Chapel of Disease - The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art [2015]

Great album covers is always a major attraction for me, and are an equally good source of attraction for death and black metal bands who crave sounds of occult, doomed subterranean antiquity, but it's a shame half of the albums with great visual distinction merely gloss over the allure of their content. Chapel of Disease's 2012 debut ''Summoning Black Gods'' was fun exercise in old school death metal which went by the trajectory of Death, Pestilence, Sinister and some Autopsy, but was no real highlight in a year already stocked with excellent, creepy death metal offerings that ranged from Necrovation to Putrevore. It's a shame that most bands don't catch the gist of it in the first place. So you can bet I was a tad morose that the new album by the Germans wasn't much of a switch in color palettes, or equally ludicrous as the album title, but merely a minor readjustment of settings that prompts something of a psychedelic 70's feel into lurching old school death metal monotony.

Well, it isn't necessarily a monotony, because the Germans still do fairly good job at keeping some constancy and excitement throughout songs which go on for 6+ minutes, with insultingly enjoyable death/thrashing mania and accessibly searing guitar tones reaching back to early Pestilence. There's no denying that a sizable portion of this record dials all the way back to 1988, taking a huge slice of ''Malleus Maleficarum'' alongside it, with the rest channeling 1989-1993 at random and scraping off the 'old school' off everything from ''Human'' era Death, early Demolition Hammer to Morbid Angel, and this was one record which I felt the thrash was expressively more dominant than the death influence, particularly the fluid and blistering track ''Life is But a Burning Being'' which basically sounds like what Morbid Saint would have recorded on ''A Spectrum of Death'' if they'd been living under a stronger Teutonic influence with perhaps a dosage of Pink Floyd. Seriously, if there is any major step forward here from the debut, it's the odd psychedelia and melodic sentimentality interposed between the harsh, abrogating speed/thrash barrage and standardized old school death metal tremolos. There is a strong death/doom feel to the album that reverberates quite strongly as well, but while it makes for some good atmosphere the slower sections didn't always gel with the frantic death/thrash incursions. Despite that, the vocals, great as before, bark out like hell hounds in the night, leaving you dazed with a devilish take on Martin van Drunnen's legendary inflection.

The record is almost in conjunction with Horrendous' latest, ''Ecdysis'', which was a tour de force in the school of skin shedding and revitalization, albeit to a much larger degree than this one. The Germans are also embracing a veritable appreciation for oriental melodies, lead riffs and arbitrarily placed acoustic guitar sequences, which, though still inchoate, suggest a nice structural change which should be even  more pronounced on their third record. The ending track ''... of Repetitive Art'' is a ripping wall of semi-technical thrash riffs with haunting intro put in front of it, and resonates surprisingly well for a 10-minute monster. Again, aside from certain sequences, this album didn't made me raise my eyebrows. The drudging ''The Mysterious Ways...'' was all too boring and could as well have been replaced by an ambient sound of occult magicians high on some demoniac drug for all I care. So forget all that I said about good album covers and bad music. This is definitely a great album cover, and the music is solid, too. Maybe lacking in the visceral or aural pomp which I would seek for in 21st century old school death metal revival scheme perhaps, but nonetheless a highly listenable effort that could burgeon into something far more enthralling in the future.

Highlights:
Symbolic Realms
Life is But A Burning Life
The Dreaming of the Flame

Rating: 72,5%

Scanner - The Judgement [2015]

''Hypertrace'' was a record which garnered a huge amount of plaudits for probably as long as it was around, especially by the turn of the 20th century, when the lack of classic 80's power metal niches really began to felt by mainstream audiences, and although it's never been a record which I've held near and  dear to my heart I can't deny its sort-of-cult appeal, nor the iterative listening value of songs like ''Across the Universe'' or ''Warp 7''. In any case, it placed Scanner on the map, and has frankly been the only Scanner record which I've bothered to deal with. Evidently, ''The Judgement'' wasn't destined to be a second ''Hypertrace'', or a highly worthy entrant into the modern power metal field with a scene already saturated with anything from Angra to German contemporaries such as Primal Fear or Blind Guardian, and the nerdy, lackluster cover art only confirmed that I had to keep my expectations a little low on this. Even those Teutonic legends had stopped spewing forth career highlights about a decade ago, - give or take a few years - so how the hell is Axel Julius fresh lineup going to end up better?

''The Judgement'' was a somewhat different experience than I'd anticipated, but all the paths led to the same doorway in the end. The 80's speed/power aesthetics meet with a softer hard rock mentality and immediately Scanner tears through the walls of space and time with laser-gun riffing redolent of, well... Scanner. This is clearly a meatier and better produced effort than Scanner's 80's catalog, thanks to the benefits of modern audio technology, but there's also something of modern power/thrash modulus peppered on the riffs, as well a grating, metallic tone that should hold instantaneous, if ephemeral, appeal to any expecting listener. I've come to compare this record a lot to Attackers's latest, especially since the chuggy, percussive thrashing is very prominent, although the Attacker record was a busier, more exciting avenue of great, genuinely original riffcraft, while this album just swaggers with a fast, fairly busy compendium of samey riffs, mostly recycled from the 80's. The leads and swerving harmonies are the sheer selling points of the record, with enough melodic hooks to keep you buckled and grappled on your spaceship's seat to sift through the record with relative ease for the first 1-2 spins.

The vocals equally hearken back to the school of Germanic banshee screaming, with plenty of Rob Halford-esque inflections pelting the concussive riffs, like on the verse of ''Warlord''. The drumming was also fairly efficient, and for the most time I was definitely on board with the vocal lines. The problem with ''The Judgement'' is nearly all the songs are devoid of some constant audibility (''Warlord'' and ''Known Better'' were the two memorable pieces on this record, with the former having a excellent, gaunt chorus and the latter stockpiled with bright guitar work that somehow exceeded the overall performance of the album) and the album almost never tries to break through the boundaries of the box, not to mention the fact that songs which should have been cropped to a nifty 3-4 minutes hang around for lofty 5-6 minutes, (don't even get me started on the outrageous ''Poseidon'') making spacial trip all too jaded with space lag. This is not a bad album, but there's a fundamental dilemma on whether staying on course with traditional or modern power/thrash metal, and there's certainly too much reliance on cheap hooks and choral sections to be called anything extremely worthwhile. Still, if you're that in the need for semi-frilled, catchy power metal that blazes with a searing 80's feel, this is one record you could give a shot, though I doubt that it'll circulate through many end-of-the-year lists.


Highlights:
The Judgement
Known Better
Warlord

Rating: 63%

Blind Guardian - Beyond the Red Mirror [2015]

More than being just a beloved paragon of Teutonic epic power metal, the way I've perceived Blind Guardian over the years has evolved from a visualization as a steadfast German act to a wonderful explosive tumult of symphonic music, power metal and just unabashed Lord of the Rings nerdery, which I can't help but relate to. Parading forth from their humble speed metal initiation during the late 80's to what most people (including me) probably see their peak with the subsequent records of 1995-1997, the band has scarcely disappointed, though admittedly mellowed in stride after ''A Night at the Opera''. My humble obsession for the band and their surprisingly serious antics stemmed from my ecstatic discovery of ''Nightfall in Middle-Earth'', which (a big fuck you to all the sleazy haters) was so impeccable, so fucking peerless that it just swooped my heart away in a flock of marauding orcs and glazing elves throwing down Silmarillion style. After so many disappointments in the last decade my expectations naturally plummeted, so it was clear from the start that the Germans' latest wasn't going to be another perfect herald of Tolkien-esque epic power metal, but that said, I've found that ''Beyond the Red Mirror'' resonated with me with more singular power than one would expect...

If I had to summarize me feelings for this album from the beginning, honestly, if you can skip the rather painful ''The Ninth Wave'', there is little to be disregarded and even less to be disliked, granted you're a fairly long running fan of the band. If you can skip that tumescent electronic garbage, and see through the 'wave', Blind Guardian immediately opens up the gates of heaven with a shredding, if pretentiously titled, vigorous tune (''Twilight of the Gods'') and then proceeds to kick ass from there onward. The arrangement and overall sound delivered in ''Beyond the Red Mirror'' carved up such an instantaneous passion in me particularly because it felt as though the band was just scraping off the old footprints of their 1995-2002 outings in varying degrees, sometimes molding into furious power/thrash eruptions (''Sacred Mind'') or a jumpier, gyrating miracle of folksy power progressive metal guitars (''Twilight of the Gods''), and sometimes just reaching out in a mellower and emotional level with ballad-ish tracks (''Miracle Miracle''); but nearly every form they take, the Germans seem well-nigh faultless at their task, even though they are mostly rehashing some of the irreplaceable material they put out two decades ago.

But being a four-year long effort, ''Beyond the Red Mirror'' is cemented in a bombast of irresistible orchestral performances that feel somewhat Wagnerian in their scope or just like something straight out of Disney musical in their epic playfulness (songs like ''Grand Parade'' take the front here). At any rate, the operatic details of the record are not just beautiful but feel larger and crucial to the general formula than, most of their recordings. The focal - and vocal - point of the record is Hansi's vocals which range accordingly to the frenetic volleys of guitar riffs and orchestral arrangements. The man - possible because he's still only 48 - doesn't seem to have lost his touch one bit, unlike one Bruce Dickinson whose voxing on ''The Final Frontier'' swelled a little too tiredly to be on par with a ''Powerslave'', and the almost psychopathic chorus flings that burst arbitrarily seem just fresh and jovial as they were twenty years ago. As if I hadn't praised them before, the guitars are pretty much excellent: not just loaded to the stocks with melodious and totally Blind Guardian-esque riffs that the group must have borrowed from a set of riffs which they wrote in 1997 but never integrated, but also from their sheer functionality. Seriously, none of the riffs here feel out of place. Sure, some prove to be tedious and bloated after 65 minutes of maniacal orchestral and sonic repercussions, but individually all are likable.

That brings me to a rather predictable snag: the album is just too long. This is evidently not the band's best outing, and even though the run time runs parallel to its aesthetic siblings (data check: Imaginations, Nightfall and A Night have lengths of 49, 65 and 67 minutes respectively) the amount of time they spend going through oldish ideas takes too much time. There's time enough on the record to give a detailed account of Middle-Earth lore even if you clip away the unnecessary fat, and even though songs as uplifting as ''At the Edge of Time'' pass the minutes away like melting butter, one can have serious gripes about the length in general. The production, too, on the ground that the guitars and bass were crafty but not paunchy enough, proves to be a bit of a thorn in the album's side. In the end, however, it's safe to assume that ''Beyond of the Red Mirror'' puts the Germans back on the map. At least to a more respectable point. It demonstrates that these ageing nerd/musicians are still sharp on their wit. All told, it reuses previous footings all too frequently to be creating some majestic gateway between this era and another, some dramatic experiment gone slightly wrong, but teetering on the edge of evolutionary greatness, but rather an album playing it safe. It's awesome for what it is, and I'm the rampaging (and shameless) fanboy who loves if precisely for that. The lyrical content alone is good enough for you to get interested. Don't be a fucking tool and buy it.

Highlights:
Sacred Mind
Twilight of the Gods
The Holy Grail
At the Edge of Time

Rating: 85%

Sulphur Aeon - Swallowed By the Ocean's Tide [2013]

Haunted by illusions of cadaverous, bloodied hymns, it's easy to go astray these days and find yourself playing in an old school death metal band. No, too easy. An unforeseen blanket squashing the vastest expanses of the metal universe, the retro-death metal plague proves to be deadlier than its thrash counterpart, as if somehow the indescribable Masque of the Red Death had slyly sneaked its way to our modern epoch to spread its precariously inflicted infection... But not all are affected. Some appear to be immune, even. Don't think I'm merely going to demean the resurgence of the genre as a whole here; we've definitely had our fair share of fresh death metal booty that doesn't strictly belong in the same realm as something like Decapitation or Anal Nakrath: stuff that prefers to dwell under the caves and monolithic recesses of the ages, unaffected by the novelties that the 21st century brings, and carelessly swaggering lo-fi rhythms at packs of avaricious listeners with ears agape.

Alright, I'll just be honest that Germany's Sulphur Aeon is not of the same school as Antediluvian, Impetuous Ritual, or even Tribulation for that matter, but rather in a conflicting territory torn between two rather neglected sides of death metal. These guys are a new, fresh-faced trio whose names go as T., M. and D., and they bring an almost unprecedented churn to death metal. Covering the ambitious steps of Dissection and Sacramentum from the mid 90's along with a more spacious pastiche to explore, their alignments are both of melodic and visceral descent; a hoovering whirl of underwater melodies intertwining with rich, luxuriantly massed guitar tones, prompted by a boiling spur of black metal. The real selling point for me was the ability of the trio to capture both a doubly brutal tone in the guitar as well as epic, harmonious tremolo barrages with great care to enlarge their potential as they tread along. Essentially ''old school'', ''Swallowed By The Ocean's Tide'' is huge, wreathing bulge of terrific guitar work and Lovecraftian horror at its finest.

As mentioned the guitar tone is too good not mention, but I have to say that I the frenetic drumming patterns almost equally. The drums sustain a crisp but still slightly subtle tone, as to not bash the subterranean toil of the record into rubble. The vocals are brilliant accompaniment to the muscular, effervescent floods of the dual guitars, with a great, wretched inflection that retains some balance between a rigorous black metal bark and a much deeper growl that perfectly perceives an image of the fantastic cerulean underwater corpse-city as depicted in the cover. There are moments, though only confined to the first 3 or 4 tracks, that I found to be immaculate and overwhelming in utter terror and tenor. Though such engulfing renditions are the band's obvious point of mastery, I still found myself to be able to digest the more mediocre offings that started to appear more and more frequently as the album progressed.

Just taking the unabashed, glorious hymnal charge of ''Incantation'', or the harmonic layering of ''Inexorable Spirit'' for a few spins would certainly leave any listener in utter cerebral torpor. Unfortunately, tracks like ''Beneath.Beyond.Below:Above'' are somewhat subpar in comparison to the ineluctable finesse of the previous tracks; and that's to say that the album falls a deal short from perfection. Still, while I was rumbling under the cavernous roar of the blast beats, the meticulous double-bass drums, and megalithic guitar proportions, I was struggling as though being dragged into the depths of the album's deep blue core by some scaly, amphibious entity, slowly drowning as the floods overwhelmed me more and more. It's definitely not everyday that you come across an album like this, which, even considering its flaws, manages to uproot many of its fellow cavern-dwellers. Actually, it would be underwhelming and discrediting to call these Germans cavern-dwellers; they can think much more openly than their contemporaries, and with a deeper impact, too. There have been only a few dozen times I really heard Cthulhu's great roar through metal, and this is one of them. Horror-geeks and death metal revivalists alike -  rejoice. 

Highlights:

Incantation

Inexorable Spirits

The Devil's Gorge

Rating: 85%

Wound - Inhale The Void [2013]

Retro death metal is so fashionable these days that it's literally impossible to find a band that does not pay a proper homage to Dismember, Entombed and other Swedish pundits of gore and grime circa 1988-1993, and the case has shifted from not being able to successfully embody the traditional sound to not being able to give it a whiff of originality and pondering a little more for the sake of the album's level encapsulation. Such is the case with Germany's newest worshipers Wound, striking with a seemingly fresh debut straight from the sepulchral depths of the death metal cavern. Don't let the Gnostic, dreary artwork fool you, Wound isn't here to wreathe past subterranean, concave monuments; their sound almost entirely pinpoints to the same spectrum of influences I mentioned earlier, morbid, wrecking death metal processed through a jaded foundation of rusty chainsaws and olfactory miseries, another hardened but exhausted extraction of Swedeath broiled in modern sonic emphasis.

I was frankly quite disappointed to hear unmitigated chainsaws in the stead of a murkier morass of mourn, something that I have been eagerly digging since a succession of terrific releases by new bands from the 2010-2012 time period, (Anhedonist, Sonne Adam, Antediluvian, etc.) and hell, I could have even sufficed with some classy death metal akin to Wound's label-mates Chapel of Disease who fabricated a less tense brand of early Pestilence and Asphyx and inserted that into a carnal trajectory, but the sulking, squamous cephalopod in the cover wouldn't even let me have that. You may think that ''Inhale the Void'' is egregious, based on my complaints, but the thing is, it isn't. It's just that I've heard this cliche performed sans any kind of adornment or a more open-minded perspective upon the niche so many damn times, that it's just getting overly boring. Wound is thankfully no less than your garden-variety death metal bands out there, with a bulking, meaty tone that's so fucking huge that you'll end up as a bloody pulp by the time the flesh factory has processed you with a complete set of unrelenting instruments, twinging melodies that remind me of Dismember's masterful debut more than anything, and on the surface, it seems that there isn't a palpable paucity of any kind - but later on you discover the Germans are so fucking tight that they have no mobility and no space to grant them even the slightest bit of brazenness.

As far as the vocals go, however, I'm a fan. Wretched, black metal-esque snarls and barks seem utterly orthodox and out of place with the much familiar stream of cadaverous guitars roaming underneath, but that's the only distinction they have, and they should cling on to that as if it was their last strand of rope while cliffhanging from a mountain. This is not to say they should improve upon solely this department - they need to work a heap to hone their riffing patterns, too! The acoustic medleys of the title track or the sauntering, melodious guitar passages of ''Odium'' get you into thinking you're gonna get something different, but when the same molten barrage of lethargic d-beat riffs rush through, most of your apprehension, along with the excitement fleets away. That's ''Inhale The Void'' in a nutshell. It's packaged with just as many riffs - possibly even more - than all the other Swedeath drones out there, but they hardly seem meticulously penned - they may be consistent throughout, but they lose their spiky edge pretty quickly, except for ''Codex Arckanum'' which was a surprisingly intense run of 5 minutes, ripe with the bloodiest, most ferocious material on the album. Wound could have done worse, trust me with that, but scraping my ears with this is like contemplating a now-futile farmland through the eyes of a weary farmer, who now can't get as much as a bag of wheat, even through excessive cultivation. It certainly wasn't bad, but I was never quite captivated.

Highlights:
Codex Arckanum
Confess To Filth 
Echoes

Rating: 67,5%

Dehuman Reign - Destructive Intent [2013]

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only who has had a kick out of recent cavern-dwelling death metal bands who teleport back to the years of old and seek to plummet us with nostalgia, no matter how many times we've criticized their bothersome existence. And yet, they come in such copious quantities these days that I have little notion of doing anything besides scoffing at these beleaguering trends, except get smacked with a different mallet every now and then. For those who need that extra breath of fresh air to escape the redundancy, but still want to somehow feel nostalgia splashing against their face, Dehuman Reign presents one of the better options for escapism. I admit that I didn't initially give the credit these guys really deserve, because these Germans seem come crashing out of nowhere, and they've instantly signed with the German imprint F.D.A Rekotz who presented us old school death metal aficionados a fairly impressive selection of releases. Death metal attribution that gathers it influences from Krisiun, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel or Vader is not generally my cup of tea, giving the fact that I've always preferred ghastly smudges of grime and grotesqueness over straight-up, punchy USDM motifs, but I've found myself bowled over by Dehuman Reign's debut EP rather easily.

This undoubtedly nothing novel for even the rookie death metal collector; big, abrasive guitars denting holes in your cranial complex wider than whole cannonballs, induced with propulsive thrash chug affairs that are just as ruinous, but ''Destructive Intent'' doesn't merely hold appeal solely for fans of Morbid Angel, Malevolent Creation or Vader; the technically imbued narrative of its swirling melodies will retract fans of more modern death metal, and all the riffs collide with such dexterous unison that the melodic framework of the EP doesn't thwart the heavier ones, or vice-versa. The drums are pernicious, and just as destructive as the guitars as if the two aspects combined were musical reflections of a group of pissed off mountain trolls stampeding downwards from the mountain and into an obscured target. The double-kicks are great, spicing up the band's already veritable range of annihilation apparatus, and the fills are just perfectly timed and brilliant, serving as brief preludes for the upcoming storm. Besides the more staccato styled chugging orgies, the spiraling tremolos are also turbulent enough to wipe you off the face of the Earth, and they always seem to accompanied with less audible technical death metal fillers produced by the second guitar, picked at a rapid pace, and inevitably implying that the Germans were just as influenced by Decapitated as they were by the aforementioned titans of brutality. Speaking of brutality, there are similarities between this and the rather unsung US death metal group Brutality, which aren't half as remote as I would have imagined.

Perhaps the main reason I was tepid in approaching ''Destructive Intent'' is because they reminded me a lot of their label-mates Deserted Fear, who produced an unimpressive full-length last year that was very much in the same vein as this, but Dehuman Reign's attitude and semi-modern ballast of riffs was a serious selling point for me, and the Germans are spot fucking on this EP, no matter how unoriginal their core sound is. The production is hardly sodden; it's wreathed in earthen texture and is broad, much like the clear, yet obviously guttural vocal delivery which was simply another layer of shattering concussion along with the guitars and drums. The brief opener ''Prelude To Perdition'' is bound to confuse a few because it's so damn different than the rest of the EP, featuring trudging guitars and far more aural aptitude than the rest of the disc, with shrieking black metal rasps that rather contradict the vocalist's standard Chris Barnes inflection. Strange choice for an opener I admit, but I doubt a horror flick extract from 80's would suit them better. There's not really anything else to say about this record, except that it tops a good many other young death metal acts, so if you ever feel that your beheading procedure is taking too much time or feels like too much of a drudge, feel free to try ''Destructive Intent''. It's quick, and finalizing. Happy beheading.

Highlights:
Masks of Sorrow
Extinction Machine
Staring Beyond the Edge of Time

Rating: 77,5%

Draumar - Gebirge [2012]

Believe it or not, my best findings over the last 2-3 years have been in the field of black metal more than anything else: thrash had already lost its revivalist touch after 2009, and few records besides the olden, antique dimensions of death metal interest me, and there were only a handful of stupendous releases on that department, the remainder being a mostly consistent, but unabashedly generic metric chock of bands sprouting out of pretty much anywhere around the globe - thus, some of the most enthralling releases of recent years belong mostly to black metal. Somehow, black metal musicians are able to achieve salvation, or rather, musical incarceration through their own predilections, incorporating an enormously vast choice of sounds into traditional parameters, ranging from folk metal influences to ambient preferences to progressive rock, and while this rule does obviously apply for all black metal bands, it does take into account a considerable number of acts. Of these refreshingly savvy acts I've found Germany's Draumar to be one of the most beautiful and atmospheric, through the usage of orchestral sounds, a superb EP that shines nearly all the way.

This is absolutely soothing music, and certainly not your traditional kind of ambient black metal. There are indeed acts such as the notorious Leviathan or Oranssi Pazuzu that use their aural tendencies to encase the listener in utterly nightmarish profundity, evoking despair and trauma as effortlessly as putting a mentally disfigured person behind bars, but Draumar contrasts entirely from such acts, firmly providing a warm, spectral and haunting layer of pulchritude. You could say that they were influenced by Summoning in many ways, as the atmospheric reflection of many passages seem to be befit for being a soundtrack covering a lost footage of The Shire in the Fellowship of the Ring, but then again, Summoning is something far more glorious and unapologetic in its triumph, a right soundtrack for the defeat of Sauron. The thing about ''Gebirge'' is that it's 85% ambient passages and only 15% guitars/drums/vocals intertwined with the atmospherics above, so it's admittedly a rather stunning, but slow-paced listen, despite its brevity. The opener, ''Auftakt'' is a mellow introduction ceremony for the upcoming wave of musical transcendence, and my favorite track is probably the follow-up, ''Gebirge I'', which initiates with synthesizers redolent of Ihsahn's work on Emperor's debut, and gradually unfurls into a diaphanous spectacle. The vocals are raw, winter-beaten and raspy to the core bu somehow they fit the sound effects perfectly, and the guitars are such crisp expedients that they balance the weigh of the record with heavenly succession.

For those who might scoff at the ''orchestral'' tag: I advise you to listen before you criticize. This is no collection of cheap fillers, and certainly not some cheesy horror flick your local death metal decided to use as an appendix for their disjointed Autopsy duplicate disc - these are real fucking instruments being played with accuracy and technique, implemented brazenly into the music. Pianos. Acoustic guitars. Flutes. Violins. All adhered to different sections of the EP, making it all the better. ''Gebirge II'' is nearly as good as its successor, running for some 7 seven minutes, and in versatility it never seems to lack material. Draumar's fresh take on black metal does not seem to deviate all too greatly from some of its peers, Summoning included, but it's sensational in every way that I can think of with my sole complaint being the lack of engagement, that, despite being launched towards such speed freak as I, did not seem to matter so much; a mere peccadilo of a stain amid a beautiful rainbow. That said, the EP was too short to be fully effective as well, running for about 20 minutes, but still, I can't say there was a moment where the the surreal and dazzling approach of Draumar didn't stun me. This is the kind of music that really needs to be taken to a larger scale; I heartily encourage garden variety Norwegian black metal groups to cut their ragged, uncircumcised music short to give bands like Draumar a little more space. I'm determined to see ''Gebirge's'' follow-up, because despite the soothing attribute of the music, the German can stimulate many a listener with ''Gebirge'', and the prospect of a 60+ minute ''Gebirge'' is highly exciting. Well, at least, if they continue this way.

Highlights:
Gebirge I
Gebirge II

Rating: 86%

Beyond - Fatal Power Of Death [2013]

Amid a frenzied, and overly prolific eruption of molten death metal lava, I'm sure I'm not the only one in desperate search for good, quality death metal that has its earthen roots buried deep within the unfathomable pit olden masters. There are, thankfully, a handful of record labels that are still able to conduct business with a goodlier bunch of death metal nostalgia seekers every now and then, and especially following their ruinous signings of a great pack of revivalists, Iron Bonehead has proved to be one of the worthiest imprints among the bunch that includes such labels as Hell's Headbangers, Razorback, Hellthrasher, and a few more. Their releases have primarily come to my attention when I started receiving promos from them - something that I'm truly grateful for because I've been acquainted with a deal of excellent bands. Without digressing too much, I'd also like to imply that I can't seem to find a particular reason for so many old school death metal bands being so egregiously bad, besides the fact they are mostly highly generic and because usually, the original corpulence and freshness of their music seems to get relegated and diminished over time as they start to deviate from novel perspectives. Germany's Beyond, however, is one of those bands that neither purists nor more versatile metalheads would scoff at - they're powerful, channeling the dark interiors of archaic rot and ichor, and while they don't necessarily bring anything new to the table they still manage to incorporate and exhibit their influences in a novel fashion, kicking asses right away.

All the influences seem to pinpoint towards your standard, garden variety cavernous death metal culprit, seamlessly burrowing traits from Incantation or from newer acts like Antediluvian and Father Befouled, which is a direct Incantation throwback anyways, but I promise you, the level of excitement and intensity, infused with scintillating, sweltering compositions are good enough to give even Incantation a damn run for their money. First of all, Beyond are despondent, but they are no way as ritualistic as, say, the aforementioned Canadian giant, and the cavernous complex of the record is merely used a fissure to manifest the broader spectrum of riffing. In terms of riffs, ''Fatal Power of Death'' chugs away into black/thrash motifs just as frequently as it harbors interest for Morbid Angel, Death and Angelcorpse, and usually, the ferocity and speed of the guitars will rise to such extreme heights that you'll feel as though you were sucked into nebulous void of war metal, an absolutely devastating feast of Revenge, Conqueror, Diocletian and Blasphemy, and as if they hadn't sufficiently strewn corpses along the patterns of the two most titillating sub-genres of extreme metal, they bludgeon the listener with a further helping of unbridled thrash mayhem; a bevy of cudgels beating the living shit out of you in a pitch-black void of confusion.

While the song titles may seem generic when contrasted to other bands of this field, they certainly do their job well in living up to their names. ''Expressions'', the opener, commences with a seemingly horror-induced intro of synthesizers and sound effects, before unraveling promptly into a sulfurous tempest of black, death and even grindcore redolent of Anaal Nakrath's first few discs, and pretty much each track features a blisteringly spasmodic lead, each one churning effortlessly with the uncircumcised array of tremolos and chord progressions. ''Merciless At Heart'' and ''Whirlwinds'' continue to prolong the weather forecast of cavernous acid rain and unceasing tornadoes in the same fashion as ''Expressions'', but the title track livens up the diversity department by sauntering deeper into moody death metal territory, death/doom interpretations that reek of Autopsy, Fleshcrawl, Asphyx and Cianide. Not only that, but I also got a sort of technical vibe from ''Fatal Power of Death'', something that I really enjoyed. Obviously, this is in no way a primordial way of conveying Suffocation styled riffs into the music, but much like Necrovation' eponymous sophomore, the riffs sound refined with additional technical elements, enriching an already dense and fresh collection of ideas.

Let me make something clear here: Beyond are not your standardized, derivative old school metal revivalists, but they aren't entirely novel purveyors of fear either. Only, the ideas an expressions are allocated so excitingly that a formula previously presented is hacked into innumerable pieces, scattered along with a new order, and when the Germans play that renowned piece of classical abyss and blood, their avidity and success becomes inevitable. This is a record that's just as bloodied and decomposed as any other old school death metal revival album out there, really, but the way it's been careened and depicted makes it an excellent, almost inventive listen. The tracks are swirling and turgid with expositions with just instrumental capability anyway, and when you put the vocals, the crude, gargantuan growls of an aquatic sea giant, into the mix, you've practically got yourself one of the best death metal records of 2013, even with the possiblity of more quality cargo to arrive later in the year, and as if the 7 swelling compositions they penned weren't enough, the quartet finalize their masterpiece with a stimulating, unremitting and absolutely indoctrinating epic, 12 minutes of numbing hypnosis that you won't forgot easily. Beyond's previous EP and demo might have been utterly disgusting, but this is much, much more than disgusting. Listening to this is the musical equivalent of delving into death metal's demented subconscious, and exploring its bleakest, most blackened dens. If you haven't acquired this already and you're still drooling over Antediluvian, Teitanblood, Incantation, Grave Miasma, etc, then you should. Pronto.

Highlights:
Merciless At Heart
Consuming Black Void
Schizopsychotic Eruption
Whirlwinds

Rating: 90%

Lifeless - Godconstruct [2013]

Germans Lifeless are no strangers to the Swedish chainsaw. They're 2008 debut, ''Beyond The Threshold Of Death'' unavoidably formed its aesthetics by sapping the carnal chunk out of classic death metal scriptures like ''War Master'', ''Where No Life Dwells'' and ''Left Hand Path'', a fairly diverse, melodious and cavorting affair that was impervious to originality, and the year 2013 sees to the direct continuation of their ruinous debut, with ''Godconstruct'' strives to discover the exterior and interior boundaries of the genre in equal measure as the debut. In which case, out of 100, you'd probably end up wit a score of 15-10. Fortunately over considerable time, the Germans have earned some savvy techniques which they use to incorporate into their rehashed brand of death rather professionally, even if not completely engagingly; and as result, we're given this inimical, though not highly memorable yarn in the tradition of the early 90's, no doubt restrained into something much more compact than acts that started out in a very similar path to the Germans here, but eventually erupted into mavens that crafted magnificent masterpieces of opaque, resonant death metal bliss.

I'm  not implying that lack of originality degrades quality, because we've obviously been hinted that by simply pursuing derivative paths, bands can be become dangerously addictive (e.g. Tribulation and Repugnant), but even those groups eke out a certain quantity of variation and ambition into bland compositions, and like many pretentious Swedeath worshipers, I see very little ambition in Lifeless. Maybe they're name was actually based on that dogma. But anyways, the scarcity of defiance doesn't beat the Germans into submission, no sir. The atmosphere is here, and so are the riffs; a plummeting torrent of ridiculously heavy (not unlike their contemporaries) chainsaw accumulations, diving straight into blind ears, and I like that the Lifeless usually pummel their audience with a coherent string of melodiously malignant, broiling tremolo barrages, absolutely like the debut, and they'll occasionally brake free of their raucous, grinding abuse and move into more somnolent sequences, which have their own mournful appeal. ''Seething With Rage'' is perhaps the best example to this, even though its name suggests otherwise, and the Germans actually have an extensive reservoir of similar progressions, rendering them somewhat more melodic than their peers. I get that they were endeavoring to build something moodier, but they just couldn't hit all the right notes. (Piano outro - seriously?)

The vocals have a lower-register toning than the debut, with occasional ghastly rasps to reinforce the ambiance on tracks like ''The Truth Concealed'', but his voice hardly deviates from the traditional death metal gutturals. What I found to be interesting, though not half as pleasing here is the number of acoustic passages; there's only a couple, mind you, but they were certainly badly placed. For one, it showcased that the group needed restarts or reposes in between tracks to stabilize their momentum to its previous thrust, and their presence alone is enough to irritate the fervent death metalhead - I certainly didn't like them. Plunging into ''Godconstruct'' by no means reflects that the Germans are just another vacuous group, but they're far to conscientious to be splattering themselves in a bit of ambition, let alone diving into experimental territory. Lifeless are just a staunch quartet seeking to annihilate their avid crowd with storming double-bass poundings and bombastic guitar attacks, and they're hardly into some contemplation - I'm totally cool with that - only, if they ever wish to move out of the circle one day, some ought to remind them they'll need to try harder. Solid sophomore. 

Highlights:

Blindead

The Truth Concealed

Towards Damnation

Rating: 72,5%

Witchburner - Bloodthirsty Eyes [2013]

Witchburner are one of the longest living black/thrash groups from Germany out there, riveting quite a bit of attention with their album ''Blood Of The Witches'', and otherwise bearing much experience from the six albums they had prior to their latest offering, ''Bloodthirsty Eyes'' which is harbored by High Roller Records, which have, over time, developed a slight aptitude for hiring savage, uncircumcised black/thrash hybrids such as Hellbringer and Bunker 66, in swiveling contrast to their standard signings of more modern heavy and power. Given the band's rigid and abiding consistence throughout their carrier, expect no more of ''Bloodthirsty Eyes'' than a vicious, competent barrage of blackened Teutonic thrash, undeniably snatching its elements from such giants as Kreator, Sodom or Holy Moses - in all a derivative feast for any thrasher truly hunger for a wild, speed-embraced kick that doesn't require much attention to comprehend.

So derivative, in fact, that this record could be an instant follow up to any of the band's previous discs. Instead of a more brazen outtake that I see certain groups (Ketzer, Denouncement Pyre) slowly morph into, Witchburner is producing a completely one-dimensional, free-for-all excursion with a palette of raw, spurious black/thrash chord flails, gushing about frenetically, and as much as the main vigor comes from the taut Teutonic thrash inclinations, there's also a somewhat evil undercurrent that reminds me of darker acts; Aura Noir, Nocturnal Breed and Destroyer 666 to name a few. The band's all-out fashioned exhibition of aggression is menacing enough, with crunchy, gut-ripping guitar dominating nearly the entire space left to clash and bash, but hell, even when you know this is one of those records whose worth is hardly more than a couple of spins, the absolutely unending wash of clamorous guitars and generic speed/thrash riffing just bores you; and I'd actually go as far to say that from the hundred grapples this record spurted upon me, no more than ten ending up being actually clinging to my ear.

This is not to say that ''Bloodthirsty Eyes'' is a bad record, only, I've certainly beheld a myriad of voluptuous incursions akin to it. And if truth be told, who hasn't? I'd like to consider this as a continuation of the band's long-running career, as another product from the oldfactory that goes by the book - the Witchburner book - but for the entire time, not only here but in their whole discography, the Germans are merely putting their own consistent endeavors into the music; they're just borrowing what's already been produced prolifically. Thankfully, the vocals here, as much as they're clear-cut like the arsenal of riffs, have a horrendously compelling feel to them, as if somehow, by excluding the underpinning of axing I could delve into wholly dark ambiance that falls into a quagmire of a position between the recent Antichrist (Swe), Hellbringer and Exumer. ''Bloodthirsty Eyes'' is still strictly pure enough to pummel and crack your bones within seconds, raw, intimate and plentiful in vile aggression, but as I've gone through numerous times before, it needs that marginal displacement in cursor in order to attain some variation, which this album is in desperate need for.

Highlights:
Path Of The Sinner
Sermon Of Profanity
Never Surrender

Rating:  68%

Sonic Reign - Monument In Black [2013]

Though I've avoided and neglected much of the modernized black metal cliches for obvious reasons, Germans Sonic Reign have somehow found their way through all the acidic aspects of the genre's aesthetics and grappled me with everything they have. Unquestionably, there has been a good many bands over the last 10 years, who, in order to make black metal ''hip'' once more have severed and toyed with it using various implements of modernity, and the whole black & roll has enlarged, and gradually surfaced towards mediocrity, but I'm thankful that these Germans, even though they are employers of this inclination, have taken it to a much catchier level, attaining a good level of vile old school avidity whilst doing so. Through Apostasy Records, Sonic Reign release their first album in seven years, and oh boy this is fun, for connoisseurs and less-experienced black metal troop alike.

Sonic Reign's primary elements involve the aforementioned black & roll cliche, discernible from the murderous waves of groove and memorable accessibility inserted into the basis, and and a harsher undercurrent of surging, surgical black/thrash volatility, which is more prominent during savage sequences where guitar Benjamin Berucki thrusts his picking hand into the strings and starts thrumming frenetically, something that's rather less common in an orgy of discordant arpeggios blending into trudging razor impulses - all part of the band's scheme. What's great here is that Sonic Reign isn't exactly forming a composite of more groove-laden black metal and ramming Australian black/thrash; they're meshing that all up with plenty of intricacy, intricacy that can take on an almost prehensile, atmospheric hue when they start rocking back and forth and start plunging into the depths of the carnal skull on their album art. The tone is gritty up to an extent, not to mention crusty as if Satyricon somehow got hold of Warbringer's guitars, but the real treat is the sheer unhinged mayhem the riffs can create. I feel somehow that the Teutonic squad is holding their potential aback, because they're hardly breaking into more belligerent spurts, delving into their atmospheric complexities for the majority of the album, when they can clearly thread the two together to form the ultimate cranium-splatter weapon. More distinct, hostile chug fairs like ''Daily Nightmare Injected'' do have their appeal, but that's only a fraction of what the group can do if they let their imaginations flow.

For the vocals, imagine Destroyer 666, on ''Unchain The Wolves'', only roiled in pinch of miasma rather than the more punk-ish edge you'd expect black/thrash bands to have. The band's final addition to their music is the well done overall gait. Even when riffs evaporate into contrast and rupture at times, the pace of the album seems to be fixed; a steady mid-paced pattern which I found to be the key of their monotony. Not in a bad way of course, bu it's just that that the drudgery of fiery black metal tremolos is what makes the album so magnetically enthralling for me. As an album, ''Monument In Black'' is damnably solid, and as a stacked briefcase of collapsing tremolo pillars it's a one way ticket into some of the less cavernous sentient molasses out there right now, a fixated concussion that delivers its piled content slowly, eventually summing up to the sonic pressure of seven elephants stomping your ear drums at one time. Colossal, haunting simplicity that I just can't reject.

Highlights:

Abhorrence Vs. Scum

Whisperer In The Dark

Daily Nightmare Injected

Rating: 81%

Chapel Of Disease - Summoning Black Gods [2012]

As much as I was impressed by the vital, fleshy energy that the Germans Chapel Of Disease conjured with their cryptic demo that came out earlier this year, make no mistake, these vile retros are not putting anything new on the table, even though it undeniably sounds refreshing for die-hards and connoisseurs alike. That being said, the debut by the Teutonic quartet took me by surprise as they unleashed their debut via the overly frenetic oldfactory producers FDA Recotz, and to be fair, despite the limitation of imagination generated from the band's lack of variety in accumulating influences, ''Summoning Black Gods'' does not suspend the hungry listener in iron manacles of banality and delivers quite a heaving, archaic punch with a nice stretch of classic old school death metal influences a la Pestilence, Autopsy, Death, and, as we didn't have enough Swedish death metal to deal with, a splurging context of primal chainsaw ruptures.

The intake of Swedeath is fortunately in less copious amounts than you might expect, and churned up with a classy, foreboding edge, it really turns the album into a panoply of memorable compositions and semi-thrashy textures, all sewed to each other by a raw, highly nostalgic raw overtone. At times,  the band channels the harsher formulas that marginally deviate from the tremolo-laced riffing by having simpler vitality, reeking of 1988, yet what I especially love about the band is that they effortlessly eke out sepulchral hymns and they can perfectly exhibit their love for pestilential antiquities whilst carving out subtexts of these grave-ish moods, perhaps most vivid on ''Evocation of the Father'', a melodious collision of trudging grooves that has an almost Gothic appeal to it. Even though it seems the band is staking their entire momentum by replacing nearly a half of their performance with mid-paced grooving, the subtle balance in between thrash and death is measured adequately and the band is nearly always on-time in lashing just after gloomy transitions and erupt into headbang-friendly death/thrash tumult before you even realize what's going on.

Thankfully, ''Summoning Black Gods'' is infected, though not overarching in a way that could completely asphyxiate the listener. Here, cavern walls don't gradually enclose around you and decompression doesn't overwhelm; instead, as you may understand, these Germans are just staunch freaks that pursue their nostalgic masters Pestilence, Asphyx, Autopsy, Death, Morbid Angel, Vital Remains and the like, and the album is really based on letting out frivolous, encrypted and manic burden that stayed hinged inside the cranial contents of the Germans for far too long. To me, they seem like an unlikely crossover of their archaic countrymen Immortalis and their label mates Skeletal Remains, which have chosen a thicker, if not more technical approach to deviate from the same vein. While not imaginative by any means, this is probably one of the better altars built to worship the aforementioned masters over the last five years; even the vocals have condensed on the Van Drunnen timbre, and this also marks, or helps establish, a new scene for spawn new abominations to spawn and rock their way out the graveyard. A crashing rhythmic fair with a frightening edge. Definitely a nice treat.

Highlights:
Exili's Heritage
The Nameless City
Summoning Black Gods

Rating: 83%

Primal Fear - Unbreakable

Since the beginning of their career, Primal Fear has always had the elements to make a great power metal band. From having a major player in the German heavy metal scene on bass (Mat Sinner), to making heavy use of harmonized guitars with glorious double bass sections underneath, Primal Fearwas on the right track. In fact, they even have a man who can clone Rob Halford on vocals; after all, if you can’t sound like Bruce Dickinson, why not go for Halford? But somehow their music didn’t quite captivate me all that much. There are great songs here or there, but in general, the albums were too long to sustain such an intense style of songwriting. This may have changed before “Unbreakable” (I’m a bit behind on my Primal Fear history), but it can be said that “Unbreakable” is the first album I've heard of the band’s that is really a classic.

“Unbreakable” starts off like any other Primal Fear album: fast, epic, and with guitars that soar like the eagle that dawns the cover. Luckily, however, the band does add some variety. There are plenty of moments that focus on a more straightforward heavy metal sound, not unlike what bands like HammerFall and Gamma Ray have done in recent years. Raging songs like “Bad Guys Wear Black” and “Blaze of Glory” hearken back to the huge riffs that Judas Priest unleashed on “Painkiller”. The classic Primal Fear sound returns with “And There Was Silence”, which is the absolute highlight of this record. The chorus is a majestic display of Ralf Scheepers’ vocal skills, and the guitar gives a similar magical atmosphere. One of the stranger tracks on “Unbreakable” is the extremely accessible “Metal Nation”. It is not often that a band this heavy would write such a happy track. It almost feels like it should be on a Freedom Call or Power Quest album. That’s not to say it’s bad; in fact, it is one of the more appealing songs, but if you think the term "flower metal" has any meaning, you probably won’t like it. In addition to this poppy track, there are two lighter songs on “Unbreakable”. “Where Angels Die” infuses slow, fantastic melodies with crunchy guitars in the background, while “Born Again” is the only true ballad on the album and once again is an opportunity for Ralf Scheepers to wow everyone with his singing.

Like in the past, Primal Fear has delivered an album of solid heavy metal. This time, however, they have combined crunchier guitars and a better vocal performance with much more inspired songwriting to deliver one of the best albums of the year. If this is any indication of what’s to come, Primal Fearwill be joining Helloween and Gamma Ray as one of the best German power metal bands!

Highlights
"And There Was Silence"
"Where Angels Die"
"Blaze of Glory"

Rating: 85%

Originally written for Skull Fracturing Metal Zine.

Ketzer - Endzeit Metropolis

Germany's Ketzer carved a deep hole into the old school metal underground with their 2007 debut, ''Satan's Boundaries Unchained'', a frenetic, percussive blackened thrash assault that no doubt gouged its way through countless of generic gimmicks rehashing the genre, and I was more than content to see that after four years the band finally bestirred a violent mesh of black and thrash, though there was one hindrance that surprised me. Bewildered and dazzled my the immense tiding I received, I could apprehend the thought of the band delivering something relatively different sound. The band indeed makes some changes in their bestial sound that was redolent of Destroyer 666, Desaster, Impaled Nazarene, Nocturnal Graves, Usurper, Aura Noir and the like, though they make these certain changes without inaugurating a whole new formula, but still, I should inform you that the band's tendencies have now evacuated the wholly demented aura that they had embraced and clasped on the previous record, omitting a certain measure of the primal, destructive aesthetics and churning the remainders of the corpulent bestiality with a healthy boast of semi-melodic black metal, in the very vein of Dissection, Sacramentum, Watain.

I myself had problems facing the more sophisticated material the band gouged out because I certainly did not see it coming, but giving the album more than a few spins helps a lot. Admittedly I would have preferred the wild, frantic and blast beta-oriented sound of Ketzer, because that was certainly what they excelled in, but then again, I'm still not sure if they could spurt out evil black/speed/thrashing mayhem on par with the previous release, and thus, I've come to enjoy their newly forged sound almost as much as their previous, primal material, therefore leading me the unavoidable question; can this band top what they've done before if they continue to pursue relentless perfection with their newly acquainted style? We will have time to ponder the question as the band is still fresh out of the oven, with heaps of unmolested attention waiting to be embroidered and released but for now, I think it's best that I get to the main point. Attaining a more melodic and sophisticated sound may put off a some of the band's early audience, but no way are Ketzer loosing the efficiency that they had. ''Endzeit Metropolis'' is just as lively and somewhat diverse, and in addition they mix it with the residue of the detracted sound of the debut, forming a vicious, flesh-ripping assault with voluptuous, almost lamenting inclinations. With a richer and more mature-sounding bar set for the band, Ketzer envelops the listener in atmospheric and catchy percussion in a less truculent matter, delivering a mighty fine brand of black/thrash.

''Endzeit Metropolis'' is also entertaining because it doesn't deliberately lean towards repetition and certain songs like ''He Who Stands Before The Row'' offers majestic quadrants of ebbing, desolate black metal tides and attains a much more creative and drowning sound than you can imagine. The near-two-minute distorted complex of ''Farewell'' is also amazing, albeit not so lengthy, a chthonic emission that is both astute and brazen, and ephemeral paean of mourning and isolation. However deep the lamenting gash is, the album somehow does nor fail to inject a subtle vigor into the music, and tracks which are energetically driven from the start are overflowing with melodious dynamics. Tracks like ''Collector Of Worlds'' or ''The Fever's Tide'' are some of the most aggressive and alluring black/thrash incursions you'll met with, songs that have well mastered the band's newly blossoming art together with the earlier aesthetics. All in all, ''Endezeit Metropolis'' is another win for Ketzer, and these German's are well on they're way to black/thrashing brilliance.

Highlights:
Collector Of Worlds
The Fever's Tide
A Requiem For Beauty 

Rating: 87%

Deserted Fear - My Empire

Germany’s Deserted fear are yet another act ready to frenetically embrace the aesthetics of the classic death metal sound of 1993, without endeavouring too much in the process, dexterously committing themselves to the momentous swing of the old school death metal flux going on these few years, without, unfortunately making any major deviations in the momentum of that swing. Bands like Deserted Fear have passed by ears nearly countless times, and they each deliver a fervour-driven blast of exuberant USDM, but unfortunately few seem to be actually potent at  rehashing the genre’s boundless accessories and traits and expand it further, or even inaugurate a pinch of musical astuteness. The Poles are arguably the most dominant race over the overt, brutal and double bass-ridden tendencies of acts like Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Massacre, Master, and albeit I only partly enjoy the brutal old school death metal that they bountifully gouge out, I’ll have to admit that Sphere, Centurion, Embrional and other related bands do their job well.

On the other hand, the debut release by these Germans, ‘’My Empire’’ eschews innovative tactics and embellishments to its simplified base texture, and for the most part remains as a dry, yet scornful and ear-bashing rupture of blatant muscular power.  It has a burden of husky spasms that it sends forth right away in each song, though the riffs are mainly bulky and apparent to the listener, with no way of engrossing the music or even making it a little more eclectic, and whether it be a chunky strident of tremolos, an energetic mute feast or a frenzied barge of chords, the album cannot provoke a salivating demon inside, ready to be tempted. That being said, at least Deserted Fear do not fail to add a certain groove to their rhythmic incursions, hurriedly sending a spasm of bulking neck snappers to do some justice. Had Deserted Fear inserted a brief pageantry in each song – just a brief one, then the record could have become a much more entertaining listen, but this is imply far too stable and far too plain, and drudging and monotonous at that, no matter the speed.

Destroying with muscular attacks and feverish excursions is the only thing this album’s good at, and even that is not something they excel at, apparently, and you don’t have to spin the album too many times to notice that. The first three songs actually showed more promise than their following counterparts, reflecting the ominous undertone of the album more prominently. The band is actually relatively savvy at guiding the listener through darkness-inflected tunnels, bearing a wicked evil death metal stench, but queerly, the majority of the album is a lethargic progression of bulks and  punchy chops. I certainly did not hate the effort conjured up by the young Germans on this record, but there are far better bands that excel in this brand of 90’s death metal, rendering this only a fun, frivolous listen for those who like to contemplate numerous acts dwelling, sweltering around the same field. And frankly it’s not much more than that. 

Highlights:

The Battalion Of Insanities

Pestilential

Nocturnal Frags

Rating: 70%

Sacred Gate - When Eternity Ends

Just like Swedish metal in general, I’ve always been fond of Germanic metal, since they seem to excel in many sub-genres, mustering some of the most efficient and influential groups in the world. They already brought a new level of savagery to thrash and death metal with the rise of Sodom and Kreator, polluted the black metal universe as we know it by bringing fourth an abundance of corpse painted church burners, and even the early German power/heavy scene has had a huge impact of the current scene. Sacred Gate, though, don’t really embrace the boundaries of originality whilst inserting goblets of monolithic power metal into the simply embroidered traditional heavy metal textures, and garnishing the base of their music with simple, but fluent melodies. Sacred Gate lean towards the traditional sense of heavy metal, deliberately omitting technicality and exploiting simple, chug laden riffs rather than forming a hard hitting iron fist to work diligently and to attain copiousness in complexity.

Yes, there’s no use of all the modern power metal traits here, but at least you can rely on the quality of the ‘’old school’’ term, because these Germans have obviously worked hard to create a fertile ground for the riffs to breathe. The frontal aura has been set nicely, I’ll admit, but when the main material comes on top of it, you really can’t feel much energy besides a few songs. As I said, the only thing that decorates the chords are plain, melancholic melodies, but even the riffs don’t look as if they were composed with great care. They’re catchy, and they suit the semi-high pitched chants of vocalist well when they’re under it, but besides that, they sort of drown among the drums and lead guitars due to their lack of spike and volume.

The first two tracks caught my attention easily as they’re catchy and the choruses are very memorable and made more dynamic with a sort of punk-esque power added to the rush of the chords. There are some brief moments that I enjoyed as well, but those moments are well… brief and outnumbered by the score of monotonous melody and chord progressions. ‘’Heaven Under Siege’’ is also a nice addition to the drudgy arsenal of riffs, offering a bit of a sombre spice to churn with the music, but other than that, many songs have been dragged for too long and at some moments it almost seems as if the band is scrambling for something a little different. Now, each song is solid enough, and I never yawned throughout, but I’m just saying that some variation would definitely be nice.

The drumming is decent I guess, nothing to special, but I do like the hefty, chubby bobs of the thick bass line, supporting the guitar tone quite a lot. All in all, it’s pretty obvious Sacred Gate have gathered the key elements to form a strong power/heavy formula, a strong voice, core heavy metal riffs and a catchy beat to add some spunk, so all they’ve got to do is to embrace their aspects and adorn them even more, improve them, if need be. They can stick to the old school formula for all I care, as long as they can make their music more dynamic, I’m totally content. Such a thing can happen as the members are already veterans and the band has the required potential, but ‘’When Eternity Ends’’ remains as more plain release, durable for some time, but it's far from eternal.

Highlights:

Creators Of The Downfall

Burning Wings

Vengeance 

Rating: 77,5%

Chapel Of Disease-Death Evoked DEMO

Demos are always cool, to me they're barers of message, showing that the demo will soon transform into a full-lenght or an EP and Chapel Of Disease's demo is no exception. Now, these guys come from Germany and you can bet that I was waiting for something intense. Since the current death metal scene is overwhelmed by Swedeath and Incatation worshippers I expected COD to formulate a similar sound, yet to my surprise, these guys actually attained the traditional sound of their thrash forefathers Kreator, Sodom and alike. With a lot of thrashing madness and energetic OSDM grooving, this demo makes a fine listen.

With just four tracks and very little variety and exploration in styles, the demo doesen't leave much to be said about except that its crushing, catchy and effective throughout. Tribulation, who choked me in perplexement  with their 2009 album ''The Horror'', could have a fair enough resemblance to this EP, considering both draw heavy influences from primal German thrash metal upon their savage death metal roots. The guitars are clean and razor-sharp, and they only enable the deliverance of the riffs more deadly. ''Sommuning The Black Gods'' is straight up German thrash metal worship, with cruchy chord sequences, and exceedingly fast incursions of pure raw aggression. You might think that such raw power and vivaciousness may terribly destroy any atmopshere, but to the opposition, ''The Loved Dead'' focuses on the doomier sound of death metal, pulluting the atmopshere with both doomy passages and tinging, somber melodies. Especially at certain moments the album attains an Asphyx sound, sounding like almost an exact replica of the band, with mid-paced grooving riffs with just slightly less heft and the immense barks of the Van Drunnen-gimmicking vocals.

Short it may be, but ''Death Evoked'' has a wide range of riffs that all flow like an everflowing stream. The message I got on this one didn't exactly deliver anything I've never heard, but gave me something fresh to listen to every once in a while since the scenes today are dominated with pure Swedeath/Autopsy worshippers. (not that I'm complaining) COD will probably release and album by the end of the year, so this time I'll know what to expect-warning COD, you better come up with something good or else.

Highlights:
Summoning Black Gods
The Loved Dead

Rating: 85%

Revel In Flesh-Deathevokation

Revel In Flesh's debut album isn't necessarily a new find for me. In fact, I had known the album for almost two months now, but I had never bothered to check it out. Listening to the album may not have given me anything special, but ''Deathevokation'' simply adds up to the vast number of records that are not groundbraking, but are give great pleasure to the listener. Unlike many metalheads, I am more tolerant towards more extensively widespread sounds being repeated over and over, because I love the sounds that they attain. Over the past few years, bands have came and released that work just like the formula that I have stated above. Bands like Miasmal, Entrails, Horrendous and Intestinal have ripped and torn apart the Swedish death metal sound and projected it almost exactly the same way bands in the early 90's did. Revel In Flash follows similar stylings aswel, but in a less dynamic approach.

I can clearly say that I have quite enjoyed the concise and widepread riffage on this album. The only problem is that the riffs get repeated quite frequently, and boredom and tiredness occurs after the first three-four songs. The riffage is just as you may expect, fast and pervasive throughout but sadly not as effective. The srtuctures are mainly abstarcted tremolo bursts and descending and eerie melodies combined with a bit of thrashiness. The positive spectrum of the album is fortunately much larger than the negative section. The riffs always follow the brutal and crushing path of Swedish death metal and the they are usually pessimistic though not doomy at all. Theere are slightly varied tempo changes that eventuate the songs in a random way, but they all usually channel between rapid drum beats and mid-paced and melodic grooves, so if you were expecting to find some classy Swedish death/doom similar to Gorement, etc, then you are in for a surprise. The concluding tracks are even show even more efficiency in the speed department as they the riffs strike like bullets and the drums vigorously charge towards the half-drowsy, shocked listener compelling him/her to bang fiercely.

Just because the riffs aren't too original or even too memorable doesen't mean that they can't be catchy. Catchiness is something that many bands today lack greatly and even though many bands produce some superb albums, their flaw of catchiness drowns the whole album, leaving behind secluded and detested parts.The broodingly pessimistic melodies that hang close to the rest of riffage are surprisingly catchy effulgent compared to the more pervasive elements on the album. These dismal  melodies may opiate old school Findeath and Swedeath bands, rendering me excited no matter how repetetive and common they may be.  They carry imperative as they are one of the key reasons I liked the album and because they are one of the more stand-out features of the Swedeath-soaked German record. I would usually refer to the musicianship section, but since the riffs are rather frequently used, I must admit that the musicianship is limited and more monolithic comapared to ther bands which display similar sounds.

Overall, the music and riffage on ''Deathevokation'' does not show superiority or eminence compared to many other bands which were aformentioned. Many Swedeath worshippers have surpassed the boundries of repetetiveness and multiple collisions of similarity by adding different twists and such to their music, unlike Revel In Flesh who have only succesfully formulated a more straightforward formula of the same kind. Perhaps it was my love and adoration for the traditional sound that saved me from the terrible clutches of boredom that the album has captured and many people with.

Highlights:
Crowned In Darkness
Slavish Obedience
Opus Putrescence

Rating: 85%