GRAVE INFESTATION / NOROTH Split EP review

 

GRAVE INFESTATION / NOROTH Split EP

Carbonized Records

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

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

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

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

https://carbonizedrecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

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

NOROTH - Sacrificial Solace review

 

NOROTH - Sacrificial Solace

Carbonized Records

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

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

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

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

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

https://carbonizedrecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

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

LORD OF PLAGUE - Passage to None EP review

 

LORD OF PLAGUE - Passage to None EP

Carbonized Records

I'll give props to any band who records in a fuckin war zone. And oh yeah they're a death metal act so no confusion there. This is the debut three song EP by LORD OF PLAGUE. They're a two piece act hailing from the Ukraine. They only had time to record three songs because there's a fuckin war going on over there. Actually I don't know if that's true. I mean this EP was recorded in 2023 so ya hope they're alright. 

LORD OF PLAGUE consists of Vlad A on guitars and vocals plus Andrii Zagovora who's on drums. Musically it's what I'd call diabolical old school DM. Vlad has a cool style of playing as well as songwriting. His vocals are that of a bestial smoke stack. Andrii's drum work a good pounder all the way. The opening track "Winds of Sorrow" is cool and my favorite cut on this EP. The other two cuts are decent. 

LORD OF PLAGUE's first release is interesting in that they've got the cool basics, they show some originality in the song writing to a point. So give em time and a full length will be out to knock ya off yer ass. Nuff Said.

https://carbonizedrecords.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://lordofplague.bandcamp.com/album/passage-to-none