DARKTHRONE – It Beckons Us All review

 

DARKTHRONE – It Beckons Us All

Peaceville Records

A few years back I said that DARKTHRONE's Astral  Fortress full length will be the last release I'll ever buy by em. I stuck with that promise because I'm streaming this new one for review. And hell yeah I'm saving money because this one blows as well as the last one. Now I say that because I've stuck with this Norwegian duo for so many years, great and not so good. 

DARKTHRONE's last great album is 2007's F.O.A.D. period end of story. They carried on with the whole blackened speed metal / hardcore thing for a while which was decent. But after that they went on this tangent of we're DARKTHRONE and we don't know where we're going but who cares? Which led us through a bunch of albums that were boring.

  

Nocturno Culto and Fenriz just go through the motions on here much like they've done on their past few albums. There's a couple of catchy tracks and then the rest is filler. I could put together a bunch of cool DARKTHRONE album tracks from 2013's The Underground Resistance to this new one and still not fill up a CD. 

DARKTHRONE have given their fans a big fuck you so I say let's give it back. Fuck You!

https://peaceville.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://peaceville.bandcamp.com/album/it-beckons-us-all

ORANGE GOBLIN - Science, Not Fiction review

 

ORANGE GOBLIN - Science, Not Fiction

Peaceville Records

England's ORANGE GOBLIN has come a long way from just being a "stoner rock" band. Now in all honesty my favorite album by em has always been their second full length Time Travelling Blues from 1998. I mean that's a stoner rock classic. But as time passed the band didn't play repeat with ever other album, like some of their peers, ahem? Instead ORANGE GOBLIN has been one of the few bands from that English Doom sub genre that actually showed progression as well as integrity with every new full length. That's why they can hold the sub genre close to their vest but then go crazy with it. 

Here we have the band's tenth full length since starting out back in 1997. Of course what makes things great is keeping a creative line-up together. And on here you still have original members Ben Ward on vocals, guitarist Joe Hoare and drummer Chris Turner. Their newest member is bassist Harry Armstrong who joined in 2021. With this line-up ORANGE GOBLIN has put out another damm good release. 

Musically this full length is a continuation of the band's sonic journey over the past decade. We;re not talking stoner generic doom. Instead yeah there's plenty of groove laden riffs but not in a peace love dope sense. It's more punch you in the face. Ben Ward still has that roaring baritone vocal. Joe Hoare still comes up with head banging & fist pumping riffs while also crawling into the psych landscape. To me the guy is one of the best guitarists in English doom.

Ya know when I first gave this latest album a listen I was like OK it's cool. Then I think it was a week later where I was playing some of their previous releases. I was getting hyped up on ORANGE GOBLIN's previous releases. So I listened to this one again a few times in a row. You could tell how the band took all of what they did previously and amp-ted it up a thousand fold. ORANGE GOBLIN ain't a stoner rock act. They're Hard Fuckin Rock and Metal. And they're one of the best out there.

https://peaceville.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://peaceville.bandcamp.com/album/science-not-fiction

MORTA SKULD - Creation Undone review

 

MORTA SKULD - Creation Undone

Peaceville Records

Here we have the seventh full length from Milwaukee, Wisconsin's MORTA SKULD. Yeah we're talking about some Midwest death metal legends here. When it comes to US death metal we fans are not a united bunch of lemmings. Sure we like the top tier acts which the mainstream / lame-stream people give lip service to. But we love the acts who just fuckin kick ass and perform for us true believers. And when it comes to that then MORTA SKULD were always one of the best there is. 

To me this album is a fuckin classic in every death metal trope possible. The riffs are diabolical as well as punishing. All hails to mainman Dave Gregor (vocals / guitar) who's kept this band going all of these years. The man has always had this straight up non grunting vocal style which as a DM fan you've gotta like. I also like the amazing drum work by Eric House (formerly of JUNGLE ROT) who's been in the band since 2013.

So yeah this is classic old school brutal DM with great riffs. The song structures have a subtle complexity to them. If you're looking for some sort of modern day innovation then forget it. MORTA SKULD give the basics which are some head banging grooves, a slight technical edge but in the end it's always about the brutality.  

My favorite MORTA SKULD album has always been their debut Dying Remains from 1993. Nowadays this new one falls in right behind it.

https://peaceville.com/

LISTEN HERE: 

https://peaceville.bandcamp.com/album/creation-undone

OR BETTER YET HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FaiPBOReBo

AUTOPSY - Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts review

 

AUTOPSY - Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts

Peaceville Records

I'm just a sucker when it comes to old bands. I buy their stuff knowing in my heart and soul that nostalgia ain't up to stuff. Case in point AUTOPSY, look 1989's Severed Survival and 1991's Mental Funeral are amazing releases in my not so humble opinion. And probably your opinion as well if you're into extreme metal. After that I thought they got run of the mill boring. 

But then in 2011 they came out with Macabre Eternal which was really fuckin cool. I was like holy shit they are back to being badass death metal and some doom motherfuckers. But after that you got a handful of releases which just sounded like toss this shit out because it's a product of who we once were. It was AUTOPSY gone generic.

Last year the band came out with Morbidity Triumphant, their comeback after a seven year silence. That was a tried and true repeat of AUTOPSY style. I didn't like half of it and this one follows suit. The thing is when the band decides to rip into some death metal riffage they sound great. But when they slow down to do the whole death doom and sludge thing they're boring. 

There are some great moments on here like the fast blast of the second cut "Throatsaw". The sludge part which comes in on "No Mortal Left Alive" and of course "Lobotomizing Gods". But for the most part I was falling asleep to the rest of it. But hey I like the cover art. 

www.peaceville.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKNYRrsj7s

HELLRIPPER - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags review

 

HELLRIPPER - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags

Peaceville Records

This is the third full length by HELLRIPPER aka: James McBain. For those of you who don't know, yes HELLRIPPER is a one man band. McBain is Scotland's version of Joel Grind of TOXIC HOLOCAUST or maybe Athenar from MIDNIGHT. In that musically HELLRIPPER specializes in speed metal with some blackened touches, mainly McBain's vocals. 

Also this is not my first time writing about HELLRIPPER. My history with em goes back to their beginning with the The Manifestation of Evil EP from 2015. So for the past bunch of years McBain has put out plenty of short form releases all sounding in the blackened thrash/speed metal formula. If ever he's shown some progress it's been on his full lengths. 

HELLRIPPER's second album, The Affair of the Poisons, from 2020 showed that McBain was showing more of a traditional heavy metal style in his song writing. This latest one shows that he's accomplished it all without compromise. Opener "The Nuckelavee" is a perfect example to were you have blackened speed metal meeting up with some melodic riffs in mid-song. Add to that some cool lead guitar work. 

The rest of this album confirms it all. There's melodic black metal meets NWOBHM. There's heavy riffs ala 1980's meets speed metal mania. All in all it's a great record and HELLRIPPER's finest.

http://www.peaceville.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hellripper.bandcamp.com/album/warlocks-grim-withered-hags

DARKTHRONE - Eternal Hails review

 

DARKTHRONE - Eternal Hails

Peaceville Records

 

So the last time I said something incredibly good about DARKTHRONE was back in 2007 with their F.O.A.D. album. I thought it was a great hardcore release. Unfortunately Fenriz, via an email, explained to me it was actually a speed metal record and I was totally wrong. So two more decent "speed metal" influenced releases go by and in typical DARKTHRONE form they move on to something else.

So next up we got The Underground Resistance in 2013 which is still boring as fuck. They followed that up by an even worse one called Arctic Thunder from 2016. And then came 2019's Old Star and all I can say to that is am I the only idiot fan who bought that? I mean I'm a DARKTHRONE fan. But seriously I didn't even know that one was out at the time. I was in the music store one day and saw it in the CD racks, marked down off course. 

So look yeah I'm a fan. I still love their first album, then their black metal era was amazing. The stuff that came out afterwards was interesting and I already mentioned their "speed metal" foray. But what they (aka: Nocturno Culto and Fenriz) have done since has literally been a tough sale. So now I listen to this latest one and think are DARKTHRONE finished. When I heard the song Peaceville leaked it was like oh they're trying to do the doom thing again.

Eternal Hails is a release that after a few listens you start to feel sympathy for. I mean especially if you're a fan of them as well as what they're doing here. Basically this is another homage to 80's underground metal strained through the band's limited capabilities. In other words you get taken in thinking alright this is cool and then the boredom comes in. Which is kind of fucked up because for decades DARKTHRONE made boredom (aka: repetitive riffing) exciting. 

In the end this is DARKTHRONE wanting to be SABBATH, CELTIC FROST and maybe SAINT VITUS, hell maybe a few others. I'll give em props for the low fi production which is a given. But they're just not in the league of who they wanna pretend to sound like. The riffs are boring and the drum work is basic plus Nocturno's vocals are pushed way back in the mix. I've got a buck that say's next time they go death doom. As far as this one goes it's eternal fails.

http://www.peaceville.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iboBawOFhi0

DARKTHRONE - Old Star review

DARKTHRONE - Old Star

Peaceville Records




OK in all honesty yeah I'm a DARKTHRONE fan as in yes I have all of their full length releases. No compilations of course, fuck those things. But I must say that their past couple of albums (2013's The Underground Resistance and Arctic Thunder from 2016) were definitely lacking in memorable substance. Obviously this is what happens when you mine the fuck out of a genre for all it's worth while trying to maintain your identity. 


That seems to be the case after their blackened speed metal trilogy was done where do you go next? Go back to second wave black metal? Ha! Yeah right like that was gonna happen. So The Underground Resistance was basically a hodgepodge of the speed metal trilogy plus a taste of straight up blackened 80's metal. To me it was boring. Next came Arctic Thunder which despite what it's title suggested was just the band trying to work out that blackened heavy metal/doom sound out. Unfortunately I thought the results were once again poor.


But hey it's DARKTHRONE we're talking about here and I can honestly say their early 2000's output wasn't so memorable either. But they came back and that's what you hear on this their eighteenth album. Despite some of the early assumptions that this was going to be all doom album, from the early teaser track release of "The Hardship of the Scots". It's really not. It's mining of the HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST style which they've done before, albeit this time around it's better.




Basically you've got some good quality rocking numbers with simple beats, good steady riffs and of course Nocturno Culto's patented rasps which by this point in the game should be trademarked. "I Muffle Your Inner Choir" is one of the best openers they've done in years. There's also the doomier cuts like the a fore mentioned "The Hardship of the Scots", the title cut as well as "Alp Man". You could probably throw TROUBLE and PENTAGRAM in to their influential mixture for this album. Old Star is DARKTHRONE's latest genre experiment done right.


https://peaceville.com/

https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/7641

https://www.facebook.com/Darkthrone-101075189934422/

BLOODBATH - The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn review

BLOODBATH - The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn

Peaceville Records



A few years ago I was at a show in downtown and after one band's set I went out back for a smoke. While I was standing there minding my own business there were these two hipster dudes discussing metal. One of em mentioned that he was getting into Swedish death metal and mentioned BLOODBATH. This guy called em a new band  and mentioned a whole bunch of other dumb shit. I kept quiet. I figured sooner or later the dude would learn the truth.


For all of US, yeah BLOODBATH is a super-group of various Euro musicians taking a break from their own bands and getting together to play recycled ENTOMBED death metal. I'll admit the first couple of releases are cool. I'm talking about 2002's Resurrection Through Carnage and Nightmares Made Flesh from 2004. Both of those were on Century Media Records. After that  Peaceville Records got em and well here we are still.


So here we have this latest one, The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn, their fifth full-length. This is also the second one to feature Nick Holmes of PARADISE LOST on vocals. On a whole it's still a what if ENTOMBED were not a joke these days and put out a decent album kinda thing. This one is far better than Grand Morbid Funeral from four years ago (which was when I heard those hipsters talking). Holmes actually delivers a dedicated vocal performance this time around. As opposed to their last one which sounded phoned in.


I'm always going to be on the fence with super groups like this because they get the attention whereas new bands playing similar stuff don't.  So the guys from KATATONIA, OPETH and PARADISE LOST, plus Joakim Karlsson from the CRAFT, get together to get their death metal jollies off. Hell the guys from KATATONIA haven't played a tough riff in decades. Sure it's a decent release but it's supposed to be.


http://peaceville.com/


https://www.facebook.com/bloodbathband

MORTA SKULD - Wounds Deeper Than Time review

MORTA SKULD - Wounds Deeper Than Time

Peaceville Records 

So what we have here is MORTA SKULD's long awaited comeback album. OK I'm cool with the idea of this being a comeback because of the following. Many years ago MORTA SKULD were one of the best death metal acts that banged their way out of the American midwest and their hometown of Milwaukee in the early 90s. Remember that decades ago the Milwaukee Metalfest was the biggest thing around as far as extreme music fests go and MORTA SKULD were hometown heroes. The band had two good early albums, their debut Dying Remains in 1993 and the follow up As Humanity Fades in 1994. I've got them, you reading this have them too but what followed was a not as good or what should have been. So the best we can come up with here is that the band, aka: Dave Gregor - vocals and guitars and the new guys, have created an album that they hope is worthy enough. 

So is it? Well if you're an old fan than you know that MORTA SKULD had two speeds, mid-paced and deathly slow. All of that hasn't changed. “Breathe in the Black” is a good starter for a welcome home to the DM party. But then the album falls into that rut which a lot of DM acts from the past are doing. I call it Death Metal 101 and it's generic sounding. JUNGLE ROT does it and the past couple of OBITUARY releases follow suit. It's like the band is handicapped to break out. There's a couple of cool songs like "Hating Life", "Devour the Chaos" and the title track where you are just waiting for death metal fight to break out and it ends up being nothing to see here, move along. 

Look I'm bias OK, I like this release but I have to be honest. I was expecting the new blood Dave Gregor got with him would bring in the old with a new sense of urgency. Hell GRAVE has had a new lease on life for quite a few years now. So yeah I was hoping the same for MORTA SKULD. Unfortunately it's gonna sit next to a bunch of JUNGLE ROT releases on That Shelf.

Rating: 2/5

http://peaceville.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MortaSkuld