Seremonia - Kristalliarkki [2015]

It sometimes happens that a band on such a creative spree suddenly starts to slow down for unknown reasons, closing up their inventive faculties for a safer approach. That aside, Finland has always stood for me as a creative bastion of heavy metal, rearing an expanse of cultural marvels and oddities with frequent use of their native tongue even on records which distinctly appeal to the Westernized culture, and therefore I count myself lucky to have witnessed sundry acts like Seremonia which exemplify the kind of diverse metal tradition I talked about. Finland is an endless pool of awesome, whether your tastes lie in their murky, archaic old school death metal milieu spearheaded by bands such as Convulse, Demigod or Purtenance or the relatively more recent black metal of Horna, Sargeist and Beherit, each conjuring their unique tapestry of grimness, and Seremonia belongs to an arguably more 'hippy-centric' circle among these. Their album ''Ihminen'' was one of 2013's highlights, so I was naturally elated to find they'd released a fresh disc: coming back to what I said at the beginning of the paragraph, it's somewhat disappointing to hear that the Finns didn't exactly explode with the same bonafide panoply of ritualistic Black Sabbath psychedelia as before...

...but even though they've sacrificed some of their creativity I'd say ''Kristalliarkki'' (crystal sheet if Google translate is to be trusted) kicks ass, to say the least. For newcomers, this is a great surprise of 70's doom/rock with psychedelic influences from the same era, and the Sabbath influence obviously weighs heavily here, but there are also bits and pieces that reek of stoned Finnish mysticism and queer folk textures anointed with queer and jumpy keyboard sequences that sound quite unlike anything I've heard, except its predecessor. So you can be sure that the Finns don't dip every single riff, pattern or oomph-laden sound effect into the Black Sabbath sink, since every crevice of those morose 70's doom/stoner progressions are filtered with at least a minimal dose of 'cemetery hippy' elements, which is a term that the band uses define itself, not an inaccurate one at that. If anything, I've found the dazed 70's keyboards here more prominent than on the debut, and assuredly they have a killer handful of keyboard solos at their disposal, and perhaps than just the sheer abundance of keyboard and gummy synthesizer sequences I loved that individually they channel different emotions, ranging from the atmospheric dolor of ''Jokainen Askel'' to something jumpier.

The guitars are meatier, too, which could be a positive development depending on your point of view. They've evolved slightly from these metallic, almost tinny stoner/doom tones to something considerably fuzzier. The Finns still manage to bring a surprising variety and sparse palette of riffing on the table, be it a rambunctious twist of bluesy notes or a heavier chord, they all hit their stride. There might be a few brief windows of time where I was more fond of the overall aural presentation of the wet, cannabis-dosed graveyard than the actual riffs when one or two of them were sounding alike, but overall they sink in quite well with my ears, and in fact get tastier with each spin. Noora's vocals are just as great: I've never seen female vocalists as a caveat to heavy metal, and she's exceptionally unique with her folksy, but strangely sober voice, tailoring both the ritualistic odor of the album, and to be honest, with backing vocals, there are few parts on the album where she nearly sounds like a j-pop singer. ''Kristalliarkki'' is not all hippy metal fun time, though, which is why it's so appealing. Like ''Ihminen'', there's a dark Nordic phantasm which rules over the fuzz of the guitars, the atmosphere never quite leers out of its menacing disposition, and just about any part of the album is fit for the commencement of some cankered ritual ceremony, wearing robes and doused in dope smoke, demonstrating that the seeping influence of Black Sabbath can take twisted, unexpected forms with time.

Seremonia doesn't take many cues from post-Sabbath bands like Saint Vitus, Candlemass or Paul Chain, although anyone with genuine interest in doom or even newer doom/sludge bands promulgated so frequently by mainstream magazines and record labels which I usually tend to dislike can find something interesting here, and there are even visible distinctions between the gloomy psychedelia the Finns propagate and the more sodden sound of modern stoner/doom bands such as Conan or Solstice. A major improvement over the debut might be the abridged lengths of the songs, as the whole album is overall shorter than its predecessor. Seremonia is probably one of the most unique voices in doom metal you'll hear today. They might have cut down on some of the fundamental weirdness of their debut, and while I'd still prefer it to this album, they've managed to up their consistency with shorter tracks, balanced compositions and professional finesse, with the exception of the quirky and trippy ''Kristalliarkki I'' with its uncanny jazz leads and flute murmurs, as though a folksy anomaly out of an album by the Finns' psychedelic black metal countrymen Oranssi Pazuzu, full of enticing and murky drowsiness. I'm not going to go on and say ''Kristalliarkki'' is perfect, because it isn't. A good 15-20% of the album could have used better penning or a few escapist digressions to keep the listener in continual trance, but by the end of the record, between your lazy ass seated as you read this review and the myriad tombstones smeared with moss and half-burnt sheaves of cannabis, how many good doom metal bands exist to which you'd pay lip service to? That's what I thought. So without further ado, acquire this, and stop bitching about the Finnish lyrics.

Highlights:
Alfa ja Omega
Musta Liekki
Jokainen Askel

Rating: 80%

Frosttide - Blood Oath [2015]

It's hard not to accept folk metal's hit or miss status given how protean a genre it could be, with so many bands incorporating it into sturdier sounds that usually revolve around melodic death or black metal. Folk metal's intrinsic hasn't quite been acknowledged as a separate sound dialing its own unique pool of musical elements, but has been consistently favored by bands ranging from Ensiferum to Drudkh. So in essence there isn't really a record or band which I'd cite as the apex of the folk genre, although a few acts like Finntroll come pretty close. Long story short, its obliqueness is what makes new outfits into the field rather hard to categorize or affiliate with other motifs. Hence Finland's Frosttide becomes a rather generic entrant into the folklore derby, with a nice bucolic theme set against an expansive sound that somehow joins the epic formulations of Ensiferum, Wintersun and Turisas in a rustic melting pot of overripe synthesizers and thrusting melodeath rhythms. ''Blood Oath'' chugs at the same kind of folk imagery which the aforementioned bands had already perfected a decade ago, though its instantaneous appeal of 'rural battle metal', campfires, autumn leaves and wintry breezes is for me, as it has always been, a bit hard to ignore.

''Blood Oath'' initiates with the assumption that a little Ensiferum or Wintersun emulation should never go amiss. To wit, the pulpy, synthesizer-induced ''Prologue'' is simultaneously one of the most exciting sonic deliveries of the album and a frolicking number which, I imagine, managed to get quite a few dungeon synth/D&D fans hard against its epic unfolding. ''Blood Oath'' doesn't have a whole lot of tricks up its sleeves, and the primary formula seems to be a rough, headlong barrage of melodic death tremolos and fierce chords playing out next to a fluid current of melody, perhaps redolent of Amorphis, and no matter these Fins are doing, they've always got a barrage of dreamy synthesizers for you. With the vocals at the fore, the band manages to pull off powerfully emitting tracks  like the 8-minute ''Gates of Asylum'' which combines all these elements with somewhat Wagnerian overtures plummeting and cascading. The vocals are rabid, but they pose a primary problem: while the variation between harsher growls and folksy anthems is one that I appreciate, the growls never captivated me to the extent that Ensiferum did, and the group shouts were buried under the mix to be heard effectively. Yet despite this the band seems to be on the verge of some tempo mastery; coordinated past-picked sections mold into moving interludes which break out into awesome choruses. So there's plenty of spurious fun to had here.

I also admired the range of the band's folk influences which weren't just confined to ballistic synthesizers/violins but a broader palette of instruments including pianos, eerily pleasing flutes and others which the band members must have all been familiar by now. To be sure, there's enough melody, percussive melodic death metal and metallic coitus running through this record to rectify the removal of the 'pagan' or black metal tag which folk bands are so frequently infatuated. If any distinction must be made within folk bands it should be the division of more atmospheric acts like Arkona, Drudkh, Windir and Moonsorrow, and other, arguably more accessible bands like Frosttide, Ensiferum and Wintersun. But enough digression. ''Frosttide'' does possess the essential elements to be in the latter group, but ''Blood Oath'' is by no means an ambitious sophomore, nor one that sticks to mind even after half a dozen listens. For one thing, I found the rhythm section on this record to be quite lacking, and the blast beat sequences like on the beginnings of ''Traitor Within'' or ''Blood Oath'' felt out of place. There is an enjoyable lead section and the overall coherence of the instruments deserves some praise with a fairly dense spectacle of sounds bursting out at the same time, but I felt myself far more attracted to the synthesizers and aural majesty of the album than its guitars or vocals. By the 5th track I felt these guys were in need of a break, and the superfluous, 11-minute ''New Reign'' did not justify this. And in case you wanted more, there are two bonus tracks? Um, no thanks, I'm good. So clearly, this isn't a record without its faults, and ones, in this this tenuously busy modern metal market, that aren't easy to correct. Nevertheless, if you have something going for 'fairy metal' (but without the female vocals) or just some pastoral, melodic frivolity, have at it.

Highlights:
Traitor Within
The Gates of Asylum
Prologue 

Rating: 63%

Desolate Shrine - Heart of the Netherworld [2015]

One thing that's almost always welcome on cloudy day is a dose of rainy, atmospheric death metal that makes for the perfect winter tapestry. Finland's Desolate Shrine ups their game considerably from their previous megalith ''Sanctum of Human Darkness'' in terms of sheer song writing qualities and individuality, but remain mostly loyal to the same winter fever formula of accumulated dust, grime and blood flooding through a familiar sluice gate of impeccable 90's brutality intermingling with the likes of Blasphemy in a rush of pure desolation (pun unintended). As a competitor in a field that continues to earn its place in our hyper-modern metal market through the likes of Dark Descent Records and FDA Rekotz, it's hard to disagree with the fact that survival of the fittest is the harsh reality for these guys, especially in a scene saturated to the teats with carnal death and black metal outfits of the same retinue, yet the Fins have a more distinguished sound than most other entrants, making it their only indicator of visibility in a miasma of smoke and darkness...

This is primitive, bombastic death metal with a seriously atmospheric punch. The huge grooving guitars are absolutely enormous and resonant above all else, large enough induce a further backwash of atmospheric noise that proves to be crux of the record, just as it was with their previous two albums. Desolate Shrine's love for ambiance is irrefutable, even though the guitars, some unearthly combustion of early 90's Swedeath a la Grave, Entombed and Dismember and Incantation in all their heaving filthiness, bear the real weight of the album and there's no lack of riffs either. The sound is very much a Vasaeleth or Impetuous Ritual, but I was also glad to hear some of the band's Finnish forefathers such as Convulse and Demigod filtered somewhere in the mix, popping up on some of the more blatantly eerie section such as the creeping interludes on ''Desolate Shrine'', or equally, on the serpentine tremolos ascending and descending with the momentum of the record.

There's no denial that this is 'old school', complete with all its glorification of aural darkness and suffocating evil, but the sharpness of the drums and the overall professionalism of the sound suggests that there's slightly more to be had here than just bare bones and cartilages. These guys are definitely not stuck in 1993, they must have some sort of time machine that allows them to pace back and forth through the decades unlike most other groups enjoying this brand of gnarly death metal; nor are they confined to the realms of death metal. Some of the longer tunes like the title track or ''Desolate Shrine'' are not just ambitious in their lengths but also through the sheer incorporation of plain, candid black metal chords that shuffle through album like currents of primordial shock. Even the vocals comply with the archaic umbra, differing between guttural growls and raspier haunts that should bring Deicide to mind.

The overall aesthetic of ''Heart of the Netherworld'' is pitch-perfect for cave dwellers and neanderthals who have things lurking in the dark corners of their minds: the mood, the riffs and the atmosphere is invariably there. The album doesn't do much in terms of breaking mold and doesn't seem like a significant detachment from the two previous albums in any way aside from the added grit to the sonic impact; ultimately I would still vie for something like Antediluvian or Mitochondrion if I ever felt like gobbling up a spoonful of 21st century atmospheric death metal, but they still come close to these titans in their writing. There is an almost definite assurance that Desolate Shrine live up to their name as well as the title, even if allows for much blatant black/death chaos to be conjured, in their traverse into some dark, unknown territory, but the key problem, as has been with countless other bands is that it's not a particularly memorable experience to sit through 61 fucking minutes of this, as the band even has a 14-minute monolith of impenetrable death/doom sorrow crammed in there... Hell, you even have a few moments' worth of twitchy piano cuts, some clean guitars and whatnot before everything else erupts in a sulfuric tumult. It's good stuff, all told, and worth a spin or two if you can bear through it. Darkness is conveyed; don't forget to bring a flashlight.

Highlights:
Black Fires of God
Desolate Shrine
Leviathan 

Rating: 70%

Pantheon of Blood - Tetrasomia [2013]

Finland may not be the most prolific metal country out there - it never was - but that's not to say that the northerners are alien to metal's exhumations and characteristics - this is the country where quality, original music comes in good numbers, in as many genres as you can think, in presentations both primal and modern, despite not sprouting bountifully. Purveyors of mourn and morbid carnality lie in abundance, and that includes the young Pantheon of Blood who have been pervading innocent souls with abysmal black metal since their successful 2011 EP. ''Tetrasomia'' is a definite step forward from the utterly primordial aesthetics of its retracting predecessor, but it does not deviate from its accursed roots too much as to seethe through the listener's mind with the same sense of overwhelming fear and emotional catharsis, installing itself as arguably the biggest highlight of their concise discography.

For one, ''Tetrasomia'' has a fucking fantastic cover. Unlike ''Consociatio Solis et Lunae'', which exhibited, rather poorly, the ethereal reflection of its musical tendencies through a puerile, sexual, and, admittedly, rather amateurish cover art, ''Tetrasomia'' has a brilliant artwork that more or less packs the EP's compartmentalized tenets in a single, gorgeously dark depiction; and while the maxim ''don't judge a book by its cover'' is one that I embrace quite frequently, I can say without hesitation that in this case, the augmented quality of the cover equals quality in content. There is a steady, circuit-like formula that the band revolves around, but aside from a foundation that gathers power from early Rotting Christ, or some of Pantheon of Blood's countrymen like Charnel Winds among others, each track is composed of its own distinct and veritable desires that are narrated by a doleful, eerie choir of guitars and crisp drum patterns. I absolutely love the band's melodic sensibility here: they feel so reminiscent of Rotting Christ's first two discs that they lovingly embrace a psychedelic fountain from which they spew forth a cathartic range of emotions, fluctuating like a multi-faceted current of emotional bliss. The iridescent quality of the drilling tremolos are so colorful that they imbue the listener with a wealth of moody rainbows and veneers, sadness incarnate.

The vocals are sneering and corpulent, but the real wonder that they provide is to draw a distinction between the rich, otherwordly guitar pieces and the frosty twang of its own inflection, simply polarizing the record and enlarging the contrast level to a greater length. ''Thunder Alchemy'', for instance, explodes with utterly woeful diatribes both in the guitar and vocal department, and at about halfway into the song the vocals generate a sort of doomed growl, as if the vocalist found himself to be a victim of premature burial, pleading for help inside his coffin while a crowd of spirits sing a hymn for the dead. You may as well say that the Finnish are at the top of their in the utilization of every single instrument. Besides the harrowing vortex of melodic riffs, the guitars implement clean pieces into the mix, which only deepens the prevalent misery. The drums are consistent though not warlike, as the guitars themselves stay attached to slower, doom-oriented riffing, with occasional outbursts of further emotion. Interestingly enough, the production is hardly dilapidated, while the vocals certainly belong to a wilder, rawer cavern of sorrow.

It's true that even with the creative atrocities the guitars fabricate, they have the potential to burgeon and evolve into so much more. I was not malcontent with any of the stuff I heard here, I actually fell in love with a few rare passages, and Pantheon of Blood did channel older, archaic black metal at times in the Norwegian tradition, evoking the purist in me, but a slight amount of distinction would still have been nice. Emotional conflagration, though, is an art that they've long savvied, and with ''Tetrasomia'', they are nearly perfect. The howls of the vocals are excellent, but the guitars don't seem to always be on par with them. ''I.N.R.I'' is definitely an exception, with the primal pangs of the guitar riffs perfectly swaying in accordance to the vocals, especially in the masterful chorus section. A lessened production value would also suit their style better, but it is up to them to hone their style with whatever adornments they choose to use on the full-length. But in anyway, ''Tetrasomia'' is more than worth your time.

Highlights:
I.N.R.I
Thunder Alchemy

Rating: 83%

Decaying - The Last Days Of War [2013]

War is here and you can feel. In the last five years or so, the band that dedicated itself the most to war-themed death metal has to be Decaying. The Finns have been barely around for three years, but they've established themselves a prolific backlog of albums through the prolific death metal culprits Hellthrasher Productions, starting from a small group of demos then steadily weaving their way to a debut, a sophomore, and now, this. Though I was ignorant of their existence until Hellthrasher helped me discover their sophomore, ''Encirclement'', a fleshy death metal addendum that broiled with a fervor for war, destruction and the contemplation of things upon the battlefield, and it was still considerably fresh for its time, ripe with the energy it borrowed from such blatant masters as Pestilence, Asphyx, or Bolt Thrower which is the band that should be credited for both making the war-themed metal thing notorious and serving the greatest influence of these young Finns. Granted, ''The Last Days Of War'' proceeds to ruminate the aesthetic preferences of the group's previous outings, with perhaps an added twist here and there and a more professional canvas of war.

Promptly after you channel into ''The Last Days Of War'', vivid recollections of Bolt Thrower and Pestilence flash into your mind. I believe it should be noted that this is the band's shortest full-length release to date, which means they've minimized the length of their songs to as low as possible as to fit their their sluggishly circulating gait. That said, in case you've never hearkened to their battle-induced aggression, Decaying are a sort of lightweight band; I mean they've certainly got a penchant for inflicting septic, thrash-oriented grooves that drive themselves into the listener like a mad Japanese banzai charge, with the bayonets starkly in tact, but compared to the myriads of acts popping out of the woodwork today - those countless Incantation clones - they're just not hitting as hard as you'd imagine. Of course, the belligerence of such tracks as ''Code Name Overlord'' are undeniable, the wretched Van Drunnen inflection howling over the feral guitar work like some desperate US marine caught in a hailstorm of German bullets. Decaying aren't necessarily bombarding away with the heaviest of artillery here, but the guitars are fluent with a carnivorous urge to splatter guts, and the vocals are surprisingly cantankerous enough to fuel sufficient aggression into music, however, the pinnacle of entertainment for me were the World War II themed lyrics; probably more exciting than all the malicious riffing combined.

So you've practically got yourself an ugly Hail Of Bullets entity here, with viler production values but still somewhat more focused than the band's previous offerings. ''Firestorm'' seems to be a direct insertion of ''The IVth Crusade''; lengthy moments of drudging, slightly unnerving death/doom, thrashy chugs entwining with downtrodden lead passages, bringing about all things desolate and doleful about war. Surely they could have done some cropping, because even despite the abridged song lengths it's quite possible to be sucked in to a wormhole of boredom, especially when the guitar tone seldom dissolves into savory volumes of mourn and ambiance, like the ones you'd usually have on typical retro death metal suspects. Listening to ''The last Days Of War'' is not really a gratifying prospect, despite the bulldozing Tiger tank this can sometimes turn out to be, and it does feel as if Decaying are a little bit out of practice or material. They've acquired a handful of more modern weaponry since their World War I themed ''Encirclement'', which was a tad better by all means, but they've also grown a bit weary. Who knows, maybe they're just plain exhausted with the war nearing an end, wouldn't you say?

Highlights:
Code Name Overlord 
El Alamein
The Ardennes Offensive

Rating: 73%

Krypts - Unending Degradation [2013]

The first time I was introduced to Krypts, which was some time ago, when their 2009 demo ''Open The Crypt'' unexpectedly triggered the massing of a gigantic Finnish underground reserve for pungent, cave-dwelling old school death metal with blatantly gargantuan doom metal interpretations, and four years after the beginning of their chasm exploration, the Finns return with a hulking, and quite literally ''degraded'' debut full-length, which, from the eyes of current heavy metal enthusiasts, can only be regarded as an unashamed aping of an over-saturated cliche that  modern pundits such Disma, Funebrarum, Cruciamentum and Ignivomous have already amply exposed us to. Despite whatever gripe one would hold against this seemingly endless flood of hollow death metal, and yet another icon to represent its sheer trendiness, I personally did not find the redundancy of ''Unending Degradation'' to be a deteriorating aspect, and with some experience behind their monstrous, cavernous regime these Finns have certainly put together a record that channels both nostalgia and a somber, though not modern, emphasis on death metal that was popularized by the aforementioned groups.

''Unending Degradation'' commences as any other cavernous death metal band could, starting off with doomy motifs and then unfolding with all of the tenuous, tremulous riffs it bears inside its numbing 40 minute burden. Like their fellow label-mates Anhedonist, they can keep the listener intrigued throughout most of the deliverance time, through a sway of basic, yet monolithic chords by simply applying a chock load of reverb and further amplifying effects, though I believe their true nuance lies in their usage of melodious that entwine with the lumbering guitar patterns, all to create a perturbing atmosphere. And surprisingly, they accomplish most of their core aims. Perhaps their goal in using such melodiously resonant lines to flourish their simple patterns was to completely peeve the listener and pummel him/her into quieted submission, and if so, then they've failed for the most part, as even rookie ears would able to overcome the bludgeoning heft and atmospheric tendencies of this record, but again, they were probably just busy resuscitating the remnants of Funebrarum and Incantation on this one. Krypts seem almost completely devoted to death/doom, rather than the more occasional aggressive death metal motif, which could be a pro or con depending on your stance. They're just bashing the cavernous interiors of dismal caves and crevices with blunted clubs and hammers with the momentum of a drunken caveman, so don't expect to be fluctuated in between moments of complexity and intensity; but then again, you probably know what you're up against, right?

Bludgeon and resonance are the keys to Krypts. But even though they're entangled in this murky aesthetic that has reached its peek in popularity, Krypts don't send a banal wave of repeating, massive guitars to the listener, unlike many of their peers. Yes, I'm sure you're not going to find this the most fun experience you've had in years, a pendulous flood of megalithic guitars led by fiendish, low-register gutturals that like to dwell in the utmost depths of you local cave, and yes, I know they're somewhat taking a risk here now that the sub-genre has taken a route towards the redundant, but I think you'll still find yourself in  fairly good hands while listening to Krypts; they reek heavily of nostalgia, they're heavy as fuck, have a discordant appeal to them, and they'd sure as hell attract doom metal fans of the olden sort, so don't be a cunt, give this a try, you won't suffocate, I swear (that last notion may not be fully correct). Monstrous hymns galore.

Highlights:
Blessed Entwinement 
Dormacy Of The Ancients
The Black Smoke

Rating: 79%

Solothus - Ritual of the Horned Skull [Demo] [2013]

Last year I had the pleasure to carry the burden of Finnish death/doom monstrosities Solothus' ''Ritual Of The Horned Skull'' EP, and endeavor I felt was one of the better death/doom interpretations of the last 4-5 years with bustling, semi-cavernous index and busy, climatic riffs that were placed in sort of the milieu of primitive death/doom circa 1989-1994 and a more established, polished offering of the same sub-genre that was substantially upgraded and polished by late to mid 90's connoisseurs Runemagick, Paradise Lost, etc, and even more modern projects of melodious, cavern-dwelling disembowelment projects like Hooded Menace or Coffins - a certainly copious range of macabre influences that all have their places secured in a gnostic burial ground near the local cemetery. Yet, there will undoubtedly be a handful of scoffers, demanding to know what the Finns have to top their already prodigious predecessors which have spawned in the last 5 years or so. Yes, Solothus are nothing quite out of the ordinary, bearing minor contrast only thanks to their larger intake of Runemagick influences, but there's much more to this hillock of bones than the eye meets.

As I stated, Solothus' entire bevy of groove-laden riffs fall somewhere between the more ''epic'' and edgy facet of death/doom and the more grotesque, and veritable churning of melodic exhibitions delivered through a manifest of horrendous old school depictions. Solothus are simply fantastically authentic, equating the masterful measure of doom, gloom and harmony into one versatile, bone-laced package, with an unrelenting undercurrent of vulgarity seething underneath it all. There's an elephantine slurry; a punching, ghastly monster of a tone that splashes around wildly in accordance to the medium tempo of the bruising drums, and like on ''A Call To War'', the band injects minor dozes of clamorous, distorted chords which instantly render the orchestration a morbidly defiant serpentine, belching bile and vomit as it stampedes. The songs are all shrewdly arranged; they're not stretched into drudging funeral doom epics of over 7 minutes; they're kept at the optimum length of about 4-5 minutes, and Solothus are obviously more keen in conversing at mid-tempo gait than turtle-slowness. They also tend to stick to a lesser flock of riffs than many of their peers incline to do, supposedly to turn the whole experience into a more absorbing one, but Solothus exceed many of their counterparts in both quality and distribution, each song a successful homage to sweltering death and doom.

Simply put, the Finns are more enthralling than the majority of their cavern-dwelling peers, deeply punging into the macabre without weaving superfluous quantities of complexities while doing so, and simply keeping the listener at bay throughout 20 minutes by continuously craving similar but very enjoyable, grooving riffs. Undeniably, there could have been a tidbit of more variation to embody an even more gruesome manifest of horror, but I'm still hardly malcontent with my current reservoir. The first two songs, ''A Call To War'' and ''Throne Of Bones'' mostly represented what the band's savager ideas clustered around, but ''Embrace Of Cold'', and even more so, ''Darkness Gathers Here At Night'', were fully turning on the more melodious inflection on, and barely Gothic interpretations made tangible with the use of vibrant, fibrous collections of melody, so they're definitely heading for a more solemn and harmonious approach; something quite akin to Hooded Menace and what they achieved with their latest full-length. Well, these Finns have captured the true grooving essence of old school death/doom, a horrific congealment of bones and mourn, so a full-length will definitely be welcome.

Highlights:
Darkness Gathers Here At Night
Embrace The Cold
A Call To War

Rating: 83%

Vorum - Poisoned Void [2013]

Although Sweden, the States and Spain are the busiest centers of 21st century death metal, Finland, a country which undoubtedly has substantial experience with the beleaguered genre, is proving to a beast just as efficient in both quantity and quality. I am well aware that Finnish OSDM reserves highly resemble the embodiment of their American or Swedish counterparts in terms rehashing archaic elements and spicing them up with the sonic strength of modern production values, but I still find their way of manufacturing a smidgen more interesting and prehensile, at least in the overall view of the scenes, especially exhibited by the recent works of Desolate Shrines, Maveth and Gorephilia. The newest spore to blossom away from this ubiquitous plague is Vorum, abruptly exploding under a wealth of caverns with their debut ''Poisoned Void'', a craving, morbid serpentine entity that somehow slithers in the abyss in a way that exceeds many of rivals by, not quite reinventing the wheel but by constructing a formidable block of influences we've all been familiarized before, and meshing them up into something considerably durable and entertaining.

Yes, Vorum indeed achieves victory in where many, and I do say many, of its opponents floundered and shattered. The bulk of the goodness here is the overall sound: The Finns have literally enlarged that marginal line between cavernous swamp dwellers with their resonant quake of reverb, and the more crudely-faceted recruits in the field, wielding their rusty old chainsaws and continually battering, bruising bloodied ears. Indeed, ''Poisoned Void'' is a very blatant homage to Autopsy circa 1989-1992, but at the same time it has an underpinning crunch and a garrulous palette of pure old school riffs that are highly memorable, mobile and absolutely crushing in the delivery while doing so, again, in contrast to their fellow genre-mates. There's a vibrant usage of harmonies that plod along ominous, curving tremolo sequences, and sometimes dual harmonies kick in, which often remind me of the band's olden countrymen, Abhorrence, Convulse and Demigod for that partial flood of brutality. The Finns are also sufficiently content with the relatively clear, though still somewhat murky production, which I believe plays a huge role in assisting the frivolity and memorability of the woven riffs; in all a semi-complex take on unrefined death metal.

Pacing is varied enough, in fact sometimes more diverse than one might think. The drums have a surprising range of patterns that the drummer hurriedly applies to the guitar orchestration, and Vorum, even with a large intake of influences does not tend to forsake any of each influence's aspects; so you can expect short, 3-4 minute songs to be rather crammed with drudging emergence and churning morbid guitars swooshing in accordance to the torturous growls of the vocalist; a blitzkrieg of doomed echoes. This way Vorum channels into atmospheric death/doom installments in mere seconds while right amid a convoluted bark of harried, disoriented riffs. And while doing all these, Vorum seems to be apparently quite nonchalant, making the whole affair feel much more spontaneous than its more freakish, abysmal peers, who prefer to spill their entire set of entrails to the floor, desperately depending on their massively earth-shaking production quality, but the Finns here have established something just as opaque and moreover, much more vigorous. The way I see it, ''Poisoned Void'' is a pretty ''classic'' take on death metal; not wholly invigorating, but still meting out enough variation into each song in those 35 minutes of rancid foulness to deliver a horrid thrust that's truly pleasuring, particularly for fans of early Pestilence, the vast range of primordial Finnish bands, Autopsy, Incantation and Morbid Angel.

Highlights:
Impetious Fires
Poisoned Void
In Obscurity

Rating: 85%

Convulse - Inner Evil [2013]

Though ''World Without God'' was easily one of my favorite old school death metal albums, I wasn't exactly longing for a comeback by the masters of the macabre. Yet there was a tempestuous rapping against my door, which was followed by a flood of various releases by Svart Records, and among them, I was actually quite astonished to see an EP by Convulse, and what's even more shocking is that the cover suggested they were actually aiming to pay a little revisit to their olden efforts, instead of tailing the modernized travesty they turned into with their sophomore and concluding album, and indeed, my predictions turned out to be correct, at least to an extent. I then shortly became aware of their reunion, but I'm not here to argue whether it was their burgeoning eminence in the Internet over recent years or just a sudden surge of fervor that made them come together after all these years; I'll only be dissecting this two-track EP, thank you very much.

Honestly, even though I've witnessed quite a bit of successful death metal resurgences and continuations of late (Autopsy, Vader, Deceased, etc), I, for some reason, I knew that Convulse could never exceed their masterful panoply of pretense macabre, and that prediction was correct as well. Quality was out of the question from the very start, but I was actually quite induced by their preferences aesthetic-wise, because Convulse, while still not exactly as gloomy and deprived, comes pretty close to their lauded full-length's appeal in terms of atmosphere and textures in general. They can still show their profound love for brutalized macabre tremolo patterns well, but I'd say ''Inner Evil'' is a less absorbing than the Convulse we all know; it has a cleaner tone and much of the dourness in missing, but there's an oblique amalgamation between corpulent bowel-ripping and more misanthropic, refined hooks that seem as though they were ripped from Demigod's ''Slumber Of Sullen Eyes'', but again, with more acute precision and clarity.

The group has also considered some of the fashioned trends going on; there are plenty of obvious Swedish death metal interpretations that, with a more stubborn, flattened tone, sound more like a plummet of bludgeoning hammers rather than viler chainsaw-action put into practice on a bunch of molested cadavers. While certainly not a novelty, I like it, and with the help of a robust slew of drum beats behind them the band is redolent of Vader, especially on their latest album, ''Welcome To The Morbid Reich'', but there's a tighter focus on somber yet simplistic melody patterns narrating the death/doom obelisks lumbering about, instead of  a brilliant assembly of blazing leads. The EP is ten minutes, so you might naturally think it's not crammed with variation, but Convulse have actually done a particularly good job, stacking together ominous chord progressions and with semi-atmospheric melodies, making ''Inner Evil'' a better affair than most probably imagined it would be. I'll admit, I'm not going to plead the Finns for a bigger serving of what they had in store for us here, but there's no denying that they've some sharp hooks on this release that a death metal revivalist or Finndeath fan would surely sink into. As solid as the viscera-made manifestation on its cover.

Highlights:
God Is Delusion
Inner Evil

Rating: 77%

Desolate Shrine - Sanctum Of Human Darkness [2012]

Desolate Shrine is one of those bands who will appeal to fans of both hammering necrotic Swedish death metal revivalists and far more atmospherically driven occult death metal acts, but, beneath the flesh, it's once again all bones and joints; nothing out of the expected. Desolate Shrine's debut ''Tenebrous Towers'' was an album that I was quite appeased with, and for one it certainly lived up for its name; a crushing monument of Cylopean pillars collapsing upon the listener in an utterly climatic, immense cavernous mess, anchored by the suppressing heft of gigantic, skull-buttering Swedish chainsaws rippling in a rampaging orgy - it was certainly a big fucking record. Intent on smothering more cranial content, the Finns arrive with a sophomore, ''Sanctum Of Human Darkness'' that not only fancies the same crushing outing of the previous effort but also presents the listener with a panoply of spectral galore.

What I absolutely love about this is the pace. ''Sanctum...'' lumbers in a mid paced Bolt Thrower groove, particularly akin to ''Realm Of Chaos'', but, also keep in mind that despite sounding a lot like a concoction of Entombed/Dismember and Muknal, Innumerable Forms, Witchrist and Antediluvian, the band fabricates a formula that doesn't necessarily classify as both. The frothing, uproarious curvatures and blast of the Swedish tone is unlike anything I've heard before, even the harshest of Swedish chainsaw serial killers can't conjure up a tone that delivers such burdened sonic intensity. The band rarely eschews monotony from the pressurizing bombast, and when all the songs are no shorter than six minutes you naturally want more drudgery to take place then straight up aggression, but on some occasions (''Chalice Of Flesh & Bone'', ''Funeral Chamber''), gloomy subtleties transcend into furious impulses and the band immediately surfaces from their subterranean indulgence and take onto rougher, headbang-friendly discourses, though one should be informed that even in energy-abundant tracks, there's a heavy trace of the trio's impregnable doom influence.

Overall, even though I previously stated that Swedeath fans might enjoy this, death metal occultists are still more likely to feel the album's compressing enigma as pleasure. Just like some of the dominant Incantation worships or blackened death metal acts, ''Sanctum...'' displays more efficiency in submersing the listener in dense intricacy than raging in a frivolous surge, and especially after you've been through fifty-five minutes of hammering caused from a drumming giant pummeling your skull, you end up more oppressed than revitalized.  Thus, Desolate Shrine exceeds their previous effort, and more importantly, sticks to the old school formula. There's plenty of mournful caveman out there, but while this may not broaden your horizons by any means, it's still a better mining site than many of its peers and Dark Descent Records certainly made a hell of descent with this one. Don't you dare forget to bring provisions; this journey will take you deep. And I do mean deep. 

Highlights:
Demon Heart
Pillars Of Salvation
Funeral Chamber

Rating: 86%

Wintersun - Time I

After 8 long years, Wintersun has finally returned with part one of their new material, “Time”. I don’t want to dwell on the fact that has been a while since the last album, but I definitely want to talk about the decision to release this as two separate records. Whether or not Jari Mäenpää or Nuclear Blast made the decision, it was the correct one. Simply put, this album is an epic, bombastic affair of keyboards and symphonic atmospheres that is almost too much to handle. 80 minutes of this style of music would be physically draining on the listener, and I say that because even 40 minutes can be quite difficult to fully absorb what is going on. There may be only three full songs on “Time I”, but they are more than enough material to satisfy the listener.

The instrumental opener, “When Time Fades Away”, introduces some new oriental influences toWintersun’s brand of folky melodic death metal. By the time this song is over, you start to understand the transition in sound from the debut to this record. On “Time I” Wintersun uses more clean vocals, keyboards, and melodies. That isn’t to say that every song here is a rehash of “Death and the Healing” from the debut, but there is certainly less speed and intensity on this record. The band definitely embraced the “melodic” part of melodic death metal. “Sons of Winter and Stars” is the first epic and is actually the track that is most similar to the debut album. There are blastbeats and riffs aplenty, and the intensity is kept up throughout the song; however, you will notice the increased use of choirs and clean vocals. The other two lengthy songs are employ similar methods, but are not quite as fast. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of this album is the huge range of dynamics. There are perfect transitions from huge, heavy death metal moments into quieter acoustic and keyboard driven sections with Jari's clean vocals over top.

My only real complaint on this record is the lack of guitar solos. They do show up (there is some serious shredding going on in the title track), but are generally less frequent and shorter than on the first record. Considering how talented both of these guitarists are, it’s too bad. The musicianship is great, but they don't show off like they did on “Wintersun”. The only major improvement instrument-wise is the great clean vocals by Jari. His singing sounds more confident and powerful than ever before. A second caution with this record is how over-the-top it is. There are numerous layers of instruments, and the band changes tempos and moods quite often. Don’t dismiss this as lacking substance; it definitely takes more than a few listens to enjoy the album, and I’m not even sure it’s fair to review it so quickly after it was released. Don’t overthink this record, just put it in and listen to it often. If you put the time in to appreciate this masterpiece, you will definitely get more out of it than your average album.

Highlights:

Sons Of Winter And Stars

Time

Rating: 90%

Written by Scott Dorfman

Originally written for Skull Fracturing Metal Zine.

Bonehunter - Turn Up The Evil

Bonehunter are probably one of the more frivolous acts to emerge out of Finland considering the enveloping horde of excellent black metal groups shadowing the country for the last couple of years, so receiving a brief EP from this unknown lascivious trio was admittedly something that I accepted with reluctance. Needless to say that in spite off the cheesy lyrical themes, the primal grooving simplicity of the thrash/crossover punch and the grinning, pedophile shrieks of the vocalist, there was a certain modified beat and hooking simplicity that I could not just discard.

The Finns are hungry, urging for vicious sex and completely frantic; and the only thing ''Turn Up The Evil'' displays a pernicious one-dimensional appetite and a rapid succession of punk-driven black/thrash riffs modernized and augmented with a chunky guitar build, made repugnant with the vocalists evocative bark-like screams that echo pain and ravenous desire throughout. Don't think the simple-minded exposure as a sort of hindrance, because really, it's more of a libation to the likes of Abigail, Barbatos, Possessed, Destroyer 666. The entire thirteen minute span of the EP is an orgy of ruinous levity, and the group only likes to speed up - no abrupt tempo changes, no doom laden gloom, and absolutely no love for melody; just outrageous d-beat precision and percussion rushing into cadaverous ebullition and evil, licentious vulgar at its utmost potential You've simple nihilistic heavy/black barrages like ''War 666'', which is pretty akin to Midnight, or carnage that borders more to cruder black/thrash mayhem, a la Destroyer 666 or perhaps Abigail, the ''street'' face of the music always pervading.

As much as I enjoyed the the raging lust these Finns have, I think there's no need to say that ''Turn Up The Evil'' is not a release you can inspect and contemplate with complete focus on its engrossing features, because this as straightforward as you can get. No modern inclinations and non-human instruments or whatsoever, no reverence for technical/progressive elements, no flashy, ribbons and strips of pulsing enigma to adorn the ghoulish demon-goat on the cover, nothing fancy, basically, just a pack of street-thrashing mongrels hungry for grime and sex, bashing against your ears. Definitely a nice addition to your collection of enlivening punk cannibals.

Highlights:
War 666
Sweet Metal Fuck
Turn Up The Evil

Rating: 75%

Funebre - Cranial Torment

Man, I really love these compilations. Reissuing underrated albums for more exposure one thing, amassing extremely overlooked demos and EPs into single packages for gruesome, carnal delivery another. Xtreem Music has now gathered all the pre-1991 material of the Finnish cults Funebre in one case, and now, listeners can enjoy the ''Cranial Torment'', ''Demo II'' demos and the ''Brainspoon'' EP the same way they enjoyed the bands vile splash of vile that was ''Children Of The Scorn'', and what's more is that you can feel the rawness and sheer decomposed splendor of these ghastly tunes the way they were taken out of the oven, fresh but rotten, oldie but goodie.

As I said, the authentic production quality helps reinforce the notably primal disorder the album espouses, and you've got vitriolic churning of traditional decayed Finnish death metal in its most macabre and aggravated form, sticking to the path that Convulse or Purtenance took, with a heavy blend of charnel Swedish chainsaw insanity, the same way Nihilist did it in the late 80's. The amalgamation is, of course, nothing new if you've already witnessed the band's excellent full-length, but I've always considered contemplating certain band's primordial exhalations in order to compare it to their somewhat more polished released. In death metal, old school death metal, I have a strict little rule; the more crude and primitive the band gets, the closer it gets to perfection through dissonance and putrefaction. Funebre are easily one of the dominating Finnish death metal acts roaming around 1993-1988, and this temple of embryonic pain is the evidence, clearly.

Thanks to Funebre's slightly original tendencies, we can feel skull-crushing buzz-saw pressure at the same time as somnolent death/doom drudgery. Tracks vary, because the mix does not equalize them all into one single production quality, so songs from differing releases stand out with marginal qualities, and out of them all, my favorite would probably the ''Demo II'' material, which, obviously manifests the darkest and roughest peak of the band's adoration for esoteric and ephemeral horror, sending a barrage of chills down your spine as the ripping chainsaw fluctuates into a grisly slither of flesh and bones. Funebre are one of the best bands to come of the Finnish death metal scene, as already evidenced on their debut, but for furthermore proof of their crude agility, get this compilation and feed yourself all its disemboweled contents. 

Highlights:

Expunging Mortalities

Grip Of Insanity

Leprophiliac

 Rating: 84%

Stench Of Decay - Stench Of Decay [Compilation]

As as I love the current trends in death metal; massing hordes of bands which channel through the most ominous of overtones, seeking the deepest and most tempestuous faces of evil, sometimes you just want to snap out of that Incantation invocation and dabble your head in something fun, blasting and retro - basically something a little more frivolous than the evil inspections of darkness, something like Stench Of Decay. The group has a a fairly substantial history and discography behind them, and now, thanks to Ektro Records, all of their material, their two premier demos and their latest EP ''Visions Of Death'' is crammed into one single punching assault. Being from Finland, Stench Of Decay have inserted copious gobs of their traditional Finnish death metal elements into a sporadic mixture entwining them with some gnarly Swedeath joints for additional crutch, and that's where the band leaves us: fifty-one minutes of relentless, tempered and volatile old school death metal, fun and exuberant, and still deviating from the majority of retros.

Stench Of Death's formula is aplomb and creative, and it sounds pretty much like when Abhorrence (Fin) and Demigod got together with Dismember/Entombed for a brutal clash in the park, with Bolt Thrower and Asphyx joining in fight from afar. The band's well-thought formula is frankly the only thing you'll hear throughout this compilation, but they've made the raw source credible through morbid operations and gouging and incision instruments, ultimately penning crafty songs with numerous variations each, therefore repetition or boredom is hardly the case here. Stench Of Decay snow their elephantine grooves, their thickly populated Asphyx chugs and their pestilential ruptures if intense, almost convoluted riff collisions, which is impossible not to be captivated. Tempered with rage, and the brutal excursions can be menacing. With only slight production differences in between the tracks work just fine, hammering and plummeting a shower of engrossing primal emissions after and after, continuously and relentlessly,and the only reposes the listener can have are the extremely brief intervals between the songs, and thus, amid boisterous, repulsive incursions like ''Alive And Rotting'' or ''Stench Of Decay'', more steady death/doom leaks such as the carnally forged mid-paced gulper ''Souls Of Possession'', or scrofulous offerings of the numbing elegy ''Creation Of Carnal Lust'', you'll be surely having a hell of time.

Abrasive and punishing, my favorite element on the album was the guitar tone and marvels it produced throughout fifty-one minutes. It's atmospheric and sometimes massive, sometimes crunchy, almost metallic, and while the band was leeching blood of the listener's ears with brief, melody-laden death/doom trudges I always felt some immense nostalgia, particularly because the melodies where highly reminiscent of the archaic melodies that the Finndeath masters made, especially early Sentenced and Convulse. Evoking nostalgia isn't the only thing these Finns excel in, as to boast the brutal bashes of the guitars they've added guttural and deep vocals injections which particularly reek of Demigod with the chubby tone. Despite retaining a sound much more technically driven and complex than many other retros, Stench Of Decay are still ultra-fun to listen to. Seriously, if you even have the slightest love for casual blasts out raw architecture and primitive impacts, sharp drums, or anything entertaining, catchy and crushing about old school death metal to say in the least, you will definitely like this, love it even, if you're obsessed with the crude recordings of Convulse, Demigod, Abhorrence, early Sentenced, Purtenance, etc. The stench awaits.

Highlights:
Souls Of Possession
Alive And Rotting
Where Madness And Decay Began
Creation Of Carnal Lust

Rating: 86,5%

Heavy Cross - Street Wolf

Because I had no acquaintance with the band, at first, I mistook the Finnish one-man-army for a punk-driven blackened heavy metal act, much like the latter excellence that Midnight is producing currently. Satanic Tyrant Werwolf's freshly blossomed project turned out to be a traditional NWOBHM band, one that that I can consider as just another mere fragment of the countless worshipers engulfing the scene today. Heavy Cross were lucky, however, as somehow they were found by the amazing Hell's Headbangers Records, a home that will no doubt affect their inclinations positively. That being said, Heavy Cross's style is pretty simple, just as you might expect, fabricating plain, gallop and chord driven progressions and meshing it with strong bluesy overtones, with the traditional flavor of Raven, Tygers Of Pan Tang, and old Maiden making up the very roots of the EP's zealously oriented formula.

I can closely relate Heavy Cross to another very latter and young band, Convent Guilt, though I've enjoyed the Aussie act's efforts more than this Finnish one, admittedly. The man behind the cross, Satanic Tyrant, is supposedly a veteran of the genre, one that at least has close familiarity with the genre's aesthetics, and he does project much of his fervor and well-hardened musicianship into the two songs that the EP has to offer, and thus, for eight minutes I can easily enjoy and bang my head to the light-weighted catchiness of the songs, but if the guy means to enlarge his congeal his material and form a larger whole,(which he probably does) than he'll need to do some improvements, some tweaks and he needs to fill in that open gash of emptiness with a few doses of divergence. The vocals on ''Street Wolf''' also remind me of Convent Guilt, preferring stay inside the firmly set boundaries instead of letting out uproarious emissions of high-pitched tone, which is something that I'm content with, but again, this renders the EP somewhat quelled, being devoid of the frenetic, evocative aura that it lacks badly.

The riffs are quite enjoyable nonetheless, mild, but hooking chug n' chords with sporadic tinges of melody inserted here and there. Much like many of the gimmicks today, Satanic Tyrant keep (or try to keep) the listener busy on strictly instrumental sections by narrating the riffs with simplistic melodies, without endeavoring much. There is a somber, melancholic, almost ballad-like sequence on the title track, which, I believe, was done to lengthen the track, and unnecessary deterrent, and I should also add that I enjoyed ''Red Light Woman'' more than the title track, mostly because its main riff is seriously catchy. Heavy Cross's efforts will not impress anyone, that's a surety, and albeit I'm not so zealous about forty minutes of this, I still can't deny that I've had a fun time giving this eight minute EP a listen. Frivolous stuff.

Highlight:
Red Light Woman

Rating: 75%

Hooded Menace - Effigies Of Evil

The excitement that contained me was almost overwhelming, for when I heard that the Finnish death/doom duo Hooded Menace were releasing yet a third obelisk of melancholic doom metal upon the universe I gaped in amazement for several minutes, heart pumping. Hooded Menace actually released their second monolith in 2010, only two years ago, but they’ve proven to be much fruitful for a band that maximizes the importance of technicality and melody in dense, ominous doom. Not only does the duo spew forth yet another cluster of songs, but they also fill up the missing bits and pieces in between years by doing numerous splits with famous acts, Asphyx and Horse Latitudes being some that immediately come to mind. For fans that enjoyed the sublimes darkness of richly embroidered textures of ‘’Never Cross The Dead’’, ‘’Effigies Of Evil’’ is an even more graceful colossus, with notable changes in the sound.

There are many weapons in Hooded Menace’s prolific artillery that draw the line between them and the other plague of old school death/doom bands, the most important one being their dexterousness and fearlessness of fabricating imaginative death/doom suppressing the boundaries of the classic basis that has already been played with countless times, and binding them with cumulative and beckoning melodious splendour, instrumental grace and a perfectly ominous overtone that’s reminiscent of both evil and melancholy. ‘’Never Cross The Dead’’ was a entrancing affair as it restored the decrepit sequences of melody that were almost nonexistent on the debut album, but ‘’Effigies Of Evil’’ simply thrives the band’s spectral performance even more, now bringing an epic sense into the music.

The subtle melodies are now quite tangible as their serve as a crucial fulcrum in the Finns’ third effort, backed up by crushing visceral smacks and chomps, thick and fulsome in tone. The band now fuses an even more complex array of melodies, an entwining stream of impeccable melodies diving and spreading coarsely, and yet the melodies are constructed with two individual pieces, slithering against each other. They’re two separate fragments, joining into one vein as they gradually descend along the misanthropic path the album leaves us to plod on. The riffs are so groovy and swaggering that the band occasionally lets the melodies spur with a massive momentum, and ‘’In The Dead We Dwell’’ (which also by personal favourite) is such a song, allowing the melodies to distinguish themselves in numerous and capricious emotions, effortlessly switching into one ponderous sludge groove into another.

Hooded Menace’s artillery becomes fully prepared for assault with the arrival of the vocals, implacable and churning into the swampy mixture with ease. The vocal delivery on ‘’Effigies Of Evil’’ is probably the most death-like trait that the album possesses. They’re deep growls, damp, cavernous and remote from any sort of liveliness even though the riffs may take on a more vigorous hue at times. The occasional use of reverb and other guitar tones and effects enforce the gradually building momentum of mournful evil, like in ‘’Crumbling Insanity’’ a semi-conscious output of drowning swamp-like voids sucking at the listener’s ear, and it comes with a main spectral melody that, oddly resembles the Godfather melody. ‘’Effigies Of Evil’’ is Hooded Menace’s masterpiece, in my humble opinion. It’s a dark venture into a saturating aura of evil, and it procrastinates nothing. There are two ways you may listen to it; either by contemplating its deep, congregating atmosphere as a whole, envying its corrupted splendour, or by feeling the briskness of each individual piece individually, letting the album swallow you slowly with meagre bites.

Highlights:

Effigies Of Evil

In The Dead We Dwell

Curses Scribed In Gore

Crumbling Insanity

Rating: 89%

Corpsessed - Corpsessed

Even though just the thought of it makes me despondent, I cannot run from the cold, hard truth. Finland’s current death metal disposal is host that’s not on par with what it was twenty years ago, although there are still bands who try motivate and commit to the genre that emerge from Finland, but these bands are shamefully outnumbered by other hosts gathering in other countries. Even in this time of grave depression and lack of productivity, Corpsessed, a fresh face to the modern metal universe, commits to the decrepit Finnish underground as best as it can. With last year’s ‘’The Dagger And The Chalice’’, a frightful rock of solid and embodied dark death metal, the band already gathered a fairly large audience, and in 2012, they have lead that small group towards their following, self titled release, a relatively concise outburst of occult death metal, simple, yet painful and vicious.

Corpsessed proves to an ambitious act, with consecutive releases, even though their sophomore EP is no more satisfying than a slice of plain bread. There’s no departure from their previous sound, but there still are some nuances. ‘’Corpsessed’’ is more efficient on the crushing, heavyweight stomps rather befouling the listener with sporadic incursions of twisted tremolo splinters and dense consummations, but there’s still plenty of what was going on in the previous EP, a twisted, corpulent sound that places itself somewhere between Bolt Thrower, early Incantation, a heftier version of ‘’Leprosy’’ era Death with even some Finnish worshiping done for the minimum amount. The riffs circulate fluently and smear through like fresh like cutting butter, and there’s even an enveloping aura to be found, spectral and dominating, but besides its meat-flailing and evil content, the EP serves as nothing more than an appetizer, causing you to salivate over the fantasy of an upcoming album.

I’m not really going to compare this to ‘’The Dagger And The Chalice’’ because their traits are roughly the same and this release delivers all of its use within a few spins. It should however, intensify and radiate Corpsessed fan base, and hopefully even expand it (with the help of the fantastic Dark Descent Records), so now, get this, and even its predecessor if you like, and simply sit in your cold, damp room, waiting for these monsters to eventually blow up their cadaverous tumour, spewing forth a debut full-length. That is all that can be done.

Highlights:

Of Desolation

Demonical Subjugation

Rating: 80%

Gorephilia - Embodiment Of Death

If you have the slightest idea of what today’s old school death metal scene looks like, then you obviously know which influences plague and which trends are more pungent.  Incantation worship is a much popular fashion in the scene, and Gorephilia are yet another band displaying a crunchy brand of Incantation-esque old school death metal. Their 2011 Ep ‘’Ascend To Chaos'’ gave then some recognition and it set the base structure of their developing sound, but enter 2012, and their debut album ‘’Embodiment Of Death’’ is easily one of the most brutal old school death metal albums you’ve been acquainted with, and it’s easily more sophisticated than its predecessor, intensifying skull crushing heft with the ultimate eloquence. Perhaps the record does not entirely deviate from the norm, but it certainly erases the Incantation mark left in your ears from the previous release, proving to be both a deathlier and more cunning effort.

Well, it is a deal more brutal than the previous Ep, but it’s devoid of the ritualistic mysticism laden in the early Incantation albums, and there’s little room for passionate, dark instrumentation and spectral aura, as the muscular power is widely preferred an element on this record. The cadaverous, macabre approach of death metal is always a treat for me, and I like it even more when its doused with a pinch of looming and a dash of brawny prowess fit for certain sequences, but on ‘’Embodiment Of Death’’, the brooding, abysmal overtone is nearly gone, and instead, the riffs are dominated by an ominous tide, and are fuelled with constant energy and husky power, save for some doom laden sections which embrace the gloom n’ doom myth slightly more than their peers. This approach may put off listeners who seek atmosphere and perilous evil, hinted amongst the riffs, but fans that enjoy the stomping charge and fury of death metal will still appreciate this, and maybe even love it with as they are surrounded by the album’s spray of suffocating gas, teeming with density.

Incantation still reigns as the most dominant influence on this record as far as I can see, but I can also sense riffs that reek of Asphyx, Cianide and even early Morbid Angel and Immolation. Songs which puff up and turn into formidable yet ponderous bulks like ‘’Gods Stand Aghast’’ are easily influenced more by the likes of Asphyx, inserting tons of heft and crushing chugs into the mid paced death metal texture, engrossing it with simple, yet maiming chomps. It’s not exactly doom, but it’s still relatively more sluggish, intensified with speed only in certain passages wherein thin wisps of tremolo pickings descend in a forlorn fashion. Other tracks like ‘’Pantheon In Flames’’ or ‘’Forget Mortality’’ are frankly more spacious and brisk, and the two minute supercharged riff exploitation ‘’Bloodspawn’’ is as simple and quick as a grindcore song, only a deal heavier and more callous. With the guitar tone favouring massiveness and airy heft over darkened vagueness or thinner, more metallic touches, it can actually be a problem to hear the vocals properly because they’re muffled and far too cavernous to make a direct impact on the listener.

I don’t have many complaints about this record, but some more originality would certainly be good. Gorephilia have only embroidered their riffs with vague melodies and tremolos, and with little deviation from the path that has been set, the album sometimes sounds dull and not as efficient as you’d hope it to be, even though its full force assault is a crushing one. With some more atmosphere, and ore variation, the band can expand their style to one that’s less muscular and more spectral (which is the path that they should take), and this record is far from bad, but, I was slightly disappointed only by some of its subtle nuances. 

Highlights:

Pantheon In Flames

Vision Of Hell

Gods Stand Aghast

Rating: 86%

Decaying-Encirclement

When I first thought of DM from Finland, the magnificent scene that held bands like Abhorrence, Demigod or Convulse came to mind, and I have to admit that I had high hopes for this album, especially since Finland hasn't delivered outstanding metal this year. Having high hopes Decaying 's Encirclement was a bad mistake simply because it didn't satisfy my thirst for old school Finish DM. Though I think It would be inconvenient for me to say that this album was a terrible failure. In fact, Encirclement has a considerably solid structure and a steady barrage of thrashy OSDM riffage striking with a fair amount of power and freshness, sufficient to keep the listener entertained the whole way through.

The album obviously doesen't come with any striking features of its own and unfortunately lacks the same frenzied and raw feeling that was highly pervasive in old school Finnish DM bands. It cant be denied that at times the band tries to sound like their fellow countrymen especially with the frequent usage of glooming, even doomy melodies during mellow passages and more spacious sections on the album, whenever the band feels like attaining some atmosphere and ambiance to give a sort of old school feel. These kinds of sinister, brooding melodies have ringed in my ears for quite some time from either Swedish or Finish bands, and I am to be fully accurate than I must say that doomy melodies are a bit inconvenient to be used in such a straightforward and clear album. They have tried to immitate their forfathers and thus have taken a risk that ended in a derivative result. Fortunately, the plain, compelling and hard-hitting riifs restore the album to full health with ease, and the atmospheric touch on the techy Pestilence - esque riffage provides the album with a much needed unique sound in contrast to other derivatively unoriginal death metal bands.

The Van Drunnen-esque vocal stylings never fail to amuse me, no matter how many times they are repeated. And the certain Pestilence vibe only emphasises the enchanting old school feeling. "Initiation" is the perfect mid-paced, grooving and forlorn OSDM track here. It's sufficiently short and the riffs randomly switch between groovy yet catchy melodies and cruwshing tremolo strikes, still going with a steady thrash influence. "Artillery Barrage" is even more excellent, a crushing and plain track with furoious death thrash riffs spawning like zombies emerging out of nowhere. Just like msost songs, it hares vividly resemblance to Pestilence's debut and sophomore, perfectly consummating a thrashy and catchy sound even with some technical proficiency. The technically driven riffs even take a certain trail of proggression when left in open space. During the more spacious sections of album, the level of melody and technical profiency increases at velocious rate, and the true face of musicianship begins to unfold as the guitarists display a wide range of grooving and swaggering riffs both crushing and melodic yet still being able to sound as plain and straightforward as possible.

The album draws immense influences from both Pestilence and Bolt Thrower, having attained a sound that feels just like a cross between the imperatives of the two. ''Encirclement'' includes a vast number of riffs, taken and spread out to populate the lenghtly songs. While it may sound imitative, once you take a closer look, you'll see that the derivation is actually a cool feature to add, since no DM fan should do without Bolt Thrower or Pestilence. I may say in relief that this is the most plain DM release I've heard all year, with almost no density or thickness production wise, I can safely acquire this album and let it sorround and conquer me, because I know that no matter what, I will enjoy the plain sound.

Highlights:
Artillery Barrage
Battle Of The Somme
The Hell Of Verdun


Rating: 87%