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%

Night Demon - Night Demon [2012]

Night Demon's entry into my extensive compendium of speed/heavy acts to emerge in the 21st century is nothing of a seminal event, but I was nonetheless content, having discovered another band with a solid release to kill a good many minutes. Formed in 2011, our information on the band is fairly limited, with their sole material being their eponymous EP released last year, and my awareness of the band began when I received a promo of the EP that had been reissued by the traditional heavy/doom imprint Shadow Kingdom Records. The Californians offer nothing more than genre-standard heavy metal enmeshed with a dose of speed, imbued with a strong, refined production quality that renders the four brief tracks found on this EP so robust. ''Night Demon'' is composed of roughly equal proportions of Maiden, Priest, Angel Witch, Raven and Saxon, and maintains its muscular exposition sturdily throughout the entirety of the EP without blundering, but it only does so by swaying along the safer borders of traditional heavy metal.

For one, I was actually more absorbed by the cover art and the conceptual preferences more than the music itself, even though I did sometimes lose myself in the wicked, swirling youth of the headbang-friendly riffs. I don't know why, but I certainly found this fantasy-induced concept to be overly attractive, maybe because it explored a somewhat nostalgic and lightweight margin of swords, sorcery, and, obviously, demons, each song delving into a slightly different subdivision of the concept, for instance, ''The Chalice'' had a more medieval, religious vibe to it, with the exception of ''Ancient Evil'' which purely pervaded the listener with Lovecraftian images. That said, there is a surprising amount of variation between each track, with each track, like the lyrical choices, focusing on marginally different breed of garden variety heavy metal. The sound as a whole is professional however, with little or not flaws in the presentation department, and in truth, while this may not be a paragon of speed/heavy metal, I loved the rumbling twists and turns of the guitars with melody swooshing by every now and then, and the entire webbing of riffs was surprisingly complex, brazen, and certainly very catchy.

While this may be for the most part a devout homage to the aforementioned gods, and even Motorhead taking into account the bluesy rage of the guitars and pummeling blasts of the snare on the first and fianl tracks, I did occasionally taste a sprinkling of power metal in its archetypal forms, something redolent of early Fates Warning and Jag Panzer. The vocals are blunt and powerful, nothing overly special, however, when they collide with the backup vocals to harmonize a truly harmonic piece of sound that I thoroughly enjoy is created. Night Demon certainly performed well on this EP, especially since it's their debut offering, but I do think that solely being staunch stalwarts of the art won't quite make them experts in this particular field of heavy metal. There were some subtler, heavier moments that arose with minute precaution into something of a more epic deliverance, like on the chorus of ''The Chalice'' (which I adored), but the Californians need to strew together many more strings to render the web truly inventive and titillating. Night Demon resonate like a faster answer to  their fellow countrymen Visigoth; it's coherent, consistent and quite seamless in its presentation, but lacks an inner essence. Otherwise, it's simple, awesome music for purists. Hail.

Highlights:
Ancient Evil
The Chalice

Rating: 72%

Desolator - Unearthly Monument [2013]

Sweden's Desolator is nothing but a fresh addition to the tirelessly growing old school Swedish death metal compendium, and yet, despite being highly aware of this fact, for some reason I found myself pursuing their debut full-length which much greater avidity than I would have imagined. The cover art might have been a factor in inducing my boner-of-metal here; a generic yet entertaining caricature depicting a gigantic, ghoulish skull trapped between the two contours of an archaic crypt entrance of some sort, the huge, heaving mass slowly sinking into a morass of blood. Although I'm certain recurring listens of the promo song ''Gravefeast'' that the band uploaded prior to the album's release also had an impact on my increasing anticipation. Needless to say, Desolator's origins are overly blatant - they use up the most popular aesthetics of the classic Swedeath sound - though I was surprised to hear that their simple trajectory was adorned with sprinklings of spurious thrashy fun, making for a listen only marginally disparate than its peers such as Miasmal, Tormented, or Entrails, but still relatively entertaining and rarely memorable.

Listeners will probably sense the great irony in the album's title right away. ''Unearthly Monument'' is actually a pillar built with copious candor and unabashed dexterity, displaying an absolutely earthen sound to say the least. This is not to say that they've gone completely soft with their tone and influential representations, but the guitar raunchy, crunchy miasma has been replaced by a simpler, and still quite primordial aesthetic. The album is a barrage of fluent tremolos interwoven with simple chord ruptures that flow in a fairly simple manner, often resembling some of the less abusive death metal acts of the early 90's like Bolt Thrower, or sometimes even the more narrow-minded and straightforward death/thrash acts of the 1988-1992 time period, a pulsating stream of gore and muscular incursions similar to that of  Epidemic, Solstice or  the Slovakian rarity Gladiator. There was also a number of creeping riffs that resembled Autopsy's ''Severed Survival'', but for the most part, the album makes it clear that it does not have any underlying messages, but a brutal set of seasoned, crazed death metal riffing fit for purists.  The band's broad pattern of riffing and rudimentary interpretations will undoubtedly earn them an audience of old, but folks who are looking for innovation won't find anything particularly entrancing here, I'm afraid.

Thankfully, most of tracks are kept nice and short, and with a certain amount of devotion concerning the individual riffs, not to mention the way the guitar has been smoothly fleshed out of the other instruments, you're not bound for another mundane cavern hike where the swooshing guitars swirls with the rest of the murky instruments, making an incomplete and irrelevant mess. I love the honesty of the production, especially that of the guitars and drums, the former being, as I mentioned, plain and bare, like the tones of Cancer and Obituary during their less refined days, and the latter having a sharp, crispy and spiky tone that renders it discernible from the rest of the mix. My favorite track here was ''Bludgeoned, Beaten And Berated'', which name-wise resembles Cancer's ''Hung, Drawn and Quartered'', and Cannibal Corpse's ''Striped, Raped and Strangled'', plus a few more gory pieces of the death metal universe, and it perfectly lives up to its name, smothering the listener with a bombard of chugging death/thrash excursions, followed by a tempest of tremolos. The vocals are hardly a novelty, your basic low guttural growls that echo with ferocity, as are the leads, which are a collection of sly little solos randomly dispersed across the album. Indeed, ''Unearthly Monument'' is nothing much more than a loyal homage to the death metal gods themselves, but despite its simplicity, it has the potential to bludgeon the fuck out of any listener, voluntary or involuntary, and is a pretty good improvement from their earlier composite of demos and splits. Old school purists need only apply to feel the booming, rancid bliss.

Highlights:
Bludgeoned, Beaten and Berated
Gravefeast
Mass Human Pyre

Rating: 77%

Ancient Crypts - Devoured by Serpents [2013] (Demo)

Given the obvious visual preferences of the band, Ancient Crypts is bound to erect a superfluity of speculations concerned with the band's lack of motivation, and these speculations will arise even before someone actually listens to the 22 minute tape, and hell, most of them will be accurate judgments, because this Chilean death metal horde is in no way giving birth to a new genre complete with all its technical and aural fulfillment, but that doesn't mean the group can't pack a punch with this ancient, decrepit sophomore demo. I would have hoped that, being in the same league with their ambitious label-mates Bolzer, ZOM, and Beyond, the Chileans could have embarked on something even only marginally different from a classic rehash, but the contrast between this, and creativity, is the virtual equal of the contrast between night and day. However, all is not in vain. Despite the sheer simplicity of their efforts and compositions, Ancient Crypts have somehow conjured a subterranean vortex of murk, complete with raw recording qualities, smashing, abusive riffing, and a one-time ticket to an abysmal land that's fairly frightening and vivid in its depiction of darkness and all things ominous.

This is actually some great stuff; the Chileans might not have tried too hard to tweak the aspects of the originality department, but they sure have some horrid, wrangling riff work ready at their disposal which they diversify in accordance with the varying tempo of the tunes, carnal, decomposed conformity that will make death/doom fans rejoice to enjoy altogether. It's easy to point at Ancient Crypts' influences, because whether you're an experienced OSDM connoisseur or some kid just newly starting to explore the beleaguered genre's fundamentals, ''Devoured By Serpents'' has some scary, tempestuous material hidden in its deathly vault that will easily make your bowels rumble with anticipation and enthusiasm. It's almost as if the Chileans just randomly snatched a handful of tags from a box of influential names, and proceeded to play by the rules of those acts. There's Finnish death metal aplenty, a ghastly exposition of Convulse, Demigod and even Abhorrence when you're listening to the more eerie variations of the blasting tremolo sequences, Incantation, which should be obvious by now, some Death circa 1987-1988, and an occasional admiration for death/doom acts in the vein of Winter (slightly less evil), Asphyx, Cianide, and less known Finnish obscures Rippikoulu. Some of my favorite moments include the mingling, tingling death/doom harmonies on the title track which sound like interpretations of early Autopsy, and the blasting, ruinous chord progressions of ''Between The Mortuary Remains''.

With such brevity and a mere lack of diversity there's not really much to say about Ancient Crypts. The demo is indubitably a bred of the previously mentioned acts in every possible way; the riffs, the drum patterns, the colossal, heaving density of the atmosphere, and the guttural snares of the vocalist, which, at faster picking moments resemble a somewhat bulbous version of your atypical death/grind barking. Yes, I did occasionally get a sense of repetition seething through wretched pits of the demo, and to be honest there are many other groups that are producing A+ material that tops this in so many ways, but the band's youth and eagerness negates utterly stark criticism. Besides, all those excellent OSDM acts that we venerate and adore today were, in fact, quite like these gentleman at some early point of their career. Thus, I can do no more but recommend this to fervent tape collectors - it hardly deviates from the norm but kicks copious asses while sticking to the safe route - so give them a chance and what do you know, one day, they might blossom into one of your doppelganger favorites.

Highlights:
Deep Into the Ancient Crypts
Devoured by Serpents

Rating: 75%

Neige Eternelle - Neige Eternelle [2013]

For many, parting from a decidedly modern sounding aesthetic of black metal, especially if you’re an aficionado of fresh purveyors of grimness, is an unmistakably difficult notion, though some will obviously be more induced by old school characteristics rather than the voluptuous, youthful material that they seem to be fed up with. My point is that every now and then we need to delve into our wretched, raw past, not necessarily by traditional means but usually through the musical skills of newer acts, so that we may have a larger scope of the scene around us. However, bear in mind that this little rule has been applied to the black metal tag for demonstrative purposes and not anything else (Like death metal; we already have more bands than we can handle in that area). The subjects here are the recent Quebecois frantic Neige Eternelle, yet another desolate, somnolent cascade of mourn doused in French titles coming from the Montreal black metal imprint Sepulchral Productions; a group of murderously cunning entrepreneurs who caught my attention with a flurry of excellent releases as effortlessly and slicing molten butter.

The Canadians aren’t brand-new, but they’re still pretty young, having formed in 2008 and having solely one demo and a live album at their belt. However, their self-titled debut album is perhaps the most unmitigated, spectrally abusive records I’ve heard in a long time, tracing its original aspects to the early efforts of the second wave of Norwegian black metal, imbued with a carnal, frosting ferocity that could be related to the savage, sluggish antics of early proto-black metal acts or seminal black/thrash works from the late 80s. If I had to give rough description of their swollen, frigid complex of riffs and atmospheric tenets, I’d say it’s a cross between some early Burzum recordings, Darkthrone circa 1992-1994, Ragnarok’s ‘’Arising Realm’’ and Ulver’s ‘’Nattens Madrigal…’’, with a frenzied splash of early Sodom thrown in for a good measure. Of course, with its influences so blatantly rooted to the early and much-lauded examples of black metal, you’d hardly expects ‘’Neige Eternelle’’ to be the eccentric, majestic beast of modernity, but with a terrific sense of agonized, demented riffing and dilapidated production values supporting the stark contrast between real life and the gelid, cavernous imagery created by the aural textures of this album, you could do no wrong entering to this haunted cavern, the antithesis of a warm and inviting amenity.

The riffs are utterly unremitting and compellingly fierce, roiling amongst a wall of charnel noise. Pick any track from the presented 8, and I guarantee you’ll be experiencing the final glimpses of light of a man trapped in some primordial den that’s about to collapse from the pressure of multiple ice stalagmites, some unmentioned burrow from the Mountains of Madness. Despite the minuteness of the influence spectrum, the riffs are abrasive and they don’t give a fuck about what you think; bouncing off a hidden mountain burial ground and striking you with voracious, static tenacity. Give the patterns that are constantly followed and simplistic chord progressions, there isn’t even much innovation in the riffing, yet, as stated, the pouring lament and mourn make you forget the sheer lack of sophistication nearly the entire time. The howling, raucous vocals are great in the least, and sometimes morph into these horrific wolf howls which echo alongside the misfortunate guidance of the somber wind.

Perhaps individually there’s not much to scrutinize, but introspecting the entire 43 minute span of this record is a truly rewarding experience. There were some minor hindrances that escaped even the densest gatherings of anguish, and admittedly this is not the best black metal I’ve heard this year, but Neige Eternelle (which, by the way, translates into eternal snow, a very fitting moniker) is driven with a pure and ferocious candor that has been solidly executed. The prolonged stinging of the vocals kept me constantly stimulated and irritated (in a good way), and the riffs themselves are hypnotically cold enough to bury me in a six feet deep grave of snow. Through its successes and minor miscalculations, ‘’Neige Eternelle’’ is a goodly pick for Sepulchral Productions and a record worthy of any old school black metal enthusiast’s attention and unflinching fervor. I'm sure nobody was expecting this to be some soothing jazz medley, judging by the album art and album title, but still, when you enter, there’s no way of attaining salvation. Hiding in the frost-peppered forest will only postpone your demise. Doleful, winter-beaten revulsion. 

Highlights:

Cri de Guerre

L'appel de la Mort

Pluie de Coteaux

Rating: 86%

Sombre Forets - La Mort Du Soleil [2013]

As if my first impressions on the two new promos delivered by Montreal imprint Sepulchral Productions wasn't positive enough, the label has beset me a further addendum of bleak, desiccating black metal from the unexplored, and undeniably frosty dins of Quebec. The former releases I heard from the record label were both very strong releases; ''Lys Noir'', a tempestuous maelstrom of doleful pain, and the eponymous debut by Neige Eternelle, and even rawer contemplation of some of the grimmest of landscapes, however, the fresh material by Sombre Forets has distilled more than any of them. Sombre Forets, which translates into dark forests in French, explores the bleakest corners of mid 90's Norwegian black metal and the distressing frameworks of Leviathan and Xasthur, though I was shocked to hear that the man behind the entire, astonishing orchestration, Annatar, was able to insert a desolate, unforgiving and ultimately fresh sense of originality into the mixture, forming a disturbingly remote weaving of guitar riffs and other aural additions which render the album so frighteningly real. ''La Mort Du Soleil'' is a brilliant soundtrack for a solitary gaze into a frosty nightscape...

In truth, inconsistency is the key to ''La Mort Du Soleil''. Not having listened to the band's previous outings, I don't know whether this is a distinct style Annatar has constantly displayed throughout his backlog of works, but as far as this record is concerned, the structural preferences render it the one most queerly eccentric records in black metal. Surely, ambient passages and their random distribution is nothing of a novelty; in fact, it's been done for as long as black metal can remember (excluding early proto-black metal), but the actual guitar work is jointed flawlessly, and often incoherently with the soundscapes, piano passages, and ambient sounds, eventually weaving a world of sorrow and emotional catharsis which I am, even after countless spins, uncertain of. The listener is swallowed up into the somber entity, which is depicted in the mesmerizing cover art that I can only relate to Necrovation's self titled sophomore in its ways of showcasing the gushing, ebbing motions of the wallowing tides, rocking dolefully amid a momentous storm, but ''the destruction of the sun'' is so utterly convincing in its thematic display that even the vague glow of the sun among the swirling ocean tides is simply too bright.

Yet, in spite of all the haunting beauty, there lies a problem. There is always a problem. The harsh truth is that ''La Mort...'' is too inconsistent to be fully effective. The riffs are great when they are unleashed upon the listener; mirages of harrowing, discomforting chord sequences and intense, moody tremolo barrages, and constructed with complete avidity and savvy, and I'm not even excluding the less transparent open chord progressions that seem to sway along with the many grievous facets of the ambient passages, but such moments of intensity and action are, unfortunately less frequently exhibited than the ambient sequences themselves. This leaves a huge, tiring gap in the very middle of the album. The terrific winter-assaults of ''Brumes'' and ''La Disparition'' kept me wanting for more, substantial material that I could actually grasp, but so many of the other tracks disappointed me with their lack of mobility and adherence that I felt as though I was drowning in a forgotten void of snow, a multitude of ice shards craving holes in my torso simultaneously.

In all, listening to this record was a bitch for me. For the most part, it was like a game of Scrabble. I rarely had the letters I could utilize to form a proper word offensive to throw my opponent off guard, but when I was lacking in useful letters, the entire articulate quality of my game felt like it was destroyed, and I continually kept reaching for the letter-pouch, hoping to acquire a letter that would somehow be useful. The guitars were simply perfect, as I described them above, and the eerie, echoing vocals of Annatar is a bleak howling of wind that pervades the entire storm-ridden ocean portrayed in the cover art. The overall instrumentation is incredibly thick and suffocating, with not a moment where the dying sun showed me a last glimmering spark. Not a single moment. I always kept my fingers crossed for something big, something that would make the entire album the near-flawless masterpiece I expected it would turn out to be, but to no avail. However, all is not in vain, folks. Connoisseurs of atmospheric black metal who are into deep, emotionally engaging moments of aural misery will adore this, and as for me, I certainly liked it, but I would have loved it to death if it weren't for those long, jaded periods of boredom.

Highlights:
Brumes
Etrangleurs de Soleils
La Disparition

Rating: 77,5%

Monarque - Lys Noir [2013]

Arguably the best part pf receiving random promos is unearthing a new find that can be held a higher level then the rest of its mediocre counterparts. I had, having little idea of the band's formative aspects or background, initially perceived Monarque's ''Lys Noir'' to be just another ambitious daisy in the garden, sprouting out of the dirt eagerly, and awaiting attention. Only later could I comprehend the fact that I had made a terrible mistake, tossing away the Canadian duo's sorrowful third full-length. Monarque's roots are deeply buried in Quebec, which explains their fervor for French titles. For those both accustomed and unaccustomed to the Canadian's sound, ''Lys Noir'' is cascading waterfall of undoubtedly bleak, razor-sharp riffs, and atmosphere that engulfs the entire riffing station like a heavy, smoldering cloth, and it's simply one of those releases which hardly reinvents the wheel, but proceeds to render it more flashy through a strong and keen sense of musicianship and judicious experimenting in familiar territory.

As I explained, ''Lys Noir'' merely stretches the innumerably skewed aesthetics of black metal, but delves into combinations that are perceptible mostly as antique, but are somehow still doused with a somewhat pungent touch of originality. I'd say Monarque's musical roots are a cross between numerous inclinations of the Scandinavian black metal scene which exploded in the mid-early 90's. Monarque is crude to an extent, and the ambiance of the entire record is an entrancing spectacle of mourn, which means most of their atmospheric tenets were snatched from the likes of Darkthrone (the first three records), Carpathian Forest, or perhaps the Greek black metal masterminds Spectral Lore, but at the same time, the duo is modest, and the riffs are filtered with incorrigible tenacity, relating strongly to more flexible acts such as Arckanum, Forteresse, Emperor or Ragnarok, bearing the posture of a voracious wolf crawling amid the snow, diligently pursuing its prey.

I absolutely love the mournful indulgence the record sometimes dives into, showering the wary listener with a further incursions of deep sorrow and hypnosis. ''Comme Des Vers'' and ''Mes Condoleances'' perfectly exhibit this, quaking the rest of the record with such magnetic, titular strength that I was left utterly destroyed. The rest of the band's arsenal disposal is rather a savage bigotry rather than an empowering eclipse of mourn. ''Vigor Mortis'', ''L'appel de la Nuit'' and ''Comme Des Vers'' are all laden with such wild riff arrangements, piercing and utterly frigid, something like the latest Thy Darkened Shade disc, but devoid of any nihilistic qualities that would have otherwise turned them into crazed war metal act charging at full force. As I said above, ''Lys Noir'' does not really have a brilliant intake of intricacies, but there are subtle joints that pop up here and there, though the most resplendent atmospheric attraction for me was the rather infrequent usage of the synthesizers, doleful tempests of sound that beautifully bind with the raucous riff-work above, forming the ultimate companion for a desolate mountain hike in the Andes.

The texture of the drums have been adjusted quite well, sounding resonate enough to have an effect but as to not disturb the overall coherence of the record. Monarque (the guy handling the guitars, bass and vocals) has a nice, vivid rasp which echos as efficiently as any other vocalist in this field of black metal, with little diversity but much harrowing quality. Individually, the only track that was the most distinguished was ''Solitude'', a near 3 minute ambient passage with soothing acoustic guitar medleys and classical grandeur, and it my humble opinion that Monarque's biggest loss here was the lack of proper distinction. Certainly not a major gripe considering the entirety of the album, but I thought I could have further satisfied is a feeling of quandry was evoked with only putting a tad more thought into the compositions. Nonetheless, the Quebecois have performed very solidly here, making them one of the more admirable black metal bands to emerge in the last decade.

Highlights:
Mes Condeleances
Vigor Mortis
L'Appel de la Nuit

Rating: 84%

Zombiefication - At the Caves of Eternal [2013]

Zombiefication are yet another addition to Mexico's burgeoning old school death metal scene, and yet another band that straddles the conceptual, thematic and muscular tides of Dismember, Entombed, Grave, etc., forging an iron and cascading barrage of Swedeath riffs that are undeniably all too familiar. I was originally exposed to the group their EP ''Reaper's Consecration'', a worthwhile effort that pounded skulls and rocked skeletal beings just as hard as any other Swedeath act out there, and being released on the notorious Pulverized Records, a semi-underground label that made a name for itself by hiring less known Swedeath doppelgangers from random places across the globe (Graveyard, for instance, from Spain), I believe that the Mexicans attained publicity and success that they previously could not acquire with their debut full-length. That said, Zombiefication's style does not fill the bill for the classic Mexican sound. Not as atrociously scintillating as the wretched Shub-Niggurath with their demos from the early 90's, or as cunning as the more recent offerings of The Chasm, but still, amid a nebulous tenor of bands, Zombiefication finds its way to memorability and distinguishment.

What really baffled me is the distance made by the Mexican duo over less than a year. Despite the avid, seemingly ambitious release it was, calling  ''Reaper's Consecration'' a highly enlightened and innovative offering would be quite far-fetched. When I listen to ''At the Caves of Eternal'' right after I listen to the EP, I'm nearly taken to an entirely different atmospheric world, with generic, vehicular urges of ''Reaper's...'' replaced with a more seasoned, judicious sense of composition and the craggy ambiance exchanged for a much darker, and even beautifully oriented one. I'd say that the Mexicans switched their style from rehashing some hectic, ragged grave robber to a mature serial killer who has countless instruments of torture and murder veiled underneath a long, polished jacket laden with pockets. The duo's style now feels like an edgier and even slightly black-metal oriented version of Necrovation, who, with their self-titled album, completely blew me away last year. ''At The Caves of Eternal'' isn't as good as ''Necrovation'', but I love the fact that it unfolds with primal, brute simplicity, but the explores a range of musical preferences and dexterous approaches that a mad caveman would strive to comprehend even in the slightest sense.

There's a rich, booming texture that binds with the abysmal atmosphere to create a frightening horror background. Not merely as terrifying as some of the recent finds I have exhumed, like the new Vassafor or Cultes Des Ghoules album, but still a spectral wave that befits the band's brand of heavy, churning brutality. Of course, the course of the riffs have taken a rather abrupt turn as well. You still have your standardized vulgar chainsaw barrages that are bombarded through metallic soil and rotten flesh, but at the same time, wisps of melody plod along the balustrades of heaving old school Swedish death metal, and those so called wisps some times take on a larger role, dominating the entire riff pattern with narrating, trudging lead sequences, converting the classic mass zombie invasion scene into a graphic picture of a grotesquely severed zombie ripping a man's guts out with a blunted scalpel. The vocals are akin to Matti Karki at lower growl, and they too have undergone change - the timbre of a crazed cemetery ghoul barking in the night now booms with a wonderfully cavernous inflection.

In very few ways did I find this record agitating: in spite of the immense amount of variation put into it, there was still a feeling of repetition on rare occasions, and the songs could have used some trimming, as it was sometimes a bore to listen to six minutes of subterranean massacre. Nonetheless, I was far more impressed than I anticipated. The punitive and gorgeously murky atmosphere and texture was perfect, giving me taste of a wretched, dismal Dissection on sections where the guitar was being picked with immaculate speed and intensity, the variations in the tempo department was also a great change, and comparing the debut, ''Midnight Stench'' to the cadaverous sophomore is something like comparing a hyena to a fully grown, brawny hell hound. There will some folks who will prefer the raw, unbridled ferocity of the band's previous outing to the their more atmospheric inclinations, thinking some of the energy has left the sophomore, but as far I, and the other fields of music are concerned, ''At the Caves of Eternal'' is an outright winner.

Highlights:
Disembodied Souls
In The Gallery Of Laments
Soul Collector

Rating: 86%