Lacerated Metal Weekly Playlist II

Because of my old school kick lately, I haven't been able to listen to a lot of new material, but there's a stockpile of 'em, getting messier and massing as I type, so it won't be long before I come with another wave of fresh recruits.

The Mysteries Of The Worm (Part 2), by Putrevore, off the Macabre Kingdom album
2012, Death metal, Xtreem Music, International
Sounds like: Old Suffocation plus Incantation, Rottrevore

Unholy Executioner, by Gravehill, off the When All Roads Lead To Hell Album
2012, Blackened death/thrash, Dark Descent Records, USA
Sounds like: A punkish Gospel Of The Horns, Slayer, Venom, Destroyer 666, Discharge

Epitome, by Insepulto, off the Morbid Spawn Of Resurrection album
2012, Death metal, Psycho Records, Costa Rica
Sounds like: Morbid Angel, Massacre, Bolt Thrower, Benediction, Cancer

Trials, by Mitochondrion, off the Parasignosis album
2011, Chaotic blackened/death metal, Profound Lore Records, Canada
Sounds like: Antediluvian, Deiphago, Blasphemy, Conqueror, Portal

Ominous Putrefied Ground, by Ataraxy, off the Revelations Of The Ethereal album
2012, Death metal, Memento Mori Records, Spain
Sounds like: Asphyx mixed with Entombed/Dismember and Pestilence, Demigod, Convulse

Well, that's pretty much all the newer stuff going on in my MP3 over the last week or two.

Blackened Wisdom - The Angels Are Crying

Obscurities brought back to life with the help of modern extreme metal labels is definitely a notion that I like. Hell's Headbangers are revitalizing and excavating numerous archaic artifacts from the deep, cavernous bowels of obscurity, and one good thing about these restored obscurities is that they're actually old school, extremities smothering ears from the early 90's, and Blackened Wisdom is most certainly a lost, shadowed relic to relished. The band traces its existence back to 1992, where, blackened death metal was not quite as popular as the quickly ripening Floridan or Swedish death metal scene, but these bringers of clangor bare great resemblance to ruinous blasphemers like Blasphemy, Angelcorpse, Impiety and similar acts (although they started about roughly the same time), stirred it up with  a pinch of that frenetic Swedish aggression and tone and produced a very brief three-track EP named ''The Angels Are Crying'', which was never released until now.

Blackened Wisdom's style hardly impressed me at first, but after giving it more than a few spins (which shouldn't take much time anyway), I started enjoying the band tumultuous aesthetics and raw power, and eventually, I came to conclusion that the EP is a pretty solid one. And it is. The greatest part for me was ripping, ferocious guitar tone, which can be basically classified as a sharper Swedeath tone, a corpulent and raw production to suit the primal display of sulfuric strength, and the these eerie rasps and snarls colliding amid the bashing anger of the instruments, and albeit this sounds pretty simple, it actually has a rocking rhythm section and bombastic array of riffs dabbled in raw turmoil, ultimately manifesting a carnal diversity with great intensity. Some riffs have a momentous swaggers that fall plummet upon the listener with a shower of well-sharpened meteors, and some are simply demented war metal charges, circulating hastily around the EP's hellish maw.

Despite its clamorous intensity, ''The Angels Are Crying'' is punishing, swerving, and serves as a prime example of the early aesthetics of black/death, in the vein of Bestial Warlust, Blasphemy and Conqueror. Sure, there's gonna be quite a bit of people who will dispute over the quality of this raw carnage, people who will dislike and even disdain the pernicious ferocity of this brief EP, but hell, it's obvious that the band wasn't aiming for something exceedingly high, so why not just give it a listen, bob your head vigorously and appreciate the energy? For me, the fact that the EP was too short made me kill a few points, and even though I enjoyed the EP the way a fun little EP should be enjoyed, it simply is not enough, even with a lengthier anatomy, to become an essential record.

Highlights:
I, Eternal
After Me Come The Flames

Rating: 78%

Hellbringer - Dominion Of Darkness

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

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

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

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

Rating: 88%

Eugenic Death - Crimes Against Humanity

Honestly, I have had only one major disappointment for 2012; few or no quality thrash. As thrash is probably my favorite metal genre (and the reason I initiated this blog at the start) I kind of had high expectations for 2012, since 2011 delivered of volley of excellent solid releases, Insinnerator, Antichrist, Warbringer and Vektor being just a few of the copious list. It is great adverse that I was acquainted with few or no thrash acts that actually stood out, and many of those bands have aesthetics almost directly concerning other genre, such as a couple of tremendous black/thrash releases I've come across so far. And yet, I'm still content to see fresher peers emerging out of the woodwork to join the garrulous quarrel of riffs and frenzy, a brisk wave of bands keeping entirely true to their olden bloodline; bands like Eugenic Death. This North Carolina quartet play bare bones, no-bullshit thrash that's catchy, effort-riddled, strict and yet still fun, and most important of all, it's angry, so rest assured; you won't be suffering boredom from crazed motor-charged  punk drunkards on this one.

The fact that Eugenic Death are redolent of death metal half as much as they reek of old school thrash, is a good thing. The band congeals the two elements to form a sordid death/thrash hybrid, something that's not only pretty strict and tempered but also, in a way, different, and these so-called death/thrash aesthetics remind me of some of my favorite death/thrash acts of the 90's and late 80's, such as old Necrodeath, Ripping Corpse, Massacra, Cancer, and some obvious brutal thrash outfits like Dark Angel, Morbid Saint and Demolition Hammer, and even a few minor tweaks concerning the rippling eloquence and raw ferocity of the Bay Area thrash bands - a well selected and robust combo. You'll hear you typical, carnal thrash chugs and progressions, briskly hurrying alongside a precise drum beat, and there's even a subtext of vile melodies swinging by to invigorate the momentum. Much of the riffs have a somewhat ''street'' sound to them, which probably comes from the dirtiness of that meaty overtone, but striking excreta doesn't just rush hastily into truculent combat, as if vaporizing into some frenetic rupture, but keeps true to a certain formula, to a certain stance, when you find yourself between a volley of vigorous thrash attacks, you can't help but have a hell of a time, right?

The vocals also embrace that dirty street feel of the album. They're harsh, raging just like the guitars, and somewhat bulbous in the delivery. Hovering over the sordid dynamics going on under, they serve their purpose well, and that's all that can be said about them. I sure am glad I was acquainted with Eugenic Death and ''Crimes Against Humanity'', because these madmen simply charge and punch you right in the face with a big ''Fuck you'', and then they just leave you there to rot. I'm not the keenest supporter of this thrash revival, because with so many unnecessary acts emerging, it's more and more agitating, yet I'm glad there are a few non-drunkards around like Eugenic Death who can deliver that mortal breath of fresh air just in the right time, and you know, this isn't extremely original either, but it's not another blast of cheesy histrionics, and believe me, I'm thankful for that.

Highlights: 
Plagued By Ignorance
The Devil Waits
Crimes Against Humanity

Rating: 84%

Lacerated Metal Weekly Playlist I

Right, since I can't constantly invigorate this blog with reviews (which is pure drudgery, believe me), I decided that I could at least freshen the blog by informing my readers with what boils up in my MP3 every week. Firstly, the list is purely post-2000 metal - so don't nagging me about how I don't listen to enough old school stuff. I listen to tons of old school metal, and as a matter of fact during holidays I tend to give my classics and newly dug archaic obscurities more spins than any of the new material, but on normal occasions, with the pressure of bands and PRs/labels demanding reviews, it's pretty hard to listen to my old school stuff, stuff that I don't review (expect for Nightmare Reality Webzine, that is). So, yeah, the first rule is that this list is solely made up of post-2000 stuff. The second, is that although I'm dubbing this as a ''Weekly Playlist'', I may not be able to update it weekly, or sometimes I may even feel more zealous than usual and I'll post another playlist before the seven-day mark. Finally, the number of songs each list consists of is not a definite number, but if I had to give you a rough idea, it would about 6-8 tracks apiece. And now, without further due, the first of Lacerated Metal's weekly playlists:

I - The Devil Awaits, by Eugenic Death, off the Crimes Against Humanity album
2012, Death/thrash, Heaven And Hell Records, USA
Sounds like: Ripping Corpse, Demolition Hammer, Morbid Saint, Sadus, Possessed

II - Terra Akeldama, by Auroch, off the From Forgotten Worlds album
2012, Death metal with black metal influences, Hellthrasher Productions, Canada
Sounds like: Pierced From Within era Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Brutality (USA)

III - Victims Of The Blade, by Antichrist, off the Forbidden World album
2011, Speed/thrash with a black metal undertone, High Roller Records, Sweden
Sounds like: Abigail, Barbatos, Venom, early Kreator, early Slayer, Midnight

IV - Crumbling Insanity, by Hooded Menace, of the Effigies Of Evil album
2012, Epic melodic death/doom, Repulse Records, Finland
Sounds like: An epic Asphyx, Runemagick, Solothus

V - Crotalus Horridus Horridus, by Serpentine Path, of the Serpentine Path album
2012, Death/doom, Repulse Records, USA
Sounds like: Asphyx, Winter, Autopsy, dISEMBOWELMENT, Coffins, Cianide

VI - Summoning Aural Hell, by Black Fucking Cancer, of the Summoning Aural Hell demo
2011, Black/thrash, self-released, USA
Sounds like: Desaster, Destroyer 666, Aura Noir, Usurper, Nifelheim

VII - Deathhammer, by Asphyx, off the Deathhammer album
2012, Death/doom, Century Media Records, The Netherlands
Sounds like (do you really need to know?): Asphyx circa 1990-1992, Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Cianide

And with that, I shall conclude the first of Lacerated Metal's playlists. Feel free to talk shit about my musical taste, by old school fervor, and the lack of variation in the list. Good day.

Asphyx - Deathhammer

Asphyx being pretty much my favorite band out of The Netherlands (closely followed by Pestilence), I was very, and I do mean very excited for a new album from the Dutch crushers. Asphyx are probably amongst the few groups who principally kept true to their traditional veins, and although some of their material fail to reach the same peak as their archaic masterpieces ''The Rack'' or ''The Last One On Earth'', they still somehow managed to keep the bloodline pure, and in 2012, they closely follow the steps of their lauded sophomore and gouge out another demolishing, percussive death/doom bombast. Quite literally, Asphyx's music is one of the heftiest around, in any genre, even though the heaviness usually comes from the overt plainness and the heavyweight thumps of the drums, reinforcing the delivery. On ''Deathhammer'', Asphyx scarcely expands its boundaries, often plodding on heavily around the same path that was already manufactured by their primal footings, but if you're a die-hard fan, or even appeased with heavy and bludgeoning thrashy death metal, than this is one hammer you should get yourself slammed with, now.

The first thing I realized is that the songs are structured and organized rather oddly; the Dutch maniacs don't rivet a whole bunch of three to four minute songs to proclaim the gathering an album, they have songs with architecture deviating substantially from each other, each song being either very brief of long, and the elements jammed into each of these tracks render the listener perplexed to these angular, structural staccatos. This is, of course, only the album's architectural format, but it's swerving penchant serves as a crucial element to send harrowing waves of stress and pain towards the listener. What I'm talking abut is simply a tendency concerning the band's upright and queer changes in pace and song lengths, and albeit that may sound like the least important implement affecting the album, believe me, it's one thing that has a heavy effect on the album. With the first two track ''Into The Timewaste'' and the almost ludicrously short title track, you think you got away, finding yourself in a frivolous assault of angered and speedy brutality, and not Asphyx's doomier tendencies, but as the momentum swipes into the crestfallen plods of ''Minefield'', you slowly feel a dismal miasma washing over you - an unhinged slab of moist doom dabbling your skin in monotonous gore and somber depravity.

Yes, ''Minefield'' is that moody a track, and as the album wallows and blushes into another jagged twist whilst switching from ''Of The Days When Blades Turned Blunt'' to the second contemptuous and crushing mid-paced doom composition, ''Der Landser'', you'll definitely be feeling weirder than usual. So basically, this staccato of a prose makes up the anatomical basics of Asphyx's formula on this album, and whether people are content with or not, I must admit that I found it to be efficient, though not entirely original. Perhaps the album still isn't exceedingly complex and I did feel the lack of entropy, but Asphyx plays a damn well game in both styles, both the speedier and bulky incursions and the drudgy trudges; and therefore I cannot seem to dislike any kind of trait the album possesses, except its lack of originality, and even most of the negative vibes of that deterrent are marred with the sublime joy you can attain through pure old school fervor. And so the album continues to crush, until it reaches the cataphracts of an appendix, ''As The Magma Mammoth Kisses'', finalizing the brutal simplicity of doom and death. I was honestly quite trepidatious when I was first listening to the album, apprehended that it would be too plain and boring, but it was not, as I explain above, and thus, this is one death/doom record I can easily recommend. Melancholic heft.

Highlights:
Der Landser
Of The Days When The Blades Turned Blunt
Minefield
Reign Of The Brute

Rating: 86%

Monomakh - MMXII

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

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

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

Highlights:
Kokytos
Barbaros

Rating: 82,5%

Stench Of Decay - Stench Of Decay [Compilation]

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

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

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

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

Rating: 86,5%