Tag: Bestial Black Metal

  • Waiting for another Night of unjustified bloodshed

    Waiting for another Night of unjustified bloodshed

    Tune in next week for the second installment of Mass Extermination Fest, this time featuring Supremative from Spain. “Spain” might be a bit too generic, since the band comes from the Canary Islands, where my well-off friends go to burn their bloody, utterly undeserved cash on the lifestyle they lead. But fine: in the end we like slaughter, and I doubt the band lives off rents from apartments leased to suckers.

    Back to business: I’m guessing you want an opinion on the headliner, if you’re shortsighted enough to read this site and too lazy to do your own digging on Encyclopedia Metallum. I’ll tell you more: I think I’ll do a quick run-through of all the festival bands between now and next Saturday, so keep an eye on the new blog.

    That three-color cover, which by now is basically the staple flag of that so-called bestial death subgenre cooked up at the start of the new millennium, already says almost everything worth knowing. Alessandro, the very young organizer of the fest, is a strong supporter of this stuff, and honestly it seems healthier than getting smashed into the ground on gin tonics in the Modena nightlife. We’re talking about that rotten strain of phlegmy, aspirated vocals that wheeze blasphemies over hammering, spiraling, hypnotic music. Some local names I won’t mention because it’s too obvious still pop into my head, like the famous Pink Elephant. I like this crap, obviously, as you already know. The album review is right below.

    Barbarian is rawer than raw, abrasive metal from what I remember. I’ve seen him live a few times, and I’ve known these guys for longer than I’d like to admit. I remember their direction is more towards the primal energy of the first years of the genre than trying to go down the sink of systematic annihilation, but that is not a bad start.

    Same goes for the awesome personal favorite that is Uraniavore Goatphago: more minimalistic than minimalist, completely undiluted cosmic chaos, basically a demi-glace reduction of Revenge concentrated right to the edge of recognizability.

    Last, you might want to check out Dead Aeon Mist. He plays a genre that’s extremely hard to do properly without plunging into that easy, mass-market Swedish death metal sound. I heard some tracks in advance months ago, but I’m saving the final listen for the live show. I want a surprise.

    But more than anything, next weekend I want to unplug from routine crap, so I’ll be drinking ethanol in various forms at the biker club where the show will be held. Come over and let’s talk gore, massacre, and demonic nihilism.

    Mass Extermination Fest II

    28 February, 2026, here more about the event https://fb.me/e/5sASw1B5c

  • An unfiltered good night of beer and music

    An unfiltered good night of beer and music

    I’m not particularly eager to write these days, but I’ve promised myself to regularly update my blog (no, I won’t say when). If more than twenty-four hours pass, I tend to forget what I wanted to say, so I might as well post right away. Hence, here’s your black metal concert review. You don’t get this many after all-

    I was mentioning that it’s been a while since I went out just to enjoy a beer that wasn’t work-related, taking a break from the immense pile of troubles accumulating day by day.

    Also, Nuclear Abominations has been a part of my life for almost thirty years but was never really a personal outlet. It represents, more than myself, the part of me that back in 1995 wanted to express something without writing for other publications. I loved that level of bold, unrestrained intimacy so much that I continued to consider myself an active writer, even during months when I wrote nothing. Once a writer, forever a writer. There were times, especially in the early 2000s, when I wrote daily. These days, I find it increasingly difficult to write about music as it seems everything has already been discussed somewhere on social media or a well-organized website in some remote part of social medias. I now treat music as a personal matter, something to discuss with friends or occasionally mention here in these pages. But above all, this fanzine or blogzine, whatever you prefer to call it, showcases a specific persona that isn’t always consistent with my other selves. Nuclear Abominations is the identity I adopt when discussing these topics, and I enjoy using its voice. That said, I still like to write when I get the proper motivation, and this unexpected plunge into the local undergound “scene” somehow stirred something, deep inside of my tiny roid rage brain.

    To be clear, sometimes, I don’t even agree with what I write.

    Be it War or Death or Black Metal concert review

    About last night, I went out to drink some beers and see what’s happening in places where people talk about what used to be underground music—though it hasn’t been underground for at least twenty years, fairly speaking. There was this very young band of guys who are passionate about the genre I call Black Metal, which the rest of the world has perhaps mistakenly lumped in with themes of “War” or “Death” Metal. The evening was Black Metal themed, and although other bands played, I honestly forgot about them after about 60 seconds of listening.

    But this band, IGNOBLETH stood out. They are genuinely talented, and my praise extends beyond just stylistic or aesthetic coherence. They show real passion and commitment to the music they create. They talk about music with enthusiasm and ignore the typical social dynamics, much like I did at their age, outliers in a world obsessed with politeness and mutual flattery.

    Musically, their influences, including bands like ARCHGOAT, are evident, but they blend their music into an 80% grinding slow mid-tempo with occasional faster blasts making up the remaining 19%. Thankfully, within that last 1%, there is IT, that spark of otherowrldliness streaming from the inside, and I really enjoyed the way that kind of social unease takes the form of horns, chains and rotting corpsepaint. Sporadic incursions of Nordic harmonies sometimes poke in a controlled manner, not enough to lead us onto dangerously slippery shores. They also slow down, ut in a scary DISEMBOWELMENT way, not spleen-infused doom . I think the gem is still rather unrefined and I really hope it stays this way, in a world of controlled bonfires, be the burning nursery.

  • VomitmantiK/Hellcrash/Goat Vomit Noise/Slaughter Messiah @ Freakout club

    I’ve probably never seen as many concerts in a row as I did the last couple of months (at least after 2004), which is especially strange because I’ve also begun to appreciate them again whereas for years the titanic battle between couch and pain in the ass in the car had always ended in favor of the former. To be fair, all the last few concerts I saw had a percentage of interesting bands above 50 percent, and at least something to see on stage in terms of set design and presence. The night of Saturday was among them, with an interesting surprise as well. Usual urban location with a handful of scattered headbangers, a low turnout but unfortunately it was to be expected.

    image 1
    VomitmantiK

    I will not spend many words on the wild and ferocious horde that is VOMITMANTIK because they recently released the CD on the label (allow me an invitation to buy a copy though), except that it was the first time I had seen them live outside of a rehearsal room. The keyword definition here is crude barbarity. VomitmantiK is a rough embryo that draws its strength from being primitive, from that atavistic, primal ferocity that embodies the instincts of the woods, the totemic bloodlust of ferocious beasts that feed on carcasses and entrails. Hammer and nails: simple tools for channeling instinct into massive, direct songs. Powerful and raw, as the genre must be.

    image 2
    Hellcrash

    Here is where the evening took an unpredictable direction. I was imagining yet another Australian-like nostalgia product that might end up on the endless roster of photocopy bands on Iron Bonehead or Unspeakable Axe, but on the contrary, things went in a totally different direction. I had heard a few of their songs on the fly online in the past and was not particularly impressed, even after a quick review in the last few days to see if anything had changed.

    Seeing HELLCRASH live, however, has been an entirely different matter. This group rocked the stage to fucking splinters. Even if my infatuation with thrash/speed metal wore off fast around 1992 when the genre had lost that raw polish that made albums by bands like Whiplash, Razor or Rigor Mortis timeless classics that still give me the sudden rush of twenty energy drinks, and honestly never came back despite various more or less pathetic revivals (don’t get me started on Earache bands). Yet, evidently, the magic in the genre is not gone forever because Hellcrash’s set was devastating. The arena that somewhat encapsulates all the obvious influences is Possessed and Venom but within the continuous shredding coexisted instances of Blood Feast, Exciter, Sadus, early Whiplash etc. It’s interesting to witness how simple things always work, at the end of the day you never get tired of eating bread after all. Square and precise, textbook stage presence, studs and leather, a drummer who crashed the skins like a poacher clubbing a baby seal, Becerra/Cronos-esque throaty vocals, spread-legged headbanging, and everything else that could serve the cause. If they pass through your area, don’t miss their show.

    image 3
    Goat Vomit Noise

    GOAT VOMIT NOISE, on the other hand, is a very strange beast. If the first two bands took you into the comfort zone, here we are talking about somebody that manages to put together a unique compositional style even if clearly inspired in spurts by this or that other sound, a bit like what happened in the days of NEFAS, when you knew exactly the language, but could not recognize the words. The concert was airless the whole time, there is not a moment of melody or breathing in the whole set. It’s a bit like walking through some post-apocalyptic, gray, lifeless urban scenery, gasping for some air or fresh water. I had listened to some interesting things online before, but let me say that after witnessing this set I now believe that speaking of Black Metal this is one of the ten most interesting bands we have in this country right now. Having a look at the performance on stage, once again, allowed me to box the view into a whole different perspective. Goat Vomit Noise’s world has no color or hope. It is a finite, bleak black granite wasteland where the only life left is armored and covered with fangs. It is indeed an experience to follow the monolithic, inescapable flow through GVN’s circles of lifeless hell. Excellent.

    Slaughter Messiah

    I took no pictures of Slaughter Messiah because I left the room halfway through the first song. Uninspired, boring, and derivative second-grade black/thrash with riffs so overcooked and overdone you could grate parmesan on them and cook everything in the oven the day after an hangover. This is the kind of band I was mentioning above, that adds nothing to the music world. Which was doubly weird since they were headliners too. All form, no meat. Nice packaging and merch, but apart from that, there was nothing substantial to sink your teeth into.

  • Imperium from Ohio, second album

    imperium

    This is a one man/two men band from Ohio run by the guy who also plays in Mortuary Ghoul (out in CD format on Dismal Fate from Italy, get it it’s great Mortician-like massive Death Metal). They mostly exist online but they have released also some CD/tape in the past. There might be a gazillion digital bands online today if one digs deep enough but I admit I like this Imperium and I hope they can release something proper soon. Expect good savage abrasive shit like Revenge, Goatpenis etc. but a little more linear. The layout is quite terrible from the image we see but nothing that cannot be fixed somehow by a good label. They used to have a bandcamp page that does not exist anymore, so maybe they signed already? Below a link to the second album that was released two months ago, check it out.

    https://www.facebook.com/3IMP3RIUM3

  • ANIMA DAMNATA (Pol): “Promo 2007” demo Cd-r 2007 s/p

    10558 logo1

    Holy fuck, this Cd hit me as a great surprise. I had this name Anima Damnata floating in my head several times during the last few years but I never really cared to check the band out. I am not a huge fan of Poland when it comes to Black Metal: they all have either those lyrics about trolls or about the glorious new wave of thrash metal. And the sound is usually so thin, and the vocals like hysterical mothers-in-law. Nah, not for me. Me stupid once more, I shall inject me with AIDS one of these days for my usual narrow mindedness.

    Anima Damnata is a superb band indeed, a band that plays a fine brand of heavily distorted, dark and brutal kind of Satanic Death/Black Metal. Their sound is a balanced mix of 1990’s Floridian Death Metal and bestial Black Metal a la Belphegor, a mix which is definitely worth checking out. There is a really solid song writing here, with a use of double bass and guitar solos which is really unheard of today – just to shoot a few names which are completely out of place but might get an idea I would say Horror of Horrors, Betrayer, Disincarnate, Centurian, Ingurgitating Oblivion, Manifest (as said take these comparisons with a pinch of salt). They have the fine elements of old school Death Metal but also the good feral arrogance of more recent bestial War/Black Metal, this stuff really not just relentlessly brutal, it is catchy in a way I was not really used to anymore, these guys PLAY their instruments instead of challenging for the most complex and skillful performance. It is probably one of the best bands I have heard this decade.

    One thing I am really not good at criticizing (since I am no musician I guess) is the recording of an album. Well, even in my ignorance I liked the recording of this promo – it is absolutely clear but doesn’t stink of laundry detergent like modern “Abyss Studios” shit, it has that analogic, warm sound of albums like Deicide‘s debut. I am definitely in love with this shit, I will absolutely catch up with all their past releases. KILLER.

    This band can’t be from Poland. Tell me they’re from some fucking Brazilian ghetto!

    I know I shouldn’t but here is an Mp4 for your listening. I’ll delete it in a few weeks or upon request of the band: anima-damnata-4

  • MORTORIUM (Ita): “Whore of the Liar” demo Cd-r 2008 s/p

    MortoriumI knew I was hearing right even beneath the folds of inexperience when I first heard Mortorium. The first demo (review soon, damn! I still need to review the first one and I already got the second ahah, that’s what makes you understand how slow you have become) was not one of face paling blasphemy, but things have improved ten times so far.

    They sadly give up to some mellow Black Metal clichès at times (in the second half of “Bleeding Wounds” – I have to skip the track becouse I cannot stand it), but mostly they’re good at composing brutal Black Metal with throat ripping roaring vocals. The singer knows his due, sometimes reminds me of Funeral Mist‘s Arioch (now Marduk I think, not sure) , in which the vocal range is broad, but always evil. You get 12 minutes in all on this demo, but the material is pretty intense, I am quite happy we have bands like this in Italy after all the incredible mass of shit I had to hear in the ’90’s (and sadly today still going strong with all that shit about witches and trolls). Bands like this and Mefitic or The Krushers make me hope for a better future of burned down churches and Satan-centered Black Metal. Mortorium plays straight ahead Black Metal with raw structures, slightly Swedish riffing and a good balance of South American madness..

    I am not a fan of war imagery, so I’ll skip comments on the machine gun in the back. But the rest of the demo follows the big principles of “good demo design”: no advanced Photoshop tricks, just a b/w cover with gothic fonts and a picture of Padre Pio (which is the whore in question) with an upside down cross on his forehead, ahah!

    Cut the second song at 1.50 and we’d have a killer demo!