They arguably peaked with 1997s Weed Out the Weak, when James Murphy joined the band (who didn’t he join in the 90s?), spots on Head Bangers Ball, huge tours, and deals with Nuclear Blast. Admittedly they were basically a Death Metal Machine Head at the time, but then, it was fire. I still have a soft spot for Weed Out the Week, with songs like “Crown of the Empire” and “Through My Veins”, but as more brutal death metal made a comeback ( Thanks Nile!), they fizzled out with a few more albums, that I doubt any of you recall (Come Down Cold, Reality Check).

The band never went on a lengthy hiatus and remained active with albums in 2009 (Nothing is Sacred) and Alpha and the Omega in 2019. But if you are like me, you probably had no idea they were still around. Well, founder Anders Lundemark, and some of the original chaps are back at it again with The Sad Plight of Lucifer, and I decided to check the promo out with a sense of nostalgic curiosity, probably the same reason you clicked on this review, am I right?

So, thankfully Sad Plight of Lucifer isn’t bad. It’s not fantastic either. It’s solid, bordering on pretty good. It is probably an album that no one was really clamoring for, but it does have a few tasty riffs strewn around as the band still plies a form of groove-based Machine Head-ish Danish death/thrash metal. Lundemark has a gruff shout, the production is clean and heavy, and the grooves are still pretty entertaining, but they won’t be recreating their peak era with any of the songs on Sad Plight of Lucifer.

Early on, the Machine Head hue is immediately apparent when the title track kicks in and for the third, Middle Eastern-styled track “Seven Plagues”. “Revolution” is sandwiched in there with a more urgent thrashier number that’s pretty fun as are standout tracks “Nothing Can Save You” and crunchy ‘The Fourth Key of Solomon”.

After a mid-album interlude on “August.6 1945”, “Artificial Sun” delivers the album’s most furious pure death metal track and “Magic” a thrashy/groovy number that hits pretty hard. “Resurrection Machine” brings back those Machine Head vibes with a mid-paced bruiser before the thrashier “Gates of Paradise”, which could be a Dew-Scented song. The album ends with the varied and moodier, but forgetful “Tentacles of Madness”, and I am at the point where my attention is waning, and wondering what the long-term prospects are for the album even with some fine tunes here and there.

I selfishly wanted this album to be terrible so I could shoehorn in a smug ‘Sad Plight of Konkhra‘ reference in the review, but as it stands the album is actually pretty decent and has some good moments that remind me why they were almost a huge deal in the 90s.

An issue I had with the last album was it felt like a long album with an average run time of five minutes per song.  The band has seemingly streamlined things a bit without reducing the quality in their writing abilities.  The average song length this time around is four minutes and “Conflagration of the Dreamers” opens up this quality death metal album.  No need for a fancy intro as the music erupts with a killer old-school 90’s era growl from longtime vocalist Simon Dower.  He sounds punishing on this.  His enunciation is also spot-on.  The song gets into a meaty mid-paced crunch before the blasting erupts yet again as David Hailey blasts away possessed by some underground vermin.  This opening song sliding into the blasts and then moving into those slower-paced moments are excellent.  Very good guitar solo towards the end of the song too.  Great tempo shifts galore on this sucker.

The band has always mixed a little bit of sarcastic humor into their horror-laden death metal.  Such is the case with the next song “The Gory Hole”.  Yes, you read that right, get your mind outta the gutter, nothing glorious about a Gory Hole!!  The opening has scorching guitar riffs from Rob Mollica and newbie Joe Haley, who is the brother of their drummer.  Excellent blasting and ferocious double bass drums.  There is some dual layering of vocals on this song, which at times, comes across as similar to Deicide.  Check out the blasting at the 2.10 mark and then right into that thumping mid-paced gallop then back into the blast with vocals over this section is death metal bliss.

One thing veterans of the scene usually do not forget and that is song structure and writing memorable songs.  Now I would not call Abramelin’s music overly catchy, however, there are enough parts and moments swirling around here that you can remember.

“Last Rite” is prominently placed in the middle of the album allowing the listener to catch their breath.  Starting off slower with atmospherics the song is a slow mid-paced grinder.  The guitar and drum tone on this section truly shines and you can make out those guitar notes clearly.  The band not wanting you to get too comfy goes into a brutal blast beat with some smashing cymbals to accentuate the hate involved with the sound of this song.  Guitar riffing at the 2.18 is very memorable as is the section at the three-minute mark with some harmonies and a scorching guitar solo afterwards.  The punishing mid-paced heaving heaviness highlights the rhythm section quite nicely.  The blasting returns ferociously, to collapse some chest cavities out there.

Sins of the Father is a damn fine slab of death metal vomited up from Abramelin.  I feel this is stronger than their comeback album.  If you really dig 90’s era brutal, yet quality death metal, you must give the band a chance and please check out their prior releases  – all the way back to the 90’s!!

Therefore, over Totengott’s three albums, there are heavy doses of doom, gothic atmosphere and plenty of galloping old-school nods to Celtic Frost.  The band enjoys crafting exceedingly long songs, with their prior albums, however on the new album, the band extends the number of songs, and their length is clipped.  The one really long song is the last song, at over 13 minutes – “The Golden Crest (The Ritual, the Curse, the Path, the Light)”.  I like the fact we get more songs on this album, because I always felt their prior albums with only 3 or 4 songs could have had some of those longer songs broken up into a few tracks.  All in all these 7 songs at 44 minutes, contain roughly the same amount of music as their prior 2 albums and the band members,  José Enrique Saavedra      – Guitars, Vocals (lead), Nacho Bernaldo Bass, Vocals (backing) and Jose Mora – Drums, Vocals (backing) have been on this musical journey together for all the albums.

“Inner Flame” starts things off after some atmospheric types of Bathory-inspired noises, until the 45-second part erupts with an amazing isolated Celtic Frost type of riff and Saavedra’s vocals really are the perfect homage to Tom Warrior and this galloping beat is something out of To Mega Therion, by Celtic Frost.  This is pure classic amazing madness and if you would have stamped the Celtic Frost logo on this, many would wonder if Frost had reformed.  The slow down at the 3.26 section has an excellent rhythm headbanging section with outstanding vocals.  We even get a cool little guitar solo at the end, that is rooted in traditional heavy metal which is a nice element.  What an opening song – damn!!!!!!!!! especially with the killer double bass at the end.

“Sons of the Serpent” is up next creating that depressive, gloomy atmosphere see on the Monotheist album from Celtic Frost.  So doomy, yet excruciating in its heaviness.  Some of those goth inspired vocals are also from the Triptykon influence and they merge perfectly with the slow plodding doomy and depressive moments.  If you loved “Sorrows of the Moon” from Frost’s classic and avant garde album – Into the Pandemonium, this song will resonate with you, as it does for me.

“The Architect” opens with some noises, straight from the mouth of hell and this song has only a small amount of lyrics, but with the atmosphere and plodding doom/death, there are nods to funeral doom as well.  The atmospheric thick fog of heaviness plods and plods and plods, but never boring.  The slow dense heaviness may be the heaviest piece of music Totengott has crafted up until now.  It’s oppressive!!  “Beyond the Veil Beyond the Veil Part II: Necromancer” gallops and thrashes at a Frost-like speed in terrific fashion.  It feels like 1985 all over again and that guitar tone is a thing of beauty.  Such a killer song.  “Beyond the Veil Part I: Mirrors of Doom” is a 3-minute atmospheric instrumental, which adds to the ambiance of this album and something the band has been doing since their debut, it’s cool and all, however, you all know me as a reviewer who is also not the biggest fan of these types of numbers.  “The Golden Crest (The Ritual, the Curse, the Path, the Light”) is the long number and plods, dooms you to death with a deliberate rhythm section that is scorchingly heavy.  This is one evil song.

Beyond the Veil is a great album by Totengott and is my favorite from them.  I enjoy the fact there are not multiple long songs and the production is true organic heaviness.  This album cover is also their best one where everything going on is recognizable.  I have listened to this album non-stop since its release, and while we no longer have Celtic Frost, Totengott is the next best thing!

One is Norway’s Limbonic Art, who released their debut The Moon In Scorpio in 1996 to widespread acclaim that put them in similar circles as the likes of Emperor and Arcturus with their traditional Norwegian Symphonic black metal sound. Now a one-man project, They also released the vicious Opus Daemoniacal earlier this summer.

The other is Hungary’s Sear Bliss who released Phantoms in 1996 as well, but whose sound was a little different (especially at the time), with a unique sound that relied heavily on brass instruments (mostly the trombone) to deliver its symphonic element.

And while Limbonic Art has moved on to more riff-based, less symphonic hues since Morfeus left, Sear Bliss has stayed to course over their consistent discography arguably peaking with 2004’s Glory and Perdition.

Now, I don’t claim to be an avid Sear Bliss fan. I own some of their albums (I actually own more Limbonic Art albums), and I enjoy them occasionally and do enjoy the trombone elements that they deliver, but I can’t say I’m in love with them, even their more revered offerings like the aforementioned Glory and Perdition or Forsaken Symphony.

And that holds true for Heavenly Down. It is an enjoyable, pleasant album full of more restrained, progressive, elegant symphonic black metal, rather than full-on bombast, with a large presence of triumphant brass segments that elevate things when they appear.

And it’s those moments that leap off the disc, as the rest of the non-brass material is fairly pedestrian, sometimes melancholic, sometimes cosmic-ish black metal with some solid riffs here and there, mixing tremolo blasts and patient, introspective passages. For example “Watershed”, “Forgotten Deities” or “The Winding Path” (with its nice little 90s sci-fi movie synth break).

And while all of the tracks do feature those regal, triumphant trombone breaks, a few stand out from the others as they have a more fierce delivery as well, for example, the epic opening number “Infinite Grey”, “The Upper World”, the climax of the title track, “Chasm” and closer “Feathers in Ashes”; both album standouts.

A consistently good addition to a consistently good discography, and by the winner by a nose in the Limbonic Art vs Sear Bliss competition I created in my head.

“As Northern Gates Opens” opens the album and I was hooked right away by the coldness of the tremolo picked harmonies. Morninghoul was mixed and mastered by Lawrence Mackory, vocalist of Darkane. “Lifelike Sleep” comes up next and full of minor third harmony runs and pinch harmonics. I love the production. It sounds like this could have come out in the early nineties. The vocals of Heval Bozarslan pair well with the guitar work of Anders Eriksson and Peter Laitinen.

“Withered Souls We Mourn” is one of the heaviest songs on the album and then the marching feel of the verse is unique. “Dying Embers of Solitude” reminds me of a bit of Dissection before the song picks up tempo. “A Lucid Dream in The Paradigm Stream” is another notable example of mixing the traditional Swedish sound with heaviness and melody. This track has a nice female vocal break towards the end of the song. The drum work of Jesper Ojala rules throughout the whole album.

“No Solace from Above” opens with a piano instrumental that segues into the piano with an acoustic guitar. The way this song starts you would think Sarcasm was a doom band. “Absence of Reality’ is a nice fierce way to find up the album. The way the track ends reminds me a little bit of Hypocrisy Arrival.

For eight songs and forty-two minutes, these guys do an excellent job keeping the album flowing with their unique approach to Swedish Death. This album is fun to listen to. The contrast in Swedish sounding parts and the tinges of lower-end heaviness is a cool mix.  This one gets a big recommendation from yours truly. Enjoy.

That was 1993, fast forward to 2024… Jesus fucking Christ, I can’t believe I’m writing that. I am very happy with Anthology of Horror; the classic sound with buzzsaw guitars, the doomy as fuck side of Acheron, puts this album in a class with the almost similar Kult de Hasses. But, and I must stress this, if you’re looking for an anti-Christian filled workout, you won’t find it here. There are no homages to Satan, not even a single mention of him as far as I can tell and the good thing about Crowley’s vocals is that he’s pretty understandable when he growls.

How about the music? This is not, by any stretch an Acheron album. Starting out with the haunting “Intro VI VI VI” it gets going with “Amityville’s Horror” in case you haven’t noticed, this album is an homage to horror movies, not Satan. The lyrics reflect this and don’t stray, but standing on it’s own merit Anthology of Horror is a very solid offering from one of the defining figures in the 90s Death Metal scene. Tracks like “Under the Hanging Tree", “That Which Lurkes Beneath the Sea” and “Gods of Crimson Cullings” illustrate the new path that Crowley is taking with his music and it’s a definite head banger, even the slower parts in “Gods of Crimson Cullings” get the head bobbing. The album rounds out with “Coupe de Poudre,” “Madame Laveau” and “Killer” which is a King Diamond cover, and that’s all I’ll say about it, because well, it’s not very good. It’s not HORRIBLE but, it’s weird to hear a King Diamond song without his falsetto and some bands pull it off better than others.

At the end of the day, Anthology of Horror is a pretty solid offering. Having seemingly dropped Satan from his lyrical repertoire which really doesn’t matter, this is an album that could stand next to Lex Talonis or The Final Conflict: Last Days of God. If you love 90s Death Metal then you should definitely check this one out. Crushing delivery makes this a great introduction to 2024’s Death Metal future.

Saints Dispelled is the 15th Master album, which is insane, Time flies and if you like The Human Machine and The New Elite from the mid 00’s will really enjoy this new album. Inject some new blood in the band with Peter Bajci on drums and Alex “93” Nejezchleba on guitars, this makes Master strictly from Czechia now. It will be interesting to see if Master performs at all in the States, any longer, or strictly, will remain in Europe with their live gigs. Hell, I’m not even sure if Speckman tours.

The promo contains 10 songs in 50 minutes and “Destruction in June” begins with an excellent guitar riff and Speckman’s signature throaty scream /growl, the death/ thrash metal is on full display with some excellent double bass drums and Speckman’s vocals truly are on point. The galloping speed is pure and classic old-school death metal. In some respects, this album could have been released in 1990 because the nods are to that time/late 80’s brutal music. The classic speeds and rhythm section makes this a dynamite opening. The guitar solo in the middle of the song takes me back to 1990. Plenty of headbanging moments on this album opener and the squealing ending guitar solo calls to mind classic Slayer, for sure.

“Walk in the Footsteps of Doom” opens with a classic death/thrash gallop and the drums sound is really taking me back to the classic death metal time period of yore as well as Master’s signature drum sound with the double bass and not overly complicated drum beats. It works, just like Bill Andrew’s simple drumming on the Death albums worked, and this has a Bill Andrews style of drumming for sure, which is cool, because Bill drummed for Master many moons ago. More guitar solos on this song and again, similar nods to classic Slayer, in some respect, but the end of this song has some very creative guitar melodies and excellent drum rolls and the cymbal hits are meant to shred eardrums. The title track has a very similar speed to the prior song, “Walk in the Footsteps of Doom”, and the chorus parts over the double bass drums at the 1.55 section work exceedingly well.

“Find Your Life” starts slower in nature with the pounding double bass and stop and start riffing and then the song picks up speed to the classic Master speed. Very cool guitar melodies on this song and the song has increased tempo shifts where the song slows down and then speeds up and those guitar melodies, previously mentioned, add a melodic flair to Master, during these moments. The guitar riffing sounds like a damn razor and is very well-produced, truly excellent.

“Marred and Diseased” has an interesting drum beginning, reminding me of “Power” from Agnostic Front’s Victim in Pain album. The drum pattern seems like an homage and then even with the brief bass guitar slide coming in, then that is where the similarities end. As the classic Master death metal galloping takes over with the rhythmic patterns we have grown accustomed to over the decades.

The rest of Saints Dispelled plays out very similarly and we are talking about Master’s no-frill death/thrash metal, and while you will not find overly complicated song structures, you will find very memorable songs with plenty of headbanging and throw-up-your-horns moments. Master has released many albums over the years and some better than others, but Speckman has always made sure the albums sound like Master. This is a fun and enjoyable album that I will go back to multiple times, because it’s classic-sounding, memorable, and well-played.

The thing is…… the claim might be right.

Even with some hefty competition from the likes of Wretched Fate, Iron Flesh, Angerot, Coffin Mulch, The Grifted, and Vometheist in 2023’s first half, these brazen newcomers  (with members from Vampire, Portrait, Nominon and Dr. Living Dead!) have absolutely knocked it out of the park with their debut, one of the more impressive in the genre I’ve heard in a few years.

Unabashedly culling from Dismember’s more urgent, melodic, solo-filled take on the genre, Imperishable is basically an album of homage to tracks like “Dismembered” (listen to opener “Venomous”), “Bleed For Me” (listen to The Perennial Desire”), “Skin Her Alive” (listen to “Teeth of the Hydra”, or “Come, Sweet Death”), or “Questionable Ethics” (listen to “The Phantasm”).

There’s very little in the way of massive, speaker-shaking grooves, Entrails this is not, (but when they do such as the ends of “Infernal Lust” or “The Perennial Desire”, it’s solid) or classic canters to imbue Grave or Entombed, just a pretty relentless focus on slicing galloping riffs and melodies, filled with lots and lots of solos.

The production has a clean, sharp HM2 tone, rather than an overbearing bottom end, but there’s a very nice buzz throughout, and the vocals of  Henric Skoog have that mid-range Matti Karki rasp/bark, rather than a deeper bellow. And at times they can be flat-out savage as heard on “Vertiginous” or “Deathspawn” , but still deliver sleek harmonies and leads at will.

Other than the short “Prelude”, the album’s only real respite can be heard towards the end of the album with the doomy start of “Fangs” and its more mid-paced moments or “Come, Sweet Death’s” occasional slowdowns.

A real scorcher of a debut album, and certainly the bold claims of the promotional materials have some merit, but as we hit the halfway point of 2023……it’s a real possibility.

But for the life of me, I’ve never been able to figure out how Sweden’s Runemagick has stayed under-the-radar as they have after thirty years of crushing Death Doom, because goddamn if they’re not a delight.

That’s not to say, obviously, that the band is even relatively unknown, but somehow in the pantheon of Death Doom greats, they just never seem to be mentioned in the same breath of the likes of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, or early Anathema and Katatonia, which is kind of a shame, really – if only for the point that front man Nicklas Rudolfson has time and again proven himself an absolute riff monster. His guitar work and song craft, at least in my own humble opinion, has always stood toe-to-toe with the genre’s titans, and yet the band always seems to be sitting just on the outside of that bleak Mt. Rushmore.

The good news however, is that it seems possible Runemagick are winning the long game, because whether you’re a longtime fan or just now finding out about these masters of all things morass and oppressively gloomy, they’ve never sounded better than they do on Beyond the Cenotaph of Mankind. They’ve effectively struck that difficult balance of dank filth to make the outright heft of this album land with maximum force, with enough clarity that you can fully appreciate every element at play over the album’s 6 tracks. This proves especially beneficial with the band’s duel guitar attack from Rudolfsson and former drummer-turned-guitarist Jonas Blom. With the murky overall tone, it could easily become difficult to discern the two from one another, but instead the intricate, nuanced differences come through loud and clear, making for some really dynamic harmonies and really elevate the music. Opener “Archaic Magick (After the Red Sun)” makes this point clear right from the get-go, with a little bit of everything in Runemagick‘s arsenal on display: relentless, super groovy riffs that absolutely pummel (there’s a particularly tasty one around 7:30 in that friggin’ buries you), a couple rad leads/solos and a chunky D-Beat section that both impress and change up the pace nicely, and it’s all backed by one of the best rhythm sections in the business via bassist (and Nicklas’ wife) Emma Rudolfsson and the (in my mind) criminally underappreciated drummer Daniel Moilanen (Katatonia), who both set as solid and unbreakable a foundation as you’ll find, with Emma’s bass in particular just taking the darkness to even lower depths, sending a relentless, pulsating vibration through your ears and into your bones with every note.

As usual, the band are eager to showcase just how good they are at creating real atmosphere and setting, and they absolutely do not disappoint. On “Revocation of Spectral Paths,” the band beautifully utilizes a Rotary/Leslie effect on the lead melody that, when backed  by the chugging heft of the main riff, creates such a classically unsettling, mysterious effect that has you picturing images of cosmic beasts and portals to unknown dimensions. It’s by far the album’s briefest track, but it’s also one of its most effective at creating such vivid imagery through the music, and one that really helps to showcase just how unique an entity Runemagick are.  “The Storm Rode Beyond the Firmament” creates an absolutely massive, desolate space in which it seems only death can exist, starting off with a lone guitar that makes you feel like a lone explorer lost in the vast recess of outer space, and what follows feels like the eventual mental breakdown that would most certainly come with the inevitable, infinite nothingness. The dreary, doomy stretch that marks the beginning of the track is suddenly broken by a burst of energy that packs twice the punch in contrast to the plodding, churning course it took to get there. The genius of it all is the timing – just when the song was getting to a point where it may have started to feel a little one-dimensional and single-minded, the band changes course and you’re sucked right back into it again.

I don’t necessarily want to oversell this album as being any kind of re-think or reinvention of the Death Doom wheel, because it’s certainly not that. What it is, is an expertly executed example of the genre, one built by the confidence of a band, or perhaps more specifically, a guiding force in Nicklas Rudolfsson that has utilized his decades or experience to show everyone how it’s done, and in a world where (thankfully) the banner of Death Doom is being proudly waved more and more by a newer generation of artists, it’s awesome to see one of the old guard leading the way, especially one in Runemagick that maybe never quite got it’s full due. There are some of the general pitfalls that you’d expect with this genre – you can be lulled a bit by the length, the meandering, or the band’s steadfast resolution to see an idea to it’s very limits, but what do you want? It comes with the territory, and Beyond the Cenotaph of Mankind is more than deserving of your time and patience, because there’s a lot of greatness packed into it’s six tracks. You won’t regret putting the time in.

Opening with “Child”, it’s immediately evident this is some doomy sludgy black metal.  Rather than having an intro or going into a blast beat, this is a creepy crawly, get-under-your-skin type of song.  It’s also monolithically heavy.  People seem to forget, yes black metal can be pretty darn heavy.  There are a few growls early on which bring in a death metal influence.  The double bass picks up speed and then a double pounding speed comes in and more blackened and pained screams.  The start and stop moments at the 3.30 section, which occurs earlier as well, have a polyrhythmic flair. There is a definite coldness to this band’s approach and it’s welcomed by this writer.  The ferocious double bass towards the end of the song is outstanding as a plethora of growls and screams are dually connected – it’s brutal.

“Tumor” is next and there are some double-pounding drums as well as start and stop blast beats with dissonant riffs.  Come to think of it the more and more I listen to this album there are some Immolation and Ulcerate influences as those dissonant guitar riffs take center stage.  So what does that mean for you, dear reader/listener?  It means this will not be the easiest of easy listening, because the band creates their own rhythmic patterns, which really do not follow a linear path.  I appreciate the challenging aspect of listening to this band because I pick up new melodies and sounds with each experience.

“Purge” is an interesting song.  Combining all the aspects of the above with some post-black metal moments this song starts with a crushing opening beat, with atmospheric guitar melodies.  The growl that comes in slides right into a groove section.  You could actually circle pit to this before the song gets slower than that groove start and stop doomy AF moment erupts again.  The growl over the double bass and guitar melodies make this such a wonderful moment.  The song erupts with a blast beat towards the end of the song hellbent on ripping your head off and taking it to the local basket ball court to play the game of horse, but instead of spelling out HORSE, in the game, you’re spelling out HEAD.

Odium’s production is excellent and while there is a coldness to the music the mix brings out all the nuances of the band.  With the influences of doom, death, dissonance, and polyrhythms creeping in with the black metal main ingredient, this album is a delight.   Wothrosch have created an original, and at times, frightening listening experience with Odium, because of the cavernous moments and atmosphere the band brings.  Couple this with a striking album cover and a truly original and cool AF band logo this band has it going on with this debut.  Absolutely killer debut – well done  Wothrosch!!

In the case of Depravity, the debut album from Belgian newcomer Slaughter the Giant, where bands like The Black Dahlia Murder, At The Gates, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Obscura are thrown into the FFO part of the promo. And I’ll be damned if other than the Obscura reference- it’s pretty fucking spot on.

This is 100% melodic death/black metal with clear influences from The Black Dahlia Murder’s less blackened material (cemented by the multiple shirts on display in the video below I’d say) and certainly, At the Gates’ hack ‘n’ slash style of melodic death metal. Raspy, shrieking vocals, clear/crisp guitar tone and razor-sharp riffs, are the main components and the Fleshgod Apocalypse influence comes from the generous but not constant use of orchestral keyboards. So it’s not up there with Dead World Reclamation‘s full-on TBDM with synths sound, but more than say Carrion Vael‘s recent TBDM worshiping album. I’m not sure when the Obscura reference came from here at all.

Right from the opening title track, everything I described above is immediately on display with a dramatic orchestral choral intro setting the mood before a pure ATG styled gallop explodes from the speakers. The next 8 songs deliver similar enjoyable results for a compact 32 minutes of feral, snarling modern melo-death layered with very well-done orchestral elements here and there. And the whole album rips pretty hard from start to finish, with nary a let-up other than the orchestral intros and outros or brides in the songs.

As well as |”Depravity”, in particular, the likes of “Compliance”, “Co-ed Butcher”, “Ritual Abuse”, and more restrained but epic “The Undead” are the standouts from 9 tracks of pretty consistently good, fun, easily digestible stuff. And certainly, if you want even more TBDM or ATG worship, you could do worse, and the orchestral elements, especially for me, considering what albums I’m enjoying in 2022, really elevate things nicely. Nice job lads- looking forward to more!

So assuming this is all true – and if we’re keeping score, you:

1. Like metal.
2. Like shitty B-Horror flicks.
3. Have solid, if socially questionable tastes.

Friends, have I got a fun little EP for you!

Video Nasty is a 5-piece thrash outfit from Vancouver led by founding guitarist Jordan Schritt, whose love for the schlocky, lo-fi world of cult classic horror movies permeates everything about the band – the name itself, as I’ve just learned, comes from the European slang term for such flicks. Backed up with song titles like “Nightmare Beach” and “Black Christmas, and an album cover that looks straight off a VHS sleeve, these guys are going all-in on the theme here, and it’s fucking GREAT. The same campy, bloodthirsty fun you get from the movies on a sweet little 7-song EP.

The band’s brand of thrash is heavily inspired by old school, death-metal-leaning acts like Slayer, Sodom and certainly more than a little early Sepultura in the mix, and it’s all pulled off with the authenticity of long-time veterans (or obsessive fans, as the case may be). We’re talking blistering, no-holds-barred riffs on top of riffs on top of MORE RIFFS. The bulk of this is a full-throttle attack, with King/Hanneman-inspired riffing on ultrasonic tracks “Nightmare Beach,” “Castle Freak” and “Black Christmas” all purpose-built to melt faces and give necks across the land a hefty workout. Schritt’s co-shredder, Faith Alexis Danger (lead guitarist and vocalist of the excellent Canadian Heavy Metal act LunAttack – also check them out), busts out some really fun, impressive solos to compliment the relentless riffing throughout the album. The woman’s got some serious chops.

Along with those burners is my personal favorite – the heavier, more plodding “Pieces” which definitely does a nice job of changing the pace midway through the EP and features an excellent bridge/solo that stand out as real highlights. The band also throw in a cover of Sepultura’s classic “Antichrist” (Bestial Devastation), complete with vocalist Kyle Scott getting a little lower and doing a pretty good young Cavalera impression. It’s really sweet hearing the song given new life and brought back for the headbanging public to enjoy all over again.

There’s a lot to REALLY like about this debut from Video Nasty. It’s produced perfectly to match the lo-fi, gutter aesthetic of the B-Horror worship, without going so far as to render this a chore to listen to. The band does an excellent job picking fun and effective audio clips from different movies that only add to the overall fun of the album. And above all, the band delivers a solid-as-steel, tight-as-a-Mormon’s-Asshole performance that I know I’ll be coming back to quite a bit. It’s the best of both worlds – it’s campy and fun, but actually really compelling and well-made, like if Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell got together to do a Slumber Party Massacre reboot. Can that be a thing? Somebody get Raimi on the phone for me…

The band broke up in the 90s and reformed in 2018 to release Deformation of Humanity, which I have not heard, (but snippets seem to indicate a more urgent melodeath direction) but considering my recent obsession with keyboards and orchestral laced metal, I thought it was time I listened to these guys.

So the parts I heard of Deformation of Humanity certainly seem to be the band’s new direction, with much less doom (though still around) on this new EP, though the heavy use of keyboards/strings are still here. I’m reminded of Garden of Shadows Oracle Moon album at times.

The 7 song, 25 minute EP follows the same sound as the last album, the highlight being the heavy use of keyboards and strings backing the deep death/ doom growls of Ben De Graaff. After the intro “It Will Pass”, the first song is the EPs title track, a short burst of At The Gates styled hack ‘n’ slash melo death backed with gregarious keyboards.

“No Surrender” gets back to a more mid-paced, gothic/doom metal trundle and some clean vocals. Then “Beheaded Identity” is a pure doom mope, with gorgeous synths backing the despondent riffs. “You Get the Idea” is another short sharp, aggressive burst before “Collusion Starts Here” enters the fray with a crunchy melodic stomp. Closer “GPS” ends the EP with a mix of surprisingly stern blast beats and big beefy grooves.

I’ve since gone back and grabbed the band’s discography after hearing this EP, as the symphonic elements are excellent, especially when mixed with the doom/death and melo-death and I’m looking forward to future releases from this ambitious and creative Dutch band.

So the awesome Hammerheart Records has dusted off these classics for the reissues.  It must be due to the fact the 2010 reissues from F.O.A.D. Records are out of print.  I will say I have both those deluxe digipak reissues and those are some of the best reissues known to man.  Both had upgraded remastering from the source tapes, massive booklets with lyrics/pics/flyers/liners and hellaciously extensive bonus songs on each reissue.  On Hammerheart’s website they list these reissues as 2cd sets, so maybe it’s the same bonus features – I do not know.  What I can say is I am only reviewing the digital promos I received from the company.

The band’s debut, Shark Attack, is still one of my favorite albums from that time period.  Played with monstrous speed and maybe some of the drum patterns were not the tightest, but I really never cared.  When the Jaws Movie Theme opens the album with the guitars and then slowly building up with the double bass/drum rolls going into lightning warp speeds, even by today’s musical standards this is still super intense, before bursting into the title track.  The band always liked to sing about getting drunk and drinking alcohol out of someone’s boot.  Yes there are some real recorded puking sessions on the debut album.

Other massively fast songs such as “Termination” and “Jabberjaw” were enough to lop your heads off and if you cannot laugh at the “B.O.S. (Barrage of Skankers)”, lyrics where it’s all about being the most metal and not a poser, then you do not have a sense of humor.  The digital promo sounds outstanding – massive in fact. Loud and in your face.  Sounds like this may be a new remaster – but it is powerful. There are some issues with changing the song placements though.  The biggest misstep is the promo completely leaves off one of the original songs – “Go Home”.  Why this is missing is a mystery.  Then the puke part is supposed to be attached to “United Shoebrothers”, but they made them 2 separate songs and not played back to back is odd and out of place.  What the promo adds is a song “Concrete Meat”.  This was recorded during the Shark Attack session but previously never released.  The song destroys.  Super-fast and ultra-heavy.  The album cover has been gloriously restored as well.

The 1989 Biērmächt follow-up to the outstanding Shark Attack pulled back on the unbridled aggression of their debut.  The band continuing to sing about alcohol, “Drink Jack”, smoking weed – “Munchies” and with some of the other songs, they seemed more like filler and the album, as a whole is disjointed, because of the songs that do not seem like real songs..Yes I am looking at the 9 second “Everb / E…! / Micro-E!”, which is a complete waste.  However, in between the B.S. type of songs, there are some insanely awesome songs.  “Gore Flix”, “The Wehrmacht”, “Night of Pain (Part I)” and the title track are all excellent songs, along with a few others, however, if the band put more emphasis into real songs like these then I believe Biērmächt would have been heralded as their debut has always been.  All in all it’s still a good album.  The remastering, just like on Shark Attack, is loud, crisp and pristine.  Sounds insane.  The album cover has also been gloriously restored and is a bonus.  Unfortunately, the digital promo has no bonus songs.

If you do not own the F.O.A.D. or even the numbered New Renaissance Records reissues from years ago – you have to hop on the wagon and get these reissues.  The sound is worthy of the price of admission, even if these digital promos, are lacking in bonus content.  Wehrmacht were one of the best underground brutal thrash crossover acts and were an important part of the scene in the 80’s.

And boy is this fucking good! Its definitely got a bit of a theatrical/dramatic Carach Angren vibe, with Wiljers rendering some superbly rousing strings and horns, and it also has a heavy Dimmu Borgir  and Grief of Emerald influence. It’s superbly produced ( it took 3 years to write and record), viciously delivered (This isn’t wispy, atmospheric, symphonic black metal, this has real teeth) and is one of the better symphonic black metal albums I’ve heard lately, and that’s saying something.

Varskrik gets right to it with  stunning twelve minute opener, “Karsten og Draugen” which sets the bars super hight for the next 6 tracks, but luckily they all deliver. Notably second track blistering , “Dauning”, varied marches of “Sjøormen”, downright seething majesty of “Delidegasten”,  sheer bombastic ferocity of “Blikkestille Vann” and menacing stomp of “Skogen”. There really isn’t a weak song amid  the 7 lengthy numbers.

There is little respite, no interludes or intros, just top notch, bombastic regal salvos of symphonic mayhem. The nearest thing is title track, which has just a few moments of slower orchestral/choral introspective, but they are short-lived and soon blown away by complete bombastic devastation.

I’m surprised these guys haven’t released anything since this sole album, a couple of members are in a few minor bands like Gravesang and Iskald, but otherwise this is some young blood that’s got some amazing talent and potential to be a real player in the Norwegian black metal scene. Killer stuff!

Collision plays a hybrid blend of thrash-crossover mixed with brutal grindcore. When I mean brutal grind, think Rotten Sound-yes that punishing. While I am not the biggest crossover fan, I am a huge thrash and grindcore lover. The crossover blend is more in line with the short songs Collision writes, some of the shouted vocals as well as some of the song structures and the genre mixings fit like a glove. Starting with “Sweet Vermin” the punishing fast thrash beat is infectious and most of all HEAVY! The double bass comes in rather fast and is super powerful and then the deeper vocals come in which is the grindcore nods and the song is super intense. Screaming vocals then the return to the mid-paced chugging double bass and the alternating vocals work most excellently and the whirlwind grind blasts then come in and the song ends. Vicious.

“Intense Infestation” is up next. Monster scream and then right into the Holy Shit grind blast. Super Rotten Sound ferociousness here folks! The song gets into kind of a crossover mosh part and then right into the damn grind, with the shouted vocals. This section is so intense it makes me recollect when Tami was riding the hellacious Sherman Tank over the enemies where sinewy cracked limbs and body parts were blown to smithereens-circa 1952. Super monstrous.

“Engine of Extermination” is so freaking heavy it will make car head gaskets turn upside down, in engines, causing all cars to crash on the highway. Monster heaviness, almost like a Bolt Thrower rumbling heaviness until the super-fast thrash beat comes in with the shouted vocals, then alternating between grind blasts, deep vocals and then mid-paced madness, then right into the crossover sections and damn the guitar sound is one of the best I have heard all damn year. “Savage Executioner’ ends the ep in frantic madness and the alternating blasts and slow-downs in the beginning are great then right into more of the blast beats. So intense.

The Final Kill, from Collision, never allows you to catch your breath. 7 songs in just under 15 minutes there certainly is no filler-only killer. I did not know how I would like the crossover sections, but they are excellent and mix so well with the brutal thrash and grind elements. I really find Collision pretty damn original. The alternating vocals are also excellent. The ep’s cover has the same troublemaker I see on their prior releases. Almost has a Grindhouse element to the cover and I want this cover on a shirt-the colors are that excellent. If you are in the mood of just face-ripping grind/crossover which is played top-notch with a production worthy of causing worldwide sinkholes.

Get The Final Kill now. Please like their FB page and support them. I am going to start investigating their prior releases. Damn…what a kick ass band!!

Hammerheart Records now brings this stunning and much overlooked debut to light in a double cd complete with a beautiful remaster.  With the band, having some thrash leanings on their earlier demos those thrash influences were still present on the debut, but really this is early death metal and some of the best you will ever here.  CD1 contains the remastered debut album.  With their combination of Obituary/Death/Autopsy based sludgy heaviness the opening “Maggot Synod” has some fast parts but stays in a moody mid-paced sludge ad drenched heaviness and Brian DeNeffe had such a great set of pipes, similar to Tardy, with the evil raspiness.

“Nothing (Psychosomatic Insanity)” is still a killer song with some early primitive and brutal blast beats with killer growls.  A lot of barking and berating vocals and some doomy parts which are super heavy and then back into the blast beats and then mid-paced heaviness and so damn heavy with excellent and memorable guitar riffing.  “Cross Spells” was another and still is a great tune with the blasting and doomy slowdowns.

CD2 is also remastered and contains the Execution and Perception Blur demos.  Sound quality is also excellent.  I will spare you the review, because I recently reviewed, on here, the HPGD Productions reissue Perception Blur which contained Viogression’s demos.  If you’re trying to decide on which way to spend your money, nowadays, then the Hammerheart Records deluxe is the way to go, but then you will be missing out on the HPGD demo packaging.

The sound on the demos is cleaned up and is louder than the original demos.  The remastering of the debut Expound and Exhort is phenomenal.  It keeps to the original true organic heaviness, makes things louder and crisper.  Trust me when you have “Transmigration” on in its opening doomy heaviness you will be glad it’s louder.  People will be falling into sinkholes with this remaster.  The deluxe reissue comes in a nice slipcase and the booklet is well put together.  The album cover looks a little crisper too.  I always thought the cover was kind of funny with the musclebound demon with enormous hands how he was so top heavy and he would probably fall down all the time because his little legs could never support that much weight.

When you look at overlooked albums and bands Viogression were one such band.  They deserved more credit, because Expound and Exhort had the heaviness and memorable songs to compete with the bigger bands.  Therefore I am glad that this album is properly reissued.  Excellent album and top-shelf reissue.  Buy or Die!!

So reviewing the band’s 8th album since their inception in 1993,  as my first real exposure to the band is probably not a good idea, but here goes.

From what I can gather, apparently the band is slightly less black metal now, more experimental, and has a more mid paced  patient gait. There are still  a few black metal moments, and the blackened croaks are still present, but the overall mood and pace is surprisingly restrained, steady and tempered. The good news is, the brass and orchestral elements are still pretty focal, even if more celestial, and the trombone taking more of the center stage than before.

After the intro, “Forbidden Doors” heralds the band’s 6 year layoff with triumphant menace with some crisp,  blackened furor, but the moody brass introduction about 4 and a half minutes in signals the band’s regal roots. Then “Seven Springs” has a lovely melodic canter and sparkle and yet another stern, austere brass break 4 or so minute in.

Then the album starts to get a little more restrained with the mid paced mach of “A Mirror in the Forest” and more ambient “Abandoned Peaks”, with a regal first few minutes that could be a Summoning song. Then you get a bit of a head scratcher where a sort of post rock jangle of “Haven” comes into play and “The Main Divide” also comes across as pretty main stream paced track, even with the brass. In fact, when you throw in the following slower ten minute number “Leaving Forever Land”, its a bit of a late album lull.

The album closes with an interlude  in “At the Gates of Lethe” and then “Shroud” but it  continues the album’s late run of less rousing and more celestial, spacey, moodier, atmospheres which simply don’t grab me as much as the albums earlier two of three tracks, and even introduces some clean post rock vocals, which just done jive at all.

In re listening to Forsaken Symphony, even with its cosmos based tracks (“My Journey to the Stars”), its clear Sear Bliss, while at times delivers some awesome moments moments of brass laden majesty , have lost some of their black metal bite and are spreading their wings even more. But it’s yet to be seen if the band will continue to develop or if they will ever return to their more pagan and bloody roots which  are more befitting of the still brilliant brass elements.

With Hadeon being the 8th full-length from Pestilence how does this stack up to the prior albums?? Pretty freaking killer, actually.  After a 2 minute intro, “Non Physical Existent”  comes in with a nice punchy sound, with a bass guitar heavy rhythm section.  Patrick’s vocals are killer and he gets into some lower gutturals and some killer quick blasting interwoven.  If you’ve been a fan of the newer records, which started with Resurrection Macabre, you will certainly enjoy this, very much so, but quite a lot of the sound is focused on more of the technique Pestilence were using with the classic Testimony of the Ancients time era, hence. Therefore, this will bring some of the older fans out of the woodwork a little more.  “Multi Dimensional” is up next and starts slow before erupting into a nice death thrash pace with some extraordinarily fast guitar riffing.  Quite a nice guitar solo afterwards and I enjoy Patrick growling the song title as the chorus.  Simple, yet effective.  “Oversoul” has an awesome beginning with some killer bass guitar lines and the slower, jazz parts are reminding me of the Spheres era, but mix in more of the newer Pestilence sound and punishing production.  This track is killer and Patrick is spitting forth some extra piss ‘n vinegar vocals.  The phase shifter, like vocal effects during the chorus part with the growls going in and out are creative and the guitar solos are ethereal and well done.  This song also has some monster crunch stylized guitar riffing.  Excellent song.

“Manifestations’” opening bass guitar is all over the place and is thumping and I love the bouncy feeling.  The song picks up to a classic death/thrash beat and the rhythm section is ultra-strong during the guitar solos and faster paced parts.  The mid-paced groove is so heavy and punishing.  It’s a real fun song with the bouncy rhythm and I would imagine this would be a real fun song to play live and see the crowd moving like a sea of mangled bodies, entangled with shards of sinewy bone shards exploding all over crowd.  “Discarnate Entity” begins with some spacey guitar soloing and then right into a classic 1991 death metal gallop with Patrick growling out the title track, which is something he has been doing since Resurrection Macabre, and there are some excellent drumming moments when the faster parts slows down to almost some poly-rhythm’s and wonderful usage of cymbals.  “Electro Magnetic” ends the album with an outstanding opening moment which goes into some quick blast beats and the groove swoops in to lop your head off from miles away before Pestilence is off to the races again with the faster section and quick blasting.   The 2.29 part is the Holy Shit section with the guitar solo ripping through your speakers and then the blasts coming in.  Fantastic.  The song trails off and then booya, Hadeon is over.

Hadeon’s production is crisp, clear, heavy and 100% Pestilence.  Patrick and I were in communication not too long ago and he stated the album really brings together elements of their newer records, as well as their past efforts.  The man was spot on.  It’s like 1991 and 2018 collided together to form the awesomeness, which is Hadeon.  A few quick observations.  Some douchebag had leaked the album some time ago and the original Hadeon artwork was scrapped and this is the newer cover, which is the perfect album cover for Hadeon, as it fits the tying in of the older and newer Pestilence.  The musicianship is terrific and Hammerheart are offering up a variety of package deals along with the format of your choice.  Pestilence are back, with hopefully no more hiatuses and this is a no brainer buy or die!

In 1988 Malleus Maleficarum took the underground death/thrash scene by storm.  I was quite blown away and to this day it blows away a lot of other debut albums.  Aggressive, but still retaining quite a bit of melody, this album was way ahead of its time. Tunes like “Subordinate to the Domination”, “Chemotherapy” and “Extreme Unction”, were and are still brutal but played with an extraordinary amount of musicianship for a debut album.  The album was blending death metal with their high intensity thrash sound. Van Drunen was still honing his vocals and has such a rage to his vocals. Foddis pounds the drums and Randy played some good rhythm guitar.  Patrick injected some nice solos and his riffs, super catchy. My fave song has always been “Systematic Instruction”.  Perfect album closer. Erwin Hermsen has done a remarkable remastering job with Patrick assisting in the process.  You get a sound that crushes the MetalMind reissue from years ago. Sound is louder, crisper, in your face, while still preserving its original authenticity.  Disc2 contains the Dysentery demo which Patrick sang on and The Penance with Martin, as well as another bonus track. The demos have been facelifted with the remastering and I’m so impressed with the barely audible hiss, thanks to this remastering.  There are some rather strong songs and you can see how the band were still developing their craft. The booklet contains: liners, lyrics, photos and flyers. The cd is housed in a slipcase. Outstanding and worthy of your collection.

In 1989 I was driving to a metal show and my friend whipped out the Consuming Impulse cassette and I loved the cover. We could not stop listening to it.  It crushed.  Pestilence went full on death metal and the heaviness increased to the point making it one of the heaviest albums of that time.  Even by today’s standards it blows away most death metal. This is true organic heaviness. I went to this place in Long Island called Adventureland.  Glass pane for all the people outside to see while they created a video for you. I did “Dehydrated” while playing guitar and doing vocals. I lip synced the song pretty well and thrashed all over the place. People thought I was a weirdo with my shorts and metal shirt and mullet.  Fuck ‘em.  This is one of the best death metal songs. That slow down where Martin sings “vultures circling in the sky, peeling the flesh from a corpse…” omg yes I know the lyrics backwards and forwards, this part is so lethal.  How about “Out of the Body”?  That opening riff and then Martin comes in with the bass slide, Foddis hits the toms and Martin lets out a devastating growl.  It’s perfection.  Patrick Uterwijk was the new guitarist and alongside Mameli they were an unstoppable force.  Pestilence had visa issues and missed the Carcass/Death tour date I was going to see them on but I bought the poster with their logo. It sucked cause I wanted to see Pestilence. Hopefully someday so I can buy Mr. Mameli a beer and thank him personally for creating one of the best death metal albums ever.

This 2CD slipcase edition is the first remastering Consuming Impulse has received. The same remastering guru again and the album punches you in the face with loudness and clarity. It is phenomenal.  Disc 2 are live shows which have been spit shined and polished to sound great.  Lyrics, liners, photos, flyers and the original rejected brutal cannibalistic album cover encompass the terrific booklet. These reissues are both Buy or Die. Utterly perfect and most respectful to one of the pioneering bands in the death metal scene.
 

Case in point, Dreaming Dead. I’ve been aware of the band’s existence for awhile now. I’ve even checked out past material with the intent of purchase. Though whatever the reason, I have yet to acquire any of their releases or even heard an entire full-length until now, with their third full-length release, Funeral Twilight. Something I will definitely have to rectify, as I found Funeral Twilight highly enjoyable with their blend of death, thrash, and progressive metal. Culling a sound that blends heavily, both musically and vocally, from bands such as Death, Pestilence, Atheist, Ripping Corpse, Hate Eternal, and Astarte;   more than just a sum of their influences, Dreaming Dead know how to deliver the goods.

Eight songs in total make up Funeral Twilight, the album clocking in at a compact twenty-nine minutes. The track listing and flow I like a lot, seeming to be a bit more thought out than slapped together like some bands are guilty of. The album’s vocal laced tracks are separated into halves by instrumental “Remnants of a Time Long Forgotten”; a short, simple, doom drenched chord driven number with a nice and slow Katatonia like melody. Backing it up a it, album opener, “Your Grave” does a good job at setting the mood for things to come, with its tremolo picked riffs and just enough technical flair weaving seamlessly behind and between evocative and emotive solo work. One can strongly hear the Death/Chuck Schuldiner style of writing is a big influence for  Dreaming Dead guitarist/vocalist, Elizabeth Schall, on the album’s title track. With a wonderful “Death” hook, and a nice brutality, rather than “brootality”, the song moves and flows with a purpose other than decapitations and corpse molestations. The lead work is impressive and the rhythms flow in smooth blackened flavored melodies that are never overpowering. “No Masters” continues to impress with a bass beginning followed by rhythm and lead juxtaposing veering into blasty fields. Progressive like in its approach, weaving deathly riffs around bass that shines nicely in the mix, the guitar work is somewhat ethereal, as the drums truly keep the majority of the intensity. The song achieving a feeling of teetering on the brink of something larger and/or cataclysmic.

  Funeral Twilight‘s “second half”, after the aforementioned “Remnants of a Time Long Forgotten”, seems to possess a bit less memorability than the album’s first three tracks, but more than makes up for any loss of groove with an increased viciousness and intensity. Fast, blasting drums and grinding death riffs open up “Widowed”, hinting at Schall’s guitarist role in Cretin having a tad bit of bleed over influence to Dreaming Dead. The dual vocal attack at times is a nice touch, as well as the pulling back of the grinding just long enough to let some old school metal soloing shine. “Buried” continues to bring the blasts, as drummer, Mike Caffell, really propels not only this track, but the music as a whole on the entire album. His skills are impressive and the man is furiously tight within the material. Blastbeats, bass and rung chords create quite the setting for some tasty soloing and straight up rocking out to come in and tear things up before shifting flawlessly back to speedier, deathly realms. As one might assume from just the title alone, “Beyond the Black Moon” has more of a blackened feel going for it. The track has a solid groove prevailing amongst the blackened thrash, with dual vocals again helping bring added power and intensity in certain spots, while the song’s faux stop and continued groove at the 3:26 mark is simply awesome.

The band close out Funeral Twilight with instrumental “Unseeing”, a good track in reality, but a bit of a letdown to my ears. The song builds slowly and emotionally in the simple effective guitar, almost trance inducing in its peacefulness. The 2:11 mark brings slides of power as drums and chords come together in  wonderfully basic explosions. Unfortunately, the instrumental fails to deliver on the emotive buildups captured, leaving “Unseeing” in a heap of “what if”. Like I said, it’s a good track, but being the longest song on the album, I felt a little more of an aural payoff was due.

Obviously, I enjoyed Funeral Twilight. It’s a damn good album. Blackened, but not black. Thrashy, but not thrash. Melodic death infused, but with more of a sinister angularity than melo-death typically coveys. While it won’t have you singing the praises of a new Celtic Frost or Death or the likes of, it is easily, an impressive and pummeling listen. The songs are there, not just the same derivative banality served over and over.

Maybe this album just came as a bit of fresh air from the massive amounts of horror/gore metal I had been listening to at the time of this review. Or maybe, Dreaming Dead are just a top notch, quality band. A band that has yet to be really recognized as the formidable act that they are. An act that seems to be poised to push it further in that next level of the ‘ol international metal scene, with their best material still to come.

Okay let me elaborate further with this a bit. I do see upon research that they have gone through various  lineup changes, old members leaving, new members coming in, old members returning  and with this being said, the return of vocalist  Satanael is welcomed. He gives a stellar performance adding a dimension of vitriol to the lyrics while being dynamic to the songs themselves. The song “Wille Zur Macht” is a great representation of his performance (listen to his howls at the 3:05 mark), along with “Into the Nameless Void”. The other sole original member, drummer Levithmong (also handled vocals at one point the bands career) maintains a solid foundation and gives the songs a rabid backbeat. New to the fold, guitar player Valefor maintains the sound of the history past. Special note, you can hear bassist Waldtyr in the mix!, maybe because he was a guitar player in the band in prior years? Nonetheless it’s a welcome addition to the sound and to hear him, it adds a new dimension to the sound. But with that being said, still nothing of a really groundbreaking nature or anything really different in what they play has changed. One thing that I do appreciate and hear in the music is the native history of the band.

Being that they are from the Netherlands, in past albums and with this, CD I get a sense of history and melodic structure in their musical approach and one CD from the past, in particular being devoted to a period of history of their native country lyrically. A major plus for me, I do have to say I really enjoyed the cover artwork, the brighter colors, the imagery kind of contributes to the lyrical stance on what they convey in the music. Definitely not a bad release but nothing really new either from them.

So back to my introductory comment, I guess it’s a good thing that they maintain a solid output over the years despite the changes within the band and with drummer Levithmong carrying the torch for the sound and integrity of the band throughout the years. With Visions of Exalted Lucifer, you know what you’re getting  a solid release of blackened fury but for those that are looking for something to stretch black metal boundaries, may need to look elsewhere.

The Wild Rags original cd is bare bones with no lyrics and the production was rather low.  This album has been reissued a few times, but most recently at the end of 2013, Hammerheart Records, out of The Netherlands, decided to reissue the album, without any bonus material, on cd.  Not sure how much input the band had in this.  It would have been nice to have some band liner notes and the album is an 8 song affair, however, tracks 2 and 3, “Blind” and “Point of Discharge” were always merged into one song, listed as track 2.  The back of the cd, does not fix this issue.  While the booklet is expanded upon a bit with photos and lyrics, finally!- the lyrics to “Blind” were left out of the booklet, though.  No one could seem to tell me, beforehand, if this reissue featured the album remastered and there is no where in the booklet or the nice digi-pack to suggest this.

However, I am here to tell you, proudly, that yes it has been remastered.  I played this and the Wild Rags cd back to back and BOOM!!  The remastering on this is awesome.  The main difference is in the loudness scale.  The reissue is really loud and I am telling you I cranked this bad boy up in my truck with my sub woofer at max and the bass part to the opening of “Mind Dead” reverberated so loudly it collapsed the moon, which fell into the ocean drowning out millions of helpless fools.  So while not a perfect reissue with a few things missing, I am telling you the remastering more than makes up for it.  Very limited quantities, only 500 pressed, so they will be gone faster than you can say-Suffer-Pain, Lies-Vision.  ESSENTIAL!!

However, it’s times like these that I wish that ol’ father time himself,  Grimulfr was still writing for the site as he is much more versed and suited for these types of reviews, even having reviewed the bands third album, Dodengang a few years ago, and I’m really no expert on this style, it being the lesser on my preferred styles of black metal.

However, Sammath certainly fit the season and the bill when required with raw, tremolo picked riffs and (very) high register shrieks/croaks, benefiting the polar vortex and drenched with typically blackened, war mongering hatred of all things.  With titles like “Shot in Mass”, “This World Must Burn (Hammer of Supremacy)”, “Death (Hunt them Down)” and “Nineteen Corpses Hanging in the Mist”, you know there’s no pixies and unicorns involved and the music is as hateful as the song titles.

The guitar tone is brittle and shrill but effectively scathing and treads the fine line between old school and new school tone, but the actual riffs themselves are well done with feral bite and seething melody as well as the odd reliable militant march here and there. There is nothing game changing here, but I have to admit the mid album salvo of “Thrive in Arrogance” and “This World Must Burn (Hammer of Supremacy)” did grab my attention and make Sammath a band in the style I might have to investigate further.

This brand of emotional melodic death/doom is one of the most difficult styles to get right. Everything is riding on the atmosphere. Forced sentiment is easy to detect and will completely derail the experience. Proper flow is also crucial. Too much time spent on one idea can become tedious; too little won’t allow the feeling to sink in. Production style is also a big factor. If it’s too raw, the music’s many layers won’t be heard, but a clinical production will rob it of soul. Talent and experience have catapulted this album over every one of those pitfalls and into the upper echelons of death/doom mastery.

Most of the dismal yet confident emotion is expressed through clean melodic leads, which saturate the entire album. Heavy rhythm guitars provide the sonic weight, especially during the grooving mid-paced death metal passages that regularly appear, but drop out completely at times to allow the ethereal melodies to shine. The drums add interest through multiple tempo changes that range from energetic gallops to funereal plodding while atmospheric keys and synths flesh it all out. The vocals are a standard but competent growl with some well-done spoken-word and clean vocals offering a little variation.

The overall sound is neither old-school, modern, or even regional since their influences come from all over the map. There’s some Wildhoney-era Tiamat dreaminess in the ambiance, Amon Amarth heaviness during the aggressive moments, Mournful Congregation gloom at the slowest points, early Swallow the Sun catchiness in the arrangements, Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia bleakness in some of the melodies, and early Peaceville Three-isms sprinkled throughout the transitions. I even hear some majestic melodies reminiscent of the criminally overlooked Mythological Cold Towers debut, Sphere of Nebaddon (The Dawn of a Dying Tyffereth), in “Burning All Boats and Bridges.” However, none of these influences sound blatant or dated, making this a timeless album that has no obvious home except the world (well, I guess you could say mostly Europe).

It’s hard to choose any stand-out tracks since almost all of them are of equally high quality. “The Wounded and the Dying” is probably the most immediately memorable with its driving rhythm, meaty riffs, and catchy melodies. The only slight misstep is the brief acoustic guitar and piano driven, “One With the Sea,” which doesn’t evoke much feeling compared to the rest of the album, but it’s not offensive and easily excused.

The band claims (as many do about their latest album) that this is their finest work to date. With this being my first full-length experience with them, I obviously can’t currently verify that, but I’m inclined to believe them seeing as I probably would’ve heard more about them over the years if any of their previous albums were this strong. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely be diving into their back catalog to make sure. Even if it’s all half as good as this, it will still be worthwhile.