Destruktor - Opprobrium [2015]

By now everyone's acknowledge that once you begin your foray into the Australian metal scene, purposefully or otherwise, you will unanimously be assailed by some of the most malicious and angry troops in the global black, death and thrash perspective. That doesn't mean that every partisan of the black/death or 'war metal' phenomenon is bound to be a direct offshoot of the country's notoriously quizzical mavericks of chaos (i.e. Portal) who created more buzz along the internet and the spread of the underground than the quivering, sludgy guitar tone which they harness with their album ''Swarth'', because really, relatively more straightforward acts like Assaulter, Destroyer 666, Vomitor and Destruktor are probably more into booze and offensively fun devilry than esoteric imagery and obscure lyrics. Among its band of cult followers, Destruktor's debut ''Nailed'' left quite a lot to be desired, especially since the group leans more toward traditional death metal more than the kind of convoluted profanity conjured by the likes of Bestial Warlust and Blasphemy, so I imagine the same group of drunkards were salivating buckets just to get their hands on this....

And to be frank, I'd say ''Opprobrium'', the groups sophomore, is an improvement over their debut, both in terms of production and overall song writing. This isn't as big a leap as it is from a firecracker to a dynamite, mind you, and it did take the Aussies 6 years to get there, but we have it nonetheless. The LP retains a surprising level of clarity in terms of production, making it far more audible and 'safe' than at least 80% of its peers, but the guitars, while still broiling and grainy, are nowhere as muffled and distorted as Portal of Impetuous Ritual, and like most beer-infused black/death acts there's a greater focus on the dynamics sections with fierce, linear tremolos and eruptive patterns of simmering chords, with occasional black/speed/heavy riffs redolent of Midnight or early Bathory: so it's safe to say there's a fairly wide spectrum of sounds being offered on the plate here. The debut always felt like a hellish garble on most points, but Destruktor have stepped up the influence of filthy black/thrash and Morbid Angel/Angelcorpse here (without amounting to anything technical) and add to that sparse pool of swelling Scandinavian black metal tremolos and you have yourself a genuinely pissed off and visceral plateau of nearly any extreme metal ingredient belonging to 1984-1993 stuffed in one gnarly package.

Interestingly, The Aussies don't always run on the same track as their rudiments here, as exhibited from the final piece, ''Forever the Blood Shall Flow''. With the morosely pessimistic and lyrical title, huge, looming tremolos and a very 'black metal' melancholia, the track is almost instantly removed from the rest of the record. Of course this kind of monotonous flirt with Scandinavian black metal a la Darkthrone, Ulver or early immortal doesn't keep anyone agog for a very long time, and this applies to the entirety to the album. The drums, for one, pale out with textbook simplicity and a rather annoying tone on the snares, and the vocals are never front, hamstrung by the guitars and scarcely delivering any of the diabolical vocal enjoyment I might glean from a band like Deathhammer or Witchery. There are some good moments, like on songs like ''Besieged'' where the band marries their ravenous speed to a hooking riff, but aside from that, despite the slightly greater sense of fulfillment over the debut, ''Opprobrium'' feels a tad stale, especially when in such a devastating and busy market of zircons dedicated to the devil. For what it is, ribald, inebriated evil, this certainly grinds a good number of poseurs, and if you were taken by their debut ''Nailed'' or any other Australian rabbit hole of filth and unceremonious fun, this is still a good pick. Stay vengeful.

Highlights:
Besieged
Priestiality
Eradication

Rating: 68%

Impious Baptism - Wrath of the Apex Predator [2013]

Australia's black and death metal underground is one of the most unforgiving in the world. Seldom do they manage to fail muster acts that persistently and unabashedly seem to praise demons, hell, and whatever sorts of diabolical content they conjure in their wicked minds, and with their adamant approach to the genres they've proved to be the absolute paragons of extreme practices. That said, Jarro Raphael's solo project Impious Baptism is no exception, recently releasing their scorching debut offering ''Wrath of the Apex Predator'', whose title I've granted numerous accolades, after sordid handful of EPs. Jarro, or J, as choses to name himself, has played in more bands that you can count.  Just the names of Trench Hell, Cerekloth, Destruktor, Nocturnal Graves and Destroyer 666 are enough to soak the pants of a myriad of avid listeners of the ferociously oriented black/death anomaly, and ''Wrath...'' is guaranteed to soak quite a few more. Having listened to Impious Baptism's previous outing, ''Path of the Inverted Trinity'', I can safely say that J has improved upon his sound, making things even more fun while not entirely altering the rules.

''Path of the Inverted Trinity'' was a good fucking EP, despite its brevity; a caustic tour de force in the tradition of Revenge, Axis of Advance, Conqueror and Blasphemy, inculcating the notion of barbarous impiety with considerable strength and rawness, even when regarded alongside some of the bigger groups of today's black/death fleet. The new full-length hardly follows a different trajectory, but still, novel ideas and presentations are aplenty: the production, for one, is far more audible and accessible, while still keeping some of the grime and sodden grimness of the guitar tone; the riffs are somewhat more fleshy, with less emphasis of traditional war metal motifs and more of heavier, bulbous death metal structures that should remind listeners of Morbid Angel, Angelcorpse and Vader; and seething, hypnotic trace that ''Path...'' had so copiously stored is down to a lesser whiff of impurity. This alteration hardly reduces the quality of the album though, in contrast, the heaving, hammering force of the old school death metal tremolos are catchy and will undeniably cast a wider net as to rivet the attention of a larger audience, although they still lack innovation, so you get the sense that J was struggling more to find a combo densely applied demolition than to actually create a string of inventive riffs.

J's low pitched howls somehow resemble many other Australian vocalists in the field. They're low, sinister, but edgy, just enough to keep you relatively frightened and immersed at the same time. In spite of all this praise, though, ''Wrath...'' does admittedly have some flaws. It manages to surpass ''Path...'' in many separate departments and thus outshines it in overall quality, but the main aspect that I found to absent on ''Wrath...'' was that pungent, dissolute sense of evil that was conveyed effortlessly through the EP's narrow yet crude choice of chord barrages and poorly conducted production quality that made it a real war metal record. This may see like delving a little too deep into the margins of death and black metal but I feel obliged to state this: the accessibility of the full-length has connived the true devilish grin that the EP had possessed, undeniably replacing the patterns of gruesomeness with patterns of groove and bludgeon. Nonetheless, I did find a fairly adequate amount of formidable impiety in the album, be it in J's rancid vocal lines or the sheer atrociousness of the broiling guitars. The title track is one of the more explosive tracks on the album, bursting with fiery rage, while ''Release The Titans Part I'' focuses on some slower progressions, and nearly each track comes with a dark ambient that further explores J's conquest of occultism and hellishness.

''Wrath of the Apex Predator'' is not quite the brilliant war metal album of the year, or of recent years for that matters, because the catalog of bands in this vein is extensive and rich, but in terms of sound and structure J is competent enough to tick most of the boxes, though a record with more essence and freshness would have been far better venerated, but the overall strength of the record is convincing enough to go well with a helping of blood and goat's semen, continuing to corrupt unpolluted minds in the good ol' tradition.

Highlights:
Wrath of the Apex Predator
Rites of Illuminated Death
Axis of Lucifer

Rating: 80%

Ruins - Place Of No Pity [2013]

As much as rustic, olden atmospheric black metal seems to be treated as an antique delicacy today, with the upsurge of bands such as Moon, Crowned, Erebus Enthroned, etc, they are more modernized pundits of aural evil that tend to drive these archaic influences into a more airy monument, where they enhance their atmospheric aspects with booming amplification, a fairly polished production quality, and additional elements from Celtic Frost and the like, as if the giants' impact on the metal world did not suffice. Ruins is an Aussie group born from the desire to play such oblique music; black metal that constantly fluctuates between influences of old and new. Only, Ruins have plenty of history behind them, with a belt laden with three album which were sporadically released through the 2000's, and you'll be even more surprised to hear that drummer Dave Haley has been ripping snares with the almighty Pestilence since 2012, and with the tech-death entrepreneurs Psycroptic since the dawn of their time, not to mention guitarist/vocalist/bassist Alex Pope's previous work with a number of Australian hostilities.

That said, ''Place Of No Pity'' certainly has an abundant professionalism that boasts its overall quality. I like to think of the whole affair as a mechanized brand of atmospheric black metal, with the chords and breakdowns taken into far tauter swerves rather than the rustic miasma you'd expect to spawn from the album. However, despite the general spaciousness of the record, the duo manages to cover up chock loads of variation, jumping from expunging black/thrash belligerence to straight-up verse riffs to grim drudges that sink down and start to slowly stir the listener up in momentous discordance. Yes, Ruins doesn't sink as low enough to uncover a cthtonic, dystopian underworld, but they'll use weapons of sublime dissonance often enough to perturb the listener; a wealthy section of downtrodden, neglected and distorted arpeggios which often remind of Deathspell Omega when the Frenchman were completely giving into disharmonious mourn. The Australians are brazen and adventurous here, no doubt, and while much of the material doesn't particularly stick to ear, you can't deny that the they pace themselves excellently, and there's simply prehensile music to be captivated by aplenty.

Tunes like ''Let Them Parish'' somewhat enlighten the band's punk-like manifestations, especially when Pope's Tom G. Warrior timbre reaches its climax in belligerence, but overall, ''Place Of No Pity'' is a tight focus on mid 90's black metal from various Scandinavian acts, principally Satyricon and Gorgoroth at more modern heights, and I even felt the presence of Belgium Emptiness - even though it's not such a huge influence to cite - partly due to the usage of dissonance in aggressive sequences. I'll need to dive into the band's backlog in order to make some comparisons, but on its own, ''Place Of No Pity'' is an entertaining blast, not wholly original a piece perhaps, but robust dissemination of the aforementioned influences, making it one of the better albums to come out of Australia. There's little redundancy, long minutes of bristling semi-modern black metal - what else could you ask for?

Highlights:
Merciless
Inhabit The Twilight
Place Of No Pity

Rating: 80%

Vomitor - The Escalation [2013]

Australia, from the first time it started spawning devilish, preposterous minions who sought and still seek to acclaim Satan's throne of fire and blasphemy, has been a supercharged oldfactory of ominous productivity, and to this day, no other metal scene can outmatch them when it comes to exposing the crude, hostile contents of their lascivious intents. One of the known demon-kings of the last decade is Vomitor, and partnering with Hell's Headbangers, they've got barbaric profanity aplenty for ravenous listeners. Of course, although I was certainly excited when I received a promo of the Australian augurs's newest record, ''the Escalation'', but I also need to imply that the same rules that go for all the other clone bands from the scene are directed towards the legends themselves, and banal simplicity and repetitive foray won't get you very far, even if you're Batman.

Now, I'm not directly associating Vomitor with these negative features that the majority of their countrymen possess (and possess substantially, at that), but let me just start of by saying that the pundits of savagery disappointed me somewhat on their third full-length. I always enjoy a measurable dose of primal outings, semi-subterranean atmosphere anchoring the ambiance to a tumultuous, opaque extent, and the uncircumcised pretense of caveman blackened death/thrash, only, these elements are the only elements are the principally the only aesthetics Vomitor has, which can just suck the excitement out of some audiences after some time. Vomitor boasts of absolute fucking carnage and tense, unbridled craze, and despite the obvious flaws, still deliver the goods the way an old schooler would want; jammed into just thirty minutes, ''The Escalation'' has nice, gritty tone that reeks of yet more carnality, and the cycle of oblivion keeps circulating as the drums plod along with blast beats, grime is spewed forth, blackened speed/thrash ruptures shoot out like psychopathic devils, and the with another bestial inauguration, the cycle renews itself, chaos everywhere.

Vomitor's guitar work is fairly intriguing as far the typical black/thrash psyche goes; it's basically a fluctuating from hellish black/thrash outbursts and straightforward death metal tremolos craving listener's eardrums, and Vomitor also likes mesh that up with occasional whammy wails, which somehow remind me of Gammacide, only as intent about blaspheming as eradicating. As I stated, even with Death Dealer's vocals joining the malicious cacophony for that sinister, blackened edge you're all too familiar with, the progressions and patterns are very direct, without any underpinnings boosting the infrastructure during incursions, yet, thanks to the thinny impulse of the guitars and the band's drunken panoply of deliberate riffing, the music isn't half as banal as that of their counterparts. Conclusion? ''The Escalation'' is a damnably solid album. All the praise that it didn't receive in this review was caused by the compulsions of a disappointed fan, so, if you really know you're going to have a hell of a ride with this, (and I'm sure you will) then get it. This is music for those who enjoy their metal short and to-the-point, archaic as it was over twenty years ago. Hail Satan.

Highlights:
The Escalation
Metal Or Die
Salem Witches Grave

Rating: 80%

Black Jesus - Black Jesus Saves

Earlier this year, I was acquainted with Black Jesus, whom produced this killer EP conducted by Australia's very own mini-arsenal, The Coffins Slave, and I was surprised, even though it's made evident by all the OSDM madness going around us, of the quality of such a young act, and now, the grim blasphemers have found the perfect spot to continue to hon their artillery and ruthlessly rivet disgusted attention on themselves as they find the terrific execution spot for modern repugnant bruisers like them to feast; the terrific Hell's Headbangers Records. ''Black Jesus Saves'' is, despite all of simple features, an oblique death metal observation, belonging to both the primordial grindcore finesses of Repulsion and Terrorizer, and the more straightforward death metal footings of the bands from the same era, some Bolt Thrower circa 1988-1989, Benediction, Cancer and ''Altars Of Madness'' era Morbid Angel, all contained with frothing rage that exposes them maliciously.

Much like the grotesque demon-pope arousing gruesome energy to its befouled minions, emerging from a rotten stockpile of viscera and blasphemy, the music is disgusting. Black Jesus obtains the perfect balance between mid-paced lurches, pure grindcore fueled aggression and stockier tremolo barrages, and despite the brevity of each track and the entire EP, the band dishes out multiple variants of pain and repugnance, and provides a crude consistence and platform to plow upon for the duration. And the vocals too are horrific, almost vampiric growls that only aggravate the sickened condition of the riffs, bile erupting as the tremolos race through your ears. ''Black Jesus Saves'' may still remain somewhat generic compared to its annual components who have festered and befouled many deaf ears, but it has a great, frivolous deadliness to it which I can't easily free myself from, especially after hearing the nebulae-caked dirty thrash chugs they can conjure on ''Atrocity Generator''.

For now, the band remains victorious with only a small compendium of riffs at their hand, but with further endeavors they may be able to join ranks with modern cadaver grinders including Tormented, Revolting and their newly formed label mates Gouge, who also have great fervor for a very similar style. Releases like this come very often (and I think that's made obvious by now) but most revivalists tend to drag us on and on with sleep-injecting drudgery, and I certainly do love it when bands like Black Jesus can fabricate through simple brute accuracy; fresh and deadly splashes of rocking, rank old school death metal. An easily recommended experience for fans of semi-submersed, spurious death/grind, and +1 for Australia and The Coffins Slave.

Highlights:
Atrocity Generator
Black Jesus Saves
The Devouring

Rating: 81%

Hellbringer - Dominion Of Darkness

One of the few countries who can conjure such massive hordes of quality bands that can compete with Sweden or the States is undeniably Australia, and their vitriolic compendium enlarges every single day it seems, and the latest of the profane abominations to manifest vile material is Hellbringer. Now, this three-piece is not actually the newest act to hail from Australia (though they are quite young), but their debut album ''Dominion Of Darkness'' is good enough to cause hellish barks and immense quakes in the black/thrash kingdom, and after Antichrist's brilliant ''Forbidden World'', this is probably the finest speed/black/thrash hybrid the last three-four years have to offer, meaning that I know have such a burning, profound flame of passion in me that I don't think I'll get jaded about these aesthetics for a long time.

Hellbringer are probably nothing new who has the slightest idea about the primal speed/thrash churnings today, but fuck you, everything has already been copied and repeated countless times and so far you haven't scoffed at any of those plagued trends, so why get agitated by this one? Of course, there are few more reasons why to like ''Dominion Of Darkness'' besides its penchant for deliberately exhaling brilliantly manifested incursions of voluptuous, darkened anger. Remember the Antichrist comparison I made above? Well, I must confide that the resemblance is not entirely accurate, but aesthetically you'll still be able to find a good deal of things similar to ''Forbidden World''. ''Dominion Of Darkness'  inclination is towards the thrash oriented side of things, like Abigail or Barbatos with a wild Australian trace of bestiality, but unlike some of its contemporaries, Hellbringer loves embellishing the speedy, hellish incandescence with a sulfuric dose of crazed Teutonic energy, bringing vivid images of of a devil-possessed early Kreator or Sodom to mind every time you hear vicious riffing.

Hellbringer's diabolic competence shows of every flash of the album. Hellbringer are not building for a culminating finale, they're not delivering splendidly shrewd black/thrash, not are they massing their purgatorial conflagrations to erupt into one tumultuous rupture, they're simply effortlessly channeling throughout the territories of metal that they know best and frankly excel at, and they don't flounder for a second, they don't run out of fuel for the fire - they pierce through whatever hindrances stand in their way as if clawing through a stockpile of disabling blots around the ear, delivering contemptuous, vitriolic and visceral bliss. There isn't even much variation throughout the tracks, but somehow, the furnace never lacks for fire, and with the rancorous screams of the vocalist added to the dark aura, ''Dominion Of Darkness' reverb-ridden atmosphere becomes an unholy ear candy for all those who love their ferocious Aussie black/thrash. There is absolutely no possible way a thrasher or fan of bestial blackened metal can reject this. It's not my favorite metal album of the year, however, it is certainly the best of its field I have come across so far.

Highlights:
Dominion Of Darkness
Deceiver's Chamber
Hellbringer
The Rites Of Evil

Rating: 88%

Monomakh - MMXII

It's queer that there's not much accessible information about the rollicking down-tuned cadaver smotherers Monomakh, and it's even queerer that I found them out totally by coincidence and their evil-fraught debut EP ''MMXII'' exploded before my eyes. The Australians are very fond of Incantation, that's quite blatant, and that makes the primary essence of their EP as well, but Monomakh's impious cauldron definitely has bits and pieces of derivative elements spread sparsely, embellishing the main material, and rivets to separate forces together to form one ultimate gloomy combo, putrid and twisted. The scene in Australia is currently forging far more vile and ferocious music than this, but Monomakh's inclinations are really not bent towards being a forceful tide of fierce and feverish ferocity, but rather a forceful tide of monotonous and downright heinous burden, clashing, trudging and wallowing like a bulky cyclopean temple on stunted legs. Aussie's tendencies have always favored the carnal slashes of black/thrash and war metal, but with the shadowy evil we can attain with Monomakh and recent Aussie giants Ignivomous, there's gonna be some altering in the scene.

''MMXII'' is barbaric, percussive and crushing, but first and foremost, it's oppressive. Imagine two monstrously thick blankets encompassing your face, marring your your thoughts and insulating your oxygen - that's what it's like to experience this triumphant bombast of barbarous impiety. For anyone acquainted with recent act Father Befouled, Drawn And Quartered or Ignivomous, or hell, even Incantation for that matter, this shouldn't be too hard to deal with. After all, the music you hear is nowhere near original, so I'm not going to turn on my cheesy histrionics to praise these guys. Principally, the music you deal with here is pretty much a bulkier version of ''Onward To Golgotha'', which is something that I will never get tired of listening, but for innovation freaks, this is not a really intriguing sojourn. Bland would be the wrong word, but when you're delivering angular tremolo bombards and smoldering assaults of pure blackened ash and sulfurous magma, I can't really announce you the most inventive act out there, but I can proclaim you as another hardened bringer of death for a certainty.

Other than the shrouding brilliance it pursues, ''MMXII'' is short, ranging at just about twenty minutes, so the whole epic death metal idea is really missing too. The vocals are subtle, cthtonic utters, sometimes savaged by their own will, and there also seems to be some solid drumming on the EP, even a few brief moments where the whole EP emphasizes on a single dull (but efficient in a way) drum fill. And so, after twnety minutes of suffocating anguish, you come to the end of yet another Incantation worshiper - what are your thoughts? For me, it was a fun venture, as always, yet I still sought some punctual variation and oddity throughout, and painfully, there was none that I could appease myself with. So folks, get this for a brief and primal excursion, and be warned that it serves as nothing else. If you want Incantation other than the band itself, you can opt from the countless retro bands with full-lengths today, but I do have great hope in Monomakh, hope that they will eventually spread out their wings large and brilliant, offering some of the best evil death metal out there. Get going.

Highlights:
Kokytos
Barbaros

Rating: 82,5%

Gospel Of The Horns - Ceremonial Conjuration

You can never go wrong with Gospel Of The Horns. If your ignorance still render you unaware of their presence, let me fill you in briefly. Gospel hail from Australia, where the black/thrash genre has reached its climax in efficiency and development, and frankly along with Destroyer 666, these vandals are the ones who brought black/thrash to a new level of ferocity and velocity, and thus, Gospel Of The Horns is an old act, one that has released numerous demos and EPs throughout the 90's, finally releasing their debut album ''A Call To Arms'' in 2002 and their sophomore in 2007. This EP is lengthwise a large fragment of an album, nearly twenty minutes, and if we go by a traditional sense, the band should be releasing another album this year, since there's a time space of five years in between each record, though judging by the fact that they've only completed half of the material required to muster an album, in profound agitation and melancholy, I must admit that I fear a full-length is more remote than you might think. This, of course, is my theory.

Nonetheless, I can still be quite content with eighteen minutes of heavily blasted, grinding vicious black/thrash, something that I'm an absolute sucker for. Mongrel's Cross,Warfare, Ketzer and Aura Noir already delivered their fair share of solid ruptures of frenetic black/thrash, carnal and bestial, and Gospel Of The Horns do not fail to deliver, either. You get plenty of variation throughout those eighteen minutes, more than you may expect if truth be told. You have ruinous, torrential outbursts of traumatizing bestial black/thrash, hammering its way through with a sordid obelisk of a guitar tone, a classy rhythm department offering some grooving chord attacks, typical blackened speed/thrash excursions, and even some more numbing mid-paced stuff reeking of oppression like on ''Awakening'', and in addition, the band has an excellent cover of Goatlord's magnificent ''The Fog'' which is basically a black metal-induced version  of Asphyx. The music is simple, though requiring plenty of stamina to churn out those wicked grooves and impetuous tremolos, but as always, the Horns manage bisect their way through the rotten and sore flesh covering your ear holes.

The tone really boasts that juicy, punchy strength that riffs possess. and especially on the cover of ''The Fog'', you can absolutely feel the tremulous contractions of the entwining chords, shaking and stomping, pretty much like an Asphyx record, only eviler. The listener gets a lot of pleasure from the vocals, too. Seriously, if you consider the riffs as over or predictable, then you may as well dub the vocals as vague, bleak plumes of dark smoke, which is pretty much what they are, harsh, eerie and raucous rasps - pretty much an even more venomous kind of your traditional black/thrash rasps. ''Ceremonial Conjuration'' is great, to say the least, built robustly, and it exposes its bombastic, frivolous assaults of grim black/thrash, with no improvement whatsoever in the originality department, which totally fine by me. It would be wrong to say that Gospel Of The Horns are making a come back because they never split up, but after a semi-hiatus of five years, let's just hope that they continue to rain prodigious thunder on us, without procrastinating the incursion.

Highlights:
Ceremonial Conjuration
Sorcery And Blood
Conquering Self

Rating: 85%

Antediluvian/Temple Nightside - Cogitating Vacuous

Antediluvian, though a relatively newly formed apparition are proving to be even more squamous and prolific than I would have imagined. Just a couple of months ago, they unleashed a introspective torrent of cavernous evil upon mankind alongside with fellow countrymen Adversarial, whom, also undeniably made Canada proud with their ultra-sophisticated brand of abysmal aberration and hellish brute force, and yet that ebbing, infinite tide of impiety does not seem to cease. Antediluvian's work on this two sided split is fairly short, but despite its brevity, I can't help but think the band's efforts nearly inordinate, as less than a year after the release of the darkened pillar of dissonance, ''Through The Cervix Of Hawaah'' they relinquish their ideas and already they have half the material to forge an album - one that I will most gladly embrace and worship.

On the other side of the split, we have an act that's even rawer than its split-mate, the Australian Temple Nightside. I can imagine that a number of people who heard about the blackened incandescence of ''Through The Cervix Of Hawaah'' are not quite well acquainted with Temple, which most probably because Profound Lore Records knew to grab the brighter bulbs in the batch (Mitochondrion, Antediluvian), but there's also a little gab caused by the band's overall discography. Temple released an excellent EP the previous year, though it was mostly shadowed by either more the more superior releases on its kind that exploded in the same time, or by the lack of advertisement, both of gaps which are about to be closed with this split. These primal black metal cavemen deliver crude and incessant torture, and while the total length of their sole track on this split is just a pinch longer than Antediluvian's material, it still manages to get the drool in your mouth dripping for another release.

Antediluvian are incredible as always, and flawless evil is an art that they've practiced and endeavored to achieve so many times that it literally comes spawning out from their veins in ghastly, diminishing rupture. The stance maintained on both the lauded full-length and the latter split with Adversarial was generally a trudging, indulgent one, mainly sticking to the monolithic aesthetics of doom to underpin the channeling, churning evil that was going on above, but on ''Cogitating Vacuous'', the Canadians embrace a less harrowing type of aggravating clawing torture, and produce relatively more dynamic excursions of festering, soupy tremolo density, the node wherein Incantation and other unholy specters join and collide, smothering. While it goes a mid-paced tempo for the most part of the song, the spiraling monster morphs into a profane doom-tinged chomp n' stomp during the finalizing minute, an absolutely tremendous simple riffs made atmospheric with a melancholic and utterly profane, nostalgic melody, still tinging in my ears. Temple Nightside are perhaps not so profound about exploring evil as Antediluvian, but their fiery, abrasive mutilation is an intriguing experience, too. The Australian duo firstly choose a primal and raw production for their music to go through, and they load up their artillery with necrotic, disseminating chords, switching from doom to war metal to Incantation mid-pace quicker than you can say ''Cogitating Vacuous''. The vocals are laden with obscurity and abrasive hate both, and the guttural deliveries exceed especially during the faster moments of shadowy brilliance.

The verdict here is obvious. The two abominations of blackened death metal once again fabricate material that ensure their grasp on evil, and while the main reason I got this split was because it featured an exclusive track from Antediluvian, Canada's finest in my opinion, (and I still think their part of the split was better) I can't deny that Australians killer black/death scene is growing more ominous and efficient with Temple. What else can I say about this split? It' everything I want in one, small package. The whole profusion is abstract, otherworldly, chthonic, surreal, and everything religion worked upon is now a mere gathering of rubble, picking up dust as a new, profane ritual starts blossoming as we speak. Go forth, the dark winds are uttering you name.

Highlights:
Communion With The Void
Somnambulent Of The Void

Rating: 88%

Metal Minis - Vilifier - Okkulta

Vilifier - Rehearsal MMXI [Demo]

Vilifier are a rather intriguing black/death act to appear from Australia. Their material is does not defy the Australian traditional of gore soaked raw bestiality, but their three track rehearsal demo provides a little more than standard, compulsory black/thrashing onslaughts or fluent, dissecting raw black metal inclinations that seem to be getting popular every day, simply by exposing the music with almost sophisticated touches. Think of a slower Teitanblood or a more chug laden Antediluvian, fuse it with glimpses of unbridled ruptures, and you have Vilifier. The band excels at constructed well-maintained bridges to fluctuate between monotonous death/doom trudges and voluptuous moments of festering precision, blasting out rancid, piercing tremolos here and there. While it is short, the fifteen minute demo introduces and introspective channel that finds its way through darkness and chaos, and therefore there’s plenty of variation here, with the cherry on top of the cake being the abrasive, ear-shattering growls of the vocalist, a cavernous experience. Even amongst the more seasoned and professional acts to emerge from Aussie, Vilifier somehow stands out, and any resident war metal fan should have no problem welcoming this demo.

Okkulta - Witch [Demo]

Okkulta hail from Sweden and they’re yet another traditional heavy metal act to embrace the old school fervour they possess. However, their inclinations lean towards a somewhat eviler brand of traditional heavy, as stated on the title of the demo. The occult, evil, blasphemy and sorcery all seem to be themes that interest the young outfit, but queerly, they don’t fail at projecting that fervour onto their music, and all of a sudden you have two concise tracks, darker than any usual aspect to emerge from Sweden, and the slight deviation serves as the fulcrum of the demo. ‘’Devil’s Truth’’ leads the listener viscously with a visceral guitar tone and a couple of catchy tremolo passages, ultimately finalizing too quick for the listener to properly appease /himself/herself. Almost black metal-esque chords disseminate as they melt into a hooking verse and the vocals sing along truculently, a little immature but still decent. The following piece ‘’Witch’’ keeps a slightly more intricate persona, and scatters the demo into a more ritualistic hymn. Perhaps not all the aspects of the demo were well done, but I still enjoyed it. This may augment into something more promising in the future.

Vilifier: 8.50/10

Okkulta: 8/10

Dead River Runs Dry - Winter 2012 [Demo]

Dead River Runs Dry is a freshly forged, and burgeoning new black metal project by Dan Nahum, the man behind many other Australian black metal projects, including the newly flowered Azoth and Bleakwood, all of them successful churnings of reliable, consistent and somewhat aggressive qualities of accessible black metal of high calibre, despite the lack of attention they are all receiving. Although all of Dan’s projects are relatively new to the scene even though the mastermind himself remains a veteran of the genre’s aesthetics, and with his talents he is able to construct yet another demo for his newest project Dead River Runs Dry, four tracks of constant black metal, each overflowing with vigorous catharsis, erupting into brusque, disseminating rupture and keeping the trail they flow along pure and unmarred, avoiding many of the genre’s deterrent clichés.

The name of the demo suits the brevity of its musical traits, being simply entitled, ‘’Winter 2012’’, which obviously calls upon the frigid windstorms and environing bleakness that it projects. The demo is not exceedingly concise, and thus within that short time it captures a good amount of attention. The most entertaining thing about this demo is that it simply reflects bleak, desolate landscapes and blasts out garrulous black metal franticness at the time, leading to a diverse anatomy, one that neither too arduous to comprehend nor too simple. The demo serves swerving, overt black metal without hesitation, and the production supports the angular changes in the atmosphere, having a somewhat dry, yet loud consistency, and in order to tighten the grasp on the vivacious, frenetic authenticity of the aura, the demo will often switch abruptly into a hooking chug, or perhaps a less intense chord attack.

Dead River Runs Dry embraces its gelid, solemn expanse but exploring through deep, grandiose feelings where the level of emotion reaches its climax. Although such patterns are rare amongst the blazing barrage of brazen tremolos and harried outbursts, the band does give a fair measure of room for such sections, and the most emotionally tainted track is probably ‘’Dying Gleam Of The Sun Eternal’’, sombre and entrancing while delivering a mournful array of lurching, ponderous tremolos, dispersing the atmosphere into a fragile landscape, all of a sudden. All in all, Dead River Runs Dry is a very worthy release and a considerable alternative to the waves of black metal bands, and thus, the power of the Australian metal scene has once again been proved, crushing all the competition with an iron fist. Along with this demo, Dan Nahum’s other projects are also highly recommended, each of the same nature, but surprisingly variant. 

Highlights:

Way Of The Plunderer

Dying Gleam Of The Sun Eternal

Rating: 80%

Devil Ancestry - At the Seat Of Evil Ecstasy [Demo]

It’s nice to see so many bands embracing the sluggish characteristics of old school death metal, but let’s be honest; too many bands trying to re-activate the genre’s apathetic, droning and ponderous elements by simply rehashing the instrumental aspects of Asphyx, Rottrevore, Autopsy and the like, which is admittedly nothing more than simply a monotonous version of the brutal emphasis of crunches and chugs of death metal; a poorly innovated brand to excel in. And as although I’m not scoffing at these death/doom trends, there is simply no room for the evil, bleak aura to consume and desolation to utterly aggravate the listener’s emotions, so frankly the focus of the true evil, monotonous atmosphere captured by the mighty ‘’d’’ and Winter is something we death/doom fans are devoid of. Australian act Devil Ancestry fabricate four compositions of lugubrious queerness ranging at only eight minutes in order to capture that sound which is redolent an utterly alien din of bizarre ghastliness, reeking of befouled and molested cadavers.

The main reason this act seemed so appealing to me is that their compositions are not pungent or fleshy, and such a perfect, brief demo that emphasises on nothing but the drudging ooze of the rotten, dismal sludge that it belches is certainly not something you often hear in today’s scene. In fact even the scene in the 90’s did not support such dissonant and grotesque calamities, and the closest thing I can relate this is the black/doom outfit, Mordor, a short lived group, yet incredibly disturbing and evil, calling fourth a monstrous aura upon the field. Devil Ancestry does not take on all the traits of Mordor, because some of its attributes incline towards Demilich, as the Finnish legends also had a penchant for delivering swerving pageantry, completely alien, and yet our Australian newborn does not entirely resemble Demilich either, taking on simpler chugs and queer chord progressions, dispersed and underpinned by the hefty bumps of the base.

‘’The Rib Of Adam Created Shit’’ is the demo’s starter. Once it commences the listener is indulged in a lethargic orgy of bowel transitions and all sorts of awkward quivers, and yet although it’s an alien experience from start to beginning, it’s obvious that the band does not try to pen compositions that are arduous or convoluted. The diverse spectrum of the music is actually maintained with interesting tactics. The band does not travel underneath cavernous and subterranean monoliths the whole time, but rises to the surface every now and then during its concise lifespan, and simply utters out almost indecipherable low growls whilst keeping the field dissonant and deceptive by continuously harassing the listener with discordant beats and volatile guitar thrills, simply enchanting as they rot. The final track ‘’Curious Potion’’ goes on for two and a half minutes, serving some spikier death/doom chords, all occasionally backed up by synthesizers. The guitar tone is not spiking, nor is it crunchy, but it does not fail to crush the listener while swaggering ponderously. In all its dismal, brooding and bowel-shaking sense, ‘’At The Seat Of Evil Ecstasy’’ is an intriguing listen, albeit the band doesn’t reinvent the wheel here. The demo was shamefully short, and it leaves waiting for the release of and Ep or full-length. A recommended experience for those who enjoy the dissonance of blackened death/doom.

Highlights:

The Rib Of Adam Created Shit

Keeper

Rating: 82,5%

Malichor - Lurkers In The Crypt

Australia’s black/thrash tendencies are unarguably at their peak. The country is almost like a frothing, eruptive volcano when it comes to unleashing relentless, unbridled music upon the place. I was content enough to see that Malichor was yet another act interested in the bestial aesthetics of the ancient and raw blackened thrash metal sound, but I was even happier when I heard that the band’s four track Ep ‘’Lurkers In The Crypt’’ offered tidbits of more cunning music, fitted nicely in the gaunt black metal textures. Although both the cover art and album title suggests that the band’s ideology on black/thrash is no different from the cumulative armies forming vigorously around the Australian scene, the music actually proves to be fresher splash in the face than anticipated.

Malichor still doesn’t bring anything utterly inventive on the table, though their slight distinction is an element that can enlarge into a sound more sophisticated in the future. Well, future plans are for another day, so let’s just scrutinize the meal in front of us. Like I said, although Malichor doesn’t entirely deviate from traditional elements, ‘’Lurkers In The Crypt’’ escapes the entirely overwhelming effect of gimmicking giving birth to something relatively fresher. Malichor focuses on creating a more atmospheric and perhaps even bleaker landscape for the music to breathe and breed on. A raw twist is noticeable in the tone and production, but even though the riffs are generally roughly bedecked and shaped, they sound more enthrallingly misanthropic than furiously tempered and frenetic. Perverse fluctuations occur, of course, but I like how the main focus is on the murkier elements shadowed in the music.

You’ll seldom hear brusque transitions on the Ep as the tempo usually channels around mid-paced tempos. Thrashy chugs, drum-beaten tremolos, and sinister descents are present, which makes for a nice combination of tricks although each one hardly deviates from how it’s played in the books, but it was the atmosphere I enjoyed most, if truth be told, the semi-epic, and culminating aura that enhances the haunting feel of the riffs. ‘’Jackal’s Spell’’ has to be my favourite, therefore, as the track offers an almost Viking metal-like vibe, with a catchy chorus driven by tremolos most probably snatched from the classic Norwegian aesthetics. Even as the music grows aggressive or epic at times, you’ll always be engulfed by the cavernous mysticism captured by the band’s love for Lovecraftian horror. Malichor is more proficient at forming dark atmospheres than training vicious hellhounds for battle, and that’s the path they should stick to. The grasp for reality is still very prevalent, but it will grow tenuous in time, I hope. 

Highlights:

Jackal's Spell

Cerebral Debauchery 

Rating: 82,5%

Sanguinary Misanthropia - Loathe Over Will

Australia’s black/death metal is scene is already as extensive and sweltering as one can hope for, but there are bands who still have a great desire of exploiting their music, which is generally vicious and cunning. Sanguinary Misanthropia are mot exception. After releasing a bunch of EPs and demos, the Australian black metal war beasts commit to their most impious ritual yet; ‘’Loathe Over Will’’, their debut full-length. They essentially can be described as black metal, but the death metal influence weighs too much for one to simply call it black metal, especially with the heavy Watain and Angelcorpse influences making their strikes more lethal. While generally fabricating luminous incursions and swift, rather comprehensible riffs and outbursts of splinters, the band also calls forth a ritualistic aura that draws atmosphere and ambiance, which laminate the massive Norwegian black metal influence.

An occasionally preferred rule that bands like Sanguinary Misanthropia is sticking to a formula, and guiding the listener through a semi-hazy tunnel, viscously embalming and evaporating whilst keeping true to the path taken. Sanguinary avoid repetition as best as they can, (albeit it’s one thing that simply can’t avoided fully) by frequently changing the course of the album, and taking it into various territories, even adding slight embellishments on the way. ‘’Loathe Over Will’’ is rather long yet statically charged record, brisk no matter what, and because of its deluding nature it has the ability to spew forth many hooks to grab the listener, slamming him/her down with razor sharp tremolo barrages and teeth gritting texture spreading wide as if intending to the consume the listener. Its pliant manoeuvres and fibrous savagery can be very persuading at first sight, and its grip does endure for a long time, but because it’s obsessed with the airy attacks and flashes it’s abundant in, ‘’Loathe Over Will’’ doesn’t have much of a vague, squamous touch to it, which unfortunately leaves it devoid of the mystical, brooding sense we all love.

Nonetheless, with such a strong fortification, ‘’Loathe Over Will’’ still stands the test of vigorousness, and prevails, delivering naught but utterly devastating, caustic and deliberately spiking visceral, scathing turbulence. You won’t be lost within its tempest of bestial black metal, but you can be damn sure you’ll be constantly tempted, battered and harassed by its monstrous nature. It’s a record that can harness a bit of originality and adorn itself with it, and I’ll grant the band extra points for keeping it filthy, old school yet original – an attribute that many a band lacks. ‘’Loathe Over Will’’ is no masterpiece, but it’s still fantastic with all the different influences gathered around its banner. A good listen for those who are into the 90’s Norwegian black metal, bestial black metal, or even some more latter blasphemers like Morgirion, Infera Bruo and Exordium Mors.

Highlights:

Loathe Over Will

And I Smite Thee

Bellum Ad Internecionem

Rating: 86%

Grave Upheaval/Manticore - Grave Upheaval/Manticore

Manticore, Antediluvian, Proclamation, Grave Upheaval, Mitochondrion, Impetuous Ritual, Adversarial, Pseudogod; these bands have become some of my favourite black/death acts, not only because they present material in the most quality form present, but also because they bring a sort of evil, blasphemous niche and attach it to their music, forming an impeccable wall of sheer, profane victory. The crazed masterminds behind Portal and Impetuous Ritual are once again working on their side project Grave Upheaval, and US war metal savages Manticore join forces, and as if there weren’t enough splits worth praising, they fabricate a four song split, devoid of human sense, ill natured and completely hostile against light, and all things positive. It’s such a fathomless pit that sucks you in with no regret at all, slowly consuming your pitiful cadaver and renders you naked towards the upcoming assault of converging chaos, scathing in an orgy of impious bile and vitriol.

As stated, both bands come with the whole of their most vital forces behind them, which makes the fourteen minutes a most excruciating experience. Like the latter Antediluvian/Adversarial split, despite playing a similar style of death metal, Manticore and Grave Upheaval don’t quite fit the same bill, but the slight nuances only make the split more colourful, and there’s a fairly wide spectrum of sounds that anyone should be sucked in with first sight. I honestly had no doubts about Grave Upheaval, after all, the Australian death/doom project complemented the genre hugely with their sequential 2010 demo, an asphyxiating travesty of a ritual, noxious and utterly blasphemous, but Manticore were a band that I wasn’t familiarized with very well, but in as the epilogue came near, it became obvious that both bands have something to say, and they say it well. Manticore presents approximately six minutes of bestial black/death, unlike their split-mates who offer eight minutes of hefty, dark prowess, and Mantciore’s psalms conduct a much more vivacious brand of blight and dynamic electricity, eccentric, eclectic, nonetheless still very moving and rambunctious, thus, the band espouses sounds which are more barbaric than drowning, merging together the boundless speed and aggression of Blasphemy, Weregoat, and even Watain with raw tones that many a black metal fan should be familiar with, ultimately driving the riffs towards a more metallic and blunt edge, rawer and faster.

Grave Upheaval’s traits allude the deep presence of Impetuous Ritual with every stomp, every drowsy, fatal crunch, and the inundating aura calls forth even Portal-esque elements to the table at times, making their eight minutes an experience no less tormenting than a rack. Of course, I’m sure that Winter, Disembowelment, Autopsy and Mordor had some sort of effect on their ponderous movements, their accursed swagger, and the doom influence makes all the difference for Grave Upheaval. It’s pitch black during the whole of the Grave Upheaval side, with not a single ray of light shedding enlightenment across the textures, and one guider that that effect each accent enormously, is the drums, yet another majestic wonder of the record. The aforementioned death/doom veterans had a fantastic set of cadaverous beats and punctuations, and I can safely say that the monotonous sprinkle of the toms and the ominous thump of the snare used here are nearly THAT good, and I still recall the melodramatic thumps of the ending sequence, made even mightier with the heavily distorted tone and bulbous bass line:

Da, du, da, dum; DUM DUM DUM DUM. Oh so heavenly heavy.

This split doesn’t surpass the recent ‘’Initiated In Impiety As Mysteries’’, but proves to be very worthy match and a strong contender for the top releases of 2012, too. And like its peer of a split, it divides the profane ritual into two marginally different attributes, the fast and the slow, if we need to categorize it simply. It’s choleric, strict, most blasphemous, tantalizing with subdued elements scattered all around it, and it simply swallows all that is spurious in its eye. It’s artistically crafted, embroidered with dark decorations, and in the end, it suffocates you as quickly as a heinous disease. This split may not be the most cathartic expression of black/death I’ve heard, but it emulates many of its rivals, but it’s so short that it’ll run out of material before it can even cauterize a third of many of its opponents. Otherwise, unless you’re retarded enough to neglect its impious power, get this, and you will be appeased, I guarantee you. It's all about the atmosphere. 

Highlights:

Untitled

Untitled (Second one)

Insemination Of The Sycophant 

Unleashing Unholy Temptations

Rating: 89,5%

Backyard Mortuary - Lure Of The Occult

''Occult'', may just be the term I need to describe this unsigned Australian five-piece, and this kind of dark, brooding death metal is something refreshing after getting slammed and devoured by dozens of Swedish death metallers.Backyard Mortuary do their best to avoid simple cliches, which is good news because  they're bringing some much needed contrast to the scene, and it's still entertaining to see a band bring up different old school aesthetics than the ones that are already reaching the point of over-saturation because Backyard Mortuary mash up more than a few bands together while forming their old school drenched formula. They're evil, sordid and primitive, heavily influenced by thrash metal savages like Kreator, Sepultura, Morbid Saint, much like the early 90's - late 80's extreme metal sound.

Backyard Mortuary are primitive and subdued, but they're not crude or wholly apart from technical issues. They're not entirely embracing atmosphere or anything like that, but they keeps their riffs rock solid and the guitar tone corpulent and boxy, and the thrash primitivism gets a few bonus chugs and stomps in there for additional crust and power, and once combined, the mixture sounds perfect. I'm feeling a little bit of Autopsy here with some Cannibal Corpse circa ''Eaten Back To Life'' and plenty of old school USDM elements are fashioned as well, but the most important aspect is that the record's drooling with evil, occult-laden filth, and that alone can make a very big difference. I see the much adored Swedish death metal sound is not snatched this time, not one bit as it's been replaced by other influences many will be very enthusiastic about, but at the same time, Backyard Mortuary inserts much of their own brand of old school death metal oddity into the mix, and that's the main reason I can't quite put my finger on influences and directly name a band.

Like most who spread a similar overtone of evil, ''Lure Of The Occult's'' anatomy is a riff laden barricade of cavernous savagery, meaning that the entire focus of the riffs is the same, crushing, desecrating and relentlessly pursuing with either rich thrash chomps of Incantation like tremolo merges, but with a hint of that Autopsy taste I mentioned earlier, a small outburst of sinister notes among the hefty crushers. All of the songs are longer than four minutes and majority can reach up to five or six minutes with two mega tracks; the seven minute punisher ''Mutation'' and the eight minute monolith of a song, ''Demon's Blood''. Groovy and semi-technical touches may adorn the most of the record, but doomy section a re prominent, usually reeking heavily of Asphyx with a similar chunky, full tone, doused with the occasional sprinkling of chaotic stench.

Backyard Mortuary proves to be catchier, faster and more entertaining than many other obelisks that stand and fight, while they could have, to my dismay, fought with a little bit more aggression and energy, fueling their blood. ''Macabre Butchery'' is a prime example of the formula I'm talking about. With a tiny bit of brutal death, sheer blasphemy and raw anger becomes a much more entertaining dish, and that's probably the main idea of the whole record. Ectovoid, Anhedonist, and now, Backyard Mortuary. The latest addition to my list of more ''inspired'' death metal bands of the year, and I'm adding these because their style is definitely engulfing and interesting, if not utterly innovative and surpassing in originality. Australia is gathering a mighty fine cluster of deathly old school death metal bands and they're growing each day--it won't be long before we're besieged by an army of these brain drilling monstrosities.

Highlights:
Macabre Butchery
Lure Of The Occult
Beyond The Grave
Mutation


Rating: 86,5%


Follow the macabre butchers from Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/backyardmortuary

Metal Minis #1 - Innsmouth/Mongrel's Cross - Uncanny

This is the first of the ''metal minis'' series wherein I will shortly review EPs or demos that I can't find much to say about. I will generally review two releases in each part of the series, though sometimes I may review more than two releases. It's really up to me.

The names up there in the title are not release names, but the names of the bands that have released the demo/Ep that I am to review. So now, I give you two fantastic bands:

Innsmouth/Mongrel's Cross - The Plutonian Drug/Starfire Communion [Split]

Here, we have a two way split done with two Australian bands; Innsmouth and Mongrel's Cross. Mongrel's Cross already impressed me beyond belief with the release of their debut full-length, ''The Sins Of Aquarius'', a filthy chunk of spiteful blackened death/thrash with tons of crust and cunning, but Innsmouth are a stranger to me, and if truth be told, the only reason I was drawn towards Innsmouth at first was because their name and content reeked of Lovecraft, and ''Shadow Over Innsmouth'' has to be one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Books aside, Innsmouth play some seriously heavy, buzz-driven filthy Finnish death metal for the most part, and their brand of old school death metal is surprisingly catchy, melancholic and distorted. There's a heavy stench of Finnish death metal snatched from bands like early Sentenced, Purtenance, Convulse, Abhorrence and alike, flourished with a raw production tone,again, resembling the Finnish death metal bands. Mongrel's Cross also bend towards a more raw and blackened overtone, disposing of the heavy death metal influence that was present on the debut album and leaving dirty, crusty thrash with a chaotic black metal spice on top of it, just the way old schoolers like it. Innsmouth have enough material to make a full-length, and I'm already highly content with the Mongrel's Cross album, so we'll just have to wait while salivating over the thought of a new album.

Uncanny - Path Of The Flesh [EP]

Ah, yes. The Swedish death metal trend continues to spread across the circulatory system of the metal universe like an infectious disease, so common that many already show symptoms of the plague, but fortunately this time we have a band who's actually among giants like Entombed, Dismember and Grave as Uncanny had their debut album released way back, in 1994. So thankfully, they're not exactly imitating anyone, bu they're not exactly bringing fresh meat to the butcher either. Nonetheless, I have a substantial amount of respect of chainsaw oriented madness with the corpulent and copious guitar tone, and Uncanny are inserting a very good measure of groove into their music, sensationally pummeling the listener whilst driving neck towards the edge to destruction. It's frantic and it's still rotten, and even if you don't enjoy this sort of music that the current scene is plagued with, it's good to know that some purveyors of death are coming back from the graveyard dust to smack metalheads with a heavy current of old school Swedish filth. The Ep has only two songs, and it can still be counted as a departure from their former sound, but fans will enjoy it nonetheless.

Innsmouth/Mongrel's Cross: 8.50/10
Uncanny: 7.75/10

Mongrel's Cross - The Sins Of Aquarius

Mongrel's Cross's debut album ''The Sins Of Aquarius'' is nothing new to me. In fact, I was awaiting the explosion of the album with wide eyes when suddenly, I found the album right at my fingertips. Australia's is damn well know for its soldiers of bestial black and death metal, so black/thrash goodness wouldn't really surprise many. It's actually good that Aussie's offering so much quality black/thrash/death, because the current scene is plagued with scores of bands inferior to their masters in all ways, and now a retro-thrash trend seems to be rising, wherein pathetic thrash metal bands flourish their mediocrity with boring, blatant black metal aspects, such as raspy vocals and a few tremolos here and there, and then they tend to call themselves black/thrash. Mongrel's Cross are no where near these befouling imitators, and see through their well composed debut album if you don't believe me. With this, the fine line between retro black/thrash doppelgangers and true, old school black/thrashers are drawn vividly, bringing the dim, challenging and dynamically driven flavor of black/thrash back on the table.

It's obvious that Mongrel's Cross has driven black/thrash towards the extremity of death metal, thus renewing the genre's sharpness, but influences are still pretty clear, so don't expect to find any ground braking music here. Monstrous it is, but Mongrel's Cross is fueled by a constant source of punk and crushing death metal brutality, a crucial crutch in the formation of the separate links that would later be attached to each other. The band's to the atmosphere of the riffs and encompassing nihilism is also notable, thriving the disdainful riffs. The production, I must admit, is more muffled than I expected, and a raw edge surrounds the music as you delve into it. The music is still accessible yes, but dispersed arrays of black metal distortion fly through the air as if vaporized, and so a rich atmosphere is born from almost nothing, though still failing to commit to complete ambiance throughout. The comings and goings of the production may irritate some, but in no way is it tedious or agitating, and actually pretty exciting considering the diffusing resonance that it adds. While for the most part this straight, crushing and actually one dimensional black/thrash, there are moments where the black metal influence crops itself to make room for the huge death metal influence to take the spot and interact with the brutal, capacious thrash chugs, thus omitting the black metal aspect and forming a slightly different texture for the album to place itself.

Even the vocals are somehow connected to death metal as the they sound like black metal rasps and death metal growls coexisting. I'd say the death metal tone is more prominent, though with such volatile maneuvers, its admittedly hard to follow their path, evolving, evaporating into different tones with each song and maybe even each riff. While you spend half your time trying to catch up with previous riff, another one clutches you by the neck and drives a poison laden blade through your spine. Painful. Even though I love these sorts of robust incursions of brutal thrash and bestial black hybrids, it may sometimes fail to grab the whole of you with derivative riffing constantly pursuing you, but some cantankerous and maybe somber additions to the album's aggressive arsenal of riffs makes the experience worth the investment. Take ''When The Dragon Gives Birth'' for example. There are many elements which make it more unique than one dimensional black/thrash/death barrages like ''Rabid Inception'' or the title track, though don't get me wrong, raw and blunt aggression is the main attraction of the album. I hear the classic waves of Gospel Of The Horns, Vomitor, Nocturnal Graves and Destroyer 666 to be repeated during the first sequences, but towards the end, the track matures from almost abrasive black metal bestiality into a somber, grim piece of tremulous black metal, laden with melody and dotted with smatterings of a more atmospheric side of black metal. Mongrel's Cross keep you eagerly hunting for their brand of Australian blackened death/thrash, and while the whole exhibit was nothing too original or even intricate for that manner, it certainly does replenish the old school sound, sending copious amounts of retro-thrash groups running to their masters.

Highlights:
The Sins Of Aquarius
When The Dragon Gives Birth
Indulge The Temple


Rating: 87,5%

Sewercide-Severe Trauma DEMO

Just when I was talking about the new thrash scene, more bands spawn from hideous sewers, and bring forth highly praised influences, from the most devastating acts of thrash metal. Australia, who never ceases to deliver mighty fine black and death metal, offer me Sewercide this time, a fairly new band, perfecting the disastrous formula of Demolition Hammer and alike. Sewercide's influences are blatantly obvious and there's nothing new brought to the table, but just the sheer level of energy and crushing riffs are enough to persuade to review this two-track demo.

Sewercide basically sound like a slightly lighter version of ''Epidemic Of Violence'' circa Demolition Hammer. All their aspects and influences sum up to a gigantic death/thrash attack, a relentless butcher, fueled by an unending fire, ignited by the relentless assault of the storming, grooving drums. To be completely honest, Sewercide can't be really dubbed as death/thrash, because there's really no death metal influence existent here, just plain, stomping thrash. Although I'm never displeased with standard thrash aesthetics, I can't deny that Sewercide has borrowed a little too much from D-Hammer, and unless you're totally new to the band or other typical aggressive thrash outfits, I can't really say that this demo will provide much contrast for you, and instead you'll only have the momentary joy of re-listening to the thrash bands that dominated the metal underground during the early 90's and late 80's. There's little diversity and technical prowess, but other than that, I doubt that any thrasher won't like this slab of old school thrash atrocity.

Since there are just two tracks on this demo, don't completely rely on my verdict, because on the next release Sewercide may come stronger, and more inundating. ''Pyrocataclysm'' is one that totally decimates as it could have easily been an extra track on D-Hammer's tormenting debut masterpiece. Everything is firmly placed on this demo, yet it's certainly not an upheaval of creativity. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those nerds who only listen to music that constantly strays from the path, but I just want Sewercide to take that huge infleunce, twist and turn it into their own thing without turning the formula into utter garbage, and then display it with all they've got, and hopefully on the next release, something like will occur.

Highlight:
Pyrocataclysm


Rating: 83,5%


Free download of Sewercide's demo: http://sewercide.bandcamp.com/album/severe-trauma

Impious Baptism - Path Of The Inverted Trinity EP

There are many one man death and black metal projects out there, yet the one done by J, must be one the more promiment ones. Surely, Impious Baptism is a relatively unknown band, but it satisfies my voracious thirst for the one thing that I have not getten enough of ever since the release of ''Unholy Exaltations Of Fullmoon Perversity'', war metal. Now I'm not I die-hard fan, but I certainly like the way the raw death metal guitars grind an scratch on the atmospheric surface of black metal blasphemy. This wave created by infamous bands like Conqueror, Blasphemy and Bestial Warlust continue, with  even more strenght. Some of the more dominant bands like Archgoat and Proclamation have released excellent efforts whose hooks will sink into your flesh like butter, and yet one of those bands is Impious Baptism, steady to assult you with its black/death monstrosity.

The EP follows all the blasphemous trends that were created by aforentioned masters with little derivation and change in sound, but still managing to sound as distorted and ungly as possible. J, who has played in numerous Australian bands like Destroyer 666, Nocturnal Graves or Hobbs' Angel Of Death who have all somehow been involved in his dark brand of black/death, playes all the instruments on the album and I have to admit that that's no easy task. Sure, the album strays just a little from the traditional sound of cadaveric satanism, but the riffs are well-constructed and there is no bullshit, just straight up, full speed riffage played most intensely and chaotically. All the riffs channei in between furious tremolo descendage and distorted chords, and drums batter non stop. The is a good concentration on the catchiness on the material too. I mean, black metal can't really get too groovy, but the riffs are all headbang friendly and even slightly memorable between that filthy rubble of debris which provides all the atmosphere. There are cool moments where the drums and guitars cooperate and produce stomping mid-pace chompers, as seen on the title track. There is also a healthy amount of thrash influence to be found here, one trait that streches the sector of originality since many bestial black metal acts prefer to use thrashy monsters at seldom, and that's something I can't quite understand.

With even just three songs and a total of eleven minutes, the album can serve some punishing justice, in the rightful vein of their genre-defining forefathers. The vocals are just as demonic as the riffs, guttural snarls that evaporate and erose as soon as their delivery is finished, in order to emphasize the ominious atmosphere. ''Path Of The Inverted Trinity'' carves through your flesh and grinds you up into uneven pieces and then gladly bashes your remainders bloody. This is the bestial assault that I had been waiting for sometime, and I'm glad that the delivery was still fresh when it came. This EP will constantly lay unholy seiges upon you, therefore if you like Blasphemy, Bestial Warlust or alike, there's no reason not to feel the satanic might of this one.

Highlights:
Doctrine Of The Antichrist
Path Of The Inverted Trinity

Rating: 77%