Gruesome Stuff Relish - Sempiternal Death Grind [2013]

I had a nice run with Spain last year: Ataraxy, Necroven, Proclamation, Tsar Bomb, Mass Burial, and Banished From Inferno's excellent ''Minotaur'' the year before to top it off. So, naturally, the same kind of aping that was previous nearly exclusive to the States, Australia and Finland has swollen, and tumor-like, the Spanish death metal scene today has grown into a feral, rehashing mega-factory that commits its self to nothing what their masters Entombed, Dismember, Autopsy, Death and Bolt Thrower succeeded circa 1988-1993, and yet another protuberance in the ever widening arboretum of old school death and grind emerges; Gruesome Stuff Relish. Let me just make it clear that Gruesome Stuff Relish are hardly confronting the laws of physics as far as grinding chainsaw buzz goes, and this could have easily been the sophomore album for Rogga Johansson's newly born Humanity Delete if you exchanged the deep inflection for a sneering timbre of frivolous voracity, barking about.

Their sophomore was entirely dedicated to Terrorizer, Carcass and Repulsion, a bludgeon of Swedish chainsaw anchoring the barricade of riffs, but the Spaniards expend their retinue to a somewhat higher level here, enriching the chord patterns by letting a manifest of melody and crunchiness gush through the gory, bloody context as if the caveman's wooden bat earned itself a few sharpened nails along the way. Gruesome Stuff Relish have surprisingly prominent dominance over their dynamics, forging carnal tunes that could not only revive a band of decapitated zombies but also has a certain beat to it, which means they've stepped up their game by a margin, introducing even more accessible guitars that rip with a horrendously sodden chomp, catchy grooves, and the vocals, all gurgles and snares. One thing that I found rather queer was the band's aural preferences along the way. ''Sempiternal Death Grind'' is all bones and decomposed corpses from start to finish, but I found them to have growing sympathy for more spectral, doom-laden moments - well not exactly doom like, but rather a sludgier gait - wherein the band jumps right into a hollow, eager to deliver the murk with higher resonance. Something that we're experiencing way too frequently these days.

Like most death/grind acts, Gruesome Stuff Relish have their ambient passages of multiple subjects circulating through horror and zombies rising from their graves, a little addition to the music that should be able to draw some attention for fans of spurious horror. This record was certainly a point earned for the group, but it's still not as strong as some of the major usurpers of gore and horror, and the Spaniards definitely have a long way to get there. I was hoping that they could rend the atmospheric inclination they showed here even more discernible to something that I at least favor more than straightforward, pulsing grindcore, but hell, even if I don't get my wish we've still got a dozen of worthy headbanging material, with an equal amount of horror segments attached to it. ''Sempiternal Death Grind'' is embracing the 80's in both ways. Just grab some popcorn and plug the headphones in. You won't regret it, not for a couple of spins, anyway.

Highlights:
S.O.S
Deadlicious Feas
Sex Drugs and Grind

Rating:  73%

Avenger of Evil - Spawn Of Evil [2012]

Avenger of Blood has existed since 10 years, boosting the retro-thrash revival with two cadaverous full-lengths and bunch of demos that adorn their discography, but really, over the last 2-3 years, the rehashing of old school thrash has become highly redundant (not unlike the current old school death metal revival), and when I first glanced at the cover, and impish zombie unveiling the gruesome skeletal complex of another zombie, buried under a heaving slob of flesh, I had no doubts that the group, after a number of lineup changes, was only formulating a similar messy thrash outing, and like many of my predictions these days, the Las Vegas quartet's most recent EP ''Spawn Of Evil'' turned out to be what I fancied it would be. Even when  the band exchanges two old gears for two new ones their entire ideology of corpulence stays pretty much the same, a vicious paroxysm of primal death/thrash that despite embracing the whole ''old school or no school'' dogma, does no shy from benefiting from the booming amplification of the modern studio.

If I had to string some influences together I'd say they were enveloping themselves in more grime than their previous release, meaning that they take the brutal speed/thrash edge to a fairly new level, distorting it with even messier guitars, Venom, Possessed and some similar black/thrash tendencies biased into a more modern slew of boiling, vigorous Bay-Area fundamentals, but the band doesn't entirely jilt European influences; I still hear a heavy dose of the strong Kreator and Sodom worshiping which was prevalent on ''Death Brigade'' too. ''Spawn of Evil'' has a marginally different twist than the sophomore, though. The material here is definitely more pensive and the onslaught of riffs come in a surprising variety of textures, as there's a smashing, interacting maw of carnality punctuated inside typical speed/thrash progressions which makes for plenty of substance, and they tend the exorcise their speed/thrash cursor into a jagged chugging feast; undeniably induced by melodic death/thrash thrusts akin to Warbringer on the last two discs, Lazarus A.D., Invection, and maybe even Skeletonwitch when the frenzied, blood-soaked vocals are taken into account.

In spite of the generic approach we've witnessed a myriad of times before, Avenger of Blood are certainly one of the more prominent and efficient retro-thrash acts out there; their range of influences diving deeper into black and death metal at the same time than many of their kin and modernizing the cliche only by a margin so that purists are not only thrown into a rhythmic, violent vortex of nostalgia, but also behold the sheer intensity in more extensive levels. And that's the only thing the group wishes to achieve. To rekindle and already blazing memory and fill the mosh-room with pure, unadulterated thrash that was made to splinter necks. Not a novelty, but delicious prize of razing, antique ebullition for purists.

Highlights:
Centuries Of Hell
Spawn Of Evil
Aggressive Psychotic Behavior

Rating: 76%

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%

Convulse - Inner Evil [2013]

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

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

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

Highlights:
God Is Delusion
Inner Evil

Rating: 77%

Ulcer - Grant Us Death [2013]

Despite their morph into more trendy brutal death metal composites over the turn of the 20th century, the bands coming out of the Polish death metal scene (Behemoth excluded) remain some of my favorites even to this day, and they certainly dominate the current legions of brutality thanks to the upsurge of Decapitation, Vader and an abundance of fresher acts which do not refrain from complete and obsolete obliteration. Thus, Pulverized Records introduced me to one of the youngest acts to come out of the debris, Ulcer, yet the aim of the Polish is clearly not to represent their national pride musically, but to call for a homage to those of Sweden, unarguably drawing their sole influences from Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Carnage, etc. It's harrowing to be drowned in myriads of libations to the same chainsaw-wielding gods, and what's further frustrating that Ulcer don't intend of circumventing their own passing of sustenance for the megalithic heart that pulses for the aforementioned mavens, because ''Grant Us Death'' could have easily been one of Rogga Johansson's prolific explorations into the beleaguered sub-genre.

Yes, I was indeed disappointed by the overall results of this record, and if I had to put it simply; if you've already had your fair share of buzzsaw gnawing and Swedish butchery, then this will get you absolutely nowhere new, which means another terrific cover art has been used up, for nothing. And thus, we enter ''Grant Us Death''. This is standard procedure for any Swede, but I was at least somewhat content by the band's overall quality; Ulcer proceeds to play everything by the book, and by the utmost extents, at that. The Poles have no mercy here, everything is Swedish to the bone; there's a mangled, distorted slough of a tone that tumultuously swipes over a regurgitated landscape of rotten bones, grime and putrid blood with a massive slew of heavy-as-fuck riffs to bear it, and despite the genuine redundancy of the whole thing Ulcer can still manage to bind hefty death/thrash paroxysms with d-beat driven death/grind formations and the occasional oozing melody patterns slinking over the broiling carnage during chorus sections to surface the entire momentum of the record into a more spacious, almost atmospheric climax.

Angelfuck's vocals are thicker than most vocalists exhibiting similar inflections, and while nothing of a novelty, he can rise to more high-pitched notes on more atmospherically imbued affairs like ''The Pact'' and then once again submerge into a more cavernous, harsh growl that blends well with the vortex of of explosions caused by the guitars, all complements of LucaSS and Mścisław, two hazardously raged musicians who've had their share of bloodied axes in a number of entities including the black metallers Blaze Of Perdition. Nothing is more evident than the fact that ''Grant Us Death'' was made for the mosh pit, with its crudely arranged riffs, its ravenous attitude, but I couldn't help but notice the group was, perhaps, vaguely experimenting with more aural, cathartic expressions than most acts in this field, but unless they're bound to have an evolution of sound on their third phantom release, then you're just as likely to be revitalized with nostalgia by trying out groups like Graveyard, Undead Creep, Horrendous, Claws or Revolting. And I was scarcely impressed, even though headbanging was still aplenty.

Highlights:
Devitalized
Grant Us Death
Devilspeed

Rating: 68%

Anthem - Burning Oath [2012]

What I absolutely love about the last months of every year is that it always seems to be stocked to the chunks with the best releases of the year, and an unmistakable front-runner for the 2012 lists is Anthem, with ''Burning Oath''. Going strong ever since 1981, the Japanese have consecutively released material that would finally pile up to form a meaty bodywork of albums, and while admittedly I've never tasted their radiant brand of heavy metal before, I was staggered by their underrated status, especially after fifteen records, but the past aside, ''Burning Oath'' reveals blazing excellence that could annually be only matched by Pharaoh's own impulsive concession, ''Bury The Light'' when the heavy/power genre is taken into consideration, and quartet certainly exhibit a glimmering sheen of talent on their fifteenth album, even if creativity is omitted.

I think the only thing worth fussing about here is that the group rarely surpasses certain boundaries, let alone exceed them. As far as I've read, the material here is not entirely different from the band's previous material, and I don't think it would take a mastermind to figure out the Japanese are far more fervent on boasting their modernized, amplified cave-crusher of a guitar tone and imbuing it with colorful Van Halen-esque leads, thus firing away into laser-like precision, rather than breaking the rules and processing the entire slew of spacious brilliance in a completely different format. Their sky-high echelon, though, enables them to effortlessly think through redundancy and produce simple, genuine power metal beauty that reflects the resonant, perky and highly jumpy aesthetics that fall somewhere between Priest, Maiden, Drangonforce, Primal Fear and Gamma Ray, all beaten into rainbow-like shimmer that feels dazzling no matter how many times you spin the whole thing.

Every tune they've composed is blazing, each and nuanced highlight that forms the rainbow. The core rhythm tone could have easily worked as a brand new butcher's cleave for the avaricious audience of brutal death metal extremes, all demanding a thousandth weapon to raze and exterminate, but with the vocals of Eizo Sakamoto upon the meat, there's a queer balance formed that anchors both the piercing melody orgy and vibrant pulses of Eizo's tone. The basis of brutality remains quite simple really, but still completely cavorting and critical to the band's mathematical precision, and guitarist Akio Shimizu piles up so many lead work on top of a single slab of bread that it almost seems though he's completely throwing all his solos out into the face of the listener, but at the same time the leads feel ridiculously spasmodic, almost surreal, and he never refrains from supporting a memorable complex while doing so. Strikingly, he seems as talented in crafting modern thrash chug fairs as he is in wallowing the listener in a paradox of quizzical, spurious solos that just make me swelter in excitement every time I hear them.

While the guitar is the undeniable superstar of the record, Eizo's vocals can deliver almost as many twinges of pleasure as the riffs, and in a far more foreboding way, at that. Not that his vocals have a sense of misery or anything, but they occasionally tend to take on melodious, almost mournful hues while delving into overly harmonious territory. But you see, that's all part of his genius. He has such a long-lasting voice that it readily oscillates while literally keeping the entire riff-work going on underneath in one piece. Additionally, I was quite induced by the foreign eccentricity of the Japanese lyrics, and Eizo also shines here; forming perfect transitions that stick the English lyrics to the Japanese, and what felt somewhat ironic is the abstract vividness of the album, and that they're actually more likely to fit the bill for a band like Drangonforce, but the band sings about much more down-to-earth subjects than dragons or unicorns.

It's quite possible for someone to be in a dilemma when choosing from eleven top-notch tunes, but I probably dug the dual violins of ''Get Away'', the airy, sinister edge of the opener ''Evil One'' and the swerving, bluesy rhythmic combustion of ''Double Helix'' the most, though every song is spectacular in its own rights. As stated, ''Burning Oath'' does not require 200 IQ to figure out; its quite simply plays by the rules but produces quality material that any fan of the aforementioned bands should have a hell of time listening. Even with a deep-seated heavy metal inclination swinging the album towards relatively distinct locations, ''Burning Oath'' principally remains a power metal record, and good fucking one, too.

Highlights:
On And On
Get Away
Double Helix
Evil One
Struggle Action

Rating: 90%

Deceptor - Chains Of Delusion [2013]

In an astonishing turn of events, what I anticipated as another potential tumor in the myriad of retro heavy/thrash metal groups turned out to be a compulsory magnet of innovative, old school excellence that exceeded any of my previous opinions on the matter. How could I have known, that amid a trampling stockpile of promos, it would be Shadow Kingdom's delivery, Deceptor's sophomore EP ''Chains Of Delusion'' that perfectly fit the maniacally inclined, wondrously imbued textures that I had been searching for so long, but never acquired, yet, what makes up this a work of sheer old-minded genius is its climatic, glimmering sheen of imagination; hardly has a band ever bestirred interpretations of both traditional, thrash, speed and a classical brand of death metal akin to the latest Deceased, and successfully concluded their industrious formula bu enhancing the basis with ingenious riffing, as if the entire thing was the product of pang in the mind of a mad scientist who wished to saturate the demands of die-hards of all the aforementioned genres within a single concession.

Deceptor's body work on ''Chains Of Delusion'' is hardly what you'd call an immensely lengthy epic, but with the two ambient sounds tracks excluded, we're left with four tracks, each arriving from their own biomes, spewing forth their own distinctive elements, almost as if they had nothing to with each other. But everywhere you go, you'll vibrantly feel the band's own engrossment of texture and semi-technical riffs, which is what makes the whole EP so magical. Simply said, ''Chains Of Delusion'' is an effigy for the 80's. The entire aura is earthen as the drums, the bass and the guitar work all have roughly equal spaces in the mix, and Sam Mackertich's vocals are as divergent as the riffs, shifting from harmonious power metal chants to harsher death/thrash growls, and then to Schmier-like shrieks that echo through the ears of a Destruction fan like delicious nostalgia. His vocal inflection is just as brilliant as the guitars, and simply bears some of the most combustive vocal electricity I've heard is some time.

The tone is perfectly crisp, as if you're tasting a perfectly well-cooked steak through your headphones; it's wonderfully authentic, something in between ''Peace Sells...'' and ''Rust In Peace'', but far more belligerent and ravenous, eager to sink its caustic raw of teeth into the skull of its crazed mentor. Like the vocals, you never know what the guitars are likely to switch into. One moment you're lost through a matrix of technicality, then a NWOBHM-styled gallop bounces into action, and just seconds later you're driven into cavorting speed/thrash convulsions that jive equally as well to the vocalist's Bruce Dickinson complexes as they do the much more psychotic growls of his schizoid side. There are just so many twists and turns on the EP that it's nearly impossible not to be befuddled by the musical tenacity of the trio. Take the bumping, melodious bass of ''To Know Infinity'', the assailing bullet-like chug storm of ''Heatseeker'', ''Sentient Shackles' '' technical momentum and the indulgent, foreboding onslaught of ''Oblivion's Call'', put in a few mechanized voices, and you practically have exemplary of modern sci-fi induced thrash metal.

''Chains Of Delusion'' is damn near phenomenal. I could only gape at the narrow-mindedness of thrasher who would rather get drunk over an orgy of Warbringer songs, and not give much of a fuck about the gyrating genius of this. I think it's about time somebody cracked these damnable chains and let the metal world know of their new master thrasher, because with ''Chains Of Delusion'', Deceptor have certainly earned that title, yet one must now forget that this is so much more than the polished, originality-free modernity everyone seems to be endlessly craving these days as a vague remembrance to the good old days, but those who really wish to be submerged in 80's retro energy - fear not - for your new captor has arrived. If you're one of those people, you have no excuse not to pre-order this right now, even if there's a procrastinated apocalypse just outside of your city.

Highlights:
Everything

Rating: 91%

Lacerated Metal Playlist V

I've decided to include old school releases in the mixes. Enjoy.

Cosmic Cortex, by Vektor, off the Outer Isolation album
2011, Progressive black/thrash, USA
Sounds like: Voivod, Obliveon, Coroner, Havok, Realm, Vendetta (Germany)

Sudden Death, by Wrath, off the Nothing To Fear album
1987, Power/thrash, USA
Sounds like: Laaz Rockit, Heathen, Meliah Rage, early Artillery, Agent Steel, Flotsam and Jetsam

War Machine, by Znowhite, off the Act of God album
1988, Thrash, USA
Sounds like: Demolition Hammer + Holy Terror

Heatseeker, by Deceptor, off the Chains of Delusion EP
2013, Thrash/power/speed/heavy, UK
Sounds like: The combination of USPM, Bay Area thrash and NWOBHM

Dearth, by Deathspell Omega, off the Paracletus album
2010, Avant-garde black metal, France
Sounds like: Blut Aus Nord, Ulcerate, Dedecahedron

Through The Eyes Of Greed, by Sadus, off the A Vision Of Misery album
1992, Technical thrash metal, USA
Sounds like: Early Atheist, Hellwitch, Morbid Saint, Death