Archives: Reviews

1 - Total War 2 - Italmaniacstorm

I assume the band is named after the MORBID ANGEL song in “Domination”, anyway they have nothing to do with Death Metal, they’re genuinely thrash and genuinely influenced by the best classics of the eighties. Even the vocals try as hard as they can to catch the honest, sincere sound of the 80’s. I partly share their nostalgy for thrash metal, after all most from our generation were born with that stuff in the ears. I was really tempted to place a bad vote before even listening to the Cd (hey, I am nasty), so full to the brim I am by the “puropsedly aged metal” bands which followed the release of BEWITCHED/BESTIAL MOCKERY and the like, but for some reason, I really cannot hate this demo. Maybe more American (a la EXODUS, EVIL DEAD, DARK ANGEL) than German and therefore abit less aggressive, but witha good sound this band could really do something. This is probably the kind of bands which you have to listen live to understand how much they’re worth, sorta baptism of fire, but on Cd, they’re not bad at all, and mind ye, this is a grindcore/deathmetal ‘zine.

1 - Human Extinction 2 - A Cult to Everlasting Badness 3 - From Designed to the Evil 4 - Little Crown Abominations 5 - A Sect at the End of the Abyss 6 - Dark Language of a Supreme God 7 - Drunk With the Blood of the Saints 8 - The Oracle of the Bleeding Head 9 - Caligula 10 - Altar of Sacrifice

Reprint of a cult album from 1993, from the very start “Aqelarre” wrap you in chilling, distant atmospheres that bring your mind back to the time when Greece had good, obscure bands, with a feel that is that of BEHERIT, ABRUPTUM, DEMONCY and the SLAYER of “Hell Awaits”. In other words, Black fucking Metal. This Cd is haunting, it holds spectral, eerie melodies that bring the chilling breeze of Death in your home. It makes you feel damn uncomfortable with your own life. The sound is a gaping, ghastly march which burts in uncontrolled rage of demoniac fury only to be quenched by the certainty of hopelessness… the songs are on the average quite long and structured, with its own share of elaborate solos and the classic sud-american vocal imprint/pattern which is typical of bands like SARCOFAGO or INFERNAL, brutal, crude, in your face. Every time I start to think that my delusion is derived from the fact that I have just grown too old and that probably the bands of today are just like the one of 10 years ago, I get a Cd like this, and realize that something has REALLY changed inexroably. The rain is falling, evil lurks in the dismal fog… hungry for your blood… and HADEZ is a perfect soundtrack. I love all these samples, the eerie screams, the alien, disturbing, distant noise… and the demoniac rage that explodes all in a sudden from time to time… this is a Cd that really haunts your soul. And no, “Altar of Sacrifice” is not a SLAYER cover. Last two tracks are taken live from 1991.

1) Your Beast Tonight 2) Confident 3)Stabbed by Touch 4) Soulhunters (Spiritual Arches) 5) Skittle Man 6) Death Ought to Wait for Me 7) In-Sect 8) Take on Me 9) Mind Ruins

I am not familiar with too many Russian bands, but I heard enough to identify their style a little bit. Basically, just like Italian bands, they tend to indulge a bit too much into mosh and thrash metal believing “stop and go” means “powerful”, following the roads of easy listening, and powerful slams to make their songs easier to swallow. bands that think that ENTOMBED become cool with “Wolverine Blues”. In short, this is proclaimed as Death Metal although *glom* the closest association I can make for this music is, come a little bit closer: Ska. I dunno if it’s just immagination, but the guitar riffs could fit better some modern skacore band than any Death Metal I heard before, so fragmented are the riffs to produce what I believe they assume is a DM sound. In short, this kind of groove is nothing but funny and lighthearted, and if their intention was to make a stoopid project a la LAWNMOWERDETH, I think they reached their spot. OF dark, brooding and brutal they have nothing, not even the nasty fun of MACABRE, even if the sound is good, and the vocals quite flexible. I guess GRENOUER’s not one of the worst band I have ever heard, at least it’s not pretentious, and the distorted goo faces in the booklet clearly state that they “take it easy”. Not the kind of band I praise on Nuclear Abominations, but not one of the worse either. If you can get it cheap, give it a try.

1 - Intro: Coma 2 - Face Cachèe 3 - Trouble Psychologique 4 - Bouffe de Merde 5 - Mascarade Politique 6 - Pedophiles “Fils de Pute” 7 - Deuil 8 - Trafic d’organes 9 - Insurmontable Existence 10 - Chretiente Demagogia Supreme 11 - Solitude Exacerbèe 12 - Vision Apocalyptique

This is what I call deathgrind: straight, simple Death Metal riffs with a grindy/crust/punkish groove and heavily filtered, guttural vocals, a la RUNNING GUTS. Lyrics seem sometimes in French, sometimes in English (I might be wrong) , but generally fall either in the topics of bad taste (Boufèe de Merde) or subjects which could be serious or not (depends on the lyrics, they were not enclosed in the Cdr and anyway I won’t understand a single word of French), dealing with politics or pedophilia for instance. The sound is gross, raw but full, and both drummer and guitarist definitely know their due, as the songs are varied while remaining intense, passing through the realms of Death Metal and Mincecore a la AGATHOCLES at times. I believe you should be somewhat more into crust/grind than Death to like this stuff to the fullest, it’s crammed of groove but has its share of fullbodied blasts as well, very heavy sound. Track four is some experimental electronic/synth thing, but after it closes, the fury rages on, and stops again at “Deuil” which is some sort of trippy stuff a la NEUROSIS, even more weird then the one before, closing witha gregorian chant. It is the sort of eclectic band which knows how to avoid a Cd to always sound the same for its whole duration. Very cools stuff, they have class.

1 - A Fraction off Death 2 - Army of Hermaphrodites 3 - Burnt to an Absolute Crisp 4 - My Feral Fucktoy 5 - Colon Commando 6 - Delicious Dolop 7 - Fucking the Fetus 8 - Skull Fucked 9 - Shopfront Whore 10 - Jeffrey Dahmer’s Cookbook 11 - Picked Member 12 - Shotgun Facelift 13 - Barefoot and Shit Faced 14 - Violet 15 - Inject Me With AIDS 16 - Slowly Raped with a Chainsaw 17 - Toilet Tantalizers 18 - Spray Me with Fecal Matter 19 - Licky Webster 20 - Fuck... I’m Dead 21 - A Fraction off Death (Live) 22 - Licky Webster(Live)

Neat new release from Razorback, which turns again its gaze on an aussie band after the deservedly successful INTENSE HAMMER RAGE Cd some time ago. FUCK …I’M DEAD already released some stuff as a seven inch split with SANITY’S DAWN last year, if you somewhat missed it, donp’t worry, because this Cd contains both that Ep and even two live tracks as bonuses. First off: they use a drum machine. Which has its good and bad sides: the music really reach blindingly fast speeds, with histerical vocals and hyperfast guitar it really cuts to the limits of absolute speed in grindcore. On the bad side, it somewhat makes the music a bit too tidy and precise sometimes, so lovers of filth like me would probably find that some blasts are not as convincing as those of bands like PROFESSOR, NASUM or the NAPALM DEATH of “FETO”. To break the eveness of the songs and add lots of variety to the Cd, some songs spot some different approaches like the third one “Army of Hermaphrodites” ( or “Toilet Tantalizers”) which has some definitely melodic/distant feel mixed with sheer grinding bursts. Correct me if I’m wrong but the first riff in this song IS exactly that of “Boneyard” of you-know-who …Anyway the grind is thick and tasty in this Cd, overly varied by twists and samples and small tributes (“burnt to an ABSOLUTE crisp” eheh, what’s this “Reek?”) and with explosions of histeric screams and gorrillesque grunts, fast as fuck and with lot of groove. All in all a great choice.

1 - Uncompromising 2 - Human wreck’s container 3 - Microbus 4 - Vulture’s grub/fast food mix/ 5 - Parasitic shithead/tear your head off!/ 6 - Northbohemian inversionn - artful agent 7 - Blood revenge 8 - Ecobus/ short veichle mixer 9 - Napalmmad/ killinG-lonG-version 10 - Toxic relax 11 - Necrobestiality/hyenas version 12 - Bioterrorist

Despite the name could sound quite humorous to the ear, the topics FOUR SEATS FOR INVALIDES face in this Cd are rather serious, containing sort of ecological songs a la Sadus/Brutal Truth/old Therion, although not excessively refined lyricwise. Musically on the other hand, FSFI are difficult to pigeonhole, having basically elements of rocking death metal, with a special groove which is typical of bands like DEAD WORLD or FUDGE TUNNEL (no, they’re not industrial-like, I just mentioned these bands becouse sometimes the riffs have their same intensity and repetitivity), amplified with elements of goregrind/grindcore, without being impossibly heavy, fast or condensed all the time… what surely strikes more is the total, continuous variations you get within the same songs. Let’s say the main structures are not really grind/death: I’d even dare to say it’s more of a cross of modern thrash (a la NAILBOMB) and stuff like FLESHLESS, with a drum pattern that often strays from the swedish-sounding guitar backbone to delve into blastsbeats here, into some fast paced growl/stop and go riff there, and intense rages of some of the best grindcore… the vocals also continuously change from whispering to bubbling gargles to suine grunts, but maintaining a low tuning all the time. One of the worse reviews I have ever made maybe, but they’re difficult to describe, as they are not neither typically American nor European in style. For sure, they’re Death, grind and heavy 80% of the time, but pretty original, a good band.

1 - Necrotic Ulcerous Genoplast 2 - Are You Dead 3 - Pigamism Of Remains 4 - Ultimate Masturbation 5 - Land Shark 6 - Little Purple M.. - Penis 7 - Pedigree Insanity 8 - Headless Autophelatio 9 - The Game We Play 10 - Fleshmaster’s Birthday 11 - Support Thesmokingteam

At first I really didn’t realize what was wrong, I really thought it was me… I thought: maybe it’s becouse I was so younger when I heard them for the last time, (10 years ago, I missed “Folter”, and I didn’t understand why this Cd didn’t stir a single finger of interest in me. It is like hearing all these bands and to find they all have unerringly lost all thier shine. The titles are still rather gore-related, but far from the PUNGENT STENCH – influenced of the first years, so boiling of absolute bad taste… the music, well, that’s even more straight, clean, relaxed… sure there’s the blasts and accelerations, but I somewhat remembered them a bit different, much, much more filthy. It’s not even the rock/groove imprint that the slower parts have, some bands like GUT have made their distinctive watermark adopting the rocking grind/death sound, it’s just too… perfect, too plastic. DISASTROUS MURMUR were formed out of a member which left DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA (another band recently reunited…), set out to form a disgusting cult band with the name of DISATROUS MURMUR back in 1988. Harald is no longer in the band, and guess what, none of the members which played in Rhapsody in Red is still in but their very first drummer, Manfred. I can’t tell which of them was the musical genius behind DM, but what is quite clear is that he brought the crusty feel with him. I am not overly deluded bu this Cd, but it’s surely not at the level of my aspectatives. Sincere, straight Death Metal, nothing more, nothing less.