Sonny's Forum Replies

Marduk - Those of the Unlight (1993)

Marduk at their height were a full-on assault of unrelenting, martial brutality masquerading as a black metal band. Albums like Panzer Division Marduk and Plague Angel are exhilharating adrenaline-rushes that display little variation but are addictive as hell to those who love an all-out blastathon and just need a hit of aggression and nihilistic fervour. Yet this wasn't always the case with the Swedish black metal titans. Ten months after the blackened death metal of Dark Endless was released they unleashed their sophomore, Those of the Unlight, which is a huge improvement on the debut in my opinion, but is very different from their later, more well-known material. With Those of the Unlight Marduk tread a far more varied and melodic path than they would on later releases. There is an ambition to the songwriting that they lost once they had settled on their identity and the direction they wished to take. The melody on Wolves could well be whistling around in your head for days after hearing it and most of the songs feature some degree of development without constantly bursting out of the blocks. This doesn't mean this is a "tame" album, they still let rip fairly often - On Darkened Wings for example contains some intense blasting for sure, but it also has a nicely ominous atmosphere that is allowed to build and offers contrast to the aggressive passages when they hit, resulting in a more satisfying payoff. Those of the Unlight even features an ambient piece which, let's face it, would be completely out of character for later Marduk and despite my oft-touted aversion to a lot of ambient stuff on black metal albums, Echoes From the Past actually works really nicely here and is a great piece of music in it's own right.

The thing is that Marduk at their best are kind of unbeatable when it comes to relentless blasting, but Those of the Unlight also illustrates a band that have more than that to offer. I would never want to be without Panzer Division Marduk, it is one of my all-time favourite black metal albums, but Marduk also produced some rather unimpressive releases in similar vein and it would have been nice to hear them stretch their wings at some point too and realise the potential they showed with Those of the Unlight rather than just regurgitating the same tropes time and again. I guess there's still time, but with every lacklustre attempt to reproduce PDM it seems less and less likely.
4.25/5

It was certainly an improvement on the debut but they still had a way to go before they'd develop into the well-oiled machine that they'd eventually become in my opinion. It may not be something that people outside of the extreme metal community are too aware of but it requires a fair bit of time & practice to come to grips with playing heavily down-tuned guitars in that you need to a) figure out how to control the floppier strings which require more finesse not to go out of tune, have a greater tendency to shake around & produce excess noise & also feel very different to a regularly tuned instrument & b) find a style that works well with that tuning i.e. doesn't sound too messy & noisy regardless of how precisely you might be playing. "Realm Of Chaos" is tuned down to A which is much lower than 99% of death metal bands would dare to go. These days you would certainly play a seven string guitar if you were going to attempt that & even then you'd be detuning a full two semitones. I don't think they'd quite found their perfect sweet spot in that regard just yet & I can hear them noticeably struggling at times. It was no surprise that they opted to only detune half as far for "War Master" which was tuned to C#.

I must admit that was certainly not something I had ever considered, but when put like that it makes perfect sense. I feel kind of stupid now, but hey, there's a lot more to this extreme metal thing than you think isn't there?!

Here are my thought in "Realm Of Chaos" after revisiting it a while back:

Revisited this old friend for the first time in many years this morning. It was my introduction to Bolt Thrower around 1989/90 & I would go on to purchase the album on cassette a short time afterwards. "Realm Of Chaos" showcases a band that was starting to find their sound but was still waiting for their technical skills to catch up with their ambition because the production & performances are pretty sloppy but this doesn't take away from a gloriously pure death metal atmosphere. There's a much stronger grindcore influence to this album than you'll hear on Bolt Thrower's later material with early Napalm Death & Carcass clearly having been an inspiration along with "Reign In Blood" era Slayer. You'll get the odd hint at those signature Bolt Thrower melodies here & there but the catchy song-writing is already in full effect, despite the rawer, faster & more blast-beat driven approach. This is still a very solid death metal record that possibly hasn't aged as well as some which has subsequently seen me rating it behind later releases like "The IVth Crusade", "...For Victory" & "Those Once Loyal".

For fans of Benediction, Hail of Bullets & 90's Napalm Death.

4/5

Do you not think that technically this was a big improvement over In Battle... Daniel? As I've said, I'm no musician but this sounds pretty tight to me although the soloing could do with some work yet.

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (1989)

In November of '89, a year on from their debut, In Battle There Is No Law, Bolt Thrower issued sophomore album, Realm of Chaos. This album shows a band who have improved hugely in professionalism and who have honed their vision into sharper detail. Gone was the sloppiness of the debut, as had most of the crust influence and we had a much tougher-sounding, more brutal and heavier release as a result. This is no all-out assault of mindless brutality however and most of the tracks display some degree of progression. First track proper, Eternal War, may be the exception with it's nod to Napalm Death-style grindcore. Typically the tracks feature a slower, medium-paced, groove-laden riff with bursts of fast-paced, grind-like aggression and howling solos and they even turn in a creeping death doom riff to open the magnificant All That Remains. In Karl Willetts they have one of my absolute favourite death metal vocalists, his rasping growl epitomising what death metal vocals are all about for me.

Often with extreme metal, I will concede, an album can become a blur of similar-sounding tracks that struggle to stick in the memory after they have ceased playing and are more about the experience of listening, but in similar fashion to Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Realm of Chaos consists of tracks with enough memorable riffs and even melodies to stick with you after the disc has stopped spinning - a mark of exceptional songwriting I would suggest. Tracks like All That Remains and particularly World Eater are genuine death metal classics in my opinion, but there really isn't any filler on this album and I believe that Realm of Chaos can stand toe-to-toe with most of the classics of early death metal.

Although they are well-regarded, I still don't think Bolt Thrower get the credit they deserve. This was still 1989 and yet they had written the manual on brutal, grind-influenced death metal already (and went on to become one of the select few bands with decades-long careers who never put out a bad album) yet it seems to me that they remain the preserve of death metal enthusiasts and early grind adherents while lesser lights bask in the floodlights.
4.5/5

I recall having issue with this album on a production level but have to confess to it being a while since I listened to it and I may well have ended up with a horrible remastered version on CD somewhere.  Certainly need to revisit anyways.

The version on Spotify is the "Full Dynamic Range Version". So there are at least two versions available Vinny.

I was also reading on Discogs that the licence for the artwork from Games Workshop ran out in 2002 and they refused to renew it so subsequent re-releases have different cover art. The original vinyl LP is now going for £150 - £200!!

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (1989)

In November of '89, a year on from their debut, In Battle There Is No Law, Bolt Thrower issued sophomore album, Realm of Chaos. This album shows a band who have improved hugely in professionalism and who have honed their vision into sharper detail. Gone was the sloppiness of the debut, as had most of the crust influence and we had a much tougher-sounding, more brutal and heavier release as a result. This is no all-out assault of mindless brutality however and most of the tracks display some degree of progression. First track proper, Eternal War, may be the exception with it's nod to Napalm Death-style grindcore. Typically the tracks feature a slower, medium-paced, groove-laden riff with bursts of fast-paced, grind-like aggression and howling solos and they even turn in a creeping death doom riff to open the magnificant All That Remains. In Karl Willetts they have one of my absolute favourite death metal vocalists, his rasping growl epitomising what death metal vocals are all about for me.

Often with extreme metal, I will concede, an album can become a blur of similar-sounding tracks that struggle to stick in the memory after they have ceased playing and are more about the experience of listening, but in similar fashion to Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness, Realm of Chaos consists of tracks with enough memorable riffs and even melodies to stick with you after the disc has stopped spinning - a mark of exceptional songwriting I would suggest. Tracks like All That Remains and particularly World Eater are genuine death metal classics in my opinion, but there really isn't any filler on this album and I believe that Realm of Chaos can stand toe-to-toe with most of the classics of early death metal.

Although they are well-regarded, I still don't think Bolt Thrower get the credit they deserve. This was still 1989 and yet they had written the manual on brutal, grind-influenced death metal already (and went on to become one of the select few bands with decades-long careers who never put out a bad album) yet it seems to me that they remain the preserve of death metal enthusiasts and early grind adherents while lesser lights bask in the floodlights.
4.5/5

Ufomammut - Fenice

Released 06/05/22

It seems that Ufomammut have succumbed to the pandemic that has been plagueing us all over the past few years. No, not Covid-19 - the Atmospheric Sludge Metal pandemic that seems to be the only game in town as far as a lot of metal fans seem to be concerned. With every man and his dog putting out albums of slow-build, crushing climax metal just lately, Ufomammut have also got in on the act. Personally I feel the build-up to payoff ratio is too high and much prefer the Italians' wall-of-sound, velocity-ridden space metal to the excessive navel-gazing they present on their latest album. It's not a bad album by any means, but it is kind of disappointing.

3.5/5
 

I've taken my new, growing confidence with death metal and dared the rigours of an entire Horde playlist for the first time and I've got to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I must admit that there are probably some tracks that work better for me within the context of a varied playlist, whereas I am not sure if I would enjoy a whole album of said style, but as a short burst they work very well. Those fitting into this category include Orbit Culture, Haemorrhage, Disgorge, Enemy Soil, Golgothan Remains and Dying Fetus.

Oldies but goodies: Napalm Death, Akercocke, Sarcofago and I'm obviously familiar with the Vastum track which I enjoyed from their Horde March feature and the Desolate Shrine album which I gave a few spins to recently.

There were quite a few new discoveries for me, particularly Rotten Tomb and Aeviterne which were real standouts, also Sentenced, Astral Tomb, Cryptworm and Infernal Coil were great.
However, if the Thotcrime track is cybergrind then it is obvious that that sub-genre isn't for me as that was horrible and was the only track I really didn't like at all, although the grunting pig vocals of Waking the Cadaver and Katalepsy are a tough ask for me too. I guess these are slam death are they?

As for Macabre - what the fuck is going on there? A song about a child murderer with a chorus that sounds like it's the theme song to a Saturday morning kid's adventure show!

P.S. Has anyone heard the subsequent Ritual Carnage albums? I've never ventured further forward than this up until now. Are they worth checking out?

Well Daniel, I listened to the follow-up, The Birth of Tragedy, this morning and I can't recommend it in all honesty. It sounds like a completely different band. The lyrics are all political post-9/11, anti-western and US imperialism shit that sounds really dated. The vocal style is more crossover-sounding, the riffs are derivative and forgettable and the solos are all over the place. Ritual Carnage seem to have left the integrity of Every Nerve Alive at the door with this one and have just turned out the same shit as any number of second-rate, post-millenial thrash revivalists. (2.5/5)

Morgoth - Resurrection Absurd EP

Given the aggressive nature of German thrash metal it was only a matter of time before the Germans turned their hand to death metal and I believe that Morgoth's Resurrection Absurd was the first Teutonic death metal release, put out by Century Media in November of '89 as a 12" EP. The sound is occasionally a bit muffled and so the faster parts do become a bit messy at points (the closing part of the instrumental The Afterthought, for example). Morgoth seem to be quite strongly influenced by Death and Resurrection Absurd bears a strong resemblance to Scream Bloody Gore, to the extent that vocalist Marc Grewe is virtually indistinguishable from Chuck Schuldiner. I don't think that Morgoth do too much special here and their slavish reproduction of Death's early sound is a bit predictable. That said, there are glimpses of promise, the track that opens side two, Selected Killing, is a bit more ambitious and has a nice, ominous break in the middle with a bit of a doom-ridden build to the climactic run-in and is the stand-out track for me.

This is by no means a bad release, but it is patchy in both production, performance and songwriting. I am not at all familiar with Morgoth so I don't know if they took the potential they did show and improved on it on later releases, but maybe I'll find out later. I was vacillating between whether to give this three or 3.5 stars and went with the latter mainly thanks to Selected Killing. Interesting for the fact of being the first German death metal release, but inessential for it's contents I would suggest.

3.5/5

Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered EP (1989)

I haven't spoken about Napalm death's first two albums during this project because I don't want to get sidetracked into grindcore territory and although I am sure that early grind had some influence on the development of death metal I would rather save that discussion for another time. The Mentally Murdered EP came out slap-bang in the middle of the two year gap between the albums From Enslavement to Obliteration and Harmony Corruption. It shows a slight departure from Napalm Death's grindcore origins and their incorporation of elements from the emerging death metal scene. They were touring partners with Morbid Angel and Bolt Thrower at the time and so I guess some death metal influence rubbed off on the Coventry crew. Mentally Murdered is the last recording to feature Bill Steer and Lee Dorrian, the former dedicating himself solely to Carcass and the latter forming doom/stoner outfit Cathedral (and starting Rise Above Records).

The six tracks here weigh in at just over quarter of an hour and are a blistering death/grind assault on the ears. Despite the slight change in style there is no compromise in Napalm Death's sound here, it is still as brutal-sounding as ever and Lee Dorrian may possibly never have sounded so fucking terrifying, bellowing away like an enraged bull charging at a guy in a Man United top! Despite playing so fast, Steer's riffing never disintegrates into mere noise, he always seems in absolute control with his riffs standing iconic and clear. Shane Embury and drummer Mick Harris (who apparently coined the phrase "blastbeat") make a great supporting duo, their fantastic rhythm work allowing Steer and Dorrian to indulge in such absolute brutality without worrying that things will descend into formless noise. This may still be too heavily grindcore-adjacent for some death metal fans, but for those who dig both grindcore and death metal then this is a thrilling quarter of an hour that feels like riding the aforementioned enraged bull - just hold on and hope you don't break your neck! One of my favourite Napalm Death releases right here.
4.5/5

Mick Harris explains the blastbeat - "I never got to practice, that's why I was shit":

Guys, for next month's playlist submissions (for July) could I ask that they are in by the 10th June if possible please?  I am away for the week after that and coming back to a hectic diary both with work and socially so I want to get the list built before I head over to the states then can just tweak ahead of publishing.  No need to see them before start of next month mind - I am not an animal.

No problem at all Vinny.

I have been listening to thrash metal for closing in on forty years now, but for the longest time I stuck with the more well-known acts like The Big Four, The German Three and a select few others like Celtic Frost, Dark Angel and Onslaught. Since joining Metal Academy though, I have been introduced to a lot of excellent lesser known, underground acts and releases that have considerably expanded my enjoyment of the genre, the monthly features being responsible for quite a few of them and this month's feature from Japan's Ritual Carnage is just the latest in a long list of these.

With their hi-octane approach Ritual Carnage rev it up and leap out of the blocks, accelerating quickly to high speed riffing and barely ever let their foot off the gas with only the penultimate track, Escape From the Light, offering any real slowing of the pace. Personally I feel that track would have been better left until the end as it would have rounded the speedfest off better as a closer rather than expecting the actual closer, Far East Aggressors, to pick up the pace again (and suffering for it, I feel). There is loads to like about Every Nerve Alive, which in itself seems a more than apt title for the music contained within. The riffs are king here and although there is very little by way of originality, they are executed with passion and integrity and are intended to tempt you to rupture your neck muscles! Vocalist Damian Montgomery (aka Nasty Danny) has a great harsh growl that fits the aggressive nature of the riffing perfectly and only really dips on the aforementioned slower track, Escape From the Light, where his clean singing is exposed a little.

The band as a whole is exceedingly tight and the bass and drums solidly support the breakneck pacing without doing anything extraordinary. The solos are fine I suppose, but are the least remarkable part of the album for me, quite often just passing me by and unless I was really concentrating I didn't notice them so much until they had actually finished! However, overall this is a very good slab of energetic and brutal-sounding thrash that I would date around '91/'92 if I didn't know it was from 2000 when thrash was supposedly dead. I guess Ritual Carnage never got the memo!

Obituary - Slowly We Rot (1989)

Slowly We Rot is actually the only Obituary album I've heard prior to this and that only a couple of times, it not really making much of an impression on me, which I guess makes it ripe for a revisit. I have had to give it a fair few spins this time round as it was initially suffering from following hot on the heels of the quite superb Altars of Madness in my listening rotation (as it did in real life, I guess, being released a mere month after Morbid Angel's debut).

The first thing that strikes me is that whereas most other early death metal bands take their lead from Slayer, Obituary seek to emulate Swiss thrashers Celtic Frost and you don't need the cover of Into the Crypts of Rays from their follow-up to illustrate that, the guitar tone that Obituary strive for is ample proof in itself. Compositionally Obituary favour a mix of dank and doomy medium-paced and slower riffs, interspersed with short high-tempo bursts of aggression, in a similar style to that employed by Autopsy on their debut Severed Survival and that allow for some variety in the tone and atmosphere rather than the out and out blitz of Morbid Angel's debut. Despite this variation I still don't think the songs stand out as much individually as the tracks on Altars of Madness, but in fairness that album is a particular exception to the extreme metal rule rather than being an indictment of Obituary's songwriting prowess. I do love that guitar tone, it brings a nice dank, crypt-like atmosphere to the band's sound as it did for Celtic Frost and it combines perfectly with John Tardy's particularly evil-sounding vocal delivery - check out 'Til Death for proof if any is needed and the foreboding, brooding atmosphere that is created.

The riffs are solid and the lead work is fine if not especially spectacular with the soloing following the Slayer-esque stylings of most of the early death metal protagonists. The rhythm section again is solid rather than remarkable, but does form a solid foundation. I feel like I am sounding awfully harsh on the band here, but don't misunderstand, I love the atmosphere that Obituary create on the slower material but also when they do let rip and get in full flow they feel like a really tight unit and these faster sections are impressively executed, so although I feel like they may not be the most technically flashy performers they function exceedingly well as a unit and as such produced an evilly atmospheric and heavy-as-fuck debut album that deserves all the credit it receives. Personally I prefer both the Morbid Angel and Autopsy debuts over Slowly We Rot, but those are two of my all-time favourite death metal albums so that is no reflection on Obituary's worthwhile debut.
4/5

Hi Ben, have you got anything for June's playlist as I intend to complete it this weekend?

Another fortuitous by-product of this exploration of early death metal I have been undergoing is that it is helping to plug some of the gaps in my physical collection and today's subject is one of my most egregious omissions, which I am now pleased to say i have now resolved (thanks to Mr. Bezos and his extremely convenient online shopping experience!)

Said subject is, of course, one of the most important albums in the history of death metal:

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)

OK, so I am quite reluctant to comment on Altars of Madness as it is undoubtedly one of the most highly-regarded of all death metal releases and I am not sure I can do it justice, but as it is a seminal release in the death metal canon I will have to try and do my best. I came to it quite late in the day, early on in my reintroduction to metal, around the turn of the millenium via a work colleague who was into Morbid Angel and Deicide and was kind enough to lend me a few of his CDs, Altars of Madness among them. So does it merit all the praise that is heaped upon it? Yes it absolutely does as this sets a whole new level of evilness and intensity for metal at this point in it's evolution and pretty much writes the manual for death metal going into the 1990s.

Firstly the songwriting is phenomenal, each track being immediate and vital and yet each retaining an individuality and identity that is rarely maintained to such a level in extreme metal, making each a memorable classic that doesn't just become part of the overall album's morass of sound but which stand out in their own right. Next, the guitar sound is phenomenal - I swear there are four or five guitars playing sometimes, such a sweeping hurricane of sound are we faced with. The riffs are fantastic and the solos, whilst being rooted in the example set by Slayer's Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, take this tortured style of soloing to a new level. Pete Sandoval's drumming is relentless and is technically brilliant as he employs every weapon in his arsenal to take metal drumming to a new heights with superb fills and proto-blastbeats that more than just keep time. Bassist/vocalist Dave Vincent snarls and growls his way through the unholy and blasphemous lyrics (which are probably the most predictable part of the whole album) with a demonic-sounding relish.

Even with all this amazing songwriting and musicianship, that still isn't the whole story of Altars of Madness. The cover art is fantastic with the leering mass of demons that seem to be forming and reforming from some kind of primordial protoplasm, some looking evil and savage, others looking mischievous and humourous and yet more looking merely demented. It is the sort of album cover you could study for ages and still find something new hidden within - a bit like the album itself. The details are also where it's at with AoM, the backwards-playing riff that introduces the album opener Immortal Rites and the demonic laugh Dave Vincent unleashes at the start of Maze of Torment both add to the immersion of the album and these small details help to elevate Altars of Madness in the minds of it's advocates.

All in all I would definitely agree with those who claim this as one of the greatest and most influential death metal albums of all time and I must concur that it more than deserves it's position on the highest pedestal of extreme metal classics.
5/5

Ben, Daniel, Vinny... The sole album from Delirium is definitely worth pumping up a bit of doomy death metal into you guys' Horde minds. You'll love the majority of this slightly more than I could. Sonny, this could also be another great addition to the 1990 part of your death metal voyage of rediscovery once you get to that year.

Thanks for the rec Andi, I will definitely add it to my list for when I take on 1990 as it sounds right up my street.

One of the earliest death doom epics from Holland's Sempiternal Deathreign

Sempiternal Deathreign - The Spooky Gloom (1989)

Dutchmen Sempiternal Deathreign's total official output is the six tracks spanning thirty-five minutes of this, their one and only album, The Spooky Gloom, which has got to make them one of death metal's most underground outfits. In truth it sounds little better than a glorified demo, but considering the type of ugly, stinking death metal that SD play this is in no way as much of a hinderance as you would think. The Spooky Gloom is an album of doom-influenced death metal with a couple of fairly long tracks, opener Creep-o-Rama clocking in at nearly nine minutes and the brilliant Devastating Empire Towards Humanity, which should be recognised as an early classic in my opinion, at almost eleven. It is punctuated by a couple of shorter, punchier more straightforward death metal offerings, Resurrection Cemetery and Unperceptive Life, which clock in at around two minutes and inject a shot of adrenaline amongst all the filth-ridden doominess. The two longer tracks constitute the first and larger part of the album with the aforementioned Resurrection Cemetery being lodged between them. Being released just a few months after Autopsy's Severed Survival which dabbled with Sabbath-influenced riffs, I think this may be the first true official death doom release. The big draw for me, with my history of doom-worship is obviously the longer, doomier material, but I think it's fair to say that when SD let rip on the punchier, straight-up death metal stuff then they could hold their own.

The band were a three-piece from Gouda in The Netherlands and were apparently all cousins, forming in 1986 and disappearing almost as soon as this debut was released. Drummer Mischa Hak and bassist Victor van Drie went on to join Eternal Solstice and guitarist/vocalist Frank Faase (who was sixteen years old when The Spooky Gloom was recorded) joined Sinister for a very short spell before disappearing from the (recorded) music scene. When The Spooky Gloom was released I think it is fair to say that there wasn't another album like it and that it paved the way for a particularly successful sub-genre of death metal and is extremely important in the development of death doom. The lead guitar is a bit thin sounding it's true and a beefier production job may have aided the doom-ridden vibe, but as it stands it sounds decidedly necro and that isn't necessarily a bad thing in my view. It obviously won't appeal to everyone, especially those raised on modern production values, but for those who prefer to dwell in the foetid sewers of the extreme metal underground it is both a historically important and a damn impressive slab of early, no-fucks-to-give death metal and as such I recommend it to the members of the jury!

4.5/5

Hi Ben, I just read your review of the new Thou/Mizmor split and your request for advice. Thou are doom/sludge and Mizmor are more blackened sludge as a rough guide. If you want to check out either I would suggest you start with Cairn from 2019 for Mizmor and 2018's Magus for Thou. Both are great, but personally I prefer Thou, although I still have much to explore myself from both bands. Mizmor's ALN has close ties to MSW of Hell and plays drums for Hell live.

Any time is old blues guys time!

BTW who's your favourite OBG? Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson for me. 

Now I've reached 1989 on my death metal journey and it is at this point that I realised exactly how many of these earliest death metal albums I not only enjoy, but actually own on CD. Seven Churches, the first two Death Albums, The Spooky Gloom, Into Darkness, Symphonies of Sickness and the first two Autopsy albums all grace my shelves along with Soulside Journey, the Morbid Demo, Entombed's Clandestine and Baphomet's The Dead Shall Inherit which all-in-all constitutes the bulk of my death metal collection. I mention this only to illustrate my realisation that I was perhaps never as divorced from death metal as I believed I was, only from some of it's later iterations. But as I am really enjoying this project I am still going to continue (at least until I get as far as finishing the Horde first era clan challenge anyway!)

Anyway, on with the show:

Autopsy - Severed Survival (1989)

I have made no secret of my love of Autopsy and especially their sophomore album, Mental Funeral. In truth Severed Survival, whilst not quite sitting as high in my estimation as the follow-up, is still a brilliant slab of early death metal and is one of the first to go down the doomier route, alongside previously mentioned Dutch crew Sempiternal Deathreign and New York's Winter. I don't want to overplay the doom elements of Severed Survival as they are nothing like as prevalent as on Mental Funeral, but they are definitely present, especially in the prominence of the deep, rumbling bass sound and the playing of future Testament bassist Steve DiGiorgio who turns in a performance that would make bass legend Geezer Butler jealous and stamps his mark indelibly all over this album. The Sabbath influence doesn't end there either, with a number of tracks such as Disembowel, Impending Dread and Critical Madness containing Sabbath-like riffs, at least in small measure before the inevitable faster-paced sections kick in.

As we are all aware Autopsy founder Chris Reifert was a member of Death and featured on Scream Bloody Gore, but as Chuck Schuldiner started looking to move in a more progressive and technical direction he bailed and I think this debut illustrates exactly why - it is obvious that Chris desired to go in a more extreme direction, emphasising the necrotic filthiness of this new sound and really putting the death into death metal, complete with doubling down on the horror and gore-themed lyrics just as Death started to move away from them. Reifert's drumming is totally in synergy with this direction and his stickwork sometimes sounds like a man beating a rotten carcass with two severed arms! Vocally he has become gruffer and his growls now resemble more fully the deep rumbles that became a mainstay of the early death doom sound and he seems to become more evil-sounding on every release.

The downtuned guitars pull off the trick of sounding loose and even messy, when in fact they are pretty tight and technically adept, but they just make the riffs sound so fucking sick! The riffs aren't just a matter of blasting the balls off everything that moves, as I said there are nods to doom metal riffing, but even at their most frantic they are still recognisable and fairly memorable - Gasping for Air and the title track should still be bouncing around your noggin long after the disc has stopped spinning. With Severed Survival Autopsy signalled an intent to come up with the filthiest, most rotten- and foetid-sounding metal that had ever seen light of day and although that would take another album to accomplish their debut certainly set them well on their way.

This week has been The Pit's turn as playlist of the week and it got off to a great start with one of Metallica's last great songs, my favourite Nuclear Assault track and a track from Sepultura's best album - so a really killer beginning! I'm not overwhelmed by the Watchtower track though, the vocals are a bit annoying and it doubles down on the technical aspirations that I dislike in techthrash so it obviously was always going to be a tough sell for me.

Despite being those rarest of items, a decent English thrash band, I haven't encountered Pariah before. This one I like, especially the soloing and vocals, so I'll be checking this album out for sure. Razor are a different kettle of fish however and are a band I love, although Malicious Intent is my least favourite of theirs, this is still a slice of awesome high-velocity thrash. Thrasherwolf are another UK act and really should have tried harder to find a decent name. This is OK but nothing special (I do like the vocals though). Pissing Razors aren't really for me and sound an awful lot like Slipknot to my ears.

The Bleeding are another UK band and one of my picks. I really like this album of high-velocity deaththrash that has a great guitar sound and this track has a really memorable main riff. I was a big fan of Vio-lence's debut but in all honesty I didn't have a lot of hope for this new material, but it is actually OK - not great, but not bad either - I don't think the spoken bit in the middle adds anything and when it came on during the playlist I actually thought it was the intro to another track. I haven't listened to Sarcófago anything like as much as I should have, in fact I am only familiar with their first two albums, so this is the first track I have heard from The Laws of Scourge and it has definitely caught my attention - even the synth section doesn't feel awkward - so I'll be checking this out for sure. Power From Hell turn in a great track of anthemic, crusty-sounding, blackened speed metal with a lo-fi production that sounds filthy as fuck - I like it.

As anyone who takes any notice of my postings may know, Demoniac are one of my new favourites and the Chileans So It Goes has found itself ensconced pretty high up on the list of Sonny's all-time favourite thrash albums - memorable songs, technically accomplished execution with laser-guided solos and neck-wrenching energy to burn, what's not to like? Suicidal Tendencies debut is one of my favourite albums, pity it's punk and not metal, but metal ST have always paled for me in comparison to that hardcore classic. This is kind of OK and sounds a lot like How Will I Laugh... which is unsurprising really as this is the follow-up. I wouldn't buy it but I can listen to it for sure.

As much as I love Belladonna-era Anthrax, I have never listened to a John Bush Anthrax record. This has done very little to persuade me to change that situation. I have spun Possessed's Beyond the Gates a few times over the last weeks as part of my early death metal exploration and have come to appreciate it more than I had previously and the track Seance is brilliant thrashing mayhem with a killer riff. 2005's Enemy of God saw Kreator finally get back to what they do best and stop fucking around and Under a Total Blackened Sky illustrates perfectly what exactly that means.

Eradicator are another band of which I have been ignorant until now but this sounds pretty good, even though I think it would sound better with a crustier, filthier sound rather than the modern production job that has been utilised here. I love Holy Terror and own the 4CD Total Terror set which contains all that matters from the LA thrashers. Do Unto Others is a real fuck you!! of a track and is lightning fast, with a speed metal / crossover vibe. The Grinder track sounds very derivative and didn't do a lot for me. I was initially hesitant about Cryptosis' debut, but it finally revealed it's secret charms to me and I ended up obtaining a vinyl copy. Cryptosis don't solely rely on their technical wizardry to enthrall their listeners - unlike some techthrash acts - and write some brilliant, memorable tracks and most importantly thrash fucking hard whilst doing it. Transcendence is my favourite from Bionic Swarm.

I know it's considered sacrilege amongst the metal cognoscenti, but Meshuggah do a grand total of fuck-all for me - and still don't after this. Sorry, but I fail to hear what the fuss is all about. Despite Neuropunk Boostergang being a brilliant album title, I wasn't especially bowled over by Expander. However I am not completely set against it and it sounds like the kind of album I may need to return to at some point in the future to reappraise. Ektomorf just washed over me and failed to latch it's hooks into my mind I'm afraid - not really my thing. Sadistic Ritual's 2019 debut Visionaire of Death was a reasonable slab of deaththrash and so is this. Vulture's speed/thrash is kind of fun without being earth-shatteringly awesome if this is anything to go by.

If there was one track on here I could have done without it's an unimpressive speed metal cover of Iron Maiden's Phantom of the Opera, so minus points for Sentinel Beast. I was initially quite taken with Hellfekted's debut, but it does have glaring production problems and technical inadequacies that ultimately affect replayability. One of the album's best tracks here, but even that has it's issues. I think I'm gonna have to drop my score for this album a half point.

In summary, for me a good playlist that just dropped off a bit after the Cryptosis track. Still, there were plenty of classics and some nice discoveries that I'm looking forward to exploring further.

I will add it to the list for when I get to 1990.

Death - Leprosy (1988)

I think the most interesting thing about Death and Chuck Schuldiner is their/his absolute refusal to sit on his laurels and keep rehashing the same tropes over and over, but rather to continuously drive his band's development forwards. I must confess to being in the minority who prefer Death's earlier, more brutal and straightforward death metal material to their later more progressive leanings, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate Chuck's compulsive need to improve and expand his music and the enormous impact and influence that had on what was still essentially a fledgeling genre.

As was common on all Death albums, there were wholesale lineup changes between Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy. Chris Reifert had vacated the drum stool to form Autopsy and was replaced by Massacre skinsman Bill Andrews whilst fellow Massacre member, guitarist Rick Rozz, who had played with Chuck when Death were called Mantas, also joined up. Lineup changes aren't the only difference between the two albums - gone are any remnants of the thrash riffs that still remained on SBG, Leprosy being most definitely founded on death metal riffs. Lyrically there is a shift in focus from the violence and gore of the debut to an existential and philosophical examination of death - the futility of death in war (Left to Die), the effects of death on the living (Open Casket), the (still) thorny question of assisted dying (Pull the Plug) and, most poignantly considering Chuck's ultimate fate, the debilitating physical and mental effects of disease (Leprosy).

One of the main discussions of Leprosy centre around the drum sound and the technical deficiencies of skinsman Bill Andrews. Now, as far as the former goes, that pronounced, oh-so eighties snare sound is a minor annoyance and is a negative for me, albeit possibly not to the extent it is for some other commentators. I have also seen Andrews lambasted for technical ineptitude, but I for one am definitely in no position to comment in that respect. He seems functional enough to me and although it seems apparent he would probably struggle with any high velocity blastbeats, his actual performance isn't such a huge problem to my non-musician's ears as it seems to be for other, more knowledgeable, reviewers. As far as rhythmic functionality goes, Chuck's basslines do what is required and no more, quite often just following what the guitars are doing. The addition of Rick Rozz as second guitarist is a big plus for Leprosy over Scream Bloody Gore. I think if Rozz was on the UK's quiz show Mastermind his specialist subject would be "the guitar solos of Kerry King" as his soloing style seems very much in the style of the Slayer axeman. I must add the caveat that, although he does mimic Kerry King's style, he seems technically and creatively better as his solos retain the aggressive urgency of King, but are also more expansive and more adeptly executed - the solo in the middle of Open Casket for example begins in classic King style, but then develops well beyond those confines and ends up as a real killer.

Leprosy still contains a huge amount of aggression and sheer adrenaline-rush riffing, but it is also a tighter and occasionaly more melodic album. The songwriting, whilst still being far from progressive in nature as on Death's later work, has a bit more variety and complexity than the debut and does serve as an indicator of Chuck's ambition amd musical trajectory. Despite these differences between Death's first two albums I enjoy them both equally, but probably for different reasons - the sheer exuberance and irreverence of the debut and the more highly polished and greater ambition of the follow-up both deserve high praise. On a historical note, Leprosy was apparently the first death metal album recorded at the legendary Morrisounds studio where so many death metal classics were birthed.

4.5/5

Bolt Thrower - In Battle There Is No Law! (1988)

At last us Brits finally get involved in the development of death metal, showing those Yanks that England's Midlands isn't yet a spent force in the world of metal and you don't need Floridian sunshine to play death metal when you've got the rain-drenched, overcast skies of Coventry hanging over you! The Midlands already had an extreme metal scene with Birmingham's legendary grindcore outfit Napalm Death hailing from only a few miles distant from Bolt Thrower's native Coventry. Now Bolt Thrower have always been one of my favourite death metal bands and are one of the few I actually enjoyed at the time, having first encountered them on legenday UK DJ John Peel's evening show performing one of their numerous sessions (probably around the time of the debut's release) so this isn't my first real encounter with In Battle There Is No Law!

The d-beat influences from fellow Midlanders Discharge as well as the grindcore of Napalm Death are plenty evident on Bolt Thrower's debut album. The production is very crust-punk with a lo-fi, echoey and muddy sound that would actually become quite a big part of early death metal (and particularly death doom - see my comments on Sempiternal Deathreign's demo). The black and white pen-drawn cover is another nod to their crust punk roots and influences. They play ridiculously quickly and very loosely, almost verging on sloppily, very much as a result of the Discharge / Napalm Death influence on their early work and their sound is built on a massive bottom end. Their lyrical obsession with war and it's effects are evident even this early on with tracks like the title track, Attack in the Aftermath and Nuclear Annihilation describing the numbing effects of war on the human psyche.

In Battle There Is No Law! is a raw and visceral slab of UK metal history that illustrates the development of a different branch of the death metal tree as a result of influences that are separate from the US experience of early death metal and show that DM did not spring from a singular root, but is rather a product of different influences from a diverse set of locations. Personally I love this kind of shit, but it IS quite different from the likes of Death and Morbid Angel and sounds much more DIY with a demo-ey feel to it that may not appeal to everyone.

4/5

As I journey through 1988 I am going to concentrate more on official releases and leave the demos behind as they were now so prolific that it is hard to assess which were actually of any real significance in development of the scene. That said, there weren't a huge amount of death metal full-lengths released in 1988. I am going to start with Incubus' Serpent Temptation which, as will unfold during my review I don't think contains much actual death metal, but I have included as 1) A great album in it's own right and 2) an illustration of where I feel thrash reaches it's limits and death metal then takes over.

Incubus - Serpent Temptation (1988)

I hadn't heard Incubus/Opprobrium before this and was only dimly aware of the name (as Opprobrium). Well that appears to be a great shame because this debut full-length is serious slab of deaththrash. The band was formed in Louisiana in 1986 as Incubus by Brazilian-born brothers Francis (guitar and vocals) and Moyses Howard (drums). The trio is rounded out with bassist/vocalist Scott Latour. The brothers Howard rip through eight face melters in thirty-seven minutes of unrivalled intensity - I mean, these guys really let fucking rip! Truth be told, this is definitely more thrash than death, but it is as intense a thrash metal album as you could ever hope to hear and has gatecrashed into the upper echelons of my personal thrash metal ranking list. This is seriously fast thrash, with lightning fast solos and insane riffs that in all likelihood would leave Slayer lagging behind. Despite the crazy speed, Moyses is more than capable of keeping time behind the kit and turns in as impressive a performance as you could hope for and may well be the fastest thrash drummer I have ever heard. Without his technical ability the songs may well have degenerated into a mess and his contribution is one of the triumphs of the album. Latour's vocals are of the rasping, barking style that sits somewhere between thrash and death metal vocalisation and works very well within the context of all this velocity.

Admittedly the album is slightly front-loaded, the four tracks of side A being absolute killers and Side B struggling a little to maintain the sheer intensity. Don't get me wrong, this is all relative, but the sheer adrenaline rush of side A is difficult for the B-side to replicate, even though it still has it's moments - the title track for example is ridiculously quick. Overall I would say this contains little actual death metal, but does illustrate exactly how near to it thrash metal could get without actually crossing the line. Oh and did I mention that it is christian-themed? No? Well it doesn't matter anyway, other than proving that the devil doesn't have all the best tunes.
4.5/5

Hi Xephyr, can I make the following suggestion for the June Guardians playlist:

Angel Witch - "Angel of Light" (6:40) from "Angel of Light" (2019)

Hi Ben, could you add Ufomammut's new album Fenice please.

In light of last week's discussion concerning the playlists, are there any changes to frequency, length or suggestions? Are we still picking tracks that reflect our previous month's listening or have we got a different criteria for inclusion now? Also, with respect to Andi's comments regarding himself and Vinny no longer contributing suggestions to the Guardians, can non-Guardians make a single track suggestion? Just trying to clear up a few points that seemed to be left up in the air.

I'm gonna kick off the next phase of my journey with the 1988 Creepshow demo from a band who produced one of my all-time favourite OS death doom albums, Sempiternal Deathreign:

Sempiternal Deathreign - Creepshow EP (1988)

I'm not completely sure, but Sempiternal Deathreign may well have been the first Dutch extreme metal band, but they did release one of my favourite early death doom albums in 1989's The Spooky Gloom. Anyway before that they released this demo in 1988. The sound isn't bad at all, especially seeing as SD favour a fairly raw sound anyway and it is absolutely packed with bottom end that is a trademark of early OSDDM. Half of the runtime is taken up by seven and a half minutes of the first track Devastating Empire Towards Humanity which may well be the first genuine death doom classic and was destined to become the centrepiece of their one and only album. Slow, tortuous and evil-sounding as fuck, the death growls are impressive, particularly as guitarist/vocalist Frank Faase was only fifteen at the time of recording! Although it is raw and needs some polishing, this is a genuinely great track to kick off.

The four tracks of the B-side are much shorter affairs, the longest clocking in at just under two and a half minutes. The shorter runtimes make for more out and out death metal affairs (and these definitely ARE death metal) they pack a hell of a punch, particularly the fifty seconds of Unperceptive Life which is the only other track here to make the full-length. A pretty impressive demo from a young band that should have gone on to bigger and better but sadly disappeared too quickly.

4/5

I get the feeling that S.O.A.D.'s stock has fallen over recent years and I'm not sure if it's cool to like them anymore, but fuck that because personally I loved both Toxicity and this album and I still do to this day. I'm not so keen on the debut or Steal This Album and Hypnotize is a bit patchy, but Mezmerize and Toxicity are brilliant examples of punky, hook-laden metal that have rarely been equalled, let alone bettered. Their ability to write such catchy metal numbers and to cover serious subject matter lyrically, yet do so with humour and biting wit, is an ability not to be underestimated. They are like a metal version of Dead Kennedys in a way.

I don't think Mesmerize reaches Toxicity's heights, Cigaro and This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song fall a bit flat, but the rest is inordinately enjoyable. I mean a song like Violent Pornography is just begging for you to sing along at the top of your voice whilst walking down the high street while everyone stares after you like you're some kind of maniac! SOAD's great skill is to sound subversive and yet accessible all at the same time. Lyrically a bit too serious and risque to be termed as pop metal, but in truth it's not a million miles away (and I mean that in the most positive way). If that's an issue for you, then that's your loss.

4/5

I've blasted this month's playlist a fair bit over the last week and have to say it got off to a good start. I enjoyed the first four tracks immensely, Nordjevel being a new one on me as are BFC. I haven't listened to Dawn's Slaughtersun, but I am a fan of the debut and the track here is great, so I must rectify that. It doesn't seem a particularly popular opinion, but I quite like BaN's psychedelic-tinged recent stuff and this seems to be continuing the trend, so it's all good by me.

Unfortunately I became unstuck with both the Xasthur and Falls of Rauros tracks, I have always struggled a bit with FoR and haven't really bothered with Xasthur. I found both the tracks here to be a bit dull to be honest. I love the DsO track and their latest album generally, having recently taken possession of my vinyl copy, so that was a win anyway and Infernal Coil was as brutal as I would expect from an album tagged as war metal and deathgrind. Unfortunately, it seems that Shade Empire were trying to become the first black metal band to write a James Bond theme song with their track here and I couldn't listen to it without picturing Daniel Craig jumping out of a helicopter!

I'm not mad keen on Dark Funeral (from what I have heard) but this track from their latest sounds pretty decent. Äera seem to be under everybody's radar with very few ratings on RYM, but deserve better on the strength of this 2020 single. Enslaved's track is one of my picks, so is obviously a favourite but, in all honesty, this really is a classy slab of progressive BM I'm sure you will all agree. Saidan are a new one on me (and seem to be a relatively new band anyway). More black n roll than black metal, but actually quite enjoyable nonetheless, despite not being earth-shattering.
Blood & Valour is my all-time favourite war metal album so needless to say the Bestial Warlust track, Barbaric Horde, gets a massive thumbs-up from me. I have always found Torn Beyond Reason a bit of a chore to be honest and agree with Vinny that this track from Woods of Desolation is way too -gazey for my own particular taste. I haven't listened to a lot of Ultha, but what I have heard has been damn fine. Their contribution here is great - soaring and pummelling atmo-black.. and who the fuck expected a sax solo to close out the playlist!?

So generally a solid playlist, a couple of classics and some new stuff I will have to check out, although there are probably more tracks I didn't care for than has been the case over recent months, but hey, you can't win 'em all can you?

Hi Ben, please could you add Italian symphonic black metal band Abhor.

II will probably only rarely comment on the features from The Gateway, Revolution or Sphere because I am not sure I can say anything helpful about most of them. 

You may want to make an exception for this month's The Sphere feature Sonny as I have a feeling you'll appreciate it.

Yes, you are correct!!

In fairness I only said rarely would I comment, not never (that probably only applies to The Revolution). The Gateway, Sphere, Guardians and Infinite will likely all throw up releases I won't feel up to getting involved with, but equally I am just as likely to find something to enjoy there too, it depends really.

Quite simply the best industrial black metal album available. My review:

Thorns were formed in 1989 as Stigma Diabolicum, changing their name to Thorns in 1990 and are the brainchild of Snorre W. Ruch who, as any black metal historian knows, was the man sentenced to eight years in prison in 1994 for being an accomplice in the murder of Euronymous by Burzum's Varg Vikernes (although Vikernes has since said Ruch was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time). This enforced hiatus meant that despite releasing a couple of well-received demos in '91/'92 Thorns didn't release their debut and sole (up to time of writing) album until 2001. According to well-known metal historian Fenriz, Ruch actually invented the black metal riffing technique and was the guy who taught it to Euronymous, so certainly his black metal credentials are impeccable. Apart from Ruch, the album features Mayhem's Hellhammer on drums and vocal duties were shared between Dødheimsgard's Aldrahn and Satyricon's Satyr. The album musically is an unholy alliance between quite brilliant early second-wave black metal menace and machine-like industrial influences. Now I have never tried to hide my love of nineties black metal, but I find industrial metal to be hit and miss, too often sounding contrived and even corny on occasion. Luckily Thorns seem as adept with their industrial rhythms and effects as they do with their black metal blasting and manage to marry the two with unrivalled skill and as a result produce one of the all-time great industrial black metal albums and my personal favourite in the style.

Thorns' agenda is set from the off with opening track Existence kicking off like a straight-up BM track, very much like Emperor's earlier stuff actually, but after about thirty seconds or so the track stops abruptly and someone exclaims "Jesus... what a mindjob!" The track then kicks back in, but significantly changed with a weird, theremin-like effect added and a much more machine-like aesthetic, particular in the percussive department, as if they are saying "we can do that, but instead we're gonna do this". They also like to intersperse their black industrial core with some dissonance to further prevent the listener from getting too comfortable and to keep them on their toes. One such track is the second, World Playground Deceit, which is initially quite dissonant, but then right in the middlle of the track they plant a thrash metal riff and you just start to get your head nodding when the angular and dissonant nature of the track suddenly returns and you are left hanging (but in a good way!) Shifting Channels is a track where the band seem to go all-in on the industrial side and is extremely machine-like in both percussion and riffing with a slower tempo and disturbing, almost crooning vocal that sounds like a serial killer talking to himself. The second half of the album opens with a brace of connected tracks, Underneath the Universe parts 1&2 which bring something quite different. Part 1 is mostly a dark ambient piece, that features some excellent martial drumming earlier on before giving way to a fairly reflective cosmic ambience that provides a stillness at the heart of the album in contrast to the industrialised cacophony going on elsewhere. Part 2 sees the return of the martial drumming which is joined by an equally military-sounding riff as the vocals intone once more the inner workings of a disturbed mind.

All in all this is an exceedingly adept realisation of the industrialised black metal aesthetic, with neither component dominating the other, both working together in a synergy that lifts the music to a level few similar practitioners have ever come close to. I think it would probably appeal to fans of black metal more than it would your average Fear Factory or Ministry fan, but that is as much down to BM being a hard sell outside of it's adherents than any commentary on the quality shown here. If you are in the market for industrial black metal then you really have got to start with Thorns as most others are merely pale imitations.

4.5/5

Arð only has one album out Ben and yes, the track on the playlist is representative of the album as a whole. He is the keyboard player with Manchester black metallers Winterfylleth and I think this is his first stab at doom metal. There's a lot to like on the album as it provides something a bit different.

I have only properly got into Ufomammut myself recently, actually since Daniel selected the collab with Lento as a feature, and I've really been enjoying what I've been hearing. A completely underrated band.

Not one, but two fantastic albums turn thirty years old today - Baphomet's The Dead Shall Inherit and Incantation's Onward to Golgotha.

That was some day that 5th May 1992!

Thanks for the feedback guys (and the vote of confidence). I'll continue to baffle you all with my self-opinionated bullshit then!

Could you add Canadian sludge metal duo Mares of Thrace please Ben.

Also, could you add Firebreather's new album Dwell in the Fog, Fostermother's latest, The Ocean and Alunah's 2022 release Strange Machine.

Thanks Ben.

I must confess that prior to my short hiatus three weeks or so ago, there were certainly things that felt like they were becoming a chore. More specifically, I was feeling obligated to check out all the monthly features even though it was fairly obvious that  I was never going to enjoy some of them. As a consequence I will probably only rarely comment on the features from The Gateway, Revolution or Sphere because I am not sure I can say anything helpful about most of them. And, let's be honest, I am also unlkely to ever listen to a playlist from The Revolution either. I was starting to feel that my listening habits were being taken over by the site and was beginning to feel disenfranchised from my own listening!

I say these things only as a cautionary tale, because I was feeling under (self-imposed) pressure to contribute and try to improve engagement with the site, but unfortunately that kind of backfired. I think we should all contribute only as much as provides enjoyment otherwise it does run the risk of becoming chore-like.

One thing I would appreciate some feedback on is what is acceptable as constituting a review on the site. I have sensed a certain attitude that you must write some sort of academical treatise on every release you review for it to be acceptable. My own style of review writing is never going to fall into that category as I have neither the skill nor knowledge to produce such pieces, but I would rather say something about a release, even if it is only one paragraph, especially if there are no other reviews for it rather than just let it sit there with a pile of numbers next to it. Do the rest of the membership consider that view to be acceptable or would you rather be like metal-archives and require everyone to have a masters degree in music before accepting their review submissions?

There are some fantastic album titles there Ben: Cave Attack!, Pre-Historic Eruption, Bullet Wind, Holy Krieg - Crimson Axis and my favourite The Hard Facts of the Scary Touhou world!

I may have to check some of these out...

...[edit] OK, after checking out a couple of tracks on Hard Facts of the Scary Touhou world, I don't think I'll be delving any further. I'll be charitable and say it just isn't for me. It puts me even more in awe of your unswerving tenacity and dedication though Ben!

1. How are you all enjoying them? Do you look forward to listening to & compiling them?

I enjoy the ones relating to my chosen clans and I do look forward to checking out what is on them each month. I may occasionally spend an hour or two with additional ones from The Horde or The Infinite. They are a good source for finding new stuff to check out more fully. Obviously, since I finished working, I may have more time than most members, but even for me it is a lot of time to invest in listening to more playlists than relate to my own clans.

Compiling the playlist for The Fallen is a task I get a huge amount of satisfaction from and enjoy immensely.

2. Is the two hour length appropriate?

For clans where the overall track lengths tend to be longer I think two hours is fine (Fallen, North, Infinite). Maybe for Clans like The Pit where the tracks tend to be shorter a reduced runtime would be more appropriate. I would suggest more than twenty tracks is probably too many for a monthly playlist.

3. Do you think monthly is the right release schedule? Would bi-monthly or quarterly be more suitable & encourage a higher quality of submissions? Could it be different for different clans?
This is a question I must admit I am not sure about. A month is definitely too short a time to check out more than two or three.

4. Should we consider dissolving a couple of the less popular playlists altogether or would that potentially confuse things?

What are the less popular playlists? I don't know about getting rid of them, but maybe ones with little support, such as The Sphere would be better reduced to an hour.

5. Do we have the track submission limits right? Is there a better way to manage the compiling of the lists?

As regards The Fallen, yes I think the track submission limits are fine. I am unsure now whether you are saying that we should still be submitting tracks we have been listening to recently or not. I thought the primary purpose was to reflect what members had been listening to over the previous month or so. Is this no longer the case and if not what should we be using as a criteria for selection?


5. Any other suggestions or comments?

In common with Vinny I wonder who we should be aiming the playlists at. If the intention is to showcase the clan in order to gain new listeners/members then I would probably include more well-known acts in order to attract attention. If the primary consideration is existing clan members then I would probably go for a higher percentage of lesser-known material, under the assumption that fellow clan members are already very familiar with the more popular releases. But as I said above I was under the impression that the lists were meant to reflect the listening habits of the clan members over the prior weeks.

I think we could all help each other a bit more by providing more feedback on the success (or otherwise) of the monthly playlists, allowing us all to learn what works and what doesn't. Do you have any listening statistics from Spotify (is it even possible to access any)?

Can I assume from your questions Daniel, that you and Ben are unhappy with how the playlists are panning out in their current form?

That was definitely a challenge!!

Nice one Vinny. Jetsetting to the home of death metal eh? Let us know if you bump into Glen Benton!

As you say, Vinny, the debate around what was the first death metal release is kind of a moot point as fans will all view it differently, but I have made allusion to it throughout the thread as it seems like such a good point for stimulating discussion. I personally don't really care because whether a release is extreme thrash or early death metal, if it sounds great, it sounds great whatever and I enjoy both styles anyway. The main reason for this exercise is that there is an awful lot of modern (i.e. post-2000) death metal that I don't "get" and so I wondered if I retraced the path through death metal history if it would ultimately give me some deeper insight and understanding of more modern DM (plus I would hopefully get to discover some previously unheard gems).

Also, I am hoping along the way that I might complete a Horde clan challenge that may see me accepted into the mead halls of The Horde to sup with the Champions of Death Metal!

I think most of us (certainly us pre-internet metalheads anyway) have similar experience with albums like you had with Slowly We Rot. I've not had to hide my stuff from my parents personally, but back in the day I did have to buy The Sex Pistol's Never Mind The Bollocks for my younger sister and keep it with my albums and pretend it was mine (my dad was more protective of the girls than he was us lads)! But as I have said earlier in the thread, there are albums that just mean more to me for different reasons, some are very dependent on time and place and the people they remind me of, so that the attachment to them transcends the mere music on the disc or in the grooves of the LP. These are the albums I find it hardest to review because some of the feelings I have towards them are so intangible and are difficult to put into words. Sadly I also think that is another of the experiences the internet has robbed us of - there just isn't the same attachment to an album being streamed or downloaded as there was if you had made the effort to go into town, hand over hard-earned cash and buy an LP then sit poring over the sleeve on the bus on the way home, dying to throw it onto the stereo and blast the shit out of it. As music has become more accessible it has also become far more disposable as a result I feel.

Sorry, just a stupid old codger waxing nostalgic again!

Morbid - December Moon Demo EP (1987)

Morbid were a death/thrash/black metal band from Sweden who never had an official release before splitting in 1988, a couple of it's members going on to form Entombed (guitarist Ulf Cederlund and drummer Lars-Göran Petrov who was vocalist for Entombed). This demo is (in)famous for featuring legendary Mayhem vocalist Dead and features four tracks with a runtime of 17 minutes. I have loved this from the very first time I heard it, so much so that I managed to get a copy of the Reaper Records 2000 version a couple of years ago that set me back about £30. It's death metal is very thrashy in execution and, mainly because of Dead's contribution, has quite a black metal sound, at least vocally. The production is very good for a demo, there is a hefty bottom end to it that contributes to the deathliness of the riffs and the playing itself is very good indeed with the band sounding like an inordinately tight outfit for a bunch of guys who had only been together a couple of years and had never put out a studio album. The songs are brilliant and easily rival the early stuff from the German thrashers on whom a lot of their material seems to be based. Similarly to the Poison demo this is probably more important to the black metal historian than the death metal antiquarian but either way it is a fantastic snapshot of a band who I wish could have produced more because if they were this good on a demo then we can only guess how fucking great they could have been had they put out a proper album or two.

5/5

OK, so that takes me up to the end of 1987. I am going to take a break from this thread for a few days while I check out some other stuff I've been wanting to listen to and queue up the next batch of releases for perusal here. We're on to 1988 next and things are starting to get serious!

Autopsy - 1987 Demo EP (1987)

The first demo from one of my favourite death metal practitioners, California's Autopsy. It was released in December of '87 and is made up of four tracks with a runtime of 13 minutes. The tracklisting is: 1. Human Genocide 2. Embalmed 3. Stillborn 4. Mauled to Death, the middle two of which would appear later on their Severed Survival debut. In common with many of these early DM demos there is still a certain amount of thrash metal riffing present within the sound as the band explore the realms of extremity and move towards what would ultimately be defined as death metal and more explicitly the doomy, cavernous-sounding style that they would make their own during the early nineties. That said, they are well progressed down that path to death metal heaven and this is one of the most brutal and filthy-sounding of these early demos it has been my fortune to encounter. The sound is very good indeed for an eighties death metal demo and there are no massive issues with the recording quality. Musically the band are quite tight for a group of guys who had been together for a relatively short amount of time. The downtuned guitars are obviously a major distinctive feature of Autopsy's aesthetic and they do sound deeper and more seismic than most of their peers. Ex-Death skinsman Chris Reifert's drumming is pretty lethal too and I would suggest he has improved considerably from the performance on Scream Bloody Gore to the one he turns in here. His vocals are still a work in progress as he hadn't at this point perfected the guttural growl of Autopsy's later official releases. My favourite track has got to be the occasionally slower-paced closer Mauled to Death which is as unforgivingly brutal a track as you could hope to have heard in 1987 and, for me, is a whole new level of brilliant. I would hold this up as close to Morbid's December Moon EP as one of the best ever metal demos.

4.5/5

Holocausto - Campo de extermínio (1987)

An album that is as infamous for it's imagery as it is for it's music, these Brazilians were probably just trying to find a new way to be shocking (instead of the already overdone satanic/occult imagery used by countless others) rather than harbouring any fascistic tendencies. Hailing from Belo Horizonte, home of Sepultura and many other Brazilian extreme metal outfits, vocalist Rodrigo Magalhães and drummer Armandinho Sampaio were in previously featured thrashers Mutilator.
It must be said that despite Holocausto's attempts at extreme metal, they are nothing like as accomplished as a band like Sepultura were at this stage - a fast-paced track like Facção revolucionária armada for example really shows the band struggling, both drums and guitar having trouble keeping up and playing in time and ultimately coming across as a bit of a mess to be honest. The bass seems to be mixed to the fore and is actually louder than the guitars on some tracks (III Reich for example). To be fair, the band are much more effective with the less blisteringly-paced material. I don't know if this was a particularly influential release at the time of issue, but I wouldn't place any particular importance on it historically other than for the ill-advised aesthetic and within the Brazilian thrash scene of the late eighties.

3.5/5

That's a very interesting explanantion Daniel. I don't personally know any DJs (although I do have a friend who is a brilliant graffiti artist!) so I wasn't aware that is what they do. It must certainly help in forming an opinion if you have trained your mind to pick up on things so quickly.

Tne "active listening" thing is a good point too. This is partly what I mean about having to "work" at listening to music because, for various reasons, I find it hard sometimes to concentrate. The first couple of listens I tend not to even try and just sort of let it wash over me to get a handle on it and how it chimes with me emotionally. A further listen or two are then when I try to form an opinion of the music and then I will try to put it into words, usually while listening to it again at the same time.

Of course if I don't much care for it after a listen or two then I won't bother delving further. This is sometimes where I will later pick up again on releases I have previously dismissed and reassess them more favourably.

I wonder, Ben, if the fact that neither you nor I are musicians, whereas Daniel is, colours how we assess the music we listen to. My attatchment to the music I hear is emotionally-based rather than technically and, as we all know, emotions are volatile and can change, sometimes quite abruptly, so it could be that someone like myself hears music differently than someone like Daniel who has a deeper understanding of what he is hearing on a more objective level, whereas my own experience is entirely subjective as I have no deeper understanding of what I am listening to. I imagine it a bit like an engineer looking at a technical drawing and being able to envision what is depicted, whereas to me it is just a mess of indecipherable lines. Just a thought.

I know this is probably overthinking things but I think it is endlessly fascinating how the exact same piece of art, be it literature, painting or music is viewed and appreciated completely differently by different people.