REVIEWS: By Janet Willis.
Stay tuned for an announcement regarding MF's future for the rest of the year and beyond.
Ophidian Forest/Haeresiarchs of Dis – Darkest Origins Split
CD (UW Productions 2012)
Well the split lives up to its title with both bands
infusing new blood into some of their unreleased and classic songs remixed that
definitely, given the nature of both bands, represent their mystical and occult
roots. Ophidian Forest reminds me of a blend of early Satyricon and a VERY raw
Summoning on a superficial level. They first deliver the symphonic “Densest
Green” , an 8-minute raspy vocals and blistering echoing power chords amidst a
phantom mist. You can’t really get more old school black metal than “Densest
Green”, “Fear Bloody Wings” , and “Verschwiegenheit”…this stuff will freeze
your soul in an instant, especially the vocals on “Fear Bloody Wings” , which
almost literally feel as though they are some paranormal sermon evaporating as
spoken. With Ophidian Forest there’s just this intangible texture to them is
spectral and cold, AND beyond physicality. Although Ophidian Forest only
contribute three out of thirteen songs on here, they still consume roughly 30
minutes of life as they suck out your soul leaving the mind and body in a limbo
of confusion.
The majority of the nine HoD songs on this split, the first
four of which are remixed from the earlier Dis demo, represent a more heavy crunching
guitar rhythm tendency that reminds me of the raging pulses and tones of
Horna’s Sotahuuto, early to Blood Fire Death era Bathory, Dethroned
Christ, etc. That true Heavy Metal meets black metal sledgehammer riffing combination
of tinny and distorted early heavy metal rhythms with speed and thrash
afflictions creating a vortex that is as nasty and maniacal as say Blood Feast,
and even bypassing buzzing swarms of just power chords cranked up on treble for
flesh stripping leads and actual rhythm progressions that embody “Kill”.
“Black Prophecies” is a good example of that just said, as
is “Choas Plague”, which really breaks up into an avalanche of addicting
rhythms sort like Immortal’s “Cryptic Winterstorms” or “Call of the Wintermoon”
with the lead guitar portions and vocals laid out in the front of the mix
giving them an extra sonic kick and clarity that really gives it a vicious
punch. Cernunnos (HoD) has not lost his touch for atmospherics though: “Manifestation”
is a classic semi-raw melodic atmospheric storm that will invoke flashbacks of Denunciatus Cinis, but still builds on
that template; “Wolfmoon” is a brief keyboard instrumental soaked in weird
electronic analog effects like a clip to a classic made-for-tv horror film;
“Blood and Souls” is a strange analog horror ambient that sounds like an EVP
during a paranormal investigation with some weird organ in the background; and
the grand infernal ending of “Circle of Sodomy” with that Emperor meets cleaner production sound and feel, including clean
chanting vocals, that adhere the haunting elements together into a possession
of the mind as much as the condemned soul. “Circle of Sodomy” is also
re-recording of “3rd Movement: Circle” from his Overture debut, which I will have to pick up in the near future.
With this split Cernunnos intended to revisit and reinvest
life into his early work and Demo period and ,in my honest opinion, was his
best period judging from what I’ve heard of them now and in original form. HoD should also have another full-length, Thirty-Eighth Sermon of the Unborn, out
this fall as well so grab this
one…and that one…and the Demo….AND Overture if you don’t have it either!!!!
Ophidian Forest’s essentiality is self evident, i.e. MUST HAVE.
Links:
Ataraxy – Revelations of the Ethereal (Memento Mori)
Ataraxy are a young Spanish Death Metal band with a prior
sold out EP Curse of the Requiem Mass
(Memento Mori 2010) and now their first full-length Revelations of the Ethereal has been cut loose this month. I’ve
been listening to this one for two days straight and am completely infected to
the point of being ridden with disease from their sheer ferocity which stems
from a take on the old Finnish and Swedish Death Metal Scenes (two of my
favorites) with their own gruesome touch to stake claim in the cadaverous death
metal soil.
As expected given the whole Finnish/Swedish mention the
physicality of the sound here is indeed punishing, but unlike other classic
death metal styles that may go more for a thrash whiplash or a blackened
flagellation in tone and delivery, the punishment inflicted by Ataraxy is that
of being buried alive by molten lava = Incinerating, heavy, flesh searing, bone
evaporating evil spewing from Hell below. The vocals remind me of a mixture of
Paul Speckman (Master, Deathstrike,etc.) and hints of Chuck Schuldiner. As for
the rest of the band, they have the stylistic imprints of classic death metal
across the board from Swedish beasts, Finnish ghouls, to the U.S. masters…Ataraxy don’t imitate they emulate Death Metal bestiality so
don’t expect anything less than mandatory death metal here!!!!
This release just came out in September and Hells
Headbangers has their two other EP’s, Rotten
Shit and Curse of the Requiem Mass, so
check them out periodically for this to appear in their catalogue otherwise
it’s an import at ridiculous Euro prices if you’re in the Americas, but still
worth it. If these guys were around in the early 90’s they’d be legends so why
not give ‘em that deserved status now as they still annihilate most others out
there today anyway?
Links:
Bestia Arcana – To
Anabainon ek tes Abyssu (Daemon Worship Productions 2012 )
Originally set for release
back in 2008 but ended up buried beneath the rubble of the disintegrated label,
the resurrection of this true entity of ruin and disharmony by Daemon worship
Productions couldn’t be more fitting. The album opens up with the chaotic
delirium of “Cup of Babylon”, and what a way to start out this psychotic and
surreal journey through the foul and dissonant fuzz storm that is Bestia
Arcana. Initially it explodes with angular guitar assaults and what sounds like
actual explosions as the gates of purgatory burst forth unleashing a whirlwind
of insanity that shall not be uttered as it is cursed such as the names in the
book of the dead. The vocals are deep vicious growls behind the mix of barbed
wire jagged lesions of lead shredding and the bombastic “booms” in the
background heralding absolution through mortal destruction, then about halfway
into the song the shift changes to a sprawling holocaust of dark psychedelic
atmospheric black metal not unlike the scorching and suffocating atmospheres
heard on the second Twilight album a few years back, before bursting back into
the diesel powered barrage of buzzing riffs and horrendous inhuman growls. And
that’s literally “just the beginning”, Bestia Arcana are like the Roman legions
storming through Judea leaving nothing but rivers of blood and blazing
infernos.
“The Poison of Mannaseh”
comes in as sort of the middle chapter after the fires have started and blood
has been shed with a constant and unrelenting buzz of death and some haunting
atmospherics in the background to amplify the desolation and misery to a
climactic turning point before leading into the dark ambient alien rumble of
“The Pit of She-ohl”
“Feverwind” brings back
treble buzzing, but the density and violence has been lifted like a veil over
the mutilated corpse that was humanity and their habitats revealing the horrors
that befell during “Cup of Babylon”. The percussion is ritualistic and smooth
throughout this bastardized cinematic cascade that literally unravels horrors
that the Holy can’t even bear to fathom. I can almost see a figure drenched in
blood uttering the weird schizophrenic vocals of the “Feverwind” in
gruesome indecipherable phrases as it walks out from the fire and the shrieks
of the people burning alive bring a smile upon it’s face.
“Shepherd of Perdition” is
a return to the disharmonic “melodies” and lunatic ranting growls of the start
of the grand massacre, now combined with symphonic elements and some chaotic
outbursts as the bringer of death praises and rejoices in various further acts
of defiling the remains.
Albums like this are
further evidence that evil is born and not just bred, but also a reminder that
black metal has not lost it’s ability to convey pure horror so approach this
one with caution, it just might incinerate you on contact. Others may claim to
be the real deal, but this one is the true form of Hells horrors as imagined by
the so-called righteous that keep them pissing themselves in fear and wavering
hypocrisy, if this is Hell then it certainly lives up to it’s reputation.
http://www.myspace.com/bestia.arcana
Death Ghidrah – Rebirth of Devastation (Subhumanoid
Soundscapes 2012)
Sci-fi/industrial mastermind Ray Rivera, also behind such notable
black metal/noise/power electronics atrocities such as: Fellatrix Morgue,
Putrescent Fog, and large number of others; brings us this 90’s techno pumping
muscular spasm meets sci-fi courtesy of Death Ghidrah. Loaded like a colon at a
chili cook-off with cheesy 50’s and 60’s sci-fi film samples and alien
apocalypses accompanied by an electro/techno base, this Demo is explosive and
deadly, but certainly not silent (….had to make a fart joke there).
“All Resistance is Useless” is a throbbing plasma of well
placed Atari-like detroit/berlin electro/techno beats and sci-fi horror with a
slight nod to Eye Gouging Mayhem (that same individual responsible for EGM is
also responsible for this monstrous damage).
“Rebirth of Devastation” is an electronic powerhouse of
rhythmic pulses and robotic percussion with classic sci-fi horror film clips
sampled and mixed in with the arcade hubbub of squiggly bleeps and blurps with
an almost 80’s –early 90’s industrial feel (Front 242, Frontline Assembly,
Cabaret Voltaire, Revolting Cocks).
The third and final licking from the Ghidrah is “Nuclear
Pulse”, a song that fits the same MO as the prior two, leaves me feeling
cheated in that I just get into the groove and then it’s OVER!!!!! Aside from
the shortness of Rebirth… this is nonetheless essential and I REALLY look
forward to hearing a full length from this new project of his in the near
future.
Hellige – Demo ( Kunsthauch Promo Series 2012)
“Degraded to Mortals” is a soul raping opening track!!! The
black death doom assault is vicious and revolting, but they crank out some
really gritty barbaric doom riffs smothered in death metal tones that morph
further into hideous black metal territory.
Next comes “The Rotten Waste” which is truly a magnificent
beast!!!! The drums are very crisp and sometimes almost jazzy in their high
hat/snare work, the vocals are extreme doom death growl mildewed black and
reeking of “rot”; there’s a lot of eerie melody in long, border lining on
out-of-tune, stretches of atmosphere that remind me a bit of the angular
wailing Deathspell Omega guitar tones, and some claustrophobia inducing moments
of bastardizing chaos that makes me think of watching myself as I’m actually
burning alive while trapped in my car.
“A Philosopher’s Crown” showcases the similar Hellish
atmospheres as it’s predecessors BUT they have this great siren-like guitar
lead that I’ve heard in black metal many times before and loved, but it seems
to stand out so distinctly on here. The vocals are more blood thirsty
apocalyptic black metal than death, but the atmosphere is quick again to
deliver a fatal blow of hatred and leaves nothing in question in terms of want
or need. If you want something that is as grim as the cryogenic black hordes
but as nefarious and cutthroat as death metal can get all combined in a
whirlwind cyclone of mile high flames than Hellige is exactly what you seek.
“Obnubilum” is a fourteen-minute hymn to treachery reminding
me of what the scene would look like after a nuclear apocalypse. It’s really
lonely and simultaneously explosive, sort of like the soundtrack of that moment
flashing back through your mind of the bright flashes of light and sudden
incinerating heat photographing bodies silhouettes in the surfaces where their,
now barely anything but fine ash bodies are strewn as the warhead actually
detonated. There’s that sense of isolation, unconceivable horror, and
vindication from all of those who died still trying to move on but can’t. The
planet is now a haunted burned out Hell still the third eyesore from the sun
and this is the sound of its murder
and vendetta.
Hellige's Bandcamp site doesn’t specify if this is a
self-release or not, but it’s a free download and stream, and it’s a nasty
black “perfect storm” of funereal black metal, black death, and black doom. The
hard copy can also be bought from the Kunsthauch Label for 5 Euros, which I’d
recommend as this is no way an average Demo!!! It also supports the bands and
small labels too, which I’m totally honored to work with and buy from.
Hypnosia – Horror Infernal (I Hate Records 2012)
Horror Infernal is a compilation of the bands: “Crushed
Existence” Demo ’96, “The Storms 1997” Demo, and “Violent Intensity” EP ’99;
that inflicts a sledgehammer blow of
malevolent and atrocious thrash that
simply reeks of old school death metal with hints of Sodom (including a
cover of the immortal anthem “Outbreak of Evil”).
“Crushed Existence”
Demo 1996
From the word “go” this Demo begins to dig the knife in with
the opening “Crushed Existence” that has a bit of early Mayhem infused with
early Sodom that is a buzzing prison raped thrash rhythmic throng with a
Swedish death metal tone. The sound of this band is that of a rogue chainsaw
wielding psycopath, possessed by a demon, cranked up on crack, on an unstoppable
rampage as anything in its path is shredded and/or pulverized as if run over by
a tank. The raspy larynx abuse vocals growl and exude pure “NECRO” being
inhuman as they are, especially on terrorizing anthems like “Undead”,
“Paralyzed By Persecution”, “Threshold of Decay”, and the title track…in other
words this entire Demo is a scene of mass murdering chaos. These Swedes also
like to throw in some sharp razor blade leads and some short dicing solos to
polish off the massacre and truly liquefy thy enemy. Again, there’s a definite
Swedish Death Metal tone and intensity to this first 4 song bombardment so
expect heavy and punishing unearthly blast and roid rage aggressive tempos as
you are physically thrown into the next set of beatings with The Storms Demo opener “The Last
Remains”.
“The Storms” Demo
1997
The slaughter continues with the annihilating neck breaker
“The Last Remains”, on which the bass tones are subdued on this songs in favor
of straight ahead chainsaw buzzing thrash insanity, but they make a come back
on “Operation Clean-Sweep” so death thrash fiends will be back orgasmic spasms
once again.
For me personally, Crushed
Existence got me fired up with its filthy tunes drunk with bloodlust and
bitter outrage but the next Demo didn’t feel as nasty and sort of lost me
briefly, but it’s mainly due to a lessening of deep throbbing assaults and
somehow feeling looser. Thankfully they put me in a chokehold once again with
their final assault via the Violent
Intensity Mini Album.
“Violent Intensity”
Mini Album 1999
Instantly I’m set on fire with the sonic spark of “Haunting
Death”, a cleaner thrashy version of “Undead” that still burns like chlorine
gas in ones eyes taking a stench of Sodom and twisting it further into depravity.
“Perpetual Dormancy” is another stomping thrash tantrum with outstanding nods
to death metal including the infamous pig squeal!!!!! The rhythm on “Perpetual
Dormancy” sounds like someone being violently and repeatedly stabbed, in other
words it’s a soundtrack to a fit of homicidal rage. The murderous sadism and
nitrous powered tempos continue to unleash the sounds invoking the apex of
human committed atrocities with “Mental Terror” and the shrieking leads of “The
Storms”.
The album is available in the U.S. through Shadow Kingdom
(and “no” I don’t work for them, although I spend my paychecks on that damn
site), Hells Headbangers, and probably many other label store/distros. I love
this label (I Hate) and have been lucky and honored to be able to work with
them closely for a few years. Please check them out if you haven’t already and
look into some of their catalog, they release nothing but solid metal releases
that they stand by 100%, not what sells at the current moment.
Inborn Suffering – Regression To Nothingness (Solitude
Productions 2012)
This Russian Label (Solitude Productions) just turned 7 and
is not only reliable and a major
force in extreme doom and melodic dark metal, but consistently finds the best
and the more progressive acts in these styles ranging from the Slavic regions
all the way to Brazil and everywhere in between. Inborn Suffering is no
exception to that statement as this French band has been around and established
for a number of years now and with this recent release they definitely raise
the bar for aggressive and melodic metal acts to follow.
With all of the genre/style names out there it’s become a
clusterfuck to describe bands like Inborn Suffering so for sake of respect and
reality I’m going to avoid doing so. The vocals are distinctly death metal,
abysmal and throaty, and also heavily burdened with emotional distress, but the
sound is more angry than depressive and even the clean vocal passages are more
poetic and narrative then weepy and suicidal. With song titles such as “Born
Guilty”, “Self Contempt Kings”, and the title track “Regression to Nothingness”
along with the promoted description of being Doom Death one instantly gets the
idea that it’s a self loathing gothic saga full of long drawn out chords and
droning drowning misery with little tempo and basically exhausting. Nothing
could be farther from the truth though.
Much of this album is a cranking machine of dark insanity,
revenge, and bitterness. To tell the truth, I first listened to this one while
reading criminology case files on serial killers and the release actually
seemed appropriate to the reading. The atmosphere throughout the album is
HEAVY, like the burden of guilt and internal struggle between vindication and
need for mental and emotional freedom. The opener “Slumber Asylum” really
starts this album off strong with an obliterating density in sound and feeling
as they shuffle between full force rhythmic trampling and melodic breaths of
space and reason. Other knockout songs like “Born Guilty” continue to
instantaneously come in swinging with a brutal tempo like a couple of good
slugs to the jaw and continues the iron fisted flogging for a grizzly 11
minutes of bi-polar and pseudo psychotic mood swings. One moment you’re cold cocked
with bass toned death metal riffing, the next you’re bleeding out to a morbid
melodic/epic doom serenade rejoicing your demise with vocals of lunatic howling
over you, then you’re last miserable moments are celebrating with a few
esoteric lead guitar shreds and an epic continuation of this bestial rant. This
pattern repeats throughout the song keeping you both interested and actually
involved throughout the progression.
“Born Guilty” makes
me think of a guilty murderous conscience, someone who’s struggling within
themselves between the “moral idiot”
staring at the hanging body they just squeezed the life out of and their human
regret still slightly present screaming from within their subconscious. The siren-like
lead guitar melody that wails from within the mix just adds that extra detail
necessary to push the aspect of lonely misery and emotional struggle within
oneself.
“Grey Eden” plays out like the aftermath of the bloodbath.
The morose, almost gothic/funereal spoken word intro that reeks of spilled
blood and regret that suddenly drops into a deep abyss of hatred and denial
with a flood of melodic but destructive melodies and rhythmic assaults such as
the last drop of blood wringed out through “Born Guilty”.
“Apotheosis” is yet another song on here that combines the
confusion of morals and nature with the siren guitar leads which literally
slits both the throat and wrist, they’re just that sharp and distinct, but a
more philosophical and epic, while “Another World” brings back the sadistic
mania and blunt force attack to the senses as were experienced firstly through
“Slumber Asylum” and “Born Guilty”.
When I received Regression
to Nothingness a few days back I honestly had no expectations. I had a
nasty case of digestive issues the entire day and a throbbing headache so all I
did was read fucked up details of real human perversity and cruelty and gave
this one a spin between bathroom trips The next thing I know, I’m sucked into
this things gravitational field and suddenly things just came together without
rhyme or reason between myself, and this album.
In a genre that is traditionally a special taste for many
and known for that as well as it’s overall sound that has a tendency to
dominate and smother the variability underneath its cloak of dread, it’s a hell
of an achievement to get me hooked like this one did. I haven’t been this
strung out on an album from this metal realm since Helllight’s …And then the Light of Consciousness Became
Hell. Seriously, if you feel that
funeral doom/death doom is a mundane and suffocating genre that leaves you
bored or weighed down struggling for breath then Inborn Suffering are a must
hear because they blast all that other shit open like a bad case of Typhoid
fever does for the stomach juices. Just imagine a blend of classic Amorphis,
old Paradise Lost, and Evoken and that’ll be closer to Inborn Suffering than a
blanket description.
Links:
You can stream both of their releases in their entirety
hear:
Their debut full-length Wordless
Hope (2006) is also re-issued through Solitude productions. I haven’t heard
it in full yet but hope to get to it asap.
Kolp – The Outsider (Temple of Torturous)
The Outsider is
the second full-length from the lesser known Hungarian act Kolp, set to destroy
the light of day November 12,2012 with an addicting spin on traditional and
experimental black metal that’s impressive to say the least. I just heard this
album this morning and have managed to not only keep it in play, but
intentionally shun all others for the sake of keeping it in motion simply
because it’s that good. Kolp take the
A-melodic buzzing guitar sound that is standard for black metal and the black
macabre psychedelia of Xasthur, add some muscle under the hood with some diesel
motor rhythms that occasionally explode out from beneath the clanging percussion
and treble sonic haze, freezing poltergeist vocals, and in the end creating an
entire alter dimension beyond reality and the penetration of light.
The sound isn’t new, but the way the album feels definitely
IS. Songs like the catchy laidback rhythmic sleeper “Drowning” just keep a
rhythmic hook going while the feedback washes back and forth like a tide over
it. There’s a nice shrill arpeggio melody present as well, but the dominating
presence is that main rhythm that just swings like a pendulum back and forth
hypnotically while you feel the swoosh of it’s mass getting heavier with each
swing. Eventually most the of the air is sucked out of the room leaving one
feeling like an air tight black leather hood was suddenly pulled over head and
tightened around the next like a noose, that’s how dark and intense Kolp can
feel on one of their more atmospheric endeavors. “Interface Has Dissolved” is
another addicting hook delivery with an infectious intro that cascades in time
with the calm- angry-calm-angry fluctuations in mood and tempo throughout this
songs duration keeping both the turmoil and the addictiveness at full strength.
Kolp create something that avoids cliché and drone, creating
something that is dark and heartless, gray and desolate just like the cover art
but actually is more like a Charnel house or abandoned mental asylum, where
there’s a lot more treachery behind the grim and dead exterior than can be seen
or even heard and it will get inside
you and it will infiltrate your mind
for a while. The songs just stick to your skin like thick humid night air comprised
of beings that refuse to cross over.
Links:
Lord Time – Forgotten Future (Prison Tatt/Universal
Consciousness)
Forgotten Future
was originally released in ’10 as a cassette on the Universal Consciousness
label and is now seeing it’s well deserved vinyl installment in 2012 courtesy
of Prison Tatt. In true PT form the MLP is a one sided black record with a
silkscreened sleeve, but the artist also threw in a fingerprint of his own
blood on the playable side and some drippings on the smooth side to up the ante
a bit more.
Please don’t expect anything suicidal and depressive
sounding based on the bloodletting, as Lord Time is nothing but purely
homicidal and sociopathic and best described as black metal for serial killers.
Each song is a morbid blast of sonic blackness, sometimes accompanied by a bludgeoning
bass and percussion storm underneath and song structures that are loose but the
sound itself is mechanical and inhuman. To me I hear maniacal rants of torture
and ecstatic confessions of abhorrent deeds, gritty punkish razor blade guitar
shrieks for chords, and no melody whatsoever-just utter necrotic insanity.
If you can stomach the abstract and often harsh sounds of
Glass Coffin, Wold, Bloodulv, Smoke, Sutekh Hexen, and Black Funeral with the
raw punkish black metal stomp of Dethroned Christ, early Darkthrone, early
Immortal… then Lord Time is a solid choice to pick up. Limited to only 200
copies, you’d better get one quick.
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