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/
SCUMFEAST VIDEO Rants and Raves but mostly Rants 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? ABORTED FETUS - Blinded by the Flame video The Skinny: What have here is some collusion between Russia's ABORTED FETUS and the American record label Comatose Music. Obviously there needs to be an investigation into this. Well maybe not, this is the official video for "Blinded by the Flame," a track from the band's fifth full length The Art of Violent Torture. ABORTED FETUS call their signature style of death metal Ural Massive Brutality so let's see what's up. Verdict: Rant Ya know that feeling you get when you like a band's music but then you see them and you're like "Oh?" That's the way I look at this. Musically they've got a great albeit typical brutal DM sound. The medieval imagery spots are fine but it's their vocalist or better yet his actions which bother me. I hate, no I despise the whole baseball cap worn backwards, groove metal meets thug culture identity crap. This guy jumps around like he's got bees in his shorts. Give me a break. GHOST BATH - Seraphic video The Skinny: Depending on who use listen to GHOST BATH are A) an atmospheric black metal band from North Dakota focused on depression, tragedy, purgatory, and earthly wonders. Or B) an annoying emo band using black metal aesthetics in order to impress losers at hipster sites, faking being from China and should probably die. So let's go to the video, which is a song from their latest release Starmourner. Verdict: Rant The term GHOST BATH refers to the act of committing suicide by submerging in a body of water. I think this band should consider it. Die hipster die! Actually here's a better video on this band. or this one, NUFF SAID. BEASTMAKER - Nature of the Damned video The Skinny: BEASTMAKER are a three piece stoner rock act from California. They're fairly new, starting out in 2014, but have two full lengths under their belts. Musically they worship at the altar of Ozzy era SABBATH for the most part, go figure. I don't know if they're like ORCHID who once said they never heard of BLACK SABBATH or listened to them. Be that as it may this song is off of their 2017 release Inside the Skull out on Rise Above Records. Verdict: Rant OK visually it's typical band playing with lights flashing but musically this song kinda blows. I mean it's really boring as far as this genre goes. Maybe if you're a hipster who thinks everything is new than yeah you'd like it. But for me there's just so much blatant SABBATH or PENTAGRAM worshiping / copycats you can take without wanting to scream "POSUERS"! Which brings me to a second point. Unless you're into the evilness of the underground then you wouldn't know there's a huge backlash against bands from California calling themselves doom, stoner rock and especially black metal. The case against em is that they're all fake phony hipsters. I don't fully agree with the term "All" but I do believe there are a significant number of people out there who are jumping onto trends knowing that if they're more indie rock than true metal then they will court critical claim to fame by the hipsters in the music media. INSANITY - Down video The Skinny: INSANITY are supposedly a hardcore band from Switzerland. For this video they enlisted some female roller derby teams to be filmed screwing around on the rink. Hardcore and Roller Derby Collide in INSANITY's Action Packed Video for "Down". This track is from the band's Toss a Coin album which is out on Bastardized Recordings. I'm not very excited but I'll watch. Verdict: Rant Well the music doesn't sound like hardcore at all. In fact it sounds like a bunch of metalcore pussies. Visually I'm guessing the derby girls are beating up the band members which should be done because they suck. Honestly if you wanna hear a good song about Women's Roller Derby then check out KIFF's "Roller Girl". That's all I can take for now.
LOATHFINDER - The Great Tired Ones Godz ov War Productions In my not so humble opinion if you're gonna attack people's senses with blackened death doom than ya better have some melody to capture a listener's attention. Just pushing a wall of horrific noise with added cavernous vocals might've sounded interesting a decade ago but today it's boring. If you've read a previous review by me this month of such a band from Australia then you know where I'm coming from. But on this band's debut EP it's a whole different matter. Poland's LOATHFINDER know how to do blackened death doom right. This may just be a four song EP but it could also be a musical instruction guide. You start with that sick low grinding guitar tone that you think emanates from the bowels of a blackened pit. The riffs must me monstrous and repetitive like the cadence of marching beasts. Add in the vocals which vary from cavernous beast emanations to shrieks of agony. Next you toss in some hideous solos which are kinda like shining a light in the darkness upon something so repulsive you regret seeing it. Also having a song titled “Feast On My Entrails” is a nice touch. http://godzovwar.com/ https://loathfinder.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Loathfinder/
CONTRA - Deny Everything Robustfellow Productions I wonder if this Cleveland, Ohio band ever listened to MOUNTAIN or KILLDOZER for that matter. Whatever the case CONTRA, have some influence with those two acts on this their debut full length. Hell I'll say they've listened to quite a few Touch & Go acts to come up with their hard rock/sludge sound. I just can't figure what is up with the apes on the cover. As far as band history goes according to the promo info, CONTRA was originally formed as an instrumental 3-piece by former SOFA KING KILLER guitarist, Chris Chiera, and ex-RUE drummer, Aaron Brittain. After briefly playing together in another local outfit, they sought to start their own band and enlisted the aid of SO LONG ALBATROSS bassist, Adam Horwatt, to play 4-string baritone guitar. I admit I don't have a clue who those bands are. Continuing on the history part, the band got themselves a vocalist named Larry Brent who has some standing in the local HC scene in Cleveland. He sings on eight out of the ten cuts on here. As far as Larry's singing goes he has a cool gruff voice that fits perfectly within the musician's repertoire. As far as the music well back in the heyday of Touch & Go Records this would've been called grunge with someone asking "Why isn't this on Sub Pop?" http://robustfellow.blogspot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ContraCle/ https://contracleveland.bandcamp.com/releases
CLANDESTINE BLAZE - City Of Slaughter Northern Heritage Records It's kinda taken me a while to write something about this latest release by CLANDESTINE BLAZE (aka: Mikko Aspa). First I'm a fan which might just be putting it lightly. When I look over the course of history and the created output by Mikko Aspa I think of things like consistency, dedication to his craft, definitely a survivor. I won't toss in the word "genius" but the guy does deserve a brilliancy prize for putting out two of the greatest albums in black metal history. Yeah I'm talking about Night of the Unholy Flames and Fist of the Northern Destroyer. Now while many artists/bands who are still around in the black metal scene might find it easy to just coast along on their past laurels, Mikko just kept CLANDESTINE BLAZE going strong or at least consistent. If you look at just this decade he's put out three great albums and now this his fourth, ninth overall since 1998. City Of Slaughter starts off mildly with "Remembrance Of A Ruin", a track that would've fit better in the middle of the release. It's an easy going run which is followed by the better and blistering fast tremolo buzzsaw melodies laced cuts like "The Voice Of Our Mythical Past" and "Circle Of Vultures". As for the rest, the title cut "Return Into The City Of Slaughter" is another mild melodic run which at first sounds like early DARKTHRONE until Mikko breaks the rhythm to rant. The song goes on for eight minutes plus it sounds like he was drunk when he recorded the vocals. Probably not but hey I can dream. Anyways the album ends in traditional fashion aka: the bad blackened exit music. But all in all this is another good release by CLANDESTINE BLAZE. http://www.cfprod.com/nh/ https://clandestineblaze.bandcamp.com/album/city-of-slaughter
ENDLESS VOYAGE X - Those Who Time Forgot Fragile Branch Recordings Supposedly this was doom infused black metal, it's not. The real skinny is that this is what I guess you would call "atmospheric black metal" and it's from a one man act outta Ohio. The one man, Jake, is into the ocean and darkness. In fact this four track opus is about a ship, whose crew find themselves lost in the Bermuda Triangle. For some reason I'm getting shades of that old TV show In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy narrating. I got news for ya Jake, except for your toilet the closest large body of water nearest to you is Lake Erie. Now that might not be such a great topic to be musically inspired by especially in black metal. But you do know there have been plenty of bodies found in it's waters over the decades. But anyways I digress, Jake started ENDLESS VOYAGE X in 2016. Since then he has, along with this four song EP, another EP from last year plus two splits this year. As far as this one goes I'm gonna be honest (like I'm not all the time?) this is not my thing. But I'm not gonna drown Jake in negativity since there's some cool creativity going on. To sum this up it leans into what I know as "progressive" or "post" BM territory. If you're looking for harshness then you're at the wrong place. The songs on here are melancholy, maybe that's the doom part. Oddly enough there's a song on here, an instrumental, titled "Melancholy". I also think it's cool how there's plenty of clean guitar usage much like what plenty of Ukrainian bands are doing. Although I believe latter day ENSLAVED really pushed that practice when they left black metal and went proggy. In the end (wow that's a painful segue) this all goes to that "What if Varg was a sensitive man" type of hipster stuff that I hate. We had an act here in NC years ago that were similar to this and it didn't turn out well for him so the guy stopped trying to play black metal and went back to Alt. Country. http://www.fragilebranch.com/ https://endlessvoyagex.bandcamp.com/album/those-whom-time-forgot https://www.facebook.com/EndlessVoyageXOfficial
ICONOCLASM - Iconoclasm EP Horror Pain Gore Death Productions So when a band gives a big Fuck You to "pretty much the entire modern hardcore scene", which I found written on their Bandcamp site, I take notice. I don't know if this Texas hardcore trio still feels the same way but there's always hope. Here we have a four song EP which is this band's debut for Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Although ICONOCLASM have been around since 2011, have a bunch of releases including a full length from 2015 as well as a bunch of small format releases. The four songs on here were culled from two past releases, their Out for Blood EP from last year and the a fore mentioned full length. Musically this band does lean more towards thrash or speed metal than classic 80's era hardcore. Still there's a hint of DRI in their sound especially on "Executive Compensation". I had to laugh when I first got this because of the nostalgia aspect. Years ago when Scumfeast was still a print zine I'd get 7"ers in the mail by bands. The thing would be in a cheap paper sleeve with a slip of notebook paper from the band telling me who they were and if I didn't like their 7"er then I suck. OK I like this. http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/ https://iconoclasmband.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Iconoclasmband
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Attention
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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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.
