Archives: Reviews

1 - Rise of the Abomination 2 - Evil Blood of Sodomy 3 - Rites of Carnality 4 - Hecatomb 5 - Crucifixion Vomit 6 - Advent of the Black Omen 7 - Seed of the Antichrist 8 - Hellbound Triumph 9 - Bestial Hordes from Hades 10 - Baptism in Fire 11 - Proclamation of Doom

Proclamation from Spain are quite a recent band, that during the last few years managed to reach a cult status in the deepest Black Metal underground. Since their first demo “Imperious Jaws Of Ire” they showed a dedication which is hard to find nowadays, Completely loyal to the sound of such Death/Black legends as Blasphemy, Mystifier, Archgoat they assaulted the scene with a few releases that became very soon classic. This first full length is no exception to the rule, it’s incredibly brutal, morbid, obscure and ritualistic. An aura of obscenity is engulfing all the 11 tracks composing the album, ferocious and annihilating this bestial monolith shows fully the greatness of this band. The sound is chaotic and raw, but all the instruments are still clearly audible, a better production would have surely ruined the very special atmosphere of the album, this putrid sound is absolutely perfect. Many bands playing this style of music either are not so intense or tend to become quickly boring, Proclamation manage to be unbelievably intense throughout the whole record without being boring at all…The booklet is simple but effective, reminds of “The Fallen Angel Of Doom” album by Blasphemy, lyrics and pictures are included. “Advent Of  Black Omen” is soon to become a classic, get this piece of perversion now. I advise everybody to see them live if you can, and expect some seriously extreme ritual…

1 -  Firestorm Redemption  2 – A Dream Of Armageddon 3 – Failsafe 4 – Fear Itself  5 – Lamentations 6 – None Escape 7 – Sins Of The Father 8 – Ironclad

Almost 10 years after their great demo, Ares Kingdom come back with their first full length. I have been waiting for this album for a long time, but now all I can say is that the wait was damn worth it. This is simply excellent. The line up consists now of Doug Overbay , Alex Blume (ex Nepenthe) and the founding members Chuck Keller and Mike Miller (both ex Order From Chaos). Things haven’t really changed over these ten years, Ares Kingdom still play their own thing, which is a brilliant mix of Death Metal , Thrash and some Heavy Metal, melody and aggression are melted together in a superb way, nothing really original but performed in an unique way. Comparisons to Order From Chaos and Nepenthe are quite out of place, as this doesn’t really sound like a continuation of the mentioned bands. Ares Kingdom aren’t twisted and vicious as Order From Chaos, nor so utterly dark and asphyxiating as Nepenthe/Ligeia. They definitely have a sound of their own. Alex Blume is doing a great job on vocals (in the beginning Chuck Keller used to sing), Mike Miller is as always awesome on drums, and Chuck Keller demonstrates once again to be a great guitar player and offers some brilliant solos as well. It is hard to pick one particular track, as there really are no fillers in this album, the whole record is utterly intense and aggressive, you will feel this old school vibe throughout all the 8 tracks composing this underground jewel. The production and sound on this album are top notch, clean and powerful without being so polished as many records of today, all instruments have been skilfully exalted in the mix. Package is neat and elegant reeking of 80’s era Bathory, with great lyrics included and a cool photo collage as well. If you are into ancient Death Metal and Thrash you will find this album to be one of the best surprises of this year. If you are into more modern things and expect some hyper brutal or experimental or whatever stuff, just ignore this album as it‘s nothing for you.

1 - Burn the Forest 2 - Black Metal Resistance

I am quite picky when it comes to Black Metal, but since the label also released the FANTASTIC Crucifire 7″, I was confidant this Amnion had some special qualities to spotlight. Indeed the concept of “Burning the Forests” as a fuck off to all those Philosophic Pagan Nature Worshipping Black Metal cunts (plus all that bullshit about Thule, Nietzche etc etc.) is shared by this guy writing to the very last word. Furthermore, the vocals are the bestial, roar kind a la Funeral Mist, not the dreaded crow screech, which is also a good thing. Unluckily the pros end here, becouse the music is soporific to the point of agony. You could play the whole album with one hand and a MIDI keyboard without a second of preparation. I hope you know that I don’t give a fuck about skill when there is style supporting it, and bands like Von clearly told the world one could make a memorable song with just one riff. But Amnion is not Von, not at all. And the closing result is almost as sleepy as Striborg. I also have some doubts the band members are so old to remember when the Black Metal movement was true as the nostalgic words in the sleeve proclaim, but I have no proofs to go deeper on this topic.

1 - You Look Pretty in Blue 2 - Mindfuck 3 - Eyes Burnt Blind 4 - Mantra

I admit this is one of those record I’d never buy if I had to choose from the package alone (ahem). It’s a blank 7″ recorded on one side only and without any sleeve or artwork of sort; looks like one of those old promos labels used to send in the 80’s when they didn’t have promo tapes or some sort of test pressing. Musically it’s not bad however. It’s pissed off grindcore stripped of peculiar elements like dissonance, growling vocals, super skill or whatever. Just very genuine and with lung squeezed screams. The songs must have been recorded in different times becouse the first two are way more brutal and sharper then the rest of the Ep, with an inch of added speed and straightforwardness. However I must say these vocals, while certainly able to communicate strife and frustration, are quite even from start to end, and the result is more that of nerve pinching than rage. I wanted to listen to it several times before making judgement becouse with a packaging like this, all you have to judge is the music, and sometimes I think this is a real good choice when you want a listener to focus on that alone. In the end, if one wants pure and simple 90’s grindcore this might be a sound choice, yet I cannot reccomend it for any other particular reason I can think of. Good recording, good riffs, good structure, some modern HC elements make way in the mix. Other than that, I am afraid it might disappear in the second hand bins. There are no lyrics here but they wrote me they’re more like “psychological” than “political” in theme.

1 - Fucking Lobotomized 2 - Freak Fucker 3 - Kill Me or I'll Fuck'n Kill Myself (Doomed cover) 4 - Fuck You All 5 - Fucking in the Sewer 6 - Fuck'n Drunk 7 - I Wanna Fuck Myself (G.G. Allin cover) 8 - Fucking Women 9 - Fucking Hell (Abscess cover)

Folding 7″ Eps are always nice to watch, thanks No Posers Please! for this new vinyl release. For being a no poser band, the cover artwork leaves a bit to smile about. This seems like one of those anti-posers band which result to be poser in its own mirrored way. Not metal posers you know, but the punk posers which always have to look drunk, stupid or happy in the pictures and dress meticolously thrashed. Eheh. Other than that, their music is good, it sometimes sounds like Abscess without the Autopsy shadow plus some Ramones vibe: mostly loose, car stereo punk/thrash/core with average vocals and a quite standard choice of riffs. There is one Doomed, one G.G. Allin and one Abscess cover out of 7 songs which rotate around the word “fuck”, if anything, they are coherent with their choices. I admit that this is in my opinion, the plainest of this label’s otherwise excellent roster. The layout is also so routinely, boring punk-clichèd that it could be a Putrid Filth Conspiracy or Civilization release (and that says it all). I don’t know why but this band doesn’t spin much in me. The riffs themselves are’nt so bad however, so I can0t rate it under average, but definitely not much more than that.

1 - World Downsfall 2 - Up Syndrome 3 - NSBMX 4 - Cripple Crucifixion 5 - Bitch Black 6 - 4' 10" 7 - Majmun 8 - Diabolic Diabetic 9 - Grindkare 10 - Make Way!

Endwarfment make fun of themselves and the whole world, and are real idiots, let’s be honest. The song “NSBMX” is about a Black Metal kid buying a bike, do I need say more? The whole 7″ is a concept that makes fun of handicapped persons. Ahah. But as in other cases, out of this lack of seriousness come among of the best old school grindcore songs I heard in a several years, this is how grindcore used to sound like about 20 years ago, with releases of bands like 7MON, Sore Throat, early Napalm, Fear of God etc. In this age of lackluster neat and tidy technical grindmetal a la Nasum I almost forgot the total madness that was gind noize in that period: in a way, it’s damn refreshing. The song structures owe nothing to metal, being more of a product of a delirating punk destroy attitude and hatred towards the strings of the guitars and bass. I especially love these vocals which are as insane as Lee Dorrian in his prime before he turned out to be a fucking hippy. The sound is deliciously garageish, with broken volume levels and drums hammering in the background, and the songs are rightfully distant from melody. This is not crusty stuff a la Wolfpack, mind ye, but way more like unmelodic grind-noize the 80’s way!

1 - Tearmeinto 2 - Evil Machinegun 3 - Strojovka 4 - Der Gehirnsturm 5 - VašeKKino 6 - Ši Mešiše 7 - FFF Anilo Rak 8 - Lessor 1x,2x,3x More 9 - Copy Culture 10 - Total Agyvazar 11 - Final Ensemble 12 - Bajaja 13 - Lion Ferdi

I was greatly impressed by this band when I heard “Germ of Erorr” (or was it Error? Never understood if it was a typo or a smart joke). That was surely one of the best grindcore album of the year it was released. This new “Crash Test” flips some cards however and the sound underwent some noteworthy mutations. The sound is much heavier now, and especially in the first song you hear some Napalm Death-like industrial influences have landed in their sound, a bit like Alienation Mental while a bit less invasive. Things are a bit more interesting, as it’s difficult to describe their sound: there is some schizophrenic, dissonant riffing, but everything moves slowly, with a heavy accent on heaviness more than speed. A crushing, loop-like concatenation of power chords a la latest Pyrexia have taken place of the straight ahead grindcore of their old days. There are actually a few grinding bursts but they’re now just smaller parts in a bigger concept, while speed has much more weigth on their previous (honesly much better) album. The vocals are a bit more like a barking drunk dog than a bestial roar, but that’s ok as it gives the music a punkish edge, the riffs are however not the top in energy and I just can’t feel taken from start to end, being this an album that concentrates of power, the riffs are of top importance. I am not sure I dig this album very much, but I admit progression is strong, the packaging of exceptional quality and the multimedia content really big and impressive. While I leave it much to your tastes, I can surely say this is a product which has been made with quality clear in mind as a main goal. The lyricsheet is also very cleverly made as a spin off insert the size of a prayer book, you should see it, very nice.