Archives: Reviews

1 - Lethal Manipulation (The Bonecrusher Chronicles) 2 - Sociocide 3 - Vomit You Out 4 - Origin 5 - Mental Torment 6 - Manimal Istincts 7 - Inflictions 8 - Disease Called Man 9 - Inner Reflections

Don’t be mislead by the cover alone, ORIGIN is not just your average run-o-the-mill band with a knack for Aliens or other ridicoulous stuff. ORIGIN is one of the most rough, abrasive Death Metal acts of the last years. Constantly changing tempos, with a terrific display of drum handling prowess, with guitars that seem carved out of stone, heavy, granitic, continuously stopped to imprint more energy to every single pull of that fucking cord. Vocals cross in the maelstrom to recreate 2/3 simultanous effects. And regarding the lyrics, they’re definitely more interesting than one can thing at a first glance, they deal with death, rage and destruction on a grander scale, the title track “Origin” for example talks about the unavooidablity of life and death in the universe, about the inescapable end that awaits everything that is born and has a life of itself. Fury, inner conlicts exploded into the universe itself coat the style of ORIGIN’s unsurpassingly rhytmical anti-melodic Death Metal, there is not an ounce of nice hip-op metal here, it is death 100% although pretty original as well. If you heard EUPHORIC EVISCERATION, earlier SHREDDED CORPSE or the latest GORGUTS you know what I mean for “abrasive”: the vocals are the sort that hurt your throat, and the riffs themselves are constantly curling like a serpent without head. Really fucking HEAVY.

Mass destruction and world obliteration by nuclear means is what this CD is about. Whatever the fuck, this is a great Black Metal CD. Nihilistic and cold, fast and with good riffs. Not very complex nor very filthy but yet to be a solo project is not bad at all, especially considering it’s Black metal and it’s from Scandinavia (of late this association is as interesting as Malayan Pop Rock). The guy behind the band is also behind PARNASSUS another one of my few privileged Blackish bands. Somewhat of a mystery remains to understand why if these persons are so hating of everything, they continue to express themselves through music. I think if you hate everybody you don’t really need to communicate with anybody but yourself. And if you really hate yourself as well you should probably have committed suicide a few months ago. Seems much of a poser thing to me but what the hell. The CD is good, fast and well played.

Ancient. Immortal. Once every 10 years or so comes a band that change the face of a music style, a band so damn unique and dazzling to flatter everybody forever. First it was SLAYER, then MORBID ANGEL and SUFFOCATION, bands that have such a strong coherence and identity that create something unique that last forever. That’s the reality behind NILE. In a time where everyone is looking for experimentation to soften music styles that absolutely have nothing to do with tenderness such as Black Metal and Death Metal, NILE showed the whole world how they could recreate atmospheres through concept albums weaved with an incredible taste, astonishing musicianship and without losing a single ounce of substance. NILE is a legend already to me, every time I hear their album I am completely overwhelmed by the complexity and the in depth study of Egyptian mythoi. The packaging is perfect, the lyrics totally glue you to your seat as you swallow em while listening to the disc. The production is flawless.. Well enough for now, I hope you’ll get the point. Oriental atmospheres reign in a release of absolutely unstained Death Metal to the core music.

1 - Divine Intent 2 - The Black Hand of Set 3 - Wrought 4 - Immortality Through Art 5 - Godless 6 - Extinct 7 - The Howling of the DJinn 8 - Ramses Bringer of War

This is a 8 tracks CD featuring the now legendary NILE demo tapes “Festivals of Atonement” and “Ramses Bringer of War” released respectively in 1995 and 1997, on Anubis records. It’s useless to say that the sound on these 2 demos is far superior in quality than your standard demo tapes, and the musicianship that is showed in here was already of sky high levels. A thin difference in sound could be heard after the 6th song which signs the end of the first and the beginning of the second, but substantially it’s NILE and NILE have class, fuck. The first tracks are full-bodied Death Metal with no complete characterization as the following material will have, but while not enriched with their classic samplings and Egyptian like sonorities (except the serpent rattling and some brass instrument in the beginning of the third song and some other sample here and there) that they now encase perfectly between a Brutal Death Metal barrage of sound and an epic, pounding march, the guitar style is already clear cut and the NILE seed already grown. The personality of the guitar evolution is undeniable, and when you move on to the second demo, Karl is supported by a second guitarist, John Elhers. The CD lasts a reasonable 42 minutes which are however not distributed like in their debut, in a conceptual trip through Egyptian landscapes… the Middle-Eastern melodies temperate and increase the catchiness of the songs but the songs are basically stand alone stories which will be tied up in a concept in “Amongst..”. It’s especially interesting to hear the small differences between the songs on these demos and the revised versions of the debut CD. Like much of the Relapse material, the package is of top-notch deluxe quality, and the sound cleaned up by the highest professionists of the field. It’s NILE man, if you don’t have the demos, this is something you would not regret to spend your cash in.

1 - Hidden 2 - Immolation for the Abyss 3 - Vision 4 - ...for Our Kingdom 5 - Entwine My Soul

I remember the first time I saw NEFAS live, it was a display of musical prowess and untarnished Brutality I almost shitted in my pants, I really couldn’t believe a band like this could hail from my country, and be so unknown. Of all the other bands I had seen live this far this is the only one who has that kind of high lever professionality and dedication which is typical of American (let’s say Florida) bands. Musically, it’s all about Brutal Death metal of the finest quality, blessed by a drummer that is probably the fastest of all the italian Death metal scene, and probably the most technical as well, to complete this all, the guitars are obsessive and obscure, they have that kind of eerie, mystical dark sound which is characteristic of IMMOLATION or INCANTATION, that’s why I compare ’em so often to these bands, but also gets crushingly heavy like BOLTTHROWER at times. The more the band matures, the more it strays from the GRAVE influenced Swedish Death they played at the beginning of their career, and at the point this MCD was recorded, thay were as personal, compact and unite as a band as the most praised pros. The vocals are kinda demoniac and gargling, sort of those of IMMOLATION on their first album “Dawn of Possession”, while lyrics are centered on Sumerian and Bablylonian mithoi, chanting of mythic passages and the fantastic Chthulu imagery Lovecraft created for the Necronomicon. I think it was one of the best releases of that year, INTERNATIONALLY speaking, and aehm, after all it was released through my label… the point is I am not praising this band so much becouse I partecipated in that MCD, but on the contrary I thought it was a good thing to do BECOUSE the band was so superlative. The cover artwork, just like the one on the demo-tape, had been painted by Paolo Parente who aalso worked for Lobo and other national and international comic labels.

This is the second time I hear the word Vomitorium (the first was the necrocannibalistic song on “Acts of the Unspeakable”). I doubt it exists in any dictionary, but anyway there’s more of AUTOPSY in the new NECROPHAGIA than in this term. A bit broader in encompassing some parts of rather classic Death Metal with samples and unidentifiable sonorities. But on the whole a rather sick expulsion which have that diseased, frenzied reek that ABSCESS and AUTOPSY have in common. Convulsed, sincere Gore Core with something of classic in it, just like that sort of feeling you get when listening to Death Metal at its very roots. Raw and primeval Death Metal, the way it should always be. This is no pretty stuff to hear, you need stomach, but this is Death Metal, not country, you need a very special state of mind to like its core, and if you got it, you’ll also understand what is so good in NECROPHAGIA.

Another good release from a veteran band. Good thrash death with a strong affinity for horror. The cover artwork, by Chas Balun, is not one of the best I have seen in my life, and the inner design is revolting, not because it spots scenes of atrocious splatter gore, but it’s a really garish, tasteless show of neon colors and horrible fonts but what the fuck, the music counts. And the music itself is rather ghastly and shifts down on slow, chilling atmospheres with Killjoy’s classic, malicious vocals more often than on “Black Blood Vomitorium”. I believe their intention was to recreate an atmospheric drape of a soundtrack for an horror movie, also since the album itself is dedicated to our dear and departed Lucio Fulci, the master of cinematic Gore… despite hard trying and lot of time consuming efforts, the disc doesn’t rise to the levels of spine chilling sickness of AUTOPSY or IMPETIGO even trying hard and heartily. There is something in the eeriness which makes this CD stand out which make me think of early VOIVOD… the old school guitar work and good use of samples add some to the whole. Good shit.