White Medal/Slaegt - Split [2012]

In recent months, I had the opportunity to be familiarized with Denmark's very own one-man northern howl, Slaegt, whom delivered a personal mini-favorite of mine with their demo. The demo was a concise emblem of the rustling beauty and grandeur of the frigid northern winds in all its atmospheric triumvirate, and depicting the gelid ambiance and spectral gloom of winter in a near-perfect convocation with raw black metal splendor, thus, I was left hungry and desirous by my brief stay in the northern asylum that Asrok conjured, and I was also promised a split offering more primal pulchritude. Now, the prophecy has been fulfilled. Teaming up with yet another fresh face from the somewhat emergent pack black metal devotees, White Medal, winter itself is evocatively released.

Unfortunately, the brevity of the split forms a blockade that prevents me from adorning the two tracks with utter praise and accolades from the start. However, ignoring that, the split is quite enlightening. Slaegt somehow refined their sound by tidying up the hazy, dissonant splashes of messiness into a more precise whole, and there's admittedly more vivacity encompassing their style. Woven complexities are, for the most part, put aside and are replaced more vivid progressions and there's a great, pacy consistency to the riffs that I can't deny, in spite of their simplicity. Though, while certain structural differences appear to be prominent, the entire formula hasn't really deviated from Asrok's previous motifs: there's a piercing surge of consistent, straightforward black metal excursions, and imagery emboldened upon the listener's consciousness maintains a somnolent balance between the horrendous glacial appeal of mountainous entanglement and a surrealistic approach that which provokes a frosty glory in the listener's fiery heart.

I won't be able to judge White Medal's styling as I judged Slaegt as I had no previous acquaintance with the group, though peering into the anatomy of the music, George Proctor's aesthetic considerations are pretty similar to their countrymen in releasing storming, uproarious maelstroms of winter cold, but there's a sense of multiple possibilities here. For one, White Medal has a lot more surprises crammed into their seven minutes than Slaegt has in roughly the same measure. There's quite a bit of raw black metal coiling going on as subtext of the more massive, explosive rancor of the vocals and the much messier ooze of the production, so the instruments all work as entirely different components; the vocals are completely nasty and haunting in their crazed howling succession, the riffs flip from formation to formation during the incursion, and the drums are absolutely thunderous in anchoring the deep onset of discordance. The two have their differences as well as their stylistic similarities; both are going to to tow different masses of audience onto their chilling anger, so if you're an old school black metal enthusiast, you're more than welcome into this chilling abyss. Choose you path; shall it be a languorous blade of icy affection, or a frenzied assault from the deepest, coldest, most cavernous corners of the Moria mines?

Highlights:
Lysets Dod
Them That Fear t'Wolf 

Rating: 81%  

Sathanas/The Spawn Of Satan - Spawn Of Satan/Sathanas

Ouch. Christianity just got pounded. And it's all thanks to the newest duo the devilish heavy metal capital Hell's Headbangers offers Satan as sacrifice. Up to a certain extent these two impious US blackened death/thrash fugitives offer a fairly exciting, competent and even fierce release, and I'm also considering the amount of experience behind each band, since both have their beginnings dated back to the late 80's and also considering Sathanas has a total of eight albums at the ready to unleash upon mankind like some hungry mega-pack of hellhounds, but to be sure, we've tasted the same razing death/thrash frivolity a good number of times, whether it be from modern tyrants Crucified Mortals, Destroyer 666, Vomitor, Hellbringer, Mongrel's Cross or olden pundits such as Possessed, Venom, Slayer early Death and so on. So I now welcome you to yet another of of the Devil's unbridled minions.

It seems though each band only had the counterparts sufficient to compose one song, which is, in a way, better for my cause, because I won't bored to submission by continual hellish extirpation. The irony is that the entire veteran prowess that Sathanas has comes from their single-minded dedication to their own work, while their split-mate consists of members from more major acts, including the infamous Nunslaughter and Derketa even. Nonetheless, let's not divide the two because of their personal differences, after all, both don't seem far too apart from Nunslaughter's aesthetics, and both, as given on this split can hardly be considered mavens of their own distinct uniqueness. TSOS prefers a more meaty crust on their addition to the split, ''Ritual Murder'', deliberately channeling typical early 90's/late 80's death/thrash worship with chunky guitars bashing all the way through the ritualistic, devil-worshiping colostomy. I'll admit, it's hard to break the good old habit of subterranean tremolo patterns laced with a bit of blackened ambiance, but come on, this is something we've heard one too many times - even other side of the split, Sathanas does a better job at keeping the listener constantly awake.

Sathanas basically pushes the whole blackened death/thrash niche a little further, but still hardly enough for it to deviate from the previous effort. It's more of a concoction of classic German and Australian savagery, flesh-stripping and blasting and there's a nice little twist of Norwegian black metal, at least a pinch of what the Scandinavian grande had in store back in the early 90's, early Darkthrone and perhaps early Mayhem; the atmospheric glory of things unfortunately expunged from the simplistic textures. I can safely say, this isn't novelty of any kind. Structural preference is unequivocal, memorability almost non-existent and the energy is only enough to inject a dose of headbanging pleasure that should last no more than fifteen minutes. Nonetheless, this is still a decent collection piece for vinyl freaks, die-hards or goat worshiping thrashers, so they might as well attain this, at their own expense.

Highlight:
Unholy Eternal

Rating: 69%

Antediluvian/Temple Nightside - Cogitating Vacuous

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

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

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

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

Highlights:
Communion With The Void
Somnambulent Of The Void

Rating: 88%

Grave Upheaval/Manticore - Grave Upheaval/Manticore

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights:

Untitled

Untitled (Second one)

Insemination Of The Sycophant 

Unleashing Unholy Temptations

Rating: 89,5%

Antediluvian/Adversarial - Initiated In Impiety As Mysteries

Because I’m relatively new to the modern metal scene, there has not been many releases that I felt excited about so far, but I can see that the tide is definitely changing. Nuclear War Now! Productions have an incredible roster, consisting of bands which mainly devote themselves to the darker aesthetics of death metal, and in the near past, bands like Weregoat or Wrathprayer have clutched me with their woeful hooks and pulled me down into abysmal and fathomless pits, fuelled by constant anger and fury, and their most recent offering, a two way split played by two of the most deadly Canadian bands has crashed onto my shore, and the moment I saw which bands were making it up, I literally felt a warm, sublime wetness in my pants.

Antediluvian and Adversarial are two very cunning black/death acts that have proved themselves in the year 2011 more than many people would have really expected. While Adversarial’s ‘’All Idols Fall Before The Hammer’’ was speedy train full of airy confessions of splintering death metal, juicy, carnal and ultimately destructive, ‘’Through The Cervix Of Hawaah’’ was a strong redolent of Portal and Impetuous Ritual, yet, it was still much praised for its eerie and corrupted nature, bettering the listener into crumbling bits with the drowsy grooves of a darkened pendulum swing, slowly exterminating and vomiting relentless evil. Both bring the best of their sound to the table and join them under one banner, deviating little from their previous style, on this split.

The first half of the split belongs to Adversarial, spewing forth three hymns of malicious evil and completely perplexing speed, utterly frenzied and eruptive.  Both bands play their own distinct style of naturally evil-bred death metal, but because they grasp the largely consuming notion in a way that they make almost tangible, both their formulas somehow crash and cross at some point, and with half the product belonging to Adversarial and half of it belonging to Antediluvian, you get a much saturating portion of each band’s inventive style of presenting cantankerous evil. Adversarial’s material flows much more viscously than the other half, as the band unleashes a devastating barrage of gritty energetic and simply pulverizing riffs, overflowing with catchiness and cosmic reverb drenched horror. The super fast discharge of riffs follow each other like a spiralling vortex of brutal terror, streaming to the surface at some point, yet still keeping its existence robust in underground territory, and the mass exploitation of inhuman snarls and constantly grinding tremolos are supported by both a crispy production that allows the cathartic vigor to replenish itself repeatedly and a massive, beat laden pursuit, attached to the riffs, culminating devastation and monstrosity as the train passes. Adversarial’s side of the split, ‘’Leviathan’’, is simply cunning, razor sharp and laden with terrifically composed queer chord sequences, summing to be a most efficient collection of three songs.

Antediluvian’s side of the split, which is the actual reason I came here, is a direct delivery of what was in ‘’Through The Cervix Of Hawaah’’, an oppressive, inconsistent and non-accessible cloud of sickening blasphemy, a shower of constantly diffusing gobs of shadowed evil. Constant buzzing and crushing evil is what dominates ‘’Lucifer’’, their side of the split, and yet, in a way, Antediluvian’s brand of suffocating blackened death metal, is just as effective as Adversarial’s, despite the extremely slow passages blocking some of their cunning and shrewd usage of evil putting them a back the second half. Either way, this split is no competition, only and intense and suspense expression of unholy evil. One thing that really makes Antediluvian’s music a traumatizing experience is that they like to slightly experiment with even more bizarre techniques, and in the end each song possesses a cloudy aura of cosmic reverb and befouling bleakness. Each song is encompassed by megalithic columns of depressive aura which is just as pungent as the evil one, and believe me, Antediluvian thrive the atmosphere present and the atmosphere develops in to something utterly inhuman, and there are truly very few band which can manage to do such wonders with atmosphere.‘’Force Of Suns Of Adversary’’ is simply an excellent beginning for ‘’Lucifer’’ swaying and swaggering in mid paced tempos, dancing ponderously around a pitch-black pyre, while the next track, ‘’Dissolution Spires’’ expands the atmosphere and draws the listener into a more spacious ground, and spurting out a vicious cluster of rapid riffs, but the true Magnum Opus of the B side of the split is ‘’Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I Am That I Am)’’, a repulsive, intensified and inhumating lump of inundating density, swallows you and sucks you in with its vacuum like hole, opening the gates to a void of ethereal darkness within mere seconds.

‘’Initiated In Impiety As Mysteries’’ lives up for its name in every way possible. It’s the most intricate and explosive expression of impious inhumanity, for such an incredible release, it would be best if we granted merits and accolades to the band, as it is the best thing we can do. Adversarial resembles the sheer complexity and mind boggling prowess of impiety, while Antediluvian, which appealed to me more than its peer, is the dark, shallow and bleak overtone of mystery, an abysmal aspect, camouflaged as something almost entirely different. Simply put, this split is one of the best black/death releases the year has offered so far, and in such profane glory against all things orthodox and holy, it’s impossible not to lose yourself in what these two hellhound’s have created; a bleak void of evil, absolutely grasping and all-consuming. 

Highlights:

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I Am That I Am)

Dissolution Spires

Swirling Chaos That Swallows Horizons 

Spiraling Towards the Ultimate End

Rating: 92%

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

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

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

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

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

Uncanny - Path Of The Flesh [EP]

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

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

Muknal/The Haunting Presence - The Haunting Presence/Muknal

What we have here, is a two way split by Muknal, a newly born blackened death metal band who create a fantastic aura and menacing atmosphere for their music, and another obscure act, The Haunting Presence, which are new to me. Both bands have their distinguished styles and own abominable attitude, but all in all, they both drive you towards the same gate, offering a rather experimental brand of cosmic, befouling black metal with supreme death metal tendencies and such. Both explore the depths of unknown miasma and evil, of blasphemous horror, and you'll be impressed by how complex the music is (Muknal for the most part) underneath that thick cloth we dub as atmosphere, and the music is so seriously evil and drowning that you might actually mistake the riffs for foolish antics, so without further due, I present to you this split.

The split consists of four songs in total, two for each band. That might not suffice, but twenty minutes of compressing black/death should keep you satisfied for some time. Most of the riffage focuses on deep, dense tremolos and sporadic black metal incursions, deviating from the norm with their slightly distinct touches, and both bands can provoke and insert tastiness and spice into the experimental array of riffs, rather than subliminal black metal impulses. When I compare the Muknal here to the Muknal in the previous Ep, I can see little change, which is good, although there are some elements that have been either enhanced or... cleansed, let's say. The drums now have a bigger role in the mix, as they're much sharper and less nullified, riffs a queer amusement to them with the direction more apparent, the vocals have been sharpened and the irrelevant bits and pieces have been trimmed, causing them to sound more ear-piercing and acute than ever, and the production has also been cleaned, improving the two tracks in terms of comprehensibility while still keeping the chaotic side of things fresh and well... chaotic.

Muknal was definitely a quality experience, and the two songs ''Hecatombs'' and ''A Winged Emblem Of Evil'' are well suited for their style. The Haunting Presence was something that I thought would have been a little more cantankerous, like Muknal, but it turned out to be more nostalgic than innovative, henceforth bringing act like Blasphemy, Archgoat, Grave Miasma and Teitanblood to mind. The band plays a heavy, darkened sort of black/death, though unfortunately not so consuming as Muknal even though I certainly enjoyed its bestial approach. My quest was initially for Muknal, but I came with yet another treasure at hand,  so the journey was well worth it. With both bands having a goof number of songs ready on their belts, I can see that a debut full-length for both is not remote; at least that's what I hope. Muknal belongs to the more experimental aggregation alongside Portal, Mitochondrion and Antediluvian while The Haunting Presence is a reminiscent of Proclamation, Revenge, Bestial Warlust, etc, but chaotic black metal geeks will find both enjoyable nonetheless.

Highlights:
Hecatombs
Hideous Faces Of Unknown
Winged Emblem Of Evil


Rating: 86%