GRAVE INFESTATION / NOROTH Split EP review

 

GRAVE INFESTATION / NOROTH Split EP

Carbonized Records

Hey I love split releases but on here we just get one song a piece from each band. Wow how punk rock of ya. Back decades ago when I was all into collecting vinyl I had tons of 7"er split releases with just one song per band. The stuff I liked ended up on cassette compilations. Worse yet was when one of the band's songs was from their new album. So the label was basically pairing a hit song from one band while adding it with a band you did not know or might of cared for.

Be that as it may on here we've got a song from NOROTH "Trepanation Ritual" which is not a song from their last album or a throwaway track. Actually this could've appeared on their last album. Yes it's cool sounding old school diabolical death metal. Ya gotta love the bass lines at the end of this track. Now as far as GRAVE INFESTATION goes they're a four piece Death Metal band out of Canada. They've been around since 2018 and have one full length to their credit, Persecution of the Living, which came out in 2022. They're brand new to me. 

GRAVE INFESTATION's one song contribution to this EP is " Necroslaughterhouse". First off that should be an album title. just saying. But musically these Canadians are more into an onslaught of the Death Metal style. Obviously on this cut they're influenced by early DEATH. It's a great sounding cut which reminds me of the early days when extreme bands morphed from Thrash to what we now recognize as DM. Not only do I like this song a lot but I've gotta get a copy of their full length. 

So it's a fuckin tough call here on who's better. But sure I think NOROTH are amazing and have an excellent full length which came out this year. But GRAVE INFESTATION are a band who are doing something which I've been wanting to hear for years. That being taking that DEATH influence and showing what that band could've done if Chuck didn't go off the deep end. So yeah GRAVE INFESTATION wins this bout. Furthermore this should be a 7" picture disc. Hey look at the cover. Nuff Said!  

https://carbonizedrecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://carbonizedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/noroth-grave-infestation

NOROTH - Sacrificial Solace review

 

NOROTH - Sacrificial Solace

Carbonized Records

Ladies & Gentleman and you others I'm writing as a professional here. When you have raw meat sitting around whether it's ground beef on the kitchen counter, a dead animal in the street or a dead body in the woods you're gonna get flies. I say that because this band uses a background sound of flies buzzing around and it's death metal so there you go. 

Anyways this is the third full length by Seattle, Washington's NOROTH. They're a three piece death act who revel in the old school genre foundations yet make it sound fresh to a point. It's all about death, doom, pain, suffering and more pain. Sound-wise these guys come across as if GRAVE meets INCANTATION with the vocalist from HOODED MENACE. 

There's eight cuts on here with a running time of twenty-two minutes. Technically that's short for a DM album. Especially one where every song just oozes out complete diabolical filth. I'm talking about a sound putrid enough to make a grown mainstream music fan puke. And ya know what if this album came out say in 1990 it would be considered one of the all time best DM albums. 

Now sure some jaded people will say this newer old school Death Metal is just copy and paste from past greats. I'd say yeah but let's consider a few things. First off NOROTH is now and the past greats are no more at least many of em and the ones hanging on are just bad examples of themselves. Secondly this album sounds amazing now while many releases from past bands have to rely on remixed / remastered copies. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, and you lame-stream people puking. I'm not dissing on the past. I am a fan of the DM past and appreciate when certain new bands bring it all back to an exciting way. NOROTH does that in an amazing way. This album rules! 

https://carbonizedrecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://carbonizedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sacrificial-solace

ENSIFERUM - Winter Storm review

 

ENSIFERUM - Winter Storm

Metal Blade Records

In all honesty it's been quite a while since I checked out an album by this Finnish Folk Metal act. Actually I liked em back in the late 2000's when the whole Viking Metal / Pagan Fest type of stuff was going on. I've still got two full lengths from em, Victory Songs from 2007 and From Afar which came out in 2009. I did hear the band's 2012 full length Unsung Heroes and wasn't thrilled with it. Then again by 2012 I was not so enthralled with the whole pagan metal genre trend. 

So here I am over a decade later back with ENSIFERUM with their ninth album and I think fourth on Metal Blade Records. And here's a shocker I actually like this one. Now just for the record ENSIFERUM were never a Viking Metal band or even a real Folk Metal act. Basically their sound was always melodic death metal and power metal with a load of songs dealing in medieval Finnish battle metal. It's all about fantasy as opposed to history lyrically. These guys were always swinging their would be swords for a Wacken stage spot as opposed to underground coolness. 

With that said Winter Storm pretty much fits the whole epic sound structure. The production on here just amps up everything this band is known for. You've got these galloping rhythms, massive power riffs, harsh and clean vocals plus whispered vocals as well as gang vocals, guest female vocals by Madeleine Liljestam, subtle keyboards and a mighty rhythm section. I know welcome to the mainstage at Wacken. 

Yeah this is a cool sounding album. ENSIFERUM in the past were never a perfect band for me. But they've always came out with a few cool as fuck songs on the albums I liked. On this one inbetween the un-neccissary instrumentals there's cool cuts like "The Howl", "Fatherland", "Winter Storm Vigilantes", "Scars in My Heart" with Madeleine Liljestam and the really epic eight and a half minute "From Order to Chaos". So hell yeah I'm a ENSIFERUM fan again. 

https://www.metalblade.com/us/

LISTEN HERE:

https://ensiferum.bandcamp.com/album/winter-storm

DEIVOS - Apophenia review

DEIVOS - Apophenia

Selfmadegod Records

Through the years not only have I been a huge fan of Polish Death Metal but I've always name dropped VADER as one of my all time favorite bands from that great nation. So here I am in 2024 and I've gotta say sorry Piotr but DEIVOS has become my new favorite Polish Death Metal band. Years ago when I discovered em they had a ferocious unrelenting sound which was punishing. And since then they just get better and more exciting to here. 

A few years ago I thought DEIVOS's Casus Belli, from 2019, was fuckin amazing. But here we are now with their follow up seventh full length and this fucker is Polish DM perfection. DEIVOS were always, in my not so humble opinion, VADER 2.0. Yes they can provide the brutality, the harshness and their tech death attributes were not annoying. In fact it made their sound far more interesting. Instead of depending on the brutal head crushing laurels DEIVOS, especially on here, makes you stop and listen to their audio war. 

I'm blasting this now after midnight and you know it's a rude sound to those uninitiated. You've got straight up guttural vocals. The chugging riffs meets dynamic drumming is devastating. You've got a combo of dive bomb and twisted soloing. Once again the drum work as well as the bass playing is almost militaristic in it's formula. All in all listening to this release just grabs a hold of ya and hits with a surprise or two.Yeah this is why I listen to Death Metal. 

https://selfmadegod.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://selfmadegod.bandcamp.com/album/apophenia

DEKONSTRUCTOR - Ominous Game review

 

DEKONSTRUCTOR - Ominous Game

Self Released

The first time I listened to this I was like wait a minute I've heard this band and written about em before. I was wrong. It's not the band but their style of death thrash which is reminiscent of other great stuff I like. This is the second full length by this four piece act from Costa Rica. The band has been around since 2013 but their first official release came out in 2017 which was a three song demo titled Life Sucking Machines. 

In the past I've always mentioned that despite Thrash being a US metal thing. For me over the past couple of decades I've found the best thrash coming from elsewhere. I'll add to that by saying thrash from Central and South America has pretty much ruled the extreme metal landscape. And this release right here just fuckin proves it. 

Ominous Game is seven amazing tracks that don't break any new ground. Instead they reinforce the coolness of fuckin death thrash extreme metal mania. The vocals are straight up angry. The riffs are pounding to the point of slam pit action. The guitar soloing is fuckin fantastic. And the rhythm section once again screams slam pit action. 

Look people I've said it before that I'm not a huge thrash fan anymore. Mainly because modern thrash is so boring or copycat bullshit. The only thing of late that gets me outta my complacency is something like this. I mean not only does their music make you wanna run through walls but there's some head banging cuts as well. So to the lame-stream music fans out there fuck the bullshit and listen to this.

DEKONSTRUCTOR should be a Thrash household name.   

LISTEN TO and BUY IT HERE:

https://dekonstructor.bandcamp.com/album/ominous-game

ARKONA - Stella Pandora review

 

ARKONA - Stella Pandora

Debemur Morti Productions

First off this is ARKONA from Poland and not the Russian band of the same name. As far as this band goes they've been around since the mid-90's. I first got into em in the late 2000's when I picked up their third CD Nocturnal Arkonian Hordes which came out in 2002. I got another release by em, Lunaris, from 2016. Both of those CDs are cool but I never was a completest with this band. 

So here we are with ARKONA's 8th full length and just for the record the band does have a ton of material out their whether it's comps or short form releases. Anyways this Polish band's sound is melodic symphonic black metal. Now if you're probably going "Ah What" then let me explain. For those of us who have been listening to BM for decades we know symphonic black metal has been heavily criticized. I mean the only BM which has gotten worse attacks has been hipster BM which ain't BM at all. But hey it's 2024.

What I like about ARKONA is that they take the old ways of say DARK FUNERAL and DIMMU BORGIR then add in some cool atmosphere instead of the over the top synths or Czech orchestras. Yeah this four piece act is steeped into the late 1990's BM all the way. To me it's cool and comforting. The vocals are harsh. The riffs are punishing as well as icy. The rhythm section is fucking amazing. What synths there are is held so far in the background that they matter little. 

In the end I like this a lot especially listening to it late at night. I give props to the drum work on here because it's savage. The vocals come across as agonizing as well as sorrowful. And the song structures on all six tracks are interesting. Stella Pandora just has a good flow as it plays out. Melodic Symphonic Black Metal ain't a band sub genre anymore.  

https://www.debemur-morti.com/en/

LISTEN HERE:

https://arkona.bandcamp.com/album/stella-pandora

HIGH WARDEN - Astral Iron review

 

HIGH WARDEN - Astral Iron

Dying Victims Productions

For me this label, Dying Victims Productions, has been a cool go to for NWOBHM revival acts but now they've released a debut album by a Doom band and I think they're on the right path. Here we have the debut full length by Germany's HIGH WARDEN. They're a three piece act whose Doom style is more on that line of epic heavy metal. While listening to this release I'm thinking these guys sound like they're from Midwest America. 

In all honesty HIGH WARDEN are not breaking any new ground. But they are bringing in some cool sounds to a genre style which I miss. To me they remind me of GATES OF SLUMBER who I'm a huge fan of. But HIGH WARDEN are not ripping them off. No the sound here is pretty damm good. First and foremost you've got an amazing vocalist in Alexander Mock. I mean this guy sounds like he's calling out from a mountain top into a valley. Plus his guitar riffs and soloing are pretty damm good as well.

HIGH WARDEN's full length debut is six songs in length. Actually five cuts of fantasy driven doom style heavy metal with an instrumental tossed in. I've gotta rake leaves tomorrow and I will blast this on the outdoor speakers. It's ironic that this release comes out now in the Fall here where I live and is so perfect sounding for the time of the season. Yeah this one fuckin rules!

https://dying-victims.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/astral-iron