Pyre - Ravenous Decease EP (2012)

Pyre is a little-known Russian death metal band that almost nobody ever seems to talk about, despite having a killer upswing trajectory to their catalogue which has won me over several times. Their origins were as yet another of the bands honoring the Swedish legacy, with that speaker ripping guitar tone and a couple of tunes here that remind one a lot of Entombed, Grave, maybe a little of Holland's Asphyx. However, the material here on the Ravenous Decease EP definitely falls on the rougher side of that equation, raw and unhinged like a Repugnant or Maim. They also don't delve too far into the d-beat influences, you can hear it on a riff or two but it's more like they're transferring early US death metal into that Swedish guitar tone.

The vocals are abusive, sounding like their at a crossroads between John Tardy of Obituary, Martin van Drunen of Asphyx/Pestilence and L-G Petrov of Entombed. The guitars are really abrasive, sounding like a noisy live performance of this tone, and occasionally going a little too far so it seems as if you're eardrums are going to collapse. I mean, you could replace steel wool with these things to clean off your pots & pans, but they have a nice punch during the choppier, rocking riffs ("Insanity") or the tremolo picked, writhing evil at a faster pace. The rhythm section sounds like thunder being filtered through an old radio microphone, and the songs feature enough variety even across the 20 minutes of this EP that you won't become bored. There's nothing unique, truly, Ravenous Decease is just a gestalt of elements you like from other death metal acts, and this sort of throwback style was already plentiful, but some things just don't grow old on me, and I like several of these songs like "Insanity" and "Dark Sorcery". It doesn't hold up to their full-length albums, but it's a firm foundation upon which they would build.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://pyredeathmetal.bandcamp.com/

Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God (2012)

Into the Lair of the Sun God is a continuation of the sound Chris and Scott had found with Nucleus, only it sounds more refined and 'mature', as if the duo had really settled into this like some band having played around in it for decades. It's got another classy Christina Casperson cover like its predecessor, and I think both are the best in the whole Dawnbringer catalog at reeling a prospective listener into the journey that awaits them on the actual album, without giving away the content. Normally I'd look at these and think I might be bound for some dungeon synth or obscure black metal (which I'd be okay with in either case), but it's such a great pairing with this epic USPM sound. There should also be some kudos that Chris manages to explore this style without stepping on the toes of any of his other heavy metal projects, numerous of which were well active by this time, like High Spirits, Superchrist and the brilliant Pharaoh.

Sure, there are a few points of crossover, especially with Pharaoh (Matt Johnsen even pops in for some lead guitars here). A few vocals, a few of the busier guitar lines, but this is it's own thing, a classy and atmospheric conceptual heavy metal record eschewing song titles for Roman numerals. Pretty atypical for metal of this style, but it does actually help the listener roadmap the album as something to experience fully without worry about the 'hits', and that's a good thing, because Into the Lair of the Sun God is an extremely consistent 44 minutes of steady or galloping rhythms, well-layered leads, balanced tempos that shift between momentum and atmospheric reflection ("III" is a good example). The drums feel the best in the band's entire career, the bass lines thrive where in the past they were somewhat suppressed against the other instruments. The guitars are as bright as the title demands, which create a good contrast against Black's middle-ranged, hazier vocals which still remind me a bit of Lemmy, if the legend had been fronting something less lewd and rock & roll. There is a fair amount of complexity to some of the riffing, not so far as Helstar or Pharaoh maybe, but certainly in that region (as with "IV"). On the other hand, there are also a few pieces like "V" which is basically a straight up radio rock anthem, or the plodding and potent "VI".

I have to reiterate how well composed this music is...this might be the best 'songwriting' they have ever done, even if I'm nostalgically connected to Unbleed, which was quite different in style, that record does seem like chicken scratch compared to Sun God's calligraphy. This is not a record without precedent, there are many points here where you'll find parallels to Omen, Riot, Manilla Road or most of the other bands I mentioned before, but the way it's imbued with theme and pacing and consistency and the vocals make it all quite unique regardless. A pretty strong showing for a band that doesn't seem to spend too much time re-treading the same terrain, they hit little peaks and plateaus. Into the Lair of the Sun God shares this particular plateau with Nemesis, but it's further developed, catchier, with little moments of grace and power in each of its rhythmic arcs that better reward the listener. I think it's the pinnacle of this entire later phase of the band's career, a record I put up alongside the works of a Slough Feg or Hammers of Misfortune, two of my favorite peers when it comes to modern/throwback US heavy metal.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

Aura Noir - Out to Die (2012)

Out to Die isn't exactly a step 'backward' from the more tightened and refined sound of the last two albums, but it takes that songwriting and splashed in a measure of savagery from Deep Tracts of Hell. Right out of the starting gate, if there were any sort of divide between fans of this or that era, a track like "Trenches" would seem to unify them. Fast, vicious, perhaps not as dissonant as some of the later 90s material, but definitely matching the intensity, with a much stronger studio sound to support it. And it's no fluke, because the next few tunes also carry this violent momentum, like the material from Hades Rise has been given an injection of hell serum. It's not entirely a barrage, as you'll get offerings like "The Grin from the Gallows" or "Priest's Hellish Fiend" which channel more of that Sarke/Hellhammer vibe, but more often than not this thing blazes along without abandon.

Fortunately, that speed conceals loads of catchy, thrashing rhythm guitars nearly as catchy as the prior album, and this is probably the first album Aura Noir record I'd point to for fans of the last two decades of blackened speed and thrash which has become quite a prevailing trend (and I am there for it). Everything is precise, angry, and gives just a hint that it could lose control without doing so. The feet and fingers are getting a workout, riff after riff formed into a lethal execution like "Abbadon" or "Withheld" which make them sound like a much younger trio showing their chops. Another record like Hades Rise where the bass has a more formidable presence, although I do think the speed of the material relegates it more to a low end back seat. The raving TG Warrior/Culto barks are applied as rapidly as ever, with a lot more syllables spitting than their inspiration, and you get a lot of these raucous, sustained roars and snarls bounces back and forth between Appolyon and Aggressor, this really feels as if it might have the most diverse delivery.

All the songs are listenable, there might be a few minutes in which I find myself zoning out, but at 32 minutes I feel like it nails the same consistency they hit with The Merciless. I still hear all these little riff nods to earlier material from bands like Voivod and Sepultura, which might be in my imagination, but it ends up keeping the band in its own space, this doesn't sound like your usual derivative worship of Bathory and Venom, and honestly they never have, it's more as if you took the more aggressive side of earlier Celtic Frost and then turned it into a Death Race, where each lap they gradually apply another influence from the Teutonic or South American thrash, but it never becomes monotonous, as they will insert some more atmospheric or mid-paced passage to keep seizing the listener's attention. Great album, one or their better for sure.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/auranoirofficial

Cradle of Filth - Midnight in the Labyrinth... (2012)

Cradle of Filth's music already has such a natural sweep and bombast to it that converting the metallics into sheer orchestration only seemed natural to me around the time Midnight in the Labyrinth, or Songs for the Recently Dead and Arisen showed up. This has always been a band refined at marketing, putting out elaborate products, focusing in hard on their videos, image, and so forth, and thus you shouldn't expect any less when they drop the heaviness to release a two-disc, 2 hour 20 minute collection of cuts across transformed into pure symphonic cheese from across their catalogue to date (in 2012). Unfortunately, while so much of this release is exactly what they promised, I can't help but feel that only the second of the two discs was actually necessarily...

Now, both of them are nearly identical, with the first one track longer, but the issue for me is that I had absolutely no interest in wanting to hear the narration from Dani Filth and Sarah Jezebel Diva. Filth is still putting sinister filters on his vocals as if he was still singing to the Gothic/black metal version, even going into a growl or two, and the whole thing seems boisterous, blustery and tremendously goofy. Did anyone really ask for this? One can certainly argue for the choir parts, they definitely contribute to the rousing evil feel of these epic compositions, but I am more than happy with the second disc, which simply converts a lot of the band's great tunes into pieces I can now use as a backdrop for a Gothic horror RPG, or even a glorified and more heavily produced dungeon synth album. Hearing "The Forest Whispers My Name", "Cruelty Brought Thee orchids" and "Dusk and Her Embrace" in this format is wonderful, really justifies the product, and they even keep the choirs though they are placed a little lower against the synthesized orchestra.

You can tell that some of the tunes here would be better with more natural instrumentation, but despite that I still think their material renders down to this version quite sincerely, as its obvious when they're composing a lot of the metal material they've got a Dark Wagnerian vision in mind to begin with. The organs and other tones simmer against the roiling storm-clouds of the bands' twisted British poetic imagination, making this perfect for a period piece vampire battle or some other Transylvanian epic, it's not all evil and creepy sounding, so bear that in mind; it's not such a great score for some unnerving Lovecraftian horror, but for something more historical it's wonderful. If only a little of the ego had been held in check, and they'd instead given us TWICE the songs in the pure instrumental/choral realm, this would be a home run release, but it ends up partly as corny as the digitized cover photo. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's a group of CoF devotees who really want to hear Dani's lustrous, demented narration while they bob for apples and compare spider-web tattoos, but I think Midnight in the Labyrinth is brought lower than its potential for this overindulgence.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.cradleoffilth.com/

Hooded Menace - Necrotic Monuments EP (2012)

Necrotic Monuments might play it a little safe in the cover department, choosing two tracks that are doom metal related and thus fit straight into the Hooded Menace wheelhouse, but the Finns still do a great job of converting them into cuts that would work among their own set lists, and if you weren't the wiser you might not even realize it wasn't their own material. To me, that's the hallmark of a quality cover song, one that honors the original but gets converted to something fresh, not just a bunch of karaoke bar doppelganger bullshit. To that extent, while it's really short like most 7" records are, this maintains the consistency of quality that the band is known for, and I enjoyed both tracks and think they'd probably fit in on most of their full-lengths...

"Psychopath" from Swedish death/doom cult Eternal Darkness is really close to the belt, of the two tunes present this one would required less manipulation, but it's spot on as a Hooded Menace jam...with slow, mournful riffs and melodies that immediately envelop you into the Finns' trodden atmosphere. The other, "Burning a Sinner" from Witchfinder General's debut Death Penalty was the more interesting pick, since I love that band, and yet they've managed to transform that NWOBHM doomy goodness into something more crushing and fitting to their own sound. Some of that pastoral trad doom groove is certainly maintained here, and its thus a bit simpler than most of what you'd expect from this band's own catalogue, but they glaze over some of those sad melodies and then all is well. They even bust out into the most rock & roll lead they've done, but that also just makes sense with the context of the original group. The bass sounds pretty good on this one and frankly I wouldn't mind hearing the Menace tackle a whole bunch of oldies like this if they were ever to promote a full-length of covers.

As an added bonus, this comes packed with a version of Effigies of Evil on Relapse Records, so that's probably how many of you would experience it. I do think there's a Digital version of that full album, however, that also has a cover of Claudio Simonetti's "Theme from Tenebre", which is cool and shows us another side of Hooded Menace's good taste. We know they love great metal, traditional and extreme, they're also inspired by a ton of cult horror cinema. So you're not left out in the cold if vinyl does nothing for you. But even as a collector's item with just the two tunes, this is worth hearing since they show the same respect to the covers as their own material.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Cauldron - Tomorrow's Lost (2012)

I was a bit underwhelmed by the first few Cauldron records, so when I first saw the excellent Todd Kowalski cover art (do more of these, Todd) for Tomorrow's Lost, I imagined they had turned a new leaf and might be trying out something different. That's not quite the case, but what I can say for this album is that it's a righting of the ship, a better set of tunes with a better production that validates the style the Canadians had been developing through their formative years post-Goat Horn. This isn't exactly a 'great' effort, mind you, it suffers a little from over-familiarity in a few riffs, but it's balanced quite well and shows an added maturity through the band's tenure at Earache Records.

The band is still alternating between driving power metal lite ("End of Time") and their big, bombastic hard rock/heavy metal anthems ("Born to Struggle"), the latter tracing a lot of its DNA to bands like Dokken and Scorpions, and also still a little of the over-pronounced rhythm guitar tone that irked me on Chained to the Nite, if not as bad. I personally find the faster stuff here is just better mixed and more effective. Tracks like "Nitebreaker" and "Burning Forture" really live up to the material on the band's Into the Cauldron EP, which was my clear favorite until the album after this one. Jason Decay's vocals still really work for me, and the drums have a nice rumbling clip to them, as well as the lead guitars, which once again need to be a little more brazen against the rhythm riffs. A couple others I did like are "Endless Ways", which sounds like a tune that'd be better fitting on In Ruin, and "Summoned to Succumb" which rocks along at the perfect clip and has that great Dokken vibe to the chorus; these two also prove the exceptions to the general rule of how I liked the faster material more.

Tomorrow's Lost could have used slightly better production, but for the most part this is one I can sit down and listen through in its entirety without getting annoyed. I do feel that Cauldron was already losing ground at this point to a lot more exciting throwback heavy/speed metal bands, like Enforcer, or their own neighbors Striker and Skull Fist, all a lot more explosive and exciting, but what I can say for these guys is that they were so good at evoking nostalgia for those horror movie closing credits themes, or borderline metal/hard rock anthems of the 80s which thankfully eschewed the glam bullshit. I was finding myself more intrigued with the everyman metal mood that Cauldron creates, something they would refine for what I'd consider their best album four years later, or at least the one I always reach for besides the EP.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://cauldronmetal.com/

Attic - The Invocation (2012)

I get it, Attic, I do. There hasn't been a King Diamond album in many years now, much less a great one, and that's a void you intend to fill, and I thank you for it, although others might not be so keen on a sound that so zealously guards the throne. But if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, you'll have Mr. Petersen up smiling through the night. Or at least I hope he stays up through the night, because I'd be disappointed if that were not the case. At any rate, you've got the falsetto voice, the classic riffing style, and a lot of ideas that thankfully do not always attempt to rip off our lord and savior on a 1:1 basis, so does your album leave the same sort of impact as those legendary works of that 1986-1990 period, which represented one of the greatest streaks in the genre?

Not a chance, but I have to give these Germans credit, because while there a lot of bands out there emulating King's present and alma mater, Mercyful Fate, it seems Attic is far more interested in the theatrics and Gothic/occult horror hysteria of his solo works, and I'm just the sort of heretic that SLIGHTLY prefers those albums to the classic Fate efforts, primarily because I am a huge fan of Andy laRocque's playing, just a fraction more than Denner and Shermann; the leads and compositions he comes up with alongside King himself are like a Bible to me. This band has a lot of the tools to make this happen, but they don't quite nail the feel beyond its surface aesthetics. 'Meister Cagliostro' certainly has some pipes to pull off the falsetto, but he almost seems a little too confident, even more than King at his most reckless, and the result is that it seems a little too loud and piercing which drowns out some of the riffing beneath it. And it's not because the guitars are weak, the riffing section is fairly solid with some heavy hitting chords and loads of melodic adventures, but it just feels a little too unbalanced and occasionally verging on caricature, and that's not what we want.

The leads also aren't that great..competent, and suited to the style of surging heavy metal that Attic is writing, but far from impressive, they're not going to hang around in your brain for 30 years like Andy's do, in fact they might not make it 30 minutes. The organs are nice in the intro and interlude, but that's almost to be expected, and the metal doesn't always live up to it. A couple of the songs do stand out, like "Join the Coven" and the excellent title track itself, but they're unfortunately not all created equally, and the album doesn't really achieve greatness in its emulation. There are also quite a lot of song titles which feel like direct proxies for King Diamond/Mercyful Fate tracks, and I really don't think that's necessary...come up with your own cool concept/horror story, folks, we already get who you sound like from hearing your SOUND. Now, having said all this, The Invocation is still a passable effort if you want some more in that King Diamond mold, there's obviously some love and effort that you require to attempt this style, and Attic will actually take their time and improve upon it a half decade later.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://attic-vanrecords.bandcamp.com/music

Rage - 21 (2012)

I quite liked the "House Wins" intro to this album, it's little more than a few sampled voices describing the mechanics of a card game that ties in with the title, but the backing ambience has a surprisingly Rage-like feel to it that seems as if it's just going to barrel into the most epic of proper heavy tracks. That's not exactly what happens with "Twenty One", but it's definitely a solid cut with a good amount of heft to it, and the flashy breaks of Strings to a Web are somewhat subdued here in favor of some straightforward, driving aggression. In fact, I think while Smolski still takes flight as the guitar hero, he's balanced so much better against the rhythm section here...the material just feels meatier and has some more emotional punch to it as well, with Wagner adding some good old anthemic German heavy metal choruses here...

His voice isn't at the height of his younger years, but he stretches it a little more and it sounds as smooth as its going to. The songs have a good range here from bludgeoning low end power metal to a few more showy hard rock tunes where Smolski spikes up the punch with his effortless solos. You'll notice that Peavy does use a LOT of harsher vocals here, which sound a bit processed and goofy but they obviously thought they were cool enough to use multiple times, and I don't mind even if it doesn't really achieve the end goal of being able to rub shoulders with all the younger, heavier thrash or death metal bands. The real strengths here are the instrumental performances and production, the guitars are nice and heavy, the bass doesn't do much interesting but it feels a little weightier than it did on the prior album, and Hilgers drums are just a powerhouse, if you had any doubts about his ability to replace some of his predecessors they should by this point have all been quelled.

Ultimately 21 sounds like a heavier 21st century counterpart to earlier 90s records like Black in Mind or End of All Days, the punchier, cubicle thrash meets Euro power metal. All three of these guys 'showed up', stomped around for nearly an hour, and put out another ten tunes which mesh seamlessly into their sizeable legacy without totally standing out. It's another of those Rage albums which I can get fully immersed in while listening in my car, but even 8-9 years later there aren't a bunch of chorus hooks or riffs that I can pick out a lineup of their last two decades of material. It's great to hear them firing off such energy so deep into their career, and while some might be bittersweet that this was Victor Smolski's final studio full-length within the band ranks, it's a further testament that he stepped in there and helped define a whole new era for this underappreciated veteran, and himself blossom into a guitar hero with the style and versatility that can keep him on the map with future projects...he's almost like a gestalt of all Ozzy's guitar gods and their particular quirks, but with the added heavy interest in the neo-classical.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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

Machine Head - Machine F**king Head live (2012)

Nearly a decade after Hellalive, and a not unreasonable amount of time to wait for a band thrust so far into the spotlight, Robb Flynn and his Machine Head released a slightly more elaborate follow-up live effort over 2 CDs. While its predecessor was no slouch at 80 minutes of content, this is over 100 and allows the band to draw upon a bigger pool of material, including some from the two albums before this, critical darlings in many circles, which had seriously increased the band's stock even among the disbelievers who justifiably loathed almost everything they had released up to that point. In fact this is quite up to date for the year it came out, devoting fully five of its 15 selections to tunes from 2011's Unto the Locust, an album that only had seven songs to begin with...

Add in the trifecta of "Beautiful Morning", "Aesthetics of Hate" and "Halo" from The Blackening and you have more than half of an experience which might skew well above the suck line. Burn My Eyes, the debut and least shitty of their first five albums, has a pair of tracks in "Old" and "Davidian" which grants a little more stabilization. I think Overkill kind of saturated the market on the ol' F-bomb emphasis with Fuck You and Then Some, but I'm sure some fraction of the Machine Head market does appreciate the stripped honesty of Machine F**king Head Live! Like if I'm getting off the late shift at the meatpacking plant the night before, sleeping in late and then starting my boozing early, you're damn right when Robb Flynn and friends enter the stage with pyrotechnical wizardry and lots of chugging I'm a holler "MACHINE FUCKING HEAD!" at the top of my lung capacity. To boot, this album was a slight surprise in how honestly it captured the group's sound, in a more raw form than I expected...without too much polish anywhere, lots of crowd noise that can occasionally even compete with the instruments, and a solid and substantial performance.

If you were at this performance and felt its energy and sincerity, you'd probably be aboard the train, at least for a couple hours, because they knock it out of the park. At least the UK fans at Manchester Central seemed to think so. The more metallic, musical material from the albums leading straight up to this glows in venue, with great dual harmonies, melodic chorus parts, thundering, precise drums, surging thrash breaks and a nice bass tone giving everything that much more punch. The leads as in "Be Still and Know" are a lot of fun here and the band sounds so much more on point than anything I've forced myself to endure through the 90s or earlier half of the 00s. Some form of professional and passionate equilibrium had been achieved through all its trials and tribulations and that reflects right back out through the product to the fans. As much as I don't like their bouncier nu metal material, just being in the presence of better tunes here almost makes it more tolerable, so I could listen through a jam like "The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears" or "Old" without needing to turn it off. Ultimately I think this is one of the top three Machine Head releases, and even though it's not one I'd ever personally break out with all of the gajillion options available to me by bands I tend to enjoy, I could fully understand why any would sing its praise. It crushes Hellalive both in the stronger selection of songs and the aural impact it leaves. They showed up, they gave a shit, they performed well, you got what you paid for, and for at least the couple years leading to this, they mattered.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.machinehead1.com/

Prong - Carved Into Stone (2012)

After 16 years of nothing consequential happening, I admit I had pretty much discounted Prong from ever mattering to me again. I could always enjoy the first decade of material they released and ignore the rest, but Tommy Victor and his latest round of recruits Alexei Rodriguez and Tony Campos had other plans, recording and releasing their best material in all those years. Carved Into Stone is partly a return to the energized thrash roots of Force Fed, but it brings along all the lessons the band learned after that in terms of production, and also some of the post-hardcore and groove metal influences, though the industrialized phase of the band had largely been phased out by this point (not entirely, see below). This record might not have all of their catchiest or best written tracks, but damn if it isn't a consistent and effective affirmation of most of the band's strengths leading up to it, and as far as I'm concerned this remains the band's benchmark for the 21st century; the formula they've been trying to maintain ever since.

Kicking off with what is arguably the band's purest thrash joint since 1990, "Eternal Heat", the trio plays in total lockstep, furious clips of Victor's thrashing guitars emphasized heavily by the drums and low end of the bass to create a flailing, punching entity that is easy to get excited about. As far as riff construction, there are tons of callbacks here to progressions from Beg to Differ, Cleansing and Prove You Wrong, even if they're not complete copies. Sticking with what's safe, perhaps, but doing so with a fury. Tommy's vocals sound so much better on this album than the two before it that it's almost like he had emerged from some sort of rehab. A lot of that has to do with the production, which sounds great with the backing tracks, and while even his melodic side retains that urban toughness you'd expect, it's the best he's sounded. You still get some of the grunting chorus parts, but they sound a lot more controlled and complementary to the music than they did on the unfortunate Scorpio Rising. The leads are also more energized and memorable here than on nearly anything else they'd ever come up with, and the whole affair is pure professionalism, and not at all to the detriment of the level of aggression they're meting out.

Also vital to the album is that they keep a lot of the very catchy choruses with the melodic chord patterns and slightly cleaner, more emotional vocals, "Revenge...Best Served Cold" being one that comes right to mind, a tune that would have fit right in on any of their 1991-1996 material. "State of Rebellion" is another highlight, and this one's one of the scarce love letters to their industrial side with those pumping bass lines in the verses and the creepy, shrill electronics in the background that make it sound like you're trying to solve a Scooby Doo mystery from the middle of a mosh pit. I can't even think of a truly weak tune on the album...even "Subtract" with its bland verse groove riffs is accented by a great chorus and skillful vocal delivery. The lyrics are quite good, some of the best they've had through their career, and even the cover art, while still staying simple, is at least less of an eyesore than the couple albums before it. I was thoroughly satisfied with this album when it showed up, and still break it out for regular rotations almost as often as I do the first five.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] 
https://prongmusic.com/

Borknagar - Urd (2012)

The reintroduction of ICS Vortex into the Borknagar lineup was a truly momentous occasion; although I can understand the draw towards playing in a major act like Dimmu Borgir, and they made what they could of their time with him, I always felt like he was underused. Considering that I enjoyed The Archaic Course more than anything that other group ever released, you could understand my palpable disappointment, and it was so great for him to return to where he rightly belonged, and to instantly play such a major role again shows a lot of class on the part of Vintersorg in particular. Not to marginalize his own presence on this album, because the two actually work wonders together, and Hedlund still contributes most of the harsh vocals and a lot of the cleans, while Lars Nedland also serves as a third vocalist in addition to his keyboard duties.

In fact, Urd is almost like a warm up to the greatness that would follow it in 2016, but in of itself it is quite an excellent album that felt considerably fresher than Universal or Epic before it. While the baseline mash of progressive, folk and Viking black metal aesthetics remained fully intact, there were a number of riffs and arrangements throughout the entire record that felt unique to me. The album doesn't seem to lean as much on the organs or synthesizers as prior outings; although they're still woven in rather well, this record heavily favors the guitars and vocals, and arguably might be the most black metal infused offering the band had released since Quintessence. Not to the exclusion of the other styles, for there are flowing, orchestrated acoustics on the calming of "The Plains of Memories", or majestic melodic folk metal on "Frostrite", it's still a heavily dynamic, diverse effort. But it does feel like you're getting a lot more floods of tremolo picked guitars, David Kinkade laying out a ton of meticulous blast beats, and the way it opens with "Epochalypse" just goes for the throat immediately with some intensity while showcasing this new multi-vocal attack and some a few really sweet riffing progressions.

Whole album is a beast, in particular the vocals, which are fairly even distributed between Vortex' cutting, higher pitch which had matured by this point over his earlier years with the band, the rasps and mid-range cleans of Vintersorg which had also improved, and Nedland's additional lines. Once in awhile they'll have this choir-like track just hovering off in the mix which sounds amazing to the point where I wish it was used even more...there is always something happening here and I'd have to brand it as one of the finer vocal albums over their whole career, trumped only by its own followup. The mix of the album is clear, but textured and powerful, like a lot of their material I feel like they just have so much more weaponry than other bands in their field, and none of it drags behind any of the other instrumentation. Combined with the great lyrics, the packaging, and the overall vision this is one of the band's top albums, although really, there are so many to choose from...my opinion of this one has even INCREASED over the last eight years since I picked it up, but it's clearly a shower just as much as a grower, more evidence that this is just one of the best bands around.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (Where the rivers recoil and return)

http://borknagar.com/

Destruction/Kreator/Sodom/Tankard - The Big Teutonic 4 EP (2012)

Now here's an example of a split release between numerous thrash metal luminaries which, at least on the surface level, seems rather an interesting one. I agree completely with the designation of these four bands as 'The Big Teutonic 4', happy that Tankard was at last being counted among them (I'd been doing so since the 90s when it was clear they were persisting where others faltered). This was yet another CD being issued exclusively through the Legacy magazine out of Germany, but Nuclear Blast also released a version of it some months later, so...not so much. What's even more curious, is that this doesn't feature original songs, but rather covers of two titanic English bands in Iron Maiden and Motörhead, with two German bands taking on each of them. Unfortunately, most of these are NOT exclusive to this split, but taken from various other singles, past albums, or previously issued bonus tracks, by the respective artists.

The most obvious of these is going to be Sodom's handling of "Iron Fist", which we'd already heard as far back as Persecution Mania and even live on Mortal Way of Live. It's a classic, in the hands of either its originator or Tom Angelripper, and a natural cover from a band that draws so much of its own style DIRECTLY from those NWOBHM road-dogs, however at the same it was the inclusion I was least interested in, having heard it many times before. However, Destruction's cover of "The Hammer", which was only included with the Japanese version of Spiritual Genocide (that I had not heard), is quite nasty, Schmier plastering his version of the vocals all over the punk-fueled speed metal massacre. It's also a little messy in the right ways, not as tight as the original content those Germans were putting out, but that's fine in the context of this particular cover. Another of my favorites here is Kreator's "Number of the Beast", not the first time they've taken on Iron Maiden, but even though the music plays pretty close to the original, it sounds great with Mille's harsher vocals, and I loved the lead sequence. This one is also located on the later Violence Unleashed EP or the Phantom Antichrist single if you're trying to track it down elsewhere.

The thrashier version of "The Prisoner" that Tankard includes is also a good one, filthier guitar tone and filthier vocals via Gerre, but they still touch on some points of atmosphere that you wouldn't expect from the German drunkaholics. And as far as I know, this is the one cover that is only available on this particular split, at least for now, so if you're a Tankard collector, you've got the most motivation to snap this up. Now, if ALL of these songs were exclusives, then I'd say this was a CD or vinyl that almost anyone would want...the songs are all good, even if Sodom's contribution is a bit too redundant. And to be fair, many fans might not own most of the tunes elsewhere. It's a fun concept to round up these thrashers, legends themselves, and then watch as they don't toot their own horns, but cover even mightier legends of British heavy metal. If you can track one down, it's pretty sweet to have on your wall, even if the content isn't all that valuable. Not a necessary purchase, but neat if you've never run across these covers before. And to think, Nuke Blast and these same four bands would be doing it again in just a couple years...

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.destruction.de/
https://kreator-terrorzone.de/
http://sodomized.info/
https://www.tankard.info/

Virus - Oblivion Clock EP (2012)

At 30 minutes duration, Oblivion Clock is fairly substantial for an EP, it's also a treat because it gathers not only a quartet of new tracks hot off the exhaust of their masterful 2011 album The Agent That Shapes the Desert, but also has a few added tracks that were only available through the double-vinyl release of that record, one of which is a cover tune, as well as an unreleased song from back on the Carheart recordings. What's more, the material here is almost all album quality, tracks that would have been just as worthwhile had they been released with Agent or Memento Collider. There are a couple exceptions, where the band experiments a little further out to left field than normal, but at least four of the seven tracks are superb...

And in most of those cases, they're tunes that drudge along a little slower, but with the familiar, groovy bass lines, and a little more of a wall of discord to the guitars. New tricks are keyboards are implemented to great effect, almost choir-like in their swells, and as is normal for Virus, the combination of those intricate, flowing bass parts, morose almost spoken-world vocals and eerie guitars is unnerving and unforgettable. "Inverted Escape" moves along at a pretty quick pace, but it's so dense with ideas in the guitar lines and grooves that it demands repeated listened to really ingest it all. "The Pull of the Crater" is really creepy with those warped, almost orchestrated effects creeping along to the jangling rhythm guitar and wailing ambiance, possibly my fave through the EP. The other tune I dig (from the Agent double-vinyl) is "Saturday Night Virus", a pumping, playful tune that stays true to its title with a disco-like momentum dowsed in all the Norwegians' strangeness...this one could be like some trippy answer to Primus or Mr. Bungle, but despite its upbeat perkiness it's just as compelling as the more serious fare.

The one that didn't quite succeed for me would be "Gaslight Exit", sort of droning, raw, guitar track, the most experimental anywhere here, but while the bevy of daunting tones is itself interesting, they don't do much of note with it until the end when it begins to resemble Virus proper. The cover of the Walker Bros' "Shutout" is kind of fun, like Virus getting all bluesy and proggy in a dimly-lit, smoky dive bar in the wee hours of the morning to an appreciative but half-drunk audience. One wonders what these guys could have come up with if they dug through a broader array of covers and gave them the same sort of treatment, bending them ever so slightly into their own sound palette. Oblivion Clock might not have been meaty on its own enough to fill the 4-year gap before Memento Collider would arrive, and its not completely consistent, but paired up with Agent it was more than enough to believe that they still had some distance in them, and its highly recommendable to anyone who dug the full-length albums leading up to it.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://virusnorway.com/

Possessor - City Built With Skulls (2012)

If beauty were really only skin deep, then I'd want to slip a ring on the finger of this full-length Possessor debut. The artwork is more or less a re-thrashers dream. Undead heshers, some with spiked shoulder guards, others topless, emerging from the sewers and alleys of some decadent urban sprawl, the streets practically paved with skulls, while rats scurry about. In the near distance, an emo guy is getting choked out by two of these ghouls before he gets beaten on with an axe and a spiked bat...or maybe a fucking flail! To top all that off, there's a concert bill stuck to the wall just off to the right side of the cover which looks like it is implied that in this strange reality, Possessor themselves would be headlining over the 'Big Four' of US thrash metal.

Like a good 75% of the other pizza bandwagon thrash stuff that has come along in the last decade, I fully expected that I'd hate the garden variety Exodus, Slayer and Anthrax riffs I would find on the album itself, and in retrospect that was probably a little pessimistic. While I can't deny that these Virginians are in fact influence by a lot of the usual suspects in both the thrash and crossover scenes of the 80s, they actually bite into a nasty, fast-paced style that more often than not hits some degree of paydirt. Nothing about the album is overproduced...the rhythm section is pretty much on par with the mix of the rhythm guitar, which is punchy and saturated without being too raw or polished. The bass guitars pump along while the drums have a lot of rumbling fills, I'm not saying every detail sounds super clear but I kind of like the vicious honesty of how it all sounds, it almost sounds like how a recording would feel during the early 90s when thrash was giving up its ghost to other styles, but bands were coming along with slightly more modernized, 'personal' productions.

The real thrill here is the vocalist, Robbie Rainey, who has a ton of charisma as he cycles through the higher pitched, brief screams, the more extended operatic sustains and then the more aggressive mid range stuff he's barking out. He approaches it from a power/thrash vector. It might seem a weighty comparison, but he kinds of reminds me of a mix of Michael Coons (Lääz Rockit), David Wayne (Metal Church, Reverend), Tony Portaro (Whiplash) and Nasty Ronnie (Nasty Savage). He's quite entertaining, even when he's raving over some of the less interesting riffs on the record, and to be honest...there are quite a few. They always possess a sporadic energy to them that is appreciable, but very few progressions that will actually stick out to you once the dust clears. A reasonable balance of faster parts and then some moshier, mid-speed sections that don't feel too excessively dumb or cheap. The leads are fitting to the style although they often lack anything memorable about them apart from the usual bleeding spontaneity they create over the bridge rhythms. The lyrics aren't all that great but I've read far lazier from this generation of thrash acts, and while City Built With Skulls is not the sort of disc you're going to spin over the actual classics, it's definitely more fun than I thought it would be.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/PossessorMetal/

Darkenhöld - Echoes from the Stone Keeper (2012)

While not advancing the band's purview far beyond it's debut, Echoes from the Stone Keeper was a fine sophomore effort which continued to channel the mythistorical Dark Age consciousness into the 90s European black metal medium, fantasy and folklore into gnarled, atmospheric black metal that holds firmly to both its cultural and musical traditions. It might not dazzle as much as its predecessor in terms of 'surprise', hearing this great idea for the very first time as I did with A Passage to the Towers, but the necessary steps are taken to cement the band's style and penchant for solid, well-laid-out compositions which transport the listener, preferably the atavistic European individual or someone across the sea who wishes he or she were such, into grim landscapes of stone, forest and steel, where there was no cellphone onto which you could scream during your inevitable beheading by some errant knight or highwayman en route to some plague-infested berg.

It's a thicker sounding, blockier album than the first, as if levels were being tweaked between the instruments to try and even them out, and some slight calamity occurred as a result. Don't get me wrong here, Echoes is still quite listenable, but the dynamic range of its Passage was superior to my ears, and remains so, since I went back and listened to it before tackling the rest of their catalog. On a stylistic standpoint, this is very much that mid-90s style of black metal pioneered largely by bands out of Norway who early on applied symphonic elements as complements to the guitars. You could trace it back to Emperor, Limbonic Art, Old Man's Child, and their ilk, good influenced to have as they permit Darkenhöld to truly manifest the archaic, haunted majesty of their lyrical themes. The riffing here is quite solid, perhaps not always so unique but shifting about often enough that there is no real boredom anywhere, with tight-cropped tracks that don't their heads to spawn mediocre 'epics' that lack the ideas to fill them. Drums sound tight and appropriately crashy, while the guitar tone itself is good, the synths are laid out just right behind it all and the vocalist's rasp slithers right thru to coil itself around the listener's bewitched ears.

It's only when it all fires off at once that I sensed a little bit of clip or excessive evenness which robbed some of the individual components of their power potential. Sometimes the keys would shine forward a little much for the strength of the guitars, and so forth, but I'm such an admirer of this style and where it takes me mentally that it's not a great obstacle. The 'dungeon synth' like intro pieces, "Subterranean Corridor" and "Interlude" are well enough made, but perhaps not as catchy as the keys used in some of the proper metal tunes, and not as good as those Darkenhöld has used on some of its other albums. For this album, the more the band takes risk and provides evil riffing, the better the tunes seem to be, as in "Chasm of Asylake", but they hit a lot of mid-paced Blood Fire Death style sequences adorned with eerie symphonics or pianos that I also found quite agreeable. The lyrics are also worthwhile, whether you're into fantastical creatures ("Wyvern Solitude Chant") or alchemy ("Under the Sign of Arcanum"). All told, I'd say this ranked as their third best album, quite good but not as impressive as the debut or the album that would follow it in 2014.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Darkenhold/

Orloff - Apparitions Among the Graveyard Skies (2012)

Orloff is one of numerous projects involving Vanessa Nocera of Razorback Records, known here as 'Alucarda Bellows', and right up front there looked to be so much I was going to dig about this sole full-length, Apparitions Among the Graveyard Skies. The cover artwork is excellent, comic-book style and eerily evocative. The band's logo is great. Even reading through the lyrics, I'd have to say almost all of them are decently written, fully entrenched in the cult horror that is explored throughout much of the Razorback roster. I will even go so far as to say that the initial listening impressions had me hopeful...haunting organs cede to dingy death metal just slathered in dire melodies and even some shredding lead in the first metal tune "Cobwebbed and Decayed".

Unfortunately, Orloff really puts its best foot...fang? forward, because Apparitions feels like a whole slew of ideas programmed together into a 50 minute horror-trip, with little regard for whether they really fit or not, or to any consistency of quality. The transitions are almost universally weak. A lead or an organ section will arrive and depart with haste, like miniature interludes, only badly edited so they don't really deliver much of an impact, and just feel like they've been cobbled together from a bunch of riff ideas that were stored on a hard drive. The shredding parts are a mix of coherent and too short, or sloppy and uninteresting, where the rhythm guitars are also a mixed bag...ranging from evil, inspired vintage death/doom metal ("Nine Eternities in Doom") to the offensively banal chugging of "House Where the Beast Dwells", to "The Needful Revenge of Arthur Grimdsyke" which sounds like a pure, derivative heavy metal song with growling attached to it.

Some of the beats and fills are incredible, where in other places they feel like they're going to collapse in on themselves. Bass lines don't seem to serve much of a purpose to the music, apart from just a bulkier bottom end for the other guitars. In addition to the aforementioned organs, there are some more acidic synthesizer lines which sound like they could come from a giallo flick, only they're not very well implemented in the places they show up. Orloff also uses a few acoustic, classically styled guitar parts, which actually work out well on the instrumental title track, but feel a little jarring and wedged in elsewhere. The majority vocals are brutish and deeply guttural, while some higher pitched snarls are added in for contrast, but in either case, while they're a good fit for this style, they don't always bark out the most interesting syllabic patterns over the riffs churning out beneath them.

I'm not fully aware of the seriousness of the project, since after one demo and this album it seems to have vanished, but Apparitions Among the Graveyard Skies ultimately suffers from shoving together too many ideas which needed further gestation. Take out some of the dumber riffs that spoil it for the rest, align some of those beats and vocals a little better, and spend a long time fixing transitions, and you'd have yourself a pretty kick-ass Halloween/horror record. But as it stands, once you hit the waning moments of the album, it almost feels like the band is just as through with it as you are. Not a terrible album, just a lot of missed potential.

Horror-meter: Eight cemetery encounters out of ten.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Hädanfärd - Evil-Minded (2012)

Sir N. is a rather prolific figure buried in the Swedish black metal underground, who might be recognized by some for other projects like Grav, Svartrit and Grifteskymfning, but in general seems to be settled into an interesting niche in which a traditional old school songwriting style is affixed with a fraction more atmosphere than you might be accustomed to by all your garden variety Mayhem, Hellhammer and Darkthrone adherents. This manifests quite prominently even on this earlier compilation, Evil-Minded, which collects materials from the first few years of Hädanfärd's activity, well before he would release the debut Smutsiga sinnen and its several subsequent EP recordings.

Now, where a lot of demo or rehearsal or 'early days' style collections get by on little more than the novelty of hearing a band's roughshod roots, Evil-Minded is actually quite consistent and possibly even worthy of being considered a debut album in of itself, at least in terms of the material. The production values seem to bounce around between the metal cuts and the more ambient pieces, on both ends of the album, but I think despite this tonal disparity the tracks work in lockstep and present an appropriately mournful, dismal sound which lives up to the translation of the band name, which would be either 'departed' or 'passing from life'. Sir N. excels in crafting very simplistic peaks and valleys of driving, primal, grooving black metal via some of the bands I mentioned above, and these ominous or melancholic instrumental segues which focus a lot on haunted synth tones plus a little bit of percussion and guitar (listen to the close of "Vanhelga ljustes gestalt" to hear a good example).

Rather than an impish rasp, he uses a broader, more tortured growl which adds a weight of suffering to some lighter, more melodic elements in the chords ("Ohelighetens helgonbild"). In addition, while the percussion here is very tinny, it's satisfying, and his bass lines are just thick enough to matter rather than get drowned out by the rawness of the mix. There's also a tendency towards these hazy, shimmering guitar passages which fit snugly into the mold of blackgaze, or post-black metal, as if Hädanfärd was dipping its toes into that style but grounding it in the Scandinavian conventions of the black metal medium. It makes for a listening experience that holds its value through 35 minutes, with almost all the tracks held down to 3-4 minute experiences which don't overstay their welcome. The one issue I had is that some of them seem to cut out or end too abruptly, not necessarily by mistake, but also not in a very satisfying way. Ultimately, though, like a number of Sir N.'s works over various bands, this is a relatively immersive and underappreciated album which will appeal to those who use the genre for introspection and soul-searching more than emotional church-burning.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Nocturnal Witch - Into Dungeons EP (2012)

Blackened speed and thrash metal is one of my favorite niches in all of the genre these last couple years, but it relies so heavily on the traditions of its medium that it can be tough to pull off, requiring a certain level of nastiness, personality and catchy riffing to properly pay tribute to its forebears like Venom. To get that influence across without sounding like some sodden, soulless derivative is no easy feat, so I have to say I feel spoiled by how much of it I've been enjoying lately, from Antichrist and Deathhammer to Satan's Wrath and Erazor. Germans Nocturnal Witch seem to have all the hookups for a success at this style. Some of the live lineup is drawn from bands like Nocturnal, Old, Division Speed and Cruel Force, who all have comparable sounds, and they certainly grab the style by its roots here and give it a good tug, the old Satanic collegiate try.

Unfortunately, it bears little fruit on this EP, because Into Dungeons has all the trappings and none of the charisma to spot its spiked gauntlet, bullet-belted figure among the crowd in which it surfs. Cover looks cool, old school, band name is cool, logo cool, songs sound exactly like they should, but its the riffing pattern and lack of any dynamic force which drags this down. There's no real lack of hellish energy being executed, just a dearth of inspired tremolo picking riffs, or at least those you haven't heard a thousand times. Here, they launch from that rapid fire blackened/speed metal sound into some clamorous, even faster bits, and gang shouts erupt everywhere to fuel the momentum, but while it all looks good on paper, they feel like they're just playing by-the-numbers chord progressions which never take you by surprise. There are no good leads or other distractions to steer you away from this fundamental flaw, and the cuts feel thematically 'appropriate' but dry unless you're just seeking out more of the same pseudo-Satanic swill others have peddled for decades.

Drums and bass are efficient, vocals raucous blackened barks that seem enthusiastic but never really evil enough to compensate that it all seems like sheer testosterone, with little to back it up except the right intentions. The recording itself is fairly level, slightly raw but not obnoxiously so. All in all, if this were something I heard off in the background outside at some hell kegger in the woods, where you weren't allowed without a denim jacket or something leather on some part of your anatomy, then this would probably make for passable background noise, whether live or on someone's beat up beat box in which they were spinning a tape recording. Upon closer examination, however, there is just so much out in this field which has more character, better licks, leads, nastiness, viciousness, etc. Having also heard this band's full-length, Summoning Hell, I can say with confidence that you should skip this and head straight for that, because while it's still not exemplary for this style, it both sounds superior and is written better, with some genuinely good riffs and decent songs in spots.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

http://www.realmofthedead.de/

Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma (2012)

The marriage of black metal to the many faces of progressive rock is probably not a novelty by the second decade of the 21st century. Bands like Enslaved were early adopters of the hybrid, but it is one that has never ceased to enthrall me personally, since I possess no aversion whatsoever to all the mixing and matching if it provides me a fresher listening experience. No, it won't always work, it won't always distribute evenly enough to gel the styles, but then a gem like Hail Spirit Noir comes along and redefines just how much this mutual integration can become its own, seamless form. More than so many other bands, I don't listen through Pneuma or its brilliant younger sibling Oi Magoi as if they 'clash'. Contrast, yes, but the Greeks make it all sound so natural that I wonder why the two weren't a whole in the first place. As if this very record could have existed somewhere in the late 70s, the product of some guys with huge imaginations who might not have had the vocal talents of an Osbourne, Dio or Halford, so instead retreated to the deep Underground, providing quasi-soundtracks for unreleased Hammer horror flicks.

Oi Magoi was ultimately my favorite metal record of 2014, but listening back to this, I can't honestly tell you it was that massive an improvement. Catchier, perhaps, but the genius bastardization of genre was already in full flux a couple years earlier. Lots of 'expected' folksy and proggy instruments here, like organs and old synths, loads of cleaner guitars performed with a bluesy tinge, crested by Theoharis disgusting harsh vocal and his wavering, accented cleans which often seem like a Hellenic Nick Cave or Johnny Cash hovering over the edge of perdition. Chords contribute to slower, dramatic riff progressions here that almost feel strangely Beatles-esque, only if you the Fab Four had ingested countless mushrooms and frolicked naked in the fields within satyr-nymph love trysts. Pneuma possesses an idyllic and ugly dual nature which is captivating through the end, even when a few of the individual riffs might not shine as much as the overall work; there's even a tint of trashy old Cleopatra Gothic vibe in a handful of the tunes like "Let Your Devil Come Inside" which in at least a few spots sounds like Christian Death or Mephisto Walz performing occult rock. I couldn't tell you if that were some conscious decision, but the real wealth of Pneuma is in that esoteric reaction.

I'm also reminded pretty often of Nocturno Culto, especially his presence in the band Sarke, where you get those raw, unfettered post-Frost vocals mired in some fuzzy, caustic primal metal chord patterns ("Against the Curse, We Dream"), but they really evade so many direct comparisons to any one source because you just never have any idea of what will happen next. Some parts seem like Opeth if they were much better at evoking that archaic prog rock nostalgia, only tainted with the fabric of nightmares; others are more fluidly black metal, just the really fundamental kind that groups like Vultyr shat forth in their own aspirations to rewrite the script. I would actually go so far as to say that, while there aren't songs here nearly so evocative as "Satan is Time", this debut is a fraction more consistent in construction than the followup. Great drums, nuttier percussion, fuzzy and spurious little lead harmonies, variation everywhere, even in the track lengths. An amazing debut that sets up what I dearly hope with be a lengthy career in which the experimentation and fusion never ends.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (let your fantasy grow wild)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hail-Spirit-Noir/260062670728238

Defaced - On the Frontline (2012)

The Swiss death metal scene arguably peaked with its most antiquated acts, some of whom were not exclusively death metal and have sowed their influence far and wide across numerous genres. But gone are the days of Hellhammer, Messiah, Coroner, and Celtic Frost, and since that time there seems to be a slight preference for black metal in the reason. Sure, a handful of brutal death metal bands have been signed up from the region, but few exhibit the sort of cultural distinction that most other European countries provide, and judging by what I hear on this first album by Defaced, that pattern is in no jeopardy of disruption.

To be fair, these guys (not to be confused with The Defaced of Sweden who performed a more groove/thrash metal style) draw upon some older influences than most arpeggio freaks and tech wankers eschew for their Suffocation/Necrophagist-born songwriting chops. I was hearing quite a lot of British death/grind influence, particularly the battering force of Napalm Death and the sort of everyman growling and presence of 90s Benediction, with some of the brickwork no-frills applied punishment of Danish veterans Panzerchrist or Dutchmen Houwitser. Very precise blast work balanced off against slower, Morbid Angel-chugging miasma with double bass. Cookie monster gutturals delivered against the snarling contrast of death and grind pioneers. A rich, churning guitar tone which doesn't ascribe to the Swedening and gives the album a production value well beyond your average unsigned act.

They vary up their pretty standard tremolo-picked phrases/blast progressions with a couple of leaden grooves circa Sepultura's style (without going anywhere near nu-land), but often lay into a pure grinding headache, or some slower death/thrash patterns that feel like meatier Slayer chugs. Not averse to leads, they often rely on bluesier basics gone wild than anything more caustic, atmospheric and unnerving which a lot of their influences thrived on. And this all sort of contributed to a mere lukewarm reaction I had to the tunes here. Once in a while you've got a tune like "Departure to Hell" where they focus on a few peppier death/thrash riffs which lean more towards the melodic death structures of mid-era At the Gates, or some truly punctual palm-muted breaks of a Fear Factory caliber, but as you can sort of tell reading through this, the band just never develops a distinct style of their own, molded strictly upon the trodden grounds of their forebears without making it feeling fresh, vibrant or even really nostalgic.

There are other bands like Coldworker that have done a better job of integrating all these old school pummeling death and grind inspirations into better riff fixtures, where On the Frontline simply seems substandard in its construction. By no means is it a bad album, and the members apply themselves to their instruments with concussive integrity, but there are few if any guitar riffs which stand out among the legions here and even the song titles feel a little blase and unoriginal. I mean..."Pleasure to Kill"? I'm not saying old bands have some inviolable right to the use of these words, but do a little homework at least. You probably don't want to name tunes after verified classics, especially when they don't even have a shadow of a prayer of living up to them.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

http://www.defaced.ch/