SFM666 PRESENTS THE BEST RELEASES FOR FEBRUARY 2018

AT THE END OF EACH MONTH I'M GOING TO POST THE BEST RELEASES OF THE MONTH. YES MOST OF THE RELEASES SENT INTO SFM666 ARE GOOD BUT SOME ARE GREAT. BASICALLY THIS IS JUST A REMINDER.

MY DEATHBED - My Deathbed
Self Released

Depressive Black Metal from Greece. Listening to this is equal to holding a dead baby in your arms.



ALGHAZANTH - Eight Coffin Nails
Woodcut Records

Symphonic Black Metal from Finland. Like standing naked in a hailstorm.




LORD OF PAGATHORN -  Daimono Philia
Woodcut Records

Another Finnish Black Metal act that will burn you to a crisp.




HOODED MENACE - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed 
Season of Mist

Revitalizing the classic sounds of MY DYING BRIDE and KATATONIA ain't a bad thing.

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS - Perverse Offerings to the Void

Self Released

From Australia, one of the finer moments in Death Metal for 2018

CULTUS PROFANO - Sacramentum Obscurus

Debemur Morti Productions

Black Metal perfection nuff said.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. LET'S SEE WHAT BREAKS OUT DURING MARCH aka: The MARCH ov DEATH.

CULTUS PROFANO - Sacramentum Obscurus review

CULTUS PROFANO - Sacramentum Obscurus

Debemur Morti Productions




So it's the closing days of February aka: Black Metal History Month. Yeah I know the whole BMHM thing is kind of a joke. Diehard fans resent it, the mainstream metal media uses it to mock the genre but for me I use it as a excuse to post music from Youtube by obscure BM on Facebook. So with that said it is fitting that here we have a new band that is the epitome of black metal especially in the old school sounding sense.

CULTUS PROFANO is a black metal male/female duo hailing from Los Angeles, CA. Ah yeah I know plenty in the extreme BM community who throw hate on black metal from places like Los Angeles as well as New York, San Fran and Seattle, especially Seattle. I won't argue against that because there's good reason for the hate. It's all about hipsters or phony losers trying to capitalize on a popular music genre. But CULTUS PROFANO has more street cred than I'd say most of the haters. 

This duo, which began in 2016, consists of Advorsus (drums & vocals) and Strzyga (guitar & vocals). Advorsus (aka: Arthur Mendiola) is also the drummer for long time death metal act SADISTIC INTENT as well as a bunch of other extreme acts. There's your street cred and yeah I have an old release by them so forget the hate and listen to the music. Which by the way sounds like Norwegian black metal 1992.

On a whole this somewhat reminds me musically of Wrath of the Tyrant era EMPEROR meets A Blaze in the Northern Sky era DARKTHRONE. The vocals are shared but Advorsus' is rough and grunt whereas Strzyga's is pure venomous sounding. She kinda reminds me of Ihsahn's screams. Listening to these nine cuts it's hard not to think of pure darkness with two sinister white faces staring back at you. The riffs are icy and sharp with a cool flair tempo and speed change ups giving certain cuts this enveloping feeling. Drumming is mostly typical blast beating but sound-wise they're muffled in order to not overwhelm. 

If CULTUS PROFANO's beginning vision with Sacramentum Obscurus was to create an absolutely perfect black metal album then they succeeded. This is blasphemy in it's purest sense.


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

https://cultusprofano.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/CULTUS.PROFANO

RUIN - Plague Transmissions: Vol. I review

RUIN - Plague Transmissions: Vol. I

Horror Pain Gore Death Productions



There are a lot of extreme metal bands named RUIN out there. I knew two hardcore bands (who went nowhere) named RUIN as well. This RUIN is or was from California who originally formed in 1991, put out a demo and for some reason (legend says either by incarcerated and institutionalized) called it quits. Then in 2015 the original guitarist/vocalist resurrected the band and started pumping out releases on a regular basis. All of that consists of a bunch of splits and a full length. 


Musically RUIN are/were a sludgy, filthy sounding, doom leaning death metal act. One of their song titles encompasses their description perfectly as in "A Foul Stench Of Human Beings". This is primitive stuff here with vocals that grumble and growl over the deathly rumbling. RUIN also likes using movie samples as openers to their songs much in the same way MACABRE used serial killer confessions. It might just be coincidence that I have a posters of MORTICIAN as well as CIANIDE in my view. RUIN somewhat reminds me of what those acts have done. 

Now yeah I guess I've shown my hand with the namedropping. So if you're into socially unexceptionable extreme metal, stuff even friends of mine into death metal find abhorrent. Well then RUIN is for you. 

http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/plague-transmissions-vol-i

FUNERARY BELL - Undead Revelations review

FUNERARY BELL - Undead Revelations

Saturnal Records




Finland Rocks! As far as extreme metal is concerned the nation has produced the most distinct necro bestial black metal available. As far as grindcore goes well we fans know who rules that genre. As far as death metal and thrash well we're still waiting. Doom metal, we know some greats from Finland. But the rock, the metal, the rhythm and cutting edge with headbanging action, where is that at?


FUNERARY BELL came in tagged as black metal. OK sure there's some of that existing in their sound as well as Goth in the release's opening track "Birth / Come Undone". I'd also toss in old school metal which new school Doom fans lay claim to. The bottom line here is that FUNERARY BELL are really not genre locked. You listen to this their second full length and you get the obvious impression that they are a every metal fans band. "Goat Of Mendes" is close to black metal or 80's metal and early thrash.

 
"The Word Became Flesh" starts out as a hardcore cut then indulges in death metal riffage. "Hermetica" is pure thrash. I could go on song by song but why bother. FUNERARY BELL are Finnish heavy fuckin metal who can do it all. They lean towards the dark side which is cool as fuck especially with basic riffs and vicious grunt vocals matching headbanging rhythms.

http://www.saturnalrecords.com/web/

https://funerarybell.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/funerarybell

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS - Perverse Offerings to the Void review review

GOLGOTHAN REMAINS - Perverse Offerings to the Void

Self Released




Are all Australian death metal bands required to record in caves? I mean for several years now that's the overall sound being produced. Yeah I know I'm joking around since it's all done on laptops these days. But I'm just making an observation because other than what I pointed out this band from Sydney does some death metal right.

On this their full length debut, GOLGOTHAN REMAINS simply takes the basic death metal framework and builds upon it with layers of thick guitar dissonance. Savage riffs bent on war are released throughout the album. Add to that this firestorm of drum work, totally real drumming by the way. Finally the beast-like vocals which are like icing to a filth cake. I might add there's a subtle doom essence going on as well. 

This is one of the best death metal releases I've heard, that actually does something unique, in a while. GOLGOTHAN REMAINS, in my not so humble opinion, rule the fuckin world. There's just this chaos produced that somehow they create musically and yet recapture within the atmosphere of their music. 

https://golgothanremains.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/GolgothanRemains

EVIL NERFAL - Bellum Est Pater Omnium review

EVIL NERFAL - Bellum Est Pater Omnium

Grimm Distribution




So this release starts out with a Overture written by Beethoven. The band is a black metal act hailing from Columbia. Their promo photo is a picture of the two band members donned in corpse paint and wearing the typical metalhead regalia. They're also standing in a tree. Then their first original song commences titled "Fuck Off Jesus Christ". I the reviewer reach over to the nearby cupboard for an airplane bottle of Crown Royal I've been saving for moments like this and I down the bottle. HAILS! A weaker person would be slitting their wrists.


So what EVIL NERFAL deliver in irony does not stand up to genre nuances. Wow strangely enough according to some info about the band I found they're all about nuances as well as vocal  harmonies and of course the whole approach to superposition. Yeah I hear ya and also this release reeks of kitchen sink metal. For those of you still out of touch with that genre term I'll explain. Kitchen Sink Metal is metal full of every fuckin genre take you can imagine.


EVIL NERFAL might have a foundation relying on black metal which at times they proceed well upon. It's their deviations from the genre that don't fit in as add ons. Instead it comes across as a band in influential turmoil. Are there hipsters in Columbia? I have to wonder since all of this sounds like a copy of Norway 1995, when the genre got all weird. Frankly these kids are not even close to being avant garde. The next small bottle is Captain Morgan. I've gave this five listens but the Captain can wait.


http://www.satanath.com/distro

https://vk.com/grimmdistribution

https://www.facebook.com/EvilNerfal

BESTIALORD - Law Of The Burning review

BESTIALORD - Law Of The Burning 

Symbol of Domination Prod.




OK so with a name like BESTIALORD I thinking this was going to be black metal. Ah no it's not at all. The tagline on this band turned out to be death / doom. Alright I'll give em that. But after listening to a couple of cuts, well three to be honest, I got this huge devious grim going. This really sounds like fuckin NUNSLAUGHTER albeit not as funny. Right now there's a reader in Bumfuck, Ohio going "You think NUNSLAUGHTER is funny? You have a sick sense of humor."

But seriously folks this band's vocalist is a dead ringer for NUNSLAUGHTER's Don of the Dead. As far as the music goes forget the whole death doom idea. This is a straight up metal act that touches upon those genres but is not diving in head first. This release just rocks while you're giving the horned fist of approval. I bet there's plenty of those flying when this band plays live. This band, a three piece by the way, hails from Wichita, Kansas. For you non Americans that's the Midwest which is full of sickos. 

Look people I'm as honest as the day is long. I'll tell ya when writing about bands there are times when it feels like I'm painting the same portrait but using a different brush hoping that someone sees a difference. Yeah it feels like work but then a band like BESTIALORD comes along with cool songs like "Vermin" (my favorite cut on here), "Marduk Kurios" (with a great guitar solo from a guy who was in MANILLA ROAD for two years, yeah why bother mentioning that namedrop in the promo) and of course "Loathed Be Thy Name". 

Listening to this release, which basically en-tales I just can't stop, is the equivalent of getting off of work after a long hard schedule. I don't wanna talk about fuckin work. Just give me a good beer, something decent to eat and cool music to blast. After all of that well a good fucking will suffice. Everything about Law Of The Burning reminds me of that except for the fucking part. This album has already earned it's place in the SFM666 2018 Favorites List. I just don't know what category to put em in. Fuck it I'll just say Death Metal to piss people off.


http://satanath.com/sodp

https://symbolofdomination.bandcamp.com/album/sodp104-bestialord-law-of-the-burning-2018

NETER - Inferus review

NETER - Inferus

Satanath Records






So after an unmemorable piano intro (why bother?) NETER, a four piece death metal act from Spain, kick into a gear well ground down. My first reaction was "hey these guys sound like" and then I kinda got lost. The fact is after playing this, their third full length, the bottom line is that NETER sound like a ton of DM acts. And of course the obvious link I'm thinking of is DEATH for starters as well as their subtle tech polish. The other influences in NETER's music might come from a harsh Polish act or two and because their lyrical subject matter deals with ancients then I'd toss in NILE. 

NETER spends most of their time delivering rhythms bent on crushing yet technical riffs. The band has mastered the death metal art of mixing up good headbanging grooves with some head turning song structure twists. The main speed evident is left to the trigger drums. The sporadic solos are beautifully sewn in like needlepoint and yes very sharp. Good gruff bestial style vocals cap off everything. 

A week ago I was listening to a release by a new USDM act which was on a major metal label. That band had a bag of prominent influences, some average ability but had no soul or attitude in order to make it real. NETER on the other hand truly bleeds metal soul. You hear the conviction especially in songs like "Rebirth of the Overthrown", "Atlantis of the Sands" and my favorite cut on here "The Pillars of Heracles". Ya know the nation is not known for it but over the years Spain has produced some decent death metal acts. But there's never really been a leader amongst em to carry the torch into battle, until now maybe.

http://www.satanath.com/

https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat186-neter-inferus-2018

https://www.facebook.com/neterofficial

SKJULT - Progenies Ov Light review

SKJULT - Progenies Ov Light 

Satanath Records




Rarely if ever am I surprised, I mean really surprised. So when I was listening to this release and then learned about the artist I ended up being very surprised. First off musically this is some incredibly aggressive sounding black metal in the vein of URGEHAL or even (dare I say) Gaahl era GORGOROTH. Secondly SKJULT is a one man black metal act. And third he's from Cuba, a nation whose government is not known for allowing it's citizens to do as thou wilt. 

With that said I have to say the this one man, Conspirator, is a genius. This release sounds like it was recorded by a full band. Add to that the recording quality is incredible. This is the second full length done by him under the band name SKJULT. The first for Satanath Records as well. The debut was a self released CD which came out in 2015. While listening to this new one I get the feeling that it snows in Cuba with the absolute coldness it projects upon the listener, aka: Me.


Musically the songs, eight of em, are a mixed bag of aggressive rhythms in a constant Norwegian late 90s/early 2000s black metal style. Most of the cuts combine actual riffs as opposed to full on tremolo picked madness. The drumming is real as well. Songs vary from hate filled blasts of blackened fury to a more somber attitude that connects atmosphere which allows the album to breath some in it's over forty minute time span. If there was something major to gripe about I'd say Conspirator's vocals, which are a low rasp quality, get a bit monotonous after a while.


All in all Progenies Ov Light is a well done release that hearkens back twenty years. It revels in rawness at times and on others it's grandiose to the point you wish there were some synths (are their synths?) to make it symphonic. Either way BM fans should seek it out. 


http://www.satanath.com/

https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat187-skjult-progenies-ov-light-2018

https://www.facebook.com/skjultkuba

EXPLUSER - The Unholy One (reissue)

EXPLUSER - The Unholy One (reissue)


Greyhaze Records





Last year I got to write about some cool releases put out by Greyhaze Records out of Florida. Two reissues by MUTILATOR and THE MIST plus a newer one by NERVOCHAOS. Now there was also a three song EP reissue by EXPLUSER called Fornications which originally came out in 1990 as part of a split release with the band BRUTAL DISTORTION. I listened to it a few times but did not write about. I must've been drunk and forgot. Anyways it is some important music by another past great of Brazilian extreme metal. 

Now for years I've touted the greatness of early (and of course newer) South American extreme metal. Of course when I started getting into it the first wave was over. Still I have to ask when any of you others out there got into SARCOFAGO's debut, didn't you wonder what else that area of the world had to offer? I know I did. Now I'm not some expert on the topic nor am I a rich die-hard who is willing to pay huge bullshit sums of cash to a distro scumbag who knows what's collector's only rare. I'm just a fan with a bunch of dinks from this scene and these bands, in my not so humble opinion, are all worthy of your attention.

So hat's off to Greyhaze Records for again reissuing another gem. This is the debut album by EXPULSER, a death thrash four piece act from Brazil. The band started out in 1989. This debut came out in 1992 on Cogumelo Records. Sound-wise EXPULSER were like a more technical version of SARCOFAGO with vocals mostly in the deep growl dept but once in a while kicked in with deathly rasps. The highlight of course was their riff package as well as their high pitched solo attack. To put it all in perspective The Unholy One is the best album from 1992 that you never heard. But now you can.  


www.greyhazerecords.com

https://greyhazerecords.bandcamp.com/

www.facebook.com/greyhazerecords

GENOCIDE PACT - Order Of Torment review

GENOCIDE PACT - Order Of Torment

Relapse Records



So to my accounting Death Metal is in it's third decade. Do I need to give you all a minute to cheer? Yeah OK so anyways after all these years listening to bands play it straight, try to experiment and of course push it to the limit I still like my meat and potatoes genre sound. Yeah I wanna hear powerful gruff vocals, exceptional riffs, sharp leads and of course a pounding rhythm section. 

So here we have a band, a three piece act, from Washington, DC who after a couple of listens I'd call em meat and potatoes death metal. That's not a bad thing but in this band's case they're still in that baby steps mode. This is GENOCIDE PACT's second full length and their first for Relapse Records. Well that's good for the label since they're actually putting out new metal for metalheads. I mean seriously how much cash are they making by putting out DEATH reissues on vinyl for hipsters? 

Musically GENOCIDE PACT play it straight up USDM via influences from CANNIBAL CORPSE and MORBID ANGEL for basics. Toss in some Euro influences just for the hell of it. But influences aside the band doesn't create something memorable in order to knock you over let alone hold interest. The band delivers eight cuts of material. Some of which is decent enough for an EP's worth albeit that you've heard all before. And let me make it clear that there's nothing wrong with that. The bulk of this release just lacks excitement. 

https://store.relapse.com/

https://genocidepact.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/genocidepact

SHINING - X - Varg utan flock review

SHINING -  X - Varg utan flock

Season of Mist



I must admit that I stopped listening to SHINING a long time ago. The last release of their's I have is 2011's VII: Född förlorare. A decent release for sure but it was at that point the band or moreover mainman Niklas Kvarforth was moving on in life. The music lost some of the bite of his early work. Which is kind of a twist coming from a guy who started his career in black metal promoting suicide and the depressive side of the genre.

I got into SHINING by mere chance years ago. I was in a local music store thumbing through the used CD section when I spotted a CD with a black & white cover photo of a woman holding a gun in her mouth. I didn't bother looking at the dink any further. I just put it in the stack to buy. It wasn't until I got home, looked at it and was introduced to SHINING by way of their fifth full length, Halmstad. I became a fan instantly and picked up some older releases and new ones as they came out. 

What made SHINING such a compelling act to listen to was their redefining of the depressive black metal sub-genre. Musically it's more theatrical in sound structures and obviously in production values. Niklas Kvarforth doesn't write songs. He sculptures diverse and intricate compositions. Now although black metal is the basic canvas he uses, the masterpiece is made with a variety of music styles. Now like I said earlier I haven't listened to any newer SHINING releases over the past few years. But I have read about em from people in the music media I trust. So it seems I haven't missed out. (Yeah that's right, while I wasn't writing I did read other people's work.) 

So on this SHINING's tenth full length after just one listen I was happy. Varg utan flock is not a return to the past but it's definitely a return to form which I talked about earlier and made the music unique. First off Kvarforth's vocals on here are close to being the best he's ever done. He really does sound like some depressive Swedish blues crooner especially on the intertwined acoustic guitar passages. At other moments he adds the violent screams and painful shrieks letting you know this ain't the blues.

Aside from all of that, musically there's plenty of traditional black metal with some added thrash parts and dare I say industrial influence that creeps in on a cut or two. Also plenty of acoustic folk pieces accompanying most of the cuts, six as always, on here. There's one piano instrumental which to me is a throwaway track. But overall like past works this is something you listen to late at night and allow the musical vibe to overtake you. 

The final cut "Mot Aokigahara" is probably my favorite track on here. It starts out tranquil then kicks into blackened thrash mode for a bit only to end in a majestic power metal melody. Much of this release reminded me of years ago when I first played Halmstad. Chalk it up to not listening to their last few albums.


https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/

https://shiningsom.bandcamp.com/album/x-varg-utan-flock

https://www.facebook.com/shiningofficial

HOODED MENACE - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed review

HOODED MENACE - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed

Season of Mist



Finland's own grotesque death doom monsters return with this their fifth full length. Now full disclosure, I've been a huge fan since 2010's Never Cross the Dead. Therefore bias alert is in full effect. I've followed this band ever since hearing em back in the day and have the releases (yeah even the EPs and Splits) to prove it. Now with that said I was not blown away with their Darkness Drips Forth full length from 2015 or the song from their split last year with ALGOMA. Frankly I think it surprised plenty in the music media as well. But I get it, they're moving into a different direction.

On this new one HOODED MENACE has not only made major changes in their line-up but musically as well. What was hinted at on their past two releases has now come to full bloom. After a bunch of listens I'm honestly thinking that HOODED MENACE are channeling early MY DYING BRIDE. Now that's not really a bad thing since there's no teary eyed melodies to deal with here. These Finns still produce a high level of aggression in the riff and feedback of said riffs dept. Vocals are traditional deep throat-ed doom / gloom by new singer Harri Kuokkanen. 

If the opener "Sempiternal Grotesqueries" doesn't tear at your heart strings with it's overwhelming melancholy than you're at a loss. You'll also miss out on some cool in-between riffage and soloing. The album is on a mission in that direction through out. Now when the band is not channeling old MY DYING BRIDE or glue-ing steps of their past, like on "Cathedral of Laybrinthine Darkness", they're channeling classic era KATATONIA. Some people might take offense but not me.

When I first listened to Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed I was not really surprised by the changes or direction. It took plenty of listens to catch their personal imprint upon all that has come before in the genre. I know there will be haters screaming for the band to stay in their early incarnation. But if you give it plenty of time then you'll get the idea. It's not a copy of the past but actually this band's re-interpretation or better yet a homage. Then again it's where they're headed in the future.  


https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HoodedMenace

INTO THE FIRE with James At 15, The Best of MONTROSE

James At 15 is the singer, record breaker and fire breathing frontman for the punk/metal hybrid band KNOWLEDGE IS FOR FOOLS (aka: KIFF). James has previously shared some of his thoughts on ACDC and KISS. Now he takes on MONTROSE. 

MONTROSE - MONTROSE Remastered/Reissue CD


Finally ! Late 2017 saw the re-release of one of the 70s best American Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Classics. The debut album of Montrose.  Ronnie Montrose was a early 70s. Guitarist who had done studio work. And had played for people like Van Morrison & Edgar Winter. In 1973 He formed his own band.  And recorded this album.  A instant classic! These days its mostly remembered as the album. That gave the world Sammy Hagar. Ha that's true. And its also mostly true. In My opinion. as the best thing Sammy Hagar ever did. Probably the best thing Ronnie Montrose ever did too. While this album was just a few years before My time. I was already a Sammy Hagar fan when I became aware of it. I had a few of His pre-I Can't Drive 55 solo albums. And thought they were decent. A teenage hoodlum friend of Mine. No names mentioned. But if this piece winds up on Facebook. He might be reading this ha ha ha. Remember when ?  Anyway I went over to His house one night. He had just returned from stealing some 8-tracks out of somebody's car.  We were listening to them.  When We popped in this classic album. Second song in. Bad Motor Scooter!  Hey that's a Sammy Hagar song I thought. It had also appeared on one of His early live albums. And I had heard and liked it on the radio. Now I was realizing where it came from.  Other songs Rock The Nation, Space Station #5, Rock Candy and My personal favorite I Don't Want It !   This album is full of classics. Pretty much every song is great.  Pure solid hard hitting heavy rock.  Critics at the time. Dismissed it as a American Led Zepplin rip off. But for My money. I'll take this album over ANY Led Zepplin album. That's not to say Zepplin was that bad. Its just to say. that this album is that Good! Tons of guitar god shredding to influence guitar heroes for years to come. I heard it said. That this was a teenage Eddie Van Halen's favorite album ever. And You know where that led to.  So anyway. I have been a huge fan of this one since like age 14. Here We are all these years later. The reissue includes a cool booklet.  Tells the story of the album & band at the time. A few cool pictures. And a 17 song bonus disk. Demo tracks, Live stuff. And Even a song that for whatever reason. Was never released. The song Shoot Us Down was recorded for this album. And was never released. Why? Who knows. According to the liner notes. Sammy Hagar Himself loved the song. And has no idea. why it was not included on the original album. Great stuff. I had some of the live stuff previously on a bootleg cd. But its great to have it official now. Complete and remastered sound quality. So to those of You reading this. If Your old enough to know. Then You know. I don't have to tell Ya.  Those of You too young to know. Or only know Sammy Hagar from the horrific Van Hagar years or the crap cornucopia of His I Can't Drive 55 years. Dig up on this album. Its a must own classic. Of early American heavy metal / Hard rock guitar hero greatness. 

Warner Brothers / Rhino records 2017

MONTROSE - Paper Money Remastered/Reissue CD

The second Montrose album. Like the first classic album. Rhino has reissued it. With some great pictures and liner notes. And a full bonus disk of great sounding live stuff from the time period.  While this was a great album. It was never the mandatory classic the first Montrose album was. But if You are like Me. And You loved that first one so much. Then You will wind up owning this one too. sooner or later. Sadly only two songs.  I Got The Fire and the title song. Paper Money equal the greatness. of anything on the first album. Spaceage Sacrifice is a pretty cool song too. The rest just filler really. Kinda boring. And really would probably only interest guitar freaks. Who enjoy nerding out on Ronnie's brilliant guitar work.  Some metal heads. May remember the classic I Got The Fire. From one of those classic early 80s Iron Maiden B-Sides. Where they did a ripping cover of it.  This was the last album & tour of the original Montrose band. Hagar went on to solo stardom. He took bassist Bill Church with Him. Drummer Denny Carmassi. Went on to play with Whitford St Holmes , Ted Nugent, Coverdale Page, Heart.  Even recorded a album with Joe Walsh. As well as bouncing back and forth between Sammy Hagar & later versions of Montrose & Gamma over the years.  Ronnie Montrose continued on with various other versions of Montrose. Never as good as the original. But always decent quality hard rock with fantastic guitar. He also formed a band called Gamma that was sort of a harder rocking prog band. A couple of those albums are worth tracking down. Personally I would avoid the hell out of his jazz rock solo instrumental stuff.  Guitar nerd musician types. Can certainly find something to enjoy. On anything with Ronnie Montrose's name on it. He was a innovator of electric guitar for sure. For Me I've always been more of a straight ahead rock fan.  Still Paper Money has enough punch to keep Me interested. 

Warner Brothers / Rhino records 2017

Ronnie Montrose - 10 X 10 CD

So what this actually is. The last 10 songs. ever wrote & recorded by Ronnie Montrose.  He was recording this stuff. When He died in 2012.  It sat unfinished. Until His widow. Got intouch with Ronnie's friends & band that was working with Him at the time. To finish it. And came upon the idea to finish it as a tribute to Him. So You have KISS's drummer Eric Singer.  And Ricky Phillips of Styx & the Babys on Bass. Who were both good friends and were recording with Him when He died. Along with 10 different vocalists.  And 10 different guitar players. Each playing on a song. Too many greats on this to list em all. But the musicians include. Tommy Shaw, Mark Farner, Glen Hughes, Rick Derringer, Brad Whitford, Dave Meniketti, and of course Sammy Hagar.  Musically its mostly what You would expect. Solid hard rock. Played by very talented professional musicians.  No its not the raw intense hard rocking Montrose of 1974.  But its loud enough to keep Me interested.  A few of the tracks that stood out to Me. Colorblind with Sammy Hagar & Steve Lukather (Toto).  Strong Enough with Tommy Shaw is pretty cool. And rocks hard. Any Minute with Mark Farner is weird prog rockish. But I like it.  All and all I would say. This release would mostly be. For Ronnie Montrose superfans. And or completists Of Ronnie or any of the tons of musicians who played on it.  Serious musicians & fans of polished melodic hard rock. Are gonna find a lot to love on this one too.

Rhino Records 2017

TORTURE SQUAD - Far Beyond Existence review

TORTURE SQUAD - Far Beyond Existence

Brutal Records




Just from their name I thought that I may have written about this band in the past. After checking the archives from my previous site I figured it was a different torture named band. This TORTURE SQUAD hails from São Paulo, Brazil, started out in the early 90's and has a bunch of recorded material out. My loss because this is my first exposure to em. 

But that was then because this is the new era of TORTURE SQUAD. While the bassist and drummer are long time members, the band has a new guitarist and lead singer who by the way is a woman with a wicked vocal range. Both of them have been with TORTURE SQUAD since 2015. Like I said earlier I never heard this band's previous line-up material but what I'm hearing here is pretty damm good.


Musically TORTURE SQUAD are nineties era death thrash but with some interesting tweaks. First off the bass is placed prominently in the mix. But hey if I was playing bass in a band for twenty five years I'd make sure my sound was not fucked with especially on my eighth full length. The drum work, as far as this recording goes, is something I have a problem with. Nothing against the musicianship it's just at times it has that banging on tupper-ware sound on a few songs. Although for the most part it's a raging machine of beats keeping the aggressive tempo.


As far as the guitar work, well since the bass takes an up front approach the guitar is mostly low sounding as far as prominent riffs go. The man does have his moments but it's when the guy kicks in with a solo then things change. You'll be listening and suddenly a door kicks open it's face ripping time. It's one of my favorite parts to this release. Finally there's the vocals and they're cool as fuck. This woman mainly pushes a feral witch voice but then will lower things to the guttural but can also put out some beautiful clean vocals.

All in all Far Beyond Existence is a great release with four very talented stand out performers all in sync to create a different approach to a sub genre that surely needs a kick in the ass. I listened to this over four days and each experience had me catching a newer enlightenment. Also I ended up going wow that's fuckin cool for examples the title cut with enough tempo changes that'll snap necks. Then there's the Eastern flavored "Blood Sacrifice" which kinda stops ya because this band is from Brazil. Also "You Must Proclaim" with it's Michael Schenker like 80's Metal uncanny solo which just kills ya. The promo info calls TORTURE SQUAD Incendiary Brazilian Extreme Metal. I agree.

http://www.brutalrecords.us/

https://www.facebook.com/torturesquad

SELF DECONSTRUCTION shows you how to GRIND

SO A FRIEND OF MINE POSTED A VIDEO ON FACEBOOK FEATURING THIS THREE PIECE FREE STYLE GRIND MEETS POWER-VIOLENCE BAND FROM TOKYO JAPAN, Here thne video:



Ah yeah can I just get a fuckin WOW or maybe a HOLY SHIT? Seriously! OK so it's obvious that you're captivated by the woman in the baby doll dress ripping apart your sonic senses on that B.C. Rich Warlock. Her name is Kuzuha. The vocalist is Kubine and the drummer is jiro. 

Their latest album is Wounds from 2016.

Ya know as you watch the video you see someone who looks like KING DIAMOND in the crowd.





http://selfdeconstruction.wix.com/grindcore

http://selfdeconstruction.bandcamp.com/

VOLITION - Visions of the Onslaught review

VOLITION - Visions of the Onslaught

Brutal Records




Oklahoma where the thrash metal comes sweeping down the plains. Yeah I know kinda fucked up opener sentence but I had to. Basically it's a tweak to set the mood since serious thrash is the case here. Remember when you had all those top tier thrash acts but you were inclined to liking the bunch on the second tier? I'm addressing the older crowd who read this blog by the way. Well VOLITION are that type of band. 

This is the debut full length by VOLITION, which actually came out in the Fall of 2017 but is worth a look at in 2018. This four piece act started out in 2013, hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma and plays some damm cool evil sounding thrash. Now I've said it many times but I'll repeat it. A decade ago I supported the thrash revival. I thought it was cool and admit that many of the bands relied heavily on SLAYER / EXODUS influences. 

Fast forward to now, VOLITION don't do that. Instead they push their brand of thrash to the more brutal side of the genre that pushes into the direction of death metal. They have these fist raising riffs, I'm talking angry sounding stuff. The guitar work is face shredding. None of that happy camp thrash junk. The nine cuts on here give off a very negative feeling. It's got that slash and burn atmosphere. The vocals have that blackened venomous tone but musically the band steers clear of that genre.

The bottom line here is if you're a thrash fan sitting there starring at your original copy of VIO-LENCE's Eternal Nightmare. And you're wondering that modern day thrash has gone on to the predictable silly side. Or worse, has taken a collective progressive nose dive up a hipster's ass then hey VOLITION is a band you should check out. After a few listens you'll think there's still hope out there. 

http://www.brutalrecords.us/

https://volitionmetal.bandcamp.com/album/visions-of-the-onslaught

https://www.facebook.com/VolitionThrash/