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EA
Au Ellai
(Solitude Productions)
51:56min
A whole music industry is talking about music without boundaries but still the
majority of releases is sounding so similar that the fact who’s copy killed
whom becomes a mystery. But luckily there are still exceptions to the rule and
the handful of Solitude Productions bands are offering a refreshing mix within
their dark Doom Metal universe. EA is using the Babylonia background – EA is
the god of wisdom, water and magic - not only as source for their band name but
also the lyrics are based on the old languages from Mesopotamia. The Russian
band has chosen an extreme reduced medial presence – no MySpace account or
website – so the music is doing the talking and in case of their third release
“Au Ellai” it’s an abyssal message. The band is presenting three very
intense songs and especially the opener 'Aullu Eina' with a playing time of over
20 minutes is capturing a very sacral feeling which can be easily compared to a
dark mess. The album is using a wide range of influences and emotions to
resurrect the dark age of Babylon terror – around 4300 years ago – and
everybody who can agree to my opening words has the opportunity to listen to a
dark, emotional , unique and therefore outstanding Doom release. www.solitude-prod.com
Matthias Auch
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EARTH
Star Condemn'd
(Iron Fist Productions)
44:35min
This is one of the better Death Metal album since, well, “Clandestine”. The
sound is very reminiscent of the good old Swedish Way Of Death Metal. Even the
vocals are somewhat reminiscent to Nicke’s on the mentioned album. And mind
you, this is not a drawback because such vocals do certainly fit into the
brutality of “Star Condemn’d”. This album is brutal, but it has its
moments of surprises. I was really caught off guard when I heard the second
track, curiously named “Earth”. After 1.15 minutes some nice keyboards set
in and make the whole a bit lightly. Then, just as we clock in at two minutes
EARTH uses the technique few other bands do and give us riffs that we could kill
for. So fucking heavy for almost one minute before they let us relax with some
keyboards once again. I mean, listen to the heavy guitars. They’re heavy
produced and kick my stomach like a semi-trailer hitting me. Fantastic. Even
though the best riff of the album is already a part of the second track, the
album is as a whole worth your well-earned dollars. Great riffs are followed by
other great riffs. The songs are varied and make this better than most Death
Metal albums. You know, straightforward Death Metal is quite boring most of the
time. EARTH has dared to use the keyboard quite a lot, and somehow I feel they
draw inspiration from such major bands as early Edge
Of Sanity, Afflicted and Entombed.
However, this album is not perfect. I think they should’ve cared more about
the emotions the keyboards create. Like in the title track the tunes are too
light. It’s nice to hum to the melody lines, but I think it should be darker
in order to maintain the sheer brutality. But this is only a minor point since
this album as a whole is super Death Metal done the way I thought was forgotten.
A cover track is included, though it doesn’t appear with a name nor number.
Let me just say that it is a Black
Sabbath track as far as I’m concerned (c'mon Roy, don't tell me you
didn't recognize 'Children Of The Grave'???? - Frank). Write to: EARTH, 610
Fullarot Rd., Keilor Par. Vic, Australia 3042. Label website: www.ironfistrec.cjb.net
Roy Kristensen
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EAT
MY FUK
Wet Slit & A Bottle Of Whiskey
(From Beyond Productions)
25:08min
"...drunken scum Punkrock for fans of G.G. ALLIN and very early VENOM...
it's rumoured that they're members of ABSCESS and VON..." That's
probably the two most importent quotes from the label info regarding this
release and they already sum up "Wet Slit & A Bottle Of Whiskey"
perfectly. The overall sound and sick sense of humor is indeed very much like
what the ABSCESS (AUTOPSY) guys regularely tend to come up with (same goes for
the lettering of the lyrics / songtitles), with the main difference being that
this material is by no means Death Metal influenced at all! This is nothing but
raw oldschool Punk'n'Roll, kinda like a mixture of old A.N.L. and THE MISFITS,
mostly with porn type lyrics though (songtitles such as 'I Wanna Cum On You',
'Kneel Before My Cock', 'Horny Fuckin' Slut' should already speak for
themselves). All in all certainly quite entertaining once in a while, but not
necessarily of interest for lovers of brutal Death, Thrash or Black Metal,
unless you collect every little project that some of your heroes are involved
in... Nuff said! Label contact: www.displeasedrecords.nl/frombeyond
Frank Stöver
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EBOLA
Infernal Revelation
(Old Temple Records)
27:00min
Debut album for this Polish trio with quite a sick name…oh, well. As much as I
worship Death Metal, sometimes I feel that most bands just fall short of what
they can really do. That’s the case with EBOLA’s style of Death Metal. It is
quite well played, it does possess a good recording …and yet I feel it is a
bit sterile… a bit flat…and at times it sounds without power. One of the
causes for this lack of power are the vocals. Although not the typical cookie
monster as there is some certain variation here and there (due to the fact of
shared vocals), I just think they sound forced. Another cause of why I think
that this is not as good as it should might be is because of the production. I
already stated that it is quite good, but in all I think that there is a lack of
bass frequencies, and that takes away power, even if the guitars are upfront as
I usually like Metal music to be, it all sound like treble and middle
frequencies but almost no bass. The last thing that takes away this vital force
of darkness is that the drums needs to have a more powerful presence. Speaking
of the music, bands like BOLT THROWER and early MORBID ANGEL could be a
reference although I can hear a bit of early MASTER too. Little by little I am
finding things that turned this recording a bit better, but at the end I feel
this owes me something. As important as the first impression is, I also find
interest in bands that have so much in their music that you need more than one
listen to fully appreciate it. In this case I just didn’t found anything new,
but I started to adjust to the bit soulless production, concentrating more on
the music. There are certainly good songs like 'Unholy Prophet' and 'Desecrated
Messiah' which exposes us to some oldschool Death Metal, with very competent
solos. At just under half hour, and getting better by the end of the disc, I can
foresee a deathly future for the band. Fans of oldschool Death Metal will find
something here, and if you can pass the production details that takes away the
power this band does possess, it will have a reward. www.oldtemple.com,
www.myspace.com/eboladeathmetal
Julian
Nuñez
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EBOLA
BEACH PARTY
Fleischlego (CD-R)
(self financed)
35:24min
Well, as I stated in the EAR TERROR 2002 review, this is a GOREZONE side
project: fun Grindcore. A strange mixture of professionalism and dilettantism.
Why professionalism? Because they went to the Art Temple Studio! Why
dilettantism? Because of everything else! Honestly, I remember the first time I
had a tape recorder I would talk senseless stuff for hours and record it. The
same seems to count for this CD. It’s just ‘enriched’ by grind assaults
and as those guys aren’t bad musicians, a fan of Grind might actually like it.
And if you know some German and like some ‘East Frisian’ Death Metal humour:
go ahead, waste your money! Sorry guys, but I think this is a slap in the face
of every musician. Don’t take money for that, don’t master it, etc. and
it’s all right with me – actually, I had to smile a couple of times until I
remembered the 3,- Euro (or rather the 2,70) I spent on this. Next time I’ll
get a beer. www.gore-zone.de
Ramon
Claassen
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ECITON
Oppressed
(Adipocere Records)
33:55min
This album took me completely by surprise, because let’s face it, I was
totally unaware of the existence of this Danish quartet dedicated to pure Death
Metal before. And believe me, I am more than happy for having discovered this
band, because “Oppressed” offers all that a rabid fan of classic Death (like
me) could dream of. This kind of record is more and more rare these days,
considering that the vast majority of well marketed Death Metal releases are
about pure showmanship and demonstration of dexterity (let’s call that the
“HATE EterNILE syndrome”) instead of offering actual good songs. If you
dwell in the memory of albums like “Harmony Corruption” and “Butchered At
Birth” then rejoice, because “Oppressed” stands at the crossing of these
two, especially the vocal performance of Jesper Baeck evokes a mix of those of
Chris Barnes and Barney Greenway (early 90s period). All the songs are rather
compact and to the point, no useless dissonant guitar “solo” here, only a
pure onslaught of razor-sharp and crunchy riffs. ECITON don’t base their song
writing on one-dimensional ideas nor over-complex extravaganza. They privilege
tightness above all, yet with rhythm changes aplenty, and the result comes out
very convincing to say the very least.
The fact ECITON is a four piece, with only one guitarist in action, adds
even more efficiency and cohesion to their sonic attack, and impeaches them to
lose themselves in the labyrinth of sterile experimentation. Add to this that
the line-up doesn’t feature newcomers in music, that explaining the kind of
authentic patina perceptible on “Oppressed”. Like I suggested above, here is
a slab of classic Death Metal of which the brand is almost extinct now (2005).
You can even said this one has been produced by Scott Burns, so much the sound
is fat and crisp in the better of the Morrisound way. So, if you are up to a
dose of exhilarating nostalgia, get “Oppressed” without delay. ECITON is
truly a killer outfit, trust me on that! We need bands like this one! AWESOME!!!!!
http://www.eciton.dk.
Edouard Vergriete
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ECLECTIKA
The Last Blue Bird
(Asylum Ruins)
47:52min
France – La Grand nation which invented famous things like Devils Island and
the Guillotine is since some years not longer a white place for all Black Metal
fans.With bands like ANOREXIA NERVOSA and MERRIMACK to name just a few the first
wave swept through whole Europe because they try to avoid the well known
“Pathes Of Sorrow” of Black Metal. With ECLECTIKA’s debut on the small
French label Asylum Ruins (the label of the Main Madmen of ECLECTIKA) a further
band tries to establish a new force in France. The 9 track debut offers a wild
mixture of different styles but to avoid the click of the return button of all
readers the band offers something unique which is the most important thing after
nearly 20 years of Black Metal releases. ECLECTIKA’s define their style as
Black Thrash Ambient and the term is not too far away to fix the style even if
the aggressive percentage isn’t too big, imagine one of the famous Holy
Records bands from the midth 90s where atmosphere was more important than
aggression. I’m not the biggest fan of special term’s if we are speaking of
Metal (because Metal is the law!!!!) so to keep a long story short the major
part of the album is good played Black / Doom Metal added by good solo’s and a
big portion of space ambient parts to deepen the atmosphere
issue. The ambient songs offer places of rest instead of a trip to the
darkest places in space like LIMBONIC ART are offering. The vocals differs from
pure Black up to ANDRAS like extreme vocals added by some female vocals and
combined with the above mentioned details give this young band a chance even if
you need 2-3 rounds with the debut because nobody can’t invent the wheel a
second time but it’s much more difficult to realise your own musical ideas
instead of just coping your most famous band and produce the second thousand
pure Black Metal clone. www.eclectika.fr,
www.asylumruins.fr
Matthias Auch
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EDGE
OF SANITY
Crimson II
(Black Mark Productions)
43:00min
The
most surprising aspect of “Crimson II” has to be the lyrics. Though, not the
lyrics in themselves but the fact that Clive Nolan from ARENA wrote those. Oh
well, the lyrics can be whatsoever if the music doesn’t work. Judging from Dan
Swanö’s Edge Of Sanity I
really have to read the lyrics because this album is definitely one of the best
Death Metal albums ever made and it’s surely Dan’s finest moment.
Progressive parts, a lot of variation and the sheer brutality you know from
earlier albums done by the band Edge Of
Sanity. Personally I do prefer pure Death Metal if I ever had to choose,
but when I get something great from both worlds I have to smile and listen over
and over again. Brutal vocals and great musicianship contribute to the
impressiveness of “Crimson II”. However, where Dan Swanö really succeeds
this time is in the wholeness of the album. Several sections repeat throughout
the album and make it more of a journey than 10 songs put together into an
album. And dare I say that especially one part towards the end of the album,
after 37 minutes, makes the whole worthwhile. In addition you get supreme Death
Metal all over. But still there’s something that makes this less worth than it
actually could be. The problem with “Crimson II” is that the album is very
progressive. Then, when you get the average Death Metal parts here and there
(read: traditional Edge Of Sanity
/ Dan Swanö riffs) you get a bit bored. And, for being a Death Metal album a
couple of the neo-progressive parts are too nice. Still, and as said already,
“Crimson II” is one of the best Death Metal albums ever made and I will
surely listen to it over and over again.
Roy Kristensen
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EGONOIR
Der Pfad Zum Fluß
(Amortout Productions)
48:09min
"Listening to EGONOIR is like being in a German forest, where you can step any minute on an old bomb shell” proclaims the info-sheet. Well, my humble knowledge about the poor remains of forest in the area in which I live tells me that there actually aren’t that many old bombs lying around, since most allied bombers back in the good old days seemed to be clever enough to drop their load over more populated areas. So you’d better change that sentence into ‘listening to this third-rate
BURZUM-clone makes you wish you’d find an old bomb shell you could throw yourself unto just to end this utterly numbing and painful experience’. In true ‘Suicide
Black Metal’ fashion they manage to drain the listener of the last spark of life in no time. Their weapons: the poorest of anti-songs, combined with the most laughable attempt at vocals heard in years and the standard ‘below-zero-budget sound’. You know you’re in for a treat when the used samples are the best thing about a record. Next please…
www.amortout.com
Torsten Gründig
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EIDOMANTUM
Old Blood
(Demo)
All you fans of raw, thrashing,
morbid Metal listen up, because Swedish EIDOMANTUM’s second demo might be the
perfect choice for you! The sound quality is excellent, the layout is 100%
oldschool and thus fits to the demo title. The songs are full of variation and
show influences from Black / Thrash legends like BATHORY, SARCOFAGO as well as
traditional Metal acts like MERCYFUL FATE, MAIDEN. The band has definitely
parallels to BEWITCHED (Swe), but is a bit more dirty and brutal (there are even
some blasts, cool!). In addition to that I like Sexual Death’s vocals better
than BEWITCHED Vargher’s, because they are more aggressive and sick. So if you
love it in the real oldschool tradition, open your veins and let the fucking
“Old Blood” enter your Metal infested corpse or body (depends on how you
smell)! To get this professional tape send 5 Euro or $ to the following address:
EIDOMANTUM, c/o Lagergren, Kunkällevägen 21, 59072 Ljungsbro, Sweden. If you
don’t obey, I’ll kill you!!!
Stefan Franke
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EIDOMANTUM
Fear The Master / Black Aura (7" EP)
(I Hate Records)
approx. 13min
From time to time the gates of hell are opening and from the very depths there appears… well, at least some fine piece of vinyl like this one! After two demo-tapes this Swedish band presents us now their second 7" release. The history of EIDOMANTUM goes back to the year 1998, when the band was established after the split of the predecessor LUKEMBORG. The reason why they did just those four releases within eight years is unknown to me, I wished they would release more stuff. The music is the typical Swedish melange of Death / Black / Thrash Metal, performed the oldschool way. So if you like this kind of style, you will not be disappointed by this release. This output is definitely breathing the ancient spirit, no polished mainstream stuff here. No digi-pack, no extra version with bonus songs, no special fan-edition with gimmicks, no best-of, no reunion affectation. Just a fine piece of black vinyl with two great Death Metal songs. The price is unknown to me, but do not hesitate to get in touch with the band or the label. Contact:
http://eidomantum.cjb.net/ or
eidomantum@hotmail.com
or R. Lagergren, Salixvägen 2B, S-29141 Kristianstad, SWEDEN. Label contact: http://ihate.se
Mirco Szymyslik
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EISREGEN
Schlangensonne
(Massacre Records)
50:28min
End of April 2010 the sky has turned black again because Germany's finest
extremists EISREGEN are ready for the next deadly strike to show the surrounding
government institutions that there is no limit to the limit. Several years have
past and EISREGEN have survived further attacks to return stronger than before.
Needless discussions are surrounding this German act since the release of their
famous “KK” album in 1998 and a lot of people are ignoring the fact - in
favor of the extreme harsh lyrics and the national ban within Germany - that the
musical essence of this band can be found in its purest form on this still
outstanding release. For their latest output”Schlangensonne” the band has
collected further nice and interesting stories about the skeletons in every
closet. So lyrically all EISREGEN fans will get 100% what they expect from nice
“lullaby” stories (‘Kai aus der Kiste’) up to the ugly side of war –
spiced with the typical EISREGEN humor. But musically the band has worked quite
hard on additional diversity with further traditional Metal influences and the
music is raging from Black Metal on one side of the extreme up to more
industrial based songs. The band is talking about their strongest release since
years, a statement which I can easily support. EISREGEN are EISREGEN and within
our small scene they deserve their special reputation and a release like
“Schlangensonne” is only supporting this fact, so let’s end this review in
their typical way - Gepriesen sei der Untergang! www.massacre-records.com,
www.fleischhaus.de
Matthias
Auch
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EKRON CULT
Queen Of The Luxury
(Proselytism Records)
23:03min
EKRON CULT is originally from Paraguay and relocated to Chile. And besides a self-released demo tape in 2007, I cant find any more info on the band. But I can tell you something:
"Queen Of The Luxury" is a total homage to the mid / late-80s South American sound! This short beast of an album is almost (what I call) an 'instant classic'. The raw production, the obscure mix and the whole atmosphere is simply amazing! Everything is neatly placed: short
songs (incl. 'Burst Command 'Til War' by SODOM - Frank), a tight execution, great riffs by The Attacker and a solid rhythm base courtesy of The Antagonist on bass and The Vandalic on drums. I also liked the fact that this is not a rip-off. The band sounds original and fresh. Absolutely and highly recommended for all Death Metal fans! Actually, I'll end this review with a little piece of advice: if you worship bands like SARCOFAGO, VULCANO and HOLOCAUSTO, go get EKRON CULT's album
NOW (just like all the other Proselytism releases also this one comes
in
an 8 panel, foldable 7"- sized digipack - Frank)! You
won't be disappointed at all! Contact:
www.proselytism.net
Alfonso Perez
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ELENIUM
For Giving, For Getting
(Rage Of Achilles)
41:02min
Uuuh, this one gives me a hard time. On their debut album Finnish ELENIUM
deliver very melodic Death Metal with complex song structures, some relaxed
moments and variable vocals, so far so good, BUT they use keyboards in a
disgustingly obtrusive way. Almost every approach of entrainment is suffocated
by “bubblegum“ keyboards. I wouldn't say that this release is complete crap
but if you prefer the harder and less commercial side of Metal this record is a
waste of time. Thinking about the punning title, I'm not sure whether I should
forgive the keyboard or forget this album. Band website with some song-excerpts:
http://www.eleniumband.com.
Christoph Göbel
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ELFFOR
Unblessed Woods
(self-financed)
55:15min
Fourth album for this one-man band who started in '98 with "Into The Dark Forest",
and which I hadn't had the pleasure to listen to until today. From the hands of its creator I received this new recording, and I was pretty surprised with the quality of each song included here. I had always heard that they sounded like
Austrian Tolkien freaks SUMMONING which is not false, but I think (in this case) that, although having a clear influence from them, there is a lot
more in the music
of ELFFOR. Stylistically speaking, we find a really atmospheric and dark Black Metal here, ambient perhaps, but with a huge
variety of tempos, from the slowest ones and most doomy to more dynamic and fast ones, with a big predominance of keyboards
(some songs are totally based on them), but not as much as on their previous recordings, as I've heard, as there are some
guitars and really fast drums (in fact, they give the most part of the speed to the album), and a lot of variety with percussions,
that give a medieval and epic touch to the whole. On the vocal side, there is some variation too, with
"Stronghold", from the already mentioned Austrian band, like vocals and other more agonic, a bit like XASTHUR and these kind of bands, which are
true lamentations, just perfect for this kind of band. Lyrically, they seem to speak about
Pagan and Antichristian subjects (or that's what I deduce from the cover), although the lyrics are not included here, which would be nice for an album of this
kind, to introduce people a bit more into its world. It isn't an easy album, especially for the ones who don't like such atmospheric songs, but with some listens it catches you with the dark ambiences
('Winter, Fullmoon, Sorrow...' is a good
example of this) and dark passages, a big delight for the ones who like ethereal Black Metal and search a good album to give
atmosphere to their nights. www.elffor.com
Jeroni Sancho
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ELFFOR
Frostbitten Pain
(self-financed)
46:35min
After the successful re-release of nearly the whole ELFFOR back catalogue via
Northern Silence I was expecting outpoint number five via this ‘official’
channel but only band member Eöl decided to keep the underground alive by
self-releasing “Frostbitten Pain”. So some things will never change due to
the fact that all former ELFFOR albums had been also released as strictly
limited underground products, but maybe the will to stay independant isn’t
surprising for a band heading from the Basque country / Spain. It took quite a
while to record “Frostbitten
Pain” - to be exact over four years have past since the release of “The
Unblessed Woods” - but this release will for sure not disappoint any fan of
medieval touched Black Metal. There is no need to deny the fact that ELFFOR are
heavily inspired by SUMMONING (they also recorded one track for their tribute
album) but this ‘inspiration’ is perfectly transferred into their own
interpretation of this style. So from the lyrical point of view no rings &
hobbits can be found - just darkness, magic and the more typical Black Metal
topics - and the presented songs fully deserve to be called hymns (maybe
supported by the fact that they nearly reach the ten minutes barrier). But
don’t expect keyboard suffocated music – naturally the music depends on the
supporting keys especially to create the medieval touch - but ELFFOR are still a
Black Metal act. “Frostbitten Pain” is offering five songs on a high quality
level but in some way an ear catcher is missing, this remarkable outstanding
track but without doubt is the fifth ELFFOR release nevertheless a good and
solid album for all fans of this style. The album is strictly limited to 500
copies and comes in a nice digipack with good cover, so contact the band
directly via www.elffor.com,
www.myspace.com/elffor
Matthias
Auch
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ELIMINATOR
Breaking The Wheel
(Blood Harvest Records)
34:54min
This band sends a (in capitals) FUCK YOU to “fake Black Metal, all modern core
bands and all polished turd music from barely capable musicians” among other
fuck you’s, haha. Wise said and capable musicians are those guys. This album
already got released on CD through Suffering Jesus Records and Ukragh
Productions. Man, I lost the overview about all these labels. This is the LP
version I’m talking about and well-known Blood Harvest Records took care of
this edition – again limited to 500 pieces. And a LP-release suits this
release just perfect as an awesome Ed Repka cover like this requests a bigger
format. Musically ELIMINATOR offers furious Thrash Metal in the vein of old
KREATOR (“Pleasure To Kill”-era) and SADUS with amazingly virtuous
guitar-riffs. The guitar-section of this band provides some high-quality
material from fast and incredible “violent” riffing to amazingly great
soulful melodies as in the middle of the fantastic last song ‘Prescription For
Extinction…Time Enough At Last’. Especially because of the outstanding
guitars I can recommend this release to all fans of Thrash Metal in the vein of
the abovementioned bands as these guitars make the difference to those bands,
the drums on the other hand are more or less typical for this style of music and
have a huge “Pleasure To Kill”-vibe, if you ask me, which is nothing bad! 35
minutes of violent Thrash Metal, 6 songs plus the instrumental ‘Disgust’
should be enough to make your ears bleed. Available through
www.bloodharvest.se
Thomas Ehrmann
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ELITE
Kampen
(Agonia Records)
43:41min
Influences
from BURZUM, DARKTHRONE, JUDAS ISCARIOT or NARGAROTH mixed with a Pagan concept
was the first description that came to my mind when I listened to “Kampen”
for the first time and I think it is still appropriate. Despite the band’s
rather boasting name, musically they are absolutely convincing, intense and
skilfully blend aggression with melancholic atmosphere. There are biting cold
riffs one might know from BURZUM’s ‘Jesus Dod’, grim vocals, almost doomy
slower passages, driving parts and a pretty good sound providing both
transparency and unpolished rawness. The six songs are quite long ranging from 6
to 13 minutes and except the only lame track ‘Trollkvinnens Sang’ moments of
boredom are simply non-existent. Along with TSJUDER’s “Demonic Possession”
and KOLDBRANN’s debut ELITE’S “Kampen” is one of the best albums that
lately emerged from Norway and one can only hope there will be more Black Metal
of the same high quality from this scene appearing rather quiet lately. So
whoever digs the aforementioned bands should get high on this and buy it asap!!!
www.agoniarecords.com
Stefan
Franke
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ELITE
Bifrost
(No Colours Records)
41:08min
I have not listened to this album’s predecessor “Kampen”, so “Bifrost”
is my first encounter with ELITE, but this is just to make clear that I cannot
compare those two albums. However, what we have here is a fine album of
Norwegian Black Metal with the emphasis on “Norwegian”. While musically not
too close to those bands, I feel reminded on bands like TAAKE, KAMPFAR or TULUS
for that eerie Norwegian feeling more than once. Raw yet powerful, partly even
hymnic Black Metal with catchy melodies that is rather based in the second than
in the first half of 1990s Norwegian Black Metal. This painting of icy Nordic
landscapes however is done without keyboards or anything, just the genuine Black
Metal instrumentation. With the exception of the last songs, all are held in
uptempo and most of them have refrains that will not leave your head very soon.
The last song ‘Krampetak’ however is nearly doomy in its speed and
repetitive and thus grants the album a very dark and dismal ending. All in all
this album is probably not the most essential when it comes to Black Metal, but
bearing in mind the escapades of TAAKE, and the fact that you get albums like
this more seldom nowadays, one could do worse than buying this album. Certainly
a good album. www.no-colours-records.de
Nhashi
BACK
ELITE
We Own The Mountains
(Folter Records)
47:57min
Frosty guitars, hateful screams and a boat full of ruthless souls heading from
Norway to conquer whole Europe – sounds familiar in some way even if the
surviving Viking / Black Metal bands had become a rare species in their cold
home country. Listening to ELITE is like a trip to old abandon shores right in
the middle of the Battle of Lindisfarne and their third release “We Own The Mountains”
is for sure one of the best Folter Records releases of the last years (No
Colours released their former two albums plus one limited EP). The band is
navigating their vessel on direct course into the next storm and bands like
TULUS and LORD BELIAL (taking the ‘blackened’ songs into consideration) or
the honorable WINDIR (mainly due to their emphasized Norwegian vocals and some
pathos) are passing by. I can’t say anything about the quality of their former
releases but “We Own The Mountains” is breathing a kind of new wind into the
empty sails of the once so admired Norway Metal scene. The major advantage of
this release is a great guitar work, nearly all atmosphere is created by them
plus the variety in the presented 10 songs. The album can offer short attacks
(‘Volvens Vinter Seid’) or more hymnal tracks (‘Rovnatt’) but everything
had been put together to create a convincing album. With this great album and
the new record company at their side (plus some kind of promotion) – I ‘m
more than convinced that this Norwegian horde is well prepared for the new
battle season 2009. www.folter666.de,
www.elitenorway.com
Matthias Auch
BACK
ELIVAGAR
Heirs Of The Ancient Tales
(Trollzorn)
40:36min
An exact definition of the term Pagan Metal is quite difficult to find these
days, the music is raging from dark trolls out of the land of the thousand seas
to ulveresque nature Pagan Metal from the United States. ELIVAGAR from Germany
is a further Trollzorn band which wants to conquer the Pagan community with
their debut album "Heirs Of The Ancient Tales". The band's lyrics are
in German, old German and English and their music can be roughly described as
melodic Death Metal (the AMON AMARTH style) plus violin parts, clear vocals etc.
Normally this doesn't sound too bad, but this album is unfortunately not more
than an average release because (so far) the band couldn’t create outstanding
songs which keep remembering after at least 4-5 times. A further problem is the
"massive" use of the violin which instead of adding more atmosphere to
the 14 songs destroying them by repeating nearly the same parts in 3-4 songs.
With 5-10 Pagan releases monthly the aim for every newcomer should be to create
something unique or to make it better than all bands before otherwise this
subgenre will die like the Thrash, Death and Black Metal scene died and
resurrected during the last 20-25 years. www.trollzorn.de,
www.elivagar-metal.de
Matthias Auch
BACK
ELLIPSIS
Comastory
(Adipocere Records)
68:15min
Before
inflicting an almost seventy minutes long record onto
an unsuspecting audience, you have to be pretty damn sure your music is
worth the effort. This kind of question the four musicians of the French band
ELLIPSIS didn’t ask to themselves obviously, how much their first full length
is uninspiring and dull. Even their label doesn’t know how to tag them
properly: they call them a “Psycho-Prog Doom-Metal” band, and I suppose you
will agree with me, it means nothing. Well, first let’s cut off the Doom part,
because ELLIPSIS have absolutely nothing to do with this musical genre. That
leaves us with the “Psycho-Progressive” tag, and if one means by progressive
very complex songs with lots of breaks and different moods, let’s forget that
also in the ELLIPSIS case. Finally, we are left with the term “Psycho”,
meaning that a form of madness could be detected here, be it musically or
lyrically wise. I didn’t hear that on “Comastory”, sorry. So in the end,
we are left with nothing at all except boring tracks, vaguely connected to
straight Heavy Metal and even Hard Rock (due to the –very good- vocals) played
with a total absence of intensity and passion. The band privileged mid-paced
rhythms, then adding to the tepidness of the music. It is like the ELLIPSIS
musicians felt themselves tired of life and totally anemic (or maybe they were
comatose?). Only the drummer (Man X) managed to impress me a bit, thanks to his
science of syncopated beat, but that is not enough to make up for a full length.
The lyrics are no less than an accumulation of clichés of the
introspective kind, this sounding very pubescent if you ask me, especially if
you consider that the ELLIPSIS dudes seem to
take them very seriously, they don’t
distance themselves with their bleak and depressing message. The summit
of the ridicule is reached with the eighth tracks “Stratège Lugubre” , this
being only a spoken part delivered with a distorted voice (the kind you could
here on some video-games or bad horror flicks made exclusively for TV). Even the
slowest of the Funeral Doom records would fail to express boredom next to this
insanely uninteresting disk. Funnily enough, “Comastory” is the exact
antithesis of the underrated masterpiece that is “Psychosphere” from German
band HOUSE OF SPIRITS: the same source of inspiration, the same musical
approach, but not the same composing talent. Because here lies the main failure
in the ELLIPSIS camp: even if the musicians are very good, they are unable to
come up with exciting and mind
daring music. I hate to slag a band like that, but I can’t do otherwise to
stay honest with myself. I guess you have got the message: avoid this at any
cost.
Edouard Vergriete
BACK
ELUVEITIE
Spirit
(Fear
Dark)
50:50min
Eluveitie
offer the same music like their label-mates of Royal
Anguish. So, this is also a pain in the arses of all ordinary Metal guys.
It is fine and nice that they get inspired by the legends of old Celtic
mythology, but that is fukkin' worn-out to me and more than boring. I think,
they will reach all those honey-wine drinking Vikings, Warriors and Witches, but
this 'nice' sounding 'lalala' music is not of my interest (I know, it is a
subjective opinion of mine). Again boring vocals (clear, growls and screams)
can't give any atmosphere or impact to me. The music can be considered as brutal
now and then, but without achieving a magnificent atmosphere. Unfortunately,
this make the music of Eluveitie
to a meaningless one to me. Nevertheless, they will find their fans. Worth to be
mentioned must been the sound, even if I am not a fan of transparent and
clear-productions this one, recorded at Klangschmiede Studio (by Markus Stock; Empyrium,
The Vision Bleak), blows me away… even while being reminded on a
heavier version of the Kelly Family sometimes (when watching pictures of such
bands)! www.eluveitie.ch,
www.fear-dark.com
Hurricane
BACK
ELVIRA MADIGAN
Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)
(Black Lodge Records)
62:08min
"Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)" is already the third full length by
ELVIRA MADIGAN, a Swedish one man project lead by a guy named Marcus Hammarström.
It is the follow-up to his self-titled (yet unreleased) "Elvira
Madigan" debut and 2000's "Black Arts" album (the latter featured
most songs of the debut as bonus tracks and came out on his own founded label
Northlore Records). For this new album Hammarström / ELVIRA MADIGAN (the name
seems to be inspired by a Swedish movie, if I'm not mistaken...) finally got
picked up by Black Lodge Records, who recently were responsible for bringing us
the MERCILESS reunion record. "Witches - Salem (1692 vs 2001)" as well
as its predecessor are both visually true eyecatchers as they feature the superb
art by Luis Royo (www.luisroyo.com),
and you definitely can't go wrong by doing that! But does the approximately one
hour of music also live up to that high standard? Well, it depends on what your
personal musical preferences are. If you enjoy CRADLE OF FILTH, the epic side of
BATHORY, BAL-SAGOTH, APOTHEOSIS (Malta) or moody soundtracks, you probably might
be impressed here as well. Most parts of the album are very melodic and
emotional, with a strong overall atmosphere, while the raw and aggressive parts
are very close to what made CRADLE OF FILTH so popular. It's actually quite
scary how close Hammarström here and there comes to Dani Filth, in terms of his
vocal delivery as well as the album's harsh songwriting parts in general. Not
very original, indeed - but then again, there's this epic side to his creations
which is way more varied and ambitious than most of the CRADLE releases. Plus
there's also a lot of clean, folky sounding vocals, which perfectly go hand in
hand with the album's relaxed elements. So, yes - after a few listens I finally
learned to appreciate the complexity of this record and can only advice you to
check it out as well, if you're open minded enough for an exciting rollercoaster
ride within the boundaries of such diverse genres as Black, Heavy, Folk, Epic,
Gothic or whatever Metal. All further infos you will certainly find at the great
ELVIRA
MADIGAN website:
www.elviramadigan.com
Frank Stöver
BACK
ELYSIUM
Feedback
(Metal Mind Productions)
46:56min
This CD definitely is a
masterpiece of intensive Metal arts. Well, ELYSIUM’s style is kind of
comparable to that of SEPENTIA, another highly melodious act on Metal Mind
Productions. But here there is something discernible in the music that really
enthuses me. ELYSIUM play melodic Death Metal in the vein of acts like – and
most certainly I won’t be the first critic mentioning that – AT THE GATES,
DARK TRANQUILLITY, IN FLAMES (whom I personally detest!). So this means, ELYSIUM
play technically skilled, very melody-dominated, mid-paced Death Metal. The nice
thing about this band surely is that the production is superb. The album was
recorded at Tower Studios (Behemoth,
Devilyn, Lost Souls etc.). The music is very dense and fierce. Admittedly
I am not so much into this melodious Metal stuff, but this band strikes me as
being formed by intelligent songwriters. The material has a good drive, the
staccato guitar rhythms are gorgeous, the singer is ok. What else do you want?
Sometimes there are interesting breaks that somewhat remind me of acts such as
OPETH or NOVEMBRE (you like this comparisons, guys, don’t ya?). So… good
piece of music this, the booklet is ok-ish, too (not too impressive / inspiring
actually!) – so what are you waiting for? Support these Poles and get hold of
“Feedback”!
F. Cthulhu E.
BACK
EMANCER
Invisible
(Golden Lake Productions)
49:31min
Never heard of this Norwegian two-piece before, but according to their info
sheet, "Invisible“ is already their third album, following "Utopian
Illusions“ (on Extremist Records in 2001) and "The Human Experient“ (Black
Owl Records, late 2002). They originally started out as UTUMNO, released a demo
named "Morkets Rike“ in late 1997 and another one ("Syn Av Ei Ukjend
Tid“) about a year later. In the summer of 2000 they finally went for a name
change and settled for EMANCER ever since. Even though they are rooted in this
genre, EMANCER is not your typical Norwegian Black Metal act though, but a
rather experimental one which might cause some headache to the "true“
diehards. Their music is full of variation and has a lot more to offer than your
usual Black Metal releases. Moody parts, that are often accompanied by synths,
get replaced by hyperfast extreme outbursts of aggression and several breaks and
unusual elements keep their overall writing pretty interesting. The band’s
basic style is obviously a lot more inspired by ordinary, yet very hard hitting
Metal as opposed to the usual BATHORY, DARKTHRONE type of sound. Instead of
coming up with the typical ice cold "production“, EMANCER prefer to let
their creations shine in a really powerful and crushing light. The vocals are
very grim, but luckily never sound ridiculous nor shrieky and the album’s
overall rawness reminds me a lot on CARCASS’ "Heartwork“ classic, even
though EMANCER musically act in a completely different way. Yes, a very
interesting record indeed! Unfortunately the whole packaging of the disc sucks
big time and the use of a drum computer (programmed in a quite decent way though)
should be avoided in the future as well. Band contact: www.emanceronline.com,
Label contact: www.goldenlakeprods.co.uk
Frank Stöver
BACK
EMANCER
The Menace Within
(Golden
Lake
Productions)
53:29min
Norway's avant-garde Black Metal
duo EMANCER deliver the open-minded extreme music fan their fourth full-length,
which turns out to be a fascinating piece of work for people who enjoy bands
experimenting with and breaking the rather strict stylistic boundaries of Black
Metal. From programmed drums, spacy, spheric keyboard sounds, clean sung
passages to even embedding the melody from a classic C64-computer game (“Last
Ninja 2”) in one of the songs EMANCER show that they either have the guts to
dare taking some musical risks or that they are simply not of the best mental
health, of course that’s a matter of opinion… The rather traditional Black Metal
elements like cold sounding guitars, hateful, grim and gloomy vocals are very
much present as well and prevent the band from going into a funny
computer-game-meets-Black-Metal direction, “The Menace Within” is a dark and
atmospheric album with some very unique ideas that fortunately never go too far,
but culminate in actually pretty memorable songs. Along with the interesting
lyrics and the first-class production EMANCER's variant of individualistic,
inventive, catchy and contemporary Black Metal should be interesting for
everyone into the newer Moonfog-releases, ARCTURUS or FLEURETY. So, give it try!
Band website: www.emanceronline.com
Label website: www.goldenlakeprods.co.uk
Stefan
Franke
BACK
EMBALMED SOULS
Journey Through Bizarre /
Become Vengeance, Become Wrath
(self-financed)
64:24min
Already released in 1997 and 1999 EMBALMED SOULS offer their 2 earliest demos together on one
CD-R. The band is a quite active band in the underground and still offers their old demos on CD. By the way, you can get their "Temple Of Bizarre Cult" demo (see review elsewhere here on Voices) on CD from the band, too. These first 2 releases from this Brazilian Death Metal outfit are more on the darker and slower Death Metal side, with many slow, midtempo and gloomy parts. From time to time the music here reminds me on old ACHERON but also on AUTOPSY
in their "Mental Funeral" days. This is great Death Metal, probably quite old but definitely not oldfashioned. I always prefer to support a band who's true to their roots and plays the music since ages without getting that success others are craving for. Support EMBALMED SOULS in buying everything from them as they deserve your support. Get in touch with Paulo (drums) at
souls666@terra.com.br
to ask for the prices. By the way, the band recently released their new demo "Six Rites
Of Possession" which features 6 songs recorded live during a rehearsal. The CD includes their "Temple Of Bizarre Cult" as bonus. Well, EMBALMED SOULS making devil proud since 1990 - as they say…
Thomas Ehrmann
BACK
EMBALMED
SOULS
Six Rites Of Possession
(self-financed)
34:31min / 57:52min
The new output of the Brazilian Death Metal band EMBALMED SOULS includes their
new “Six Rites Of Possession” rehearsal (34:31min) and as a bonus their
great “Temple Of Bizarre Cult” demo (see review in the re-release section of
the reviews) which makes this new effort almost one hour long with 11 songs of
Death Metal. The six rites of possession were recorded live during a rehearsal
and especially when listening to the drums you easily hear that, nevertheless I
think the sound is ok for a rehearsal recording. EMBALMED SOULS’ songs are the
right stuff for fans of ACHERON and (for the newcomers in here) NECROS CHRISTOS,
means that it’s no blasting brutality what you can expect, but gloomy
atmospheric Death Metal hymns, mostly playing in slow and midtempo regions. The
right stuff to keep the trendy Death Metal bunch in distance and collecting the
few souls which breathe and feel Death Metal since ages. The vocals are again
the most magnificent part here with its ultra brutal guttural growlings Naldo
enforces the brutality to an even higher level. “Six Rites Of Possession”
comes as CD-R in a professional printed promo-package including a small foldout
poster with the recording information and a larger band picture. Now, my friends
in EMBALMED SOULS, I’d say it’s finally about time to record an output in a
professional studio and prove and manifest that EMBALMED SOULS are among the
best names in the Brazilian Death Metal scene. In the meantime I can only say to
all lovers of Death Metal to support these dedicated underground Death Metal
bunch. Buy this release and ask for their other recordings, too. Get in touch
with the band immediately via
souls666@terra.com.br
or
embalmedsouls@gmail.com.
Yes, EMBALMED SOULS make the devil proud since 1990…
Thomas Ehrmann
BACK
EMBALMING THEATRE
Sweet Chainsaw Melodies
(Razorback Records)
31:42min
Swiss EMBALMING THEATRE play straight forward, good produced Grind Death that
combines the heavy groove of MORTICIAN or IMPETIGO with the drive and intensity
of oldschool legends like the almighty REPULSION! Although one can debate about
the quintet being original or not, it’s a fact that the 20 songs offered on
EMBALIMING THEATRE’s first full-length CD after releasing numerous EP’s and
compilation tracks since 2000 are aggressive, rousing oldschool Grindcore songs
with speed, catchy structures and excellent deep-growled vocals. Lyrically all
songs tell small morbid tales "written" by reality and I really liked
the idea of adding newsline-like summaries of each song’s background in the
booklet. The rather exotic cover version of the old Swiss Grinders EXULCERATION
is another cool idea and the original looking layout deserves to be positively
mentioned here as well. Check this album out or get an impression of the band by
listening to an MP3 file on www.razorbackrecords.com
and visit the band’s website www.embalmingtheatre.ch.
"Sweet Chainsaw Melodies" is undoubtedly a very solid, recommendable
album for fans of oldschool Grind! Enough said...
Stefan Franke
BACK
EMBEDDED
Banished From The Light
(Revenge Productions)
30:00min
Even though EMBEDDED's origin
already dates back to 1994, with a self-titled demo release in 1996, the nucleus
of the band unfortunately splitted up in 1998 because of musical differences.
But luckily guitarist André Danowsky decided to give the whole project another
go, with three new recruited members, already one year later. This line-up
recorded the MCD "Fragments Of Horror", which gained them quite
a lot of enthusiastic attention within the Death Metal underground pretty
quickly. Two of the songs also appeared on a split 7" with DISASTROUS
MURMUR, released by Perverted Taste Records shortly after. With a slightly
changed line-up (a new vocalist and second guitarplayer joined the band), the
guys finally entered the studio to record their debut full length "Banished
From The Light", which features eleven brutal and straight into your
face Death Metal erruptions, that are musically quite obviously heavily inspired
by the American scene. Despite the factor of unoriginality, the album still
sounds incredibly fresh, with its deep grunted, very intense vocals (some of the
screamy back-up's were contributed by SECRETS OF THE MOON frontman Daevas) and
the almost perfectly arranged and extremely well performed / produced
songmaterial. It's very easy to recognize that these guys still totally enjoy
what they're doing - and they're already doing it with international class! So,
if you simply can't get enough of brutal Death, then you gotta make sure to
spend some money on EMBEDDED as well. A very impressive debut, of another highly
promising German band. The CD sells for €12 (Germany), €14 / $14 (Europe) or
$16 (rest of the world). All prices already include postage (airmail delivery)
and packaging. Contact: Revenge Productions, c/o Daniel Wenderoth, Elisabethstr.
31, 67227
Frankenthal, Germany, info@revengeproductions.com,
www.revengeproductions.com
Frank Stöver
BACK
EMBODIED
GRIEF
Death Metal
(Demo tape)
Hellcome
the Death Metal underground's underground! Yes, there are still bands producing
tapes these days. No idea how old or new this tape is, but we received it only
recently. Limited to 500 copies, the tape is still available for 3,- Euro. I
don't know whether this includes the postage, just ask the band. What you get on
here is underground old school Death Metal with an acceptable but not really
enjoyable production (for a demo tape). The songs are rather short and far from
being original, but good fun. They suffer from a lack of structure and brutality
(the latter due to the production, I presume?), but on the forthcoming split EP
with Hamburg's SUFFERAGE scheduled for early 2003, this is supposed to be
changed for the better. Another split EP is being planned with a local Punk
band. EMBODIED GRIEF's contribution on that will be some Crust material. Until
then: check out the tape as long as you consider yourself to be true Death Metal
underground. But I guess I won't be listening to it again: there are better (but
also much weaker) bands available on CD and handling a CD is just so much more
comfortable. borisbreuer@web.de,
iconc@gmx.de
Ramon Claassen
BACK
EMBOLISM
Mind Chaos
(Forensick Music)
29:51min
The second album of this Slovakian Grindcore outfit is primarily ruined by a
muddy, crappy production and despite the obvious musical abilities (especially
the drummer is not bad) an absolute superfluous release only total Grind
diehards might get high on! EMBOLISM have the classic influences of early NAPALM
DEATH, CARCASS, are fast like hell, but do not forget to add some mid paced
sections into their sound. The vocals are in that sick oldschool screamy style
everyone knows from CARCASS and like EMBOLISM’s musical side nothing
extraordinary. Due to the ghastly production the Slovakians are just lower
middle class Grindcore and there are numerous bands way better and a lot more
original and innovative than EMBOLISM. If they would be at least REALLY shitty,
one could call them “cult” or something, but the way they are they are just
very, very boring… MP3 and additional information are available on www.forensickmusic.com
Stefan
Franke
BACK
THE
EMBRACED
The Birth
(Aftermath Music)
59:21min
A real underground jewel is the second full-length release of this
Norwegian outfit. A friend of mine taped me their debut album "In
My Dreams… I Am Armageddon", which was already a quality
release, but the follow-up "The Birth" is even
better. It's not that easy to categorize the music of THE EMBRACED,
but they surely belong the genre of technical and highly melodic
Death Metal. Here and there, e.g. on songs like 'The Plaque Divine'
or 'Daughter Of The Lupus Moon' you can listen to influences
of old AT THE GATES ("With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness"
period), but this five-piece comes up with a pretty individual sound.
Especially the vocals are more Death Metal inspired compared to
the overdose of Gothenburg acts. THE EMBRACED also try to include
a lot of variation, for example the acoustic track 'Apart'is pretty
folk inspired and also contains some female vocals. All in all a
very refreshing album which is recommended to people into both brutality,
heaviness and melody.
Schenk
BACK
EMBRACE
OF THORNS
Atonement Ritual
(Nuclear War Now! Productions)
34:31min
The effective use of repetition is an art lost on many practitioners
of Death Metal. All too often the assumption is made that the
intricacy of Death Metal is predominantly related to the level of
technicality employed by the musicians. A distinctly different form
of richness can emerge, however, through the use of repetition. This
works particularly well with simple yet powerful riffs that, when
properly presented to the listener, can plunge him into a
hallucinatory trance. VON may have been the most effective band at
both writing such riffs and repeating them unflinchingly just long
enough to allow the music to alter the mind-state of the listener.
Greece’s EMBRACE OF THORNS have also proven to be masters of this
technique on their second full-length, “Atonement Ritual”. Far
more impressive than their first album, “Atonement Ritual”
delves more deeply into the darker elements of Death Metal and
eschews much of the bestial character that the band relied upon on
its first album. Here, EMBRACE OF THORNS focus on cultivating
simple, precise, and elemental Death Metal. The term simple
should not be assumed to be a pejorative in this case, however. The
creation of a pure and simple riff unencumbered with needless frills
is not an easy task which is why so many bands hide beneath a cloak
of technicality instead. The riffs employed on “Atonement
Ritual” are laden with venom and presented plainly for the
listener to judge. It is only with boldness and confidence that a
band can release such an austere work because, if the songwriting
were not completely sound, this album would fall flat. EMBRACE OF
THORNS clearly do not lack confidence in this regard and the
resulting work is magnificent. They establish riffs and repeat them
until their pestilent character is fully manifested. Every chord is
meticulously selected. Every note carries such gravity that the all
of the surrounding notes bend in its wake and converge upon a
singular point and then the cycle repeats. Engaging and hypnotic,
each song builds upon a simple structure that is typically only
subjected to nuanced and delicate changes all of which demonstrate
the level of craft with which EMBRACE OF THORNS approach their
music. The band shows its ability to accentuate the songs at exactly
the proper moments with the use of guitar leads or occasional vocal
effects, yet they never resort to gimmicks of any sort. The drums
are left slightly low in the mix even though it is clear that the
drummer is playing furiously loud throughout the album and is
perhaps the most chaotic and unrestrained member of the trio, while
the bass guitar assumes a more central role than on most Death Metal
recordings. The guitars create the core of the song structure, yet
are mixed in such a way as to never render the drums, vocals, or
bass obsolete in the mix. Often the drums are delivered in a
frenetic and anxious pace while the guitars ring out and riffs are
played at half the speed of the drums. The effect is disorienting
and represents EMBRACE OF THORNS’ control over their palette of
disorder. The release is executed with precision and perfection on
every level - musically, lyrically, artistically. Nearly flawless,
this album quickly saturates the mind of the listener and demands
repeated listens. www.nwnprod.com
Jason Campbell
BACK
EMBRIONAL / EMPHERIS
The Spectrum Of Metal Madness (Split CD)
(Old Temple Records)
45:04min
Splits usually go unnoticed, unless the bands who participate on them are noteworthy to begin with. On rare occasions, the bands are good enough that they earn a fanbase by the strength of their contribution to the record. While not the best split ever recorded, this one between EMBRIONAL and EMPHERIS is above the pale. EMBRIONAL play a cross between ORIGIN and mid-career MORBID
ANGEL - a strange mix, but it works well enough. EMPHERIS, who occupy the B-side of the split, are technically better players, but their music mixes not at all with EMBRIONAL. EMPHERIS is like a strange wedding betwixt the best of old Heavy Metal riffs, and Gothenburg melody. In essence, you might say they're simply a Gothenburg-influenced band, but they're far slower and more Metal than the Gothenburg camp.
A couple of cover songs are included as well (EMBRIONAL
recorded songs by MAYHEM, SARCOFAGO, PESTILENCE and a SLAYER /
MORBID ANGEL / POSSESSED - instrumental mix, while EMPHERIS
went for classic stuff by ASSASSIN, THE RAMONES, BLASPHEMY and
OBITUARY). Not a bad split, but the divergent styles of the two bands is a little disruptive.
www.embrional.republika.pl,
empheris@interia.pl,
www.oldtemple.com
Nat Shapiro
BACK
EMBRIONAL
Cusp Of Evil
(Old Temple Records)
41:01min
EMBRIONAL's debut, "Cusp Of Evil", may quickly be the envy of up and coming Polish bands. Once upon a time, bands such as VADER and BEHEMOTH wrote real riffs rather than triggered their drum kits to keep pace with digitized guitar noodles. EMBRIONAL write music the way their Death Metal forebears once did, and we can only hope that they continue to do so. Inbetween several horror movie-like intros are songs with thankfully modest blast beats (too many bands use the blast beat too often), and riffs with just the right kind of melody to sound both interesting and savage. EMBRIONAL is refreshingly modest as well. They don't tout how
oldschool they are, and then proceed to waste your time with garbage song material better suited to ARCH ENEMY. No, this band is serious and authentic enough not to get in your face.
www.embrional.republika.pl,
www.oldtemple.com
Nat Shapiro
BACK
EMETH
Insidious
(Brutal Bands Records)
31:11min
I discovered these guys through the excellent "Face Your Underground"
compilation series from our dedicated fellows at www.DeathMetal.be...
EMETH were featured on Vol.2 with the track 'Catatonic Entanglement', which made
me pretty curious already, so I contacted them for some more material right away.
Even though the band is already active since late 1997, it took them several
line-up changes until they were able to play their form of relentless, brutal
Death Metal in March of 2001... But in September 2003 they finally ended up
recording nine tracks of their own at the famous Excess Studios for what was to
become their debut album "Insidious". The result is a real merciless
onslaught and definitely another perfect choice as the ultimate soundtrack to
armageddon! Judging EMETH just by the material on offer here, they are without a
doubt one of Belgium's most uncompromising Death Metal hordes of all time! Their
music comes really close to a battleground, with the drums being the machinegun
fire, while the heavy sounding rhythms detonate like bombs in your speakers and
the insane, savage riffing is crunching everything in sight like a tank on a
rampage! You'll easily notice that we're dealing with very experienced musicians
here, cause technically there's some pretty complex parts to be found in their
writing.
As there's only very short spaces in-between the songs, you'll hardly find the
possibility to catch some breath, so you are constantly about to be hacked,
dismembered and mutilated until the disc reaches its last two minutes and an
acoustical guitar piece finally brings back some silence. In case you're
already bored by the majority of the established American Death Metal acts of
the first generation and if you can't stand the inhuman sounding DEVOURMENT /
DISGORGE etc. vocal-style either, EMETH might be your right choice! They are far
more intense (partly even a bit monotonous), but deliver their vocals in a very
deep and inhuman, but never unnatural manner. A very brutal act indeed, totally
worth being checked out! If your favorite mailorder doesn't offer the CD don't
hesitate to contact the band or their label directly at www.emeth.be,
respectively http://label.brutalbands.net/.
Frank Stöver
BACK
EMETH
Reticulated
(Brutal Bands Records)
31:29min
Even if I write for Voices, I actually read this webzine first and foremost as a
fan, constantly seeking for new acts of interest. Frank’s review regarding
EMETH's first full length captured my interest, and it took no time for me
ordering the new album of this Belgian band, “Reticulated”. Well, I could
have simply cut and paste Frank’s review, so much it is relevant to describe
this record. EMETH belong to this new wave of brutal and extremely technical
Death Metal bands labels like Unique Leader made us accustomed for. To be
technical in music is often a perilous bet to take, because the barrier
separating excellent songs from nonsensical sterile demonstrations is tenuous.
Let’s say that EMETH offer a bunch of decent compositions, but the
album needs time to be fully comprehensible.
Personally I have to admit that something bothers me in this album, but I
don’t know what exactly. The production made by Daniel Bergstrand is faultless
(even if the sound is too modern to my ears, I guess fans of Bergstrand’s work
will be ravished), the five musicians involved give all they can to convince,
yet I think the music becomes a little bit too abstract in the end. It is not
that I don’t like technical Death Metal and circumvolutions in song writing,
but in this genre, a band like PSYCROPTIC convinces me way much more. Despite
their (too much) frantic efforts to build up varied songs, the EMETH musicians
come up with a monotonous record that appears more like an amorphous mass of
melted together riffs than a group of well delineated songs. On too much rare
occasions, when the band slow down the pace and try to bring forth a relaxed
ambience (like in ‘Synoptical Incoherence’), EMETH show interesting ideas,
too bad they didn’t base the whole album on contrasts. I am sure this record
can find its public, but I can’t myself recommend it as a mandatory purchase. www.brutalbands.net.
Edouard Vergriete
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EMPALIGON
Black Dominated Annihilation
(Autopsy Stench Records)
45:45min
I don't know why this record gets advertised as the continuation of BEHERIT's
“Messe Des Mortes” as I am not able to find ANY resemblances. Instead this
German trio delivers nordic influenced Black Metal at a raging speed which makes
it compareable to DARK FUNERAL perhaps. Some riffs have a slightly chaotic
character but the overall atmosphere is very akin to their Norwegian fellows…
also the drum patterns with their use of breaks and stops follows that certain
structure of composition even though I wouldn't speak of a copy here, no. As I
have neither heard their demo nor their split with TRIUMVIRAT XUL I cannot
comment whether they sounded different. Anyway, the material is far from being
bad although I expected a bit more to be honest. I recommend that you give this
album (which is a re-release showing the cover that was intended by the band
instead of the cheesy one supplied by Dragon Designs on the first pressing) a
listen if you are into fast nordic styled Black Metal with extreme vocals
somewhere between throaty croaking and whispering. The nine tracks are performed
in a tight way and no keyboards are featured here (apart from some seconds at
the beginning of the disk). I am sure this material (recorded 1999, by the way)
will appeal to some fans of that genre – but don't get fooled by its
advertising. The LP version is limited to 500 copies. I don't know whether
EMPALIGON are still active but you may try to contact them at the following
adresses: R. Ostasch, Am Annaschacht 16, 92237 Sulzbach – Rosenberg, Germany.
Email: EMPALIGON@gmx.de
Ulrich Kreienbrink
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EMPEROR
Prometheus - The Discipline Of Fire & Demise
(Candlelight Records)
51:48min
EMPEROR's farewell album (at least for me) turned into a huge disappointment.
And the reason is plain and simple - I can't consider it as a real band effort
with all necessary EMPEROR trademarks! The musical abilities and production
is absolutely out of the question here - it's the songwriting in general, which
is simply too much focused on Ihsahn's personal musical preferences. If you
ever got your hands on the PECCATUM and THOU SHALT SUFFER releases, you will
probably know what I'm talking about. The entire material got even more complex
than ever before and therefore is heavily lacking in the dark atmosphere the
band used to create on older releases. All you get is tons of weird guitar licks,
riffs and keyboard sounds, but at the end of the day most of it unfortunately
goes nowhere. I hate to say this (as I enjoyed everything that came out under
the EMPEROR moniker so far!), but "Prometheus - The Discipline Of Fire
& Demise" is a little too ambitious for my taste. It often is so weird
that you could call it jazzy and that doesn't really work too well in combination
with the brutality (mainly due to the vocals) that is still left from the old
days. It probably would've become a way better album if Ihsahn would've stuck
to the classical inspired parts ('In The Wordless Chamber' is a kinda cool song
in that direction), as those too styles fit together a lot better when it comes
to creating dramatic eerie musical scenarios. With this album EMPEROR unfortunately
can also be added to the list of fellow Norwegian acts ARCTURUS, ULVER, MAYHEM,
COVENANT, DODHEIMSGARD
etc. who all started out straight and brutal and became more and more experimental
later on. Too bad, really... Maybe this should've been released as a Ihsahn
solo effort (which it basically is...), under his own name instead of using
EMPEROR for his creativity overflow.
Frank Stöver
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EMPIRE AURIGA
Auriga Dying
(Moribund Records)
37:09min
When you describe your own band as "an epic tale, timeless vision and a superb recording", I'm afraid
you really have to support those words with actual facts which in this case I think EMPIRE AURIGA
falls short to say the least. Sure this has a trance-like atmosphere, militant
drone, the usual reference to the late BURZUM releases but that is not enough to say this is
somewhat original nor compelling to listen at all. It is not that I dislike the actual ambient stuff,
as a matter of fact, I enjoy it every once in a while but I have real trouble deciphering any
distinguishing patterns on this disc. There is definitely bits and pieces that might appeal
to a great extent if used as intros on a Black Metal album of some sort; anything but interesting
musical pieces as a whole I must say. For more info go here: www.empireauriga.we.bs.
Mario Cubero
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EMPTINESS
Oblivion
(Agonia Records)
37:10min
After hunting down exactly which EMPTINESS this certain band was, as there are at least six that I have heard about in recent
times (one from Brazil, one from Poland, one from Venezuela, one from Romania, one from Greece, and the one of whom we talk about this moment from
Belgium), I have to say it pays to have your act’s name put to rights through legal channels. Especially nowadays, six bands all with the same name? Ludicrous. Anyhow this album is the second in line for this Belgian bunch – the follow up to 2004’s “Guilty To Exist“ that I have not heard
(however if that isn’t more of a Thrash titled piece I don’t know what could be!) and yet I wonder aloud if I really need to hear that one, as this record here seems as it can stand well on its own, alone. Musically this EMPTINESS offers a heavily laden Doom infected Death Metal that is as melancholic as it is melodious. Think old GOREFEST, ANATHEMA, DISGRACE, and
KATATONIA, all the while delivered with an under tone of capable sincerity and a brutally honest heavy-handed approach. That in all honesty if you knew the actual background of this act, and the fact that this band, at one time, were three halves the Black Metal antagonists ENTHRONED! And still to this day consist of a couple of those ex-pandas within their ranks. You would know why I find this footnote of Metal truth so ironically humorous. One point that I will say in the band’s defense is that at least these previous Black Metallers had the gutteral adroitness to surrender ENTHRONED to the headman’s block, and not carry on in turpitude with an obvious and blatant money making change of musical attack to the stunned confusion of their fans, i.e. Poland’s BEHEMOTH, who have not only done this but who would rather try to goad people into believing that they are just as Death Metal as any in this particular genre’s field and in the same breath would trudge on with their Black Metal escapades intermixed as they wish without any believed faulter and in total obstinance.
Remember... Only Death is real! Contact: www.emptiness.be
or www.myspace.com/emptinessbe
or www.agoniarecords.com
Wes Rhodes
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EMPTY
The Last Breath Of Thy Mortal Despair
(De Tenebrarum Principio)
44:22min
Spain is one of the few European countries where it’s more than difficult
for me to name at least five Black Metal bands and so it’s no real surprise
that I never heard of EMPTY. The band is existing since 1995 and after
releasing a demo and their debut in 2001 they released their second album via
De Tenebrarum Principio in March 2008. EMPTY are playing traditional Black
Metal with strong roots in the first wave of Norwegian Black Metal bands of
the early 90s and especially MAYHEM is without doubt a strong inspiration for
this band. Honestly speaking EMPTY's
music really needs time and the full focus of the listener , all songs are 6
up to 9 minutes long and next to the traditional Black Metal parts the band is
working with some dark hypnotic elements to emphasize the
vastness of their creation. My first impression of this releases has
dramatically changed after listening to “The Last Breath…” for nearly
two weeks because the band knows how to focus on the pure Black Metal essence
without walking the path of sorrow which so many bands had walked before.
Nevertheless it will take some time to find the right path to EMPTY's music
but it’s for sure worth investigating. A very passionate underground release
which hopefully find its listener. www.detenebrarumprincipio.eu
Matthias Auch
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