Category Archives: Reviews by letter

Pneuma Hagion “Trinity I” tape, 2015

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Pneuma Hagion “Trinity I” tape, deep slow & low tuned Death Metal from Texas, 2015 Nuclear War Now!

Small one man project of Ryan Wilson from Intestinal Disgorge, a band whose lows are way less than the highs, but that here pulls out a decent nice release. With Pneuma Hagion Ryan tries the slow chunky Death Metal way with deep Pillardesque vocals, so much so this tape reminds a non-esoteric or non-evil version Onward to Golgotha. I generally struggle to like one man bands, but Ryan sounds inspired here and albeit there is not much difference between the songs (they basically all sound the same) the formula of having low tuned tremolos with slow grinding bridges and ultra deep grunts is nice so I would give it a distracted 6. Not stuff I’d really spend my cash for a vinyl as it was recently repressed on wax by NWN together with another three EPs, but I have heard much worse.

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Burial “The Forgotten” tape, 2019

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Burial “The Forgotten” tape, genuinely massive albeit somehow unripe Death Metal from Italy, 2019 Dismal Fate

Mentioning the term “funeral” while describing this nice little EP might mislead you into thinking about some grindingly slow romantic Death Doom. I will still use it but I will take care to specify there is not a huge dose of romance in here, especially if you take care to read the lyrics. It’s not like some Anathema brought to Death Metal, but more like an ultrasimplified teenage version of Anatomia if they were born in UK in early 1990 (ahah I love to twist things, yep). Burial is a nice youthful two piece that play ultra massive Death Metal with a really superior production and some moments of remote, melancholic mindtrips. They might not be the most complete band of all time but they have a genuine taste for good songwriting and a really massive yet crystal clear sound. Worth giving a try, they also released another recording in 2019 so you might as well get that one from Dismal Fate. Good work thus far!

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Hostis Humani Generis “Asphyxiation In Blood” tape, 2017

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Hostis Humani Generis “Asphyxiation In Blood” tape, Death Metal from Finland, 2017 Unholy Domain

I had to listen to this tape over and over before assembling a reasonable string of thoughts into a review, and that’s because while the band is so primitive in songwriting every member is a 20+ year veteran on the scene and I had to clearly envision why they decided to go this minimal.
Many things on this recording work. For a start, the recording has a weird ambience, typical of earlier finnish recordings of bands like Belial or Unholy (quite different stuff, but just to give an idea), that music that was not yet defined as either Black or Death or whatever, just grim and painful. One riff: much feel. And the vocals are amazing too, hellish and evil.
Yet while I think I got their point I am not able to get too hooked, I love this stuff in general but when things get this simplified I believe one riff, just one great riff is enough to change the game, but then I cannot hear a single great riff in there. Huge potential and yet hitherto unexplored.

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Sacrocurse “Destroying Chapels” 7″ EP, 2016

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Sacrocurse “Destroying Chapels” 7″ EP, blasphemous raging southern Death Metal from Mexico, 2016 Iron Bonehead

This breed of blasphemic whirlwind of apocalyptic Death Metal expanded from South America upwards to Mexico where the seeds planted by bands like Domain/Ravager obviously grew up to the new standards of Chilean-like barbarity. This EP is probably my favorite recording by the band so far and is nothing short of devastating, it lashes like Abominator or a less guitar shredding version of earlier Angelcorpse with an extra dose of south American intensity, think of the late 90’s Brazilian wave taken to newest standards of production.
The Bathory cover closes reasonably well side B but the opening Destroying Chapels is really “a fist in the face of God”, I am really a sucker for these savages of the southern lands, there is a huge need of this music today.
A collaborative work between the tentacular Hell’s Headbangers and Iron Bonehead since the beginning the band released a second album two years ago. Go get this 7″ as it’s still quite cheap. It comes with a nice insert and it has something you seldom see anymore these days: lyrics!

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Schizoparanoic Platoon “Warfare: Mass Annihilation” MCd, 2019

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Schizoparanoic Platoon “Warfare: Mass Annihilation” MCd, Martial und militaristic Death Metal from Greece, 2019 Askio

Very acidic, rusty, warmongering Death Metal is what we get from this decently prolific band from Greece, whose latest EP (this) has also been recently repressed on tape by Infested Morgue rex.
Battlefield insanity is what better defines this band, in a more acidic “Voivod projected 300 years in the future” or a more brutal static version of Marduk/Exmortem way more than Bolt Thrower. I personally wan’t sure of this recording the first time I put this one in the record player but the cyclical obsessive sound dug in rather quickly. The vocals are stern and arrogant, just shouting orders on top of a squadron of tracklaying bass/drum machinery.
Misleadingly monolithic, there is also more stuff going on within this suffocating mass of sound than what might seem at first.

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Black Prophecies “Azathoth” demo, 1988

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Black Prophecies “Azathoth” demo, Black Metal from Genova, s/p 1988

Before the post-“Hammerheart” deviation and nazi roleplayers raised in Iraq there was a time when Black Metal was still a name known to few and dealt with scary esoterica and horror. Among the handful of bands that pioneered the genre in the ’80s we had the great local Black Prophecies who, a bit like Morbid Angel, mixed elements of lovecraftian cosmic horror with the dark side of religion.
Along with other bands like Poison, Semen of Satan or Hastur from Peru these bands defined the term Black Metal at its best, when despite (and because of) almost unintelligible rehearsal quality you get the sense of absolute loss and perdition, of being caught in a maelstrom of formless beings of teeth and horns ripping you to pieces but while Death Metal intends to inflict pain to your soul outwards from the rending of flesh, this music was supposed to tear apart straight at the soul, bringing pain outwards from the inner self.
There are screams of agony in this putrid mass of sound that resemble a grotesque reassembling of extreme metal elements, the inch by inch skinning of the spirit done through the olystic combination of atmosphere and brutal demonic violence: the riffs are straight to the point, at the same time minimalist but ripe of negative energy, and the evocative, tribal drumming perfect for the job, sometimes everything slows down to a grinding, scary atmosphere that defines the term BLACK. It’s part Medieval Prophecy AND part Christ’s Death, you’re damn lucky you can get it in the brilliant collection that Terror From Hell Records released in 2012.

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Satanik Goat Ritual/Vomit Angel “Cacodemon” split 7″, Blasphemous Arts (2019)

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Oggi il Dottor Marciume ascolta: Satanik Goat Ritual/Vomit Angel “Cacodemon” split 7″, breathless demonic Black Metal vs ugly and metallic Grindcore, Blasphemous Arts (2019)

What do you get when you assemble rotting shit expelled from Morbosidad and Sadogoat/Sadomator? A hell of a good 7″ I can guarantee with a certificate of sickness.
The care taken to release this vinyl is vibrant, it comes with a poster and insert other than a black innersleeve, and the cover itself is a piece of art by none other than Paolo Girardi this time in b/w, I personally love the fact that the art has some reminiscence of old 70’s horror comics and the layout is genuinely simple. The only thing I don’t like is the color on the logos, they could have gone entirely black and white and the final result would have been twice as good, two colors is way too much for the music of Satanas.

Other than that, Satanik Goat Ritual is a monstrously sick creation of grinding southern blasphemy, they have the choking, hyper-saturated sound that locks you in one-inch face to face eye contact with the demons of the Abyss. They have such a suffocating sound that when you turn to Vomit Angel they get a little displaced. I have the whole discography of Sadogoat since day one, but never managed to hear this band before, they sound like a more punkish incarnation but with rotting influences of early grindcore like Gut or Gonkulator, and that vaguely garage atmosphere of late ’80s protodeath metal bands (think of the earlier Nihilist) I am not entirely sold to be honest, they’re certainly raw and I appreciate the uncontrolled attitude but there is some extra alcoholic fun I prefer not to have in my tea.
All in all the idea of combining the bands was excellent anyway.

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