Category Archives: Underground News

BLOOD RED THRONE (Nor): “Come Death” Cd 2007 Earache

Ok, I admit I overlooked Blood Red Throne on purpose for the last few years. There was just something inherently wrong between me and them, they gave me an impression of slick, glossy music which I personally detest – second rate death metal with lowercase “d” so to speak. Might be the fact they were on Hammerheart, the big reviews on national mags, or the hype given by the fact they are Norwegians with ex Satyricon and Emperor members. I always thought this was the kind of band that plays in the background while you’re paying for your ticket while arriving late at a show of a bigger name. But I have to admit this stuff is not bad at all. Surely a bit static, and I am pretty sure they’re much better on record than live – but definitely not too bad. The vocals are really powerful, and some riff recall late Skinless (song 2 and 4 are , Deranged or Centinex. We’re sure more into American ground composition- and sound-wise than other Scandinavian names – definitely Death Metal anyway. Also the production is cool, not too triggered, not too polished. I won’t say this is a powerhouse of energy but definitely more than decent, goes half a point over the average in my scale. I personally don’t think I would stand a third listen, some songs could really exists with their length cut in half,

FUCKING GREAT!

We finally got some HATE MAIL!
This is a recent comment on the Hipermenorrea CD! I know I am supposed to be dead but this one deserved to be pulished!
“This is just sick, who would post some shit like this? Are you all sadistic freaks jacking off to the photograph of a poor HUMAN BEING who at the very least will never be able to enjoy life like others. You do not deserve your mouths and faces as nothing good comes of them but rather just sick and perverted scenes of grotesque violence. In my humble and unbiased opinion i believe it is because of people like you sick fucks that these kinds of scenes of gore and violence exist in our world. You deserve to be cut apart piece by piece… slowly and painfully starting with each knuckle of your fingers leading up to the hand… but you should be put on IV’s of plasma so that you do not bleed to death but rather live long enough for the incisions to completely cut off your limbs and let the last scene your eyes see before losing conscientiousness is your heart being ripped out of your chest and shoved into that fucking hole you call a face.
You…you are the scum of the earth, adding nothing to society but grief and suffering. You deserve to rot in hell you sick son of a bitch, as anyone who finds enjoyment in these types of images deserves to die a horrible and painful death. All of you sadists and masochists sit around your computers comparing pictures of violent injuries which were either induced by others or self-inflicted. ANY OF YOU MOTHER FUCKERS WHO HAVE THE BALLS TO STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU ENJOY IN THESE IMAGES (assuming you haven’t cut them off) FEEL FREE TO REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.
P.S. the authorities have been notified and this website will be brought under federal investigation, under which it may be banned in the United States. Good luck with your sick obsessions as this is not the first or last website you sick fucks will be banned from. I will not give up, i will not cease to find where you fester like a cancer on this society. I will see to it that each and every site like this or others pertaining to the same subject matter WILL BE STOPPED.”

Thank you erjohnsonfuhs@yahoo.com, we need support like this!

Not dead yet… (premature burial!)

It is really touching to see there are still over 50 views each day on this website despite the fact I haven’t updated it in eight months. I promise this webzine is not dead, but I am just trying to recollect some of the enthusiasm I had when I started it. The whole musical scene is so incredibly different today and I just feel so out of place… it is so funny but what really makes me feel like this has been this huge old-school revival. The bands, most of them at least, are so damn good. Yet there is something out of place… In any case I have a box full of promo material that WILL be reviewed as soon as I find some motivation.

Death Metal Eternal.

BEYOND TERROR BEYOND GRACE (Aus): “Extinction|Salvation” Lp Cd 2008 Grindhead

ghr022The super shitty cover made me fear for the worse since the beginning. Math-Nu-Post kind of shit a la The End, you know, that kind of intellektual wannabe kind of photography full of shades and blur that guys with emo haircuts like so much. All in all the packaging is not bad, but is so desperately clichéd it gave me headaches.

I remembered the name of the band so I dug back into old Nuclear Abominations reviews and picked it up so I could remember what I thought about them. Uhm. I wasn’t exceedingly critic so maybe something good might come out of this one. If you wish have a look at what I thought of their previous Ep, check that old review I just imported into the new website.

I don’t know in what kind of mood I was back then, but surely the fact I just came back from a Revenge/Angelcorpse gig yesterday won0t help them much. When I attend good gigs, my temper for generic bands tends to shorten. I keep this short: this new BTBG album is boring. The vocals are just as generic as you can imagine. Same old formula of the raspy shrieks meet guttural growls, but neither of them sounding special, both basically a single note “baaah baah baah”… there is some good blasting coming from the drummer but these riffs seems just repeated over and over. If I struggle to isolate the instruments I realize what an impressive kind of shit work the singer made to ruin what could have been a decent grindcore album. Put one capable of even minimal modulation and it could have just made this album another story entirely. This is an album that could appeal some grinder that started with Nasum, but I am pretty sure 1st generation ones will be shrugging their shoulders and go after Heresy and the likes.

BLOODY SIGN (Fra): “Explosion of Elements” Lp Cd 2007 Ibex Moon

151910Wow. This Bloody Sign might not be a band that needs introductions, but it’s surely worth underlining from the beginning how damn mindblowing they are. Kilometers far from today’s opposing standards of “dark old school” and “brutal new school”, this is a band which “didn’t not surprise me to check they released a split on Nihilistic Holocaust“. As you might have guessed, the line follows from where the first album “Vana Vigala Loïts” ended, still knee deep in classic high level Death Metal that oscillates between South American warfare (Imperious Malevolence, Masacre etc) and Morbid Angelesque high-level writing (Ingurgitating Oblivion, Impureza, Act of Gods, Centurian, Serpents’ Aeon etc).

The songwriting is really impeccable, with plenty of that Floridian muscle we have started to forget about. I am not into 100% of the mid tempo bridges (a bit in the vein of old Morgoth maybe, even though the vocals are not that great – heck!), but it’s the the fast parts that are are something really worth hearing – amazing solos and intricate multi layered riffs, throat ripping vocals, granite solid drumming. This is a really impressive work of old fashioned professional level Death Metal like you rarely hear today.

Like I said I am not really 100% into it, mostly because the songs seem a bit lacking of precise personality at times, some riffs could have possibly been dropped (my friends in Kaamos told me they dropped dozens of riffs before getting to studio, and it’s something that generally pays in my opinion), but this is just a cheap comment from a critic that might not be worth considering (didn’t they say the same of Mozart?). The good work on this album however is much, and definitely enough to blast my personal rating quite high. I’m with this band completely, seems like the French scene is really giving birth to new killer bands lately.

Another thing worth saying is that all these songs are 4-5 minutes long. It’s not that common nowadays I think. You finally have the impression of buy a full length Cd, and not a 20 minute demo for the same price. All this to say this is a band that needs careful attention. They’re good musicians, with plenty of taste, dedication and vision. I am loom forward to hear a fast-only album!

I found the original cover artwork on the Internet and I cannot but say I am pretty much disappointed to see how this superb work was butchered by a mediocre Photoshop trick across the logo and a really muddy, dark print. The picture here is not how the real cover looks like, but how it should have. It is so dark you lose much of the detail and shading effect. Too bad really.

News

DEADLY ILLNESS ‘zine #2 is OUT NOW!

Interviews with:AANAL BEEHEMOTH (Fin), ABOMINAT (Nor),CATALEPSY (Hun), CRUCIFIST (Us), DEATH BREATH (Swe), DISKORD (Nor), EXCORIATE (Ger), GOREPHILIA (ex-GORETEXX) (Fin), HATESPAWN (Ger), OBSKURE TORTURE (Den), and around a hundred demo/LP/CD/7″,etc. reviews – English-written , 48 thickly-printed pages with small-sized fonts , A/5-sized , Xeroxed.

For trades/prices/wholesale or anything write to: DEADLY ILLNESS ‘zine c/o Poller Csaba, Budapest 1183, Nimród u. 73, Hungary

Kobolds attack!

Also, I got this cool ad in my mail yesterday, by label “OLD FOREST” (did I say old forest?)

TALES OF THE SUSSEX WEALD PART 1 (DTM014).Today (Easter Sunday 2008) sees the release of the first material from obscure cult Black Metal group Old Forest in over 7 years. This is the first part of a trilogy exploring the pre-christian / post-christian myths of the Susex Weald. According to vocalist Kobold…

Wait… kobold? KOBOLD? KOBOLD??? For those unfamiliar with RPGs, here’s a kobold..

kobold

PROCLAMATION (Spa): “Messiah of Darkness and Impurity” Lp Cd 2007

ProclamationProclamation‘s “Messiah of Darkness and Impurity” is, on my part, one of the most anticipated album of 2008. Of all the bands belonging to the recently mutated (in better – I mean) Black Metal scene, they stand aside like clumps of rotting flesh hanging from the spear wound upon christ’s chest. Proclamation definitely has a couple of elements which I personally consider to be most representative of what REAL Black Metal should sound. The sound on this album is raw, hypnotic, almost tribal. They capture in the best of ways all the droning trance-like intensity and blood red strength of Von, in a sulphuric concoction which is undoubtedly Theirs. For years I wondered what was the matter with thin childish vocals in Black Metal, and here I am proven right – they have always been pointless. Proclamation‘s vocals are a balanced mix of demoniac runts, bestial roars and enraptured enchantments of Metal of Death. Pure Beherit furs and horns on record – layered on a hypnotic ultra-low subliminal waveline of classy, simple but charming riffs that evoke images of pain and bestiality – with a proper attention to Hellhammer and earliest incarnations of the Black Metal art. Hail Satan. These songs are at the same time utterly chaotic but also mesmerizing in their scattered complexity – not even the Slayer-ish solos manage to break the rhythmic pace of these temples. As one could find some sort of ordered pattern in their Chaos most Dark and Sublime.

If you want my opinion, this is possibly one of the best Death Metal bands around (did I say Death Metal? Fuck yes, let’s inject some pride in the name once again) today. They are at the same time extremely personal, but also carelessly derivative of the great classics of the genre – Profanatica, Sarcofago, Blasphemy etc. As it should be.

Usually I tend to give a thought or two on the cover art and booklet layout as well, and once more I say things here fit like hand in glove. The classic red logo/white line-art combination is still the best in Metal, and the booklet is simple but coherent and well balanced. Nothing fancy but you don’t have the idea of having bought a Cd-Rom either. I am just annoyed by the punch hole, but you know, here’s how the promo thing goes – you give publicity to dozens of bands but don’t even deserve a 1-euro Cd for the exposure… whatever.

Apocalyptic nuclear vomiting satanic hellish massacring Black Metal for you, sirs.