MASTER'S HAMMER - Formulæ Label: Jihosound Records Released: 2016 With the exception of a few songs most of the material on here would probably be playing at a gay basement disco in Prague. The dj would announce "here's some MASTER'S HAMMER" then all the leather nazis would come out of the shadows onto the dance floor with their leashes and riding crops. I can see that and it's kinda funny I mean come on with a name like MASTER'S HAMMER? But what's not funny is that this Czech band put out one great album, Ritual, back in 1991 which was more steeped in first wave black metal. Their follow-up full length in 1992 wasn't bad but that's were good things end. I know some hipster loser will call this experimental, industrial black metal but it's not. It's disco, it's acid house dance music, it's rave for gays. It's pure crap if you are an extreme music fan. I don't fault MASTER'S HAMMER for putting this out. They're grown men, they know what they wanna create and how to make a few Euros on. Be that as it may, I hold no made up allegiance to anyone who chooses to play what I don't like.
SCUMFEAST METAL 666 - THE TOP 25 FAVORITE EXTREME METAL RELEASES FOR 2016 Year end of best of lists are either a pissing contest, a handout to friends and advatisers or simply a way to show people the appreciation you have for the music you like. I always try to be the latter. I might've restarted SCUMFEAST METAL 666 this December but I know good extreme music and I know what I like. Without any fanfare or bullshit, here's my top 25 favorite releases for 2016. 1. MIZMOR - Yodh 2. VINDLAND - Hanter Savet 3. BLOOD INCANTATION - Starspawn 4. WODE - Wode 5. PHOBOCOSM - Bringer of Drought 6. ULCERATE - Shrines of Paralysis 7. WRETCH - Wretch 8. INTER ARMA - Paradise Gallows 9. INQUISITION - Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith 10. ASPHYX - Incoming Death 11. DESTROYER 666 - Wildfire 12. BAPHOMET'S BLOOD - In Satan We Trust 13. INVERLOCH - Distance | Collapsed 14. SUMERLANDS - Sumerlands 15. GRAFVITNIR - Obeisance to a Witch Moon 16. ABBATH - Abbath 17. KHEMMIS - Hunted 18. FORTERESSE - Thèmes pour la rébellion 19. BLOOD CEREMONY - Lord of Misrule 20. QUICKSAND DREAM - Beheading Tyrants 21. HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE - Dead Revolution 22. GEHENNAH - Too Loud to Live, Too Drunk to Die 23. MOONSORROW - Jumalten Aika 24. SELLSWORD - ...And Now We Ride 25. DIAMOND HEAD - Diamond Head
According to this band's promo info they're a post black metal act. For years I've always refrained from using the term post black metal, or "post-anything" for that matter, since it's a meaningless term. Since your sound has multiple genre styles, how did the black metal portion get the lucky spot behind the "post" prefix? That's why I always use the term "blackened something or other" and for this band it works.
Since this band is from Switzerland, I look at em like a Swiss knife. You've got doses of doom and a splattering of metalish hardcore especially with the almost hoarse vocals. All of which is being held in place with that atmospheric black metal style kinda like glue. For me the disappointing part is in the vocals. Take the song "The Peak Of Ease" which starts out with a beautiful melodic lightly strummed guitar passage. You know a depressive blackness is about to burst forth but yet the metalcore vocals ruin it. The final cut, out of six, "Worlds Collide" showed promise.
Years ago (which for me is starting to be a repetitive way to start sentences but it's true) I was getting releases by all these French bands. They were calling themselves post black metal meets post hardcore meets post power-violence meets post emo meets whatever the fuck you wanna call it today. Basically you're confused life is represented through your music. You really don't know yet whatafuck you want to be. Fusion only impresses the easily impressed.
This is a side project by Astargh the mainman from the Ukrainian band ELDERBLOOD. Now while his main gig is fairly symphonic, blackened and decent, GREYABLAZE takes a more tranqual, melodic and very somber approach. The latter effect comes from the added delicate piano accompanments and pleasent guitar lead work. Yeah there's some harshness which blends in well with the overall depressive mood of this five song release.
Since I have a miserable cold right now, getting my head pummeled by anything audio, like ELDERBLOOD, is not part of the program. GREYABLAZE's self titled debut is the right prescription for today. Although I see this as an EP with just five tracks. Also since the tracks lack titles, only using numerals to define each one, I wonder if this was Astargh's throwaways from ELDERBLOOD's Messiah full length which also came out in 2016. His band's drummer, Odalv, is also in GREYABLAZE. At least the second track could've made it. Then again this could be Astargh showing us his deep sensitive side. Ah I'll stick with his symphonic stuff.
VENOMOUS CONCEPT - Kick Me Silly VC III Label: Season of Mist Released: 2016 It's been a few years since we heard from these guys, eight in fact. For those of you in limbo this is a side project by BRUTAL TRUTH's Kevin Sharp and NAPALM DEATH's Shane Embury. Basically it's them and some friends getting together to jam some hardcore and grind tunes. The friends on here are NAPALM DEATH's Danny Herrera, Dan Lilker who's played with everybody but still hangs his hat with NUCLEAR ASSAULT and John Cooke from CORRUPT MORAL ALTAR. As far as the music goes it's basically recycled grindcore which should be expected from a look at the participents. When they do decide to get down to some hardcore it's decent enough. But come on, why bother listening to some guys tip their hats to POISON IDEA when you could just put on Kings of Punk or War All the Time. There's twenty fuckin songs on here. I guess if you're pining for BRUTAL TRUTH-esque material then here ya go. Rating: 2/5 https://www.facebook.com/Official-Venomous-Concept-150740511612469/ http://www.season-of-mist.com/
I wasn't a VEKTOR fan back years ago. In fact I hate all progressive metal especially that bald fuck Devin Townsend. Now that I got that little matter out of the way here's VEKTOR's long awaited third full length. It's been five years since their last release but hey it takes a while to come up with the whole Sci-Fi lyric story plus write the music. It's not like they're robots. Plus during that time, aside from touring, the band moved from their home in Tempe, Arizona to Philadelphia, Pa. That way they can be close to Decibel magazine HQ to kiss their fuckin ass. But I digress.
While plenty of people still wanna lump VEKTOR into the thrash genre for street cred reasons, I think otherwise. VEKTOR is as much a thrash band as DEAFHEAVEN is a black metal act. From the beginning the band was gonna take the technical metal asthetics of VIO-VOD and latter day DEATH to new progressive extremes. They did it on their first two full lengths and Terminal Redux pushes the envelope. I think they're closer to DRAGONFORCE which will probably piss off their fans.
Just to give the band their due, sure when they are in full on thrash mode, like on "Ultimate Artificer" and "Pillars Of Sand", it's pretty cool despite the slight progressive elements within. The guitar work is pure finesse. I can't say I like the raspy black metal vocals. But when I hear a choir vocal, like on "Charging the Void”, I wanna cringe and turn it off. Then there's the length of the songs which I see as way too long at least for seminal thrash band. I mean a thirteen-plus minute closer? Hell I wanted to cut it off when the silly SUPERTRAMP shit kicked in at the six minute mark. After listening to this I cleansed my self by blasting MERCILESS DEATH.
The Beer: Hoptimist Brewery: White Street Brewery Location: Wake Forest, North Carolina I discovered Hoptimist about a year ago. Whenever I get off early from work I tell my cabbie to stop at a nearby convenient store so I can pick up a six pack or two. The store has a decent selection. So every once in a while instead of getting my usual brand I check out anything that catches my eye. Since I'm a hop-head I immediately saw Hoptimist as a contender for future drinking status. I fuckin love it. Hoptimist is a 7.5er IPA. It's a good drinking beer and it's local which I like to support when I can. Drink a six pack of these and start blasting the music. whitestreetbrewing.com
TRAUER - A Walk Into The Twilight Label: Nihilistische KlangKunst / War Against Yourself Records Released: 2016 Depressive black metal from Germany, yeah it would be great to stop right there with that description but ya know you can't. TRAUER are a two man outfit featuring Neideck, who plays bass, drums, guitars, keyboards and sings, and Arges also on guitar. Depressive in the cannon of black metal genre description has become a relative term over the years. You have your "I'm downing a bottle of vodka and loading a pistol" type depressive. Then there's the "I wanna kill you and then kill myself" depressive. Also there's the "I wanna be epic, cold and grim but I like a little melody" depressive . I think TRAUER falls into that latter category. A Walk Into The Twilight is definitely on the raw side production wise, which the True BM crowd demands. Neideck adds a lot of variety to the song structures whether it's some acoustic guitar or the seasoning of keyboards giving texture to the cold guitar riff-age. It's not a total bleak-fest. I didn't take a nap while it played in the background which does happen with this type of music on occasion. You can't crash during a song like "The Invocation Of The Parasites", can you? Rating: 3/5 https://nihilistischeklangkunst.bandcamp.com/album/nkk-014-last-way-cd-058-trauer-a-walk-into-the-twilight
Label: Sliptrick Records Released: 2016 Seriously I left the whole melodic death metal bandwagon years ago. I still keep a few cds but that genre just got too generic. Yeah I know that's funny since I still listen to a lot of black metal. Well be that as it may when I saw this band was from Sweden and supposedly had some blackness to em then I fell out of my chair laughing after which I figured I'd check em out. It's 2016 so who knows maybe they add something to a worn out style of metal. I'm glad I did since IN MY EMBRACE might not be bringing anything new to the party. What they do is decent enough to give em props. Black Waters Deep is their debut full length although they've previously released an EP, Dead to Dust Descend, in 2014. Basically it's melodic blackened death metal in speeds of slow sorrowful dirge and fast with medium paced blasting. Vocalist, Kenneth Larsson, has a great emotional guttural voice for this style. The songs on here all (except for the opening intro) have a dark and melodic feel to them, kinda like my ex-wife minus the lawyers of course. It's a good listen. Rating: 3/5 https://www.facebook.com/InMyEmbrace http://sliptrickrecords.com/
It's MAYHEM Alive 3 and it's in three formats, not counting big package with the patches and t-shirt. Now if it were a long-sleeve then it would be worth it. Whatafuck, where do I start? Well first off the question needs to be asked; What would Øystein Aarseth, aka: Euronymous, say? Ya think he's turning in his grave over this? A few years back the Norwegian Seismology Dept in Oslo reported some tremor activity which surprisingly enough coincided with Varg's release from prison. Further tremors were recorded on the same days new BURZUM releases came out. Well that was just for the first two, for the next ones it was quit calm.
As for me I think Euronymous would be proud. I mean think about it. This was his opus, his masterpiece which turned out to be the greatest black metal album of all time. (Don't even try to argue) The huge popularity and respect he craved while alive has finally come to bare. Actually this is a good idea for the band as well since that last studio release, Esoteric Warfare, was weak and the tour was ho hum as far as ticket sales. Also ever since Attila Csihar returned to the band in 2004, fans have been asking for this, craving for this.
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive was recorded at Black Christmass in Norrköping, Sweden on December 18, 2015. After all these years that was the first time this classic album was performed in it's entity live. About damm time but then again I don't think former guitarist, Rune Eriksen aka: Blasphemer, was keen on the whole idea. But now with guitarist's Ghul aka: Charles Edward and Teloch aka: Morten Bergeton (who's played live with a who's who of Norwegian black metal acts over the years) we the fans can finally get as close to the whole Euronymous/Blackthorn sound as possible.
Production quality is perfect, not too much crowd noise but then again they were probably too in awe or too busy taking pictures/recording the performance on their I-phones. Like I mentioned earlier, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive is being released on three formats. You got your double live vinyl, on cd and dvd. I've seen parts of the dvd and it looks cool as well. One more thing, I know there's a few other live MAYHEM releases out there but they're bootlegs. About 9 or 10 years ago all of those recordings were floating on the internet for people to download for free. I know I've got them. I have more MAYHEM releases (studio, live, official and boots) then any other black metal band. So if you're full of yourself right now by clutching some live MAYHEM boot that you paid for, you're a sucker. Nuff Said.
Seven inchers, EPs, Demos, etc, I get em all. These releases don't take much time or a college degree to write about. I'm only going to post reviews of the good stuff.
ABIGAIL/LUSTRUM - Too Wild for the Crowd split 7"
Eternal Death Records
Released: 2016
Nice little split here. ABIGAIL, Japan's filthy spawn of VENOM, have been around so long I've heard young people judge their releases as old or new school. Their two songs on here speed through familiar territory that fans will recognize, filth and fury.
LUSTRUM are a new band from the states featuring members from ONE MASTER and MORGIRION. The two cuts from them are simple first wave black fuckin metal. They like their HELLHAMMER so you know what to expect.
ALCOHOLIC RITES/LUSTRUM - Drunk and in Charge split 7"
Eternal Death Records
Released: 2016
ALCOHOLIC RIGHTS hail from Ecuador, play blackened thrash with a vocalist who sounds like Attila Csihar. That's good enough for me. They've got a full length coming out in 2017 titled Alcohomancy. I'll be on the lookout for that.
As far as LUSTRUM goes, their two cuts on here are better than the ones from their split with ABIGAIL. More first wave black metal with a tinge of punk thrown in for the house party crowd.
ROOT - Hell Symphony (25 Year Anniversary Reissue)
Eternal Death Records
Released: 2016
Years ago, going on 10 to be exact, soon after I started SFM666 I hooked up with some PR guys from Eastern Europe. They were the ones who sent me all of that obscure European black,death and folk metal in for review. After a while one of them started asking me how much I knew of the Eastern European metal scene and the various bands. I told him not as much as I wished. Next thing he was sending me all of these older obscure releases, mostly black metal in the vein of NSBM. Another time he asked me about ROOT. I told him yeah they were good but I only had one release by them. Soon after he sent me the complete disography of ROOT. Well it wasn't that complete but it was five full lengths, one of which was Hell Symphony.
These days almost everyone into black metal knows about ROOT but for the few who don't I'll give ya the skinny. ROOT started out in Czechoslovakia back in the late 80s when it was still a communist country. Back then while bands like BATHORY and VENOM were metal household names, the term black metal had not made it's way into are lexicon. Over their long career they've amassed a huge discography. Leader and vocalist, Big Boss, is the sole remaining original band member. ROOT is his vehicle, his life.
Hell Symphony is the ROOT's second full length and arguably their best or at least a cult favorite amongst fans. I think it's a fuckin classic. Musically it stands more in the vein of thrash, death and traditional metal. People schooled in the second or third wave traditions of black metal might not get the whole concept and cult status of ROOT. Be that as it may here's another reissue of Hell Symphony for your vinyl collection, which you never play anyway. Rating: 5/5
After listening to this Texas' band's debut full length I'm thinking MANILLA ROAD, CIRITH UNGOL, Conan the Barbarian, etc. ETERNAL CHAMPION are conjuring up the ghosts of traditional heavy metal musically and artistically if you look at the cd cover. Years ago once the whole thrash revival peetered out, the next big revival became the new wave of traditional heavy metal. There were a lot of cool bands that came from that and these Texans continue the fight. Now with many of those acts they chose the high road, playing in the old style but bringing it up to date in sound and production. ETERNAL CHAMPION chose to go for authenticity.
The Armor of Ire could easily have been some newly discovered gem from the 80s that labels like Heaven & Hell or Shadow Kingdom found the original tapes to and decided to reissue. Of course afterwards you'd have a flurry of ebay activity by collector scum all trying to get their dirty cheeto stained fingers on a copy of the original release. Yeah that happens.
When I say ETERNAL CHAMPION chose the authentic path I mean they nail it. The band named themselves after a fictional charactor from English fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock. The songs are basically the tales of the Eternal Champion. You could call this a concept album of sorts. But this band's essence is always going to be it's adherance to classic American heavy metal whether it's the muffled vocals, the guitar harmonies, the cool no nonsense guitar solos, etc. As far as the genre goes I love this. I am the Hammer, Hails.
CTULU - Self Titled Label: MDD Records Released: 2016 Blackened, Lovecraftian something or other from these Germans at least that's what I get out of listening to the new one by CTULU. Yeah I know this band from years ago at a time when I was getting a lot of extreme and obscure stuff in for review from Europe. I actually got a CD of their's packed away in one of my containers in the storage bin. The moving in to my new place process is slow. Be that as it may it's been 3 years since CTULU has released anything other than having their previously sold out 2011 CD, Sarkomand, reissued this year. According to the band they've been "collecting pathetic disappointments for three years now and transformed them into hate." On this new one CTULU have moved more towards the blackened death vein although they still throw hints of post 1994 era MAYHEM, especially on cuts like "Totenhauswinde" and "Dämmerung". There's that similarity within the pummeling riffs and frantically paced blast-beats. The rest of this is standard blackened death with simple chugging riffs, hoarse vocals (what happened to rasps and chanting from the early days?) mid tempo breaks to dampen the intensity. Sorry guys but I just don't feel the call. Rating: 2/5 https://www.facebook.com/ctulumetal www.ctulu.de
I first learned about FORTERESSE back in 2009. Some magazine had an article about the Quebec black metal scene and they were featured in it. The piece was interesting enough that I wanted to check out FORTERESSE. Since I was doing SFM666 at the time I just emailed one of my PR contacts (a guy who use to send me all this obscure black metal releases) to see if he knew how to get me something to hear and review from the band or their label, Sepulchral Productions. Well it took some time but the guy finally came through with the band's Les hivers de notre époque release from 2008. Although it was cool that I got it, I nixed the idea of a review since it was a year old (actually it was closer to two). Still it was a decent release but I never bothered to keep up with them as far as their future releases and career went. That was up until this year around August when I read about this release.
Obviously FORTERESSE have moved on from their basic second wave blackened style of eight years ago plus they've dropped the folksy stuff as well. Sound-wise they've become fuller, colder and down right mean, not that they weren't all that years ago. It just feels like now their music has a clear sense of purpose beyond that of just being good sounding black metal. Things have been given room to grow. The riffs have a bigger bite as well as variety. The tremolo picked leads are like icy needles stabbing you. The rhythmic intensity throughout is far more fierce and yet they allow room for a fluid melody to it all. Yeah this is still angry in your face black metal. The vocals are pure volatile but it's not out to exploit but to explain to the listener, "we're pissed and here's why, join us".
Thèmes pour la rébellion is a concept album (there's your "purpose") about a failed attempt in 1837-38 by the people, in what we now call Quebec, who wanted sovereignty and a homeland. Obviously there's still a lot of animosity up there and bands like FORTERESSE are supporters of Quebec nationalism. The release opens with the muffled sounds of shouting and gunfire. You hear someone's footsteps across a wooden floor then a door opening as if giving witness to the rebellion. Then the music commences and chaos ensures just like the cover of Thèmes pour la rébellion depicts. All in all a great release.
FACES OF THE BOG - Ego Death Label: Self Released Released: 2016 According to this band promo info they were "conceived in a dingy practice space in the fall of 2011 in Humboldt Park, Chicago". IN OTHER WORDS the band started out in a $100 a month rental storage unit in a part of Chicago where they weren't likely to get robbed or get lead poisoning if ya know what I mean. Next "the band relies heavily on atmosphere and mood to create melodic textures accompanied by crushingly brutal riffs, guiding its listeners through a psychedelic journey all the while". IN OTHER WORDS they smoked a lot of pot inside that storage bin over the years until one day one of the band members suggested that they turn some of their jams into songs. Ok that's probably not true (or is it?) since listening to this a bunch of times. They could be straightedge for all I know. One thing you can't call them is generic. FACES OF THE BOG come from that sludgy side of the street but on this their full length debut this Chicago four piece stretches the genre's boundaries. At first listen I wasn't too impressed but I just kept listening to their songs and allowed their formula to take over. I'm happy I did. I can't say I love all the cuts on here but for the ones I do, well they're worthy of your attention. Songs might not be the right word description. Cuts like "The Serpent & The Dagger" and "Drifter in the Abyss" are more like sludgy psych damaged interpretations of tales from a book handed to them by some traveler from the astral plane. Look at the cover art to see what inspired me to write that line. The band uses powerful chunks of sludge riffs as a tribal summons with added barked vocals. Later on a calm clean ritualistic vocal tells the tales. The title cut is probably the most head crushing moment on here and even that's partially tinged with some psych/progressive elements. Their opus is "Blue Lotus" is an eleven and a half minute sludge/psych closer with touches of HAWKWIND meeting NEUROSIS for a toke in an alley behind a nightclub. You can't help having the song dragging you along to the point where you lose sight of what you were doing. Kinda like the time I saw this red eyed albino dude in downtown. I stopped and stared at em as he walked by on the other side of the street. Then I ended up following him for a few blocks until I realized oh shit I've got to get to work.
If you're interested then you can buy this from the band's Bandcamp site. Then again you can wait it out because in the Spring of 2017 DHU Records will be releasing Ego Death on vinyl as a 2X LP. Hopefully it's a gatefold sleeve because that way you can listen to the music while you clean your weed. Ah yes, memories from the 70s. Pass me the bong, I think I'm Ozzy. Rating: 3/5 https://facesofthebog.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/facesofthebog
If you would have told me in January that in December the one black metal release on almost everyone's end of year best of lists (everyone with good taste that is) would be by a little known band from France who could just as well be a WINDIR tribute act, I would of said "In 2016? Yeah sure". Yes I am serious because after all of these years, especially listening to and watching all the craziness in the black metal scene, nothing really surprises me much. Think about it, here you have a band that put out a demo in 2007 and an obscure seven song self released ep, Ancestors' Age, in 2009 (which no one knew about, don't bullshit me) and puts out a full length in 2016 that sounds exactly like a beloved Norwegian, albeit second tier, black metal act. Hell five years ago genre enthusiasts would be screaming "FALSE"! But nowadays this band's been getting a million keystrokes of praise. Go figure?
As always let me be brutally honest with you. After listening to Hanter Savet a few times I pulled out my copies of WINDIR's Likferd and 1184 (yeah I know I'm not a completest go ahead call me names, fuck you) Next I started playing them together to see how close a comparison between the two bands was. Yeah well after a while I got confused. Has anyone asked VREID what they think? So let's just cut to the chase. VINDLAND's Hanter Savet is an absolutely beautiful sounding release. It's melodic black metal with such a rich tone that carries you along. And sure let's just toss out all the cliches shall we? It's epic, it's majestic sounding, I can feel my pagan blood rushing through my veins. Well not really I was born in New Jersey but you get the idea.
Supposedly band mainman, Camille Lepallec, spent four years writing/working on Hanter Savet. That's obvious just by listening to the well balanced amount of melodic riffs versus the exquisite harmonies. The way the time signatures simply flow with their changes without being jolted out of your seat. The subtle allowance of lead guitar work as if it were decorations to complement instead of mandatory requirements. Musically that's the basic draw to this style of black metal. As far as the vocals go, they're what I like to call "real guy harsh" touched with the various emotional throes of triumph and sadness. There's plenty of ambient (atmospheric dude) intros, outros and in song segues to give you time to pause and reflect or in my case go to the toilet.
Yeah Hanter Savet follows the whole blackened pagan/folk genre to the hilt. I have no qualms about that since I'm a genre fan. Also I'm not going into discussing the individual cuts. Releases like this are best looked upon as a body of work much like a classical piece of music as opposed to a collection of songs, which there are nine with only one I'd consider long at eleven minutes plus. Nor am I impressed or jaded enough to care that the lyrics are sung in Breton which is a language from the VINDLAND's home in Britianny, France. Let's be honest, 90% of black metal vocals are a mix of rasps, howls, wails and grunts. If it weren't for lyric sheets you wouldn't know whatafuck they were singing about.
Perfection is a rarity in my book and in metal music so Hanter Savet does have a few scratches upon it's pristine surface. After repeated plays things get monotonous and that wandering off feeling turns to nap time. I found folding laundry while this played to be a fitting chore. Sorry there's no ice giants or trolls in the back woods for me to slay anymore not since the woods were torn down and replaced by a high end housing project. Be that as it may Hanter Savet is a great release. Is it a tribute to Valfar of WINDIR, did his spirit inspire VINDLAND to continue on with his musical legacy (because VREID sure as hell didn't) or is it simply a very well done cloning of WINDIR? For now I don't know that answer and I wouldn't trust any metal media scribe who believes they do. I'll just place this in my own list of 2016's best.
Ya know I remember six or seven years ago when the whole New School of Old School Death Metal revival started. First you had these young Swedes reworking old riffs from bands like MERCILESS, NIHILIST and GRAVE. Don't get me wrong, I loved every bit of it. Then here in the states you had equally sick and twisted youths re-doing old AUTOPSY and INCANTATION. It was two good years of death doom mania up until the mainstream discovered what was happening and well history repeated itself. By 2012 it was like wow this band sounds exactly like a Left Hand Path/Into The Grave tribute band. Nowadays you can't swing a dead hipster at a Guitar Center store without hitting a guitarist looking for the right pedals to give him that "old school sound dude".
I say that with an air of disgust since I've endured this release by Germany's ZOMBIESLUT for what seems like an eternity but it's really only been a day. Ya know if you're really into extreme metal and a band comes along with the name ZOMBIESLUT, you pretty much know what to expect. In all honesty I was thinking porno grind or at least these Germans were the unintended offspring of the guys from MORTICIAN or INFERNAL TORMENT. I was wrong. This ep is basically old school death metal which is cool but there's nothing that stands out or apart from a third rate demo from 1987. Also there's the one missing ingredient, an insane spine ripping guitar solo in any of their songs. I mean whatafuck do these guys play weddings?
Massive Lethal Flesh Recovery is basically a teaser ep for their forthcoming third full length, Death Propaganda. You have six cuts, two are new and four are re-recorded tracks from the band's debut lp, Braineater from 2010. A teaser, are you kidding me? Hell listening to this I feel like I'm in an elevator with this playing over head. I'm tapping the husky receptionist in front of me to please push a button, any button. I just wanna get out and fuck it I'll take the damm stairs. Hopefully this is throwaway tracks and their new one rips a little better.
This band's promo info starts out as follows; "The beginning of BOLESNO GRINJE was back in the year 2000, when two enthusiasts Hoc and Rio started rehearsing with the idea to make something new on the Croatian underground scene." Ok so now all of you low information metal heads are problably asking yourselves A) Do I really care about the Croatian underground scene? And B) ahhh, were's Croatia? Well the answer to the first question is maybe, if you're into death metal and grind. As for the second question, just forget it. For those of you who remember the previous years of Scumfeast Metal 666 (2009 - 2012), yours truly use to write about a lot of eastern European underground metal bands, mainly because they fuckin sent me their stuff in for review. And honestly, most of it was decent or even equal to the stuff that some of the larger well known metal labels were releasing at the time. While the hiptards were drooling over alt-metal shit I was discovering anger, pain and hostility inspired extreme metal. Thankfully on my return things haven't changed, for example this one. It's been a long 16, going on 17, years since BOLESNO GRINJE was in it's embryo stage. Right now Hoc, the bassist, is the sole remaining band member. Also since 2002 even with the band's various line-up changes they've managed to put out a hefty catalog of releases. They've got twelve in all and eight of em are full lengths which includes this one. Also if you're wondering, BOLESNO GRINJE translates to English as "Sick Mites". After listening to this I assure you they're aptly named. I've been blasting GRD on continuous play for a few hours now. It's a twenty-eight minute release with ten cuts so yeah that's a long time. Labeling these guys as simply death/grind seems a bit limiting. Sure most of it could well distinguish BOLESNO GRINJE as Croatia's answer to BRUTAL TRUTH. (well maybe in a junior role) Sure it's fast, death metal heavy and their vocalist, Angeri, has a power violent roar that can pulverize concrete. The opener, (Rstrgn" (aka: Torn apart) proves that as well as dictating to the listener you're about to get your head smashed and you will like it. But unlike the typical death/grind acts, BOLESNO GRINJE explores different extreme styles whether it's metalish hardcore, "Genijalci" (aka: Geniuses) to cool headbanging death and roll, "Asimilacija" (aka: Assimilation). The rest of GRD is decent death/grind which should make genre obsession-ists on the alert to find this release. Rating 4/5 https://www.facebook.com/BolesnoGrinje
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
Formerly SCUMFEAST METAL 666 and now EXTREME METAL MANIAC Blog
Info Articles Opinions & Reviews
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created and maintained by mr. wolf:
band or label inquiries about a review can contact me via email. All those inquiries will definitely be checked out. No guarantees of course. I only write about what interests me. You can also contact me through the Facebook page on the link or use my email address mr.wolf69@yahoo.com
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.
