Daniel's Forum Replies

This is an extremely solid progressive metal record that's deserving of the praise it seems to be receiving right now. There's no question that it's a clear example of Haken & particularly "Metropolis II: Scenes From A Memory"-era Dream Theater worship but it's all done extremely well & it's hard to be too critical given the expansive instrumentation & accomplished compositional work on display. The vocals sound similar to Devin Townsend at times but may not be compelling enough for Nospun to reach the top echelon of the progressive metal hierarchy. Still... "Opus" will no doubt make for an extremely consistent & highly rewarding listen for any proghead worth their salt. I'll be surprised if it doesn't feature in the end of year award discussions for The Infinite.

4/5

Check out Iron Maiden ripping off the bass line that appears at 5:18 in Budgie's " You're the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk" at 3:22 in their 1980 classic "Phantom of the Opera". We know that Steve Harris was a Budgie fan so it would seem to be a pretty clear example of plagiarism.

This morning's track is Budgie's " You're the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk" which I'd suggest sits somewhere between heavy metal & stoner rock. It's close enough to qualify as metal in my opinion which makes it the first Budgie track to do so thus far.

I checked out the 1973 “I’m Just A Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer” third album from Lucifer’s Friend this afternoon. It’s a hard/progressive rock record with no metal to speak of.

Do we have anyone else that enjoy Folk metal here?

I believe Xephyr is the biggest fan of our regular contributors.

This morning's track is Budgie's "You Know I'll Always Love You" which I'd suggest sits best under a contemporary folk tag:

Look, I've given "Sagas" a full three listens over the last few days but I have to admit that it was a pretty torturous exercise for me as I think this style of folk metal is just about as far from my taste profile as it's possible to get. This is hardly surprising given that another style of metal I generally struggle with is European power metal & a lot of "Sagas" is essentially European power metal with folk melodies & black metal vocals layered over the top. The material is all well produced & showcases excellent technical proficiency of course but I simply can't contain my gag reflex & feel that I'd be doing the band a disservice by reviewing the record as I have no time whatsoever for anything that sounds remotely like this e.g. Ensiferum, Finntroll, Eluveitie, etc.

2/5

Here's another one I picked up while listening to Malevolent Creation's "The Ten Commandments" earlier in the week. Check out the riff that starts at 0:20 in their 1991 track "Premature Burial" & compare it to the riff that starts at 0:58 in Suffocation's "Human Waste" which was released just four months earlier. Coincidence? I think not.

Let's get back into the swing of things after I've been away in Sydney for a few days visiting the family. Today's track is Budgie's version of Big Joe Williams' 1935 blues anthem "Baby Please Don't Go", a song that AC/DC also famously covered on their debut album "High Voltage" a couple of years later. Unsurprisingly, I find this one to be a blues rock tune.

As usual, I plan to completely commit my entire January (well, at least after I've gotten through the feature releases that interest me) to exploring the more popular 2023 releases in the lead-up to the Metal Academy Awards in early February so I'll definitely be checking this one out.

This morning we start a new release in 1973's "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend" third album from Welsh trio Budgie. The opening track "Breadfan" was famously covered by Metallica who metalized what I consider to be a hard rock song with a proggy section in the middle.

Yes thanks. Please go with Exodus’ “AWOL” from the “Impact is Imminent” album Vinny.

You're right Vinny. It's clear that we need to listen to more metal. 

*Wonders how that's even possible & if doing away with sleep altogether is an option*

Neuropath – “My Bleeding Mortality” (from “Desert of Excruciation” demo, 1995)

5/5. A killer piece of 90s brutal death metal from NSW, Australia. The guitar talent really shines through. Nicely done, Daniel!

Thanks mate. I've always considered "My Bleeding Mortality" to be the best of the demo tracks too.

Nice choice Ben. I'll definitely be revisiting this one as I don't currently have it rated. I tend to recall it being one of the better The Crown releases I've heard from them too.

Nice one Andi. It's been many years since I last visited "666 International" so I'll be giving this one a walk down memory lane. I don't think I ever forged any further forwards into Dødheimsgard discography after that release but I see that their latest record is receiving some very high praise around the traps.

Malevolent Creation - "The Ten Commandments" (1991)

Buffalo death metallers Malevolent Creation were a pretty big band in my household back in the early-to-mid 1990's. Both of the band's first two albums were very positively received by both Ben & myself & I feel that I perhaps even rated them a little more highly than many of my peers did due to their very close stylistic alignment with my own personal taste profile during that period. 1991's "The Ten Commandments" was certainly a little thrashier than 1992's wonderful "Retribution" sophomore record but the production & general feel fall firmly into the Florida death metal bracket with some polished performances, sophisticated arrangements & an aggressive tone which perhaps isn't too surprising when you consider that the album was recorded with legendary Florida death metal producer Scott Burns at the iconic Morrisound Studios.

While "The Ten Commandments" is unquestionably a death metal release, the thrash influence I mentioned is obvious throughout & it gives the record a slightly different vibe to Malevolent Creation's more dark & deathly sophomore album. The vocals of front man Brett Hoffmann aren't quite as deep as other death growlers & wouldn't sound all that out of place on a Sadus record to tell you the truth but they're extremely effective nonetheless & are one the album's clear strengths in my opinion. The instrumentation is often pretty thrashy too & sees Malevolent Creation combining the death metal of Deicide & Cannibal Corpse's 1990 debut full-lengths with some of the more brutal thrash metal releases like Dark Angel's classic "Darkness Descends" or Demolition Hammer's first couple of albums. As many of you would likely know, I'm a big fan of well-executed blast-beats & drummer Mark Simpson does a stellar job at producing a super-tight battery of flailing snare-drum hits here which appeals to me greatly. He doesn't overdo it though which gives each blast-beat section added weight & emphasis. The guitar solos of Jeff Juszkiewicz are pretty accomplished for such a young band too so Malevolent Creation were a highly professional act for the time.

"The Ten Commandments" is a very solid release that should please all fans of US death metal. It's only lacking a few more genuine classics with the savage "Premature Burial" being the only cut that I'd place into that category. The rest of the material is consistently strong though so it's hard to be too critical, particularly for a debut release. "Retribution" would see Malevolent Creation stepping up to the next level though & it's always been my pick of their back catalogue. Regardless, "The Ten Commandments" comes highly recommended from this ol' death metal nut.

4/5

With a unanimous YES 5 NO 0 vote tally thus far, I've decided to pass this Hall of Judgement nomination as it's clear that it's only going one way & I completely agree with the consensus. The database has been changed to remove the Gothic Metal genre from the release.

This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

https://metal.academy/hall/453

This nomination has now been posted in the Hall of Judgement.

https://metal.academy/hall/452

Here's one I picked up while revisiting Malevolent Creation's "The Ten Commandments" debut album this week. Check out the verse section that starts in Deicide's "Sacrificial Suicide" at 0:30 & compare it with the part that begins at 1:31 in Malevolent Creation's "Injected Suffering" which was surely influenced by the self-titled Deicide album. The riffs aren't identical but the structure & vocal phrasing has clearly borrowed from Deicide in my opinion.

Here are the feature releases nomination recipients for February:

THE FALLEN: Morpheus, Ben, Daniel

THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: Rexorcist, Xephyr, Shezma, Morpheus

THE HORDE: Ben, Daniel

THE INFINITE: Shezma, Andi, Xephyr, Rexorcist, Saxy

THE NORTH: Xephyr, Ben, Daniel, Shezma

THE PIT: Rexorcist, Morpheus, Daniel, Ben

THE REVOLUTION: Andi, Daniel

THE SPHERE: Daniel, Andi

As I said last month, please feel free to submit your nominations immediately guys as I shouldn't need to chase you in the back end of the month.

Rexorcist, will you be participating given that you didn't submit your nomination on time for inclusion in the January features? If you don't respond within a week then we'll revert to the next member in the queue for The Guardians & The Pit which will be Xephyr & Morpheus respectively.

Here's my February submissions Andi:

Godflesh – “Nihil” (from “Cold World” E.P., 1991)

Here's my February submission Andi:

Zao – “To Think of You Is to Treasure an Absent Memory” (from “Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest”, 1998)

Here are my February submissions Vinny:

Obliveon – “From This Day Forward” (from “From This Day Forward”, 1990)

Celtic Frost – “Nemesis” (from “Vanity/Nemesis”, 1990)

Death Angel – “Stop” (from “Act III”, 1990)

Xentrix – “Questions” (from “For Whose Advantage?”, 1990)

Flotsam & Jetsam – “Suffer The Masses” (from “When The Storm Comes”, 1990)

Here are my February nominations Ben:

Sarcofago – “Christ’s Death” (from “Christ’s Death” demo, 1987) [A war metal track that can be found on the 2015 “Die… Hard” compilation]

Malokarpatan – “I hle, tak zachádza imperiálna hviezda” (from “Vertumnus Caesar”, 2023) [Progressive black metal]

Grotesque – “Blood Runs From The Altar” (from “Incantation” E.P., 1990) [Can be found on 2016’s “In The Embrace Of Evil” compilation] [Blackened thrash]

Samael – “Worship Him” (from “Worship Him”, 1991) [Black metal]

Here are my Feburary submissions:

Darkthrone – “Accumulation of Generalization” (from “Cromlech” demo, 1989)

Nihilist – “When Life Has Ceased” (from “Drowned” demo, 1989)

diSEMBOWELMENT – “Thou Messiah” (from “Mourning September” demo, 1990)

Napalm Death – “If The Truth Be Known” (from “Harmony Corruption”, 1990)

Hellwitch – “Nosferatu” (from “Syzgial Miscreancy”, 1990)

Carnage – “Dark Recollections” (from “Dark Recollections”, 1990)

Neuropath – “Copulation of Insanity” (from “Desert of Excruciation” demo, 1995)

Here's my February submissions Xephyr which is a track that I feel nicely skirts along the border between heavy metal & black metal:

Malokarpatan – “Vertumnus Caesar” (from “Vertumnus Caesar”, 2023)

Here's my submission for the February playlist Saxy. Much like a several other tracks from the album, I'd suggest that "Misery" is an alternative metal number that fits nicely within the scope of The Gateway given that it sounds so much like Deftones but feel free not include it if you feel otherwise.

Disbelief – “Misery” (from “Worst Enemy”, 2001)

Here are my submissions for the February playlist Sonny:

Isole – “Bliss of Solitude” (from “Bliss of Solitude”, 2008)

My Dying Bride – “Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium (Demo)” (from “Towards The Sinister” demo, 1991) [Can be found on 2016’s “Meisterwerk III” compilation]

Crowbar – “My Agony” (from “Obedience Thru Suffering”, 1991)

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "Under The Sun" which I regard is being stoner metal:

This sees my final position being very similar to the first three Black Sabbath albums. "Vol. 4" is a stoner metal record as far as I'm concerned & is probably the most obviously so thus far too with literally every metal track on the tracklisting receiving a stoner metal tag from me. Tomorrow we'll begin a new release with Budgie's 1973 album "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend".

January 2024

01. Tiamat – “Sumerian Cry (Part III)” (from “The Astral Sleep”, 1991) [Submitted by Sonny]

02. Death – “Bite The Pain” (from “The Sound Of Perseverance”, 1998) [Submitted by Sonny]

03. Edge of Sanity – “Blood-Colored” (from “Purgatory Afterglow”, 1994) [Submitted by Sonny]

04. Darkthrone – “Thulcandra” (from “Thulcandra” demo, 1989) [Submitted by Daniel]

05. Anata – “Under Azure Skies” (from “The Infernal Depths of Hatred”, 1998)

06. Amon Amarth – “Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds” (from “Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds” E.P., 1996)

07. Sacrilege – “Fettered In Shackles Of Light” (from “Lost in the Beauty You Slay”, 1996)

08. Nihilist – “Abnormally Deceased” (from “Only Shreds Remain” demo, 1988) [Submitted by Daniel]

09. Cripple Bastards – “Odio a prima vista” (from “Desperately Insensitive”, 2003)

10. Epiphanic Truth – “The Truth of the Beast” (from “Dark Triad: Bitter Psalms to a Sordid Species”, 2021) [Submitted by Daniel]

11. Bloodbath – “Mock The Cross” (from “The Fathomless Mastery”, 2008) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

12. Vastum – “Vomitous” (from “Inward to Gethsemane”, 2023) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

13. Obituary – “Godless Beings” (from “Slowly We Rot”, 1989) [Submitted by Daniel]

14. Cannibal Corpse – “Buried In The Backyard” (from “Eaten Back To Life”, 1990) [Submitted by Daniel]

15. Napalm Death – “Out of Sight Out of Mind” (from “Order of the Leech”, 2002) [Submitted by Sonny]

16. Pyrrhon – “Cancer Mantra” (from “Growth Without End”, 2015)

17. Bæst – “Crosswhore” (from “Danse Macabre”, 2018) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

18. Setentia – “Throne of Thorns” (from “Darkness Transcend”, 2016)

19. Cattle Decapitation – “Unintelligent Design” (from “Karma.Bloody.Karma”, 2006)

20. Neuropath – “My Bleeding Mortality” (from “Desert of Excruciation” demo, 1995) [Submitted by Daniel]

21. 10 To The Chest – “Glassed In The Face” (from “Split The Fuck Open” E.P., 2023) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

22. Behemoth – “Xul” (from “Demigod”, 2004) [Submitted by Sonny]

23. Iniquitous Deeds – “Incessant Hallucinations” (from “Incessant Hallucinations”, 2015)

24. Monument of Misanthropy – “Exceptionally Sadistic” (from “Unterweger”, 2021) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

25. Regurgitate – “Waging War on Benevolence” (from “Deviant”, 2003)

26. Fuck The Facts – “Second Hand Skin” (from “Backstabber Etiquette”, 2003)

27. Circle of Dead Children – “Zero Comfort Margin” (from “Zero Comfort Margin” E.P., 2005)

28. Vulvodynia – “Unveiling The Abomination” (from “Cognizant Castigation”, 2014)

29. Skinless – “Deviation Will Not Be Tolerated” (from “Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead”, 2006) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

30. Epicardiectomy – “Horrendous Festering Transmutations” (from “Putreseminal Morphodysplastic Virulency”, 2014)

31. Analepsy – “Food For The Maggots” (from “Dehumanization by Supremacy” E.P., 2015) [Submitted by UnhinderedbyTalent]

Last chance to nominate the December The Pit feature release Rexorcist.

You're up Ben.

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "St. Vitus Dance" which I regard as being stoner rock:

There were a number of reasons that Neuropath broke up. Strained relationships & differences in age & maturity were certainly a factor. The increasingly underappreciated & unbalanced effort that I had to put in to get anything moving was another. My exposure to older musicians who were keen to work with me on exciting new sounds certainly came into it too, as did my de facto relationship issues which were playing out in front of my whole social network. It was definitely more about people than it was the music though.

As soon as we'd ended the band I joined a Western Sydney doom/death outfit called Elysium (they later changed their name to Stone Wings) which included members with links to a whole array of different Aussie bands such as Mournful Congregation, The Amenta, Sacriphyx, Innsmouth, Backyard Mortuary, Murkrat, The Slow Death & Lord Kaos. I spent six months with Elysium before deciding that I needed to distance myself from the entire metal scene for an extended period if I was going to sort out my relationship issues properly as I just couldn't stand the scrutiny any more, particularly after my partner fell pregnant when I was just 19 years old with the weeks leading up to an eventual decision to abort being amongst the most emotionally torturous of my life. So, I decided to take a break from the people & the scene more than I did the music as I initially intended to continue making metal in my own time & without external influences.

What ended up happening around 1997/98 was that I unexpectedly started to find all of the extreme metal I was picking up through tape traders to a) sound like rehashes of my favourite bands from years gone past or b) be diluting the essence of what I looked for in my metal so it gradually became a little less exciting. I became increasingly more infatuated with guitar technique with & decided to write & record an instrumental guitar shred CD where I would perform all of the instruments myself with the intention of putting together a band to play the material live afterwards. That CD (entitled "Ebony Tomorrows") would eventually see the light of day in 1999 but by that stage I'd become so exhausted with the effort required to do everything myself that I once again needed to explore other sounds for a while.

Electronic music opened itself up to me through my huge passion for artists like Massive Attack, Bjork, Chemical Brothers & Carl Cox. Once I broke the surface though I discovered a whole world of exciting new sounds & a club scene that was very much the opposite of the one I'd escaped from. My best mate was just as into it as I was & we went on a decade long journey of discovery where we had some of the best times of our lives. DJing came very naturally to me & became my new obsession. I loved techno every bit as much as I've loved metal & utterly indulged myself in the culture. As with my other musical flights of fancy though, I eventually got tired of doing the one thing musically & also started to get physically tired as I got older too. I was a five-day-a-week gym junkie by that stage & my health focus just didn't work all that well with the late-night DJ lifestyle. The Sydney lock-out laws were the final straw as they limited my ability to get gigs in a pretty major way so I pulled the pin some time in 2008/09 & felt pretty relieved to have some spare time back in my life even though I don't regret a minute of my dance music days.

At that point Ben started to open me up to all of the exciting stuff I'd missed in the metal scene over the previous decade & I saw my interest in previously unexplored genres like sludge metal, mathcore, post-metal & drone metal growing really fast. I started going to gigs again & rekindled my love for metal. I've never looked back since.

Here's my adjusted Top Ten Conventional Doom Metal Releases of All Time list after revisiting "Cathedral's "Forest of Equilibrium" this week:

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

02. Ufomammut & Lento - "Supernaturals - Record One" (2007)

03. Celtic Frost - "Monotheist" (2006)

04. Warning - "Watching From A Distance" (2006)

05. Anathema - "The Silent Enigma" (1995)

06. M.S.W. - "Obliviosus" (2020)

07. The Electric Wizard - "We Live" (2004)

08. Cathedral - "In Memoriam" demo (1990)

09. My Dying Bride - "The Angel & The Dark River" (1995)

10. Cathedral - "Forest Of Equilibrium" (1991)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/128

Cathedral - "Forest of Equilibrium" (1991)

I can still recall the first time I heard about English doom/stoner metal legends Cathedral. I was reading a Terrorizer magazine interview with Napalm Death that was conducted while they were out on tour back in 1991. The band were questioned on what they'd been listening to on their tour bus which saw one of the guys admitting that Death's "Human" had been the popular choice until they'd received a copy of their former vocalist Lee Dorrian's first full-length with his new doom metal band Cathedral, a release sporting the trippy title of "Forest of Equilibrium". I was very surprised to read that Cathedral's record had overtaken "Human" as the new bus favourite, particularly given that "Human" had already become somewhat of an obsession for me. I subsequently made a point of seeking out "Forest of Equilibrium", purchasing it on cassette shortly afterwards.

The sound & aesthetic of Cathedral's debut can be quite confronting upon first listen. The cover artwork is nothing short of stunning with its strong psychedelic focus being perfectly suited to the retro vibe Cathedral were going for. The production job took me a little more getting used to though as it sat well outside of my metal comfort zone with the fuzzy, bass-heavy timbre recounting 1970's progressive rock & heavy psych as much as it does early Black Sabbath, the prog rock component being further hinted at through the use of a couple of brilliantly effective flute solos that afford additional colour to the release. After a couple of attentive listens I found myself becoming captivated by this sound & committed more & more time to indulging in the material.

"Forest of Equilibrium" is renowned as being easily Cathedral's doomiest album & I'd also suggest that it was their best by a pretty wide margin too. The dedicated focus to making their particular brand of doom metal the slowest, heaviest & most melancholic ever recorded was a rousing success in my opinion & I still find myself turning to this record when chasing some truly depressing doom metal atmosphere to this very day. It's not a perfect album by any means though. The occasional hints at the stoner metal sound the band would quickly progress towards over their next couple of releases do taint otherwise strong & muscular efforts like opener "Commiserating the Celebration" a bit while I also find the sporadic use of chuggy heavy metal riffs to be more of a distraction than it is a refreshing change of pace. Then we have the ever-popular & super-groovy stoner metal single "Soul Sacrifice" to contend with too, a track that I've always found to interrupt the flow of an otherwise extremely strong tracklisting. Thankfully though, the highlights are nothing short of devastating with doom monster "Ebony Tears" (also the highlight of 1990's "In Memoriam" demo) & closing funeral doom precursor "Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain" being absolute master strokes & the outstanding "Serpent Eve" & "Equilibrium" not being too far behind.

At this point I probably should address the elephant in the room as it becomes pretty damn obvious as soon as any Cathredral virgins enter into their first listen. Lee Dorrian (also of drone metallers Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine & doomsters With The Dead) wasn't the most capable of singers while he was leading Napalm Death but here we see him sporting a delivery that is the very definition of an acquired taste. Some punters simply won't be able to come to terms with Dorrian's miserable howl & I can't deny that he can even annoy me too but it's almost impossible to deny that this music seems to be tailor-made for his depressive wallowing. The heavily down-tuned & harmonized doom melodies of former Acid Reign guitarists Gaz Jennings (also of English heavy/doom metallers Death Penalty) & Adam Lehan more than make up for any discomfort experienced due to the vocals though as there are some absolutely crushing doom riffs on display here. In fact, I'd suggest that I've rarely heard anything heavier in all my days which has seen "Forest of Equilibrium" sitting in elite company for the more than three decades since it was first released. The fuzzed-out lead licks are produced in an interesting way that sees them flying out from unexpected places in the mix &, in doing so, gently massaging your cranial cortex in a similar way to the greats of 1970's heavy psych. The spectacular success of these elements has no doubt contributed to the long-time frustration I've held around Cathedral given that they'd never again touch upon such a transcendent sound, often making a conscious effort to steer away from it & even hinting that they may have recorded another album in this style that was simply rotting away in someone's basement. 2013's "The Last Spire" swansong would finally see Lee & co. attempting a purist doom record again, & with some very solid results too it has to be said, but I can't say that it reaches the same dizzying heights (or should I say soul-crushing lows?) as this wonderful release managed to.

"Forest of Equilibrium" is a marvelous debut & should certainly be essential listening for any doomster worth their salt. It proved to be the perfect gateway between the traditional doom metal of the 70's & 80's (e.g. Black Sabbath & Trouble) & the more modern doom sound of the 90's that saw all peripherals & external influences being cast aside in the name of a more focused & pure doom sound (e.g. Electric Wizard). The "In Memoriam" demo is possibly even more heavily focused on undiluted doom & I've been surprised to find myself giving it a slight edge over "Forest of Equilibrium" in recent times but I can't deny my affection for this record which easily overcomes its shortcomings by taking its craft to the ultimate extreme &, in doing so, achieving genre-defining results.

4.5/5

Mark is a highly intelligent, introspective & often reclusive character who no doubt has his own set of personal demons to battle with which makes for a great lyricist. He's also a top bloke & this whole exercise has seen us rekindling our friendship which has been the biggest positive to come out of it for me. I can see us maintaining communication into the future actually.

I actually used to wear leather, studs & spikes every single day (even to work) until about 1998. I gradually moved away from it after that as I became more & more interested in setting myself up for the future from a business sense & it made an enormous difference to the way I was perceived. I didn't get rid of the long hair until I became entrenched in the club scene in the early 2000's though which was predominantly because I was getting so hot & my hair was so long that it was all over everyone around me on the dancefloor. I've always been a very easy-going, confidently spoken & generally positive, glass-half-full type of guy which somehow seems to be at odds with people's perceptions of what a death metal musician should be, particularly in Australia where your average person on the street thinks Pantera & Slipknot are death metal. 

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "Laguna Sunrise" which I regard as being chamber folk.

Being one of the heaviest things in the early 70s counts for a lot in that regard.

I don't see why it counts for anything at all to tell you the truth. We're comparing these releases to the modern-day understanding of what metal is. Not what it was back then when it was still yet to be defined.

How many albums have we come to the conclusion that despite being listed as metal have less metal than Budgie? 

None as far as I can see. The two Budgie records are the only ones we've conducted track-by-track investigations on that I don't feel include any metal whatsoever. Every other release included at least one or two metal tracks. In fact, I'd suggest that Squawk" is the least heavy release we've covered thus far too.

Japan's Boris & Coaltar of the Deepers have a split album coming out next month which should be interesting:

These two old-school heavy metal bands have new albums coming out next month:

I checked out Flower Travellin' Band's 1973 fourth & last 1970's album "Make Up" this week & found no metal there whatsoever. Instead, I discovered another very high-quality release that I'd suggest falls in between progressive rock & psychedelic rock (bordering on heavy psych). I genuinely love this band. They must have been a huge influence on a band like Boris.

Second from the left. If you watch the video you'll get a good view of what I look like now & will also hear a lot more about what it was like to be a young death metal band in Sydney, Australia back in the mid 1990's too. Let's just say that I intentionally gave a warts-&-all portrayal.

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "Cornucopia" which I consider to be stoner metal:

Last chance to nominate the December The Pit feature release Rexorcist.

Here's the Hessian Firm interview with myself & vocalist Mark Wangmann that's just gone live:

Sadistik Exekution - "Suspiral" demo (1991)

I can't remember who gave me my copy of legendary Sydney death metallers Sadistik Exekution's 1991 second demo tape "Suspiral" back in the early-to-mid 1990's but I assume it was either Dave Slave or Reverend Kriss Hades. My copy was printed on green paper rather than the blue one shown above & I know there was a few other colours like purple & red floating around too. It offers just the two songs, both of which also featured on their 1994 sophomore album "We Are Death Fukk You". This demo sees Sadistik dropping a fair bit of their thrashier 80's roots for a more consistently brutal & blasting assault that hits you like a swirling maelstrom. The tape would represent the first Sadistik release for notorious top hat-wearing guitarist Reverend Kriss Hades who is about as iconic as any personality in the Sydney metal scene. Both tracks are worth hearing too although I personally prefer the lengthier "Ipsissimus" which seems to have a slightly better production. "Suspiral" is another high-quality release from Sadistik that once again sees them standing above all comers as far as the overall Australian scene goes. I slightly prefer their debut album "The Magus" over it but there's not a lot in it so it's definitely worth tracking down.

4/5

Sadistik Exekution - "The Magus" (1991)

I can still vividly recall the first moment I became exposed to legendary Sydney extreme metal establishment Sadistik Exekution. It was 12th August 1992 & I’d arrived super-early to the Morbid Angel show at the Enmore Theatre so that I could achieve the greatest vantage point for the band that I regarded as being probably my favourite act at that point in time. Surprisingly, I’d managed to situate myself right in the middle of the front row of seats so I was literally only a metre away from the stage. Melbourne deathgrinders Necrotomy opened proceedings & did an admirable job at warming me up for what was my very first international death metal show. What they didn’t prepare me for was the band the followed immediately after them though with Sadistik Exekution giving me a new appreciation for what an extreme metal stage show could be. I’d never experienced anything so completely over the top & it was very hard for a young guitarist like myself not to be left in awe of the pure bad-assery of notorious top hat-wearing shredder Reverend Kriss Hades when he was so close that I could almost touch the blood dripping down his forearms due to the line of bobby pins he’d inserted through them prior to the show, his axe neck looking more like a skeletal spinal chord than an instrument & his fingers flying over the fretboard at previously unrecorded speeds. I’d very quickly realise that the Sydney audience had a love affair with these four nutters that I didn’t fully understand at the time but I’d certainly get my chance to understand it over the years that followed.

Shortly afterwards, buoyed by my experiences at what I still regard as the greatest metal show I’ve ever witnessed, I’d start my very own death metal band & we’d go about building a repertoire & a presence in the local scene. It would be a couple of years before we’d be mixing it with the in-crowd of Sydney metal but I'd eventually find myself being introduced to the Sadistik crew a their entourage of rabid worshippers. You see, Sadistik are an absolute enigma in this country with their music playing second fiddle to the circus sideshow of antics & personalities & young metalheads just seem to lap it all up. Sadistik shows were few & far between but when they did take place you would see all of the old faces coming out of the woodwork with most of them getting completely shit-faced along the way. It was at one of these early-to-mid 90’s Sadistik shows at the Lewisham Hotel that I’d meet bassist Dave Slave for the first time & he’d present me with a copy of “The Magus”, Sadistik Exekution’s debut full-length which was supposedly recorded around 1988 but failed to see a proper release until 1991. It was a release that I’d find was all around me over the next five years given its significance to the Aussie scene &, looking back at it from the outside, it’s perhaps a little easier to see why. My relationship with Sadistik Exekution would become closer during the middle of the decade once I started a three-year relationship with one of Dave Slave’s close friends & I can recall many a drunken conversation with the various band members over the years that followed. They were mostly gentle, lovely guys who were almost unrecognisable from the pure insanity of their music & (particularly their) stage shows.

So... this brings us back to “The Magus” which, if it really was recorded back in 1988, would have to have been some of the most extreme metal music in the world at the time. The production job is generally of demo quality & there’s a fair amount of variation in sound quality between the various tracks so it would seem to be pretty likely that it was recorded in multiple sessions. That aesthetic definitely suited Sadistik’s attack though so I wouldn’t see that as a negative. As with most of the extreme metal of the late 1980’s, the material crosses over between the full gamut of extreme genres with death metal, thrash metal & black metal all playing their part in a result that I think is best described as blackened death/thrash. The remnants of iconic Sydney demo band Slaughterlord are still easily visible in the muddy riffs & rapid-fire lead guitar work of Sandy Vahdanni while Dave Slave’s light-speed bass playing is given plenty of room in the mix to cause devastation. Sloth blasts away on his kit with a rare intensity for the time as the consistent use of blast beats within death metal was still yet to be seen in 1988. It’s ring-leader & front man Rok who steals the show though with his vicious delivery making for the perfect foil for the rough-&-ready Sadistik Exekution instrumentation.

“The Magus” jumps around a bit from a stylistic point of view. The tracklisting opens with a well-executed dark ambient piece entitled “Transneobathasaurikaldelusionsoftheunknown” before hurling itself into a full-on death/thrash frenzy via the very solid “Cautness Darling Blood”. The title track lifts the intensity even further & is one of the best tracks the band ever produced in my opinion. I’d even suggest that it traverses similar sonic territory to war metal bands like Blasphemy & Bestial Warlust which is significant when you consider that Blasphemy’s legendary “Blood Upon The Altar” demo was still another year from seeing the light of day when/if this was recorded back in 1988. “Agonising The Dead” sees Sadistik adding a blackened atmosphere to their death/thrash attack but the quality takes a step back at that point with the production turning a bit thrashier & the band’s death/thrash sound being a little more traditional, if not for the greater emphasis on blast beats. I consistently find myself reaching for comparisons with Brazilian black/thrash metallers Sarcofago during a lot of that material but things take a drastic turn for the final two tracks though with both taking the form of doomy black metal dirges. Interestingly, it’s the hidden track “Spirits Are Coming” that I find to be my favourite on the entire album as it presents an unhinged darkness that seems a little more serious than a lot of Sadistik’s more ridiculous material & leaves me feeling a strangely pleasant & transcendent feeling of squeamish uncomfortability.

There’s little doubt that the 35 minutes duration of “The Magus” is quite an experience for even the more seasoned extreme metaller with a lot being crammed into the relatively short run time. Some of the performances can get pretty sloppy at times but this can easily be forgiven when you consider the sheer intensity on display. The faster tracks leave me feeling like my hair is flying back behind me as my face is attacked by a tsunami of extremity which gives even the less significant material through the middle of the tracklisting more weight than it might appear to have on the surface. All of this amounts to the best Aussie metal album to see the light of day up until 1991 in my opinion & I don’t think that position is being impacted by any past relationships or experiences I may have had with the band as a young, starry-eyed youth. I've often seen the music of Sadistik Exekution playing second fiddle to rumours & legend but, even if many of the stories are true, their music has enough meat on its bones to justify your attention in its own right.

4/5

This morning's track is Black Sabbath's "Snowblind" which I'd suggest is stoner metal: