Achlys is the band’s fifth album, and in case you’re wondering how Anasarca sounds, I’ll briefly break it down for you. They play a brutal form of death metal, which does harken back to their 90’s roots, and their music is very American-influenced. With smatterings of bands such as Suffocation and Deicide in their sound, as well as me picking up, over their releases, some early Hypocrisy – but only the first two albums from them – they’re best imo. So yes, be prepared for monstrous blast beats, pinch harmonics, gutturals, and powerful music to explode your head to. I was so thrilled when the band was picked up by Selfmadegod Records, one of my favorite labels out there. SMG-treat Anasarca right or there will be trouble.

10 songs in 40 minutes, and before I get into the first song, “My Reality”, I must explain that this is a concept album, and the concept and lyrics are very personal to Michael. I was honored with him sharing much of this with me. Throughout the years, the band has suffered losses of loved ones, including pets. Thus began the concept, as this album deals with grief and loss – just check out the amazing album cover. The band looked through their texts to others, about this concept, looked at writings over the course of time, and put it all together. A really neat idea. Michael sent me this album sometime last year. I have had numerous listens and have had this with me for a long time, and I must say it’s their best album.

The intro with the famous piano death march and creepy voiceover sets the tone for what is to come, then a monster drum roll and monstrous blast beat with Michael letting loose on an amazing growl. The intensity that is played on this song will rip your fucking head right off. The song gets into a slower, doomier passage, then an old school mid-paced double pounding beat. The guitar riff is super catchy – the band knows how to play it brutally but also catchily. More excellent drum rolls, kinda more like a drum solo, then the rhythm section erupts, is fantastic. Whew….. What a way to open this sucker.

I’ll mention that all the songs from the three-song Goddess promo are on here. The title track has an amazing opening, and the guitar riff has an early Hypocrisy sound to it, and the song is just plain vicious. The monster blasting and the part right before the minute mark are crucial. Luckily, they keep this going for a bit. Damn, and I thought their last album, Survival Mode, was catchy… I love that Michael lays out a lot of growls on this album, truly 90’s era type of brutality, and he gets into a bit higher range, and there is some vocal layering to go along with it. The blasts are beyond tight and are super-fast. Excellent tempo shifts galore on this. This is the best song on the album.

And what about “Pain Remains” – it’s not a Lorna Shore cover song, but this starts off brooding. Heavy AF and mid-paced with super-fast guitar riffing. Killer vocals ignite, and the bludgeoning heaviness continues until the blasting takes over. Some of these slower sections are the heaviest moments Anasarca has ever written, and the blasts are the fastest the band has ever sounded. The end almost takes on a gravity-blasting aura.

“Wish You Were Here” begins with mid-paced heaviness and crazy fast double bass, then right into the blasting. This continues and goes on for a bit, then mid-paced pummeling heaviness, and more blasting. Check out the time changes in this song. It sounds pretty challenging to play, but all the while super friggin’ catchy. This track is intense throughout.

Anasarca has returned in a huge way, and this is one helluva comeback album. With the stellar musicianship, supreme brutality, catchiness, album cover, tempo shifts, Achlys has all that and a bag of chips. The production is terrific, and this album is meant to be cranked at maximum volume. Armed with new members, a penchant to destroy, this album owns from start to finish!!!!!

If you like any of the bands above, especially newer Decapitated and Dormant Ordeal’s album, Banisher hits the spot; techy, choppy, razor sharp Polish death metal, but with some slightly thrashy/ hardcore shouts and screams, that might deter some folks. Australia’s Psycroptic might be a solid comparison.

Musically, though, this is top-notch. It’s not your typical tech death with fretless bass, just a skronky, angular, sometimes early-grindcore-y structures that remind me of some of the early 00s ‘grind’, ‘noise’ or mathcore adjacent stuff like The Red Chord, BTBAM,  Into The Moat, Cable, Anomosity, and some of the Black Market Activities (i.e Paria) stuff from back then, just mixed with technical Polish death metal (later Decapitated in particular). Just listen to “Daymare” or “Aftermath”. They don’t scream death metal at all. Though “Demons”, the album’s most straightforward song, certainly would appease the death metal crowd. 

They even get a little more experimental here and there with some clean vocals and trippy little bridge as heard on  “Metamorphosis pt. 1 and 2”, which could even pass for a nu/alternative/metalcore metal song at times. Or the crazy organ solo in “Born to Die”. That might even further deter some pure death metal heads that want things a little more….Polish?

Either way, the 8-song, 40-minute album isn’t an immediate listen, and might disappoint some who see some of the bands Banisher is involved with, despite its strong musicianship. I know I was a little.

“Sermon of Hypocrisy” is another great track which has a very hate eternal/ Morbid Angel styled verse. Got to love the harmonized octaves. One thing that I also noticed drum wise is that there is not as much use of bell cymbals as there has been on previous Deivos albums.

“De Materia Turpi” is one of my favorite tracks. The open marching chug feel of the intro riff has me headbanging as I type this. Song length-wise wise the album has a quick flow with the longest track being a little over five minutes.

“Revelations” is another fantastic track presented on Apophenia. Getting a Gateways to Annihilation vibe from it. We also get some bell cymbal breaks! I must say that Angelfuck’s vocals are quite on point. I enjoy the bite of his cadence. Krzysztof Saran’s drum work really is the engine that drives the machine here.

“The Great Day of Wrath” opens with riffing that reminds me a bit of Angel Corpse. The guitar work of Tomasz Kolcon and Mscislaw is fantastic throughout. “Apophenia” the title track is next and the best word I can use to describe it would be frantic.

Overall, the nine tracks presented are a lot of fun to listen to. One thing is for sure Deivos are one of the most consistent death metal bands to come from Poland. They continue to play to their style while also stepping up the production and songwriting. Apophenia is worth checking out.

However, his third release is a completely different beast altogether. and you should probably brace for it a little bit. Isn’t that what reviews are for? Good. I feel validated now.

I knew this was going to be different when 5 and a half minute opener “Swarm of Idiots” kickstarted the album with orchestral/choral elements over the less Swedish, cleaner guitars, and then a Vallendusk-like atmospheric/melodic black metal chord progression shortly after.  Yep- Henry Kane is a different monster now.

To say Circle of Pain is a full-on atmospheric black metal release isn’t quite accurate, but boy, does it have a lot of riffs and tremolo-picked, melodic riffs. But even with some d-beat/crust power chords, boy it’s really fucking close. But for someone like me- that makes it a killer fucking release that really surprised me.

The epic keyboards again upon the second track “Fear is Rising”, (clocking in at nearly 7 minutes) and again more tremolo-picked searing melodies, that would be at home on a Downfall of Gaia album.

Witha curt title and at 3:50, I fully expected “Numb” to be a return to the grind/crust sound, and it sort of is riff-wise, but imagine if Nasum had epic black metal synths. And yes it does kick all sorts of ass.  The same with the title track, with a pummeling power chord gallop and, yes- even more orchestral elements, it’s the most old-style Henry Kane song on the album but still hits differently.

If the title track is the most ‘older’ Henry Kane-styled song on the album, “Wealth of Obscenity” (along with the penultimate number, “Weird Fiction Founded”) is the least- the riffs could be a Deafheaven song, except for Petterson’s gruff growls and shouts, complete with some female choirs (which show again in the finale “En önskan i mörkret”). Not even kidding.

Circle of Pain was a really pleasant surprise. When I first started listening to the promo I had to make sure it was still the Henry Kane promo, it’s that different at times and I applaud Petterson for making such a bold style shift. For me, it’s definitely for the better.

Trocar, who had a fantastic split with Fluids and Lipoma a while back called Dissertations, are releasing their full-length Extremities upon the unsuspecting world. Seventeen tracks in 28:06 minutes, and let me assure you that they use every second like a rusty razor to flay and mutilate.

It’s a horrific crime scene that begins with the unsettling “Mr. Picker”, a pungent stew of disturbing sounds before the final sentence “not alone… Mr. Picker followed me home…” It’s fucking unsettling and creepy and that’s what I would want from these sick fuckers.

The title track “Extremities” gets nasty quickly with brain-drilling drums and bestiary-screamed vocals. I’ve spent a lot of time with this album, not that I don’t anyway; it’s just that Extremities is a speedball of Agorophobic Nosebleed cut with some pure Berzerker and what happens when you piss off a drum machine. Like a crazed monkey on crack Trocar barrels through “Orphaned Organs” featuring some bile gargling squeals, ”Foreign Body Insult” which has an almost Black Metal section with these creepy keyboard harmonies that permeate through the rest of the track.

Trocar creates these spastic bursts of manic energy that are relentless body blows,  “Deinstitutionalize” is followed by the Cattle Decapitation-esque “Skin Like Sky” one of my favorite tracks and then they follow it with “Psalter of Manias” a knuckle-dragging primate of a track, where they sneak in some dub step shit right at the end and it’s fucking perfect. The vocals sounded like Schuler Benson – (lyrics and vocals,) gargled with battery acid.

The vocal delivery on Extremities is deadly. Jesus fucking Christ, there are pig squeals galore, harsh, slightly Hardcore (especially “Deinstitutionalize”) the vocal delivery is growling yet understandable. It’s nice to be able to understand what is being said. Guest vocalists are all over the place, these are compliments of: Frank Albanese (Hath), Greg Nottis (Hath), Jamie Stewart (The Absence, Hot Graves), and filmmaker Ryan Twyford-Rigley.

I notice different things in the songs that I didn’t notice the first time around and that’s a good thing. The Industrial tinged mayhem of  “The Willing” as it grinds, going perfectly into “Tithing Offal”, and then slamming headfirst into “A Lesson” another quick favorite, with some pure sickening gargled vocals.

The songs are positioned in such a way as to maximize the brutality, “Hangnail” is an electronic masterpiece with “Brazen Head,” “Weapons Prosper” and “Field Dressed (to Egress).” These are the seeds planted to my absolute favorite track, “Golem” a fucking massive creature crafted from clay, the riff, the way it’s tempo just crushes; the pacing is like earth-moving Death and Roll. I replay it whenever I listen to Extremities, which has recently been pretty much every day.

If you like the madness that I’ve hopefully been semi-successful in describing and you worship at the altar of Agorophobic Nosebleed, Cattle Decapitation, of course Mortician and Fluids (duh!) Check this fucker out and grind your fucking mind!

Having never heard them, I was going in completely blind. I imagined pig squeals and guttural vocals, a spastic monkey on drums and enough pinched harmonics to fill a red wagon. I’m glad I was wrong on those fronts, because what I got was thirty minutes of meat and gristle Death Metal. Beefy, blood dripping riffs are roasted over a spit of blasting drums, and thankfully not pig squeal vocals.

Things pop off in a slime spattered, zombie groaning way with “Ad Bizarrem Morem” two minutes and forty-two seconds worth of controlled chaos… and then things get violent. Cuerza Ferina is a brutal album, a sizzling bloody steak that crackles and pops in its own squalid sauce. Tracks like “Sinaxe Campas do Negro Breudo Sepúlcro Tafófobo”, “Congregação da Flama Felídea” and “Campas do Negro Breu” were the standout tracks, even though the album tracks are presented in such a way that it remains interesting song to song. In all honesty I was half expecting a fitting tribute to Last Days of Humanity, so even if they had been a fucking clone of those nasty bastards; I wouldn’t have gone home empty handed, right? They remind me of early Brujeria, with the unrelenting grind of Morbosidad on more than a couple tracks, this being a very good thing, indeed.

Death Metal has a rich history of track heavy albums, Carcass and Napalm Death both have debuts and sophomore albums with over ten tracks. There are moments when I was hoping these songs were longer, the shorter bursts of speed seem like un-fleshed out ideas that could have been given more life and a few of the shorter tracks also left me like, “holy fucking shit” so, this is a minor grump, to an otherwise enjoyable record that wades through blood and pus, all the while making me wish I knew Portuguese. The production lends to a warm, organic mix that adds to the enjoyment of the whole album; it makes it hit harder is a good way to put it. Don’t let the number of tracks be a deterrent, this is a flesh ripping, beast of an album. Definitely recommended.

Fcebook.com/hcgore

Agonia is an excellent follow up album that has a slow build to it which is worth the wait.  Opening with “Tectonic Plates” Daniel Kesler’s gorgeous guitar work returns with his own sense of dissonance and melody.  Pawel Jaroszewicz returns on drums which adds another layer of excellent complexity to their fourth full length album. “Tectonic Plates” is an excellent teaser of an opening track as the album continues to build and gain momentum.

“Potion of the Skies” opening with a bit of a low-fi feel, sticking to the same type of tempo as the opening track. You can really hear the Gojira influence in the first two tracks.  Kesler’s chord selection really is on its own planet. His lead work on this track is really well done. The gain on the amplifiers gets cranked up on the third track, “Tar”.   Redemptor’s Morbid Angel influence is incredibly on point and the guitar rakes would make Trey Azagthoth proud.   The tempo changes are well placed throughout the album and create a unique other planet like vibe.

“Further From Ideal” is one of the heaviest and more trance inducing songs on the album.   The chord choice of Kesler is really on his own level.  “Aurora” is a nice breakup from the rest of the album. The guitar sound on this instrumental is lush and epic sounding.  “Debris” continues to fit the style of “Agonia”.

Overall, this is another fantastic album.   Redemptor are one of those death metal bands I would love to see play live.   Give this one a chance if you are looking for a multi-faceted technical death metal album this is it. Enjoy.

Into the Rotpit is the debut recording, a 3 song 12 minute demo, for Rotpit.  The band plays a heavily influenced 90’s era Finnish death metal style, which happens to be one of my favorite styles of death metal.  I always felt some of the early Finnish bands borrowed some Bolt Thrower style of death metal.  Where you have that tank-like rolling and thunderous heaviness, mixed in with some ultra-heavy doom like moments.  When thinking of Bolt Thrower doing that, think of their early songs, like “All That Remains” or “The Shreds of Sanity”.

Rotpit loves to interject those styles on this recording and opener “Darkened” sounds like something Purtenance would record in the early 90’s.  Vintage 90’s speed, a gallop if you will.  The atmosphere is palpitating with the riffs and pounding drums.  Ralf singing in more of a 90’s era tone.  He really emulates the style perfectly.  The galloping moments are so damn vintage it gives the recording a true organic heaviness as it’s like if they recorded this live.  It’s that great.  The 3.10 slow down is pure atmosphere with the cymbal hits and then how the song gets into a slower/doomier/emotive moment.

“Into the Rotpit” starts with a great opening growl and then the song gets into a Bolt Thrower rolling heaviness before the signature galloping beat comes in with organic double bass drums.  The 58 second beginning part of the song has a jumpy heaviness that is very beatdown worthy.  So damn heavy.  The double bass drums over the riffing, on this particular moment, screams 1991!  Some eerie guitar melodies and ethereal guitar soloing really captures your attention.  That beatdown heavy part comes back and it’s so killer.  The rolling drums and the guitar riff is dense yet still discernible.  Ralf barking like a madman and I sing along to the chorus every time I hear this.  It’s excellent

“Aeon Black”, at over 5 minutes, ends the recording and is old school Finnish death metal at its finest.  So heavy, so crusty and filthy before the abrupt old school blast beats. The parts are meant to sound primitive, but still no less professional.  Heavy, then back to the atmospheric doom/death, parts, then erupting back into the blast beats.  The simple, yet effective cymbal hits, are mixed in nicely, as to take notice, once the fast part erupts.  Then the tune meanders into a rolling, tank-tread heaviness moment before some well-placed pinch harmonics hit you upside the head.  The song gets right back into that plodding and monolithically heavy slow down, that will cause sinkholes from here to the Ukraine.  Great drums towards the end with guitar feedback, then more atmospheric doom death heaviness.  The ending part sounds like something off of Paradise Lost’s awesome Gothic album, and then the song ends.

Rotpit have something going with Into the Rotpit.  There are bands doing this style already, who are from Finland-I’m looking at you Desecresy, whom I love and does this style the best, but outside of them, Purtenance, and maybe a few small others, I really have not heard a band as effective as Rotpit.  This is well-produced.  Dirty, crusty, filthy and gnarly.  It’s the way death metal was meant to be played.  Organic, heavy and just in your face with the rawness.  The scene has so many sub genres, and I love all the varying styles and new bands, don’t get me wrong.  However, death metal, at its purest form, was always the adjectives I listed above and sometimes that essence is forgotten, which is a shame.  So Rotpit-many thanks for bringing this form and style back.  I love it and this demo is the best demo of 2021!

It’s been seven (7) years since the second album and this new album is quite excellent which has Ron Vento mixing the album and Dan Swanö handling the mastering album.  6 songs in 44 minutes so let’s get into the opening song, “Loss”. Massive double bass begins and then some amazing guitar melodies permeating with Mike’s vocals alternating with some higher vocals and deeper grunts.  Mike Heller drilling home some massive blast beats and Ryan Moll’s guitar work is impeccable and some killer soloing around the 2.30 moments, and since he also is playing bass on this, soon after the guitar solo the bass plucks are awesome.  There are some usage of drum programming, flute, maracas and the keyboards are awesome., throughout the album, but some of the keyboards on this track are great. This is just an excellent opening song.

We get two very long songs on this album and “Dark Realms” is the first one at over 10 minutes.  A brooding opening song with Mike using some shouting stylized vocals.  This is going with the massive double bass is mid-paced and Mike laying in some varying vocals tones of mid ranges, as well as growls.  All very discernible  Some wild soloing going on at the 2.30 mark.  The 5 minute mark has various instrumentation which is outstanding.  This continues for several minutes. Then guitar soloing comes in as the musical pace gets into faster territory.  The keyboards coming in here excellent and Mike does some great growling over this segment.   We get some clean vocals and then the song trails off with the keyboards, growls and guitar riffing.  One of the best Azure Emote songs ever.

“Negative Polarity” is an awesome song with the start n stop beginning and then over the blast beats and we get some weird bass or guitar phase shifter effect a few times.  I feel like I am in a computer game at this point.  Really original sounds and then Mike doing a duet with a female vocalist as both lay down some clean vocals.  Spectacular moment. There are then some middle eastern instrumentation causing trouble as the clean vocals come back in and now piped in louder in the mix as they take center stage.  Then Mike does some layered in growling and then the start and stop moments and blasting, with the phaser bass noises come in and the song pretty much ends as it began.  Terrific track.

Although there are only 6 songs Azure Emote packs so much into these songs, but my gripe comes at the album closer, at over 11 minutes, “Solitary Striving” is an instrumental.  It has ambience and a lot of atmosphere, but for the album to end with this track I felt a tad letdown, seeing how the prior 5 songs are all insanely amazing.  I am not a huge fan of instrumentals to begin with and to save the longest song to place at the end without vocals, I would have chopped the tune in half and added some vocals.  Regardless of that I love The Third Perspective.  As I have said for years Azure Emote are one of the most original bands out there.  They sound like no one and no one sounds like them.  Seems almost like an impossibility in today’s ever expanding musical realms, but Azure Emote have been at this for years.

The production, soundscapes and instrumentation are so incredibly immersive.  I get lost in this band.  I mean that as the highest compliment.  Then you have Mike crafting another brilliant cover-one of the true illustrative artists to this day. Azure Emote’s The Third Perspective is mind-boggling entertaining which shifts from death metal, black metal, atmospheric and mystical dark metal in a blink of an eye and makes no apologies.  Fantastic album!

That said, for reasons unknown, (OK, I lied ,it was deatchore and metalcore) I never followed up or heard subsequent albums like DetermiNation, Neurotic Mass, Archetype of Chaos, or their last album from 7 years ago, Karma Obscure. But even with a 7 year hiatus and 15 year gap since I actually have heard them last, these guys appear to have not lost a beat as Ominous Black is another killer Polish death metal album.

With the lineup that produced Imperfect, (which i revisited to prepare for this return), and a perfect mix/master from the Polish death metal go to Studio, Hertz studio with the Wiesławski brothers (Behemoth, Vader, Lost Soul, Decapitated, Hate), the end result is pretty much perfect Polish death metal that again culls from all the country’s heavyweights but still manages to have an energy and vitriol that makes it more than mere homage.

The 9 song, 44 minute run time delivers ample amounts of blisteringly violent, almost tech death and slower punishing controlled violence. It’s pretty much all encapsulated in the album’s first 3 killer tracks, throttling opener “Inside the Devils Heart”, pummeling “Insanity of Holiness”, and lurching longer track “Astral Misanthropy”. Shit, and that’s  just 3 tracks, Trauma continue the bludgeoning with the next 7 tracks, all delivering the goods.

You get the absolutely punishing standout “Soul Devourer”, the slightly more off kilter barbarity of “Among the Lies”, more slower, massive lumberer in “I Am Universe”,  closer “Colossus” and stomping absolute death metal perfection of “The Black Maggots”. There’s not a bad song or bad riff here. It’s all perfect death metal.

After a 7 year layoff, Trauma have come out of nowhere and delivered one of 2020’s early. great death death metal albums. lets hope Vader’s upcoming Solitude in Madness is up to the challenge.

Deivos play a form of brutal, groovy technical death metal that is a bit in its own sound from the rest of other Technical Death Metal Bands in Poland.  This is displayed in the 2^nd track Parallel Gods which brings back an element that I liked from Endemic Divine, the use of what sounds like a cowbell.  I kid you not.  I cannot think of too many other bands in metal that use this type of percussive element the specific way that these guys do.  This track and one later on during the album very much embrace this and makes for some unique elements on the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VziJRU6mfLI

Having been around for twenty plus years these guys clearly has put a lot of time into their sound.   I had to go back to Endemic Divine to hear the difference in productions.  Casus Belli is much heavier and diverse album.  Tracks like “Bitter End” and “Victims” are quite abrasively ferocious and really do an excellent job of keeping the intensity of the album intact.  Remember the other track I talked about earlier with the awesome bell work?  That track is called “Nuclear Wind” and to me almost reminds me of the effect of the intro track of Slayer’s “Chemical Warfare”.   You got to love a vocalist with a name like “Angelfuck”.  The guitar work of Tomasz Kolcon and Msiclaw is quite locked and full of gain and vigor.  Krystof Saran on the drums thought is really the brightest spot of the album and his performance really ties the room together with this release.

This album wastes very little time in pummeling you to the ground like a ball peen hammer.  I would recommend for fans of: Krisiun, Decapitated, Morbid Angel, and Immolation.  Put this one on your albums you need to hear from 2019 list, because it gets catchier each time I listen to it.

2019 was an insanely busy year for Death metal in North America and internationally.  This one will definitely be in my best of the year review mix.  Clocking in at around thirty six minutes this one is right after the perfect length for a death metal album.  Selfmadegod records has done an amazing job with Deivos over their last three killer albums.  This one tops them all. Check it out.

Every once and a while a release comes out that truly drops my jaw and leaves me salivating for more.  Such is the case with Cracow Poland’s Redemptor fourth full length record Arthaneum.  I consider myself a fairly well traveled connoisseur of polish technical death metal.  This record goes beyond being a technical death metal album and is kind of on its very own plateau. The first thing that popped out to me when looking into Redemptor was the cover art of Arthaneum.  It reminds me a bit of Willowtip Records recording Artists Ingurgitating Oblivion’s Visions Wallow in Symphonies of Light which also came out this year.  More or less the use of sculptures drew me into delving a little bit deeper into the background of this group.  Members of this group have been members of other Polish groups like:  Vader, Decapitated, Sceptic, Hate, Antigama, and Sothoth.  To name a few.

Arthaneum opens with “Eminence Grise” which builds slowly with droning synths and comes in with a nice tom roll into some gorgeously heavy riffing into a more somber clean blues section which is a recurring element throughout the album.  The guitar work of Daniel Kesler and the drumming of Pawel Jaroszewicz is incredibly well locked in and focused throughout the entire record.  Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen this is one the cleanest and best played albums of 2017 and being that it is being so released into this year this could be one that is easy to miss.

This album took the band over a year and a half to make. The amount of commitment put into this album shows on every track on the record. “Enormous Absolute” might be the heaviest song of the year and is prime example of diversity in composition. The work of Kesler and Jaroszewicz shines quite strongly on this track and the contrast between extremely heavy and extremely ethereal riffing is what continues to make this record so interesting to listen to.  One of my only gripes with the album is the vocal effect that is used on and off throughout.  I would have personally preferred no effects at all on the vocals as it does not sound like it is needed with all of the other natural performances. It a relatively small gripe and more so a small observation.

“Cremation of Care” is fine example of how Redemptor is influenced by Morbid Angel.  The low end triplets and driving double kick parts are very well played but then the riffs seem to grow and grow and build into these huge sections that are incredibly pleasing.   Kesler’s leadwork is also top notch throughout.  I can’t say I have heard too many tech death records with such a bluesy touch.  The title track reminds me a great deal of last year’s C. B Murdoc’s Here Be Dragons but with way more intricacies in the guitar department.

“What is to come” is one of the best instrumentals I have heard in years. Kesler’s fretboard work is absolutely stunning and again I am definitely going to have to check out Redemptor’s whole catalog as this album is so unbelievably well done that I believe it warrants checking out.  This album might do for technical death metal what Ahab’s The Boats of Glen Carrig did for funeral doom a few years ago.  This is one of the most meticulously well put together albums I have heard in a long time. This one is definitely going to be winding up in my top 5 of the year. Do not sleep on this album and reach out to Selfmadegod Records for this.  Would love to see these guys at Maryland Death Fest some year.

Deivos is a fantastic example of a band that play technical death metal mean. Vocalist Hubert’s (A.K.A Angelfuck) remind a great deal of Francesco Paoli’s( ex –Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse) cadence. You can definitely hear the Morbid Angel influence throughout and the riffing for the most part sounds pretty original in terms of the way they construct their parts. This is an unbelievably catchy record. One motif that is hard to not to notice is the use of cowbell, “Sisters of Mercy” is one example. This tune is one of the more aggressive on the album start to finish. “Dust of the Universe” is another strong track ripe with sick harmonized octaves and enough blast beats and drum variety to get you through the cold and flu season. The middle of the album continues to relentless pummels one ears with “Gods of Death”. The opening minute is a raging machine that builds into a strong groove section. For me maybe one of the only things that bothers me is the cover artwork. Nothing wrong with a skull being ripped apart I suppose but I would just have expected something a bit more intricate given the material presented here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDo8vlNgfZ4

It is definitely quite difficult to find any faults with this album. One of my favorites so far this year for sure and 2017 is just getting started. The other band that I can make a comparison to is Murder Made God. Deivos seem to have a similar sense of heavy groove which is demonstrated throughout. For a fifth studio full length release these guys really seemed to have found the right combination of solid production and musicianship. Due to the change in record labels this particular release might go a bit under the radar and I would not recommend passing up picking this one up. If you are a fan of Polish Death metal like older Decapitated or Vader then you will more than likely appreciate the riff variations that are on display.

This is going to be a very busy year for technical death metal with a variety of releases from a variety of labels and Endemic Divine is not one you are going to want to slip by. For fans of Morbid Angel, Spawn of Possession and Murder Made God. There is a fine line between brutality and technicality and Deivos do a fantastic job of balancing both elements. Crank this up to eleven and bring on the hair whips. Endemic Divine is a winner for sure.

The next track, “Singularity”, picks up the pace a bit, and is a decent contrast from the first track.  But from there, the album as a whole just seemed to run together for me.  The next 6 tracks consist basically of doomy part-fast semi-tech part-back to sludgy doomy part.  And it pains me greatly because I really, REALLY wanted to like this album even after multiple spins, especially after the opening track that grabbed me so forcefully.

Most of the songs, in the typical style of the aforementioned Ulcerate, are in the 5-6 minute range, with the closer going over 9 minutes and the whole album clocking in at just over 48.  In that time you get a lot of material, it just feels like the band needs to tighten up the style and the overall goal/feel of the album.  Part of the issues is the vocals don’t vary much, which I am fine with and don’t necessarily care for or expected the “let’s throw 5 different vocal styles on our album” school of thought either.  They just weren’t quite up to par to carry an album of this length, and in fact the instrumental sections of the songs are actually some of the most enjoyable parts of the whole album.

As mentioned earlier, this band was unsigned when I first grabbed the album to review, and have since been signed to SelfMadeGod Records.  It makes sense, because there is a strong album here simmering right below the surface and Wretched Host has the ingredients of a band what will put out an absolutely killer sophomore or junior album.  Definitely one to keep an eye on, and a must listen for fans of the bands mentioned before as this very likely might grab you from beginning to end more than it did me.

The Insolent starts off with the very aggressive “Reward or Punishment”.  If one could picture a mix of Rotten Sound, Nasum and Misery Index, Antigama might very well be it.  There is even a touch of some jazzy elements in the guitar arrangements.  The overall intensity of “Reward or Punishment” sets the listener off for a face pummeling thirty plus minute buffet of spastic energy.

“Foul Play”, the second track has some really well layered guitar parts building into some very straight ahead bomb blast grind core. It is interesting that the song length of the album seems to vary quite a bit yet the flow from song to song holds my attention fairly easily.

Being this is Antigama’s 7^th album I was in no way surprised to see that this band used to be on Relapse Records. Antigama definitely have the feel of a Relapse band. Very well arranged grind core.  It should also be noted that this album was mastered by Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed).

I think “Randomize The Algorithm” is my favorite track on the album. I still am a sucker for song intros. “Some people loose their faith because heaven shows them to little but how many people loose their faith because Heaven shows them too much?” I also am a sucker for Christopher Walken movies.  The Prophecy anyone?

The title track “The Insolent” features a nifty drum intro transitioning into more over the top grind cacophony. “The Out Beyond” is probably the one song on this record that seems out of place. It might because for twenty minutes you are listening to an aggressive grind record and then all of sudden there a synthesizer instrumental track with Neurosis-ish tom work drum fills.   Seems kind of odd but actually transition well into the end of the album.

The last track, “The Land of Monotony” is the longest song on the record and almost has a Melvins feel to it.  This very well could be one of the heaviest song on the record as the song starts with clock chimes the one slowly builds into a different type of break at around the three-minute mark.  The clock chimes come back underneath a very droning riff make for a rather unique effect.

Some might be of the opinion that a Grindcore record should end with the most intense material and while “The Land of Monotony” might not be the most intense in terms of speed it is a very catchy album ender that wraps up a very well played thirty minutes of grind.

In closing though this is a very well played grind record that fans of Rotten Sound, Nasum, or Misery Index would be sure to enjoy.  The overall intensity to The Insolent is relentless.  Antigama is a veteran grind core unit that has a very clear idea as to what type of riff structures work well for their style of grind.

Wasting no time in starting the lashings, this album comes out swinging with opener “Tastelessness”. You have a nice Rotten Sound-ish buzz to the guitars, and a killer growl/yell courtesy of frontman Artur Grassmann. He also handles the bass, which is quite impressive in a genre that requires so much energy expenditure of its vocalists. The fourth track “Surrender”, and longest at 3:32, starts out with a hefty lurching groove before stirring the grind party to a frenzy at the 1:15 mark.

Follow up track “The Second…” is a blast fest designed to do nothing but incite violence, and “Inclinations To…” sees drummer Mariusz Miernik show off some wicked double bass skills. Andrzej Pakos churns out the riffs and nasty buzz-saw chords through the whole show, with it all coming together in a wonderful mix of the grind we all know and love.

With 14 tracks and most averaging in the 1:30-2:30 timeframe, it’s kind of nice to see a band spend a little more time on songwriting instead of making 63 tracks all around the 30 second mark. The whole album is a little over a half hour, and with the various tempo changes and vocal variations it never seems too long. Also have to give props for a very inventive album title, as it beats the hell out of the cop out move of putting out a “self-titled” album when bands can’t think of anything creative.

Their surreal riffs and creative drumming rooted in technical Floridian death metal (e.g., Nocturnus, Monstrosity, Brutality) would be interesting enough on their own, but Mr. Hrubovcak strives for much more through the integration of operatic female vocals, keyboards, violins, saxophones, sound bites, and various other electronic sounds. This could easily be a recipe for disaster, but he miraculously managed to focus it all into a powerful attack that’s full of both ridiculously awesome and awesomely ridiculous moments. It helps that the song structures aren’t as off-the-wall as the instrumentation. Each track is composed of repeating forms for maximum memorability (relatively speaking), but it’s still overwhelming upon first listen at an hour in length with very little filler.

Opener, “Epoch of De-Evolution,” starts off in slightly uncomfortable fashion — especially while the Illud Divinum Insanus debacle still lingers in recent memory — with some techno synths, but the complex guitar and drum work quickly proves that the approach here is far more creative. The mood is almost upbeat, much like that of Strapping Young Lad or The Senseless until “Carpe Diem” introduces a more subdued (again, relatively speaking), dreamy atmosphere with twinkling keys, operatic female vocals, and beautiful violin work provided by Pete Johansen of The Sins of Thy Beloved. His style is more raw and lively than the somber approach you hear most often from violins in metal, which adds another unique dimension to the music when it appears throughout the album. “Marching Forth” lives up to its name as it propels the album forward with some massive crescendos until the downright annoying sounds of freeform harmonica and pig squeals (actual, not the vocal style) bring everything to a grinding halt in brief instrumental, “Sunrise Slaughter,” the only glaring flaw on the album. The Lykathea Aflame-esque “Conduit of Atrophy” quickly gets things back on track and “Veils of Looming Despair” will make you grin in disbelief when it kicks off with a collision of pulsing techno, violins, operatic female vocals, and death metal like you’ve never heard before. “Dissent” is probably the most straightforward and deathly, but it’s not without its own quirkiness. Saxophones courtesy of Bruce Lamont of Yakuza are added to the mix in “The Living Spiral” as it channels Khaooohs-era Pan-Thy-Monium, a project whose influence can be felt throughout the album in spirit if not always in style. Nearly every remaining track offers something else surprising and new, ranging from the wild sci-fi keyboard explosions of “Annunaki Illuminati” to the sublime interplay of guitar and violin in album closer, “Puppet Deities.” And, the production provided by Ron Vento (Aurora Borealis) at Nightsky Studios allows every one of these crazy elements to be clearly heard without sounding overly processed.

Vocals are a big part of Hrubovcak’s equation. His commanding, guttural, yet intelligible voice dominates as he spews lyrics that are just as difficult to comprehend as the music while the operatic female vocals provide back-up and sometimes function more like another instrument. At times, sound bites are used almost like another vocalist and include clips from The Mist, The Walking Dead, Donnie Darko, and the misanthropic rantings of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Some clean male vocals in the vein of Burton C. Bell pop up in “Obsessive Time Directive” and “The Color of Blood” as if there wasn’t already enough variety, but it actually would’ve been nice to hear more like this throughout the album.

Above all, this is an album of contrast on many levels as it mixes both aggression and serenity, chaos and control, male and female, classic and modern, and somehow comes across as disjointed yet cohesive. It’s an incredible achievement that I fear will not receive the recognition it deserves since it’s likely too eccentric for most death metal fans, especially during this time when retro reigns supreme. But, I have a feeling that Mr. Hrubovcak doesn’t really care about popularity, and I’m glad for that. Otherwise, one of the most ambitious and unique albums in all of metal would’ve never been made.

Their debut long player was recently unleashed upon the metal world and by all accounts it’s everything a death metal fan could ask for. Sporting a grimy, raw production that easily could be from 1990, Ascending to Red Heavens is what any fan of old school death metal looks for. Whether the quartet is shredding along at blazing speeds or slowly crushing the listener to a pulp, Terminate has taken their time in creating actual songs within the mayhem.

Taking their cues heavily from the likes of early Entombed and vintage Celtic Frost as well as American staples Autopsy, Repulsion and early Master, Ascending to Red Heavens is a throwback to the glory days of Crystal Pepsi and Hotwheels Cereal. While the idea of turning back the clock to emulate what has been done to death is nothing new, especially in death metal these days, Terminate handle the duties better than most.

Terminate sticks to what works for them; they take a great riff, structure a song around it, and never try to get fancy with all sorts of musical finesse or unnecessary technical chops. They take the meat and potatoes approach, keep things simple and just jam out kick ass death metal the way it was meant.

There’s no doubt that if this album had been released around the same time as Left Hand Path, Severed Survival and Onward to Golgotha, it would be heralded as an old school classic. The lousy part about all this is that Terminate could get lost in the shuffle of the over-saturated market of neo death metal bands doing the same exact thing. It’s a pity, too, because these Illinois lads terminate virtually all of their competition. Hayo!

After a throwaway intro, you’re smacked upside the head with the realization that these native Coloradans haven’t missed a beat.  They still have the same corrosive, blistering grind sound not unlike Phobia, Kill the Client, and Rotten Sound.  And that’s one reason why I think I like these guys so much, is I hear a lot of Rotten Sound in their style.  That comparison is most obvious in the filthy, chainsaw guitar sound that is pure grind through and through.   They also know when to slow down into a nice chord driven groove to let the pit slow down for a bit, before jumping back into a blast riddled noise-fest that makes you want to start kicking over speaker towers.

The songs stick mainly to the short bursts of fury in classic grind style, with the whole album clocking in at just under 30 minutes.  One thing I feel sets Catheter apart from run-of-the-mill grind is their use of a tri, and sometimes quad vocal attack.  They use a standard death growl, raspy scream, and then one style that can only be likened to an 85 year old lifetime smoker yelling at you to get off his lawn.  It’s a hollow yell that’s hard to describe but is 100% Catheter, and it works; you’ll just need to listen to the album to see what I mean.  Check out the beginning of “Bullshit Business” for the best example.  You’ll also at times hear a kind of mid-range yell, and maybe even a fifth or sixth style.  Hell with all that’s going on it’s hard to count, but the best part is it all fits together extremely well.

The final track, “In This Moment”, is by far the longest at 5 minutes and really ends the album on a high note.  You get an impressive drum driven intro before a doomy pace leads to some spoken vocals, and a hefty lurching close that brings it all full circle.  A solid album overall and a must listen for fans of no frills, relentless grindcore.  Let the beatings commence.

Played with precision and chops, the tunes here hit like a police battering room through a crack house door. Familiarly Polish in its death metal approach and reminding in some ways of Decapitated, there is also a strong USDM presence, including a vocal approach from Szczepan that recalls Ross Dolan’s (Immolation) later years’ work, albeit crossed with typical Polish guttural oomph, and delivered with some intelligibility. You can even hear shades of Nile at various points, as is the case during the galloping pestilence of “Lost in the Sands” Technical, yes, whether the bursts of arpeggio sweeping or the tightly angular transitions and cadences, but Sacrilege of Humanity never loses the forest for the trees; not by a long shot. Songs like “Messerschmitt” (the alternating vocals on the chorus are perfect) and the downright infectious “We are the Universe,” which grabs my attention each and every time, are built for memory retention. Calm Hatchery has taken care to make the accent and changeups as impacting as possible too, as demonstrated by the use of gang shouts on “Them.” Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference.

I recall a time some years back when it seemed like every other death metal album that came out of Poland reached the gold standard. That’s not to imply that Poland isn’t still a hotbed of death; only that Sacrilege of Humanity brought back those memories with a vengeance. Solid through and through, Calm Hatchery has made a death metal fan’s death metal album. Are you with me out there?

The 3 lengthier Stormcrow tracks are festering, crusty, sludgy numbers that are self described ‘stenchcore’ and been compared to Hellbastard (ironically just signed to Selfmadegod), Deviated Instinct and Amebix. Slow burning, primal and trigger free, “Poisoned Mind”, “Lost Hopes”, and “The Science of Tyranny” ooze with a nice mix of death metal, sludge and doom and even throw in some ambient sections that would appeal to the Samothrace/ Deadbird fans, though far more crusty and raw. Some more up tempo crust arises here and there (“Lost Hopes”), but for the most part the band play slow and dirty with the 9 and a half minute “The Science of Tyranny” scrawling and seeping its way into your mind. Isn’t it about time for a full length follow up to 2005s Enslaved in Darkness guys?

The 14 Massgrave tracks are almost sonically opposite from Stormcrow, as the band ply a form of classic, crusty grindcore that reminded me of early Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Terrorizer, Righteous Pigs and such; punky and feral but surprisingly catchy. Short, direct cuts with power chords and gruff vocals, Massgrave are no where near as polished and violent as some of their modern grindcore contemporaries (Insect Warfare, Mumakil, Kill the Client, Magrudergrind), but they share the same backbone and influence if delivered with a slightly more old school, tone and approach, which I found to be one of the more effective retro grind sounding releases of late. Feedback drenched tacks like “At What Cost”, “Blindfolded Conscience”, “Corruption of Innocence”, killer “Suffering Until Death”, “Get Over Yourself”, and even slow groove that starts “Corporation Mind Control” took me back to the classic era of Earache and Peaceville records with pot and politics fueled tenacity. Even the cover of Nirvana’s “Tourettes” bristles with classic punk/grindcore energy.

I’m not a huge fan of split CDs, but this one is one of the better ones I’ve heard and I look forward to collecting and hearing the discographies from both bands, especially Massgrave.

After breaking up in 1993, HELLBASTARD reformed in 2008 with all guns blazing! They are back in action with The Need to Kill, available on limited edition LP from German label Civilisation Records.  

The renowned Polish label Selfmadegod Records will issue The Need to Kill on CD, as well as the newly recorded Eco-War CD EP, in late October 2009. The Need to Kill features six re-recorded HELLBASTARD ragers, while the six-track Eco-War release includes a track originally on the band’s 1986 demo as well as a Slayer cover. 

After completing a headlining European tour, HELLBASTARD is currently on tour in the US with grind-crusties Resistant Culture through the rest of September. 

9/09/2009 Chinatown Youth Center – Fresno, CA
9/10/2009 – The New Oasis Club – Reno, NV
9/11/2009 Gilman Club – Berkeley, CA

9/12/2009 JMC Club – Los Angeles, CA
9/13/2009 Chez Monieux Club – Phoenix, AZ
9/16/2009 The Blast O’Mat Record Store – Denver, CO
9/18/2009 Emo’s – Austin, TX
9/19/2009 Rubber Gloves – Denton, TX
9/20/2009 Hi-Ho Club – New Orleans, LA
9/21/2009 Greencups Bookstore – Birmingham, AL
9/24/2009 The Barbary Club – Philadelphia, PA
9/25/2009 Europa – Brooklyn, NY
9/26/2009 AS220 – Providence, RI
9/27/2009 P.A.’s Lounge Club – Somerville, MA
9/29/2009 Belvederes Club – Pittsburgh, PA

10/03/2009 Black Hole Club – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Apocalyptic Crust Fest III

The Need To Kill Tracklisting:
1. Cheyne Stoking
2. Going Postal
3. Anthropological Angst I
4. Stop Your Whining
5. Anthropological Angest II
6. Murder Workshop
7. Stressed
8. Fir Bolg, Bow to Slough Feg
9. My Best Friend Misanthropy
10. Business Pig Hole
11. Justly Executed (re-recording)
12. The Pylons (re-recording)
13. Afrikkan Beggar (re-recording)
14. They Brought Death (re-recording)
15. Heading for Internal Darkness (re-recording)
16. Death Camp (re-recording)

Eco-War Tracklisting:
1. Gone Postal (Reprise)
2. Sea Shepherd
3. Woe, The People. Massacre
5. Die By The Sword
6. Kick the Geordie

http://www.myspace.com/rippercrust

http://www.selfmadegod.com

http://www.myspace.com/selfmadegodrecords

Like the best grinders, in my humble opinion, this one snorts crust and shits grind. Sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes it’s blatant, but it’s always there and you’ll be a better person because of it. It sure as hell is present on the 33 second “Bomb the Hague,” which switches back and forth effortlessly between punk nihilism and psychotic grind. If you don’t think the bass line intro to “The Fists are Formed” isn’t righteously punk fucking rock, then you’re just a dick. The other band that comes to mind at various points is early period Birdflesh at their grind-est; the wacked-out-of-your-skull on meth while wearing a tattered dress defines some of the album’s most frantic moments. The disc even includes a cover of Enemy Soil’s “Lost” (here is where you engage your significant other in a lively discussion about the Virginia band’s place in the annals of grind-dom). Vocally, it is non-stop scream-y and throat shredding; no barks, no talking, no inflection shifts, just in your face and up your ass for the entire ride. Relax, you’ll get used to it.

But back to the original question that we’ve already answered in the affirmative, Gods out of Monsters is impressive for its compositional twists and the ability of the band to always keep things interesting. Don’t get me wrong, the majority of the time the album sounds like musical accompaniment to some poor bastard running in circles in a confined space wearing an active bee hive on his head whilst a rabid Lhasa Apso chases him, the little bugger’s fangs just inches from said bastard’s bum. Blood I Bleed just make it more entertaining. Most importantly, as you might have learned earlier, you’ll be a better person because of it.

Now for the really important stuff! Corpses of the Universe is another gleefully putrid addition to the Dead Infection catalogue. It is muddy, buzzing, rumbling goregrind with a little groove and mostly sounds like a mix of Terrorizer played through an early-Carcass filter, as well as occasionally sounding like Autopsy and Repulsion birthed an ill-tempered child with a penchant for (literally) slinging mud at passersby. Support Dead Infection and Selfmadegod Records. Cool band, cool label…you need it bad, oh so bad.

What we have here is an anomaly. Mothra is a name I have never come across in my explorations and hopefully they won’t battle with Gojira anytime soon (har har). Like most unknown promos in my mail I hesitated to listen. The retro brown and yellow album cover didn’t help matters either. Once I popped this bad boy in though I was floored by what they offer. The band utilizes everything, hardcore attitude, down-tempo sludge, death gutturals, and progressive forward thinking. All laced with the furry of grind.

“Squats,” wastes no time exposing the urgency that spews from this record. Off time, off chords, and off the charts, I can only imagine what this is like live. “Hooloovoo,” the second track, starts with a progressive feel and then left turns into punk, with a huge scream an a breakdown. “Octarine,” and track five “Bleen”, slows things down with sludgy doom, harmonized guitars, blast beats, and complete madness. The list goes on with a total of seven songs packed into 27 minutes of mindfuckery that should be noticed by many.

Tastefully written and skillfully executed, Dyes is a record that will spend many hours in my rotation and goes down as the biggest surprise to me this year. It’s a record I probably normally wouldn’t like by numerous other bands who try to compete with this. I congratulate Mothra.