Archives: Reviews

1 - Rise of the Abomination 2 - Evil Blood of Sodomy 3 - Rites of Carnality 4 - Hecatomb 5 - Crucifixion Vomit 6 - Advent of the Black Omen 7 - Seed of the Antichrist 8 - Hellbound Triumph 9 - Bestial Hordes from Hades 10 - Baptism in Fire 11 - Proclamation of Doom

I have been recently reproached to introduce more Black Metal reviews on Nuclear Abominations. You ask, I obey. Proclamation from Spain are a fantastic introduction to this subject in my opinion, among the best things I have heard since 2000 along with Crucifire, Necros Christos, Sadogoat, Bazzah, Anal Vomit, Morbosidad etc. Stylistically, this is a band that verges towards the necrobestial sound of early Beherit, with a rough, filthy sound as noisy as a circular saw but not unintelligible, there is really some music being played and not just aimless droning a la Heretic (which are cool anyway). I really adore this kind of blackish bestial sound, it is probably my favorite genre along with the 90’s Swedish/Finn sound. The vocals are a roaring vomit that spews forth blasphemies against god, and that is fine, deep and phlegmy, not just screechy. The drums are hammering and sometimes dangerously close to the sound of a torture room, with chains being pulled and flesh being burned at the unholy rhytm of a satanic gospel, sometimes the uneveness of the recording level makes you think of mistakes, but personally, I prefer to follow the flow instead of concentrating on how many fucking notes are there in a riff. The delicuosly reharsal like sound glues together all elements with satanic echo and rapture, the guitrars are tuned down to ground, and a couple of khaotic Slayerish riffs just complete the whole picture. If you’re after some true Black Metal, this is the path. This stuff has it all: blasphemy, misanthropy, obscure mood, savagery. Even if not as fast as Black Witchery, Proclamation complements its sound with a broken, jagged, totally un-melodic structures, not straight ahead artillery, and of the two, I prefere it this way. Speed is cool, but this coarse sound a la Revenge is even better. Nuclear War Now! also released a vinyl version of this jewel.

1 - Night of the Hunter 2 - Heads are Mounted on the Wall... More coming (whew)

Oh wow, this shit is VERY noisy and deranged in a funny way! My first thoughts when reading “Green Beret” in Atari-like fonts were about Konami’s shoot’em up arcade of the same name, ah good days of knife fights after coming back from school! I wonder if this is really such a stupid association, becouse this is unpredictable noise-grind in its purest form, with yells, cat meows and computer effects adorning a fine work of noisy shit a bit a la Agoraphobic Nosebleed but somewhat more concrete, maybe more in the Minch / Schnauzer / Pile of Eggs / Melt Banana way. Whacky but thoroughly enjoyable in its moments of extatic demence. There is some of the sordid humour of mid 80’s trhascore crossover of bands like Spazztic Blurr or Adrenalide O.D. here (add Macabre), but faster and more schizphrenic, in tune with this age. When the riffs are clear and not overcome by dozens of idiot sampling, they’re good punk/hc stuff, but it’s the blur of keyboard based tricks and samples that give this band some special extra edge. The vocals are a combination of strangled yells, punk shouting and ironic laments, while the music, well, it just doesn’t follow strict schemes, but it’s really well made, and relatively easy to listen compared to exreme eastern acts suck as Niku-Do-Rei, probably becouse fundamentally every track has a definite, moshing grindcore structure if you strip them of all the embellishments. I enjoyed this Cd quite much, it’s nasty and weird but not in a stupid way. Humorous but not cheap if you know waht I mean. This is acomplete collection of 60 fucking tracks, so if you want to hear this band this is the way to go. Some tracks towards the ened are really noisier and more brutal, I’d dare saying on the verge of industrial-pwer noise, and you also get a real special track (28) that holds a whole tape release. Real worth checking out. I feel ashamed for not owning anything else by this band, I never wondered it was so good.

1 - Inho 2 - Verivaltias 3 - Klyma Ydin 4 - No. 1 (pt. 2) 5 - Ikuinen

Ydin is a very interesting Death Metal group from Finland: not just their monicker (meaning “core”) is a Finnish word, but the whole lyricwork has been put together in their native tongue. I have some records of traditional Finnish folk music (including some Kalevala) but I never actually heard Death Metal sung in Finnish (maybe some punk or crust-core but nothing strictly metallic on the top of my mind). The result seems to be worthy of respect, the language fits this faster, heavy music in a way others like Italian seems to find impossible to accomplish. This is also one of those demos which is recorded and studied in extreme detail, comprising a full color cover art and packaging. My copy came on a Cd-r but as far as I know, the original copies you buy with $ might come on professional printed discs as well, better ask them directly. Loads of structure and thoughtful songwriting can be heard in the music as well, these arrangements are quite complex and definitely beyond the level of amateurish works. This band reminds me a bit of other high level recordings by bands such as Genocrush Ferox, Insision, Strangulation. I am not very much into the higher frequency vocals which sound a bit too nasal, but the growl is deep and sober. The guitar riffs are technical but not surgically cold a la Psycroptic, just think of that latest Cannibal Corpse method of twisting the riffs with loads of harmonics and crushing dissonance. I admit that being crammed in just over 15 minutes, there is a lot of shit going on in here, I won’t rate it neither old school nor mechanically modern, but more like true, sane Death Metal with lots of competence. This is a high quality work that can be ordered for the reasonable price of 10 euros for 5 copies wholesale. Support this band, they’re worth checking out (and their website contains loads of samples and movies as well). When I’ll learn some suomen kieli I’m going to add some critics on the lyrics as well, aha!

1 - Intro: 9+Seconds of Peace Before the Rage Kicks In 2 - Revenge of the Anal Probe Androids 3 - Cold Black Evil 666 4 - Let's Talk About Insanity 5 - My Horrible Toilet Water 6 - I'll Lick You Like Lassie 7 - Final Bloodbath (Mortician cover) 8 - Every Desire is Torture (You're My Slow & Sweet Death)

Anal Probe Android is much more into the cyber field instead, sounds like terrible gabber-grind a la Tourette Syndrome/Red Hot Piggys Pussies but with some extra dose of soundscape experimentation and with looser textures. The music is not as intense as in goregrind, but it’s mostly different loops and cartoon effects coupled with mid tempo beats and 50’s sci-fi laster pistol and rocket gun noises. Samples from South Park and ambient synth effects are abundant here, but they’re arranged so well you figure out it’s not a random amateurish work: it it’s distorted logic, it makes sense, It’s a pink fresco of vomit and broken machinery. Can’t tell you why, but I have started to dig this very much after just 2-3 listens. The vocals are quite difficult to detect as they sound mostly like the slow motion noise in “the six million dollar man”, so they just fall in the mixture like another piece of instrumentation. Very crazy but beautiful, has to be examined from without to appreciate all its fragments.

1 - The Second Stage 2 - Clown Suck + Tuning Down 3 - Vivid Stains of Hematomania's Delirium (CUM cover) 4 - Theme from Fulci's Zombie

Bowel Fetus‘s trademark chain tire vocals is maybe the clearest point in common these 2 tracks have with “Doomageddon” and other more recent releases by Glen, at least at the beginning. Even if quite heavy, splendid Doom/Death this stuff is less oversaturated and denser than the full-length, with a slightly less accurate songwriting. There is still lots of Autopsy here, but it’s more like “Mental Funeral” than “Acts of the Unspeakable” if you know what I mean. A distant, dehumanized vibe drops in after a few seconds that reminds me also of early Godflesh or even Neurosis, but then things start to grate in a slower and slower pace until the Doom sludginess blossoms at the fullest. A simple drumwork just forms the spine for the songs but quoting Fenriz from Dark Throne, everything just relies on the riffs here, the drums means nothing. And these riffs are heavier you can think of, without sounding Mortician. Full and slimy, this is a kind of heaviness that makes you gasp for air, but just bulldozing crunch a la Cock and Ball Torture. Cold and crushing, this is another jewel from this band, one of the best around these days. Frizzi’s theme from Zombi 2 has always pierced my head with his classic evil hook, and the idea of covering it is brilliant. The Catasexual Urge Motivation cover also put things clear for what are the inspirations of this band. The best of the best ever: Disembowelment, Autopsy, Catasexual Urge Motivation…

1 - How to Become a God 2 - Hunger 3 - Black'n'Roll 4 - So White, So Blue, So Cold 5 - My Darkest Desire 6 - Damballah 7 - Decay 8 - The Bright Side of Death 9 - Sabbath 10 - Mr. Toodling 11 - Lorelindorenan 12 - Burarum

Uff. Sometimes I really don’t know what to write. When I read the words Death’n’Roll the bands I figure are Dominus, maybe some Illidisposed, maybe even that shit that’s Entombed‘s post- “Clandestine”. But here we got different stuff, the Rock’n’Roll vein is here introduced in a sligthly different, less invasive manner. First of all, the band sheets states this band has strong Black influences. Well I can tell you there are NONE here. It even says the cover art is made in the vein of Marvel comics. What? Have a look at the cover and tell me. I guess they meant Disney instead… this stuff is good for Bestial Mockery, maybe. Ah. Anyway the music here is different to define, it doesn’t have the groove of the aforementioned bands, but it doesn’t sound so trendy or easy listening either, which is good. It also deson’t have 3 minute guitar evolutions a la CSSO and that’s even better. But after two listenings, my mind still isn’t able to concentrate. Every time I start thinking about what I’m hearing, my thoughts go elsewhere. That’s not a good sign. I just plain don’t like this. I can’t say it’s trendy but it’s surely weak, and doesn’t have the dragging energy of rock either. I’d go 100 times better for the worst Motorhead instead than hearing this stuff again. Drunk vocals, some riffs a la Hangover/Gehennah, some aimless riffing. Nothing much to add.

1 - We Will Go 2 - This Blackened Heart 3 - Into Nothingness 4 - Hate Is My Creed 5 - Sanctimonious 6 - Born To Serve 7 - Hevnen 8 - One Thousand Days Of Poison 9 - Cursed Chemistry

Okay, now I remember when I heard this band last time. It’s the nameless band that plays in the background when you’re buying beer at the bar before the real bands start to play on stage in a big gig. Remember when you went to the last show and the music was on when you reached the venue, as you were talking to friends or looking through the distro stands? That’s it. The music in this album seems to be going nowhere. It’s so aimless it could be a Danish band. Even if we ignore the melodic chorus that appears here and there, here we get totally forgettable second rate metal, the kind that fills the gaps between two interesting titles in a record list. While the music is well played, and also well recorded, it’s 0 aggressive, 0 melodic, 0 brutal 0 whatever you might be looking for in a band. If some big magazine doesn’t start promoting this stuff, I doubt it’s gonna sell one single copy based on quality alone. There are some melodies and some aggro (ah ah) riffs coupled with those raspy snarls they call today “black metal vocals” which obviously are not Black Metal as in “satanic” or “dismal” but just high pitched. I have been listening to this twice and while I can’t still find any flaws, I cannot think of a situation when I might be tempted to put this on. It just doesn’t fit ay mood: if you’re looking for something either brutal or mellow, this just stands in such a middle ground it’s destined to fester forever in your Cd rows collecting dust. A special mention to the vocals, becouse they range a big specrtum from start to end, but they manage to be surpsisingly average in every configuration. The cover artwork is also horrendous, a faggot and a lesbian with trendy haircuts kissing each other guns in hand. Wow how brutal. How artistic. Technically everything’s okay here, it’s the soul that’s missing.