UnhinderedbyTalent's Reviews

There's life in the old dog yet it seems. In terms of original members only Phil Fasciana remains in the ranks of Malevolent Creation now and after the passing of Brett Hoffman last year you could almost forgive fans for thinking the curtain had fallen on Malevolent Creation. The fact is that whilst "The 13th Beast" reinvents no wheels it does exhibit the sound of a band in the throes of something of a regeneration phase. There's nothing tired sounding here, no dull interludes to build unnecessary atmosphere. As soon as the spoken word intro to "End the Torture" finishes it is straight up thrashing death metal until the very end, some 11 tracks later.

Although all debuting in the Malevolent full length stakes here, the 3 musicians that join Fasciana on this record are all clearly capable and qualified purveyors of their art form. Again, I highlight that this is not far above your average DM record yet it is so assured and solid you can easily forgive it to some degree. Lee Wollenschlaeger gives a good acquittal of himself as an established and competent vocalist, filling Hoffman's shoes nicely. Phil Cancilla is a machine on those skins, blasting his way across the soundscape yet also using the percussion well when the occasional let up in the pace permits. Fasciana and Wollenschlaeger work well together to keep the chug of the riffs motoring along whilst Gibbs plonks, twangs and rumbles his way through every track, allowed to be heard in the mix and show his variety without ever showboating. For a band together for only 2 years as a four piece they sound tight and committed.

There's no metal fan worth the denim their patches are sewn onto that doesn't look at that album cover and mouth a "fuck me, dude!" I mean, come on, it is fucking awesome. Like a more ornamental Predator head on a ghostly green background. I love it when album covers are matched by the content of the record inside, and whilst there are obviously some shortfalls here, still in the main "The 13th Beast" delivers. When they keep the track length short and succinct, Malevolent Creation are at their best. "The Beast Awakened", "Agony for the Chosen" and "Knife at Hand" all kick serious ass. By the same token "Born of Pain" at nearly 7 minutes long doesn't really do anything or go anywhere to justify the length attributed to it.

Overall, I would have preferred a shorter record. At 11 tracks the band cover a lot of ground in under 50 minutes but not all of it really needs treading. That withstanding, never does it get grating and still the accessibility factor remains consistent enough to forgive the extra excursions present.

As far as melodic death metal albums go, I have found a lot more time for Goliath than I would normally afford anything else from this sub-genre. Having never seen the appeal of Kataklysm from any of my previous connections with their discography (was Sorcery really that good guys??) it was odd that I ended up drawn in on their fifteenth outing. It could be that the more groove metal moments are slightly more relevant given my ongoing exploration of that sub-genre via the Clan Challenge. Tracks like Gravestones & Coffins, with its infectious riff is one of the standout tracks for me on this record but there is nothing remarkable about any aspect of Goliath overall.

After multiple listens, I have concluded that Goliath is a bit dull. However, I still find myself coming back to it, as if the background music qualities of the record somehow cannot be denied. Having taken the time to try and understand which primitive aspect of my musical nature the record appeals to, I realised that the record is nothing short of a riff-fest. Upon my sixth or seventh listen it dawned on me that the record has no lead or solo work whatsoever. Its ten tracks rely solely on chugging and groovy riffs backed by a solid if not unremarkable percussion section. With a clumsy vocal delivery to boot, Goliath is a classic smash and grab melo-death album.

Those stabbing riffs that permeate the verses, (keeping the momentum going very well it must be noted still) give way to rolling slabs of groovy and sometimes less urgent moments that somehow manage to be relevant even when they appear to be slightly out of time on occasion. I would suggest that the lack of thought around pacing is one of the albums weaker points overall. When they do get it right (Bringer of Vengeance) it works well but it is inconsistent at best throughout the record.

To go more than three tracks on any melo-death album is an achievement for me but to last for ten without their being any solo work is just a bridge too far for me. Goliath plays as a record that tells me nothing about the band. It is ten tracks that mostly sound the same and what little glimpses of variety I do get are just not doing anything to separate Kataklysm from the rest of the field. It is memorable and slightly addictive but for all the wrong reasons in the end.

Progressing through the clan challenge for Groove Metal sees me arrive at one of the more inconsistent bands I have experienced over my time listening to metal. After their debut album, Poland’s Decapitated dropped right off my radar with Nihility and The Negation doing nothing to further the promise offered on Winds of Creation. Over a career that saw the band suffer immeasurable tragedy and move from their more traditional technical death metal sound to a more groove orientated direction in later years, Decapitated have gained very little of my attention since the early noughties.

Anticult landed on my radar before the clan challenge brought me here though, with Kill the Cult appearing on a workout playlist earlier this year and finding itself becoming a mainstay track for most of my kettlebell sessions. The rabid yet rhythmic style of that track was a good indicator of what to expect from the album overall. Although I would argue that there is nothing remarkable about Anticult in terms of being a classic by any means, it does offer a consistency that avoids pedestrianism largely due to the vicious and seemingly tireless energy levels that are deployed in abundance.

The old Decapitated sound is still here (Anger Line) amidst the more groove orientated sections. Closing track, Amen sounds like a Nile track – albeit never lives up to their sense of the epic by any means it must be noted. Part of Anticults success is that it does not allow the groove elements to be at the expense of the death metal strains of the record. Death metal is the core structure still with groove metal applying the fixtures and fittings if you like.

Anticult misses out on higher score because as solid as it maybe it never gets exciting. I have no desire to revisit it immediately after most plays, even with raging moments like One Eyed Nation still present in my brain. Whilst Kill the Cult continues to help me push various weights around, the album overall leaves me satiated yet still looking for a bit more somehow.

It is virtually impossible to underline importance of Obituary in terms of them being my gateway into death metal some thirty plus years ago. If your first taste of a death metal vocalist is John Tardy on Slowly We Rot, a man who rarely used actual words to express his vocals then you were pretty much guaranteed to be either repulsed and run straight back to your Iron Maiden LP’s or be so drawn in that there was soon no way back from the path you had been dragged down. As the years have rolled by, watching other stalwarts of the early nineties’ scene fade away, I would argue that although they do not have a flawless discography, Obituary are still consistent performers of death metal who have a lot more in their arsenal other than those glorious first two records.

Hence my nomination of World Demise for the October feature release. I feel like the internet has talked endlessly about the first two Obituary albums and much of the discography is an almost presumed failure by comparison. Although I accept that World Demise does not match those classic outputs from 1989 and 1990, it still possesses enough identity to standout in the grander scheme of things. This was a slower paced Obituary, shed of its more scathing skin of old with a more socio-political bluntness being deployed instead. When Tardy sneers that he really does not care on the opening track, you believe him, 100%. Backed by his brother’s solid drumming and the superb bass of the late Frank Watkins, John could not ask for a better set of backup weapons to his unique and newly legible vocal attack.

Despite, the slower pace, the more focused lyrics and general stripped back nature of the record, it is still quintessentially Obituary. Those riffs from Peres and West are as familiar as ever and if you allow yourself to get lost in them, you could just as easily be listening to the debut album all over again. World Demise ultimately lacks any truly standout moments though. Despite its solid musicianship and altered direction that they carry off well enough, it does tend to plod in places. The loss of that dense atmosphere left a few cracks uncovered and those snippets don’t land well when they try including them. The best example here being that shifting effect on Splattered which I think is one of the worst errors of judgement in the history of the band.

These quibbles are just that though, nothing earth shattering when taken in the context of the whole record which is a solid slab of death metal. Give me World Demise over Tales From The Thousand Lakes or Blasphemy Made Flesh from the same year.

When Lamb of God returned to their previous name of Burn the Priest for the release of a covers album, they managed to find a real sweet spot for themselves with these ten tracks from a selsction of punk, hardcore, industrial and alt-rock bands.  I do not class myself as a fan of either iteration of the band's music from a discography perspective, however here on Legion: XX they bring an appeal in the earthiness of the tracks they choose to perform.  They push the right buttons for me at least with the likes of Kill Yourself (S.O.D.), We Gotta Know (Cro-Mags) and Kerosene (Big Black).

Blythe finds his best territory on the Bad Brains cover especially and drummer Chris Adler sounds like he is having a ton of fun on more or less all of the tracks.  In fact, the vibe throughout the whole album is a positive one with the band capturing a real jam session ethos on the record.  As a result, Legion: XX sound like a real fun album.  Whilst not being one I will probably revisit very often beyond this couple of weeks of discovery, it has kept me entertained and works well as an accompaniment for driving around or even as background music when working.

So, as it turns out my favourite BtP/LoG release is one were the band wrote none of the music themselves.  If nothing else this proves that you do not necessarily need to make music yourself that appeals to me everytime.  Harking back to your roots and exploring some of you influences on a release is not always as shameful and corporate a move as can often be implied.

Alongside simple intrigue and some nostalgia for groove metal it is death/thrash that has mainly kept me interested in The Pit clan of late. Many of such releases sit in the early days of the development of the two genres themselves and so it was great to find a release from the current year that ticked this box nicely. With the progressive edge to proceedings of course there was an additional level of interest to When Time Becomes Loss. Those strong Death influences alongside Atheist and Cynic also make for a nice hint of that nostalgia also.

Comparisons with Vektor seem obvious but I think that Hemotoxin go for the jugular more with their songwriting being a lot less expansive than Vektor, one of the main drawing points for me on this album being that it has a run time of less than half an hour and is very easy to digest even if you consider its diversity of sounds. With an ear for melody evident also, it is not difficult to see that the band possess a high level of expertise with their instruments and can translate this into catchy as well as technical at the same time.

If I had to cite a more modern release to compare this to, I would pick Deconsecrate by Aenigmatum from 2021. Perhaps Hemotoxin are a little less frantic than that record (certainly less bass driven), but I think it is a comfortable reference point for me. The mix here helps all the instruments feel more contained than I would normally like – I think the drums suffer the worst from this – however, the band do still sound tight as a unit and get every opportunity to flex their individual and collective muscles. A ferocious and inventive release, When Time Becomes Loss is an explosion of energy from the off that never wanes over seven invigorating tracks.  I most certainly had not factored a release from The Pit featuring in my year end list, but Hemotoxin's fourth full length release has caught me unawares. 

Albums with big openers are usually going in one of two directions, right? Either the full energy and quality of the album is exhausted in the opening track, or it sets the precedent for the rest of the album. In my experience anyway. Germany’s Praise the Plague open their sophomore offering with the vast The Descent. A track that takes time to build its doomy atmosphere before it veers off into more frantic black metal musings. A big and powerful track, The Descent pulls you into the album immediately, surrounding you – no immersing you – in its dense and murky atmosphere from the start. When it ends, the second track instantly takes over and continues this journey superbly. Blackening Swarm II (I can’t see the first one anywhere, so will assume it is on a previous release) picks up right were the opening track left off continuing this solid structure and the immense depth promised from the previous track.

The production job is great giving the album a dynamic sound and one that does not falter when the more dissonant passages arrive at various points of the record. There is a constant sense of power behind the sound no matter which track you listen to and more importantly this album plays well track by track, delivering a cohesive and recognisable sound throughout. Even the eerie, spoken word section in the middle of Great Collapse that gives way to post-metal pickings does not rob the momentum from the album as when the weight comes back into the track it does so with a hair-raising level of success. At over nine minutes, the third track on the album could have easily become a collapse, yet Praise the Plague carry it off superbly.

To be honest, I spent most of The Obsidian Gate waiting for the dip to arrive. The fact is though, even with the instrumental title track pacing things more subtly with its industrial atmospherics at the halfway point of the album, this record has amazing resilience and staying power. Compositionally it is of a consistently high quality and the tracks are arranged superbly. Taking the six tracks in the context of two making up the beginning, two the middle and the other two the end section of the record, The Obsidian Gate is frankly flawless.

What was promised from the start, in terms of a densely intense, atmospheric experience is still evident as the album draws out its final breaths. With the promise of some escape route from closing track The Ascent, the listener will find themselves merely teased by the prospect of this release as they probably will not want to leave and nor do Praise the Plague have any intention of letting them go.

A successful discovery from this month’s The Fallen playlist, Ponte del Diavolo grabbed my attention with the strong and commanding intro to the featured track, Covenant.  With their dark wave style, female vocals and their Messa-esque tones I was intrigued more or less from the off.  Hailing from Italy and seemingly some sort of supergroup (albeit from three bands I have never heard of), the band like to incorporate elements of black metal into their sound as well.  Whilst Covenant is most definitely the strongest track on their seven track, Season of Mist debut release, there is still a lot to enjoy overall for the patient listener.

First off, the instruments that are used go beyond simple drum, guitar, bass and vocals.  Synthesisers, a theremin and a clarinet all make an appearance on different tracks and each inclusion adds dimension to the album.  There is mention on the internet that the band deploys two bassists but as far as I can see this was only on their debut EP Mystery of Mystery back in 2020 so there’s definitely only one bassist present for Fire Blades From the Tomb.  There is also a cool post-punk vibe to the record as well and Elba del Diavolo’s voice lends itself perfectly to this style of music.  Those black elements are sparse yet effective when they are engaged and the album is underpinned in the main by a solid group performance of occult doom metal.

It is not without flaws as a record however.  The Nick Cave cover is done well, but I have no time for anything Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have ever done so it is an unfortunate choice in terms of my review.  Whilst most tracks have memorability, there are elements of filler where this memorability is for the wrong reasons.  Repetitive lyrics and clumsy arrangements can plague the likes of Nocturnal Veil for example and I cannot honestly remember anything about Zero other than some guest male vocals.  This is still a strong debut though and one that will get the band further notoriety I am sure with SoM behind them now.  Definitely one to watch.

Idolum and I have history. It was one of the many albums I played on repeat, night after night during my many stays in hotels during my days working as a consultant across the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland. Often, it was my headphones, my phone and me working long into the night on various builds of datasets, lesson plans, project plans and RAID logs for the various programmes I was across at the time. Its hypnotic and psychedelic qualities were well suited to this type of work I found, and I would say it made the often-laborious nature of the work more sustainable.

Having been a long-time fan of Hawkwind’s Space Ritual album, Idolum hit immediate comparators for me which opened it up for me more or less immediately. Just as easily as its thunderous roar could jolt me into action on any task, at the same time it had enough serenity to be able to support me entering a sufficiently relaxed state to empty my brain and be ready for a sound sleep.

The build of the opening track before it slams into the listener with the weight of one planet colliding into another sets up the experience of Idolum perfectly from the start. Although I find the album to be very well tempered and balanced there is no denying the sheer power and ferocity of the sludge elements on display here. It is an album that does not always command your full attention, therefore. However, when it wants you to stop what you are doing, it absolutely knows what to do to steer you into its colossal trajectory. As such, the album works on multiple levels, even if you decide to turn all the lights out and play it loudly or through headphones, it can give just as much reward as if you are reading, cooking etc, as it plays.

Following this record, Ufomammut dropped a single track, forty-four-minute album before bringing us the Oro duo of records in 2012, which are also records I have spent many enjoyable hours with. If you want consistency in your music, look no further than Ufomammut’s discography from 2008 to 2015. Heavy, spacey and utterly addictive psychedelic sludge/stoner/doom metal at its finest.

Following the discovery of Cowboys From Hell some two years prior, I awaited the arrival of Pantera's sophomore release with a level of excited anticipation that damn near caused palpitations to my teenage heart.  I guess if they had released Vulgar... and it was an absolute turkey I would have still loved it, such was my admiration for the band at this stage.  Thankfully, there was no need for me to gloss over any of the album when it came out as it was near perfect to my ears back then.  We are of course some 30 years on from the release first landing in my hands and this revisit as part of my Groove Metal Clan Challenge certainly tested whether it was just pure nostalgia that would maintain the high score for Vulgar... or if the quality that I was so enamoured with in 1992 (at the tender age of 16) was still as obvious to this day.

The record starts strongly.  There is no fucking around here as we get straight into things with the opening track.  Mouth For War (previously released as a single) offers no intro and sets expectations immediately on the intensity levels that all of us had come to expect from the debut offering.  Indeed the whole first half of the record (first five tracks at least) lands hit after hit as we cycle through the anthemic Walk and of course the ultimate middle finger raised soundtrack, Fucking Hostile.  The taught and calculating This Love gives early promise of the darker direction the band were to take two years later.

Being honest.  Parking any nostalgia for now.  The back half of Vulgar... suffers badly from filler.  The dip in quality from track six onwards is far too obvious nowadays to my ears that it would be criminal to overlook.  The rapping on No Good (Attack the Radical) and the mish mash structure of Live in a Hole alone are enough to strip a whole star of the end rating here.  It sounds very much like Pantera ran out of those big riffs very quickly here and instead had to take whatever was on the cutting room floor into full production.  Even though the quality of DImebag's solos never drop quite as much as the overall songwriting does, they are not enough to keep the entertianment value going on the album.  Listening back now it feels like I listened to the first part of the record back in 1992 and fell in love with that so much that I went into some form of denial on the rest of the record.  With the possible exception of By Demons Be Driven, I could easily leave Vulgar... alone after the first five tracks on any future revisits.  

Continuing my Groove Metal List Challenge (finally) and time to go back to my youth with the fifth full length release from a band who had a hard act follow as I simply adored their previous offering, Arise from two years earlier.  Arise had it all for me, solid structures, great production and still that fantastic hunger to it that exemplified the fathomless appetite for thrash metal tat the band clearly had.  I do not recal that I had heard any other albumby the Seps at that time even so I had no idea of the murkier beginnings from which they came.  To me, the bar was set high by Arise at the time and only coming to their early releases many years later actually enhanced my enjoyment of the album as it was clear throughout all of the releases, up to and including Arise, that Sepultura had grown with each release.  Inevitably, that progression would slow down and be replaced by some new influences.  The tribal trappings of Roots which was still some three years away at this point were more than clear when Chaos A.D. dropped.  Instrumental track, Kaiowas clearly showing the tide that was growing behind the more groove orientated direction the band deployed overall on Chaos A.D. and whilst I would not say the intensity levels dropped too much as a result, the quality levels unfortuantely took a hit.

Despite giving it many chances, even buying it on CD the second it came out, I could never shake the feeling that Chaos A.D. was a huge let down.  A top heavy record to my ears, by the time we get to track seven there is a noticeable dip in quality from what has come prior.  Despite flashes of promise from the likes of Nomad, there is little comparable quality to the likes of Refuse/Resist, Territory and Slave New World that open the record so strongly.  Tracks such as We Who Are Not As Others just come across as lazy by comparison and ultimately the album feels like it is made by a band who ran out of steam very quickly.  The inclusion of the New Model Army cover of The Hunt is the only other real high point of the album for me.  The politcal machinations of tracks like Manifest just feel like immature musings and Biotech is Godzilla should have been left on the cutting room floor.

It is disappointing when a band's golden run comes to an end, even though in this case, Arise is a real high point to finish theirs on.  With Chaos A.D. I get the sense that the growth of groove metal became something of distraction for the band and the song structures just became a tad quirky as a result.  I have listened to little if any Sepultura records after this one in all honesty and each time I approach it, I sort of want to like it more than I know I am going to.  My score has remained consistent over the years though and there is little chance some three decades after first hearing it of that changing I am afraid.

Low remains a bit of a mystery album to me as I write this review. As I stated in the forum thread for this feature release, I instantly recalled (virtually track by track) this album the very instant I began to listen to it. It is not that it is even an album that contains many singles (in fact just Dog Faced Gods) or overly popular tracks in general, so at some point in the 90’s, in the chaos of bought physical copies of albums and an equally large (if not larger) tape collection of what I had recorded from lent or library copies, Low was clearly in rotation for some time.

1994 saw the furthering of the thrash off-shoot that was groove metal. With Machine dropping their debut four months before this Testament release and Pantera delivering the darker and molesting Far Beyond Driven before either of the above, it was a year that saw Testament experimenting also. Just as Anthrax, Sepultura and Prong had done already, Testament allowed elements of groove into their music. Adding in a ballad as well as two instrumental tracks, there is a lot to catch the ear on Low.

Whichever element you target on Low, the fact is that this is a catchy record. It retains those thrashing chops in the riff department and Chuck Billy puts in a sterling performance as we would all expect. However, James Murphy is almost redundant here in terms of obvious contribution and when he does shine it is all too briefly to leave any real sense of a mark on the record. Add to this the fact that Tempesta is all but drowned out in the mix (Dog Faced Gods – are you even present John) and their soon emerges some challenges for me with this record that are only partially resolved with this unexpected nostalgia.

As a ballad, I don’t find Trail of Tears as cringey as some of my peers (I have heard a lot worse) and the instrumentals are entertaining enough but are arranged poorly in the running order as they could be used much better to disrupt some of the average parts of the album. It is good see Greg Christian treading the boards on Urotsukidōji though with his bass being an integral part of the track. Overall though, the fondness I had for Low is not enough to push the ratings into the higher echelons of the scoring spectrum.

Melodic death metal or Melo-death if you want to be snappy is perhaps one of my least favourite sub-genres. Whether it is (early) Soilwork, (early) In Flames, Children of Bodom or Scar Symmetry I just find it bizarre that there is a watered-down version of death metal. If you grew up in the 90’s like me on a solid diet of Morbid Angel, Obituary etc then death metal is supposed to be swarming and brutal to the point of being overwhelming. Melodic death metal by comparison has just always been overbearing. Except for Heartwork by Carcass I can safely say I have never heard a melodic death metal album that has pleased me.

Enter Mercenary into the fray. Sat top of The Metal Academy death metal album chart (currently) by some horrid miscarriage of ratings with the Danes fourth album offering, The Hours That Remain. Straight away as I heard this, I thought of fellow Danish groove metal melodicists, Raunchy (who have been around for pretty much the whole time Mercenary have been). I do not mind me some Raunchy every now and again, but I cannot say that I will be harbouring the same affections for Mercenary in the future.

The Hours That Remain is immaculately produced. Jacob Hansen uses every bit of his experience on this one and (for the melodic death metal fan at least) produces a great sounding album. The progressive/power elements of the album really shine as a result. Although not my usual bag, the over-the-top vocals work well in the mix and keep the tempo going well over the riffing. The drums are mixed terribly though and carry no authority whatsoever. Add to this the invasive use of keyboards and the expected dilution of the more promising aspect of the sound (the guitars) is soon lost.

It is not all that catchy or memorable either, despite all the effort in those power metal vocals during the choruses. As a result, there are no standout tracks, leaving me with a very formatted sounding experience that sounds like a continued regurgitation of the same idea over and over and over and over again.

Allowing some electronic and pop sensibilities into my metal has been a recent trend from the last couple of years. Starting with the completely unexpected success of Bad Omen’s last full-length release, I have flirted around with these once considered alien elements to little if any success. The fact is, there’s a dirge of such styled artists and bands around nowadays and the exploration is at best underwhelming despite the extent of the resource to run at. Sleep Token landed on one of my workout playlists that my streaming service devises with The Summoning, a six minute plus varied track with some killer riffs that initially piqued my metal interests.

Multiple playbacks of that track eventually brought me round to considering it worthy enough a gateway into Take Me Back to Eden, the band’s album from last year. Initial exploration soon taught me that the riffs of The Summoning were an isolated affair, and the more mainstream and commercial leanings of the album did not sit right with me at all. It has taken a few attempts (mostly during recent hotel stays on my own with headphones and my phone) but I now feel I am there with Take Me Back to Eden. Quite where “there” is takes a little explanation.

The heavier elements in the rhythmic structures of Sleep Token’s third full-length are more commonplace than I first believed. As big a draw as this is for me, they do also however lack variety and sometimes just feel like they are put in place for the hell of it. The fraught lyrical content gets a substantial and well characterised delivery in the unique vocals of Vessel. Sounding like some bastardised version of George Ezra meets metalcore, the vocals are complimented by various influences of music ranging from metal, through pop, through trap and even jazz. All are done with a panache that shows a skill and deftness for a varied musical palate.

For the first eight tracks, this fluid soundscape works well. For the final four tracks…not so well. This is because Sleep Token have far too many ideas but not enough quality structures to frame them in. The album sounds immediately tired to the point of exhaustion as soon as the dull tropes of DYWTYLM kick in and this marks the end of Take Me Back to Eden long before the title track even gets a chance to play. There are still catchy lines and hooks aplenty in the final parts of the record, but they are cast splattergun-like into songs that lack form and identity. Only on occasion do they surface for deserved recognition, but they are all too soon forgotten (even with repeated plays) and I find myself just listening to the earlier “hits” like Chokehold, The Summoning, Granite and Aqua Regia instead.

My initial reservations around the rerecording of an already perfectly serviceable thrash metal record were unfounded I am happy to declare having listened through Schizophrenia 2024 a couple of times.  Whilst I am still dubious as to the overall benefit (I mean the original needs no obvious enhancement, unlike say a Breeding the Spawn by Suffocation would do), the Cavalera family have not butchered this album thankfully.  Whilst they can do nothing about the inconsistent tracklisting they had to play with they have made obvious improvements on the production and performance aspects of the record.

That hi-octane energy level sounds just as fresh as it did with a bunch of youngsters thrashing their brains out some near four decades earlier.  The twin guitar attack make for chunky yet still slightly muffled at times sounding riffs that do seem to get a little murky (To the Wall) and I think Igor is sold a little short this time around in the mix also (albeit inconsistently - other times he sounds firmly front and centre).  Ultimately though I find I want to listen to Schizophrenia 2024 the whole way through each time as it is still a feel good thrash metal record and I have to admit that my attention span for this record has proven far more expansive than I originally expected.

Some of this is down to the interesting lead work of Travis "Eviscerator" Stone, with the Pig Destroyer bassist showing he knows his way around more than just four strings (he also plays guitars for Noisem of course) with a level of skill and aptitude.  Is he comparable with Andeas Kisser who was 19 when the original album was released?  Well, no.  However, that's the point really.  Travis as a much more experienced guitarist coming into rerecord the album obviously adds a different perespective.  The addition of a third member of the Cavalera family this time around with Max's son Igor Cavalera Jr plodding along (somewhere in the mix) in here shows the Cavalera brand is in good hands in the future.

Is it entertaining?  Yes.

Is it needed?  No.

Moving along with my groove metal clan challenge (just for shits ‘n giggles because most groove metal induces either or with me) and I am trying to get through all the releases that cross into core territory first. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, although I have gotten a little more comfortable with metalcore and deathcore in recent years, they remain my least favoured sub-genres and therefore it would be all too easy to park them at the end of my challenge and give them little attention until I absolutely must. Secondly, such releases are integral to the early noughties’ development of groove metal that it they are impossible to ignore.

My first foray into A Life Once Lost’s 2005 release, Hunter was a successful experience. Byzantines’ offering in the challenge list faired a little less favourably and so it was with some degree of hope that Throwdown’s album from the same year as the above two releases would restore the balance in a more positive direction again.

It didn’t.

The main problem I have with Vendetta is that it is utterly one-dimensional. This is the exact same territory that Hatebreed ruled over for the previous eight years already. Vocals falling over the top themselves alongside racing guitars and d-beat percussion. Rinse, and repeat. Where the groove elements do get space to breathe, they are short lived, and we soon found ourselves in the near robotic and mechanical riffing that sullies most of the tracks on the album. Plus, you must get five tracks into the album to hear pretty much any groove influence at all. Your patience is hardly rewarded.

For an album clearly so full of anger and vitriol the is just a lack of energy to many of the tracks on here, largely because it is the same track structure repeatedly exhausted time after time. This album is apparently considered by some to be a “classic” in terms of The New Wave of American Heavy Metal that was a surging movement at the time. It has not aged all that well clearly, but I doubt I would had been much more enamoured with Vendetta had I been around in that scene some twenty years ago.

The gritty start to this record that is provided by Justica, heralds the promise of a halfway decent groove metal. The solid riffs and lead work that make up the track are combined greatly with the rhythm and vocal sections to create an energetic if not all that remarkable opening. The Pantera influence in the vocals is obvious as are the Lamb of God similarities alongside the rhythmical structures of Meshuggah, albeit that the latter similarity is not as well delivered.

The challenge here comes from the vocals. Despite being a perfectly capable metallic hardcore vocalist, Chris Ojeda insists on interjecting with actual singing, something which he lacks the voice to achieve unfortunately. This is a massive irritation for me and one which detracts greatly from my enjoyment of the record. As the record goes on, I am increasingly convinced that this is a tale of two halves. Instrumentally strong with the vocals letting the side down overall.

These forays into John Bush-style vocals (not a fan of him at all) really do take the wind out of the sails although they do use the more progressive sounding leads to much better effect to temper the more aggressive elements of the record without disrupting the flow as clumsily. With a bit of thought and maybe even a guest vocalist, things could have panned out better on this record for my ears at least. Otherwise, …And They Shall Take Up Serpents is a consistent affair that maintains a level of power for most of the record. Attempting to trace those Meshuggah patterns on the guitar sometimes leads them astray and there is more than one occasion where I am sure they find themselves somewhere in a track unintentionally. Nevertheless, there is enough aptitude in the band to make sections cohesive (vocals aside). In the better moments of the record, we can have some interesting compositions such as Ancestry of the Antichrist, with its tribal undertones stretching the boundaries into more of a world music vibe.

At the same time, I am not sure we need the piano intro to Five Faces of Madness as the track has a vibrancy to it once it gets going that needs to be accessed more immediately. However, the record plays out much stronger than I predicted based on my initial first listen and although I would probably give it a trim if left up to me, I still find this entertaining overall if not more from just a musical perspective as opposed to the whole experience.

Sometimes curiosity gets the better of us all.  Just how bad does an avocado taste?  Is Keeping Up With the Kardashians all that bad a TV show?  What's in that hole that's too dark for me to see into but just big enough to get my hand in?  Whether you have come away from such ventures with a foul taste in your mouth, a compelling wish to have your eyes cleansed with a powerwasher or are simply looking for a donor for a hand transplant, it is safe to say that curiosity does not alway pay dividends.  My main stings come from putting together The Pit clan monthly playlists and as my curiosity in groove metal expands I find myself straying into territory I am not usually known to frequent.  On balance, and to prove that curiosity can work really well my recent discovery of A Life Once Lost's Hunter album was a great success, and although you will see from the star rating that N.A.T.I.O.N. does not fare anywhere near as well I must still flag the limited appeal of the record that has kept me coming back to it for the past four weeks or so.

Playing as a bastardised form of alternative metal with some groove and core elements slung in, this record certainly has its share of peaks and troughs.  The obvious single fodder of Killing Me Slowly, Sober and Learn To Walk Again possess that skin irritant level infectiousness that can cause the more extreme metal fan to scratch several layers from their skin.  Yet the latter of those three is actually may favourite song on the whole album and is a killer track to workout to with a couple of dumbells in your hands.  Likewise, the catchy lines of No Messiah imprint enough of a weighty impression on me to include that on my functional strength training playlist also.  When allowed to take centre stage, the groove metal riffs on the album give a real sense of an act with some "oomph" behind them.  As strong as any other plyers in the groove metal field as this appears to make them, these moments are all too often shortlived though and the main issue that I have with N.A.T.I.O.N. starts to take hold of my listening experience.

There seems an obvious and consistent attempt to sound commercial and mainstream on the album as we get bogged down in ballads (Better Off This Way, Sober) or the mindlessly compressed chaos such as Foe or Friend or The Consumerist that genuinely hurt my brain to listen to. Vocally, the album ranges from some near drawling modern country style through to scathing screams with the main emphasis being on the former as the songs seem to focus with a heavy reliance on emotion driving the messaging. With competent yet never remarkable drumming and a similar description can easily be applied to the guitars, N.A.T.I.O.N. soon becomes more of a drain than a draw.

A Life Once Lost posed a real quandary for me as I started my first fresh clan challenge in some months here on MA. As clear exponents of metalcore and djent alongside their groove metal elements (neither of which are my preferred sub-genres by any means) I was pensive to try and see how these all fit together. Clearly influenced by Meshuggah with those palm-muted and chunky riffs obvious alongside the polyrhythms, A Life Once Lost thankfully had enough quality by their third album to make these more convoluted elements sit well together on Hunter. Far from being an alienating experience, I soon found myself very much at ease with what I was listening to.

The groove metal elements are very much in the Lamb of God vein (based on my limited understanding of the groove metal sub-genre overall, this is my main reference point here thus far) and there is an odd sense of comfort in this as I listen through the record. Whilst never out of control as such, Hunter does have a lot going on over eleven tracks and so some familiarity to grab hold of is important for me to get my bearings every now and again. I find the groove elements to be particularly strong in the sense that they hold some real power that does not get muted by anything else. All too often with groove metal I soon find myself at odds with something even if the actual groove of the guitar is as I like. But on Hunter I have no real problem with any of what I hear in the mix. The vocals are scathing, and the rhythm section holds a real presence also, and whilst acknowledging the technical prowess on show, never does any of the drumming feel too complex for complex’s sake.

The success (for me at least) of the groove elements are largely down to how well they are allowed to breathe, with the metallic hardcore elements being clear but not oppressive enough to detract from my enjoyment of the album. In fact, whether conscious or not, A Life Once Lost manage to arrange the influences and elements of their songs with a degree of professionalism overall. It might be chaotic, but it is an organised chaos regardless. The groove metal appears to almost explode out of the aether at times without becoming a disruptive influence and as such A Life Once Lost show a talent for making the ugliness that is inherent in their aggressive and spewing style of music entertaining.

Possessing a real sense of having an engine at the core of what they were doing on this record, A Life Once Lost give a good acquittal of themselves here. I won’t pretend to love all the record though and for all my positives around the clarity of the record there is still a sense of things needing an esoteric ear to truly fathom the whole record which I do not always have the patience to lend, certainly on repeated listens/visits. However, for a record that presented me with some sense of being daunted by Hunter is a triumph over that slightly narrow-minded expectation I had set at least.

I have skipped a couple of Gatecreeper releases since I reviewed their Sonarian Depravation release from 2016.  Reading their write up on this latest album they encourage the listener to view Dark Superstition as their Wolverine Blues or Massive Killing Capacity moment, promising that like the artists on these albums, Gatecreeper have become tighter and are "doing their own thing".  If I am honest they sound exactly like I remember them the last time and even after four listens I am still no nearer to finding any dramatic nuances to what I already find to be a very endearing sound to begin with.  Where Dark Superstition does draw influence from Entombed and Dismember is definitely still obvious though as those crunchy riffs keep hacking away at the listener with a relentless intensity, accompanied those spewing and gruff vocals that so perfectly capture the old school (Bolt Thrower-like) roots of the band.

I can see we have this tagged as a melodic death metal record on the old Metal Academy which I have to say is a push for me to agree with.  Dark Superstition is melodic I agree but it is not a true melodic death metal release by any stretch of the imagination.  Although I do sense some opening up of the accessibility of Gatecreeper's music I do not think this sacrifices the old school intensity of the band's signature sound.  We still plod through doomy passages as well and this is never better exemplified than on Mastepiece of Chaos which absolutley lives up to its billing.  Whilst i can sense the logic behind the tag on some tracks, this is not Arch Enemy folks.  Where things do stray a little too close to that territory (Superstitious Vision), the d-beat content thankfully maintains the boundary enough for my ears at least.

So then, where's this "tightness" I mentioned earlier?  If I am honest, this is really only shows on album closer Tears Fall from the Sky which is by far the most mature track on show here.  The paired back approach contains rather than blunts the psychotic levels of attack evident on the record to this point.  There is a restrained element to this track that reminds me of Grave with a looming doom element that would not sound out of place on an Asphyx record.  That having been said, Dark Superstition is a record from a band much improved from their 2016 offering.  Their work ethic is obvious to these ears and although they do not rip up the formula of nearly a decade ago by any means they are now clear heavyweights in their division.  I would argue they still lack much in the way of knockout blows but they sure as shit can jab and work the body well enough. 

When I hear about "ultimate" comeback albums, in all honesty I am usually underwhelmed.  Former glory is often one moment in history that is nigh on impossible to achieve again, even for the most established and talented musicians out there.  With line up changes and the health of Chuck Billy thankfully only temporarily taking a downturn, Testament were still away from new material for nearly a decade.  After The Gathering (which I am not a fan of) we saw compilations and live albums aplenty before the reunited line-up that saw Skolnick and Christian back in the fold finally put out a studio album, and for once this comeback opus was actually pretty impressive.

Capturing a younger and instantly captivating energy from the opening bars of the intro, The Formation of Damnation truly does display a band who have found their funk again.  Seemingly having lost none of their vigour for vicious thrashing metal here we find a hungry sounding band really working out any kinks with a show of stylish muscianship borne out of renewed friendships and a period of unease.  The partnership of Peterson and Skolnick has arguably never sounded as strong as it does here and most certainly this is not only a great return to form, it is possibly also Testament's last great album outright.  Consistency really is the champion of the day here as whilst there is no real variation in style across the eleven tracks on show here, there is also no drop in quality or infection of the dreaded filler either.

I would like more solos (I am old school like that) but what few I do hear are more than competent enough.  Similarly I would like a little less mud on the drum mix, especially considering the recruitment of the excellent Paul Bostaph for this album, I feel he is somewhat short-changed despite putting in his usual level of wonder on the skins.  Chuck as ever sounds strong as an ox and carries much of this sense of youthful energy in his vocals for me which (as always) are the piece of the album I remember the most.  If I was a "list" person as so many of the other regulars at Metal Academy and I had a "Top Ten Comeback Records", this record would be in there most definitely.  However, in the absence of a consistent inner nerd I will simply say that this a great thrash metal album and a superb comeback release to boot.

Post-Seasons in the Abyss studio output from Slayer took an immediate downturn for my liking and even with the might of Paul Bostaph drafted in to fill the seemingly unfillable boots of Dave Lombardo, the band continued to embrace mediocrity to my ears and my interest level registered zero beeps whenever word of new Slayer leaked into my vicinity. The prospect of the usually considered weaker guitarist from the classic line-up releasing a solo album left me with little expectation of any quality given the output he had collaborated with for the past 30 years or so at least. News that one of my least favoured vocalists (Mark Osegueda’s vocals with Death Angel have been an eternal curse in my book) was being drafted in alongside the consistent yet never remarkable Phil Demmel and the bassist from Hellyeah fleshing out the numbers, only served to further dilute the prospects of me giving From Hell I Rise any airtime whatsoever.

Then I heard the single Idle Hands and shifted a few inches closer to my box that I could foresee me soon being encouraged to climb back into.

Already hearing that Osegueda sounded like a man reborn, near in fact to a much younger and more angst-ridden Tom Araya it should be noted, alongside a consistent wall of riffs and functional yet never spectacular lead work (albeit still a lot more interesting than the work on the last seven Slayer albums) displayed against the usual service from Mr Bostaph on the drums, I soon found KK’s debut solo release getting a lot more plays than first predicted.

Raging thrash metal tracks such as Crucifixation were completely unexpected slabs of intensity long feared dead since the prime years of King in the 80’s. The social commentary aspect of the album’s vocals suggests a much younger age bracket is playing the music but with most of the band pushing sixty this is testimony to the youthful ambition that flows through the veins of the collaborators present. Toxic seethes and writhes in simmering frustration at all manner of social institutions and perceived cultural ills. The groove metal riffing of Two Fists helps drill home the already clear and present message in the track, kicking the intensity up a couple of gears when it takes precedence in the track. Whilst clearly a thrash metal album end to end, From Hell I Rise explores a couple of cross-border forays as well to mix up the content nicely.

Look, it isn’t flawless. But what it most certainly is for me is an unexpected win. Forget showmanship and wankery levels of technicality being on show because that was never what Slayer or Kerry King were originally about. Clearly showing there is life in the old dog yet, FHiR does the basics perfectly well enough and provides the listener with a consistent level of entertainment for over forty minutes.

Playing like 1990’s, Seasons in the Abyss era Slayer meets the equally stripped back Chaos A.D. from Sepultura that was to come out a year after Renewal, Kreator’s experimental album epitomises the change of direction that was so common from the established thrash metal old guard. Toying with a toned-down guitar and a very Tom Araya esque vocal style, Renewal also deploys some changes of pace to keep things interesting as well.

 Fact is though, that when left to the simple stuff, Kreator’s best output on Renewal was when they delved back into the more familiar territory that they had made their name on. The basic riffing of Reflection simply does not need to get lost in the meandering nature of the track. The superb Zero to None is only really let down by Mille’s vocal work, the rest of it stands up well as a (still down tuned) thrasher. I do not really have any problem with the industrial intro track that proceeds it either. If there was any attempt to make such a style more of a staple of the album, then it would soon get old I feel though.

My main problem with Renewal is how amateur it sounds. Notwithstanding that I am listening to a remastered version (which usually means “messed up” in my experience), the album still sounds like a compilation of b-sides and demos that never left the cutting room floor and have been cobbled together by the record label to get every dollar out of the band. It is hard for me to fathom that these tracks were deemed of enough quality to be released at all in some regards.

Severely lacking on the intensity front and hindered by some clunky structures overall, Kreator’s sixth studio album lurches from track to track. Unable to hide the unconventional nature of their guitar playing in the stripped back sound only adds to this feeling of unprofessionalism. For me, the first five Kreator records set a high bar for the band and this record falls well short of the expectations set by its predecessors.

The seemingly unstoppable evolution of South American metal in recent years shows no sign of abating still in 2024. Venezuelan in origin, yet now residing in Chile, Selbst's challenging brand of black metal bled through well on 2020's Relatos de angustia. Come 2024, multi-instrumentalist, N has once again continued the exploratory direction of his project adding a cleaner and more progressive leaning slant to album number three. By now a very well-established artist, the song writing on Despondency Chord Progressions smells of confidence. Clearly at home in his surroundings, the thoughts and ideas in his head translate well into the seven tracks here. We get (largely) strong structures and some deft and agile guitar playing, which are the two main standouts for me on the record.

The cleaner aspects are where things come a little unstuck for me in all honesty though. There is nothing wrong with progressing as an artist and growing as a musician (both of which are obvious developments on this record) of course, however there is always the risk that along the way you lose some of the fan base. Whilst by no means alienated by the record, it does stray too close to a sound that is not my usual fare. There is still more than enough Deathspell Omega and Mgla vibes to keep the more conventional black metal fan scowling contentedly. However, the layering feels less cold and unwelcoming this time around, leading to a sense of some loss of depth from the sound of the previous record.

Tracks such as When True Loneliness is Experienced border on the meandering in places, and whilst this track does pull itself into a more appealing space by the end, the work to get there does not necessarily justify the outcome. Clearly developing well, Selbst is a project that will continue to grow and branch out into pastures newer as time goes on, I am sure. Despondency Chord Progressions is a strong record, just not one liked overall by this scribe. Selbst is still winning and has the potential to become an unstoppable force in the future if N can continue to develop record-to-record as he has over the last two. I will contently sit waving over the distance between us it grows though.

Continuing my (unplanned) exploration of dissonant death metal – possibly sub-consciously engaged due to the promise of new Ulcerate next month – I have soon found myself at the door of Nightmarer and their release from 2023, Deformity Adrift. Now, before I put into words my thoughts on their sophomore release, I wanted to take a couple of lines to talk about why I like dissonant death metal. As a teenager of the 90’s, I grew up on a solid diet of meat and potatoes death metal and to this day I still enjoy playing many of the records from that era that still adorn my vinyl and CD shelves.

Fact is though that the death metal template soon gets old. Usually as one chunky riff ends, another one starts, or the frantic pacing overall takes little if any time to pause and take stock of where the song or track is at. What I find with bands such as Nightmarer is that the “normal” end point of a riff is carried further by often the slightest nuance, fluctuation, or inflection of picked strings. These atonal notes not only push tracks and indeed individual passages of tracks into new territory, but also act as links in the overall song structure (if done well enough) giving me something interesting as well as still punishing to listen to.

Nightmarer do the above well. Whilst not quite hitting the pummelling experience of Replicant or the vastness of Ulcerate, this four-piece (at the time of recording Deformity Adrift) manage to order their own brand of eerie chaos into an almost polished sounding offering. It does lack a sense of true depth to the sound, only really teasing the listener with the promise of thumping riffs and dense percussion every now and again. Tracks like Hammer of Desolation offer the best glimpses of this harder sound but at no point does the album sound tame or safe; Nightmarer by name, Nightmarer by nature still works as a phrase.

The bass heavy structures seem to rattle and reverberate as opposed to mine the depths of their foundations, and whilst there is nothing wrong with this, the album does still lack any true standout tracks or individual moments worth writing home about. Still, this is clever album that plays to the tag of dissonant death metal well. Perhaps the song lengths do need to hit the seven minute-plus mark on a couple of occasions to make this album sound more like a true heavyweight, but for now Deformity Adrift more than makes the weight.

To say Replicant sound like Gorguts is a statement that I can only deliver as an intended compliment to the New Jersey four piece. Luc and co. are one of my favourite bands, rivalled only by Ulcerate in terms of the more dissonant aspects of technical or avant-garde death metal. Listening to Replicant for the first time and hearing such a positive influence from the off places them in good stead. I should also add that there is a lot more to Infinite Mortality than just Gorguts worship though.

Showing an ability to play some more conventional and battering death metal amid their expansiveness, Replicant can deliver Demilich style, frenzied pace alongside pounding rhythms that would not sound out of place on a Pestilence record. All the while the depraved sounding vocals (which match Mr Lemay perfectly) spread this ethos of utter hopelessness and despair. Replicant’s view of things is certainly bleak to say the least.

Make no mistake though, this is a (Gor)gutsy records played tightly and deftly in equal parts. Using the dissonance well to push tracks into spaces that does not need pummelling death metal to sound out the intended message, the truly infinite moments of this record are clear as the vocals bark into a fathomless void with the instrumentation chomping at the air around them with saliva flying everywhere from their snarling lips. There is a primitive rage to this album, an anger that demands that things far bigger than itself sit up and take notice of what it has to say.

As it plays in the room around me, registering its ferocious angst against an unforgiving universe it strikes me how well structured it is as a death metal album. The fundamentals are here, and the dissonance and atmospheres are skilfully laid over the top to always remind us that this is very much a death metal album at its core. As a result, this is where the band differ from the much-mentioned Gorguts. Infinite Mortality is a much more accessible record than anything you will find Luc and bandmates putting out and there is the real clever part to this album, embrace the good parts of Gorguts but still stay true to your own template at the same time. Good lads.

Canadians, Atræ Bilis (latin for "black bile"), made a few waves for me with their debut album back in 2021. Apexapien rode the technical death metal wave well enough but did little to standout from the pack and I settled on three and a half stars as my overall rating in the end. Fast-forwards to 2024 and the band are back with a groovier edge to their technical yet dissonant brand of death metal. Billing themselves as “spiritually dissonant death metal”, Atræ Bilis add little in the way of variation to their sophomore when compared to their debut offering. That’s not to say there has been no improvement at all, and that dissonance has increased in presence most certainly.

Clearly more mature in their approach this time, Aumicide sounds technical without being convoluted. With a pretty stable line up (barring a change of bassist) since the debut, Atræ Bilis have a very cohesive sound to their music. Dialling back the scathing attack of the riffs with touches of groove is a smart move, adding accessibility and in fact some fun to proceedings. Whilst not inhabiting the spazzing and tight riffing space deployed by some technical dm acts, Atræ Bilis do still need to add something to make them stand out from the crowd.

Unfortunately, this is where things start to come unstuck somewhat, for this pair of ears at least. The band adopt some kind of effect to the music which proved to be an immediate turn-off for me. I first noticed it on the debut now I revisit that and sadly it is a trend that has bled into some tracks here. On the largely enjoyable Salted in Stygia is where this strobing effect first gets deployed this time around and it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever. The guys can use their songwriting and musicianship to good effect to change pace and create atmosphere without resorting to irritating gimmicks such as this.

The monstrous and jarring riffs of Inward to Abraxas more than prove their ability as musicians but then this glitchy effect comes in and dashes all the solid effort put into that point. It is rare for one singular element to inhibit my enjoyment of an album, but the sound is too memorable to forget easily, and I find myself listening with my guard up even when being entertained by the chugging riffs, expecting the disorientating effect to be lurking around the corner somewhere.

To have come on reasonably far in three years as a band, it is a shame that the rating this time around cannot be improved upon. Proficient artists though they clearly are, I feel that they let the storytelling that is portrayed through the sound disrupts the simple flow and momentum of individual tracks. Maybe next time guys.

Reading some reviews of Esoteric Malacology online there is a focus on how annoyed some reviewers are around Slugdge’s use of well-known metal track/album/band names in their own song titles. I find this a very bizarre stance to take for an album that is a solid slab of progressive death metal, with more than enough quality on show in terms of musicianship and songwriting. Although not my usual brand of death metal by any means I feel Slugdge’s bad press in such reviews is far from needed.

The internet had me believe that Slugdge were a blackened death/sludge metal band, so I went into this release with completely the wrong expectations. Clearly having taken a change in direction on this their fourth album, Esoteric Malacology is a swarming yet never overwhelming slice of progressive death metal that loses no momentum in terms of power and consistency over the near hour long run time. The riffs are potent and biting and the lead/melodic guitar work does not rely on chiming or endless looping and blooping to get the message across to the listener. As a result, I can appreciate the structures of the tracks whilst still being entertained by the actual content.

With perhaps the clean vocals being the only real obstacle for me here, Slugdge have turned into a neat find with this record, especially given what I found was some distance away from what I expected. It plays as a grounded, progressive death metal record; one that casts off the notion that such albums need to be lofty or overindulgent in their content. Less frantic than The Black Dahlia Murder and a lot less boring than Gojira, this Lancashire four-piece are an exciting prospect and are certainly worth looking at (beyond petty quibbles over fucking song titles people).

Lured into a 2024 release by the impressive On the Sight of Dusk on this month's The North playlst, I have spent a week or so with A Pale Crown playing at least once a day.  Strong with Satyricon vibes and grimly resplendent in the stronger Judas Iscariot and Taake sound also, Narbeleth draw on solid influences from more than one corner of the black metal universe.  Originating from a country with no established scene (go on tell me there's a big black metal underground scene in Cuba), this duo have clearly allowed their isolation to nurture their reflections on the very foundations of the genre itself and their clearly well-practised artform is about as authentic as it gets as a result.

I find this album to carry a very organic style to it.  Nothing here sounds forced; to the point, in fact, where it all sounds like it just comes so darn naturally to Dakkar and Vindok.  At six albums in to their career, you could argue that they fucking well should know what they are doing by now.  Fact is, they create this rich and luscious tapestry without sounding like they are even breaking sweat in doing so.  Far from being just a melodic bm album, this record is an album that knows how to embrace melody without doing so at the expense of darkness.  Harnessing a maturity in their songwriting, Narbeleth add depth without looking to experimental techniques or sound.  Instead they present variety to pace and tempo perfectly and I think this makes the album sound more melodic than it actually is.

Acoustics just seep into tracks, their strings sounding huge and almost comforting.  Riffs dance and jaunt through tracks supported by some very simplistic, yet incredibly effective drums.  This feels like a very controlled and measured performance by a band very much in tune with the history of the genre at large.  It sits in a space somewhere above pure worship but stands clear in its lack of intention to uproot any boundaries either.  Any fan of black metal can appreciate what Narbeleth have done here.  More please.

At just two tracks and ten minutes in length, Nocturnus' self-titled EP from some two decades ago makes for a concise feature release.  Coming six years before what was to prove to be their final full length release (Ethereal Tomb), this single/EP captures the band at their technical best.  Pressing their urgent and interesting style of death metal on the listener, those signature synths are in fine form adding symphonic flourishes to the otherwise scathing tech-death on show here.

The rabid gallop of the riffs coupled with the bold pace changes and mesmirising leads are examples of a band in fine form.  Sad that they decided to split not long after this release as the potential over these two tracks is really promising, capturing the best bits of The Key and Thresholds.  With Mike Browning fired from the band and the band name trademarked by the remaining members this was the only release to feature James Marcinek on the drums.  A combination of some less than satisfactory production work and the fact that James was no Mike Browning ensured that the drum work sort of just sat in the background whilst everything else drove the music forward. 

There is a sense of disconnect with the instrumentation at certain points during Mummified for me with those snths sounding a tad wayward in places.  However, Possess the Priest is a fine slab of tech-death presented with a real sense of direction.  It is hard to score this at much more than a three however given the short runtime and the fact that one of the two tracks is clearly inferior to the other.

When asked in a 2019 interview about Fenriz describing Worship Him as “the first Norwegian black metal album”, Vorphalack from Samael replied, “We were not exactly satisfied with the sound of the album, we wanted to have something fatter and heavier. We actually reached what we were looking for when we released Blood Ritual but yeah that album sounds different.” It is hard to disagree with Vorphalack, Blood Ritual is gifted (or cursed depending on your preference) with a much beefier production than anything that came before from the Swiss group. As much as I enjoy a raw black metal album from time to time, I think that sometimes a bit of clarity is needed to really let a band’s sound shine. Whilst I will not attest to be being all that familiar with Blood Ritual until this past week, whilst listening as a standalone bm record I found that instantly I could take away positives from the experience.

A slower, more measured take on black metal that takes reference from Celtic Frost clearly, Blood Ritual is accessible without sacrificing the mandatory underground vibe that one would expect from such a record. The dense gloom that permeates the album is a chilling yet welcoming cloak in which to shroud yourself as a listener. There are smatterings of latter day Satyricon in this album (bearing in mind we were in 1992 when this was released) and although the comparison is relevant, I would suggest that the Swiss’ effort is less clinical and sterile then say Diabolical Now era Satyricon.

The simpler approach reaps its rewards for me, allowing strong structures such as After the Sepulture to grow well over its four-and-a-half-minute duration. As such, Blood Ritual has a sense that Samael are using the space better to construct an album as opposed to charging blindly through at a more traditional bm pace. Not that there is any denial of such intensity here. Indeed, the title track is a solid bm romp that blends this more traditional pacing with the clearer production values nicely. However, I could not see tracks such as Macabre Operetta (or the less impressive With the Gleam of Torches) at over six minutes faring so well on a shorter and more rabid tempo-based release.

My two main criticisms are that the album is firstly too long (even the two interlude/intro tracks don’t necessitate such a lengthy track list) and lacks much in the way of variety overall. The latter criticism holds less weight given that this is also one of the key strengths of the album. I think this is probably the best evidence that the Celtic Frost and Bathory influences got worn perhaps too visibly on the band’s sleeves. That having been said there is a level of intelligent (albeit a few notches above basic) songwriting here that needs to be acknowledged. There is still something enchanting about the primitive riffing of Bestial Devotion, that whilst is never groundbreaking, it is still presented so honestly that it is hard to ignore. That is probably how I would sum up Blood Ritual altogether as well.

Having been impressed enough with their latest offering to write a review to share my largely positive thoughts, I have taken time recently to revisit the short discography of Louisiana's Exhorder. I have been all the way back to the debut (again) and I can report that (again) I am still completely underwhelmed. Likewise, the follow up, The Law has little to get the blood pumping for me. Having completed this revisit I find myself firmly of the opinion that latter day Exhorder is better than 90’s era Exhorder by a long chalk.

Mourn the Southern Skies is better than I remember it being, in fact it is better than Defectum Omnium which achieved a three and a half star rating from me earlier this month upon its release. I will come to the reasons why Mourn the Southern Skies trumps their 20024 offering shortly but for now I want to reflect on why I think Exhorder as a band are better with age.

The first couple of Exhorder albums are not bad per se. They are over-hyped (the debut in particular) but they aren’t without some merit. What they lack by way of comparison to the later output is any real bite. Modern day Exhorder know how to add flair, panache, variety to pace, hooks, and memorability to their songs. The groove element is much stronger than on earlier releases (better production helps also) with the band being less liable to include much in the way of out and out thrash metal nowadays. All too often, my experience of modern groove metal is that it soon sounds disjointed or cumbersome, something which Exhorder do not suffer from despite having line up changes to contend with over the years.

In terms of why I think Mourn the Southern Skies is better than Defectum Omnium, well quite simply put, it is the guitar work that sets the earlier album apart. The lead work on this year’s offering is sub-par at best. Pat O’Brien’s style fails to match the vibrancy of Vinnie LaBella and Marzi Montazeri and the rhythm guitar is not as solid either as it was in 2019. Mourn the Southern Skies is stacked full of riffs that just hack away at your brain (Yesterday’s Bones) that are backed up by richer melodies and leads to apply variety to proceedings. End to end, MtSS is a more energetic record that whilst far from flawless (still too long and guilty of some filler therefore) is thus far my favourite Exhorder release.

I stumbled across Whores. by chance when looking up artisits similar to Kowloon Walled City (which ironically Whores. are not btw).  As someone still drawn more to the sludge element of The Fallen clan, there was a lot on show immediately for me to like, especially with the shorter EP format that makes up Ruiner..  Whores. are perfect for the fit of bratty noise rock attitude with some killer sludge riffs to underline their toxic levels of poisonous vitriol and Ruiner pulls no punches from the off.  With this being their first studio offering, we catch the band in full frontal assault mode, firing vicious salvos through a feedback-laden fog of distortion to catch the ear of any metal fans in hearing distance.

The success of Ruiner. is that all the component parts shine just as well individually as they do as a collective.  Christian Lembach's mocking vocals are a real standout but are so much more effective when backed up with Schulz's twanging bass and the solid drums of Travis Owen, helped along also by Lembach's own guitar of course.  The blaring of his vocals on tracks such as the derisive Daddy's Money and Fake Life are pure contemptuous gold and these opening two tracks very much set the scene for the whole EP.  Lyrically, there are not fathomless depths to explore here and there does not need to be either.  Whores. get their message across perfectly well, usually with no more than ten lines needed and tracks around the three to five minute mark in the main.

This is rage and aggression made into fun, catchy and at times hook-laden music.  It is smash and grab entertainment at its finest that sticks with you after a couple of listens and has been very successful at bringing me back for repeated listens (I currently listen to Ruiner. at least once a day) so I can continue to revel in its sarcasm and sardonicism whenever i feel the world just simply needs a warning shot across its bows.

My gushing praise for JP’s last offering, Firepower was more than justified. With the obvious comparisons to Painkiller there wasn’t much to not like on that 2018 release. Fast-forward some six years and the band continue to defy all expectations with Invincible Shield, which seems a fitting album title when describing the longevity of one of Britain’s finest heavy metal exports. Album number twenty is a remarkable number to get to and the ability to still sound relevant in the metal world after such a long shift is nothing short of astonishing.

That is not say that Invincible Shield is flawless (far from it) and the less than savoury elements will be addressed in the coming paragraphs. However, just sat looking at the promo pictures of the band on Spotify, they may look like a group of pensioners (and one of their sons) on holiday but the energy and passion on this record belies those images entirely. That passion may not always translate into palpable heavy metal tunes, but it is easier to deduct points for form or structure when the heart and determination scores are so high.

Invincible Shield is too long (the same criticism levelled at Firepower). I find most albums that tip the one hour plus mark to be a drain and whilst I get that we may not know how many more albums there are from JP, it still should not mean everything makes the cut. Whilst overall it is a strong album, there is obvious filler here. This filler affliction particularly (predictably) affects the latter half of the album with the drop in quality from after the first five tracks is too obvious for even JP to carry it off. None of the tracks are out right terrible though, just not entirely necessary.

Going back to the positives, the musicianship is top notch across the album. The guitar work standing out as the obvious highlight for me. I cannot comment how much Glenn Tipton contributes to the album given his Parkinson’s condition, but he and Faulkner are still a superb combination. Halford’s voice continues to hold up well even though it is not necessarily at the same quality level of old. Only the drums and bass come off poorly in the mix (not that Hill has ever really had a huge presence on any JP album of old) with the drums sounding muted in the mix overall, notwithstanding that they do have to compete with two strong guitarists and a legendary vocalist of course.

With a trim on track numbers and a little more focus on quality over quantity, Invincible Shield would have been a better album. If I am honest though, it still stands up as is and I cannot say that I am not entertained by the end-to-end experience. Whilst not perfect, the album does no harm to the legacy of JP. I would not like to think how many more years we have from Halford and co and my only hope is that they do not become a parody of themselves at any point. Based on this album that appears to be a minimal risk, however.

I am not the biggest fan of the seminal debut album from New Orlean's groove metallers Exhorder. Whilst filed firmly in the "overrated" pile of releases that seem to get undue praise, I still give it the odd spin now and again to make sure it is not just me being a dick (it isn't). Not to say that Exhorder are without their merits of course, just that I am easily put off by releases that promise so much but deliver so little - it is purely an expectations thing. It has been thirty-four years since Slaughter in the Vatican was released and Defectum Omnium is still only Exhorder's fourth full release ina career that spans nearly forty-years. In keeping with the debut, Defectum Omnium has some truly standout moments and at the same time, some other moments you hope to soon forget.

By far the strongest element here is those chunky, groovy riffs that blaze their presence across the surface of the record on many of the tracks here. Listening to the infectious riffing of Three Stages of Truth/Lacing the Well as I type this, I am reminded of PanterA and the many hours I spent with their albums as a teenager; the rolling riffs of Walk and I'm Broken being specific reminders I take from this record. Supported by a solid if never remarkable shift on the drum stool, the rhythm section of Exhorder put in a truly memorable effort. Unfortunately, the lead work leaves a lot to be desired. It is directionless and only serves to detract from some of the better tracks in particular. In fact, overall, the songwriting is not the best from a band who have been at this for four decades. They are trying to talk about all the right things you would expect a groove/thrash metal to; combining a punkish element in attitude at least in places. Yet, despite having relevant themes, they just come oue in a jumbled mess that sometimes gets translated by the structure of the songs but on so many other occasions fails to become barely legible really.

I do not know how many halfway decent groove metal records we should expect in 2024. I do not know how many we would expect per year over the last twenty years or so in fact. However, whilst Defectum Omnium most definitely does have its defects (could not resist) it is more of a disappointment than an absolute failure. There is power in the grooves here, a frantic pace to the more aggressive sections and a sense of a band still able to apply some relevance to themselves in an over-saturated sub-genre. A trim on the track numbers would certainly help and some more thought in the lead work is a must if there is to be another Exhorder album after this one. However, there is promise here, it just needs some space to develop into in without being compressed by sub-par and mediocre tracks and ideas.

I class the first four Metallica albums as being a true “golden run” of records - I have stated this on MA before I am sure so let’s not go over old ground.  Needless to say that for as much as I can see why …and Justice for All gets criticised, it is still a vicious and scathing thrash metal album that from the off is clearly made by a band on the attack.  One of the key strengths of Metallica’s 1988 offering is how technical yet spontaneous it manages to still sound.  The flurry of activity that is the razor sharp album opener, “Blackened” is evidence of an album that is going to be positively spilling over with riffs and chops, all blending, transitioning and morphing into a thoroughly entertaining experience end to end.  Whilst not flawless, the bands fourth album is a celebration of energetic thrash metal that clearly showed a band able to carry on without a key member so tragically torn from their ranks.

Now then, let us get this bass discussion out of the way at this early stage of the review.  I agree, it is a travesty (however it happened) that Jason’s four strings get so little (if any) air-time.  However, the fact is, I do not miss the bass in all honesty.  This is the real clever part of …and Justice for All for me, to produce an album of such intensity without the bass being prominent shows quality as far as I am concerned.  Is the album sterile or brittle sounding as a result of this component lacking input?  Not to my ears, no.  Does any of the messaging land poorly because we do not have the rumble or twang of the bass?  Again, no it does not.  Not to my ears anyway.

If I am to point to a critical finger at the record then it is the contrasting quality of the song writing that gets the digit wagged at it.  It is hard to believe that the same album that contains the title track, “Harvester of Sorrow” and “One” also has “Eye of the Beholder” in at track number three.  It risks an early derailment of the promise of the first two tracks that thankfully does not come to fruition.  Although it does marginally better than “To Live is to Die” which although I get the sentiment of, just does not manage to move me as perhaps it should.

In a world were it is more or less universally recognised that Metallica are a shadow of their former selves, their final true thrash metal release is a celebration of their early career before the band chose an increasingly commercial path at whatever crossroads they visited latterly in their lives.  If you like your thrash metal full of grit, steel and technical prowess then you should own a copy of …and Justice for All as a mandatory release in your collection.

I am murder for not picking up a band’s discography in order.  Long after I had heard The Last Command, Inside the Electric Circus, The Headless Children and The Crimson Idol (not done in any chronological order), I finally got around to the bands debut offering.  In terms of the albums listed above, The Last Command got the most air-play in my bedroom as a teenager - indeed I owned it on vinyl if I recall correctly.  I was mad for two tracks off this record “The Widowmaker” with its menacing build and “Jack Action” with its thundering riffage but there was more to offer from The Last Command besides these two firm favourites of mine.

The album opens strongly with the anthem “Wild Child” which is one of those tracks that takes only a few minutes of listening to before it infects your brain with its catchy chorus.  It was obvious to my older ears upon revisiting this record recently that the song writing had picked up from the debut and there was less filler on the sophomore effort.  Even though tracks such as “Ballcrusher” and “Fistful of Diamonds” made no effort to separate themselves from the shock rock elements of the band, stronger efforts such as “Blind in Texas” and “Cries in the Night” as well as the title track showed maturity even if filler such as “Sex Drive” still populated parts of the record also.

With nostalgia playing a big part in my enjoyment of The Last Command it is a record that I have heard many times over and can easily play through in my head without needing to reach for the stream or even the CD option that I recall owning (somewhere) to actually play it through.  It is not perfect by any means but it is still an important record for me in my metal journey and one that gets a reluctant 3.5 stars since in reality it is closer to a 3.75 rating if such an option existed.

Sandwiched between their 2012 and 2021 offerings, Grievances follows pretty much the tried and tested path that I have grown to trust Kowloon Walled City to tread.  As I become more immersed in their discography the more I sense that I am just tracking a series of above four star ratings for a band that do nothing to push their boundaries all that much.  With seemingly little variation on what transpired during Container Ships or what came six years later on Piecework, it is hard to place my finger on the allure of Grievances.  I find that after just one listen to any of their releases, I soon become hooked, craving more of that familiarity with each subsequent listen.  The fact is that even the most sterile and jaded sounding of music possesses some distinct beauty still.  I would go as far as to say that this is why I am drawn so much to the band.  They are KWC and are unapologetic for being so.

In keeping with the once autonomus region of Hong Kong after which they were named, Kowloon Walled City offer a sound that nobody else quite has in their kitbag. Whilst their sludge references can most certainly draw comparison to Big Business, they are unique in that they possess the heaviest post-metal around.  Stylistically not disimilar to Whores, KWC lack that noise rock element to truly draw an accurate comparison.  The only genuine (yet still so distant) reference I can compare KWC to is Fugazi. 

Hearing those angular and strained guitars on Grievances instantly showcases the bands individualism, with the equally obtuse vocals lurching alongside those cumbersome but never ugly rhythms. There's a constant threat of something about to go down on Grievances, a sense that these grievances are very personal and quite difficult to contain.  Wrestling with them over the seven tracks is still an exhausting task as somehow for an album so devoid of any sense of exhilaration there is still a feeling of completed entertainment, long after each spin of the album has finished.  The harsh truths to tracks like Your Best Years, White Walls and True Believer land instantly without the need for any catchiness to allow them to place themselves succinctly in both palms of your hands as a listener.  This album is as black and white as the photograph on the cover would suggest it to be.

If the prospect of an entirely instrumental atmospheric black metal fills you with as much dread as it did me then you could be forgiven for giving up on this review and heading away to look for something else to tickle your atmo-black requirements. Fact is though, I nearly missed a real treat. As recommendations from internet acquaintances go, Óreiða has been a neat find. There’s an undeniable charm to the Paysage d’Hiver-like passages that inhibit these five songs.

One-man black metal outfits are not rare. In a playing field that has long been overcrowded, Óreiða’s unique selling point is the entirely instrumental approach to their sound. Without the familiar cold and harsh vocal style associated with most atmospheric black metal there is arguably little room for hiding if your instrumentation skills are not up to the mark. Thankfully, the atmospherics and instrumentation fill this void with a deftness that at times makes them sound like they are choral vocals. Deploying a dungeon synth style over those big riffs works well. The sense of the music constantly pushing into the negative space, injecting a dank sense of melody is tangible throughout The Eternal.

Residing on the legendary Debemur Morti Productions for this his third record, Þórir G. Jónsson sounds at home on a label roster that includes so many other atmospheric black metal aficionados. The desperation in the whining drone that accompanies the opening two minutes of The River is a delirium inducing sound that you would normally associate with most BAN releases. Serving the dual purpose of unsettling wane and focal background point at the same time, I also found the instrumentation to be sounding perfectly balanced around it, giving a sense of completeness to the track. It was obvious to me by track two just how little I was missing the vocals.

The production job is well-delivered without being too polished. Retaining the thinnest levels of murkiness aids the authenticity factor of the sound with the lush atmospherics and powerful sound of the guitars set against the maelstrom of percussion doing more than enough to give the listener that fully rounded experience. Each track’s title appears to be done a real justice by the sound. The dizzying guitars of The Apex are testimony to this point. It is The Eternal’s ability to tell a story without the use of lyrics to frame it that is one of the most impressive feats that the album achieves. On paper I should be bored to tears but instead I am utterly enchanted.

On Sunday 13th September 2009, Faith or Fear's basist Clarence "C.J." Jenkins died on stage after suffering heart failure during one of the band's performances.  The fact that the band were still able to perform or put together anything at all just some three years after the tragedy speaks volumes for their dedication after losing a valued bandmate and friend.  Although this is by no means a glittering review of Titanium, I am of course mindful of this fact.  I have also not heard any other release by Faith or Fear (they have only one other album in a very stop/start career that dates all the way back to 1982)to compare this album with.  My research for The Pit playlist each month takes me to all corners of the associated sub-genres, often taking me out of my comfort zone and Titanium certainly has managed to do that.

There are two main problems for me with this record.  Firstly, Tim Blackman is not a very strong (or talented) vocalist.  His gruff yet unconvincing style fails to hide his shortfalls in trying to front a thrash/groove metal band and when coupled with the frankly childish lyrics they become even less tolerable.  Secondly, Faith or Fear show a distinct lack of songwriting capability on Titanium, regurgitating the same ideas over and over whilst not allowing enough room for the real strengths to shine.  The stop/start rhythm (to match their career) to many songs soon becomes irritating and the fact is that when they abandon the vocals and go into ful flow they can pull off some impressive riffage and hint at some real power in the engine department.  There is also evidence of some decent lead work here and there.

Again, I could understand the sub-par record off the back of the tragedy of C.J.'s death (in fact the bassist who played on this record, Rob Guidotti also passed away in 2022 it is sad to read).  Sadly though, even the closing track that pays homage to their lost comrade does little to dispell any of my disatisfaction with this album.