Daniel's Forum Replies

Prowler - "Blood & Honour" demo (1985)

This five-song demo tape represents the earliest recordings from Melbourne progressive metal outfit Taramis who you may know from their 1988 debut album "Queen of Thieves" which is widely believed to be the earliest example of a more progressive metal sound to come out of Australia. You won't find any of that here though as "Blood & Honour" still sees them residing primarily in the traditional heavy metal camp with the occasional step out into US power metal territory (see the closing title track). The vocals are pretty pitchy & go off the rails at times but the band is pretty capable from an instrumental perspective which is not surprising when you consider that they'd paid their dues as a cover band. Iron Maiden were obviously the major influence & you can see that very clearly most of the time, particularly on highlight track "Vengeance" & the instrumental piece "3rd Day 9th Night" which borrows pretty heavily from Maiden's early instrumental works. Of the five songs on offer, I struggle a bit with the opening & closing numbers, mainly due to the flat vocal hooks & delivery, but the remaining three songs that make up the middle of the demo are all worth hearing & I found myself enjoying the experience overall. You won't find anything too extreme here but "Blood & Honour" does possess a naive charm, even if it's entirely inessential.

For fans of Iron Maiden, Manowar & Taramis.

3.5/5

Cryptopsy - "Ungentle Exhumation" demo (1993)

I was lucky enough to pick up a high-quality dubbed copy this early demo tape from the Canadian brutal death metal masters shortly after it was released through one of my Neuropath band mates who had somehow gotten their hands on an original copy. It was right up my alley too & saw me giving it lots of revisits that year. I'd also suggest that it contributed to Neuropath taking an increasingly more brutal musical direction over the next few years. Interestingly, despite being a huge fan of the brutal death metal subgenre & having played in a notable band myself, I've never rated Cryptopsy's two most celebrated records (i.e. 1994's "Blasphemy Made Flesh" & 1996's "None So Vile") as highly as most other extreme metalheads seem to. In fact, I don't even like "Blasphemy Made Flesh" much & I think that some of that likely comes back to my initial experiences with Cryptopsy. This demo simply sounds much better than their debut album with the production job being much more accomplished than you'd expect from a release of this type. I've never enjoyed it when Flo Mounier tries to play ridiculously fast blast-beats because he simply couldn't pull it off (at least not in the mid-1990's) so it's always left me bemused when people talked about him like some kind of a god. Those that possess a deeper understanding of extreme drumming must surely know better. Anyway.... there's a lot less of that here & the vocals don't sound as ridiculous either which leaves "Ungentle Exhumation" sounding a touch less overthetop & with a few less obstacles to gaining my affection. The two tracks that bookend the release are where the real gold is with opening number "Gravaged: A Cryptopsy" being my pick of the bunch. This is savage shit for fans of savage music only but it does it really well, so much so that I rank this demo as my second favourite Cryptopsy release behind 1998's "Whisper Supremacy" album. There wasn't much more extreme music than this at the time.

For fans of Suffocation, Lykathea Aflame & Wormed.

4/5

Really digging the four-track run from Jag Panzer through to Annihilator. I wasn't familiar with the Jag Panzer track either so it kinda ripped my face off. I don't generally like Gamma Ray much but this track is one of the ones that I don't mind. The Glacier track is nice & ballsy & "Dream of Mirrors" is my favourite track from "Brave New World" too so I've been enjoying my time with this month's list, despite never really being able to get into that Sortilege track.

Nothing Sacred - "Live" demo (1985)

After checking out the 1985 demo tape from Renegade this week, I thought I'd also give the 1985 "Live" demo from fellow Melbourne-ites Nothing Sacred too as they're often referred to in the same conversations around the earliest Aussie thrash metal bands. This thirteen-song live set sounds like it's been recorded at a fairly well-attended headline show & includes a number of well-received cover versions from popular international bands like Metallica, Judas Priest, Savatage & Motorhead amongst a collection of original material that would appear to be quite familiar to the audience so one would have to think that Nothing Sacred had already built themselves a pretty decent following off the back of their live shows. The recording quality is typical of the time & will be a struggle for those that don't come from the tape trading scene but it's certainly listenable & you can make everything out pretty comfortably. The instrumentation & song-writing is really quite mature for an unreleased band but I have to say that the vocals are patchy at best. There's very little in the way of genuine thrash metal here either with the majority of the material sitting in the heavy metal space with US power metal & speed metal also playing a role. The only real thrasher is the cover version of Metallica's "The Four Horsemen" as far as I can see so I'd suggest that Depression & Renegade were slightly ahead of Nothing Sacred in terms of extremity & thrash metal credentials at the time. Still... this is a better listen than the Renegade demo in my opinion & I've ended up quite enjoying the experience even if I'm unlikely to return to it again in the future. The cover version of "Ace of Spades" that closes the set comes across particularly well in the live environment & is my pick of the material.

For fans of Iron Maiden, Prowler & Motorhead.

3.5/5

Opeth - "The Last Will and Testament" [Progressive rock/metal from Sweden]

Some new releases that I'll be checking out in the coming weeks:

Suffocation - "Cérémonie" live video [Brutal death metal from New York, USA]

Full of Hell - "Live at Blackandje Fest 2024" [Grindcore from Maryland, USA]

The Crown - "Crown of Thorns" [Melodic death/thrash from Sweden]

Chat Pile - "Cool World" [Noise rock/sludge metal from Oklahoma City, USA]

I really dug their 2022 "God's Country" debut album so I'm looking forward to this one.

Sunami - "LDBBB Fest 2024" [Metalcore from San Jose, USA]

I quite liked the self-titled 2020 E.P. from these guys so this could be interesting.

A new release that I'll be checking out in the coming weeks:

Kreator - "Live in Chile 2023" live video [Thrash metal from Germany]

Depravity - "Silence of the Centuries" E.P. (1993)

Finnish death metallers Depravity were only together for a relatively short time & released only a very small amount of material but it was strong enough to gain the attention of the extreme metal underground which led to me picking up both of their E.P.'s through the tape trading scene. I believe it was their 1992 "Remasquerade" E.P. that first graced my ears but it impressed me enough to see me seeking out the follow-up "Silence for the Centuries" which was a little stronger & seems to have developed somewhat of a cult following over the 31 years since its release. Deservedly so too in my opinion because, listening back now, one has to wonder why Depravity weren't more well known back in the mid-1990's.

"Silence of the Centuries" is a five-song affair that spans just 21 minutes but leaves a lasting impression nonetheless. It doesn't attempt anything you haven't heard before but is unanimously successful in everything it undertakes. The mastering does tend to be a little variable with the volumes differing a little from track to track & the MDM-Studios production job can sound a touch different with each song too but I feel that this element only adds to the release's mystique. The Depravity formula is simple yet both efficient & effective. It takes the rock-solid, muscular, crunchy BOSS HM-2-driven Swedish death metal sound & combines it with the more atmospheric, moody & melodic sound of their Finnish homeland. It works an absolute treat too with the eerie yet qwuite beautiful lead guitar component being a clear feather in Depravity's cap.

The musicianship levels of the four instrumentalists is well up to the task with the rhythm section of bassist Petri Ilvespakka (Diaboli) & drummer Matti Johansson (Korpiklaani) laying the perfect platform for the guitars & vocals to work from. The Entombed-style tremolo riffage of the twin guitar attack of Elias Viljanen (Diaboli/Sonata Arctica) & Olli are another major protagonist in the direction of this material with the melodic hooks proving to be highly memorable & a touch more atmospheric than you would normally expect from your dime-a-dozen Swedish mob, kinda like Darkthrone delivered on their debut album "Soulside Journey". In fact, there's also the occasional reference to black metal in the way the riffs are constructed too which adds layer of intrigue for me. The only lineup change from 1992's "Remasquerade" E.P. is the replacement of front man Petro with newcomer Martti who had also appeared on the "Phantasmagoria" demo earlier that year. While Martti's delivery isn't anything terribly original, his deep, dark death grunts work really well with the Depravity sound & remind me of Benediction's Dave Ingram at times although they're a little less intelligible.

The short tracklisting is entirely without blemish but I will say that "Silence of the Centuries" is a touch top-heavy. The opening three tracks are easily the best ones with the opening title track being my personal favourite. The last two songs ("Phantasmagoria" & "Vacuum of Thoughts") are both pretty decent but seem like a step down from the earlier tracks. Still... it's hard to be too critical because Depravity have produced an excellent release here & one that compares very well with its Finnish death metal peers. While it may not try anything too bold, it does manage to borrow from the Swedes in a fashion that still sounds undeniably Finnish which is a testament to the band's maturity & class. I think most death metal fans will find something to enjoy with "Silence of the Centuries" without having to make a huge investment of time. I do have to wonder whether the fact that Depravity's recording career was so fleeting has contributed significantly to their underground following because I have to admit that it does add a little but of extra intrigue to a release that still clearly belongs in the second-tier of the genre.

For fans of Cartilage, Abhorrence & Demigod.

4/5

I recently revisited the seminal 1987 debut album "Total Armageddon" from legendary early Australian thrashers Renegade & quite enjoyed it which got me wondering what their earlier demo tape was like given that Renegade are often a part of discussions around the earliest examples of Aussie extreme metal. The four-song tape is generally well put together with the sound quality being more than acceptable for a demo of the time. The four tracks see Renegade jumping around a little bit stylistically & you can see the band are already in a transition phase from a classic metal sound towards a more exhilarating speed/thrash metal one. Two of the four songs were familiar to me from the album with opening track "Black Ritual" being the clear highlight & seeing Renegade taking on a fully-fledged thrash metal sound similar to "Show No Mercy"-period Slayer. The other album track "Lucifer's Reign" combines heavy metal & Anthrax-style thrash for more of a speed metal feel with the vocals going a bit rogue & hinting at a Cirith Ungol-esque shrieky tone. I found that song to be a little flat on the album & it's left me with similar feelings here. "The Executioner" takes the form of a traditional Judas Priest-style heavy metal number while closing speed metal number "Cold & Evil" is pure Motorhead worship but neither quite hit the spot for me unfortunately. Overall, I've found Renegade's demo to be fairly inessential as it hasn't added a lot to my life. "Black Ritual" was certainly one of the earlier examples of genuine Aussie thrash metal though.

For fans of Motorhead, early Razor & "Show No Mercy"-era Slayer.

3/5

Sentenced - "North From Here" (1993)

Finnish death metallers Sentenced were a minor hit with me during my early tape trading days with their 1992 debut album "Shadows of Past" giving me quite a bit of replay value & subsequently leading me to seek out the band's three earlier demo tapes (1990's "When Death Join Us...", 1991's "Rotting Ways to Misery" & 1992's "Journey to Pohjola"), the latter two of which I really enjoyed. This would lead to me showing a keen interest when word of a sophomore album hit the underground & I'd quickly pick up a high-quality rip of the album through one of my two Blue Mountains based traders who owned a CD copy. I'd very quickly realise that the "North From Here" album was a very different prospect to anything Sentenced had delivered previously though &, on paper, it could have been one that left me a little hesitant. The quality of the music it contained was of such a high standard though that I was immediately taken aback & would spend a lot of time with that cassette over the next couple of months. You see, Sentenced had undergone & significant transformation in the time since "Shadows of Past" & it would prove to be one that would make "North From Here" the band's crowning achievement.

The building blocks of the "North From Here" sessions were very similar to those that produced "Shadows of Past" strangely enough. Sentenced had returned to the same recording studio in Tico-Tico Studio in Kemi & the process was overseen by the same producer/engineer in Ahti Kortelainen who has worked with a long list of Finnish metal bands. There had been no changes to the band line-up that produced the debut either so Sentenced would seem to have been in a very stable place when they produced their second effort. The thing is though, it sounds nothing like anything Sentenced had produced previously. The meat-&-potatoes death metal sound of their earlier work has been completely replaced with a complex & quite technical brand of melodic death metal that immediately impressed me with its increased scope & ambition. It's very easy to tell that the band members had been obsessively listening to Atheist while perusing this record as there are so many clear signs of worship across the eight-song tracklisting. The similarities to the Floridian legends' riff structures is unmistakable & suits Sentenced really well too. There's a clear European feel to the melodic component though & one would have to suggest that "North From Here" belongs in the discussion when talking about the earlier examples of the melodic death metal sound. The musicianship on display is outstanding with guitarists Sami Lopakka (KYPCK) & Miika Tenkula weaving a rich tapestry of melodic counterplay while the vocals of bassist Taneli Jarva (Impaled Nazarene/The Black League/Friends of Hell) showcase a blackened snarl that I find to be quite incisive. There are even moments where the band veer into melodic black metal territory at a time when that the subgenre was still yet to be properly defined so it's fair to say that "North From Here" is a dazzling display of creative intent.

Now look, I've never shied away from admitting that the more melodic brand of death metal is much more of a struggle for me than the traditional one but there's something about the sheer class that Sentenced deliver their product with that leaves me unanimously impressed. The tracklisting is invariably consistent with all eight pieces offering enough quality to keep my attentive gaze from wavering. There are a couple of tracks that are less fully realised than others though with "Awaiting the Winter Frost" & the more conventional closer "Epic" coming across as merely acceptable rather than being particularly impressive like the other six inclusions which are all very solid. I wouldn't say that I find any of them to be genuine classics though which keeps Sentenced in the second tier as far as the overall death metal scene goes. There's no doubt that my position changes on that when I limit myself to just the melodic death metal subgenre as "North From Here" is one of the absolute cream of that crop in my opinion. I have to admit that I find it a little strange that the album isn't referred to as technical death metal all that often though as it very clearly falls under that banner as far as I can see. I mean, if Atheist are tech death then this release is too because it so obviously draws upon the same techniques & feel.

"North From Here" was the very definition of a pleasant surprise & would quickly become the jewel in the Sentenced crown. It still sounds fantastic today but seems to have slipped under the radar a little bit over the years as it's rarely talked about when referring to the elite examples of the melodeath sound with people tending to look solely at Carcass & the Swedes. That shouldn't be the case though as "North From Here" competes on that level very comfortably & should be essential listening for those with a penchant for that sound.

For fans of Atheist, Stortregn & Enfold Darkness.

4/5

Conception - "Parallel Minds" (1993)

I've always liked what I heard from Norwegian progressive metallers Conception but hadn't committed to a full release up until now with my previous experience being limited to the odd inclusion on Spotify playlists or on metal radio. I thought I'd start with their most well-known record as it was somewhat of a breakthrough release for the band & I can see why too. There can be no denying the class of a band like Conception & one feels that their critical success was almost a foregone conclusion. The presence of future Kamelot front man Roy Khan certainly didn't hurt their cause either & he plays a monumental role in "Parallel Minds" that sees him being very much the central figure with his pure vocal tone simply oozing of his pedigree in opera which means that Conception really only need to place the right hooks into his capable hands in order to captivate their audience. Whether they succeed in that task is up to the listener to decide though.

"Parallel Minds" isn't the most technically demanding of progressive metal releases but it's certainly complex enough to keep the prog fiends interested. The suitably clean production job & performances afford the compositions the opportunity to connect in a fairly accessible manner & the strength in the song-writing through the first two thirds of the album takes full advantage of it too. The album is highlighted by two genuine classics with the wonderful "Roll The Fire" being as captivating as any progressive metal anthem you're likely to find. "Silver Shine" isn't far behind either while I also tend to favour the more muscular title track. These very strong examples of their type see the album really flexing its muscles from track 1-7 but I can't help but feel that the tracklisting tends to fade a little over the remaining three tracks which are clearly the weakest of the ten on offer with even the epic eight & a half minute closer "Soliloquy" (which was obviously intended to be somewhat of a centrepiece for the album) tending to limp to the finish line rather than galloping in a similar fashion to the earlier material. I still get enjoyment out of all of these tracks & the slight dip in quality hasn't proven to be enough of a concern to see me altering my rating but I do feel that it was somewhat of a missed opportunity nonetheless.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen more comparisons between Conception & Dream Theater to be honest as "Parallel Minds" showcases a very clear influence, particularly from Dream Theater's classic 1992 sophomore album "Images & Words". Fellow US progressive metal legends Fates Warning were no doubt the other primary influence here with Khan's vocal histrionics tending to sit in the middle ground between Dream Theater front man James LaBrie & Fates Warning's Ray Alder. There are some impressive guitar solos from Ark/D.C. Cooper axeman Tore Østby included which was always gonna tick a few boxes for an old shredder like myself but I also found myself getting into the power metal influence that pops up from time to time, particularly on tracks like "And I Close My Eyes". The ballad "Silent Crying" takes a more commercial heavy metal direction to the rest of the album but has grown on me significantly with each listen after it initially seemed like an ill-guided attempt at achieving radio play. The rhythm section of bassist Ingar Amlien & drummer Arve Heimdal are impressive throughout & give Conception a solid platform for which to work off while keyboardist Hans Christian Gjestvang contributes a tasteful performance that doesn't ever push out into cheese territory.

"Parallel Minds" has really impressed me here. I often find myself digging the more traditional 1980's brand of progressive metal when it contains soaring & universally capable clean vocals & there's no denying Conception's clear qualification against that criteria. Some of the riffage is a little uninspired during the weaker moments (just look at the clear rip-off of the main riff from Pantera's "Mouth For War" in "Wolf's Lair" for example) but the overall package is executed with such efficiency & class that I never find my gaze being broken for too long. I'll certainly be returning to "Parallel Minds" in the future & also look forward to seeing what Conception's next couple of albums offer too.

For fans of Ark, Sunburst & Eldritch.

4/5

My adjusted Top Ten Funk Metal Releases of All Time list (despite the fact that only very few releases with this tag are genuinely worthy of it in my opinion):

01. Faith No More - "The Real Thing" (1989)

02. Primus - "Frizzle Fry" (1990)

03. Mr. Bungle - "Mr. Bungle" (1991)

04. Faith No More - "Introduce Yourself" (1987)

05. Primus - "Sailing The Seas Of Cheese" (1991)

06. Scatterbrain - "Here Comes Trouble" (1990)

07 Primus - "Pork Soda" (1993)

08. Living Colour - "Stain" (1993)

09. Living Colour - "Time's Up" (1990)

10. Mordred - "In This Life" (1991)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/265

I really enjoyed "Hammer of the North" when  we featured it so perhaps I'll give this one a few spins too. I have a huge gap with the rest of Grand Magus' back catalogue actually.

I look at it like this:

Technical = Consciously complex & hard to play.

Progressive = Utilizes a more expansive palate of thematic, structural & melodic ideas which gives the music a more sophisticated (& sometimes spacey) feel. It can often be quite technical but not always.

Most technical releases could easily fit under the progressive tag in my opinion but I don't feel that the same can't be said in reverse. Personally, I think we'd be way better off not having tech death & tech thrash subgenres in The Horde & The Pit, instead using progressive metal to differentiate those releases. We could even add a "technical metal" subgenre to The Infinite if we thought it was necessary. This would avoid the current problem where people tag obviously progressive death or thrash metal releases as technical simply because there's no progressive tag in those clans which sees those releases missing out on a rightful membership in The Infinite. This feature release is a prime example of that & I'd suggest that our The Infinite members are just as likely to enjoy a record like this one as our The Horde or The Pit members.

Please be advised that the Deathgrind subgenre has now been removed from the Metal Academy database with all previously tagged Deathgrind releases now listed as both Death Metal & Grindcore which better aligns with our genre tree system given that we can't attach a subgenre to two genres.

Do you not hear an album that should be included in The Infinite here though Andi, regardless of whether you think it's more technical or progressive? I see it as exactly the sort of release that should belong in The Infinite to be honest as it reaches well outside of the standard death & thrash metal genres, just like Hemotoxin's major influences (i.e. 1990's Death, Cynic, Atheist, Vektor, etc.) who are all better served with progressive tags than they are technical ones.

I see there are a couple of new releases coming out that might interest some of you:

Skid Row - "Live in London"

Mötley Crüe - "Cancelled" E.P.

A few new releases that I'll be checking out over the next month or so:

Flotsam & Jetsam - "I Am The Weapon" [Thrash metal from Arizona, USA]

Bewitcher - "Spell Shock" [Speed metal from Portland, USA]

Agent Steel - "Mad Locust Rising - Live at Hammersmith Odeon" [Speed metal from Los Angeles, USA]

Kate's Acid (aka Acid) - "Blowing Your Ears Off at "Keep It True" 2023" [Speed metal from Brugge, Belgium]

A few new releases that I'll be checking out over the next month or so:

 Agrypnie - "erg" [Melodic black metal from Germany]

Winterfylleth - "The Imperious Horizon" [Atmospheric/melodic black metal from Manchester, England]

 Esoctrilihum - "Döth-Derniàlh" [Black metal from France]

1349 - "The Wolf & The King" [Black metal from Oslo, Norway]

A few new releases that I'll be checking out over the coming month or so:

Disfiguring The Goddess - "Softly With You" [Brutal death metal from Nevada, USA]

Undeath - "More Insane" [Death metal from New York, USA]

Blood Incantation - "Absolute Elsewhere" [Death metal from Denver, USA]

A couple of new releases from old NWOBHM bands coming out shortly:

Blitzkrieg - "Blitzkrieg"

I didn't mind Blitzkrieg's 1980 demo tape or their 1981 "Buried Alive/Blitzkrieg" single but found that they'd kinda lost me by the time they finally got their 1985 "A Time of Changes" debut album out. They've released about ten thousand albums since then though so who knows what this one will be like in 2024.

Satan - "Songs in Crimson"

Then we have this one from Blitzkrieg vocalist Brian Ross' other band Satan. Everyone raves about Satan's 1983 debut album "Court in the Act". I don't mind it but can't say I see what's so special about it. I haven't liked anything else I've heard from the band either so I can't say that this one excites me too much.

Eagle Twin & The Otolith - "Legends of the Desert: Volume 4"

I haven't heard Utah stoner/doom outfit Eagle Twin before but I thoroughly enjoyed The Otolith's 2022 debut album "Folium limina" so this collaboration album might be worth a look.

https://metal.academy/hall/534

https://metal.academy/hall/533

Quicksand - "Slip" (1993)

I hadn't heard the debut album from this New York alternative rock band before but I've always loved the two biggest singles taken from it so it's been on my radar to investigate for decades. Having finally gotten around to giving "Slip" a few spins now, I have to ask what in the actual fuck I was doing all these years because "Slip" is an absolute classic as far as I can see. Quicksand understood what heavy rock music is all about as the song-writing builds into big, loud, exciting & dynamic crescendos in most tracks, despite their generally short run times. The vocals often remind me of a lower register Jane's Addiction/Porno For Pyros front man Perry Farrell for some reason too & are both very capably delivered & universally successful in their undertaking.

"Slip" is often claimed as an alternative metal release & you can see why as there are three or four metal tunes included here but I'd suggest it's not enough to qualify as more than an influence with the sound of the grunge movement being the strongest component. Post-hardcore actually seems to be the most common descriptor but there's no hardcore here whatsoever so there's no merit in that tag as far as I can see. While it may not be a metal record, I'd suggest that all members of The Gateway will get a lot of enjoyment out of "Slip". It's an essential accompaniment to the grunge movement that doesn't get enough attention in my opinion.

For fans of Helmet, Rollins Band & early Tool.

4.5/5

Primus - "Pork Soda" (1993)

Wacky Californian trio Primus are an act that I’ve been aware of since the release of their debut album “Frizzle Fry” way back in 1990 but never really gave the time to genuinely understand & appreciate until relatively recently. I guess I just always assumed that they wouldn’t be something that would interest me but that hasn’t ended up being the case with both “Frizzle Fry” & Primus’ 1991 sophomore album “Sailing the Seas of Cheese” leaving me thoroughly impressed with their unique & quirky take on rock music. I’d always intended to close out my exploration of Primus’ classic trio of releases with 1993’s “Pork Soda” third album but somehow that’s taken a lot more time than I was expecting & I’ve only just closed out that endeavour this week. It’s proven to be a worthwhile exercise too, although I’d suggest that “Pork Soda” was perhaps not quite as satisfying as its two older siblings.

Despite its inherent weirdisms, there’s no doubt that “Pork Soda” is an attractive record. The cover art is humorous & never fails to leave a smile on my face while the production jobs is bright & full, everything you could want for a record like this one that relies so heavily on space & timbre. The musicianship on display here is excellent too, particularly the sublime bass guitar work of front man Les Claypool who was already a bass enigma at this point in his career. The things he can do with his instrument while handling the vocal duties at the same time is nothing short of mind-blowing but his skills are always used creatively & artistically which leads me to believe that Les has a great understanding of the art of song-writing & composition. Former Possessed guitarist Larry Lalonde is the perfect foil for Les, more often than not spewing forth layers of artsy noise that takes the form of controlled chaos. Drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander tends to aim to tie everything together & stays generally well within himself which is what’s required when you’re looking to anchor two visionaries like Claypool & Lalonde.

As with Primus’ first two albums, I have to seriously question people’s ability to hear of they think this record has even the most remote link to metal. There’s hardly a second of the entire 57-minute run time that sees me reaching for metal descriptors with no semblance of a metal tool coming within miles of “Pok Soda”. What we receive here is once again a highly experimental rock record like “Frizzle Fry” & “Sailing the Seas of Cheese’ but this time it’s less funky & much more psychedelic, so much so that I’ve decided that the best way to describe it is experimental/psychedelic rock. There’s a generous fifteen tracks included here so you can expect a few detours here & there but this is generally a pretty druggy & cerebral record & I kinda dig that approach too.

The tracklisting kicks off in very fine style indeed with the first four proper songs all being particularly solid. The quality levels start to jump around a little bit from there but there are also a few stronger inclusions later in the piece too. The decision to include a number of short interludes hasn’t exactly set the house on fire as I found a few of them to be pretty silly but I think that was kinda the point really as I can’t deny that they do help Primus take you to the twisted, sweaty, meth-ridden, red-neck countryside they were obviously aspiring to. Tracks like “Pork Chop’s Little Ditty” & “Hail Santa” just don’t add anything from a purely musical point of view though. My favourite pieces tend to be some of the heavier groove-led ones like “My Name Is Mud”, “DMV” & my personal fave “Hamburger Train” which is essentially an eight minute jazz fusion jam session that would have worked brilliantly as a point of collaboration with my beloved Miles Davis if he was still alive today.

While “Pork Soda” certainly has its strengths, I can’t help but feel that it’s a step down from the first two albums, mainly due its reduced consistency. Given its lengthy run time, I feel that Primus could have culled a few tracks & benefitted the holistic album in the process. As it is though, “Pork Soda” is still an intriguing listen. It’s perhaps not as essential as its predecessors were though.

For fans of Nuclear Rabbit, Mr. Bungle & Flagman.

3.5/5

He only did a couple of years for it.

Tim Lambesis really nails the harsh aggressiveness without resorting to annoyingly excessive shoutiness, his clean vocals are also very good. T

It's a pity that he attempted to hire an undercover police officer to murder his wife a decade ago but I guess nobody's perfect.

Absolutely pumped for this one as their last four releases have been right up my alley.

Atheist - "Elements" (1993)

There are few metal bands that I heard more of through the first half of the 1990's than Florida technical death metal masters Atheist. I first encountered them through their 1990 debut album "Piece of Time" which I thoroughly enjoyed but it was 1991's classic "Unquestionable Presence" sophomore album that really sealed the deal for me & I still regard it as one of the true greats of its era. I even had some time for Atheist's 1988 "Beyond" demo tape so I think it's fair to say that I regarded myself as a committed fan by the time their 1993 third album "Elements" rolled around. People may not be aware of this given its status in the modern day but (much like Pestilence's divisive "Spheres" album from the same year) "Elements" initially received a fairly mixed reception from a large chunk of the death metal audience. I could see what people were saying but the creativity & innovation put into Atheist's latest effort still seemed kinda exciting so I gave it a good run. A couple of my fellow Neuropath band mates were absolutely obsessed with the band too so there was rarely a party where Atheist didn't get a run along with a drunken air guitar tournament or two. But the past few decades have seen me largely tending to steer away from "Elements" in favour of its two older siblings so I thought it was time to take a deeper look at why.

As much as I love "Unquestionable Presence", I do have to admit that its production job wasn't its crowning achievement & my initial revisit to "Elements" highlighted that it hadn't faired all that much better in that department with the rhythm guitars lacking weight & the vocals sounding echoey & a touch flat. In fact, I can't help but wonder what "Elements" may have been able to accomplish with a clean & bright modern-day sound because there's an incredible amount of creativity & instrumental prowess contained within this record. It's interesting that most people seem to still wanna tie this album in with the tech death crowd too because frankly... there's not a second of death metal on this mo'fucka. Atheist's death metal credentials were already a little sketchy in my opinion as I always maintained my position that they were more of a death/thrash band but here we see the new five-piece configuration (following the recruitment of additional lead guitarist Frank Emmi) dropping extreme metal altogether for a fresh new approach that saw them indulging in various strands of pure progressive metal. Hell... I'd even go so far as to suggest that "Elements" would sit more comfortably in The Gateway than it does in The Horde where it really has no right to be. I've never been one to judge an artist for taking creative risks though so I was still just as open to discovering whatever magic Atheist had in store for me.

The superiority of the musicianship on "Elements" is nothing short of staggering at times. The increased reliance on jazz structures created a wonderful platform for new drummer Josh Greenbaum & bass virtuoso Tony Choy to flourish, often at the expense of front man Kelly Shaefer who struggles a little bit behind the microphone with his vocals coming across as a bit flat after dropping much of their death metal menace. The real highlight here is the incredible lead guitar work of Emmi & Rand Burkey which is nothing short of invigorating though. I simply love the danger in their jazz fusion inspired shredding & feel that the album would have been significantly weaker with some less highly credentialed exponents of their craft. Choy isn't far behind though with his scintillating bass lines proving once again what a force he can be.

"Elements" sees Atheist exploring a vast array of difference subgenres & textures, often within the same song, & for that reason, it can sound a little jerky at times. There are no weak tracks included in the twelve on offer but I can't say that too many of them really hit the spot like Atheist's last two records did. The two track run of progressive metal masterclass "Air" into the jazz fusion influenced instrumental interlude "Displacement" is my favourite part of the album but I also enjoy the jazz guitar instrumental "See You Again" quite a lot. The rest of the record is pleasant enough but I rarely find myself enthralled like I was in the past. Many of the grooves the band hit on would feel more appropriate on an alternative metal release & there's a minor lack of cohesion in the compositional flow at times too.

There's no doubt that Atheist were still a class act & there were not many bands that could have created a record like "Elements" in 1993. It seems to have gone on to build somewhat of a cult following in the underground over the years & is now even considered to be another essential tech death metal release from the band. I can't agree with that mentality though as I can't shake the feeling that "Elements" is a step down from Atheist's first two full-lengths. Few can deny that it's a very interesting & intriguing listen but I'd challenge anyone that claims it to be an essential release.

For fans of Cynic, 90's Death & "Spheres"-period Pestilence.

3.5/5

I've had to adjust my Top Ten Technical Thrash Metal Releases of All Time list after checking out this month's The Pit feature release as it's a belter:

01. Coroner – “Mental Vortex” (1991)

02. Sadus – “A Vision Of Misery” (1992)

03. Hemotoxin - "When Time Becomes Loss" (2024)

04. Sadus - "Swallowed in Black" (1990)

05. Obliveon - "Nemesis" (1993)

06. Coroner – “No More Color” (1989)

07. Hellwitch - "Syzygial Miscreancy" (1990)

08. Cryptic Shift – “Visitations From Enceladus” (2020)

09. Ripping Corpse - "Dreaming With The Dead" (1991)

10. KAT - "Bastard" (1992)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/173

Here's my review:

Seriously, how much do I love it when I stumble upon a band that makes me stand up & pay attention, leaving me wondering why in the actual fuck I'd never heard of them before, & that's exactly what Pittsburg's Hemotoxin have managed to accomplish with their brand new fourth album "When Time Becomes Loss". It seems almost unbelievable to me that this artist has released three largely unheralded full-lengths & an E.P. prior to this record as it's honestly one of the best examples of its type that I've had the pleasure of hearing.

Surprisingly given the complexity & sophistication of the music on offer, Hemotoxin is essentially the work of one man in Condition Critical/Ripped To Shreds guitarist Michael Chavez who delivers the vocals, bass & most of the guitars on "When Time Becomes Loss". This wasn't always the case & it would appear that Hemotoxin were more of a band leading up to this release but something has gone awry along the way & Hemotoxin appears to have been left in the hands of Chavez. Here we see him enlisting the services of lead guitarists Tony Barhoum (Condition Critical), Andrew Lee (Azath/Draghkar/Houkago Grind Time/Ripped to Shreds/Skullsmasher) & Donnie Small (Laceration) as well as the superb drumming skills of Scott Fuller (Abysmal Dawn/Havok/Morbid Angel/Sentinel Beast) to produce an incredibly ambitious record of a consistently high quality.

The production job of Andrew Lee is more than appropriate to showcase the skills of the participants who obviously possess a deep pedigree in a wide range of extreme metal. The class in the musicianship & execution is phenomenal with Hemotoxin's sound drawing together the technical death metal, technical thrash metal & progressive metal genres & reiterating them in a fashion that leaves the listener with no choice but to be impressed. Chavez' vocals delivery sits somewhere between the raspy modern-day tech thrash sound of bands like Vektor & the classic death metal growl of Death's Chuck Schuldiner, often borrowing from Chuck fairly closely in his articulation & phrasing. The same can be said for the music actually as Death's more progressive later releases would appear to be Hemotoxin's primary influence here along with other early 90's bands like Cynic & Atheist. There's a clear thrash metal component to this material though which brings to mind bands like Miscreance & Revocation who manage to harness both the tech death & tech thrash sounds in equal measure. That's a pretty good way to summarize the first half of the record actually but the second half sees things getting more progressive with the ear-catching melodic guitar solos drawing upon jazz fusion at times & the soundcapes being more lush & expansive.

The guitar & bass interplay is dazzling at times & it's probably not all that surprising that this record was largely the creation of one man when you take that into account. But then, the contributions of the other participants seem to be so significant & also fit like a glove so it's hard to imagine how the music was put together in this fashion. The drumming of Scott Fuller is a prime example as it's the clear highlight of the album for me personally. Some of you may know him as the skinsman from Morbid Angel's 2017 "Kingdoms Disdained" album but his blast-beats are utterly sublime here, so much so that I could listen to the whole record just for that element alone. The clear highlight track "Reborn in Tragedy" is the most obvious example of that as Fuller almost single-handedly takes a really solid set of musical ideas & absolutely slays over them to create what is nothing short of a progressive death/thrash classic as far as I'm concerned. The rest of the material may not come close to reaching those lofty heights but all six remaining tracks are very solid, high-quality extreme metal tunes displaying a clear focus & understanding of the various subgenres of metal they're harnessing.

Honestly, I've rarely heard a better tech thrash record than this one & it doesn't do too badly when placed alongside the stronger tech death & progressive metal releases out there either. Perhaps some of the material is a little more melodic & unashamedly technical than I would usually go for but I can't deny the class with which it's been produced. How Hemotoxin have managed to sneak under my radar for the last twelve years is baffling to say the least & I thank Vinny for finally rectifying that glaring omission with this month's outstanding feature release nomination.

For fans of Hexen, Miscreance & 90's Death.

4/5

Here's my review:

I’ve been a fan of Portland-based death metallers Witch Vomit for around eight years now after they first came to my attention through their 2016 “A Scream From The Tomb Below” EP. I’ve followed each release with interest ever since that initial experience so Karl’s selection of their brand-new third album “Funeral Sanctum” as our September feature release was quite welcome for me personally, particularly as I was still yet to get to it of my own accord. These old-school-obsessed Americans had been building nicely over the course of their last few releases which gave me the impression that a serious record might be just around the corner so I went into this week with some level of anticipation. I’m not sure that “Funeral Sanctum” has delivered that but it’s still another highly enjoyable release that I can see myself returning to quite often.

If you’re looking for the next big thing in metal then Witch Vomit aren’t gonna tick that box. You see, these four dudes indulge themselves in an unapologetic celebration of the past on their latest offering with their sound showcasing the influence of the greats of the early 90’s US scene. You’ll likely be able to detect elements of graveyard-inspired bands like Incantation & Autopsy in their sound, not to mention a bit of Morbid Angel in the riff structures & lead guitar solos, so Witch Vomit are unlikely to surprise you with a fresh new take on extreme metal. However, they clearly possess a strong pedigree in the genre & maintain a strong understanding of what’s given it such a lasting appeal with so many of us.

The production job is well balanced, offering a nice combination of grimy zombification & modern clarity that recoils from any tendency to get too clinical. I think this helps Witch Vomit’s cause quite a bit actually as it gives them an added layer of authenticity that I find quite appealing. The musicianship isn’t the tightest either but neither does it need to be to create a soundscape that’s suitable for summoning the dead to rise from their tombs. I will admit though that the drumming of Vincent Van Dell (Hemorrhoid/Nekrofilth) is a bit too loose for my liking, particularly during his blast-beats when he often struggles for timing which is a fairly major bug bear of mine. Although this failing does taint the record a little, I don’t think it’s had enough of an impact to see me dropping my rating so I guess there’s not much harm done in the grand scheme of things.

The tracklisting is generally pretty consistent with all ten tracks included offering me some level of enjoyment. None of them are undeniable classics though which leaves me with the feeling that Witch Vomit belong purely in the second tier of the death metal landscape. The middle of the album is arguably its strongest section with the three track run of “Serpentine Shadows”, “Decaying Angelic Flesh” & “Black Wings of Desolation” (my personal favourite) floating my boat the most. There are a few traces of a newly incorporated melodic sound to be found here (particularly on “Blood of Abomination”) & I’d suggest that these moments (perhaps unsurprisingly) offer me the least appeal on the album. The stronger material definitely comes when Witch Vomit commit to laying down their darker tremolo-picked death metal riffs with the deep growls of guitarist Tony Thomas proving to be a more than suitable protagonist in this imposing collection of extreme metal.

Look, Witch Vomit certainly don’t attempt to reinvent the wheel in any way, shape or form but there’s something to be said for an act than can so accurately reenact the feelings I cherished so much as a young fella & these four dudes do it better than most. I’m not sure that “Funeral Sanctum” sees the band reaching a new level by taking the next logical step up the death metal ladder though. In fact, I’m not sure I enjoy it quite as much as Witch Vomit’s last few releases if I’m being honest but it’s still a highly enjoyable display of evil intent & I can’t see too many of our The Horde members struggling to connect with it.

For fans of Mortuous, Torture Rack & Vastum.

4/5

Ben, please add Melbourne heavy metallers Virgin Soldiers.

Ben, please add the 1987 "Warlords" debut album from Melbourne heavy metallers S.A.S.

Here's my review:

I'd never explored a full Merauder release prior to nominating their 1995 debut album "Master Killer" for feature release status last week but there was no doubt about which one I'd have a crack at as the reception for their first-up effort has tended to dwarf the remainder of their back catalogue over the years. My recent investigation of the stronger 1990's metalcore records has reaped quite a bit of reward thus far & the general reputation that "Master KIller" has built for itself saw me feeling a level of confidence & anticipation leading into my first listen & that faith proved to be warranted too because Merauder's piece da resistance proved itself to be worthy of all the hype & acclaim.

The strength of Cro-Mags guitarist Parris Mitchell Mayhew's production job hit me like a tonne of bricks during the first few seconds of "Master Killer" as it certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded almost three decades ago. The weight of the guitars & the clarity of the sound is a major feather in Merauder's cap & allows the material the best possible chance to win over the first-time listener. The riffs & song-writing appear to be very solid too though & after the first song I was left wondering whether I may have stumbled onto one of the more important metalcore releases in my lifetime. Unfortunately, muscular opener "Time Ends" is as good as the album gets though but that's not to say that the remainder of the album is anything to scoff at because that's far from the truth.

Merauder's sound is often tagged as a combination of metalcore, groove metal & New York hardcore but I think that's a little ambitious to be honest. There' really not much doubt that "Master Killer" is a metal release so I don't think the New York hardcore references are all that relevant, despite the clear influence in the crushingly heavy yet inherently simple power chord riffage. The groove metal reference is a little more relevant but it's honestly more to do with the vocals of front man Jorge Merauder than anything musical as he sounds exactly (& I mean EXACTLY) like Pantera legend Phil Anselmo's more violent work on "Far Beyond Driven". Jorge brings the aggression in a major way here & is a major drawcard for Merauder, acting as the ringleader in what amounts to a highly professional & efficient metalcore outing. There's probably more of a thrash metal influence in the instrumentation than there is a groove metal one in all honestly with Slayer riffs popping up quite regularly but the vocals & general structure inevitably draw things back into the metalcore space.

You won't find any duds on this classy debut with the tracklisting being completely blemish-free. The weaker moments tend to occur when the band go for a bouncier/rappier delivery like on "Life is Pain" or where the chorus hook sounds a little clunky like on "Fear of Sin" but neither are without their charms. The previously-mentioned opener "Time Ends" is probably the heaviest of the ten tracks included here & I've quickly fallen in love with its masculinity & power. The title track "Master Killer" is probably my second favourite inclusion & it's not hard to see why it was selected as the focal point of Merauder's sole music video. I also really enjoy the thrashy "Downfall of Christ" which really gets me going but there's a lot to enjoy here.

If "Master Killer" has a weakness then it's probably the lack of sophistication in the riff structures as this is all pretty basic stuff that could be achieved by almost any metalcore band reasonably comofortably. I'm not sure that matters much with this style of music though as it's hardly the point of the punk mentality now, is it? "Master Killer" is all about telling stories of the streets which is very much in line with the essence of the New York hardcore scene & they do it with a enormous amount of success too. There are perhaps more substantial metalcore records out there & I'm not sure that "Master Killer" will quite make it into my top ten or anything but it's a very solid effort nonetheless & I can't see it disappointing too many The Revolution members.

For fans of All Out War, Twitching Tongues & Terror.

4/5

Ben, please add the 1984 self-titled E.P. (often referred to as “Gimme”) from Sydney heavy metallers Kings Cross.

Here's my review:

I wasn't surprised in the slightest to find Ben nominating the sole album from Moscow-based atmospheric black metallers Walknut for feature release status this month as he's been raving about it for a good fifteen years now. In fact, it was one of a whole bunch of releases that he recommended to me to explore upon my return to metal in 2009 so I've been well across it for a long time now & have given it a number of return visits over that period. As with most siblings, my tendency is always to want to slam something that Ben adores as my first point of call so I probably went into my first listen to "Graveforests & Their Shadows" with a level of defensiveness & subsequently found myself taking little away from the experience which allowed my to give Ben the smug feedback I'd always intended on giving (i.e. "I dunno what you see in this bro. You can't even hear the riffs!") but time & repeat listens have seen me gaining a strong affection for this Russian artist, if not to the same stratospheric levels as Ben or Sonny.

Walknut is the solo project of Anton Svyagir who goes by the pseudonym of StringsSkald. He's fairly well known in the underground for his work with other Russian black metal acts like Forest, Nitberg & Темнозорь who you may be aware of but "Graveforests & Their Shadows" is by far his most celebrated work. This sole album sees him collaborating with Темнозорь lyricist & Stellar Winter Records owner Gorruth (known as Ravnaskrik for this project) who provides him with well-articulated stories of icy landscapes & tortured souls with which to layer over his lo-fi black metal instrumentation. I've often been critical of the use of the atmospheric black metal subgenre tag in recent years as it seems to have lost a lot of its meaning with people failing to understand its original intent & attempting to chuck it over far too many conventional black metal releases for my liking. But the tag fits the Walknut sound like a tailored glove as "Graveforests & Their Shadows" is far more about texture & subtlety than it is blasphemy & brutality & it does a great job at creating a fantasy world in which the listener can almost see, touch & feel the scenes being portrayed in Ravnaskrik's lyrics.

The lo-fi production job employed is nothing unusual for the atmospheric black metal subgenre but it's certainly well done on this occasion. I still maintain that the guitar riffs are quite difficult to pick out of the mix when taken in isolation as they're used more for texture than they are for melodic direction. It's the keyboards that are layered over the top that are tasked with giving the guitars their melodic context & this technique works quite well, contributing to the album's unique character. The tempos are generally fairly restrained with minimal use of blast-beats & three of the six tracks exceed the ten-minute mark which isn't all that uncommon for releases of this type. Stringsskald's tortured screams are another highlight as he sounds genuinely inhuman a lot of the time which only adds to the frostbitten atmosphere. Unlike a lot of European black metal though, Walknut's fuzzy musical tapestries feel somehow comfortable & you don't get the feeling that the intent was to suffocate or intimidate the listener. There's a warmth to be found in all of the frost if you know what I mean & I feel that this element is what makes the Walknut album stand out from the wealth of similar releases on the market.

The tracklisting kicks off with a well-executed one-minute ambient piece called "Hrimfaxi" that I really enjoy before taking off into the proper black metal material. Of the five metal songs, there are a few that stand out as highlights but all are worth listening to. The more expansive pieces like "Come, Dreadful Ygg" & "Grim Woods" are excellent examples of their type but I think it's the more upfront & aggressive four-minute instrumental closer "Skinfaxi" that appeals to me the most which is perhaps not all that surprising. Opener "Motherland Ostenvegr" is probably the most popular track but I rank it slightly below these other three along with the ridiculously titled "The Midnightforest of the Runes". It's a very consistent album overall though with the entire 43-minute runtime being worth exploring.

I've said a lot of positive things about "Graveforests & Their Shadows" so far, haven't I? And four-stars is more than respectable rating. But why don't I regard Walknut's lone album as highly as some of our other members by placing it up on a pedestal with the absolute cream of the black metal crop then? I think it's to do with some of the melodic ideas portrayed in the instrumentation to be honest. As well-executed as this material is, I often find that the motifs don't quite fully connect with me in the same way as peers like Paysage d'Hiver or Burzum do when they're at their best & it's important to me that I save my elite ratings for releases that I regard as being genuinely life-changing. The programmed drums are fairly obvious too which does detract from the overall package a touch, although I admittedly find myself getting more used to them with each listen. Nonetheless, "Graveforests & Their Shadows" is an excellent example of the atmospheric black metal subgenre & if that's something that you usually dig then I have no doubt that you've find a lot of enjoyment in it.

For fans of Drudkh, Ygg & Wędrujący Wiatr.

4/5

Here's my review:

My experience with prolific German metal stalwarts Rage has been fairly limited up until now with my only dedicated investigation of their music being capped at the band’s 1986 debut album “Reign of Fear”, a release that didn’t impress me much if I’m being honest. I struggled with the inconsistencies in quality & particularly with the vocals of bass-playing front man Peter “Peavy” Wagner so I’ve never felt too much encouragement to explore the ridiculously extensive Rage back catalogue further. I’ve recently noticed a fair bit of fanfare around Rage’s 1995 ninth full-length “Black in Mind” though so I decided to give the Germans another chance. It’d been almost a decade since their first-up effort after all so one could only imagine that they’d matured somewhat in that time. Time would tell though.

The production job is pretty good & presents the songs with a metal-as-fuck aesthetic that affords the material every chance of winning me over, even if power metal releases often face an up-hill battle with me. “Black in Mind” is quite an ambitious & diverse example of the German power metal model though. It’s 69-minute run time can be fairly daunting, particularly for someone like myself that’s not usually all that fond of the European strand of the genre, but there are plenty of stylistic changes throughout the fourteen-song tracklisting to keep one from getting bored. Despite the tendency to genre-hop a bit, I think the power metal genre is still the only primary tag required to describe “Black in Mind”. There are notable heavy metal & thrash metal components included & both are significant enough to mention but I don’t think either are a true representation of the overall sound you can expect to here from this record.

Although not as overt as I found on “Reign of Fear”, “Black in Mind” still suffers from largely the same flaws. The consistency of the song-writing isn’t great with four or five obvious filler tracks tainting my holistic impression of the album. While Wagner’s vocals may have improved over the previous decade, I still wouldn’t say that they’re amazing & find that they actually work to the detriment of some of these pieces. It's interesting that the back half of the album tends to be much heavier on the power metal than the A side which is a mixture of heavy metal, thrash metal & speed metal apart from the epic ten minutes of “In A Nameless Time”. I tend to favour the heavy metal material here with “The Icecold Hand of Destiny” being my clear favourite track followed by “The Crawling Chaos” & speed metal burner “Sent by the Devil”. I find “Shadow Out of Time”, “Until I Rage” & the popular opening title track to be pretty flat though while cheesy power metal number “Forever” falls a long way from my taste profile. Let’s not even mention “Alive But Dead” as it’s just fucking awful so you can see that a good third of the tracklisting doesn’t offer me much in the way of appeal.

“Black in Mind” certainly isn’t horrible & I did get some enjoyment out of the majority of its lengthy run time to tell you the truth but there’s no doubt that it's too long & I feel that even a small amount of culling might have seen me awarding it a more acceptable score. As it is though, I can’t say that I found the experience all that rewarding. I'd definitely take “Black in Mind” over “Reign of Fear” but not by as much as most fans would probably think & it surprises me that this is thought to be Rage’s best release as that doesn’t exactly say a lot about their gazillion & one other albums. Perhaps Rage (& European power metal in general) simply aren’t for me but I feel good about the fact that I’ve given “Black in Mind” a good Aussie crack as it has definitely ticked a box that had remained empty for far too long.

For fans of Grave Digger, Running Wild & Avenger.

3/5

I thought so Sonny but I can't see that I've rated it & don't have any recollection of it either so perhaps not. I'll put it on my (very long) shortlist for the future.

Here's my review:

English doom merchants Cathedral absolutely blew me away with their 1991 debut album "Forest of Equilibrium". I'd picked it up on cassette shortly after release after reading the guys from Napalm Death raving about it in a tour interview & could immediately see the attraction to what was one of the doomiest records I've encountered before or since. That triumph would then see me seeking out a copy of Cathedral's amazing 1990 "In Memorium" demo tape, a release that I'd connect with on just as deep a level. But that affection started to drift just a touch with 1992's "Soul Sacrifice" E.P. which saw Cathedral moving towards a groovier stoner metal sound & left me wondering whether my unquenchable thirst for the Coventry doomsters would end up being fairly fleeting, dissipating as quickly as it had ignited. "Soul Sacrifice" certainly had its moments (particularly the epic doom monster that is "Frozen Rapture") & I do have some time for it but I would hardly say that it's essential listening with the groovier material dominating proceedings. This blip on the radar wouldn't stop me purchasing a CD copy of Cathedral's 1993 sophomore album "The Ethereal Mirror" as soon as it hits the stores though & I'd race home to see whether it would alleviate any concerns I may have harbored following my mixed reaction to "Soul Sacrifice".

"The Ethereal Mirror" certainly looked & sounded the goods. The psychedelic imagery that adorns the cover is very much in line with that of "Forest of Equilibrium" & makes for an accurate depiction of what you can expect from the music conatined within. The production job would be handled by 38 year old David Bianco who had engineered releases from bands like Danzig, Wolfsbane & Trouble in the past (the latter being a major source of inspiration for Cathedral) & the recording would take place at Manor Studios in Oxfordshire which was a new venue for Cathedral. The resulting album would possess a newly invigorated shine that was not present on "Forest of Equilibrium" which sported its own unique character with an unusually bass-heavy, retro aesthetic. "The Ethereal Mirror" would sound much brighter & would make use of a much greater frequency range. That's not to say that I rated the brand new Cathedral sound more highly than the old one because that wasn't the case but there's no doubt that it made for a more accessible listening experience.

The album kicks off with a belter of a psychedelic doom metal intro piece in "Violet Vortex" which is real favourite of mine & saw my hopes of a revitalized Cathedral starting to swell but things take a drastic dive for the worse immediately after that when the record veers sharply intro stoner territory with the popular "Ride", a song that I've always struggled with. The clean vocals of former Napalm Death front man Lee Dorrian were never the most accomplished but his pitch issues had somewhat of a charm that was built around his ability to portray sheer misery & woe but here we see him summoning up a much less miserable atmosphere as the ring-leader charged with getting the listeners hips moving. He sounds positively silly at times & I struggle with him on the majority of the groovier material. The remainder of the A side is fairly hit & miss too with a trio of stoner metal numbers largely being held back by the God-awful "Midnight Mountain", even though I do quite like the doomier "Enter the Worms" & the deeply psychedelic "Fountain of Innocence". The B side is much more effective in my opinion with the vast majority of the stronger material being found there & the only dip in quality being the fairly flat acoustic folk outro piece "Imprisoned in Flesh". Things get progressively doomier following the solid stoner number "Grim Luxuria" with a couple of guitarist Gaz Jennings' (Death Penalty/Acid Reign/Lucifer) old numbers from his previous band Morbid Doom having been rehashed to great effect. "Jaded Entity" is an excellent example of what can be achieved by blending stoner & doom metal elements while the epic doom monster "Phantasmagoria" is the clear classic of the ten pieces on offer & goes a long way to justifying my purchase. The excellent "Ashes You Leave" which is positioned between those two tracks is probably my second favourite selection & rounds out a much stronger B side that is a lot heavier on the doom component.

As I mentioned, Dorrian's contribution can be a struggle at times. At best, he sounds intentionally whacky & unhinged. At his worst though, he simply comes across as ridiculous & can take away from the more serious moments so I can't help but feel that Cathedral were held back by his presence for much of their career. The instrumentation is often top notch though with the psychedelic component being executed with a clear pedigree in this style of music. The loss of bassist Mark Griffiths (Blackstar) doesn't seem to have left too big a hole with Jennings filling his spot with aplomb. I have to admit that I do find "The Ethereal Mirror" to be a frustrating release though because, even though I find myself to generally like the album when looking at it holistically, I can't help but feel disappointed because I know full well what Cathedral were capable of so I'm left with a fear that I'd never again feel the depths of despair that "Forest of Equilibrium" inevitably takes me to. There are certainly hints at that dark place on "The Ethereal Mirror" but they have a habit of almost taunting me, as if to show that they've still got it in them, only to snatch it away from me when I reach out to grab them. This sees the appeal in Cathedral's sophomore album being capped out at largely the same level as the "Soul Sacrifice" E.P. although I do enjoy "The Ethereal Mirror" a little more, mainly due to the greater doom metal component on offer.

Cathedral would proceed to further tarnish their early reputation with their next few releases & I'd eventually have to let go of my hopes of them returning to their "Forest of Equilibrium" sound. They would, however, produce another excellent doom record very late in their recording career in their 2013 swansong "The Last Spire" but it came a bit too late to reinspire my adulation to the same levels as I'd experienced in my youth. Still, "The Ethereal Mirror" seems to be Cathedral's most popular release these days so it would seem to be as much a matter of taste as anything else, although I admittedly know a few people that feel very similarly to myself so I'm hardly on my own in this position.

For fans of Electric Wizard, Trouble & Sleep.

3.5/5

Man, Priest have amassed quite the assortment of questionable material over the course of their career, haven't they. I saw them earlier this year, and words can't describe how disappointed I was when they decided to close the set out with the steaming pile of shite that is "Living After Midnight". Not to mention that they had the guts to play the goddamn "Turbo Lover". In 2024!

Quoted Karl

I completely agree on "Living After Midnight" as I've never understood the following that song seems to have amassed. I couldn't disagree more on "Turbo Lover" though as it's one of my all-time favourite heavy metal tracks. Still gives me chills up my spine to this day.

I would suggest that "Aces High" is my personal pick but it's closely followed by "Powerslave". It's a top three heavy metal album for me personally. I came to it shortly after discovering Maiden through "Somewhere in Time", "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" & "Live After Death" in quick succession in 1988.

Utumno - "Across the Horizon" E.P. (1993)

Swedish death metallers Utumno may only have been around for a few short years yet they managed to achieve a level of notoriety that has only grown with each passing decade & mainly off the back of this excellent six-track E.P. which I was lucky enough to pick up through the tape trading scene at the time. The Swedish death metal movement had peaked by this stage with its undeniable leaders Entombed having already started to move on to fresh creative endeavours however "Across the Horizon" offered diehard fans of the genre hope that all was not lost. I really enjoyed "Across the Horizon" as a teenager & have found myself returning to it quite often over the several decades since. It seems to have gained somewhat of a cult following in that time too which is not without merit & it's about time I exposed a few of our members to its charms.

"Across the Horizon" is an unapologetic celebration of the Swedish death metal scene. It doesn't try anything too different but Utumno's sound is still fresh enough to give them their own identity. The key ingredient here is energy as the production job offers a lovely balance between rawness & clarity & the compositions are all high on adrenaline. You certainly won't be surprised to discover that Utumno are Swedish as the guitar tone of guitarists Staffan Johansson & Denis Lindahl sits comfortably within the expected space without ever reaching for as many layers of distortion as some of the scenes main players. Drummer Johan Hallberg (also of thrash/speed metallers Cranium) can certainly blast away with the best of them but he picks his moments well which gives his blast-beats some added oomph when they do arrive. It's the psychotic vocals of Jonas Stålhammar (Abhoth/At the Gates/God Macabre/Macabre End/The Crown/The Lurking Fear) that puts the icing on the cake though & he often reminds me of Sadistik Exekution front man Rok in that he sounds genuinely unhinged which gives Utumno an additional edge.

The tracklisting is exceptionally strong with the vast majority of the material being very solid indeed. Both of the tracks that appeared on 1991's "The Light of Day" E.P. have been re-recorded for this release but I'm not familiar with the original so I can't say how they compare. I do find this version of "Saviour Reborn" to be the least impressive inclusion though & it sees the quality levels dipping just a touch. My favourite cuts are probably opener "The Light of Day", "I Cross the Horizons" & "Sunrise" although it's hard to pick between them as there isn't a genuine classic that stands out from the rest. Instead, we receive a consistent barrage of high-class death metal that should leave you feeling like Utumno have missed an opportunity in not continuing on past this release.

In the vast sea of Swedish death metal releases from the early 1990's, it's easy to see how a record like "Across the Horizon" might have been swallowed up, reliant on the long-term affection of the more committed underground followers to perpetuate its reputation. Time has seen it rising to the top though & I have to say that I'm glad because it's a very fine record in its own right. I may not be the biggest fan of the Swedish sound when compared to the more sophisticated US one but that doesn't stop me from appreciating the savagery that Utumno harness in battering their way through this collection of underappreciated death metal history.

For fans of Gorement, Uncanny & God Macabre.

4/5

Edge of Sanity - "The Spectral Sorrows" (1993)

After recently completing revisits to the first two early 90’s albums from Swedish death metallers Edge of Sanity, I decided that it’d be a good idea to give those reviews a little more perspective by filling in my obvious gap in the band’s early story with a reinvestigation of 1993’s “The Spectral Sorrows” third album, a record that represented a significant stepping stone for the band in their journey towards top tier notoriety. I have to admit that I’ve never found myself sitting amongst the bigger fans of these Swedes but have always had time for most of their releases & I found further evidence of that in my reassessments of 1991’s “Nothing But Dead Remains” & 1992’s “Unorthodox”, even going so far as to claim that the former is an underrated release that I actually enjoy more than Edge of Sanity’s more unanimously praised mid-90’s releases. I believe I picked up “The Spectral Sorrows” from one of my local Aussie tape traders & former Elysium band mates who held them up as being his absolute favourite band at the time but I don’t recall myself returning to it since the middle of that decade so it’s time to see where it sits in the Edge of Sanity back catalogue.

The one thing that's clear from the outset is that Edge of Sanity benefitted from their change in studio for the recording of their third album. As with their first two full-lengths, they’d engaged Börje Forsberg (the father of Bathory mastermind Quorthon) to produce the record but this time the outcome was fuller & more vibrant which gave Edge of Sanity a more professional edge & the opportunity to step up in class. The fairly basic musicianship that could be found on the first two records is still on display but it’s been given a shinier coat of paint that makes it a touch more palatable, even if the lead guitar work can seem a little simplistic at times. Bassist Anders Lindberg had been unavailable for the sessions due to military service which left guitarist Andreas Axelsson to handle his parts although this isn’t a significant factor in the grand scheme of things with the classic Swedish guitar crunch & Dan Swanö’s imposing death growl once again being the main drivers in the Edge of Sanity sound.

The most interesting difference from the first two Edge of Sanity albums is the added melody on display on “The Spectral Sorrows”. I don’ think it’s enough to be calling it a melodic death metal record like many people seem to as there’s really only a few songs that go the whole way but it’s evident on a large portion of the album nonetheless. It’s perhaps not all that surprising that my enthusiasm for Edge of Sanity’s third album is curtailed a little more than it is with other fans as I’ve never been the biggest fan of the melodeath subgenre. There are other differences here too though. Where “Unorthodox” saw Edge of Sanity starting to experiment more with their sound, “The Spectral Sorrows” sees them taking a few of unexpected cracks at some widely disparate genres & this can be a little jarring at times. The cover version of Manowar’s “Blood of My Enemies” was a strange selection to begin with but doing it with clean vocals seems like a poor option as Swanö was hardly going to be able to compete with the great Eric Adams from a vocal perspective & the track subsequently falls fairly flat. The inclusion of a gothic rock track in “Sacrificed” fairs better with the deeper clean vocals feeling more than appropriate but it does feel a little out of place on a death metal album nonetheless. The neoclassical darkwave closer “A Serenade For The Dead” is probably the best of the more experimental material & was an enjoyable way to close out the album. Of the more traditional material, there’s a fair bit to like about the majority of it but things rarely touch upon the more elite levels that we know that death metal can achieve. The short opening title track is a stellar way to build tension & crunch into the first proper song while the creative “Lost” is probably my pick of the more traditional inclusions. These high points are offset by a couple of obvious fillers in the highly melodic “The Masque” & the uneventful “On The Other Side”, both of which I really struggle with. There simply aren’t enough genuine highlights to cover material like this so, much like Edge of Sanity’s first two records, I find myself ending up in middle ground with this album. The wins clearly outweigh the losses but those wins are rarely emphatic victories & this fact alone sees my scoring being limited in how high it has the potential to go.

Yes, there’s no doubt that “The Spectral Sorrows” is another generally enjoyable Edge of Sanity record but it’s lack of focus & consistency has left me feeling like I want to place it behind the Swede’s first two records in their overall pecking order. I have no doubt that the added melody has played into that a little but I don’t think that’s the sole factor here as the best moments on “The Spectral Sorrows” often see the band failing to fully capitalize (see the outstanding half-time intro section to “Waiting to Die” which is more or less nullified by the lightweight period that follows it). It’s pretty clear that Edge of Sanity are never gonna be a favourite of mine at this point, particularly as I enjoyed their next couple of classics even less than I did this one, but I feel that I can recognise their appeal in all of this. I just can’t quite put myself into the same head space as the rest of the death metal community seem to be able to when describing them & “The Spectral Sorrows” is a pretty clear example of that.

For fans of Hypocrisy, Intestine Baalism & Godgory.

3.5/5

Here's the October feature release nomination list:

THE FALLEN: Ben, Daniel

THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: Karl, Xephyr

THE HORDE: Vinny, Ben, Daniel, Karl

THE INFINITE: Xephyr, Saxy, Andi

THE NORTH: Karl, Xephyr, Daniel, Ben

THE PIT: Ben, Daniel, Vinny

THE REVOLUTION: Andi, Daniel

THE SPHERE: Daniel, Andi

Fixed