BALEFIRE - Self Titled EP review

 

BALEFIRE - Self Titled EP

Iron Bonehead Productions

For the most part I'm against that whole "For Fans Of" descriptive definition. I'd say 99% of the time the PR info is stretching it a bit. But this time around I'll say this release is for INCANTATION fans as well as anyone who is into Death Metal circa 1990 to 1995. Ah yeah those are the glory years as well as some Death Doom type of filth. 

BALEFIRE is the latest side project from INCANTATION  bassist Chuck Sherwood. On this six cut release you'll get honestly four true cuts book-ended by an instro intro and an outro. Now the four cuts are good as far as being a homage to early 1990's Death Metal. I mean what else would you expect?

The four real tracks are good as in the riffs are decent. The vocals are bestial and of course the rhythm section rules. Now with all respect to Chuck Sherwood yeah I like this release and would pick up another one from BALEFIRE. But I'm an INCANTATION first and foremost. I became a fan of them since the mid-1990's and I'll always like what they put out. Nuff Said.

https://ironbonehead.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/balefire-balefire

NAKED WHIPPER - Chapel Defilement review

 

NAKED WHIPPER - Chapel Defilement

Iron Bonehead Productions

Well there's a lot to unpack here so let's start by the fact that this is NAKED WHIPPER's second full length of their career. And just for full disclosure I'm liking what I hear from this release. But the last time this German band was heard from was in the mid-1990's. Oh well what does a thirty year break matter when the music is good.

Speaking of which musically NAKED WHIPPER's sound is Blackened Grind and this release is a relentless barrage of that. The first song "Depraved to the Bone" pretty much describes what you're gonna get out of this 13 cut full length. I mean you're getting violent grind / thrash riffs, your typical blasted grind drum work. If there's bass playing then it's lost most of the time. 

I guess the most fun is listening to the bestial vocals by mainman Dominus A.S. who started NAKED WHIPPER back in 1993. On this album he's got Sonic Incinerator on guitar, Sulphur Irae on bass and the amazing drum work is provided by Cryptic Tormentor. Yeah I know the fake names are funny but the drumming on here is killer. 

Obviously I like this because I'm a long time Grind fan. I was into Grindcore before it actually had a genre title. It was a sound which came out of the late 80's Hardcore scene. Then metal musicians picked up on it and perfected the sound aka: REPULSION and NAPALM DEATH. 

As far as Blackened Grindcore goes yeah over the decades there's been a handful of bands that come under that fold. But I think this new full length by Germany's NAKED WHIPPER is the best sounding take as far as real Blackened Grind should sound like. It's an unholy soundtrack of filth, rage and sonic devistation. An amazing release which BM fans as well as Grind fans, who are not posers, will appreciate. 

https://ironbonehead.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://nakedwhipper.bandcamp.com/album/chapel-defilement

WEREGOAT - The Devil's Lust EP review

 

WEREGOAT - The Devil's Lust EP

Iron Bonehead Productions

I'd get into Facebook jail if I posted the album cover of this release, AGAIN. Be that as it may I first got into this Portland, Oregon blackened death band with their 2017 full length Pestilential Rites of Infernal Fornication. Yeah that was a great release. I mean come on, your band name is WEREGOAT. Ah yeah I wanna hear it and am probably gonna love it. That release was an opus of blackened death metal filth. And so I've kept up with whatever this band was gonna come out with afterwards. 

Well since 2017 the silence has been loud. So here we have a six song short form release. You've got five originals and a cover of IMPALED NAZARENE's "Goat Perversion". Yeah well that one seems appropriate. But after I heard the second cut on here "Merciless Execution" I knew were this one was headed. 

Musically you've got your trudging riffs which are a mixed bag of thrashy black metal and slow burn doom. Add to the the psycho solos some of which are pure dive bomb and other tremolo picked. Finally there's the cauldron vocals which are total early Finnish BM. So yeah it's love for BEHERIT or IMPALED NAZARENE. In the end it's a decent EP. 

https://ironbonehead.de/

LISTEN HERE:

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/weregoat-the-devils-lust

GOATKRAFT – Sulphurous Northern Bestiality review

GOATKRAFT – Sulphurous Northern Bestiality

Iron Bonehead Productions




It's time again to get yer goat on. No I'm not kidding. I have a thing about bands with words like "goat" and "wolf" in their names. As far as GOATKRAFT, who by the way hail from black metal's mecca Bergen, Norway, they're so kvlt they don't even have a Facebook page. Now in all honesty I've heard about GOATKRAFT via their pretty cool 12" EP Angel Slaughter from last year. That was five cuts (one of which was a cover of "Unholy Vengeance of War" by BLACK WITCHERY) and an intro. This full length is a little over twenty eight minutes in length with eleven tracks, one's an intro and two other cuts are less than a minute long instros. You can do the math.


With all of that said this is straight up bestial black metal circa early 1990's. Fans of the old wave will rejoice in that. The vocals have that scorched throat sound. Music wise it's basically a guitar riff and drum pounding assault. As far as the guitars go it's your standard pissed off hornet's nest buzz with a few leads added in for amusement. Drum work is standard blast beat fair. For lovers of low-fi, demo quality sound this is for you. 


https://ironbonehead.de/

https://goatkraft.bandcamp.com/album/sulphurous-northern-bestiality

https://goatkraft.com/

RITUALIZATION - Sacraments To The Sons Of The Abyss review

RITUALIZATION - Sacraments To The Sons Of The Abyss

Iron Bonehead Productions





Whoa where do we start? Well somewhere in France a crevice in the earth ripped open and from within emerged a giant horned fist of blackened death metal. It was a sign, a sign dammit, that the French underground metal scene had arisen. Yeah that's overly dramatic but it sounds better than some not so angry metal schmuck just repeating promo info. The basic facts are that RITUALIZATION do hail from France, play blackened death metal and are damm good at it.


The revival of this sub genre has spawned plenty of favorites as far as I'm concerned. Bands like BEYOND HELL, FATHER BEFOULED, DIOCLETIAN, along with BLASPHEMOPHAGHER and KERASPHORUS, just to name a few that are sitting  on the shelf behind me, have all brought back greatness over the past few years to this most extreme style of metal. Don't argue with me, it is, period end of story. This French five piece is simply channeling old INCANTATION and MORBID ANGEL through their own deranged filter.

Although Sacraments to the Sons of the Abyss is RITUALIZATION's debut full length they are not new to the extreme music world. The band got together in 2006 and for the next few years honed their death metal vision until finally releasing a few demos. Then in 2011 they appeared with fellow French blackened death act TEMPLE OF BAAL on the split album via Agonia Records titled The Vision of Fading Mankind. After that came a 7"er in 2013, entitled Beyond the Shrine of Shattered Bones released via Blood Harvest Records. Try finding those gems.

Musically Sacraments To The Sons Of The Abyss is ten songs (that includes a creepy sounding intro and outro) which are a pure monstrous onslaught upon humanity. It's a dark party seething with intense guitars, growled vocals an constant triggered drumming which is tantamount to torturing the weak minded. It's demonically brutal in the way which would make John McEntee smile like a proud father. Also the guitar performance (insane riffs and soloing) would make Trey Azagthoth pissed that he went cheesy with his band's last outing in 2011. This is blackened death perfection. The lame stream might be fixated on French tech death and avant garde black metal which is fine. The true metal hellions have this.

http://www.ironbonehead.de/

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/ritualization-sacraments-to-the-sons-of-the-abyss

https://www.facebook.com/Ritualization-145905645471417/