Rebel Souls - Dawn of Depravity (2022)

The sophomore Rebel Souls outing sees the German/Spanish act digging deeper into that aggressive balance they struck on their 2017 debut The Forces of Darkness, falling somewhere between the brutal and technical edges of the death metal spectrum, capable of both extremes but never diving too far off either cliff. Instead, we get that same songwriting emphasis we hear from many of the acts in the Polish scene, a comparison I've drawn before in this particular case, that holds even truer here than the previous disc. This is a band that shows a love and knowledge of their genre and executes that with an expertly wrought amalgamation of evil riffing, intense drumming, over-the-top leads and enough variation that you'll never get bored listening through this, even if there's nothing about it that stands out as strikingly original.

The production here is mint, perfectly clear but allowing for an ample impact of the crunching mid paced riffs as they vault back and forth with the outbursts of blasting and tremolo-picked madness. I liken them a lot to Vader, one of my favorite bands, but a lot of the riffing structures throughout tunes like "Poisoner of the Harvest" and "Sea of Crises" definitely recall American bands like Deicide, Malevolent Creation and Morbid Angel. The bass lines are fat and agile enough to stand out from the rhythm guitar brickwork while never intruding upon the endless barrage of riffs, and the drumming of Arnau Martí is as patently absurd as it is professional; the footwork and blasts are worthy of almost any of his peers, but he's always got some nice beats and fills to help support the breakdowns and grooves so they're never mired down in tedious repetition. Stefan Hielscher's vocals definitely have a bit of the guttural Glen Benton/David Vincent style to them, but they layer them up with some solid backups or multi-tracking to once again hover above the din of monotony or predictability.

There isn't a large dynamic in song quality, most of them flow around the same level: exciting, with all-around admirable musicianship and breakout leads that bore them a little deeper into your memory. I wouldn't say it's always the catchiest material riff-for-riff, but just an overall sort of package which you can depend on for the full 42 minutes of its existence. I'm actually going to nudge Dawn of Depravity slightly past The Forces of Darkness, it's a little more 'veteran', polished and extreme and confident, but at the same time I wouldn't say it's that much of a songwriting leap beyond its predecessor. Easily recommendable to fans of Polish acts like Vader or Behemoth, or the Floridian forebears that I mentioned earlier. No bullshit, no gimmicks, non-trendy death metal which earns its marks in all the important departments for this style, timeless blunt force ear-to-brain flossing with enough musicality to endure.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/rebelsouls.deathmetal/

Undead - Existential Horror (2019)

If you put Existential Horror on the turntables for me while you had me in a blindfold, no access to any other information beyond the sound, I'd surmise that this was yet another band playing on that 'uglier' fringe of classic Swedish death metal. The rhythms have a punk-like push to them akin to the Discharge influence adapted by many in that scene, though they don't always do this through the traditional D-beat. A lot of the faster tremolo riffs here definitely take me back to the debuts by Dismember and Entombed, the guitar tone has that abrasive density, and the vocals are just horrific growls, with a good level of sustain on some lines, but they don't really delve far into the morbid guttural depths. The mix of the album is also putrid and raw, clearly not going for that later death & roll punch but something totally putrescent for the cemetery-minded.

So imagine my surprise that this is a Spanish band, and with the blindfold off, I can now see the very cool if minimalist horror film artwork that instantly gives off its Fulci zombie vibes. Which, admittedly, is a great fit for this sound, and not only do I like the look of the album, but also the tunes. In saying that, though, I do feel like I'm breaking a few personal rules, because I think Existential Horror is a record with an overall entertainment value that is sketched together from some fairly average components. Most of the riff patterns play out in accordance with those we've heard thousands of time, there is little variation and they it wouldn't kill them to spurt out some surprising melodies or dissonant twists to help spice up the festivities. The pacing is largely the same throughout the track-list, with a couple points where they break it down to something almost more mid-speed, or early Death-like in the tremolo-picked groove of "Curse of the Undead", and if I'm not quite in the mood, this debut can feel quite monotonous...

But I still like it. The earthy guitar tone feels like dead meat being packed in a morgue, the bass is thick and swarthy, and the tinny crashing of the drums proves to be a cool foil for the other instruments. If a lead erupts, it's usually messy and ugly and distorted sounding but somehow works for all its flaws, and the vocalist has that cool, raving mid-range growl which feels perfectly hostile among the grimness of the band's carnal momentum. I know that if I stop to think about it, parts of this could feel dull, it's certainly not an album I'm listening to based upon the strengths of its individual riffs or solos, but more from a general gore-whore sensibility where I'm beholden to some frenzied carnage and don't need to think much beyond the pain of every blow from the meat tenderizing, every tendon clipped by the scalpel, every limb hacked off by the chainsaw and then used to bludgeoning someone else. It's a sugar rush of morbid intensity that offers nothing more or less than what it promises from the cover.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.curseoftheundead.com/

Broken Gravestones - Let Sleeping Corpses Lie EP (2011)

Broken Gravestones is a collaboration between prolific cult growler Kam Lee and several Spanish musicians including Noel Kemper who is known from a bunch of bands like Gruesome Stuff Relish and Altar of Giallo. My assumption is that this was meant to be the sidest of side projects, just another outlet for these gentlemen to celebrate their love for all things horror, pulp and gory through their common death metal medium. It's also a collaboration between Sevared and Comatose, two labels better known for their most extreme, brutal death metal, but as I predicted from looking upon the EP, this is certainly a more old school offering which relies on primal riffing and songwriting rather than trying to spin your head off with rhythmic excess. 

You get your obligatory, creepy sample/intro to set the mood, and then the guys just dig in with some steady paced, roiling death metal which more than anything reminded me of a Bolt Thrower, down to the little swerves and grooves they place against the central chugging momentum, with rhythm guitars that have that eerie, downtuned feel that always feels grindy. Kam's voice is a bit more gruesome than Karl, and the lyrical matter is much more in theme with what you'd expect than about endless warfare, but there it is, and its an aesthetic that continues throughout the majority of the tuneage. The leads here are quite nice, chaotic and whipping little affairs where they play around with the whammy bar or whatnot and add a much needed upper level or dimension to what is otherwise a bit too plodding and monotonous. However, it's the total package with the ugly instrumental tones, bucket-kicking drums and commitment to gruesome vocals that might place it higher for some.

The last two tracks are repeats, or rather demos of "The Rising Dead" and "Zombies Don't Run" which don't add a lot of value other than the fact that they are rawer, uglier, and more morbid, but not in a good way as I think the newer versions are superior. All told, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie isn't one I'd really chase after unless I had to have everything Lee sings on, or if you were really deep into the Spanish goregrind and death metal scene, which frankly this doesn't quite mirror in style anyway. It's not bad...Broken Gravestones love their zombies and their ancient death metal, but they haven't written the most interest or memorable epitaphs here.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

Boneyard - Fear of a Zombie Planet (2014)

Boneyard is a solo act of the Spanish musician Noel Kemper, who might best be known for Gruesome Stuff Relish, but also has a good number of other projects which all tend to fall under the realm of horror and exploitation worship, grind and death metal. You can already tell from the cover art that this debut album is focused on both ends of that, a paean to the zombie pioneers George Romero and Lucio Fulci whose seminal films of the walking dead are still venerated today. Kemper does all the instruments and vocals here, so expectations should be tempered; this is unlikely to provide some high budget, technical death metal, but rather one man doing the best he can with what's he's got as he pays tribute to the splattered guts and hollow stares of the monsters that helped define his upbringing.

To that extent, I actually think parts of Fear of a Zombie Planet sounds pretty amazing...he's got this super raw and ripping guitar tone which is a bit of a mix of the British grindcore legends and the classic Swede death metal, and he's unleashing a bevy of catchy hacksaw riffs in there, an awesome distorted bass tone, passable programmed beats and then a lot of undercurrent samples of screams and such. Even the wacky, amateur leads sound cool as hell when they erupt out against the rhythm guitars. Musically, this album is fairly on point at what it needs to be...but there is one major problem...the throaty, raspy, garbly vocals are placed WAY TOO LOUD in the mix, and pretty much destroy the production of this album. This is not uniformly the case, there are a few moments where they get a touch softer, but for most of the direction this is a massive distraction that spoils what would otherwise have been a good listen, it sounds like someone listening to an album in the background and then barking into a microphone over it with some effects pedals.

It's not even that the rasps are that bad, I think they'd work fine at a lower level where you just let those ripping fucking guitars take the center stage, because they are the best written and most professionally produced part of the recording. But at this volume the flaws become too apparent, and it just erases the value I could get out of the cool riffs, cover art, zombie and cannibal lyrics. To be fair, I have heard bits of a more recent album he did called Return to a Zombie Planet, and the vocals are mixed in much better there, though the songwriting was slightly different. I think this debut would probably be worth remixing and remastering with a re-recording of the vocals, maybe some better live drums, but keep the guitar and bass tracks; you could have a little cult classic here for fans of stuff like Exhumed, Ghoul, Impaled, or the rosters of labels like Razorback Recordings. As it stands, that one significant flaw just gets in the way, there is no escaping it but to shut the disc off.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100039975052457

Numen - Iluntasuna besarkatu nuen betiko (2019)

Numen has always stood out among Europe's pagan/black metal pioneers for its use of the Basque language for its lyrics, and for conveying the beliefs and folklore of that region through them. Just looking through the song titles you're faced with letter sequences foreign to you even when you're used to seeing Finnish, Latin or Slavic, and it's a mark of distinction that permeates the band both superficially and in the subject matter of their songs. Alas, one thing I often found a drawback is that this was probably the only really unique thing in a lot of their music. If you're expecting an atmospheric or overtly folk-flavored experience, you might be left hanging since that appears only scarcely through the material and maybe not in the sort of melodic content you might expect.

Oh, it's there a little in the chord choices and clamor of their song structures, or in little pieces like the instrumentation that closes out "Itzaletan solasean", but for the most part this is just a suffocation and often dizzying black metal experience. A blasting tumult that weighs heavily on its ability to beat your face in with its hyperactive aggression and the literal floods of chords that it creates. Now, these might take on a more flavorful, Romantic sort of atmosphere in of themselves, as in the depths of "Iraganeko errautsak", but for the most part these motherfuckers play fast, they play hard and you are not liable to forget that as you dig your way through the 47 minutes of material. There are some breaks where the band hits a slower or mid-tempo and simplifies the chord structures, and once the dust of the album clears they offer you an acoustic outro with narrator-like Basque vocals, but this is the sort of momentum and force targeted towards lovers of traditional, fast-driven Scandinavian or Scandinavian-influenced European fare like Marduk, Naer Mataron, 1349 and their ilk, only Numen have enough distinction through the cultural influence and chord choices that they can whip up a frenzy of their own that doesn't sound like a crass impersonation.

The production here is very straightforward, with the drums and guitars surging, bass filling in whatever gaps you might hear on the lower end. The vocals are a pretty standard rasp for the most part, and not a terribly interesting one, although to be fair they are being outclassed by those deluges of chords and tremolo picked black metal guitar passages which always shine brighter. I certainly thought that, while the tempo shifting here and dynamics are always clear, some of the tunes suffered a little encumbrance from trying to quash too much rhythmic change into a space that couldn't support it all, but on the whole you can tell these guys have been around for awhile and they handle the attack with sincerity and professionalism. Iluntasuna besarkatu nuen betiko is a solid effort with no question, and I found myself admiring the dedication and level of detail in the riff patterns. The production and the beautiful artwork are well suited to the sound, but I did feel that the material this time around wasn't the most memorable. Good riffs in the moment, but few moments resonating in my head long after the music ended.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://numenblackmetal.bandcamp.com/

Putrevore - Tentacles of Horror (2015)

The roiling, ominous, Putrevore has been my favorite of the many Rogga Johansson collaborations since its inception, but as with the rest, there has always been the risk of retreading the same ground too damn often, a criticism I've often seen leveled at his more long enduring bands like Paganizer or Ribspreader. With Tentacles of Horror, the duo of Rogga and guttural guru Dave Rotten attempt to channel the nihilistic punishment of Morphed from Deadbreath and the amazing Macabre Kingdom into a more varied, dynamic and I daresay 'accessible' direction with largely successful results, though I came away from it with some degree of disappointment since it lacked the suffocating and crushing capacity of its forebears.

This is largely the same neo-Incantation style, with the grungy rhythm guitars and pure wall of growl that the prior albums mastered, only a lot of the riffing structures and drums are focused more around a basic groove that occasionally treads into blasting territory. The bass has a nice distorted tone to it which sounds cool where it appears on its own, but also adds some reinforcement to the tremolo picked patterns, some of which retain that morbid appeal of predecessors. Once this album lays it all out with hammering drum tracks and Rotten's murky ravings moving simultaneously with a pure 1990-93 guitar progression, it definitely reiterates the character of Macabre Kingdom, but where that record just felt so over the top and hostile and cataclysmic, this one just seems more of a laid back affair. Some tunes like "Through the Vortex to Aeons Past" and their ilk have a slightly more overt nod to the Swedish aesthetics of bands like Dismember and Entombed, which Rogga has already beaten to death in other projects, but the majority of the material hearkens back to the first few Incantation discs, maybe some Rottrevore, or Finns like Purtenance in their earlier years.

Didn't love this one, since it seemed slightly neutered from its older siblings, despite its obvious attempts to branch out and flow into a broader songwriting realm than the duo had achieved prior. The Juanjo Castellano cover art is great, and the lyrics are on par with the first two records, glimpses at vistas of Cyclopean horror, but the music just doesn't leave me the same squashed up mass of entrails and ground bone as I was after Macabre Kingdom. That's not to say I didn't enjoy this, because at least half the songs hooked me, and overall it doesn't have many other weaknesses beyond few too familiar chord patterns that lack the atmosphere or thrill of their betters. I think listeners will find the production to this most approachable; the second album was quite caustic, especially with the mix of the beats, and yet that ended up lending it an otherworldly character strangely suited to the archaic fictional beings it summoned. Here you've got a cleaner effort which thankfully doesn't dispense that great guitar tone or Rotten's subterranean vocal effects.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (to lunge itself into times spectrals)

http://www.deathmetal.biz/putrevore/

Suspiral - Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence (2016)

There are certainly a lot of appreciable 'parts' to Suspiral's debut full-length, but the sum does tend to suffer from overwrought compositions which occasionally feel like they just let the tape roll as they crash and crush through every idea in linear succession. The issue is that the songs here never really established themselves for me; they could have probably chopped and lifted a number of the more interesting and explosive riff progressions here into a half dozen less exhausting and more coherent tracks which didn't sound like a demonic lector rattling off tomes of blasphemies to an ever diminishing parish. No prevalent or hypnotic motif ever seems to manifest and cycle back through the errant procession of violence, and as it stands, the three tracks, ranging from around 11-15 minutes each, suffer severe bloat.

That's not to say the Spaniards are incompetent or bad by any stretch; they have quite a penchant for writing these writhing, raw rhythms which they douse in loads of unrestrained leads that seem to create the greatest atmospheric instances on the album (as you'll discover in the bowels of "The Art of Death"). The style exhibited is a fairly evenly distributed blackened/death, with the former coming through in a lot of the bursted tempos, redolent of Mayhem and Darkthrone, or a few of the simpler, slower riffing elements that come from that Celtic Frost/Darkthrone school of thought. The death metal portion of this is largely produced in the growled vocals, but also in a number of roiling rhythm guitars that straddle a primitive death/thrash fence, and the aforementioned wild leads which have that archaic, improvisational feeling of opening up a fretboard without little care or concern for the inevitable destination, as long as the journey itself sounds truly fucking sick. There are also some crunchier, dissonant death/doom sequences to even out the momentum, and a dark ambient passage bridging the first two tracks which was quite cool.

The drums are fairly loose and lethal, but capable of fulfilling any blistering speed necessary. Bass is evident, a quivering canvas of flesh beneath the rhythm guitar razors, but they seem to cut into it before it can discharge a memorable line. The vocals howl and growl appropriately with some windy sustain to them, and give Delve some of that claustrophobic caverncore presence without ever really embracing that niche. Definitely felt like a lot of ruthless, raw early 2nd wave black metal circulating through a death metal anatomy, and I think neither side of the balance wins out. On the other hand, a lot of transitions throughout these tracks feel half-formed, layering one pattern into the next without much of a thought to how they can interact and strengthen each other. As exhilarating as the record can become, not all the riffs are equally resonant and compelling, and there are a whole lot of them in succession, so too few times does something stick and even then it might just disappear. Grimy and insidious, for sure, and the cover art is excellent, but somehow I just couldn't connect with these tunes often enough.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/dawnofsuspiral

Breathless - Return to Pangea (2015)

Notice anything different? Return to Pangea is an album which is far more likely to be taken seriously, void of any overt 'thrash-this' 'thrash-that' nonsense and potentially even teasing us with a genuinely interesting concept. Now, I doubt the sophomore album by Breathless could possibly be something as enthralling as a tale about Earth's landmasses being crushed together once more, but I'm very willing to be proven wrong, and for at least part of this album they're rattling their sabers about just such a apocalyptic scenario. More importantly, Return to Pangea is an improvement over its predecessor in nearly every discernible category, with a richer and more focused selection of riffs that channel some of that potent Teutonic influence circa Destruction into some genuine, melodic thrash which at times feels a lot like modern Artillery, albeit less wildly proficient and possessing distinctly different vocals.

The power of the guitars alone is enough to thrust this past the debut in terms of quality, where they had seemed a little too punchy and processed on Thrashumancy, they're really cleaned up here and there is a better mix of the rhythms and occasional lead flights. The structure of the riffs carries a slightly less surgical feel to it, and more of a bright, 'feel good' style with lots of bluesy little tails and fills in between the Stützer Brothers-like finesse. There is no shortage of variation here, the songs are each stuffed with a good number of progressions, and while they're not always so memorable, they at least rock consistently and the choices feel pretty sound. This is not going to live up to the technical European thrash masterpieces of the later 80s, not by any stretch, but the amount of effort these Spaniards have put into this is at least vastly superior to most of their pizza thrash peers who are more or less cloning the crossover and denim & leather thrash of years past without the level of charm and songwriting needed to pull it off...no, I'd put this more in a class with modern bands like After All and Vektor who really took the spirit of the old school and plugged it into contemporary recording standards which don't sound entirely too derivative to even bother about.

Props to the level of production they added to Eduardo Moreno's vocals, taking that blunt and ugly charisma he exhibited on the debut and then throwing in reverbs and echos here or there which highly his higher pitched screams, reminiscent of Schmier...maybe Schmier's deformed cousin who'd clout you over the head, stuff you in the trash can out back of the high school cafeteria and then go and spend your lunch money on dope. Something like this never happened to me, I promise. The drums and bass sound more flavorful and peppy because they've got something to actually celebrate here, a few riffing progressions that are worth a damn surrounded by others that are at least on the winning side of average. The leads aren't exactly substantial, but they're far better than they were on the first album and actually imbue a little fire and emotion into the tracks. It's not perfect, and there is plenty of room to grow yet, but Return to Pangea is basically exactly how you want to re-assess your band's trajectory and come out the better for it. The cover art may seem a little too death metal and chaotic for the music itself (reminded me of Danes Invocator), but really if you're into bands like Headhunter, Destruction, and Artillery in their 21st century forms, or Greek acts like Suicidal Angels and Angelus Apatrida, then this is worth your time.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/BreathlessAttack

Breathless - Thrashumancy (2011)

Another record that seeks to enamor itself to a particular audience before a single note is heard, Thrashumancy instantly claims our attention with its vivid artwork and inane portmanteau title...but perhaps not so inane if your past decade consisted of the lauding over pizza thrash, or 're-thrash' acts who fit their vintage hi-tops, tear their jeans and have moms who can sew a whole lotta patches. Because, let's face it, it isn't a real battle jacket if your mom doesn't help you sew it. Well, fortunate for us, Breathless play 'real' thrash metal, of the garden variety, of course, without much ambition behind it or nuance or that pesky concept of songs that the listener is going to remember afterwards, which to me is rather missing the point...we didn't love thrash metal in the 80s because of it's 'look' or it's 'style' alone, we listened to it because of the bloody songs that stick on the brain 30 years later...not just a lifestyle or a style of clothes we wore to party with a few beers.

To be fair, I'm sure Breathless 'means something' with a lot of the messages besides their songs, and I'm not ready to write it off as just some senseless party thrash entirely. But it just doesn't help that they all feel as if they were drawn from a lottery of their influences. On the musical side of things, they've write in a mold that straddles the border between mid-paced, West Coast American headbanging variety ala Exodus, Forbidden, and Vio-Lence, and the much closer to home German scene, in particular Destruction, whose clinical picking progressions from both the 80s and later Antichrist era seem to provide a major influence to more than half the cuts here, and generally the better individual riffs, because a lot of the slower neck-break parts seem really forgettable and they just don't possess that innate meanness of something off Pleasures of the Flesh or Reign in Blood or Eternal Nightmare, something timeless and violent and raw. Riff construction definitely falls in a space between the more serious, regimental thrash of the longhairs and then the crossover crowd of the 80s, I heard little nods to bands like Crumbsuckers in their prime but these Spaniards go more for the palm mutes than the open chord barrage of most bands in that early NY wave.

The vocals have character, burly and messy and prone to lean into outrageous snarls and sound pretty goofy somewhere between Ron Royce (Coroner), Schmier (Destruction) and Roger Martinez of Vengeance Rising, but I never felt like they were used to full effect, getting more hectic on the verses than the choruses, where they really might have been refined into a sticking point. Bass lines are good and thick, a good fit for the rhythm guitars, which I thought had a punchy but regrettable tone that might have worked better with a lot more edge to them. The drumming is fine but doesn't really catch my ear, especially without high quality riffs that keep me focused. A lot of the album is spent by the veteran thrasher playing 'guess where I've heard that before', and there overt nods, whether conscious or unconscious to anything from Xentrix to The Antichrist to Coroner's No More Color. Lead guitars seem few and far between, rather noncommittal where dissonant frenzies might have been better suited to the more surgical guitar phrases that represent the best on the disc, but even that I could forgive if the songs were good...

And that's simply not the case here. 'Shockingly average' would be a better descriptor. The album is by no means as lamentable as its title had me dreading, and I didn't feel like I had just had a couple of slices of extra cheese and pepperonis smeared across my cheeks, but it's another pretty picture among a sea of them that have been released over the last 5-10 years by bands trying to tap into that nostalgia. The Spaniards don't draw directly from any one source on the whole (just in certain parts), but that would not be a bad thing either if they were so damn good at it that they could properly resurrect nostalgia or even contend with their very inspirations. As it stands, just another walk in the nuclear theme park, potentially impressive to supplicants who were just getting into the music in the 21st century and have exposed themselves only a small amount of the niche, but for experienced thrashers this just isn't going to plug anywhere into the collection that isn't already occupied by some release that is light years ahead of this, and was so even decades back...

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/BreathlessAttack

Sacrificio - Sacrificio EP (2014)

Strapped with some of the sexiest helmets in Europe, and some of the oldest school jams appropriated in 21st century black metal, the Spaniards Sacrificio attempt to dial back the years to a time where this niche could have been considered more 'innocent', or to be a little more accurate, genuinely diabolical. This effect is sought through a stripped down, raw 80s/90s cassette demo production and by re-purposing the rudest and crudest of aesthetics culled from the bands that were actually there at the time: Bathory, Hellhammer, Mayhem, Sarcofago, Samael, Venom and so forth. This is truly meant to feel like a lost 1st wave black metal demo that someone just randomly finds while searching through the slush pile of some ancient 'zine, but unfortunately its charms are kind of limited to that...and the great cover photo, of course.

See, the problem here is that the riffs are blemished with such bruising predictability that the six tunes never quite establish their own identity beyond just trying to present us with an 'ancestor' to the sounds so influential from that fabled 80s era. Mucked up production aesthetics are a given, granted, so you've got the hoarse and occasionally flanged sounding raw guitars coming in one ear, while the tinny and clunky drums attack from the other. The vocals are in Spanish and the guy has an effective, charnel rasp which is compelling enough in how it vomits out its disgust over the fat grooves, but overall the interaction of the instruments seems a trifle clumsy. Bass guitars are chubby but dull, and ultimately the most compelling part of this is the 'lead' guitars, which are these frivolous, warbling and atmospheric evil note lines, some of which seem entirely sporadic, that just bellow over the mix like smog elementals...if only the rhythms were in the least bit distinct and evil sounding a subtext for these moments, Sacrificio might have proven truly memorable.

Alas, not all the parts here were created equally, and the EP will thrive only as far as its audience is willing to stretch for old school, no-fucks-given black metal of a primordial age when the style was still being polished off. The riffs and beats are straight from the lexicons of Hellhammer, Bathory and Sarcofago, clubbing you over the head with methodic, distorted grooves that don't go very far. Structurally this is the antithesis of ambition, and while I realize that's part of the 'charm' the trio was aiming for, black metal records were perfectly capable of sounding sincere and sinister without having to sound like they were just rolling tape in a jam room. Not that I haven't heard that approach done with some success, but here it's little more than a crutch. A shame, because this band LOOKS pretty cool...the helms, the leather, the chains, the torches, who would NOT want to be friends with them? I certainly would...hell, if these guys went to my high school in 1989 I'd have followed them around and given freely of my lunch money. I just hope when they produce some new material the music will actually live up to the image beyond mere aesthetic choices.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Teitanblood - Death (2014)

Rarely does an album come along which tears my reaction into so many pieces, and Teitanblood stop at absolutely nothing to garner as much audio disgust as possible on their sophomore, simply dubbed Death. This is one of those records that seeks naught but to watch the world burn, everyone in it reduced to smoldering ash. I won't tell you that I enjoyed the experience, because I'm not sure this is something positioned for 'enjoyment', but the Spaniards have unquestionably trumped themselves by concocting one of the most brutal twists on antiquated death metal aesthetics that I've probably ever heard, certainly in the current craze for the style. If only this thing had even a modicum of quality guitar riffing to match its unholy and uniquely oppressive atmosphere, I'd be growling its praises...

The downtrodden drudgery inherent in the guitar tone catapults me back to the first time I heard Earache records stalwarts like Godflesh, Bolt Thrower and Napalm Death, all in their formative years when they were churning out some of the most savage swill imaginable. The meat and fiber of the instruments is perhaps more redolent of old Incantation, but it's that smoke-belching sense of post-industrious dystopic vision that leads me more towards the English influences. However, to go further, they incorporate loads of intense blast beats, haunting ambient passages and a gruff bark that resonates over the doomed waste left behind consistently by each composition. This has essentially been assembled as a symphonic holocaust which is about three parts metallic songwriting and the fourth is this gruesome classical orchestration anchored by the deep chants of the 17 minute finale "Silence of the Great Martyrs". They've even roped in Chris Reifert (quite active of late) to add some vocals to the track "Burning in Damnation Fires" and his distinct growl is easily assimilated into the unfriendliness the Spaniards spew forth with every note.

Though the tempos do shift back and forth across the track list, I found it compelling how the album opened with some of the most wretched and intense material and then closed with that ominous, ritualistic behemoth. At its most unforgiving I am reminded somewhat of another act involving a Spanish musician, Putrevore, but the way the tides and signatures ebb and flow here seems like one is in the presence of titanic, land-mass-sized beasts of fell mythology as they gore and then gorge upon one another. Cyclopean clamor, speckled with feedback, soil-and-soul-grinding chords and absolutely no fucking heavenly light peering through the roiling clouds of pollution that smother everything beneath them. The lyrics are these odd, gleeful exclamations of entropy, decay and the futility of all living things, legitimizing the 'poignant' simplicity of the album title by serving as paeans from that very antilife force. I would actually recommend this just to experience how far the human imagination is willing to go to pay its homage to this misanthropic musical medium, but that does come with a cost...

The guitar riffs bore the living bejesus out of me. Really, apart from the production, which is likely what will turn a lot of ear (as usual) who have no interest in compositional creativity or individual note progressions that will keep ringing in their minds for years or decades to come. This is all pretty basic, dense chord patterns that rarely visit evil upon the unwary beyond their pure decomposition. I can only imagine what another, mildly eerie melodic layer might have added to this album, or just a more dissonant and interesting set of chords which could have just as easily been molded along the record's utmost sense of oppressive desolation. I probably listened to this about five times just to attempt to pick out minor details throughout the crushing force, and came away wishing that there was just a fraction more musicality to almost all the songs. This might not prove important to some listeners who care more about the sheer extremity and atmosphere and haven't heard a lot of these riff formations to death, but it held me well back from a deeper appreciation. But even saying that, I could not completely escape the shadows this monolith cast over me. It...just...looms there.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (sterile seeds, yawning scars)

http://www.teitanblood.com/

Nigromante - Black Magic Night (2014)

One of the greatest drawbacks of nostalgic heavy metal in the 21st century is the proclivity of its practitioners and followers to simply 'settle' for more of the same, as if fulfilling the base level requirements of a band 30 years ago is some sort of achievement. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear a group that can recapture the recording atmosphere of a bygone era and then write some fiery, passionate tunes which can stand their own test of time, but too often I've encountered well meaning acts that just can't grasp that next level...that authentic magic that made their inspirations so damned delectable in the first place seems to elude a lot of the younger bands, and that's a large part of why I wasn't able to get myself too stoked on the debut of Spaniards Nigromante.

These guys have an interest in playing some punchy, stripped down metal in the late 70s, early 80s tradition and putting their own stamp on it, but this has to rely heavily on the gruffer vocals than the riffing progressions which play out like others we've heard so many times before. I guess the best comparisons to make would involve the earlier records in the catalogs of Accept, Anvil, Running Wild, and late 70s Priest. Simple connect-the-dots chord patterns are given a slight injection of charisma due to the very sincere production faculties, grooving bass lines and then the gruff delivery of multi-instrumentalist Choco, who reminds me of a poor man's Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger), or Tank's Algy Ward with that grumbled, oft constipated-sounding meatiness transformed by this guy's natural accent; though he's not beneath the assertion of some melody in lines like the verses of "In Nomine Pater". The guitar chops are themselves often threaded with slightly more complex picking sequences and grooves, and Choco also tears out a nasty, dirty bass tone that gives the rhythm guitar a more robust effectiveness, while the drums are feisty but relatively stock for the musical style...humble beats for humble riffs.

The issue I hear on Black Magic Night is that very often the best parts of the tunes are a few of the hooks in the verse sequences or bridges, whereas the choruses and supporting chords don't really evoke anything so memorable. Leads aren't exactly inspired themselves, just sort of tossed on with little other meaning than they belong as a component of the hard rock/heavy metal medium...sometimes a bit bluesy, but never difficult or mesmerizing. Built-in melodies like that at the start of "False Idol" are more interesting, even if the entirety of the songs aren't quite so compelling. I actually do like the sound of the rhythm guitar itself...fat and boxy and dominates the mix, but overall I came away from this with the impression it was sort of a standard bar metal record which was written around 1985 and somehow lost its way in the time stream. The only giveaway that it's more recent in origin would probably be those guitars, which are more straight to the face and less saturated in reverb or atmosphere than they might have been in that Golden Era of heavy metal. Overall, it's not a bad debut, and there's some appreciable variety in the riffing, but the old school stuff this emulates just relies so heavily on powerful, unforgettable hooks and choruses which Nigromante is thus far lacking.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.facebook.com/nigromante.heavymetal?fref=ts

Stormwrath - Swords of Armageddon (2011)

Posthumous album reviews for newer bands have always been a little strange for me, if only because I feel like I just missed some party that I was invited to...perhaps the card got lost at the post office, or a jealous neighbor swiped it and then impersonated me for free liquor, but I feel this sudden sense of tragedy. Of course, it might be for the best in this particular case, because I get the feeling any party with Valencia's violent Stormwrath would have involved lots of bottles being broken over my head and spikes impaling my flesh from all the moshing and bear hugging. Swords of Armageddon, adorned in beautiful cover art that will instantly appeal to fans of groups like Skeletonwitch, Toxic Holocaust and Lich King, is the group's only album, in fact their only release that I know of, and while it's a candle of incendiary 80s-styled thrash that burns out a little too quickly in terms of ideas, these guys were clearly no hacks...I mean they have a drummer named 'Hellstabber'. You don't get to DO that without a majority consensus of approval from some daemonic house of representatives.

To be more specific, what Stormwrath were going for here was a more 'blackened' or 'deathened' take on some of the more extreme thrash acts of the 80s. In particular, there is a massive Slayer influence in how they construct their faster picking, not to mention the moodier, slower songs like "Black Legions" in which the drumming and rhythms and cleaner backup vocals seem to have a little South of Heaven inspiration. But I don't think you could exclude some Sodom and Kreator influence which is felt in the harsher vocals that sound like a median between the styles of Mille Petrozza and Tom Angelripper, and also the warlike sort of riffing sensibility that this album constantly evokes. To their great credit, Stormwrath seems to involve a measure of versatility you don't always hear on a lot of these post-Teutonic retro-thrash outings, and that's probably because most of the guys involved with this have also played (or are still playing) in other acts as ranged as Graveyard, Altar of Sin and Extreme Noise Terror. I won't laud Swords of Armageddon unendingly, because it's nowhere near as charming and memorable as its spiritual forebears in the 80s, but this album never feels like a cheap ploy to cash in on a prevailing trend. It's rather genuine...

...just not entirely compelling. Namely, most of the faster riffs here just seem paraphrased from a grab bag of thrash to predate them, and there are treacherously few that stand out. The guitar tone is robust and fat, and often to the detriment of the harsh vocals that seem somewhat monotonous as they bark out their lines...but without a number of striking note progressions that gave US and German thrash such distinction when they arrived, the music here can only connect with me on a visceral level. The leads and transitions are all pretty well integrated, but these too don't really evoke memorable moments that beg of me to replay the record. At best you'll get a few of those creepy Slayer harmonies like the one near the end of "Militant Messiah", and enough of a balance being struck between the fits of speed and the chuggier groove passages. Surely you can headbang along to Swords of Armageddon, but if you're trying to summon up a chorus phrase in your head while driving (like "Nuclear Winter", "Pleasure to Kill" or "Mad Butcher") it's probably not going to happen...Stormwrath means well, but you can probably figure out why they themselves decided not to stick around too long: it's been done, and so much better.

But on the other hand, that means the record sort of serves its purpose. It's pounding and angry, especially the drum mix which sits right alongside those pudgy guitars, and the entire low end sounds good on your speakers. The lyrics are pretty good, in fact they lit a fire under my ass almost more than the music itself did, and there's no built-in advertising 'we are soooo thrash' bullshit. Stormwrath wanted to pay tribute to the music that inspired them in their several other projects, and that is precisely what this does. It's competent and moderately well executed, just not too inspiring in of itself. I'd compare it to a group like Germany's Cruel Force, where the authenticity of the experience trumps the songwriting. Not as acidic or volatile as Antichrist's Forbidden World, which is perhaps the best example of this throwback action I've heard in a great long time, because the riffing and vocals are so excellent and infectious. But Swords of Armageddon is decent, it's not a bunch of poseurs pulling your chain, and the seriousness of its construction goes a long way towards a hearty respectfulness, even if this is a party we can all survive missing out on.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (cursing the infidels with fire)

Foscor - Groans to the Guilty (2009)

Of the tens of thousands of metal records I've listened to over the past 30-odd years, I'm willing to bet that by this point, black metal has claimed the largest individual slice of the genre-pie. That's to say, I've heard more black metal than any other style, largely due to its proliferation through the 90s and its very opportunist, individualistic nature...that is to say, in additional to the traditional band structure, you have single persons or smaller groups that are capable of churning out dozens of albums by themselves. As a result, the endless repetition of aesthetic tropes has forced upon me a jadedness that is difficult to pierce...I am fully capable of appreciating a straight up old school black metal recording if it's absolutely sinister or chilling and well done, but it's the potential for nuance and novelty that still beckons to me most, something that Spaniards Foscor ('Darkness') flirt with on their third full-length Groans to the Guilty.

By and large, this is a fairly conservative approach to black metal with roiling, tremolo picked guitars and voracious rasped vocals, blasting and double kick beats aplenty, and not much separating it from numerous other entrants into the medium. Where it differs in in the structure of the riffing, or more specifically the choices of chord-floods which are often a little warmer in nature, to the point you might better equate them with a more 'gaze' or post-rock atmosphere, only they're set straight into a rhythmic foundation that draws from Mayhem, Darkthrone, and likewise a lot of the dissonant note selections (minor chords) that drive the music are pretty much straight from the Scandinavian school. But these guys clearly are interested in going a little further, fucking with the frets on their guitars and implementing enough variation and unexpected nastiness on the ears that it keeps Groans fairly interesting throughout. Granted, there are still a number of the riff patterns that seem underdeveloped or just predictable, but Foscor switch them up frequently enough that I never felt as if I was faced with just another bland, endlessly repetitive black metal record which could put me to sleep if I wasn't in the mood...this might not be an 'excellent' album, but it is captivating.

The vocals definitely have that South European/Mediterranean slant to the snarl common in bands from Spain, Italy and Portugal, which is highly enunciated and carries with it a natural, deeper bark that I'm guessing; but Fiar also manages a tortured, slightly higher range in his delivery that once again rewards the listener with some variation. I really enjoyed that slightly spoken word-like passage at the intro to the title track (and album); he confers a lot of passion and creepiness in there that worked well with the more exotic, Middle Eastern feel of the guitar melody there, something I actually wished had popped up more often on the remainder of the disc. I also liked the other mild sense of 'experimentation' here like the instrumental "La Incertesa Del Plaer" which is built of cleaner guitars, a light and shuffling drum beat and some simplistic, noisier drones before ceding into ambiance. It's good for a band to pace itself properly and offer some respite from a constant barrage, especially when you plan on meting out nearly 50 minutes of intensity, so Foscor earn some credit for not resorting to a monotonous barrage of samey sounding songs, though I would not stop them from extending themselves even further into the dynamic and unexpected.

A few more interesting techniques here were how they mixed the drums just ever so slightly lower than you might hear on a lot of comparable records. Still quite audible, but clearly meant as a more lulling component that doesn't steal away the weight from the guitars or vocals. The bass-lines are thick and hypnotic though they tend to follow along with the arc of the rhythm guitar and could use some more interesting digressions, fills or grooves to celebrate the tone. There was a bit more equilibrium in the mix of the previous record, The Smile of the Sad Ones, but ultimately Groans to the Guilty has a bolder flavor, a rich depth to it that isn't unlike tasting a fine coffee for the first time. It's as raucous as black metal intends, but also sublime. There is a real sense of craft and artistry here, with some great packaging, eerie and unusual, image-heavy lyric themes that are split relatively equally between English and Catalan. The comparisons to Shining and Satyricon on the sticker are not off the mark, and while the album is not at a level which will resonate with me forever, Foscor proves, more than ever before, that they are worth taking seriously and looking further into.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (dust and bones compose the mutter)

http://www.foscor.com/

Avulsed - Ritual Zombi (2013)

Avulsed is about as synonymous to Spanish death metal at this point as my Keurig coffee maker is to breakfast, but when you break down the band's trajectory they've been all over the place. Taking a 'tour' of the death metal genre, from the humble 90s brutality of their first proper 90s full length Eminence in Putrescence, which was itself rather old school in nature with a clear lineage to the first few Death records...to outings like Stabwound Orgasm and Yearning for the Grotesque which took on slightly more 'gore drenched' characteristics that one might relate to US acts Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed or Impaled. They even failed at a techno-death metal remix thing in Cybervoid. But thankfully, through most of their career, they've focused on baser songwriting aesthetics like simplified riffs and grooves, sparse but well-formed melodies, and I've always had the impression that they've just never properly shaken off their roots to surrender to the ranks of brutechnicality that became ever more prominent upon the turn of the century. At its core, Avulsed has always characterized the 'retro' death metal theme, before it WAS retro, even when it seemed, from their often explicit cover images, that they were escaping that. And speaking of cover art, Ritual Zombi, their 6th full-length, absolutely slays...

By and large, so does the music, to the extent that I might safely cite this as one of their strongest efforts to date. I'm a little biased, being a sucker for veteran Dave Rotten's vocal performance on the two Putrevore records he released with Rogga Johansson, and his decrepit, rumbling, nihilistic growls remain an immense feature here, but in the riffing department this is a balanced and entertaining affair which runs the gamut from late 80s death/thrash picking progressions redolent of Scream Bloody Gore (ignoring even the cover of "Zombie Ritual" itself), to Carcass's Heartwork, to traces of melodic Swedish influences like a few nods to Slaughter of the Soul-era At the Gates, and ending off with some sheer blasting brickwork brutality like the intro to "Zompiro", one of my favorites here. Pacing and riff construction is well enough varied among the 10 originals, and the guitar-driven intro and outro pieces that envelope the album work well to give it that 'overall package' feel that reminds you that you're listening to an album and not a bunch of .mp3 files. I'd also mention the songwriting exhibits an astute lack of overkill, with zero overt technicality or showing off, just a throwback sense of extremity which, had it arrived in that precious 1991-95 period, would have probably proven an undisputed classic...today, not so much, it's just a fun excursion through the annals of undead flesh and quite apparently doesn't take itself so seriously. An homage to the saturated zombie culture.

I've already mentioned Rotten, who gurgles like a human sewer spewing forth flesh-eating plasma, but other highlights are the guitar tone and drumming. They've got this cloying, filthy, ripping presence to the rhythm guitars which seems somewhat Sunlight in origin, but also resembles the classic grind grime found on an effort like Repulsion's Horrified. When they brush out some leads or melodies, with a cleaner tone and some mild effects, there is a great contrast which really transports the listener back to the classics. Oskar Bravo is a positive find for the band, the sole new member here, having played on a bunch of underground stuff I've never heard, and he delivers a lot of organic fills standing out in the mix. The kick drums seem slightly more mechanical but the toms and snare are nearly as prominent as Dave's guttural and the rhythm crunch. I did not pick up a lot of bass guitar, apart from where it's alone (the opening of "...Was Not My Blood"); whether because its being performed with a timbre that is simply absorbed the rhythm guitar or its just not loud enough, but the punch of the guitar riffing is enough to establish a proper low end on my speakers and it's not entirely absent. The distortion is actually a little less buzzing than on the previous record Nullo (The Pleasure of Self-Mutilation), and in fact Ritual Zombi seems not so much brash or in your face as several of their prior offerings, but the songwriting more than compensates.

Ultimately, if you're not entirely jaded on the shambling corpses, which many justifiable are by this point, this is a great lead-in for your Walking Dead viewing parties, and just a pretty fun death metal record to boot. Not the best I've heard this year by a longshot, but the attractive artwork is certainly not sold down the river of viscera by its musical component, and with this and Putrevore it seems like Dave is undergoing some Rotten Renaissance, releasing some of the strongest work since he started this all in 1991. Riff patterns and ideas aren't exactly unique to Avulsed, and they were never a band that was able to make much of a name for itself with so much else making waves internationally, but to be honest I can't think of a single release (out of their full-length albums) which wouldn't be worth spinning this Halloween season, and there's a profound 'music first' mentality here that eschews goresoaked, unending intensity for balance; otherwise they might not have included the classical guitar interlude "Elegy of the Rotting". The cover of "Zombie Ritual" seems a bit too safe a choice, and it's not likely I'll be listening to this with any frequency in six months, yet it's surely feast-worthy for all brain-flesh connoisseurs, and a raunchy, Romero-esque stimulant for the dead nerve endings.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.avulsed.com/

Fathomhell - Non Pietatem Erit EP (2012)

Fathomhell is a new Spanish band which expresses a clear admiration for the more melodic Scandinavian black metal bands of the later 90s. Specifically, some names that floated around my gray matter as I was listening through this EP were Dissection, early Sacramentum, Lord Belial, and perhaps some De Mysteriis dom Sathanas, or Darkside era Necrophobic for good measure, though they are by no means just limited to the above in terms of their technique. The plus and downside to this is that, while they've got an excellent sense for composing the mandatory melodic lamentations in the guitars, and supporting these with strong sequences of despotic, churning chords; there were also a few production hangups which seemed to, at times, betray the songwriting.

I'm not usually too put off by a drum machine, since it's often mixed or programmed well enough that it can subside just below the atmosphere of the riffing, or even add an element of coldness. Here, though, I found that it could get in the way. The beats are tight, but the overall presence feels a bit too flat and machine-like for the more emotional rhythm guitar progressions. The bass lines, here, also seem to just blandly trod along below those rhythm guitars; audibly pumped, but even in a space like the slower bridge of "Fall to the Infinite Depths of Abyss", where they could have shined with a groovier notation, they just drift along predictably and it feels like they rob the material of a potential depth and dimension. The vocals, grafted with a salacious, rasp, are somewhat uneven in quality through the various tracks. For instance, in "Devours the Light, Eats Their Souls" they feel more garbled with a more guttural bark to them, not so great; but in "Fall to the Infinite Depths of Abyss" they alternate between a straight, wretched drawl and a more shrieked, Varg Virkernes style torment and they seem to cling better to the leeching emotions of the riffs; in fact they were one of the best parts of that song...

When it comes to the guitars, though, Fathomhell is far more consistent. There are a few progressions here or there where they stride into a predictable, effortless repetition, but in general they've got that corpulent depth of character that you might have once felt from an album like Storm of the Light's Bane. Glistening with both warmth and pain, light and darkness, they're the strength the of the Spaniards, and even where they'll cut off and leave the guitars alone, like the evil harmony that sets up "Illusions of Death", I was totally transported back to the 90s and what I enjoyed about that atmosphere of In the Nightside Eclipse, Born of the Flickering, The Somberlain, etc. Not to say that the notes are as catchy as their spiritual forebears, or truly memorable long after the 25 minute EP ends, but certainly the minds behind these chords and tremolo picked patterns are well versed on the particular style, and herein lies the potential. The intro and outro, heavily dowsed in synthesizers, area also quite nice bookends to the release, and after "Dante's Inferno" and the intro to "Devours the Light", I was pretty excited.

All in all, for an independently released intro offering, Non Pietatem Erit is decent, if nothing exemplary or out of the ordinary. There are no limitations here that couldn't be overcome with an actual drummer or just better dynamics in the mixing; and while they're not always on fire, the vocals do have their moments, as do the riff progressions. If you're seeking out a younger band that captures that Swedish spirit accurately, you could do much worse than this.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Fathomhell

Gruesome Stuff Relish - Sempiternal Death Grind (2013)

Not long ago, I covered an earlier Gruesome Stuff Relish record, Horror Rises from the Tomb, as a part of an October horror-metal theme month. I wasn't a big fan of that release, for the same reason I'm often underwhelmed by much of this grindcore or deathgrind in the wake of the Carcass/Repulsion legacy. It basically comes down to this: just because you're obsessed with horror movies, punkish fuck-all attitude and your gory precursors, doesn't really mean that you can write albums full of riffless, recycled rhythmic tropes and abrasive production values and expect to slide on by. Structure and songwriting still apply, and it's only the rare band that recognizes this which seem to put albums of note in this particular field of extremity. With their third album Sempiternal Death Grind (which I can only assume takes its title as a spoof of the old Dutch death band's moniker), I feel like these Spaniards have taken a step towards providing a more wholesome, entertaining experience, if not an entire leap or bound in that direction.

This is a mass of ripping, flesh-shearing guitars and blood-dripping, splatter-gore vocals which once again falls under the categorization of Carcass banner-men. Thanks to a very bright and brash production and a varied enough palette of riffing dynamics, though, it manages to remain concise, concussive, and even enjoyable for much of its 37 minute length. The distortion is harsh enough that, at its busiest, it might become a fraction difficult to follow closely, but Gruesome Stuff Relish actually compensate for this by providing a lot of accessibility in the spikes of surgical, atonal melodies that spark up from the rhythmic bone saws. Tracks like "They Are the Plague" and "In Death We Breath" aren't contributing a lot of novelty to the genre, but the constant flux between driving D-beat rhythms and vile twists of archaic death metal notation does keep the ear affixed as the blades descend. Add to this the thick, monstrous bass, which isn't itself very standout but definitely gives the riffing some added breadth and texture; and the nice, clean snap of that snare drum, very audible alongside the denser guitar tone, and you've got a fairly pleasant knife in the eyes.

I also did dig the use of organs and synthesizers to consistently affirm the band's giallo/horror influence, it definitely is another example of how the band are atmospherically evolving. In truth, I wouldn't mind some more of this to help differentiate the Spaniards from other like-minded outfits, but I realize that too much orchestration/effects would create a stigma for many of the band's likely fanbase. The vocals here are no less than what you'd expect, a pairing of snarls and guttural grunts, but I'll also give some credit that the raspier inflection seems like someone has just thrown up, the throat is full of bile and each line is delivered with a real, painful nastiness that pushes it past mere acceptability into gruesome entertainment. Another strong point are the breaks, as in "S.O.S.", where you get that thick, pulsating, distorted bass and the more whispered, dry vocals and background effects. Sempiternal Death Grind is not overall a massive evolution of Gruesome's style, and in truth there are very few memorable riffs you'll feel summoned back to after about 15 minutes, but I will say without hesitation that its appreciable subtleties make it the best record I've heard from them to date.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/gruesomestuffrelish

Hic Iacet - Prophecy of Doom EP (2012)

On its surface, Hic Iacet's Prophecy of Doom 7" seems to be tapping the same well of creativity that a lot of the current, cavernous old school death metal devotees are drawing upon, but there is some consolation that the Spaniards incorporate a slightly more black-tinged atmosphere through the use of raw, grooving rhythms and cutting, distant distortion that really lays into the thudding, thumping tone of the bass drums. Also the vocals really are a hybrid between the ominous subterranean growl so commonplace and then a more rasping, venom-tinted edge which maintains a crepitating distance alongside the tinniness of the cymbal crashes. But, for the most part, it's pretty solidly death-driven and in a few moments, where the chords lurch along like somnolent titans, it even takes on a death/doom dimension.

This is very environmental music, so not something to expect much intricacy from in terms of the notes and technicality of the playing. You get pretty simple chords that reek of progressions from late 80s/early 90s death metal like Autopsy or the earlier Death records, and stripped down, moderate tremolo picked sequences that evoke a similar evil. The difference is how this is produced, without the riffs up front, but settled equidistantly against the vocals and drums. I found the higher percussion a little too splashy and noisy in contrast to the lower, rumbling, and all the instruments combined configure into an ungodly mess, but one that has some measure of control through the steady pace of the riffing. The title track, "Prophecy of Doom" is mildly denser and more memorable in terms of how the chords are structured, but stylistically balanced with the first ritual "Elevation of Sun" to provide a cohesive discourse through the Spaniards' nightmares. There are a few periods of droning, spacious dissonance as well which really weight this down into a sodden, chilling mire of aggression that takes its time crawling up your spine.

In total, I quite liked the group's pervasive atmosphere, I only wish the actual guitar riffs were a little more memorable in where they let the imagination wander. Hic Iacet ('here lies') do not dally around too long with individual patterns, they alternate enough chugging force with a barrage of mild acceleration redolent of mid paced black metal, but whenever I deconstruct the notes I just couldn't find them all that interesting. A few more spikes of haunted melodies might have contributed quite a lot to the rhythm guitars, but then again I do believe that purists for filthy, disgusting sounding old school death and black metal like some congregation of Beherit, Autopsy, Muknal, Slugathor and Gorgoroth might actually admire the band's simplistic consistency. Aurally, there are numerous dimensions to Prophecy of Doom in the concentrated disparity of the instrument sounds in the recording, but the riffs really didn't stick to me in alignment with the reverb and echoing, abrasive vocals. Dug the sound a bit more than the structure.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

Avulsed - Carnivoracity (1995)

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.avulsed.com/

Human Mincer - Devoured Flesh (2005)

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

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

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

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

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