Sonny's Reviews
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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1989
It is only over recent months that I have been spending any amount of time with Ufomammut, which is very remiss of me because I am very much in their target audience with a love of stoner, doom and space rock that are the chief ingredients of the Italians' sonic recipe. Well, better late than never and I have been bowled over by the cosmic-psych-wall-of-sound approach of classic albums like Snailking, Idolum and Eve that the Italian trio have previously unleashed, so it is with some anticipation I now tackle their ninth and brand new studio album, Fenice (Phoenix in Italian).
First of all this is Ufomammut's shortest album at only thirty-eight minutes, Snailking and Idolum were both over an hour and more recent albums were at least 45 minutes. There seems to be a more restrained approach at work here with various synth-led, ambient intros and interludes to provide a glimpse beyond the heaving sonic barrier of their more usual material. Such an intro leads us into the opener, Duat, which does blast off into more traditional heavy space metal territory eventually but then subsides into the short ambient track Kepherer. This calmer, more ambient-feeling intro approach is utilised on several tracks with Psychostasia having an extended, hypnotic, guitar-led build up to it's intro complete with washed-out vocals and spacey synth effects until it erupts into a propulsive climax.
I don't know if it is because I am relatively new to the band and I haven't yet had my fill of their heavier sound, but there seems to be more build-up than pay-off on Fenice. It feels a bit like the band have been influenced by the drawn-out builds utilised by massively popular atmospheric sludge acts like Cult of Luna and Isis and, for me, this is at the cost of the cosmic thrill ride I have been experiencing through the band's back catalogue. This is still a decent release and undoubtedly when they do let rip it is worth the wait, but there is just a little bit too much navel gazing for me and I want to hear those booster rockets on full propulsion a bit more than they are here. Maybe I will be better disposed towards it at a later date when I am more sated on their classic sound, but for now I will return to those earlier classics.
Genres: Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: EP
Year: 1989
I have a massive soft spot for Napalm Death, them being a Midlands band and all, and virtually inventing grindcore gives them a lot of kudos in my book. Anyway, 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.
Genres: Death Metal Grindcore
Format: EP
Year: 1989
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!
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2000
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 particular 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 particularly 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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 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!
Genres: Death Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1989
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 influence, 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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 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 think 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.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1988
For the longest time it seemed like thrash metal was dead. For most of the nineties and 2000s it lay on a cold slab, nothing more than a lifeless husk. It's former heroes had either sold out, lost the magic touch or just plain old given up. Then, as the second decade of the 21st century approached, a small group of bands from Chile, like a South American Dr. Frankenstein, began to breathe new life into it's inert corpse. Bands like Force of Darkness and Hades Archer combined black metal with thrash, which was not a new concept, but the Chileans made it their own by sheer force of personality. These were then followed by bands like Demoniac, Critical Defiance and the subject of this review, Ripper. These bands took the more aggressive thrash of Slayer and Kreator and took it in a bit more of a technical direction to produce some truly brilliant albums of insane thrashing madness.
Raising the Corpse is a maelstrom of high velocity thrash riffing, demonic drumming and evil, rasping vocals that is as thrilling in reality as it sounds on paper. It isn't a million miles away from the mid-eighties deaththrash of an album like Seven Churches, albeit with better production. Speaking of the production, the one point that lets the album down is that the solos sound buried and shoved down in the mix when compared to the rhythm guitar and are even threatened by the bass at times which is very prominent, as seems fairly common in modern Chilean thrash metal. That is a fairly minor annoyance though and doesn't kill the album because the songs are pretty damn good, the playing is technically superb and it has energy and adrenaline to spare, so for a modern thrash album there isn't really much more you could ask for is there?
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2014
I have always been a big adherent of the pagan/witchy psych/stoner female-fronted doom scene to which Alunah are a major contributor, but even I am getting a little bit weary of the same old tropes being trotted out and lazily passed off as new material. It is coming up to a decade now since the best material in this genre was released, Windhand's Soma, Blood Ceremony's The Eldritch Dark and Alunah's own White Hoarhound all being prime examples and all approaching ten years old.
Strange Machine very much sounds like a band "dialling it in" and very few tracks remain in the memory for long after the album is finished. Sure, it is technically pretty good, but it is just lacking in any bite whatsoever and worst of all, it just isn't heavy enough. This is why I rave so much about bands like Messa and Subrosa, bands who are doing something else with the female-fronted doom sound rather than just trotting out the same old cliches which have been done to death.
Genres: Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
Firebreather are a Gothenburg stoner three-piece and Dwell in the Fog is their third full-length since forming in 2016. They play a heavy stoner metal with plenty of doom influence and an extra layer of heaviness added by incorporating a bit of Mastodon-like sludge, the most obvious comparison being High on Fire. It's not especially original but it is well done and undoubtedly it is heavy as fuck. It's six tracks all hover around the six minute mark with the album clocking in at just under forty minutes - a perfect length for an album of this type I would suggest. If you are a fan of well made, ultra-heavy stoner music looking for a new jam then Firebreather may well tick all your boxes.
Genres: Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
Dead Witches have faced a lineup upheavel since their debut, Ouija, was released in 2017, with the sad passing of guitarist Gary Elk and the departure of vocalist Virginia Monti. However, the bedrock of the band, bassist Carl Geary and legendary ex-Electric Wizard drummer Mark Greening, are still very much in residence and with the addition of Oliver Hill's mighty riffs and Soozi Chameleone's vocal charms, nothing much has changed. I would say this is a marginally better record, sounding a lot tighter and more titanic than it's predecessor and feels like a band moving onwards and upwards. Sure there is a case for bemoaning the fact that nothing much has changed and it still churns out the female-fronted occult doom tropes, but it is done exceptionally well and if this is your bag, then it will hit the mark for sure.
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
The Ocean is Texans Fostermother's second full-length and my first exposure to the band. The trio play a stonerised doom metal that has become exceedingly familiar over recent times, to such an extent that I was initially underwhelmed by The Ocean, at least until I got to the title track that is, which was the point where my ears picked up and I thought that maybe here was something worth more attention here. There isn't anything here you haven't heard before, but there are some decent doom riffs with a nice beefy tone to the guitar sound, the rhythm section is pretty solid with a fairly pronounced bass presence. Guitarist Travis Weatherred handles vocals and they are fairly functional, sounding not unlike Ghost's Tobias Forge. All in all a solid slab of stoner doom that is back-loaded with the stronger material in the second half, The Ocean and Redeemer being the pick of the tracks for my money.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
Mares of Thrace are a Canadian sludge / post-hardcore duo and The Exile is their third album and the first for almost a decade. The mainstay of the band is vocalist / guitarist Thérèse Lanz who has latterly been joined by drummer and bassist, Casey Rogers (who also produced The Exile), since original drummer Stefani MacKichan departed some time ago. I quite enjoyed The Pilgrimage, although it's been a while since I listened to it, so I was reasonably interested when I saw MoT had a new album coming out. Well now it's here I've got to say I'm impressed and I think it is actually better than The Pilgrimage, mainly due to the fact that it is more doomy than the former release with less focus on the post-hardcore element and as such would always appeal more to an old doomhead like me. Rogers, as producer, obviously knows what he is about because the production is way more suited to a doom-driven album with a thicker, heavier sound than previously. Thérèse's vocals still sound as aggressive as they did previously, the intervening decade not curtailing her vocal savagery one iota. The songwriting seems to have matured somewhat this time around, the songs sounding more complex and the playing more technical, sometimes briefly flirting with atmospheric sludge, all without compromising the band's innate aggression. Overall, something a little different to the usual doom / sludge template and a nice progression from the band.
Genres: Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
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 od 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.
Genres: Black Metal Industrial Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2001
Desolate Shrine are not a band I am at all familiar with, but instrumentalist L.L.'s other band, the death doom act Convocation I am very much acquainted with, last year's Ashes Coalesce being one of my favourites of 2021 and ultimately a vinyl purchase. L.L.'s Desolate Shrine are more of a death metal project than Convocation with only brief dalliances with death doom. Their sound is quite dense with a significant bottom end and a satisfying complexity that never strays into technical excess, but rather focusses more on interesting twists and turns within the songwriting. This feels to be more than just straight-up death metal, although I would hesitate to call it progressive, it does feel so occasionally with the incorporation and hints of other genres such as black metal, death doom and even, I venture to suggest, a bit of grind (during The Dying World).
Fires of the Dying World is also atmospherically accomplished with a darkly grim and forbidding face being presented to the listener which is occasionally leavened by short acoustic interjections. The albums longest track, the ten-minutes of The Silent God in particular, is an impressive exemplar of modern death metal songwriting and it's potential complexities. The subsequent track, Cast to Walk the Star of Sorrow, then attacks more brutally and with the synth backing of the track's first half even has hints of classic-era Emperor to add to the death metal pot.
I have seen a few comments that this doesn't do anything new and whilst that may strictly be true, it is far from a boring rehash of other, superior albums. I don't know sometimes what it takes to please people because this is extemely well-written, adeptly performed, fairly complex and brimming with atmosphere, so if that isn't good enough for you then I don't know what is! Consequently this will probably end up being one of those albums that is overlooked in favour of more hyped, inferior product which is a big shame because there is much to admire and enjoy here.
Oh and is it me, or is that Varg Vikernes on the album's cover being tormented by demons?
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
Richmond's Antichrist Siege Machine unleash a withering hail of suppressing fire with this, their sophomore full-length that will have anyone caught in it's firing line running for cover. In other words, this is high-casualty war metal that should successfully satisfy fans of the genre. It does have higher production values than the classic releases of the nineties from the likes of Blasphemy and Beherit, so that muddy, fog-of-war sound is lost and the music has to deliver in the light of this sonic clarity. This, I think it manages successfully, still sounding filthy, but without descending into a total wall of noise. For me, a really good example of a genre that may have had it's heyday but can still deliver exciting and exhilharating metal when done right.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
I'm not the most ardent follower of Dissection, but they certainly deserve plenty of credit for pretty much inventing and perfecting the genre of melodic black metal with the release of this, their debut. Follow-up Storm of the Light's Bane is held up as the superior release but, to be honest there isn't a huge deal in it as this is a killer example of melodic black metal that has rarely been bettered. Now, melodic BM releases tend to get a bit of a rough ride from the more tr00 amongst black metal fans, yet Dissection seem to get a free pass, probably due to the position they hold in black metal history (and notoriety, to a degree).
Dissection didn't subscribe to the minimalistic or lo-fi approach of many of their contemporaries, with a crystal clear production job and a fairly muscular sound for early nineties BM. There are still remnants of the band's death metal beginnings to be found in their sound (check out the track Frozen) and that is the source of this beefier approach to black metal. The guitars sound fantastic with Jon Nödtveidt and classically-trained John Zwetsloot producing some sterling riffing and lead work, Zwetsloot also adding classical guitar on the short interlude pieces. Vocally Nödtveidt had one of the finest voices in black metal, I really love the harsh rasp to his delivery that is neither too shrill nor too deep. There are some great tracks here, albeit the best are front-loaded with Black Horizons, A Land Forlorn and the title track all featured early in the album. Still, if you want to hear the original and, debatably still the best, melodic BM then you really have to check out both The Somberlain and Storm of the Light's Bane.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1993
OK, so first off let me say I am a massive jerk. Now hear me out before you try to argue with me on this! I have always been a bit dismissive of Death and failed to see the reverence in which they are held. The reason, I now realise, is that I have always taken them out of context, something I actually get quite chippy about with younger metal heads when they do it. The reason I bring this up is that I am not as au fait with DM as many other metal fans - doom, thrash and black being my personal areas of interest. So in order to cure this ignorance I have embarked on a voyage of discovery through death metal history, starting in the mid-eighties, which means that very early on I have encountered Death once more. Specifically, I first come across their 1984 Death By Metal demo, the three-track first side of which, although it is rough as a bear's arse, is amazing and features Scream Bloody Gore's Evil Dead in very early form. So, it seems things are looking up for my relationship with Chuck's mob and thus I arrive at Scream Bloody Gore itself, which happens to be one of the two Death albums I own on CD.
Now listening to this after Possessed's Seven Churches and the aforementioned demo, I can at last hear it for what it really is, which is a groundbreaking bridge between the more brutal thrash metal and true death metal. No, I don't feel that this is yet death metal fully-formed, as it still has too many thrash riffs and the drumming is still not quite there yet, but it has definitely advanced things on in extremity from Possessed's debut. Scream Bloody Gore takes riffs from the most aggressive thrash metal and brutalise them, turning them into something more primal and dark even than those cranked out by the likes of Slayer and Possessed. Chuck Schuldiner's vocals still don't really have that guttural quality that the best death metal singers possess, but they are still pretty evil sounding for 1987. The drums and bass are moving towards the more cavernous sound that would epitomise the death metal of the early nineties and the vocals have that distant quality that plays into this aesthetic.
This isn't cerebral metal, not by any means, this is visceral and dangerous music with extremely violent lyrics that would most definitely have upset Tipper Gore and the PRMC back in '87 (which has got to have been a good thing). This was blue collar metal for those who wanted to work out some aggression after a day of putting up with shit at their place of work and needed to put on a disc and bang their fucking head until it went away. And that is something I can really get behind. This was for people like me from shitty industrial towns who saw bands like Motley Crue and Ratt and thought "This isn't fucking L.A., these guys have nothing to do with me". In truth, if I had heard this when it was released (which I didn't, it was many years later when our paths crossed) then I would most definitely have lapped this shit up - something that out-brutalised Reign in Blood, fuck, sign me up! The tracks here are insanely brutal-sounding for 1987 and still manage to provide an adrenaline rush all these years later, such is their quality. So, on reflection, I must wholeheartedly apologise for my previous attitude towards Death and in particular their debut. I was probably guilty of misplaced expectations and was listening for what I wanted to hear, not what the band had presented, which is an album that pushed metal further than any other at that point and sowed the seeds for a whole new genre of metal brutality which would still be going strong these 35 years later.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1987
This was recorded in 1986 but was shelved by the band as they faced some lineup issues and were unhappy with the sound of the album. It was heavily bootlegged but eventually was cleaned up and given an official release by Earache in 1991 and this is the version I have been listening to. It's got to be said that this seems to raise the bar as far as metal extremity went in 1986 and you can't help but wonder if the argument about the first death metal album would have been well and truly been settled if it was put out at the time of recording. The riffs here sound like something beyond the ultra-aggressive thrash metal that was being produced by the most extreme bands at this time and more like a whole new thing entirely, Trey Azagthoth proving that from the very get-go he was ahead of the curve when it came to writing death metal riffs. In fact the riffing and the solos are the major draw for me here, their sheer brilliance somewhat overshadowing the other aspects of the album. Lyrically Morbid Angel looked to the Necronomicon for inspiration and consequently the lyrics are very much occult-centric. As many other commentators have pointed out, the weak point is drummer / vocalist Mike Browning and his performance behind both kit and mic may well be the reason that Abominations of Desolation was shelved (and his leaving the band, although an altercation with Trey over a girl is also cited as the reason for the latter).
To choose to shelve the album was a brave move really when you think about it, after having put the effort into producing a debut record, then holding off until they considered themselves better placed to produce a worthwhile release must have taken a great deal of discipline. Rather than just wanting to see their name on a record sleeve they took the conscious decision to wait and that must be applauded as it shows a band willing to go the extra mile to get across their true vision rather than settling for less. Most of the tracks here (all except for Demon Seed I believe) have been reworked and released on later albums, proving that they never felt the material itself was weak, but rather it didn't come across as they had envisioned in this form. On the whole, I would say this is not merely a release of historical importance in the emergent death metal scene of the 1980s, but is a decent release in it's own right and the perceived weaknesses aren't complete deal breakers for me, as the material and guitar work is still strong enough to give the recording value.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1991
Marduk, along with Emperor and Burzum, were one of the bands who got me into black metal around the turn of the millenium and their Panzer Division Marduk is still one of my favourite black metal albums. They are a band who, unfortunately though, seem to let themselves down with some lacklustre stuff, especially in more recent years, but when they get it right they can be as good as anyone and 2004's Plague Angel stands as testament to that.
The album is not exactly a retread of PDM, but it does, inevitably, cover some of the same ground as illustrated by the blistering opening one-two of The Hangman of Prague and Throne of Rats which are tracks that would be very much at home on Panzer Division Marduk, their relentless artillery barrage approach fitting right in with that albums aesthetic. However, on Seven Angels, Seven Trumpets things get very different with a much slower tempo and an almost doom metal main riff accompanying new vocalist Mortuus' imperious vocal savagery, as he invokes the coming apocalypse. After another couple of rippers, Perish in Flames provides another example of slower, more doom-drenched material. This doomy atmospheric works really well within the context of the unholy brutality of many of the other tracks on offer on Plague Angel and whilst providing some relief from the relentles sonic onslaught, they provide no remission from the violence and inevitability of death. However, instead of signifying sudden death from bullet or bomb of the quicker material, they seem to invoke a more creeping, insidious end at the hand of disease and plague. Deathmarch provides a further descent into despair with it's satanic-sounding horns and choir, not so much an interlude as a vision of hell. The mental images that are summoned by Plague Angel are reinforced by an imagined odour, like an unbearably thick, ferric stench of spilled blood and rancid meat, mixed with the smell of cordite and concrete dust. This isn't an album for the optimistic as it plays on all the horrors and terrors of human existence with not a single sign of hope or light.
Marduk have rarely sounded better than on Plague Angel, whether it is the swirling maelstrom of Morgan Håkansson's riffing or Emil Dragutinović's drum's relentless blasting, the four members are all in perfect sync and provided the proof that was sorely needed at this point that they still had what it takes and that they could put out an album worthy of attention in the rapidly expanding world of black metal. Man, another Plague Angel is long overdue from these guys now!
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2004
Idolum is an absolutely sublime mixture of sludge metal and space rock, with a psychedelic edge that gives it an almost meditative quality. First and foremost, however, it is ridiculously heavy with an almost impenetrable wall of sound that rolls over you like a landslide. The guitar tone is extremely thick and, when combined with the heaving bass it has so much bottom end that it may well shake your teeth fillings loose. The vocals are distant-sounding and to some extent irrelevant as no one really listens to an album this tangibly heavy for poetry or philosophical insight, the vocals merely add mortar to the immense wall of sound assaulting the listener's ears. There's a lineage to this album that stretches back to Space Ritual-era Hawkwind and early Pink Floyd, but it has been fed through the gravitational field of a black hole to emerge as something transformed. I don't know if music this crushingly heavy should conversely be so relaxing, but there is something about it that is mantra-like and calming and that isn't just the drone-like extended final track, Void/Elephantom, but the heavier stuff too. If you like Electric Wizard but think they are a bit lightweight then give Idolum a try!
Genres: Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2008
The version of Morbid Visions I have been listening to also has the Bestial Devastation tracks from the 1985 split with Overdose so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and cover both here. As much as I am a huge fan of the four albums from Schizophrenia onwards, I have never even listened to these earlier releases before now... and wow, what a treat they are! It is amazing to think that the Cavalera brothers were mere teenagers at the time, but the fearlessness of youth, I suspect, enabled them to produce a brace of releases that pushed the envelope of what was then considered extreme in the metal world.
First off, Max has got the best iteration of the death growl heard up to this point, being deeper and gruffer than most of the other frontmen of the time who's vocals still remained very much in the Tom Araya / Mille Petrozza barking style. The playing is a bit messy and some of the transitions aren't as smooth as people would like, but hell, they were still learning their craft and yet mananged to produce a fireball of furious riffing and incendiary soloing that gives a real insight into just how fucking awesome and ahead of the curve early Sepultura were. I am not a person who is impressed by flashy showmanship or technical wizardry (in fact, quite the opposite) so I may be better disposed to such an obviously flawed release as Morbid Visions because, for me, it succeeds by sheer force of will and energy in presenting something that is just so damn exciting I can't help but love it. This is heartfelt metal from a band of youngsters in it solely for the love of metal at this point and that ethos shines through really brightly on this debut album. It seems strange that this is never mentioned much in the conversation about early death metal releases because there seems to be plenty here that qualifies - Mayhem and War both sound very death metal to me and as a whole I would venture it is more death metal adjacent than Possessed's Seven Churches is. The production isn't great, the drums seem to be pushed too far to the fore, sometimes at the expense of the guitar and there isn't much by way of bottom end but, for me, this is only a minor issue and certainly isn't a deal breaker as far as future listening potential goes.
Bestial Devastations consists of an intro and four tracks, again the production leaves a lot to be desired (sounding a bit like Seven Churches production-wise) and the performance could be tighter, but all the tracks have great riffs and an infectious energy that true metal heads should find difficult to ignore. Both the split and debut full-length marked Sepultura out as a band who would most likely go places and were pretty extreme-sounding for 1986 and are deserving of being part of the conversation surrounding the development of death metal in the 1980s.
Genres: Death Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1986
I wish I could say that I have been a fan of Seven Churches since it first came out, that it changed my metal world and set me on my path to extreme metal appreciation, but unfortunately I was never so cool that I got into underground metal as soon as it was released, especially as, at the time, I lived in the arse-end of nowhere in England's industrial north west where the metal underground was on another planet entirely and the metal community I was part of numbered only one - me. Anyway, despite coming to it late, it was still instantly obvious, even to me, that, given the date of release, this is one hell of an influential album in the evolution of death metal.
Possessed were born out of the rarified atmosphere of the early eighties Bay Area thrash scene and although their sound would indicate that they were heavily influenced by Slayer, they themselves always cited Exodus and Venom as their main influences (quite plausibly I suppose, if you think about it). They released a demo in 1984 featuring three tracks which would eventually turn up on Seven Churches, Evil Warriors, Burning in Hell and of course, Death Metal. After playing a few shows with them, Exodus got Metal Blade interested and the track Swing of the Axe (featured on their second demo and a blistering track in it's own right that sadly doesn't appear on Seven Churches) was featured as the opener on the compilation Metal Massacre VI. This track got the attention of Combat Records and Possessed were offered a deal, releasing their debut full-length in 1985. The rest, as they say, is history. Now, is this the first death metal album? Personally I don't think so as it still retains a huge amount of thrash metal DNA, but Possessed had definitely pushed thrash to it's limit and had introduced elements that would be expounded upon later by true death metal outfits like Death and Morbid Angel.
So to the album itself and after the Tubular Bells intro, The Exorcist bursts from the speakers like a wild animal, tearing through your eardrums with an aggression and savagery that had been unthought of at this point in '85. Sure Slayer were plenty aggressive, but this opening salvo from the new boys was on a whole new level and it becomes apparent very early on that there is to be no respite from this blitzkrieg until the last notes have played out. The production first off isn't anything like as clear as the majority of metal albums you would hear in 1985, it's slight echoey sound possibly being the first iteration of that quintessential cavernous sound that became so requisite of old-school death metal. The riffs are tore through at breakneck pacing and are ridiculously heavy, the soloing is straight out of the Jeff Hannemann school of blistering, psychotic-sounding and squealing guitar torturing. Jeff Becerra's vocals and satanic / demonic lyrics went even further into the extreme than Tom Araya, his half scream / half growl paving the way for more and more vocal extremity in metal as subsequent singers tried to sound even more "evil" than the Possessed frontman. The drums are more in keeping with the thrash metal zeitgeist, not really possessing the blastbeat-heavy pummelling of true death metal drumming and are one of the main reasons why I still consider this mainly a thrash album. But of course there's that final track and, much like Venom with Black Metal, the band are at least assured a mention in the death metal conversation having coined the genre name. Every track here is killer and still sound great now, closing in on forty (count 'em) years later. This album has every right to be mentioned alongside thrash greats like Reign in Blood and Master of Puppets for it's sheer aggression and an almost tangible evilness and whether it is death or thrash metal is moot because either way it is a classic metal album in it's own right.
Sadly, Possessed never approached this level of awesome again in my opinion, but does that really matter because what they produced here was a catalyst and a precursor to one of the most prolific extreme music genres in history and most definitely secured them a legacy and immortality beyond the vinyl grooves of a mere record into the collective folklore of metal - listen to early Morbid Angel and Possessed's influence is plain for all to hear.
Genres: Death Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1985
Early 1980 I had just turned 18 and was mad into metal and heavy rock: Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, UFO and Budgie to name but a few. The trouble was, these bands were great, but they were old guys - some were even in their thirties! Kids my age were all playing in punk rock bands and, I had to admit, those punks sure played with some fire and energy. Then the music press started buzzing about this young bunch of cockney upstarts playing heavy metal called Iron Maiden and my ears pricked up in interest. Meanwhile, I picked up a copy of the newly released Metal for Muthas and it was pretty obvious to everyone that Maiden were the stand out act on that compilation (although Angel Witch's Baphomet is fucking brilliant too) and their two tracks, Wrathchild and Sanctuary, were snarly and aggressive calls to arms. Then came the single Running Free which was a bit different to the tracks on MfM and had a bounce to it that made headbanging a cinch!
Anyway, fast forward to spring and Maiden's self-titled debut hit our local Woolies and off I go to procure a copy. The first thing that confronted the prospective purchaser of said wax disc was the intense stare, rictus snarl and punk haircut of "Eddie the 'Ed" daring us to buy this album or be a pussy and stick with KISS or Foreigner! Needless to say, I was all in and handed over my quid seventy-five or whatever it was back then and headed off home with no shortage of anticipation to hear exactly what Chris Welch and Malcolm Dome were making all that fuss about in the music weeklies.
So, needle hits vinyl and
Next up and closing side one is one of the album's real highlights, Phantom of the Opera. Which already showed that Maiden had a bit more in their songwriting arsenal than the vast majority of bands sheltering under the NWOBHM umbrella, with Steve Harris in particular wanting to pursue a more epic and complex route than was the lot for most metal bands of the time and although Phantom is no Rime of the Ancient Mariner or even Hallowed Be Thy Name it is still a brilliant piece of nascent progressive heavy metal that doesn't trade complexity for heaviness, but keeps both intact and serves as one indicator as to why Maiden succeeded where so many others failed.
The instrumental Transylvania opens side two and allows the guitarists to showcase their skills with more of their soon-to-become trademark incendiary soloing, Harris' bass throbbing along underneath and Clive Burr setting the tempo with his fantastic, on-the-mark drumming skills. Transylvania subsides into the gentle intro to another somewhat atypical NWOBHM track, Strange World, where we actually get a kind of vulnerable, touchy-feely lyric and atmosphere that most metal acts would never even contemplate at that time. At this point Maiden ramp up the pace and aggression once more and are introduced to one of Harris' enduring lyrical characters, Charlotte the Harlot of 22 Acacia Avenue fame. Although the middle section and it's attempt at pathos is a little bit of a misstep for me, the track is otherwise heavy metal heaven. Rounding off pretty much as we started with a snotty-sounding, snarling piece of metal ass-kickery Iron Maiden firmly plant their flag in the ground.
Obviously the band later went on to dominate the world of metal, at least for a while after Di'Anno was replaced by Bruce, but I think it is testament to Di'Anno's performances and vocal style that the two albums he performed on are still massive fan favourites and, in truth, I have never heard tracks from the first two albums performed better by Bruce than they were by Paul, although, to be fair, he may well have conversely struggled with tracks that Bruce featured on. So, while Iron Maiden at the point of their first album were still on a journey rather than having arrived at a destination, there can surely be no arguing that it was a trip well worth any fan tagging along on. To call the album the birth of a heavy metal legend is no hyperbole and is a defining moment in metal history.
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1980
Slaughtbbath are a three-piece blackened thrash outfit from Chile. They started out as a straight up, balls-out black metal band playing supercharged black metal with relentless fury, but for their 2019 album Alchemical Warfare (only their second full-length release, despite a plethora of splits and eps), they took a huge fistful of the thrash of the teutonic giants Kreator and Sodom and chucked it into the melting pot along with the furious black metal of their previous releases. They fire off riffs like rockets on Bonfire Night (or July 4th if you insist) lighting up the sky with fire and fury, tearing through track after track in an almost manic assault on the listener's eardrums. Their blackened thrash leaves little room for wanky showmanship, consequently there isn't as much focus on solos as a lot of thrashers may want and most of the solos are of the short, sharp shock variety as favoured by Slayer, but that is a small price to pay for such outright aggression and savagery. The only respite from the ceaseless onslaught is held within Rejoined Into Chaos when the band do slow it down a little, although they can't manage to restrain themselves for the whole track and unleash the most extravagant soloing of the album towards it's final fadeout.
Track titles like Ritual Bloodbath, Prophetic Crucifixion and Amulets of Carnage should leave you in no doubt as to where these guys are coming from. This is no touchy-feely metal as is becoming en vogue in some metal circles, this is pure unadulterated violence and horror, making no excuses and issuing no apologies for it. In other words, the foundation that thrash metal was built on and too many metal bands have forgotten about.
Genres: Black Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Arð is a solo project of Mark Deeks who, since 2016, has been the keyboard player for UK pagan black metallers Winterfylleth. Arð play a medieval-based, folk-influenced kind of doom metal that is, on the surface, a very different beast from Winterfylleth, yet if you are familiar with the Mancunians you will know that they are heavily involved with folk music, whether through their Harrowing of Heirdom album or Dan Capp's Wolcensmen project and the track The Green Cathedral on their The Dark Hereafter album is very much in the vein of the music on Take Up My Bones, albeit with blackened vocals.
I've got to say, despite initial reservations about an album tagged as doom and folk metal (no folk metal here), this has quite grabbed my imagination and is a very pleasant departure from a lot of the doom metal I usually listen to. Take Up My Bones' doom metal is very reminiscent of the kind of melancholic style often employed by any number of gothic doom outfits eager to follow in the footsteps of My Dying Bride et al, with contemplative piano, synths and strings woven into the fabric of the tracks, yet also containing the sweeping, soaring majesty found in some of the best atmospheric black metal from the likes of Saor, albeit within a doom metal context. The medieval folk elements are incorporated superbly well and sound sincere, thus avoiding the cheesiness so often (rightly) associated with any kind of folk metal. This is not the kind of medieval folk we would associate with The Lord of the Rings or fantasy scenarios generally, but a choral style of folk that has it's roots in ecclesiastical music.
The concept of the album is something to do with the relics of the bones of Saint Cuthbert, who was associated with Lindisfarne monastery and is the patron saint of Northumbria in the north-east of England where Mark Deeks makes his home. His remains were thought to be responsible for several miracles in medieval England and he was a big inspiration to King Alfred the Great in his battle against the Danes of ninth century England. The religious theme is realised by rich-sounding and nicely performed choral vocals that are very impressively produced and add to the overarching majesty of the music on offer. This is a very atmospheric album, weaving strands of melancholy and hope together into a gorgeous tapestry of sound. Arð aren't trying to squeeze the breath out of your body with huge, crushing riffs, but are rather trying to fill your soul with renewed hope.
As much as I love orthodox doom metal, it is nice to hear someone try something that is a little bit different and to eschew regurgitating the same old ideas. Take Up My Bones isn't a perfect album by any means, some of the tracks become a little samey and there is some limitation to how far a solo project and studio-generated effects can go, but I genuinely applaud Arð's attempt to produce something fresh in the doom scene and as long as artists like Arð can still serve up something of a surprise then doom metal is far from a spent force.
Genres: Doom Metal Folk Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
Fantastic! My old friend Sami Hynninen (aka Albert Witchfinder) is back with a new doom metal band, presumably named after Witchfinder General's second full-length. We've not heard much from the Reverend Bizarre legend since he left Spiritus Mortis in 2017, so when this came out of the blue I was exceedingly excited to have some new material at last. The reason I'm so fond of Witchfinder is that he truly "gets" doom metal and with his new band he seems to be mining the traditional doom scene of the eighties and early nineties with more than a few nods back to classic Black Sabbath. It seems to be no coincidence that the band are named after a Witchfinder General album. The new band is a four-piece which, as well as Witchfinder, features fellow Finn, former Impaled Nazarene and Sentenced bassist Taneli Jarva along with Cypriot tattoo artist and ex-Electric Wizard bassist Tasos Danazoglou on drums and completing the lineup is Greek guitarist Jondix.
The songs on Friends of Hell are fairly short and relatively punchy for doom metal, but this was not uncommon on early trad doom albums and is in sharp contrast to Witchfinder's material with Reverend Bizarre. Lyrically and thematically we are in B-movie, schlock-horror territory with song titles like Shadow of the Impaler and Into My Coffin, which again is very much par for the course with a lot of trad doom albums. The distorted riffs are pretty damn good, hardly original, but entertaining as hell with a really nice depth to the guitar sound. Albert Witchfinder has some limitations as a vocalist, but I actually think his voice really suits the material, as it did with Reverend Bizarre - not everyone needs to be a Messiah or Rob Lowe. The rhythm section isn't bad, although they don't shine through the mix as much as they could, this is only a minor niggle and is not a huge distraction.
All in all, if you are in the market for some new straight-up trad doom with a cheesy occult theme then you would be hard-pressed to find a better example than Friends of Hell.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
MWWB (having abbreviated their name from the mouthful it was previously) return with an even more atmospheric album than 2019's Yn ol i annwn. Alternating between dreamily-voiced, atmospheric doom metal and futuristic synthwave tracks it feels like a sci-fi concept album. The doom tracks are understated, but no less effective for it, relying on building an atmosphere rather than crushing the air out of the listener with massive riffs, Jessica Ball's ethereal vocals soaring over the instrumentation like a siren call. Don't get the wrong impression, this is still most definitely doom metal, I merely want to state that laying everything to waste with mournful sonic heaviness isn't the music's sole intention. The Blade Runner-like synth-driven interludes are a nice touch and help give the album a definite identity and aid it in poking it's head above the crowded field of female-voiced doom metal. A nicely interesting release that gives doom metal fans something a little bit different to digest.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
What an absolute killer intro to opening track, Lament the Death of Wonder, a track that combines doom metal with stoner and progressive rock for a roller coaster ride of a song. This momentum is dissipated a bit by ensuing track The Long Drowning that takes a little while to get into it's stride, although it does have a nice solo towards the end. The album as a whole has a greater stoner/psych/prog influence than their earlier material and there isn't anything inherently wrong with that, but it feels a little inconsistent at times. It's the heavier tracks like the aforementioned opener and Mythos that initially appealed to me most, but there is just so much variety to their doom/stoner template so it never feels like they are retreading the same path on every track and the more I explore the album the more I discover. The production is very good and has a nice clarity and performance-wise the trio are spot-on. Just occasionally I feel that the band resort to a bit of noodling for noodling's sake where I would rather them just get on with laying down another killer riff. The last couple of tracks really up the prog ante and are where things get really interesting, suggesting a possible new direction for the band which may make their next release very interesting indeed. Obsidian Sea are definitely a band who are spreading their wings with this latest release and more power to them.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
The original Watching From A Distance is my all-time favourite album, metal or otherwise, and resonates with me on a level unmatched by any other release. This is a live rendition of the entire album performed at 2017's Roadburn Festival and is a faithful reproduction of that album with former bassist Wayne Taylor backing up Patrick Walker as second guitarist. The live interaction of both band and crowd is minimal which would get some people asking "What's the point, then?" The point is that this is an album with an unequalled level of emotional outpouring and intensity which the live setting has possibly rendered even more poignant as Patrick Walker pours his heart out. The fact that Walker's vocals are obviously a one take, one-shot deal he seems to wring even more heartbreaking intensity from them, as if the guy is actually reliving the tales he is telling us there and then. I would love to be able to say I was there and have the memory of that performance etched into my memory forever, but I wasn't and so this is the next best thing as I still get to embrace this wonderful performance of a seminal album.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Live
Year: 2021
For the longest time I believed that thrash metal held no more surprises for me. That, however, was before I had heard Demoniac's incredible 2020 sophomore release, So It Goes. Sure, I have been very impressed by the vitality of the contemporary South American thrash scene, but the albums I had heard to this point were in the main existing tropes, taken and sharpened to the point of lethality. Some excellent stuff that had rekindled my interest in new thrash metal material, but Demoniac have gone well beyond that and So It Goes is a complete revelation to my jaded sensibilities. They play intense thrash metal with blackened vocals and hints at progressive tendencies and with a technical proficiency that is exceedingly impressive. The opening couple of tracks illustrate that these guys can out-thrash the shit out of almost anyone currently playing thrash metal. Fast, vibrant riffing, snarling vocals and a rhythm section that will destroy your apartment block if they play within a mile of it, deliver everything you could ever want from a thrash metal album. Then, following the opening one-two salvo, Extraviado opens up with a.. jazz clarinet. This is a weird and wonderful kind of doom and jazz number that may well leave you scratching your head, but I personally think is a glorious curveball that lets you regain some composure before the next neck-mangler. Equilibrio fatal is another riff-fest of lightning-powered thrash that will remove the skin from any unprotected body parts as it hurtles from riff to riff and contains some terrific soloing and superb basswork from Vicente Pereira.
This then brings us to the second half of the album, which consists solely of the almost twenty-minute suite of the title track which is a thrash metal tour de force and the track where Demoniac really show their chops and leave the competition eating their dust. Riff follows riff, solos rise and fall, that awesome, crunchy bass keeps baring it's teeth, Javier Ortiz snarls and sneers his way through the lyrics and our old friend that crazy clarinet even makes a reappearance. This track is one of the most glorious, OTT celebrations of thrash metal you are ever likely to hear and with the searing power of the shorter tracks from side one makes for one of the greatest thrash albums I have ever heard. Believe me, if this was released in the late eighties this would still be held up as an out and out classic. If, like me, you thought thrash metal was dead then spin So It Goes and behold thrash's Lazarus-like resurrection.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I enjoyed French doom outfit Deathbell's debut album, 2018's With the Beyond, very much, it's female-voiced stoner vibe akin to Windhand and Alunah, bands I am a big fan of, so I have been anticipating a follow-up for some time now and at last here it is. Called A Nocturnal Crossing, the albums six tracks span a touch over forty minutes. It opens up with a great slab of uptempo stoner doom called The Stronghold and the Archer which gets the album off to a fantastic start and may well be my favourite track, it has a memorable melody and a strong central riff with some soaring keyboard work and singer Lauren Gaynor's vocals are strong enough to carry the song well. This is followed by Devoured on the Peak which is similar, but with more of a bluesy influence, a direction that Deathbell like to take fairly regularly with their doom and that will become even more pronounced later in the album. The single, The Ladder, at eight and a half minutes is the longest track here and is a bit more ambitious with more variation in pacing, some effective keyboard work and a nice guitar workout towards the end. The second half of the album continues in similar vein and closes with the title track, which is arguably the album's heaviest, it is another track with a blues influence and an extended guitar workout, although it does seem to end a bit abruptly.
There is an aspect to the band, I think the cumulative effect of the guitar work and the distant yet strong vocals that lend the tracks a kind of psychedelic-gothic edge but that doesn't detract from the stoner vibes either. There does seem to have been some progression since the debut with the band pushing at the boundaries of what they do, introducing a more progressive sound especially with a greater emphasis on the keyboards for example, without any serious wholesale changes to their overall sound, but coming at it with a freshness and ambition that makes it worthy of the four year wait. If you are a fan of female-fronted doom metal, such as the aforementioned Windhand and bands like Blood Ceremony then there should be plenty here for you to enjoy.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
Konvent are an all-female four-piece formed in 2015 in Copenhagen, releasing their debut, Puritan Masochism in 2020. The debut comprised almost fifty minutes of sludgy death doom and was pretty solid, albeit lacking in variety. To be honest, this follow-up, Call Down the Sun, is very much in the same vein. The riffs have a Celtic Frost kind of vibe, being quite bombastic they invoke the atmosphere of a fading empire facing it's last days and are my favourite aspect of the album, the riff to Grains in particular is imperiously menacing-sounding. The vocals are alternately harsh sludgy barks and deep growls, the former being the most successfully employed, the latter I am not too sure about in all honesty, they lack the gruffness and abyssal depth of truly convincing death doom vocals. The tracks are quite samey and I sometimes found my attention wandering, which is never a good sign is it?
All in all Call Down the Sun is OK, but I couldn't really go any further than that. I would like to hear the band incorporate something a bit more diverse into their sound because, to be brutally honest, there are several others who do this sort of thing better.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
I've been a fan of Italian doomsters Messa for some time now and I have been greatly anticipating the release of Close since it was announced towards the end of 2021. Well. now it's finally here did it merit all that anticipation? The answer has got to be a resounding yes from me. On Close Messa have taken what made Feast for Water the release it was and have expounded on it, yet they haven't lost touch with their roots in doom metal and, if truth be told, their doom sounds even heavier here than it did previously.
What sets Messa apart, however, is their willingness to incorporate other, often non-metal, styles into their doom material. Yes, other bands hybridise their doom with other genres like blues or gothic and black metal, but Messa incorporate even more diverse musical genres like dark jazz, middle-eastern music and even, dare I say, on the album's penultimate track, Leffotrak, grindcore! One of the reasons I like Italian metal so much is that Italian bands are never scared to try something different with what can be quite basic genres and progressive music seems to be very much part of the Italian rock and metal scenes and Messa fully embrace this quintessentially Italian ethos. Sometimes, however, it falls that some bands' ambitions outstrip their abilities to fully realise them, this is most definitely not an issue for Messa as they are consummately skilled in delivering their auditory vision. In Sara Bianchin they have arguably the finest female vocalist in doom metal (if not all metal), the power and quality of her singing leaves most other doom vocalists in the shade, if you need convincing listen no further than opening track Suspended and tell me I'm wrong!
The opener is one of the more straightforward doom metal tracks on offer, but it is so expertly paced and performed that it actually feels more complex than it is. It is here where it also becomes obvious that Messa haven't compromised their heaviness either for an increased diversity and complexity, as is further illustrated on Dark Horse which is a little bit bluesy initially, at least until it's Miserlou-like speedy breakdown around halfway through. This brings us to Orphalese that begins with a Middle-Eastern sound, reminiscent of some of the tracks from Hans Zimmer's Gladiator soundtrack, conjuring images of a Lebanese or Egyptian market scene, with Sara Bianchin's bluesy vocals soaring over it for a truly evocative and atmospheric track.
I don't intend to give a track-by-track rundown of the album, but if any album deserves one it's probably this. Whilst listening for the first time, I was genuinely excited to hear where each track would go as I had absolutely no idea, such is the variety of ideas on offer here. The performances throughout are excellent, whether it be Alberto Piccolo's guitar solos, Sara's vocals, the tightness of the rhythm section or the wind instrumentation of guest Giorgio Trombino and the production is crystal clear so that nothing gets in the way of the band's expression of their multifarous ideas. If there is any sense to the world then Close should propel Messa into the upper reaches of the metal universe and could well garner them exposure beyond metal circles. In truth I could spend all day heaping superlatives upon the band and this latest Meisterwerk, but why would you waste time listening to me when you could be listening to this instead?!
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2022
I know shamefully little about Chile other than it is very long, has a lot of mountains and is home to the world's driest desert, The Atacama, where there are many space observatories. The other thing I know is that the Chilean thrash scene is one of the more vital and vibrant iterations of the genre in these early decades of the 21st century. Bands like Demoniac, Critical Defiance and Ripper are but the tip of the Chilean iceberg and Parkcrest are another extremely talented bunch of thrashers. It does seem like quite a tight scene however, with Parkcrest guitarist Diego Armijo and drummer Nicolás Villanueva also playing in Ripper and vocalist/guitarist Javier Salgado playing in Critical Defiance and Hellish amongst several others. Formed in 2011, Parkcrest didn't release their first album until 2016's Hallucinative Minds hit the metaphorical Bandcamp shelves. Whilst being an energetic and raw album, Hallucinative Minds is far from the finished product, but did show some promise. So did the follow up, ...And That Blue Will Turn to Red deliver on that promise? Well, I would have to say that, by and large, yes it has and it is a massive leap forward when compared to the debut.
The first difference is that the production this time round is much improved from the debut and sounds powerful, yet has an impressive clarity that allows all the band member's contributions to distinctly be heard. The rhythm section of bassist Cristoffer Pinto and Villanueva are the particular benefactors of this improvement in production values. Pinto's bass throbs along, providing a super-solid foundation from which the others can weave their magic. Villanueva's drumming is possibly the biggest revelation for me on this record, it is furious yet controlled and is much more than just straightforward pummelling. His work here is reminiscent of Dave Lombardo and praise for a thrash metal drummer doesn't get much higher than that does it?
Of course, what we all turn to thrash metal for is the riffs isn't it and here Parkcrest certainly deliver, firing them off like they're going out of style from a seemingly inexhaustible supply. There may not be quite as many as on, say, Time Does Not Heal, but they certainly come thick and fast. Guitarist Javier Salgado doubles up as vocalist and his harsh, barking vocal style is particularly reminiscent o f Kreator's Mille Petrozza and, in fact, I have seen several plausible comparisons to Kreator, Slayer and early Sepultura and while they do take inspiration from these more aggressive purveyors of thrash, their sound is distinctly their own with a degree of technicality coupled with the aforementioned aggressiveness, this being a hallmark of the "Chilean sound" it would seem.
The songwriting is fantastic with several really great tracks on here, the opening duo of Impossible to Hide and Darkest Fear are a killer opening salvo and the instrumental Dwelling of the Moonlights may be my favourite thrash track since the early nineties. This is an album with a surfeit of riffs coupled with searing, meteoric soloing and a tempo that is unrelenting. I don't say this often but this is a modern thrash offering that is more than capable of holding it's own against all but the very best the genre has ever produced and Parkcrest comfortably sit in the vanguard of the latest thrash metal revitalisation.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
I must admit it had been quite a while since I last listened to Axioma Ethica Odini, with Isa and RIITIIR being my go-to albums if I fancy a bit of late-era Enslaved so it was long overdue a revisit. After a strong run of albums from 2003's Below the Lights to 2006's Ruun, Enslaved released Vertebrae in 2008 and, for me, it was one of their weakest albums in quite a while, lacking any kind of punch at all. So this disappointment left me a little apprehensive for the release of Axioma Ethica Odini and the direction in which Enslaved appeared to be heading. Happily these fears are expelled within moments of opener Ethica Odini kicking in and it becomes apparent that this a completely different beast to Vertebrae. Ethica Odini contains more bite than the entirety of Vertebrae and is an excellent opening track. The black metal sections pummel the listener and sound more savage than Enslaved had for a while, as if the band had rediscovered their passion anew, and the clean-sung sections retain this viciousness whilst simultaneously coming off as quite melodic. Ultimately the song concludes in a gentle coda that then sets up the next track, Raidho very nicely.
The mood and methodology of the opener is continued throughout the album, with Grutle Kjellson's black metal vocals sounding more evil than they had for a while and being beautifully countered by the cleans, the black metal / prog metal dichotomy being at the very core of the album's success as the band switch seamlessly between the two contrasting styles. As had always been the case with Enslaved, the performances are quite exemplary - it was apparent very early on that Enslaved were technically a cut above most of their Norwegian contemporaries and they just continued to get better and better as time passed, becoming an ever tighter unit in the process. Special mention must go to Cato Bekkevold's performance on drums which is super-efficient but never less than spot-on.
There are some killer riffs here - Ethica Odini, The Beacon and Singular to name but three - are fantastic and the guitar sound is chunky and muscular - long gone is the weak sound from Vertebrae and the thin, tremolo-heavy sound of their early work. Keyboards are deployed exceedingly tastefully throughout the track listing. They are ever-present, but never swamp the sound or allow it to stray into symphonic metal territory. There is even a short, futuristic instrumental with a dystopian atmosphere (Axioma) in the middle of the album to provide a break from all the surrounding heaviness which is followed by one of the album's most interesting tracks, Giants. During this epic, Enslaved seem to draw on doom metal influences with a couple of the riffs and the track plumbs whole new depths of heaviness, sounding absolutely brutal when Grutle's black shrieks hit hard. The songwriting is never anything less than stellar and few progressive bands are as concise when it come to composition as Enslaved, they manage to explore and expand without wandering down musical dead ends or indulging in instrumental excess.
Axioma Ethica Odini is possibly Enslaved's heaviest later-era release and, along with subsequent release RIITIIR, mark a high watermark for their progressive metal styling, their more recent releases falling increasingly short of these two classics (despite still being pretty good records in their own rights, such is Enslaved's quality). In revisiting this I have got to admit to being even more impressed than I originally was and, even though I always liked it, I now consider this to be one of the bands premier releases and I will most definitely be returning to it more often.
Genres: Progressive Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010