Prophet’s Breath opens with the brutal “Tyrant of Iron”, that does have some nice dual guitar melodies that are played over some brutal blast beats.  “Kingdom of Corruption” is a personal fave since it begins with a vicious brutal groove.  Vocals are outstanding, throaty, powerful and understandable.  3.30 has some nice double bass drumming, drum fills over guitar melodies and soloing.  A massive head banger of a tune, as we have come to expect from Crocell, with these types of tunes.  “Usurper” is brutality to the max. It opens with a killer guitar part before ripping into a vicious blast beat.  The guitar riff played over the blast beat is catchy.  The 1:10 part gets into a stop/start groove, that eventually gets into a guitar solo then goes back to the stop/start part and then returns to blasting away, like the beginning.  This song is short, pummeling and one of my favorite the band has done up to this point.

The production is top notch.  The musicianship is outstanding and the band has a stable line-up, over their last 2 releases, now.  All instruments breathe, nothing overtakes the other and a very nice audible bass sound resonates throughout.  Crocell continue to churn out not only quality music, but a standout in death metal releases for 2015.  The cd is nicely layed out with lyrics and pics.  My only gripe is the album cover scan/artwork is kinda bush league looking.  Deepsend Records scored with this band, big time, as they did with their pick-up, last year of Sickening Horror.  Prophet’s Breath is as good as the bands earlier releases, yes, maybe a tad more melodic, this time around, but trust me, plenty of bludgeoning throughout.  Buy or take a “Cross to your Grave”, and be sure to invert it!!

It’s been six (!) years since then, and as you can imagine with a band that has gone to some aural extremes, creatively they would eventually be bound to be at a crossroads.  Maturation as songwriters sometimes results in a streamlined sound that sacrifices the organic immediacy of previous works, and although there is something to be said for restraint, chances are if you’re reaching for a technical death metal album, that’s the last thing that you want to hear.  But for those who are excited by dynamics without neutering the metalness of a record into an Opeth-elian oblivion, Overflow should not disappoint.

What makes this album work, is somehow Sickening Horror have managed to take the notion of a bloated, robotic genre and made it sound like they are playing that style for you in your living room in between beers.  One of the first things you’ll notice is that the drums sound like a real drum set, which is a far cry from what they resembled on The Dead End Experiment, although a change is probably expected when you record three consecutive albums with different drummers.  The guitars although abrasive in note choice are warm and strangely inviting, and even though the vocals are your standard death metal grunts Overflow feels like a very intimate affair.  The bonkers arrangements and light speed elements of previous albums are pretty much gone, and what you have left is kind of an easy-listening version of Demilich which on paper sounds way shittier than what it actually is.  The forays into electronic music still show up here and there, although the most effective keys are in the bone-dry piano of “The Day the Worms Became Kings” which bring to mind what Scrambled Defuncts could be if they chilled the fuck out from time to time.

Some unexpected melody drifts up in “Fractal Maze” which could have been yanked from a Novembre album and the percussive elements of “I, Explorer in Akashic Fields” and the killer drum performance on “May the Ground Not Receive Thee” provide enough rhythmic diversity to guarantee the songs won’t be forgettable.  Limiting themselves to very few choice themes per song is a welcome change to the technical death metal formula which makes sure composition over flash is the goal of the record, and extremes of sound and ability are no longer the focus.  Good for them, as in that department, they no longer have anything to prove.

What makes this effective as opposed to say what The End did on Elementary is that the menace of the band’s sound is still there- they just have stripped away the stiff, mechanical elements that obscured a humanistic way of identifying with the music.  Going from their previous records to this one is like watching the Saw movies and then seeing The Birds for the first time.  The grisly nature of torture is something guaranteed to make you squeamish, but psychological horror stays with you, and presents you with nightmares that linger in the backdrop of your brightest moments and memories, and as we age we’ll back away from the fleeting shock of immediate chaos ruining what we hold dear and realize the eventual, inevitable decay of all we love is what composes true fear.

Overflow invites us to mirror that concept over 43 minutes and ultimately witness the expanse of it five-hundred thousandfold, and its intimacy in its execution is what makes it all the more villainous.

Prior to Deepsend Records signing them, I had never heard the band. I picked up all of their releases from Deepsend Records and became an instant fan of the band.  I even became friends with drummer Mudon and singer Bear Bee, both hooking me up with downloads, sending my longsleeve promptly (one of the best quality shirts I own), doing interviews for me and just being super cool fellas.  As a side note, look for my upcoming interview with Bear Bee, on here shortly.  Humiliation is rooted in the late 80’s-mid 90’s death metal sound.  Incorporating music similar to Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, Obituary and Autopsy.  These are the band’s main influences.  As originality goes, this is something that they are not really interested in, they just want to bludgeon you to death and I say bring on the bludgeoning fellas!  Their albums are all quality produced, thick heavy guitar tone with a bottom end to their sound that has collapsed my chest cavity on several occasions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzSfhe6Fcwc

Tank treads crushing, bones splintered, bodies crunching, cities tumbling, buildings exploding – these are just some of the things that could happen while listening to Battalion.  The war cry has once again been unleashed and Humiliation shows us once again folks that they can deliver yearly albums that do exactly what I just mentioned above.  I love Battalion and this is one of the best albums of 2014 and here is why.  With 11 songs clocking in close to 50 minutes, Humiliation write catchy music.  The riffs stay in your head.  The music is not complex, it’s mainly mid paced throughout, with a few doomish nods and just tank sized heaviness to cause chest cavity collapses worldwide.

The opening instrumental is very short, serving as an intro march, “The Malayan Emergency” is the best intro they have ever done.  Than it goes into “Post Aftermath”, a bludgeoning mid paced killer that bombs the listener into oblivion.  Singer Bear Bee has become deeper on this, much of his raspier vocals have been scaled back as he enunciates the words in a deeper growl.  On “No Land Rights to Speak Of”, Humiliation breaks into some faster paced territory.  Also the song “War Path”, which was originally going to be the title of the album, is one of the best songs the band has ever done.  Pummeling riffs, double bass and awesome catchy bass guitar, especially the middle of the tune-you’ll know it when you hear it.  The song has a great bouncy feel to it as well with the way the rhythm section rolls along.

The doomy aspects of last years, Turbulence from the Deep, have been scaled back a lot and sees Humiliation returning more to their Bolt Throwerish rumbling tank styled mid paced structures, as well as some faster parts thrown in every once in a while.   I wanted the band to explore the doom parts a little more on this, which they don’t really get into, except towards the end of the album with “Baling Talks”.  Very Asphyx influenced and the bludgeoning doomy heaviness coupled with mid paced war machine rumblings is truly a great tune.   As much as I love this album, I wonder if maybe, taking an extra year off to put out a full length would be beneficial for the band?  I do love how Humiliation has this incredible doomy heavy number and than the last song, “Restless Fight” comes storming through with some fast passed sections and this is a great way to end Battalion.

The production is great, everything sounds killer and Humiliation know this style of death metal to a T.  The album cover is very cool and looks like something that was drawn by an Army General, in the 1950’s.  The booklet contains a group photo and lyrics, which of course are all war inspired.  Pick up Battalion at once or risk being crushed and pummeled to death as you attempt and fail to wage war against the Undefeated Humiliation!

Eucharistiae Sacramentum is here to devour your soul, to punish the non believers and to make certain that once you have finished listening to this album and your body lay in a mass of vomitous entrails that you will be possessed time and time again to press repeat on this sucker all day long!  With 8 songs in 30 minutes Emblazoned wastes little time and gets down to brass tacks and creates a bludgeoning assault on the senses.  “Malefic Congregation” opens the album and punishes from start to finish.  Guitarist Kevin Forsythe has come up with a guitar tone that is biting and vicious.  The black metalish melodies come through outstanding on this track with a riff that repeats itself in the beginning and at the end that is pure evil.

Vocalist Jeff really expands his style with the black metal raspy vocals and the brutal death metal lows-very entertaining.  Alex pummels the drums as if he was beating the hell out of some poor sinner, who failed to pick up this new Emblazoned cd.  A.J.’s bass comes through nice on the song “Perdition”, a scorcher of a track.  I love the bass guitar in the beginning and the song goes into a pummeling mid paced roll that crushes a few Christian heads along the way and then the song goes into some brutal and killer blast beats.  I would have anointed this better than the latest brutal offering from Belphegor, but than Emblazoned comes up with track #7-“Iniquitous”.  An instrumental of all things.  For me personally, I think death metal instrumentals are pointless, unless, they are shorter little interludes, however this track is the longest on the album, clocking in at over 6 minutes.  The problem with this track is, musically speaking, this is the finest track on the album and incorporates all the Emblazoned beauty here, with some atmosphere thrown in, brutal pummeling rumbling mid paced destruction, blast beats-it’s incredible and the fact that no vocals are on this is a shame.  Especially around the 3.30 mark this part has a killer epic drum pattern and I could imagine this in a live setting going over amazing if some vocal patterns were over this part.  Cause at the end of the day an instrumental played live is a snoozefest. I think if the band adds some vocals to this track and plays this bastard live it will wake the undead; that is how fantastic the music is on this track.

The album cover continues the theme from the previous ep and this cover is very striking and cool to look at.  A nice booklet is layed out with a band photo, lyrics thx list, where Kevin thanks me, much appreciated.  So other than that one little squeaky wheel of a problem with the instrumental,

Eucharistiae Sacramentum is a brilliant piece of blackened death metal that I am saying is one of the most vicious, brutal and wonderful releases of 2014.  Go and get your copy now, this is how brutal music should be played.  Not for the faint of heart.  Buy or die from The Deceiver!!!

With a line-up intact since the second album I think this helps in making the band gel a little more. “Iron Rule” begins with a nice blast beat that goes into their signature stylized blackened death/thrash gallop. The production on this album is their best yet, with the guitars coming out clean and raw. Henrik coming up with some memorable riffs as usual. Anyway the tune benefits from tempo shifts with faster parts and than around that 2min mark the guitar riffing having a heavy black metal edge to it, however Anders comes roaring in to let us all know his voice has gotten deeper and he is here to rip your soul apart. The song eventually gets into some faster territory and guitar melodies that are just evil personified. The 4min mark repeats an earlier riff that is so old school, has an awesome 80’s feel to it. “Vultures”, at 5minutes, incorporates a little bit of a different style to the mix. Kept to a mid paced crawl, this song screams headbang! I cannot tell you how many times I have cranked this tune up and just headbanged constantly to the riffing and drum pattern on this particular track. It’s infectious and really calls to mind all those memorable riffs back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Such a delight to hear this track and so happy a track this great was created by Deus Otiosus. Love it!

The album cover continues along with the black/white imagery, like their last 2 efforts. This one has some ginormous ocean monstrosity rising from the depths to create some tsunami or something against a harsh dark sky landscape. The booklet is nicely designed, with lyrics and I love the group pose, a little goofy, the band trying to display their evilness, but I always smile at pictures like these. So there you have it, one of the best albums of 2014 and my favorite Deepsend release for 2014, thus far. Deus Otiosus have unleashed a scorcher of an album, in Rise, with no intent on slowing down and just creating kick ass albums, the band continues to set themselves apart from the pact due to them having an original sound. So pick this bad boy up or be prepared to Stand up and Fight!

If Cynic played death metal, Overflow very well could have been conceived in that realm.

The band has released two previous albums; 2007s When Landscapes Bled Backwards (Willotip) and 201os The Dead End Experiment (Soulflesh Collector Records)

The cover art for Overflow is posted below:

George Antipatis – Guitars/Vocals Ilias Daras – Bass Andreas Karayiannis – Guitars Vasilis Antipatis – Drums

www.facebook.com/sickeninghorror

www.deepsend.com

www.facebook.com/DeepsendRecords

Deus Otiosus – Rise (bandcamp)

Agiel – Dark Pantheons EP (review | bandcamp)

Embryonic Devourment – Reptilian Agenda (bandcamp)

Emblazoned – The Living Magisterium (review | bandcamp)

Ferocity – The Sovereign (review | bandcamp)

And all you need to do to be the single, lucky random winner of the below 5 CDs is to fill out the form below! How easy is that?

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!

Well, after over a decade of relative inactivity lone original member, vocalist and keyboardist James Taylor has animated the band with a new line up and redone 5 songs from the 2002 debut with more orchestration and very slightly different structures and vocals. The core sound of the 5 songs (“Dark Pantheons”, “Deeds Rendered Upon The Flesh”, “The Awakening”, “Serpent Masquerade”, “Andromeda”) is the same as the debut, albeit with a better production (though the drums sound a bit programmed) and Taylor has essentially made the the much more dramatic orchestration the focal point of the music, rather than injections here and there as with the debut album. The end result is well, basically, Fleshgod Apocalypse, it’s that simple. It’s fast technical/brutal death metal rendered with a continual backdrop of strings/brass and choirs. So if you are are fan of either Agony of Labyrinth, you will lap this up.

Luckily this combination does it for me, even if it feels a little like Taylor realizing that Fleshgod’s sound  has been pretty well received and wanting a piece of the action (that or trying to acknowledge his band was doing it way earlier). Either way, the improved sound and vastly more utilized keyboards come across as well done and well put together.The whole thing comes across as pretty epic and suitably presented, fitting today’s much more adventurous and varied brutal death metal scene. The songs sound better, bigger and fuller  and the brutal, sweeping majesty is impressive, even if I cant help shake the aura of their Italian peers, right down to some clean croons in the last couple of songs.

At 18 minutes, Dark Pantheons is more of an appetizing teaser, though I’ll be interested how Taylor and co. develop new songs and whether they are simply doing it to ride Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s coattail, or as they did 12 years ago- forge their own sound.

They actually start out with what is one of the more interesting intros, which from what I can tell is a sample of what it would sound like when someone is breathing inside a gas mask.  It’s that rare intro that actually works, and is fortunately kept very short before the band starts bringing out the artillery.  The first 2 tracks (and the whole album) sport the trademark Danish crunch, with a solid production and a beefy bottom end to add to their imposing band name.  But then you get the 2 best tracks on the album, “Human Game” and “Son of Sam”, with the latter being my personal favorite.  Bouncing between nasty grooves to a touch of melody (just a touch) to good old blast beat backed riffs, they are easily the stars of this show.

Things are broken up by poorly placed instrumental “Abrupt Desolation”, but overall fans of death metal in general really can’t go wrong here.   Vocalist Kasper Wendelboe sounds very similar to DoD frontman Scott Jensen, with that almost digital sounding edge to their death growl.  The vocals don’t vary much, which is fine when they’re done this well.  Drummer Nikolaj Kjærgaard changes speeds with ease and adds the backing punch to their powerful sound.

The album clocks in a little over 40 minutes, so most of the songs are longer and overall well done.  I haven’t checked out their first full-length, “Cocoon of Denial”, but from what I read this sophomore effort is a much heavier and focused output.  It would be nice to see them expound their style or take some chances, but definitely a band to keep an eye on and one that can no doubt continue the Danish beatings courtesy of your stereo speakers.

One needs not to look any further than the winner of the album, “Refuge in Darkness”.  An unreal pummeling attack that has influences ranging from early Immortal to early Asphyx.  You have the killer black metal guitar sound with the pummeling double bass attack at like the 2.45 mark and this will lop your head off without a problem. The vocals on this are the perfect blend of black metal raspy screams and low end death metal growls, thankfully.  I need my variation vocally speaking, when it comes to blackened death metal and the low end growls add an extra layer of evilness to this.  You get some doom influences on this as well, that simply shine, before the pace picks up and your head is once again flying across the room.

The last track, “In Ex Cathedra”, starts off with a massive headbanging section, before galloping into a thrash beat and Kevin Forsythe’s roars at like the 1.05 mark are fuckin godly.  Sounding similar to Glen Benton with the dual vocals, circa Once Upon the Cross, very pissed off angry and truly stunning.  Song has some stop/start styled blasting on this track that not only mixes things up quite a bit, but then the track fades out with an eerie guitar solo-unexpected.  The ep cover from afar is a bit funny to look at.  I have to admit the pope dude on the front looks like former U.S. president George W. Bush-really, with a bunch of demon dragons that are being summoned towards him, for power, possibly?  Lyrics are also included.  So Graham-where the fuck have you been hiding these bastards, for crissakes, under Brett Favre’s latest text to some unknown girlfriend?  The Living Magisterium is simply a super intense ep that you need to get, NOW!!

The exact same tone, lyrics and pace are still in play as Humiliation trundle their way through 11 Bolt Thrower paced numbers about war and more war. Double bass rumbles, steady, powerful riffs, punishing grooves, gravelly growls and of course samples of bombs, submarines, and machine guns fill the entire album, and as with most death metal of this style it won’t wow you or blow you away, but it is a base-level enjoyment of what death metal really was and is.

There isn’t much else to really expand on. You know exactly what you are getting here and Humilation knows what they are giving you. From the opening battle sample of “No Return” up until the surprising, delicate outro of “Submerged at the Seabed” the album is tank tracks on concrete. The majority of the tracks are beefy mid-paced numbers like “Phosphorous Shell”, “Home Front”, “Order of Battle” and the foot tapping “Sea Denial”, with a few spurts of gunfire like “Bachok’s Invasion” and a couple of slower lumbering tracks like “Calibrated Chaos” and “Deadly Double”. Basically, if you heard any of Bolt Thrower‘s ’90s and ’00s war themed albums, (Mercenary, For Victory, Honor Valor Pride) you have heard Humiliation. They even try to add a moody Bolt Thrower like solo in “Total War” that is a bit off, but a nice effort nonetheless. But in the case of Humiliation that’s a good thing, and in this instance the band’s international flavor and wide-eyed obsession with a simpler time and style gives them a innate likeable charm despite the lack of originality.

As with the last album (“Bukit Kepong”), there is a more personal, historically themed number in “Bachok’s Invasion” detailing Japan’s invasion of Malaysia during WWII so these guys aren’t just giving the subject matter lip service, but adding a little of themselves to the tested and true themes and style. I’d like to see these guys do a whole concept album on their country’s fairly brutal history or a single conflict in the country’s past and set it to the solid no bullshit death metal they have mastered.

This isn’t Azure Emote levels of crazy experimentation, but rather a genre collision that comes across a little like Cephalic Carnage, Gojira, The Red Chord, Dillenger, Nasum, and Meshuggah mixed in a blender with a jar of nails and bolts. For many, this vortex of styles is a good thing, and for me, at times it does create a pretty unique sound. For others it might simply be too chaotic and all over the place, which I could understand considering the myriad if things going on here, but at least Hybrid is forging their own path. If your are the kind of person that loathes Between the Buried and Me, or some of the noisy caustic bands on Black Market Activities, this isn’t for you.

Angst isn’t a quick satisfying listen. The first three tracks alone, “Flesh Fusion Threshold”, “Enter the Void” and “Collapse to None”, stuff enough jarring, staggering riffs, grinding blasts, spoken words, guttural bellows, saxophone injections, feral screams, clean vocal and acoustic breaks to fill an entire album in their own right, so don’t be expecting a sing along chorus or power chord based radio hit to come from the speakers. But what you will get is a truly ambitious album that flaunts the band’s skill set and creativity, while pushing the envelope for patience.

Angst is a noisy record, it rarely settles into anything for long, but rather sputters and shatters with broken glass riffs littered with a few bursts of brutality and the occasional injection of jazzy clarity. “Cuando El Destino Nos Alsance” delivers something a little more reflective with a steady groove and shimmery synths, but that’s partially because there are no vocals, and that removes some of the crazy from Hybrid’s ADD addled sound. But fear not, it comes back in force after the misleading start of “Angst Ridden Inertia”, before the surprisingly mellow, but still dissonant lope of “Doomed to Failure” where the high pitch screams and deeps bellows again add even more searing discordance to the rumbling, tumbling screeching vortex but the track ends the album on a rare introspective note.

While I appreciate Deepsend stepping out of their comfort zone, and appreciate Hybrid and their ambitiousness on this solid release, I prefer the label’s pure death metal offerings. Hybrid occasionally grates on me after one or two tracks, namely the higher register vocals. But Angst is still a pretty interesting release with a lot going on and should be checked out by the more adventurous and patient metal fans.

Featuring a clean, stout production from Psycroptic’s Joe Haley, Prophetic’s sonic palette reeks of professionalism to match their energetic brand of modern death metal, featuring nods to the past and present. The middle-eastern flavours punctuating the album bring Nile to mind, and although the death metal titans are clearly one of Eternal Rest’s stronger influences, they don’t sound like half-assed clones either. The technical aspects of their musicianship are more understated than Nile’s techy whirlwind of brutality, and Eternal Rest seeks a more song-based approach, rather than focusing too much on atmospherics and all-out brutality. Yet in the end I’m undecided about what to make of the middle-eastern elements that are embedded into the album. They certainly represent an interesting vibe and dynamic, yet when the band cut to the chase and get down to blasting, high energy death metal they sound all the more frantic and exciting. If they continue integrating these influences deeper into their roots it may be a sound worth pursuing, otherwise they might be better served sticking to a more pure, straight-to-the-point brand of modern death metal. Either way it’s an aspect of the album that I remain conflicted about. And there are definitely examples where the combination has an effective impact, yet how well it works will likely boil down to personal preference.

The delicate notes of instrumental “First Gate (Isten Baba)” begins the album with the aforementioned middle-eastern flavours brought forth in acoustic form, before it gradually builds to a percussive heavy climax that knits it to the explosive “Preaching the Decimation of Spheres”. This track is one of the better examples of the middle-eastern influences working well for the band, creating eerie shreds of melody and atmosphere amidst some extremely tight blasting and intricate riffing. Mick Hunter’s explosively energetic drumming shines through the song’s strong dynamics, while vocalist Josh Robinson makes a hefty impression in balancing thick growls with a slightly higher-ranged blackened pitch. The interesting guitar lines and steady gallop of “Onset of Destruction” and malevolent riffing and frantic pacing of “Remnants” are a couple of other shining examples of the band firing on all cylinders. Hunter’s ultra-tight drumming performance in particular shines throughout the album. He plays with high-octane energy and litters the album with some wonderful bursts of creativity through his intricate drum patterns and imaginative fills.

With their debut, Eternal Rest have planted seeds of great potential, which allowed to grow could yield something truly unique and essential down the track. As it stands, Prophetic is a rock solid yet slightly unremarkable death metal album that is nevertheless worth a listen, despite being potentially lost amongst the slew of quality, higher profile death metal releases in 2013.

Worshiping at the altar of the likes of Deceased, Sepultura, Possessed and other early 90s/late 90 thrash /death upstarts Godless is the definition of a grower (as were Deceased ironically). I really had to get my expectations cleared out and listen to this on its own merits, and eventually it started to click with me. Recent releases by Chapel of Disease and Skeletal Remains are sort of comparisons for the band as they do have some deeper, gruffer death metal vocals but the guitar tone and overall sound is far dustier, grainier and old school.

But there is some killer songs lurking under the old presentation and production that pulls you in and bores into any preconceived notions of what old school sounds like in today’s huge retro market and scene. With a far more thrash based riffage and pacing, don’t go looking for any sort of Swede-death homage here. These riffs are pure early Deceased, Death, Inucbus Possessed, Testament, Vio-lence, Exodus and such with a bit of a death metal gloss and the aforementioned vocals giving it just a little more menace rather than big hair and bright white hi tops sneakers.

Perfect examples are the more enjoyable, higher octane numbers like “Pest Grave” “Surrounded by the Dead”,  “Cast From Heaven”. and “Face the Enemy”. However, a couple of the tracks, notably earlier ones like “New Dawn”, and “In Harm’s Way” do take a while to make an impression with a slower, less urgent pace and delivery. The album ends with the twisty lurch of  “Death Dance” which an interesting pace and structure not heard elsewhere on the album.

It’s nice to see Deepsend go out side of their box a little, though I’m still more inclined to reach for a Dawn of Demise album, when I’m in the mood for something Danish. But if I’m wanting something more old school and not Swedish, this fits the bill as it has a little more bite than some of the pure retro thrash coming out over the last few years.

With The Cleansing releasing two solid records of the style over the last couple of years,I have to question  the need of essentially an identical sounding band, but I have to admit I’m a bit of  a sucker for this Danish/Belgian style and sound, as its maybe my second favorite style of death metal after the classic Swedish style, so bring it on

Even though the record was ‘self produced’, various elements were mixed by Jacob Olsen at JBO sound (Panzerchrist, Compos Mentis, Crocell) and Tue Madsen’s Antfarm Studio (Ektomorf, Dawn of Demise, Illdisposed, etc) so this thing sounds fantastic; chunky and hefty with robust guitars and thick bottom end and what I can only term as “Danish”. The song writing is what you’d expect from band with the aforementioned bloodlines and has cues from all the Danish heavyweights  and fans of Aborted will probably find something to like hear with the mix of slightly technical, down-tuned brutality, massive grooves and deep bellows.

It’s nothing world changing or year end list making, but goddamn is it satisfying and delivers everything I want and love about death metal without a HM 2 pedal. All the tracks are sturdy, entertaining numbers that deliver blast beats, thick grooves and no bullshit growls from start to finish. In particular the album’s mid section duo of “Love Lies Bleeding” which plays like Illdisposed with giant balls and the thunderous and  “Enthralled” with the album’s beefiest groove at 2;13  as well as the albums two most brutal tracks “Tempt Not the Knife” and closer “Seize the Moment of Murder”  encapsulate the style perfectly make for some notable track amid the relatively consistent  chug.

Corpus Mortale and Deepsend are the very definition of solid enjoyable death metal and sometimes that’s just perfect .

Tucked away in all that activity was the sophomore full length debut from California’s Deadly Remains. Apparently formed as more of thrash/death metal act, Severing Humanity is supposedly the bands first foray into more brutal/ technical death metal, and its a scorcher. There’s a lot influences going on here, but the biggest ones I hear are are the standard USDM bands like Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and more brutal, Unique Leader bands and to me, a whole lot of early Dutch legends Sinister….on steroids.

Deadly Remains has a pretty unique sound, I imagine in part to their thrash background mingling with modern brutality (i.e. one of the standout tracks  “Scriptures of Foreign Tongues”) . The Sinister -y sound is technical and precise yet skronky (“Cosmic Necrosis”) and chaotic,  and they have a fairly unique sounding vocalist in Ian Andrew who has a distinct, powerful tone, without being too gurgly. The riffs are stop/start and scattershot with plenty of bad intent and a few solos and hefty grooves for good measure, all wrapped in in a stout but clean production, that also has a little of its own flavor.

From lurching opener “Home Invasion” through the excellent  “Equilibrium Obsolete”  to  the aforementioned closer “Scriptures of Foreign Tongues” (with the exception of interlude ” Psalm of Impurity”)  simply delivers top notch modern, brutal death metal, without being too slammy, noodly, melodic (this is no Gorod or Sophicide) or plastic. This has weight, heft and depth, and much like this years Antropofagus release, is a must have 2012 death metal release.

Well, Deepsend, as is often their mantra, are here to add another newcomer to that impressive list by way of the debut from Lombardy’s Synapses and with Expiation (another term for atonement or salvation) Synapses has found a nice little bridge between technical/brutal death metal and groove.

While plenty of the album’s material is a whirlwind of  straight up clinical blasts and squealing, modern technical death metal,  Synapses actually manage to deliver much of their material with a precise and deliberate sense of restraint where the percussive elements are often set on a steady but intense double bass lope no matter how chaotic the guitars are. Impressive opener “The Iron Stream” is a pretty good example of the bands style as it shifts between both standard, busily brutal tech death metal blasts and a hefty controlled lurch. Second track “No Ruin Left Behind” and third track “Rapture of Terror”  delivers the same combo as the band lock in to their deliberate sound early and often and I’m reminded just a little bit of a little less experimental/progressive and more intense version of Russia’s Stalwart (whose new album Manifest of Refusal, dropped around the same time as this) in their sense of stuttering, djent-y death metal.

“Assault on the Weak” features a little more emphasis on the blasting side but “Under the Vault of the Hands of God” has more unsettling grooves (and some fucking, jarring, shattering glass squeals)  into the blasts while “Tower of Flesh” is a mind melting balance of percussive savagery and rhythmic restraint. “Wearing Your Body” ends a more pure death number with a couple of minutes of utterly sick groove and ultimately that’s what this album is about as the likes of “Blood in My Dreams” and “Deformed Trunk” cement in the albums later stages; heaving, intense but steadily savage sense of blast injected groove led by drummer Ricardo Fenara. The album winds down with “The Curse of Extinction”  a slow burner that shows even more restraint  and pacing.

On the very minor downside, the production is a tad bit sterile and the vocals of Giovanni Canedoli are a bit bland,but nothing that subverts the excellent musicianship and controlled chaos on display on Expiation.

”Infested By His Burden” is extremely nickel in terms of exhibiting Offending‘s very respectable range of strengths; melodies that absolutely stick, varied drumming techniques, cobwebs of attention-grabbing atonal riffage throughout, and one sense of unpredictability that’s right on the money. ”Within this World” amps up the reach of this well-structured and well-rounded-up vehemence with even tighter twists and turns in the pattern shifts, more of this nuclear drumming, and this poignant, cinematic, bone-slicingly chilly ambiance building up to a point where it’s physically palpable. This uber frenzied verve keeps on escalating in grandeur with the undaunted and impressively vital ”Modern Enslavement”, the first of the two main focal points of this record. The ape soloing kicking in without one trace of reluctance as quick as 28 seconds in is only one element of this track that scores high in terms of an adrenaline build, coupled with very neat nods to classical roots in the direction of the leads, fitting eerily well in the midst of all this catchy brutality. The progression of this track is tight, well-oiled and intelligent, creating unstoppable hook-induction, and the drumming backs that up with animalistic vigor.

The highly calculating and tech-savvy ‘’Dominion XXI’’ (getting increasingly and neatly entangled into tight progressive songwriting in its second half especially) is one different beast especially on the rhythm section front, creating a nice and devotedly experimental passage where Offending‘s imprint on violence can be defined in depth. The short but to-the-point ”Religion Depravity” houses more of this sweet ambiance-driven impactfulness that truly captures the attention with a clear urgency to the melodies, a very somber main riff, high-profile leads here and there, and a bit of an Immolation‘y (listing ”Majesty and Decay” as a main reference here) type of thrilling build in the meshing of the stomping drums and down-tuned n’ beautifully menacing stalwart riffs (this absolutely cool part kicking in right around the one-minute mark). This type of vibe sticks with a touch more abstract musings in the title-track. I’m especially digging the highly mathematical prog whirlwind kicking in at approx 2:30, the riffery venturing wherever it damn well sees fit, the nuances in the drumming a perfect foundation for these very organic-sounding experimentations to lay on, with virulent growls crawling atop for a badass finish.

”Hopeless Submission” is, without a hint of a fucking doubt, another outstanding cut of a particularly massive importance among this lot. It doesn’t waste any time and reveals itself as one relentless entity right from the moment it sets foot in the door with more infectious and sincerely killer drumming, svelte licks all across the map, a memorable and engaging chorus melody, one noteworthy knack for bitching groove (take note of the 3:25 mark for a solid example of how compact it can get) and yet another passionate solo sealing up the deal. ”Raped By Religion” doesn’t tear up the house just as much on the riffage front and could’ve used some more fleshing out in that department, but it’s still one blindingly fast, skin-breaking bridge tying the awesomeness of the previous cut in with the rather convenient roughly four-minute-long outro that contains lead work that ain’t the most flamboyant on the entire record, but the right feel is definitely there, and the drumming, especially, is still thunderous as ever.

On the whole, this album is a definite go-to, especially if you know to recognize the beauty of crafty brutality, and the importance of a well-nuanced take on violence in the general scheme of well-rendered impactfulness in modern death metal. Offending‘s gonna garner some major attention and huge rounds of high-fives for this one, and that’s absolutely irrefutable.

Featuring former and live members of blast mongers Exmortem, Spectral Mortuary–unlike The Cleansing–doesn’t really have too many nods to the former act. Where The Cleansing can be tangibly traced to their Iniquity, Corpus Mortale and Usipian roots, Spectral Mortuary are a much more impressive beast than Exmortem ever were. Much burlier, heavier and varied, Spectral Mortuary are a perfect mix of death metal styles, and just a little bit nastier (particularly lyrically and thematically with song titles like “Found in Feces” and “Purulent Mass”) than their chunkier label mates.

Led by the impressive bellow of Morten Jørgensen, Spectral Mortuary deliver 37-minutes of bludgeoning death metal that culls from all over the death metal spectrum. You can hear Houwitser (so Sinister by default also), Brutality (Morten Jørgensen has a Scott Reigel-ish tone to his voice), Aborted, Suffocation and to these ears, later Skinless. But while those bands all come to mind, there’s never a blatant sense of plagiarism; by virtue of the band’s energy, ferocity and song writing chops manage to sound somewhat fresh.

As with all great death metal albums, it’s all about balance; slicing, pummeling blasts combined with moments of mid-paced mayhem (which again imbue a bit of Brutality) and skin peeling solos. And thusly tracks like “Absorbing the Bloodline”, “Defects of Depravity”, “Lapidated” and the slower “Torturous Attainment” will bring a grin to all death metal fanatics looking for something in death metal that isn’t a trend or a scene, but a pure, base level example of what all death metal should be.

On their impressive 2009 debut, Poisoned Legacy, The Cleansing delivered a top notch mix of typically chunky Danish death metal infused with a hefty dose of tight, modern brutality. The band does that on Feeding the Inevitable too. The Cleansing might not be reinventing death metal, but they’re keeping fans of the genre–sick of retro re-runs or deathcore–very much satiated with ‘new’ stuff.

As with most Danish death metal the core of The Cleansing‘s sound is a burly, chunky and low end rumbling style of death metal that’s part European and part American. With Feeding the Inevitable the band seems to be a little more focused on a more technical, vicious tone rather than purely relying on groove and heft, that’s more Iniquity than Corpus Mortale.

But amid some of the truly furious material, there’s just enough crushing lumbering moments to remind you of the origins of this death metal behemoth. A perfect example is the otherwise blistering opening duo of “The Promethean Promise” and “Third Eye Staring” that inject just enough massive groove here and there — to beat you about and around from your head and neck. The balance is pretty much perfect as you can hear on the likes of  “Your Flesh, Your Curse” which mixes relentless US styled blasts with a nice moody Konkra-ish vibe and “Hour of Decadence” which has a furious opening and a menacing mid-song march. “Law of Reciprocity” and “Two Days” admittedly are more of the same, but they are delivered with precision and robust confidence.

That being said, The Cleansing understand the dynamics of an album as a whole entity and do manage to give the listener a slow burning breather by way of “Processed for Contamination”, which probably would have been better suited to close the album.

Feeding the Inevitable is yet another solid release from Deepsend and The Cleansing. Along with Spectral Mortuary‘s fine second effort, as well as previous releases from the likes of Offending, Fleshrot, Diluvian and Dawn of Denise, Deepsend seem to have been blessed with a very solid stable of underrated, but very competent, European death metal.

Fans of polished, beefy modern death metal like As You Drown, Those Who Lie Beneath and The Red Shore would do well to check this album out as it has all the elements that you will love (or hate if you are not a fan): big bruising guitars, processed, triggered drums, dual vocals (including pig squeals), and a mix of brutal blasts and breakdowns. And while the bands European back bone is present, it’s lessened from the EP, as the material is much more blunt force trauma, lacking some of the epic, melodic and synth backed moments of the EP (“Inhumanity Remains”, “Meration Cycles”). Instead, the likes of “Lead to the Slaughter”, “You’re Wretched”, “A Sleeping Cancer (In the Flesh part 1)” and “The Fury” deliver feverishly blistering vortexes and grooves that sound much more American. Only “”Modern Mass Control” has a tangible melo-death sound, albeit on steroids.

Again, not necessarily a bad thing, especially if, like me you are a fan of the above mentioned bands and their ilk and hints of their melodic death metal influences can be heard throughout with some urgent and sweeping solos littering most of the tracks (particularly “Five Nails Through the Head” and “Cast In Stone”) that keep things energetic and interesting rather than a pure blast and breakdown fest. The album closes with a slow burner “Disillusion (In the Flesh part 2)”, to bring things down with a cool down track that shows Diluvian can take their foot off the throttle if they so choose.

Once again the very underrated Deepsend Records has unearthed yet another very solid death metal band ( amid the likes of Porkfarm, Offending, Fleshrot, Dawn of Demise and Embryonic Devourment) that deserve as much attention as the big label out there.

Much like label mates Fleshrot or Porkfarm, Offending aren’t doing anything new, but they are doing it well. Balancing skillfully brutally with actual songs structures and a chunky presentation for some reason, Offending remind me a little of Iniquity and Sinister/Houwister, and that’s not a bad thing. The eleven songs on display are not going to light up the metal critics end of year lists for 2010, buts it’s an album fans of death metal should check out.

Human Concept is everything you’d want from a death metal record; a 41 minute assault of pinch harmonics, scatter shot time changes, huge grooves, burly blast beats and cavernous roars all delivered with skill and conviction as well as pleasingly old school death metal song titles like “Pandemic Suicide”, “Destruction Of The Human Spirit” and “Mental Corrosion”; Nothing to forcedly intellectual but not comically gore soaked.

No one song really stands out, but all 11 have something to like. Whether its the subtle melodies of “Pandemic Suicide”, rumbling lurch and stagger that starts “This Vicious Mind”, choppy blasts of “Without Anything”, or ambitious, nearly eight minute title track, everything is implemented perfectly without forcing any one element. The whole affair comes across as a very natural, incredibly competent, veteran release rather than a debut from a band with only two demos in the last 5 years (though all the members appear to have served in numerous obscure underground French acts). The only thing missing is a monolithic, slower chugging track, though there are a few moments here and there (i.e “Destruction of the Human Spirit”, “Lesion C”).

Another great find from Deepsend Records, this should definitely hold fans over until Benighted their shit together.

A definitive collection of Coffins split releases, compilation and vinyl only tracks, together on a deluxe double disc 8-panel digipak. Features stunning artwork and layout by Mark and Mike Riddick. Pre-Order has already begun including exclusive package deals with a limited edition Riddick designed tshirt and cd.

To pre-order go to www.deepsend.com

After 2008s promising little The Nameless, The Faceless EP, this California trio have made all the necessary improvements and developments to start flirting with the likes of Severed Savior, Odious Mortem, Abysmal Dawn and such: busy and complex but not utterly brutal either, choosing a balance that’s convoluted and intellectual but still retains some decent and not overly polished savagery.

Of the 11 tracks, 2 are reworked from the EP (“U-235” and “Clipping the Wings of Hope”) with an improved production that isn’t as murky as the EP, but retains the undulating muddier tones that isn’t as clicky as many of their peers. The new 7  tracks (instruemntal “Beyond the Endless” doesn’t treally count) deliver some twangy and often jazzy basslines amid dirty but intricate riffage that’s still memorable and at times I was reminded of Oppressor mixed with Atheist at their peaks; Swirling and jangly but a hint of nastiness and lots of top notch musicianship. Drummer/ vocalist Chris Barnum is a better drummer than a vocalist, but the vocals are dressing to the music in this case.

Excellent tracks like opener “Addicted to Tomorrow” (with its jazzy break), “Impurities”, “The Light That Cast No Shadow”, “Tetra Hydra Cannibol”, “Divide and Devour” (with a surprisingly melodic solo/section) and “Before Our Eyes” (another jazz break) aren’t going to knock the likes of Augury or Ulcerate from the tech death metal throne but if you enjoyed Obscura’s debut Retribution over last years ultra polished Cosmogenesis, Eon Fragmentation might be for you.