Can I just say this sucks and be done with it? I guess not. Anyways let me tell ya I am a fan of Sweden's WOLF. Their 2006 release, The Black Flame, is definitely in my all time playlist of fucking true metal. Their early stuff is OK and I did like 2009's Ravenous. But after that they got repetitive since they found their formula and pushed the repeat button. Yeah I understand the theory. If AC/DC and MOTORHEAD can do it why not them? So I was hoping that this their eighth full length would be better. I mean it's been six years since their last one and ya gotta hope for the best with your fave bands. Unfortunately with the exception of a few catchy tunes, which was their formula. I'm kinda pissed because this mostly blows. Once again it all sounds programmed by a computer. Great cover art at least but the title should've been Created By Machine. At least I still have The Black Flame to blast. https://www.centurymedia.com/ https://www.facebook.com/officialwolf
LUCIFER - Lucifer III Century Media Records They're still on Century Media which makes two for em so far. I wonder how long that record contract goes? Anyways I've never been a fan of LUCIFER for a variety of reasons. But in the hope of understanding why I'll explain. The singer's previous band, THE OATH, was like a wanna-be doom version of ABBA. You had the two guys and two hot women in leather. The music was average but the hiptard hoi-poloi media went apeshit over em.
But then that band broke up and their singer, Johanna Sadonis, was placed in front of another good group of musicians which went by the name LUCIFER. Their first album was on an indie label and had so many borrowed riffs/song ideas that not even the hiptards went along with it. Century Media picked em up after that hoping a female fronted act would sell. The singer's husband Nicke Andersson (HELLACOPTERS, ENTOMBED) got on board and the results of that album were not very good. Once again it was average sounding female fronted hard rock.
So here we have their third album and honestly it's mediocre sounding hard rock/heavy metal. Thirty some years ago a guy with eyeliner would be singing this stuff. But at least they wouldn't be obviously ripping off so many past songs from non metal acts. If you liked their second album then you'll like this as well since it sounds just like it. Although Johanna's vocals sound as if she recorded them on her smart phone. Too bad I can't mock the videos the band did for this album. That would take a paragraph or two. https://www.centurymedia.com/ https://www.facebook.com/luciferofficial
THE WIZAR'D - Subterranean Exile Cruz del Sur Music I get music from all over to write about on this site. For example this particular act is from the island of Tasmania. And since they're on the Cruz del Sur label you can guess the music is gonna fit in with some old school traditional sounds. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't heard of em before. They've been around for sixteen years, have a bunch of previously released material and I usually get all the out of the way stuff to review. But anyways THE WIZAR'D are a four piece act (two guitarists, a bass player and drummer). One of the guitarists takes on lead vocals which come across as a nasally Ozzy or Terry Jones from PAGAN ALTAR. Musically this has been genre tagged as doom but that's not it at all. If you think of some slower NWOBHM sounds like the previously mentioned PAGAN ALTAR or early JUDAS PRIEST. Hell you can place any medium paced heavy metal act from that era who were heavily influenced by the occult and there you go. In the end it's OK. https://www.cruzdelsurmusic.com/blog/ https://hcrthewizard.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/arcanemetalmagick/
DESOLATE REALM - Unleash the Storm EP Self Released I just spent all of April playing and posting various favorite doom albums on my Facebook site. Yeah I like to punish people who are looking for hope during this crisis. Speaking of hope, imagine if you will a two piece act who come across like a mix of CANDLEMASS and GATES OF SLUMBER. And if that ain't good enough, the vocalist sings clean and can pull off a cool King Diamond true metal scream. Here you go people, DESOLATE REALM are a new doom act out of Helsinki, Finland. The duo of Matias Nastolin (guitars, bass and vocals) and Olli Torronen (drums) are both members of the Finnish death metal band DECAYING. So lets just say this, their debut release, is a cool ass side project which they started in 2018. There's five cuts on here, all of which fall into the category of epic doom. There's plenty of power put forth as well as a variety of speed and amazing riffs plus amazing drum work which delivers that sense of metal power as well as fury. To me this is true fuckin metal for modern fans to go crazy over. And this is only less than twenty seven minutes of your time to consume. Let me tell ya something. When this band comes out with a full length it'll be one of the best albums of that year. https://desolaterealm.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Desolaterealmband/
MOONS - Go Out Swinging Horror Pain Gore Death Productions Normally whenever HPGD sends a release in for review the band(s) tend to on par with a cheetah late for supper. Yeah we're talking about speed. But once in a while, and I'm gonna use a baseball analogy, you're standing at the plate waiting for a fastball and the pitcher throws a slider that you totally swing over. Back in my sport days instead of getting mad when that happened. I'd look at the pitcher, smile and point out to him "you got me". And that is what we have here folks. MOONS is a three piece sludgey doom act from the great state of Pennsylvania. I say great because I use to live there. But anyways I'm not going to say that this debut full length by MOONS is a progressive thought paragon. Nor am I about to say it has a sound which will carry you on bong exhales to an astral plane of transcendental meditation. This ain't some hiptard blog and I'm not a liar. What is really cool about this release is that MOONS are not part of the whole generic genre over statement which I hear with many bands in the sludgey stoner doom category. Sure on the six cuts of this release they touch the surfaces. But it's their musicianship and song structure style that make em cool as fuck. Sure they're heavy but not riff-centric or SABBATH humping. The bass and guitar playing starts at a crossroads and then separates while the drumwork keeps a frantic cohesiveness. The vocals are caustic screams of your attention as opposed to cries of help. I like this because their sound is intricate. There's definitely a 70's vibe of classic power trio functioning with modern day doom. This band needs to be known. http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/ https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/go-out-swinging-2 https://www.facebook.com/heavymoons/
FORMLESS MASTER / BAYHT LAHM - No Chords Barred split Horror Pain Gore Death Productions Ladies and Gentlemen (and to you confused ones) I do not have the "rona". But I do have a huge case of the out of work and going fucking nuts blues because of this damm lockdown. A friend told me well I'll have plenty of time to write about releases. Seriously you wanna go there? Let me tell ya something. Unless it's extreme to the point where the music conveys more anger and disgust then what's in me now. I take a pass on it. Thankfully this came in from a guaranteed source of insane sounding releases. What we have here are two bands unknown to me but have made my time in lock up today better after I played this than before. The first act, FORMLESS MASTER (which could be a reference to the gov't), hail from Minnesota but have Takafumi Matsubara of GRIDLINK (from my birthplace Hoboken, New Jersey) on guitar and bass. They also boast three vocalists but hey it's basically shrieking and growling. Also there's two members of INVIDIOSUS, another HPDG roster act, here so it's a side project of sorts. Something I've learned over the years is that if Matsubara is involved then you've got insane experimental grind in your face. Their four cuts on here are Bruce Lee inspired. The second act in this grind bout are BAYHT LAHM, a two piece band (guitar, drums and vocals) who hail from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. No offense but back in the 70's when I was still living in Jersey, we looked at that town as an armpit. But in all fairness any place south of Fairview was an armpit back then. To their credit nowadays the place is an amazing Hispanic majority community. I still have family in New Jersey so they tell me everything. Anyways this duo's four cuts are more primitive grind in style and lyrically political. Hmmm, maybe their town is still an armpit. Well as always I treat split releases as bouts kinda like wrestling, the former sport of kings. Give me early ECW (flying metal chairs and all) or give me death. So for this one it's FORMLESS MASTER as the clear winner. I say that simply because with a tag team partner like Takafumi Matsubara in your corner the baby-faces from NJ didn't have a chance. Now if I could only put a figure four leg lock on my State governor and get him to tap out. http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/ https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/no-chords-barred
NEGATIVE THOUGHT PROCESS - Hell Is... Much Better Than This EP Hibernacula Records When I saw this band's name my first thought was that they were familiar to me. I was wrong on that part even though the band has been around for a few years. Plus they've got a previously released EP and full length to their credit. But after listening to this a few times I can say their sound is very familiar. Here we have a six cut EP by this English three piece grindcore act. Of course the genre recognition is superficial. Musically they employ 90's era caustic/barked hardcore vocals. The speed factor is sporadic since they like their dissonance time and finish off with explosive power violence. In the end yeah I give em props for playing in a style that's not boring or overbearingly redundant. I'm not going to mention any names as far as that last part goes. You can take your own guesses on who or whom I refer to. But NEGATIVE THOUGHT PROCESS are definitely a short form release band. It's exciting grindcore. They definitely have the talent going for em. Personally I've moved on from this type of grindcore but I know some people who would call this the greatest thing since sliced bread. So there you go. https://www.facebook.com/pg/HibernaculaRecords/about/?ref=page_internal https://negativethoughtprocess.bandcamp.com/album/hell-is-much-better-than-this https://www.facebook.com/negativethoughtprocess
WELCOME TO EXTREME METAL MANIAC OR WHAT i LIKE TO CALL THE HOME OF EXTREME METAL.
Attention
In Jan. 2020 some not so nice person(s), who obviously don't care for Metal, decided to complain to a social media platform about something I posted. That got me banned from posting links there under the former blog title Scumfeast Metal 666. Fine I just changed the name to what you see now. Hey I'm still here and, under our present day situation, will be more extreme then before.
Editor/Creator: Usurper of Eternal Condemnation and Inverted Opinions
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Extreme Metal or Music is generally a form which is accepted by 1% of all of the music loving public. It is elitist in every way and that's important to those of us who call ourselves fans. The 99% of people who will not like it are Not Supposed To. The music wasn't made for them, "the masses". It's music that's for those who take things to that "other" level. There is nothing hip or fad about it. In fact I treat those two notions very harshly.
