Funebre - Cranial Torment

Man, I really love these compilations. Reissuing underrated albums for more exposure one thing, amassing extremely overlooked demos and EPs into single packages for gruesome, carnal delivery another. Xtreem Music has now gathered all the pre-1991 material of the Finnish cults Funebre in one case, and now, listeners can enjoy the ''Cranial Torment'', ''Demo II'' demos and the ''Brainspoon'' EP the same way they enjoyed the bands vile splash of vile that was ''Children Of The Scorn'', and what's more is that you can feel the rawness and sheer decomposed splendor of these ghastly tunes the way they were taken out of the oven, fresh but rotten, oldie but goodie.

As I said, the authentic production quality helps reinforce the notably primal disorder the album espouses, and you've got vitriolic churning of traditional decayed Finnish death metal in its most macabre and aggravated form, sticking to the path that Convulse or Purtenance took, with a heavy blend of charnel Swedish chainsaw insanity, the same way Nihilist did it in the late 80's. The amalgamation is, of course, nothing new if you've already witnessed the band's excellent full-length, but I've always considered contemplating certain band's primordial exhalations in order to compare it to their somewhat more polished released. In death metal, old school death metal, I have a strict little rule; the more crude and primitive the band gets, the closer it gets to perfection through dissonance and putrefaction. Funebre are easily one of the dominating Finnish death metal acts roaming around 1993-1988, and this temple of embryonic pain is the evidence, clearly.

Thanks to Funebre's slightly original tendencies, we can feel skull-crushing buzz-saw pressure at the same time as somnolent death/doom drudgery. Tracks vary, because the mix does not equalize them all into one single production quality, so songs from differing releases stand out with marginal qualities, and out of them all, my favorite would probably the ''Demo II'' material, which, obviously manifests the darkest and roughest peak of the band's adoration for esoteric and ephemeral horror, sending a barrage of chills down your spine as the ripping chainsaw fluctuates into a grisly slither of flesh and bones. Funebre are one of the best bands to come of the Finnish death metal scene, as already evidenced on their debut, but for furthermore proof of their crude agility, get this compilation and feed yourself all its disemboweled contents. 

Highlights:

Expunging Mortalities

Grip Of Insanity

Leprophiliac

 Rating: 84%

Putrevore - Macabre Kingdom

Four years ago, the Swedish/Spanish death metal collaboration imploded their gory malevolence with the discharge of their sole release and debut album, ''Morphed From Deadbreath'' a much mighty suffusion of Incantation and cadaverous Swedish death metal, and despite its distinct prowess and immense effect upon deeply-intrigued listeners, the album did not draw half as much attention as some of the much more dominant retro death metal releases of the same time, such Dead Congregation's glorious disembowelment of evil, ''Graves Of The Archangels'', which no doubt led the upcoming pack of horrendous Incantation worshipers which would shortly envenom the world. Putrevore, on their debut, displayed a relatively fresh formula, a gory soup of rotten Swedish heft and imposing blood, and now, four years after the release of that swampy bulk of an death metal album, we're fed with the real deal, as Rogga Johannson and Dave Rotten, who are now proven veterans of the genre's differing varieties, present their AA material here, and we are enlightened with the fact that the debut was merely the starter meal, and the main dish has just arrived.

Admittedly, my first reaction to this was not at all positive. I didn't leave me flabbergast with its prowess and durability, and it was not what I had endeavored to hear after such a non-apprehensive process of excitement, but everything on the album seemed like tasteless hulk made up of brutal death metal and the subtle, depriving and compellingly evil aesthetics of ''Onward To Golgotha'', but it was the second, or perhaps the third listen which crammed hope into my ears, for the very moment that I realized and comprehended the album's brilliant succession and manifestation was the moment I learned to love it, and it was the moment I was sure the record would be the epitome of many, many retro death metal releases that would come afterwards, or that were already unleashed.

Macabre Kingdom lives up for its name, and that's just the least I can say about it. It's content is made obvious by the savvy album cover that enriches its course. Just think about it; the music on ''Macabre Kingdom'' perfectly fits the ghoulish fiend stalking its subtle minions whilst seated upon a fiendish, emaciated throne of gore, glazing at the undead which kneel before it. A truly gruesome and ghastly image of vividness, and moreover, the monolith that is ''Macabre Kingdom'' is still, so much more. There's a thick, almost charismatic enigma buried beneath the cylopean grooves and the elephantine grooves never cease to slam the listener with the embryonic excellence, stretched upon a base of carnal Floridian brutality, immense Bolt Thrower potency in heft and chomps, and a befouling, rotten contemplation of Incantation-esque everything, from tremolos, to bombastic bombards to swaggering ramparts. I still can't imagine how Rogga took his time to pen these compositions while dealing with a dozen more projects, and yet still elude boredom and add excessive competence and efficiency into the mix, making this the best effort he has ever worked on.

A hybrid on brutality and moist danger and thickness is one thing, evil another. In ''Macabre Kingdom'', you get all of that in one single compiled suitcase. In addition to its tremendous and substantial reservoir of riffs, and its unbridled hostility, the album can effortlessly display its love for cthtonic horror, as on ''The Mysteries Of The Worm Part 2'', which feels as if you're further dragged into a pitch-black void after the barbarous Part 1, and get swallowed by the band's darker tendencies, an emission of gore-laden shadow and cosmic miasma spiraling onto you as you descend further and further down a barren black hole. While the sporadic keyboard is trait specifically belonging to that track, there is a murkier blast of sound waves which evoke evil and raise the hairs on your back that support the album the whole time; the vocals. It's almost as if Dave Rotten reaches the subtlest tone he possesses and then spurts it out in a pernicious gurgle, and believe me, if the instrumental section of the album didn't hold them from exploding, the rafters would have shook, and the cavernous murmurs would have tinged in the core of your ears for hours. Dave Rotten's incredible delivery sounds rather like the product of a brutal rape by a demon, adding impious murkiness into Craig Pillard's already copious voice. Seriously, Dave Rotten sounds like Satan whispering through a hundred-and-fifty meter tunnel. And you're on the other side of it.

Flawless with its combination of brutality and wicked Incantation-esque creativity, ''Macabre Kingdom'' does not merely ''appease''. The underlying creativity and musicianship under its subtext of churning monstrosity is its prime tool and one that can outshine almost the entire race of retro death metal acts, and even a number of the genre's first-comers. This megalith is built upon total and immense doom and evil, and this single 35-minute rupture we received is only a mere flick of the giant's finger. Rogga and Dave's absolute climax is reached with this record and although I don't think this will cease to blow my ears for a very long time, I am still eagerly gathering my courage to face the extremities of a third primal obelisk. With ''Macabre Kingdom'' you will experience brutality, experience pain, experience primordial prowess, experience engulfing evil, with ''Macabre Kingdom'', you will experience immensity.

Highlights:
The Morbid Mass Of Swarming Entities
The Tentacles Through Time
The Mysteries Of The Worm Part 2
Beyond Human Comprehension 

Rating: 92%

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%