200 Stab Wounds - Slave to the Scalpel (2021)

As swell and...injury-swelling as the 200 Stab Wounds debut EP was, I think it's Slaves to the Scalpel that really put the Ohioans in a lot more earpieces, and then proceeded to chew many of them off. Although they keep things short here like that earlier release, with 9 tunes clocking in at 27 minutes, I feel like they answered and expanded upon a number of the limitations that material presented, and this full-length is a much better balanced record, one that's grown on me since I first listened through it a couple years ago. On the surface, it's your garden variety, dense as fuck slamming old school death metal that a lot of the Maggot Stomp camp excel in, which basically started a whole new trend for those who wanted their death metal dance-worthy without obnoxious levels of dull technicality and bland production.

But it's what they layer into that experience which makes all the difference, and provides you with a nice half hour burst of fun. For one, the horror samples and synths and effects are a nice touch, they briefly visited this at the beginning of the EP, but it's more prominent on a track like "Phallic Filth" and erupts perfectly into its chugging, grooving, body-breaking rhythms and spurts of blasted mayhem. There's a lot of atmosphere throughout the album, more than you'd expect on such a tight time-budget, and then they use flirt around with more melodies and leads, and even though these are a little unpolished and not always so catchy in placement, it proves the band is a little more ambitious than just scraping the floor of the mosh pit forever. Loads of the riffs have a Cannibal Corpse influence, as you'll hear in "Stifling Stew", and while they're never as catchy or creative as that band was when they came up with these ideas, it's a whole palette of techniques they explore and even dumb down into their bedrock grooving style. The album's a little apprehensive about speed, and they could certainly scribe some tastier riffs when they hit that velocity, but at least they're meddling around with it.

Production is just as good as the EP, if a little more accessible, with guitars that sound like they came from the cattle packing plant, and the bass is likewise cranked up a little and has more presence than it did on the first release. Feedback, creepy growls and snarls, all sorts of atmosphere gives Slave to the Scalpel a vaulted sound that keeps my ears glued, and the constant little details like the Slayer-y evil melodies in "Itty Bitty Pieces" or the meaty bass and syncopation in "Expirated Splatter" that lead to those wavy, morbid riffs go a long way towards flavoring up all the mosh. This group has certainly been labeled as overrated or overhyped, and surely there's nothing too unique about the various ingredients to this stew, but when it's all blended together it just creates this entertaining broth that I keep sipping at despite any of the base stupidity of its recipe. Gory, satisfying death metal with a lot of room yet to grow, but never any prescribed mandate to do so.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/200StabWounds/

200 Stab Wounds - Piles of Festering Decomposition EP (2020)

200 Stab Wounds hail from the same Ohio scene as Sanguisugabogg, and perform with a comparable sound too, and from what I've seen the last couple years, the same degree of divisiveness among death metal fans that find them either severely overrated or just what the doctor ordered. It's more of that primitive, groove-laden 'slam' death which isn't so focused on pig squeals or brutal technicality, but in laying down the bricks and watching the audience pick them up and hit each other with them. I will say this, though, the Piles of Festering Decomposition EP sounds utterly fantastic, and despite being under 8 minutes long and three tracks, really knows how to make an entrance. In fact, among the Maggot Stomp roster I think this is one of the better introductions.

With the sampled bells ringing off, the writhing flesh-like guitar tone and a pretty awesome, gruesome opening riff, "Maggot Casket" sets the stage for the pugilistic experience ahead. Steve Buhl's gutturals are resonant and oppressive, occasionally belching up a vomit-like break at the end of some phrase, and while some might think of them as a bit cheesy or juvenile, they've got loads of personality which a lot of more controlled growlers are lacking. The chomping, chugging, chunky tone of the rhythm guitar is also a highlight, so virile and infectious that it can even transform the most basic 'been there' sorts of riffs into something you find a new appreciation for, especially when it rolls off a riff like "Body in the Basement". Bass is prominent but could use a few more moments to shine off against the guitars, and the drums have a sort of contrasted, jam room vibe that often manifests into groovier, almost hip hop beats, but this works really well against the crushing force of the vocals and guitars for some reason.

Granted, 200 Stab Wounds has a lot more room they could be exploring in terms of variation and tempo, the production on this one is so cool that I wouldn't have minded them blitzing into more fast parts with some tremolo riffs or such...that's not to say they don't shift it up, they do, but if this were going for more than the 8 minutes the material would demand some more exploration of the tones and instruments. For what it is, though, Piles of Festering Decomposition is an effective statement of purpose that certainly lives up to the hype, nothing original, but for those that just want to shut off their brain and breakdance to some heavy as fuck urban death metal, this offers a good length workout before your next Gatorade.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/200StabWounds/

Sanguisugabogg - Homicidal Ecstasy (2023)

Homicidal Ecstasy took a little more time for me to come around to than its predecessors. While the style here is largely the same, there was something more consistently level about the production and writing which I found a bit of a turnoff upon first exposure, perhaps a lack of dynamic excitement that Tortured Whole managed to cultivate. The weird photographic cover collage was also weird, I mean I appreciate 'weird', but a trio of cum-guzzling crab-legged women that seems really disjointed looking? Maybe half the legs are form a scorpion? I don't know, but right when I think it's hideous, I remember the impact the collages on old Carcass had upon me, or other goregrind staples, and then appreciate that Sanguisugabogg have chosen imagery that does something stranger yet sexual enough for their pervy themes.

When I mentioned that the production here felt a little too steady, that wasn't to infer that it was in any way bad, and once I cranked through the album's 45 minutes, their hugest undertaking yet, I began to appreciate how it kept and perhaps even increased the 'weight' of their sound. These rhythm guitars chop and groove like serrated metal beaters through vats of spaghetti and meatballs, and the bass is just so enormous that I felt like I would need to rush to the toilet and vacate myself at any moment. The drums are still vitally important hear with all the splashing, rims, and fills, yet they actually sound better reined in and not popping out in any antagonistic way. There are several tracks where the transitions feel a bit muddled and unexcited, like how the blasts poke through into "Hungry for Your Insides", and it only makes me crave the slower, chugging rhythms, but even there you're getting some sick drums and an appreciable beatdown from the vocals. In other places, like "A Lesson in Savagery", they seem as if they're utilizing some more dissonant chords to solid effect, and I think this is one area in which Sanguisusabogg could continue to evolve and make themselves sound even more evil.

The grooves and beats in several of the tracks also come off a little more ambitious, like the closer "Feeing for Bloodshed", and it's cool that, in their own microcosmic sound, they're still trying a few new tricks. Gone are the sweet synth interludes from the prior album, though, and I think something like that, or just something more atmospheric...perhaps some samples and ambiance, would have helped break this album up, because it can feel like a chore to get through at times. Almost like the whole affair is about 10-15 minutes longer than it needs to be, without compelling content to fill all that time. 7-8 of the tracks are evidently better than the rest, and that drags the overall quality a bit below the debut, even if the heavy instrumentation itself is no less for ambition and knuckle-brawling extremity. Still, the Ohio boys bring the punishment and perversion beyond the bare minimum required, avoiding the sophomore slump if not quite improving upon themselves.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://sanguisugabogg.com/

Sanguisugabogg - Tortured Whole (2021)

The viral success of the caveman stable soon led Sanguisugabogg to a deal with Century Media, bringing this underground sensation to a broader level of visibility, an amusing contrast against their smeared logo and warped cover art which begs you not to understand it. I'm not complaining, I bought a long sleeve around this time, maybe just before the album with similar artwork and green logo on yellow material, which I still love to this day. Thankfully, Tortured Whole is both more of the same we heard on Pornographic Seizures, and simultaneously a little more expansive due to the 34 minute playground in which the Ohio group, at this point a trio, found itself. I hate to call anything like this 'mature', but this certainly hears the group settling into a more seasoned
confidence with their loping, simple-minded brutality.

Two things that stood out immediately were the way the rims and other drums popped out to a degree that was almost obnoxious if it wasn't so loveable, and Devin's vocals seem to get even more efficient and guttural, sometimes almost as toilet-bowl as an Antti Bowman. The riffs sound even more chunky than on the EP, and at the same time even a little more 'progressive' in how they wander the frets to create little grooves and moods that remind me of anything from Cannibal Corpse to 90s Death. For a band so crammed into its own entrail-strewn niche, I never get the feeling that they're uninterested in offering a degree of variation for the listener. The rhythm guitar chug is amazing on its own, almost impossible to resist as it starts plunking along, but there are a few more layers here thanks to how they effortlessly mix aesthetics from the late 80s OSDM to the brutal low end of the next decade. The bass lines here are even louder than the previous release, and while they're not always doing much by themselves, they help the album feel like it standing astride you and just beating you slowly to a pulp with two fat fists, ground and fucking pound dudes.

What I didn't expect were the horror-synth interludes courtesy of Cody, who was already pulling double duty on the bass and drums. These aren't your usual neon-lit sort, danceable sort, but more something you'd hear in an obscure, low budget horror film or Giallo, usually from Europe. They're both really good and actually appear at precisely the right time for you to take a breath from the beatings, and in fact I think they're cool enough that I wouldn't have minded more, perhaps integrated directly into the brutal tunes as intros or interludes. Regardless, they help flesh out the experience on the whole, and right as you've escaped they'll drag you back in with some ridiculous chugging grooves. Tortured Whole is a good debut which proves the band wasn't just a flash in the pan, and that bigger label exposure was not about to soften the impact of their unforgiving knuckle sandwich aesthetics. It's no masterpiece, but it's got a timeless attitude about it which I always appreciate in the moment.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://sanguisugabogg.com/

Sanguisugabogg - Pornographic Seizures EP (2019)

I'm probably a bit guilty of riding the whole 'caveman riff' death metal wave circa Maggot Stomp and a few other labels as much as the next guy. Like so many throwback sounds, I appreciated how the gents in all these bands were tracing death metal back to its source and then sort of reconfiguring it into some alternate universe sound which didn't sound terribly different than what I already had, but still entertained. Here we've got rudimentary slam or groove/death metal plastered with just enough of the machismo and brutality to get the pit stirring but without too much of the technical bluster or studio polish, and Ohio's starlings Sanguisugabogg are arguably one of the bands to best to capitalize on the style, leading to larger label deals and a lot of notoriety across the US scene and beyond.

Part of this is because of the band's absurd name and logo, which they themselves have so often joked about on their amusing yet down-to-Earth social media presence, which they also manage a lot more personally than some other bands on the same level. There's a bit of 'class clown' to their whole schtick, but they have the muscle and groove to back it all up, and this debut release, the first I actually picked up from Sanguisugabogg, is dope for what it offers. Bro-core distilled into death metal, with grooving and organic drums, loaded up with some interesting fills, and then plastered in these epic, crunching rhythm guitars which make it impossible to remain still. I'm not promising you that the actual riffs are always catchy, but Cameron Boggs is clearly adventuring a little bit more than you'd expect, with a few winding patterns that he alternates into the usual double-bass driven tremolo evil of vintage late 80s death. The bass is also pretty ruddy and dense in the traditions of grind and death and it adds some bombast to the already knuckle-dragging neolithic brutality inherent to the songs.

Devin Swank takes it over the top though with his stark, evil gutturals, splayed out with just the right amount of reverb to make them sound appropriately ominous, even when he ups the pitch just a bit for a deep snarl. That's where so much of this EP's 'don't give a fuck' attitude manifests, and the band can just stand aloft the pit of flailing meathead bodies and dominate for 11 minutes. There's nothing really novel about what this band has put out there...maybe some more fills than you'd expect, a couple riffs that go into more depth than you hear coming, but all of these techniques were writ large across thousands of seminal and underground death metal/brutal death metal acts in the 90s. It's like a dash of Finnish guttural slime to top off some street level New York butchery via a dumbed-down Suffocation with Mortician overtures and cheesy Cannibal Corpse-style lyrics. Sanguisabogg just recycles this aesthetic into its own grim, humorous personality and for my money, tunes like "Turkish Blood Orgy" and "Succulent Dedecent" rank among their best. A fun introduction.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://sanguisugabogg.com/

Atomic Witch - Crypt of Sleepless Malice (2022)

 Atomic Witch definitely draws you in with their ridiculous, colorful cover art, which promises all manner of cult horror homages, and it looks like something you might have seen as a poster on the wall in some black-lit corner of Rob Zombie's House of 1,000 Corpses. But the music itself is no joke, a brand of semi-technical, semi-brutal death metal which hits a number of references to some of Cannibal Corpse's more intricate material in the Corpsegrinder era, mixed with a dose of clinical thrashing which bounces between the punchy crossover of a Municipal Waste and the proficiency of West Coast late 80s masters like Forbidden or Vio-lence. Hell, I'd even offer that what Vektor does for science fiction death/thrash, Atomic Witch does for horror camp.

But as spastic, intense and engaging as the musicianship is on this record, and it's quite well arranged without ever going too overboard with flashy noodling, it's the performance of the two vocals which puts it well over the top. One's got a snarky, cruel bite to the mid-range delivery, a common trope in thrash and crossover, but then the other has the propensity to hurl all these wild shrieks and screams at you, some of them slightly sustained and eerie, reminding me of anything from the King Diamond falsetto to the raving excellence of the late Warrel Dane of Nevermore, or if I'm being a bit more obscure, Watchtower's Alan Tecchio and Realm's Mark Antoni. Perhaps the band Them is also an apt comparison, though this doesn't feel quite as conceptual. My first time listening through Crypt of Sleepless Malice I picked up that slight vibe of parody, but it's really not; where a band like 3 Inches of Blood is just something I could never get used to, always seeming like a caricature, with this album it really enhances the theatrical insanity of the band's musical style.

There's also just a ton of variation here, beyond the death and thrashing you can occasionally hear a passage that has a melodic death or black metal vibe, and they also set up some great intros to tracks like "She Drifts" which build an instant atmosphere and mood before they spin-kick you in the fast with the verse riffing. The leads are pretty excellent, always appearing at the right second to amplify the mood, and when he lifts off into a scream after one, like in "Cemetery Mud", it melts your face. Now, to be honest, there are quite a few of the individual riffs which feel a bit like you've heard them before, and some of the more surgical sounding stuff doesn't always impress, but there are a good 4-5 tracks on this debut that showcase a truly formidable band, and considering they've only got a few years and shorter releases behind them, their future should prove positively atomic if they can maintain this level.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://atomicwitch.bandcamp.com/album/crypt-of-sleepless-malice

Rip Ryde - A Taste for the Kill (2022)

Just one glance at the cover to A Taste for the Kill and I'm taken back to the 80s when I'd be cruising the mall for metal records, and in addition to the thrash and harder stuff there would be this crop of bands which sat in the median between the trendier, terrible glam rock and the heavy metal proper. My love for bands like Dokken, Bonfire, King Kobra, etc came from within this margin, and it's clear that Cleveland's Rip Ryde had a similar fascination because they have managed to recapture this same feeling on their indie debut. I'm not too surprised, because the lineup here is pretty ridiculous, almost a who's who of Ohio goodness, featuring members of Soulless, Shed the Skin, Vanik, Vindicator, Ringworm, and Shok Paris. And while the album takes a track or two to really take off, it's packed with accessible, catchy metal that's prepped to party on the surface, but also has enough of a genuine emotion and intelligence behind it to matter more than that.

I'll say that the opener, "Stop, Rip and Roll", with its very Dokken-like riff, didn't exactly hook me as I felt like it was the vocalist's weakest performance on the album. He's got a good, everyman voice with a capability for a little pitch, almost an amalgam of a blue-collar Midwest bar front man and a NWOBHM hero ala Biff Byford, but I just didn't pick him out too much as he was following along the guitars in the verses. Still, the little splashes of fun, bluesy hard rock leads, and the production tone on the rest of the instruments is pretty promising, and though the song was a little repetitive, it's a good teaser for their style, which improves very quickly on cuts like the similar, flailing "My Oh My" or "Legends for the End", and these are catchier with the vocals and guitar melodies. The chord patterns are pretty simple, and hardly novel, but infused with just enough legit 80s melody circa Scorpions or Maiden that they really hammer home, and this band is very adept at setting up solid rhythm guitar hooks to support the awesome leads, which don't exactly 'duel' but have a nice, memorable interchange that takes you back.

It gets to the point where even the band's most overt attempts at a more 'party' theme like "Sweet Rocket Girl" still don't come off excessively cheesy, even when the singer is giving it a bit too much rock & roll gusto, and even that song has a very "Delivering the Goods" vibe. When the band dials it down for a ballad like "Into the Darkness Again", it's earned and not at all cheap, a solid construction and really good lead-work/bridge in there transformed it into one of my favorites on the album, and the rapid melodies of "Dance for the Massacre" really sealed the deal. A Taste for the Kill is fun but never shallow, nearly every riff here is imbued with a love for its influences, and from a cast of characters who have cast a pretty broad net in the past, from other heavy metal projects to raucous speed/thrash to blistering melodic death metal. Maybe the malls suck these days, but your life doesn't have to, so whether you dig the old 70s Priest, Saxon and Maiden, the more accessible side of the Metal Blade roster in the 80s, or the new weave of Canadian metalians and hard rockers (Cauldron, Freeway, Spell, etc), this is worth at least a listen, and the blood and cleavage are the cherries on top.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://ripryde.bandcamp.com/

Necrophagia - Holocausto de la Morte (1998)

Holocausto de la Morte was kind of a big deal since it saw Killjoy and Necrophagia resurrected from the dead, and although it carries many hallmarks from their 80s thrash-tempered material, this was really the dawn of the peculiar, minimalistic and evil death metal style that this band will forever foremost be known for. It's also interesting for me because it's a good example of an album I had little fondness for when I received the promo for an old paper zine back in those late 90s, but as I listen with what I hope to be fresh, well-aged ears, I can garner a little more appreciation for what the guys were trying here. In terms of its place in 'horror metal', while its far from a novel example by this date, I think the almost constant use of samples and themes here makes it one of the first things I think of when those two terms are joined together.

The formula: extremely basic, crisp thrashing rhythms alternated with Hellhammer-style grooves, never sounding they took more than a few minutes to conceive, but slathered with personality due to the guts gargling vocal presence of Mr. Killjoy. I mean this guy literally sounds like he's chewing on a rodent as he intonates these lyrics...a rat or squirrel being gnashed in his teeth, his tongue flicking about it to make sure the words make it to the microphone with somewhat proper pronunciation. It's the kind of comical you might have first experienced with John Tardy or Chris Reifert, only arguably taken to a further extreme. And yet, I admit it's one of the most endearing and compelling components of this band. The riffs are also engaging despite how crude they come across, especially when they're drowned in all the morbid chants and samples and narrative that gives you a drugged out effect. Remember that movie I Drink Your Blood with all the evil hippies? This album sounds like you could layer it in as an alternative soundtrack to that and it would function perfectly. It's got a kitsch quality about it like bad, bloody, cult special effects and styrofoam graveyards and as I type these ridiculous things I realize it's one of the high points for me.

The production is also really loud and easy to follow consider what an evil atmosphere it is attending. The guitars and vocals always stand out, the former shifting between their doomed lopes, My First Thrash Riff 101 or even a little more creative dissonance. The bass sounds good, but doesn't do much other than hold up those rhythm guitars with a plumpness. The drums dwell in a simple rock format, almost like Danzig, but once again that is what this requires...nothing too technical to force its way past the rest. All the eerie segues and chants seem as if they're almost randomly placed into tracks like "The Cross Burns Black", but once you're attuned to what sort of experience you're going to get, they work. The band will also launch into a mid-paced blasting on tunes like "Deep Inside, I Plant the Devil's Seed", and I did feel that some of the riffs there felt like bland grind, but at least its worth it to hear Killjoy go even further over the top of the sepulcher than he normally does. All in all, though, it's fairly catchy, and while it requires a certain frame of mind for me to even want to put this in for a spin, I'll openly admit it's grown into a go-to album when I need my fix of the late Mr. Pucci's morbid hijinks. Whatever you might think of his music, and I don't think too highly of much of it, the guy was a one-of-a-fucking-kind splatter metal icon.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/NecrophagiaOfficial

Necrophagia - WhiteWorm Cathedral (2014)

Covering WhiteWorm Cathedral after the passing of its creator Killjoy is a bittersweet task, since this would be the last studio full-length recording by what is his best known project, Necrophagia, or at least the one he poured the most sweat and blood into for over three decades. My history with this material is more often miss than hit, I've long admired what he was going for but just never thought the balance of the grisly death/thrashing and cult horror aesthetics was ever perfected. Killjoy was never concerned much with strict musical evolution when it came to nuance or proficiency, the riffs you find here are hardly more complex or unique than what he was putting out in the 80s, and that is both a boon and a curse with the material on this swansong.

WhiteWorm Cathedral is possibly his best produced Necrophagia album, with a huge, plodding, and direct sound that fully embraces its simplicity. The riffs throughout the entire album are very basic, slow or mid paced thrash riffs with a bit of groove metal or doom in spots. It's not exactly laconic or boring, but when the speed picks up, as in "Elder Things", some of the personality is lost until you hit that breakdown. And that's really what this album is about...chugging, heavy as fuck rhythm guitars that won't let you stop moshing unless you've heard all the patterns before a thousand times and don't really care much about that. Guilty as charged on that count. Sure, I found my head slowly bobbing to some of the charnel grooves, but even when I got into the swing of things I just never felt rewarded with some amazing transition, chorus or elevation to what was happening. It's not exactly samey or redundant in terms of how the riffs are put together, there is some variation throughout, but they just never seem to hit an interesting chord progression, they just belt you across the jaw with what you'd expect, and in a way I feel like the strong sound quality here was partly wasted.

The samples, organs and other 'horror' effects are sparse but tastefully executed right behind the pump and pummeling of the metal instruments, and the bass is fat as fuck, with the drums sounding nice and snappy for the rock beats they are usually devolved into. Killjoy's vocals are probably the star of the record, enormous, powerful snarls that you can recognize right away, laden with some echo and reverb that really carries across even the potent, blockbuster rhythm section. Sometimes this album sounds so much like nasty death/thrash for cavemen that you can't help but feel its pull towards whatever mammoth hunt is taking place; like in the track "Coffins" where those tried and true vocal patterns and the bluesy segues really help drive the meaty chugging home; or "Rat Witch", with its little swerves towards dissonant mystique among the crunch of the palm mutes. Add in the bells and general atmosphere, and that last one is probably one of my favorite Necrophagia tracks, extremely straightforward but not really needing much else.

In a way, the album gets points for just doing its own thing. It's not emulating other elder bands because Necrophagia IS one of those elder bands, and it's not some technical brutal death metal or goregrind exercise...this music is brutal because it's just produced so fucking heavy with a minimal structure that relies almost entirely on that bonecrushing tone. It can be fun to break out, and it's better than other efforts like The Divine Art of Torture or Harvest Ritual Volume I, but I'm still a little saddened by the fact that, with a little more gestation and atmosphere, this could have been the album that knocked it out of the park for me, and now it's just not going to happen. That said, if you enjoy really simplistic, snarly, growly, evil death metal with no pretensions, or you like the cult films that inspired some of these tunes, then you might at least give this one a whirl.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]
https://necrophagia.bandcamp.com/

Necrophagia - The Divine Art of Torture (2003)

Say what you want about whether Necrophagia was ever putting out top of the line albums for the genre, but one thing I can assure the viewer is that of all death metal gurus, Killjoy was one most committed to the actual ugliness of the medium. Whether that's a virtue or a vice is up to everyone to decide for him or herself; this was never a band that was going to release polished, wanky tech death albums, or melodic death metal, but instead appeal to the most primitive and then plaster on the usual suspect horror tropes like samples, narrative and synthesizers which fulfill the themes of gore, giallo, and cinematic camp. The Divine Art of Torture, the band's fourth full-length, is certainly one of its most ugly creations, if lacking stylistic refinement or many truly memorable tracks.

Does that matter here? Yes and no...there's a primal hideousness coursing through the ten cuts of this album which is certainly engaging and abusive. Like a lot of bands out of the NOLA scene, or Cali's cult crushers Autopsy, there's quite a chunk of punk or hardcore influence, only rather than cultivate a crust, sludge or doom center, Necrophagia channels it directly into a raw, pummeling death metal. Riffs are meaty and atrocious, with a raw, thrashy and crunchy tone to the rhythm guitars that does get a bit noisy in the recording. They do delve into some slower, groovier, doomy riffs at points, and there are also some really minimalist, bottom of the barrel sorts groove/nu metal riffs that they clog up some of the choruses with. Really, though, while a lot of the riffs can feel creatively bankrupt or flat-out predictable, they do suffice at least as a basis from which to launch the keyboards or other effects, not to mention they are angry, violent and abusive enough to compete with Killjoy's savage, tortured barking, forever the hallmark of this project.

It's kind of an odd sound because apart from maybe something like Autopsy, Impetigo, Slaughter or Sarcofago, it doesn't really wedge itself easy into other classifications of death metal. It's 'brutal' by its own standards, but the riffs feel more based in thrash and punk than the influence of the Swedish, British or Florida scenes. You don't get the feeling that there are any 'rules' in motion, or any real ambition, other than pounding the guitars into your skull like nails. The basslines and drums provided by the international rhythm section of Iscariah and Titta Tani, are very barebones and rock & roll in prowess, which also stands out like a sore thumb among the more technical and brutal inclined acts, but then again serving the style on this disc pretty well. Unlike a lot of the faceless hordes of bands that fit snugly into some category, when I hear a Necrophagia tune in a radio lineup I'm going to be pretty sure of who it is, and that's not a bad position to be in.

Mirai of the godlike Sigh provides the keyboards on the album, and he retains his penchant for choosing lines and tones that sound like they're somewhere between carnival music, giallo scores and prototypical New Age. I did not quite like how they were mixed here, feeling a bit too acidic or grating especially when coupled up with that brash guitar tone. Occasionally, as in "Rue Morgue Disciple", the band will break away into some simpler chugging and melodic guitars, where Mirai offers a more fulfilling, symphonic background, and these were some of my favorite parts. Overall though, with all the special effects coming and going through the music, Killjoy's lung puncturing roars, and anything else going on, I do feel like it can all devolve into quite a clamor, and isn't really mixed very well, a flaw that I think could prove a deal breaker for many listeners.

A horror guru like few others, Killjoy picks some interesting subjects here, like a tune about the Parasite Eve video game, or the "Flowers of Flesh and Blood" episode of the Guinea Pig torture-porn series. Not the sort of stuff you expect on your average horror-inspired death metal album which will mine the same old slashers from the 80s, and that much is appreciated here. The Divine Art of Torture is certainly one of the Necrophagia records with the most potential and cool concepts, but the lack of really sticky riff passages, as well as the production hold it back a step.

Horror-Meter: Seven out of ten phobia-driven heart seizures.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

Harlot's Grip - Harlot's Grip EP (2018)

Harlot's Grip is a new project involving Wayne Richards and Chris Dora of Ohio's perpetually underrated death/thrashing beast Soulless, as well as bassist Ed Stephens who has played in an eclectic range of groups, from metal/hardcore legends Ringworm to 80s heavy metal hopefuls Shok Paris. In fact, between the three musicians here, you've probably got at least 30 bands worth of experience, from numerous sub-genres, in and around Ohio, and it really shows in the finished project. Unlike Soulless, or Stephens' Shed the Skin, this material is leaning far more in a traditional heavy metal direction. It's not Wayne's first rodeo in that realm either, having put out the solid Mach II record back in 2009, but the content of this EP is far more intricate and defined than that, and ultimately more impressive.

I'd place the sound conjured up here between the ballsier NWOBHM bands of the mid 80s, such as Saxon and their ilk, and the more finesse-driven USPM to follow that era like Jag Panzer. The riffs are just as often to break out into conventional, mid-paced, blue collar fist-pumping chords patterns are to explore more gleaning, textured surges of melody, but the two are equally mitigated so that you're getting your fill of the former, with just as much of the latter as you'd need to prevent the tunes from becoming predictable. A small fraction of the aggression and melody also draws upon their Soulless alma mater, which is fine by me since that band is bananas. It also benefits a lot from not sounding painstakingly old school; this is clearly not a pure nostalgia trip by the band members, but an attempt to craft these influences into tunes that fit straight into 2018 and possess a little added nuance than just your average grab-bag British metal proxy. They're a bit more parallel to a Pharaoh, New Eden or Jag Panzer than an Eternal Champion, Cauldron or Visigoth, perhaps, but could be equally appealing to fans of all of these.

Big hooks. Audible bass lines grooving along with them. Big drums, cranked right along the guitars so you can hear every splash and thump. Clear emotional ramp-up between verses and choruses, with effective leads that disperse sorrow, melancholy and other feels over the bridge rhythms. Richards even employs a very mid-range, workmanlike vocal tone reminiscent of Biff Byford or Tank's Algy Ward, and that does bring me to one minor critique. As much as I'm cool with that approach, and how it best uses its available range, I did feel like some of the riffing and production tended to overpower them at times. Without needing a bunch of cliche shrieks and screams, a few more bells and whistles in the mix could bring them out more, whether that's just done in the mix or in the line composition. There was also a backing vocal or two which felt a little bland, muscle those up too. The only other quip might be that the four tunes here kind of covered a samey range of tempos and aesthetics, but this would easily be corrected by a full-length effort where they'll reach wider.

And I hope such an album is on the horizon, because Harlot's Grip is a refreshing entry into a niche I think is often neglected in these days of throwback tweaking...a band that looks backwards only for its foundation and then cements over it something a little more creative. Some classy riffing, some classy sword & sorcery artwork, well worth checking out if you're a fanatic for old heavy metal or UPSM with an emphasis on its songwriting groundwork rather than Harpy-like wailing eccentricity.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://harlotsgrip.bandcamp.com/releases

The Wakedead Gathering/Ecferus split EP (2017)

I, Voidhanger records had already impressed me with a split release earlier this year, between the enigmatic Howls of Ebb and Germans Khtoniik Cerviiks, so when I saw the pairing for this next one, two of the label's talents from the Midwest US, I automatically assumed it would be another tasteful, complementary match-up which could very likely cross-over fans who hadn't been exposed to one or the other sides. Aesthetically, The Wakedead Gathering, one of the best American death metal acts to emerge over the last decade, might not seem a fit for the evolutionary black metal of Ecferus, but having been exposed to the minds of these creators on several occasions in the past, I knew they'd find a way to make it work.

I didn't know they'd make it work THIS well.

Now, to be clear, the two bands maintain their stylistic distinctions, so there's a clear divide in its presentation; one is death metal, the other black metal. It's obvious; not one of those instances where they blend the styles together in pure collaboration. But I soon got past that, because the tunes here are just SO freaking good that I almost feel sad that the tracks might not gain the same exposure they would otherwise, since in my experience splits don't always get an audience as large as full-lengths. At the same time, it offers a chance for the artists to experiment a little further, which I felt was the case for Wakedead's "The Blind Abyss", a sprawling, 11 minute sequence of roiling, hypnotic death metal patterns contrasted against bleak, minimalistic clean guitars which segment off some of the separate, Cyclopean riffing sequences. Andrew Lampe's gutturals narrate the rhythm guitar swells like text being dictated off twisted flesh, and the riffing selections vary from a crescendo of more mystical, open chords, to churning old school Floridian tremolo-picked morbidity, and some evil grooves that force the head to slowly start banging as it succumbs to the aural oblivion.

Ecferus, on the other hand, deliver three tunes, which in conjunction, amount to roughly the same length as "The Blind Abyss", and Alp does what he does best, scathing traditional black metal threaded with a more introspective and interesting lyrical inclination, not to mention the great balance of melody and savagery that he compels by keeping the riff progressions varied enough that they never lapse into endless, dull repetition. The leads are great, with an Eastern feel as in "Author of Destruction". As I mentioned on reviewing his prior full-length Pangaea, he can really tap into the primal nature of the cosmic and terrestrial themes he navigates, through that noted variation, even though a lot of the actual guitars themselves are inspired by bands like Darkthrone, Satyricon or the mighty Emperor, which some might consider fairly conventional influences. Nonetheless, he adds just enough spark of atmosphere and creativity, topped off with his raving rasps, that I think fans of thorough, elaborate black metal which hasn't flown off into total avant-garde territory should track his records down. Of the three tunes, I couldn't even pick a favorite. All well done.

And the same could be said for the split as a whole. Clearly you'll have no issue here telling the two apart, but I do feel like the material they chose works together on a listen-through, as they both tend to tap into the same visceral, primal forces for their genres and extrapolate similar shadows of the ancient, the mythological, the obscure, the cataclysmic. Production is tight all around, but never so polished that it would turn off underground extremity vultures. Another feather in the prodigious and eclectic cap that is the I, Voidhanger lexicon. Two US bands that continue to deserve your attention and support, who have great things behind and ahead of them. So why are you still here reading my flowery, meaningless scrawl? Go fetch.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/thewakedeadgathering
https://www.facebook.com/ecferus/timeline

Witch - Salem's Rise (1985)

There are obscurities and then there are OBSCURITIES, and being printed in a limited run of a hundred copies on a US imprint that, so far as I can tell, existed only to promote this band and a solo release from one of its members, Salem's Rise is unlikely to exist in its corporeal form for a few friends, family members, and perhaps a tiny pool of hardcore collectors and heavy metal fans that dug it up somewhere. No, it's far more probable that to experience this sole work of Ohio's Witch, not to be confused with California's Witch, or the Dinosaur Jr. spin-off Witch, you'll have had to run across it online like the rest of us schlubs. Now, whether or not this debut even deserves a cursory listen via the intertrons is debatable...

In fairness, this record is a lot less crude than I thought it would be from looking at it. That's not to say that I hate its cover artwork, as it exudes a certain type of base nostalgia and charm around this time of year; but there's no denying that it looks like a high school project; the wispier hair of its subject almost at odds with the finer detail of its eyes and eyebrows, I am almost reminded of DC's Klarion the Witch Boy character if he were a little older, high and paranoid off a fat spliff, and having a disagreeable hair day. But it's got the pentagram straight in the bottom center, the primitive logo and title which look like they were some attempt at stenciling an old English font, and perhaps its most important detail, the Eargasm Productions iconography in its bottom left corner. Ugly as sin, indeed, but all things considered, transports me back to a time in which I'd scribble and color witches and warlocks from my 1st edition AD&D adventures into my notebooks, which, coincidentally, was around the same time this album dropped.

Musically, I was fairly impressed by how polished Salem's Rise is sounding, especially when you consider the limited resources and distribution, and lower budget that must have gone into this. The guitar tone is clear and workmanlike, the bass-lines throbbing and evident, and the percussion has a nice, old school sound to it which pops along with the rhythm guitars. Leads are simple but chosen well, and just bright enough to remain distinct from the backdrop. Vocals are well represented in the mix, and in strict adherence to the practices of their era, placed much in the forefront of the album, especially when you consider that they are hands down the weakest component of the recording. At best, you're getting blue collar, bar-band level quality which wouldn't have stood a chance in hell against the charismatic greats of the 80s, but even prove lackluster in terms of honest hometown, homegrown heavy metal, a mid-range, ambition-less delivery which becomes all the goofier when the singer 'Ace' tries to pitch out a few screams. He's not particularly terrible, and certainly knows how to frame a chorus, but he's just never interesting enough to remember here.

Another flaw on the recording is in its mild stylistic consistencies. Much of the music is a laid back heavy metal or hard rock style redolent of Judas Priest, Steppenwolf and Accept, if lacking the punch and power of the band's precursors. Occasionally, though, some sleazier, lame duck rock groove pollutes the tracks as in "Beckon", which is also one of the tunes where the vocals are experimented with a lot more and sound corny as hell, especially where he seems a little unable to finish hitting the pitch while belting out the song title in the chorus. They also experiment with a little of the proggy synths circa early Ozzy, as on "Will I See You Tonight", but once again the music is spoiled by the higher pitched vocals whose reach cannot exceed their grasp. Salem's Rise is the sound of a band just getting its feet wet, not quite positive where it's going to end up, and there's a lack of confidence and delivery that drag it well below the hidden gem category, not to mention that, even at their most functional, the riffs are just nothing special whatsoever in a year which produced works like Metal Heart, Branded & Exiled, Walls of Jericho and The Specter Within.

I was drawn to check out the record years ago by its potential theme, however, since I'm a huge fan of cult horror, and the band definitely seems to share this passion with anthems of monsters, mythology, and black magic, with subjects ranging from "Loki" and "Lady Medusa" to "Teen of Darkness" and the title track. The bad new is that, beyond the titles and lyrics and the fact that it's heavy metal in the first place, it just doesn't cultivate these topics well enough, or the vocals are just so vapid in their delivery that they ruin the rest, such as the peppy doom grooves of "Salem's Rise" itself, or the pitch issues in closer "Something Evil", which otherwise is perhaps the strongest song on the album. It's never capable of cashing in on its nostalgia with creepy melodies or atmospheres, or evil sounding lyrical lines, and ultimately there's just so little point to listening to when I could just spin Fatal Portrait or Love You to Pieces for the millionth time each and be infinitely more engaged.

Witch was not complete garbage, though, and there are clearly dreams, ideas, and riffs here which with further molding and a better front man might have developed into something cult. There are thousands of such records out there by bands who met for a couple years, in a garage, in a basement, in an attic loft, a studio space, and riffed out some heavy fucking metal, smoked and drinked, played for their friends, their ladies, their dudes, and lived it...if just for a little while, during the Golden Age of the medium. And, whatever their flaws, whatever hurdle they couldn't leap, you can't ever take that away from them. Why would you?

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

Haxxan - Loch Ness Rising (2016)

Killjoy's raucous, overbearing, expressive snarl almost gives him an unfair advantage when it comes to fronting extreme metal, and I'd have to say that pays off rather well on Haxxan's debut Loch Ness Rising, an effort which has come out of seemingly nowhere to debut on the suitably sinister Hells Headbangers imprint. He is not the only member of Necrophagia to feature on this project, however, because it is basically that entire band in its current incarnation trying out a marginally different style than on their mainstay. And I have to say, those differences are what gives this one a rather intriguing polish, to the point that I found this record superior to a lot of what its better known counterpart has been producing for the last decade and change.

It definitely cultivates some comparisons to Necrophagia, not only in the vocals themselves but also the use of slower, thrashier riff sections which hearken back to a classic Hellhammer/Celtic Frost aesthetic, but also remind me of that band's other Midwest US protegees like Usurper. Samples are incorporated sparingly when they can create a morbid or martial atmosphere over the simpler riffs, and they'll also sprinkle on organ-like synths or other effects that bind together well under Killjoy's verbal splattering, and create a little bit of a cult/Hammer horror vibe encased in an occult black metal flesh. Often you'll pull away this black & roll feel, as if they were channeling Satyricon off their last 3-4 albums, which is no big surprise since there are the obvious off-project ties to that band. But where I was actually taken aback were a few of the harmonies and melodies they'll lace through the more commonplace rhythms, giving it a nice, majestic icing to its evil heart...several times across the track list, for example in "Arcanum Arcanorum".

Some of the rhythms themselves will rock your face off, like those of "Babalon" or "Disciples of the Silent", just simple and oblique and Satanic-as-fuck grooves which instantly brought be back about 30 years to when that was a profound practice against the backdrop of metal bands getting increasingly more tech and extreme. Haxxan know with surety what they are setting out to do here, and every one of those bold riffs is balanced out with some higher pitched, evil notes and Killjoy's unmistakable multi-beast growls. The more experimental stuff like the Eastern-flavored instrumental "Aiwass" offers a decent break in the action, and seems to be paying further homage to the record's theme (Aleister Crowley), but ultimately it's just those Inferno-rocking patterns of chords and snarls that really won me over with this. A strong, steady, evil debut for those moments when you don't feel like you need much speed, just a surefire vehicle towards damnation.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Haxxan-174927032567336/

The Wakedead Gathering - Fuscus: Strings of the Black Lyre (2016)

I did not entirely warm up to Fuscus: Strings of the Black Lyre at first, finding some of the songs like "Blood from the Earth" and "Amnioticysts" more immediately rewarding than their neighbors. But after several repeated listens, the chinks in its exoskeletal armor have begun to seal, and I'm left once again satisfied by an album which once again reaffirms that, like any other metal niche, the true appeal of death metal is in its aesthetic overtures just as much as the individual riff-craft used to compose its components. On a note for note basis, Lampe doesn't always concoct the most explosive or unique riffing passages to explore, but it's how he fashions them all together just so slightly left of center to what I normally find in my listening queue that I get all my enjoyment. So whilst I can't say this quite hit the strides he set with its predecessor The Gate and the Key, or his great Dark Circles EP, Fuscus is still something I would heartily recommend to anyone seeking sincerity in a field that has been unfortunately trampled by well-meaning devotees, whose idea of keeping the flame lit is by simply taking and handing off the torch.  

The Wakedead Gathering is instead mining the murk and gloom of its genres' creation to generate an alternate heat source, and the result is something easily identifiable, but the stuff of moldering corpses drenched in the oily damp of dense bog waters, like a death metal peat mummy which is ever so slowly rising to the surface. Suffocating, faster guitars grinding on the opacity and bloat of their death metal forebears from the early 90s, interspersed with dissonant, atmospheric passages, and subtle, super simple bass curves while Lampe introduces blends of rasps, gutturals and even some more ritualistic spoken whispers to create perhaps his most overtly 'horrific' experience to date. The standard Death and Incantation rhythm guitars cycles here are balanced against melodic textures which often espouse the melancholy of ancient Paradise Lost ("Lungwort"), and there are also spikes of antiquated, tasteful Scandinavian melodies ("The Harrowed Column") which come unexpectedly but not unwelcomed. To boot, Fuscus contains what is easily the best pure death/doom hybrid he's written yet, "An Ancient Tradition", with harmonies so funereal that I almost called up the florist, until I remembered that this was just an album I was listening to.

Right around par with much of his previously released material, this Fuscus is further evidence that The Wakedead Gathering remains one of our underappreciated, humble USDM treasures. Though the variation from record to record might not offer as much stylistic breadth and deviation as a band like Horrendous, the quality is entirely consistent, and the project's vision remains distinct beyond a lot of bands just trying to recycle Onward to Golgotha, Left Hand Path or Dawn of Possession. You might not recognize this upon first exposure, since the basis of a lot of riffs will feel familiar, but its how the songs are laid out, and the left turns they often take which weren't immediately telecast by the structure of the chords before them. The lyrics are evocative, mystical, horrific. Get this. Get everything Lampe has released under this name. He may not have published his peak, or his 'masterpiece' yet, but this is one of those cases where you're very sure it could happen at any moment, and even if such a thing were to never manifest, the journey was worth taking all along regardless.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (scent of moldy debris)

https://www.facebook.com/thewakedeadgathering

The Wakedead Gathering - Tenements of Ephemera (2010)

Tenements of Ephemera was a small run release making its way to only a limited audience, so one might have been forgiven in to have missed out on it amidst the slew of old school death metal being revitalized and released this decade. That said, Andrew Lampe's material showed promise even as early on as this full-length, which resurrected the origins of the form and then immediately put his own, distinct stamp upon it; not by completely rewriting the math, but by tampering the equation to incorporate the small atmospheric touches his material has been associated with ever since on the great Dark Circles EP and subsequent albums. Whereas the same riffs here might feel less imaginative or evocative in the hands of some trendster cycling though the dustbins of the genre for inspiration, they bloom across Tenements of Ephemera like the creeping fear one might experience when reading a really great proxy for a classic horror author.

Genuine death metal, setup with a dark ambient/synthesizer and then punching through into fleshy walls of roiling, Incantation-like tremolo patterns with Lampe's ominous guttural, but before long... you're treated to your first taste of what makes this 'different', a series of varied, lurching, segments which imply both dissonant and eerie melodies to the cemetery soil beneath. Vocals are often layered between several growls to create a grotesque chorus. Individual tracks exhibit plenty of internal variation and never wear out their welcome with swollen durations replete with exhausting repetition. The Wakedead Gathering doesn't exactly tread on 'experimental', but Lampe is fully willing to flip his own script, as in "The Black Foundry", "Permutation" and other points where the progressions take on a very doom death blend, whether imbuing that into a faster paced series of riffs or cut off into an instrumental all its own like the guitar-warped "In the Offing". The beats are laid out with a lot of double bass patterns and tinny cymbal sounds, and would probably prove the least compelling element of the composition apart from the fact that they just fit the riffs perfectly.

To be clear, Tenements of Ephemera is not going to blow your roof off, or your speakers out, but it's a more subliminal, reined-in brand of pure death metal which uses its lack of complexity to create a morbid, intimate atmosphere with an almost claustrophobic cinema feel. And I admire the approach, not so much a deconstruction of the genre's foundations but a slightly alien vibe to it that is purely the purview of its author and not some prevailing trend everyone is doing, even if Wakedead can easily cross over to fans of all the Asphyx, Death and Incantation throwbacks we've been inundated with for years (and some to our great benefit, to be sure). As someone who used to originally imagine that this style of music had been envisioned by the minds of aberrations, who in turn transmitted it through the limited lens of squishy human brains, it feels otherworldly even though it's half-rooted firmly in death metal conventions. Dark Circles and The Gate and the Key were both improvements in that the songwriting became more distinct, the atmospheric licks more memorable, but this was already a great project going forward, and the gap in quality is minimal.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/thewakedeadgathering

Terror - Legion of Gore EP (2016)

Terror might stylistically sound like a temporal displacement to some, but I think this sort of grisly, evil thrash metal was fairly underrepresented back in the mid through late 80s and I certainly can't get enough of it now. The Cleveland band released a storm of demos in their original active years (1987-1990) which were later collected by some releases which seem equally obscure, but the impression I'm getting just from the two cuts on this 7" through Hell's Headbangers is one of a hungry act with near limitless potential, provided they keep the riffing and gruesome vocal style honest and the production as rich and in your face as they have shown here.

To be a little more specific, these guys play with a sound not entirely unlike a Rigor Mortis or a Demolition Hammer or a Blood Feast, with obvious nods to the prototypes of death metal that were also kicking around at that time...a few riffs here or there involve tremolo picked patterns redolent of Death's Scream Bloody Gore, for example, and there is an overall aesthetic vibe not unlike Nunslaughter (in fact one of the guys was in that band for a brief time). Ugly serial killer thrash with a bold, loud guitar tone that is refreshingly down to hear but loses none of its subtlety when the tunes sprout sloppy leads like blossoms of blood from a dress shirt. The vocals are frightening, gore-drenched, almost as if King Fowley of Deceased had taken a few wounds to his stomach and lungs and was bleeding from them as he growled and pronounced out each line. Bass lines didn't really factor in the experience much for me, but the drums, like the rhythm guitars, just sound brazen and authentically punishing.

To be clear: neither of these tracks are new, both hailing from late 80s demo material and then re-recorded for the band's newfound existence. I checked out the original versions online, and while "Carving Techniques" sounds pretty close, "Legion of Gore" itself is an upgrade. I have to say I'd be content even if they just released an album or compilation with more of that material produced at this level, because it's just good enough to feel like it deserves to be heard everywhere by every reprobate or cellar dwelling underground hesher who has been missing out on it all these years. Time will tell if they've got newer material in them or if this is just a midlife crisis gone right, but even if it amounts to little more than this little vinyl gem, I think some purists will genuinely enjoy hearing it.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Necrophagia - Harvest Ritual Volume I (2005)

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.facebook.com/NecrophagiaOfficial

Nunslaughter/Acid Witch - Spooky EP (2014)

The Spooky split assembles two of Hells Headbangers more distinct and entertaining acts into a union of what I would have assumed to be a contrast of the slower Acid Witch death/doom camp and the more blitzing death/thrash of Nunslaughter. Yet, to my shock, the choices on this EP really seem to complement one another, with the latter putting on the reins for some of their slower, chunkier, and Acid Witch revving up their engines for the closer on the B-side, which places them on an evil motorcycle pacing with the Catholic Church's favorite band. But beyond that, the material both of the band's is spewing forth here is among the best I've heard from them. Nunslaughter is on a tear, granted, their last record Angelic Dread kicking the cathedral doors down and shredding every habit in sight; but I just wasn't feeling the new Acid Witch EP covers EP much (more on that later), so it was a blast to hear that when it comes to their own material, they've certainly still got it.

The Acid Witch tracks are savage, organ-endowed paeans to darkness and damnation with a bit of that ol' tongue-in-cheek nature added in the lyrics and the stoner-Sabbath grooves that occasionally erupt in the rhythm guitars. "Evil" and "Fiends of Old" are mixed a little rough, giving them an airier garage quality, only if that garage was a co-op they were sharing with a serial killer wearing a clown mask and chainsaw in the 70s. The growls and organs in unison sound absolutely fucking amazing, and I hope a lot of this unhinged energy carries through to their next batch of original stuff. On the other hand, Nunslaughter has the tighter, cleaner production punch of the last album, so there is a little bit of disparity, the two bands don't blend so well in the mix alone. It's the style where it works, and "Spooky Tails" is just a slower, doom/thrash bit with a very simple hook and just blood-gorged vocals that reflect a lot of their Teutonic thrash and proto-death metal influences, with maybe even a little bit of a 90s Carcass thing in how the riff grooves. "A Sordid Past" is cast and carved from a similar vein, only with more gusto and triplet chugging.

It's only 12 minutes of music, but it's engaging and fun all the way throughout, nothing wearing its welcome thin and the cover art is just amazing, with that old horror vinyl cover finish and a colorful image that any creepy comic of the 60s or 70s would have been honored to bear. Except lyrics that focus heavily on Midwest death & thrash metal nostalgia, in particular "Fiends of Old" with a few shout outs to other bands. Nunslaughter have a lot of experience on splits, of course, but I believe this is a first for Acid Witch, and they pull out the tops. The songs might not always feature the catchiest riffs in existence, but both of the bands seem on top of their grisly games and constantly remind you what it is about them that you've ever found entertaining. If, in fact, you have. If NOT...well...you are one tough crowd, brothers and sister. Tough crowd.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Acid-Witch/146053698843172
http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/nunslaughter-news.asp

Midnight - No Mercy for Mayhem (2014)

Attitude. Sometimes that's all it takes to elevate a pretty standard set of 80s inflected punk and speed metal riffs above the ghetto of mediocrity, and Midnight has excelled with this characteristic now for years, only now unleashing its sophomore full-length No Mercy for Mayhem upon an audience stoked off the leather, spikes, whiskey, women and ritualism of its predecessor Satanic Royalty, which novelty aside: rocked. With this album it didn't provoke my attention span to quite that level of entertainment, and yet we have a damn solid disc, readily accessible and aggressive for those waxing nostalgic for the grime and grit of 30-year-old shock speed/thrash outfits, of whom Venom is only the most obvious, but not the only brick mortared into this Cleveland maniac's creative foundation.

Punchy. Loud. Ready to roll through the dingy dives and dens of human vice, rocking the Devil's gospel to the irredeemable and then stealing their brides' souls and bodies. No Mercy for Mayhem is hardly nuclear physics, but a simple slew of chord-driven concussions and saucy little NWOBHM Kill 'Em All tail-licks which together make for a potent and nightclub-pungent 36 minutes of fun. Have you heard a lot of these note progressions before? Probably, since they're just so simplistic that hundreds of bands have stumbled across something similar, yet the purpose of a Midnight isn't to reinvent what we loved so much about our antique metal, but rather remind us of why we had such a good time with that in the first place. Granted, apart from gruffer legends like Lemmy, Hetfield or Cronos, you wouldn't hear such a raving bark as Athenar's on a lot of 80s speed...it trended towards shriekers like those of Exciter and their ilk, but that's one of those little nuances which makes this band instantly stand out to me...they know their limitations and never try to break free of that blood slaked theater, merely to make it their bitch.

It's somewhat of a stretch to label them 'black metal', I realize, but that influence does shine through in some of the lyrical content, if not much else. 'Blackened speed punk' is a more accurate estimation of what Athenar spits out the speakers...like a median between Venom and Turbonegro if it had been written by Mustaine, Ulrich or Hetfield when they were relevant. Blazing four or five chord patterns  that only rarely eschew their pulse-pounding momentum in order to set up yet another one, with a fatter tone than on Satanic Royalty which really makes you feel like you're in the front row standing before an amplifier. The rhythm guitars are humble enough to let the thudding bass guitars into
your headspace, a crucial tactic for what presumably is set up for a live three-piece, even though it's just the one guy performing all the instruments in the studio (at least on the new tracks). The drums sound pretty tight, never subjugated by the riff progressions and there's a bit of a trash can feel to them which lends even more authenticity to the back-alley charms of the record as a whole. Leads are efficient, wailing, straight to the point, with no arrogance involved, merely enthusiasm.

An album with such a genuine energy as this one is almost impossible for me to dislike, and such is the case with No Mercy with Mayhem. The caveat is that I thought Satanic Royalty had a few songs ("You Can't Stop Steel", etc) which were just more memorable individually, if not by a landslide. This is a consistent effort throughout all 10 of the harder tracks (excepting the intro), but there aren't really any I could say would stand out above the rest or rate even close to the company of Athenar's inspirations. In 30 years I don't know that we'll be humming the chorus to "Evil Like a Knife" or "Prowling Leather" like we still do for "Black Metal", "Iron Fist", "Long Live the Loud" and "Whiplash", but cult classic status or not, let's remain on the level...if this record came on during a car ride and you couldn't feel that urge building up in your neck to bang your skull in a frenzy, then you're either a One Direction fan, in which case: die, or you're already dead and in Hell, in which case: let me know about any real estate deals, because I'll be joining you there sooner than not.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

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