Archives: Reviews

1) Devil Pig 2) Veinen 3) Watain 4) Lamb 5) Deadtuck 6) Satanic Blood 7) Christ Fire 8) Von

Oh fucking cursed shit! Ever wondered how much fucking noise could one single demo like this one do? Reverberating all through the underground for over ten years after its original release? OK, NECROVORE maybe accomplished something like this with a single demo which was released something like 15 years ago, but this one is nonetheless really a spine fucking chilling and blood damned curdling brand of Black/Death Metal. This Cd repressed that famous demo tape, which gained some more attention from Count Krishna (or whatever it’s spelt, I don’t have time to check) which also mentioned it in the overly famous Kerrang interviews (controversies and misconceptions also abound here). The boy also wore a VON shirt during his trial for murder, and to end it up, even DARK FUNERAL covered a song of theirs, which also let to the reprinting of this Cd. Not bad as publicity for one single demo right? There are even rumors that this was a side-fun-project of AUTOPSY. If that’s true, I’ll manage to know as soon as possible, it won’t me surprise this is SO good… What is Black Metal I happen ask myself at times? Do I really like it or hate it? Genres come and go, but some bands just stand aside from the rest, and are able to create masterpieces like this out of pure simplicity and droning, obsessive emptiness. I think the original demo is from 91 (not 87 as declared at times, that was NECROVORE). VON had the same satanic crudeness of VENOM and BATHORY, the same scary innovative lack of humanity of earlier VOIVOD, SARCOFAGO or SODOM and the eerie feel of inexorable damnation of HADEZ, BEHERIT (of “The Oath of Black Blood”) and BLASPHEMY (of “Fallen Angel of Doom”). There is no aesthetic in this music, just a 2 riff guitar droning that consume your soul for minutes skinning your psyche of any connection with reality, and replacing your cervix with a chaotic, hyper basic, frenzied instinct for flesh and damnation. Don’t look for hyperfast drumblasts, witch-like screechy vocals or other infantile Black metal trademarks this time, because this is something of the most obscure, bone chilling material you’ll hear, much in the vein of what initially the genre BM was meant to mean: Satanic, bestial, raw, unrefined, dismal, gloomy, ominous, primitive, atmospheric, demoniac, emotionally cold, psychologically oppressive… sum everything up and you’ll get what this demo is about. Masterpiece.

1) Bring to Pass 2) From Nowhere to Nowhere 3) Cold Stares of the Dead

There is a score of good things to say about this band, not last the fact they’re seriously active and involved with the right mind into the underground. Anyway: musically speakin’ they’re both depressively Doom-like and cadaverous as powerful, fast and technical, kind of, I’d even dare, MALEVOLENT CREATION in the fastest parts: when the music rages on, the riffs become an intricate concatenation of notes that combine to create a real furious discharge of complex textures of dazzling riffs. I am not much for the shrilling shrieks which sometimes back the main deep vocals, but they add some variety and another of the aforementioned good things I had to say about this band is the identity that each the song show, really one not alike the other. It’s difficult to find a song predictable because they really shift to some melancholic, atmospheric Doom bridge to a furious explosion of rage in really a bunch of seconds, and without sounding out of place or without letting you to notice any abrupt changes. This means the band really knows how to handle the compositions. Not totally unrelated to this characteristic is the fact that they really don’t sound as artificial as many other country mates, their music staying warm and sanguine and rather emotional. The good mix of brutality and skill, of roaring and dreaming.

It’ Ok to me. 5 tracks of modern-imprint thrash metal, with some macho vocals a la Machine Head/Helmet/White Zombie, and lots of mosh/slam riffs. I believe if you put this on a 10000 Watt speaker it can give its

Generally speaking, I like to write long, detailed reviews, but some bands really bore me so much I barely have patience to lose time in wasting words. RISING MOON is an Italian band at its second release finally obtained from a Swedish label. They play some well structured modern thrash (I refuse to call it Death) metal in the modern Gothenburg tradition like IN FLAMES/WITHOUT GRIEF and stuff like that, maybe a bit more pompous of melodies, and less rock’n’roll. I admit that considering the average level of bands from my country, these guys know how to handle sticks and picks, but the music is some of the most distant from my magazine you could conceive. I don’t like melodic Death Metal for the simple fact that Death metal, by definition, CANNOT be melodic, else it could not be called Death anymore. It is music of darkness, crudity, oppression, hate, despair, brutality, filth, and not of those above figure in this Cd. Again, the best term to define it is “useless”.

Even assuming I could care for bands that try encompass all genres of metal (if you exclude hyper-experimental bands like MR. BUNGLE) REQUIEM would still not be in my favorite folder. This is just one of those bands that sound so unripe and insconsistent even if able to write incredibly intricate guitar evolutions (but again, that’s not even the case). I don’t know if the band is young, but this is a kind of music that just don’t stick to the ear. Mainly an orchestral MY DYING BRIDE-line experimentation, with some accelleration that splips into the heavy metal fields and one of the most stiff, mono-tonal singer I have heard. The drum pace is abominable, kind of mid tempo “thud thud” that leaves plenty of space for the guitarist to jack off on the guitar tabs. I think I am really wasting some precious time here. Ignore the band if you happen onto this.

1) Invocation 2) Void of Facial Tissue 3) Rose-Red Bloodsperm 4) Insection 5) Bodybits

Absolutely lovely. Listening to this demo was like sunbathing in some tropical island after listening to the unbearable DECEMBER (see above). I heard this band on the net for the first time and I tried hard to convince the man behind the band to send me a promo but he’s a damn tenacious bone to checw and so I finally sent him cash for the whole thing and I didn’t regret it. It happens rarely that I order a single Cd from a band (usually I waste my money on distributions) but this PUTREFIED was a blessing, one of the most putrid, downtuned, obscure Death Metal around. Musically they tend towards the American borderline of brutish Death, although their European blood gives the songs a definitely less sinthetical, distant feel. It’s the kind of music that splats you with blood and entrails, seeping into your pores, sticking in your cervix like some fermenting disease. Zombie-like vocals come right out of the stomach, the guitars down-down-tuned in a way they seem to blend with the whole gore atmosphere, just cracked by one of the most lovely drum sounds ever since “Bood, Pus and Gastric Juice”. There is an eerie, disturbing atmosphere which makes this band even superior to the brand of USA Death Metal they proclaim to follow. If ever there was a band to folow closely this is the one, although from recent news, they seem to be in stasis as the leader moved down to Germany. Look out for flyers or send him cash, this promo is KILLER.