ZOMBIE EATER - Faces review

 

ZOMBIE EATER - Faces

Argonauta Records

Here's another Finnish band delving into old school Sludge Metal with cool results in my not so humble opinion. ZOMBIE EATER are a three piece act who don't play fuckin games. They just play Sludge Metal from it's original form with the volume turned up to 11. 

On this their debut full length ZOMBIE EATER deliver the goods as far as solid riffs, serpentine vocals and a fuckin great groove throughout this eight cut album. The musicianship is fuckin fantastic. The only sad note is that it's a great Sludge Metal album twenty five to thirty years passed it's born on date. 

For me personnally this band is great, I like this release a lot. It's great Sludge Metal. But it's honestly retro all the way. Hopefully some fan's of this genre will see past their jaded attitudes and enjoy the living fuck out of this one.  

https://www.argonautarecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://zombieeater.bandcamp.com/album/faces-2

BLUT AUS NORD - Ethereal Horizons review

 

BLUT AUS NORD - Ethereal Horizons

Debemur Morti Productions

So here we have the sixteenth full length by the French Black Metal band BLUT AUS NORD. Out of all of the second generation French BM acts I've always stuck with BLUT AUS NORD because they started out weird in the mid to late 90's. But I believe it was their sixth full length, Odinist - The Destruction of Reason by Illumination, which put them to the forefront of the French BM scene. 

Fast forward to 2011 when the band started that 777 trilogy which lasted to 2012. The first two albums were good but the third blew. From then onward BLUT AUS NORD has tried to erase everything Black Metal about themselves. 2022's Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses full length is were I got tired of it. And this new one seals the deal for me to stop being a fan.

BLUT AUS NORD started out as a cool BM act into progressing their sound with atmospheric touches and an avant-guard smack to the face. As of now with this release they're shoe-gazer bullshit. I mean sure if I was high on pot or tripping on some hallucinogenics then I'd really like this. But I'm not a fucking post hipster wannabe hippie. Also I hate those types of people. 

Sure the production on here is outstanding. You've got a wall of sound akin to those Euro BM shoe-gazers of decade or so ago. There's plenty of synth work. Oddly enough there's a touch of depressive French Post Punk going on here. In the end I chalk this one up to the same feelings I had for 2022's Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses. It's avant-garde BM to fall asleep to.

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

LISTEN HERE:

https://blutausnord.bandcamp.com/album/ethereal-horizons

REVENGE - Night Danger review

 

REVENGE - Night Danger

Dying Victims Productions

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet. Germany's Dying Victims Productions is that one label for people who love 80's underground Metal. "Troo Metal" as a friend of mine would say as he'd flash an album cover of a reissued rare band release in my face that he paid a hundred bucks for on Ebay. 

But the bands on this label are all fairly new and keeping the spirit of the 80's underground Metal scene alive and kicking. With that said here we have the tenth full length by Colombia's REVENGE. This band started out in 2002 and have kept the spirit of 80's Speed Metal alive and well in a revivalist way. 

This latest full length is down right fantastic. The songs remind ya of NWOBHM meets early Power Metal which is what most Speed Metal in the early 80's was all about. I like the production on here because the sound reminds me of vinyl albums from then which I have in the racks getting dusty. 

Then of course comes the songs, eight in all, with headbanging riffs, a perfect rhythm section to say the least and some dynamic guitar soloing as well. This is another winner to own. 

https://dying-victims.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/night-danger

DEPRAVITY - Bestial Possession review

 

DEPRAVITY - Bestial Possession

Transcending Obscurity Records

Well it's been five years since we've heard from Australia's most Brutal Death Metal act. While listening to this their third full length I see they've taken on a torture side to their musical performance. What I'm saying is at most times they're brutal imterpretors of pain and sufferring. But then they'll allow some elegant guitar come forth. Although most of the time it's dive bomb solos which are cool.

I like how when one song ends and it's as the beating torture is over. But then boom it's starts all over again. When I was in the military years ago we called that the Soviet / Commie torture technque. Be that as it may DEPRAVITY's third full length is a pit of Brutal Death Metal deprevity that goes unmatched in their nation.

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://depravitydeath.bandcamp.com/album/bestial-possession

BLOOD OF THE WOLF - V: Indomitable review

 

BLOOD OF THE WOLF - V: Indomitable

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions

Fall season albums are always the surprise killers that show up unanticipated and reek fuckin havoc. This one here covers my yearly thirst for Eastern European Blackened Death to the hilt but hey they're a four piece from Chicago, Illinois. So sorry to my friends in VADER and BELPHEGOR but this US band is vintage sounding brutality with a blackened edge.

BLOOD OF THE WOLF started out in 2013. Their full length debut, I: The Law of Retaliation, came out in 2015. Since then the band title all of their full lengths with Roman numerals and then a worded title. Their first two full lengths were self released. In 2019 the band released a four song EP with was III: Blood Legend and came out on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Since then the band has stayed with the label with releasing 2022's IV: The Declaration of War and this latest one. 

Like I mentioned earlier this is Euro-centric Brutal DM with touches of blackening. These eight tracks are perfect in that realm of extreme. The vocals have that brute force aggression. The riffs are part diabolical and on the attack. Add in the drum work which is on par with the riffs as in punishing or machine gun firing. The guitar soloing is where I'd take a point off since they're not out there in for the kill as opposed to what the band is doing for the most part.  

Yeah this album is fucking amazing. There's no atmospheric breaks, no instro intros or boredom. It's a relentless attack which is made to beat you down to pulp. I like this album a lot. You would like this album a lot if you're an Extreme DM fan. If you've read some of my recent DM album reviews on this blog (and frankly who doesn't). Then you would know I've been bored with a lot of DM these days. This album by BLOOD OF THE WOLF shatters all of that. It's one of the best fucking sounding DM albums of the year. 

https://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/v-indomitable

DWELLING BELOW - Wearisome Guardians reviews

 

DWELLING BELOW - Wearisome Guardians

Transcending Obscurity Records

Back in the mid to late 2000s you had a new league of bands giving the sub-genre of Death Doom a new set of legs to stand on. The sound was cavernous and had a claustrophobic atmosphere ridden with filth. The riffs were slow and heavy but once in a while they became psychotic. The guitar soloing was unpredictable as in lighting strikes. Finally the vocals were bestial and the rhythm section were either perfectly timed or totally eradic. It was definitely Death Doom with some blackened bits slipped in for fun.

Now since then every year there's a new band reproducing the same sound over and over again with not much progressive changes. Also you still have a few of that old guard trying their best to stay relevant in a scene with so many imitators. Then there's the fans who buy (hopefully) the records / CDs who are like wow this new band is just as good as the band I liked last year. 

Look I've never been accused of being jaded in the past but I have friends who are. They gave up on most new Extreme Metal a decade or so ago. I've always been the believer in new bands reinventing the old and giving it some open air to breath as well as infect the minds of young listeners. But as of now well this type of Death Doom has hit a brick wall just like most Black Metal and Old School Death Metal. 

With all of that said here's the second album by the US Death Doom act DWELLING BELOW. They're a three piece act who started out in 2023 and are also together in a Prog Tech Death band called HIERARCHIES. The three guys are guitarist Nicholas Turner, bassist Anthony Wheeler and drummer / vocalist Jared Moran. Also these guys are in a ton of other bands especially Jared Moran. 

These guys created a damm great sounding fifty plus minute dissonant Death Doom album.The musicianship is extraordinary. The soundscapes are all about dread as well as destruction. I've listened to at least a dozen full lengths this year doing this type of Death Doom style and I have to say this second album by DWELLING BELOW is the best. It also hits that brick wall I mentioned earlier. This is as best as it gets for this sub-genre. Everything after this one will be decent.   

https://tometal.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://dwellingbelow.bandcamp.com/album/wearisome-guardians

DETERIOROT - Awakening review

 

DETERIOROT - Awakening

Xtreem Music

First off there's a lot to unpack here. So as far as history goes back in the late 1980's there was a Death Metal band out of New Jersey called MORTUARY. Now since that name has been used by more than a few other bands this one changed their name to DETERIOROT. That was in 1990 and the band continued onward. It wasn't until 2001 when the band released their debut full length, In Ancient Beliefs, on a small California label. Interested parties should check out the 2016 reissue of this album on Xtreem Music. 

Now fast forward to 2010 which is when I first picked up a CD by DETERIOROT. It was their second full length which also came out on this label. Basically it was old school Death Metal which at that time was making a come back after many years of bullshit alterations. The band did come out with a third album, The Rebirth, in 2023 but I never heard it. 

Which brings us to the now and this the band's fourth full length over all. Basically you've got the mainman Paul Zavaleta from the old days, who now lives in Charolette, North Carolina, on vocals and guitar. With him are are a  bunch of younger die hards who've rercently joined him on this Old School DM journey. You've got Arthur Reid on guitar, Travis Meredith on bass and James Goetz on drums. 

So musically yeah this is an Old School Death Metal bone being gnawed upon by a beast from the underworld. Paul Zavaleta is probably one of the better DM vocalists out there who's never gotten the credit he's due. His singing style is bestial, sinister and downright creepy. I like it a lot mainly because it reminds me of what others I like have been doing over decades. 

Next up there's eleven songs, although the opening cut is an instro. As far as the songs go what you clearly have is a massive amount of Death Doom brutality joined with diabolical atmosphere. It's a combo of early USDM and early Finnish DM. The riffs are sinister, the guitar leads cut through the eeerie fog like knives stabbing an unknowing victim. Sometimes they're slow and foreboding but will kick into a speedy run. 

All in all it's an amazing release. In my type of world it would be one of the best US Death Metal albums of the year. Better yet it's a down right classic which should sit beside all of the others which came before. Nuff Said!

https://shop.xtreemmusic.com/english.main.index.php

LISTEN HERE:

https://xtreemmusic.bandcamp.com/album/awakening