Archive for the ‘Frontpage Feature’ Category

2012 marked the debut album from Germany’s Revel in Flesh.  Deathevokation sported an album cover that was an homage to Dismember’s Like an Ever Flowing Stream.  The album is punishing from beginning to end with that classic brutal Swedish sound, which is something Revel in Flesh …hmm. revel’s in. 2013 saw the release of Manifested Darkness, an even darker and more brutal album than its predecessor.  The end of 2014 Revel in Flesh punished worldwide audiences with their greatest album thus far-Death Kult Legions.  Showing more maturity, atmosphere, melody, darkness as well as retaining their brutal edge, Revel in Flesh are on fire.  Death Kult Legions was one of the best albums of 2014 and truly one of the best produced.  If you enjoy all the classic death metal albums from 1988-1993, then there is no doubt Revel in Flesh needs to be in your collection. 

Few bands have elicited as much vitriol from fans as Liturgy and frontman and creator, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. From the now infamous transcendental black metal interview to black metal manifestos, the guy has been ripped to shred on internet message boards as well as memed to death. And that’s before the guy’s music is even in the picture. 2009’s Renihilation and 2011’s Aesthetica angered black metal pundits as they arguably shaped the current trend of so-called ‘hipster black metal’ that has swatted the hornet’s nest of black metal.

If you were to collect a bunch of well versed fans of death metal into a cage fight and force them come up with a solution to the following question: Which label is embracing us with some of the best death metal today? What could the answer be? Since it’s only a theoretical situation rather than a study funded by the UN, our best guess for numero uno, after duking it out ourselves, would be DARK DESCENT RECORDS. We shot a few questions at the primus motor Matt Calvert to find out what’s up.

Back in the late ’90s through the mid ’00s, The End Records were one of the more innovative and progressive metal labels around. They were releasing ground breaking metal albums from acts like Arcturus, Age of Silence, Scholomance, Green Carnation and Agalloch… the list goes on. In 2004 the label released a 3-song teaser EP from one of its own, Tomer Pink (who worked for The End Records) and his project Subterranean Masquerade. It also featured Jake Depolittle, Paul Kuhr of label mates Novembers Doom, Tino Losicco of label mates Epoch of Unlight and Jason William Walton of Agalloch, also label mates.

Since 2005 Ireland’s Primordial have become the indisputable kings of Irish metal. And not only that, you could argue that Primordial have become one of the biggest bands in metal, with past albums consistently littering year end lists whether its 2005’s watershed album, The Gathering Wilderness, 2007’s To The Nameless Dead or 2011’s Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand, the bands seems able to do no wrong in the eyes of the metal masses and media.

Another year. Another year of great metal, comebacks, surprises, letdowns, and everything in between. For Teethofthedivine, it was a transitional year as staff turnover was balanced by amazing output that resulted in new content virtually every day of the year. Former Internal Bleeding vocalist Frank Rini joined our ranks, and a number of fresh-faced, bright-eyed writers entered the fray, allured by free metal and a chance to have their voices heard. A few of the regular, grizzled denizens remained.

However, it was business as usual getting both old and new staff to get their year-end lists submitted. It took weeks of Liam Neeson-like emails and gravelly-voiced threats (“I have particular set of skills, skills that make me a nightmare for writers like you. Get me your list and I’ll think nothing of it. But if you don’t get your list submitted, I will find you and I will send you an everso slightly peeved Facebook message”) to get the lists all submitted in time.

So without further ado, here are the Staff Picks for 2014. Please feel free to share, comment and add your own list.  Here’s to 2015!

The Teeth of the Divine crew wishes you happy holidays (or whatever) and the best of mosh for the year 2015.

Call me a homer but I’m always a little excited when a local, or Missouri band does well. But pickings have been slim of late. I mean Scholomance, Anacrusis, Angel Corpse, Lye By Mistake; long gone. And promising young bands like Vampire Moooose, Harkonin or Recrudescence never made it further than local favorite. But canada’s Blast Head Records have managed to unearth, not one but two fine death/black metal acts from St Louis in Symphonic death metal act Eternium and blackened death mongers Tyranny Enthroned.

The leaves are gone, the snow has fallen, and the Christmas decorations are showing up. That only means one thing: The great American tradition of gluttony awkward family gatherings…namely…Thanksgiving. To celebrate, the fine folks at Clawhammer PR have teamed up with Teethofthedivine and Comatose Music, Kaotoxin Records, Orchestrated Misery Recordings, and Unspeakable Axe Records to present a massive, 10 CD giveaway to celebrate Turkey day.

Omnivore is an Italian death/thrash band that released their self titled debut earlier this year on the up and coming killer Unspeakable Axe Records. It’s a short album, clocking in at 31 minutes with an instrumental intro and a blazing cover of ‘Arise’, from Sepultura. The 6 original tunes are classic death/thrash, from the 80’s scene. Think old school Sepultura/Dark Angel/Kreator. Vicious and very catchy. I really like this debut quite a lot. However due to some circumstances, that their vocalist/guitarist Pol, will talk about in this interview, the band is currently on hold

In 1991 I picked up the Nausea debut album Crime Against Humanity on cd and cassette, from Wild Rags Records.  The music is best described as punk crusty grindcore and while it may not be the tightest played album to this day is one of my top 5 grind albums of all time.  The catchiness is ridiculous and it’s one of the best in my opinion.  2014 has been a great year for Nausea in terms of releases.  Their Willowtip records debut and second official record, Condemned to the System is my favorite grind album this year and on of the strongest releases this yr. It punishes from beginning to end.  Lethal, brutal, grinding and groovy, this album destroys.  Also last years World Struggle demo comp has been reissued this year on F.O.A.D. Records.  All their demo material and bonus material and eps and splits all remastered with a killer booklet.  You need this now. 

Humiliation, coming out of the deep dense jungles of Malaysia, are one of my favorite bands. Graham Landers, owner of Deepsend Records, signed them less than 2 yrs ago and in 2013 they unleashed Turbulence from the Deep. This year they are back with another new one, Battalion-their 5th full length and it’s pummeling. For me they, along with Hail of Bullets, are the successors to Bolt Thrower. Humiliation are simplistic in formula, but heavier than most bands out there. Punishing. As heavy as 10 Sherman tanks with treads 10 stories high, destroying all in its path. The Humiliation war machine is a rumbling death tank of terror.

Anyone who has read my work over the years at this very site or my other past outlets know that I have a a Skogskyrkogården cemetery cross sized boner for anything Swedish death metal. And 2014 has been a banner year for the style and tone with killer releases from the likes of Brutally Deceased, Incarnated, Putereaon, Ending Quest, Just Before Dawn Entrails demo collection, just to name a few. There’s is something about that timeless guitar tone that keep on living despite its age as evidence by the endless revival of the style.

Let’s face it folks in the world of brutal death metal some bands come and go or are either handed so much to them early on that they do not have to do the real hard grunt work, that is sometimes needed, to keep a band together. Enter in Beheaded, from Malta. For over 2 decades Beheaded have been slinging their brutal take on the death metal genre. Through the struggles of band members leaving, people having family responsibilities-unable to tour, or whatever the case may be, bassist, David Cachia has been the glue to this wonderful brutal band.

To this day, Canadian thrash metal band, Sacrifice, have not only put out quality music, but have been one of my favorites in the extreme metal music scene. Ever since their incredible 1986 debut, Torment in Fire, they have been highly influential to the scene that they helped to create. They started out primarily as a death/thrash band, with even some black metal influence early on then developed into a speed/thrash band. Put on any one of their albums, Forward to Termination, Soldiers of Misfortune or Apocalypse Inside and you will hear a band that has created outstanding music that has aged extremely well. When the band put together the pieces and reformed and put out the 2009 The Ones I Condemn album I was skeptical as to how they would sound.

Several months ago, Lacerated Enemy Records sent me the Inquisition EP from UK brutal tech-death metal band, Cognizance. I was blown away by the production and song structures. This did not seem to be a band that had only one EP under their belts. Then the band released a two song promo EP and the songs continue along the same lines as on their first EP; brutal riffing, blast beats, guitar solos, pummeling double bass drums and bass twangs to snap your ribs outta your body! If you dig bands like The Faceless, Obscura, Deeds of Flesh, Rings of Saturn then you must check out Cognizance — an up and coming band looking to eventually put out their debut album…

Wanaja Festival, held in front of a medieval castle in Finland, is not a festival for those who are exclusively looking a weekend’s worth of heavy metal; most of the acts mingle between pop and rock. Most of the acts and names you’ve never heard of since they cater to such a niche audience; the average Finnish music listener. Only a few bands add enough distortion, play enough riffs and grunt properly every now and then to qualify for a surefire spot on this site. But like you’ve probably noticed, we hardly limit ourselves here at Teeth, but if you do, then consider this a review of Turisas’ hometown concert.

Switzerland’s Eluveitie (‘The Helvetian’ in Gaulish for those interested) , have been around for a while now but it seem like only yesterday that they burst onto the folk metal scene with 2008s ‘Slania’. Despite having released their debut Spirit two years before it was ‘Slania’, released by Nuclear Blast that put them on the map, mixing melodic death metal and folk elements such as the hurdy gurdy, Mandola, Tin whistle, Low whistle, Gaita, Uilleann pipes and Bodhrán as well as a Celtic theme. And while the rap on the band was that they were simply Swedecore with folk elements the band has powered on to be one of the more consistent and recognizable (and still difficult to spell/type!) names in folk metal.

When weighing up my options of which album to cover for my first contribution to The New Classics feature I was pleasantly surprised by just how downright overwhelming the task of narrowing down a pivotal album to highlight. Not through any shortage of quality options, but rather the sheer magnitude of landmark and game changing albums that have dropped during a very fruitful post-millennium decade. Personally, when the year 2000 rolled around I was still in my late teens and on an upswing of discovery since breaking my extreme metal cherry a couple of years prior. Of course I had plenty of catching up to do as my appreciation for heavy metal took on an entirely new dimension, with one ear scouring the landmark early wave of extreme metal, and especially death metal’s storied past, while the other was planted in the (then) here and now.

Even if the Finnish summer does its best impression of having a bipolar mental condition by throwing hail out every other day, there’s one thing you can count on in June and that’s Tuska Open Air Metal Festival held at the capital of Finland, Helsinki. The 17th Tuska was fighting an uphill battle with the visitor count being somewhat stagnant as the mainstream heavy metal boom is starting to wind down after Lordi’s Eurovision victory in 2006. World economy hasn’t improved much either and a lot of different things like Zirconium and Tony Little’s latest ab machine are fighting for people’s spending money. So how do Anthrax, Dimmu Borgir and Emperor fare in a tight spot?

The harsh winters and glorious landscapes, in Romania, are not only hiding the hardworking citizens of this particular country, but are also known to house vampires.  That’s right those long toothed bastards, feasting on the blood, of their human prey, in the wee hours of the morning, before the sun comes up.  However for the last decade or so, the vampire population has been slowly diminishing.  It seems that the brutality of Romania’s death metal act, Necrovile, has been the cause of this.  Calin Paraschiv, Necrovile’s guitarist/vocalist/bassist, had enough of the vampire’s feasting on his fellow friends and family members, that he said ‘enough is enough’.  In 2009 he unleashed The Pungency of Carnage, a brutal, yet primitive death metal debut, with his band Necrovile.  This album crushed a lot of the vampire population, the music too brutal for them to endure. 

Austria’s goat porn fetish-izing death metal kings have been around since 1992. 2014 will see the release of the band’s tenth studio album, after a bit of a delay. And while the longevity and consistency of arguably Austria’s most famed metal export after Pungent Stench, has never been questioned, Belphegor never seemed to get mentioned amid death metal’s upper echelon acts. Even with a 10 album legacy, the band just seems to get ignored.

For this summer’s festivities, Teeth of the Divine sent a festival reporter to the Finnish farming headlands to visit the Nummirock 2014 Festival. The festival is held around 330 kilometers north of Helsinki, away from any major city or municipal, annually on and around the midsummer day, during which time the country is often on a nation wide hiatus and a booze binge. So come on in, educate yourself and see how bands like Behemoth or W.A.S.P handled their business.

Lacerated Enemy records sent me one of their releases, not too long ago, The Murderous Inception EP, from Australian one man death metal machine Gaped. The man behind Gaped is Ryan Huthnance. He programs the drums, plays the instruments and does the vocals. Whole nine yards. I found a lot of old school Cannibal Corpse influence on the EP, which also incorporates some original guitar tones and well placed groove sections. The music is mostly mid-paced to a fast death/thrash pace and I really enjoy this EP. Well produced and well written, simply, it kicks serious arse! Ryan is now working on the debut full-length for Gaped and I’m sure it will be just as great as the EP. So pick up the EP, fire up some Outback steak and blooming onions and read this interview with Ryan Huthnance, from Gaped.

To those in the know, the name Lord Worm is synonymous with death metal. Having been the pivotal mouthpiece for the first two seminal Cryptopsy albums, Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile and then returning for the band’s 2005 effort, Once Was Not. For many he is the only Cryptopsy vocalist that mattered, especially in lieu of a revolving door of controversial and divisive vocalists that followed him.