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VACANT COFFIN
Sewer Skullpture
(Razorback Records)
33:00min
I haven’t heard much other than Progressive Metal à la Children of Bodom come out of Finland for a while so this is a welcome change. Can you guess what we’ll get this time from Razorback Records? This trio “from the rotting sewers of Finland” is a blast beat heavy mix of Grindcore with tons of fast riffs and the occasional melodic guitar solo. The playing is decent and the production just muddy enough to give it that extra old school feel. Nothing new here but if you never tire of the early
Carcass and Napalm Death sound, you should love this.
www.myspace.com/vacantcoffin
Jesse Light
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VADER
Reign Forever World
(Metal Blade Records)
32:22min
VADER have been a strong force in the Death Metal underground ever since the
band's origin. But for one reason or another I always preferred their liveshows
over their studio albums and therefore started to lose interest in their releases
at one point. There simply was too much stuff coming out in a short period of
time, plus I didn't really like their evolution in the vocal department too
much, which was drifting apart from brutal Death Metal a little too much here
and there. Anyway, "Reign Forever World" is not a real new
full length, but a compilation of cover tracks by DESTRUCTION ('Total Desaster'
– played a little too fast for my taste), JUDAS PRIEST (a cool version of 'Rapid
Fire') and MAYHEM (quite okay sounding...), two live songs (that got recorded
at the Thrash 'Em All festival in August 2000), two bonus tracks from the Japanese
edition of "Litany" and three brand new tunes. So, all in all
for VADER fans this is an essential and valuable purchase as it's being sold
for a rather cheap price as far as I can recall.
Everyone else should better pick up a regular release of these Polish warriors.
On sale
here .
Frank Stöver
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VADER
Revelations
(Metal Blade Records)
33:27min
Nothing has really
changed when it comes to VADER, apart from the fact that bassplayer Shambo got
replaced by a guy named Simon on the band's newest, by now already 12th offering
(also considering all live and compilation releases). Musically they still stick
to their thrashin' form of Death Metal somewhere between old SLAYER and MORBID
ANGEL and deliver the wellknown quality - great cover art, clean yet powerful
production, good musicianship and always very intense. I still can't stand the
growling vocals... and in order not to break with another old tradition, the
album's playing time ended up around the 30 minutes mark once again. VADER is
one of the longest running extreme Metal bands (their origin goes back to 1986
by now!) and therefore probably the most professional one, but I still wouldn't
necessarily consider them Poland's finest just because of all that. Throughout
the years many new bands appeared on the scene (and I'm only referring to
country mates of VADER here!) that all sound a lot more hungry, brutal and
intense than VADER ever did. They are all skilled musicians, deliver top notch
productions as well - and in comparison, I always liked their material alot more
than what VADER constantly release on record. Of course tastes are different and
the fact that VADER is still very successful might prove me wrong, but it won't
change my opinion nevertheless. Good stuff for die hard VADER fans, but
certainly not exciting enough to win over a new generation of Death Metal fans. Go
here to order a copy.
Frank Stöver
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VADER
Impressions In Blood
Regain Records
37:12min
A rather unique phenomena in the underground is to have a band with such impeccable set of killer releases one after the other. Still, VADER became
stagnant on "The Beast" album two years ago and anybody could have heralded
their imminent demise after such bad move. Surprisingly enough they returned late 2005 with a taster EP of what would
be like VADER 2006. The "Art Of War" EP left us wounded and definitely wanting
for more. Now they strike back with "Impressions In Blood", the album their
faithful fans like me have been waiting for since "Revelations". VADER has managed to grace our ears with a cleverly produced piece of Death
Metal art for which I cannot complain anything about. Extremely talended musicanship, godlike execution
and incendiary aggression are the strongest selling points of these Polish legends that can be easily considered the
best in its genre. It is just fascinating for me to wonder where these guys take their riffs
from... it seems like an endless fountain arises in their backyard or something because song after song virtually turns into a riff fest delight
of unimaginable proportions. Horns up for the almighty VADER... the undisputable kings of the European
Death Metal... often imitated never equalled! I better replay the album a good 10 times more instead of typing how great this actually is...
Run and buy it if there is still a small dose of good musical taste in you. Visit their
site at: www.vader.pl.
The CD is available
here.
Mario Cubero
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VALBORG
Songs For A Year
(self-financed)
77:49min
This review comes a bit late as it was unfortunately buried somewhere on my hard
drive but good music is never dated – furthermore, VALBORG have just released
their first full-length “Glorification Of Pain” this April so the circle is
sealed… here we go: having already reviewed material of the splendid ISLAND (
I suggest you read the reviews which can be found here as well), I am happy to
present another band comprising some of the same musicians, namely VALBORG.
Whereas ISLAND recently became quite a moody and calm affair, VALBORG seems to
capitalize more on aggressive aspects. “Songs For A Year” seems to be some
kind of a concept album, mirroring the time between August 2002 and 2003. The
songs are in the chronological order in which they have been written, taking the
listener on a journey with VALBORG, so to say. Musically, this band is a bit
hard to label as it is in a grey zone between progressive music, Death Metal,
Black Metal and more… the band draws influences from acts as different like
more recent ENSLAVED, NEUROSIS, ULVER and maybe IN THE WOODS and VED BUENS ENDE
as well as GORGUTS (some of the disharmonic brutal riffing). Instead of
resulting in a mediocre or embarrassing mixture without direction, this leads to
a captivating, dramatic, raw and brutal but also deep and even emotional album
– I have no idea if it was intended that way, but the clear layout (showing an
old cottage) and clichée-free band picture taken in the woods combined with the
music with all its facets gives this album a somewhat heathen or pagan feeling
without clichée (in contrast to most of the ridiculous humpa bands decorated
with runes and whatnot). Besides the dissonant brutality and psychotic to deep
vocal delivery there are also calmer, almost epic moments with clear vocals. One
detail sound fetishists might have a problem with is the fact that for just
three songs a proper studio has been utilized, whereas the remaining ten songs
have been recorded in a rehearsal room – still, the production is far from
being raw or noisy. “Songs For A Year” is still available at www.zeitgeistermusic.com
for a mere 7 Euros.
Ulrich Kreienbrink
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VALE OF SIDDIM
Tormented By Witchcraft (7"EP)
(Worship Him Records)
9:42min
Ok, this blew me away! This is a project of Herr Ra, mastermind and vocalist behind NECROS CHRISTOS and DROWNED. But, this is much darker and deeper than both of these bands combined. And, believe me, this burrows in the underground of the occult soul to the very
possible end. Trance-inducing, hypnotic, estatic - it is everything fans of Occult Death Metal could wish for. Although the music is fairely fast,
the general feeling you get from listening to it is calm and slow understanding of someone's dark side.
The vocals are not rushed in any way and are totaly undechiprable - they are measured and totaly self-confident which is a big plus. Minus, for me, was that if you know
NECROS CHRISTOS' opus this does not bring a lot of new things to the airwaves. For example, the guitar magic is waved by the same magic wand. But that didn't put me off and I enjoyed it immensely.
A perfect EP for the Nuclear Winter and Blood Harvest labels to publish: is there a better compliment to get as
a Death Metal band? Oh, but I forgot - the EP is really short, but worth of your money more than a lot of things out there.
This will be an underground cult classic. Drown yourself here: www.myspace.com/valeofsiddim,
www.myspace.com/worshiphimrecs
Branko Matijasevic
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VALKYRJA
The Invocation Of Demise
(Northern Silence Productions)
43:58min
Probably you know the little ritual, thinking about the most impressive record
of a gone by year. Of course I did
so on December, 31st, too. For the year 2007 it was quite easy even though the
last year offered a lot of brilliant
records. My personal favourite is the debut (!!!) album of VALKYRJA, a young
band hailing from Sweden. Regarding their compositions on "The Invocation
Of Demise" VALKYRJA easily venture into the highest ranks of Swedish Black
Metal. Judging the photographs of each VALKYRJA member they are seemingly in the
very early twenties, if at all. The more fascinating is the fact that they come
up with such a marvellous and deadly release. This album contains everything
that is obligatory for a timeless Black Metal classic as they come up with e.g.
freezing guitar riffs entailing epic and majestic melodies that send shivers up
and down your spine. Tight playing abilities are combined with excellent musical
and song writing skills leading into memorable compositions. Additionally
everything is completed with utterly raw energy. Although VALKYRJA are heading
forward with merciless blasting speed most of the time their compositions are
enriched with several tempo changes, breaks and hypnotic midtempo passages. The
first out of nine compositions is a short introduction starting with percussions
and a march like rhythm supported by thrilling guitar harmonies becoming more
and more dominant. The tension of what will come rises within every moment and
finally explodes into the first blast section of the second song 'As Everything
Rupture'. From the very first tune on VALKYRJA show what will become their
trademark on the whole longplayer: the perfect combination of epic melody lines
and the raging rhythm section. Several variations in tempo and themes occur in
the further course and suddenly five minutes are gone resp. the song is over.
One of the recurrent themes in this song let reminds me in its power on the
thrust of an accelerating jet engine. Especially after the long and very
effectively placed break in the middle of the song. Next tune ('Plaque Death')
is again a successful conglomerate out of the aforementioned ingredients.
Despite all the melodic guitar riffs VALKYRJA never loose the harsh and frosty
tone. A short acoustic guitar interlude enchants in the second half of this song
before VALKYRJA strike so mercilessly back with such an inhuman ferocious blast,
it makes your heart and brain crumble. The fourth composition 'The Vigil' breaks
with the previous formula and develops into a hypnotizing midtempo hymn. With
rising thrill it heads towards the climax at the songs end, a real heartrending
guitar solo. The harmonic the previous ending is, the more remorseless blasts
'Twilight Revelation' on for the next two minutes. No prisoners. With the sixth
tune called 'On Stillborn Wings' VALKYRJA perform a short instrumental that
prepares for 'Sinister Obsession', with nearly nine minutes the longest track on
the album. Both start with short atmospheric acoustic guitar passages before the
distorted guitars fade in. The latter furthermore reveals once again VALKYRJA's
trademarks at its best, adding a certain dramatic atmosphere of yearning. The
same goes out for the two remaining tracks 'Purification And Demise' and
'Frostland', each of them coming across on the same high level as the revious
songs. Production wise many bands are far behind the speakers seeming to lurk
deep within the forest or to march through abyssal valleys, just to create a
certain feeling. Not so VALKYRJA: instead their instruments are so much upfront
that they literally already stabbed your heart before you even really noticed
them. Everything was perfectly set on stage in Necromorbus Studio (e.g.
ARMAGEDDA, FUNERAL MIST, WATAIN) by Tore Stjerna. If you did not know it better,
you would think of a famous Unisound Studio production from the early nineties
and not of a current release. Just brilliant. Razor sharp guitars and a roaring
bass guitar merge with furious hart hitting snare attacks and a real double bass
thunderstorm. Hateful vocals reminding on the poisonous organ of WATAIN's Erik
complete the whole scenery. The percussions are mixed quite upfront in the
overall sound, therefore it might last a bit longer for some ears to get used to
it. I personally adore this kind of sound for its uncompromising manner (by the
way I also deeply adore the style of drumming). VALKYRJA neither reinvent the
melodic Swedish Black Metal nor are they the most original act around. Instead
of they come up with might and their debut possesses real class. Whereas the
originators already past away or are just a mere shadow of their own glorious
past VALKYRJA offer fresh blood and enthusiasm. Their debut album catapults you
back in time to the years of 1993 -1996 where several timeless classics emerged
from the Swedish swamps through labels as e.g. No Fashion Records. "The
Invocation Of Demise" delivers the same high quality as masterpieces like
VINTERLAND's "Welcome My Last Chapter", DISSECTION's "The
Somberlain" and "Storm Of The Light's Bane", MARDUK's "Opus
Nocturne", SETHERIAL's "Nord" or newer ones like WATAIN's
"Casus Luciferi". Although I listened to this jewel over and over
again, I am still very enthusiastic and filled up with pure energy each time I
enjoy it. My deepest gratitude goes out for VALKYRJA for delivering such a
brilliant release. If you cannot find "The Invocation Of Demise", you
may get it here: www.northern-silence.de.
Thomas Georg
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VARGRIMM
Des Wolfes Zorn
(Asatru Klangwerke)
54:03min
The first impression of this underground release is quite irritating because the
VARGRIMM debut comes with the full scale of voice over protection. For sure I
can understand the ongoing discussions about the new internet music environment
but like in the old days you should chose reliable underground partners instead
of blaming everybody; but these general issue should not deeply affect this good
release. VARGRIMM is – without sounding too negative - a typical German Black
Metal act with a lot of Viking / Pagan blood and their first release (ignoring
the self-released demo from 2009) is a more than solid start. The backbone of
the current VARGRIMM crew is consisting of former WALASKIALF members – a
further underground act active from 2000 up to 2007 - and so it’s no really a
surprise that the band is presenting a release without any kind of starting
problems. Musically the band is heading right into the RIGER (mainly) and MENHIR
(partly) territory with a highly aggressive Death / Black basic structure
supported by full German lyrics and omnipresent vocals by shouter Kai.
Especially songs like ‘Namenlos’ with an interesting chorus and the more
traditional ‘Vom Vater zum Sohn’ with a calmer background are the real
highlights of this release. The VARGRIMM debut is an interesting release for all
fans of the above mentioned bands, and with further ‘independent’ ideas a
more than solid release number two must be expected. Let’s see what Odin has
in mind for this young band. www.asatru-klangwerke.com,
www.myspace.com/vargrimm
Matthias Auch
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VARGSANG
Call Of The Nightwolves
(Undercover Records)
36:43min
Even
though I like this record a lot, I'm not quite
sure about the real intention of it. VARGSANG is the solo project of the GRAVEN
vocalist Vargsang and "Call Of The Nightwolves" didn't turn out more
experimental or any different from his main band (so, where's the point of
releasing a solo record then?). What you get here is simply another dose of very
basic and raw Black Metal, completely composed and performed in the wellknown,
northern oldschool tradition. It actually often reminds me on an early
BATHORY meets HELLHAMMER type of mixture. BATHORY for the overall evil and
aggressive atmosphere and HELLHAMMER for the simplicity in the songwriting
department. The vocals of Vargsang already knew to convince me on the GRAVEN
releases, and they still do here! This is the type of Black Metal voice I
totally worship: sinister and raw, but never shrieky or hysterical sounding, as
many other corpsepaint fellows often tend to sound like. His way of singing
simply has a lot of this grim feeling to it, which perfectly fits the
traditional raw Black Metal style. The eight featured songs (plus intro) are all
of a similar class, mostly played very midpaced to fast (without any annoying
highspeed blasting) and certainly won't let any die hard Black Metal lunatic
down. So, all in all a good one, but another GRAVEN album definitely would've
been more appreciated from my side (as there's already way too many projects
flooding the market). Label contact: www.undercover-records.de P.S.: I just got the info that
this
ain't a solo project, but a real new band of Vargsang as he has completely left
GRAVEN. The CD is on sale here.
Frank Stöver
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VARGSANG
Throne Of The Forgotten
(Undercover Records)
43:57min
This 2002 initiated, self-named one-man project was started by former
GRAVEN-member Vargsang (also in the musically fantastic, lyrically dubious
NORDISCHES BLUT) and with “Call Of The Nightwolves” already delivered an
excellent piece of raw, northern Black Metal in 2003. Their uncompromising, pure
and unadulterated approach is perfected on “Throne Of The Forgotten” which
tops its predecessor in every aspect. The “production” (the album was
recorded, mixed & mastered at the rehearsal space) is just great, razorsharp
and raw as fuck and unites with the more varied and less monotonous song
structures to a monument of Black Metal traditionalism. Spirit, atmosphere and
musical concept are just what the dedicated Black Metal maniac loves about the
mid-90s and captures me as well again and again. Fast and furious hatefulness
constantly is alternated with typical “rocking” Black Metal riffs and with
‘Raped And Hanged’ VARGSANG finally could come up with a pitchblack little
hit. So, don’t miss this harsh, powerful and honest album that denies any
innovation but offers pure delight to oldschoolers! www.undercover-records.de
Stefan Franke
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VARGSANG
Werewolf Of Wysteria
(Undercover Records)
40:27min
In today’s extreme Metal scene, and with countless of releases every month, it
becomes quite frustrating to look for a good release that will satisfy your
needs for quality in extreme Metal. Quality that decreases slowly in the big
pile of mediocrity released nowadays. Sterile productions and computer generated
bands are drowning this everywhere. Add to that the fact that some labels are
doing promotion with a quite limited budget or have very few time to do so and
things will be even more difficult. Sometimes the only source will be a fanzine
(or webzine) but then again few of them have their integrity intact, like this
one you are reading. Frank told me about this band being a great release. And as
I already know and enjoy many of the Undercover Records rooster, I approached
this one with confidence. The only reference I had beforehand of this German
band was the relation with the band GRAVEN a band which I have in high regards.
Well, VARGSANG goes in a very similar style of Black Metal. The main reference
in this case will be early BATHORY and early DARKTHRONE, but also I can hear
subtle early MAYHEM sound. The band is also doing a few solos here and there,
and they do it in a very convincing way. Also they are wise enough to have a
good and powerful production, yet maintaining a raw sound to it. If I am not
wrong this was all recorded in a rehearsal-like environment, as it all seems to
be recorded live yet with subtle studio work to keep the primordial intensity.
Their Black Metal style does not exactly keeps the same tempo all over, there is
a variation between and in the songs, from some faster ones to more mid-tempo
ones. There is a subtle melody involved in most of the compositions, yet it all
have a macabre atmosphere. This is quality Black Metal played with passion and
with no compromise. Still, I do prefer GRAVEN to this one, possibly for having
more powerful vocals and a more present guitar sound, but this one is a
contender. This is actually their third release, and so far few changes have
been between those discs, so it might also be a good idea to check out their
previous material. By the way, the name of the band is Norwegian for “wolf
song”. I guess those animals will be a nice companion while listening to this
in a full moon night… www.undercover-records.de
Julian Nuñez
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VARIOUS
ARTISTS
Altars Of Mad Death Vol. 1
(Diamond Productions)
75:00min
To be quite honest I find compilations pretty annoying and even underground
samplers like "Altars Of Mad Death" can’t keep my attention for too
long. In a way they seem pretty outdated considering the fact that you can find
MP3s at almost every underground band’s website. Of course a sampler is pretty
convenient as it presents a big amount of bands and when you’re no big friend
of the computer screen like I, this is still a good option to find out about new
bands. Still, I prefer hearing or reading about bands first, then check out what
they sound like and finally buy their CD. There is a reason for it as well: I
hardly know samplers where more than half of the bands keep me awake, let alone
impress me! One song usually doesn’t exactly represent a band anyway. Finally,
on "Altars Of Mad Death" some singers are sort of mediocre – or at
least not my taste and therefore spoil good songs (e.g. CARNAL LUST). Of course
there is some light on here: the opener MAELSTROM (pretty technical); HYPNOSIS
with dance beats and additional female vocals or oldschoolers BLOODY SIGN.
Certainly not a bad CD but I’d never buy it. Maybe directly check out the
featured bands instead? Well, at least it attracts some attention. Available for
14,- Euros postpaid in digipack. www.diamond-prod.com
Ramon Claassen
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VARIOUS
ARTISTS
And In The Darkness Bind Them - A Summoning Tribute (DoCD)
(Echoes Of Koliba Records)
106:02min
There are three undeniable facts if it comes to "The Lord Of The
Rings"! J.R.R Tolkien has written a good book; Peter Jackson has made
excellent movies and SUMMONING have composed the perfect Metal soundtrack to
this vast fantasy universe. First of all my deepest respect for this enormous
task because the presented double CD is without a doubt a true underground
release and you can nearly feel the heart blood which has been invested by
Echoes Of Koliba Records to materialize this tribute. The digipack comes with a
fantastic cover artwork - the burning Mountain of Doom created by Kogaion Art -
which Protector & Silenius would be proud to use for their next official
release. Musical there are light and shadows on this - to 500 items limited -
release mainly due the fact that not all bands have successfully captured the
unique SUMMONING atmosphere. The song selection is more than suitable with songs
from all major periods of the band starting with the (these days) untypical /
unfamiliar debut "Lugburz" up to the latest masterpiece "Oath
Bound" and even the "Nightshade Forest" EP has been honoured with
one track. Some bands returned with their interpretation to the dark roots of
SUMMONING - for example SARRATUM from Turkey - which gives the material a
blackened touch, other bands prefered to stay near the originals. The 13 bands
are coming from all over the world and it's in some way really impressive how
many individuals had been inspired by this Austrian band. Not all of them need
to be further introduced to fans of this style but the highlight of this over
100 minutes had been recorded by the American band GRIEFSHIRE - 'Land Of The
Dead' from the latest release "Oath Bound" - a great song presented in
a different light but without completely ignoring the original. A real tribute
and the perfect alternative for all of fans this outstanding act. www.myspace.com/echoes_of_koliba,
www.kogaion-art.com
Matthias Auch
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VARIOUS
ARTISTS
Berlin Extreme 2006
(Noise Control Productions)
68:57min
Ah, I always liked cool undergound compilations and this one is definetly cool!
Berlin is not Stockholm, Tampa, New York or whatever so I guess the featured
bands are unknown to most of you. Thanks to some great local Metal-clubs, bars,
concert-rooms, the "Stahlwerk" radio-show and the featured bands you
get the chance for a good inside view into Berlin's fresh Metal-underground for
a the fair price of 5,- Euro (plus postage outside the city). But now let's get
to the bands... One of the oldest and most popular bands on this compilation are
the old-school Deathers of HARMONY DIES with two tracks from their CDs "Don't
Trust" and "Impact" (for the last one you'll find some notes in
our review section). Also one of the elder ones are NECROMORPH with four Grind /
Crust
tracks from their "Inputcollapse" CD (again check out the review).
DAZE is next with two great highly-technical twisted Death Metal: gosh, I wonder
why this band hasn't been signed yet?! Incredible how technical this demo (!)
band is. Check them out! SECRETUM comes up with two Tampa influenced Death /
Thrash
tracks from their CD "Happy Killing Time". Quiet nice. Technical and
aggressive Thrash with a slight Death note comes from DAMNED DIVISION, also with
two tracks taken from their split with CHAOSPHERE who are featured as well with
two tracks from the mentioned split. And what a bastard the last band is!!
CHAOSPHERE could be Europes answer to CEPHALIC CARNAGE! Totally crazy, freaky
and highly technical Relapse Death Metal. Veeeery promising! Who's next? Ah yes,
the modern Deathers of UNSOUL: MORTA SKULD meets SIX FEET UNDER meets NOCTURNUS
keys. Not bad. "Welcome To Annexia" is the name of their CD where the
two tracks are taken from. Last two bands on this compilation are NONCHRISTIAN
with one track from their EP "Schattentanz" and ARS MORTIS with two
tracks from "Tempus Mortis". NONCHRISTIAN offer straight mid-tempo
Death Metal with a slight Black Metal feel to it and German lyrics. ARS MORTIS
play straight yet weird Thrash Metal with a touch of old Death Metal. Alltogether
a good mixture, although I missed some great bands like ORTH or SPAWN... but
fortunately a second part is planned for next year. So first keep your ears open
for CHAOSPHERE and DAZED but also get your copy of "Berlin Extreme
2006" from this adress:
www.berlinextreme.de
and support the underground.
Tim Klöcker
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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Berlin Extreme 2007 / Vol. 2
(Noise Control Productions)
47:07min
Allright - "Berlin Extreme" is going into the next round. This time they offer a wider variety of genres for they included Hardcore and Metalcore bands as well. Decide for yourself if you like it or not, still it gives a good insight of
what's going on in Berlin's metallic music-scene. The principle behind the compilation is the same as it was behind the last one from 2006 (of which the review can be found on this pages) so I just concentrate on the bands featured here. First band is REQUITAL which I think are not unknown outside the borders of the city with their straight CANNIBAL CORPSE influenced
Death Metal. Nice. The second act is DEVIANT ARTS with a version of Gothic-Death with
keys, male grunts and a female vocalist singing in the pathetic IRON MAIDEN vein. Not my type of music and thatfore not very impressing but at least the production is fine and the band knows how to handle their instruments. I have seen them live once and there show was
quite nice, so... Next band is quite known in Berlin, the modern Thrashers (not NU-METAL) of HARVEST. What I like about them is their slight VOIVOD touch in the clean vocals. The next bands ONE HOPE LEFT, INFIGHT as well as ANTICOPS play this Metalcore or Hardcore style I absolutely dislike so I will do myself and the bands a favour and spare them my review. If I had to choose between them I would pick INFIGHT for they are quite heavy and not that childish. PROCTON and SUBCONSCIOUS again play a very thrashy version of
Death Metal - THE HAUNTED with grunts and DEW SCENTED with Hardcore screams. Not bad but nothing special either. The last bands come from the
Death Metal genre again, GOREGAST with their cool primitive Deathgrind, technical SPAWN, strange, weird and impressing UNSOUL (better look out for this guys in the future!) and last but not least ultra fast SINNERS BLEED with
GOLEM's Eric on drums (together with SPAWN and UNSOUL definetly the best band on this sampler). Unfortunately there is no real outstanding band on this CD which shows a problem Berlin has in my opinion: all bands are way too much focused on their own genre, nobody pushes the limits further in any direction or an indicidual sound. It has to be
Death Metal only, Thrash Metal only, Hardcore only and so on. For a creative city like Berlin I would expect more creative bands, and not the 2115342634th technical Death- or
Thrash Metal band without an own identity (!). Don't get me wrong: the bands here are more or less all cool, but where are the absolute crazy ones? Maybe UNSOUL is the clue, I
don't know. so far so good... All information about the bands (bios, pictures, logos...) are on the
CD's multimedia track. If you are interested in getting a copy of Berlin Extreme check out the website:
www.berlinextreme.de
Tim Klöcker
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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Better Undead Than Alive (Double CD)
(Code666 / SPV)
68:42min
51:38min
Not
bad for a record company compilation, not bad at all! Code666 put together 24
more or less unreleased songs (rough mixes, rare tracks and exclusive stuff)
that are supposed to create an album that also works as a unit – despite all
those different bands. And, indeed, the music is floating – every new song
neatly fits in its place. The sampler features bands such as ABORYM, RAKOTH,
BLOODSHED, MANES, NEGURA BUNGET or AGHORA (feat. CYNIC members Sean Reinert and
Sean Malone). A broad variety from (Industrial) Black or Death Metal over sort
of Folk and Medieval Metal to jazzy Progressive Metal. My faves are the proggies
AGHORA and ATROX (both with female vocals), THEE MALDOROR KOLLEKTIVE, ENID (a
bit like FALCONER), VOID OF SILENCE and NEGURA BUNGET. You see, the list is
getting longer and longer while I’m typing. That’s because there is
something for almost every mood, besides, the sampler puts you into the right
mood anyway, you don’t have a choice. Finally, the second CD contains a
multimedia section like a complete MP3 live performance by AGHORA in Florida, a
NEGURA BUNGET video shot in the Carpathian mountains in 2001 and a hidden game
(haven’t found it yet). The first one to win the game gets a free life-time
subscription of all the code666 releases! The more I listen to "Better
Undead Than Alive", the more I use the multimedia section and the more I
think about it, the more I’m sure I can recommend this compilation to you
whole-heartedly. In case you’re a little open-minded in terms of Metal
you’ll recognize that code666 do have a couple of jewels that avoid the paths
of the masses. www.code666.net.
Also available here.
Ramon Claassen
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Black Lotus Records
DVD
-
Sampler
(Black Lotus Records)
approx. 50min
Unusual
enough for a smaller label, Greek Black Lotus decided to release a label sampler
in DVD-format, consisting of 12 videos. To be honest, I never really understood
why Metal bands should use marketing tools such as video clips since there’s
hardly any airplay for it and due to the low budgets the results are, frankly
put, underwhelming in almost every case. And this sampler offers no exception to
the rule. The “highlights” are delivered by NAER MATARON who come up with a
simple, yet atmospheric black ’n white piece and NIGHTFALL with a not too
exciting, but professional work. The rest is a mixture of amateurish
live-recordings in very poor bootleg-quality (THANATOS, LUNA FIELD) and
rehearsal shots by (at least to me) rather unknown Power Metal acts such as
INACTIVE MESSIAH or BATTLEOAR. But the worst is definitely saved for last with
the video for ANGELS ‘Don’t Wanna Run’. There’s another clip by this
incredibly untalented young woman opening this audio-visual “Geisterbahn”
where she’s presenting her unique selling points in a tight red leather dress.
But the clip for the aforementioned ballad that closes the whole thing is truly
one of a kind. If you’ve ever seen one of those dilettant videos where East European
ladies get rid off their clothes that are shown on television in the later hours
of the night (and I’m sure you have, filthy little bastards!), you already
know what to expect here. Except the girl stays dressed and the music in the
background is even worse. Well, if all that could not keep you away from this,
pay a visit to the labels website at www.black-lotus-recs.com.
Torsten Gründig
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Century Media - Covering 20 Years Of Extremes (DoCD)
(Century Media Records)
134:19min
Century Media, to celebrate their 20 years in the Metal world, have recorded the best of their roster recording some of their most popular songs. Some of the bands playing covers are covered themselves like GRAVE. Their classic
'You'll Never See' is covered by THE FORSAKEN. Other noteworthy songs are
ASHPHYX's rendition of CELTIC FROST's 'Os Abysmi Vel Daath', and DEVIAN's version of
MORGOTH's 'Isolated'. There are many more tracks totalling in a whopping one hour and thirty four minutes of
Metal. Covers are fun, but they're often recorded hastily or suffer from the band troping the song to fit their preference. THE FORSAKEN added a misplaced blast beat on the GRAVE track, much like Zakk Wylde rapes Randy
Rhoad's 'Crazy Train', and a few BLACK SABBATH's 'Iron Man' with harmonic squeals. Never fear, for this is not characteristic of the compilation as a whole. Besides,
it's never wrong for a band to salute its mentors with a cover tune once in a while.
www.centurymedia.com
Nat Shapiro
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Brazilian Assault
(Relapse Records)
66:00min
This is really a cool idea and definitely worth being supported! Relapse Records
compiled a bunch of extreme bands for their Underground Series and released
some very promising demos on a single CD to introduce them to a wider audience.
On "Brazilian Assault" (as far as I know there's also a "Japanese
Assault" circulating as well) you're getting four bands out of South
America, that all show a lot of potential. The most professional one of them
is without a doubt ABHORRENCE, who in the meantime already released their debut
full length (for further details check out our review - and interview-section).
The three songs off their "Triumph In Blasphemy" demo from
1999 are not only technically very well executed, but also prove that a good
production is definitely possible down there. Their fast and brutal Death Metal
in the KRISIUN vein, with several hints of good old SLAYER in the riff department
works out just perfectly. The following two bands OPHIOLATRY and NEPHASTH (who
are featured with their "Opposite Monarchy" and "The
Merciless Face Of Evil" demos respectively) are musically pretty much
along the same lines, but unfortunately suffer from a weaker sound. But you
can still easily notice that they both have highly talented musicians in their
line-up. OPHIOLATRY also have an even deeper grunting frontman than ABHORRENCE
and NEPHASTH, a fact of which die hard Death Metal freaks probably might get
a kick out of. The last band, MENTAL HORROR (now signed to Necropolis / Deathvomit
Records), is the one which appears with the most songs (two were exclusively
recorded for this compilation, while the rest appears courtesy of their 1998
"Extreme Evolutive Trauma" demo). But they're also the ones
I find less appealing as they are obviously more rooted in the Grind genre and
therefore partly come across quite noisy sounding. But anyway, this compilation
is definitely another proof of the healthiness of the Brazilian extreme Metal
underground, which sounds a lot more honest to me than all those Scandinavian
copycats. Plus this is a good opportunity to check out four quality demos out
for the price of a CD. Order it here.
Frank Stöver
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A Collection Of Noisymotions (DVD)
(Osmose Productions)
Approx. 150min
Osmose Productions had the excellent idea to literally cram tons of video clips
in one DVD which sums up the visual history of the label so far, and the result
turns out extremely convincing! All I can say is that all the tracks featured
here are pleasant to watch to say the least. On the most sick and disturbing
side, you certainly enjoy both ARKHON INFAUSTUS (‘Whirlwind Journey’) and
ANTAEUS (‘Blood War III”) clips, proving that the French extreme Metal scene
is more than healthy today. Really offending material. Another clip worth to
mention is the ABOMINATOR one (‘Renegades Of Hell Command’, a FANTASTIC
track, an instant classic) where the editing work is remarkable, with a perfect
synchronization of the soundtrack (directly taken from the essential
“Subversive For Lucifer” album) with studio and live footage. The price of
the most bewitching and beautiful segment goes to ABSU for ‘Fantasizing To The
Third Of The Pagan Vision’: strange occult visual atmosphere to illustrate an
adventurous and sinuous song, a true journey into the dark side! IMPALED
NAZARENE takes the lion’s share here, with no less than six videos featured.
One of them (‘Hardboiled And Still Hellbound’) proved to be peculiarly funny
in my camp, reminding me silly cover arts of both
NWOBHM and German cheesy early 1980 Metal albums, but put in motion this time.
Yeah, a cool chick indeed! The palm of originality, both musically and visually,
goes to NOTRE DAME (three clips included here), an alliance of French
Grand-Guignol and Italian Horror B-movies perhaps? The most funny and moronic
clip is certainly the GEHENNAH one, with a certain SPINAL TAP vibe surrounding
it: refreshing indeed to see Metal dudes who take themselves not that seriously
and enjoy stupid fun! I stop here the surely fastidious enumeration of all the
acts included here; I can’t cite everything and everybody! Let’s say that
the bonus section of this DVD offers even more! No less than five live tracks of
IMMORTAL featuring the classic line-up Abbath-Demonaz-Grim (RIP), footage of an
ANGELCORPSE performance (shot in Paris I think, if I am right, I was there,
right beside the guy who shot that), BLASPHEMY on stage somewhere in Europe (?),
only to cite the most interesting stuff. Of course, if you collect video
bootleg, maybe you own this special stuff already, but personally I am more than
happy to watch this stuff on an inalterable format! The only let down of this
superb DVD is for me the “At Home With Snowy” segment, a loss of time, where
Snowy looks more like a tired transvestite than anything else, embarrassing
really. Well too sum it up, I am far to have described all the richness of this
DVD. I am sure you understood you have to own this piece of plastic urgently.
Thanks Osmose for offering such a class product which proves the respect the
label always have to the Metal fans (that said without vile flattery!)
Edouard Vergriete
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Conqueror Of The Ibex Moon Vol. 1
(Conquer Records / Ibex Moon Records / Deathgasm Records)
65:15min
Two
US and one UK - based label teamed up for this compilation to present some of
their underground Death / Black / Grind acts to a wider mass. The better known
acts on this CD are ACHERON ('Church Of One') and INCANTATION ('Decimate
Christendom'), the rest is made up by underground extreme Metal newcomers
exclusively! Like with most samplers there are some really cool bands and some
that are pretty superfluous. Highlights are the Ibex Moon acts BLOODY SIGN,
FUNERUS, INCRUST, ESTUARY, which all offer interesting variations of oldschool
Death Metal and have all the necessary ingredients music of this stylistic
category simply has to have: spirit, drive, brutality, dedication, good
songwriting and musicianship. Then there's the DEICIDE - style brutal Death
Metal act SUPREME LORD signed to Conquer Records, which I found quite enjoyable,
violent, chaotic extreme Black / Death commando CRIMSON MASSACRE, twisted Death
/ Grinders KURU and primitive Black Thrashers MORBID EXECUTION (all on Deathgasm),
all of which offered some pretty nice material as well. Unfortunately apart from
these bands there is not anything too spectacular to be discovered on this compilation,
the remaining bands are Polish oldschool Death Metal act HELL-BORN, Chile's
atmospheric Death Metal act THORNAFIRE, Australian War Metal horde DAWN OF
AZAZEL, utterly crappy sounding dark Death Metal by PERISH SERAPHIC, horrible
Black / Grind excreted by ANGRY HATE INFESTATION, fierce Black / War Metal with
OSCULUM OBSCENUM, detuned brutal Death / Grind by NVE and moody Black Metal with
TENEBROUS. Overall a compilation with a kind of 50-50 balance of good and bad
material. Since I already own all the Ibex Moon Records releases I would not buy
this CD, but it's a nice way to check them out since these bands make every oldschool
Death Metal head smile!
Stefan Franke
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Contaminated 5.0 (DoCD)
(Relapse Records)
71:52min
70:19min
I don’t do label promotion usually (because to me, only the musicians count),
but I can only admit that Relapse Records could be seen as the home turf of some
of the most interesting, mind challenging and intriguing bands of today. In
fact, the majority of the artists hosted by Relapse bring a bowl of fresh air to
the poor of us who are polluted by second rate so called “extreme” bands!
And this mammoth of all samplers (45 tracks on a specially priced two CD set,
let’s simply talk about value for money!) proves that with ease. Among the
bands featured here, all are not that interesting of course. For instance, the
track ‘Warm Hands, Cold Heart’ by
the band 27, with its Björk-like atmosphere, got pretty severely on my nerves.
And what can we think about the noise bringers of HALO, except that their
“music” seems inaccessible to the basic Metal fans? Fortunately
“Contaminated 5.0” offers enough interesting tracks to content us. My
favorite ones come from bands like MASTODON (with the fantastic ‘March Of The
Fire Ants’ taken from their debut), ALCHEMIST (experimental Heavy Death Metal
from Australia, complex music and unusual
arrangements, a band worth to be checked for!), HIGH ON FIRE (a big surprise,
they play Heavy Doom with a plenty of influences from the 70s) and of course
PENTAGRAM (with a song taken from “First Daze Here”, reviewed elsewhere in
this zine; I beg Relapse to grace us with a volume II very fast! I can’t
wait!). The second CD of this set is more oriented towards regular extreme bands
like ORIGIN (featuring ex - ANGELCORPSE John Longstreth), MORTICIAN or
SUFFOCATION, and this is a little less interesting to me except for the song
from CEPHALIC CARNAGE, this one being incredible! Well, you understand it is
nearly impossible to review all the material on offer here, and I think getting
this sampler is mandatory anyway to expand one’s musical horizon. I salute
publicly the high quality of a label able to break musical barriers while
staying true to the roots of extreme Metal. Such integrity is rare enough these
days to be but loudly praised, don’t you think? Essential, and I could not
have imagined saying that about a sampler! DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN fans should
note that an exclusive live track is featured here, just to add a little more
interest to an already class release! Available
here.
Edouard Vergriete
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The Dead Pit Compilation
(Dead Again / Prick Productions)
67:13min
This
is not necessarily a compilation that I would personally listen to, if I wouldn't
have to for this review... But I bet there's a bunch of underground maniacs
out there who will completely freak out on it, so I will try to give you the
most important facts here. "The Dead Pit Compilation" is a 28 track
offering of the most extreme bands within the Grindcore and (partly) Death Metal
genre. 19 bands in total, from several parts of Europe and the U.S. are featured,
with material from their most current albums, EP's, demos, promos or whatever.
Some of them deliver a couple more tunes (I suppose that is because of the short
playing time of their songs), but when you listen to this compilation in its
entirety you will hardly recognize the difference anyway. Everything just seems
to vary between sick, more sick and completely sick. The sound quality is mainly
very raw and the majority of the bands deliver nothing but a blasting inferno
with insane vocals. For those of you who need even more info, here's the complete
list of names that are featured: GOREROTTED (UK), DEEPRED (FIN), PROPHECY (US),
INHUMATE (F), BRUTAL INSANITY (UK), PURGATORY (GER), REGORGE (Scotland), MACHETAZO
(US), BRAINCHOKE (UK), INTENSE HAMMER RAGE (AUS), ZARATHUSTRA (UK), INNER WAR
(US), BEEF CONSPIRACY (UK), AGATHOCLES (BEL), DROGHEDA (US), GROT (UK), MITHRAS
(UK), REPUGNANCE (SPA) and LEUKORRHEA (US). Welcome to the slaughterhouse!!
Contact and ordering details: Dead Again Records, P.O. Box 18516, London E11
3UJ, UK, e-mail: promo@deadagain.fsnet.co.uk
website: www.deadagain.fsnet.co.uk
Frank Stöver
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Death... Is Just The Beginning Vol. 6 (DoCD)
(Nuclear Blast Records)
79:52 & 79:11min
What originally started out as
a suitably named "Death...Is Just The Beggining" compilation of extreme
(Death) Metals artists on NBR has pretty much progressed to become a full label
compilation that includes all styles of music with less than 50% Death Metal
attitude in the meantime. However, this 6th edition will give you a brilliant
overview on Nuclear Blast's current repertoire (36 bands in total!) as it includes
a mixture of the most wellknown and outstanding tracks of all latest releases
as well as plenty of rare / unreleased material. The special material is: HELLOWEEN
- 'Deliver Us From Temptation' (solid non-album track with strong main verse!),
STRATOVARIUS - 'Why Are We Here' (midpaced half-ballad non-album track with
the typical soft Strato-hookline), IN FLAMES - 'Strong & Smart' (Unreleased
short cover track originally written by NO FUN AT ALL. Pretty cool idea...),
PRIMAL FEAR - 'Horrorscoop' (Unreleased but probably also an album-leftover!?),
SINERGY - 'Invincible' (pretty good unreleased PAT BENATAR cover), S.O.D. -
'Raise Your Sword' (funny and so far unreleased MANOWAR-Type anthem song with
over-the-top parody lyrics and playing!), THE KOVENANT - 'New World Order' (previously
unreleased Mat Sinner Metal Remix version of the "Animatronic" song
that doesn't sound much better than initially in this more guitar-driven, more
RAMMSTEIN-like version), PEGAZUS - 'Time Machine' (nice, raw BLACK SABBATH cover),
U.D.O. - 'Hardcore Lover' (solid unreleased song...what a title!), DESTRUCTION
- 'Whiplash' (cool METALLICA cover with some funny lyrical changes, so far only
available as special bonus track on the LP version of "All Hell Breaks
Loose" in Europe), OPPROBIUM - 'Massacre Of The Unborn' ("Previously
unreleased track"? Common, you don't fool an old deathrasher! This is a
re-recorded version of a song originally off the second INCUBUS album that sounded
far more intense before!), MORTIFICATION - 'Dead Man Walking' (in a live version..."Who
wants to hear some Jesus Christ Metal?") and SUSPERIA - 'Of Hate We Breed'
(demo version of a song from their debut "Seven Sins"). The wonderful
cover art has been once again designed by Kristian Wahlin and the whole release
comes in a some deluxe digipack outfit. Unfortunately there is only brief and
superficial liner notes to each of the bands without much further info on the
tracks and also the rest of the booklet / layout doesn't look very lovely either
because it's mainly pretty shitty outtakes from the cover-art in bigger and
not so good resolution. However, an interesting item for collectors due to the
fair amount of unreleased material! There is also a VHS and DVD version to be
released of this compilation series (different track-listings...), so watch
out in case you prefer to have these bands moshing your screens instead of your
stereo... On sale
here.
Leif Jensen
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Deathophobia Vol.VIII (DoCD)
(Earth A.D. Records)
you do not wanna know about the duration of this release...
I am flabbergasted,
startled and exhausted at once, dear reader. Obviously there seems to be a lot
of crap going on in our beloved scene... but hey, this should be self-evident
anyhow. This sampler series has been around for ages now and has always been a
good proof for this very fact... an interesting document reflecting upon the
state of affairs of Metal in Germany and some of its bordering countries. Partly
the bands presented here really bring across a rather deplorable impression,
partly I can observe vital potential nonetheless. But this apparently is the
essence of such projects I suppose. Now then, check this and judge for
yourselves. I cannot really recommend to buy this release - it is interesting in
terms of documentation, but this is, of course, a bit of a euphemism and beating
around the bush. Frankly, I must state here that sometimes I have the slight
impression that the intitiators of releases like the present one really do not
discriminate whatsoever and only pay heed to the very fact that they need to
collect financial means to cover the expenses of the publication (multiplication
needs to be compensated for and, of course, the cover design, which is awesome
in this case, has to be financed as well). I trust you know what I mean... but
honestly, 80% of the second CD were a real pain in the arse... talking about
beating around the bush ;-) Here we go. CD1: MY COLD EMBRACE: PRIMORDIAL -
influenced Black / Death... certain folk lements in it... sounds good to me.
SLID: vocalist pays homage to THE DILINGER ESCAPE PLAN, MESHUGGAH - influenced
guitars and drums, good ideas. SOMBER SERENITY: Black Metal, queer folk
influences, can't tell really. DEAD MEMORIES: melodious Black-Death Metal,
ok-ish. AD NOCTUM: Black Metal that sounds a bit DARK FUNERAL-ish on the guitar
level, singer rather Death Metal, sort of apocalyptic. DEFECTION: grotty sound,
cannot assign this really, Black Metal vocals, a bit rock-inspired riffing,
doesn't strike me as being very interesting. CUATRO X: melodious Death Metal,
reminds me of SENTENCED... no thanks. BLUTWURST BREATH: untight, down-pitched
vocals, sort of punky. ABYZZ:
standard Death Metal, singer sounds cool, melodious, guitars untight... slow
parts sounds like old-school Death Metal pieces. COMMON GRAVE: most extreme band
to that point, parallels that pop up checking this out: NAPALM DEATH,
DISINCARNATE, modern U.S.American approach. DISCREATION:
mid-paced Death Metal, vocals sound twisted and cool, a bit like a mixture of
hoarse Death Metal grunts and hardcore screams. SCORNGREED: best sound so far,
awesome guitar sound, hardcore vocals, groovy, frantic... likely to kick ass
live. BY BRUTE FORCE: solid song-writing, some hardcore influences, definitely
NAPALM DEATH-instpired. This really convinces me most so far. MORTAL
REMAINS: boring Death Metal, groovy, bass-drums sound like PANTERA, vocals
remind me of EXIT 13, nice try. PAINFUL DEATH: again: hardcore-inspired Metal,
solidly done, drums are brutal, sort of dark atmosphere, not bad at all. FLAG OF
DECAY: beginning sounds like being inspired by SLAYER, sort of dull sound, but
still: very threatening feeling, can't help it the vocals remind me of Trey of
MORBID ANGEL on the "Gateways..." album, strange but good. GRIN:
Thrash that reminds me of the magnificent WATCHTOWER, fanatic vocalist, not bad
at all. VICIOUS CIRCLE: sound a bit like PRIMORDIAL again, very epic, the vocals
seem to hail Danni of CRADLE OF FILTH, weird again --- but definitely
interesting. LPS: a bit of core elements again, these guys seem to appreciate
acts such as CEPHALLIC CARNAGE, hectic, crazy... the whole lot... good drumming
by the way. CD2: WASTELAND: good guitarists, mid-paced Death Metal, Thrash
elements in it as well, vocals remind me of BEHEMOTH (growls)... although this
probably isn't intended ;-) Solos definitely praise Kerry King and friends. MORTAL
TERROR: rock-riffs with vocals that decisively remind me of Barney again...
RAPTURE: riffing sort of old-school Thash-hailing, aggressive drumming,
role-models may be acts such as SLAYER, EXODUS etc. INCREDIBLE PAIN: cheesy
melodies, endeavouring to sound like current HYPOCRISY hymns? MANDATORY: not bad,
bands like GRAVE, DISMEMBER or UNLEASHED (latter with regard to vocals) seem to
be relevant for these guys, sounds cool. REVENGE OF INSANITY: these lads go for
late CARCASS stuff, sounds warped and convincing. TORMENT OF SOULS: sounds like
being played with intentions... nevertheless sort of hillarious, probably
unintended. OBNOXIOUS: the drummer really is obnoxious... the vocalist as well...
imagine a combination a combination of ICED EARTH and a grumpy goblin...
startling. DAVIDIAN: don't like vocalists that sound ultimately drunk and
show-offy, otherwise the composition sounds intricately interesting. SUBTERFUFE
CARVER: snare drum sounds like mom's pot when she is in a bad mood in the
kitchen, hardcore influences, singer sounds maniacal, strange, intersting. AWAS:
these guys thank good old Jesus Christ and play staccato-driven, aggressive,
utterly grotty Thrash devoid of the slightest indication of sophistication. I
doubt that Jesus would approve of this... he would criticize lack of inspiration
(quite literally), tightness and comittment I suppose, a real pain in the neck he
will muse and go on wondering what exegesis deducts from structurally eclectic
pericopes... poor me, may ears are all grumpy now. INFECDEAD: probably a track
that celebrates U.S. American brutalisers such as BRODEQUIN, LITURGY and friends.
Good approach... but guys, try to sort out
your drum compressors... this unbearable equalization really ruins it all and
honestly... editing the end of a track is high arts as well. Otherwise this
proves potentia
l. SEASONS IN BLACK: haven't got the faintest what this reminds
me of... a bit of Gothic, Death in it... doesn't touch me whatsoever. DAYS OF
GRACE: a bit of bombast at the beginning... these guys seem to love NEVERMORE,
good sound, solid musicians... of course, not as sublime as the original.
DOWNCAST: drum computer? Death Metal apparently influenced by Scandinavian stars
like DISMEMBER and the likes. DISPERSION: Death Metal that sounds like it has
potential... but please, will you guys leave out these superfluous melodies? DR.
COLOSSUS: stupid name, stupid music... how can your guitarists play such nonsense?
Wait until you have to say something serious with regard to music... and how the
heck does one create a guitar sound ultimately lacking a hint of elaboration? The
samples sound hillarious though... PARANOIZ: shame on you, guys... this is
mediocre Death Metal higgledy-piggledy. EXPLIZIT
EINASM: forgive my ignorance, mate - acts such as GOETHES ERBEN or RELATIVES
MENSCHSEIN have pondered more profoundly upon "Das Ding an sich".
Label contact: www.earth-ad.com
F.Cthulhu E.
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Demonic Plague - Tribute
To Death
(Dwell Records)
49:55min
Tribute-albums overkill! I personally
wouldn't say that "bigger" names necessarily need to appear on a tribute
album to make it appealing to the customer but at least the quality of the versions
should be included! Some tributes these days just smell like cheap cash-in and
this would also be the case with "Demonic Plague - A Tribute To Death"
released by Dwell Records. Bad things start with the terrible and totally out-of-the-place
cover art and rather poor booklet. The versions themselves don't really make
your / my day either, being a fan of Chuck Schuldiner and his boys: SOLUS from
Canada execute 'Defensive Personalities' the simple and straight way, missing
on all those small technical elements but highlighting the song with a blast-beat
on the guitar-leads passage. EXMORTIS is quite a long-active name in the underground
but 'Baptized In Blood' is just untight, raw old-school Thrash-Black metal with
a boring drum-machine and overall rather demo sounding quality. My buddies TORTHARRY
from Czechia do a solid version of the evergreen 'Pull The Plug' and only fail
a bit due to the GOREFEST type of vocal gruaaaants. MALAMOR's 'Suicide Machine'
attempt is just bad and once again shows that DEATH is a band musically so much
ahead of most of the Death Metal scene. WASTELAND from Germany do 'Evil Dead'
in OK Thrash Metal style with a funny acoustic introduction in the vein of GYPSY
KINGS. TERMINAL PLAN is just brutal demo-Death on 'See Through Dreams' and have
a disappointing sound quality. BLACK SPIRAL from the US only deserve credit
for replacing the guitar leads by piano-parts on 'Within The Mind' but otherwise
just suck while pretending to play the song. PESSIMIST seem to be on a rush
with '1000 Eyes' and aren't exactly keeping the original flow of this great
track, too bad! NEUROSILENCE from Norway play a solid, basic version of 'Trapped
In A Corner'. Nothing exciting but at least no huge insult here. FURY from Australia
should be one of the highlights on this album and their version of 'Sacred Serenity'
is pretty alright and driving. WAVES from Czechia close down the compilation
with a pretty different approach, as they perform 'Crystal Mountain' in an almost
ambient-like way, nice atmosphere and plenty of effects / samples with some
individual accent that stands out in comparison to the other versions on the
record. All in all a pretty lame tribute record, especially because DEATH is
a band that has so many great songs deserving praise by talented bands. I really
look forward to seeing the day where some label gets working on some quality
release to show respect to the masters of Death Metal. As for "Demonic
Plague" - please avoid! It is on sale here.
Leif Jensen
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Don't Burn The Witch - A Heavy Speed Compilation (10" EP)
(Midnight Records)
12:54min
This is not
exactly a compilation album, but a four-way split EP that originally even was
meant to become a 7". But as time
went on it finally turned into a 10" with a pretty impressive packaging
(the main title on the front-cover got printed in embossed black letters, the
subtitle in silver letters, the
first 200 hundred copies are pressed on coloured vinyl and include a massive
MINOTAUR patch)! There's four
bands on this vinyl-only release, and all of them supplied excluvive recordings
for a common goal, which is oldschool Thrash Metal! Germany's MINOTAUR
are probably the most popular act on here and due to their long lasting history
should be pretty much known to everyone into "Endless Pain" - era
KREATOR, cause that's exactly what their cool contribution 'Mass Suicide'
recalls. Joel Grind, the only member of Maryland's TOXIC HOLOCAUST, delivers a
very fine death thrashin' outburst entitled 'Army Of One', which is one of my
favorite tracks on offer here (the other one being 'Thrash Nightmare' by
Finland's EVIL ANGEL). That's what I call raw, oldschool Thrash straight from
the heart! No fuckin' retro overtones here! I really would like to hear more
material by both of 'em! On the other hand, I could easily live without
Switzerland's GOAT MESSIAH though, at least when I have to judge them by their
lousy countribution to this 4 tracker here:
'Rape, Kill, Destroy' is nothing but ridiculous, mainly due to the annoying
vocal delivery. But all in all this is a very cool project though that you can
easily support yourself by ordering a copy for cheap
$5.00 (world): Midnight Records, P.O. Box 340236, Sacramento, CA 95834 -
0236, USA, email: chemikill@hotmail.com.
Frank Stöver
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Embalmed Madness # 1
NERLICH / DECOHERENCE / GORGASM split CD-R
(Nihilistic Holocaust)
53:55min
This
three-way CD-R sampler was most probably made for a concert of three bands
featured here – and it must have been a great show according to the material
featured. The first are NERLICH from Finland with the tracks of their “Insane
Creations – Inorganic Echoes” demo. 'Degeneration Process', the opener,
instantly conjured up images of earlier MORBID AMGEL and MONSTROSITY, 'Lord Of
All Fevers And Plagues' and the second album respectively. Crowned by an evil
breathy midrange vocal delivery, NERLICH controlledly build their riffing around
well thought structures with intelligent breaks and tempo changes.The soloing
blends in great, adding up to the morbid picture. With running playtime
the material shows a stronger Thrash influence (PESTILENCE comes to mind),
somehow I have the impression as if the last three songs might be older tracks.
Some moments remind me of DEATH, the slower harmony parts especially, traces of
OBITUARY are also present. These Finns were previously unknown to me and I am
more than glad to review this as some great dark and twisted Death Metal with a
powerful thrashing edge is offered here – keyword oldschool! According to
their website NERLICH have already recorded an album (with an altered line up)
and are now looking for a label to release. Go to their website www.nerlich.tk
to learn more. Round two: DECOHERENCE! Now this band hailing from France takes a
more contemporary approach. Doublebass ridden brutal Death Metal with rhythmic
heavy parts getting chased by blast passages and a good dose of breaks. The
vocals range from deep growls and a few guttural notes to aggressive shouts, not
unlike some brutal Thrash shouter… and also the groove and a good part of the
riffing has a feeling of, lets say, earlier MALEVOLENT CREATION to it. The
overall mixture is a good deal more technical at parts, though. Personally, I
find this material absolutely convincing and its too bad there are only three
tracks here! www.decoherence-music.com.
The French GORGASM (now renamed to GOROD) are the third and last band on this
sampler. Oldschool Death Metal of a technical kind with a fair deal of melodic
fretwork of both guitars and bass is the game here. As well as NERLICH, GORGASM
take inspiraton from the early nineties yet focus on the technical aspects;
older NOCTURNUS (without keyboards!) and CORONER may serve as vague orientation
for the riffing. The musicianship is absolutely without fail here and some scale
runs even are comparable to some NECROPHAGIST stuff. My only point of criticism
applies for the vocals: the attempts at inhaling, pig squeals and guttural
frognoise vocals sound inconvincing to my ears but as these tracks are already
from 2002 this may have been improved by now. I am interested to see how their
debut album which will be re-released by Willowtip Records turns out. http://gorgasm.free.fr/.
So, EMBALMED MADNESS #1 offers the demos of three bands covering different
grounds in Death Metal - and they do it bloody well! I would say this release is
a great piece of music for every worshipper of underground Death Metal, so get
it! To me, the sound quality is more than decent for demo recordings and the
material speaks for itself convincingly (is it just me or are people bitching
about “bad sound” much more today for no apparent reasons? Anyway…). Be
sure to check out the homepage of Nihilistic Holocaust as well! http://site.voila.fr/NIHILISTIC/
Ulrich
Kreienbrink
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Face Your Underground Vol.1
(Death Metal.be)
80:09min
Usually I don't
really like compilation albums and therefore very rarely feel the urge to listen
to one of them in its entirety. But with this one here it was quite different.
"Face Your Underground" got compiled and released by the editors of
DeathMetal.be and just like their website, this CD is also dedicated to the
Belgian underground scene exclusively. Never knew that they had so many cool,
internationally still unnoticed bands overthere, so the release of this
compilation obviously makes a lot of sense - especially considering the very
high quality of the majority of the featured recordings. Even though they label
themselves with the Death Metal tag, "Face Your Underground" didn't
turn out as narrowminded as you might expect it to be for that manner. Well, ok
- most of the bands on offer here indeed deliver brutal Death Metal, from the
frog noise department (SERIAL BUTCHER) to late DEATH inspired stuff (SOLIPSIST).
But then again there's also bands that obviously try to conquer new grounds,
like AXAMENTA, who play a very melodic form of Death Metal... But instead of
coming up with the usual and wellknown Gothenburg-ish writing formular, they've
added some very epic keyboards and a rather black sounding vocal delivery to
their contribution, which actually sounds kinda cool. My personal favorite on
here comes from MORTIFIER though. This band sounds extremely unique on their
mission in combining some eerie keyboard parts à la late EMPEROR, with a
CANDLEMASS type clean singing, partly switching over to very grim and aggressive
black vocals, while the music itself is basically raw Heavy Metal. Very
impressive! ABORTED and ILL FARES THE LAND should already be known to most of
you reading our magazine, while IN QUEST probably delivered the most
professional / matured sounding track. Not all of the bands are entirely great
(DEMONIZER, DISOWN and ENDOR didn't really impress me too much), but like I
mentioned in the beginning already - in its entirety this is one of the rare
compilations really worth checking out! Looking forward to volume 2 already.
Contact: www.deathmetal.be, info@deathmetal.be
Frank Stöver
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Face Your Underground Vol.2
(Megalomanious Records)
75:35min
Faster than expected the guys from DeathMetal.be return with the second edition
of their very cool "Face Your Underground" compilation. Remember what
I wrote in the review for Vol.1? "Never
knew that they had so many cool, internationally still unnoticed bands overthere..."
Well,
it was obviously
only the tip of the iceberg, cause here's another
16 really promising bands from Belgium, and for some strange reason once again
mostly internationally pretty unknown yet. Quality wise Vol.2 turned out even
stronger than part 1 as there's no real weak band on here at all this time. My
personal faves on "Face Your Underground Vol.2" are: the compilation's
opening act SUHRIM (brutal crushing Death Metal), ORB OF TORTURE (whose over 7
minutes long contribution 'Frozen Hell Design' impresses with extreme brutality
mixed with complex musicianship, especially in the second half of the song!),
HEADMEAT (very skilled, brutal MORBID ANGEL style) and AXAMENTA, whom we already
know from "Face Your Underground" Vol.1, with a very symphonic, almost
DIMMU BORGIR-ish style. EMETH, WELKIN, SKULL COLLECTOR, LEPTOTRICHIA and
BATTALION are also all quite brutal Death Metal acts, INSANITY REIGNS SURPREME
deliver atmospheric doomy Death Metal, while FLESHMOULD, SACRAMENTAL AWAKENED,
HERFST and GRINNING GHOUL are basically rooted in the Death / Thrash vein with
more or less melodic guitarwork. MANIC MOVEMENT is probably the most melodic act
on here and the disc's closer, THE QUIESCENT, partly kinda weird sounding. So,
all in all this definitely became another highly recommended overview about
Belgium's very strong brutal underground! Serious label's should really keep an
eye on all the talent overthere! DeathMetal.be contact: www.DeathMetal.be.
All further info on the compilation at: www.DeathMetal.be/face2
Frank Stöver
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Face Your Underground Vol.3 (DoCD)
(Megalomanious Records)
135:14min
This compilation series quickly turned into one of my favorites, due to the
impressive quality of the bands included. If you aren't familiar with it yet (you're
definitely missing out on something special then!), let me tell you that
"Face Your Underground" is a compilation series from DeathMetal.be,
that is focused on the Belgium underground exclusively. And this time it even
tops the previous two editions as vol.3 has turned into an impressive double-CD
set for the first time, featuring no less than 32 bands with a total playing
time of approximately 135 minutes!!! And the best it yet to come: the whole
thing still sells for the price of 5,-Euro (ppd. worldwide!!!). Musically
"Face Your Underground Vol.3" offers a lot more musical variety as
opposed to the brutal Death Metal that mostly dominated the first two editions.
That means you're about to experience intense and very brutal Death Metal (still
their main concern on disc 1), melodic Death, Black Metal and Grind, as well as
a handful of contributors from the Doom, Epic and Progressive genres. Even
though I personally don't like all of the stuff on offer this time (which is
quite natural I guess) and would have prefered to keep the series more
narrowminded, it's pretty obvious that each single contribution was selected for
quality reasons once again. A little bit of criticism / suggestions from my side
should be allowed nevertheless... Bands that were already featured on volume one
and / or volume two (like ABORTED, AEONS OF OLD, FLESHMOULD, GORATH, HEADMEAT,
IN-QUEST, LENG TCH'E, MANIC MOVEMENT, SERIAL BUTCHER and SHADOW'S VEIL) should
be excluded in the same way as the more established Belgium bands such as
ENTHRONED and ABORTED. The tracklist needs to be featured on the backside of the
CD (instead of inside the booklet) and using several tracks by the two extreme
Grind acts HYBRID VISCERY and MUCUS (who weren't even able to deliver their
tracklists in time) was a little bit annoying to me as well... Apart from that:
thumbs up for another killer compilation that easily lives up to its
predecessors. All further info at www.deathmetal.be/face3
Frank Stöver
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Face Your Underground Vol.4
(DeathMetal.be / Rotten To The Core)
78:24min
I'm still heavily impressed by the healthiness of Belgium's extreme underground
in general and the dedication of the DeathMetal.be guys in particular, who got
this whole project off the ground. This is already the fourth edition of their
very cool "Face Your Underground" compilation series within a rather
short period of time, this time featuring another 25 brutal bands. But with all
respect to the project I gotta confess that I would prefer more quality over
quantity after all. To me the whole layout of "Volume 4" looks kinda
rushed (even though the frontcover art of Djahal is still kinda cool) and once
again 7 out of the 25 acts (HERFST, SUHRIM, EMETH, ORDEAL, CRIMSON FALLS,
NEVERLIGHT HORIZON and LEPTOTRICHIA) have already been part of "Face Your
Underground" volume 1 – 3 (SUHRIM even got featured for the third time
now). I don't really see the point in including the same acts over and over
again when there's still enough undiscovered talent left?! But then again,
there's still 18 new ones left, so who am I to complain actually? The majority
of bands is once again musically located in brutal US style Death Metal (from
typical MORBID ANGEL influences to the frognoise department), but this time
you're also getting a handful of acts that are far more sick, with obvious
Grindcore tendencies. Personally they do not exactly reflect my taste in heavy
music, but it's interesting to check them out nevertheless. I don't think
there's any need to name some standouts (MORDRED and MINOTAUR obviously haven't
done their homework good enough when it came to the coice of their monicker
though) as most of the bands come up with similar quality anyway (songwriting
and production wise). So, once again a damn cool compilation worth being checked
out, especially since it still gets sold for the ridiculous cheap price of
5,-Euro (ppd. worldwide!!). All further info at www.deathmetal.be/face4
Frank Stöver
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Face Your Underground Vol.5
(Death Metal.be / Rotten To The Core)
77:26min
This is already the 5th edition of this still very impressive sampler series,
courtesy of the DeathMetal.be guys. Nothing has really changed compared to the
previous incarnations – not for the better, but luckily also not for the
worse. You still get a big bunch of very promising sounding brutal bands for a
minimum of cash (5,-Euro plus postage). Bands that cover the whole spectrum of
this genre (from gory to technical acts, from thrashy to ultra brutal ones), so
everyone interested in checking out fresh blood is adviced to give this a try.
What I already disliked about the previous compilations is the fact that bands
appear again and again on different volumes. This time it's ABORTED (who should
be excluded anyway because of their already wellknown status in the
underground), IN-QUEST, SUHRIM, WELKIN, UNLEASH THE FURY and MURDER INTENTIONS.
They all appeared on volume 1 – 4 in one way or another already (partly even
more than once), so where’s the sense to include them again? The remaining 16
bands are luckily all unknown yet to supporters of this series, so feel free to
give PREJUDICE, FATAL RECOIL, GUTTURAL, PULVERIZE, PESTIFIER, ICARIAN,
APOCRYPH, MYSTICA, AVOID, CHALICE, REALITY, SELF INFLICTED, PREDATORIA and
FUNGUS INC a listen. I’m still totally surprised how healthy the Belgian
underground scene is these days. Lots of very cool bands overthere. Additional
info you may find at www.deathmetal.be/face5.
To order a copy, go here: http://forum.deathmetal.be/merch/product.php?p=188
Frank Stöver
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