LED TO THE GRAVE - Pray For Death EP review

 

LED TO THE GRAVE - Pray For Death EP

Horror Pain Gore Death

Basically what we have here is a two song release or an introduction to this Boston three piece act. LED TO THE GRAVE have been around for a while now. Starting out in 2006 and since then they've officially put out two full lengths, a handful of short form releases and a live album aka: Live at Ralphs Diner. By the way hows the chili there?

So like I said this two song release is an introduction to them in the now. Musically it's death thrash without any bells or whistles. I was surprised by the cool ass soloing on the title track. That definitely rocked. The second cut "No Salvation" is decent. The band's last release, Bane of Existence, came out a few years ago so who knows what changes these Mass-holes have done over that time. Either way these songs are catchy. 

http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/pray-for-death

OLDSKULL - Nether Hollow of No Return review

 

OLDSKULL - Nether Hollow of No Return

Inhuman Assault Productions

When I was researching this band I learned that they're part of something called the Siamese Brutalism collective. That's basically a bunch of death metal, grindcore and goregrind musicians based in Thailand. Their motto is WE BRING YOU MOST UTTER PAIN!!!!! Personally I think that's worth the price of admission. But hey the music is pretty damm good as well. 

OLDSKULL hail from the great eastern nation of Thailand. Their brand of extreme on this their debut full length is death metal. Better yet it's old school influenced. Even better is that sound wise they're a cross between GRAVE and OBITUARY. It's kinda like a hidden gem from 1990. 

OLDSKULL are a five piece act and all members are schooled in the old ways of the genre. The vocals are deep angry bellows. The riffs have that crunch to em. Lead work is a mix of melodic sweeps and short sharp shocks. The rhythm section has a steady and organic sound pounding away. 

This debut has nine cuts, well eight and a closing instrumental. It's an amazing release and hearkens back to the classic era. I like every song on here, the instrumental is OK. But songs like "Perpetual Void", "None Shall Live", "Execution Temple" and "Arcane Serpents" are at perfection level for my old school tastes. This is definitely one of my favorite releases of 2021.

https://inhumanassault.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://inhumanassault.bandcamp.com/album/nether-hollow-of-no-return

CANNIBAL CORPSE - Violence Unimagined review

 

CANNIBAL CORPSE - Violence Unimagined

Metal Blade Records

I've gotta give credit to Metal Blade Records where it's do. For the past fifteen years they've managed to hype up every new CANNIBAL CORPSE album to the point where you'd think it was going to be their last. Granted the band did have a low repetitive period after 1996's Vile. I know I was fuckin bored with em.

But when Kill dropped in 2006 it started a period for the band which creatively was good. Since then every new album has been consistent to say the least. It's still CANNIBAL CORPSE and you know what to expect. But they have a way now of just adding something slightly interesting which makes for wanting to continue checking out. But come on we don't need the hype. 

For Violence Unimagined the interesting part is the major line-up change. Longtime guitarist Pat O'Brien is out of the band because of problems with the law. His replacement is Erik Rutan. Yes the guitarist for HATE ETERNAL and an amazing producer in his own right. I guess the choice of Rutan was obvious. He's been producing some of their albums, is a longtime friend of the band and knows death metal like the Chinese know rice. 

So now finally I get to write about this one after getting a copy. I say finally since everyone and their cousin seem to have already given an opinion. Thanks to the label leaking a song or two on Youtube everyone's either blown away or bored. Honestly I haven't been blown away by this band since 2009's Evisceration Plague. But hey I'm a fan so.....

Opener "Murderous Rampage" and it's follow up "Necrogenic Resurrection" are a perfect one two punch to get things rolling. The band is in death thrash mode on those cuts. "Inhumane Harvest", which was everyone's first taste of the new album via Youtube, is also a winner reminding fans of the brutality the band is known for. What comes afterwards is hit or decent and that's from repeated listens. 

Violence Unimagined is more like re-imagined since we've been here before so many times. Corpsegrinder has been with em for so long now we kinda forget about the early days. As always the riffs and rhythms are well done. The addition of Rutan is noticeable in some leads plus he does some song writing. "Condemnation Contagion" reminds me of HATE ETERNAL a bit as does "Ritual Annihilation". Then again they're Rutan penned tunes which are heavy, punishing and brutal.

On a whole it's consistent CANNIBAL CORPSE. The album cover art is better looking and will make for a cool t-shirt as compared to 2017's Red Before Black. I'll just add this to the collection. It's their fifteenth album in thirty-three years. In death metal terms that's significant. Like I mentioned earlier the band adds just enough excitement in order to stay from being redundant. 

https://www.metalblade.com/us/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MptVkuh8cQ8

DUKOV - Death Is OK EP review

 

DUKOV - Death Is OK EP

Horror Pain Gore Death

Look out, this band does a G.G. ALLIN cover. Don't tell Merle or he'll try to squeeze some euros out of em. Just kidding, so yeah here we have a trio from Italy who fancy themselves as a Scum punk/metal band. Well it does take more than doing a cover of GG's "Die When You Die" to get an entrance pass. I'm speaking from experience of course.

But anyways they're on the right path. Death Is Ok is this band's latest after a handful of various small format releases. They call themselves Scum Grindrockers. They also "won't stop at nothing until (the) last humanoid will still breathe". Well it's always nice to have goals. 

There's nine tracks on this EP. It's a decent enough mix of Punk, Grind and Noise. The term "scumpunk", or if you will the music sub genre, is pretty exclusive and band releases end up being collectible. So I wouldn't be surprised if people see the words "GG cover" and track this down just for that. They're fanatics trust me I know because I use to be one.

http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/death-is-ok

MONNIER - Self Titled compilation review

 

MONNIER - Self Titled compilation

Horror Pain Gore Death

There are two camps of people who say they like grindcore. The first one are the actual fans. These are the ones, whether they're new to the genre or have been into it the music ever since the sub genre crawled out from the late 80's hardcore scene, who will tell you the basics. It's loud fast music with someone screaming like a maniac. 

Now in the other camp, and I'll be nice, you have certain types of people who feel the idea of "loud fast music with someone screaming like a maniac" is below their status. They like to invent ideas and themes contrived only by themselves into the music which is just "loud fast music with someone screaming like a maniac". 

I'm part of the first camp aka: fan. I like grind to be loud and fast. I want to hear riffs that are fierce sounding as well as cranking heavy. I like hearing the drumwork as if it were being played by someone with bionic limbs. And of course I want a maniac on vocals. All of that can be heard from this band here. 

MONNIER is a two piece grind band who's members come from opposite sides of the globe. First off there's Jasper Swerts from Belgium who's responsible for the guitars, bass and drums. Jasper's grind style is bare basics but because the production is clean it all sounds fresh. The sound is absolutely old school and killer which is what fans want. 

On vocals there's Makiko Suda from Japan who's also in the death grind act FLAGITIOUS IDIOSYNCRASY IN THE DILAPIDATION. Ah yeah that's a mouthful. But anyways Makiko is an amazing screamer whether she uses her psycho voice, death grunting or those subtle sultry murmurs.

This compilation contains their first two EPs which originally came out in 2018 and 2020. There's sixteen songs with a run time of a little over twenty five minutes. Perfect for some getting ready for work tunes. There's always gonna be some decent grindcore releases to choose from. But every other year there's a standout one. And this is the year and this is the one.

http://www.horrorpaingoredeath.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/monnier

HOLY DEATH - The Knight, Death And The Devil reissue 2CD review

 

HOLY DEATH -  The Knight, Death And The Devil reissue 2CD

Old Temple

And here is why reissues are important. HOLY DEATH was a little old black metal band from Krakow, Poland. They started out in the early nineties and called it a day in 2007. Over their career they put out plenty of rarities like demos, lots of demos plus a few split releases. They also managed to release three full lengths over their career. 

It wasn't until after their demise that interest in them, basically from us in the west, started to peak. Actually interest in all Eastern European extreme metal peaked in the late 2000's along with illegal downloads of their releases. But that's another topic. The Knight, Death And The Devil was HOLY DEATH's third and final full length which came out in 2005.

Musically HOLY DEATH's brand of black metal was fairly interesting if you compared em to their contemporaries. They used keyboards sparingly but were not a symphonic act. A lot of ambient atmosphere creating elements along with samples were also implemented. Their sound was heavy almost in a BATHORY way with a duel attack of either mid paced style or full on viciousness. They also added some elements of death metal and thrash to their overall sound. The guitar riffs and soloing are not in the dynamics of traditional black metal.

The vocals, at least on this one, by Necronosferatus Guardian Luciferis came across like sermons from a possessed priest. The original release contained nine original tracks and three covers. The band covered BATHORY's "Call from the Grave", ACCEPT's "Princess of the Dawn" and "Beat of Flame" by HELLIAS. The latter band, HELLIAS, are a Polish thrash act that HOLY DEATH's guitarist was also in.

The bottom line is that the original The Knight, Death And The Devil release was down right awesome. It's also an unheralded classic as far as Polish black metal goes. So now with this reissue, which is two CD's worth of music, you get a lot to deal with. The first CD contains the original release from 2005 plus there's some instrumental versions of this album's songs. That's cool if you're into that.

Now the second CD here contains what sounds like a different and lo-fi mix of the album plus there's an industrial mix of one the album's original tracks, "Standing Under the Crosstracks". If that ain't enough there's two more covers added. One by the old Polish heavy metal act TSA "Heavy Metal Swiat" and "Flower's Red" by SABBAT. So all in all that's thirty-two songs with a run time of an hour and a half plus. One of the best reissues you'll find in 2021.

http://www.oldtemple.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://oldtemple.bandcamp.com/album/holy-death-the-knight-death-and-the-devil

HELLSPAWN - In Agelessness EP review

 

HELLSPAWN - In Agelessness EP

Old Temple

Years ago when I was doing print and was dealing with space concerns I'd just say It's Polish and it's fuckin death metal. I've just spelled it out for ya. Whatafuck more info do you want? But hey it's the internet now and space is not a problem. But still after listening to this six song EP by HELLSPAWN I just wanna say the obvious. It's Polish and it's fuckin death metal, duh?

OK seriously folks HELLSPAWN have been kicking ass with their brand of death metal from the Polish scene since the mid-2000's. I liken them to many USDM acts who never made it to a big label or got on the cover of magazines. But still they were some hard as fuck sounding acts and equal to their peers. HELLSPAWN have three killer full lengths to their credit. Their last one, There Has Never Been a Son of Me, came out in 2016. 

So we're seeing this new new EP as a hey we're still fuckin alive and kicking type of release. And it's fuckin intense to say the least. Of course their style is in sync with their scene aka: brutal Polish death metal. They mix in the old ways with a modern influence as well as some technical flurries. One of my favorite things when listening to HELLSPAWN is when the lead guitar parts kick in. It's either ferocious knife cuts or fluid beauty. It's fuckin amazing as well as exciting. 

Like I said this is just a six song EP but an amazing return to form from a long missed Polish death metal act. You're looking at around twenty five minutes of punishment. Hey it's Polish and it's death metal. 

http://www.oldtemple.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://oldtemple.bandcamp.com/album/hellspawn-in-agelessness