Daniel's Forum Replies

Depression - "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" (1988)

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

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

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

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

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

4/5

Here's my updated Top Ten Crossover Thrash Releases of All Time list with Attitude Adjustment's "America Paranoia" being pushed out to make way for "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes":

01. Slaughter - "Surrender Or Die" demo (1985)

02. S.O.D. – “Speak English or Die” (1985)

03. Depression - "Thrash Till Death: Studio Tapes" (1988)

04. Depression - "Australia, Australia" E.P. (1985)

05. Agnostic Front – “Cause For Alarm” (1986)

06. Depression - "Ultra Hard Core Mega Heavy Punk Metal Thrash" (1987)

07. Cryptic Slaughter – “Convicted” (1986)

08. The Accused – “The Return Of… Martha Splatterhead” (1986)

09. Agnostic Front – “Liberty & Justice For…” (1987)

10. Ratos de Porão - "Brasil" (1989)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/174

Just for reference, if you are checking this out on Spotify, they have made a right cock-up of the track listing. The short intro track isn't on the original album and they have all the titles wrong - track 2 on Spotify is actually "Bestial Warlust", track 3 is "Dweller of the Bottomless Pit" and so on, until you get to track 6 which is "Hammering Down the Law of the New Gods" / "Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse" with the first part being a short intro.

I'm glad you mentioned that because I based my review on the Spotify version so have had to change my track references now. It was bloody confusing while listening to the album as my recollections of my enjoyment of each track were drastically out of whack.

Impaled Nazarene - "Suomi Finland perkele" (1994)

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

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

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

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

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Impiety & Belial.

3.5/5

The Black - "The Priest of Satan" (1994)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5/5

Nice review Vinny. Feel free to vote in the two Hall of Judgement polls that are currently running to decide where “Quadra” should best fit within the genre-tree spectrum.

For the record, I don't think that "After Forever" is a metal song at all (i.e. it's more of a heavy psych/hard rock number in my opinion) but "Sweet Leaf" certainly is & it's predominantly centered around the modern-day understanding of the stoner metal sound as far as I can see.

This person's argument is completely invalid really. Stoner metal is not a scene. It's a subgenre. Only scenes or movements can be governed by limited time slots in history. For example, you could say that Iron Maiden's "Powerslave" isn't a NWOBHM release because it was released after 1983. If a song or album fits the technical requirements for it to be labelled as stoner metal then there should be no reason why people should feel shy about doing so. There are plenty of examples of new subgenre tags being created that encompass large chunks of historical releases. For example, we only recently admitted that there is justification for a dissonant death metal subgenre at the Academy but that doesn't mean that there were no releases that had that sound prior to that realization. In fact, it's impossible for a subgenre to become necessary if there's not already a reasonable scope for it to cover. The fact that this scope goes back so far in the metal journey is irrelevant really. It's my honest opinion that if half of the legitimate "heavy metal" from the early 1970's was released today then a large chunk of it would be labelled as stoner metal so it makes perfect sense to me that I should tag it as such.

Gorefest - "Erase" (1994)

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5/5

I would argue that only the uninformed would call Kyuss a metal band.

Vicious Circle - "Still Born" compilation (1988)

A collection of some of this Melbourne hardcore punk outfit's early material including a few demos, alternate mixes & unreleased tracks. It's not bad either.

For fans of Depression, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.

3.5/5

https://metal.academy/hall/561

https://metal.academy/hall/560

Nice review Morpheus. Make sure you head over to the Hall of Judgement to vote on this release as there are a couple of different polls running on it at the moment.

Mesarthim - "Anthropic Bias/Departure"

Anthropic Bias (2022) explores themes of cosmic significance and existential philosophy, echoing the idea of humanity’s tendency to see the universe as centered around itself. The music itself is a fusion of icy, tremolo-picked guitar riffs, blast beats, and haunting, atmospheric synth layers. It carries an otherworldly mood, drifting between aggression and contemplation. The song also incorporates electronic elements and ambient interludes, which provide a vast, ethereal soundscape. This single is both relentless and meditative, capturing Mesarthim’s ability to craft immersive, spacey atmospheres while retaining black metal’s raw intensity.

Departure (2024) leans heavily into the band’s cosmic themes, evoking feelings of journeying through space or leaving behind something familiar. The track opens with a somber and almost melancholic tone, gradually building into a massive, swirling blend of distorted guitars and atmospheric keys. The song shifts through dynamic phases, from soaring melodies to intense, fast-paced sections. Like much of Mesarthim’s work, Departure utilizes synth layers to create a celestial, almost dreamlike atmosphere, suggesting both the awe and isolation of venturing into the unknown. The track serves as a contemplative journey, fitting with the title’s theme of departure and escape.

Lifeless Dark - "Forces of Nature's Transformation"

The debut album from this Boston stenchcore outfit whose 2018 "Who Will Be the Victims?" demo really impressed me. This one will probably be on my radar at some point.

Hobbs Angel of Death - "Hobbs Satan's Crusade" (2003)

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

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

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

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

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

4/5

Depression - "Hardcore History 1982-1986" compilation (1988)

A compilation of this highly underrated Melbourne hardcore punk outfit's early works including some of Australia's earilest crossover thrash material.

For fans of Vicious Circle, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.

Orphaned Land - "Sahara" (1994)

I revisited the debut album from Israeli melodic/progressive death metal outfit Orphaned Land this week & found that my review from many years ago still represents my feelings perfectly. I will add that I was surprised at just how much of an Atheist influence I found across the first few tracks though:

I hadn't heard this one since the mid-90's & was interested to see how I felt about it these days. It features a fairly progressive & melodic death metal sound mixed with traditional Israeli folk music. That combination spawned some pretty interesting ideas as you can imagine but you can tell they were still developing their sound at this stage. Some of the more melodic death metal sections remind me quite a bit of early Amorphis & the death vocals sound similar to Aaron Stainthorpe's on the first couple of My Dying Bride releases. While it does tend to maintain my interest due to the unusual nature of the sound I still find "Sahara" to be a bit flat. I think it could do with a little more class in the production & musicianship departments to be honest. Orphaned Land certainly deserve credit for creating an album with a strong point of difference though.

3/5

Dying Fetus - "Infatuation with Malevolence" compilation (1995)

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Suffocation, Misery Index & Skinless.

3.5/5

Mortal Sin - "Rehearsal Tape 16/1/1988" demo (1988)

A crudely recorded rehearsal tape that was recorded at Party Pig Studios, Girraween between the first two Mortal Sin albums. It's interesting for its inclusion of three previously unreleased tracks that were all intended to be included on 1989's "Face of Despair" album at the time. Only one eventually appeared there (i.e. "Voyage of the Damned") with the other two ("Running From The Corpse" & "Euthanasia") being resigned to the annuls of history without much fanfare. "Running From the Corpse" is pretty good too so I can't imagine why it was completely overlooked throughout Mortal Sin's recording career. The sound quality is obviously pretty poor but the instrumental performances are all solid & the stronger material outweighs the stuff that doesn't translate to this primitive format very well. The highlight is clearly my favourite Mortal Sin track "Mayhemic Destruction" although Mat Maurer's vocals aren't nearly as deathly as they are on the album of the same name. I'd suggest that this is only worth exploring if you're a diehard fan of the band, even if I do get almost as much enjoyment out of it as I do out of both of their 1980's albums if I'm being honest.

For fans of Xentrix, Stone & early Metallica.

3.5/5

Here's my review:

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Abominator, Anatomy & Decrepit Soul.

3.5/5

Sonny, I reckon you might score this one a bit higher than I have mate.

Hhhmm… it would seem that I made a mistake by allowing members of The Infinite to vote on this poll. I’ve just fixed it & reset the count. Sorry Andi.

For the record, the progressive metal component is the most prominent here in my opinion with the groove metal & thrash metal sounds not being consistent enough to justify a position in The Pit in isolation. However, when you consider the sum of the two you find that they easily justify inclusion in the clan. I selected groove metal simply because it was the more prominent of the two. Other than the three songs I mentioned in my review, the thrash elements only amount to a riff here or there which isn't enough to see me reaching for thrash-based primary tags on any other tracks.

Here's my updated Top Ten War Metal Releases of All Time list after finally awarding Bestial Warlust's debut album for full rating & review it's deserved after all these years of adoration:

01. Infernal Coil - "Within a World Forgotten" (2018)

02. Bestial Warlust - "Vengeance War 'Till Death" (1994)

03. Teitanblood - "The Baneful Choir" (2019)

04. Teitanblood - "Death" (2014)

05. Impaled Nazarene - "Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz..." (1993)

06. Damaar - "Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege" (2007)

07. Archgoat - "Whore of Bethlehem" (2006)

08. Bestial Warlust - "Blood & Valour" (1995)

09. Conqueror - "War Cult Supremacy" (1999)

10. Blasphemy - "Blood Upon The Altar" demo (1989)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/216

Here's my review:

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Sadistik Exekution, Blasphemy & Conqueror.

4.5/5

Here's my review:

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Machine Head, Pantera & Devin Townsend.

3.5/5

I'm not saying that it's horrible or anything but that sort of album could have done with a cleaner, glossier sound with thicker rhythm guitars. It's just a bit raw for that style of expansive metal.

It's not Sonny. Consider it done.

Karl & Vinny, the monthly allowance has been cut down to 30 minutes each moving forwards. I'll add that to the thread title to remind everyone.

Not really Sonny. We had a few more saves initially but it hasn't continued so it's impossible to know whether people are listening to them or not but when you see playlists with kazillions of followers & ours still have single figures then it's easy to feel discouraged, particularly given the amount of time I put into advertising them for a few months there. They certainly come up in the searches now though which is a big positive over before but my gut tells me that if each owner is not personally putting a lot of time into advertising & marketing each month then we can't expect significant growth. I'm talking paid & targeted social media advertising too.

I have a couple of suggestions for January if you want them, Daniel, but it's fine if you don't have space:

Kanonenfieber - "Gott mit der Kavallerie" (from "Ausblutungsschlacht", 2024)

Nile - "The Underworld Awaits Us All" (from "The Underworld Awaits Us All", 2024)

I can fit the Kanonenfieber track but not the Nile one Sonny. Do you want to be included in next month's time allocations? If so then I'll reduce everyone's time limits to 30 minutes each. Let me know ASAP.

Wow! Ben, what is going on with your beloved MDB here:

"It all started when My Dying Bride cancelled all their 2024 shows prior to the release of their latest record A Mortal Binding. Guitarist Andrew Craighan said at the time the band was having some "live problems," while vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe would eventually reveal the band was taking a hiatus before things got worse and they broke up.

Now we've got a good news/weird news situation on our hands. The good news is that My Dying Bride is back from hiatus and will hit the stage at the Rockmaraton Fesztivál in 2025. The weird news is that Stainthorpe is nowhere in sight and is being replaced by a "very special guest," Swallow The Sun vocalist Mikko Kotamäki. Surely Kotamäki is going to crush it, but the real question is where Stainthorpe is and if he's coming back at all?

"My Dying Bride are thrilled to announce their return to the stage in 2025!" wrote My Dying Bride on their Instagram. "After a small, 'hiatus', live shows are set to recommence, featuring a very special guest on vocals: MIKKO KOTAMÄKI from Swallow The Sun"

"We warmly welcome Mikko, who has graciously joined the MDB live setup, enabling us to bring both new and classic songs back to the stage. With this year's monumental album A Mortal Binding now well into establishing itself as a Doom Metal success, the band are at last ready to promote it live along with seasoned classics of course."

Sacrifice - "Volume Six"

"Legendary Canadian thrash metal band, Sacrifice, will release their new album, Volume Six, in January, 2025.

Band founder and guitarist, Rob Urbinati, states, "I am not saying anything. We will let this record do the talking. Volume Six, January 2025."

Volume Six was recorded at Phase One by Darius Szczepaniak in 2023/2024. The album was produced by Rob Urbinati, and features artwork by Tod Kowalski of Canada's Propagandhi. Layout & design by Annick Giroux.

The album will be released in North America via Cursed Blessings Records, licensed to High Roller Records for Europe, Asia, and Australia. The CD and cassette editions will include a bonus track."

Tobias Sammet's Avantasia - "Here Be Dragons"

Here's what Blabbermouth says about it:

" EDGUY frontman Tobias Sammet's long-running AVANTASIA project will release its tenth studio album, "Here Be Dragons", on February 28, 2025 via Napalm Records. In addition to absolute AVANTASIA essentials such as spellbinding choirs and theatrical symphonic metal elements, Sammet surprises fans old and new with plenty of intriguing fresh soundscapes. "Here Be Dragons" gives the celebrated AVANTASIA sound that has been carefully crafted over a quarter of a century an exciting and powerful spin. The new album is the most consistent and concise piece of art that the band has ever crafted.

AVANTASIA's impressive success story has seen nine previous studio albums (including the 2019 offering "Moonglow" that charted at No. 1 in Germany),gold awards, hundreds of millions of streams as well as headline shows at all important metal festivals and worldwide sold-out arena tours with tens of thousands of devoted fans. AVANTASIA is not showing any signs of slowing down; soon after the release of "Here Be Dragons", the band will head out on an extensive arena tour across Europe, promising to deliver fans an immersive experience with their biggest and most epic production ever.

Sammet comments: "This new album carries the most adventurous and bold spirit my music has had in decades. And it's rather reckless, fearless, powerful, and uplifting and not introverted at all. While my previous albums allowed me to get a lot off my chest, this time I dove headfirst into the creative flood, crafting ten discrete, musical pictures, that miraculously merged into what I believe is the tightest chapter in AVANTASIA's history. I did everything exactly how I wanted it, approaching the album with unrelenting determination and a carefree attitude that was reminiscent of my early days way before the Metal Opera thing, when I felt unstoppable and let instinct just write songs. Right now I'm bursting with energy and can't wait to unleash 'Here Be Dragons' and then kick off the big tour with our new stage. We'll present the new material alongside our classics and some rarities in the most spectacular stage show AVANTASIA has ever delivered. An early Merry Christmas, everyone!"

In grand AVANTASIA tradition, the new full-length is rich in vivid storytelling and cinematic atmospheres, not to mention the highest level of musicianship. Opening track "Creepshow" is without a doubt one of the catchiest songs in their career. The energizing future hit truly welcomes the listener into the new era of AVANTASIA and will be an integral part of the band's spectacular live shows. In contrast, the incredible title track "Here Be Dragons" is a classic AVANTASIA song, and, at almost nine minutes, is by far the longest on the album. The cinematic dark soundscapes of "The Witch" captivate and support the song's storyline perfectly. Emotional, multifaceted vocal performances mesmerize on "Avalon", while the heavy metal number "Against The Wind" serves as further proof of the versatility of AVANTASIA's sound. Remaining well-balanced and cohesive, "Here Be Dragons" is undeniably AVANTASIA's most powerful album so far.

The 10-track offering was written and composed in its entirety by Tobias Sammet himself, produced and recorded by Tobias Sammet together with Sascha Paeth, mixed by Sascha Paeth and mastered by Michael Rodenberg. The stunning cover art was once again created by acclaimed British fantasy artist Rodney Matthews. "Here Be Dragons" marks another masterpiece in the AVANTASIA catalog, leaving both fans and critics speechless and proving the band's standing as a main force in the world of rock and metal!

"Here Be Dragons" is now available for pre-order in several exciting physical editions, with bonus albums included in select limited formats, like a 3CD hardcover artbook with 96 pages, over 160 pictures, drawings of Rodney Matthews and extensive stories to accompany the music and pictures. Make sure to secure yours and stay tuned for the first single that will be released very soon.

"Here Be Dragons" track listing:

01. Creepshow

02. Here Be Dragons

03. The Moorland At Twilight

04. The Witch

05. Phantasmagoria

06. Bring On The Night

07. Unleash The Kraken

08. Avalon

09. Against The Wind

10. Everybody's Here Until The End

AVANTASIA's ninth album, "A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society", was released in October 2022 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was the follow-up to "Moonglow", which came out in 2019.

"A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society" was produced by Sammet with AVANTASIA guitar player Sascha Paeth. The cover artwork was created by Swedish illustrator Alexander Jansson.

Since its beginnings in 1999, AVANTASIA's past releases have featured international stars such as Alice Cooper, Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker (SCORPIONS), Sharon Den Adel (WITHIN TEMPTATION), Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer (KISS), Eric Martin (MR. BIG), SAXON's Biff Byford, TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider and many more."

There's a new Pestilence album coming out entitled "Portals" which the band says will be a "huge step forward both musically & lyrically".

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19aUjWf9hJ/

The Lord Weird Slough Feg - "Traveller Supplement I: The Ephemeral Glades E.P.

"One-of-a-kind heavy metallers The Lord Weird Slough Feg will next year revisit the world and characters from their 2003 album Traveller on a new EP titled Traveller Supplement 1: The Ephemeral Glades. Founding guitarist/vocalist Mike Scalzi describes below the reasoning behind shifting toward a short format as a process of “cutting off flab,” and argues most albums have a bunch of filler anyhow. I suppose there are cases to be made on either side of that, but if we’re talking about attention spans, I don’t hear too much discussion about lengthenings going on, so fair enough either way.

The band’s last record was the characteristically nuanced 2019 opus, New Organon (review here), and as it was their 10th record, I’m not inclined to think Scalzi and company owe anyone writing songs they don’t want to write at this point. If anything, a 20-minute release with, what?, four or five songs?, seems likely to let each of those tracks breathe and reach listeners in a way a full album couldn’t. Again, there are arguments to be made on either side, but sometimes EPs are little more than fleshed out singles or stopgaps between full-lengths, and that’s pretty obviously what isn’t happening here."

Nospūn - "Ozai" E.P.

Here's what the band have to say about it:

"As some of you may know, before we became Nospūn we were operating under a different name. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the release of the “Ozai EP”. We still absolutely love these songs and want to give them the attention we think they deserve, so we are re-releasing it later this year! Everything will be re-recorded, remixed, remastered, and we’re including a bonus track that wasn’t originally on the EP!"

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE GO TO PAGE FIVE OF THIS THREAD & TELL ME WHETHER OR NOT IT TAKES EONS FOR IT TO LOAD??

Shining - "The Helsinki Tapes"

Bandcamp says:

"In the wake of our Re-Issue of "VIII / Redefining Darkness", we are finally able to reveal that this December, SHINING will close the book on one of the more cursed chapters of their career. They have chosen to do so by having us release an additional album that we have only been hinting at before this official announcement! "THE HELSINKI TAPES".

Niklas Kvarforth has, on countless occasions, mentioned the month that he spent together with Christian Larsson and Yusaf Parvez (DHG) in an apartment that they rented in Finland's capital. The three resolved to use this space as a base in which to write, experiment and cause various forms of unspecified damage before heading to Varberg to record the new album. For years, the band has wished that these infamous demo tapes could be released officially somehow. We here at TSI, who recently issued the definitive edition of the very album for which these songs were created, feel that the time has now come to release the recording that the band themselves have stressed: "Is in so many ways far superior to the actual album itself".

We may or may not agree on that, but there's certainly a mesmerizing rawness and constant feeling of unease contained within this otherworldly material. Not to mention, the tapes serve as an audial retelling of how an obscure Black Metal band from Sweden transformed into something different and ultimately way more dangerous than even those involved ever could have anticipated."

Bandcamp:

"GODFLESH - A WORLD LIT ONLY BY FIRE 10 year Anniversary.

Unbelievably, in 2024, this album is now 10 yrs old, and to celebrate, here is A WORLD LIT ONLY BY DUB ; 5 extended dubs /alternate versions of songs taken from A WORLD LIT ONLY BY FIRE.

These versions were completed by JKB only recently, after some of these dubs had sat unfinished in a skeletal form for a number of years.

These are extended mutated versions; exploring and pushing the inherently experimental nature of Godflesh, now finalised and somewhat re-contextualised 10 years later.

Dub as transformation…"

Nice review Sonny. I've always been a big fan of Atheist's first couple of records with this one being the obvious career highlight & their only genuine classic in my opinion. I will say though that I've never considered Atheist's sophomore album to be a technical death metal record. The riff structures aren't gratuitously technical as they used their chops in a far more tasteful & creative way. Atheist certainly weren't a red-blooded death metal act either so I've always considered "Unquestionable Presence" to be a progressive death/thrash release personally, despite what the metal media wanted me to believe.

It's a wonderful 4.5/5 rating from me although I won't be returning to the album for a full review this month given that I've listened to it like a gazillion times over the last 33 years. The production is the album's Achilles Heal & I've always wondered what heights it might have reached with a more accomplished studio sound.

Here's my review:

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Godflesh, Bloodstar & Pitchshifter.

3.5/5

I'm well up for this one so are really looking forward to my annual new release cram session in January.

Unfortunately, I have never got to grips with "Transcendence into the Peripheral". It's been a long time since I last tried so maybe it's due a revisit, but I found it to be very disappointing on previous occasions.

That fact has always very much surprised me Sonny as "Transcendence into the Peripheral" was nothing short of life-changing for me personally & seems like something that is tailor made for your taste profile. It's never been surpassed as the best doom/death release I've ever heard & the influence it's had on many of the current crop of bands is as clear as day. Each to their own though of course.

What do you think of its metal claims then Morpheus? I label "Sir Lord Baltimore" as a hard rock record personally although closer "Caesar LXXI" is certainly a heavy metal tune.

Possessed front man Jeff Beccera has also been accused of grooming a sixteen year old fan & asking her to send him nudes. He’s denying it but this has been a sad day for metal.

My updated list looks like this:

01. Pig Destroyer – “Natasha” E.P. (2008)

02. Ufomammut/Lento - "Supernaturals - Record 1" (2007)

03. Sunn O))) – “Black One” (2005)

04. Boris – “Boris At Last -Feedbacker-“ (2003)

05. Esoteric - "The Maniacal Vale" (2008)

06. MonumentuM - "In Absentia Christi" (1995)

07. Rosetta – “The Galilean Satellites” (2005)

08. Neurosis – “Souls At Zero” (1992)

09. diSEMBOWELMENT – “Transcendence Into The Peripheral” (1993)

10. Isis – “The Mosquito Control” E.P. (1998)

Sadus’ Jon Allen has been fired after video evidence of domestic violence has gone viral.

Here's my review:

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

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

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

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

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

For fans of Green Carnation, Opeth & Alcest.

4/5

Pungent Stench - "Club Mondo Bizarre - For Members Only" (1994)

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5/5

Mortal Sin - "Mayhemic Destruction" (1987)

While Metallica's classic fourth album "...And Justice For All" may represent my gateway into extreme metal back in late 1988, the ability for a local Australian band to create a genuinely intense metal release still seemed a little unattainable to me for a while, that is... until I picked up the first edition of a new Aussie metal/hard rock magazine called "Hot Metal" from the local news agency in May 1989. It came with a cover CD that included a collection of sixteen tracks from a variety of artists, mostly on the popular glam/hair metal end of the metal spectrum. Amongst them were great inclusions from acts like Ozzy Osbourne & Yngwie Malmsteen that saw me exploring their back catalogues extensively over the coming months but the track that stood out from all the rest was a song called "Mayhemic Destruction" from a young Sydney band by the name of Mortal Sin whose vicious attack appeared to sit on the deathlier side of thrash metal. I was a complete Big Four nut at the time with Slayer being my musical gods so the sheer intensity of this song offered me massive appeal & saw me quickly reaching out to the older skaters at my high school to see if I could secure a dubbed copy of the "Mayhemic Destruction" album. Thankfully, they were able to oblige & I'd spend a bit of time with Mortal Sin's debut record over the next couple of weeks before leaving it behind to explore ever more extreme forms of metal music over the next few years. Regardless, Mortal Sin would remain with me as a constant presence during my early time in the Sydney metal scene until I'd take a self-imposed decade-long hiatus from metal altogether in 1998. I'd see them play live on a number of occasions which could inevitably see my blood boiling with a desire to fulfil my own dreams of playing extreme metal on stage. I've even gotten to know a couple of the band members a bit over the years with drummer Wayne Campbell (Baltak/Grungeon) booking my death metal band Neuropath for a number of live gigs & vocalist Mat Maurer's daughter becoming a gig buddy of mine which would see Mat tagging along to some of the shows we'd attend during the 2010's after my return to metal. It was an interesting exercise to return to "Mayhemic Destruction" a couple of years ago now though as it gave me a new perspective on the legacy of Mortal Sin & the Australian metal scene in general & this week's second revisit has only provided further justification for my existing position on it.

I believe "Mayhemic Destruction" was originally intended to be a demo tape which stacks up when you consider that Mortal Sin hadn't released any recorded music at all at the time. It was recorded at Studio 301 in Sydney (which is where I mastered my own solo CD in 1999 interestingly enough) during the middle of 1986 with the recording process taking just three days & the mixing amounting to forty hours. A gentleman by the name of John Stitch-Darwish was responsible for the production & he was a relatively unknown entity in terms of metal although he would later go on to produce Armoured Angel's sole 1999 full-length "Angel of the Sixth Order". Despite his lack of experience in the field though, Darwish's production job does the job nicely here, particularly for a release that was only intended to be a demo. All of the instruments are presented with clarity & separation with the powerful bass guitar of Andy Eftichiou being the main driver in Mortal Sin's thrash metal attack. The guitars having an incisive tinniness which wasn't uncommon in late 80's thrash while Campbell's drums are full & offer plenty of depth. Maurer's vocals are given plenty of room to boom out over the top too so "Mayhemic Destruction" was afforded every chance to make an impact with a local metal market that hadn't received much in the way of well-produced & executed thrash metal at the time.

Mortal Sin's early sound wasn't the most technical or sophisticated you'll find in thrash metal, even for the mid-80s. The riffs were generally very simple with the tempo rarely exceeding mid-pace & the structures relying heavily on the tight execution & decent Darwish production job for appeal. Eftichiou's bass lines are the main driver that gets your head banging & I feel that he was probably the most accomplished musician here too. Metallica's 1983 debut album "Kill 'Em All" was very clearly the main source of inspiration though & there's even a case for claiming the majority of "Mayhemic Destruction" as nothing more than a Metallica clone if I'm being perfectly honest. Just listen to tracks like "Women in Leather" or "Into the Fire" & tell me you don't hear the obvious references to "Seek & Destroy". I'll give you the tip that you won't be able to & the same can be said for speed metal anthem "Blood, Death, Hatred" & Metallica's "The Four Horsemen" because the inspiration is blatantly obvious & when combined with Maurer's extraordinarily Hetfield-ish vocal delivery it's easy to simply cast Mortal Sin aside as a poor man's replica of the Californian gods of the thrash metal movement. I can't say that I'm not onboard with the way of thinking either but there are moments on this album where Mortal Sin manage to cast aside that stigma to produce some excellent thrash in their own right.

The tracklisting isn't without blemish mind you with a couple of songs not doing much for me at all. "Liar" & "Mortal Slaughter" just seem to be a little bit basic & lacking in depth & substance to me but the remainder of the album is all enjoyable enough. The closing title track is the clear highlight in my opinion & it stands out like a sore thumb as it's sound is simply so different to the rest of the material. It's a lot more extreme than the other seven tracks with the intensity of the riffage having been upped significantly & sounding a lot more like the Teutonic thrash scene than the Bay Area one the other material is centred around. The vocals are also delivered in more of a death metal grunt which blew my mind upon first hearing it on the "Hot Metal" compilation, particularly given the glammy nature of the remainder of the artists on that CD. The other track that stood out to me was the chunky "Lebanon" with its lyrical themes having a potent effect & its riffs representing the high point for Mortal Sin's mid-tempo thrash sound. It's a shame that these two songs stand out so much from the rest of the material though as it leaves me feeling that the overall package sits closer to the third tier of the thrash metal spectrum than it does to the first or second. I mean, we're talking 1987 here which was still very much at the peak of the genre so there was a lot of competition floating around &, looking back now, it's hard not to feel that "Mayhemic Destruction" has been overrated by an Aussie metal scene that was simply starving for good content. Personally, I can't deny that this is my position on it these days if I'm being honest which it pains me to admit given just how big in influence Mortal Sin had on me as a bright-eyed young metal musician looking to crack into the local Sydney scene.

While "Mayhemic Destruction" may not be the game-changer that a lot of Aussies might have you believe it is, I'd suggest that most members of our The Pit clan will gain some enjoyment out of it because it definitely reminds me of the fun that could be had in getting drunk with your mates & moshing around someone's backyard. Its simplicity is also its biggest asset in many ways as it remains accessible throughout but I don't think Maurer's vocal skills were quite enough to overcome the band's limitations, at least not yet. In fact, I've never been much of a fan of his performance here if I'm being honest. 1989's "Face of Despair" sophomore album would also frequent my tape deck in 1989 & it offered a similar level of appeal although I think I've always slightly favoured the debut over it as the better representation of the early roots of Australian thrash. It's just not the unheralded thrash classic that so many of my Aussie peers would have you believe it is.

For fans of Xentrix, Stone & "Kill 'Em All"-period Metallica.

3.5/5

Ben, please add Aussie metalcore outfit Callous.