There are many tribute acts that play covers of their favorite bands, and in metal there are also hundreds of examples of tribute bands that compose original songs in the style of their favorites. It is easy to dismiss many of these bands as not very valuable knock offs—I often have—but there is a key difference that can make or break this kind of musical hero worship.
I like Count Raven. They play doom and could easily be dismissed as a Black Sabbath knock off—their singer sounds like he is doing an Ozzy impersonation—but their riffs have a modern (or at least nineties) sound and some harmonies that wouldn’t be out of place in Norwegian black metal. In the end, they have an identity of their own because their music is their own. But a band like County Medical Examiners crosses the line for me. They not only replicate the Carcass sound, but take actual licks, melodies and vocal phrases from Carcass. Some will call CME’s music an homage, but I’d use a different word.
This preamble brings me to the Malaysian death metal outfit, Humiliation, whose every move and sonic choice comes from the book of England’s glorious Bolt Thrower. There is perhaps no death metal band I listen to more often than Bolt Thrower, so I am open to a band playing in this style if they don’t just steal music and call it an homage. For the most part, Humiliation plays in the Bolt Thrower style, but writes enjoyable original music.
Compared to some others who follow behind the mighty rolling tank from England, Humiliation fares quite well. Slugathor, while perhaps a bit more original than Humiliation, has a mediocre sense of melody and is spotty. War Master delivers about half the time, though rarely delivers good riffs or vocal ideas when they do fast stuff (which is strange, since they were once half of the blazing grind outfit Insect Warfare). Humiliation ignores the grind era of Bolt Thrower (I like grind, but think Bolt Thrower got much, much better once they slowed down), and focuses on steady, mid-paced rolling tank power.
Surprisingly, Humiliation is actually a slightly SIMPLER take on Bolt Thrower, with even more steady chugging than their progenitors and even less activity on the fret board. Compared to Bolt Thrower, Humiliation’s vocals are more desperate, sparser and less stately, and there are a couple of attempts at slightly catchier choruses (“Blind Bomb” and “Fast Kill”), which are pretty good.
My criticisms begin with the rather boring tune “Proposition of Violence” that is simple even by the standards of this band and longer than most cuts. It’s just dull. “Fastkill” follows this tune and seems like a retread of “Blind Bomb,” so we get about 10 minutes of standstill after the solid first half of the album. “Manifesto of Lie” returns us to the statelier side of things and the album finishes out decently, but considering the simplicity and similarity of these tunes, it’s better to err on the side of brevity. And certainly “Artillery Open Fire” and “Manifesto of Lie” would have been far better final songs than the less distinct “Bukit Kepong.”
Bottom line: This thing should have been a 35 minute tank ride instead of 49 minutes. I bought another album by them already, and I chose an EP.
As with my favorite Bolt Thrower albums (For Those Once Loyal & Mercenary & Honour – Valour – Pride), Humiliation’s From Strength to Strength is a smooth album of relentless rolling power, steady chugging and martial confidence. I would like to see more (or at least some) of Humiliation’s own personality on their next album, but this one succeeds in its very modest goal—a collection of enjoyable new songs in the exact style of Bolt Thrower. -S. Craig Zahler
Ultra Hingax Production
Humiliation – From Strength to Strength
•February 6, 2013 • 3 CommentsUlcer – Grant Us Death
•February 6, 2013 • 2 Comments
There are 6 guys in this band…. is that really necessary? The members filling the ranks of Poland’s Ulcer each possess an impressive resume of bands they have been involved in (Squash Bowels, Christ Agony, Blaze of Perdition, Moon to name a few), yet here they all are, upholding the Swedish death metal construct with perfection and yes, somewhat of a visionless glimpse into their collective lack of originality. Perhaps this is a harsh statement, for the crushing death anthems found on Grant Us Death truly are well crafted and expertly recorded. In fact I actually like this album for what it is. The problem is, the fact that this band sounds like a direct descendent of Carnage and Dismember (minus those Maiden harmonies), for some reason the lack of creative spark initially bothered me. Shaking it off, we are left with an albums worth of modern death metal destroying meatiness by way of a thick as a free range bison guitar tone and a focus on quick, though often blast beat-less drum patterns to hurl this material back into the early 90’s. Again, a welcomed delivery to these old ears. When Ulcer decide to offer some melodies as found on “The Love Song”, the Dismember characteristics become even more evident, but the inclusion makes the tracks that much more memorable from a musical standpoint. 10 songs fill these digital halls with a ravenous lust for death metal the old way, which is an enjoyable, though redundant fact. Grant us Death is good for sure. But essential? -Marty
Pulverised Records
Vomitor – The Escalation
•February 6, 2013 • Leave a Comment
Australia’s Vomitor revives the great mid-rangy guitars and soaked-in-reverb vocals of early ’80s death/thrash with a professionalism – and, dare I say, a sense of a good time – that steamrolls the efforts of younger disciples of that much-beloved time period of heaviness. With Death Dealer (ex-Gospel of the Horns) on the vox and riff-slinging, the stalwart anvil-slamming of Hellkunt (ex-Bestial Warlust) keeping the time, and Anton Vomit’s low-mixed yet still impressive basswork, The Escalation doesn’t promise pain as a weaker claim to being a ‘Metal of Death’ record would; no, Vomitor delivers said pain via a sonic sucker-punch to the gut. Vomitor’s latest would be perfectly at home in the mailbox of a tape-trading fanatic in the days when patched jean jackets were a (relatively) new thing, and is no less potent in the here and now for it. We old-timers would simply have marvelled at how cleanly the 16th notes were played (imagine an OCD, Show No Mercy-era Kerry King on crack, joining Possessed onstage), and how effortlessly the drums remain behind them, despite the (old-school) quickness of the material. And though no trace of smiles can be found amongst the subject matter on Vomitor’s most recent pile of putridity, I can’t deny my powerful urge to stack a pyramid of bad-tasting canned beer while listening to it. I attribute this compulsion to DD and HK’s sheer adoration and careful reinvention of songwriting and production styles of the early days, reproduced herein so very well. These Aussies’ ability to craft something their own in such a restricted framework personifies dedication and inspires a certain drunken mischievousness in the vein of, say, Paul Newman cutting the heads off parking meters, without the existential crisis. Inebriated or not, yesterday or today, Vomitor will kick your ass in the best way. Pure, unadulterated Metal, for the true believers and diehards only. And that’s how they would want it. -Jim
Hells Headbangers
The Wolf is no Longer Free…
•January 30, 2013 • 23 CommentsThis has been by far the most bi-polar winter I have ever experienced in Northern Michigan. One day is a snow storm. 2 days later it’s nearly 60 and thawing. Then back to snowpocalypse. It has had a weird effect on the psyche and the playlist maybe a bit of an indication. But as we roll with the impending climate change, there are some good things on the horizon for Worm Gear. Jim and I continue to hit our weekly goal/update which may be harder than you think with families. The long promised interviews with Evoken, Canis Dirus and Vex are finally moving forward. I have begun work on an extensive Sacred Reich discography retrospective/essay that will be a different change of pace. Also we will very soon be working with the occasional label and offering free album streams for select albums that we like. Hoping this begins next week, but we shall see. It is all culminating to make Worm Gear a more relevant and “current” entity in the blogosphere/webzine world as we strive to earn more visitors, and hopefully long time readers. It has been great to read your playlists and interact. Keep doing so and maybe help spread the word if you like what you see in these digital halls. It has been a blast sharing with the class and until next week, here are a few morsels to tide you all over until then. Thanks for your time and support! -Marty
Marty Rytkonen Playlist
Emperor – Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Sentenced – Amok
Iced Earth – Alive in Athens
Chapel of Disease – Summoning Black Gods
Various Artists – The Absolute Supper (Cold Meat Industries 2CD compilation)
Symphony X – The Odyssey
Forced Entry – Uncertain Future
Canis Dirus – Andem Om Norr
Evoken – Atra Mors
Seidr – Ginnunagap (unmastered mix)
Jim Clifton Playlist
Rodrigo Y Gabriela – S/T
Megadeth – Rust In Peace
Megadeth – Peace Sells But Who’s Buying
Trouble – Psalm 9
Trouble – The Skull
Trouble – Run To The Light
Trouble – S/T
Sargeist – Let the Devil In
Septic Flesh – Mystic Places of Dawn
Metal Church – Blessing In Disguise
Binah – Hallucinating In Resurrecture
Armoured Angel – Stigmartyr (thanks to Z for pointing these guys out)
Abyssal – Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius (thanks to Patrick for this one!)
S. Craig Zahler Playlist
Lymphatic Flesh – Pathogenesis Infest Phlegmsepsia (A high water mark in the history of goregrind. Recommended to anybody even mildly interest in the genre.)
Rancid Flesh – Pathological Zombie Carnage (Fun stuff.)
Disgorge – Forensick (Sloppy & sick grinding death metal. Some bad recording errors, but good overall.
The Kill – Make ‘Em Suffer (Probably the most enjoyable grindcore album I’ve ever heard. Great wild riffs that sounds kind of like grindcore Nifelheim.)
Amebix – Arise (My first real foray into crust punk, which is a bit more metal sounding than I expected it to be. Kind of sounds like a mix of Venom and Motorheard with uglier chords and some hooks like old german thrashters Kreator & Destruction. Not bad at all!)
Dahmer – Dahmerized (So yeah…um…this is really scary.)
Manilla Road – Metal
Morningstar – Finnish Metal (Damned Child = Moody epic metal classic.)
Manowar – Kings of Metal (My favorite Manowar album of the digital era. The stadium ending of Blood of Kings is so ludicrous that it is actually not ludicrous at all.)
Black Sabbath – Tyr (The best thing Sabbath did post Heaven and Hell. [though I dig Eternal Idol & Dehumanizer])
Chapel of Disease – Summoning Black Gods
•January 30, 2013 • 6 Comments
“This masterpiece is a must for fans of the early MORGOTH, ASPHYX or DEATH.” Thank you bio seepage! BUT in the German Chapel of Disease’s case, this couldn’t be closer to the truth as the vocalist sounds like the perfect cross between Grewe, Van Drunen, and Schuldiner in his throaty bellows of dismay. In fact, it is pretty amazing how authentic to early 90’s death metal CoD sounds, and by way of nostalgia I find it completely refreshing. No blast beats, just that driving and quick pseudo thrash/death metal beat that pushes these tracks along in a fit of aggravated intensity. The riffage screams in the old style since the tuning sounds close to standard which also unveils a bit of a thrash influence. This is right where the scene was back then… thrash melding slowly into death metal which in turn created a new, though short lived genre unto itself. As the meat of this material wraps around those excellent and reverb tinged vocals, Summoning Black Gods feels like a long lost release that just fell into my lap and it makes me yearn for more songs like “The Nameless City” which divulges riff after riff in what feels like a linear song structure. This wandering songwriting style may be difficult to comprehend after only several listens, but as you stick with it and fully adhere to Chapel of Disease’s flow and attention to detail, I think you too will appreciate the musical cobwebs being dusted off here in a fury of Possessed meets Asphyx worship. Love the tight, though professionally garagey (if that makes sense) production which further screams for a return to ancient metal times. I initially linked Chapel of Disease in the same league as the amazing Horrendous, and even though the aforementioned band just maybe operating on a higher level of excellence when it comes to songwriting and overall sound production, if these 2 bands got in a bus and toured, I would be inspired to emerge from this crypt to see such an event. I don’t know where FDA Rekotz has been unearthing these bands, but the label is quickly becoming one of my favorites in the death metal genre. -Marty
FDA Rekotz
Enshadowed – Magic Chaos Psychedelia
•January 30, 2013 • Leave a Comment
Another Greek band that has somehow evaded my probing ears over the years. Even though the band is definitely talented in their quest to uphold the Scandinavian style of melodic blackened metal, their style possesses a “heard this before, and a lot” assault by numbers. Having said that, for those of you out there looking for a tight performance, piercing melodies, and a wicked intensity hurled deeper into the flames by precision speed and sawing hellthroat screams from the vocalist, Enshadowed’s 3rd full-length since 1998 won’t disappoint with their Dissection Jr. on speed persona. Magic Chaos Psychedelia benefits from a pristine sound where every instrument, right down to the often buried by time and dust bass tone, gnaws through the speakers and allows the very maturely composed tracks on this release to soar. After 9 searing tracks of what becomes an unceasing din, the final song allows a bit of cultural diversity to enter Enshadowed’s ripping stew. Tribal drum work, what sounds like an Indian singing style, and other authentic instruments offsets the crisp metalized guitar tone for a trancelike wander through sage smoke and hallucinogenic imagery. If only elements such as this drifted through the bulk of this album to set Enshadowed askew from the core sound they have chosen to emulate, then I feel such a level of experimentation would have been a welcomed permanent addition to their songwriting arsenal. Even though I may be coming off as a bit negative here, Magic Chaos Psychedelia truly well done album that I have enjoyed on several occasions. The problem with releases like this is, they tend to get lost in a large CD collection as I would likely gravitate towards classic Dissection or Sacramentum music over this tip of the hat to that genre. Regardless, Enshadowed hold the line with conviction and well-considered songs. -Marty
Pulverised Records
Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis / Fecalizer – The House of the Dead / Coito Emetico por Ingestion Adiposa y Fecal Split
•January 30, 2013 • Leave a Comment
It is hard to review a split, and in a case such as this where it seems like some tracks are bonus tracks (and thus, not something that should raise or lower the overall quality of the release), it is even harder. In general I prefer EPs to splits, since it’s rare that I’m excited about both bands on a split. In the case of this Fecalizer and Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis split, I bought this CD for the songs by the wild Mexican goregrind outfit Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis (aka Paracocci).
The Fecalizer songs are mediocre, dingy and dull goregrind. Their songs are all very short, excepting their cover of Reek of Putrefaction, which I was surprised they could almost pull off. The six minutes of original material they contributed is padded by the cover tune and samples, including an especially long one from Re-Animator. Fecalizer’s half of the split is without value. It happens and ends … and you might not even notice that it happened or ended.
The Paracocci portion of the split is far longer—about 25 of the 40 minutes belong to them and most of their 25 minutes are filled with original music. And still, these six songs can be split yet again: The first three seem recorded in a studio and have some bite, while the last three tracks seem like demos or live tracks and are unintelligible slop (even by the wild Paracocci standards). These last three cuts are not any better than the Fecalizer tunes and really sound like they’re just making up everything as they go.
BUT . . . the first three Paracocci cuts are quite substantial, both in terms of length and quality. These three tunes are EXACTLY what I want from this band. They are passionately played, terribly filthy and very wild goregrind. At its best, Paracocci music is a Battle, and the name of that Battle is Music Fights Chaos. The song entitled Exciting and Sucking Female Carcinomas juxtaposes sloppy blasting and a steady chugging march, and later, hesitant chords lurk around the beat (4:00-) and are disciplined (4:15). A weird melody even unwinds in the conclusion of this tune, which is easily the best on this release and a real highlight for the band.
Although I really enjoy the three “studio” songs, I can’t get behind the stuff the precedes and follows them. I am a fan of Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis, and I await an album full of songs as good as Exciting and Sucking Female Carcinomas, songs where these crazy goregrinders fight obstacles, fight each other, split apart, join together, march, collapse, die and are reborn. -S. Craig Zahler
United Guttural Records
Overtorture – At the End the Dead Await
•January 30, 2013 • 2 Comments
When the need to satiate the beast within takes hold, often only juggernaut-size riffs can perform the task to satisfaction. Thankfully, we have bands like Bolt Thrower to turn to when the jonesing comes on. Though few bands match UK’s Warmasters for M1 Abrams riffery, other candidates make their own case for glory from time to time. Take Overtorture. Though far more technical in approach than the aforementioned World Eaters, At the End the Dead Await has waiting amongst its scales and intriguing finger-finagling a reverence for the Riff with a capital ‘R’, whether tremolo-picking with ease or doing the good ol’ open-chord-on-one side, downpicking on the other panned goodness. But there’s more here than the expected. Overtorture uniquely and thoughtfully place requisite evil thirds and fifths amidst runs in their playing, but are mindful of wanking overspray that clutters and ultimately weakens intricate DM. Well-played melodicism buoyed by supremely heavy low-to-midtempo moments sprawl across the tracklist (especially when dual-harmony solos are employed), keeping the songs weak-free throughout. Even the very clean production isn’t a detriment for this band; atypically, Overtorture’s cleanliness adds to an intended haze of subterranean heaviness, carried further below by Joel Fornbrant’s Covenant-sounding David Vincent vocalizations. The deeper I delve into At the End the Dead Await the more an inconspicuous vein of originality arises in prominence, with its string bends and quick scales in unexpected areas, crazed-chord dissonant breaks between measures, and the completely impassioned and professional drumwork. But again, the album’s disparate parts making up its whole never peg out the hey-look-we-play-good-mmmhmm thermometer that with other records always has me snoozing. I surmise lead guitarist Magnus Martinsson’s tenure in Grave and drummer Fredrik Widig’s efforts in Rage Nucleaire (destructive bands both) provide the balance of substance over style on this album. Whatever the reason, this At the End the Dead Await has the boredom-ending power of a Death Metal NoDoze suppository, were such a thing to exist. Perhaps it does, and Overtorture has positioned themselves as our over-the-counter provider. -Jim
Apostasy Records
Portal – Vexovoid
•January 30, 2013 • 11 Comments
If you strip the imagery from Portal’s bones, what would be left is still a twisted and ugly musical mess from the minds of already unstable people who were rejected by their parents. The darkness nurtures the child, and teaches them to embrace the loneliness and hatred within, which in turn perverts creativity and becomes just as broken sonically as it is emotionally. Vexovoid, the bands 4th full-length plague upon your psyche, is yet again a disjointed, hulking mass of destruction and unending suffering. Detuned to the point of strings sagging off the fretboard, Portal coax demented riffstorms out of their instruments to confuse and bruise the listener with chopping fills, fluent tremolo speed bursts, and nauseating moments of backwards melody. In fact, if you told me the material on this album was created spontaneously, I would believe you if it wasn’t for how the lyrics and demonically deep vocals seem to fall into the all the “right” places. Imagine a faster, more demented, strange, and musically complex entity, like an oozing tumor carved out of Immolation’s figurative “body” of work, and you can begin to consider the shadows this enigma of a band dwells in. Vexovoid is a short, though completely punishing assault on the senses that offers more of an experience than it does something concrete to hold onto. This to me is the uniqueness and ultimate appeal of this band… the sickened lump feeling in your guts as you withstand the moaning/nightmarish guitar riffs and infrequent vocal gutturalizations. Portal’s chasm is a deep and sickening place and you really got to want to be a part of it, for the music does everything it can to devour and torment your every second spent being a part of it. -Marty
Profound Lore Records
Satanic Threat – In To Hell
•January 30, 2013 • 2 Comments
Tribute bands are always good for a trip down nostalgia lane, especially in a bar setting, but Satanic Threat is just a weird idea, plain and simple. Featuring members of Nunslaughter and an ex member of Midnight, Satanic Threat is a pretty damn accurate reenactment of Minor Threat’s production, crisp/garage born sound, writing style, and shouted vocals, but with satanic lyrics. Like all effective tribute bands, they should make you want to listen to the original band they are doppelganging and ST are no different. As the speed hardcore riffs lifted form the S/T and Out of Step Minor Threat releases blast through the speakers and hit you as sounding very familiar, but maybe a bit tweeked, all I want to do is sit through this long enough to indeed fetch my MT cassettes and cleanse the air. The vocalist on this material is pretty close to hitting Ian MacKaye’s style, but lacks the pissed off fire that the youthful Ian shared with and really made you feel. In To Hell is a musical trip down memory lane by way of borrowed MT riffs alongside MT sounding songs that try to envision “what if” Minor Threat made another album, maybe it would sound like “this”. Well they didn’t and Satanic Threat really isn’t filling any hardcore void with this collection of studio and live tracks. Sure it’s fun, but really not something that “needs” to be in your collection. -Marty
Hell’s Headbangers
Sloth Herder – Abandon Pop Sensibility (demo)
•January 30, 2013 • Leave a Comment
Sloth Herder’s Abandon Pop Sensibility delivers a nice pallette cleanser for the by-the-numbers thrash, progressive metal, and what Marty calls ‘knuckle-dragging’ styles of death metal I’ve been slogging through lately. Described as “blackened grind” from MD, you’ll find far more than that on this six-song overdose. Swirling, sludge-drenched guitars warp the earholes with an inescapably thick, fast, and impending tsunami of guitar-based hysteria. A ’90s mathcore aesthetic backs up the atonal passages and blastbeats with J. Lyons’ rabid, screaming vocals of urgency. A wallowing bass tone punkifies the Black Metal riffage, and remains appreciably audible throughout the album’s varied random acts of violence. If SH’s influences were people, I’d describe this joyful noise thusly: a coked-up Thou meets a tweaking Kylesa (in a noisy mood), offering her a chance to witness his “dj skills”, whereupon he turns and hits play on two aging boomboxes at the same time. Out of one can be heard Deathspell Omega’s Paracletus on another, a random bootleg of live Voivod spliced with Botch’s We Are The Romans. And somehow, amazingly, the cacophonous racket works. Whether slowly sloughing off unnecessary skin on ‘Relapse Reward’ or robotically slicing flesh into Spam on ‘Bleached’, Abandon Pop Sensibility justifies itself with hardcore workmanship and a larger-than-life presence encapsulating a raw yet darkened production. Sloth Herder as a band forces their sound straight from the stage to your speakers with overtly chaotic effort rooted firmly in a foundation of grinding tech, sealed up lovingly in a tidy, 15-minute ticking mailbomb. Standing ashore of the Great Same Swamp we seekers can find ourselves suffocating in, the sounds of Sloth Herder will roughly raise you from the muck, saving you from a complacency-induced glassy-eyed stupor sonically infecting you day-in and day-out. Something new, something familiar, angry and yes, wicked – this way from Maryland comes. Open up and let ’em on in. -Jim
Voivod – Target Earth
•January 30, 2013 • Leave a Comment
If you are a fan of Voivod, then you have undoubtedly already purchased Target Earth regardless of all the maniacal praise the album seems to be earning. Let’s face it, this is the album Voivod needed to make to ensure all of us would stick around. How does one replace the soul of your sound and main songwriter? A dubious task for sure, but Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain (pick pocketed from the tech/thrash band Martyr) fit so well in the live arena with his nearly dead nuts handling of those inverted sci-fi Piggy chords, that how could Voivod not give him a try? And Blacky returns with blower bass in tow? Right? Damn the naysayers… to the death! Target Earth was what I was hoping it would be as far as overall care for the bands legacy and is easily their best since Phobos, but this doesn’t mean that I’m completely happy with this release from beginning to end.
Let us start with the positives. The tracks Mechanical Mind, Warchaic, and Artefact are all truly great, flowing and completely weird songs that could easily have existed on a classic Voivod line-up created album found between Dimension Hatross (my fave) and Nothingface (your fave). The tracks buzz with a rekindled fire and Dan’s absorption into the Voivodian mainframe feels natural and somehow seamless here. They contort with odd song structures, though the riffs pulse with that full chorded, machine on the fritz apocalyptic affinity while never losing site of that memorable slant that uploads the hooks to your hypercube. Onto the less positive aspect of this album. I will admit, all the songs are at least “good”, some being better than others. Where the band chooses to hang onto the more rocking side of their career (ie: S/T album through Infini), is where an uncomfortably simplistic element creeps into Target Earth. This side of the band has always bugged me since they have tinkered with it since Angel Rat, but since it was Voivod and my mind has opened considerably since growing older, I learned to accept it and move on. At times, the songs feel almost too “clicky” or out of synch. Instead of letting riffs work themselves out and flow together on a natural path, it sounds like Dan is at times wedging it in… or trying to sound more “Voivod” if you will. He can take a simple guitar line that works, but then a bizarre chord will ratchet in and sound like an afterthought. I like to think I can sympathize with this mentality…. he’s over thinking it in order to appeal to the fans and the other guys in the band. This is the difference between Piggy, a natural when it comes to the sound he created… he felt and lived every note, and Dan who is emulating a style and trying to program his amazing talent into the preconceived navigation system of the ship he’s been given to steer. Again… I understand and know that he’s going to calm down in this role and get there. Target Earth is full of evidence that he’s going to get it, but it may not be fully realized until the next couple of releases.
My last beef with this album is the production. Even though the band has indeed achieved a live feel, the guitar sound is too rounded off. The classic sound is here somewhere, but there’s not enough treble or bite in the guitars. Blacky’s bass was the biggest downer. He’s joyously distorted, but that grating rattle that lurked at the core of his tone is missing on this album in favor of a more processed, or even modern/out of a box tone. When all the elements come together, a live sound is achieved, but Snake’s vocals sometimes don’t feel like they are a part of the music due to odd reverb selections.
Having said all of that in closing, I was holding my breath for this one as Voivod has definitely been an important part of my musical development, enjoyment, and growing up with this style of music. It means a lot, and even though I’m not 100% blown away by Target Earth, I’m breathing a sigh of relief that Voivod has pulled themselves together after the passing of a childhood friend and inspiration, and are carrying on a much better path than they have been on. I’m just looking forward to when everything finally gels and all the songs rise to a superior level of quality we all know this band can create. -Marty
Century Media Records
Our work is now complete, the blood runs fast and free …
•January 23, 2013 • 18 CommentsNot sure why, but Thrash keeps popping up on WG lately; some good, some bad, opinion: dangerous. Anyway, an overabundance of literary lickspittle heads toward you this Wednesday, replete with the usual spate of love for some, hate for others, and in all cases an unburying of sounds that lurk beneath. You’ll note our reviews are not in their usual impeccably-placed alphabetical order, for no reason Marty or myself can surmise beyond the possibility our beers, unbeknownst to us, have been laced with crack. Place your own ruminations and playlists in the comments, and keep sending demos and bags of flaming poop to our PO Box. See ya in six. Six. 6.
Jim Clifton Playlist
Thou Shalt Suffer – Into the Woods of Belial
Order From Chaos – And I Saw Eternity
Venom – Welcome to Hell
Vomitor – The Escalation
Burzum – Det Som Engang Var
Deströyer 666 – Defiance
Denouncement Pyre – Almighty Arcanum
Drowning the Light – Oceans of Eternity
Ruins – Place of No Pity
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison
Marty Rytkonen Playlist
Blessed Death – Destined for Extinction (Criminally underrated thrash, driven by themes of war)
Dofka – Humanity Bleak
Wicked World – A Tribute to Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Morta Skuld – Surface
Septic Flesh – Mystic Places of Dawn
Last Chapter – The Living Waters
Cromlech – Ancestral Doom Demo 2012
Aevangelist – De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis (a nightmare put to music… yeah…. I think you can call it music)
Voivod – Target Earth (Several truly great songs. Some I’m still not sold on. Still trying to let this one soak in)
S. Craig Zahler Playlist
Necros Christos – Grave Damnation (Always in rotation)
Coffins – March of Despair (Doomy death. Simple creepy death metal like early Necros Christos, but far doomier, evincing Saint Vitus hooks.)
Minotauri – II (Top notch doom, up there with Reverend Bizarre.)
Dead Infection – Surgical Disembowelment (I liked them on this one, as a death metal/goregrind hybrid, rather than their okay straight goregrind. Xenomorph & Let Me Vomit are my favorite songs by the band)
XXX Maniak – Harvesting the C*nt Nectar (A cool collection of micro songs. Although there’s too much time spent with sample & jokes, the musical material is immediate, catchy and fun.)
Last Days of Humanity – Hymns of Indigestible Suppuration (Challenging and slightly rewarding goregrind.)
The Day Everything Became Nothing – Invention : Destruction (Some great and controlled chugging goregrind. Too bad the album goes in the toilet on track 7 and never fully recovers. 7 & 9 have some truly awful vocals ideas, but tracks 3 & 6 are great stuff.)
Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis / Fecalizer – Split CD. (the Fecalizer songs are mediocre–and very short, excepting their cover of Reek of Putrefaction—and it seems like the final songs by Paracocci are demos or live tracks, but the first three (comparatively) well-recorded Paracocci tunes—tracks 7, 8 and 9–are great examples of their chaos versus organization aesthetic. Track 8, entitled Exciting and Sucking Female Carcinomas, is a great one to sample if you want to hear this Mexican goregrind band’s style, which is like a wilder, sloppier Disgorge. No, not the mediocre American Disgorge, but the evil as hell Mexican Disgorge.)
No One Gets Out Alive – Beyond the Edge of the Woods. (Thrashy slamming death metal with cricket chirp vocals. Consistently fun and except for the vocals, very accessible stuff. Kind of like a much simpler Putrid Pile. Check out the cut, Human Hotpot)
Battleroar – To Death and Beyond (One of the best albums ever made. Essential heavy metal. Check out Finis Mundi)
The Hand of Doom – Poisonoise
•January 23, 2013 • Leave a Comment
I have to hand it to Shadow Kingdom Records—they really unearth some gems. In addition to those Ritual albums and those Dragonslayer demos that they put out (some of the all time best New Wave of British Heavy Metal), and their continued re-release of classics from (the GODS) Manilla Road as well as Pagan Altar, they found a lost gem from a late seventies German outfit called Hand of Doom, which is a ton of fun.
The music on Hand of Doom’s album Poisonoise can be compared to a lot of things: Deep Purple (albeit simpler), the early King Diamond band Black Rose, Mercy (of Sweden), and of course lots of the blue collar bands from the NWOBHM, such as Last Flight, Mythra, Bashful Alley, etc.
What most distinguishes Hand of Doom is the distinct and exceedingly bizarre personality of the lead singer Andeas “Iggi” Rossner. His flailing histrionics, rolled “Rs” and bombastic personality are what take this album out of the world of simple and good hard rock and give it a touch of menace and a gallon of crazy. Imagine a singer in 1979 who has the oblivious troll lunacy of Attila Csihar (!) and the off-kilter semi-musical swagger of Hank from Turbonegro. If you think I exaggerate, check out the wild and emphatic conclusion of Heavy Mad Head and the horror storytelling of They Who’ll Creep At Night. Rossner demands your attention like a child that has eaten far too many Whoppers, and if you buy into his gruff, high octane madness, you’ll like this album.
Because Poisonoise is at the edge of hard rock, a lot of what the band does is provide a chugging, energetic backdrop for the singer’s antics … but there are some exceptions. There’s a lot of good bass playing throughout the album, and the twin guitar explorations in (closer) The Lights of the Blind show a melancholic and thoughtful side that compares to stuff like Gaskin and Wishbone Ash. Apparently, the rest of the band had some ideas other than just standing behind their larger-than-life frontman. In any case, the musical complexity of this last song provides a richer concluding experience than I expected and is a very enjoyable color shift.
Overall, Poisonoise is a solid, hard rockin’ heavy metal party that is made distinct by the lunacy and personality of the lead singer. -S. Craig Zahler
Shadow Kingdom Records
Ævangelist – De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis
•January 23, 2013 • 2 Comments
Churning deep in the bowels of the unholy Worm lurks the ghastly duo, Ævangelist with their south of cult death metal emanations of filth and guttural despair. Both members of this band also share time in Benighted in Sodom, which I can only assume is more black metal minded (haven’t heard them), so they are summoning their unclean death desires through this light consuming monster. De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis is easily one of the bleakest and most abysmal sounding albums I’ve heard in quite some time. The foundation is built upon guitars tuned so low, it is amazing they can remain in tune, and the tone of darkness they bask in, is 1 frequency above the sound of oceans of black blood boiling at the Earth’s core. This alone gives one the feeling of being confined to a small, hot, painted black room with no light, with the stench of a decomposing dog hanging heavy in the air. It is truly an oppressive style that is made even more so by these creeping synth lines that stir just below the surface. The sound is equally dark, and the fact that the keyboards seem to possess a life of their own, but are in a symbiotic union with the host gives this album an illusion of being “alive”. Lurking. Hunting. Waiting for the ritual feast. Vocals come and go in much the same manner as the keyboards it seems, sharing a deep death moan, and sharper screams that jab in and out of the cadaver as if in a frenzied state. There is zero melody or moments of light on De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis, so the listener is never offered that fleeting moment of “it’s going to be alright. You just have to stick with it and try to be as small and unassuming as possible while crouched in fearful awe in Ævangelist’s ritual chamber, for the demons are many, and swirling around in a cacophonous stew just looking for movement so they may focus their rage and hunger. I know, flamboyant writer embellishments often over inflate the music at hand, but really, I’m describing what I hear and a one word review simply stating, “wow” isn’t going to cut to the heart of this beast. De Masticatione Mortuorum In Tumulis is indeed an ugly creation filled with evil intent that I find quite inspired and impressive. The lack of melody and other such elements to cling to make this one of those releases that you really need to be in the mood for, but when that moment strikes, I recommend headphones and a flashlight. Wow. -Marty
I, Voidhanger
Evil Shepherd – Evil Through Darkness… And Darkness Through Death
•January 23, 2013 • Leave a Comment
This whole thrash revival has really been an annoying and a callous reminder as to why the genre died off in the early 90’s. There’s no denying the talent that has been on display since the flipped up baseball caps and shredded jean shorts came back out of the moth balls, but with so many bands being OK with reanimating the Bay Area aesthetic and a “let’s have some beers and MOSH” mentality… It has been a reaffirming reminder why I’m glad the sillier aspects of the old thrash days are gone. Then there was Arizona’s Vektor. What an amazingly gifted band who chose to incorporate their influences into their amazing songwriting and unique trash perspective. That band alone has drug me back, propped me up, and demanded that I give the new school another chance. Enter Evil Shepherd from Belgium. Nowhere near as potent from an instrumental standpoint as the aforementioned demons (who is?), BUT this blasphemous quintet possesses some furious chops and a level of uniqueness that’s just enough to keep me tuned in to their hellstorm. Evil Through Darkness… And Darkness Through Death is an interestingly lethal shot of conviction and the riffs leave a mark with impressive tremolo catchiness and adept fretboard work. Though there’s a tightness to this material that cannot be denied, there’s an underlying element of dirt to be found in the composition and production of this material that allows the evil side of thrash to rise to the surface and torment the priests. The vocalist on occasion bares similarities of a mid 80’s Schmier due to his higher register screaming style, but he injects enough of his own venom to sever a full ongoing comparison. Especially when he enters a lower growl for a nice display of range and vocal dynamics. The guitar sound on this album is great. It’s good to hear traditional tuning used with this much sinister intent. The songs are full of interesting changes and musical tangents, never falling into a verse/chorus/verse/chorus pop structure which is a good thing, though never becoming too perplexing to repel the listener. Even though several riffs may surface on this album that project a, “I’ve heard this before” aura of nostalgia, the thrash idolatry never gets out of hand and stays well within the realm of Evil Shepherd’s own identity. It’s hard to work within this construct and not let your influences slip, but ES do it in a tasteful way meant as respect. The songs speak for themselves. Infectiously memorable riffs. Hateful solos. Venomous technical insanity when the songs call for it. Satanic thrash lives… and you will die! -Marty
Empire Records
King Carnage – Ounce of Mercy, Pound of Flesh
•January 23, 2013 • 1 Comment
Reviewing Trillion Red’s Metaphere album several months back, and in doing so discovering multi-instrumentalist Patrick Brown’s Extreme Metal past, I made the comment that I would like to hear more of that style of his playing. With King Carnage’s debut, that style and sound has been delivered. Consider Ounce of Mercy, Pound of Flesh a gangrenous filth of sound, decrying the death of the Old School as it angrily crawls out from the black. Most often, releases from those that were ‘there’ during the ’90s (and he was; his former band Ligeia’s 1996 track ‘Oblivion’ will be covered on Ares Kingdom’s next album) remain the only purveyors of grimy DM able to bring something new to the genre without setting fire to its foundations, or boring us all to tears. As Brown’s twist on Black/Death spews from the speakers, heralding guitars overdriven and detuned to the point of deconstruction, an element of catchiness infects the mind of the listener with the right balance of vocal cadence, eerily-hidden synth adornment, and drums content to drive and not jackhammer. Speaking of the drums, Mr Brown’s command of the language of music, programmed or otherwise, shows well here, as his techniques execute admirable time-signatures, fills, crashes and the like, rising above the crest of the mass of cyber-DM warriors, my only bone to pick being the closed high-hat, which in the faster moments of ‘Scions Salvation’ reveals too much of its origin. ‘Lord of Sabotage’ utilizes one of the most odd/compelling riffs I’ve heard in some time (2:15 in if your interested), and ends perfectly with a sullen monk chant drenched in woe, while his own voice – a throaty rasp that lays low in the mix – allows the music to do the work (a production choice I admonish others in the Extreme world to try, biased guitarist that I am). Patrick also uses lessons learned in his Trillion Red project in small but effective doses, employing atmospherics in a variety of unobtrusive ways. Instrumental ‘Archetype of Evil’ is a hammer-on smorgasbord of hellfire backed by a slow march of triplets and a repeated anti-melody that, while uncomplicated, still has you digging your own grave deeper into the dark with its sunken delay and reverb layering. Not that guitar-playing technical prowess isn’t easy to find; closer ‘Making Angels In Blood’ invokes a gone-before-you-hear-it scale in it’s rhythm line that announces proudly to the listener ‘here is one that has more than a passing knowledge’ of the essential stringed weapon of the Metal chosen. But the most important aspect of the King Carnage debut is its balance of originality and influence; a couple of octaves lower, and the solo from ‘Blade Efficacy’ would be appropriately placed on the great To Mega Therion, while the flanged descent that follows the passage is just Patrick being Patrick. So here cometh Hellhammer kicking out Columbia-era Entombed, with a Buzz Osborne bite. With such dichotomy, Ounce of Mercy, Pound of Flesh – other than being Metal – evades easy categorization, and is all the better for it. -Jim
badGod Music
Septic Flesh – Mystic Places of Dawn
•January 23, 2013 • 1 Comment
Septic Flesh has always been on my “must check out” list, and from a recent glimpse into their Metal Archives page, it seems I have missed the boat entirely. 8 full-lengths and an arsenal of EP’s decorate this longstanding Greek institution’s career. Until the past 5 or so years, the Greek black/death metal scene never fully clicked with me as I often looked to Scandinavia and Finland for dark death metal. I know…. what a fool. I have been spending a considerable amount of cash these past few years scrambling to pick up the Greek classics and get back on track. And what a journey this has been. The Greek vibe is one built upon atypical, and truly Dark (note the capital “D”) harmonies and an aura that feels like a humid atmosphere falling down around you, which gives titles like “His Majesty at the Swamp” a new meaning. Septic Flesh’s latest long player, Mystic Places of Dawn, falls into that ancient dark death category perfectly, since this is a reissue of their 94 full-length debut, including the Temple of the Lost Race EP (1991) as bonus tracks. When I started this review, I didn’t realize this was a reissue as I rarely look at the bio info, so having initially went off on how great it is that this band has chosen to defy the modern metal trappings of this era, and come out with an album that wasn’t perfect recording wise, in favor of a 1992 sound, I was surprised to discover that this was indeed their debut, recorded in ’94, which in hindsight… really makes sense. Having now entered into this bands world the at the proper starting point, the beginning, it is clear that Septic Flesh embraced the aesthetic of their homeland, a sound they had a definite hand at sculpting. Mystic Places of Dawn perpetuates that old atmosphere to flow in and enchant the bulk of this material. The guitar melodies are full of emotion, harmonically layered and unique. Tracks like “Crescent Moon” permeate with a mournful vibe that plods along with the bleak impact of doom, yet there’s a heavy and deadly edge to it that screams for death (metal). There are no pretty vocals on this album, which is also a victorious plus in my win column, rather allowing subtle creepy synth lines and the occasional violin to strengthen the darkness spun so effortlessly throughout this album. Guttural and unique vocals intensify the depth and despair within this material, giving the early works of bands like My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost (both eternal classics for sure) a run for their money. The Temple of the Lost Race EP is this bands true first, non demo release and finds the band operating with noticeably less mystic atmosphere in favor of quicker material, but the songs are solid and just as advanced and mature coming from a then young band. The addition of this material makes this package even more valuable to those of you out there like myself, who initially missed the boat to Athens. A new version of an old album is nice to bring one up to speed on material initially overlooked, but if you’re like me, you probably prefer the original art and pressing should it turn up cheapish on ebay. I know… fat chance, but at least we can thank the fine folks at Season of Mist for another shot at this powerful and moving slab of eerie Greek art. Believe me…. I’m scrambling to further discover Septic Flesh’s extensive discography. -Marty
Season of Mist
Mortillery – Origin of Extinction
•January 23, 2013 • 1 Comment
The Thrash Metal theme continues on at Worm Gear. This time, however, what’s annoyed Marty and I about its resuscitation soaks Mortillery’s Origin of Extinction through and through. The promo pictures alone announce what’s on tap: riffin’, boozin’ … snoozin’. Look, I enjoy a beer or three as much as the next guy – and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to have a good time with your Metal – but we already have Venom and Mötörhead for that. So when I encounter recycled Thrash riffs without an original twist, pristine production that leaves no room for the human factor, and excessive cowbell(?) intent upon turning my frown upside-down, the opposite effect ensues. I fail to understand what mere reproduction does for the musician; how does a note-for-note replication rise above a cover band in terms of personal expression, or validity? Perhaps an interview with the youths perpetuating this resurrection of Thrash would shed light on …nah. Every teen hesher growing up in the mid-to-late ’80s with a guitar in-hand taught themselves these very same riffs when the urge to ‘bang took hold. The difference? Very few participated in signed bands at this early stage in their playing, and deservedly so – Thrash 101 did not then and should not now a label-backed band make. Though tight as a band and talented in the studio, Mortillery’s songwriting skills are simply underdeveloped. Unfortunate, really, for vocalist Cara; her bloodcurdling shriek would force any banshee back into the woods from whence it came. Her frayed lungs remain the only standout feature of the album. A new band, more thoughtful riffs, and well, someone else writing the lyrics (sample: “F*ck your rules and f*ck your friends and f*ck, f*ck, f*ck”…sigh) would serve her well. When looking for a reason, blame Mortillery and other similar sycophants for being (you knew this was coming) the Origin of Extinction of the Thrash Metal ‘revival’. -Jim
Napalm Records
Pathogen – Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations
•January 23, 2013 • 2 Comments
Originally self-released on tape-only in 2009, Phillipino Death Metallers Pathogen’s Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations will give fans of mold-covered Autopsy/Coffins worship dark lullabies to drift off into fitful sleep with. Here we have Death Metal in one of its most raw and potent forms, rife with atonal debauchery, dripping with the dried entrails of a thousand corpses. The DIY attributes serve the punch and thickness guitar-carved here, sounding akin to a deranged butcher’s mix-tape blaring in an abandoned slaughterhouse. The songs stop and start with the gait of clotting blood, ferociously flowing one minute, congealing in putrid deluge the next, but always relinquishing either pace well before the welcome is worn. This tempo-switching, though abrupt in places, sews the song-flesh together without anesthetic, and while rarely expected, remains hail-worthy throughout. The quarter-time break in ‘Abyss of Perpetual Upheaval’ would have Tom Warrior wishing he’d had a V-8, so dulled and unforgiving are the riff-hacks swung here. The warmth of the production complements the dirty ‘old in-out’ of tracks promising to draw lipless grins from the undead hordes that understand what’s being conveyed here, which is thus: Ancient Ways are alive and well, and aside from minor tweaks all their own, that’s all Pathogen will ever need. Even the oddly classic Metal outro on ‘Uranium Messiah’ works, performed as it is with an off-key non-flair that confounds as well as it corrupts.
With barbaric guitar and drum offal tasked with force-feeding the week, Miscreants of Bloodlusting Aberrations channels the bloodlust of first-gen DM with an efficacy that escapes most OSDM practitioners these days. Kudos to Dunkelheit for digging this corpse up and getting it out. -Jim
Dunkelheit Produktionen
Worm Gear 