FAECES ERUPTION (Hol): s/t split Cd with FLATV5 2007 Grindfest/Urethra
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FLATV5 (Cze): s/t split Cd with FAECES ERUPTION (Hol) 2007 Grindfest/Urethra
INCINERITOR (Ita): “Morbid Iconoclasm” MCd 2007 Skullbuster
It is really great to hear that the passion for old school Death Metal (sigh, I really wish I could write only Death Metal but people would misunderstand my words if I exclude the words “old school”, wouldn’t they?) is intact nowadays more than ever. One of the few good things of the Internet generations, is getting in touch with other people form all around the world which were listening to the same albums you did 15+ years ago. But even as cool is to hear fresh new faces in the underground scene discarding the bollocks of today’s technical wanking in favor of morbidity and obscurity. For a few years I thought it was just a matter of nostalgia when one sticks to old sonorities, but when you see people that were barely born at the time the classic Death Metal records were released playing the real shit, well you realize there actually IS something different in the “old ways”. And it looks as if this band knows it.
This Incineritor (?) debut Ep reeks of dust and cobwebs – the riffs have a demo-level minimalism but the concept beneath this band’s existence is rather clear. The drummer’s primitive bashing coalesce with Matt’s guttural vocals into a mix of old Hellhammer, Master and Cianide. Some attempts at playing slower, denser parts however do not seem to be particularly effective, as they just sound just a bit unripe and a tidbit too strident for my tastes (the guitar work is a bit rigid). This is an Ep for lovers of unrefined Death Metal with really no polishing at all. I also liked the vocals which have no forms of harmony at all. On the downside the four tracks tend to sound a bit similar, and there is a Unleashed-like gallop in track “Ritual Carnage” which worryingly sounds like tarantella, but other than that this is very good shit.
The lyrics (hey at last!) deal with demonic hordes and Armageddon, in pure Immolation “Here in After” style (but without biblical referrals). They’re nicely (ah!) old fashioned as well.
NOX (Hol): “Ixaxaar” Cd 2007 Earache
This is the first time I am VERY disappointed of not having the lyrics for reading together with the promo package I got from the label. Somewhern in the last millennium I drove with my pals in Nefas up in Belgium for a legendary gig they had with Centurian, one of my favorite bands at the time which I really could not allow to miss (not to mention that beer house in Gent but let’s not digress). Fact is we had a long chat with Rob regarding the lyrics of Centurian, and the concepts behind its Choronzonic devotion. From what I remember, all this was some time before any of this MLO thing came out. Of corpse there was and still is a lot of Cabbalistic study in the lyricswork but I think it comes more from Rob’s love of “Legion” by Deicide than anything else (however things might have developed in the meantime, who knows). But still, I really loved Centurian‘s lyrics and I am sure these are at least as much if not more cool to read.
I will mention Centurian for the fifth time now because Nox is indisputably taking unholy life from where that band ended – hell the first song is even titled Choronzonic Chaos Gods. I guess Wim was too old to keep up with all the shit after marrying ehe (are you listening, hairball?), because I see no other reason in changing the band’s name but not its style. Nevertheless these years have not been unproductive. Things are even more hectic than ever before now, the riffs are so multifaceted and complex, an endless spiral of fractal razor blades whipping around in a maelstrom of screams, blast beats and untainted blasphemies. You can hardly find anything more grandiosely elaborate but at the same time so incredibly ferocious in today’s Death Metal. The singer’s vocals are still violent outbursts of rabid cruelty rather than undemanding routine pig squeals, and well, all of this album is just plain flawless. A perfect blend of aesthetics, music and concept. Nox is nihilistic, destructive tentacular Death Metal in its purest form. Tight as fuck drumming, extremely personal riffs and solos, great vocals. I really cannot think of anything better. At this level of intricacy, I don’t even find the heart of complaining about the overproduction, because you cannot really demand to add more filth to an album like this without losing something in the process. If there is one Death Metal album you have to get this year, this is it (add in Necros Christos and Angelcorpse while you’re at it, though).
GRUMO (Ita): “Karne” Cd-r 2007 s/p [demo]
That said, the bad things are hopelessly outnumbering the good ones. I couldn’t stand Italian lyrics at the time of Resurrecturis (and we’re talking 15 and more years ago) – go figure what I think of track names like “Abbadalucco”. This is just too far from my personal interpretation of grind. It’s a terrible mix of teenage slang and typical pizza-house dementia. There is this scum punk cheaply hilarious feel in the tracks which I just cannot swallow – slow happy mary-go-round tarantellas and aimless chugs do not make a band goregrind even today that cheap humour has permeated the scene. The sound too, is that of a walkman dubbed live school concert devoid of sickness and even noisecore hypersaturation. For some reason, Grumo seems to lack the tiny spark that is innate in many sludgy German Goregrind bands. The thin line that separates standard punk teenage riffs from the real gross mid-tempo grotesque thing they are surely inspired by (namely Gut, Utopie, Mucupurulent, Plasma, CBT, Bitch Infection etc.). I can hear the passion but there is a lot of crap that has to be taken away, just too much superfluous fuss. Go for the throat, don’t stop picking lilies on the road.
DYING (Esp): “Promo 2006 – Ill Intentions For A Bloody Supper” Cd-r 2006 s/p [demo]
This 2 track demo Cd-r by the band Dying from Spain made me recognize one thing: solos are back in Death Metal. Like it or not, after an almost 10-year gap they’re finally back. Sure we had some Nile, Angelcorpse or Krisiun but here we’re talking about classic, unripe solos popping into demo tracks, not seasoned professionals strutting their stuff. They are again part of the genre since the beginning.
Talking about music, this is not exactly my kind of Death Metal (it’s the brutal-and-technical American style Death Metal with guttural vocals and chugs kind) but it’s not a totally slapdash attempt at playing Brutal Death stuff either. The recipe is the same used for a lot of other newer bands: lots of heavy NY slam with beefy riffs, growling vocals plus a daring dose of slightly wrecked solos – yet the elements are arranged and put together with some wisdom. The vocals are quite deep, the drumming technical and precise and there is not a tarantella I could detect in the mix which is a difficult thing to avoid today. I cannot think of precise comparisons at the moment, maybe some Deeds of Flesh or Dislimb when it gets faster but the slower parts are closer to classic NY sound a la Internal Bleeding. I admit I found several nice parts in the sound, especially when the music gets sluggish and grinding. Nothing incredible but neither entirely average, surely worth checking out.
It’s a bit surprising to realize that the cover used in this demo is professionally printed, as this work is well beyond all parameters of typography, all the images are very jagged. Tsk. But in the end it’s just a demo so what the fuck. No lyrics included, as it’s typical these days.
APOCALYPSE COMMAND (USA-Fl): s/t Cd-r 2007 [demo]
Might the gods of the underworld electrocute me with lightning if this is not one of the most fucking brutal violent blasphemic fucking shits I have heard in the last five fucking years. There is some mystery around this band which I cannot completely unwrap, but I like it this way, it’s like getting a new Von – like puzzle.
Just a 1 page blood red booklet with a goat, a raw logo and title tracks like “Evil Necromancy”, “Blasphemy in Darkness” and “Mayhemic Overkill”. Can you ask for MORE than this?
As for music, there is really nothing better I can thing of either. Take Blasphemy, Archgoat, Centurian, Demonized, old Sarcofago, early Sodom, Vulcano “Bloody Vengeance” and some early Morbid Angel demo era riffs and mix the whole thing up. The vocals are a raspy, serpentine, echo-filled thing which spew insults to god with a hate only the morninstar could parallel. I so fucking love their huge reverb, it’s so damn vintage. And the best thing is definitely the riffs – twisted and powerful, but stripped to the basics. There are just 2 or 3 of them for each song plus some Slayer-ish solos, but they’re just the right ones, they have a flow which I only heard in Angel Corpse. Everything in this demo fits the picture perfectly, I cannot test any weak spots. Even the rough, acrid sound has its role in creating the sulphuric mood.
So far, best release of the year.