Sonny's Forum Replies

Doom Metal 101 #2: Witchfinder General - "Death Penalty" (1982)

Witchfinder General were formed at the onset of the NWOBHM in Stourbridge on the outskirts of England's "Second City", Birmingham. What set them apart from most of the new movement was that they took inspiration, unsurprisingly given where they hailed from, of Black Sabbath rather than the Judas Priests, Motorheads and Budgies of their contemporaries. They released a 7" single in 1981 that saw "Burning a Sinner" backed by "Satan's Children" which failed to make much of a splash and which is now incredibly rare. The following year saw the release of the three-track "Soviet Invasion" EP, which did see the band finally gaining a little traction. It contained a faux live version of "R.I.P.", recorded in the studio with crowd noise added later, at the behest of the label's head honcho, Paul Birch. This would be the track which also closed out "Death Penalty", albeit in a re-recorded and superior form.

Finally, in the autumn of 1982, Witchfinder General released their debut full-length to a mostly positive response from the UK's metalheads and the rest, as they say, is history. Grabbing the attention of every male teenage metal fan in record stores by featuring a famous Page 3 model in a churchyard and in a decided state of undress on the cover, the band then had to deliver within said album's grooves to match the hype thus generated. Fortunately, they did so and their brand of simplistic and youthful Sabbath worship saw them gain a dedicated following within the wider UK metal movement. It is actually a very slight album, its seven tracks barely managing to scrape past a thirty-minute runtime, but each minute is well spent and such is the quality that it is impossible to feel short-changed. The short runtime actually gives the material an immediacy and vitality that some later, more bloated releases just couldn't replicate.

As an aside, the band that recorded "Death Penalty" is actually a three-piece, with bassist Kevin "Toss" McCready having left after the "Soviet Invasion" recording sessions, to apparently be replaced by a guy called Woolfy Trope. In fact, the band hadn't replaced McCready by the time they went into the studio to record the album so the bass parts were supplied by guitarist Phil Cope, and the wholly fictitious Woolfy Trope was credited, with a roadie standing in as "Woolfy" for publicity photos.

I think it is actually a stretch to tag "Death Penalty" as a genuine doom metal album, it was very much a product of its time, with Sabbathian riffs run through a NWOBHM filter resulting in a version of doomy, downtuned heavy metal which does nevertheless provide something of a bridge between Sabbath's 70s psych influences and the grittier 80s UK metal scene with a DIY sensibility resulting from the influence of late 70s punk rock on the UK metal community. To this end I think it is fair to say that "Death Penalty" isn't exactly a lesson in complex songwriting or technical adroitness, but it is chock full of cool and memorable riffs and has a singular personality with a street-level perspective that sets it apart from the crowd. Most of the tracks are mid-paced affairs, with only the title track and, to a lesser extent, "Burning A Sinner" slowing to doom metal pacing, but the downtuned riffs pioneered by Tony Iommi are most definitely present and it is a truth that the earliest traditional doom metal bands very often switched it up to classic heavy metal velocity. Phil's soloing is also a product of intense study of Tony Iommi's technique, sometimes piling note upon note in a fretboard firestorm, as per the opening of "No Stayer" or soaring sky high like the solo at the end of the title track. Drummer Graham Ditchfield channels Bill Ward's blunt style, but I think it is also evident that he doesn't have the technical skill level that the often under-estimated Sabbath drummer possessed, although it still works very well in the context of this album. Then there is Stourbridge's answer to Ozzy in Zeeb Parkes who, like Ozzy, isn't technically a great singer, but who imbues his vocals with such personality that it is easy to forgive him his shortcomings and just go along for the ride. The production is a bit muzzy with a fair degree of echo, as opposed to Sabbath's much more professionally produced efforts where, presumably, much more money was thrown at them, but I think this actually works in Witchfinder General's favour, giving them more of an underground vibe.

Despite the band name and the imagery of the album cover, they aren't so much a horror / satanically-themed band, often with much more prosaic and down-to-earth lyrical themes such as drug-taking, drinking and fucking taking their place alongside the witch hunting of "Witchfinder General" or "Burning A Sinner". As a very young man from a strong working class background at the time of this album's release, these lyrics espousing a love of hokey horror movies, getting hammered and trying to get off at weekends absolutely captured the essence of life for me at the time. I know I may have a severe case of rose-tinted spectacles when it comes to "Death Penalty" and others may well scratch their heads in bemusement at my fanatical advocacy for it, but simple fact is that this is an album I still spin regularly to this day, forty-plus years later and every time I enjoy it immensely, so what more could I possibly want from a record?

That's sad to hear, Vinny, but I understand from experience that sometimes it is better for both parties to go their separate ways. I hope things work out well in both of your futures. 

Have you considered the 1982 self-titled debut album from Germany's Warning Sonny? From memory, I described it as avant-garde doom metal when I last revisited it & it's much more well-known than a Nemesis or a Mercy too.

I must confess that I have never heard that record, Daniel, so am unable to comment at this point. I will try to check it out over the next couple of days, although that avant-garde tag is already causing my gag reflex to engage!

Cirith Ungol tends to get thrown around a lot with early doom, but it kind of is a case of a band who did a lot without ever really committing to a genre like Death SS mentioned above.

Have you considered Mercy, Messiah's pre-Candlemass band?

Yeah, Morpheus, I agree that Cirith Ungol, great band though they are, didn't really commit sufficiently to doom metal to justify a place here. I accept that the same could certainly be said of Witchfinder General, but Death Penalty was 1982 and Cirith Ungol's classic "King of the Dead" album came out in 1984 when Saint Vitus, Trouble et al were rearing their doom-laden heads with genuine doom metal releases.

Thanks for bringing up Mercy, I absolutely had their 1985 Witchburner down for this list, but forgot to add it for some reason. I love that record and don't know how I came to omit it. 

Speaking of Paul Chain, do you think Death SS have any skin in the game here? Me, I am not so sure, but am open to pursuasion.

I don't think so. I never considered a record like "Evil Metal" to have more than a doom influence. It's a heavy metal release as far as I'm concerned.

Agreed.

I am looking now at the mid-80s and the dawning of the true doom metal era. Some of the most noteworthy releases from '84/'85 being Trouble's "Psalm 9", Saint Vitus' s/t debut and Pentagram's "Restless/Pentagram". As Daniel said earlier, Paul Chain's "Detaching From Satan" EP is also worthy of a spot. A little later and a definite for inclusion is 1986's debut from the mighty Candlemass, "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", but I would also like to throw in 1984's "The Day of Retribution" EP from Leif Edling's Nemesis, a band which would shortly evolve into Candlemass.

Any thoughts anyone?

I very much agree with all you say here Daniel, but with Witchfinder General being a new generation, particularly within the context of the NWOBHM, paying massive homage to Black Sabbath, I think, with a contextual viewpoint, that their influence was significant.

I concur with you on the importance of Candlemass, Trouble, Saint Vitus and Paul Chain and I had definitely planned to include some or all of those guys in the next tranche of releases when we get onto doom metal proper.

Speaking of Paul Chain, do you think Death SS have any skin in the game here? Me, I am not so sure, but am open to pursuasion.

I am gobsmacked to see that Metal Academy has only a solitary two-star review for Master of Reality, so I thought I had better address that forthwith. Here we go then:

Doom Metal 101 #1: Black Sabbath - Master of Reality (1971)

Of all their albums "Master of Reality" is the Black Sabbath album that has grown most in stature over the years in my mind. I got into the band around 1976 via "Paranoid" and that was my go-to Sabbath album for many years, alongside "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", "Sabotage" and the debut, with "Master of Reality" and "Volume 4" taking up supporting roles. The track which kept drawing me back to "MoR" over the years, though, was the masterful closer "Into the Void" which still stands as my favourite Sabbath track of all and is one of their more doomy offerings, it signposting me down the road of future doom metal appreciation. As time has passed and I have become more and more of a doomhead, I have acquired greater appreciation of the doomier material of "Master of Reality" and it now stands as my ultimate Sabs release, despite stiff competition.

Tony Iommi's guitar tone on this third album is perfect, its deep and resonant fuzziness pitches perfectly what would become the signature sound of future acts like Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Electric Wizard, bolstered and boosted by the brilliant and often busy basswork of Geezer Butler, an aspect of Sabbath's sound that is not always given the credit it deserves. Bill Ward's jazz-influenced drumming style takes a more blunt and bludgeoning approach here than maybe it does on some Sabbath albums, although the way his runs switch from side to side on "Children of the Grave" (best experienced through headphones) is a brilliant bit of production work and adds a little something extra to an already brilliant track. Then, of course, there is the irrepressible Ozzy Osbourne whose influence on doom metal vocalists mustn't be underestimated as he showed that you don't need to be an especially technically gifted singer to be effective, as long as you are committed and have a degree of charisma. With rock music being newly dominated at the time by the Robert Plants and Ian Gillans of the world and their ridiculous vocal range, Ozzy stood tall and proclaimed himself their equal, on sheer strength of personality alone.

Then there are the riffs. I have said it before and I will say it again, Tony Iommi can write better riffs in his sleep than all but a select few metal songwriters can ever hope to come up with, having penned some of the most iconic riffs in the history of metal. From the crawling, weed smoke-drenched, oozing of Sweet Leaf, via the choppy, romping "Children of the Grave" and the plodding grooviness of "Lord of this World", to the ponderous lumbering of the opening to Into the Void, where Geezer follows Tony's riff for added gravitas, this is metal riff heaven, with these riffs sowing the seeds of inspiration for so many aspiring doom metal riff writers of years to come. Sure, the stoner element may be fairly prevalent here, but it is difficult to imagine a "Born Too Late", "Dopethrone" or "Forest of Equilibrium" existing as we know them without this album.

"Master of Reality" isn't all just about thundering, fuzz-drenched riffing however, with the album including several moments of quieter reflection, whether it be the soothing acoustic guitar of "Orchid" or the gentle reflectiveness and soul-searching of the psychedelic-sounding and melancholic "Solitude", which thematically, if not musically, also unwittingly helps set the aesthetic for doom metal's future melancholy side. Then there is the track which always baffled me after the dark lyricism and hints at satanic influence of the band's earlier material, the pro-religious "After Forever", which is a bit of a curveball lyrically and stylistically, having a much more upbeat riff and feeling than the rest of the album. The track has grown on me somewhat over the years, but if the album had to lose one, then this would be my choice.

So there we have it, for my money "Master of Reality" is one of the great metal albums, being an influence for both stoner and doom metal and perfecting a guitar sound that still stands tall to this day, over fifty years later, as a signature sound in the metal world.

5/5

If we're gonna talk early doom metal & are including obscure demo tapes then I'm gonna throw out a few really underground ones:

Hammerhead (NWOBHM) - "1978 Demo" demo (1978)

Spitfire (SWE) - "Outer Space" demo (1978)

Tyrant (USA) - "1978 Rehearsal" demo (1978) [i.e. The band that spawned Saint Vitus]

I was thinking of a more accessible kind of list, maybe aimed at people who are looking to get into doom metal (hence the doom metal 101 tag), rather than one for hardcore fans looking to track the history of doom metal, but whatever you think works best.

"Master of Reality" is generally referred to as Sabbath's doomiest record in my experience while "Vol. 4" is where they maximized their stoner side.

This very much reflects my own thoughts Daniel, so I think Master of Reality probably best fits the bill.

So now, does anyone feel that Witchfinder General also deserve a spot here? I see Daniel mentioning tbe Soviet Invasion EP, but I have a deep connection to their Death Penalty debut album and can attest to my own personal experience of how my future doom metal fanaticism was shaped by that record. It shook my world when I first heard it all those many years ago and it remains one of my all-time favourites to this day.

I understand what you mean Daniel, but I meant a release that indicates the primordial soup that birthed the doom metal ethos, not necessarily an out and out doom metal album. I guess I'm not doing a very good job of explaining what I mean, but the mix of stoner, blues and psychedelic material, combined with Tony Iommi's (by necessity) downtuned guitar sound on early Sabs albums were the amino acids that coded the DNA of future doom metal acts (as most of them will attest) and to ignore their contribution would be disingenuous to my mind. Sabbath tracks like the eponymous track, Into the Void, Electric Funeral and Megalomania all fit the bill as tracks that set the ball rolling. I just can't decide which album best represents the Sabs huge influence on the genre.

Could you add the UK's Doomicidal please, Ben.

Hi Ben, could you add the 2014 EP Fògradh to the discography for Bròn please. It is a single-track release, but the track is over 28 miutes long. Metal archives lists it as a demo, but it had a full CD release in 2015 on Kunsthauch records with cat. no. Kunst 039.

Hi again Ben. Would you be so kind as to add Melbourne sludgy doomsters Merchant please. I have just started listening to their 2016 album Suzerain and so far it sounds amazing.

Just came across these guys whilst f-ing about on Bandcamp. Texan Gothic Metal. This is a promo track from their sophomore album due out next week. I like it.

Hi Ben, could you please add finnish Reverend Bizarre-worshippers The Lone Madman.

Hi Ben, hope you are well. Could you add californian sludge / doom band Subetroth please.

I remember seeing the cover, but don't recall hearing it before.

I have just got it teed up to play as accompaniment on my morning dog walk, Ben, so we are good to go. It's a sunny day here today, so I don't know how that will chime with what appears to be a very bleak release, but we will see.

Yeah, best wishes, Zach. Fingers crossed that everything is going to be fine. 

Black Capricorn - "Sacrifice Darkness... and Fire" (2024)

Italy's Black Capricorn are a band I have been following for some time now, going back to their 2014 "Cult of Black Friars" album. I have always found them to be consistent, if not exactly earth-shattering, exponents of stonerised traditional doom metal and this latest album, their sixth, continues that direction of travel. The downside with this is that a band producing material which all ploughs essentially the same furrow, will inevitably encounter the problem of diminishing returns at some point. I think, even for me, that tipping point has finally been reached with "Sacrifice Darkness... and Fire". I don't like admitting this, because this isn't a poor album by any stretch, but neither is it particularly amazing. In truth, it feels a bit lacklustre, especially during the first half, with the vocal performance in particular coming over as weak. I know, stoner doom isn't exactly renowned for exceptional vocal talent, but the singing here feels uninspiring and tired and otherwise decent tracks "Blood of Evil" and closer "A New Day Rising" are a bit painful as vocalist and guitarist Fabrizio Monni struggles with the higher registers.

Instrumentally there are some damn good riffs, delivered with the usual hypnotic, psych-inspired repetition that is par for the course and, in truth, when the band get into a trippy stoner groove then that is when I am at my happiest with the album. The guitar tone is generally very nice with a warm, fuzzily distorted sound that encapsulates the stoner doom ethos nicely. Unfortunately the solos are another aspect that just feel lacking here. Take a track like "The Night That Came to Take You Away", which has a couple of pretty good riffs, but the solo in the latter part of the track is just so weak and uninspired that, along with the vocals, it almost undoes the good work done by the riffing. Conceptually and lyrically we are in the usual Roger Corman / Hammer Horror world of hokey horror stories which, again, is pretty much par for the course and is entirely what we have come to expect, so neither helps nor hinders appreciation of the album for the band's usual fans.

Songwriting-wise, things are kept pretty simple with straightforward song structures, competently delivered in the main, ultimately giving us an album where the riffs do the heavy lifting and are the focal point. Luckily these are of sufficient quality to make the album a worthwhile listen, but, that said, I don't think it is of high enough overall quality to maintain too much lasting appeal.

3.5/5

Batten down the hatches and stay safe Daniel!

I think I have enough experience with grind to publish a top ten list, even though it may be a bit basic with a few obvious selections. So here we go then:

1. Terrorizer - "World Downfall" (1989)

2. Carcass - "Symphonies of Sickness" (1989)

3. Brutal Truth - "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses" (1992)

4. Napalm Death - "Mentally Murdered EP" (1989)

5. Napalm Death - "Enemy of the Music Business" (2000)

6. Repulsion - "Horrified" (1989)

7. Nails - "Abandon All Life" (2013)

8. Insect Warfare - "World Extermination" (2007)

9. Death Toll 80k - "Harsh Realities" (2011)

10. Nasum - "Inhale / Exhale" (1998)

Death Toll 80k - "Harsh Realities" (2011)

As much as I enjoy the odd brutality injection of a good grindcore album, I cannot claim to be any kind of authority on the sub-genre. As such, Finland's Death Toll 80k were unknown to me prior to this, their debut full-length, crossing my path well over a decade after its release. Well, the four-piece certainly seem to know what they are about with this ticking all the boxes of what I want from a grindcore album. Cramming twenty-three tracks into its mere 25 minutes runtime, this is a relentless succession of short volleys of musical violence and aggression designed to have a cumulative effect upon the listener. Each track crashes into the previous one with barely a breath in between, that sees each new adrenaline surge adding to the wave created by the bloody rampage preceeding it, so that come album's end the listener is energised and invigorated by sheer biochemical energy alone. This does not imply, by any means, that all the tracks sound the same. There is a decent variety of riffs within the short run time, whether it be the hulking death metal blast of a track like "Taught To Consume" or the thrashy groove of "Empty Pose" there is enough variation to prevent any accusations of stagnancy, but of course this is all within the context of a grindcore album, so don't go in expecting too much light and shade or any degree of compositional complexity as you will be sorely disappointed.

Vocalist Oula Kerkelä is OK, let's say. He certainly isn't a Barney Greenaway and I would have to admit that his vocals sound very much the same all the way through with little nuance or inflection. Be it his guttural grunts or ragged screams, each sounds much like the previous ones, the only real variety being the proportion of one compared to the other during each track. This isn't deal-breaking really as his delivery is more than aggressive enough to convey the violent anger essential to the aesthetics of grindcore, but it is an aspect of the band's sound that could perhaps be better. Drummer Jori Sara-aho is also very much at the centre of things and his skinwork is technically capable and precise, often achieving blistering blastbeat speeds without any sign of faltering and delivering reasonably interesting fills when required. Guitar-wise it is all about riffs with no real soloing present, not even in short bursts. No, this is pretty much "just" a riff upon riff pile-up. Luckily, the riffs are great with a decent memorability factor and are tightly executed so pretty much hit the spot every time.

Overall I have to admit to being quite impressed by "Harsh Realities" and, vocal shortcomings aside, this is a top-drawer grindcore release that I am surprised hasn't gained a higher profile as it is capable of going toe-to-toe with all but the absolute best the genre has to offer.

4/5

OK then, please cancel my submissions, Sonny.

As I have had no Symphonic BM submissions I am going to include the Stormlord track anyway, Andi. It saves me having to seek one out myself.

Sorry Sonny. I wasn't aware that you would accept only one suggestion per non clan member. I will keep that in mind for the future.

For the month of April, I would like to keep the Oubliette song.

That's OK Saxy, no problem. It's on me because I didn't make that clear when asking for suggestions. I will add the Oubliette song (and I will be adding a Saor track myself as I am a massive Andy Marshall fan, maybe it will be "Glen of Sorrow").

I don't know if submissions are accepted from non-North members, but I'll test it out with my own. Here are my submissions for the April North playlist, two symphonic black metal classics:

Arcturus - "Fall of Man" (from Aspera Hiems Symfonia, 1996)

Stormlord - "Under the Samnites' Spears" (from At the Gates of Utopia, 2001)

See my reply to Saxy, Andi. I thought it was a fairly well-established rule that only clan members submit suggestions to most clan playlists, with a couple of exceptions for under-represented clans and I don't really want to change this for the playlists I am responsible for. If Ben and Daniel decide otherwise then, obviously, I will have to go along with it, but for now, I don't think so.

Here are my nominations for the April playlist Sonny.

Gaerea – Unknown (2024)

Selbst – Chant of Self Confrontation (2024)

Oubliette – Desolate Path (2024)

Saor – Glen of Sorrow (2025)

Unreqvited – Void Essence/Frozen Tears (2025)

It doesn't appear that you are a member of The North, Saxy. I will take one suggestion as a non-clan member, but it would limit what others who are members of The North can submit if I were to accept all your submissions. Let me know which one you want to put forward.

Here is my review:

Slomatics are a little-known doom metal three-piece from Belfast in Northern Ireland who formed in 2004. As well as their seven full-length albums they have featured on a slew of splits with the likes of Conan and MWWB, so have certainly been around the block a few times, despite making little impact outside of the hardcore doom metal fraternity. Estron was the band's fourth full-length, released in 2014 and, for me, still ranks as their best.

The album is a concise affair, it's seven tracks clocking in at 37 minutes, which is fairly brief for this style of doom metal. It kicks off with a great one-two punch of Troglorite and Tunnel Dragger the former of which runs straight into the latter, denying any respite from the looming, thunderous riffs. It is worth pointing out at this point that the trio has two guitarists and no bassist, yet despite this there is still a huge depth to the distorted riffs and the lack of a bassist is not readily apparent. The vocals are provided by drummer Martin Harvey and are quite thin and reedy, pushed down in the mix to give that distant, heard-on-the-wind kind of feeling that is quite popular in some corners of the doom world and of which I am quite a fan, actually. Harvey's drumming is also very good, with some busy fills and crashing cymbals aplenty, his work on "Futurian" illustrating this best. A feature that sets the band apart from most of their contemporaries is their sci-fi aesthetic which they express through the inclusion of spacey synths both within the tracks generally and in interlude, a trope that puts them more in-line with a band like Ufomammut than Monolord, despite being straight-up doomheads rather than stoners.

Side A, ie the first four tracks, continues in the relentlessly punishing mode of the two openers, providing little relief from it's menacing, booming riffs, other than a short synth-led breather during Tunnel Dragger. Side B is a bit different, featuring two longer tracks, bridged by a brief space ambient interlude called "Red Dawn", which is actually quite a soothing touch after all the sonic bombardment that had gone before it. Red Dawn's ambience leaks into the beginning of the album's longest track, the closer "The Carpenter" which I have seen touted as being about film director John Carpenter, which I would say is a good shout, because those first few minutes of the track come across very much like a John Carpenter soundtrack, which always had a very distinctive feel. Then, four minutes in, a huge, hulking riff kicks in and things get seriously heavy as the riff morph into a very close approximation to the famous riff from the track "Black Sabbath" with Harvey even begging "No, no,no..."

I love this album, I love the huge riffs, the distant-sounding vocals and the cosmic flourishes that lend it something a little different. It is eregiously heavy, yet still manages to turn in some nice melodies within the riffs that stop it becoming relentlessly monolithic. It manages to do something a little bit different whilst still sitting comfortably within the conventional doom metal template and, being quite short, it is never in danger of outstaying it's welcome.

4.5/5

A reminder to anyone wanting to make suggestions for the April North playlist - can you please submit your suggestions by the 15th of March. 

Teitanblood have a new album out at the end of March, entitled "From the Visceral Abyss". Definitely one to look forward to.

March 2025

1. Just Before Dawn - "Intro: Paths of Armor / To the Last Tiger" (from "An Army at Dawn", 2020) [submitted by Karl]

2. Blood Red Throne - "Revocation of Humankind" (from "Union of Flesh and Machine", 2016) [submitted by Vinny]

3. Unmerciful - "Ravenous Impulse" (from "Ravenous Impulse", 2016) [submitted by Vinny]

4. Pyre - "From the Stygian Depths" (from "Where Obscurity Sways", 2025) [submitted by Karl]

5. Phrenelith - "Stagnated Blood" (from "Ashen Womb", 2025) [submitted by Karl]

6. Darkthrone - "The Watchtower" (from "Soulside Journey", 1989) [submitted by Sonny]

7. Threnody - "The Elder" (from "As the Heavens Fall", 1993) [submitted by Karl]

8. Analepsy - "Witness of Extinction" (from "Atrocities from Beyond", 2017) [submitted by Vinny]

9. Excruciating Terror - "Don't Care Who You Are" (from "Divided We Fall", 1998) [submitted by Sonny]

10. Nuclear Death - "Place of Skulls" (from "Bride of Insect", 1990)

11. Stenched - "Mucus, Phlegm and Bile" (from "Purulence Gushing From the Coffin", 2024) [submitted by Sonny]

12. Garden of Shadows - "Citadel of Dreams" (from "Oracle Moon", 2000)

13. Shadowspawn - "Sacrament of Deceit" (from "Blasphemica", 2023) [submitted by Vinny]

14. Necrophagist - "To Breathe in a Casket" (from "Onset of Putrefaction", 2004)

15. Desecresy - "Shattered Monuments" (from "Chasmic Transcendence", 2014) [submitted by Karl]

16. Gatecreeper - "Patriarchal Grip" (from "Sonoran Depravation", 2016) [submitted by Vinny]

17. Noxis - "Horns Echo Over Chorazim" (from "Violence Inherent in the System", 2024) [submitted by Sonny]

18. Tormentor Tyrant - "Heavy Death Bombardment" (from "Excessive Escalation of Cruelty", 2025) [submitted by Karl]

19. Deteriorot - "Endless Hauntings of Demons and Despair" (from "In Ancient Beliefs", 2001) [submitted by Karl]

20. Upon Stone - To Seek and Follow the Call of Lions (from "Dead Mother Moon", 2024) [submitted by Saxy S]

21. Death Toll 80k - "Cycle of Misery" (from "Harsh Realities", 2011) [submitted by Sonny]

22. Nails - "Obscene Humanity" (from "Unsilent Death", 2010) [submitted by Sonny]

23. Putridity - "Repugnance Enshrined in Deformity" (from "Ignominious Atonement". 2015)

24. Waking the Cadaver - "Blood Splattered Satisfaction" (from "Peverse Recollections of a Necromangler", 2007) [submitted by Vinny]

25. Putred - "Inscripții antice" (from "Megalit al putrefacției", 2025) [submitted by Karl]

26. Obscura - "Silver Linings" (from "A Sonification", 2025) [submitted by Vinny]

27. Iniquitous Deeds - "Infinitive Putrefaction" (from "Incessant Hallucinations", 2015)

28. Twilight Glimmer - "Fate of Mankind" (from "Indignation", 2013) [submitted by Vinny]

29. Infernal Conjuration - "In the Presence of Another World" (from "Infernale metallum mortis", 2019) [submitted by Karl]

30. Sepsism - "Dissection" (from "Purulent Decomposition", 1998) [submitted by Sonny]

31. Engulfed - "Occult Incantations" (from "Unearthly Litanies of Despair", 2024) [submitted by Vinny]

Wow, I genuinely don't know what to say about that. Something is really upsetting this guy on a deep level. To make such sweeping, derogatory statements about someone he doesn't know in any way whatsoever is the very definition of hubris. Who the fuck does this prick think he is?

Sometimes I just despair about the state of the internet and the world at large, to be honest. I hope you don't let this knobhead get to you Ben, because we all know you better than that and it his him who is the P.O.S, not you.

By the way, I just put his username into RYM's search and it isn't on the list that comes up. Maybe you aren't the only person he has targeted and he has been banned for it (fingers crossed).

A big NO from me too. A genre of music based on geography is not a genre at all. I am quite happy to talk about specific scenes, but to consider them as genres is counter-intuitive. For example, the NWOBHM consisted of a number of bands who didn't at all sound the same. What did Venom and Demon have in common musicallly? Pretty much F.A., but they were both part of the NWOBHM. Marseille and Angel Witch? Praying Mantis and Vardis? Very little similarity in musical style, but all part of the same scene.

I don't know anything about Visual Kei, but unless the genre name is a massive misnomer, it sounds to be more an aesthetic choice than a musical one.

The Great Old Ones - Kadath (2025)

I have been a big fan of the Lovecraft-obsessed Frenchmen since the release of their sophomore, Tekeli-li, back in 2014. They have always imbued their atmospheric black metal with post-metal and even atmo-sludge elements to add an additional emotional redolence to their tales of eldritch horror. Whilst this latest follows a similar template, the band are also moving in a generally more progressive direction, as exemplified by the ten-minute opener, "Me, the Dreamer" and even more pertinently by the lengthy instrumental "Leng". "Me, the Dreamer" begins in TGOO's recognisably dense atmospheric black metal style, but at midpoint it takes an even more menacing turn, introducing an air of dissonance that sees it covering similar territory to that heard recently on Ulcerate's "Cutting the Throat of God", before making a more triumphal-sounding procession to song's end. The fifteen minutes of "Leng" exhibits even more musical turns, being an epic piece that expresses the faded grandeur and looming menace of long-forgotten and abandoned alien cityscapes better than any amount of words could. This track in particular, without it's reliance on the human voice, reveals how adept the band are becoming at writing metal that can convey atmosphere and mood by instrumentation alone and is a seminal piece for the band. The three guitarists weave in and out of each other with wistful and lighter motifs alongside hulking and towering, darker riffs making this a beautifully constructed and expressive instrumental.

Not only on those two tracks, but throughout it's hour-long runtime, Kadath sounds more ambitious than the band's previous material and feels like a band stretching their wings, having grown more confident in their technical abilities and reaching for more tools to utilise in their quest to produce music that fully conveys the dark and ominous concepts of the Cthulhu Mythos around which they base their ethos. They have always produced epic-sounding black metal, but their new-found confidence in their ability to expand their sound has taken this to a new level, with increasingly light and dark shades contrasting each other to deepen the otherworldly atmospherics. This isn't by any means a sea-change in the frenchmen's sound, but rather an evolution in the way they express themselves, I guess in a similar way that Enslaved successfully managed on their releases during the 2000s. Like the Norwegians TGOO are unafraid to sometimes take a slightly more melodic route with several of their riffs proving to be decidedly hooky, the opening riff of "Under the Sign of Koth" for example, being a particular foot-tapper.

All this has not come at the expense of any inate heaviness, it must be pointed out. Well, maybe a little, but I think that the more reflective moments often serve to throw the heavier sections into even sharper relief and render them consequently more effective. Look, Kadath is not exactly the kind of album you would put on to work out some aggression or for a good headbanging session, but that doesn't mean that it can't shake the foundations occasionally and it possesses enough sonic gut-punches to appeal to any number of discerning metalheads. But that ultimately isn't the aim of the album, it is for reflection and contemplation of the unknown corners of the human psyche and the barely concealed horrors lurking therein, to which end it is reasonably successful, I would suggest.

4.5/5

Here is my review:

Dekapited are a four-piece thrash band from Santiago, Chile who formed in 2006. This 2011 EP marked the band's debut release, following on from three demos, one from each of the preceeding three years. The EP features five tracks and an intro with a 21 minute runtime. I have constantly been heard espousing the merits of chilean thrash metal and these guys are deservedly one of the beneficiaries of my effusive praise over the past few years.

Taking their cues from deathly thrashers of the late 80s and early 90s such as Demolition Hammer, Dekapited tread a path that will be familiar to anyone who has any knowledge of the 21st century South America thrash scene, especially as it manifests in the chilean capital and it's surrounding areas. This small area has kept the thrash metal flag flying through what has been a lean time for the genre by incorporating aspects of extreme metal, usually black or, as is in Dekapited's case, death metal. This is nothing new of course, but I believe that because there is an actual vibrant and lively thrash scene centred around Santiago and Valpairiso, then the bands, including Dekapited, who are part of that scene, feed off each other and consequently produce metal that sounds more vital and energetic than the thrash that is being produced by more isolated practitioners. It is no coincidence that a lot of the metal world's greatest material has come from clearly defined scenes, such as the NWOBHM, the Bay Area thrashers, Florida death metal and the scandinavian black metal scenes. There is a fair bit of cross-pollination in the chilean scene with many musicians being members of several bands concurrently, allowing a flow of ideas between these bands, but an integrated scene also sees bands pushing each other to new heights as each tries to outdo their peers, which can only be good news for the fans.

Dekapited play at an almost unrelentingly quick pace. This is energetic stuff that is meant to get fans moving and feed those mosh pits with hurtling bodies. The riffs are the stuff of the classic Bay Area thrashers, loaded with hooks aplenty and being memorable enough to remain in your head long after the EP has ended. It is almost impossible to listen to this as a thrash metal fan and not to feel your head starting to nod along with most of those riffs. The guitar solos are fairly noteworthy, being more expansive than the Kerry King-derived howls that so many of the more extreme thrash acts aspire to, being more in keeping with a classic metal style of soloing. They aren't exactly birthed in neoclassical metal, but they are a bit more imaginative than the short-sharp shock of the more usual Slayerisms.

The rhythm section is decidedly capable and underpin the riffs admirably, drummer Raul Guevara displaying the chops to maintain such a high velocity assault with power and precision. He may not indulge in a lot of the fancy fills that some of his contemporaries flourish, but his is a very solid performance. Bassist Alonso Friend likewise does a great job providing a rumbling foundation for the two guitarists to perform their six-string acrobatics. A trait which is peculiar to the chilean scene specifically is for the bass to sit quite prominently in the mix, but here it is mixed much more traditionally and less conspicuously.

For me, this was a nice calling card for a pretty talented bunch of guys who could take what originally made thrash metal so great and transpose it into the modern day with just enough of an extreme metal twist to imbue it with an energy and vitality that renders it so much more relevant than a mere harking back to earlier times.

4/5

Revenge - Violation.Strife.Abominate (2025)

Canada's Revenge are not a band for fucking around - they burst in, drop their war metal ordinance which is designed to cause the maximum number of aural casualties and then they get the fuck out. It isn't pretty and it isn't melodic. It is vicious and nasty and is meant to provoke a reaction of repulsion from the general record-buying public - and even the majority of metal fans I would surmise. To say that a band like Revenge only play for themselves and their fans is no hyperbole. I can't imagine them giving a shit about what anyone says about them because they make no concessions to trends, they make no attempt to expand their sound to appeal to a wider audience and they exhibit no desire to stretch themselves artistically. And you know what, I can respect that because I always appreciate those who are comfortable in their own skin and who couldn't give a toss what naysayers think or say.

Then, on the other hand there is a counter argument which says, how many Revenge albums do you actually need if they all plough exactly the same furrow? How can you get excited about a new Revenge release when it sounds so much like all the others? These are both good questions and certainly have a validity. They are charging $9.99 for the digital version on Bandcamp, $16 for a CD and from $29 for the vinyl - even the cassette version is $18, so why should you pay that much for a further rehashing of the same old sound? I am sorry, but I don't have a nice, neat answer for you and if you need to ask the question in the first place then I would have to say dont bother and look elsewhere for your musical kicks.

So what is that sound I probably don't hear you ask? It is a pulverising deathly black metal cacophony that is typical of the war metal genre. It is abrasive and unrelenting - there are no lulls in the perpetual aural bombardment, no reduction in tempo, no dropping into the odd groove-laden riff or dishing up of the occasional hook to give the brain a fragment of flotsam to hold onto in a boiling sea of blood and steel. The vocals are distorted shouts and hideous growls that often don't even seem to be issuing from human throats, shearing away even that shred of human connection from the listener. The drums batter away with a basic brutalisation of blastbeats whilst the few guitar solos just sound like somebody torturing their six-stringer into acquiescence. War metal in general and Revenge in particular produce metal that is meant to test the endurance of the listener. It is meant to be a visceral, almost physical, experience that is supposed to leave you feeling worn out and spent, it isn't deep and contemplative, or designed to make you think, unless it is about unmentionable horror and fear. This is metal that is uncompromisingly primal, raw and uncaring, so if that sounds truly awful to you then don't waste your time here - Revenge wouldn't thank you for it anyway.

3.5/5

New Fallen releases slated for 14th February:

Dawn of Solace - Affliction Vortex (album)

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction (album)

Klastos - Born to Ruin (album)

Carcolh - Twilight of the Mortals (album)

Throne - Ossarium (album)

Warlung - The Poison Touch (album)

Lord of the Void - TON 618 (EP)

The Hidden Hand - Live in Leipzig (live album)

Public Enemy - "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back" (1988)

This was the first hip hop record I can remember really enjoying. It was brought to my attention by one of my best mates while I was in early high school & we spent most year 7 & 8 pretending we were Michael Jordan on the school's back basketball courts with this blaring out of a nearby ghetto blaster. The difference with this classic old-school hip hop is that, not only do Chuck D's lyrics have a viciously potent & politically conscious message, but DJ Terminator X never forgets to push the funk that African-Amercian dancefloor culture was built on with a seriously impressive array of high-quality breakbeats. This makes Public Enemy's sophomore album a total dancefloor bomb from start to finish & I can't help but shake my booty to it all these years later.

For fans of KRS-One, Boogie Down Productions & Intelligent Hoodlum.

4/5

By a country mile the best hip-hop album ever made.

Thanks guys, for your prompt submissions.

While I guess Mirror's Edge is a staple of The Gateway, it doesn't do a whole lot for me I must admit. The first track proper, "Afterimage" is the only one to offer any appeal to me, the female vocals being very nice and the track generally being less in-your-face than the other material. An overall sound that seems like a mixture of metalcore, nu-metal, djent and some industrial and electronic stylings, it doesn't speak to me at all, but its choppy riffing and angst-ridden vocals manage to irritate the shit out of me if I am being honest. It does seem to be competently performed and the compressed production style is tailor-made for this sort of angsty material, so I am guessing it is exactly the kind of things the band's usual fans expect. It is clear that I am far from the target audience for this and sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say "We can't all like everything can we, so I'll leave this to those who get it". Sorry Andi.

1.5/5

Collating the five Death studio albums lists gives us a Metal Academy ranking of their discography that looks like:

1. Human - 28pts

2. Symbolic - 27

3. Leprosy - 20

4. Individual Thought Patterns - 18

5. The Sound of Perseverance - 17

6. Spiritual Healing - 14

7. Scream Bloody Gore - 13

Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1971 Reverber/ation

I have listened to a lot of Pink Floyd Bootlegs over the years and some of my favourites are from 1971 when their set was chiefly made up of tracks from Atom Heart Mother and the newly released Meddle album. This is one of the official releases from 2017 that covered earlier Floyd material. The bulk of the album is an hour-long BBC live session from the end of September 1971. The first track, however, isn't part of the session and is a track called "Nothing", which was often introduced live as "The Return of the Son of Nothing" and is actually a very early demo version of part of "Echoes". The rest of the release is the BBC session which also has the added advantage of featuring the dulcet tones of the late, great John Peel in between each track.

First up is one of my favourite tracks from this live era of the band, "Fat Old Sun", which turns the five-minute, folky studio track from Atom Heart Mother into a terrific fifteen-minute jam which features Rick Wright's keyboards quite heavily. In fact the whole session reveals just how integral Rick was to Floyd's live sound.

"One of These Days" is up next and I love the studio version, but here it is merely OK here as the timing seems off a little and steals some of the impact of the studio version. The third track is a big draw, it being a live version of the obscure track "Embryo" which was originally recorded for Ummagumma, but only ever appeared on a label sampler (against the band's wishes as JP explains in the intro to the track here). I love this track as it features some superb Gilmour guitar work and even if it was cut from Ummagumma I think it would have sat really well on AHM instead of the baffling Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, the Floyd's most pointless song.

Closing out the set is the full 26-minute Echoes experience, the one track I am pissed-off that I never experienced live as it is one of my all-time favourite tracks and every live version has sounded amazing - see Floyd at Pompeii for proof.

So, quite simply a superb pre-DSOTM Pink Floyd live set from back when they were a bit freer in a live setting. Great though they were in later years, their live shows were very much attempts to faithfully recreate the album experience in a live setting and were inconducive to ad-libbed jamming, an art at which they were actually excellent.

I can feel an Eighties gothic rock Spotify playlist coming on!

Uummm… here’s one I created some time back. It’s not ALL 80’s but it’s basically what you’re after.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3E3I9HTnDcYCt1zESsAEVM?si=YPbj334wTHqWEfZgx5_D8g&pi=4JL5lbNBROmkt

Nice one, Daniel. I'll check it out tomorrow. I'm gonna work up an all-eighties one too.

I bought "Sonic Temple" on cassette shortly after it was released & played the shit out of it. I haven't heard it in more than half a lifetime now but will always have a soft spot for it. I don't think I've heard anything from The Cult that I regard as highly to be honest, even "Love" which I revisited only a year or so ago.

Yeah, I am a big Cult fan, even since they were known as The Southern Death Cult. Saw them play the last ever gig at Birmingham Odeon before they knocked it down to make way for some development or other and they were fantastic. Astbury and Billy Duffy were a brilliant foil for each other, like Mick and Keef in The Stones. That would have been between Love and Electric if I remember rightly, so '86 or '87 when they were at their height. Sonic Temple, Dreamtime and Love are my big favourites and are interchangeable depending on how I'm feeling on any given day. 

Yeah that's right, I was a massive goth rock fan (but not a Goth, I was too much of a biker and metalhead for that). Siouxsie, The Mission, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and Fields of the Nephilim were all other big favourites and I still listen to all of them pretty regularly.

I had a big thing for buying 12" singles by goth bands in the Eighties and I've still got a ton of them. I will have to dig them out for a spin I think!

I can feel an Eighties gothic rock Spotify playlist coming on!!

Saint Vitus:

1. Mournful Cries

2. Saint Vitus (1984)

3. V

4. Die Healing

5. Born Too Late

6. Hallow's Victim

7. Thirsty and Miserable EP

8. The Walking Dead EP

9. Saint Vitus (2019)

10. C.O.D.

11. Lillie: F-65

1. Symbolic

2. Human

3. Spiritual Healing

4. The Sound of Perseverance

5. Scream Bloody Gore

6. Leprosy

7. Individual Thought Patterns

There are no wrong answers to this question. 

Here is my review:

This is the debut album from Cleveland's Noxis and is an album of quite brutal and occasionally technical death metal. I love the guitar tone, it sounding thick and meaty with a marked weight to it. The production pushes the bass to the fore quite often, deliberately I am guessing because the basslines provide a point of emphasis in a number of places, especially early on. The playing is very tight, with an impressive crispness and precision as all three of the instrumentalists are in lockstep and never seem to lose a beat nor drop a note. And therein lies a bit of the downside for me. I am not advocating sloppy playing or messy production as such, but it is no secret that I am an old-school fanatic and I often find death metal that is very tight and precise comes off as a bit sterile to my ears. Noxis do counter that to some extent by veering towards a visceral brutality, which I often find to be a mitigating factor that can balance out overt technicality, at least to a degree. The vocals are, in the main, an aggressive and bullish, bellowing roar, which I like, but they do occasionally drop into "stuck-pig" mode, on second track "Blasphemous Mausoleum for the Wicked" for example, which is a style that is a particular bugbear of mine.

So there are a number of factors that work against Noxis, at least based on my normal taste profile. The technical shifts and flourishes, the very precise nature of the instrumentation and overly crisp production that often leaves me cold and the resorting to a vocal style I am not a fan of all suggest I am in for an unsatisfying experience. Yet, somehow Noxis manage to keep me onboard, probably due the suggestion of brutality they maintain throughout the runtime. This gets me through the early part of the album, which is where I think there is a greater concentration of the problematic elements for me, and sustains me enough to reach the second half which feels less technical and more in-your-face brutal. Then there is the crazy "Horns Echo Over Chorazim" which isn't only one of the most brutal-sounding tracks on the album, but also has a crazy solo section that seems to be performed by a large selection of wind instruments, such as oboe, saxophone and so on, each following the other to perform a single solo. Weird, yet strangely compelling.

The four tracks from "Horns..." onwards are more to my liking than the earlier parts of the album, with less emphasis on the technical aspects making the band sound freer, looser and more relatable for me at least. The title track, which follows "Horns.." is a formidable beast and sees the band hinting at an old-school desire to sound as intimidating as they can. There are still some interesting moments in this latter part of the album, the off-kilter guitar solo and especially prominent basswork in the middle section of "Emanations of the Sick" as well as the previously mentioned wind instrument solo in "Horns..." are inspirational and really stand out during these more brutal tracks, more so than I feel they would in the more overtly technical earlier material.

So, ultimately this was, for me, an album which started off OK without especially wowing me, but which kept me sufficiently engaged to persevere and find the buried gems that are the final four tracks. These are the motherlode of the album as far as I am concerned and would have made a killer EP, but as it is, this is a decent album of pseudo technical and brutal death metal with a killer final 22 minutes.

4/5

The Mighty Slayer:

1. Reign in Blood

2. Show No Mercy

3. Haunting the Chapel EP

4. Hell Awaits

5. South of Heaven

6. Seasons in the Abyss

7. Divine Intervention

8. Christ Illusion

9. Repentless

10. Undisputed Attitude

11. Diabolus in musica

12. God Hates Us All

13. World Painted Blood

1. Master of Puppets

2. Ride the Lightning

3. Kill 'em All

4. ...and Justice for All

5. The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited

6. Garage Inc.

7. Metallica

8. Death Magnetic

I gave up on them after Death Magnetic and haven't listened to anything after that. Can't stand Load / Reload or St. Anger and can't bring myself to include them.