Sonny's Forum Replies


I absolutely love "De vermis mysteriis" Sonny & regard it as one of the top few stoner metal releases I've encountered over the years. But then... I'm an absolute tragic for production jobs like that one.

Quoted Daniel

It IS a good record and it may be that I need a bit more time with it, but none of the tracks really jumped out and grabbed me by the throat on those first couple of listens. But, as I said in my short review, the production job is excellent. More stoner albums could do with a production job that heavy. On the evidence of this, I would really like to hear Kurt Ballou produce a Ufomammut album.


High On Fire - De vermis mysteriis (2012)

I have only really had a passing relationship with Oakland's High On Fire to date. I don't know why particularly as I have enjoyed the couple of albums I have heard previously, Blessed Black Wings and Death Is This Communion. Both of those were from the mid-2000's and so I have jumped forward a few years to 2012's De vermis mysteriis. There is no great divergence from the earlier albums and it consists once more of HOF's sludgy take on stoner metal. Most of the tracks fall into one of two camps, either pretty fast-paced, almost thrashy, stoner metal with a hard edge or a more doomy, slower take where the sludginess is more to the fore. The production of the album was handled by Converge's Kurt Ballou and he has done a bang-up job as the sound is super thick whilst still maintaining a superb clarity where every nuance of the instrumentation can be heard clearly, the drums and bass are beefy-sounding and certainly provide a solid foundation for the guitar work, whether it be the fast, intense riffing of tracks like Bloody Knuckles and the title track, or the more considered and heavier-sounding, slower riffs of Madness of an Architect or Romulus and Remus. It is unsurprisingly this slower material that I prefer, it sounding more intense and crushing than the thrashier stuff.

Overall this is a pretty solid album that does have a superb production job and while the tracks all possess the requisite heaviness and there are no duds, I'm not convinced that any of them are super-standout either.

3.5/5


August 03, 2023 04:47 PM

I was fortunate enough to catch Anthrax on the Among the Living UK tour in a small hall in the Midlands and it was one of the best metal shows I have ever been to. Say what you like about them musically, but those guys could really work a crowd.

August 2023

1. Katatonia - "Brave" (from "Brave Murder Day", 1996) [submitted by Ben]
2. Saturnalia Temple - "March of Gha'agsheblah" (from "To the Other", 2015) [submitted by Sonny]
3. The Gathering - "Leaves" (from "Mandylion", 1995)
4. Bathsheba - "The Sleepless Gods" (from "The Sleepless Gods EP", 2015)
5. Anathema - "Sleep In Sanity" (from "Serenades", 1993) [submitted by Daniel]
6. Mournful Congregation - "Heads Bowed" (from "The Exuviae of Gods: Part II", 2023)
7. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - "Summer Comes to Multiply" (from "Obsession Destruction", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]
8. Swallow the Sun - "All Hallow's grieve" (from "Moonflowers", 2021) [submitted by Vinny]
9. Pentagram - "Evil Seed" (from "Day of Reckoning", 1987) [submitted by Daniel]
10. Iron Monkey - "Crown of Electrodes" (from "9-13", 2017)
11. Lucifer's Fall - "Doom in the Grave" (from "Children of the Night EP, 2023)
12. Grief Collector - "Asunder" (from "In Times of Woe", 2023)
13. Cathedral - "North Berwick Witch Trials" (from "The Garden of Unearthly Delights", 2005) [submitted by Sonny]
14. Astral Moon - "Arise, the Obelisk" (from "Into Solar Abyss", 2023)
15. Apparition - "Nonlocality" (from "Feel", 2021) [submitted by Daniel]
16. Woorms - "Find a Meal Find a Bed Find a God" (from "Slake", 2019)
17. Planet of the Dead - "Nashwan" (from "Fear of a Dead Planet", 2020)
18. Fires in the Distance - "Harbingers" (from "Air Not Meant for Us", 2023) [submitted by Ben]

Paradise Lost - The Plague Within (2015)

My first experience of Paradise Lost was when I bought their "Icon" album years ago when I saw it cheap on CD. Well, I didn't take to that album at all and as a consequence PL went onto my shitlist and I didn't pay them any mind for the longest time. However Nick Holmes popped up on 1914's superb "Where Fear and Weapons Meet" album and I was struck by how fantastic his voice sounded, so I became determined to give Paradise Lost another go. This time I went with their much-praised "Gothic" album which I found to be much more palatable. So now, after listening to another couple of earlier releases, I have arrived at 2015's "The Plague Within" and I must admit that Paradise Lost's redemption in my mind is complete because this album is fantastic. Whopping great doom riffs and Holmes' awesome vocals coupled with a superb production job that gives the guitars an unbelievable heft all make for a disc that is right up my street. There's a decent variation in pacing too, from the doominess of Victim of the Past to the out and out death metal riffing of Flesh From Bone that ensure that things never get too predictable. I think this is destined to be my favourite PL album.

4.5/5

Thanks for the excellent behind-the-scenes work you continuously do to give us all the best possible Academy experience Ben. I, and I am sure all the rest of the regulars, greatly apprciate you efforts and financial commitment.

August 03, 2023 06:12 AM


  Basically, Anthrax is the most likely of the four to get drunk first if they were all at a bar.  

Quoted Rexorcist

Given Hetfield's much-publicised alcoholism, I very much doubt it!

Over the last several months I was finding I had fallen out of love with black metal and only while listening to June's North playlist did it occur to me why. It is because I have been listening far too much to what is being touted as the latest bee's knees and stuff that is being championed by the online community rather than what I like myself. I have been performing all kinds of mental gymnastics in an attempt to get what it is others hear that I am missing with a lot of newer black metal and as a result I have been getting frustrated because I'm just not feeling it. Consequently, I've found myself starting to resent the genre and have latterly been turning away from it. So during the aforementioned playlist listening session I decided to go back to the basics of the genre, which is what I fell in love with in  the first place. And that, my friends, is the explanation as to why I chose Armagedda's debut full-length as this month's North Feature. It is a little-known and unappreciated album from a short-lived band with a raw as fuck production that doesn't try to be anything other than evil-sounding, blasphemic black metal carved from the rock of the early second wave and that is exactly what I am in the black metal game for.

Armagedda are a Swedish three-piece comprising guitarist/bassist A (Andreas Petterson), who is also vocalist with Stilla, vocalist/guitarist Graav who is also known as solo artist LIK and drummer Phycon whose other gig is drummer with Swedish death metallers Feral. Originally splitting in 2004 after the release of their Ond Spiritism album, A and Graav started off again as folk metal band Lönndom until 2014 when that band too split-up. They then reformed Armagedda in 2020, despite saying back in '04 that the band was gone forever.

The Final War Approaching was released in 2001 and is a minimal production-values effort that has a blasphemous, icy edge to it, taking their cue from Darkthrone's classic era in it's minimalist execution. The point needs to be made that although the production is raw, it achieves perfectly the desired effect and it isn't messy in a demo-quality kind of way, as everything is quite distinct in the mix and this is certainly no unlistenable, muddy mess. Despite the vocals and riffing taking precedence, the bass and drums aren't short -changed and both are perfectly audible without becoming intrusive, which is always a danger, particularly with drumming. Graav has a nice line in cracked shrieking that sounds great in the context of this kind of raw production and produces the kind of infected, evil-sounding vocal performance that so suits the rawer style of black metal. The guitars have that thin, stripped back sound with a slight echo that the second wave was built upon and the riffs are great and with a pretty high memorability factor.

The Final War Approaching is the kind of album that perfectly sums up what I want from my black metal, you can virtually smell the blood and brimstone emanating from the record's grooves. Sure, all the experimentation, dissonance and avant-garde stylings are great in their place, but seem to have become the be all and end all among the black metal cognoscenti and they don't encapsulate what I look to black metal for. Being a dyed-in-the-wool, stuck-in-his-ways old bastard I will stick with the stuff that makes me happiest and that is exactly this kind of raw, unholy, blasphemous-sounding shit.

4/5

August 02, 2023 01:35 PM


I think you're bang on there Sonny as those singalong choruses have definitely lost their lustre over the years. I simply don't find the hooks to be as mature as I remember them being as a thirteen year old when thrash metal was still so new to me. There's a lack of sophistication & depth in comparison to the releases that competitors like Metallica & Slayer were producing at the time.

Quoted Daniel

I think, Daniel, that it wouldn't be unkind to label Anthrax as more of a "party" band than any of the other Big 4. It wasn't until Persistence that they finally began to mature thematically and songwriting-wise. That said, Spreading... and Among... are still a couple of great records that I spin on fairly regular rotation. I think internet music sites have made us music nerds a bit too po-faced and introspective at times and the theraputic value of a good singalong chorus should not be underestimated! Anthrax are a good place to turn when you have had your fill of Deathspell Omega, Ulcerate or Neurosis and you just feel like you need to lighten up a bit.


August 02, 2023 08:43 AM

I was a big fan of State of Euphoria when it was released and I still think it has a couple of bangers on it - Now it's Dark and Schism being my personal favourites. In fact I used to prefer it to 1990's Persistence of Time. That position has since been reversed though because SoE seems to have aged less well than the rest of their material from this era. It is still a solid thrash album with some great sing along choruses. In fact that may be why it has lost some of it's appeal for me nowadays because since I gave up drinking many moons ago I am no longer to be found drunkenly roaring out chorus lines from the album at ridiculous hours of the night - "Now it's dark and I can see, Don't you fuckin' look at me!"  

Hi Ben. Could you please add French pagan black metallers Griffar.

August 01, 2023 02:02 PM

I think it is probably best if we put this one to bed before the mud-slinging gets too bad. Personally, I like the Academy forums because of the respect members show for each other's points of view, whether agreeing with them or not. If we are going the way of other sites then I'm afraid you can count me out and I will just go back to doing my own thing and leave the forums to others.

August 01, 2023 06:20 AM

Not everyone has the same skills and abilities, Rex and I must admit, you seem extraordinarily fortunate in your ability to produce a review after one listen. But, speaking only for myself, I personally have an inordinate difficulty producing reviews and really have to concentrate in order to do so. In fact, weird though it sounds, I actually find producing reviews incredibly stressful. Like Daniel, it takes me several listens to firm up my impressions of a record and more often than not, by later listens I find my initial impressions are modified, if not completely changed. Of course if I really hate something on first listen then I am unlikely to follow with further listens. 

Also why do you assume that we only listen to music in order to review it? Isn't it more important to listen for personal enjoyment? Why would I only want to listen to an album I enjoy one time? I understand your enthusiasm, but the nine chosen features (along with three or four 2-hour playlists) are more than enough for me as far as other people determining my listening habits for the month goes and I will pass on this initiative thanks.

July 31, 2023 10:31 PM

Having just binned the review draft feature because of lack of time and inclination I personally don't fancy having another imposed review responsibility, so will respectfully decline.

A few notes on this month's playlist:

1. Katatonia - "Brave" (from "Brave Murder Day", 1996) [submitted by Ben]

Probably my favourite Katatonia track and a great pick from Ben which I thought would get us off to a great start.


2. Saturnalia Temple - "March of Gha'agsheblah" (from "To the Other", 2015)

Psyched-out doom with a ritualistic, rhythmic throb from these underappreciated Swedish doomsters. Imagine war-painted warriors and elephants marching to some looming ziggurat.


3. The Gathering - "Leaves" (from "Mandylion", 1995)

The acceptable side of Gothic Metal with a powerful vocal performance from Anneke van Giersbergen. Nicely melodic whilst still packing a bit of a punch.


4. Bathsheba - "The Sleepless Gods" (from "The Sleepless Gods EP", 2015)

After leaving Serpentcult, vocalist Michelle Nocon formed Bathsheba and this is the title track from their first EP. Powerful, fuzzed-up, female-fronted doom for fans of Windhand and the likes. Unfortunately the band split in 2018 just after the release of their first full-length.


5. Anathema - "Sleep In Sanity" (from "Serenades", 1993) [submitted by Daniel]

Nicely melodic death doom from the Scousers' debut.


6. Mournful Congregation - "Heads Bowed" (from "The Exuviae of Gods: Part II", 2023)

MC's second Exuviae of Gods EP (a mere 39 minutes long) continues the theme of the relics of long-forgotten gods. Head Bowed is a sublime blend of death doom and funeral doom that possesses the crushing weight and melancholy atmosphere at which the Aussies excel. I would strongly recommend both EPs to any fan of top-quality funeral doom.


7. Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean - "Summer Comes to Multiply" (from "Obsession Destruction", 2023)

From their debut album which has just been released after several EPs going back to 2017, this is hulking and ascerbic sludge metal and being another band opting for a Mariusz Lewandowski cover, that's a big thumbs up from me!


8. Swallow the Sun - "All Hallow's grieve" (from "Moonflowers", 2021)

From the superb Moonflowers album, this is another melodic, yet heart-rending, track from the pen of Juha Raivio as he still struggles to come to terms with personal loss and grief.


9. Pentagram - "Evil Seed" (from "Day of Reckoning", 1987)

Pentagram's signature heavier take on the Sabbath template seldom sounds better than here.


10. Iron Monkey - "Crown of Electrodes" (from "9-13", 2017)

Iron Monkey are a name I have seen bandied around for many a year now without ever actually registering with me that much. Well this is seriously heavy and kick-ass sludge that has guaranteed that I won't be forgetting them any time soon.


11. Lucifer's Fall - "Doom in the Grave" (from "Children of the Night EP, 2023)

A new EP from Australian doomers Lucifer's Fall should appeal to fans of the likes of Reverend Bizarre, although they do have a wry tongue in cheek a bit like England's Arkham Witch that may not appeal to everyone.


12. Grief Collector - "Asunder" (from "In Times of Woe", 2023)

A track from the Americans' recently released sophomore. Sounds a fair bit like Rob Lowe-fronted Candlemass, so if that's your bag then I would recommend you check the album out.


13. Cathedral - "North Berwick Witch Trials" (from "The Garden of Unearthly Delights", 2005)

OK, I know Lee Dorrian isn't to everyone's taste, but I fuckin' love that main riff to this tale of a 17th century English witch trial. The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of Cathedral's best albums and is one I would heartily recommend.


14. Astral Moon - "Arise, the Obelisk" (from "Into Solar Abyss", 2023)

This Rochester, NY doom solo act is a new one on me, despite this being from his new second album. It is vanilla-flavoured stonerised trad doom that isn't going to change the world, but if you are cool with that slow-paced, fuzzed-up shit then you'll be at home here. It does have a nice eastern feel to the instrumental breakdowns which makes it stick out a little.


15. Apparition - "Nonlocality" (from "Feel", 2021)

A nice pick by Daniel from one of last month's featured releases. Heaving death doom that is actually a bit more death than doom, but is great nonetheless. If you haven't checked this album out yet, you really should.


16. Woorms - "Find a Meal Find a Bed Find a God" (from "Slake", 2019)

A hulking, menacing track of sludgy doom from an underappreciated album. Cool cover too!


17. Planet of the Dead - "Nashwan" (from "Fear of a Dead Planet", 2020)

Groove-laden, mammoth-heavy vibes from the now defunct Kiwi cosmic stoners' 2020 debut. The whole album is heavy as fuck so if this track floats your boat there is plenty more where that came from!


18. Fires in the Distance - "Harbingers" (from "Air Not Meant for Us", 2023)

Closing out this month's playlist is Ben's selection of the opening track from the terrific sophomore from US death doomers Fires in the Distance. I think this is the best track on the album and it actually featured in June's Horde playlist, although I personally think it is much better suited here in the Fallen's melancholy embrace.

Well, it looks like I have got a bit of a head start on this month's features as this is another I have reviewed previously. Darkthrone are my favourite metal band and, like Vinny, I love their recent stuff and bought Astral Fortress on vinyl. Even the cover says "fuck you and your expectations!" and that is something I can respect. Anyway here's my previous review because I still stand by it:

If I was backed into a corner and was forced to choose my favourite metal band, then I would probably choose Darkthrone. Not just because of their classic black metal albums (although that is reason enough), but also because of their obvious passion for and love of metal that I too share, their absolute refusal to compromise in their musical endeavours and their lack of concern as to how they or their music are perceived by the outside world. Let's face it, how many metal bands would dare even think of putting out an album with a cover that is merely a photograph of the drummer ice skating?

So, anyway, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto return with their 20th studio album and continue with their crusty, blackened take on doom and heavy metal that came to the fore on previous release, Eternal Hails. This one is a take on late-80's, early-90's underground trad doom fed through a blackened crust filter, but updated with better production and, in truth, it differs very little from it's predecessor to the extent that they could both have been released together as a double album and no one would have batted an eyelid. I know most metalheads now want to shit on Fenris and Nocturno for not endlessly recycling A Blaze In the Northern Sky, but this is what they do now. Is it as good as their 90's stuff? Well obviously not, but I quite enjoy this tiny niche that the duo have carved out for themselves and their more recent material is kind of quaint in it's lack of pretension and total disregard for trends or adherence to the zeitgeist. For those who know of it, Fenris and Nocturno Culto kind of remind me of Lance and Andy from the BBC show Detectorists with their dogged refusal to be affected by the world at large and their almost idealistic existence in their own little corner of the globe.

Where I feel Darkthrone succeed most, is in their ability to gradually reshape their music in directions that interest them whilst still embracing a unifying "sound", as in the blackened crust that still forms the backbone of what they are about, whatever other genre thay may be focussing on otherwise. This continuity gives us diehard fans a way into whatever it is they are doing and with it comes a kind of surety as to what you are going to get. Darkthrone seem uninterested in suddenly changing direction for the sake of it and are unlikely to throw out too many jarring curveballs to their audience. Of course, this is much to the chagrin of a lot of the online metal community, whose almost ADHD-like desire for continuous change and intellectual challenge (from albums the majority will only listen to once or twice) makes a band like Darkthrone anathema to them and attracts huge amounts of criticism as the keyboard warriors vent their spleen against the duo. But of course by then, Fenriz is off skating up some frozen fjord and couldn't give two fucks what some music know-all from gods-know-where has to say about it!

Astral Fortress starts out very strongly with Caravan of Broken Ghosts which has a great crusty trad doom main riff that gets even better when the duo put their pedal to the metal on the speeded up section that used to be one of the staples of trad doom, the track as a whole coming off as a necroticised version of Pentagram or early Saint Vitus. I think Nocturno and Fenriz take their feet off the gas a little on the next couple of tracks, Impeccable Caverns of Satan and Stalagmite Necklace. They are decent enough and I really like the main black 'n' roll riff of the former, but they lack dynamism and start to drag the album down a bit, sounding as they do like outtakes from Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales that didn't make the cut. So, despite side one tailing off to some extent, side two is a much more convincing experience. Kicking off with the bizarrely named The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea, the track itself is bookended by an intro and outro that sound a bit like very early (circa Fly By Night) Rush - believe it or not! The track as a whole is Darkthrone's own particular take on a ten minute trad doom epic that sounds like it's been dug up after thirty or forty years of decay. Next up, Kervorkian Times is my favourite track on the album with a killer main riff and Nocturno Culto spitting fire and bile, proving that even in their fifties these guys are still underground metal legends. A short instrumental and we're into final track Eon 2, which doesn't on the face of it have anything to do with the instrumental Eon off of Soulside Journey, but which does contain a Maiden-esque galloping riff before it settle back into the doom-pacing of the rest of the album.

Nocturno Culto's vocals are undiminished by time and he still fires out riffs left, right and centre and Fenriz is a complete legend so, to me, the world is a much better place with a band like Darkthrone and their love of metal and refusal to compromise still in it. So what I'm trying to say is "fuck the haters".

4/5

I checked this out whilst we were going through the best albums of 2021 (wow, was it really that long ago, it seems like five minutes) and it really chimed with my taste. I even purchased a CD copy from Bandcamp. I'll just re-iterate my short review from at the time:

"For me the best kind of industrial music isn't totally alienating, but also has some humanity to it and I think Fange achieve that here with the sludge and death metal elements working in synergy with the industrial. The hot-blooded passion of the sludge metal vocals provide a searing counterpoint to the coldness of the machine-like death metal riffs. These death industrial riffs are also overlaid with atmospheric sludge lead work that once more lends it a more human face and the layers help to build an interesting atmosphere that speaks of resistance to the inevitable that is yet tinged with a fatalistic futility, anger and self-loathing.

This all makes for an album that is extremely heavy and confrontational and may not be to every industrial fans taste - this isn't Rammstein or Fear Factory, there are no melodic hooks to hang on to, in fact it has quite a negative atmosphere derived from it's sludge metal roots. It is quite short though, comprising just two 15 minute tracks and this definitely works in it's favour as it doesn't allow time to become jaded with the relentless pessimism and crushing heaviness of it's riffing. All in all this has got to be one of my favourite industrial releases of recent years so if you like industrial metal with a bit of sullen intensity then I would strongly recommend Pantocrator. "

A lot of black metal fans seem to take against Gorgoroth's Destroyer: Or About How to Philosophize With the Hammer, but it's my favourite Gorgoroth album.

July 29, 2023 10:30 PM

I still maintain that Suicidal Tendencies have never topped their debut and as such were a better hardcore band than a thrash band. I still spin that album quite often (even though the Reagan stuff is outdated now) but almost never play any of their later material.

July 28, 2023 11:43 AM

Generally a pretty good bunch of releases for me, apart from one which was never intended for my ears and one absolute stinker.

The metaphorical golden statuette for Feature of the Month goes to Saxy for the excellent Tómarúm album.

THE INFINITE: Tómarúm - "Ash in Realms of Stone Icons" (2022)  4.5/5

THE PIT: Blood Tsunami - "Grand Feast For Vultures" (2009)  4.5/5

THE HORDE: Bloodbath - "Unblessing the Purity" E.P. (2008)  4/5

THE FALLEN: Tzompantli - "Tlazcaltiliztli" (2022)  4/5

THE REVOLUTION: Whitechapel - "A New Era Of Corruption" (2010)  4/5

THE NORTH: Tilintetgjort - "In Death I Shall Arise" (2023)  4/5

THE SPHERE: Scorn - "Vae Solis" (1992)  3/5

THE GATEWAY: Sleep Token - "Take Me Back to Eden" (2023) 1.5/5

THE GUARDIANS: Grave Digger - "Knights of the Cross" (1998)  1/5

I'll not be posting a review for this, but I have checked it out and I found it to be a particularly effective representation of the hypnoticism of mechanisation. Personal favourites were "Walls of My Heart" and "On Ice" and if the album had ended after "On Ice" then it would have scored much higher, because after that point I found it became a bit tedious to be honest, with the stronger material front-loaded. "Heavy Blood" and "Orgy of Holiness" in particular I found to be a bit wearisome.

3/5

I am not currently in the right headspace to produce decent (or even coherent) reviews, but I have listened to this and found it to be excellent. Where it scores over a lot of other progressive black metal is that the black metal parts absolutely rip. A Mariusz Lewandowski cover will always see me going in with a positive frame of mind anyway and here it is not even remotely misplaced. Hopefully I will be able to return to this and put together a decent review at some future date.

4.5/5

July 22, 2023 10:05 PM


My Top Ten Albums of 1991:

1. Autopsy - Mental Funeral

2.  Death - Human

3. Atheist - Unquestionable Presence

4. Death Strike - Fuckin' Death

5. Immolation - Dawn of Possession

6. Carcass - Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious

7. Paradise Lost - Gothic

8. Iced Earth - Night of the Stormrider

9. Coroner - Mental Vortex

10. Bolt Thrower - War Master


My Top Ten Albums of 1992:

1. Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky

2. Burzum - Burzum

3. Incantation - Onward to Golgotha

4. Fleshcrawl - Descend Into the Absurd

5. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses

6. Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction

7. Baphomet - The Dead Shall Inherit

8. Internal Void - Standing on the Sun

9. Helmet - Meantime

10. Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade

Bolt Thrower - The IVth Crusade (1992)

Bolt Thrower were probably the very first death metal band I got into. During the very early 1990s I had pretty much left the metal world behind, but I often still listened to good old John Peel's (RIP) late night radio show (usually on my drive home from work after a 2-10 shift) and Bolt Thrower were a band he championed (along with Carcass and Napalm Death), so they often featured on his show. To be honest they really stood out to my ears because, at this time, I wasn't even remotely familiar with bands this brutal-sounding, Reign In Blood being the most brutal record I had heard up to then, so this was a whole new level of aggression and brutality which really made an impression. Admittedly I didn't seek out their records or anything at this point, as I said I wasn't really listening to metal a this point in my life, but the name Bolt Thrower stuck in my head along with the impression of something so unbelievably brutal-sounding that it was hard to believe they dared play it on the radio.

Now all these many years later I have got myself much more familar with the band and their material and whilst it is true that they were never a band that have tried to push the envelope, they managed to maintain an impressive level of consistency over their almost thirty year career and never produced anything other than high quality, no frills death metal. The IVth Crusade was their fourth full-length and this time around they turned their conflict-obsessed attentions towards the Fourth Crusade, which was called by Pope Innocent III in the early thirteenth century and was intended to overthrow the Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate before retaking Jerusalem, but which ended up with Constantinople being sacked by the Western Catholic Church and deepening the schism between Eastern and Western Catholic Empires, hence the lyric of the title track, "Vanquished in the name of your god, One of the same to whom we once prayed".

Bloodstained lyricism apart, Bolt Thrower have a distinct sound, with a depth and bassiness that doesn't descend into the realm of the cavernous, but retains a solidity and heft that bludgeons like a sledgehammer to the temple. No, they don't paint outside the lines, but they pack such a punch with their tight riffing and bone-crushing rhythms that the appeal of their sound is impossible to withstand for any fan of extreme metal. Karl Willetts vocal delivery is all growling menace and barely-contained violence that roars it's blood-drenched words of human destruction, hurling them into the listeners face like an accusation of complicity. He is also one of the very few extreme metal vocalists that I can hear virtually every word he utters. The lead guitar work can best be described as functional with the Midlanders never going in for overt showiness, but letting the driving rhythms and muscular riffing define their sound with the soloing only acting as muted decoration rather than their raison d'être. In this way their music has an almost military functionality and lethality which, given their aesthetic, I wouldn't be surprised if it was completely by design.

By the time of The IVth Crusade all traces of their earlier grind sound had been left behind and the album is pure and unfiltered death metal from start to finish. Although my personal favourite BT album is Realm of Chaos, which marks the ideal balance between death metal and their earlier grind affiliation, this isn't really very far behind in my affections. Despite it's monstrous solidity the riffs are often quite melodic, sticking in the memory pretty well and are absolutely guaranteed to get the old noggin' nodding. The band often get painted with the accusation of being "samey" and while it is true that they have never felt the need to experiment with their sound, there is sufficient variation in tempo to maintain interest over the length of an album. All in all, if you want an album of unashamed death metal with solid songwriting performed to the highest level then you could do much worse than break open a copy of The IVth Crusade.

4/5

July 21, 2023 03:19 PM

It's been a long time since anyone posted on this thread, so I thought I would just post an update on my assault on The Horde's Death Metal - The 1st Decade challenge. I am now about two-thirds of the way through and after dipping in and out of it for a few months I am now determined to knuckle down and gain that fourth clan badge! I have been approaching it chronologically as I did with my early death metal discovery project and I now just have Bolt Thrower's The IVth Crusade to review and that will be 1992 finished. All in all I think I have eight more albums to review, so I had better get on with it.

Asphyx - Last One On Earth (1992)

Now Dutchmen Asphyx are a death metal band I have been familiar with for quite a while now, their brand of OSDM coming to my attention via recommendations for bands similar to Autopsy and the fact that former Pestilence bassist/vocalist, Martin van Drunen, performed vocals on this and their debut album, The Rack, (as well as their later albums after rejoining the band in 2007). In common with many of the early practitioners of death doom, Asphyx like to vary their pacing throughout the albums runtime, not just sticking rigidly to the death doom template with their take on this style of death metal being less cavernous and abyssal-sounding than the likes of Autopsy. The production of Last One On Earth has rendered their sound crisper and less filthy than a lot of their contemporaries, which makes the album more desperate and hopeless-sounding than demonic and threatening, as if the band are victims of evil rather than the perpetrators of it.

One of the main reasons for this desperation is van Drunen's unique, shredded higher register which is a long way from the rumbling growls of Chris Reifert and co. and which gives the doom-laden sections a more human connection, reflecting a hopeless and bleak atmosphere. Of course, slow, doom-laden passages are far from the only game in town and Asphyx have no fear of letting rip, Serenade in Lead being a particular exercise in high-velocity riffing. The quicker material benefits greatly from the better-defined guitar tone and the issue of muddiness that often plagues the perpetrators of the more cavernous style doesn't rear it's head here. The songwriting is impeccable with killer riffs, variations in pacing with smooth transitions, interesting lyrical content and, most importantly, a crushing heaviness that any extreme metalhead can readily appreciate.

A couple of niggling issues are the lack of any appreciable bass presence in the mix which does seem to prevent the album from sounding as crushing as it may otherwise have done and I would have liked to hear a bit more lead work as the soloing that is present is pretty damn good. Minor gripes aside, Last One On Earth is a definite step up from the already well-received debut The Rack and, for me, is the high watermark of Asphyx's career to date.

4/5

Ben, could you add Hungary's 666 please?

I got a few of the very early issues of ZT and found it suited my taste better than Terrorizer (which was still going at the time). It was a decent mag, but suffered the same problems as all printed media that has to attract readers to keep afloat in that it tended to cover the better known acts and didn't really delve into the underground.



I listened to this fairly recently and don't consider that it meets the modern criteria as a metal release. As someone who was actually a rock/metal fan in the 1970s I think I could add some perspective here. Deep Purple were considered heavy metal back then, as were Led Zeppelin, UFO, KISS, Ted Nugent, BOC and even AC/DC. But the term was more an umbrella term for the heavier bands around, as opposed to the likes of Boston, Kansas and Aerosmith who had a lighter sound. Metal has since become an actually defined term and can be applied more rigourously and into which several of these earlier bands no longer fit, Deep Purple being one such I would suggest. GnR were never called heavy metal in my experience and were always referred to as a rock band.

Sadly I don't have a vote as I am not in The Guardians but a metal top 100 with Guns n Roses in it just seems so wrong for the premier internet metal site.

Quoted Sonny

I think we as metal historians should try to remember what metal was back today.  I mean, but the logic of evolution, one can say that Metallica won't even be metal once the world has gotten used to something much heavier than that, which IS possible.

Quoted Rexorcist

I think that back then there was less of a need to classify music into smaller and smaller genre boxes. A lot of the sub-genres that are applied to older music didn't exist at the time. In 1970 nobody referred to anything as heavy psych, for example. That is a term which has been applied much later, probably only since the advent of internet music appreciation. So broader terms like heavy metal - it was ONLY heavy metal then, it wasn't called metal, it was HEAVY metal - were applied to a much wider spectrum of artists,  as were other styles like Disco, Punk, Funk, Pop, Psychedelia etc. Rock music would probably be the exception as there were glam rock, pop rock, soft rock and so on. Hard rock, heavy rock and heavy metal were used as interchangeable terms for basically the same bands (as I mentioned above). There has since, though, been a redefining of the term heavy metal which isn't the same (and which Daniel can explain far better than I), but causes confusion by having the same name. This is why there are anomalies such as glam metal (which even on RYM has rock as it's root, not metal) or a large percentage of the NWOBHM who didn't play what is now covered by the modern term metal - Girlschool, Tygers of Pan Tang etc.

I get what your point about Metallica possibly no longer being considered metal in the future, Rex, and, to a degree, that has already happened with the term extreme metal which may well have been used to describe Metallica at one point but which most certainly doesn't any more, but with a technical definition such as we now have for the term heavy metal or metal rather than the vague generalised term that it was in it's original usage, then that shouldn't happen.


A few notes regarding the tracks selected for this month's playlist:

1. Worship of Keres - "Book 3" (from "Bloodhounds for Oblivion", 2016) [submitted by Sonny]
I was going through some of the older releases I had purchased from Bandcamp and this 2016 EP jumped out at me with it's chunky and ponderous riff contrasting with singer Elise Tarens voice to great effect. They still seem to be going, but a measly couple of EPs is all they have produced so far.

2. Decadence Dust - "Lighthouse" (from "Lighthouse", 2023)
I must admit that as far as gothic metal goes I have to rely on the RYM charts quite a lot and this month they threw up Russian duo Decadence Dust and their new album Lighthouse. They sound a lot like Lacuna Coil I thought. Vocalist Anna Dust has a really nice voice and multi-instrumentalist Alexander Kargaev does a good job on the instrumental side of things. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I actually didn't mind this track.

3. Black Capricorn - "Snake of the Wizard" (from "Cult of Blood", 2022)
Black Capricorn are another Bandcamp favourite for me and I have just obtained a copy of this, their latest, last year's Cult of Blood. Super-fuzzy stoner doom from Italy that is a nice grooviness to it. The vocals aren't so great, but I can't resist a good fuzz-fest.

4. Toadliquor - "Gnaw" (from "Feel My Hate - The Power Is the Weight - R.I.P. Cain", 1993)
Another more recent discovery, sludgesters Toadliquor only left us a single full-length despite being in existence throughout the entire 1990s. Bleak as fuck, desperate-sounding sludge, I love this track.

5. Liturgy - "Veins of God" (from "Aesthethica", 2011) [submitted by Daniel]
I've not listened to Liturgy before (that avant-garde tag has always put me off) and I am guessing that this isn't what they usually sound like. A repetitive trad/stoner doom riff that I have no idea what effect it has in the context of the album from which it came, but in isolation it sounds quite a bit Ufomammut-ish.

6. Church of Misery - "Come and Get Me Sucker (David Koresh)" (from "Born Under a Mad Sign", 2023)
It was only during the compilation of this playlist that I found out that Japanese, serial killer-obsessed stoners Church of Misery had a new album out. After a sample of a ranting David Koresh this kicks into gear with a hard-hitting stoner groove that somewhat belies the subject matter and is a guaranteed toe-tapper and head-nodder.

7. Nightfucker - "Poisoned Wine" (from "Leechfeast / Nightfucker Split EP", 2023)
Last month I featured Leechfeast's contribution to this split EP, so in the interests of fairness here is the second of Nightfucker's two tracks.

8. Windhand - "Halcyon" (from "Eternal Return", 2018) [submitted by Vinny]
A great track from one of my absolute favourite female-fronted psych-doom bands. This was five years ago now, so a new studio album is long overdue,

9. Messa - "Babalon" (from "Belfry", 2016)
Messa are one of the most celebrated doom metal bands of the last couple of years, pushing boundaries more than most. Babalon is from their 2016 debut and is a bit more conventional in it's approach to doom. It's still a quality release though.
 
10. Tragedia - "Tiamat" (from "El libro de Enoc", 2023)
I've never heard these guys before, again using the RYM gothic metal charts to find them, but this is actually pretty good as far as gothic metal goes. I will have to check it out further I think.

11. Minotauri - "Doom Metal Alchemy" (from "Minotauri", 2004)
Primitive sounding Finnish trad doom that pays homage to early exponents of the style such as Pentagram. Minotauri were contemporaries of Reverend Bizarre and sound very similar to their countrymen.

12. Capilla Ardiente - "The Spell of Concealment" (from "The Siege", 2019)
Chile doesn't just produce the best thrash metal on the planet at the minute, they also have a great epic doom band in Capilla Ardiente. Candlemass worship at it's best. Notably it keeps that prominent, growling bass so beloved of so many modern Chilean thrash bands.

13. Rippikoulu - "Pimeys yllä Jumalan maan" (from "Musta seremonia", 1993) [submitted by Daniel]
Super lo-fi early death doom from the awesome Musta seremonia demo. Awesome stuff for the doom metal historian.

14. Thorr's Hammer - "Norge"
TH have attained legendary status, despite only originally existing for six weeks in the winter of '94/'95. Sunn O)))'s Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley teamed up with Norwegian exchange student Runhild Gammelsæter, playing a couple of gigs and recording the three-track EP from which this track was taken. Runhild has a different vocal style to the other ladies who have featured on this month's playlist and could be the musical performance of the possessed Regan from The Exorcist.

15. Warning - "Footprints" (from "Watching from a Distance", 2006) [submitted by Vinny]
It's Warning... It's from Watching From A Distance. Thankyou Vinny, I am a happy man!!

16. Khanate - "To Be Cruel" (from "To Be Cruel", 2023) [submitted by Sonny]
The title track from Khanate's latest. The soundtrack to all your worst nightmares. My favourite album of 2023 to date.

Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes (1992)

Finns Demigod and their album Slumber of Sullen Eyes must be one of death metal's best-kept secrets, being a band I have never even heard of prior to this. The reason for this may have been that it was released on a little-known and short-lived Spanish label, Drowned Productions, rather than a big-hitter like Earache or Roadrunner, because it certainly isn't down to a lack of quality. Their sound seems to be based upon the Swedish sound of neighbours Entombed, yet I found it more palatable than the Swedes' sound, mainly due to it having a deeper and more bassy timbre to it which sits a bit better with me personally. I still think this type of overdriven sound works best on the slower, more death doomy sections, as it tends to lose definition somewhat as the tempo gets quicker and can just become an aural blur on the absolute fastest sections.

There are some great death metal riffs contained within Slumber of Sullen Eyes and they come thick and fast, not just thrown together, but forged into songs that are dynamic and coherent. As I hinted at earlier there is plenty of variation in pacing with some death doom adjacent sections interspersing the more usual and quicker death metal tempos. The leadwork is decent and effective without exactly setting the world on fire, but that said, it is suits the material perfectly well. Vocalist and guitarist Esa Lindén has a nice line in deathly growls that are deep enough to provide a fairly intimidating roar when required. Rhythm section-wise things are solid enough, although the drums could have done with a bit more oomph as they often sound a bit too dull to properly drive the tracks forward. There are also a couple of occasions where they bring in some reedy-sounding keyboards which is always a nice touch on these early death metal albums and provides a bit of aesthetic variation.

Overall, this is a hidden gem of early underground European death metal and I think these Finns actually sound better than their more celebrated Scandinavian cousins such as Entombed. It's a pity it all kind of went tits up for them after this because they sound like they could have been a big noise in Euro-Death Metal circles.

4/5

I listened to this fairly recently and don't consider that it meets the modern criteria as a metal release. As someone who was actually a rock/metal fan in the 1970s I think I could add some perspective here. Deep Purple were considered heavy metal back then, as were Led Zeppelin, UFO, KISS, Ted Nugent, BOC and even AC/DC. But the term was more an umbrella term for the heavier bands around, as opposed to the likes of Boston, Kansas and Aerosmith who had a lighter sound. Metal has since become an actually defined term and can be applied more rigourously and into which several of these earlier bands no longer fit, Deep Purple being one such I would suggest. GnR were never called heavy metal in my experience and were always referred to as a rock band.

Sadly I don't have a vote as I am not in The Guardians but a metal top 100 with Guns n Roses in it just seems so wrong for the premier internet metal site.

July 19, 2023 10:07 PM

It has been over a year and a half since I last posted a dearh metal top ten and I have done a fair bit of exploration of the genre since then, so here is my updated list.

1. Immolation - Close to a World Below (2000)

2. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)

3. Death - Human (1991)

4. Incantation - Diabolical Conquest (1998)

5. Autopsy - Mental Funeral (1991)

6. Obituary - Cause of Death (1990)

7. Incantation - Onward to Golgotha (1992)

8. Benediction - Subconscious Terror (1990)

9. Death - Spiritual Healing (1990)

10. Gorement - The Ending Quest (1994)

It's very different to my earlier list, which is an indication to how my appreciation of death metal has evolved I suppose. I know it is principally better known stuff, but I have barely scratched the surface yet, so hopefully there are plenty more awesome releases that may muscle their way into future lists.

I am most definitely not the target for this and I got nothing from it. From very early on all I wanted was for it to end but it's over an hour in length and that hour seemed interminable. Don't misunderstand, it seems well performed and produced, but it just isn't my thing at all. For me, this style of alternative metal is merely bland and uninteresting, failing to elicit any interest whatsoever.

I'll have to give it a 1.5/5 for enjoyment (or lack thereof), but I'm sure it's worth far more to those better disposed to it's charms. That's just not me and I recognise that failing as being all mine.

July 17, 2023 03:50 PM

I've not posted on here for a bit, so a couple of yearly lists that reflect my recent death metal discoveries.


Sonny's Top Ten of 1989:

1. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

2. Terrorizer - World Downfall

3. Autopsy - Severed Survival

4. Sempiternal Deathreign - The Spooky Gloom

5. Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos

6. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

7. Candlemass - Tales of Creation

8. Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness

9. Sodom - Agent Orange

10. Coroner - No More Color


Sonny's Top Ten of 1990

1. Winter - Into Darkness

2. Kreator - Coma of Souls

3. Obituary - Cause of Death

4. Death - Spiritual Healing

5. Benediction - Subconscious Terror

6. Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death

7. Atheist - Piece of Time

8. Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss

9. Saint Vitus - V

10. Deicide - Deicide


Sorry Sonny. If I'm not too late, I'll go for...


Katatonia - Brave off Brave Murder Day (1996)

Fires in the Distance - Harbingers off Air Not Meant for Us (2023)

Quoted Ben

No problem, Ben. As a matter of fact, the Fires in the Distance track was one I had been considering anyway. What's the odds?!



Sonny, I don't wanna go on about it in a public forum but I've had some personal experience hanging out with Destroyer 666 & let's just say that they fit the criteria mentioned above quite accurately. 

Quoted Daniel

Right you are, Daniel. We're probably best leaving it there then.





I had no idea that the Farmer Boys track was a cover in all honesty.  It is fucking terrible though.

Destroyer 666 have some less than desirable views according to the internet.  I detach the music from the person quite easily (never meet your idols, and all that) and accept that although I like their music I would probably not get along with 80% of the bands who's albums I own if I was left alone in a room with them.

Quoted UnhinderedbyTalent

I think anyone who is serious about extreme metal has to be able to separate the art from the artist, particularly in black metal circles. Like you, I have no problem doing so, but it seems some people can't get past it. It's only like, whilst being very far idealistically from someone like Mel Gibson, I can still watch Mad Max (the original movie anyway) and love the shit out of it.

I can't imagine not listening to Burzum, Deathspell Omega, Emperor, Gorgoroth or Dissection just because they are (allegedly) knobheads. I only raised the issue because I had never seen Destroyer 666 linked with far-right ideology before and wondered if there was any basis in fact for the assertion.

Quoted Sonny

Yeah, I can't give any assurance of fact based on what I have heard.  Usually, when artists get asked this question directly they spend about four paragraphs of a written interview talking in smoke and mirrors.  The internet is full of alleged and also bonafide knobheads I suspect.  I have had to ban a few outright fascist members on my other forum because they literally just said "black metal is the music of the master race..." in their opening posts.  That's the real dumb shit that is out there.  There was a metal forum (may still be around) and you only got to join if a member recommended you like it was some exclusive metal community or something.  When I got in there it was largely the realm of Trump supporters and white supremists so I did not last long on that board.

Quoted UnhinderedbyTalent

It's one thing separating art from artists, but having to put up with assholes spouting fascist bullshit on internet forums is not something I want to be a part of. I've come across too many racist knobheads in real life to put up with their crap on the internet!



I had no idea that the Farmer Boys track was a cover in all honesty.  It is fucking terrible though.

Destroyer 666 have some less than desirable views according to the internet.  I detach the music from the person quite easily (never meet your idols, and all that) and accept that although I like their music I would probably not get along with 80% of the bands who's albums I own if I was left alone in a room with them.

Quoted UnhinderedbyTalent

I think anyone who is serious about extreme metal has to be able to separate the art from the artist, particularly in black metal circles. Like you, I have no problem doing so, but it seems some people can't get past it. It's only like, whilst being very far idealistically from someone like Mel Gibson, I can still watch Mad Max (the original movie anyway) and love the shit out of it.

I can't imagine not listening to Burzum, Deathspell Omega, Emperor, Gorgoroth or Dissection just because they are (allegedly) knobheads. I only raised the issue because I had never seen Destroyer 666 linked with far-right ideology before and wondered if there was any basis in fact for the assertion.

I have seen Bloodbath's name bandied about all over the place and assumed them to be some kind of death metal supergroup - a concept I have always hated (Shrinebuilder anyone) due to it being more about who is in the band than what they play and the compromises to enormous egos (Travelling Wilburys)? Well, they are a supergroup I suppose, with Mikael Åkerfeldt and Martin Axenrot from Opeth, Katatonia's Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse along with ex-Katatonia and Ghost guitarist Per Eriksson they couldn't really be considered as anything else. That is all quite simply irrelevant as far as this four-track ep is concerned because it is an absolutely brilliant fifteen minutes of super-tight death metal.

I haven't heard anything else from Bloodbath, but gather that they (unsurprisingly I suppose, given the fact that they are Swedish) lean more towards the Swedish sound of death metal, which isn't completely my cup of tea I must admit. This seems far more rooted in conventional death metal and in particular it sounds a lot like the Polish death metal of Behemoth and Vader which is a sound I have been a fan of for quite some time now. These four tracks exhibit a much tighter sound than I have become used to from the Swedish bands and which always seems to be a feature of Polish death metal. Mikael Åkerfeldt's vocals in particular sound a lot like Vader frontman Piotr Wiwczarek. It may be brief, but it certainly is effective - a case of it came, it saw and it kicked everyone's ass! Now, where's my copy of Black to the Blind?

4/5

Well, this seems to have been a bit of a damp squib as far as a feature release goes, but I am undaunted and still consider it a good record.

Blood Tsunami were formed in 2004 and when it became apparent that their original drummer wasn't up to the task, they recruited the infamous former Emperor skinsman, Bård Eithun, aka Faust, who had recently been released from prison. They started playing thrash metal at a time when the genre was in the doldrums, but by the time of the release of the sophomore, Grand Feast for Vultures, the somewhat half-hearted thrash revival was underway with bands like Gama Bomb and Municipal Waste dominating things. One bright spark though, was the resurgence of Kreator whose Enemy of God and Hordes of Chaos albums had re-established the Germans' reputation somewhat. Blood Tsunami took this aggressive approach of the "new" Kreator and married it with some good old-fashioned Iron Maiden worship and produced an interesting hybrid of blackened thrash and traditional metal that I personally found quite intoxicating and irresistible.

Opening up with a one-two thrash combo, Castle of Skulls and Nothing but Contempt get us off to a breakneck start, with the early seconds of the opener grabbing our attention by channelling Slayer's Angel of Death. These two and the title track which close out the first side are where the Kreator-influenced thrash component is at it's most prominent and all three are real rip-snorters (as we say round these parts) Grand Feast for Vultures itself being an absolute face melter! The other four tracks aren't strictly thrash metal and whilst containing elements thereof, to greater or lesser effect, there is a more pronounced heavy metal presence. This is most obvious in the Maiden-esque lead work with some solos that may have just dropped in from Piece of Mind or Powerslave. Whatever persuasion they are derived from, this album is chock full of riffs with the guitar work of Pete Evil and Dor Amazon dominating almost everything.

Pete Evil (sadly, not his real name, that being Peter Michael Kolstad Vegem) has a shrieking black metal delivery which is bolstered at times by the more death metal-sounding backing of Amazon and bassist Pete "Bosse" Boström. This combination of shrieks and barks works very well and gives the vocals a very muscular tone. Pete Evil is obviously the main man here and the production does enhance and highlight his contributions with Bosse and Faust losing out in the mix it seems. This is a great shame because if you take the time to concentrate on Faust's drumming then you will hear that it really is impressive and, no matter what else he may or may not be, the guy is one hell of a fantastic skinsman, his power and precision making me think of an extreme metal John Bonham.

Side two features two epic tracks, first of which is the twelve-minute instrumental Horsehead Nebula, which could be in danger of coming over as self-indulgent, but in fact it is a very well constructed and epic instrumental track that leads us hither and thither and successfully throws in plenty of memorable moments and is the track where Blood Tsunami are at their most Maiden-esque. I've always been partial to thrash instrumentals and this is a fine example of the discipline, sitting as one of my favourites alongside Orion and The Ultra-Violence. Closing things out is my favourite track, One Step Closer to the Grave, another ten-minute plus track and with it's slower pacing it almost verges on epic doom metal in it's execution. It begins with a real lurking menace before exploding into another instrumental extravaganza with the guitarists trading solos as it storms headlong to it's maelstrom of a climax.

OK, so Grand Feast for Vultures isn't a perfect record and at times it threatens to tip over into being overblown, but the performances are excellent, the songs are great and it's suggestion of sonic excess is a plus, not a minus in my book.

4.5/5

Yes, actually you're right, but deathcore still isn't showing as a genre I have rated even though I now have two. 

My history with Whitechapel amounts to little more than a couple of dalliances with tracks on cover discs from metal mags like Terrorizer and Zero Tolerance a decade or more ago now and I can't say I had much time for them. Well, I guess my tastes must have broadened since those days because I actually quite enjoyed this album, even though it is likely that tracks from it were the very self-same tracks that adorned the covers of those mags all those years ago. Now, it is unlikely that Whitechapel will ever sit near the summit of my personal metal hierarchy, but I am genuinely surprised that I got so much out of this because, frankly, I wasn't looking forward to it at all.

The biggest drawback of metalcore for me is the vocals. Their "shouty" nature and general abrasiveness is something I struggle with to be honest. Whitechapel singer, Phil Bozeman, by utilising a lower register, death metal gurgle has provided a singing style that I find much more palatable than that employed by your average metalcore vocalist and which makes me much more amenable to everything else going on during A New Era of Corruption's forty minutes. I know little to nothing about deathcore, but I like how Whitechapel take a basic death metal sound and increase the intensity by utilising a metalcore approach. Technically this sounds very competent with a tight rhythm section and brutally effective riffs that have condensed their sound into a white-hot, focussed blast that hits like opening a furnace door and is liable to singe your eyebrows off! There is some decent lead work that isn't at all showy, but is effective nevertheless, but I get the feeling that that isn't what this is all about really.

I've given this several runthroughs now and I really have found it a great listen, but no one track particularly stands out and my impressions are more of the album as a whole than individual tracks grabbing my attention. That may well be due to my lack of familiarity with deathcore - I checked my ratings on RYM and this appears to be the first deathcore album I have ever listened to, so it's all kind of new to me. That said, if there are more albums like this then it won't be the last. If I really had to pick a favourite then it would have to be Unnerving, the keyboards initially make it stand out before the swirling riffing grabs hold in an almost vertiginous maelstrom of sonic violence. The brutal intensity is the one thing above all other I will take away from A New Era of Corruption and it's determination to give the listener a metaphorical kicking is perfectly realised. I would imagine that the pit at a Whitechapel show may not be the safest place in the world!

So, another Revolution feature gets a thumbs-up from me and this is getting worrying - I must be getting far too tolerant as I get older!!

4/5

Will you be making any suggestions for the August playlist, Ben?


That's both hilarious and horrifying Sonny! Perhaps it would have been more fitting for Patch to choose Autopsy's Shitfun record.

Quoted Ben

Unfortunately it was all shit and no fun!


I always use headphones because otherwise it irritates my wife too much!!

Your cat woes reminds me of back in the day when my first wife left back in the mid 80s. I had  a Border Collie called Patch and, unfortunately I had to leave him home alone when I went to work. One day I came home and found that he had shat on the floor, but being an intelligent dog, he had decided to cover it up in the hopes that I didn't discover it and so I was greeted by the sight of my Seventh Son of A Seventh Son and Kill 'Em All LPs lying on top of a pile of shit and clawed up to fuck!!I

Needless to say I never left  LPs out again when I went to work and luckily my mum and dad took Patch in soon after, so he was never left alone all day anymore.

My 30 year-old JVC music system has finally gone to the scrappies and I have a new set-up at last. I've now got an Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB Manual Direct-Drive Turntable with a Sony STRDH190.CEK amplifier and a pair of Sennheiser HD 559 wired headphones. It's not exactly top-of-the-range, but it still sounds amazing. There really is no better way to listen to doom or OSDM in my opinion. First album on the new deck was 1914's Where Fear and Weapons Meet. Just been playing last month's Horde feature, Apparition's Feel, that I bought earlier in the week and it really does sound incredible.

Unfortunately I have no CD player at the minute, so it's laptop or PS4 for playing CDs and I've still got a shitty Walkman for tapes.


Reddit’s pretty big on elitism too just quietly. 

Quoted Daniel

At the risk of showing my age, I don't even know what Reddit is! I have seen the name, but have no idea what it is all about. Am I missing out?

I am thinking of becoming a full-time elitist as it seems to pay well, so what is the best site to go to to have my opinions spoon-fed to me?


That's a good question Sonny. I think it's probably because of a) the Ved Buens Ende..... & Arcturus influences that pop up occasionally & b) the unusual use of quirky melodic motifs over your more traditional black metal sound. The use of dissonance isn't anything extreme or terribly unusual for black metal so I can't see how that could be a driver. Perhaps the fact that Tilintetgjort jump around a fair bit stylistically might be encouraging it too. Alternatively it may simply be that Tilintetgjort's label decided to post them in Metal Archives with an Avant-garde Black Metal tag & we all know that the elitist masses will believe anything they read from that particular website, often at the expense of truth & integrity.

Quoted Daniel

One thing is for sure, it has failed my litmus test for avant-garde metal because I actually like it! 

I had been wondering where all these elitist viewpoints were coming from (see RYM's Official Metal thread) and I guess metal archives may be the source after all.


Why do you think there is such an insistence elsewhere that this is avant-garde black metal, Daniel? I don't think it is at all avant-garde and, especially with the epic closer, I would tag it more as progressive than avant-garde. Nice review, by the way, you often seem to be able to express what I mean far more eloquently than I can myself!