That this band takes inspiration from BEHERIT you can easily figure by their logo above (eh). It was a bit surprising for me to hear that HERETIC plays quite different stuff, instead. I would describe it as old fashioned Black Metal with lots of acidic hard rock influences (VENOM maybe, or very early BATHORY). The songs are not blistering fast as Black metal is mostly about today, or better, let’s say it was about in 1995 (today the epic syndrome slowed down a bit the genre). The coolest thing about the disc could be the vitriol vocals with are sort of malignant but not too screeching, you can easily spell any fucking word he says, they sound tormented like NECRO SCHIZMA for example, although the singer is not nearly as good. We can add that HERETIC doesn’t really like to play elaborate. The songs are mighty basic, mid-slow tempo and all about was and satanism with guitars that are distorted and dirty as fuck. I can’t find them as obscure, extreme or satanic as BEHERIT but it’s nice to hear unrefined stuff like this today. Uhm. I admit I like more the concept than the music itself. There’s a big celtic cross in the back of the Cd, combined with the war-inspired lyrics I guess they give a nice picture of what the band is about. Eh.
Archives: Reviews
BEHERIT (Fin): “Live Joensu 8.2.1992” Cd 2000 Hammer Hell 666
This a sort of cryptic release, by a label unheard of and whose address doesn’t appear anywhere (could be from Italy, like Satanic records, as far as I know) and which nobody knows or have any informations about.
In any case it’s a 20 minute long live which contains a show our beloved band played in 1992 in Finland, the sound is not perfect but it’s not so distant from “The Oath of Black Blood” either, I guess production is not a big factor when you listen to BEHERIT, is it? Considering there’s quite a lot of fans of the bands popping out lately, and a good score of material too, I guess it could have been made much, much better, maybe with a booklet with some pics instead of a miserable black sheet, maybe with some more songs (it’s 20 minutes dammit), or with some video clips as bonus. I am a quite big freak of the band but even if I understand the label wants this release to look as evil and minimalistic as possible it’s still a bit too bare to justify something more than sheer collector lust. Besides the constant chattering of the crowd the songs are cool to hear anyway, all of the 6 from the “Drawing Down the Moon” album, in the rolling, satanic, whispering BEHERIT style. Definitely something for collectors only.MUCUBELCHING BEET (Ger): “The Allstar-project of Mucupurulent & Belching Beet” Cd 2002 Bizarre Leprous
This is a kinda unconventional Cd for a couple of reasons, first it is not made by a single band but it’s a compilation of covers played by both these two old German bands, more or less alternate between MUCUPURULENT and BELCHING BEET.
You know the deal with covers, some are convincing some others a bit less and this is no big exception. The only “heavy” band covered here is BRUTAL TRUTH with their “Choice of a New Generation” (second full legth) then they catch up almost every other genre possible 17 songs that span from the Hard Rock of AC/DC, WHITE ZOMBIE, ALICE IN CHAINS and ENTOMBED, (from the less than mediocre “Wolverine Blues”), the Stoner of KYUSS, the Prong of PRONG (eh), the easy punk/rock of RAMONES and MISFITS, and even to the 80’s with EXTRABREIT, TINA TURNER and INVISIBLE LIMITS (!!!). This might be interesting if you’re curious to hear how distorted can some of these sound (I didn’t mention CRANBERRIES, but there’s a cover of “Salvation” too in here, which is misprinted twice in the same page as well…). I have no real feel towards this album, it is not a must nor a waste of time, just like say, “Future of the Past” by VADER: I wouldn’t spend more then 8 euros on covers but that’s possibly personal tastes, it does not contain any unedited material but some of the songs are serious fun.AXIS OF ADVANCE (Can): “Strike” Cd 2001 Death to Mankind
Holy Shit. This Cd is a severe full-blast all the fucking time. I heard AXIS OF ADVANCE only by name until last week but only now I recognize how damn good they are. We could kinda call them by the very broad terms of Death Metal or Black Metal but the truth they’re not exactly neither of the two. They possess all the martial pride of ORDER FROM CHAOS and BOLT-THROWER yet sounding 100% original. Obsessed by war and sci-fi thematics (as you can glimpse from the futhark runes, pics of nuclear explosions and war maps scattered in the booklet, or the curious lyrics that could bebroadly summed up in NOCTURNUS meets BOLT-THROWER), AOA manage to go all through impossible speeds a drum beating that can put MALEVOLENT CREATION to shame, and a second later fall in a epic, evocative remembrance which is slightly reminiscent of Hate Core bands like BOUND FOR GLORY. It’s is difficult to describe how complete, intricate and accurate all the arrangements are, synchronized with the bursts of anger and reflective moments in the lyrics, which is just a single story developing in seven chapters. Samples and experimentation are not used sparingly, AOA sounds like a band that isn’t really scared to use what is needed, yet without sounding too orchestral (on sheer architectural complexity we can call NILE to arms.) On the production, you can’t have negative comments, either, it’s really neat and gives the drums the dry, military feel it needs. I took some time reading the lyrics, too and I suggest you to eventually check the out too, they’re quite interesting and a bit “theological” as well.DEMONCY (USA/Nc): “Joined in Darkness” Cd 1999 Baphomet
The story that lays behind this Cd (or better, how I got it) is long, painful and uninteresting, in any case, it was fully worth the wait. Being one of the best Black Metal bands still living today (and curiously from US, what a coincidence uh?) DEMONCY released this Cd all of a sudden when I was quite sure they had split up. I can’t say if I simply overlooked them or if they were actually silent for some years, since I bought the “Faustian Dawn” demo reprint several years ago already. That one was an album droning and cold as ice, evocative and completely fuzzy like the best ABRUPTUM, erosive to the ego on the long run, I kinda liked a lot its strong contrapposition to the more melodic shit that was coming out in mass at the time. “Joined in Darkness” contains once again repress of old material in the form of an unreleased 7” by the name of “The Dawn of Eternal Damnation”, filtered and reprocessed by a better mixing and remastering, and portraying a real cool layout by the undisputed Artist duo namd Riddick.
This DEMONCY Cd is definitely more definite (read: clear cut) than “Faustian Dawn”, kinda more overally strong and definite. Yet, the depressive, bonechilling atmosphere comes out almost untainted thrugh the better production. Listening to this album is like breathing humid, cold air, saturated with the smell of rotting leaves, as you walk througha path of rocks glistening with moisture, all thru crumbling ruins and alien crypts in complete solitude. When the music starts to slow down into strong doomish soundscapes, it’s like falling exhausted, drained of all life, dying alone in a world that’s just shades of grey, whitout colors to warm you in the transition. Is this the mood that Black metal was supposed to recreate? The feeling of inescapable, ancient depsair? In this case, the band does the job unerringly. The vocals are the classic nasal-high pitch, although raspy and creepy not just the typical Popeye-Witch-of-the-Seven-Seas ones. Cold, cold, cold. A lifeless Black/Doom paragon.NECRO SCHIZMA (Hol): “Erupted Evil” Cd 2002 From Beyond
Tracklist
1) Intro: Doom Of The Necroslaughter 2) Erupted Evil 3) Bestial Lust 4) Crucified Carcass 5) Mass Murderer 6) Triumph Of Death 7) Intro: Doom Of The Necroslaughter (Live) 8) Erupted Evil (Live) 9) Pre-Natal Autopsy (Live) 10) Bestial Lust (Live) 11) Crucified Carcass (Live) 12) Necrocarnation (Live) 13) Triumph Of Death (Live)NECRO SCHIZMA was a quite overlooked Dutch doom/death/black metal band from the late 80’s. Their demo has been here recently reprinted by Displeased’s (associate?) From Beyond label, obviously dedicated to the most evil, obscure bands from the glorious days. The word I choose is quite fitting actually, the music in this demo/Cd is EVIL, fucking EVIL. Slow as fuck, droning like a Doomier version of VON, or a Blackest version of WINTER, NECRO SCHIZMA retain all the melancholic fascination of old school Black Metal.
While soundwise BEHERIT, ABRUPTUM, HELLAMMER and DEMONCY would be the first paragons to spring out of mind, the keywords for the album are four: relentless, inescapable, slow and obscure, I kinda freaked for this demo when I gave it the first spin, shame to me for having overlooked it when it was released for the first time. The vocals are the incarnation of despair, suffering and torment, devoid of all drops of life and energy. This is the kind of jewel for those in search for depression, old school gone-by demo-feel, and songs that have like 20 drum beats per minute. Beware this is scary doom stuff, not your average CATHEDRAL or TERGOTHON. From 8th track on, you have a couple of live songs recorded from a gig in 1990, the sound is quite good, and although abit faster live, they’re quite evocative, too.TRAUMA TEAM (Hol): s/t split Cdr with ANAL BIRTH (USA/Ny) 1998 Mangled Maggot Stew!
This is the repress of TRAUMA TEAM’s “Planet-Gore & Remnants” with remixed-remastered vocals. To define TRAUMA TEAM you should start by assuming this is also a band that strays a bit from the concept of “music” as we all know it. The vocals per se have the underwater fart tone of the likes of CUM, CBT, SMES yet what’s underneath is not structured grind, metal or whatnot. It’s fucking noise, minimalistic, super distorted, kinds LYMPHATIC PHLEGM with 400% reverb over everything and recorded with a walkman. The Cd is crammed full with one second songs, samples and just over-noisy grindnoise a la POE. It’s quite difficult to understand something beyond the droning ultra low bass distortion and super liquid grunts. A bit more definite and better sounding than ANAL BIRTH but definitely in tune.