Yearly Archives: 2014

Codex Obscurum #3 and #4 (USA)

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Codex Obscurum

Codex Obscurum

I don’t really order many fanzines today. I want to rationalize my free time and considering I read a lot of shit online, the time on my armchair is usually reserved for books.  In any case I was intrigued by this A5 (or its non-ISO equivalent) small paper called Codex Obscurum. I am generally tempted by shiny things and the cover art on these last two issues looked pretty tempting, since this day and age you can order stuff in a couple of clicks, here is my first electronic order of a paper fanzine (I did some trades, but as far as I remember, I always did those through e-mail, that doesn’t really qualify).

 

The idea is interesting. The fanzine is short and there is a shitload of contributors to each issue (a dozen or so) each one of which writing a very short piece for the publication, be it an interview, but also a couple of interesting articles (and other not so interesting, the one on the Neseblod shop was definitely aimless – at the end of the article all I could say is “so what?”). In general, I like the “mashup” concept of releasing short, almost newsletter-like ‘zines with a little bit of everything. Except for a few band which I loathe with passion (Saint Vitus, Midnight, Death In June) I generally appreciate 90% of the content here. Being a roleplayer myself I also found interesting, for example, the intie with Raggi of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The interviews are neither very original nor very exciting, but there is some crunch to be learned from each anyway.

Two things I strongly disliked: the choice of the paper and the general layout, and secondly the steep price. Even if 3 USD might not sound like much, there was a point 10 or 15 years ago where fanzines with 10 times the content in these were FREE, like Metal Core. 10 USD for shipping 20 pages of text is not cheap. Regarding the layout the choice of the paper is the worse I have seen in years. And considering both issues are printed on this shit I concluded it was not just an error, but made on purpose. The pages are so thick and slick that you can barely turn them, they just slip from your fingers. The layout too, is overally decent, but some background images are computer files with a low definition so you end up seeing big pixels and jagged borders. I might be an old grumbler but if you go for the analog feel, you better do it properly from start to end.

My overall judgement on these two issues is good anyway. Even if there are a couple of things that just don’t fit my tastes. Some interviews raise the stake like the one with Riddick or Father Befouled. Consider it the perfect fit for reading on the toilet, lots of quick articles and interviews that last just a shit, instead of the usual Snakepit 10-page monsters.

Nuclear Abominations

April 4, 2014

You might have noticed there is a big mess, especially in the archive of the oldest reviews. I am upgrading and working a bit on the background of this website lately and I am trying to import all the reviews from the old server (over 700!) but something seems to be broken. The latest post should work OK anyway, so you might not even notice except for a few ugly details on the layout of the blogzine. I am too lazy to properly arrange things so that I will upgrade all at once, as it is way easier to work this way. Please be patient.

Necromutilator (Ita): “The Devil Arisen” promo tape 2011 Cold Vomit

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Neromutilator's tape "promo"?

Neromutilator’s tape “demo”?

They handed me this tape promoting it as “death/black” and while I ever married any genre Death/Black Metal generally speaking works for me. Not this time tough. I like raw and primitive, but what I mean when I say that is generally raw and primitive as in Von, not as in “college rehearsal”, eh.

The be completely honest there is nothing entirely out of place here, barring, ahem, the riffs. These songs (I am not sure if this is a promo tape or a tape album) could be summarized as Hellhammer playing Death Metal in a rehearsal room with session member from the local garage punk band. While primitive and graced with really good death vocals (hell yes, good mix of raspy and deep), the Motorhead-like pull isn’t really working out well here, it just doesn’t click. This, coupled with the kind of rehearsal sound that spoils the thickness of the sound instead of giving it an edge of rawness, summarize a scarce 5 points in my book. The concept is good, and the idea of bringing early Hellhammer-like metal into Death Metal ground is cool, but I would rather start chopping off the sloppier riffs and keep just the better ones.

EDIT: I got confirmation that this is actually a “demo” tape.

 

ABHORROT (Aut): “Sacrificial Incarnation Of Perpetual Death” Cd-r advance and “Volcanic Eruptions” 7″ Ep

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Old Ep

Old Ep

Cd-r advance for the MLp

Cd-r advance for the MLp

I usually don’t like to combine reviews but here is a first taste of how the new Nuclear Abomination is going to work:  way less structure, more feel, less detail.  Besides, I was about to switch the blog-zine to Italian until yesterday but analyzing the stats it seems the broad majority of the readers that have not abandoned the webzine (like I did, ah eh)  are from other countries, so English has to be..

Anyway back to Abhorrot: great guys with  lot of patience since I got this advance over a a year ago. Besides having among the best great dripping and festering logos these guys have reserched and absorbed the aesthetics of minimal Death Metal with great care. I had a glimpse of the cover art for the MLp on their website and it sure looks great. The 7″ too has the bare minimum. As usual, less is more and hacking away at superfluous stuff can’t but be an improvement. It’s just a pity the artwork on the 7″ is so dark, I could barely understand what is represented and the logo almost disappears in the shades (there is also a very big problem in the cover art as well – the resolution is fucked up and the artwork is grossly depixelated).

Sticking to the concept of minimalism, their music can’t really be described otherwise but minimalist, and that’s still another plus in my book. The sound is so dissonant and weirdly tuned that it sounds like a constant buzz, like a Death Metal version of Gonkulator or something. Once you resign this drone-like carpet of sound, the vocals also suddently spring out and are quite raspy and coarse. I don’t know if this is a pre-mix, but the sound is so abrasive that even Order From Chaos would sound polished. The songs on the MLp differ quite a bit from those of the 7″ (or the previously reviewed Cd-r demo by the way), the sound being even more noisy and indistinct, but at the same time a bit more intricate. I personally prefere the ones on the 7″, which have a darker, fuller sound, still adehering to the precepts of mono-riffing. In any case you must have in mind that this stuff is RAW, fuck, very VERY raw, it’s not your average last minute old-school band. I had this kind of sensations when I first heard Voivod, or Revenge. They also make a good and spare use of samples. All in all good Death/Noise shit.

8+ for the Ep and 8 for the Mini.

Get in touch with Terrorghoul Productions for the 7″ (limited to 500) or Yersinia Pestis for the MLp. I am getting a copy too.