Arcturus - Sideshow Symphonies (2005)

Sideshow Symphonies is one of those rare records that, for whatever reason, I have occasionally forgotten about. Part of that might be that I wasn't hooked with it nearly as much as its predecessor, or maybe there was just an influx of new metal I loved around that 2005-2006 era; In fact, I think it's probably a combination of these factors. I'd liken it to ANOTHER 2005 record, Sigh's Gallows Gallery, which is also playing as an avant-garde/progressive style derived from the black metal niche; but where that one still hasn't ever connected with me, the Arcturus has slowly become a more appreciated part of their canon, in combining a lot of elements of prior albums Aspera Hiems Symfonia, La Masquerade Infernale and The Sham Mirrors into a more familiar, if less adventurous work, and while it doesn't stand out to me as much as its neighbors, it is certainly going to scratch the itch when you're pining for their particular sound.

The album's just as detailed and intricate as the two before it, with a lot of variety pasted atop a slick prog metal foundation. Scathing licks and savage drumming support sweltering atmospheres, sizzling synth lines that are often shredding more than any of the guitars. A major change here is that Simen/ICS Vortex has taken over the lead vocal duty from Jester/Garm, and he expands his forebear's intonations out with that memorable, yodeling pitch. If you've enjoyed any of his records with Borknagar than I think this is a pretty solid parallel, only its nature-worship is devoted more to the cosmic carnival this band manifests more so than the fjords and forests. Though they're constantly glazed by the symphonic keyes of Steinar Sverd, I feel as if there's a stronger metallic presence through the guitars than some of the other albums, or at least on par with any of them. There's still an air of mystique captured through the riffing patterns, but at the same time I feel like this is the 'safest' of their albums, in that it doesn't really step forward as much as any of those that were written before it. Performance-wise, though, Sideshow Symphonies proves just as technical and practiced as nearly anything else its members have ever releases in their myriad projects.

The production here is also one degree above The Sham Mirrors or La Masquerade Infernale, with all of those aforementioned intricacies captured at consistent levels. The thin pinch of the guitars manages to balance off well against the airy soundscapes swaddling the keyboards, and everything is crystal clear, working wonders for the natural contrast between the busyness of the instruments and the folksy melodic primacy of Simen's vocals. Purely symphonic pieces, like the intro to "Evacuation Code Deciphered", sound lush, and yes, this album has a lot of those cool three-world titles that Dimmu Borgir was often using throughout the 90s and 00s. "Hibernation Sickness Complete", "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer", "Nocturnal Vision Revisited", they're all over the place, and it makes this record seem like it's some kind of prognard sibling to Death Cult Armageddon. In fact, if you want a lighter touch to that symphonic surge, or you're into the stuff Ihsahn was starting to create post-Emperor, or of course Borknagar, Enslaved, Solefald, Winds and Age of Silence, this one's worth having around. It's still, for me, the least memorable full-length they've dropped, the highs are just not the heights of those before and after, but it's an immersive enough listen from a band that has yet to land a dud on me.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/arcturusnorway

Annihilator - Schizo Deluxe (2005)

With a silly intro urging us to 'Unleash the Beast' and an opening track called "Maximum Satan", you really have to kick some ass or crank up the laughs to get me hooked, and Schizo Deluxe fails to do either of them. This is the second Annihilator full-length of the Dave Padden era, and expectations were quite low after All For You, and thought it does turn up the dials in terms of producing a then-modern, generic thrash metal record with the correct DNA, it's not really a huge leap in quality forward over its predecessor. Again, you have the meathead opener, a little more intense than off the last album, but just not offering the sorts of riffs or structure that we enjoyed on the first two. "Drive" and "Warbird" are pretty much pure Metallica worship, Master of Puppets era, and while they aren't all that bad, they once again gives me the impression that Padden just sort of grabs his style from a bunch of other popular forerunners of the metal music scene and never can really develop a personality of his own.

The production is about the same as on the prior album, but the material is denser and faster so it does come off slightly more unhinged and therefore superior, and automatically more entertaining just because the sheer velocity will hold your attention better. The drummer here, Tony Chappelle, is given more to do than Mike Mangini on All For You, and so he metes out a muscular if mechanistic performance which only comes up slacking if you're expecting any surprises. Jeff Waters is obviously still an amazing guitarist, as tracks like "Invite It" amply exhibit, and the song quality is once again commensurate with how crazy and technical his riffing becomes. Tunes like "Maximum Satan" and "Like Father, Like Gun" just can't hang with the blazing speed of some of their neighbors, and in the case of the latter you have to wade through a dumb big mid-paced thrash riff and groove before you even get to a half-decent melodic chorus which reminds me of "Steppin' Stone" by the Monkees.

It's almost like Annihilator didn't get the memo that the groove/thrash devolution of the 90s was no longer really cool, and so Schizo Deluxe seems more for fans of Machine Head, Pantera and later Metallica and not so much for those seeking a restoration to the excellence of Alice in Hell. It's far from the Canadians' worst offering, but it just seems like a soulless and unnecessary modern evolution of the sound that I can file away with so many other contemporary thrash albums from the 'Oughts that understood the actual construction, but lack the personality of all the best classic thrash albums. Yes, there are at least a dozen great guitar lines here, almost all the good stuff is just Waters himself, but overall it doesn't leave much of an impression for better or worse, just sorts of sits there in the middle of a turbulent catalog, listing to the right and left as we wait to hear what the storm will bring next.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Sentenced - The Funeral Album (2005)

I've talked about the color schemes on the different Sentenced albums and how I liked that as a sort of catalogue of the depressing emotions that their lyrics and music convey, so it's all too fitting that the swan song would be adorned in black. The Funeral Album seems to be a divisive one among fans, which I find confusing as it's clearly nowhere near as bad as Crimson, a stinker that many fans seem to let slide. If anything, this last album feels much peppier and more energized than the last handful before it, and though it's a far cry from their earlier years, they seem to bring back a degree of their metal elements, at least dialing that back to Down and Frozen, and I for one could appreciate that, even if it's not spitting out songs of the same memorable quality.

Again, by this time, a number of other Finnish and European Gothic metal bands had taken center stage, and the more metallic-borne Sentenced weren't quite so distinct, but this album definitely fits that sound which others like Charon or H.I.M. were bringing to the table. A lot of the riffs here do feel derivative of tracks that Sentenced had already written, and that's somewhat of a bummer, but there's simply enough zest here to ignore that, and even when they sling out a more balladic piece like "We Are But Falling Leaves", they still manage to thread in some tasty melodies. "Her Last 5 Minutes" feels like it has a little doom in there, and then they stun you with a minute-long death metal instrumental called "Where Waters Fall Frozen", as a paean to their earliest records. Where the fuck has that been all this time? Hell, while it's just a vignette, it makes me wish that after Down or Frozen they had gone back to this style entirely, getting the Goth out of their systems and rejoining the other Finnish death legends..

It's a teaser, and then they shift into "Despair-Ridden Hearts", one of the more bluesy and dull barroom rock tunes on the album, which does piss me off, you could imagine Five Finger Death Punch or some other shitty band doing this, complete with generic lead and no good payoff, but I can at least say that this is the one song on the album that weak...they pick right up with "Vengeance is Mine" and the very H.I.M.-like "Consider Us Dead", and a few others that are reasonable if not memorable. The Funeral Album's worst crime is that it's very uneven in quality...some songs feel like they could have been written for one of the earlier albums, scrapped for good reason until they wound up here. I'd hate to think that this was some of planned-out grand exit, because in that case it really doesn't deliver, and in fact I'd say it's the second worse of Sentenced's full-lengths, but it could have been much worse. As a 'farewell' (pun intended), it's just not epic enough.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

Soilwork - Stabbing the Drama (2005)

Stabbing the Drama is the point where I fell off the Soilwork train for awhile; I wasn't terribly impressed with the album when I first heard it, not because it was some drastic 180 shift towards further accessibility, but I felt the band was hitting its peak mallcore-adjacent phase, where they were focused on the similar grooves and radio choruses that the modernized In Flames was, running parallel to a lot of obnoxious US metalcore bands who adopted those same contrasting elements. As I listen back on it now, I was partly being delusion, Stabbing the Drama actually highlights a lot of similar structures and songwriting to my favorite of their works, Natural Born Chaos, and I wouldn't even say it's really dumbed down that much, but I still consider this one on the lower tier of their releases.

This album is probably hitting the heights of the smooth production, and simpler construction, but the band still maintains a mildly proggy edge, some quality lead-work, and a concentration on writing the biggest chorus hooks they can muster. There's very little of the thrashy melodeath propulsion here, it does appear on a few individual riffs but like Figure Number Five before it, this is a lot of mid-paced grooves that are built to setup what they would hope to be memorable chorus parts. Unfortunately, a lot of them come off rather bog-standard or similar to one another, like "Weapon of Vanity" to "The Crestfallen", the latter of which is probably my favorite here. The heavier riffing in this and others almost reminds me of Machine Head or Skinlab, functional grooves, only the melodic component is far superior, pushing it over the heads of those lackluster acts. The polish on this album certainly gives one the impression that it's the closest the band would get to pure nu metal, with a lot of segues where the band basically canters along with some alt rock sounding parts to let Speed wax emotional, to contrast against some of the most Anselmo-like growls he's put to tape, emphasized further by that aforementioned production.

I probably come across as pretty down on Stabbing the Drama, and that's more or less the case. I've had a wavering relationship, with an initial aversion, a gradual warming towards, and ultimately only a lukewarm response. For sure there is an EP's worth of material that I'd love bouncing around to in my car ("The Crestfallen", "Nerve", "Distance", maybe "Observation Slave"), but otherwise I find a lot of what the band wrote here pretty forgettable when intermixed with the rest. The pop and radio rock thing was probably appealing to a rising band like this, but they have so many weapons at their disposal to forge into a more interesting direction. It's not the worst Soilwork, and even the WORST Soilwork isn't all that bad, but it's never one I'll reach for when a couple spaces to the left on my CD shelf I've got that streak of four great records that they kicked things off with.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.soilwork.org/

Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys - The Legacy (2005)

While I think I've communicated that a number of Helloween's later era albums have grown on me through the years, the opposite has actually happened for me with Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's a damn good album, ambitious and with a lot of songs to recommend, but it's not exactly the masterpiece I thought the first six months I had it. I also find the choice of title a little strange, I think it creates a certain expectation which this album is not interested in living up to, and maybe even an unfair expectation. Sure, there are a couple epic length tunes on here similar to "Halloween" or "Keeper of the Seven Keys" itself in "The King for a 1000 Years" and "Occasion Avenue", but the overall sound doesn't really reflect those classic LPs, and it might have been a better idea to wait for that potential reunion with Kiske and Kai and then released a Keeper of the Seven Keys Part III, not that they still can't do it, but the existence of this album with this title might muddle up such a trilogy.

That's really an aesthetic nitpick, however, because it doesn't dampen the quality of the tunes written for this. I've always likened this one to Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: The Helloween Edition. Two discs, quite a risk to take since each is under 40 minutes, and with a little editing they could have just fit it on one. It's a 'double album' that didn't have to be. I also make that Dream Theater comparison, because this is clearly some of the more proggy or prog-minded Helloween material they were putting out in the 'Oughts, if only because all that space across 13 tracks begets a little experimentation. Now, that doesn't take on the form of using really bizarre song structures, or endless masturbatory instrumental sections where each member struts his supremacy over his craft, but there are a few new synthesizer tunes, riffs you haven't heard them use in the past, and other ideas which they were toying around here. Having said that, most of this is still a full-blown modern-day Helloween power metal album, it has a cleaner and less propulsive and powerful tone than Better Than Raw or The Dark Ride, but the emphasis is on heavier tunes that just incorporate a lot of the interesting new melodies, and then a couple of the more mid paced metal tracks aimed at radio play like "Mrs. God", which while quirky, is one of my least favorites here with the goofy funk bass line and clean Nirvana-like guitar at the end. Not funny! I also thought the "Light the Universe" duet with Candice Night was a bit sappy, but it does at least deliver once it picks up.

Of course, the double album's few mild missteps are easily forgiven for catchy ragers like "Pleasure Drone", "The Invisible Man", "Silent Rain", "The Shade in the Shadows" and the impressive "Occasion Avenue". Andi Deris spits out a lot of melodic chorus parts that really hooked me, and the musicianship of the rest of the band is as usual impeccable, even if it's a little more understated than some other records where the band is just blitzing on all levels. Production is professional and clean, but when I was listening to it recently it seemed slightly laid back. I'd say Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy has about 10 very strong tracks, and while the rest of them don't suck whatsoever, it could have used a little trimming to be more emotionally impactful on me for the long term. As a Helloween album, it's strong and worthy of the exceptional run they'd been on since 1994, but as a 'double album', it feels padded out a good 10-15 minutes, and the title ends up feeling more like a marketing ploy since the content doesn't really tie back to the first two Keeper albums, at least not for me. Almost like the band wanted all the stubborn gatekeepers to crawl back to them, 'See, we're still good, guys!', when such a thing would be so unnecessary, because Deris era Helloween is fucking awesome. The double digits of great tunes here are just more proof into that pudding, but through the years it just hasn't quite held up for me like The Dark Ride or Master of the Rings.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.helloween.org/

Morgul - All Dead Here... (2005)

All Dead Here... might not turn out to be the final Morgul album, but it was the last before a 15-year absence that continues to the day that I'm writing this, and also an effort with furthered emphasized and explored the aesthetics that Jack D. Ripper had begun to incorporate around the time of his third (and best) effort The Horror Grandeur. This is more or less a Gothic/black metal hybrid, a fairly far cry from his earlier outings which were more true to their Scandinavian peers in sound. Morgul had developed into a band that ran more of a parallel with Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Hecate Enthroned or groups of that ilk, or if I'm going to be most specific, the Norse supergroup Kovenant, which I got a few flashbacks to as I was revisiting this one, especially in some of Jack's more impish, playful vocal lines in tunes like "The Need to Kill". Or the Finns Gloomy Grim, who for a number of albums had a style eerily similar to this one, to the point that I feel safe saying fans of one with almost assuredly get a kick out of the other.

Basically there's a bedrock of lush orchestration created with synthesizers, sometimes used, as in "Intro, The Mask of Sanity" to create a classic horror feel with some carnival-like keys and well timed strikes of percussion. The beats through the album are a mix of purely industrial/techno and then a few heavier ones more akin to its extreme metal origins. The rhythm guitars involve a lot of very simple, chugging and/or thrashing riff progressions which are semi-moshable, but not all that exciting if you were to take them out of the context that they're serving as anchors of aggression for the airier synth tones or Ripper's schizoid exchanges of black metal snarls, deeper gutturals and more acidic narrative cleans. This is often the most drugged out sounding album he's done, perhaps going a little overboard to the extent of self-caricature with the vocals alone, but then again some of the audience might have felt he'd been doing this since the two albums before. Every now and then you'll get this really fun overlap of these ideas, like the rolling chugs in the title track that are balanced off against the eerie strings, but the fact is that even by 2005's standards a lot of the lower end riffs on this album had been beaten to death.

The guitar tone is well produced though, and even though the vocals are often a little overbearing, most of the instrumentation is well balanced for the 21st century Gothic metal audience who will probably most appreciate this. The compositions are consistent to the point that you feel as if you could pluck a part out of one song, toss it into another and few would be the wiser. I personally enjoyed the guitars most when they were branching off into a harmony or some Eastern sounding passage, it made the album feel like it belonged in the soundtrack to some modern Mummy movie with all the lurching aggression. Tracks like "Shackled" and "Empty" have a great deal of potential that simply isn't realized when they devolve into some of the more rudimentary rhythm guitars. The lyrics here are focused more on generic concepts of death, pain and isolation, so it's not too detailed with horror theming. Although I'd hesitate to call All Dead Here... bad at all, it just doesn't really evolve or improve upon the style he had going on The Horror Grandeur or Sketch of Supposed Murder, it's not terribly inspired, and I can understand why he'd want to give the project a lengthy rest afterward. It's the least of the Morgul efforts, but there was an audience for this sort of sound if you were into stuff like the Napalm Records roster of that day and age.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/morgulmusic/

Carthaun - Einheit (2005)

I'm a sucker for a distinct logo, and Germans Carthaun have one that instantly stood out to me, a little hard to make out at first, but I really dig the symmetry and symbolism. The stark imperialism of the logo imposed over the reflection of the trees on the lake (and itself) was a nice touch, and it also looks pretty cool on some of their late album covers. Now I wish I could say the same for the music on this debut album, that it somehow stood out among the flock of European (or specifically German) black metal acts, but alas that isn't the case, at least not for Einheit, which ends up a pretty bog standard recording that, while not particularly terrible, might be interchangeable with hundreds of lesser tier bands from the same era and geographical location.

This is largely blasted black metal with a sound not unlike an Endstille, only around the same time they were doing this, that band was coming up with more hypnotic note patterns to fuel albums like Navigator and Endstilles Reich. Carthaun executes a mix of predictable, straightforward chord selections that feel banal even looking back at 2005, with a few more atmospheric, melodic guitar lines that instantly feel like they elevate the record beyond the former. I especially liked how this latter category of riffs blends in with the swerve of the bass lines, and this is definitely the direction I wished this album pursued a lot more of, but it just doesn't go there quite enough. I do dig the bass playing on the record, it's nothing too technical, but a little more involved than your average four string strummer who might follow too closely to the guitars. The drums have a jamroom feel to them, not too thunderous or powerful or overproduced, but kind of bland in terms of beats and fills, so they never transcend the mere adequacy that this sub-genre demands."

Vocals, on the other hand, are the flat-out worst part of the album, a raucous rasp that sounds like Salacious Crumb from Return of the Jedi choking on one of Jabba's concubine's chains. They sound too flat and mid-range in the mix and kind of smother the simpler, less burdensome guitars alongside them. I'm not convinced that they'd be all that bad if they didn't have such a blunt and uninteresting way that they were mixed into the recording, the more atmospheric guitars and certainly the bass have a mood to them which just isn't served well by all the barking tones. Very amateur sounding, and I found myself desirous of any part of the music that did not contain them, just to escape. Not a great start for Carthaun. It looks cool, but fails to impress to deliver even a raw, paint-by-numbers, traditional sort of black metal. To be fair, what I've heard of later albums like Brachland or Staub und Schatten is quite a bit better than this material, so if you stumble across that sweet looking logo and determine to check them out, head straight for their 2012 and 2015 offerings.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/carthaun/

Drug Honkey - Hail Satan (2005)

It's important to note that I'm coming at Hail Satan in reverse, having already been smitten with both of Drug Honkey's latest albums Cloak of Skies and Ghost in the Fire, and also digging the record Death Dub prior to those, though that one took me several spins to really start to appreciate. This is actually the sophomore for the Chicago narco-doom fiends, and naturally a lot more raw than the aesthetics they'll continue to develop as they progress. That's not to say this doesn't share traits in common, or that the later efforts lose the sense of repulsive primacy established on the earlier pieces, but here it's not simply a disparity in composition but also in the more primitive production being exhibited. With an impending re-release through Hohlraum records, however, it was actually cool to travel back and experience this with the knowledge of how it would develop.

Hail Satan might have an overt, provocative title, but in truth is not thematically abstracted from other Drug Honkey efforts. Subjects like drug abuse, depression, and institutional rebellion are legion, and often represented with extremely minimalist lyrical patterns that care about little more than getting their point across (i.e. "Reject Religion"). These actually work to the benefit of the songs, because Honkey Head's performance here is positively manic, the true driving force of the disc, and these succinct and straightforward lines becomes mantras that he can repeat over the dissonant mire of the instruments, altering his pitch between barks, growls,  nasally cleans, and other tones that head even further out into the deeps, stretching at the outer membranes of sanity. Slathered in reverb and other effects, they definitely become the most pronounced feature on the disc, possibly a little loud in the mix on some sequences, but critical to narrating the tempest of emotional turmoil that the album is created to deal with. I stress this because for some listeners, they'll prove the make or break factor for immersion into the album as a whole, never shying away from an overload of eccentricity.

Musically, the album is also really simple, with dingy and distorted guitars splayed out in largely patterns of open notes, thinner and buzzing rather than dense and choking, and sometimes striking some hideous and disturbing dissonance, which creates a contrast against the more predictable notes ringing out. Bass-lines are leaden, almost industrial grooves, and the drums limp along in a drugged, hypnotic certainty that allows all these conflicts to crash above them and alongside them. Add to this a bevy of electronics, ambiance and mix effects, and depth is created even where there is an utter lack of complexity. Some tunes are less structured than others, or creep along at a funereal doom pace not unlike an Esoteric, where others revel in an archaic industrial metal framework redolent of Godflesh or Treponem Pal. The deeper into the album, when you hit on a tune like "Silver Lining", affairs become even stranger, like layers of thick and angry skin have been peeled back and you're entering another level of confusion. The whole experience has a live, improvisational backbone, perhaps with a few initial directions that are then left to mutate into bedlam.

It's cool. It's not Cloak of Skies cool, nor Ghost in the Fire cool, because there are added layers of exhilaration and texture on those records. But, being forewarned about what sorts of ugly and hallucinogenic aural hues the Chicago quarter tend to choose to paint with, I certainly connected with the aggravation and despair that swells up in every single track here. The album feels like you're being slowly dragged, at some heightened level of intoxication, through the streets of a filthy urban sprawl, possibly by someone who just mugged or drugged you, listening to the sounds of abuse, addiction and anxiety being shouted from the higher story windows of dank alleys, occasionally being nudged by street refuse, manhole covers half-ajar, or splashed through the piss and rain and whatever the fuck else has mixed in with them. Exhausting, entropic and effective.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (I found them down in flames)

https://www.facebook.com/drughonkey

Force of Evil - Black Empire (2005)

Force of Evil was a project I had pretty high hopes for back when it was active, largely because I hadn't been truly satisfied with a lot of the later Mercyful Fate and King Diamond material, save for 9 and the Abigail sequel, so hearing a 'supergroup' that would bark up that same, twisted tree was promising. That the project was almost entirely comprised of alumni from those two Danish greats was an even greater reason to be excited...Denner. Shermann. Patino, and Holm. Three of those names I'd follow off a cliff, even with the possibility of impending disaster. Well, Black Empire is not quite a disaster, and superior to the eponymous record from 2003, but it does have one obstacle in vocalist Martin Steene that it can never seem to shake...

I'm not saying Martin Steene performs poorly here, this is a guy with more than capable lungs who simply seems to lack focus. When he's on point, as he is occasionally in his mainstay Iron Fire, he delivers a kinetic, frilly, unique pitch that might have distinguished him among the crowded Euro power field. I just think he goofs off too much, or he goes overboard, attempt to ape a lot of different vocal styles and exhibit his range, and some times the screams get a little try-hard when he's going full King Diamond or Ripper Owens mode, which is unnecessary over a lot of this music. I get that he's got the Mercyful Fate guys in the band, and maybe there was a particular set of expectations that this was some sort of proxy for them, but Black Empire only really comes together when he's just absorbing the music and complementing it with his mid-range and pacing, whereas on tunes like the titular opening he's just all over the place trying to develop a more orchestrated, schizophrenic performance that just loses me entirely. This happens on roughly 50% of the album.

Vocals aside, the music here is generally consistent, varied and interesting enough that the listener's attention won't lapse too long. There is a good deal of straight-ahead, mid-paced Germanic power metal rocking, mixed with a lot of the dingier, haunted grooves of the Shermann/Denner team that one would have come to expect from 90s Mercyful Fate fare like In the Shadows or Time. A lot of cool, cleaner guitars and audible bass hooks (like in "Days of Damien") help to round off the metal edge, and you can tell the band put a lot of thought into their choices, attempting to find a common ground between that reunion Fate era, and Steene's own band. However, while the music is well enough written, I often found that the grooves lacked the atmosphere and memorable chords that were so important on much of In the Shadows, replacing those traits with a more modern polish that doesn't do much for me. When they pick up the pacing towards power metal, the riffs also just seem to fly by without sticking to me.

The production sounds great, even when Steene is performing his theatrics, the tone of the rhythm guitars has a nice, clear cut to it that beautifully sets up the leads, and allows the drumming and the bass to hover through. The songs are all paeans to various horror stories or films, and they don't just stick with the safer choices either...Damien and Texas Chainsaw Massacre are paid tribute, but there are also tracks here devoted to movies like Candyman or In the Mouth of Madness, to name a few. "Disciples of the King" is just dedicated to Stephen King in general. Heavy metal and horror movies have had a relationship for all the decades they've existed together, but I often find that the music just feels too bright and glorious to truly convey the themes expressed in the lyrics. Like those other Danish legends which supplied the band's lineup, Force of Evil does focus a little on getting this right, with mixed results...the moodier sequences with the cleaner guitars are quite well done, but often erupt into lackluster melodies and riffs.

The cover art also looks pretty hot, but I'm not sure that it has much to do with the music. A pretty package, all told, but not really living up to its potential. With all the great Fate albums between Denner and Shermann, this one doesn't hold a lot of appeal, not even against the middling Dead Again. Or if you'd like to see more hard hitting material from the duo, their latest collaboration for the album Masters of Evil has better riffing than what you'll find on the two Force full-lengths. This is far more than a trainwreck, committed to its subject matter, and competently executed, it just doesn't add up to something I've ever wanted to listen to repeatedly.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (it's a long walk in the dark)

Deceased - As the Weird Travel On (2005)

This wouldn't be the first time a Deceased record has grown on me. While 1997's Fearless Undead Machines elicited positive thoughts on its first spin, that's an effort that I have continued to appreciate in increased capacity for almost two decades now. And lo, sandwiched between my two favorite albums to involve King Fowley, Surreal Overdose and Supernatural Addiction, lies another underrated gem of which I am also responsible for some degree of neglect, As the Weird Travel On, which faithfully carries forward the band's great legacy of entwining speed, heavy, and death metal aesthetics into a confident and consistent exhibition of cult horror worship that is as true to its musical sources as its literary and cinematic inspirations, while remaining completely underground with a 'cool factor' temperature that makes the flesh of the undead seem balmy by comparison. I brought up Fearless Undead Machines, because looking back retroactively at the Virginians' ouvre since that particular evolution is to behold one of the best streaks by an American metal band since the 80s...

Not to fault the first two Deceased full-lengths, which are both good as developmental milestones, but this is a style I can NEVER grow sick of, a seamless integration of the legit sounds I explored as a teenager, where the riffing and structure of various metal strains had become more complicated in terms of both aggression and melody. Not to say that they're 'technical' by any means. Their tracks tend to dwell around the 6-8 minute range, with substantial amounts of riffs and tempo shifts that are persistently catchy. Marginally predictable in some cases, but always leading to something that pops with your ears, like a great, shifting rhythm hook galloping away beneath a lead, or a very tasteful and sparse use of a keyboard to accent some gloomy moonlit vista that erupts from the frothing, shambling speed metal mob converging upon it. Mark Adams and Mike Smith are 'classically' trained axemen in that they have an encyclopedic knowledge of 80s A-, B- and C- tier heavy, power and speed metal, with a healthy dosing of the youthful fits of energy that thrash and crossover brought; but they play a lot of this stuff even faster, to a level of extremity that even some jaded Morbid Angel fan might appreciate.

The drums are perfect on this album, a cavalcade of firm, fiery hard rock rhythms that can easily burst into any intensified technique the hypertension of "A Witness to Suspiria" requires. As the Weird Travel On bears distinction because it's an album where King Fowley himself stepped away from that duty, bringing over Dave Castillo who was also working with his other project October 31, and the man simply doesn't cock it up. Les Snyder's bass lines don't always seem to strike out much terrain on their own, but they really round out the record with a great, audible tone which anchors the lightning that Adams and Smith have let off the leash in both the speed/thrash metal undercurrents and the spastic Maiden-esque leads and harmonies, which are yet another selling point of this album because, while conventional in approach, they are without exception memorable or at the very least perfectly fit to the tracks surrounding them. Deceased even manage to incorporate a bit of dissonant Voivod riffing on a track or two to help round out the record from sounding too straightforward, a trait they used on some of the earlier releases but hadn't reared its head so much on the two albums preceding this.

In sum, As the Weird Travel On is wall-to-wall, shoulder-to-shoulder metal bliss which doesn't age any more than the psychological and corporeal late-night horror cinema that inspires it. Narrative lyrics that describe their ghastly scenes and situations with perspectives both external and internal, melded to the polished but salacious melodic speed death which plays like no other band I can name. Sure, there is DNA planted here by anyone from Rigor Mortis to Iron Maiden, but Fowley and company retain so much of the medium's genuine pulse and translate into such a coherent picture without ever coming off as excessively studio-driven or as trendy as their Swedish counterparts had become by the early 00s. Asked a decade ago, I would have probably ranked this behind its two predecessors, but I have no choice now but say that this is every bit as good as Fearless Undead Machines, and nearly on the plane of its followup. It's also a little more energetic and high speed than either of those, another great salve for those souls needing soothing for their kitsch horror addictions or reminiscences of Halloweens lost, willing to take that injection in both the fight and flight of heavy fucking metal.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (prepare for the abbatoir)

Werewolf - The Temple of Fullmoon (2005)

Perhaps one of the joys of Werewolf is the duo's irreverent sound and atmosphere, almost as if the tidal wave of raw 90s European black metal had never subsided and raged on gloriously into the next millennium, and perhaps it really had, but there's no question that The Temple of Fullmoon sounds more the product of 1995 than 2005. And that's no reason to complain, because at its core it this might just be all that matters...raw, roiling guitars performing in almost unanimously potent and 'majestic' chord patterns channeled directly from bands like Bathory and Graveland, reinforced with tightly clinging organs and choirs, or other synthesizer tones to give the band that complete 'Transylvanian' feel, as if their namesake lycanthrope was marching to war against the walls and ramparts of Castle Dracula. Grim, grisly, gnawing upon the cliche but evergreen fears of cold wilderness eves on a haunted landscape, this is banner-wielding black metal which is in turns both predictable and endearing.

This was the debut of a two-man act, both members also the complete lineup of the slightly better known Iuvenes which explored a more dynamic range over a larger body of recordings. Personally, I have always preferred Werewolf, not because of its purity of purpose but just that raw nostalgia it evokes. Chord progressions flow from slower to mid-paced rhythms which don't really attempt much nuance or technicality but seem to tap into that primal conscience of the genre, which for me is not likely to ever get old when issued with some sincerity. The drumming here is a bit flimsy, you can make all the snares and bass out but it does at times seem like a fractured scaffold about to collapse beneath the weight of the storming guitars and airier synth lines. This is not exactly a project one would turn to if seeking out musical proficiency...these guys aren't Ihsahn and Samoth, and what they create is material that any journeyman or even novice could summon, but that's also the appeal. The rustic sensibility of the riff construction collides with the nocturnal cathedral organs to create a sort of impossible, larger than life space in which the mind reels in stereotypical black & white Gothic horror footage, Hellhammer starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Bass is just kind of hanging out with the rhythm guitar chords, but it does contribute to the overall mood.

The decrepit snarling, possibly clotted with the Polish accent, doesn't possess a lot of dynamic potential or syllabic range, just sounds like some old creepy black metal guy living out of a cottage, narrating tales of terrible and hideous flora and fauna. I'm not fucking kidding, when you listen to this band's records, you can just picture Geralt the Witcher riding through the album with some top heavy harpy impaled upon his sword, trying to get to the local tavern and claim his reward before the night creeps too closely on his heels. The Temple of Fullmoon is far from brilliant, but it's got a great sense of time and place about it which makes it easy to break out and know precisely the sort of mood it's going to set for me. I believe the follow-up, The Order of Vril, released in 2009, slightly after Gray Wolf sadly took his own life, is the stronger of two albums, with a more magnificent blend of the band's symphonics and surging breakwater riffs, but it doesn't entirely fire this one. Recommended if you'd have loved a classic 1993-1997 era Graveland with stronger production, or if you're the sort to want to jam endlessly on Quorthon's mid-paced riffs circa Under the Sign of the Black Mark or Blood Fire Death. Big, dumb, carnal, engaging escapism.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

Necrophagia - Harvest Ritual Volume I (2005)

I've always wanted to like Necrophagia a lot more than I actually do.

That's not to say that Killjoy hasn't in his own way contributed to the extreme metal culture as a large, he's certainly one of the earlier musicians to cater so much to his cult horror fetish through both his lyrical choices and the samples and intro/interlude bits he collects. He also has one of the more gruesome pure death metal gutturals (and accompanying snarls) you'll hear from those US veterans still kicking about, not as distinct as Speckmann or Tardy or the late Chuck Schuldiner, but still pretty potent. I thought a few of his earlier records were pretty good (Season of the Dead and Holocausto de la Morte, at least), and I also find that I get whipped into a frenzy every time I read about the next disc he's releasing through this band. The cover art is usually campy and fun, the ideas behind it cater to my own nostalgia for both horror classics and their B movie shadows, and when presented with a title like Harvest Ritual Volume I I am insta-triggered due to my love for the autumn season and the once-pagan holiday I so enjoy for both its atmosphere and the activities surrounding it. I truly wanted this to be the Necrophagia recording that finally won me over, but was left hanging...

Similar to bands like Master, or Massacre, or Death, Necrophagia's evolution towards the death metal genre arrived via thrash roots, but unlike those others I just named, the metallic components of Harvest Ritual Volume I remain very heavily balanced in that camp. Extremely simple brute chugging patterns that don't sound like they took a lot of thought or time to craft, with some occasionally breaks into the more morbid tremolo picking we commonly associate as a hallmark of the OSDM style (as in "Dead Skin Slave" or "Return to Texas"). The rhythm tone here has quite a lot of meat and punch to it, but it seems very pit-centric, without interesting note progressions and a few lower bends and fills just to help flesh out the band's aesthetic to a more current brutal flavor. You're really only getting maybe one half-inspired, memorable riff per dozen they fire off, and sadly I find this a common trait for a lot of the records Frediablo has played on. That's not to say it sucks, or it doesn't fit the mesh of mechanics Killjoy is working within here, but at best they only serve as dependable when other things are happening in the tunes, like the 'spooky' synthesizer lines closing out "Unearthed" or the cleaner, eerier guitars dowsed in effects that set up the organs and creepy loops in "Cadavera X".

Another issue I took here was with the vocals. While I appreciate Killjoy's over the top, loudly barking quality, and the lyrics he's spitting are evocative if simple, they often seem far too structured and uninspired in how the syllables are set to the riffs, like clockwork as he's raving between the two inflections. A looser, more raucous approach really seems to work better with this style and would add some desperately needed chaos to the music, for a genuine ugliness. A lot of these tunes just seem too tidy in composition, like he's holding back rather than letting the werewolf out. The drums are simple but powerful, largely just rock laden grooves that hold down the moderate pacing of the songs, but I wouldn't ask for more, since this to me just hasn't been a band about speed, extremity or technique. On the other hand, Mirai's keys are perfectly adequate throughout the entire experience, creating a midway point between progressive influences like Goblin and a more generic but endearing haunted house quality that I just happen to enjoy. But when he's coming up with all this insanity for Sigh, it works because there are also some tremendous guitar riffs woven in and out of the blackened thrash spectacle. Here, he seems like a pylon of pumpkins supporting the stage for a lumbering, monotonous Frankenstein freakshow.

Hell, my favorite track here is "Akumu", pure synth with a lightly pumping bass sound, which feels like what might have occurred if Pink Floyd had scored Halloween instead of Carpenter himself. But then you launch into the following "Stitch Her Further", and the banal chugging of the verses which is lazy at best, or "Excommunicated" which sounds like the same song that had already appeared on the record three times until Mirai's wavering, acidic synth lines burn through the graveyard haze. Harvest Ritual Volume I is an album that wants to be so fun, and comes really damn close, it just needed more time for that thrashing/death foundation to gestate, or perhaps even a different tone with more open, dissonant chords thrust in there to make it more immediately compelling. As it stands, while this isn't the Necrophagia record I like the least, it was nonetheless a letdown. The pumpkins, pentagrams, nooses and crucifixion which grace its cover deserved a little better.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10] (mummified womb of Satan)

https://www.facebook.com/NecrophagiaOfficial

Exhumed - Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated (2005)

When it comes to a collection of covers like this one, I'm always more interested in hearing how bands can transform tunes that you might not expect into something which sounds naturally their own, rather than just picking a potpourri of popular metal tunes they grew up on and playing them closer to the hilt. To the credit of Exhumed, Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated isn't just some paean to a who's who of death and grind influences (Carcass, Napalm Death), which would have been obvious. Nope, it reaches pretty far into the realms of punk, thrash, doom and classic hard rock, and while the results are often middling or less than impressive, at least if feels like they didn't wanna put too much thought into selection, but more into creating a 'party' sort of tribute record which remains frantic and fun with a few odd ducks in the row. But ironically, it's some of the metal tracks they cover that seem to work the best, given an injection of visceral energy not unlike what the Californians were pulling off on their first few full-lengths.

The Cure's "A Reflection", which opens this disc, is probably the most out of place; they basically just heavily electrified and harmonized the central melody, a cover of an intro serving as an intro, and it doesn't exactly reflect the 'fun' tone of the majority of choices here. Prevalent are the punk and violent hardcore tunes (Samhain, GBH, Siege, etc), the best of which is probably the brutal chugging and dual growl/snarls used on Amebix' "The Power Remains", though none of these are particularly memorable beyond the fact that they are successful transplants into a medium arguably nastier than their original forms. Where Exhumed excel is once again those harmonies in the bridges and lead, which really breathe fresh air into this track, as well as Master's "Pay to Die" which just fucking rips in their murderous mitts, and is ironically my favorite cover on the disc, despite what I mentioned earlier about how I'd rather the bands stayed out of their stylistic safety zones. The middle of the album does have a pair of semi-safe choices in Zeppelin's "No Quarter" and Metallica's "Trapped Under Ice", they grind up the latter efficiently but I'd have to say neither of these were really among the highlights here.

A couple more West Coast thrash tunes, Sadus' "Twisted Face" and Epidemic's "In Fear We Kill" seem like natural enough fits, but despite being slathered in Matt Harvey's Carcass-esque ravings they lack the visceral punch of their original incarnations. On the other hand, Pentagram's "The Ghoul" sounds just monstrous with the raunchy crunching rhythm guitar tone, baleful harmonies, and the toilet bowl level gore vocals. Unseen Terror's "Uninformed" is the sort of selection I would have expected all over this album, but of all the tunes it takes the least liberties and I'd rather just throw on the original. Then again, that's the case for everything here...songs sound loud, vulgar, and straight to the face, but it all just lacks that carnal punch of Exhumed's original material. Oftentimes you'll get a death metal cover like Cannibal Corpse doing Razor's "Behind Bars" which is surprisingly fun, but here I felt most the moments I was most interested in were the leads, and there are really no strange choices made anywhere except the intro, which is just a brief instrumental. Sounds like the guys had some fun putting this together, and I've certainly heard worse from these sorts of projects, but it's a solid 'pass' from me in the end, I'd rather spin Gore Metal, Slaughtercult or Anatomy is Destiny again than bother.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.facebook.com/ExhumedOfficial

Samael - On Earth EP (2005)

...and onto part two of my three part series on Samael's most useless recordings, the On Earth EP was the second and I believe last such release to come out through the Swiss group's own label, called Galactical. One would have hoped to hear a lot more of their experimental recordings and side-projects through this imprint, but they were rather quick to call it a day in just about two years time, and if it was just going to end up an outlet for maxi singles such as Telepath and On Earth, we can be thankful. Granted, this one pretends to have a little more meat to it than its predecessor, if only because it avoids the 'karaoke' single/EP tag, and features a few tunes you weren't going to find on Reign of Light whatsoever. Joyous day.

"On Earth" itself is a direct continuation of the style from Passage and Eternal, mid paced, darkly and cosmically industrial; only Vorph's vocals are more pronounced and robotic. Like much of the album it hails form, the guitars are more or less regressions towards patterns the band had already written for the prior full-lengths, even if the precise notes are different, there's a lot of reliance on heavy, simple chords that follow the beat. This also suffers from the 'worldly syndrome', like they basically list off a bunch of cities in which their fans live, so we can all just be a big and happy fucking family. What the FUCK, Samael?! Why did you have to go all hippy on us? One world? Our world? What is this, a lost Michael Jackson tape? At any rate, the lyrics basically abolish any real chance of me taking this tune seriously, but if not for that then it would be a semi-serviceable Passage outtake that would have felt as if it were scrapped for other, genuinely excellent songs. I'm not averse to that positive, Romantic undercurrent Samael tapped into for their 21st century stuff, but it doesn't really excuse the shoddy and underwhelming songwriting.

As with the "Telepath" treatment on the prior EP, the remix of "On Earth" here is laughable at best, not danceable enough for the Euro EBM/Goth metallers who might care, and not harsher enough for the long since lost Samael fanbase off the first few albums. "Auf der Erde" is a German lyric version of the title track, and while it might benefit from the vocals sounding less dopey to those who can't speak the language, it's otherwise the same (i.e. the cities listed off). So really the only hope for the disc is the cover of Depeche Mode's "I Feel You", and in this too they fail, because hearing Vorph's sustained growls over an excessively industrialized rendition of the original with some spacier sounding guitars is incredibly goofy. Where Moonspell did a pretty kickass cover of "Sacred" that I still listen to, Samael's attempt fails to ever really launch, even if the pairing does make some sort of sense. But as lackluster my reaction, I would be remiss not to admit that this was the most entertaining point of the EP...the video for "Telepath" is included, but is nothing more than Vorph standing around, looking 'cool'...ugh. Anyway, the cover image is tacky (with that gold tinged logo...), the music is not good, just put it on the demolition list along with its predecessor.

Verdict: Fail [2.5/10] (dancing with the hidden tribe)

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

Exmortem - Nihilistic Contentment (2005)

If Nihilistic Contentment suffers from anything at all, it's that the album seems to settle for being a perfect hybrid of the two before it. That's not to say it's at all bad, quite the opposite; it simply doesn't bring anything new to the formula, with the guitar tone jerked straight off Berzerker Legions and the more interesting, adventurous riffing of Pestilence Empire. But for those potential listeners who might have found the fourth full-length to be a little murky and ominous in production, this is a far more brazen boot to the ass with a lot brighter tones and perhaps a more equivalent mesh of drums. Which is a good fit for what might have been their highest profile recording to its day, out on Earache's fledgling subdivision Wicked World which had once scored great efforts by new blood like Decapitated and December Wolves. I was pretty happy with this when it first came out, but as the years pass it simply doesn't stand to memory as much as the records which bookend it...it's quality enough to add to that impression that Exmortem was a truly consistent band, never once plunging into the mediocrity that hovers over the death metal underground like a cloud of smog...too bad more people just weren't paying attention.

Just because I don't hold it in the highest esteem of the Danes' career, don't mistake that for lacking some substance. In truth, the weirder riffing passages that shone through on Pestilence Empire are even more pronounced amidst the blasting surges. It may have (and remain) the most thoughtfully composed album they put out, and it often reminds me of a mix of Morbid Angel's Blessed Are the Sick and Covenant with a bit of Gorguts' later 90s absurdity circa Obscura. There's a lot going on at any one given time, and Smerte really varies up his own vocals with a mix of the guttural barks and a harsher, higher pitch that resonates more with what he does in Horned Almighty. Variation is paramount, with a pretty even range of full on blasted components, zipping and zooming atmospherics and slower, amorphous grooves which are loaded with deft and seamless double bass patterns. You absolutely get a lot of that sliding jerkiness (i.e. "Symbols of Inhumanity") found on left field death metal recordings where the constant transitions were well-meaning, it's not exactly random placement but you do feel like you'll be getting into one part and they're off to another before it fully develops. Still, Nihilistic Contentment seems like the most technically ambitious of their outings, even if the techniques just seem to be emphasized from particular tracks on its predecessor. It wasn't necessarily anything 'new', but they were clearly attempting to open that tear in space/time and make it such.

Actually liked that weird, jarring percussion/piano interlude "Swamp of Decadence" and wished it were longer, or that they would have promoted similar atmospheres elsewhere on the album, which would have certainly made this stand out more against the crowded genre in which it got lost. Production-wise, while my own preference might be for Pestilence Empire or their swan song Funeral Phantoms, this was the record that most death metal or brutal metalcore fans would most appreciate. The meat of the rhythm guitars is just dripping with fatty juices, and the more intricate guitars feel coiled, springy, and organic, very much in line with Obscura or From Wisdom to Hate. Bass is likewise voluptuous, while Galheim's drums here are just unbelievably tight and one of his overall better performances; bittersweet, because it was his last recording with Exmortem, but he certainly didn't let his bandmates down. Nihilistic Contentment is just this really tightly wrought showcase for the entire band, if they had gone further into atmospheres or written the tunes just a little more strangely, I'm sure it would be talked about alongside your Gorguts, Immolations, and Ulcerates, though the Danes wouldn't ultimately dwell on this specific sound. That said, definitely not a boring ride here; better than Dejected in Obscurity or Berzerker Legions and worth tracking down if you skipped it upon release. Six good albums, some a little better than others, not one a disappointment. Exmortem. May they go down in history with a little more respect than initially received.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (absurd posturing of the deformed)

Chainsaw Dissection - Zombie Decimation (2005)

I've only run into a few of Bob Egler's albums in the decade since he started churning them out so systematically, and my reaction has rarely been one of positivity, but despite that, I have to say I maintain a very healthy respect for his perseverance. After all, Egler (aka Bob Macabre) is an undisputed champion of extremity at its raunchiest. He's doing what he wants, consistently, with a level of proliferation that puts even death metal pundits like Rogga Johansson and Elektrokutioner to shame, and I admire the ability of one individual to essentially create an entire musical scene out of himself. Granted, most of Bob's projects tend to come off as aesthetic doppelgangers of his various influences...you'll only find variation and divergence in that he has quite a number of said influences, ranging from dirty old school black metal to filthy goregrind, brutal 90s death metal and other particular epochs on the nastier end of the spectrum. But still, even though I readily admit I don't care for about 90% of what I've heard of his stuff, this man is no hack. He cares about what he's doing, and he's practically an institution in American metal, even if that institution is a mental asylum with a severely limited audience.

Among the (I'm guessing) hundred plus efforts he's released, in dozens of projects, Chainsaw Dissection is his 'baby'. The most prolific of the bunch, and the one he's most commonly recognized for, with Psychotic Homicidal Dismemberment and Satanic Impalement taking the silver and bronze. He's put out at least 18 full-lengths for this band, not to mention various other splits and demos, and they run the gamut from completely amateurish and unhinged to borderline professional in terms of production and presentation. Just out of sheer practice and willpower, across his many musical personas, the guy has developed as a musician and lyricist, but never to the extent that he forsakes the old school intentions or cult horror/exploitation films that so inspired him. Zombie Decimation is the second in this unending sequence of aural abominations, the first of EIGHT full-lengths he issued in 2005, and it boasts one of the better looking cover images in his entire discography; a savage and misogynistic masterpiece of gore courtesy of the illustrious vocalist/artist Mike Hrubovcak (Divine Rapture, Vile, Monstrosity, etc). Not at all comfortable for the squeamish, the appearance of the Chainsaw Dissection sophomore gives us an honest estimation of how it's going to sound, only I have a hard time discerning just which is uglier...the music, or the undead gruesome feast.

That's not to imply that 'ugliness' is a positive in this disc's favor, but its brutality is never in question. The most obvious way to describe Zombie Decimation would be as a poor man's Mortician. Yes, I realize some people would use that very cliche to define Will Rahmer's vehicle itself, as a 'poor man's substitute for death metal', but I do not share the sentiment for that particular New York establishment, and in fact enjoy quite a number of their records for what they are: utter approximations of morbid horror encased in what must be the most nihilistic wall of goregrinding flesh possible. Guitars that sound like lubricated chainsaws almost impossible to decipher as they carve into the innards of convention. Broad, apocryphal gutturals that exhibit less remorse than the most distant and inhuman serial killers. Mechanical beats programmed at a level of extremity that can rival the most intense human players, even though they might lack some of that organic variation that comes with a living being and his choice in fills and distribution of striking energy. But there are actually a number of differences on this album that divide Egler from Rahmer and Beaujard. The first is that where Mortician is heavily driven by the intestine-rupturing bass-lines, this focuses more on the bludgeoning fiber of the downtuned, muddy rhythm guitars which feel like gallstones being expunged from some diseased bladder.

This leads to the other disparity: Mortician, whether you love them or hate them, have a lot of depth to their sound, provided by anything from the movie samples to the contrast between Will's bass lines and the drums. They've got pretty good production standards for music so obtuse and obscene, but Zombie Decimation is sadly not cut from that same cerecloth. It's more like a Mortician demo with the bass turned down (or off), and little ability to create that same, enveloping atmosphere. Not that Bob's influences offer a great degree of variation in their own songwriting, but here in Chainsaw Dissection it's pretty difficult to distinguish much of the track list from one another, and with 15 tunes and 50 minutes of material, you can imagine the monotony sets in before long. To be fair, there are tracks centered around the slower, Realm of Chaos-like chugging sequences ("Fiend" is an example) you find in a lot of goregrind, and others that really hone in on the blast, beats and a juicier pattern of distraught chords, but the songs are pretty dry on ideas. In fact, there were numerous cases here where I felt like just one evil ass screaming melody or lead would have really intensified the experience, or some better fills, or a bass groove...but it's all too straightforward and dry.

As such, the music really lacks the substance and depth to let its lyrical inspiration rise to the fore. It works only on a purely visceral level, without even the droves of samples used to play upon the listener's moral fiber and cultivate that 'icky' response which later transforms into entertainment. Basically, Zombie Decimation devolves into a mental picture of some elephantine, psychotic cannibal beating a sack with some living victim inside against the nearest wall, over and over without any variation or interesting turns of events.You're to get at most 3-4 minor riffing/drumming variations over the course of a 3-4 minute track, and it's just not enough to maintain my interest, not even close. The drums are soulless droids incapable of diverging from their prime functions. I've definitely got my sick side, and I enjoy a lot of metal so brutal that most of my friends and family can barely comprehend it as music and not construction equipment, but Zombie Decimation seems to play to the negative stereotypes of the style, and not in a positive way. 50+ minutes of disposable sameness that feel like a substantial heap of corpses being ground into fertilizer. Retch-worthy to start, but it rapidly becomes too tedious and commonplace, like a boring day on the job...if that was, like...your job. Corpsegrinding. Probably beats McDonald's, but doesn't make for a great soundtrack when you've got an hour to kill.

Ultimately, though it's the last thing you might suspect when looking at the cover, Zombie Decimation fails because it's simply too damn 'safe'. Establishes a formula, and never deviates from it. There can't be any 'highlights', because all the songs more or less are the same, so it would be 'all or nothing'. Nothing. Fuck, I wouldn't have minded an armpit-farting orchestra, a zombie orgasm, a ukelele or kazoo to help break this up. Anything. Blast, drudge, blast, drudge. Even Bob's vocals, as gut-drenched and gut-borne as they are, don't grace us with any surprises...not even the growl/snarl dichotomy so favored in the usual brutal death/grindcore circles. I doubt the guy had any delusion that he was reinventing or innovating in the field, but Chainsaw Dissection is so fucking monotonous on this outing that it devolves from 'underwhelming' status to outright futile and frustrating. I am glad that there are sick fucks like Bob Macabre making music, as much of it as they can muster. All the power to him, but just because you drag me over to a blood bucket doesn't mean I'm going to tear my shirt off, dump it all over myself and run lunatic. You've also got to put the knife in my hand, and implant the psychotic motivation, subliminal or otherwise. Zombie Decimation is more like an undead typewriter with a stuck key thumping over and over on the same flesh. In sounding so sick, it really isn't... Egler can do better.

Verdict: Fail [3.5/10]

https://myspace.com/chainsawdissection

Cryptopsy - Once Was Not (2005)

When it was finally hashed out that Lord Worm would be returning to his alma mater of atrocities, I'm sure a lot of people were silently praying for a None So Vile 2.0. That is not at all what happened, and the resulting Once Was Not is just as strange as anything else they've recorded, if not more so. But I have to hand it to Cryptopsy: I might not 'like' this album very much, but I admire their audacity to continue experimenting, and at least with this fifth disc, they didn't end up insulting anyone's intelligence as with the laughable And Then You'll Beg. Once Was Not is more or less a joyless attempt at creating an avant-garde death metal record not unlike Gorguts' Obscura. It's not entirely sure what it wants to be, and I felt like the latter half of the record proved far more compelling than the former, but at least it's conceptually and musically more coherent than its predecessor, and it bravely fuses influences from other niches into the core Cryptopsy aesthetics, without totally screwing the pooch.

Although Jon Levasseur contributed to the rather forgettable intro "Luminum", this was the one album in their catalog where it just wasn't his show. So the most overt mutation here is the boxier, drier guitar tone. Less saturated than prior albums, but it has a lot of rip and zip to it when Alex Auburn is flying up and down the frets.When compiled into a trudging, jarring or mechanically dissonant groove, the rhythm patterns often felt reminiscent of (proper) metalcore acts like Burnt by the Sun or Coalesce (like the chugging breakdown in "The Frantic Pace of Dying") which was something new to the Canadians, especially as its paired up with a lot of more traditional death metal riffing. Granted, a lot of the guitar progressions, especially in earlier cuts like "Carrionshine" or "In the Kingdom Where Everything Dies, the Sky is Mortal", are total dullards, regardless of how unhinged, dynamically varied, or slamming they become. The oddity of the songwriting doesn't necessarily work out in their favor, especially compared to something like Obscura which is so much more adept at 'getting it right'. As you move further into the track list, with cuts like "The Curse of the Great" or "The Pestilence That Walketh in Darkness (Psalm 91 - 5-8)", you start to hear more of that classic Crytopsy death propulsion arrive into the riffing selections, and it becomes far more interesting and effective, while retaining this arid production.

Arguably, "The Pestilence..." is the real standout on this album, because the airier sludge/Neurosis chord melodies really take you by surprise, especially with Worm barking his schizoid narrations. Speaking of whom, he was back in full ghastly splendor, weaving his interesting lyrics with the usual poetic license. His grueling barks and growls were still nothing incredibly interesting, but it's a landslide victory over DiSalvo on the fourth record, and his ability to pen titles and lyrics that immediately catch the imagination (more than the music) was very much missing from both Whisper Supremacy and its followup. I wish more bands would take such risks in this department, or just have Lord Worm write for them, because it's compelling to the degree that were I to rate this record on the prose alone, it would receive a far higher score. Yet, sadly, Cryptopsy would go down an entirely opposite route with the next album, investing in a more metalcore slash hardcore/personal sensibility which was rather a bummer. That said, I must admit that apart from his garish attempts to spew vomit and lumbricus terrestris all over the songs, his vocals were average.

Along with the guitar tone, the drums and bass here also took on a different tone than the earlier discs. Éric Langlois' playing remained dizzying and acrobatic, with lots of slappy and pluggy sounding rhythms, but it was a bit deeper in pitch and occasionally got lost under the rhythm/lead sequences, a shame because he's often performing something more interesting than that rhythm guitar. Mounier, who has long been the chief selling point for this band, is incorporated at monstrous levels of volume, his beats constantly crashing and colliding throughout the death, grind and -core progressions. His presence is always furious to the point of confusion, but this record is simply loaded with fills. In fact I often felt as if this was a batch of Flo Mounier drum solo recordings over which the rest of the band filled in riffs and lyrics. Sometimes, it's just a little too much, and while 'more' is the man's bread and butter, it's not necessarily 'better'. The leads, too, are a bit tactless and showy, Auburn tearing all over his strings with patterns that remind me at times of Pestilence and Nocturnus in their heydays, classical-fusion-infused; just not always catchy in the context of this music.

This is pretty goddamn experimental, all told. Tribal drums, funkier cleaner guitars, slight black metal textures in some of the more explosive riffing. Fuck, they've even got an exotic, hippie-like drum circle instrumental called "The End", all that's missing is a Ravi Shankar guest spot... For the first time, Cryptopsy are even incorporating orchestration, in the track "Angelskingarden" (what a title) with its sweeping, atmospheric synth intro and the choir tones coming in under the lead. No surprise, this is another of the gems inhabiting the later moments of the record. "Endless Cemetery" and "Keeping the Cadaver Dogs Busy" are also packed with ideas, if not the most memorable selections. One really has to wonder why the decision was made to open up with the least impressive material. It really sapped my interest level, but it does give Once Was Not the impression of a flower that slowly unfolds to keep hooking the listener along. Had the actual catchiness of the rhythm guitars remained constant, and the grooves less sodden and vapid, this might have been spectacular, even with its loud and lumbering production values. This is twice the record And Then You'll Beg was, but as it stands, Once Was Not is a collection of ideas not fully fleshed out. Fruits not borne to fruition.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (once, there were boundaries)

http://cryptopsy.ca/

Beheaded - Ominous Bloodline (2005)

Hardly a departure from the direction Beheaded were pursuing with the two previous releases, Ominous Bloodline succeeds because of two important factors: a stronger sense of purpose and punishment to the songwriting which is manifest through a bevy of superior riffing, and a deeper, darker production standard which encapsulates the guttural, often gurgling vocals, courtesy of Melchior Borg, the vocalist coming in to replace Lawrence Joyce. I won't lie, this is essentially Recounts of Disembodiment 'in space', done right, and dutifully and mercilessly kicking the shit out of you. Perhaps it's just the excellent cover art, or the opacity of the music's mechanical intensity, but listening through this disc was like being in a space vessel as it was being swallowed by a black hole (or Elder God, if that's your thing), shaking to pieces while the rest of the crew around you bursts into an abstract sculpture of blood and organs. Resurgence of Oblivion and Recounts of Disembodiment failed to even place me in a proper headlock, but Ominous Bloodline thrusts me down on the block and proceeds with a single, savage stroke to separate my brain cage from the rest of my body.

Mind you, there's nothing particularly novel or unique about the album in terms of its techniques. Choppy semi-technical spurts of rhythmic voracity infused with breakdowns circa Suffocation; tail end trilling guitar surgeries courtesy of Cannibal Corpse; callous, cold blasting redolent of Deeds of Flesh. But the pacing and balance of each track is more meticulous. The rhythm guitars have this processed punch to them that feels like you're bonked rapidly and repeatedly in the face with a wrench, and when they lapse into a groove you can really feel the weight of the mutes to the point where it becomes irresistible to resist the primal, pit starved neanderthal within. Imagine the primates pacing about the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey if they were to suddenly start moshing one another. The leads, too, are fare more skillfully elevated to give off a progressive, almost jazzy eloquence as they scream off into the vacuum of utter darkness, and the bass guitar thunders along like turbulence as you're entering the atmosphere of a dead, or dying world. I can certainly understand why some might find the snare drum too clappy sounding, and the drums do more or less give off a soulless, robotic impression, but the force of the kicks and the overall aesthetic actually work well with the vast, otherworldly horror of the music, a nihilistic intergalactic asylum.

The vocals, likewise, are an improvement over the previous record in that you can really feel out the brute soreness of the delivery. He's got a good, growling sustain, and there are plenty of snarls spackled over the density of the guttural to keep the performance schizophrenic and malevolent, or spatial effects (as in "Ill Remains") that enforce the dark, futuristic appeal of the writing (though the lyrics aren't necessarily sci-fi in nature). The selection of tremolo picked guitars here isn't necessarily more athletic or original than on Recounts, but it's certain set in a better contrast with the denser low notes and feels more freshly grating and hostile. Tracks like "Rooted in Profundity" or "Vaults of Ageless Pain" can certainly deliver a headache due to their potent, percussive construction, but all told I felt far more enthusiastic and engrossed in the material than ever before, even on the band's promising debut Perpetual Mockery which was an incarnation of the band as its most promising and unique. Ominous Bloodline isn't ultimately the most individual sounding record in the medium, and in terms of technicality or riff progression it's not as 'rocket science' as it looks, but it's nonetheless a damn fine brutal death record, and a pugilistic monument of escapism.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (radiating in utter revulsion)

http://www.facebook.com/BeheadedMT

Human Mincer - Devoured Flesh (2005)

One of the finer Spanish death metal institutions alongside Avulsed and Machetazo, Human Mincer have seen a steady improvement thus far through their three full-lengths. Though the 2005 sophomore Devoured Flesh has little on its own successor Degradation Paradox, it was nonetheless a riffy, refreshing dose of decimation with dynamics in spades to keep even the more jaded extremists' expectations from growing dulled in its wake. Unlike their aforementioned neighbors, who possess more of a carnal Carcass craft to their sound, these Spaniards lunged into the faster-paced USDM side of things, inviting comparisons to acts like Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Nile, Cannibal Corpse and Deeds of Flesh with perhaps a tint of Decapitated and Krisiun.

This is characterized by an enormous display of kinetic, often hyperactive riffing which flows in and out of the band's choppy, brutal breakdowns, but most importantly, they're often writing (or at least attempting to write) some really catchy grooves or tremolo riffs which give the impression of a mashup of Morbid Angel's 1993-95 material. Vocalist Carlos Mejias has a guttural that integrates Vincent, Tucker, Rutan and perhaps Alex Camargo into an apt bludgeon which is even more potent when multi-tracked to beat in both your ears. The guitars are so rampant and acrobatic as they carouse through pinches, squeals, harmonics and sheer battery that the bass is often difficult to detect, but it's there if you listen just beneath the surface, and once in awhile curves out more boldly into the mix. The drummer David has to be one of the strongest in Europe at this style, with impeccable double-bass work, blasting on a dime, and great fills that are constantly up to the challenge of the explosive guitar progressions. There are only a few tints of atmosphere provided through the dark ambiance that inaugurates, say, "Devoured Flesh" itself, but the music is so incredibly busy that it adequately tucks the listener away into its envelope of fear.

The production is also quite high end here, with a level, bludgeoning mesh of drums and guitars that create this incredibly consistent vortex of confusion. It's not so polished as other unduly processed modern tech death records, but most of the instruments are clean, and the guitars have this great punch when they lumber into some spastic, mid-paced rhythm to set-up a volatile tremolo pattern. Seriously, songs like "Dirty Remembrances" and "Eternal Ways of Devil" are stunningly athletic and brutal, and any serious fan of groups like Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel or later Behemoth will shit him or herself in glee. Does Devoured Flesh present anything truly nuanced or intensely memorable? Perhaps not, since it's fueled by a formula common even by the year of its inception. And yet they've got this 'whole package' approach to the music that soundly balances musical proficiency and aggression into actual songwriting rather than some tedious display of their mutual prowess. A tight, beastly, effective outing, well worth the listen if you dig entries like Winds of Creation, Domination, Conquering the Throne or Conquerors of Armageddon.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Human-Mincer/47373745641

Testament - Live in London (2005)

While Live in London is technically the 'fourth' Testament live release (if we're including the EPs), and my patience seems to draw thinner each decade of a band's existence in terms of purchasing such items, I have to admit that it's by far the best. Not only because it features the original lineup of the band on fire, tearing through the greatest material of their career (1987-1992), but because no one has been able to capture their stage sound quite so fully and menacingly. These are the studio songs you love, given ample girth and power, and providing a dream gig for anyone who has, for whatever reason, constantly missed them when they came about on their numerous tours...

Issued as both an audio CD and DVD presentation, this and the following 2008 full-length Formation of Damnation provide an excellent 'second wind' for the Californians' career. Every track in this set is a classic revisited, with a relatively even distribution across the the first five albums (even The Ritual getting some love with "Electric Crown" and "Let Go of My World"). The guitar tone is crushing, with mighty palm mutes and dynamic breadth that sound superb whether the band is chugging along at mid pace or engaging one of their older school barrages like "Into the Pit". The drums are deep and haughty, the bass just as prevalent as on any of their studio records, and what's more, Skolnick is a living frenzy throughout, his leads exciting and one has to wonder how these two camps ever survived without each others' company. Chuck Billy is great, as every time I've ever seen him, putting a slightly meatier spin on the vocals than the old days, if only because Testament has wisely decided to not to entirely abandon the influence of their heavier records like Low and Demonic. Fine by me, since I've never had much of an issue with either.

I worship the sheer magnitude of the band's sound here, with the crowd hiss casually blanketed over the instruments to remind the listener where they are, without ever obscuring the musical delivery. There are a few moments of gang shouts or transitions where they don't seem quite as tight as one could hope, but these are rare enough not to mar the overall experience. Obviously, if given the choice, I'd say to go for the DVD over the CD if only because that visual element is important to 'being there', but even as a standalone this destroys Live at the Fillmore, Return to the Apocalyptic City, and the reissued Live at Eindhoven 87. Finally an engineer had done right by this band, and thanks to a near spotless performance these mighty and magnificent tunes are given their due. "Raging Waters", "Trial by Fire", even "Souls of Black" sounds superb, even with the smokier vocals. The one Testament live you can feel great about dropping some coin on, even if it's not the simplest to find these years.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.testamentlegions.com/