Deströyer 666 - Violence is the Prince of this World EP (1995)

Though I wasn't initially too impressed with this band, Deströyer 666 was one I got in on the ground floor with, having heard this first EP and their debut through a local CD import shop. Australian black metal was a bit of a novelty, I had heard Bestial Warlust and this band around the same time and that was all, and my initial impressions were that it mirrored the Canadian war metal stuff a lot more than the Scandinavian bands I was completely enthralled by. I think that still holds true for this early material, but K.K. Warslut and company were definitely set on a path that would evolve for the better, and I think you can hear that even on Violence is the Prince of This World. It might not one of my favorites in their legacy, but this shit sounds positively savage even 30 years later.

There are definitely those blasted and soulless passages reminiscent of the war metal stuff, but there is a little more structure to some of the riffing, based around a vile thrashing aesthetic, a little bit of death metal also in the churn of the rhythm guitar. When they do resort to that primitive blasting, they retain a little bit of atmosphere through the riff choices, which to their credit, are a lot more interesting to follow than some other 'blast and forget' bands of the time, including arguably some of Marduk's material, though this stuff isn't as intense as something like Panzer Division Marduk. The guitars wind through these sections like serpents, and I also liked the warlike presence of the bass guitar which actually recalled for me some of the earlier Voivod records if they were just pitched at a higher speed. The drumming is a little bit of a clatter but it's also really well done for its day, effortlessly blasting or rolling out the double bass patterns to support the snaky distortion on the guitars.

I think the real star of the show here is how Warslut's nihilistic barking, which sounds like a midway point between black, death, and Germanic proto-black thrash styles, fuses itself so well to those frillier guitars and the primordial beating of the drums. This is the component that feels like the nuclear holocaust you're seeing on the cover art, and he definitely earns his nickname with it. Another strong point is that they definitely avoid monotony with some change-ups, for instance "Song for a Devil's Son" doesn't follow the same course as "An Endless Stream of Bombers", the band was working to create distinct tunes while merging them all together under the same banner of aggression. The mix can be a little uneven, some tunes coming across rawer than others, and it's certainly not their most coherent material, but I've always thought of this as 'war metal' with a little more memorable structure to latch on to, and whilst its one of the last things I'll reach for when I crave Deströyer 666, there's a timeless, vulgar charm to it which I cannot ignore.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/

Aura Noir - Dreams Like Deserts EP (1995)

Dreams Like Deserts came along at a critical point when the whole blackened thrash/speed amalgam was a bit of a novelty; by no means was this some reimagining of the formula, but other than the obvious forebears like Bathory, Venom, Slayer and Possessed, or the earliest works of the German trio of Sodom, Kreator and Destruction, this was not the most popular route for most lingering thrash acts in the 90s to follow. The Scandinavian scene, however, did not get that memo, and so you had acts like Swordmaster, Gehenna, Bewitched, Aura Noir, and the evolving Impaled Nazarene around to spearhead this sort of retro- evolutionary backwashed vitriol, themselves sort of split between the influences of black, death, thrash or speed in differing proportions, but all offering this sort of 'slick', leather-harnessed back alley to the more intense, extremity that was taking over the pure black and death metal genres at the time.

This early Aura Noir recording was among the earlier works of Aggressor and Apollyon, two musicians who would go on to a lot of projects, including Aggressor's similar Infernö which would take off at around the same time in a more decidedly speed/thrash configuration with more of a punk foundation. And here you've got what sounds to me like pretty basic larval Teutonic thrash with the sinister vocals, for fans of In the Sign of Evil and Endless Pain, with some perhaps more pronounced black metal rasps that would keep them current with their Norse and Swedish peers of the time. But the riff structures here seem like they leap forth from the inspiration of "Riot of Violence' or "Total Desaster", not so much of the driven, supremely sinister Slayer in terms of riffing strength or diabolic harmonies, but rough and tumble with frilly licks and tin-can crashing drums that give it a real street vibe, knuckle-dusting the listener into some heaps of offal and refuse in some dimly lit pile of garbage bags.

To that extent, it's got a cool primacy to it that would set up the framework for their first two full lengths. The hellish energy is legit, although I don't think I ever found the riffs themselves to be as resilient or memorable as those they'd write later on. In fact, in today's saturated scene of blackened speedsters, Dreams Like Deserts would seem rather average, but it was in fact well ahead of the trend that would follow, and the few atmospheric moments it has like the intro to "The Rape" with its bass grooves reminiscent of Voivod, or the thundering bridge of "Forlorn Blessings to the Dreamking" do help to distinguish it slightly from being too generic. A fiery start, though this is admittedly the Aura Noir recording I return to the least whenever I'm seeking my fix, with some of its influences a little too much on its razored-up sleeves, like having a song titled "Angel Ripper".

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/auranoirofficial

Megadeth - Hidden Treasures (1995)

Hidden Treasures was the last 'cool' Megadeth release before a steady decline in quality of their output for around 14-15 years. Yes, they held out longer than Metallica, whose ascent into vast commercial success came at the cost of creative bankruptcy, and to me they even outlived Slayer, who cease to be relevant for me after 1990 with the exception of popular live performances and an adequate track or two. Is that revenge enough for Dave, who was once thrown from the ranks of what would become the biggest metal band ever? I think on some level, it must be. Granted, this is not a proper studio album, but a collection of odds and ends from soundtracks and tributes that I appreciate because they're not all readily available without bailing out loads of extra cash. Industry: this is how you do a fan compilation correctly!

And I won't lie, even if it's not a 'proper' full-length, I enjoy Hidden Treasures more than any of the albums they have release since, with the exception of Endgame. Though it's not all recorded at the same time, a lot of the material here is quite consistent with the production and songwriting level on Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, and Youthanasia. It's also a lot more ferocious than the album before it, with Dave sounding a lot nastier, the instruments flexing their muscles more, and as much as I did enjoy Youthanasia, this presented a nice snapback, even though I'd already heard most of the songs...hell, these days I think I've even got all of these films on Blu-Ray or DVD, including the crappy old Super Mario Bros. flick which my sons demanded for the collection. So you could say I was in the 'target' audience to experience a lot of these on the big screen, from the cheesy slasher Shocker to Last Action Hero to the Beavis & Butthead Experience. In some cases, the Megadeth tracks were the best parts of the movies, and while the cover choices here are hardly obscure, something like "No More Mr. Nice Guy" is the perfect vehicle for Dave Mustaine to capture his attitude like a fly to the amber of his influences.

But the originals are where this really shines..."99 Ways to Die" is a song I fell in love with the first time I heard it, with the amazing riffs in the verse and the acoustic bridge that leads to one of their most memorable chorus riff/vocal tag-teams ever. "Breakpoint" feels like an exercise in the groovy speed thrash of their Rust in Peace era, "Angry Again" is a cruise control thrasher which wouldn't have felt out of place on their 1992-1994 releases, and "Go to Hell" also has its moments. The one exception for me is the closer "Problems", the previously unheard track which channels a lot of shitty hard rock or blues vibes into a slightly more crunchy thrash riff or two, with a lame punk-like chorus. Both the Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper covers are decent, though, so I just have to end my listens to this about four minutes 'early' so that the experience stays consistent. You can't win 'em all, but I still hold Hidden Treasures as a sort of precipice beyond which there is a rather steep plummet to oblivion. Will they fall straight off the edge to their doom, or maybe grab a lifeline to halt their descent?

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.megadeth.com/

Fermenting Innards - Myst (1995)

Myst was a case of instant jealousy after a friend of mine picked it up on one of our trips a few towns over to an import record shop. There were 2-3 of those in the region and pretty much the only places where we could sample and purchase a lot of underground European releases from labels that we would otherwise have had to mail out to. Much of this stuff was black metal, melodic death, folk, Goth or doom, but there were also a handful of gems that we'd more closely associate with pure death, and even though Fermenting Innards' one full-length is more of a  black/death hybrid than the previous EP, it still surprised me at just how seamlessly it mixed the two. Regardless, as soon as I heard this, I knew it should have gone home with me instead of my friend, who would never give it the love that I could, and thus I had to instantly burn a copy until I could fetch my own...which I believe I have lying around somewhere in storage, but my brain fogs, and it's possible that I lost it along the way or have a bad memory. Basically, good readers, you need to send me all your Fermenting Innards CDs stat.

Myst definitely starts more on the black metal side, with an amazing, almost militant dark ambient synth intro, and then a gorgeously textured, moonlit volley of blasting with some brooding, effective synths behind it in the title track, almost with the feel of something like earlier Dimmu Borgir. This track is immortally catchy, but definitely the substrate of rhythm guitars has a churning, death metal quality that will manifest more prominently elsewhere on the album, like the astonishingly good track "Those Burning Thorns", with an amazing blend of chords and melodies that almost write their own melodic death metal language akin to Finland's masters Demilich. The entire album is like this, a veritable riff-fest which can effortlessly shift between the two styles, though I think death metal covers a little more of the actual 47 minutes of the album (the black metal aesthetics return in a big way later on tracks like "The Rising in Northern Storm" and "Svartfoldet hat"). The vocals are a great hybrid of growls and rasped, often 'harmonized' with others, and the guitars have an atmospheric, washed out tone to them which keeps them fresh. The drum mix is pretty solid, the cleaner guitars transcend into the distortion well enough, the low end murky and thick.

Perhaps its this hybridization, or lack of full commitment to one of its two halves that held Fermenting Innards back from more success? I know that we often give that same tag to groups like Dissection, but here it really felt like walking straight down the line on those few blended tracks. There are a few odd choices, like they include a cover of Nirvana 2002's "Mourning" which feels closer to the original and thus out of place to the Germans, or the one holdover "Eternal Sadness" from the EP, which they've given a Paradise Lost Gothic spin complete with deep clean vocals, but these are both enjoyable, they just give the album a slight incongruity of identity, and I can understand why some might have found it too incoherent. For me, it still sounds as fresh and fantastic and well-written as the day I first heard it, and will always remain a gem, from the weird artwork to the mid-90s production. I believe two of the members were also a part of Golem, another excellent band off the Invasion roster, so go and check them out if you enjoyed this, though they've got a more purely Carcass-based sound. Myst is a treat, though, and if it hasn't gone a reissue it is a prime candidate.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

Sleeping Gods - Above and Beyond (1995)

I can't remember what classic album cover this one reminds me of, it's obviously a tribute or parody of some sort and entirely too goofy to adorn a doom metal album, which is more or less what the Sleeping Gods debut represents. Above and Beyond is an introduction to another long lost of the German Goth metal bands that probably had a little more fuel in their tanks than we would give them credit for, released independently at first and enough to get them signed over to the local AFM label which most of you will probably recognize more for its heavy/power metal, but has always been willing to show some support in other niches if they hear some potential...which the Sleeping Gods do possess.

Even here, on this cruder, early material, they've got a sense for using sad melodies amidst the heavier drudge of chords, gruff guttural vocals, and a decent production for such a lower budget release. The obvious comparison is Pyogenesis, and if you told me that this was an unreleased Pyogenesis album I wouldn't blink for a second of disbelief. The songs aren't quite so sticky and heart-warming as Sweet X-Rated Nothings, but just the guitar tone and vocal are enough to feel like they are nearly a doppelganger. The songs are simpler, rocking but not without a little mood and depth do the darker disposition of those vocals, but they often fail to escalate into some truly worthy chorus. I also felt like a few of the drums were weak, and the guitar tone on the little leads is just too thin and wimpy to really deserve its place above the fatter rhythm tracks.

They're not above a few risks like the female operatic guest vocal in "Blood is Thicker Than Water", which instantly elevates that track to another level of interest, although otherwise it sounds like an outtake from Sweet X-Rated Nothings. The dreary ballad "Viviane's Lamentation" brings those vocals back, and once again that automatically makes it stand out because of the contrast between her high pitch and the moody low-end, but they bungle that up with some boring clean male vocals and it does end up a little amateurish. At any rate, while far from terrible, this is the weakest of the Sleeping Gods' three albums, enough for a curiosity when you're deep diving through this scene, but not an enduring work by any means.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

Vomiturition - A Leftover (1995)

Vomiturition's only full-length album was a great payoff from the previous EPs, which were improving in quality, but nowhere quite near this level. While we heard a lot of Florida influence in the earlier material, A Leftover casts a wider net, bringing in a few influences form their fellow Finns and also the Swedish scene. Interestingly, the latter comes more through a sense of composition rather than the ripping Stockholm guitar tone that has remained so trendy over the decades. I can hear a little Dismember at times, but moreover this earns some comparisons to Seance's Fornever Laid to Rest, another European death album which cultivated a clear American influence. There are even some simple, grinding D-beat like rhythms, or death & roll parts to balance out the more technical or progressive components here.

The drumming here is pure thunder, so much going on at times that it can even come off a fraction messy, but it's clearly the beating heart of the material and gives it so much of its fiery impulse. The rhythm guitar is nice and pungent and dense, quite similar to the Head Tales EP, and the guttural vocals have a tone to them which works either as a gruesome guttural or a more raucous bark. The songs themselves are like a potpourri of death metal niches from the world over, sometimes shuffling and dark and progressive, others rocking your face off like a jam between Napalm Death and Wolverine Blues. It might not create its own unique Finnish death metal language like Nespithe or North From Here, but there's just so much happening that it builds Vomiturition into its own little corner of the Finnish scene. While not always catchy, it's always busy, and you can't quite tell what will arrive around any of the riff's corners, making for a fun listen in the mid-90s, and thanks to the potent production this one is still entertaining to listen through today.

The cover art is obviously an improvement, and though there are 12 tracks, they keep it manageable at under 40 minutes. A Leftover is an easy recommendation because it sounds so fresh, and manages to pack together those elements of OSDM, grind, groove, and so forth into something that feels wholly coherent to its gloomy confines. But when I say 'gloomy', I don't mean it's necessary dull or dour, there is an inescapable energy to its design which is constantly rowdy and violent yet dark and oblique. This was yet another gem in the crown of that beloved, obsolete Invasion Records imprint, and a band that would have had plenty of potential moving forward, with this many tools in their torture chamber.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

Killengod - Transcendual Consciousness (1995)

With all the love foisted upon obscure death metal of the 80s and 90s, down to the demo level, it's hard to believe that this Australian band, Killengod, goes unnoticed. Sure, the cover art is hideous, the name of the band is a bit dumb, but the production and songs on this 1995 debut, Transcendual Consciousness (whatever that means) are tight enough that I can imagine those into a more semi-brutal acts of that time period like Malevolent Creation or Deicide would get a kick out of this. Come to think of it, the name actually seems to me like a lazy alternative to Deicide, and the band has a lot of stylistic comparisons with Benton and company. I'll even go further to say that the production job on this CD is even better than half of what Scott Burns was putting out, so there it is.

This is equal parts fast brutality and groove-based death metal which is heavily rooted in the Florida style, with perhaps a sliver of sensibility towards bands like Biohazard when they go into a breakdown, though this wasn't a foreign technique to death metal itself either. The riffs chug along in engaging if forgettable patterns, and they aren't afraid to throw some weirdness over the top like flange ("Soul Mutilation"). They use a dual vocal, the most apt comparison to Deicide, with the snarl and guttural going off in constant unison, and it sounds pretty nasty and silly at the same time, but I doubt the latter was the intent. The drums are damn solid, with steady double kick, fun fills and some blasting, though never so much that it becomes monotonous, and they also seem to stick with the guttural in those parts and it sounds fairly awesome. Like their Floridian forebears Deicide and Cannibal Corpse, there is definitely also a bit of a thrash influence here which directly translates into some of the riffing, but much of it meat-fisted and brutal death metal, but lacking the overt complexity some of the bands were starting to branch into.

The lead aren't great, but they add a nice dimension of messiness over the thrust of the low end, and the bass is warbling all over the place. The band actually did their best to vary this one up, they'll have a clean acoustic part here or some rhythmic shifts that sound like nothing else on the album as in "Experimental Evidence", which sounds more like a brute thrash tune via Sacred Reich or Demolition Hammer. The title track also steps off into the Twilight Zone with a weird mix of groove, thick bass lines, chugging build-ups and a cool, weird ambient intro which sounds like water running, bells being rung and some warped samples of alien pleasure. Transcendual Consciousness deserves far more credit than I'd give it just by first impressions, for such an unknown record it sounds quite competent, and the songs are frenetic and fun, especially for a time when the chugging and grooves were still in vogue. If you enjoy that period of death metal when Suffocation, Cryptopsy and the aforementioned Florida acts were fast becoming gods, you could do much worse than check this one out if you can find it.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

Helloween - High Live (1996)

As a big fan of the first two Helloween albums with Andi Deris on the microphone, I was actually pretty excited to hear how it would come across live. Not only the great new material which his voice was written with and molded to, but also how he might handle some of the classics in the catalogue that Hansen or Kiske tackled. Enter High Live, a double disc of tunes recorded in Italy and Spain where I'm assuming the powers and popularity of the post-Chameleon Helloween were a little stronger than they were here in the States. I picked this up back at Media Play near the University of Massachusetts Amherst, back when that chain was a thing, and remember promptly putting it my dorm room stereo, then giving it a few listens, being satisfied if not terribly impressed, and then putting it away for a very long time.

Going back, I probably favor this a little more than I did in the 90s, and that's largely because I've grown into an even bigger fan of the Deris-era material, and I rather like the atmosphere present on these discs, which reminds me a lot of 80s live album favorites like Live After Death. The guitars are good and clear, but still have a bit of classic metal dirtiness to them, even despite the highly melodic nature of the playing on their material, and the loads of little detail in the leads, squeals, and effects in tunes like the excellent "Wake Up the Mountain". Drums are quite prominent, bass is set just right, and so too are the vocals, which are spot on for at least 80% of the time. There are a few lines where Andi's silky vocals seem to swerve a fraction off the key you're expecting, but I think you could say the same of almost all frontmen when there aren't studio re-dubs available. For the most part, though, he is all business and exactly what I wanted to hear. The selection on this album is also quite awesome because it focuses so heavily on Master of the Rings and Time of the Oath, which have become evergreen titles for me in the Helloween backlog. "Sole Survivor", "Where the Rain Grows", "Steel Tormentor", "In the Middle of a Heartbeat", "Perfect Gentlemen", "We Burn", it's all here...

So the question is, how does he sound on the classics? We get the answer to that a little after half way through the first disc, when they tackle "Eagle Fly Free", and you immediately notice the difference, since his mid-range, whispered pitch is quite different than his predecessor, and it doesn't translate quite as well across the verse and pre-chorus...however, once that chorus arrives, he sounds quite good. There is that slight, wavering quality to his voice that I've always enjoyed...he's not the template power metal singer like Kiske before him, but to this day I still think Andi is the most unique, and it's actually fun to hear how he is going to approach each line, what he's going to inject in there. He sounds even better on "Future World" and "Dr. Stein" where he uses that crazier, high pitch, but there aren't a lot of older tunes to be had...perhaps there were in the full set lists, but for this recording I think it's probably a good idea that they stick to the material where he's strongest, which is quite good.

These days you've got a number of live album options for your Helloween collection, and I'll get into a few more of them, but High Live stands out to me as one of the best for the reasons I've listed. The musical performances are great, this was such a strong lineup (regardless of what became of it later), and it's a positive showcase for a new vocalist that some were probably skeptical of, which is silly to think of in 2021 since he's had by far the longest stint fronting the band. Very glad I came back around to this one because it's stronger than I remember.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.helloween.org/

Rage - Black in Mind (1995)

Black in Mind is many ways the ultimate '90s Rage album', cognizant of the decade which led to it, but embracing a bit more of a stripped down production and harder grooving sensibility than the previous albums, to keep it current with the heavier trends of its day. I'm not saying the band had set out to create the German proxy for A Vulgar Display of Power, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that Peavy and company had sat down and felt the influence of efforts like that as they continued to modernize themselves out of the shrieking excesses of the 80s. The band does not exactly shy away from some faster material, but clearly that is not the focus when writing most of the tracks on this album. I think the places where this still resembles the earlier material the most is in the great lead-work and the distinctive Peavy Wagner vocals.

I have problems with it...the songs on this album are far better than the production, which continue to feel slightly off as it was on The Missing Link. It's the way the vocals are filtered into the mix, or a constant feel that there's an airy wisp or hiss somewhere in the interaction of the drums, guitars and vocals that just doesn't sound as clean as it was meant. Perhaps its my equipment, but I've compared a few of the different masters of this one and while some do well to spiff it up, I still get that nagging sensation, and it does curb some of my enjoyment of what is otherwise a strong Rage effort for a new era. Wagner's vocals are very restrained here, far more focused on angrier, raging verses in "Alive but Dead" or "The Crawling Chaos"; he even woofs out a few harsher barks on the precipice of guttural. He does throw out some higher and more melodic chorus vocals to rein this in, like in "Shadow Out of Time", but he definitely sounds pissed off and constipated through a lot of the run-time...never to the point of caricature, but it's just not my favorite performance. The riffs here are much more chugging and crunchy, not bereft of some dexterity or frenzied pacing like the title track, but just so measured, which actually helps the solos to shine more as they just stick out from the dingy undercurrent like glints of gold spotted in a stream.

Lots of horror-based lyrics, the band has often had a fascination with Lovecraft's cosmic horror and I don't feel as if they've ever gotten enough credit for that, but it certainly runs through this record like a black blood to its angry, beating heart, and of the half-dozen 90s 'classics' here: "Black in Mind", "The Crawling Chaos", "Alive but Dead", "Sent by the Devil", "Shadow Out of Time" and "In a Nameless Time", the theme is strongly represented. A couple other tracks like "The Icecold Hand of Destiny" and "Until I Die", with the latter's screaming, definitely have riffing motifs or overall vibes that remind me a lot of the band's masterworks from the latter half of the 80s, but these too are shaken a bit from the production values, which if I'm being honest, seem to be an issue for me more than others who were probably just getting into the band at the time. Black in Mind is yet another of the Germans' myriad works worthy of respect, and I admire how they were able to make the aesthetic, stylistic shifts of the time without abandoning their identity, but this is one I'd love to hear with a severe remastering unlike those we've already gotten, or even a re-recording. It's not the material itself, as is evident when you hear the live versions of some of these gems, which sound more vital.

I think if you ran them up against a number of their contemporaries of the time, they fared quite well. Of the 9 studio albums to its day, all were very good or better other than the piecemeal Ten Years in Rage. Peavy and his new lineup might have strayed further from their roots than Running Wild, who with Masquerade sounded like a more polished, seasoned version of the same thing (not complaining), but not nearly so much as the 90s Accept. It works though: solid riffs, structures, ideas that were fresh and not terribly derived from their own canon, some aggression, good lyrics. I just don't love how it sounds in my speakers, and the two and a half decades since haven't warmed me up to that aspect.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.rage-official.com/

Morta Skuld - For All Eternity (1995)

While they've never been numbered among the most legendary US death metal acts, one can make a solid case for the earlier works of Wisconsin's Morta Skuld as minor Midwest 90s cult classics, in particular the debut Dying Remains, which at its best was almost capable of going toe to toe with some of its Floridian forebears of around the same period. With the four full-lengths they released from '93-'97, however, there was a fairly steady, if not immediate decline in them writing much of interest, which bottomed out on the album Surface, upon which mediocrity was finally achieved. For All Eternity, their third album, and their first with UK's Peaceville Records, shows that there was still a little bit of fight left, a number of riffs that were clearly winners wedged among some that weren't.

I liken their style on this one to a heavier take on Chuck Schuldiner's Death, primarily the sense of pacing; or perhaps a few pages torn from the Obituary sophomore Cause of Death, or the first few Gorguts discs. The focus is on slower, heavy grooves, but keeping them dynamic and interesting, with some nice tremolo picked patterns and no tendency whatsoever to dwell on anything that might border on boring. Once in awhile they break out into a faster pattern, but they are all about keeping this thing heavy and really fleshing out all those chugging palm mute patterns so that they're easy to distinguish from one another. There's also a bit of influence here from more clinical thrash sounds, used in bridges or breakaway sections before they barrel back into some Morbid Angel-like groove. There are clearly a lot of riffs here that don't quite pass muster, but they just keep those breakdowns and tempo shifts rolling along, so the overall bodies of the tracks are well arranged and keep you interested if you dig your death metal plodding and pugilistic without being interminably dull.

The vocals are a gruff growl redolent of the bands I mentioned above, and not the strongest point of the record since they don't vary it up all that much by the lyrical patterns, but still competent enough, and I can't imagine what other style would really match the rhythm guitars. They lack the psychotic edge of a John Tardy, and actually cross a bridge into the more brutal death vocal style that was becoming popular around the same time through groups like Suffocation and Malevolent Creation. The drums here are very tight and groovy, the guitar tune a bit muffled but not as much as some of Scott Burns' worse mixes, and I think it's better produced than As Humanity Fades was, although the riff quality is fairly even on both those records. The cover art is pretty cool, the lyrics are more personal and thoughtful (ala Death) rather than a gorefest, and I'd have to say that if you were out scouring the past for some well-constructed death metal, this one holds up fairly well to this day. If not game-changing or constantly memorable, it's at least capable of filling out its 48 minute length without putting anyone to sleep.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (innocence is over)

https://www.facebook.com/MortaSkuld

Damnation - Reborn... (1995)

It's easy to pore over the Polish death metal scene of the last decade and admit it's one of the very best in the world, with acts like Vader or Behemoth or upstarts Decapitated having vaulted well beyond any barriers to underground legend status, even to penetrate into the mainstream in some instances and territories. But I find it even more curious to dial back the years and observe how such a 'scene' developed, and for the region that birthed the aforementioned there seemed a pretty solid expansion in the 90s when the influential Floridian, Dutch, British, Finnish and Swedish sounds were being intensified or outright upstaged by the emergence of more technical, extreme or brutal strains of death. Damnation seems a band long overlooked, along with peers like Devilyn, Dead Infection, and Atrophia Red Sun; a band who gradually evolved into a potential contender but just never broke the surface membrane of that scene to grow a large audience throughout the rest of Europe and beyond.

Reborn... was the first of the three full-lengths they'd produce, and for my ears, the shabbiest, but not for a lack of trying. The clear inspiration here was early Florida, with a guitar tone and riffing style not unlike veterans Deicide, slightly muffled in the mix on the tremolo mutes, but not enough to hide it's frantic pacing. They branched out a little further than that, though, with a more atmospheric use of the strings in tracks like "Maldoror is Dead", and also possessed an explosive edge on some of the faster tracks which will no doubt bring to mind Morbid Angel or Malevolent Creation. Leads and transitions are often rough spots on this recording, with the former occasionally nailing a degree of evil resonance, but more often a little awkward and undeveloped. The latter sometimes just coming off more sloppy than intended as the drummer throws out some brutal fills, or perhaps it's just the production casting some untoward attention in the wrong places, creating a bit too broad a gulf between the percussion and the guitars. That isn't a complete detriment, however, since I'll grant that Reborn... does gain a boost to its atmosphere thanks to the combination of clarity and crudeness.

Vocals are a voluminous guttural, punctured only by a few sparse snarls, and they too help to round out the mean and murky feel they're going for, spitting forth lyrics about darkness, sorrow, and the occult which were all fairly comparable to other early European death metal acts, with a little of the overt Deicide/Slayer sacrilege for good measure. Some samples and ambient sections are used to decorate the record's playtime, and these feel a little uncouth and undercooked much like their metallic counterparts...cool for the cheesy, ominous horror they allude to, but could have been better implemented to rocket off into the metal segments. All told, for its production flaws and lack of really interesting or memorable riffs, I have to hand it to Reborn... for at least sounding like one of those 'genuine' retro death metal experiences that you can place to the year of its own conception. If you're only seeking to thrust yourself back into that earlier 90s mindset, to submerse yourself in the morbid humours of that decade, then you could probably do much worse...however, I would note that the busier sophomore Rebel Souls is a superior album in most every way, the real hidden gem of their catalog.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (I trample the cross of hypocrisy)

Sentenced - Love & Death (1995)

The Love & Death EP was a bittersweet moment for me, since it represented the end of Taneli Jarva's tenure in Sentenced and thus my intense interest in the band. Not because of Jarva alone, but because once they picked up their new vocalist they took the tunes a little too far into the accessible/Gothic metal range, which would not be a problem if they excelled in that area, but they really did not after a spell...Down is probably the most solid of that era and there was a scarcity to the quality beyond that point. But something about hearing Jarva's manly growls and grunts over the band's conversion into melodic, rock & roll infused death metal made Amok a jewel among my collection, an album I still break out on a regular basis, one of my favorite Finnish metal albums in history...Love & Death, if nothing more, is a sorrowful farewell to that unusual chemistry which made the band so special to begin with.

It picks up with a tune that would have felt right at home on the prior album, "The Way I Wanna Go", which I had heard before this released and thus gave me every reason to acquire it. It does take on a little more of a Gothic rock direction with the echoing clean guitars and woeful, cleaner vocals that Jarva would use a lot more in The Black League later, but once it picks up and they start nailing us with those simple, melodic chord progressions he swerves back towards that enormous, imperfect and unforgettable roar. Lots of great riffs in this one, especially the little melodies with the wah wah that reflect the earlier guitar passage, and that glorious bridge where the synthesizers are splayed out behind the core band. "Obsession" is another highlight, way more chuggy rock & roll with a nice, crashing lead/bridge, and "Dreamlands" has an amazing synth intro, but the tune most people are going to make a b-line towards here is the cover of Billy Joel's "White Wedding", which with Taneli singing sounds just as hilarious as you'd expect...I mean they play it pretty close to the belt but it's awesome, I almost want this to be my default version of the song.

Jarva is just that lovable, like a massive teddy bear from a land of cold and suicides, and his weird charm sold me on this band just as much as the fantastic riffing on North from Here and Amok. That said, the EP does feel a little uneven in places, with some of the riffs and baselines feeling a little too polished for his growls. The rhythm guitar occasionally seems too loud or too soft, but it might also be that here the Finns were experimenting more with different guitar tones in conjunction to give it a driving pop feel in places, and a more trad metal aesthetic elsewhere. The final track, "Love & Death" itself, is an amalgamation of what's gone on before it on the EP, but for some reason it doesn't stand out to my memory as much as the rest of the content. At any rate, I've never owned the version that came with The Trooper single attached, but most people these days will luck out and get this for free alongside the Amok reissue, which this material mostly pales in comparison too, but was a worthy enough successor to the extent that I was quite excited to hear what the next full length with Jarva would have sounded like...aaaand got Down and The Black League debut instead, which were hardly rock-bottom but just not as good. Love & Death: Goth-tempered, enjoyable heavy metal.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (like she was at the End)

http://www.sentenced.org/

Samael - Rebellion EP (1995)

Rebellion is at the very least an interesting little median between Samael's strongest albums, a relic from a time when most bands still seemed to care about releasing short-form works that had some unique content and genuine value. At the time it was easily the most experimental and varied of their recordings, if only because they saw fit to really test the waters beyond metal with some of Xytras' evocative, ritualistic ambient music with beats (something they'd further extrapolate with Era One/Lessons in Magick #1). But I also remember this for its iconic serpentine yin-yang cover imagery and for having a few pretty decent, harder hitting tunes which mark that transition from Ceremony of Opposites to the sheer brilliance which lay just past it...

Of course, two of these are the re-recordings of older tunes, "After the Sepulture" and "Into the Pentagram", which I'm sure somehow infuriated someone, but strangely did not suffer from being given a Passage-like makeover with the upgraded production. Not that I have a huge problem with the original incarnations, but these are crafted well enough that I can't say I'd mind if the process was applied to a bunch of their other seminal material. The bass and vocal effects sound superb, the rhythm guitar tone meatier (ala Ceremony) and the melodies and atmosphere really ramped up. The other heavy piece here is "Rebellion" itself, a rousing piece which canters along with the same, menacing and grooving cadence present on Ceremony only with the synthesizers creating that cosmic mystique which so enamored me to the following album. I'll say it: when I first experienced the EP, that was my hands down favorite tune of the band's career up to its day, but I've since retrogressed to enjoying a few of its predecessors more ("Baphomet's Throne", "Black Trip", etc). Still, really dig some of the unexpected progressions in the keyboards, and it still sounds bad ass.

The EP is rounded out with a cover of Alice Cooper's "I Love the Dead" which is integrated rather well into the Samael sound. Hearing Vorphalack's goofy rasp hit the melody in the chorus is admittedly quite hilarious. That tune always reminded me of high school, but can you imagine showing up to Prom with this guy? Inverted crucifix in his cumberbun?! Lastly there are the two versions of "Static Journey", the first of which feels like an electrified Dead Can Dance, all martial bombast and synthetic industrial sounds used to convey an almost Predator-like threat that develops along an axis of clanking pipe-work and even a pulsing, inevitable techno beat. Basically this tune sets up the instrumental/alternate version of Passage, and the hidden version at the end of the disc features Vorph doing his best Laibach/Das Ich impression to boot. Again, a little unintentionally silly sounding, but still pretty excellent (the instrumental take in particular).

These days, this is conveniently attached to the 2001 CD reissue of Ceremony of Opposites, and I think aesthetically it matches up pretty well with the content of that full-length, but even in its original format this was not at all a waste of money for any Samael fan who was content to follow the group's gradual transformation. Considering the promotional detritus maxi-singles they'd put out for future efforts, this one had the courtesy of standing on its own two feet, even if one of those feet was re-recorded/cover material. I still break it out from time to time, though it's obviously wanting when compared to its immediate full-length neighbors.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (instinct is not the path of man)

http://www.samael.info/Above/index.html

Exmortem - Labyrinths of Horror (1995)

Another of those casualties of the mid-90s death metal era, who nonetheless managed a substantial career of six strong albums over 15 years. More than anything else, Denmark's Exmortem might have suffered from having forgettable artwork on most of their albums, because they just might have been the best band in their scene, easily elbowing out more visible contemporaries like Iniquity, Invocator and Illdisposed in terms of consistency and long-term appeal. Labyrinths of Horror is only the tip of the iceberg, but remains one of the first outings of theirs that I would heartily recommend. Now, more than ever, the cloud of old school death gnat...advocates born through the later 80s and 90s should give this group some of that long-delayed affection they always deserved, because they sit so perfectly balanced upon that precipice where simplicity meets brutality, borrowing only from some of their most impressive forerunners, and ensuring the listener that he or she will feel completely run through. Impaled. Gore. Trampled. Left to ponder the wisdom of becoming a death metal fan in the first place. Yeah, motherfuckers, you should have just gone with Weezer.

Denmark never really had a unified 'scene' aesthetic, unlike the Scandinavian sects of Sweden and Finland, so this doesn't precisely sound like Panzerchrist or Corpus Mortale beyond the obvious similarities in growls, guitar tunings, and general unfriendliness of the genre. Labyrinths of Horror is possessed of this rich, ripping guitar tone which can run with most of the Swedes, but the total nihilism of the main vocals and mindless blasting that often breaks out here has more in common with the US scene, specifically Florida and New York, some ungodly union of Obituary and Incantation. There's also quite a bit of Dutch inspiration, particularly via Pestilence or Asphyx, largely in the backing vocals which take on the grotesque pallor of Martin van Drunen (with a little John Tardy for good measure). Really, though, this debut shows the Danes at their most 'innocent' and straightforward. Labyrinths is an entirely riff-driven, ugly death metal record with about as much subtlety as a trash bag of human body parts left stinking behind the slaughterhouse. Doesn't take a huge leap of logic to realize what happened there, and what will happen to you if you were to fuck with these guys...guttural, slimy, evil, and eschewing melody for pure, punishing viscera.

Not a lot of atmosphere, and the riffing progressions are not necessarily the most memorable nor the most malevolent in composition, so it's clear Exmortem did not have a debut on their hands which would rival icons of the first wave like Left Hand Path, Realm of Chaos, Altars of Madness, etc. Intelligent, viral lead outbreaks are also not really a part of this picture, it's all too 'working class'...this butcher isn't working the leanest cuts of meat for an upscale banquet, he's just hacking into whatever is unfortunate enough to happen along. But at the same time, there's a particular timelessness to the meaty rhythm guitar tone, the spankish drum production and the overly ominous, deep Craig Pillard-esque growl which still makes me pull the covers over my head and pray for the killer to pass me over and kill the person in the next house. Alright, I'm exaggerating...I'd just shoot the bastard, but it's difficult to imagine even a handful of bullets putting this grisly beast down. Labyrinths of Horror isn't unique, it's not innovative, it's not melodic, it's not the best album by Exmortem and it doesn't care. In fact, there's nothing 'labyrinthine' or complex anywhere, which is the worst you could say for it. Simply a mouldering heap of rot, flies buzzing all over it, rats pulling at scraps as you gaze on in horror of how a living, loving, laughing being could become just yesterday's meat. You know you want a bite.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (recommending amputation)

Candle Serenade - Nosferatu's Passion (1995)

One of my 'goals' this Halloween season was to head back in time to the 90s/early 21st century and revisit a lot of the cheesy Gothic/black metal hybrids that were once making waves in the wake of Cradle of Filth and Therion's success over the same period. Not to imply that all of the bands were all biting off these more familiar names stylistically, but there certainly seemed an era when that lowest common denominator 'haunted house' factor was this fresh, unexplored aesthetic in extreme metal that bands were diving into with vampiric lyrics, synthesizers, and of course the implementation of wailing female vocals. Some of the recordings I hold dear despite their obvious limitations, and others not so much, but after storming through the catalogs of Hecate Enthroned, Ancient, Graveworm, Siebenbürgen, Abyssos and numerous others, I suddenly remembered this 'gem' of a disc gathering dust in one of numerous forgotten boxes of my CD collection...okay, not exactly a gem.

I picked up Nosferatu's Passion some time in the later 90s, at one of Koshick's Milwaukee Metalfests. Remember when those were a thing? Remember when they were THE thing? At any rate, this wasn't exactly an blind or impulse purchase, as I had read some zines that placed Candle Serenade in that whole Gothic black and doom metal scene emerging from Portugal (Moonspell, Heavenwood, Desire, etc), but I was also drawn to the grim packaging, sloppy but symmetrical logo, and frankly I had a 'thing' for that whole vampire mythology drawn from a fascination with Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, and White Wolf tabletop RPGs like Vampire the Masquerade, Vampire: The Dark Ages, and so forth. No, I wasn't so much a dork that I was drinking wine and pretending it was blood, or engaging in mutual wrist-cutting rituals with the few ladies who might be willing to sup upon me, but I was pretty fond of classic horror, and even though my preference was for the raw black metal shit like Deathcrush or A Blaze in the Northern Sky, I had no real issue with those imaginative, dreamer bands who were trying to turn it into some kind of symphonic spectacle in lieu of limited resources and oft-substandard songwriting skills.

Well, once I finally trekked back to Massholeville and actually had the chance to go through all my loot, I can't say I was thrilled with this, immediately relegating it to the 'perhaps I will listen again' stack and then moving on to far better stuff. Every now and then I've broken this out to attempt some sort of appreciation, but ultimately I've got to conclude that Nosferatu's Passion, while a well-meaning disc that hovers on the precipices of both black and doom metal, is pretty fucking mediocre. I guess the best way to describe this would be as a mix of Moonspell's first EP, the earlier Theater of Tragedy records, and Therion's Lepaca Kliffoth (which came out the same year, one of my favorite Gothic metal records and infinitely superior to this). The use of the flute tones is somewhat reminiscent of Kawir from Greece, but obviously there's a little bit of a cultural divide and they don't give off that same rustic effect; they're not piping at you from gleeful, sylvan glades where ancient fauns dance, but rather following ghostly lights down corridors, disembodied floating hands with candles in them en route to some ritual. In fact, when it comes to the 'black' metal elements on this recording, which are scarce, there is some other parallelism to the Greek scene in that Candle Serenade tended to play slowly with a lot of simple guitar melodies.

Tunes like "Celtic Lir's Sons (Sad Erin's Legend)", for instance, seem like an alternate spin on the stuff that Rotting Christ, Nightfall or Varathron were putting out, or Root/Master's Hammer from the Czech scene, only nowhere near as poignant or memorable. There's that pervading sense of 'alternate' evolution. Nobody handed these guys a guidebook on 'black metal dos and don'ts', so it bears precious little similarity to the usual Scandinavian sources. Of course, Nosferatu's Passion would not have suffered from some bursts of infectious tremolo picking, some storming surges of energy. The entire album seems too content with its laconic sensibilities, constant glazes of guitar melodies that fail to catch the ear. They're really into using a lot of synthesizer sequences which sound like what you'd hear trekking around a graveyard or necropolis in some old computer RPG from the 90s. Not only in the 3/8ths of the track list that are pure intros or interludes, but also in sizable chunks of the lengthy tracks like "Transylvanic Mistress", which can take a long time to build in intensity and then never offer the payoff it needs to feel as if the song has actually transported you anywhere...honestly, Nosferatu's Passion is rather dull...it's biggest crime.

The production seems a little better than I can remember, but then that happens a lot when I'm going these old atmospheric black metal records like Siebenbürgen or Bishop of Hexen. I think a part of me just pines for these simpler times when bands were just lucky to get the instruments to a coherent mix and get something out through an inevitably doomed label (if I'm not mistaken, Guardians of Metal released less than a dozen titles). The drums pop through, the synthesizers are voluminous but contrast enough with the rhythm guitars and vocals that they don't drown them out, and the bass lines, while nothing extraordinary are at least audible. I think my biggest gripe here would be that the guitars sort of stumble along without much impact... not only are the 'riffs' pretty bland, but they simply lack the power or eloquence to successfully provoke the escapism of the lyrics. Vocally, Candle Serenade is also a little scattershot. The harsh vocals have more of a gruff bark to them, slightly reminding me of Johan Edlund on some of the older Tiamat stuff, but there are also some weird clean sections which seem a little 'off' in tuning (something I also felt about a few of the guitar melodies). The female operatic guest vocals are rather inconsequential though not unexpected. The clean guitar tone is also a fraction murky, so these sequences don't really shine on the album like they might with a proper 12-string mix.

All studio gripes aside, Nosferatu's Passion really just strains credibility because for an album that seems so imminently dark, suffocating and possibly undead in inspiration, it never once seems menacing or evil, not at any time visceral or ethereal in its horrors. Granted, not all the lyrics revolve around vampiric topics like Murnau's Nosferatu film, there is also a fascination here for Celtic myth and other history, but I've heard a grade school quartet sing the "Monster Mash" and it sounded spookier. Candle Serenade seems to avoid the incorporation of the darker atmosphere generated through a lot of minor scale exploration and general dissonance, and the riffing lines seem satisfied as seats for the keyboards, only neither is doing much worth a damn. Nothing on this debut is outright offensive or utterly irredeemable, but lyrically and musically you could put on anything by Cradle of Filth, Therion or Tiamat from the 90s, or any aesthetic median between any of the three, and benefit more than Nosferatu's Passion. Hell, pick up Medieval Demon's obscure debut Demonolatria from 1998...much better. I hate to say it, but the most notable thing about this short lived act was its name...one of those handles that seems to just DESERVE better music. No offense, but if I had just spent a hundred years in my coffin and heard someone playing this in an attempt to lull me out, I think I'd just remain in torpor, thirsty, for another century.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains (1995)

After nearly a year on hiatus, Alice in Chains released their self-titled LP in the fall of 1995. Coming off a length of time that saw the band deal with a cancelled tour, side projects, and a lead singer struggling with heroin addiction, the recordings here symbolize a band that wasn't quite holding itself together. Much like the three-legged dog in the album's cover art, the music here feels at times like there is something missing. In all the time I've had to listen to this album over the years, I've never really been able to appreciate it outside of a few moments here and there. 

To start, the album's overall production is much more... sludgy then on previous works. The album sounds like it was recorded in somebody's garage, lacking the scope of sound present on Dirt, or even Facelift. While the more intimate recording gives it a certain quality that I'm sure the band was eager to experiment with, I have never felt like it had an edge over the metallic quality of their earlier work. With the band's trademark vocal harmonies, it sounds like the band went the route of layering Layne Staley's own voice over himself, as opposed to having Staley and Jerry Cantrell's distinct voices compliment each other; the result is a kind of acidic drone in some of the vocal lines that, once again, don't do much for me. Case in point, the verses in "Again" and "Brush Away"; both songs seem to remove Cantrell from the equation. Again, it's probably part of the aesthetic the band was going for here, but it's not winning any accolades from me. 

That's not to say the album is all bad, and I certainly don't mean to come down on it as hard as it seems I am. The blending of acoustic and electric elements on some of the songs is a welcome step for the band; "Heaven Beside You" and "Over Now" are two of the more memorable tracks. The former devolves into a discordant grind in the second half of the song that provides an effective shift in tone, while "Over Now" is an excellent closer to entire album. Both songs recall the stellar "Brother" and "Got Me Wrong" from Sap, which is a plus. 

The album is not afraid to get heavy in some parts; things get particularly crushing during the aptly-named "Sludge Factory". Again, the vocals here don't quite do it for me 100% of the time, but they are unsettling and provide a great dressing for the fuzzy distortion of Cantrell's riffs. But, what can I say about the last three minutes of the seven(!!!)-minute song that amounts to nothing but guitar-dickery and Staley repeating the word "guilt" over and over? Puzzling. "Frogs" is another song in a similar vein as "Sludge Factory", with a pained and mournful chorus; "Why's it have to be this way?" Staley asks, to a desolate soundscape that offers little answers. It suffers the same problems as "Sludge Factory" though, in that it just crawls along for far too long, like algae growing along the surface of a pond. 

The rest of the album is an amalgamation of the band's works up to that point, with songs like "Grind" and "Again" providing the mid-tempo chug that wouldn't be out of place on Dirt, and the aforementioned acoustic-laden tracks naturally evolve from Sap and Jar of Flies. But for all of its value as a culmination of what came before, I don't feel like AiC quite found their footing here. Perhaps it's reflective of the time during which it was written, but Alice in Chains ultimately comes off as sounding like a band struggling to come to terms with the very real personal issues plaguing its members, and I can respect the fact that others may find something to appreciate there. It would have been interesting to see where things went after this in regards to new material, but as history has shown it was not meant to be (not with Staley at the helm, at least); this proved to be the last new studio material from the band for fourteen years. 

This is not an album I find myself revisiting very often, and in doing so for this review, it becomes apparent why.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] (Hey, I know I made the same mistakes)

http://www.aliceinchains.com/home/

Immolation - Stepping on Angels...Before Dawn (1995)

While it often takes a band many years into its career to assemble their demos and rarities into a fan package, Immolation struck fairly early on with Stepping on Angels...Before Dawn, put out through the Repulse Records out of Spain just before the four-year anticipation of the New Yorkers' sophomore Here in After reached a boil. Almost as if the band wanted to just get it out of the way, reveal their embarrassing past, and move forward from that point on. Only the material collected here is not only comprehensive, but it's not at all embarrassing. What you've got is a chronological collection of demo cuts which follow Immolation's gradual transformation from the death/thrash roots of the 80s to the formidable act we today recognize, all in one place, with no bullshit and no sense that they've left any stone unturned. I can't promise you'll be able to track down a copy without resorting to illicit means, but if you're interested in hearing where the New Yorkers' came from, Stepping on Angels... bares all.

The earliest material hearkens from when the group was known as Rigor Mortis, before Ross Dolan had entered the picture. Guitarists Robert Vigna and Tom Wilkinson were present, and they wrote a brute but concise form of mid-paced thrash, with death barks and bass contributed by Andrew Sakowicz. The best comparisons I could make would be to Hallows Eve, Infernal Majesty, Hellhammer, Possessed, early Hexenhaus, with the slower Slayer chugging sequences. Not too exciting, and the spikes of lead guitar feel frivolous and indulgent, but there's certainly a lot of urban anger in there and the recording was adequately punchy and convincing. Four tracks are present from this period, covering two 1987 demos, and I'd say they were all fairly level in quality, though nowhere near as impressive as what would come later. All in all, these tunes are nothing to be ashamed of...think of a more primitive, simplistic forebear to something like fellow New Yorkers Demolition Hammer and you're in the right ballpark. I can't honestly say that they would have made for a standout thrash act if they had headed further in that direction, so the later changes make a whole lot of sense.

...and then we're into Immolation proper, with a bunch of material from their s/t demos in the 88-89 years, about the time death metal was beginning to really explode through bands like Death, Pestilence, Morbid Angel, Carcass and Obituary, and you can hear a similar transition here. The riffs were faster ("as on the eponymous "Immolation"), more brutal and technical than the Rigor Mortis fare, with some vicious tremolo picking ("Dawn of Possession"), and the solo swaps both writhing and evil. With Ross Dolan now in the band, you got these hoarse, callous growls that were like a mix of Jeff Becera, Chuck Schuldiner and David Vincent; and the drumming more intense with some cold, moderately paced blast beats. The one downside to this is that just about all these tracks were re-recorded for Dawn of Possession in 1991, with a far more wholesome and dynamic mix thanks to Harris Johns and the band's improved musical proficiency. You get a few different versions of "Despondent Souls", for example, but I prefer the album take. While aggressive, tight and worthy of landing the group their Roadrunner deal, these do feel a bit dry in the greater context.

The final chunk of the mix is comprised of five live cuts culled from two performances; the first in New York (1988) and the second in Pennsylvania (1989). They sound like what you'd expect: raw and punishing with a barely tolerable mix that was probably a lot better if you were in attendance. That said, you can make out most of the guitar chords, the drums sound pretty poppy and the death grunts are obvious, though somewhat drowning out the musicality due to the primitive recording. The latter two, from the Pennsylvania gig sound somewhat more stereo and bassy, but likewise murkier. You can hear the banter between selections, with the heavy New Yorker accents, and I dig that they chose such early lives to keep the whole collection in context, a clear statement that this was all the past and they're proud to share it. Also, hidden in the last live original, there are two complete cover songs! "Charred Remains" by Autopsy and "Morbid Visions" by Sepultura, the latter of which they manhandle with more efficiency than the Brazilians probably could.

I realize that I'm usually pretty hard on these things; Stepping on Angels...Before Dawn is a bit difficult to criticize, because it's precisely the sort of collection I appreciate: humble, complete, and well structured and ordered so the fan can follow the band's journey. But honestly, other than a brief curiosity, there's not much impetus to choose this over any of their full length studio offerings, and I feel like the unreleased demo tunes were average at best. Still, even if this isn't something I'd often care to visit (if I weren't writing a review), I dig that I got to know the band. Where they came from, and perhaps where they were going. Definitely feels as if this was something the band itself had a hand in (alongside Dave Rotten/Repulse), rather than some mindless wallet grab by a larger label. You can't really ask for more than that out of such a compilation, but musically it doesn't stand alone so much that non-fans should really care.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.everlastingfire.com/

Avulsed - Carnivoracity (1995)

If we were to hold elections for a sole 'ambassador' of death metal from each of the nations in the civilized world, massive debates would ensue in countries like Sweden, England or the USA, where the scenes saw great success in the 80s and 90s and built many stable careers. Not so much the case for other territories, and for Spain, my ballot would very clearly be cast for none other than Dave Rotten, the man behind not only the Repulse and Xtreem Records imprints, and thus a crucial component of his scene, but two outstanding acts in Putrevore (his collaboration with the prolific 'Rogga' of Sweden), and the far longer enduring Avulsed, the latter of which got its start through a number of unsigned demos and then the 1994 EP Carnivoracity, which was later reissued through his own Repulse brand and expanded to 'full-length' status with the inclusion of live material.

Admittedly, this was a pretty rough release, and Avulsed has since had a number of superior offerings, many significantly so. The core of this experience is a pair of originals and a cover of the Chilean Pentagram's "Demoniac Possession". While the Spaniards would later take on a more brutal and busied mold for their material, Carnivoracity is quite contentedly old school in nature, with loads of tremolo picked riffs and a bruising back end that very much remind me of Death's Scream Bloody Gore or Autopsy's Severed Survival. Raw and flesh ripping in delivery, but the actual riffs themselves are not so haunting as many that had preceded them from Floridian antiquity. The vocals are a bit different, choppier and garbled guttural grunts that were more ominous and otherworldly than several of their influences, but the most surprising and impressive element to this is how its titular epic is cut into by this lurching, creepy death/doom passage with violins which reminds me of My Dying Bride or Paradise Lost... Otherwise, I just wasn't floored by the musical content or the ruddy production; even the drums, while able and loud, are sort of dingy.

The live addictions to the album, which comprise well over half of its content, also have some problems of their own, in the tinny guitars which are drowned out by Rotten's barking and the drums. You can make out the bass here, and most of the note structures, but it sounds like noise being flushed through the ears, even if the performance seems like it must have been tight for the audience at the Trallametal Fest (Granada) where the material was recorded. Here you'll get the two originals from the EP ("Carnivoracity" is shortened) in their stage personas, and a number of others from the following album Eminence in Putrescence (1996), but the fact that there is so much live and so little studio content definitely gives it a skewed sensibility, though undoubtedly the Repulse version of Carnivoracity is a better deal for the buck than the rarer, original EP. There are also a number of additional covers among the live tunes. The Slayer/Brujeria medley would be pretty obvious, but they also perform Demigod's "As I Behold I Despise", which took me completely by surprise! Dave and company know their shit...and always have.

This is competent if derivative material, but any fan of Rotten would likely attest that it's mere groundwork for the far stronger efforts to come, and Avulsed have since grown into a reliable source for goresoaked escapism. As it stands, the curious might wanna pass on this and head straight for their 1999 effort Stabwound Orgasm, but in truth their 21st century albums like Yearning for the Grotesque and Gorespattered Suicide have delivered the most carnage for my dollar. Some of the best Spanish death metal alongside Human Mincer and Machetazo. Also, Rotten's vocals on the Putrevore records are fucking outstanding, so check them out if you haven't already.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10] (only a piece of flesh)

http://www.avulsed.com/

Deceased - The Blueprints for Madness (1995)

As crucial as Deceased's sophomore full-length was to the development of their later works, The Blueprints for Madness might better be dubbed 'The Blueprints of Better Albums to Come'. For while its riffing variation and the horror-borne atmosphere through the album are nearly as potent as its successor Fearless Undead Machines, the production here pretty much kills the deal, holding it back from that plateau of greatness they've since achieved and, in my humble opinion, never stepped down from. It isn't that this album lacks charisma, but the guitar tracking in particular leaves much to desire, and I'd almost love to hear a remix of Blueprints. Keep the music, toss in better leads, and certainly keep the incredible Wes Benscoter artwork (one of his finest), but fix that ugly tone...

This is not quite the refined, melodic Deceased many will recognize from records like Surreal Overdose and Supernatural Addiction, with all the tasty speed metal flurries and British influenced harmonies, but you get a lot more of their punk, hardcore, splatter-thrash and even a tint of grind, all brought forth from the 1991 debut Luck of the Corpse. Tunes like "Into the Bizarre" bring out a lot of the early Voivod circa 1984-1986, though not quite so eerie or dissonant in terms of atmosphere. Even a few, slower, dreary, doom-inflected guitars show up. King's vocals are at their roughest here, from his usual haughty barks and vapid, mournful refrains to more directly harrowing growls and rasps level with the other extreme metal of the mid-90s (some provided by Les, the bassist). The drums have a pretty organic mix, lots of power to the fills and a very blocky sounding kick drum that manages to present itself despite the smudge of the guitars. Bass is pretty good, and the leads slice through the mix with a decent effect, but the rhythm tracks sound far too muddy and indistinct and they're hands down my least favorite elements...

It's not that you can't make out most of the notes, or even all the notes, but they just sound so cruddy to my ears. When the band is churning out an accelerated rhythm in basic punk/grind chord progression like in the calamitous "Alternate Dimension", it doesn't make much of a difference, but when they hit the slower palm muted power riffs it's fairly repulsive, and not in a positive way. It seems like a conscious decision, too, because it's not like the rest of the instruments and the vocals sound so underwhelming; in particular there are sequences where Fowley is barking out some insane line with just enough reverb that it sounds truly ominous. No, it's just a pretty fledgling tone that suffocates the note patterns rather than letting them breathe and sear themselves into the listeners' memory. Not that the drums and bass sound exemplary, they're vaguely demo level in depth, but the fusion of deeper, surgical thrashing guitars and corroded meathook chugs deserved a little more polish.

Otherwise, the lyrics and concepts behind the songs here are classic sci-fi weird/horror which Deceased have proven one of the best at translating into the medium. As with the later albums, Fowley really gets into character, and each piece feels like a 'story', often told from a first person perspective, which draws my imagination back to late nights watching films on the TV horror block which were morbid and memorable despite a lack of budget. Synthesizers, samples and other orchestration appear sparsely throughout the 52 minute run-time, always contributing atmospherically even where they lack fidelity. The Blueprints for Madness is no slouch when it comes to composition: there are tons of riffs erupting everywhere, all of them varied, and many quite good, but the production doesn't allow them to reach their full, terrifying potential. The Virginians seem to possess a curious, linear progression in terms of their records' quality, and this one definitely inches beyond the debut, but they would only keep improving after this; and for that reason, even if this is well above average, I rarely break this out over Fearless Undead Machines, etc.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (sanity tries to last)

http://www.upthetombstones.net/

Savatage - Dead Winter Dead (1995)

Dead Winter Dead is the first (and better) of two historical concept albums the veteran Savatage would compose to fill out the 90s, and it's at the very least a pretty ambitious effort which sees a continued shift in the landscape of the group's membership. After Alex Skolnick's short one-off performing the leads for Handful of Rain, he is replaced with another guitar god, Al Pitrelli. Longtime drummer Steve 'Doc' Wacholz had also departed the band, and his spot was filled by Jeff Plate. Most importantly, Jon Oliva decided to return to the microphone for a few songs, sharing duties with Zak Stevens, and this immediately makes the record a more tolerable listen for me.

Hell, even Stevens seems to blend in more with this production, not that his inflection has changed, but the moodier and sultrier nature of the compositions seems to better fit him during solemn sequences like the intro to "Starlight" or the secondary, narrative intro, "Sarajevo". The album itself is essentially a Romeo & Juliet style tale being spun through the Bosnian War conflict, far more interesting than Streets: A Rock Opera in concept, and another of the reasons I actually found this superior to the two albums leading up to it. This is far more of a pure progressive metal record, with moments of sheer heaviness amidst the gravitas of somber emotions, not to mention the incorporation of classical medleys in "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/12", which would prove responsible for the creation of Trans-Siberian Orchestra (who would re-release this very same track), but hearkens back to "Prelude to Madness" on Hall of the Mountain King. They also pay tribute to a few classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven by lifting directly from them. Pay close attention, folks, because while album might not have been an enormous success, it spawned a project that would practically make the band a household name, at long lost...all they had to do was abandon Savatage.

Overall, though, the album seems such a transcendent leap from the creative knuckle dragging of Edge of Thorns or the almost random Handful of Rain, and it's far more effective at expressing its sentimentality than their prior attempt at a pure concept record. Still a lot of Queen influence, also some from The Who. The production beautifully captures the contrast between the harder hitting metal sequences, often no more than a few simple chords per lick, and the arrangement and keyboards of Jon and Bob Kinkel feel like you're staring out over an orchestra pit, drafts of warm tone rising towards you with voluminous confidence. Pitrelli's presence is clearly felt, adding a fusion/jazz element to the lead sequences even more than Skolnick did, and they definitely create a minor spectacle amidst the baser, sweeping bombast of the rhythm section. Though I don't always love Stevens' vocals in them, and the album would have been far superior with just Oliva, or perhaps another front man, tracks like "Starlight" and "This Isn't What We Meant" are admittedly well written. The fact that most of the lyrics are told from a characters' perspective renders them a lot less cheesy than the ballads on the last two discs.

Plate's performance is great, and the rhythm guitars are grafted with plenty of push, so much that there's this clean, live feeling to Dead Winter Dead which feels like Streets on steroids. It's admirable that the band would tackle a fairly recent, relevant event in history without coming off too judgmental or political. The love story doesn't do much for me, but I dig where it's set, and the conflicts created through the setting, a fine twist on Shakespearean tragedy, despite the happier ending. Yuck! I still don't enjoy Zak Stevens, but he was less intrusive on the experience than before, and despite the fact that I STILL feel like I got all the rock opera Savatage I needed with a handful of songs on Gutter Ballet, this seemed to restore some sanity to what in my opinion was an understandably ailing outfit. Sure, I miss the Criss Oliva riffs, the flash and flame of his performance, but you can almost sense his spirit out in the audience, smiling from the V.I.P. box at his survivors' perseverance. Not a great album, but a passable, consistent piece that isn't shy on ambition.

Verdict: Win [6.5/10] (where this all has led)

http://www.savatage.com/