinction but it is a marked step down in those stakes.

Retaining the services of both Menza on drums and Friedman on guitars was a positive step at least and offered some stability but I think we were all waiting for the next level of wizardry and complexity that we were shown on Rust In Peace (an album I will openly state to be overrated in my book) but instead we got a pretty plain old catalogue of riffs strung together through solid if not equally as plain structures, dusted with hooks galore though to hold the interest.

One of my favourite tracks on here is one of the least obvious ones in all honesty.  Foreclosure of a Dream isn't Mustaine and co. at their best but it is by far the most memorable beyond the usual suspects of Skin o' My Teeth, Symphony of Destruction and the title track.  It is also an album full of filler though unfortunately, with the final three tracks not really being necessary at all and are instantly forgettable.  I would also call out Sweating Bullets as being perhaps the worst track on the whole album.  It's off-kilter structure and almost "metal cabaret" delivery style are just a tad too bonkers even by Mustaine's standards.

I lost track of Megadeth after this record, not coming back around to them until 2009's Endgame which was a sort of combination of the bits of Rust In Peace that I liked coupled with the accessibility of Countdown to Extinction but also the overlong track listing to unfortunately.  What this album marks for me was the point in time I moved more towards Metallica and Slayer as my go to thrash bands, dropping this lighter Megadeth option.  I found Metallica's black album to be more thrashy than this and Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss to hold more menace despite both of these albums being the start of the more accessible eras of those bands.  Megadeth by comparison just went a tad too far, whether this was to out do Mustaine's old band I don't know but it didn't work for me.

Heathen's Victims of Deception is a victim of bloating.  Like it obviously knows when it has eaten too much but just carries on stuffing it's face regardless.  I find it hard to believe that such clearly proficient musicians are unable to see when they are writing just for writings sake.  Three tracks of this album feels like about an hour has passed already and still there's more courses to come.

Notwithstanding the fact that the album structure is overbearing in terms of song length it also very random with Rainbow's Kill The King parked at track number four (ironically it is the most enjoyable track on side A).  The penultimate track on side B is a pointless instrumental piece with a wanky name to boot.  Guitarmony (yes, really folks) just gives the duo of Doug Piercy and Lee Altus an excuse to stroke their cocks for three and a half minutes instead of subjecting the listener to eight tracks of lengthy and dominating thrash metal.

The massive frustration here is that the album is supposed to be getting a bit of a bashing in this review but I still can't avoid awarding it three stars because the quality of the riffing and lead work is good, there's just too much of it.  The drumming of Darren Minter is solid throughout and the powerful vocals of David Godfrey (White/Godfrey-White, who the fuck knows?) are a fantastic accompaniment also.  It is just an album in dire need of a trim or at least and edit session on almost every track to bring the run time down to a more palatable portion.

In terms of gateway albums into a band there are clearly better yet much worse places start with Exodus other than Fabulous Disaster.  However, for all the acknowledgement that the ten tracks here or not all the pinnacle of the band's output over the years, as this was the first album of theirs that I ever bought on vinyl then there is some cover provided by nostalgia here to brush away the fact that the content is not all perfect.

Were it not for the unnecessary War cover of Low Rider the first side of this album would be otherwise perfect.  Even the ropey structure of album opener Last Act of Defiance still somehow triumphs overall and the frenzied attack of the title track, Toxic Waltz and Cajun Hell make for a superb opening half of the album.  Whilst there is a definite tail off in quality during the second half with a hit and miss structure being deployed at the same time the success of Verbal Razors cannot be denied with its groove metal like riff being a real standout in the latter section of the album.  Yes, Like Father, Like Son is not very well written or executed and Open Season is way too simplistic a track but the infectious Corruption is a killer track that manages to propel the album forward in a positive direction.  Putting two covers on a record is a bold move but they pull off AC/DC's Overdose really well to end the album on a high note.

Following up Pleasures of the Flesh was always going to be toughie and whilst Fabulous Disaster is far from being a failure I recognise it to be a step down in quality from the first two albums.  I still love it though, largely due to the fond memories of throwing myself around my room to Toxic Waltz as a teenager stopping only to laugh at that appalling cover photo.

The hellish artwork to Devastation's final album is a perfect representation of the raging death/thrash that lies beneath.  This is ugly thrash metal that fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down before climbing back up and throwing itself back down again.  Primitive and at times downright bestial this album was a fine way for the Texans to sign off with.

Having been formed in 1986 the band picked probably one of the most popular band names that they could (don't confuse these guys with the other Texan's of the same name who sat on the more groovy side of things).  Eventually winding up on Combat Records after a debut full length, the band had started to carve out a niche for themselves over the course of what turned out to be only five years of existence.  Imagine the middle ground between the aggression of Demolition Hammer and the darkness of Dark Angel and you're on the right track to understand the sound of Devastation.  The pace hits frantic on more than one occasion but always seems to be tempered well by some well written and varied song structures that keep things on a robust and yet entertaining format.  There's hints of Possessed (certainly in terms of vocal style) too and in the album's more death metal moments you get a real sense of early Sadus or even the chaotic and bludgeoning DM of Master.

Guitar wise, it was clear that both Dave Burk and Henry Elizondo could play.  Both manage to taunt and menace across most tracks adding depth and atmosphere to the near constant attack.  The rest of the instrumentation does sound a little flat though with the drums coming across as being too tappy at times.  Although effective, the vocals are very one dimensional and the lyrics are very basic and feel just hashed together at times. 

If you like your thrash metal on the deathy side then you should be all over this.

Formulas... I feel exemplifies perfectly how the overall composition of a release can all but ruin any quality contained within the fourteen tracks (in this instance) being showcased.  All I really remember whenever I see this album cover or hear it being discussed is the pointless and irritating instrumental pieces that slow and smother the album as they interject and then takeover from the actual songs at the end.  Who closes an album with three (yes, fucking three) instrumental tracks?  I mean FFS Sandoval and Azagthoth!

It was bad enough that the band had lost Vincent and Rutan and therefore any concept of quality control it would seem.  Steve Tucker does his best, in fact I would go as far as to say he does a good job on the vocals.  I level all blame for the poor quality of this album at the door of the remaining two aforementioned members for the spurious and rushed feel to this record.  The sound isn't the best either, with barely any meat on the bones the guitars sound too thin and the drums too "tappy".

The irony was that this record was still a step up from Domination.  Therefore it lies as testimony to how poor that record was if the hurried horrors of Formulas... could be considered an improvement. This album epitomises what's been wrong with MA for years.  The inability or general unwillingness for anyone to want to control Trey without having major line up changes has been the Achilles' heel of the band throughout their career.  In its finer moments the album does retain some semblance of the Morbid Angel of old (Nothing Is Not).  But any real flow is destroyed by the atmospheric interludes that completely douse the sparks of hope before they even develop into flames.

Like Ben’s review here, I find Morningrise to be real gift and yet also at times a curse.  There’s no denying that there’s some serious work gone into the compositions on display here.  Had I the brain capacity as well as the time to do so I could sit through the whole thing and maybe (just maybe) have enough patience to listen to the whole thing with 100% of my attention.  The fact is though that for all it’s good points, the astonishing musicianship, the expansive songwriting and the ethereal beauty that the whole thing seems draped in the structuring of the record is not well thought out.

There does seem to be elements of a not thick enough filter on the quality control section of the band going into this record.  Competent and established musicians though they unquestionably were already at this stage of their careers they still had a lot of work to do on composition and in song arrangement of the component parts.  Whilst full of largely brilliant ideas the album feels overwhelming and often when listening to it I find myself wanting to like it more than I actually do.  Whenever I find myself able to focus on one element of the album I soon get agitated by the turn of the tide in some regard and end up drifting away altogether for large portions of the record.

That having been said, I don’t feel the album is showy necessarily.  I can’t fault the ability of the musicians in anyway and they aren’t trying to be egotistical either I suspect.  They just wanted to share too much.  There’s enough material over this short track listing to make another album with, at least of the same length.  The progressive and acoustic passages seem more dominant this time around and this is by no means a bad thing.  I don’t think the balance is off in the sense that the death metal elements are too juxtaposed with the cleaner, more progressive elements it is just that they struggle for direction as single entities.

Learning consistency and appropriate use of repetition served the band well for future releases and I guess Morningrise is a real “fans” album on reflection as it definitely showcases the talent of the band and stretches the attention span of all but the most avid listener.  It’s too much for me though and sadly I just don’t think I will ever have the time or regular notion to ever give it my full attention.

Last Rotting Christ album I enjoyed? "Triarchy of Lost Lovers". Last Rotting Christ album I bothered to listen to upon release? "Aealo". It is fair to say that the Greek stalwarts of the Black Metal scene now have a sound that rarely ventures into the territory so well tread on "Thy Mighty Contract" and "Non Serviam" but it is also fair to say that "The Heretics" sounds from start to finish like a band who firmly stamp themselves on the metal map for 2019. What album number thirteen from Rotting Christ does is take a measured approach to variation and repetition to build a memorable and lasting experience.

The sound itself goes from dark and brooding metal and hard rock to almost Gothic metal proportions. Yet at the same time that familiar melodic warmth remains in situ throughout. More often than not there's that big soaring melodic riff riding the vocals like a surfer with his board. "The Voice of the Universe" does this superbly as does "The Sons of Hell". The overall feel the record as a whole leaves me with is one of ritualistic allure, tracks like "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and "Fire God and Fear" build well like powerful incantations being cited from voluminous tomes, flooding forwards intermittently with flowing dark melodies.

It does remind me a lot of Behemoth ("The Satanist" Behemoth, not last year's pompous bollocks Behemoth), with the theme of religion so heavily referenced but at the same time it feels like a much more cohesive effort than recent Behemoth, keeping a level of consistency and restraint to the songwriting which holds the attention well. Only once does the album visit anything like Black Metal on "I Believe", here they base a poem by Nikolaos Kazantzakis at the centre of the chaotic and frantic pace and sadly it fails miserably on my ears, coming across as just filler. My only other criticism is that it does get a bit samey in places (namely the intros to each track). Otherwise it is a perfectly respectable piece of dark metal. C'mon, we can't this black metal anymore folks.

Full length number 19 from overkill certainly makes a splash in the energy stakes, I mean there's some modern thrash bands that are a good two decades younger than Overkill who can only hope to achieve the levels of spunk that New Jersey's finest produce here. That in itself is an achievement, for a band of Overkill's stature and reputation to be able to still sound relevant four decades into their career is no mean feat. Even in the albums weaker moments it never gets redundant and the energy levels remain high. There's a real sense of a band in a state of some renewed vigour, helped in no small part by the addition of Jason Bittner on drums. The former Flotsam & Jetsam skinsman is nothing short of superb throughout "The Wings of War" and seems to have squeezed a little extra out of the rest of his peers.

The album kicks of with a great build to opening track "Last Man Standing" and for the first 4 tracks of the album the Overkill crew stomp, bash and groove their way to a solid level of consistency. The lead work is of particular note and Blitz sounds as sneery and scathing as ever. The album is well produced and mixed too with all parts of the thrash machine audible as the five piece hammer away at your skull with the usual blend of chugging riffs and infectious anthems. It isn't even all thrash either, one thing that is also obvious in abundance here is the melody present throughout all 10 tracks.

There are weak moments as mentioned but they are more a victim of how good the strong tracks are. In it's own right "Distortion" is a solid enough - if not slightly varied a journey from the last offering - but it just doesn't stand up well against a "Bat Shit Crazy" or a "Head of a Pin". As the album draws to a close you get the increasing impression that the last few tracks are rescued really by some great solos and stomping skin work which is a shame because trimming of a couple of tracks may have made this less obvious. That having been said, last track "Hole in My Soul" is a cracking finisher. As I said though, the energy level is consistently high and there's a real sense of the band having created something they can be really proud of.

I am scoring this a 4 out of 5 just for the fact that even at the mediocre stages the album is still another great example of the old guard giving a Metal Music 101 lesson to all aspiring young metal bands out there.  

So, in terms of context for why I chose this as my featured release for this month, back when I was a consultant working the length and breadth of the British Isles I found myself working for a number of weeks in a place called Milton Keynes which is a short train ride out of London (for the uninitiated).  Given hotel prices in London, I opted to stay the other side of Milton Keynes in a place called Northampton in a hotel near the train station.  Each day on my commute to Milton Keynes on the train I would be making that soulless journey to the tune of Hammer of the North, raising my spirits with the rousing metal of one of Sweden's finest exports.

As such, this album holds a particular nostalgic place in my heart for accompanying me through a time when I was far away from home and encouraged to imagine places even further away thanks to the amazing imagery conjured by the fantastical lyrics of JB Christoffersson.  As a side note I was bitterly disappointed during my research for this review to find that the digital copy I owned (?) has disappeared from my music stream and also other popular streaming services.  As much as I am a fan of the physical formats of albums, my overarching experience of this album was on digital format and it is a little disappointing to see it absent from immediate access outlets due to whatever bullshit politics goes on between streaming services and record labels.

Anyway, the main thing I like about this record is that (in the main) it encapsulates everything I got into metal for in the first place.  Memorable songs, hooks that bury themselves so deep into your flesh they pierce internal organs, an aggressive and gruff style that make the music seem inaccessible despite it being one of the more immediate releases I owned (shakes fist at the internet), melodic yet never flashy leads and song writing so catchy it is fucking criminal.  At the same time you will notice a less than five star rating because I honestly can see the limitations of the record despite all that I love about it.  It is an album that tries to be nothing other than what it is; a record made by genuine fans of heavy metal that may be more than a little guilty of flogging the same ideas more than once, yet it does this so well it is near impossible to resist it's charms.

If you read my reviews with any regularity on here you will pick up that I note the quality levels of a record by how well I can recite the tracks in my head without having to listen to the album itself.  Needless to say I can do at least seven of the ten tracks here from start to finish in my head - despite all the other shit that is in there at any given time that occupies valuable brain space.  The album just rewards you after one listen, balancing melody and rampant rhythms perfectly as the simplicity of tracks such as the title track, Black Sails, Mountains Be My Throne, The Lord of Lies and Ravens Guide Our Way layer themselves in your memory banks, track after track.

As I go off to buy a physical copy of the album, I leave you with the notion that if all artists recorded albums like this (you know what I mean; throw caution to the wind, fuck what's cool today and lets just do what we like mentality) then the world would be a much better place.  I have increased my rating by a half star during this review, just because I can.

Xasthur's penchant for haunting and lo-fi, dark ambient/instrumental pieces coupled with raw and repetitive BM is explored in full across the three tracks on offer on this 2006 EP.  Opening with the imaginatively titled 'Instrumental' the tone is set for a dreary journey through the dank mind of Malefic.  If you have any experience to date of Xasthur then nothing on here will surprise you.  The authentic sound of the artist is captured perfectly as the EP moves onto the more harsh 'Bubonic Plague' with its abrupt ending signing the song off seemingly before the track is finished.  Whether he genuinely ran out of tape or was just being Malefic, we'll never know.

I would suggest to any first time listeners of Xasthur that this would be a good gateway release into the discography, if three tracks of repetitive BM and dark ambience doesn't put you off then you have completed entry level Xasthur, now please move on to a full length to further the harrowing repetitious experience of Depressive USBM being delivered by one its finest genre exponents.

In terms of melodic black metal as a sub genre you could probably count the bands included up on one hand or certainly label them as a cross between BM and melodic DM. We aren't talking the symphonic stabbings of Emperor here we are talking about the retention of the bleakness and the harsh coldness of traditional BM but adding accessibility with effective use of melody that although was key to the sound, did not water down the whole too much. This record combines the familiar bleak atmosphere of BM with some marauding melodies, but also contains some sterling instrumentation to boot.

From the off it is clear that "Far Away From The Sun" is different. There's no (mandatory) cold wind or crackling fire in a blizzard intro here, nope opening track "Fog's Kiss" just charges straight in and immediately sets out its stall of structured riffs and progressive melodies as it plods and jars its way through nearly 5 minutes of perfection. Blink and you will miss the move into track 2, "Far Away From The Sun" as the soaring melody from the end of the opening track blends seamlessly to begin the title track. Dripping in dense and unshakeable atmosphere from the beginning to the end the album is all held together by a perfect arrangement of rhythms, laid with such precision and thought it is a pleasure to listen to.

The galloping rush that starts "When Night Surrounds Me" is breathtaking but there is no time for recovery as Nisse's evil voice echoes around you like wraiths whispering in both of your ears at the same time. They tell of a darkness that will be all enclosing, that will spare none from it's path. "When Night Surrounds Me" has the capacity to make you believe 11am is 11pm such is the dark emotion that writhes within its varied and ravaging 6 minutes. Also here you start to notice (well if you have ears you will have already noticed) the superb performance going on at the skins. Nicklas Rudolfsson plays every bit of his kit on "Far Away From The Sun" and plays every possible, fill, blastbeat and pattern whilst he does so. His drumming is the rumbling stomach of a hungry giant, the scaffold poles and posts to the rising structures that unfold on the album but also the furious warrior galloping across the battlefield slaying all in his path.

To be able to balance all that melody alongside the intense rush and sweeping majesty of the furious BM takes talent and it is a very well produced album across all 9 tracks. You never feel any let up in intensity throughout the album and with each listen you pick up something you missed before. It is recorded proof of beauty in dark places, of order in chaos and of variety in rhythmic familiarity.

The one thing you can guarantee from Behexen is consistency.  The authenticity of the Black Metal tapestries weaved by the Finnish stalwarts cannot be questioned. For over 20 years they have remained relevant without having to do very little in the way of variation.  ‘The Poisonous Path’ sees not only differentiation in sound and style but an obvious feel of structure to boot.

There are times on this record that Behexen sound like a blackened crust/hardcore band.  The core riff sound reminds me of Black Breath on more than one occasion in fact.  Yet at the same time there are tracks that attempt to soar up out of the murk and melancholy that weights their wings and rise like some blackened Phoenix from the burnt out remnants of Hades itself.

Closing track ‘Rakaudesta Saatanum’ is probably the best example of both the above tactics being deployed, with its solid structure and thumping drums being used well alongside more melodic and accessible guitar work to present a near perfect summary of what the record is all about.

Instrumentally the playing is strong and the mix and production jobs both allow all instruments to be audible without this feeling like a ‘sell out’ record from the band.  As someone who particularly enjoys the Finnish BM scene and the extremities it can stretch too I find the blend of ‘The Poisonous Path’ still very appealing despite it not just being about the all assault of a ‘Rituale Satanum’ for example

Surprises are nice aren't they? I mean, not socks for Xmas type surprises. Not even tax rebate on your birthday-esque proportions either. I am more concerned with those times in your life where you tell yourself you will hate something before you even get round to trying it, convincing yourself in the process this unheard, untasted, unseen or unfelt thing would be a waste of your time. When you eventually throw caution to the wind and give it go you find no repulsion, no bile in your throat just the recognition that you might just have been denying yourself some entertainment or genuine fun for a proportion of your life.

This is has been my experience of "Ritual" by Soulfly. You see I made my mind up that after "Arise" Max Cavalera was a spent force. "Chaos AD" had its moments but largely left me a bit, "meh!" When I tuned out of Sepultura activity entirely shortly afterwards I was aware that he had cropped up in various other guises over the years (Nailbomb, Cavalera Conspiracy) but understood Soulfly to be his nu-metal/world music project. Twenty-something me had no time for his fucking around and since Sepultura offered nothing interesting the Cavalera contribution to my record collection was over as far as I was concerned.

There's been 20+ years since Max and Sepultura went their separate ways and it's fair to say that in those two decades, Soulfly have matured a bit. Yes, there's still the fucking pointless moments ("Soulfly XI" - saxophone and acoustic nonsense that has no business being here) where styles get mixed up and world influences intervene unnecessarily. Yep, there's still nu metal sounds too (the melodic parts of "Bite the Bullet" for example). But there's also a fucking raging bull of anger, dissent and venom crashing through the political, social and religious delicacy of this particular china shop in which we all live. It kicks and charges relentlessly at times, and despite the risk of becoming speared by a horn or trampled by rampant hooves you just find yourself running alongside it riff by riff.

There's no wheels reinvented though. Anyone familiar with the band might be going "just another Soulfly album dickhead!" but the point is that I had real fun playing this. I pulled silly faces, made lots of silent shouts and nodded along appreciatively with all the catchy and familiar riffs on display. It opens with the tribal sounding title track but this soon descends into a chugging monster of a track, well paced and accessible without sacrificing any momentum. As the album plays we get groove, thrash and a fury long since thought gone from the Cavalera repertoire to my ears. There hasn't been a lot released this year to really get my juices flowing and my blood pumping and Soulfly scratch that itch perfectly here. In any other year with consistent high quality releases, "Ritual" would have much less of an impact I suspect, but as with most releases I have lauded in 2018 (Judas Priest, Saxon..) it is the old guard doing a shift again and putting a lot of newer bands to shame in the process.

Nostalgia plays a big part in me choosing to even write a review about this record.  Back for the Attack being the first Dokken album I owned as a teenager, it was always one that stuck in my head from those heady days of sitting in my bedroom listening to a limited selection of vinyl night after night.  I don't recall loving it any point, in fact I had heard the song 'It's Not Love' on TV and then on my next excursion into town with some cash in my pocket I came away with this record even though the song wasn't on it, believing that all Dokken songs must have been of the same quality.  They aren't.

It is not that the record is bad, just a bit dull.  There's no rip roaring anthem here although the majority of the songs do stick in my head and I can hear them from reading the titles alone, they just sort of rumble along like some mental background music.  Arguably, 'Heaven Sent', 'Stop Fighting Love' and album opener 'Kiss of Death' fulfil this anthem requirement but they are just a bit "meh" to really make you want to play them on their own.

All of the guitar wankery you would expect is there, especially on "Mr. Scary" which gives Lynch an opportunity to show off for a few minutes.  It still never really gets elevated to any sense of wonder to make you want to revisit it.

The record still made a respectable 13th on the Billboard 200 back in 1987 and all 3 singles made entry into the top 40 of Mainstream Rock USA so more than a few people thought it was solid enough a release.

One of my favourite urban myths is that you will go blind if you masturbate too much. Listening to Portal might make you go blind as you ears frantically take resource from your brain that was needed for mundane tasks such as vision and bladder control as they try to cope with the relentless auditory assault of "ION".  However, pulling your pud won't affect your eyesight boys. Science bit over, on with the review.

"ION" seems instantly more refined than previous outings. Don't get me wrong here, there's no slick production values been applied and there isn't any venture into clean vocals, for example. It just seems that this time around things are more calculated. "Phreqs" is like being attacked by a swarm of wasps, as chaotic as it seems there's some well thought out structure to the attack to maximise the impact. One of the only criticisms I could draw against Portal of old was that sometimes the mental factor was up over 11 and things did tend to get lost. "Vexovoid" remedied this a lot with its more "Horror" approach and "ION" seems to take that on a notch further combining dark alchemy and atmospheres perfectly. The build of "Crone" for example is full of creeping dread and menace, finally arriving and proving to be as ghastly as I had hoped it would.

For all the scientific intimation of the cover things are still more on the experimental as opposed to technical side of death metal. There's still that pit of the stomach sensation of being dragged into some fathomless void by the spiralling darkness of those fucking guitars and the taunting evil of those drums - they are not just about all out assault folks. The layers do genuinely seem to be being applied with more structure this time around and the instrumentation is used better than ever to produce real atmosphere.

"Four Phantoms" is an extraordinary, challenging and thought provoking listen. To start with Bell Witch are not a stereotypical metal band. The two members use only bass and drums as their preferred weapons of choice. The bass is a six string affair so the capacity for some very heavy and harrowing riffs and leads is explored fully by Dylan Desmond.

The 4 tracks flow effortlessly between crushing heaviness and melancholic melodies. The hour of your attention that it demands takes you to dark places as it explores four violent deaths at the hand of nature. Drowning, suffocation, immolation and an endless fall for all eternity (water, earth, fire and wind) are all looked at on each track. Opening track "Suffocation, A Burial: I - Awoken (Breathing Teeth)" starts with a slow picked bass until a huge crash of percussion and bass kick things off properly. The mixture of vocals between hushed growls, ethereal and choral vocals is a clever balance. For all the time the growls are present you feel a real sense of a very deep anger and the cleaner styles encase that anger in an unbearable sorrow. Couple them with the excellent use of bass to create mournful, atmospheric passages that tell their own story, layered in a dark ambiance. By the time you have endured the full 22 minutes of track one you realise it isn't just the opening track, it is the opening ritual to what is to come.

The bass churns out some real harrowing bottom end riffs during track two "Judgement, In Fire:I - Garden (of Blooming Ash)". The fire here is a slow burning, huge yet somehow concentrated pyre. A perfectly measured delivery occurs during "Suffocation, A Drowning: II - Somniloquy (The Distance Of Forever)" as the bass sings like a wounded, horned beast whilst the vocals remain clean and almost folk like.

By the time you reach the end of "Judgement, In Air:II Felled (In Howling Wind)" there is very much the sense of having gone through a journey. Like you have been invited on a road trip that you knew was going to be horrific and draining but for every last minute of it you couldn't tear your eyes away from the road ahead and never at any point did you truly want it to be over. As the album closes it sounds like darkness folding in on itself, teasing you by holding your hand until the last possible moment before it casts you free

An hour and twenty three minutes is a significant period of time. I could clean my whole house or prepare and cook a three course meal in that time. Thankfully Bell Witch obviously have a cleaner and/or a chef as they decided to write one track during the time it would take most of us to commute to work. Fans of Bell Witch will already know their sound to be unusual in the sense that there's no guitar and they produced one of 2015's best releases when they dropped "Four Phantoms" to the doom masses.

Far from being an inhibitor, the lack of any guitar simply gives the Bell Witch duo opportunity to make the very best out of the bass and percussion, feeding them with atmospherics from varying sources and types to great effect. I won't lie, this album is an acquired taste. The layers going on here are oppressive both in terms of weight and the amount of patience (and time) required to simply sit down and truly appreciate them.

This is not your standard Funeral Doom/drone album. In fact it is so much more than an album, something audible yet tangible at the same time to fingertips of anyone willing to lose nearly 90 mins of their day listening to an album consisting of just one track. The bass guitar for Bell Witch acts as so much more than a stringed instrument. Sure, the harrowing bottom end that dominates the majority of the track is an ocean of a million regrets churning its tide, smashing roll waves against roll waves, eroding cliff faces and laying ships to wreck. But at the same time the bass sings to you, a song of sorrow and fathomless anguish like a Siren-esque accompaniment to the actual vocals themselves. The delivery of the vocals is brilliant in keeping with the atmosphere of the record as they breathe in and out, formulating whispers, growls and clean, ritualistic verses whilst all the while the drums build their own crescendos of crashing cymbals and subtle rolls that fade and grow back like the embers of some undying fire.  

There's textures here too, not always obvious but certainly the variety on display takes the listener on a journey through every passage of crushing doom on and into post (post-doom's a thing right?) and ambient structures of peace and tranquillity yet still the hazy and murky dirge retains the atmosphere all through out.

I am a sucker for any record that matches the artwork that adorns it's cover. The artwork on "Mirror Reaper" is more than matched by the music behind it, I could stare at the artwork for the whole duration of the record and live out it's ethereal and menacing story to the full whilst doing so.

I can't say that much of what where my mainstays in 1990 have withstood the test of time all that well.  This was perhaps still my first full year of metal discovery and I had near sensory overload in all honesty as Priest, Slayer, Pantera and Megadeth dropped records all over the place and I desperately attempted to keep up.  Although fully aware of Danzig at the time, I had soon gotten pissed off with hearing Mother and Twist of Cain all the time and was quite unresponsive to testing out a Danzig full length at first.

Thankfully, I soon got the fuck over myself and jumped feet first into his sophomore release, grateful to discover that it contained enough of the catchy riffs that made the aforementioned hits so undeniably memorable without being irritating.  I got more pleasure in all honesty from the true dark cabaret style of the music, with Evil Elvis firmly living up to his nickname on tracks like I'm The One and Blood and Tears.  Fair to say that whilst Cowboys From Hell and Rust in Peace have lost most of their initial sparkle, Danzig's second album still shines its dull majesty even today.

What is the real triumph on this album though is the superb blending of heavy metal with doom and even rock elements (most of Christ's leads are firmly in the rock sound of things).  It doesn't ever sound contrived though.  The album takes on a real character from virtually the opening track and wears that persona all the way through, unapologetic for being over the top in places because this act is near Oscar winning in places.  There's a remarkable simplicity to the overall sound here, I mean whilst this is obvious on the aforementioned I'm The One with Danzig crooning along to an acoustic guitar, this clear and coherent tone and unmuddied sound flows across all tracks.  This tactic helps highlight even the simplest of string bends, making them come across as real nuances that become standout moments on an album that feels like it never really gets out of third gear most of the time.

Interpreting this often rudimentary mid-pace and basic song structure is perhaps a challenge for some.  I find it processes easily enough for an extreme metalhead like me.  I find its bareness adds a real gnarly feel to proceedings which is still the overarching feeling even on the albums more catchy moments.  The consistency of the quality in the track listing does start to lapse as we get towards to the end of the record with Girl and Pain in the World being the main reasons that this record loses a full marks rating.  I think Blood and Tears would have rounded off the record perfectly well but I am denied a pain-free experience overall (but for the record I hated these tracks back in 1990 also).

After ‘Painkiller’ - which was the first Priest album I ever heard - I picked up a copy of ‘Ram It Down’ on vinyl.  There was an obvious drop in quality and it took me a good few years to revisit it as a result.  However, this has paid off as I still believe that (wild inconsistency aside) there are some real Priest gems on this album.

Let’s deal with the bad first shall we?  I can’t stand the cover of ‘Johnny B Goode’, it just doesn’t work for me despite the bands best efforts.  Similarly, ‘Blood Red Skies’ does nothing other than make me reach for the skip button. ‘Love Zone’ also just comes off as a complete dud for me even though it does resemble the tried and tested format of a Priest anthem from the 80’s.

On to the positives.  This record actually contains one of my favourite Priest tracks ever in album closer ‘Monsters of Rock’.  The almost doomy vibe to menacing delivery of the track makes my hair stand on end and the ferocity of tracks like ‘Heavy Metal’ and ‘Hard as Iron’ make this a real metal treat for any lover of the genre.  Add the kinky, tongue in cheek smut of ‘Love You to Death’ and the clap along anthem that is ‘I’m A Rocker’ and that’s me grinning Joker style!

When I hear talk of "Desert Island Discs" I find myself strugling to be able pull together 5 albums that I could take to this paradise of coconuts, sun, sea and CD's.  There's numerous options that jostle for a postion on that coveted list for me and it can change from hour to hour, day to day, week to week.  Some records however are mainstays; records so important to me and my development into metal music that they extend beyond mere entertainment value, extending their importance to almost life-affirming magnitude.

I hadn't heard much of any Judas Priest when Painkiller dropped.  Yes I heard tracks such "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law" which I thought were okay but hadn't really set my world on fire.  Hearing that the band were dropping a new album in 1990 didn't invoke any real sense of urgency in me.  After all (based on what I had heard), Priest sounded more like rock music to me and weren't Sepultura, Slayer or Metallica in terms of my metal tastes of the time.  Back in the 90's here in the UK we had a metal show that broadcast on TV in the early hours of Saturday morning called Raw Power.  It was essentially the TV version of RAW magazine.  I avidly recorded it on our family video player ready to spend Saturday morning blasting the new tunes featured on there.  When they broadcast the video to the title track from the album it changed my life forever.

Here was the very embodiment of heavy metal in front of my very eyes and ears.  A frenzied attack of duelling guitars, relentless drums and shrieking vocals, all balled into a crushing sphere of rampant metal madness.  This sound was the very reason I had gotten into metal music and their look was the very epitome of how I thought all metal bands should look.  Equally resplendent in their leather and studs as they were in the authentic and mesmirising music that they played.

I rushed out and bought the record immediately, pulling together what limited funds I had to make a hasty but much needed purchase.  I simply had to have this record in my life.  The good news was that the title track set up the rest of the album perfectly.  There was no one-hit wonder present here.  The levels of intensity and energy were so high for the majority of the record that I literally lost pounds in weight thrashing around bedroom to it.  It wasn't just heavy metal in the raw and abrasive sense of the term, it was refined and delivered with a deftness that few other bands of the time could muster.  The repeat button on my hi-fi got a status of "on" everytime I put this album on.

What I find most astonishing about the album is that when this dropped in 1990 there were multiple other great releases for it to contend with from Pantera, Anthrax, Megadeth and Slayer yet it was Judas Priest (the oldest of the lot) that sat head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.  I would say that only Obituary's Cause of Death was anywhere near the briliance of Painkiller, but in terms of like for like styles/abums they were two very different beasts.

So there, you have it.  The last great Priest album and one of the most important metal albums of my life.  I hope they have a good stereo system on this desert island.

Arguably the best sophomore album ever made, Sad Wings of Destiny was a bolt from the blue.  After the average Rocka Rolla some two years earlier, Rob Halford and co came out in 1976 with one of the finest records to ever grace their discography.  They had undergone a slight line up change since the debut with Alan Moore now residing in the drummer's seat having replaced John Hinch.  Like Hinch, Moore was only to last one album in the role before the band went with a session drummer for the follow up Sin After Sin.

Almost from the off though it is clear that the stars of the show here were the guitars and vocals.  This album really explored the range of both the guitarists and the vocal chords of Rob Halford.  Both worked the stage well together, giving each other space to expand their prowess yet also complimenting each other brilliantly.  The opening track Victim of Changes is a real paired back affair in terms of pace and has a real storytelling feel to it.  Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, it is a bold and epic foray into showcasing some real songwriting prowess (with Al Atkins credited with having contributed it).  The album takes more of an aggressive tone with the menacing The Ripper with Halford adding that threatening undertone to his vocals to emphasise the terror of the famed murderer.

Dream Deceiver again goes for a more slower tempo to build the track, focusing on the story as opposed to going for the short, sharp shock.  It is arranged brilliantly to contrast the shorter track that precedes it.  It builds to a slick and sultry blues-tinged solo to play the song out, the kind of solo where you can hear the whole fret board being used to tell the story just as well as any lyric could.  The track bleeds effortlessly to the more upbeat Deceiver to complete another juxtaposed transition from the epic to the more immediate.  Again, the band use the build of the track superbly, progressing up to a real gallop pace before ending with a flurry of acoustic strummings.

Side B opens with an instrumental as Prelude prepares us for what I have to confess to be the weaker of the two sides overall but you'd have no indication of this as it fills your ears with the promise of more tales to be told and more musical entertainment to accompany these stories.  Tyrant is the first track proper of the second side of the vinyl and it is a bit of a lazy effort in my book.  Whether trying to sound fearsome or not the delivery of the chorus sounds tired as opposed to threatening and the whole track feels a bit washy as a result.  Halford's vocals are layered for part of this track and it does work reasonably well but overall this the only really underwhelming track on the album.

The more structured Genocide puts things back on track with a more appealing beat and a memorable vocal that sticks in your head for the right reason.  The guitars fire licks across the lyrical passages perfectly and keep things interesting throughout.  Even Halford's spoken word section comes off as relevant when on any other record it would seem a bit cringey I am sure.  Penultimate track Epitaph is an almost cabaret sounding ballad that should stick out like a sore thumb but instead it comes across as a classy folky affair that probably should end the album in all honesty as it feels like a natural end to the album.  The album finishes with Island of Domination which is another track that bleeds into form out of the previous one.  Cleverly picking up the pace to end on a positive and more uptempo track, giving the listener a final taste of those guitars and sublime vocal range to savour for long after the record is finished.

Is there any success in avoiding failure? I mean there are no bones to make about it, Morbid Angels last offering was fucking terrible. In comparison to that "Kingdoms Disdained" is an absolute triumph with all hints at "experimental" (or just downright "shite" bits) thankfully lost to the annals of catastrophic album releases from 2011. But is it enough to improve on one of the worst releases ever by harking back to what you know with such totally that, inevitably, you risk judgement of being considered to have just retreated back into the safety of straight up, no frills, DM? Albeit done with a poise and guile of the band of seasoned musicians the world knows you to be.

It is hard to criticise "Kingdoms Disdained". The wave of favourable reviews already popping up across the metal community is already testimony to this and rightly so that these reviews are favourable, because at it's core this is as solid a DM release as you will hope to find all year. No one with ears can deny the grinding death metal intensity of "Garden of Disdain" as it chomps away at your very being like some Pac-Man villain chasing the hapless yellow fucker. The ripping pace, chaotic structure and mental sonics of "The Righteous Voice" will have any DM fan in absolute fucking raptures also. The familiarity of tracks like "From the Hand Of Kings" as being straight up recognisable MA fodder will warm the heart of anyone wearing a "Covenant" tee also. All over "Kingdoms Disdained" there's bits of great DM, I openly recognise this.

Likewise, it is hard to write entirely positive things when in essence the whole thing is just too safe. Whilst I can hear the chaotic writing of Trey here an there it just feels like it is constantly being reined in or somehow stifled. Who wants to sit listening to an MA record and have to hope there's a blooping, looping, totally archaic piece of sonic fuckery just waiting to spin the planet off its axis? They should be there on all tracks not scattered throughout the record like some afterthought. In dumbing down/pairing back for this record MA seem to have dropped into some "pre-Altars" state of foetal development, only giving hints at what they are really capable of.

There has of course been a significant line up change with Bonkers Vincent now a "Country Musician" in his own right having left the MA fray to allow the return of Steve Tucker. Tucker is superb throughout the album, long may he reign (again). The replacement of Tim Yeung with Scott Fuller also proves a positive step forwards. Although at times a bit lost in the mix the drums are on the whole great throughout the eleven tracks here. Line up improvements aside, the production feels a tad sterile and stifling at times also - "The Pillars Crumbling" in particular stands out as being riddled with this problem. It is a similar production blueprint to the "Covenant" sound, an undeniably strong record with a sound that holds it back too much.

The overall opinion I garner from this release is that MA have returned to form, which let's face it folks isn't that fucking hard. There needs to be more here to hold my attention beyond the few listens I have given it so far. I have an array of similar quality sounding DM records already in my collection and I really wanted this release to standout from them. Sadly I find myself wanting to like it more than I actually do.

In the film Twister, the storm chasing crew speak in hushed tones about the "finger of God".  This referred to an F5 category tornado, a terrifying and dangerous thing that by Bill Paxton's character's own admission "few have stared one in the face and survived."  You can apply a similar reference to Cryptopsy's sophomore release from 1996, such is the ferocity of the maelstrom that presents itself across these eight tracks of brutal and unsympathetic death metal.

At the end of the record, a snippet invites us to run home and cry to our momma's, or words to that effect.  For me the correct reaction would be to run home to your whole family and tell them what a fucking force of nature Cryptopsy are and how you stared None So Vile in the face and survived.

A couple of points of note for anyone unfortunate enough to never have experienced this record.  Firstly, this is the kind of record that gets talked about in the same hushed tones as would Scream Bloody Gore, Blessed Are The Sick, Pierced From Within and Cause of Death.  Here be death metal nobility, all kneel before your master.  Secondly, drummer Flo Mounier does only have two arms.  It may sound like they have an octopus or that he is a Siamese twin, but there is only one of him and he is but a man.  Quite how one man can create such a furious and flawless performance defies the laws of science, but alas the evidence is there for all to see.

Equally accountable for the swirling hostility of the record is vocalist Lord Worm who howls and gasps manically on track after track literally spewing hatred forth for thirty two minutes.  Let's not forget the sonic wizardry of Jon Levasseur who as well delivering scorching leads also maintains frenetic riffing accompanied by the clunking bass of Eric Langlois.

So there you are, if you are about to listen to this record for the first time, strap yourself to something solid first.

The indefatigable death-thrash of Master sounds as fiery as ever on their 2007 full length.  The balance they strike between death metal and thrash metal is a sure-footed stance they have established over many years of course, but it really shines through on 'Slaves to Society'.  The death metal has an almost arrogant and sneering poise to it whilst the energy and zestful thrash elements sit perfectly alongside.

We open with 'The Final Skull', straight away pummelling the listener with insane riffage and Speckmann's trademark gruff vocals in full flow.  This riffery is present throughout the record, especially on the title track and 'Anarchy Nearly Lost' which sounds like the brother of the opening track.  Lyrically we have the usual Speckmann typography, full of distaste for society and politics in the main yet delivered with enough casual sarcasm to bring an ironic grin to the face of the listener.  'The Room With Views' does this brilliantly with the opening lyrical salvo of, "I hate everyone and I hate everything".  Yep, classic Speckmann right here folks.

Props need to be given to the European contingent of the line up for this record with Pradlovsky doing an amazing job on the skins and Nejezchleba shredding and riffing like a motherfucker for eleven tracks.  The latter's barking riffs of particular note on the aforementioned 'The Room With Views'.

The version I have of the record is the 2008 reissue on Ibex Moon Records and so contains four demo tracks at the end of the record (that don't sound that much like demos in the grander scheme of things it has to be said) which serve to enhance the overall experience of this superb release.

Master's sophomore album (if we include the eventual release of their debut in 1998) is a record I am proud to say that I now own on vinyl.  That bright red, white-edged (and embossed on my version) logo across that pitch black background underlines the simplicity that the record screams in its completely primitive auditory assault.  This is death metal done with a real punk-driven thrash metal vision and as such I think this record stands out from the rest of the early death metal records of the late eighties and early nineties.  It is not an atmospherically threatening album either; overwhelming menace and threaten retain their razor sharp intent by sheer intensity and zero-value production quality alone without the need for keys or string arrangements.

Yes, it is sloppy as hell and it sounds like it was recorded in garage, but that's why we like it, right?  They even completely butcher one of my favourite ever Black Sabbath songs (Children of the Grave) but they toy with it with a random and totally clumsy bass solo beforehand.  The raging tempo sounds nothing like the original and is probably one of the poorest choices of cover song I could have thought up for the band, but they deliver it with their trademark ugliness and truly do try to make the song their own.  Those ridiculous keys in the middle of the song are well and truly hammed-up and bring a dry smile to my face at least.

Whilst I really adore the honesty of this record my biggest criticism is its random construct with two instrumentals bridging that BS cover (although on my version there is an additional track after the BS cover) just feels like they were short on lyrics and so Terrorizer relies on the (fitting) intensity of the riffs to drive it forward as opposed to having any real structure.  Sonically though, the album is a super-charged beast of twisted leads and contorted fretboard incantations of absolute torture.  Although not quite on the levels of Mr Azagthoth, they suit the aesthetic of Master's sound perfectly.  Imagine the bludgeoning sloppiness of Autopsy with the razor sharp terror of Possessed with more than a hint of Scream Bloody Gore thrown in and you essentially have the sound of this record down to a tee.

For every "serious" death/doom release you need at least one that is not afraid to wear its love of b movie horror on it's sleeve, right?  "Never Cross the Dead" works on two levels for me.  Firstly, the relentless groove of the riffs just floors me every time, bending my mind with every string strike and contorting my eardrums with every bottom-end bend to the riffs.  Secondly, the album has a real sense of tongue in cheek delivery.  Playing like a soundtrack to some "Best of..." Hammer Horror movie compilation with its menacing gloom and promise of evil intent.  Take all the Doom of Candlemass and blend it with the crunch of latter day Entombed and add some clunky, awkward elements of Autopsy to proceedings and you're getting close to the experience of "Never Cross the Dead".

Opener and title track stomps around in my head literally for days after just one listen.  The melodic yet acutely distressing work of the solo a stark contrast to the catchy riff that makes up the main core of the track.  Lysse Pyykkö's gruff and guttural vocals cementing everything in place like some churned cement mix.

The menace continues into the brilliantly named "Terror Castle", that perilous edge to the riffs just loitering with nefarious intentions, like some undead teenager kicking his mate's decapitated head against your back wall.  The ham continues across tracks such as "The House of Hammer" and of course "Theme from Return of the Evil Dead" which closes the album.

For all the plodding dirge of the album you still get sufficiently crushed during the fifty-plus minutes of its running time.  It is an album that walks the full soundscape of death/doom very well being memorable yet never predictable somehow.

'The Stench of Redemption' stands out from the rest of the Deicide discography largely because of the virtuoso guitar performances of Ralph Santolla and Jack Owen.  There is little argument here that they eclipse any of the output from either of the Hoffman brothers.  With the prowess of Santolla and Owen in the ranks Deicide enjoyed a much more relaxed and freer sound on 'Stench of Redemption' than previously heard in the studio.  At times it gets almost to guitar wankery proportions, just edging towards being a little OTT, but thankfully the superb lead work is backed up by a full sounding rhythm and percussion section that brings a real feel of energy to the record.

It isn't flawless by any means and at times it does rely far too heavily on the lead work to carry it through but for a band recovering from the dull 'Scars of the Crucifix' release some two years earlier it was a step back in the right direction that blew the cobwebs away and saw the start of (some) semblance of a return to form. 

Benton sounds different on the majority of this record.  His abrasive and scathing howls seem to be on a back burner somewhat and the focus is on a more guttural style to his vocals which is honestly quite refreshing.  Even Asheim's drumming seems to be up a notch, perhaps spurred on by the new blood on the six strings?

There's even a Deep Purple cover on here - although I find to be terrible - which again adds to the more relaxed feel to proceedings mentioned earlier.  Despite nearly getting carried away with itself on more than one occasion I can't deny there is a real sense of flow to this record and it is more than welcome. 

Although it starts strongly enough, 'Serpents of the Light' runs out of steam after five tracks.  The energy levels rarely drop throughout the record but unfortunately the quality of the songwriting does all too easily.  It is a shame really as what could have been a stronger record just suffers with a lack of ideas and although it never quite hits the low of 'Scars of the Crucifix' the legs to carry on what started the album just aren't there.

The title track opens proceedings, with a high tempo and chaos tinged growls giving instant impact to the track.  A familiar blooping lead occupies the space behind the first chorus line ahead of the second verse and this all just feels really promising.  'Bastard of Christ' spits the expected levels of hatred whilst being lashed by some fine riff work and 'Blame It On God' presents as much contempt as the title suggests with its snappy opening and blasting drums.  Again, some superb riffing is on display here also. By the time you get to 'This Is Hell We're In' the cracks are starting to show unfortunately, starting remarkably similarly to previous tracks we get the first hint of the engine needing further stoking.

The strong start to 'I Am No One' gives hope of renewed energy as it motors through the gears, pausing only to spill general misanthropy from its exhaust onto the shroud of Christ.  Unfortunately, from here on in it is all downhill.  Tired riffs, poorly arranged tracks and a general sense of real filler being present unfortunately.

2019 is slowly unveiling some fine releases. With Altarage, Overkill and Candlemass all making me grin thus far in the past three months, despite a slow start and some disappointments (Venom, Queensryche and Legion of the Damned). Naturally, your ears prick up when you hear Flo Mounier, Rune Eriksen and David Vincent have decided to get together and make some unholy communion. Straight away I thought we had potential AOTY material right here given the obvious talent and experience present on this record. I wasn't disappointed. Whilst not flawless, 'Something Wicked Marches In' is a glorious display of DM, performed by intelligent and capable artists who manage to individually stamp their authority on the record yet at the same time are mature enough to work as a complete and cohesive unit.

Let's start with David Vincent. He's by no means at an 'Altars...' or 'Blessed...' level of stature here yet his performance grabs the attention, not in the least due to the vocals being so forward in the mix. His grim and menacing style compliments the music perfectly, adding atmosphere and clearly enunciated declarations of wicked intent alongside his familiar growls. The painful memory of 'Illud...' is put to bed firmly here, much more effectively than Morbid Angel's mediocre follow up offering of 2017, it has to be said.

The dissonant , gnawing and at times melancholic guitar of Eriksen builds Mayhem-esque structures within solid chugging death metal riffs, offering variety and diverse pace throughout. Again, whilst sounding like Eriksen throughout the record it never feels at any point like his guitar work is dominating proceedings. His work moulds well around the percussion and vocal performances, crafting a real sense of balance and true artistic unison.

Then of course we have the machine that is Mounier. The famed Cryptopsy skin-basher is as you would expect on good form here, the varied pace of the album lending well to showcase the many sides to the repertoire of the Frenchman. Whether it is the faster pace that dominates much of the album or the more mid-paced tracks or passages that populate the album in abundance, Flo is there blasting and pounding as required with all the surety and aptitude you would expect form a man of his experience and ability.

Standout tracks include the title and opening track that sets the tone so well for the rest of the album with its multifarious pace. Straight away the performance feels tight and professional and as the blasting opening to 'Praevalidus' smashes into the listener like some DM freight train the quality level is immediately maintained. The ritualistic feel of 'Monolilith' with its chanted admiration of the demon of the night is superb and as enticing as the subject matter herself.

As I say, it is not a flawless record. For a start the bass is virtually lost in the mix (not 'And Justice For All...' lost but, nonetheless, undervalued somewhat in the mix. There are also times when you forget you are listening to an album as such since some of the tracks merge together a little and sound the same, almost like you are listening to established group jamming in their studio instead of recording a full-length. These are only minor quibbles since when 'Something Wicked Marches In' is on point it is fucking amazing.

Of the many black metal bands from Greece, few have the variation from that traditional warm and hellenic sound that the region is famed for.  The many sides of Acherontas are displayed throughout most of their discography but it is on album number three that this diversification really shines through.  For all the recognisable BM on display here there is a fair old portion of mantra-laden, ritualistic experimentation also.  The album opens up with such a passage and revisits the theme later on the superbly crafted 'Ohm Krim Kali'.

The album clocks in at a neat 45 mins and this feels just right for the listener to absorb the brilliance on display here.  Some later releases by the band push to over an hour in length and struggle sometimes to keep momentum I feel, but 'Vamachara' is that perfect combination of a honed and established sound coupled with a run time that compliments the saturation requirement of the album.

The atmosphere and experimentation shown on this record got ramped up on future releases, but what you get here that is a little lacking on the future full lengths is catchy riffs and an obvious heavy metal influence ('Drakonian Womb').  The brooding atmosphere here serves like some pre-eruption of volcanic proportions in terms of the creativity to come on later releases.  On the whole you have some confident, exciting and stylish riffing built into some steady, stable and consistent levels of songwriting.  The content may vary but the aptitude is unwavering.

Boasting an impressive line up consisting of members of Sargeist within the ranks, Finland's Desolate Shrine first grabbed my attention back in 2015 with this, their third release.  Exhibiting a blackened, death metal style the album is an assault of misanthropic occultism that lives up perfectly to the bands name.  With the added death/doom influence coupled with the odd burst of black 'n roll it is an album of variety also that commands attention on more than one level.

Beyond the extremity of the sound, the album is rooted on strong song writing.  Well-paced tracks build momentum without necessarily remaining staid for periods as they develop.  Just as you think a track has grown into a fixed level of darkness and intensity it kicks on some more or drops deep into murky waters; often diving from scathing heights.  The vocals of Roni Sahari and Markus Tuonenjoki are the main drivers to the album.  Cavernous and gruff, their style is more blackened overall than most other elements of the record but they work perfectly with the dark and leaden atmosphere of the instrumentation.  When the  music takes a more industrious pace the vocals seem to fit effortlessly with the changes in tempo without an alteration to pitch or delivery.

Lauri Laaksonen completes all instrumentation on the album and I am not sure why this is (perhaps other commitments kept the Sargeist duo occupied) and he does a great job.  Able to turn his hand to both lead/rhythm and bass guitar as well as drums, all his work feels present and accounted for in his own mix job without ever letting much of any one instrument dominate.  They all do sit in the shadow of the vocals in the main, which whilst not entirely a bad thing does make the record a bit one dimensional overall.  But it is full of consistent and tenebrous content all the same.

Fantasy-themed heavy metal rarely lives up to the expectation set by the album cover/title.  It often crosses my mind that if bands paid half as much attention to the musical content of their albums as they did with the cool artwork then the world would be a better place.  Most Manowar albums suffer from this scenario quite a lot in my experience so it is refreshing to have found Cirith Ungol a decade or so ago as one of the few bands who lived up to the promise of the etchings and sketchings on their record covers.

I get the dislike for the vocals (usually it is one of my major issues with records) but I have played this so much now that I actually would miss Tim Baker's vocals if they weren't there, I couldn't see anyone else being able to fill his shoes most definitely.  I think the vocals is what sets the music apart from other similar artists - in a good way for me - and makes me reach for anyone of the bands first three albums in order to scratch my epic/heavy metal itch.

The main cause for celebration here is the late Jerry Fogle's guitar work.  It is precise and vivacious, making the album soar and glide like some giant winged metal eagle that casts a huge shadow over all it flies over.  The pace of the album is largely slow to mid-tempo and Fogle's guitar sounds like it is centre-stage for most of it as a result, like it truly takes the lead and not just in the solo sense!  The percussion/rhythm unit of "Flint" on bass and Robert Garven on drums compliment him superbly, supporting where required and pairing back when required to do so also.

As much as I enjoy it, I can't go much above four stars for it as it never quite strays into being outstanding.  It most certainly is competent and unique at the same time but still lacks a little edge to just elevate it to five star material.  Too many tracks end the same or seem to get trapped within themselves and almost feel like they end without a full exploration of what they set out to achieve.  Still the album kept the flames that Frost and Fire started some three years earlier burning brightly for another couple of years.

Watain's last album "The Wild Hunt" got slated on one internet review for being "Nu-Dark Funeral with the heart of Bon Jovi". Whilst a certain amount of butthurt contributed the scribe of aforementioned review choosing such a frankly ridiculous statement, it was unfortunately indicative of the direction change of the album that saw the raw and ferocious nature of the band be trimmed back to make way for more melodic, progressive and accessible aspects.

"Trident Wolf Eclipse" is a return to that more traditional sound. Although melody is obvious throughout, it is more restrained. We have more Gorgoroth here than we do Bon Jovi that's for sure. No wheels are reinvented on Watain's sixth studio album. It is pretty standard BM fare, full of raw production values, tremolo leads and drums that can peel flesh from faces. You won't find a lot here that hasn't been done by Watain before but then again the fan base has been crying out for a return that more "underground" sound for four years plus now. As opposed to innovation let's just look at this albums raison d'etre as being to rectify the imbalance in their discography.

Even the album cover is more BM than your average Bandcamp BM demo release nowadays. Straight out of a 13 year old boy's maths jotter who gave up on trigonometry weeks ago. So, depending on whether the kvlt legions of troo black metal want to put their sacrificial goat carcasses down for long enough to give them a chance, Watain are back. Average at best, but back at least.

Despite producing three solid DM records in the mid to late nineties, Brutality somehow never hit the dizzy heights of the Deicide's or Cannibal Corpses of this world.  They seem to be talked about in tones that commend the output but no rationale can be applied to how they just weren't bigger than they were.

'When the Sky Turns Black' is album number two from Brutality and had a job to do to follow up the excellent debut, 'Screams of Anguish'.  Although it never quite tops that, the sophomore does give it a good go.  I think the arrangement is a little off on 'When...' in terms of the instrumental tracks and it just breaks up the album unnecessarily.  I also am not a fan of cover tracks early on in records, so when Black Sabbath's 'Electric Funeral' makes an appearance on track number four then this does grate a little bit for me as I just see it as disruptive to the flow of the record (as good a cover as it is).

On the plus side though, there are some excellent compositions on this record.  The title track that opens the record is an ugly motherfucker, it just cuts straight in to a slightly off-kilter rhythm (which is something I don't normally enjoy) before the pace kicks up and we get some glorious DM riffs and scorching sonics fired across our ear drums.  'Artistic Butchery' does exactly what it says on the tin as it systematically dismantles the listener with clinical precision.  'Race Defects' blazes its way through some of the finest DM riffing you'll see this side of 90's Trey Azagthoth and is clearly well written, coming across as structurally strong and varied.

So, not a bad DM record just not that well planned to my tastes.  When it does hit full stride it is just as good as the debut but sadly it somehow stifles itself a little too easily.

Immolation's importance in death metal gets overlooked all too often in my opinion.  The brilliance of their first two records alone has them rooted in the very fabric of all that we have to be thankful of as fans of the genre today.  Although I concede that things have been known to go off the boil (Harnessing Ruin, Shadows in the Light, Majesty and Decay) over the past three decades, in terms of overall consistency there are few bands with such an established fan base and length of service who can compete with the Yonkers horde.

After their slightly patchy third album Failures for Gods, the band returned with a real beast of a follow up in the superb Close to a World Below.  The dank and clammy death metal sound cloyed at your ears with that constant shift and expansion feel to the music giving serpentine like sensibilities to the experience.  Dolan's grim and uninviting vocals reverberate with distaste or all that is considered divine whilst the band layer the hatred on by the spade full.

For just over forty minutes you get ominous and baleful death metal, full of Immolation's trademark dissonant and pinched harmonics alongside complex riffing.  Unapologetic in its attitude and unrelenting in its delivery,  Vigna and Wilkinson add their unique and harrowing bends to proceedings, enhancing the sinister atmosphere whilst Hernandez thunders and thumps his way through complicated and intricate fills as he seemingly effortlessly follows the guitars with his sticks.

In terms of the overall discography, this record is up in the top three for me.  Whilst it may not touch on the timeless classics aspect of the first two records it stands out as an excellent return to form to start the new millennium off with and is just so disquieting in atmosphere and unfaltering in delivery.

What turned out to be Bolt Thrower's final full length saw the band go out with a real bang.  Sad though it was to see them decide to not go on after Martin Kearns' sad passing their final offering as a band was every bit as entertaining as the rest of their hefty back catalogue was.  A further tinge to the sadness is the belief that they could have carried on and done even more (Memoriam's output alone proves this).

Nostalgia and hope aside Those Once Loyal continued the rich vein of war themed death metal that fans had become accustomed to.  Opening duo At First Light and Entrenched drive forward the Bolt Thrower charge, setting their stall out perfectly.  Coventry's finest never rocked up to piss about and that attitude drips from this record.  The catchy and equally ripping The Killchain pummels away at you for nearly five minutes like some relentless artillery assault, fading in like some raging machine before immediately settling down into a robust chug and cut riff machine.

The power in those riffs never sounded more full or threatening and the menace in the brooding rhythm of the sound feels as assured as it does domineering.   The range and scope of the drums feel deft and dangerous as any sniper looking down on unsuspecting lead fodder.  I never felt like Bolt Thrower were veterans of the metal world, despite them having been around for the best part of two decades at the point of this release.  There was an energy here that belied their years, an urgency and eagerness to the sound that still appeals in bucket loads to my battered and bruised ears.

Having released the largely underwhelming Honour-Valour-Pride four years prior to this release the band took the return of Willetts as a springboard to get things firmly back on track.  We might only be able to speculate on what could have been had fate been kinder but we shouldn't rest too long on that negative and focus instead on the near perfect swan song that Bolt Thrower gave us.