SMOKE MOUNTAIN - Self Titled Self Released Here we have the self-titled debut EP from a Tallahassee, Florida band who sound like they wanna be the next CASTLE or WINDHAND with less musicians. SMOKE MOUNTAIN are a three piece stoner rock outfit whose influence comes solely from the b-side of SABBATH's Masters of Reality and side A of Volume Four. I won't fault em for that since in this genre it's SABBATH or bust. It is too bad that Iomni can't get at least something monetary from all of his riffs being borrowed. But anyways as I mentioned before, SMOKE MOUNTAIN are a three piece which got together a few years ago and consists of Sarah Pitt on vocals, Lee Pitt on guitar and Brian Pitt on drums. By the way Sarah and Lee are married plus Lee and Brian are brothers. Talk about a family affair. Maybe if the brother gets married then they'll have a bass player. By the way this EP of theirs also contains three cuts which is tolerable considering there's not much in the way of variety going on. But lets give credit to which it's due. The release starts out with a cool uptempo cut "Demon" which really reminds me of CASTLE. You've got some real dirty stoner riffage with Sarah's dark vocals carrying it through. The drum work is standard bang and crash but hey it works. After that the band gets more sludgey and fuzzy on "Violent Night" with the vocals coming close to the wails of WINDHAND's Dorthia Cottrell. The final cut, the eponyous "Smoke Mountain", is a mid-tempo dirge. Of course this is just a small taste since the band is planning to release a full length in the near future. Maybe if the drummer gets married they'll have a bass player. Either way I like who they sound like and those two bands have peetered out of late so SMOKE MOUNTAIN might take over. https://smokemountaindoom.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/smokemountaindoom/
HORSESKULL - Chemical Winter Blues Self Released I believe I said it years ago (ah yeah five years to be exact) but I'll repeat, the whole stoner/sludge sub genre of doom has been milked dry. In fact the cow is nothing more than picked bovine bones which even hipsters have broken in order to suck out the marrow. These days it's either bands trying their best to ape critical faves like (choose one: BARONESS, ELECTRIC WIZARD, NEUROSIS or SLEEP) or going all out hyfinated as in post this or blackened that. So whenever a release by a band of the stoner/sludge catagory comes along for me it's not who they try to be but who they really are. HORSESKULL are a four piece band who hail from Raleigh, North Carolina. They are not a band of upstarts riding a wave of trendy popularity instead they are veterans who have already walked threw the sub-genre's second wave when they were called SOUL PREACHER. They reached their peak at a time when the genre was peaked out and finally called it a day. Then in 2011 members Michael Avery on guitars and effects, Anthony Staton on vocals and guitars, Robb Hewlett on bass joined up with Steve Smith on drums to take their patented stoner/sludge sound to another realm. After releasing a phenominal self titled full length in 2014 which laid out their departure from the past and a pissed off push forward, HORSESKULL now rolls out their sophmore full length. For the longest time I thought that the band's ultimate strength is the energy they create on stage. (Bias Alert: Yeah I'm a fan, seen em live a bunch of times and will be seeing em again in a week.) On Chemical Winter Blues the band channels that live setting energy right from the onset. Opener "Black Dawn, Bright Day" is a sonic wake-up call and sits well with HORSESKULL's motto; Turn up, Tune down, and DOOM OUT! The song has it's obvious SABBATH-ian influence (don't they all in this genre?) with subtle hints of PAGAN ALTAR and maybe some REVEREND BIZARRE. Other cuts like "Hypocrites and Pigs" and "Luckless Bastards" are full on aggressive doom. This ain't about peace, love and dope people. Think more like bongs, guns and hate (trust me I know something about that). Chemical Winter Blues is five cuts in all and there are two long psych/mindbending ones. "The Black Flame of Cain" runs around ten minutes and comes off as a lamenting pagan calling out on the sorrows of his curse. "Lost All I Had Then Lost Again" sounds like a tale from the dark side, or maybe someone headed to the electric chair, which goes on for over seventeen minutes. It's the closer and yet you're screaming for more afterwards. I'm definately liking this new one more because of the live in your face asthetic plus the band relies on more depth overall. Anthony's vocals are like calls from a shamen. The guitar work, by Anthony and Michael, show a low tuned assault instead of just typical grooving riffs. The leads are hypnotic as if an acid tinged power drill maniac was on the loose. As far as the rhythm section of Robb and Steve. The drumwork either powers you down or leads you out on a trail of hyponotism. The bass work is obviously a callasp on reality, crushing most often. Yeah I love this one. https://horseskull.bandcamp.com/album/chemical-winter-blues https://www.facebook.com/Horseskull/
DREAMING DEAD – Funeral Twilight Hammerheart Records I was a fan of DREAMING DEAD early on in their career. I picked up their debut, Within One, back in 2009. Unfortunately for them they were tagged as a female fronted melodic death metal band. The female in question is guitarist/vocalist Elizabeth Schall and lumping them into the melo-deth camp was wrong. One listen to Within One will have you believing this band can play multiple metal genres but if I were to slam in a peg I'd say death thrash would be more to the point. A year later I got to see them play locally on a four band bill. They were great and that was the last I heard of em up until now. The band did put out a full length in 2012 but that was a self released dink. So now here we finally have something new from them. First off this is on Hammerheart Records, a quality label by far. Next up Funeral Twilight does continue on where the band left off years ago with their debut. Once again the guitar work is subtle on the riff explosions but solo wise Schall just slices and dices. Her playing style seems to be more based in blues rock and jazz fusion then metal. That makes the songs all the more exciting. Also her witch sounding vocals were always a huge selling point for me. While songs like “Your Grave”, "Widowed" and “Buried” are full on ragers you've also got some progressive nods with "No Masters, No Slaves", "Beyond the Black Moon" as well as the title cut. It's been five years since DREAMING DEAD's last release (2012's self released Midnightmares) and I know that in those years Schall has also been playing CRETIN as well as Dia de los Muertos (aka: Day of the Dead). So I believe I can get away with saying that Funeral Twilight is a comeback release or at least a return to form. It's a release with enough variety to make anyone who appreciates metal into a fan. Hopefully I'll get to see the band on tour this year. http://www.hammerheart.com/ https://dreamingdeadmusic.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/dreamingdeadBAND/
DIABLERY / SHADOWCRAFT - Entropy Black Market Metal Label This is a split release between two Greek black metal acts, DIABLERY and SHADOWCRAFT. Both of em are new to me so I thought hey cool new music. Both bands provide three cuts each but actually it's two cuts and an opening intro by them. First up is DIABLERY a four piece act who've been around for a decade and have a handful of releases under their belts. Sound-wise they've got a symphonic flair going for em on their cuts. The shorter than a minute intro is a throwaway as far as I'm concerned. Their actual two cuts contain theatrical style keyboard interludes amidst blast beats and melodic picked riffs. Although the vocals have that savage quality to them musically this comes across as average Swedish style black metal. Next up it's SHADOWCRAFT a band whose been around slightly longer but unfortunately only has one full length and a bunch of demos to their name. Their part of this split starts off with a longer guitar based intro with added keyboard aesthetics for atmosphere and male/female ghostly vocal wisps. Once again it's a throwaway in my book. Now as far as their two actual tracks go, once again it's symphonic but with a Euro-folk metal style to it. The vocals bounce around in tempos from gruntles to harsh. The keyboards keep things in an epic pace with song structures twisting from melodic passages to grandiose operatic showmanship and that's just the first track. The second one follows in the same flow. The funny thing about this release is that none of these bands follow any homegrown Hellenic black metal style. Of the two I'd say SHADOWCRAFT is the far more interesting of the pairing. Maybe because they're flailing head first into battle metal territory. Ether way it's a decent short form release. http://www.blackmarketmetal.net/ https://diablery.bandcamp.com/
HELSLAVE - Divination Black Market Metal Label First off the promo info on this band suggested that this was Swedish inspired death metal in the vein of such great bands (and faves of mine) GRAVE, ENTOMBED and DESULTORY. Ah yeah I'll agree with the GRAVE influence but it's newer GRAVE which is just as cool. HELSLAVE are a five piece Italian death metal act who have been around for a few years. Prior to this one they've released a full length, An Endless Path, in 2015 and an EP prior to that. Of course one could ask why is this just an EP's worth of material after a two year wait? The simple answer is that they've got a new vocalist, Diego Laino, this year. So putting out a short release seems like a smart thing to do. As far as this EP goes you've got four songs lasting close to sixteen minutes. This band doesn't waste time and yeah this is pure Swedish death metal from an Italian band. It was recorded in Italy but mixed in Sweden. Laino has a rough gutteral vocal that works perfectly. The riffs have that destructive sound which you expect. The lead work is not outstanding but hey all in all it's a huge suprise. Next up a full length is in order. http://www.blackmarketmetal.net/ https://helslave.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/helslave/
SUICIDE FOREST - Descend into Despair Folkvangr Records Once again Folkvangr Records keeps the cassettes rolling in. Here we have a compilation by SUICIDE FOREST which is actually a one man black metal act out of Tucson, Arizona. Pardon the pun but Arizona is starting to be the new hotbed for USBM, especially one man BM acts. As long as they're not from California or New York City, right? Yeah anyways as I've said before so many times now the person(s) at Folkvangr Records discover these obscure blackened artists and repackage their releases on finely done cassettes. Not a bad gig. As I mentioned earlier, Descend into Despair is a compilation. It's basically the artist's first two demos from 2016, Emptiness and Indifference. It's a decent package in order to discover some newer black metal and in this case it's more on the atmospheric or maybe even depressive side of the genre. The artist I keep mentioning is multi-instrumentalist Austin Kruger who is only twenty two years of age. And yet musically he sounds as if he's been at it for far more years than that. Now with that said Descend into Despair is a far cry from being outstanding. Most of the song stuctures have been culled from many a past artist of this sub-genre. And with todays technology there are many one man black metal acts utilizing equipment to go beyond simplicity. In other words this sounds like something from a decade ago. We really don't need for that to become a trend. But on the up shot Kruger has some decent compositions on here, all long of course. I like the classical sound of the short keyboard instrumentals. In fact I really like his keyboard work on here as a whole. It adds depth to the obvious bleak depressive blackness. Obviously Kruger will have more for us in the future which will be worth watching out for. https://www.facebook.com/folkvangrrecords/ https://folkvangrrecords.bandcamp.com/album/descend-into-despair
PIG'S BLOOD - Self Titled Godz ov War Productions Well with a name like PIG'S BLOOD you should know what to expect and if not well then just go away. So hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (where else?) this fearsome four piece give us a debut full length of pure old school death metal that is American as baseball, apple pie and a twelve inch spiked gauntlet armband. No fake Swedish sound here. PIG'S BLOOD are a product of that fertile Midwest American death metal heritage of old. I just wanna shake their fuckin hands for doing this. This release is definitely touching on the brutal side of the genre but with plenty of downtuned riffage, deathly doom blastings and added maniacal vocals intertwined with gutteral beast croaks then this is more akin to sickness of Midwest death metal. It's also a fast album clocking in at just over thirty six minutes of utter filth. I say that with total respect especially when you've got people like this creating it all: HorriblePerson on bass and vocals, Infernal Scumbag and Overlord Of The Under Dwellers on guitars plus Drug Pervert Death Hammer on drums. Yeah this is a winner in my book. http://godzovwar.com/ https://www.facebook.com/commandmoreblood/?fref=ts https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/pigs-blood
PAGANIZER - Land of Weeping Souls Transcending Obscurity Records A little history for ya, years ago when this band's Scandinavian Warmachine full length came out I saw some music scribe mistakenly lump them in with all of those newer acts as part of what the media called the New Wave of Old School Swedish Death Metal Revival. That was in 2009 and PAGANIZER had been around for a decade already. I'm sure they felt honored by the press acknowledgement. Actually I doubt it. That's the problem with trends, revivals and flavor of the month picks by the media. They overlook acts that have been around for a while who've doing the same damm thing as well as being damm good at it. So as PAGANIZER is close to celebrating a twenty year mark next year here is their tenth full length. Don't even ask me how many short form releases they have out, there are plenty plus compilation albums to boot. Mainman Rogga Johansson (guitars/vocals) has kept this band going since 1998. Ya gotta respect that as well as his work in so many other band projects. Land of Weeping Souls is the band's first new full length since 2013's World Lobotomy and also features newer band members Kjetil Lynghaug on guitar and Martin Klasen on bass. Longtime drummer Matthias Fiebig fills out the line-up This new one is being billed as "their fiercest and tightest yet". I'm guessing the hype comes from the reaction to last years On the Outskirts of Hades four song EP which also came out on Transcending Obscurity Records. Be that as it may when you open up your album with a song that's a Pinhead quote, "Your Suffering Will Be Legendary", then yeah fierce is obvious. On a whole Land of Weeping Souls is a not a total throwback to the past but is more like an older band pulling up their boot straps and acknowledging the new with a verocity that is unmatched. While the first half of this release was decent then "The Insanity Never Stops" rips forth and all doubts are forgotten. I could go on song through song but no. Rogga Johansson reminds me of VADER's Peter Wiwczarek, a veteran death metaller who gets better with age. On here his riffs and vocals almost sound like he's out to make a statement. The soloing by Kjetil Lynghaug adds a better dimension to the sound, it's old school with short sharp shocks of pain. This release reminds me of one by GRAVE a few years back. Basically another older Swedish death metal act (but my alltime favorite) who after a few lackluster releases put out one that just peeled facial skin off from the naysayers. The same thing works here. https://tometal.com/ https://paganizer.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-weeping-souls-death-metal-2 https://www.facebook.com/paganizersweden/
ALL SORROWS BEHELD– Self Titled Self Released A one man black metal act from the states? Wow that's a stretch? Ah yeah I'm being phacicious but the whole one man black metal act thing has become a trend to the point where the music actually sounds great as opposed to years ago. Technology has been the savior to these lonesome devils. Case in point this eponymous debut full length release from a guy named Cinis sounds far better than some actual full lineup black metal bands I've checked out. The tagline description for this is atmospheric black metal but for me this is far more extreme. Musically this sounds like the artist is being torn inside out. This is the sound of a soul truly being tortured to the limits of human suffering. The songs, eight in all, are not very long drawn out dirges. Most run around five minutes which is about as much of a musical pain tolerance your average listener can take without boredom setting in. A lot of this is mid tempo tremolo picked riffs with mechanical drum pounding action. What brings on the pain is when Cinis lets loose with his agonizing vocals. This release does touch all the bases as far as being standard usbm atmospheric black metal. The harsh distorted guitar sound, especially on doom influenced cuts enhances things further. BUT, I mentioned before it's technology these days that keeps things at an even keel. This release opens with intensity, keeps pushing the limits but starts to flatten out near the end. I thought the long instrumental was a drawback and the final cut irrellevent. Be that as it may ALL SORROWS BEHELD's debut is still something I'd return to any late night when I need my sorrows peeled away in order to expose the delicate layers of pain https://allsorrowsbeheld.bandcamp.com/
DREAM TROLL- The Knight of Rebellion Self Released As I look at the He-Man cartoon inspired album cover I was surprised this release didn't start out with their vocalist shouting "By the Power of Greyskull". Albeit cheesy I wouldn't consider it out of place. Also since this band is English I'd guess they wouldn't notice any sense of humor by it. Be that as it may here is a five piece from Leeds who believe in keeping heavy metal from the 80's alive with their debut full length. Get in line then since there's already an army of genre devotees out there already in the front lines. DREAM TROLL's take on heavy metal is part nwobhm, part power metal and part prog. The structure of all of their songs harvest all three elements in a way that's enjoyable. You won't find any extreme riffs but there's plenty of guitar melody to go around as well as intricate soloing. Vocals are clean and at times soar out in that power metal fashion. The rthym section holds things together. The lyrics fall into that fantasy catagory, epic battles, etc. This is like DREAM THEATER lite. It's really not my bag but still it's a high end release for fans. https://dreamtroll.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/dreamtroll/
It's the return of reviewing band videos. Most blogs/websites like to say "Exclusive Premiere" of some band's video as if they're the only ones who get it sent to them. Bullshit! Usually I just re-post em on my Facebook page to let friends watch em and laugh. But I figured hey why not give em a chance here at SCUMFEAST METAL 666. So shall we begin?
CRYPT ROT - Pit Of Morbidity video
The Skinny:
First off here's a video by Ohio's CRYPT ROT, a band who came out with their debut full length Embryonic Devils this year on Southern Lord. I did a review of that one if ya wanna check that out. Warning it's not pretty.
What we have here is a video of a song from that release. Roll it!
Verdict: Rant
Ya know I could be fair to this if it was some sort of school project or a mockery video for friends to watch as they kick back and party down. But no this is actually supposedly serious which is all the more worse. Frankly this just made me laugh especially at their use of corpse paint. NEXT!!!
SUNKEN - Sunken video
The Skinny:
From Denmark we get a video titled "Sunken" by the band named SUNKEN. Thankfully they named their full length Departure. Musically this is basically atmospheric black metal, thirteen minutes worth. The full length came out this year on Triton's Orbit if you're interested. So lets not waste any more time.
Verdict: Rant
I started getting Tourettes once the industrial style blastbeats kicked in and the forest footage flew by faster than a cheetah late for supper. I probably need to hear their whole album. Yeah the music is good but flooding all of that imagery to your visual senses is overkill. Nuff Said.
EPI-DEMIC - Ruthless Ambition Video
The Skinny:
EPI-DEMIC are a cool hardcore three piece from Canada who lean more on the metallish side of the genre giving their sound a mid to late 80's old school feel. If you wanna know more than here's my review of their full length Malformed Conscience.
Here we have a video from a song off of that release which came out on Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. So lets take a look at a band I've already given a cool review to.
Verdict: Rant
OK guys yeah I love the music but hey filming a video in what looks like an apartment ain't cutting it for me. Sure there's a couple of animation add ons at the beginning and ending but hey it would've been better if you filmed it at a real venue with actual audience members thrashing to and throw. That would've been cool to watch.
ROTTEN SOUND - Trashmonger Video
The Skinny:
Finland's ROTTEN SOUND really don't need an introduction but hey sometimes ya have to. Since the mid-90's they've been one of the best grindcore bands in the world. I don't believe I'm speaking hyperbole either. I was lucky enough to see em once about a decade ago, wow time fuckin flys. This song here is from their 2016 full length Abuse to Suffer which came out Season of Mist. The label just put this video out now so go figure.
VERDICT: Rave
It's grindcore and it's a live performance shot. They go together and I think anything otherwise would not do the band justice. Now if you like this then you really need to check out their Murderlive DVD which is a compilation of live show footage and extras from 2002 and 2003.
And finally, I was going to do a review of a video by this certain artist who hipsters defend but die hard fans of black metal don't. I won't be writing a single word about this artist simply because it's controversy which keeps this artist's name alive and this artist is thriving on victimhood. This artist would not have a career in metal if not for creating a self made controversy in order to get their name out there and have people talking. I still take shots at hipsters but if I talk about this artist then I'm simply feeding them. So I say Fuck that artist. Now if you wanna see a real woman in black metal then here's a classic.
EORONT - Another Realm Code666 Records Hey I love my atmospheric black metal just as much as any other self righteous, over-bearing elitist but I do draw the line at overly long intros to releases. The opening song on here, "The Rain" takes three and half minutes of ambient keyboards to the hilt before the first crash of a cymbal or a guitar string strummed. So if that's the only thing I can say bad about this release then hey that's just a peeve. Another Realm is the second full length by this Russian band. From what I gather EORONT use to be a solo project by multi-instrumentalist Foltath Eternum. Then in 2014 he added permanent band mates on bass, drums and keyboards while he concentrated on guitar, vocals and writing sinister sounding black metal which is cool as all hell late at night. I tried to listen to this early in the day at first and it just didn't click. EORONT first started out in 2012 and like I mentioned earlier as a solo project by Foltath Eternum. I never heard the debut release or the EP, both from 2013. But I will say this is good. EORONT, like so many other cool bands of the blackened Eastern Europe to Russia acts, toss in so much non trendy non black metal influences in that you wouldn't know it anymore because it sounds so fluid and natural. The use of keyboards on here sounds just as important as the tremolo picked riffs and bass that you can actually hear and acknowledge as important. The first two cuts were not that impressive but when "Genesis" hit then the whole pattern of listening changed. Now this is prog injected into black metal that actually sounds right. Another Realm is seven cuts all together and all long but hey it's atmospheric black metal. I'll say half the time it's exciting as if I've just snorted my coffee grinds and I do like Folgers Morning Brew. Other times I wished I had a cigarette lit (Please Note I don't smoke in my new place) so I could burn myself when the progressive passages take me on a dream state. Be that as it may I will say that EORONT have introduced a better job at inducing prog (keyboards and song structure as major players) into the black metal cannon than any other band before. So many times it's been used as a prop but not on here. I mean on the closer "The Order of Light" there's a hint of over indulgence but that's what it's all about. I just want to listen to this every other night because I grew up in the 70s and I love black metal. Nuff Said. http://www.code666.net/ https://eoront.bandcamp.com/album/another-realm https://www.facebook.com/Eoront
DODSENGEL - Interequinox Debemur Morti Productions On the blog here it says (well it use to say it) that 99.9% of music listeners hate extreme metal. I'll go a bit further in saying that 99.9% of black metal fans don't even know who DODSENGEL are. I mean you won't see them on magazine covers. They don't write columns for hipster websites. They won't be playing their 2012 two hour plus opus Imperator live in order to sell some merch. You can't tell them how much you love em on Facebook because they have no Facebook page. Hell if you belong to some black metal group on Facebook or elsewhere and asked one hundred people if they owned all of their previous releases you would get one hundred yes's but ninety percent of em would be lying. What I'm trying to convey (and it's not elitism) is that DODSENGEL are one of the best bands to come out of Norway's black metal scene in the past decade but not many people seem to acknowledge that. They do what black metal acts are suppose to do, put out good music and that's about it. Although I did have a hard time with their last one. Two hour long dinks, come on. Well be that as it may here is this duo's fourth full length which still sticks with what this band has always done. DODSENGEL takes the Norwegian black metal template and evolves within it. So many other acts try adding outside influences into their blackened sound to the point of trendiness. DODSENGEL just keep you guessing whether it's their twisted vocals, the unsettling melodies which either creep you out or blow you away which just keeps you transfixed. Another great release by them. http://www.debemur-morti.com/en/ https://dmp666.bandcamp.com/album/interequinox
FLESHPRESS - Hulluuden muuri Self Released First I saw the name then the country of origin and finally the genre tag of doom. Yeah I know this band or better yet I knew of them years ago. Here's a band that mixed plenty of blackened insanity into what I thought was the borrowed cannon of the Amphetamime Reptile records plus enough nerve to call em the Finnish version of UPSIDEDOWN CROSS. All of that came from listening to their Pillars LP and that's from 2007. That thing was sludge, doom, psych and plenty of vodka. Actually I thought that was it for them I mean sure they've been around for years starting in 2000. But who or should I say what label would put up with this racket. Obviously no one since this is self released and they've been quiet for a few years now. So what we have here is more insanity with the band taking a full plunge into distorto doom/sludge/noise rock with fuckin keyboards. Yes "whatafuck" is a perfect analogy. Even more insane is that now the vocals are being sung in Finnish. Hulluuden muuri is the kind of release which will be spun by late night college radio djs. Afterwhich they'll follow it up with some Icelandic synth folk pop because they think they're hip. After that you can slit your wrists. Yes this seven song release is for the modern Manson family devotees. Psych damaged maniacal sludgey doom without hope or penance. Who knew the Hammond B-3 organ could be used as a weapon. Right now Keith Emerson is spinning in his grave. Supposedly this is a push towards intensity that the band has yet to put forth live but will. OK so while listening to this I would keep the sharp objects locked up. Yeah right, that's bullshit, you'll have pen and paper ready for the note you'll write prior to going on a killing spree which won't be for religious or social reasons. It's the music, it's the music. https://fleshpress.bandcamp.com/album/hulluuden-muuri-2 https://www.facebook.com/fleshpress.official
SERPENTSHRINE - Besetting the Altar Self Released Well I've written about black metal acts from all over the world so why not one from a nearby vacation spot. At this point in time the idea of judging a band, especially one of this genre, from where they come from is long over. Also from my experience some of the more interesting black metal acts are now coming from non traditional places. As I've mentioned many times I live in North Carolina and over the past decade my northern neighbors have bestowed on us many a good band who hang within the darkness. Here's the latest one. SERPENTSHRINE are a three piece black metal act who hail from Virginia Beach, Virginia. What makes this their debut full length interesting is a split formula. First off it's what they're not which is good. They're not more generic blackened thrash or blackened prog rock. Secondly their sound on here has an old school BM quality going for it. Basically this is a band who know how to introduce intricate and beautiful sounding guitar segues inbetween harsh melodies. Along with their blackened influences they add in some classic metal power chord barrages and death metal passages. What obviously stands out the most is the searing guitar soloing. The vocals sound like a young Shagrath which I think sounds cool as fuck. I'm not going to say Besetting the Altar is a perfect release. There are times when you feel/hear demo quality imperfections which a bigger budget production would cover. Out of the nine cuts on here a few mix in too much outsider genre influences that doesn't make it unique at all. In fact if they had a female keyboard player in a low cut outfit then I'd say hello to 2008 again. But they don't so I hope this band continues on the course which they're headed. This debut shows promise especially while I listen to it while a thunderstorm is raging outside. https://serpentshrine.bandcamp.com/releases https://www.facebook.com/HailtheSerpent
PERSECUTORY - Towards the Ultimate Extinction Godz Ov War Productions Well since this band is from Turkey I'll say they came up with a relevent band name. Now as far as them being tagged as a blackened thrash act well I disagree. This is the full length debut by PERSECUTORY a fearsome four piece act from Istanbul who's sound is more straight up black metal, which in the early days was thrashy. The band also wastes no time in proving so by literally blasting forth from the start of this album. Why waste time when your purpose is to destroy? Musically the band relies on relentless riffs, sledgehammer drumming, cavernous vocal shouts and gutteral groans with an occaisional Attila Csihar style creepy spoken word drop. The overal sound is basically murky and raw. Whether that's on purpose or cost effective is not known. The band doesn't stray much from the relentless riff structure, maybe teasing a bit by the midway point when they actually slow down for a short crawl. Actually this reminds me more of black metal from South America then say Eastern Europe. Which brings up another point, I figured they'd at least toss in some eastern flavor or local folk instrumentation. But no PERSECUTORY just stoke the furnace red hot and shove your head inside. Seven cuts lasting just short of forty two minutes. The suffering is on your part. http://godzovwar.com/ https://persecutory.bandcamp.com/album/towards-the-ultimate-extinction https://www.facebook.com/persecutory666/
EXPULSION - Nightmare Future Relapse Records Here we have a REPULSION/EXHUMED supergroup. Yeah it's death grind, very good but hey how would it not be especially with the likes of Matt Olivo, Matt Harvey and Danny Walker involved and having Menno Verbaten from LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH is the icing on the filth cake. Yeah this is a seven song EP which lasts around fourteen minutes. Need I say more? Yeah I think I should. Basically EXPULSION is four extreme music vets getting together for some old school death grind fun. I'm not going to waste time dissecting a bunch of two minute songs. I will say it's because of the experience in musicianship that the songs on here are concise and complete. They don't go brutal for brutal's sake which is why this is a great release. https://store.relapse.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ExpulsionOfficial/ https://expulsiongrind.bandcamp.com/
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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.
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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.
