Archives: Reviews

5 - Sangrienta Muerte 6 - Morbida Implosion 7 - Decadencia 8 - Brutales Masacres 9 - Ola de Violencia

Masacre are from Medellin, Colombia and they play, as they say Brutal Death Metal. Oh well the term was a bit different back then. Just try to imagine the word Death did not stand for a generic “vocal-lyrical style” but as a “concept” that penetrates in the music. They play the music of Death. Hell, yes. I like this Masacre side as much as the Profanatica side, possibly more, although it’s a very different genre, and worse yet, I already owned the “Ola De Violencia” MLp before this was released (the Ep was released in two semi-identical versions in runs of 500 copies) so I was already familir with this stuff except for the two live tracks at the end. Masacre‘s sound is much more “metal”, with some Slayer-ish solos, some thrashing riffs and cavernous echoing Death Metal growls… the music is real genuine necromantic Dark/Death Metal and the Spanish lyrics really give the songs a dismal, grisly aura. There are chunks of these songs where the music almost accelerates to the verge of noise – grindcore, just to fall into another vortex of evocative agony. Every riff is well placed and you don’t get the hateful metal gallops or some of that shit that sometimes slips in even the best of southern bands. We’re really somewhere between noise and gruesome Metal a la Shub Niggurath at times, obscure and sludgy a la Hadez at times, yet everything delivered in a total Masacre way, really I cannot describe it any better. There is chaos and violence as well as darkness in these songs, you don’t easily manage to get an effect like this. It’s also cool they put English translations close to the lyrics. I suggest you to pick up also the recent collection of Masacre demos out on Obliteration from Japan, that’s also unforgettable shit.

1 - The Doom - Intro 2 - Powertrash 3 - Metal March (Instrumental) 4 - Space Invaders 5 - Future Aggressor 6 - Empire of the Damned 7 - Total Maniac 8- Satan's Resurrection 9 - Antichrist (pure hardcore speed track) 10 - Hymn to Abramelin 11 - messiah 12 - Infernal Forces 13 - Thrasing Madness 14 - Future Aggressor (live) 15 - Total Maniac (live)

This is the second of the recent Iron Pegasus reissues, this time consisting in the demo reissues of the two demo tapes of this great band from the canton of Zug in the middle of Switzerland, the smallest of that country’s cantons. From such a small area however, the cancer called Messiah was evoken to release one of the darkest Thrash/Death/black Metal alnums of all, the amazing “Hymn to Abramelin”, and prior to that the “Powertrash” (without the “h”?) and “Infernal Thrashing” demos. This time the packaging is cosiderably inferior I have to complain, compared to the very good Poison reissue: sure they played a bit on the shocking value of using silver pantone everywhere, but while it’s cool to see band pics (hey, I forgot the band used to wear corpsepaint!!), it feels a bit out of place to have four pages out of eight occupied by full size close ups of the band members on stage! I really would have liked to see some liner notes, comments, lyrics, old flyers, whatever, but you really only get a 2 page spread of old school picture collage and some pics, and that’s it. The cover art looks neat and elegant so nothing to object, but why there is not even a scan of the original demo covers inside?

Musically this is a tough review to make, becouse when I think of Messiah, my mind goes immediately to “Hymn to Abramelin”, that splendid LP with the big logo on red/black that’s possibly one of my favourtite recordings ever by any so called Thrash (Death?) Metal band, so for me it’s difficult to put anything in comparison, even if it’s by the same band. I have to admit that for once, the studio recordings you have on “Hymn to Abramelin” (rumours have it that it was produced by a Celtic Frost roadie who later put up a label: the infamous Chainsaw Murder) really give full justice to the obsessive obscurity of this thrashing madness. But hearing rawer, cruder versions of these songs is really a great pleasure. Messiah does play a weird mix of different styles of extreme old school metal which mix suprising well in a totally unique blend. You have total wicked guitar trips a la early Morbid Angel, powerful thrashing stage-diving inducing riffs a la early Whiplash, hypnotic bridges a la Hellhammer (well, the band probably took their name from their song as well), even touches of doom like early Black Sabbath (does the beginning riff in “Total Maniac” ring any bell?) yet the concoction is so solid and unique that you can figure why this band really deserves to be remembered as one of the major contribution to the modern Death Metal sound! The mix in the demos is crude and genuine, with lots of reverb, which in the end make the slower, moodier songs absolutely infernal. seems like these songs are coming from a desecrated grave. I challenge you to hear “Space Invaders” and don’t shiver in the anguishing, agony ridden sulphuric atmosphere it evokes. And if Attila was inspired by anything when he recorded De “Mysterris Dom Sathanas” it’s fucking sure it’s THIS song he had in mind, or the gigantic hit “Messiah”, no shit! Tschossi’s vocals had all the abrasive non-musical vibe of old Venom yet way more tormented, always changing from the classic distorted thrash metal a la Exodus down to almost Kam Lee Death Metal growls, and all distorted by this distant echo. These songs are real classics of the genre, you don’t really want to miss something like this. And for 11 euros it’s quite a deal to order it from Iron Pegasus. Right that you’re at it, buy also Massacre and Poison like I did, you cannot joke when bands like these are in. The Cd also includes their first show from 1985 (probably the one with Celtic Frost which gained them a record deal). Personally if I didn’t have anything by this band I’d start with “Hymn” but right after that one, here is the way to go. If only there were some major zeal for details…

1 - Sphinx 2 - Lurking Fear 3 - Slaves (of the Crucifix) 4 - Requiem/Alive (Undead) 5 - Satan Commands 6 - Zombie Dance 7 - Angel of Satan 8 - Alive (Undead) 9 - Wake the Dead 10 - Witchfynde 12 - Possessed (by Hell)

There is a lot to say about this Kult (with capital “K” letter) band from Germany. It formed so early (1982!!) that it was a main influence for like every second generation Black Metal bands like (the true) Mayhem (hey even Dark Throne mentioned Mayhem as a source of inspiration so it’s really the missing link between Venom and that band), on par with monster names like Hellhammer, Vulcano or Bathory. It’s a band which found a small niche in a German Metal compilation for Roadrunner after four demo tapes (“Teutonic Invasion”, along with Violent Force, Paradox etc.), but was so crippled by the contract they signed that they never managed to record a full-length album becouse the label held them stale for a whole year. Only their “Into the Abyss” demo was re-released on vinyl by the infamous Belgian journalist Wim Baelus (of Aardshock etc.) for his semi-label Midian Creations in 1993. The album was pressed in like 800 hundreds copies but nonetheless it’s tragically rare to find today. That’s when Iron Pegasus came to our aid and releases this ultimate retrospective “Further Down into the Abyss”, the ultimate collection of all things Poison (it is curious to notice that this band was formed before the gay glam/hair band of the same name, and were considering the possibility to change their name into Poisoned after they read of them). Now what might be tricky to understand at first glance is why there are just one song per each demo (save the last one). Well I thought about it a bit before realizing that this collection does NOT indeed collect every single recording, but just every single song written by the band. In fact many of the songs were recorded or played multiple times so the final decision was probably putting on this disc a sample from each demo or live/rehearsal that summed up make up for the whole discography. Usually I prefer to see every single song even if recorded several times in a discography Cd (for example like what Relapse did for Repulsion) but this choice seems reasomable, if they wanted to squeeze everything in a single disc.

So what does this infamous kult Poison band play? Well, it’s difficult to explain with today’s jargon. This is mostly proto-black metal, or proto-death/thrash metal. In short, nothing well defined by today’s standard. I only managed to find two of their demos out of four in such long a time, but they sufficed for me to bug mostly everybody I know of with this cult satanic dark stuff. Some of the riffs are really basic, almost ingenuous kinda metal ride mid-tempo rhytms which I have never been a big fan of, while not derivative of any Bathory or Venom. They might just sound too simple for today’s standards. But 80% of the music is real, pure molten black gold. The vocals are a tormented, lacerated moan while the guitar riffs have that drone hypnotic vibe of Hellammer. The fast, tremolo picking riffs are obsessive and reek of fucking evil thrash metal. But the real rapture comes from the doomy bridges (they insist they were influenced by Trouble, but what the fuck, Trouble just sucks gay dicks, while this thing is spine-chilling energy!!). Just hear the song “Lurking Fear” (which was previously named “Yog Sothoth”, that’s why you can’t find that song in the tracklist!), and you hear some of the more malignant riffs ever written. The choking gasps at the end of that song are one of those divine moment of heart-stopping evil Metal one does not forget (along with Sodom’s “Sepulchral Voice” and Autopsy’s “Gasping for Air”, damn! How cult, how cult!). The recording on “Into the Abyss” are crude but sublime, that kind of raw recording that suits the period it was recorded, although the rest of the recordings are sometimes a bit fuzzy. Personally I like all them the more becouse of this. As said before this album not just include the demos but also a live recording from ’85 with the band Outrage (which is still alive!) and rehearsal tracks as well. So you have a real wide angle from which to rate this band by yourself. It is really sometimes surprising how thorougly demoniac they were so long before Black Metal as a stand alone genre ever existed, personally I like this kind of Black Metal much, much better than all the shit we got after 1990. But what the fuck. Here you have all the lyrics dealing with magic, satanic evocations, zombies and all that great shit, just evil sounding without much research aha. Just like it used to be!

I can easily see why Euronymous was so thrilled by this band. They have the sepulchral, ghastly elements that his band tried to recollect from bands like this or Sarcofago etc. They also have those delightful aestetics of bullet belts, leather pants and spikes he was so fond of. They just took Venom, Hellhammer, Voivod, Sodom etc. and took that look one step further. Which sounds a bit weird since when you look at their pic you might wonder when exactly did Freddie Mercury take the time to leave his white spandex to wear bulletbelts and studded bracers. Ahah. No really, the singer really looks ridicolous with that slick moustache, he even holds the mic the same way as Mr/Ms Queen (ah ah). Damn if it is not him than it’s a clone! Or maybe he’s King Diamond without corpse paint, who knows? But other than that his vocals were really beyond his time, totally tormented.

I think I said enough about this. It’s really one of the top 10 Black Metal albums you have to keep in your collection, and Iron pegasus did a damn good job with packaging, which also include flyers and posters and reviews from that small period when the band was active (1984-1987). Sempiternal Prouctions also released a retrospective Cd of the post-Poison band R.U. Dead, I will try to find time to write a review of that one as well, soon! Maybe it’s not as important a band as Posion, but there’s surely something good in there.

1 - De Profundis (intro) 2 - Stench of Paradise Burning 3 - Beyond the Flesh 4 - In Sufferance 5 - Monarch of the Sleeping Marches 6 - Soul Erosion 7 - Entranced 8 - Confine of Shadows 9 - Deadspawn 10 - Sea of Tears 11 - Immemorial Dream (outro)

Disincarnate‘s only album, “Dreams of the Carrion Kind” is a small jewel of 90’s Death Metal, which can stand easily in the same shelf with the more famous Obituary, Deicide, Pestilence, Morbid Angel or whatever. Strongly centered around the person of James Murphy, Disincarnate formed in San Francisco around 1992 and released a three track demo with the “octopus” Alex Marquez on drums (if you want to hear some real shit Alex did check out his amazing “Embalmed Existance” from the band Resurrection). However Alex was dropped in favour of a good, solid drummer Tommy Viator (also in the sludge/drone/doom band Acid Bath) to record this minor artifact.

“Dreams” is an old-school album in many aspects. It has the length of a normal Cd (finally over 45 minutes, amirage today), and is chock full of complex songs with a lot of elaboration. The album itself is probably a quasi-concept based on Murphy’s readings, much influenced by Neil Gaiman’s wonderful comic Sandman… He cites this serie as inspiration in the booklet, and he even uses the artist that painted all Sandman covers for the album as well (hell, even the band name recalls the dreamscape!). The lyrics of “Monarch of the Sleeping Marches” recalls a lot the story of Dream, aka the Sandman, even if it talks more precisely of Hypnos, the God of sleep, which had a court of Oneiroi, demons that incarnate the various aspects of sleep. One of this is the Oneiros Morpheus, which is mistakenly identified with sleep in the Sandman comics. The rest of the lyrics talk about eternal suffering, heavens in flames, departure from the body… classical Death Metal themes yet approached with a stylish touch. All of them are entertaining to read, you should definitely read the songs along with the singer, which has a very clear tone despite the growling.

People have told me this album is a technical monstrosity, I have even read a review in an old Sounds of Death mag where they thrashed this disc becouse it sounded like a didactic guitar Cd. Well, I am no musician so I cannot tell, but really I do not hear all this unnerving guitar hero wanking I heard in the latest (horribly shitty) Death albums. On the contrary this Death Metal sounds perfectly solid to me. I used to be bothered a bit by the melodic solos (which have always been Murphy’s trademark), especiallyu the one in “Entranced” but after all these years, I am not bothered much anymore, maybe I hear so few today that they have become nice listen sometimes. I personally find this Cd flawless, the drum sound absoluetly full and real neat, not too prominent, and this guy does all there is to do, not a single second of showing off. It has the only small flaw of being totally standard, classic Death Metal. So classic, one can wrongly dare to say “standard”. To me it’s just “paragon”. In a time when you got a perfectly identifiable characteristic in every album released (from the trippy Disharmonic Orchestra to the acrid Pungent Stench etc), an album like this sounded absolutely ordinary, if well played and everything. That’s probably the reason it was overlooked. Being one that never cared for originality much, this album has always been a great choice to hear for me when I didn’t know what to bring in the car or spin on the turntable (hell yes, I have both versions, how could I not?). There is not really much to add about this album, it is classic Death Metal from a to z, with a strong early Florida Death Metal accent (even if we’re in California), solid drummings, lots of power chords, classic powerful deathvomit vocals a bit in the vein of the first Immolation (very malignant), some solos and guitar riffs arranged with great skill and taste, all crowned by a perfect production (for my tastes, that means not too artificial). If you want a paragon for a lot of Death Metal releases, this might be a good choice. And yes, I prefer this 10 to 1 compared to any Obituary. A minor Cult item to own!

I have read that Roadrunner released a collector edition of this Cd recently with Murphy’s liner notes (also explaining his treatment and recovering from brain tumour) and the 3 tracks demo as bonus. If Murphy regains all his abilities soon, he will also be recordinga follow up to this real excellent album. Also Displeased is going to re-print this, even though I wonder why since this special editions has been just pressed. Bah…

1 - The Offering 2 - Buried Alive 3 - Hamping the Dead 4 - Misogynicide 5 - Severed Death 6 - Divinely Exhumed 7 - Whom I Serve 8 - Deliverance of the Beast

Morbid Sacrifice is a band from Bellefonte, a minuscule city of 6000 souls which is also the county seat for Centre County, which roughly equals to saying it’s a pinpoint amidst a sea of earth. Out of this tiny community we have Morbid Sacrifice, an old-school Death Metal band which released this “Severed Death” album in 2002. However since the print run was so limited Open Grave decided to give it a second chance and repress it for us to hear. I have my own doubts why they did it, honestly… why did they pick THIS thing up? Well the packaging is sufficient, not astonishing but cool, with a cover that’s a detail of Sadec Monsatery in Czech rep. (too bad for the punchhole in the booklet). You maybe are not familiar with the name but the pictures of the chandelier of this monastery can be found on 1 Black Metal album out of 5 so you probably have seen VERY often. I am also sure I have already seen a cover artwork like this somewhere, but can’t remember when.

I gave this disc four full spins before writing down this review. You know I am obsessed with old-school Death Metal (which is still my favourite genre of all) so when I find an atypical American band that plays like 1990 I really crave to like it. However this is really too much even for me. The opening riff is a true jewel, and I was expecting blasting, obscure Death Metal in the vein of Decrepit or Deteriorot, but the music is just something that don’t have “it”. Track two is a damn agony, with a sami-classic heavy metal ride with static grunts which really do not mix at all. All the songs in this album sound very, very unripe, kind of the very first rehearsal of your local rock band. There is one riff per song, which is played at different speed, from the power-chugs tarantella to fast accelerations, and the whole effect is to sum it up bluntly, pathetic. This is a recording that even trying to project my brain 16 years ago I cannot manage to like. This might be a rehearsal but it does not sound mature even for a demo. The guttural grunts are so stale they might as well been recorded separately. And I really don’t like these guitar riffs, which really says it all. Too classic metal for my tastes, and way, waaay too unexperienced. These parappa parappa power chords are a real pain… there is some attempt at spicing up things with bridges that remind of right-wing ballads a la Rahowa, but they really don’t work. Nothing works here save some fast parts. Sorry.

1 - Masochistic Rampage 2 - Seething Darkness 3 - Mass Execution 4 - Intro 5- Ascension 6 - Conceiving the Immaculate 7 - Pi 8 - Existance is Futile 9 - Human Shield 10 - Dead to the World 11 - Desperate Death 12 - Revenge to Capitalism 13 - Cruel Recollection

This is the second multiple band split release of Lacerated Enemy records, Zdenek’s (Godless Truth) own record label. And the very first thing I have to say is that the man has become a fucking great designer indeed! Totally Brutal Death style, extremely neat, this Cd has the first real professional packaging I have seen in a long time, with pictures at the right resolution, crisp characters, no incongruous use of fonts etc. I need pull his earlobes a bit though, becouse despite the excellent design, he placed an advertisement page WITHIN the booklet. You have two pages of ads inside the booklet you paid for, instead of using a separate sheet as mostly everyone does, which is something really wrong in my opinion, especially becouse these shirts are going to be sold out one day, and it’s really useless to have them printed in your Cd, but whatever. The guy did all the graphics etcept for Corphagy, and you can really tell, ahah. Look at the blue font on bright red effect, if you wear 3-D glasses you’re probably going to find Freddy Krueger among the flames. Oh gawd. Why didn’t Zdenek do all the layout here?

UNMERCIFUL: This band from Kansas hits real hard, with a kind of unrelenting, no frills (i.e. no fucking mosh) Brutal Death Metal, that winks vigorously at Disgorge or similar straight ahead purveyors of Brutality. The recording is real good, with a beefed up, full sound, and a double bass that while very precise don’t sound too mechanical. Hey this drummer is a powerhouse! Musically this is a blast with fast riffs with tons of harmonics (not as much as old Dying Fetus but you get the point). The vocals are guttural, with some useless screams here and there (seems like everybody find them so cool…), but the whole thing sticks together well. Hugely derivative, yet this genre doesn’t really demand for innovation so wtf. Vote: 7.4

CORPHAGY: are from Chicago. I heard they make the best pizzas in the United States in Chicago. Probably they have to compensate for bands like this. The intro they wrote in the booklet sounds a bit pompous (we are here to smash all the boundaries of canonical Death Metal etc), and well, one thing I must admit, they make it to smash all the limits on the worst use of keyboards I have heard since the second Luciferion album. This stuff is really worth of the best (worst) Bal Sagoth. What the fuck is that keyboard shit doing here??? It’s completely out of place, it doesn’t even follow the music. I thought my TV turned on while listening to these tracks so fucking nonsense it is. I had my share of them in Agiel, go figure what I think of these now. Anyway, while trying to come up with some way to eliminate this noise, if one can concentrate on the music, Corphagy is a decent band musically speaking, very complex and technical, with a bit too much prominence on the bass parts, spoiled by some bad riffs, some terrible vocal patterns, and those goddamn gay kayboards. It is one band which, should it get rid of all this bollocks, might offer interesting ideas, but really there is simply too much shit filling here. And please look at their page in the booklet. Ahaha. Blue fonts on red (yeah I repeat myself but it’s so good it’s unreal!). Vote: 5

WORMS INSIDE: are again from Chicago, yet a bit better than Corphagy. The drum sound here really sounds like thrashcans beaten with a pipe, and while normally I like the old school demo sound, this band really suffers from it, they play a genre that deserves good production. The vocals are not 100% Death Metal, but more like Hard Core punk like Cryptopsy/Di Salvo era or Pyrexia, yet they sound good enough, if with some strain. While the vocals are good, the music bugs me a bit. It is all the time melodic with that little Swedish vibe, but something is amiss in the chemistry, the guitars are too out of place in the mix. You have melodic riffs, blasting drums and hatred-core vocals, and the thing really mixes like oil and water. I cannot give them a full six, sorry. Ah, please next time remember to write that the Intro is a stand alone track, or you’ll find 12 tracks listed on the booklet and 13 on the Cd player display. Vote: 5.5

INFECTED MALIGNITY: from Japan is possibly the most integralist of the four bands here. Super technical, hypnotically precise Brutal Death with lots of guitar licks, slam parts, and a totally US worship style. Guttural vocals, twisted guitarwork and all the rest is genuine, with nice slow, grinding gore parts and complex arrangement etc. yet once I start liking the listening… here it comes: the tragic typewriter machine double-bass sound they inherited from Vomit Remnants!! No really, I like the weird, dry, wooden plank sound of the snare drum, but the double bass is, oh my god, what the fuck is this sound? Can you hear a song when somebody is using a ’40 ancient typewriter close to your ears? Well here is what I feel here. The songs are, you know, on the Unmatched Brutality / Unique Leader path, but the typography that was working besides the studios during the recording sessions is really too pervasive. Good shit, if they could only care a little bit to erase that fucking noise. Vote: 6.5

1 - Monsieur Lebeaux 2 - Backstabber 3 - King Cobra 4 - Bite and Get In It 5 - Fat and Gristle 6 - Worthless 7 - Bite and Get In It 8 - Just a Little 9 - Coping With It 10 - Lighten Up 11 - 'Bout Had It 12 - How About Some Good Stuff?

Formed in Lousiana in 1990, Flesh Parade started immediately losing pieces on their trip to New Orleans, where they enstabilished themselves and by 1998 released this cool collection Cd on Relapse. “Kill Whitey” is basically the Cd version of their 5 tracks Ep with the third and fourth demos (’93 and ’94) as bonus material. Now, all included the Ep clocks just 15 minutes, but what a fuck of blast is this! Here we have a rather primitive yet hugely energic grindcore with a slight Swedish crust touch, and a lot of nasty, violent Hard Core thrown in. I have to be honest, the vocals are among the plainest I have ever heard, it’s just a scratchy noise with like 1 single note going all through the songs (it’s on purpose obviously, but how fucking boring is this), but the riffs are the real shit, if we could compare them to a recent band I’d say Bolesno Grinje, minus some of their humorous twist. The riffs are headbanging, crunchy mid-to fast tempos, and they really get the fourth dimension after song 6 when you manage to hear their old demo material. The pissed off, vaguely Anal Cunt old-school shriek is still here, yet there is a second guttural roar which paired give out a solid effect, pouding in like other cool dohble vocalist bands (Inhume, VERY early Extreme Noise Terror etc).

The packaging is very bare, and no lyrics are included in this shit 1-sheet “booklet” but I guess they’re as humorous as the pics included in the layout: black angry people ranging from the black panthers of South Africa, to savages with penis pipes from some African wasteland. There is some twisted, clever humour in there but I do really have little eelements to describe them further, except that Bill of Exit-13 was included in the mastering. Not Brutal Truth, but cool grindcore to rediscover anyway. The band has recently reformed and they have a label of their own now, Mainstay. Should we expect a full-length album at last?