Aura Noir - Hades Rise (2008)

I'm a huge fan of bands like Sarke, Slegest and Darkthrone, and also enjoy the black & roll era of Satyricon or the newer Tulus records which also employ a very stripped-down aesthetic. There's just this very centered vibe with the clear mixes, honing each riff and vocal line to be sinister and effective without the smokescreen of ceaseless extremity and rawness. Those are both formidable devices in their own right, mind you, but I appreciate that this sort of sub-scene has developed parallel to the rest of Norse black metal's evolution. I bring it up because I feel Aura Noir also belongs in that realm, albeit approaching it more from the thrash embedded in their past works. Hades Rise might be the foremost example of this catchy simplification through their canon, and it also happens to be one of my favorite records they've released.

Right from the start, you're getting these amazing, memorable grooves and hooks which feel like the prodigy of that Hellhammer influence I've mentioned elsewhere, tempered with a little pure dirty heavy metal ("Hades Rise") or some Slayer-like licks (in the amazing "Gaping Grave Awaits"). All of the chords feel so carefully chosen and timeless, and there's little fat to be had, where a few of the past records would spit out savage hit-or-miss vitriolic progressions. The vocals have a dry hostility to them, as they're not too dressed up in effects, but at the same time you can capture all the emotion of the throats torn to each syllable, and it works just as well as Nocturno Culto's great performance on the Sarke albums. The bass is a lot more prominent and the guitar tone has an organic charm to it, delivering pure riffage rather than studio wizardry or technical wanking. The drums have a strong shuffle about them and aren't as acidic or splashy sounding as they once were. Clearly this is still thrash metal, there are plenty of classic licks of that vein paraphrased throughout, with even a little early dissonant Voivod influence ("Schitzoid Paranoid"), but you can also hear the punch-drunkenness, rock & roll bravado and the lingering darkness of the black metal throughout, or even a little death metal in the verses to "Iron Night/Torment Storm".

This is also extremely consistent, perhaps the Aura Noir record that I'm most willing to listen straight through. None of the tunes overstay their welcome, the lyrics are evocative and awesome, and there's enough variation within that black/thrash/rock aesthetic where it's recognizably coherent but never too repetitive...the more brash "South American Death", for example, with its looser leads and wall-like barrage of riffs is quite different than "Gaping Grave Awaits". It's a fantastic effort that has only grown with me through time, I remember first hearing both this and The Merciless and being hypnotized by them far more than the earlier efforts that my friends and bandmates had championed upon me. Hades Rise is not something they would quite repeat with the follow-ups, however it does inform their sound enough they retain a lot of its sticky riffing and crank up the intensity. Love this disc.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.facebook.com/auranoirofficial

Heavenwood - Redemption (2008)

A decade would pass before Heavenwood would release their follow-up to Swallow, a hiatus that didn't change their sound much. In fact, I think Redemption is a natural follow-up to the sophomore which actually improves upon the production values. This just sounds much huger and more atmospheric than their older material, probably because of newer recording techniques available to them, but it's really dense and effective and might even be the best SOUNDING album they've put out, though not the most memorable. Yet from all technical aspects, the tone on the rhythm guitars getting beefier, the leads and melodies far better infused into the rest of the material, and the synths and ethereal voices and such used to build atmosphere just feel seamless here rather than the rough novelty they once were.

It opens with a decent banger in "13th Moon", although it doesn't quite escalate to anything beyond the basic verses/chorus, and then there are several other really catchy tracks here like "Me & You" or "Fragile" which sound like souped up material that might have once appeared on their debut Diva. The band even experiments with getting a bit heavier on "Bridge to Neverland", its great riffs and exotic leads marking one of my favorite individual tunes the band has ever pulled off, or "Her Scent in the Spiral" which is somewhat similar, with ominous gutturals. These tropes are reverberated through the rest of the album, more or less, but that doesn't make them any less effective, and unlike the slightly amateur vibes you could feel off their process on the old albums, they really seemed to know what they were doing here, and put together a mix that can keep up with whatever else was going on in these bold new times, with a few small surprises like the dingy vocal harmony in "Foreclosure" which reminded me a little of old Alice in Chains.

I didn't quite feel much impact off this album, but on the other hand if I were recommending any of their albums to younger or modern audiences, it would be this and the follow-up Abyss Masterpiece. Not that Heavenwood has ever disappointed me, they are a wise group to never bite off more than they can chew, and evolve themselves slowly with nuances and minor details that keep them fresh while honoring what they had created before. Redemption is certainly heavier and less accessible than Swallow, like they were righting the ship back to its original course, and while it's not my favorite of their outings it does have an evergreen, consistent quality to it which is just as welcome today as when I first heard their return.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/HeavenwoodOfficial

In Solitude - In Solitude (2008)

I'm not going to repeat what others have said too much, the obvious...In Solitude is another of a batch of bands, many Swedish, who came along with a sound heavily reminiscent of the old Danish masters Mercyful Fate. They aren't the most egregious example of such, and you could tell from the debut that the group had some different ideas, but that's really the wheelhouse in which they're toiling. The band uses the Fate toolbox, but not its limitations, and in fact I think its this band's solitude which is a little more of a doppelganger for that sound. Fortunately, unlike a few of their peers, this band put together a pretty damn well composed album which could stand on its own outside the shadow of its influence, and In Solitude has a clean, efficient production that isn't a far cry from what their countrymen in Ghost would attempt with their simpler and more accessible debut Opus Enonymous. 

There is a bit of the falsetto shrieking you might expect, but vocalist Pelle spends more time in a sort of soaring, mid-range which emulates a little of the creepy King patterns, but also carries inflections of a lot of other epic/heavy metal bands. The riffs, too, seem drawn from a wider array of classic metal bands, with even a measure of 70s inspiration drawing me back to Rainbow or early Priest. In a few places I even caught a hint of Candlemass. Maybe I'm crazy. Once it gets a little harder and meaner, you do get some vibes from albums like Don't Break the Oath, Abigail, or Them, with the darker rhythm patterns and breakout leads not unlike Andy, but it's never so annoying that it feels like outright theft. They definitely excel at tacking into that horror/haunting vibe, and the record is consistently hammering along, they don't stop a lot for interludes or thematics, it's the straight metal dope or bust. "Witches Sabbath", "7th Ghost", "Kathedral" and "Temple of the Unknown" are favorites here, but it's actually quite consistent across all 36 minutes.

Where it does lack a little in having individual riffs that are blazing and immortal, or vocals lines with a real hook. The tunes flow well together and which one another, but oftentimes I'll be listening through this and just expecting some money shot lick to come flying at me, only to end up a little underwhelmed. The leads are good, but don't really reach that explosive next level that I love in metal music. But all in all, In Solitude is a very seasoned and solidly composed record, especially for a debut, and its just busy enough that you get a hint of promise that it might prove prescient of some greater evolution in the future, taking the influences somewhere different. And boy would they ever do that a half-decade later, but maybe not in the way I would have expected.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/insolitudeofficial 

Rage - Carved in Stone (2008)

For its first few moments of keyboard orchestration accompanying the guitars, Carved in Stone comes across like a spiritual successor to the Ghosts album, and in truth I heard a few melodic nods to those tunes a number of times throughout the album. However, this is an effort much more steeped in the ever increasing guitar theatrics of the talented Mr. Victor Smolski, who manages to balance off his finesse fairly well with the songwriting, using his prowess with a lot of fills and busy rhythm licks that actually serve to make song progressions more interesting than they might have been if they were left more...plain. This is far from the most memorable of Rage's output, but it's a typically strong affair which does attempt a few new riff ideas. More importantly, while Peavy is not as his shrieking heights, he does have a decent sustain when he ups his pitch a little here...much of his performance is still the gritty, lower growl, but there's a breath of vitality erupting on certain songs that hints at an earnest youthfulness.

Musically this is still the lower-end driven sort of power metal that Rage had been performing since the 90s, with the slightly thrash/groove undertones in that occupy a lot of verse and bridge sections. The bass lines are thick and pounding, and there's a spirited, hard-hitting Hilgers performance, all of which makes for a great sandbox through which Smolski can just go wild. He keeps it well under control, don't get me wrong, but hurls a lot of fine squeals, harmonies and wailing micro-leads at us that are entertaining. I've said it before, but Victor is like the Ozzy guitarist that never was...he has the flash and technique of all of Osbourne's famed axemen (Rhoads, Lee, Wylde), all rolled up into one person with the added onus that he's got a more neo-classical shredder leaning to, and there just came a point in this band's career when he started OWNING the material. That's not to diminish the recognizable traits of Wagner's vocals and the fact that those two are as mighty a rhythm fusion as you're going to get, but it's always Smolki who is punching through the stratosphere and providing us with a 'new' feel to the material, very evident in a track like "Gentle Murders" where he lets loose with some wild patterns and a great self-dueling solo that is threaded with these technical little muted picked lines that are fantastic.

The band can certainly simplify, as it does with the slightly dumber groove metal of "Open My Grave", and these are probably my least favorite moments on Carved in Stone, although even this one does turn into a slightly dreamy, jazzy pre-chorus where it instantly improves. There are no tracks here which entirely lack for good moments...even the woozy acoustics that introduce "Without You" erupt into this blazing, groovy Sabbath-like rhythm and then just amazing guitar theatrics throughout. I know I keep coming back to it, but this is really an album which wouldn't suffer so much if I were simply watching Victor jam it all out in preparation at a rehearsal room; he's such an entertaining player and you never quite know where he's going next, even if you're familiar with his overall bag of tricks. If it stumbles, it never does for long, and the worst I can say for this one is that it blends in a lot with other recordings in their 21st century catalogue so that it doesn't really approach a landmark. But I dig most of it.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

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

Borknagar - For the Elements 1996-2006 (2008)

For the Elements is another of those pretty senseless and shady compilations of previously released material which arrived at a peculiar time when Borknagar was between Century Media signings. The album directly after this came out through Indie Recordings, so one has to wonder if the label might have just been trying to squeeze out a little more profit from the original signing and not have any foreknowledge that the band would eventually return to the roster. Sure, they're a business, they own the material and have the right to do what they want with it, but one can only imagine what a nicer fan package might have included if there were odds and ends around to fill it. I know the band never really had much by way of demos before their signing, but perhaps there were a few rare tracks lying around that could have filled this one out? Or live recordings?

We all know how I feel about these shenanigans, and I can't promise my crusade ends here, but there are two slight things working in this particular compilation's favor. For one, they've remastered the material so it sounds a little more balanced from the slightly rougher years of the s/t or The Olden Domain and the more pristine, glistening production found on records like Epic or Origin. This was also curated by Marco Barbieri, one of the early driving forces at Century Media, and a guy I happen to admire a lot. In fact, his writings in Ill Literature were some of my own inspiration to deciding to review the metal music that I so long admired. So if someone is being handed a catalog of tunes to pick through, I sort of trust that he'd put their present some of their best. And he does well enough, it's not as if the Norwegians had any bad material to begin with, and thanks to its chronological presentation, the acoustic tracks from Origin are wedged at the back of the order, and even there they included that album's best track "White". 15 tracks overall, with 2-3 taken from each of the albums put out by that point under the Century Media banner. The exception is the s/t, of which only the excellent track "Dauden" is present...a misfire, I probably would have dropped one of the Empiricism tunes and added "Grimskalle trell" or "Krigsttev".

Of course, nitpicking details like track inclusion is a complete waste of time, just like this release is. Borknagar is an exceptional band that should be experienced through its full-length albums, and even though a few tunes here might be glossed up or polished, and decently I might add, it's just so critical to explore the context of all the band was creating at each of these incremental stepping stones in its career. There is no bonus material of note and it doesn't even look all that great in presentation. Not to mention, some of those earlier records have full remasters available out there through various labels, so one of the benefits this might have had in 2008 was quickly erased by subsequent products that are much more deserving of your hard earn coin (or even your trust funds if you're so fortunate). If you're brand new to the band, just head immediately towards True North, or Winter Thrice, or honestly any other studio album other than Origin and spin them front to back. You won't be disappointed. Save this change for a coffee and sandwich.

Verdict: Epic Fail [1/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Todesstoß - Würmer zu weinen (2008)

I haven't decided yet whether to believe Martin Lang, longstanding proprietor of Germany's Todesstoß, is a mad genius, or just very far off his rocker. For nearly 20 years now his black metal vehicle has been churning out a large body of demos, splits and albums with not a whole lot of fanfare, and it's plain to hear why: this shit is terrifying. From the surreal, disturbing or just weird cover imagery that graces a lot of his releases, to the hideously primitive nature of the songwriting, this is not a musician driven by the latest, glossiest sort of black metal progression, but instead by contorting new patterns from its elemental ingredients, and not always the same way on each successive recording. Würmer zu weinen, the second proper full-length of the project, is a great example of how he can twist the quirks and flaws of his sound into strengths that haunt the listener far after the audio.

Think of this as slow to mid-paced black metal, entirely driven by a drum machine set to sound more like an industrial backline than a proper metal drummer. The guitars are extremely raw, with a very cheesy saturation to them that sounds a lot like (and probably is) a practice amp, and these are set out into very simple chord patterns, often smothered with a second, dissonant guitar line. At numerous points throughout the album, he'll let the beats and rhythms die down and then just concoct some eerie guitar that plays out in solitude with a nearly hypnotic string of notes. Above all of this is his lunatic, raving vocal style, which seems like little more than some psychopath making a mockery of the form with entirely unfiltered rants and rasps that channel a schizophrenic rainbow of goofy but unsettling personalities. We're all accustomed to the high pitched, painful vocals of luminaries like Varg Vikernes, but Todesstoß is next level, almost like a trolling or deconstruction of depressive black metal in general, with no fucks given. It gets even more bizarre when he'll drop out of the music and just use these as a tortured spoken word all on its own.

Here is an album which is accessible in its simplicity, but almost inaccessible in terms of many fans of this genre taking it seriously. Uncouth, unprofessional, and unconcerned. For all that, though, it's quite artsy and appealing, and if you can stretch your mind and tastes enough to appreciate its eccentricity, it can prove rewarding, although not the most interesting of the albums he's put out. The songs are generally long, between 9-14 minutes here, and while this sort of primeval bedroom black metal could throw that all away by becoming overly repetitive, there are usually some twists or unexpected, fuzzy melodies or synthesized sounds emerging through each landscape which keep it an adventure. An ugly adventure, without a happy ending, but a few passages of gloom and grace that will remind the audience of the roots from which this sprung. Depressive BM with a dash of death rock, industrial beats and maybe late 90s Bethlehem is an apt comparison, but even then I don't feel like that covers it. If you're on the hunt for well-produced, catchy or savage black metal, Todesstoß is one to stay wide of, but if your tastes permit for raw-boned production, genre deformity and plebeian experimentalism then this one might lose you in its minimalist maze.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] 

http://www.traumorgane.com/

Sytry - Hunger of Cold Nights (2008)

Hunger of Cold Nights is an album with so many characteristics I admire that it's been hard to bring myself to the painful realization that it's only a hair above average in its impact. From the grim, hand drawn cover artwork all in shades of black and white, to the band's simple but memorable logo, the perfect packaging for newsprint toned black metal, eloquent if familiar lyrics, and an even-keeled, powerful, clear studio production that sounds fantastic bursting forth from my speakers. Sytry had all the ingredients here for a breakout underground black metal debut (or sophomore if you count the re-issue of the eponymous demo as an album), but it's hampered by the endless sameness of its composition style and for never truly embracing the sinister DNA from which its sprung.

Seriously, this thing 'sounds' great, but utterly fails to produce anything but repetitive, unmemorable midlist black metal which is competently crafted in execution, but lacking imagination. Streaming, semi-melancholic riffs play out in predictable, cyclic patterns, with nary a chord progression that can stand out on its own anywhere. The drums are flawlessly beaten, but so many of the tracks thunder along at the exact same speeds that the beats become mechanistic and indistinct. There's a decent swell of bass to support the airier production of the guitars, but it doesn't carve out creepy enough lines of its own to really add the depth and atmosphere the album could use. Lastly, the vocalist has a fairly sincere snarl going on here, broadcast loudly enough to stand at the fore of the instruments without ever weakening or drowning them out, but his own syllabic patterns just aren't tortured or passionate enough to enhance the riffing beyond its standard state. Creativity was just not a virtue for Sytry here, but rather adding yet another album to the endless canon of early 21st century black metal bands aping their predecessors and peers.

It's difficult to pinpoint the precise 'scene' where this Italian act fits in, because they don't particularly sound like their own countrymen, but more like a mashup of Swedish and Teutonic styles, or a kinship with the Greek bands that also went for a Scandinavian aesthetic to their writing, rather than the more regional, mid-paced melodic pacing. I'd liken them to some of Endstille's output, only they lack the ability to conjure up riffs nearly as hypnotic as those Germans, nor are they as violent. But they possess that same aim to throw those higher pitched chord-flows at you repeatedly. Hunger of Cold Nights is not an album I'll immediately boot from my collection, since I've got a soft spot for traditional black metal and really like how the thing looks, but it's just never one I'd reach for with so many proven options available to me. Recommended only to those most strict, non-picky adherents of the black metal genre who will appreciate anything with the right drums, vocals and guitar tone, but demand little more than that to sate their night-lust.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] 

Cardiac Arrest - Cadaverous Presence (2008)

Cardiac Arrest is another of those hard working Midwestern acts which never seems to quite catch a break or generate a ton of buzz despite being capable at its craft. While they've never really put out anything that blew me away, records like Haven for the Insane and Vortex of Violence have been serviceable, competent and entertaining old school death metal platters that stand out to me mostly because they pursue a style that is simply not heard too often in the realm of brutastic boor-wankers, Dismember addicts, cavern core drillers and Floridian acolytes. Instead, they've got a sound strikingly reminiscent of English death and grind circa early Carcass and Bolt Thrower, perhaps with a little Repulsion in there and a whole lot of horror influence rather than songs about medical processes or Warhammer.

When I say 'reminiscent', I don't mean that they completely ape those bands' tones, but rather feel like a parallel, North American development to them, with some similarities in riff construction, chord choices, and pacing. For example, the instrumental intro, "The Inevitable" sounds a hell of a lot like something you'd hear Karl Willetts growling over, a slow and churning piece with groovier drums that almost can't support the fuzzed out rhythm guitar tone. The title track definitely has a couple of roiling riffs, as in the bridge breakdown, which would have fit right in on Symphonies of Sickness, though they also break out into a lot less distinct grinding and blasting, faster patterns that are in the Morbid Angel camp, and then some leads whipping their tendrils about that feel a bit aimless but not out of place. You can hear traces of a few other influences in here, like old Pestilence or maybe even the first Entombed record, but that constant grinding to grooving ratio evokes a whole lot of the Earache camp circa the late 80s or early 90s, which is surely a nostalgia trigger.

As for production standards, this is naturally a little weaker than the records to come after it, with the drums a little weak in the mix to support that excessively fuzzy guitar tone. Combined with the distortion levels on the bass, this is where part of the Repulsion comparison comes in, and you could make an argument that Cadaverous Presence is a more dynamic alternative to Horrified, those dynamics taking the form of the riffs and progressions which sound like the other bands I've brought up. This is ugly, hostile and ultimately punishing, with just barely enough polish to place it beyond the live or rehearsal category of recording. But, at the same time, that actually lends it some character and forces the listener into a more terrifying, grotesque dimension in which they've got to earn their appreciation a little more. The range of riffs, which aren't terribly catchy on an individual basis, is another strong point, since it's interesting and varied enough to prevent this from being some slog saved only by its disgusting tones.

Alas, that's not to say I think this is an album as good as those to follow it. The gutturals are rather monotonous and sound more like your average brutal death frontman, both in tone and the patterns of syllables being belched out. Half the riffs are exciting, the others are entirely forgettable, while the balance of the guitars and drums doesn't exactly allow them to properly complement one another. Apart from the sheer visceral nature of the music, the titles and artwork, there is very little here that rises above the horror level of your average slasher. That said, its truly fuzzy and abusive nature will certainly appeal to some that miss when death and grind bands reveled in raw production, and there are least the inklings and intentions of cool songwriting ideas buried across its twisted, fleshy canvas.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/CardiacArrestDeathMetal/

Nightshade - Autumnal Equinox (2008)

The biggest crime committed by Autumnal Equinox is that it's just so aesthetically scatterbrained, where from appearances alone it looks like it could have been a fun, campy Halloween metal romp which capitalized on the cheesiness of its themes. Essentially a one-off project by Rick Scythe, who you might know from the Midwest black death metal legends Usurper, and more recently the decent black thrash outfit of his namesake, Scythe; with a couple of his friends, and a drum machine, Nightshade seems like a primitive array of beats programmed to support over-saturated guitars and a mix of vocals that range from his nastier, familiar snarls to a deep Gothic timbre reminiscent of Andrew Eldritch and Peter Steele.

Stylistically it ranges from thrash to heavy metal, to punk riffs that recall The Misfits only clad in a heavier level of distortion and feeling too inorganic because of the drums. Although they lack the distinction that a few threads of Goth rock melody or unpredictable dissonance would give them, the rhythm guitars aren't written all that poorly, only configured into patterns you've heard before that aren't really enhanced or complemented by what's happening around them. The deep, clean vocals are effective enough for that style, but in several of the verse lines or choruses it almost seems like the band is letting us in on the joke, as they become increasingly goofy. Granted, there is no possibility a listener is bound to take Autumnal Equinox seriously. It's meant as a fun recording, but the lyrical content, samples, titles and so forth aren't actually that amusing or even sarcastically humorous, and the cleaner vocals come off like barely intelligible mumbling across half the songs.

It's a strange mix, and frankly if I didn't look at the date it was released out through Sempiternal Productions, I'd have thought it was some bizarre drunken bedroom reel from sometime in the 90s I had stumbled across, so it seems a little displaced from an era where it might actually feel like a lovably bad, sarcastic success. The song titles with subjects like "Midnight, Down in the Lab", "13 Spiders", "It Lives in the Lake" and "October's Scarecrow" all sound like they could be pretty entertaining if they adorned some fun horror punk songs, or even campy death metal like the sort put out by bands like Crypticus and Ghoul, but there's just not enough 'theme' dripping through them, despite the limited use of samples, haunted house keys, etc. The metal aspect of the record seems to be its driving force, but at best the riffs and drum machine make it sound like scraps from the cutting room floor of a Ministry or Rob Zombie record from nearly 20 years ago.

I can't hate on it all that much. It doesn't seem to be intended as anything more than an oddity, I've heard worse, and Rick Scythe seems like a genuine guy with some great material in Usurper and Scythe, just kind of screwing around here. Much of the disappointment for me comes by the aforementioned lack of focus, and because...just look at it. The crones on the cover with the dorky fonts look pretty entertaining, and the music that ends up on the album just isn't anywhere near that...imagine it were a fun Goth metal record with a huge kitschy influence from old punk and rockabilly, or just a really cheesy, awesome horror speed metal record from when they took cover photos like this.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10]

Baphomet's Blood - Second Strike (2008)

The moody acoustic intro to this sophomore record, and the slow but sure heavy metal buildup that bleeds into the band's namesake anthem definitely gave me impression that the Italians had refined themselves for a greater impact this time around, and in truth I feel that Second Strike is a step up above Satanic Metal Attack in every way, maintaining that roughshod road burn raw production some listeners probably loved about the debut but angling up the actual songwriting ability. This is still throwback material, to a fault, meaning that unless you've got nostalgia for a more testosterone injected alternative to the original NWOBHM scene, namely a band like Tank, 'Head or Venom, this is probably one to avoid, but I can easily relate to this with a skunked beer in my paw and that stinking denim vest I made out of an old dungaree jacket that darkens the bedroom closet for now and evermore.

Basic shit here, pavement worthy anthems with only vague degrees of variation to note selections, which are all cast in that bluesy iron of the old British bands in the late 70s, and slathered in the ugly and lower blue collar vocals of Necrovomiterror, who by his name seems more like a natural fit for a band like Blasphemy...but I'm guessing some of the names these guys used were also a nod to the band Sodom from their heyday. Good, violent thrash metal names, for songs that only faintly dip into the thrash-well, and even then only at that niche's most basal. The drums are little more than brute force, effective but occasionally monotonous, driving clatter that merely fuels the licks, which are themselves far from nuanced but generate a similar vibe to that first time I heard Filth Hounds of Hades or Iron Fist. Solos are sloppy and grungy and again, like having molten blues-based hard rock poured into a fiery forge for smelting into these workmanlike, thundering exercises in sounding EXACTLY like they look on their cover pose.

As with the debut, the bass guitar is fairly lacking in the mix, and the tone doesn't really sound good, a page from the Lemmy handbook must have been ripped out when they were formulating the style and direction they wanted Baphomet's Blood to head towards. So that can make Second Strike feel a little on the dry side, but doesn't completely break the deal for me, because this is just something so 'innocently' vile and straightforward. Every lick on this disc was probably written 20 years or more before it came out, and a lot of bands could probably write this entire album's worth of material in an afternoon; yet there's just something retro and refreshing for me which I value more than innovation on a particular effort like this one. Don't get me wrong, this is FAR from one of the best in this backwards speed metal scene, and even this very band has surpassed it, but if anyone were to be listening to this in their car and picked me up, I wouldn't ask them to turn it off or even turn up my nose at what is such a crude, good time. It makes me wish I smoked cigarettes. I don't, but maybe in some alternate reality my other self does. And he's doing it to Second Strike.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baphomets-Blood-official/116241875112834

Vietah - Zorny maroz (2008)

Zorny maroz is a first time exposure for me to Belarusian one-man act Vietah, thanks to a series of slick new vinyl reissues through I Hate records of Sweden. Black metal solo outlets these days tend to run a wide gamut of particular sounds, from the most raunchy and undercooked to feats of instrumentation and craft that would leave most full line-ups bewildered, but Antarctis tends to live up to his name as a purveyor of isolation and cold majesty. This is achieved through fairly minimalist sound structures that involve raw but brazenly produced rhythm guitars, wistful synthesizer lines, bare beats and the sort of harrowing, over the top style of rasped vocal most find commonly inhabiting the sphere of suicidal and/or depressive black metal, from which torment is wrought at the expense of most other elements in the mix.

Fortunately, Vietah is clearly enough produced that this isn't so much the case, although the listener will take some warming up to Antarctis' style unless he or she is quite used to the stuff. Others might find it a hangup that the guy creates such simplistic song patterns, in which even the barest of synth melodies sheds all notion of challenge or complexity to create a spacious, lulling effect. Added to the aforementioned vocals and guitars, I was most reminded of Burzum here, in Vikernes' 'prime', the Filosofem era. One man carving his sorrows into the flesh of the universe, with no pretense towards musical proficiency beyond his limitations, and no concern for user friendliness when it comes to that bloodcurdling, native tongue, wrenching delivery. Lyrics are ponderous of spiritualism and nature, par for the course of many similar acts, translations including in the packaging, and well enough written if you're a fan of such drifting, nebulous queries into both the lighter and darker halves of being.

The first couple of tracks run on a little long, which is also a staple of this niche, but that doesn't hold true for the remainder of the material, in which Antarctis flexes the creativity a bit with a folksy, pure electric guitar instrumental, and then another pair of tunes which didn't drag on whatsoever, and were coincidentally catchier than their predecessors. I actually really dig it when he's using the cleaner, more conversational vocal, it's like sitting around the fire with some cautionary storyteller, face reflected in flames and moonlight. He also picks up the intensity there a little with more hammering double bass patterns and a heavier feel to offset the atmospherics, and superior synth work. And that is really where appreciation for Zorny maroz is going to fall: in the atmospheric mood sought out by its potential audience. Do you like your black metal to rove across misted moors, eschewing things like progression and originality for bleakness with a few rays of sunlight? Then this might be for you. I didn't feel too strongly one way or the other with this debut, but it's hardly ineffective.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Vietah.Official

Trinacria - Travel Now Journey Infinitely (2008)

Whether you view Travel Now Journey Infinitely as an entirely new prospect with a (now uncertain) future, or just a repository for the more unhinged ideas of its Enslaved members, Trinacria is one of those curious one-offs that I frankly don't hear enough of coming from one of my favorite metal scenes. Part of that is because a lot of its longstanding forerunners (Ulver, Arcturus, Dodhseimsgard, even Burzum) are themselves extremely bizarre and show no signs of wearing down; unapologetic in smudging their roots with all manner of bewildering, risky ideas. But there's not really another act of the litter, to my knowledge, that sounds quite like this strange collaboration between Ivar, Grutle, Ice Dale and a number of other Norwegian musicians hailing from lesser known acts. Travel Now Journey Infinitely might lack for the superior songwriting of its progenitors, but this is certainly an album, given enough space for the listener's immersion, which I've found myself occasionally returning to through the years, if for little more than just to see if I can fill in any more pieces in the puzzle of its very existence.

The album is usually described as 'black metal', and to an extent you'll have that in the raspier vocal presence and the fuzzier riffs redolent of post-imprisonment Burzum and others who use dissonant, earthen tones to flay bare the roots of that subgenre. But there's also a heavy whiff of the rugged blackened thrash which fed itself into that medium to begin with, coupled with loads of feedback, noises both acoustic and electronic, and a more tribal, steady style of drumming which is felt most in the more repetitive, pensive cuts like opener "Turn-Away" where the guy is pounding away a steady rock beat and loads of drum-circle like toms beneath a droning, minimalistic guitar line and all manner of creepy whispers and glitchy noises which persist even through some of the deepest of Grutle's torn barks that I've encountered. Granted, this is one of the loosest 'structured' tunes when it comes to the variety of riffing...others like "The Silence" and "Make No Mistake" are more bloodthirsty beatings, but I'd almost say that the six cuts of the record are pretty evenly divided between the more familiar, to reel in the metal crowd which followed Enslaved up to that point, and the experimental, which is usually manifest in longer, more mellow and atmospheric compositions.

Examples of the latter include "Breach", another droning, tense piece smothered in thundering and tribal percussion, prog-punk or dissonant DC-hardcore style guitars that work exceedingly well with Grutle's growls and all the echoed, manic whispers and scummy electronic whirrs that permeate the record's strange sort of postmodern darkness. Or "Endless Roads" with its cleaner, muted guitars and distant noises which inevitably transform into these lush guitar passages over which the vocals are almost like a hypnotic spoken word style. Though there is a female vocalist here, her voice itself is really saved up for the titular finale, a more grandiose epic in which she hovers around Grutle like some angelic, ethereal shadow; for the rest of the record she is contributing other scratchy screeches, noises, keys and effects. But that one song is just so mesmerizing, as it shifts between paradigms of soothing seriousness and batshit spasms redolent of earlier portions of the album. Possibly the one tune here that might have been 'worthy' of an actual Enslaved record in the past decade, had they chosen to include it there.

Trinacria is indeed pretty compelling, not so much as the main band, yet enough that I kind of hoped they wouldn't give this project up entirely. As far as I can tell its fate is currently a coin toss, but I just find the music intriguing and unpredictable enough that I would love to follow its course straight into the unknown, and could easily see them reigning alongside avant-garde Norse champs like Virus and Ulver. The production is excellent; every little detatched sound rich enough without drowning the guitars or drums. Grutle is in fine form, in fact I'd make an unpopular argument that his harsh vocals here are the equal or better of any particular Enslaved album, even though the riffs and the song construction itself seems more free-form and lacks the same balance of style and impact you will find in the more proggy records these guys are up to. I've just developed such a level of admiration and trust for these musicians that I feel like they cannot fail me, in any capacity; I will likely never tire of what they vomit out my speakers, and this is further evidence.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (nourished through new blood)

https://www.facebook.com/trinacriamusic

Yogth Sothoth - Abominations of the Nebulah Mortiis (2008)

There's no question that the virulent retro death metal seed has impregnated Central and South America nearly as much as Europe and the US, but Yogth Sothoth of Colombia had the pleasure of getting their slithering appendages through the door a few years before it became a goddamn mandate, with a sort of admirable mesh of late 80s aesthetics with the earlier recordings of those lauded forebears of the East Coast US scene (Suffocation, Deicide and Immolation at the very least). So not only do we encounter a bit of the voluptuous, old school ominous tremolo picking progressions of bands like Death, Autopsy and Obituary, but also a healthy portion of the churning palm muted pre-slam we equate with a lot of the New York and later Floridian innovators who were further removing the death metal genre from its overt thrash roots. Add in the Lovecraftian theming, which is not remotely subtle on this or the Colombians' later compilation The Dark Waters Are Shaken, and you have a recipe for some success, at least if people are willing to dig back through the Sevared Records canon and spear this one up from the depths of R'lyeh.

I'm not saying it's a great record, and a lot of the material here is taken from the demo recordings of tunes that wound up on the 2009 comp, but when ingested as a whole, this is passable and ugly death metal which seems a little rare in that it doesn't just generically and genetically ape the aesthetic of one single band. Maybe a short list of 6-8 (some of which I listed above), but there is a real focus here on structure and riffing over impersonation, it's just that the results Yogth Sothoth achieve are not much different than their predecessors. Clinical picking sequences mirror old Pestilence or Death and are woven into tightly wrought, pummeling sequences circa Effigy of the Forgotten, but there is no shying away from enough variation that no two tracks on the disc sound quite the same. I really enjoyed how they used the percussion to great dramatic effect, often dropping out and back into some riffing cycles to give them a greater breath of impact, the old school way of setting up a neanderthal groove to let the crowd know it's about to happen and that they need to adjust their spines. There is not a lot of melody or memorability in the guitars on the whole, but they're flexible and concussive and you won't stop banging your head along even if that comes with an empty hope that they're going to break out into some truly brilliant riff execution...

The bass guitar gets lost a lot for me here, I can hear it hovering and swerving along but I would have loved it to pump out more from the speakers and attempt some more distinct notation to fill in the aesthetic cravings that some of the guitar riffs leave wide open. The vocals of Klisgor play out like a more muffled, guttural integration of van Drunen's grotesqueness with Frank Mullen's sense of punctuality embedded into the syllabic choices, and they also throw in some higher snarls to create that Glen Benton demonic duality. I don't love the guitar tone or really the production of this at all, but it's honest and clear enough for something lo-fi, and doesn't detract from that punchy, percussive intent captured by the rhythm guitars. As superficial a complaint as it might seem, I don't think the material really captures that dread horror aesthetic of Lovecraft to its fullest, relying almost entirely on brutality and rarely on atmosphere (apart from the "Prayer of Doom" intro), but then again not many bands who use the Mythos as lyrical inspiration really do. Yogth Sothoth WANTS me to feel the horror cosmic of its namesake, and most of the lyrics are amazing and frankly the best part of this record, but I just don't feel like the Elder Gods would champion themselves with such straightforward death metal...they'd seek out something more brain-meltingly dissonant and alien. Other bands have since incorporated a lot more of that into their material, but that doesn't stop Abominations from being a passable record (superior to the compilation)...just not a great one.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (the portal has been opened)

http://yogthsothoth.byethost18.com/

Kraanium - Ten Acts of Sickening Perversity (2008)

It's pretty wild to think that misogynistic, brutal torture-porn death metal  has become such a familiar and 'safe' territory for some extreme listeners that it has evolved into its own sort of mythology, with its own lyrical and musical standards that are accepted without question. One wonders where the line blurs between what is being projected into the music for pure shock value and what might actually happen behind closed doors if one of the style's performers or fans had the motive or opportunity to fulfill these sick fantasies. I know, I know: it's just entertainment, right? Flying kites is fun, too, but there are a lot less female victims with axes in their heads if you're doing it right. Now, I'm not saying I'm some angel I've been listening to this stuff since Cannibal Corpse popularized it in the late 80s, have covered and therefor aggrandized hundreds of such albums, and even enjoy a few dozen myself, but it still baffles me that the envelope has been pushed so far that most of us treat these images and lyrics with the desensitization we treat slasher films and other extreme media. We're disgusting people, bros

Ten Acts of Sickening Perversity is not something you wanna have in your car stereo on a first date, unless you've successfully picked up George 'Corpsegrinder' at a bar. It's not something you'll want to bring to your next NOW meet-up. No, it's thanatosis in the most puerile form: spasm-inducing chug-centric barbarian slam death with the requisite horror samples uses as intervals to pace out each struggling bowel movement better known as a 'song'. Vocals are malicious pig squeals neutered alongside the groovy pacing of the guitars, which are all more or less paraphrased from various Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation tunes with a degree of low end ballast borrowed from mid-period Morbid Angel records like Domination or Blessed Are the Sick, albeit with more of a knife's edge to the distortion and a dissonant density to various chords that are hammered out in the middle or closure of riffing phrases. The bass is fantastic, scuzzy blood-soaked entrails whipping free from an eviscerate mid-section, coiled and floppy and fluent enough that it becomes apparent the musician actually gives a damn; while the percussion is thick and powerful, loads of thick cymbals and snares crashing alongside the rhythm guitar to give it a far more bouncy, gyrating, sadistic feel for your non stop wigga ninja windmill kickboxing sessions with the homies.

It's tantalizingly brief at around 27 minutes, meaning you could probably listen to this before and after your workday commute, and get revved up with ideas of what you might do to your supervisors that or the next day once they come down on you for micro-management purposes or some lazy breach of protocol on your part. Variation is not a word in the Norwegians' dictionary, but having said that I think they pretty equally distribute the material into its faster and slamming segments to garner appeal from both the moshing crowd and those who want their brutality defined with a little dextrous intensity. The horror bits aren't particularly scary or satisfying in how they introduce individual tracks, but the whole of Ten Acts is violent and visceral enough that the garden variety sociopath who takes this shit with any grain of seriousness will probably spin it with alarming frequency. Personally, I liked the punch and punishment of the album, and that it never hung around enough to wear its welcome thin...just hacking and maiming, and fleeing before the authorities arrive, to ensure that a number of sequels are filmed, each one potentially bloodier than the last. That said, this is largely void of memorable songs, interesting songwriting ideas or anything bordering on essential. You listen to it for the mood and black humor it represents, rather than the strength of individual compositions. Even within this specific niche of death metal there are scores of better albums, but the Kraanium debut is fun and relentless enough that none of those complaints really registers for long.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/kraaniumslam

Hades Archer - Penis Metal EP (2008)

Not the deepest of dickings, nor a particularly memorable one, because by the time you're about to climax Hades Archer has already expended itself and moved along to the next willing victim. That said, if you're into a rough ride with your blackened war-metal, I can promise you that there's absolutely no romance or foreplay with this EP, just in and out thrusts the pitchfork as your ears are creamed with a violent load of functional blast beats, harsh rhythm guitars which have all the complexity and nuance of a gaggle of grinding sluts you could find in any inner city, and ravenous rasps and barks that talk dirty to you about the Devil's host, bestial acts involving his pet goats and hounds (maybe both at the same time), and a whole lotta damned souls, dead rising, fire and blood.

Arguably, this brand of ultra-violent Underworld bloodlust blew its wad about a decade prior, when bands like Impiety, Impaled Nazarene, Blasphemy and Bestial Warlust took it to its logical, licentious end with an orgy of rehashed thrash, death, punk and heavy metal riffs played at X-rated, savage speeds where the only given atmosphere was its own coked up velocity. There's almost nothing present on Penis Metal which really distinguishes the group from its skull-fornicating forefathers, apart from a few español chileno lyrics. Having said that, it's my experience that a lot of studs into this style don't give a particular damn. Fuck and forget, throw the horns, strap-on your bullet belts and pentagram necklaces for a night and there goes the goddamn neighborhood! Only with less Ice-T. It took longer to read the band members' stage names than to make up my mind on this music, and that's never a good sign! It's little more than pure, testosterone-driven blasphemy predicated on a passion for barbarism, misanthropy, and 'because we can' attitude that precludes much of an chance at any poignant songwriting or malevolent nuance.

That's right: it's not nearly as demonic as it wishes it were, and that's a symptom most bands like this just can't overcome. No patience. Coitus inter-ruptured. Premature e-jerk-ulation. The rhythm guitar riffs lack any semblance of creepiness or diabolic, compelling note placement, nor do the frenzied leads which careen across the chords like drunks fiddling their zippers. Variation is all but alien to this duo, they have clearly not consulted their Kama Sutra and insist on just one position, which transforms the pounding drums into a monotonous, incendiary clamor and makes me quite happy that this was such a short session and you can move on to a more virile client. The super smutty secret Sodom cover circa 1986 is actually the best thing about the EP, because it showcases the mark bands like this are aiming for and falling short of, without any need to consult other sources. Hades Archer improved their libidos considerably for the later full-lengths (For the Diabolical Ages in particular is pretty fun), but Penis Metal is a spent contraceptive full of wannabeEvilSeed lying limp in the sewers of Perdition, just beneath the Moulin Splooge.

Verdict: Fail [4/10] (Metal for men & fuck)

Facebreaker - Dead, Rotten and Hungry (2008)

Dead, Rotten and Hungry does not seem the sort of album that would take four years to release, but by the time it showed up the Swedish retro death metal movement was in full swing, no longer the province of a few artists who were lovingly paying tribute to themselves or their countrymen, but a bona fide fad harboring the masses of the creatively lacking. Apart from the slight zombie nod, another trend that has gotten completely out of fucking control as we neared the Teens of the 21st Century, this was aesthetically a direct continuation of Bloodred Hell, albeit with a few production tweaks that brought it more in line with the pure Dismember/Entombed worship and a few nods to the mighty Bolt Thrower. It's almost an enjoyable experience if you've not already become jaded with the style, which is much more likely today than in 2008 for anyone paying attention to the myriad records coming out that sound like this. Facebreaker nearly succeeds by the seat of its maggot-jacked underwear, but has a weaker second half, and ultimately doesn't leave an impression beyond a few quickly healing bruises.

The guitars here are definitely a little uglier as they reach even further into the legendary Swedish playbook, but I also think they've got a more built-in appeal to the masses of retro worship, not to mention all the Entombed-core bands at large that have also taking this cruddier tone into extreme music at large. They're not as gruesome or dirty as Mr. Death or Tormented, but enough that this is the sort of album kids are gonna pick up for the production without even caring about the quality of songs. As for the riffs themselves, they're quite a bit like a blend of later Bolt Thrower meets early Dismember, with nothing really sticky about them, but the tremolo picking just feels so huge here that it's easy to get into, and the meatier chords come off as as a potent counterbalance. Spurious, infectious little leads break out here or there but not often enough, and I also felt like the track list got a little more redundant and uninspired as the record progressed. The first half feels more repulsive and powerful and the latter lapses into a semi-lazy arrangement of tunes you might find on any random Rogga Johansson record circa Ribspreader, Paganizer or Revolting, big grooves and 'authentic' atmosphere to those seeking the re-Swedening, but nothing compelling beyond a handful of listens...in fact, if not for 3-4 lacking tunes, this would be closer in quality to Bloodred Hell.

Otherwise, it's basically 'Double Bass: The Album', because Jesus Christ...double bass. A fortress of brick flinging, always in time, reminding me again of how Bolt Thrower used to do it only ramped up on 'roids, and only disappearing when it just wouldn't make any sense to continue the barrage. 'Robban' Karlsson's vocals have a little more sustain this time around, but once more he's rather indistinct when you compare him to death metal frontmen at large...a little Karl Willetts, a little Steve Tucker, and nothing that would stand out if you had him in a lineup. That said, his growling definitely hit me in the mid-section for the first 15 or so minutes of the record and the production is just excellent, layered upon with a few higher pitch snarls that seem like paeans to Carcass and Deicide, but never dominate that lower end. The bass guitar 'shows up' and collects its pay, but never does much to distinguish itself beyond achieve the raw sewage appeal while sniffing along the guitar progressions. Facebreaker also adopted one of those logos which looks to have that tough guy US hardcore font, only a bit more grotesque because this is undead fuckin' death metal we're talking about, and yet it largely has the same effect as pissed off, highly produced 21st century hardcore, a zombified beatdown with nothing necessarily creepy or malevolent included, just locker room death metal that you'd pump before the big game.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (this world won't last)

http://www.facebreaker.com/

Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery (2008)

Now, I'm not normally the sort of 'center of the universe' critic who thinks entirely in absolutes and rants endlessly for pages about those opinions which deviate from my own. I don't haphazardly slap a zero on a record just because a friend of a friend's metalcore sister who watches MTV once said At the Gates sounded 'pretty sweet', nor do I shower glowing praise upon every 11th generational extreme metal record shat down the pipe, just because this or that forum/clique/club/a-hole thinks its cool to wear the patch this month. I know you've all got your Neil Diamond vinyls stashed away in that closet, fuckers! That said, I would find it incredibly difficult to take seriously anyone who can look me in the eye and tell me they think a Bloodbath album doesn't bring at least SOMETHING to the table that they enjoy. Again: no absolutes. They do not by any means write timeless, legendary albums like Left Hand Path, Realm of Chaos or Altars of Madness, but to deny that they've got their fingers on the blueprints to what makes an 'old school' death metal song sound brutal, fun and inspired without the usual stupidity would be a crime. The fact that they kickstarted the project well before whatever latest round of Dismember or Morbid Angel clones this or that cyber-posse holds dear this week, is just icing on the victim's corpse...

Sure, the Swedish veterans might have an inherent recipe for success. They probably have an advantage due to the members' participation in other, more financially independent acts. They may actually give a shit about not having the production sound like it came out of a dumpster in a trailer park, and have the means and connections to make it happen (even within their own foster). Yeah, so what? They put in the work those many years, and they reaped the rewards. The truth is, there isn't a member of this band who hadn't participated on some fantastic records long before this team up was conceived, and it's just not a surprise to me that I haven't met a Bloodbath long player that I didn't get a kick out of. 'Commercializing retro death metal'? With three full-length albums in 16 years? Hardly. At any rate, The Fathomless Mastery is another jewel in the crown of what makes this group so consistent. They care about what they're doing to the point that, even at their most conservative or uninspired, like a loping 2-3 chord groove which far too many bands have made entire careers out, they manage to put some small quality spin, be it a bend, measure-ending note choice, or a quick transition to snap the listener right back to intention and not repeatedly bludgeon him/her with the blandness. This is also a further transformation of their sound, and not for the worse: Resurrection Through Carnage was raw and primordial 1990 Swedish death metal, Nightmares Made Flesh took that and implanted a cleaner character with better riffs and structure, and this disc applies a slightly more polished sheen of technicality and variety which by no means detracts from the core concept.

Is it a paean to Dismember, Carnage and Entombed? To an extent, and that was clearly the impetus behind the band in the late 90s; but I actually got more of an impression of earlier Necrophobic meets faster Hypocrisy with some Grave-like grooves, with the obvious Floridian roots exposed (which could be said of almost any death metal group). Techniques are typical: memorable, textured tremolo patterns burst across the sepulcher-scape or slow to a mid-paced, churning cemetery swagger, while the grooves are well built but painfully simple, to the point that they're all going to evoke instant callbacks to the audiences' favorite genre records of old, without too much finger pointing. Pacing is evenly distributed in most of the songs, not to mention the album as a whole, and there's always going to be some rhythmic pattern in there that you didn't quite expect, to keep it fresh and imposing even when there's no denying its paraphrased origins. Mikael Åkerfeld's growling might not be to everyone's taste, but he definitely sounds more sinister and excitable than you'd expect given his more ponderous, meandering past gutturals over the harder Opeth material. Per and Blakkheim don't attempt to assuade the listener with their technical capability, but instead focus on rounding out each rhythmic script with stylish leads and what must be their clearest guitar tone yet, more on the level of the Unblessing the Purity EP than anything previous. Riffs and drums generate atmosphere through both their impenetrable, unerring confidence and just the right relish of reverb to tie it all together.

All without sounding wimpy, plastic, or over-processed. The chords still have enough edge to them that those into the older records, or really anything from the Swedish mainstays (Unleashed, Entombed, Grave, etc) would approve, and they certainly continue the Cannibal Corpse/Malevolent Creation influence that I felt pretty strongly on the EP. Renkse's bass tone here sounds positively livid even though it still tends to disappear into the rhythm guitar riffing patterns, and Martin Axenrot is nearly mechanical by this point, though he keeps the upper range of the kit splashy and rough enough to contrast the robotic consistency with which he hammers out the kicks and tom rolls. I personally enjoyed the constant, dour and melancholic sense of melody exploding everywhere...it only takes a simple stretch of notes to give the tunes that added depth. I also loved the tendency to briefly squirm into a more technical/brutal area with those mid-90s squeals built into the riffing brickwork/grooves ("Mock the Cross" being the prime example). So too must I point out for a band that was put together mostly for 'fun', the lyrics are just as serious as you'd expect from most top end death metal (Vader, etc) without traipsing entirely into torture/gore porn territory. Over all I'd consider them the equal of Deicide and Morbid Angel with a few memorable song titles like "Wretched Human Mirror".

This isn't quite as good as Nightmares Made Flesh, if only because the riffs on tunes like "Year of the Cadaver Race" are their best yet, but certain tunes here like "Mock the Cross", "At the Behest of Their Death" or the choppy, nearly djentish-prefaced "Devouring the Feeble" are all just as awesome as when I first tore the plastic off my copy, and I'd be hard-pressed to find a runt anywhere in the litter. So I dig it only a fraction less than the sophomore. It's death metal for just about anyone who actually likes Swedish, Polish or older US death metal, throwing in obvious nods to dozens of forerunners without trying to bite them off 100%. This isn't a case of 'let's remake Life is an Everflowing Stream or Dark Recollections directly, but chucks them into the same cauldron as a hundred other 1987-1995 inspirations and gets to work honoring in lieu of robbing. Bloodbath sounds like other bands, but it also sounds like Bloodbath. I could name two dozen trending underground heroes that can't say the same, and so could you. Well worth hearing, and if you've given the group a pass due to not digging Katatonia or Opeth or October Tide or whatever honest or political/scenester reason, then give them another try. There is surely some common ground here you'll enjoy whether you dub yourself a fan of new or old death metal.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (predators abide)

http://bloodbath.biz/

Bloodbath - Unblessing the Purity EP (2008)

Unblessing the Purity was the first release in a busy year for the Swedish all-star death metal project Bloodbath, which alone would have made up for the four-year hiatus since Nightmares Made Flesh, but I'm happy they didn't just stop here. Four tunes, and a superior short-player to their original Blessed Death EP in both composition and effectiveness, really refining this group's ability to draft a death metal tune with some depth and melody that celebrates the original influences to which they pay homage, without proving too much of a direct ripoff of any of their countrymen/forebears. After hearing this, I was extremely stoked for The Fathomless Mastery, which did not disappoint, and it's yet another reason I actually wish Bloodbath was 'mainlined' by its constituent members, instead of being this project that gets shelved for large periods of time (the current hiatus having lasted around five years). Then again, if they were churning out discs annually or bi-annually, they might not be so good...but they don't seem to have come close to exhausting their riff stores yet.

Anyway, Bloodbath might lack a little in the creative department, and that was the point since inception, but the amount they are called out for it seems quite disproportionate when one considers that their most vocal detractors spend about 50% of their time listen to direct knockoffs of early 90s black/death metal. It's okay to do when you're on some smaller cult label and pulling in audiences of 15 at a gig, but not when you're a member of Opeth or Katatonia! Rrrrriight, and let's not forget, forming in 1998, Bloodbath were already well ahead of the game, in some cases only 5-6 years after the records they were worshiping! Sure, there isn't a lot here that you wouldn't have already heard on a Dismember, Carnage, Hypocrisy, Entombed, Edge of Sanity or Necrophobic record over a decade before this, but Unblessing the Purity doesn't seem so much like recycling as rekindling its beloved influences. You'll immediately notice a more mature structure to the songwriting which doesn't seem like a repeat of Resurrection Through Carnage or Nightmares Made Flesh, with a busier use of melody as an atmospheric ingredient (as in "Weak Aside"). The rhythm guitar tone isn't quite so concentrated on being ripping and raw in the traditional Sunlight fashion, but dialed back a little in the mix, which fits the more intricate picking of a lot of riffs here. I've heard this material described as more 'technical' than the prior albums, and that's not a false statement, but it's not to the degree where they're exploring the clinical/tech-death brutal death metal indulgence...this is very firmly old school death metal, it just doesn't settle for being so simple that it borders on stupid.

Guitars, guitars! Tunes like "Blasting the Virginborn" really capture a lot of versatility, from the unapologetic Krisiun blasting of the opening riff to the death & roll grooves and bluesy but cryptic lead passages, while others like "Sick Salvation" seem like they're just dowsed in an added dimension of constant atmosphere being provided through the reverb on the drums and guitars. There are a lot of chug-to-trill rhythms that are redolent of Cannibal Corpse's cult favorite The Bleeding, and Mikael also seems to channel a little of Napalm Death's direct vocal gruffness in places. Not every riff is a winner, but the majority of them fit together snugly and constantly offer the ear something fresh and potentially unexpected. Renkse's bass lines sound better here than I think I've ever heard them before (at least in this band), with a balanced distortion to them that never seems over the top, but keeps them heavy and grating against the clearer presence of the rhythms. Axenrot sounds fucking unbelievable, especially on a lot of the slower grooves where's he complementing the central rock beat with faster double bass and then seamlessly introducing blasts and breaks. But really, Bloodbath always thrive off their guitars more than anything; both Blakkheim and Dan Swano's replacement Per 'Sodomizer' Eriksson (Katatonia, Genocrush Ferox) deliver constantly thrills.

The ambient touches, like at the close of "Mouth of Empty Praise" with the male chant, are well enough implemented that I'd have enjoyed hearing a lot more of them, and the lyrics, while often minimalistic, are pretty blasphemic as a rule here..."Blasting the Virginborn" calling out Christian falsehoods, and "Mouth of Empty Praise" offering lip service to a number of infernal figures. Almost to the point where it feels like there is a more cohesive concept happening than your usual Bloodbath record, which happens to reflect the cover artwork quite well. It's not perfect, but just fucking great, well-rounded death metal that I enjoy time and time again, like anything else they released after Breeding Death, and if you've been on the fence due to not liking the higher profile bands of several of the members, trust me when I say this is probably much more your style. In fact, I like Bloodbath more than anything Opeth has released since Blackwater Park, and even a number of the Katatonia offerings, so I really do wish they'd put out something more often...even if they don't reach the level of productivity achieved in 2008. Anyway, Unblessing the Purity is killer and just as worth owning as any of the full-length efforts.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (insurrection displayed)

http://bloodbath.biz/

Bloodbath - The Wacken Carnage (2008)

Popular bands = lame. I get it. Bands made up of dudes from various popular bands = DOUBLE LAME. Loud and clear! Just wanted to get that out of the way for all the closet trolls up front, and then to deliver a nice swift FUCK OFF! If you've written off Bloodbath for this reason, it's not my loss, because there's nothing more or less here than a group of skilled musicians & friends having a great time paying tribute to a style of music they love, that gave most of them their start, and writing some damn catchy tunes in the process. 2008 was a particularly great year to follow the Swedish 'supergroup', not only for two new studio recordings (The Fathomless Mastery and Unblessing the Purity), but also because they would unleash a pretty goddamn great sounding live album. In fact, I would not be exaggerating to claim this was one of the better produced and paced live sets I've heard on CD from any band in the genre...

There is the caveat that this was a little late in coming, recorded back in 2005 at Germany's metal Mecca and then mixed in 2008 for release, but it sounds just as effective in 2014. There are also the limitations most of these recordings present, in that you'll have to use your imagination to picture the band on stage, but you do also get a DVD included for when you're not listening to it in the car...thus The Wacken Carnage is already one step ahead of many of its peer releases. In fact, I doubt I'll ever purchase another live album which offers anything less than this very format, even if if sounds as fantastic as this one does. Now, this was the 'classic' Bloodbath lineup, with Mikael of Opeth handling the vocals, Blakkheim/Swanö on guitars, Renkse on bass and Axelrot on drums, so if you're not into Åkerfeldt's growling in comparison to his later replacement on Nightmares Made Flesh, I can understand some hesitation on hearing that material, but trust me when I say that the guy sounds fine and it makes little difference. What really took me by surprise was just how pungent and fuzzed out the guitars here sounded, just as much as either of the earlier studio albums and they frankly sound as clean as a studio overdub...to the credit of the band's stage techs and the mixers and engineers who worked on the final product. I suppose it's so thick and consistent that there lacks some dynamic range through the performance, but it's not necessarily a band I approach with that in mind...

Granted, the band had a limited amount of material to work with at the time, only the debut EP and two full-lengths under their belt, but they compact it all down to a 13-track extravaganza with nary a stinker in the lot. Even the Breeding Death material, which I consider their weakest, gets a nice injection of life, and it's represented in its entirety, with the rest of the set leaning more heavenly on Nightmares than Resurrection Through Carnage (sensible, that was their 'current' album for the performance), six choices from the former and three from the latter. There are some pretty glaring omissions, like "Year of the Cadaver Race" which has some of the best riffing they've ever written hands down, but I'm not complaining about what they muster up, and tunes like "Outnumbering the Day" and "Eaten" are practically worth the price alone. The drums pop right atcha, the guitars richer than hi-fiber oatmeal, the vocals pretty nihilistic and blunt though I can't say much for Mikael's on-stage personality (even when I've seen him with Opeth). Jonas doesn't develop much of a presence through the recording, but then even on their studio albums the bass is subordinate to the rhythm guitars so it wasn't like I expected much more. The tremolo melodies also don't stand out very much, often as gloomy as the chords, but these are really the only production issues and it's still vastly superior to most live sets I've seen or even heard from festivals...

The DVD is a little better yet, because you can see the guys traipsing around in their blood-spattered whites, but it's more impressive just that they're actually playing as tightly as the audio translates. I'm just used to hearing more flaws in a performance, but then it's probably not the most difficult material to reproduce for any of the involved parties. If you DO like randomness, jamming, inconsistencies, then admittedly this might not be for you, and if you hate Bloodbath to begin with then it goes without saying, but I have no regrets about any of the purchases of their stuff I made that year, and if you're down for some punchy throwbacks to the sounds of Dismember, Entombed and Unleashed in the early to mid 90s which don't sound as if they were recorded in a latrine, then these guys come immediately to mind. Nothing new or original, but they can write a goddamn riff that I'll remember 5 years later. Hell, 10 years. The Wacken Carnage isn't a purchase I'd make over any of the three studio full-lengths, but unlike some live recordings, I did feel that you got what you actually paid for.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://bloodbath.biz/

Suffocation - The Best of Suffocation (2008)

Interested in hearing the best of Suffocation? Then listen to Effigy of the Forgotten, Blood Oath, or Pinnacle of Bedlam. In fact, I feel fairly confident in recommending that you purchase any/all of those records. Or Pierced from Within, a record I've slowly warmed to over the years but is much beloved by the brutal death metal audience at large. If you instead want to have your ears gouged out and intelligence abused, then go ahead and entertain Roadrunner's Best of Suffocation compilation, a staggeringly cheap and transparent ploy to further reimburse themselves for an investment which creatively ceased to be 13 years before this thing was cut and pasted into existence. Now, I've ranted endlessly about this label and their compilation$ in the past, but sometimes one will sting a little more than the next, and this would be that one.

I've read passionate, lengthy polemics about how Master of Puppets or Heartwork or Blut Aus Nord or Opeth or whomever/whatever 'killed' metal music, but I'm going to let you in on a secret: these are all folly, or we wouldn't still be listening to, writing about, performing or giving a damn in general about any of this shit. But I will say, Roadrunner, once a champion of the form in the later 80s or early 90s, tried really damn hard to achieve this result with their transformation into nu-metal's vanguard institution. For fuck's sake, this was the label that released Abigail, Don't Break the Oath and The Final Separation. How do you go from that to Nickelback, Killswitch Engage and Slipknot? Sure, it's all about numbers...Malevolent Creation and Defiance just weren't sellin, dawgs! So roll out the great wiggafication of the genre, ensnaring those Limp Bizkit pundits who might want something a little harder, a little groovier. Death metal? What's that? Oh yeah, we still own some of those recordings, so let's mix and match tunes from them onto another disc, press a few thousand copies and pay for this year's holiday office party...

The result: 13 years after Suffocation stopped effectively giving a shit about their alma mater, the favor was not returned, and the Best Of was born...err, strategized. Let's do some quick math: Suffocation's first three full-lengths had 26 songs between them, and this collection features a dozen of them. So, basically almost 50% of the material was shuffled around and placed on this disc, a band picture was slapped on the cover and then it was off to the races. To be more specific, it's a 5/4/3 split between Effigy of the Forgotten, Breeding the Spawn and Pierced from Within, which might stun some folks who clearly think the sophomore was the best thing since sliced bread and...why isn't it more strongly represented against its inferior older siblings? I personally enjoy the debut material the most of this but, then, I OWN the things...just like every other Suffocation fan who might have been the target audience for this CD. Can you imagine who might have actually picked this up? Some crackhead poring over the Fear Factory selection at his local Sam Goody slash F.Y.E.? "Shit, I fucking need that, Roadrunner be da joint."

Now, we can debate all day whether a brutal death metal outfit, even one so celebrated as these New Yorkers really warrants a 'Best of' or 'Greatest hits', something that at best should be reserved only for bands with like 30-40 year careers and even then I'd rather have a rarities package...but at the end of the day, death metal is not 'pop' music. Fans are generally interested in the 'album' as a medium, for both its aural and visual aesthetics, its complete package, and the Best of Suffocation does not in its wildest dreams sate that need. By 2008, anyone interested in just checking out the band who had not previously heard them could look them up on Youtube or any audio sample available and then decide whether they were worth pursuing, and that all adds to this being even more fucking useless. If, say, Roadrunner dug around in their gold-plated vaults for rare sessions from the first three records, and then put this out in like 1997 with a 2-3 disc spread, booklet, band approval, photos, live material, then it wouldn't smell like so much snake-oil...

Yeah. Oil. Grease, for the palms...or like the kind that was likely streaked, in large amounts, through the hair of whatever person green lit The Best of Suffocation, another disappointing turn for the worse that makes the Coal Chamber debut seem like the Renaissance by comparison. Even if you have never heard this treasured death meal band in your life, should you come across a copy of this in the wild then I'd urge you to run over it with your car a few times, or if you're the 'green' type, send it in for recycling. Directly after that, go and download the first three Suffocation records so that you can either appreciate them in full, scoff at them or simply whine about the production on Breeding the Spawn. Rinse and repeat with The Best of Malevolent Creation. The Best of Obituary. The Best of Good Band X We Once Deemed to Promote Until We Decided to Lose Our Minds and Get Down Wit Jonathan Davis and the Sickness. 'But, man, dese songs are so good I wanna buy 'em twice on CD.' Yeah, well I want you to die twice, but that ain't happening.

Verdict: Epic Fail [0/10]

https://www.facebook.com/suffocation