From the teeth of the hydra come the children of the damned
I’m still not feeling great, but these past 2 weeks I guess could be considered as “character builders”. Changing sick kid diapers while being sick yourself will do that to a person. in spite of enduring the plague that fell upon this house, Worm Gear keeps crushing on though the opposition which is a great feeling. As we dredged our brains for this weeks adjectives to describe the handful of albums you’ll see rotting south of this desperate equator, a question has come up that we have decided to pose to the readers. You all! We are throwing a decent amount of info at everyone on a weekly basis, and in order not to flood your Word Press readers with our literal hardships, we are curious as to how you prefer the reception of these updates. As one large weekly update as we have been doing, or one or 2 reviews posted periodically throughout the week? Your opinions mean a lot to us and the last thing we want to do is infect your digital devices with “too much” Worm Love. So how should it be dear readers? Take us all at once, or in smaller portions? Feel free to reply on this thread, or on our Facebook page. Get in touch however you see fit. In the mean time, keep those playlists and pointed opinions coming our way. We love the attention (says the only child). Till next week, thanks for your support and dedication to the written word! -Marty
Marty Rytkonen Playlist
Omen – The Curse (The passing of JD Kimball in 2003 is a tragic loss. He was such an amazing talent. Those bluesy pipes were indeed golden)
Severe Torture –Slaughtered (Surprised at how much I have enjoyed this album)
Vex – Thanatopis
Manilla Road – Mysterium
The Accused – Oh Martha (Bring Blaine back to the Accused or fuck forever off Tommy!)
Arckanum – Fran Marder
Anacrusis – Reason (Such an under-appreciated band)
Nargaroth – Black Metal ist Kreig
Vit – The Dry Season
Armoured Angel – Angel of the Sixth Order
Jim Clifton Playlist
Sleep – Sleep’s Holy Mountain
Incantation – Diabolical Conquest
Portal – Swarth
Forgotten Woods – The Curse of Mankind
Maveth – Coils Of The Black Earth
Townes Van Zandt – Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas
Gorgoroth – Destroyer
Demigod – Slumber of Sullen Eyes
Dead Congregation – Graves Of The Archangels
Panopticon – Collapse
Worm Gear 
Morning or Evening depending on where you are in the world!
Where is our good critic Zahler this week?
Regarding how to post reviews moving forward, I personally like them all at one time because it is different than everyone else out there, and it gives me something more to look forward to during the week.
Playlist:
Morbus Chron – Sleepers in the Rift
Chapel of Disease – Summoning Black Gods
Vorum – Grim Death Awaits
Corrosive Carcass – Composition of Flesh
Konkeror – The Abysmal Horizons
Vasquez – EP2 and EP426 (very good instrumental rock! very heavy and fun)
Urfaust – Der Freiwillge Bettler
Ysengrim – To Endotaton
Midnight Odyssey – Funerals from the Astral Sphere
Arcturus – All
Armored Angel – Hymns of Hate Comp
King Carnage – Ounce of Mercy, Pound of Flesh
Excellent playlists there messieurs! And damn, some excellent reviews as well. This one’s a keeper! Concerning the frequency of the WG updates; I usually don’t read it all at once but spread out over the week so I don’t really have a preference.
Marty (of House Rytkonen)> Hell yeah, Severe Torture! Leave it to the Dutch to create some wicked death metal (nationalistic, me?). You should also try their album Fall of the Despised and Sworn Vengeance. Everything before those is charming but a bit splatter-by-the-numbers IMO. Anacrusis IS indeed very underrated. Time for a reunion I say! And Arckanum is growing into a favorite here at House Hendriksen, playing Sviga Lae right now.
Jim> So you digging Townes at the Old Quarter? Love that man, so sad and hilarious at the same time.
My playlist:
Humiliation – Face the Disaster EP
Humiliation – Dawn of Warfare
Simple and chugging, rolling over you like a Königstiger. Far from original (Bolt Thrower & Asphyx all the way) but somehow it sounds very enthousiastic and fresh. These guys love what they do with a passion. And they’re touring Europe soon! Not anywhere near me but still, a sign of good things to come. Plus they signed with Deepsend Records. \m/
Hail of Bullets – …Of Frost and War
Hail of Bullets – On Divine Winds
Martin van Drunen has got to be one of my favorite death metal vocalists, very few can sound as desperately tortured or viciously insane. And a great lyricist too, with HoB focusing on historic WWII events.
Pentacle – …Rides the Moonstorm
Pentacle – Under the Black Cross (more WWII tales)
Thanatos – Emerging from the Netherworlds
Thanatos – Realm of Ecstasy
Armoured Angel – Hymns of Hate
Armoured Angel – Angel of the Sixth Order
Whoever started praising these Aussies, thanks a million! This stuff is awesome. And pretty original too, not your standard death fare IMO. Something about those riffs sounds very unique to me and sometimes they settle in a groove that wouldn’t be out of place on a Kyuss album. Simply HEAVY. Heavy death metal?
Ævangelist – De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis
Another one of those lovely nightmarish and cavernous occult horrordeath bands. Inspired me to finally buy a big bundle of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. Hail Cthulhu!
And in between all the above I’ve been listening a lot to Arckanum’s and Burzum’s older works. Great mood music, dripping with an atmosphere of frozen lands, vast forests and ancient pagan magick. The perfect background for reading about the Lands of Always Winter (Song of Ice and Fire by G.R.R. Martin) with it’s weirwoods, wildlings, wights and skinchangers.
Important annoucement tagged with a ton of bragging rites- BOLT THROWER IS TOURING THE WEST COAST! I am buying my ticket tomorrow for a show in Oakland CA with AUTOPSY in MAY. You should come and check out the show with me!
Oh, and if you all like Armored Angel, you should definitely check out Bathym! They have a complication out that is a split with Sathanas on CD. You can buy on Discogs.com. Bathym is fucking awesome!
I don’t read it all at once either, but sometimes I forget to come back until the next post. I’d vote for a few more updates.
The current size and pacing of WG updates seems pretty good; gives y’all time to put stuff together, gives us a digestable chunk of material, and give folks some time to reply and re-reply in the Comments section.
“Mysterium’ was always something of a let-down for me. After the godly releases ‘Crystal logic’ and ‘Open the Gates’, ‘Mysterium’ never really clicked. While there are a few MASSIVE tracks on the album (e.g., the mighty ‘Dragon Star’), the production is just awful. Even Sentinel Steel couldn’t make it sound particularly good on their reissue (I have not heard the new, SKR reissue). The bigger problem for me was the group’s attempt to drift in a thrashier direction, which I didn’t think suited them well at all. This marked the beginning of the band’s decline in my POV, though I realize I’m in a small minority in disliking their post-Gates catalog.
Playlist
Amon Amarth- sutrur rising. Seems good but not as strong as ‘Twilight of the Thunder God’ (see funny anecdote below).
Southern Cross Band- various singles (obscure but great southern hard rock from New Jersey; yes you read that right).
Sigh- Scenes from Hell. Not clicking with me as quickly as some of their other albums have, but I need to give it more attention.
Funny Amon Amarth story- before Christmas one of my students showed up to class wearing an AA T-shirt. Metal shirts around here are rarer than feminists at a Mentors concert,. So after class I told him I had just picked up ‘Sutur Rising’. He quickly recovered from the shock and said, “yeah, this was the first death metal album I ever heard”. I replied, “Oh, I remember when they debuted with ‘Once Sent’…..At that point I almost balked, thinking, “wait, was this kid even born when ‘Avenger’ was released?….. oh crap I am getting really old”
Alan… you are.confusing MRs new album Mysterium (what i just reviewed) with Mystification, an album that is godly in my eyes from beginning to end.
Some great choices this week! I have really been enjoying those new Vit, Portal and Manilla Road albums. Awesome to see some Dead Congregation love in here too. My list from last week:
Manilla Road – Mysterium
Abyssal – Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius
Twisted Tower Dire – Make it Dark
Jess and the Ancient Ones – S/T
Lightning Swords of Death – Baphometic Chaosium – R’Lyeh Wuurm
Pallbearer – Sorrow and Extinction
Kreator – Hordes Of Chaos – War Curse
Havok – Point of No Return EP
Necros Christos – Truine Impurity
Ancient VVIsdom – Deathlike
Cultes des Ghoules – Henbane
Intestine Baalism – Banquet In The Darkness
Kamelot – Silverthorn
Candlemass – Nightfall
Winterfylleth – The Ghost of Heritage
Hibria – Defying The Rules
Luca Turilli – Kings of the Nordic Twilight – Where Heroes Lie
Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody – Ascending to Infinity
Katatonia – Dead End Kings
Antimatter – Fear of a Unique Identiy
Hot Water Music – Exister
Deftones – Koi No Yokan
Anathema – Judgement – Judgement
Baroness – Yellow
Nokturnal Mortum – Голос Сталі
Avenger – Bohemian Dark Metal
The Townes ‘Old Quarter’ suggestion was beyond excellent. I love classic country, and identified with it immediately. Thanks so much!
Do youself a favor and go get DODECAHEDRON’s self tilted album on Season of Mist. I think this is by far the best Black Metal album of 2012 and maybe for quite some time. Very original, dark, and extremely good instrumentation without being ‘progressive’. This album just crushes my head every time I hear it. The drums sound amazing. The snare sound like a cross between a whip and the crack of an axe hitting a tree.
Marty- Thanks for the correction, my fault; knew something was nagging at me, so i should’ve paid more attention to what i was doing. Sorry for any confusion I caused.
Mystification- never clicked for me.
Mysterium- Have not heard this new album, so I can’t comment on it.
Though I don’t care for most of the band’s output, I’m glad you and others have enjoyed delving through their catalog 🙂