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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Diseased Oblivion - Portals of Past and Present




The subliminal undertones spread across this miasma of noise and blackened funeral drudge is enough to send even the most stable mind into convulsions. A heavy load of fuzz and static drenched guitars creep across the outer layers but underneath the harshness lays a foreboding post-apocalyptic nihilist's utopia of lingering burnt out bomb shelters and blasted out monuments to mankind's folly. The fog of war blows gently across a vast landscape, leaving the listener to stare into the distance for half an hour, soak in the radiation, and melt away.

To order email: Orion_metalhead@hotmail.com

CTP - 002 - I (QTY = 100 Copies) $4.00




I realize that it can be expensive for me to ship product overseas so if you are from the UK or Europe, you can email Kieran from Slaney Records who will be distributing my releases in the EU. He is in the middle of getting his website up but interested parties can email me to get his email address until I can link to his distro. Additionally you can pick up the Maximum Oversatan demo from him as well.



REVIEWS

03/14/2012 - Metal Archives - Zodijackyl

Diseased Oblivion assemble an interesting mix of harsh dark ambient noise and blackish metal. The first two tracks have more harsh ambience, while the latter tracks (recorded in earlier years) have a doomier feel. Throughout, it's quite raw and rough, though appropriately so.

The first two tracks weave in and out of reverberated mechanical noises and black metal segments. On their own they're good for what they are, but they feel disjointed when it shifts from one style to another. The noise builds a great atmosphere, but it's uncomfortably pieced with sections of music that feel like tangents in the longer piece.


The funeral trudge of "Ghosts Of Nuclear Winter" grinds on as industrial noises and deep sirens are layered over it, building up from one piece to a thick layer of distorted sounds. The doomy atmosphere is certainly the band's strength, maintaining and increasing it from minimal to heavily layered instrumentation.


The production fits the music throughout - quite noisy and rough most of the time, but that's good for this. The songwriting is really stretched for the longer tracks, and the noise is better paired with rather than separated from the traditional instrumentation.


I realize it's only a demo, but it feels incomplete in places. Strengths and weaknesses show, the band could improve with stronger songwriting and embracing the blackened doom thing they have going, or they could drift into oblivion with the lengthy noisy tracks. The first two tracks were recorded in 2011, the third in 2010, and the fourth in 2009. Take the portal to the past.


 05/03/2012 - Metal Archives - Rotting_Christ_Mike

The name of the band instantly grabbed my attention and after reading the genre which they play, I thought that I should definitely check out their music. What better way than listening to their recent demo? I quickly snagged a copy of this and what came out of my stereo was exactly what I expected when I saw the album cover.

There is this futuristic feel to the music, but the future seems rather desolate and empty. 'The Unquenchable Hurt ' starts off with a relatively long intro, which is really haunting and not boring at all. Once the drums kick in, the beast is unleashed. Slow, doomy riffs and rock-solid drum beats drive the song and start off what appears to be an excellent demo by this relatively new band. The noise samples which appear frequently are the cherry on top of this delicious piece of music. I must say that I notice a difference between the first two tracks and the last two tracks. As noted on the cover of CD, these songs were written at different points of time, which explains the stylistic changes. The most recent tracks, the first two, are more riff-based while still retaining the doomy atmosphere and mechanical feel of the two earlier tracks which are more ambient/noise driven.

Although there
are some stylistic variations within the demo, and although at times it can feel a bit disjointed, this makes for a rather interesting listen and I enjoy both styles equally. That means that whichever of the two approaches the band takes with its future releases, I will be pleased. The major advantages of the demo is the noisy production (which suits the music perfectly) and the intense atmosphere which is emphasized by the droning nature of the music. Special mention goes to the perfectly placed noise samples/ambient passages, the solid riffs and the skillful drumming.

I'm pretty sure that many people are bound to find the sound of Diseased Oblivion really great and I can see a bright future ahead of the guys. All I can say to the band is to keep up the good work, and consider me a
fan.


06/28/2012 - Metal Core Webzine 

All this was to me was a bunch of senseless guitar and keyboard parts that sounded like a storm was approaching. It is one riff repeated over and over with some guy just growling very low into a mic saying nothing every now and then. It sounds like a thunderstorm to me with the vocals being the lighting. To me this isn’t even music and I can’t see how anybody would even like this at all. This I can say is the worst black metal shit I have ever heard in my 25 years of reviewing metal.

 09/17/2012 - Aristocrazia Webzine (Translation avilable on site)
 A molti lettori il monicker Diseased Oblivion potrebbe risultare pressochè sconosciuto: il duo statunitense composto da Drew e Styv è di relativa recente formazione (2009) e ha all'attivo una discografia rappresentata da quattro split, una compilation e il demo di cui mi accingo a parlarvi. Styv, però, è un artista già comparso sulle nostre pagine: egli è, infatti, il mastermind del progetto Reclusa al cui riguardo, nell'anno passato, ebbi il piacere di scrivere in occasione dell'uscita del debutto,.

Ciò che i Diseased Oblivion propongono in "Portals Of Past And Present" non si distacca di molto, a livello concettuale, dall'intransigenza morbosa e pachidermica che già riscontrai nel disco poc'anzi richiamato.
"Unquenchable Hurt" e "Reclusa Eternus" sono pezzi costruiti su fitte atmosfere droniche dai tratti desolanti e quasi meccanici a cui viene aggiunto un riffing intenso e frequentemente al limite con il Doom; la combinazione di tali fattori innalza un'impenetrabile barriera catacombale, la quale viene anche sormontata da una coltre profondamente e claustrofobicamente oscura.


Non esiste alcun occhio di riguardo nei confronti dell'accessibilità all'ascolto, non vi sono compromessi e la macchina Diseased Oblivion ha come unico obbiettivo quello di stritolare e annerire ogni residuo di umanità.
La dimostrazione lampante della succitata volontà decostruttrice ci perviene da "Blackhole Funeral III" e "Ghosts Of Nuclear Winter" che potremmo semplicisticamente immaginare come vortici infidi ed avvolgenti di progressioni rumoristiche, riverberi industriali e chitarre dilanianti che stringono inevitabilmente in una morsa gelida ed incorruttibile.


La voce effettata di Styv (che, per rendere l'idea, più che una voce pare molto più simile ad una eco dagli Inferi) contribuisce notevolmente a rendere ancora più asettica e maligna quella tensione vibrante di alienante insania che emerge durante l'ascolto.


Ai fini della mia analisi non è utile mettersi a dissertare sulla scena Black Metal americana (o, se preferite, USBM) in quanto Diseased Oblivion non è ascrivibile a tale corrente; certo, la provenienza è quella ma le composizioni del duo si distaccano da tale ambito e vanno a collocarsi in una dimensione isolata, generata unicamente da una folle ed inumana agonia.


I portali del passato e del presente sono aperti e i peggiori incubi che vi erano rinchiusi stanno sorgendo: ci condurranno in un futuro in cui rimpiangeremo ciò che ora riteniamo doloroso perchè, a quel punto, le nostre attuali sofferenze saranno gioiose delizie estatiche.


10/10/2012 - Destructive Music


“Portals of Past & Present” is the debut demo release from American Black/ Doom Metal band DISEASED OBLIVION! Despite being the bands debut demo, “Portals of Past & Present” actually follows up from three split releases as well as a compilation, so the band have been busy since their 2009 inception.

Starting this four track and nearly thirty minute demo under way is “The Unquenchable Hurt” which begins slowly, with an Industrial sounding repetitive noise, rolling over and over you in waves! Spikes of deafening, silence piercing noise hit with deadly accuracy, menacing you for what seems like an age before finally the slow, methodical drum beats march onto the scene and the death like growl from the vocalist rumbles forth from the bowels of an excessively dark and sinister sounding abyss! Slowly and in a manner that can only be described as calculating the music picks up, struggling and wriggling free of this oppressive atmosphere with which Diseased Oblivion are the creator! As more time passes the vitriolic moods and the angst ridden emotions are slowly, painstakingly slowly, released in a slow motion eruption of bile, sweat, regret and bitterness!

“Black Funeral III – The Vacant Earth” brings a semblance or normality to the bands sound with more methodical beats, a steady but ruthless style and a venomous edge to their play! “Ghosts of Nuclear Winter” re-introduces the cold chaotic noise that Diseased Oblivion utilize so effectively, almost like they are building a wall of evil and harmful sound effects to keep everyone out whilst the finale track “Reclusa Eternus” brings the bands fevered and unpredictable Doom element into play once more, entwined as it is with the bands cold hard steel of their Raw Black Metal core sound!

Malevolent, the word that bests describes this demo, but ever so effective! [8/10 - LUKE HAYHURST]

11/27/2012 - Goul's Grypt


From the dismal darkness of some obscure, long forgotten chasm in the depths of the earth came Diseased Oblivion in 2009. With them the duo brought ominous duo brought several incantations of enigmatic, arcane droning metal in the forms of black- and funeral doom metal. The sixth incarnation of Diseased Oblivion's music is found on the 4-track demo from 2012 entitled "Portals of Past and Present", which features songs from the very initiation of Diseased Oblivion in 2009 to some of their newer material from 2011.

The four tracks on Portals of Past and Present feature everything you could expect from a band of this type: Winter-like funeral soundscapes, eerie black abysses and abstruse ambience from the vastness of space. By pairing highly distorted guitars with profoundly cryptic noises the band achieve the bizarre atmospheres that their songtitles such as "Ghosts of Nuclear Winter" and "Blackhole Funeral III" paved the way for in the mind of listeners, and  throughout the retrospective experience of Portals of Past and Present does indeed see an interesting evolution in the band's sound.
As we progress back in time through the increasingly eerie, murky waters that are the sounds of Diseased Oblivion, the imposing blackened doom tracks grow ever more filthy, tenebrous and oddly threatening from the newest track "Unquenchable Hurt" through Blackhole Funeral III and Ghosts of Nuclear Winter and ultimately coming to a grinding, funeral-like halt with the death/doom-ish Reclusa Eternus, which is also the oldest song on the demo.

I recon that Diseased Oblivion are succesful in creating effectively mind-invading black-laden doom metal. The demo gives a fulfilling look into the still short career of the american duo and their compelling but very traditional take on the genre, but through competent songwriting (if their is such a thing in funeral doom metal) they manage to keep their music, all 3 years of it, convincingly decent to make it worth listening to. 7/10 guitars.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Velnias Interview Uploaded


For those who wanted to check out the Velnias Interview I did at the end of last month, you can download the whole thing here. Also, be sure to check out the other interviews I've done on the archives page here. Thanks again to Petras and Velnias for an awesome show and great interview. Their album, Sovereign Nocturnal is worth finding and listening to over and over and over again.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Horrifier - Grim Fate

This one was a long time coming, and I think I was hesitant on reviewing an album which was really a labor of love from a good friend of mine. You know, I don't want to hurt feelings or anything but after being given the go ahead to rip and tear stuff to shreds without any kind of consequence I decided to lay out my feelings honestly. To be transparent, I know Joe Potash, guitarist and founder of Horrifier extremely well. I play bass in Primeval Realm, his doom project but I've known Joe for a long time prior to that. I also know bassist Amadeusz pretty well also. Let's just say I'm good friends with the band. With that said "Grim Fate" exhibits the attributes of an album which had a lot going for it but, at least for me, failed to be as gripping as it should have or probably could have been. For many fans of traditional metal though, I could see this being adored universally, and rightly so. Even though I have some minor grievances with some of the subtleties of the album, it's a strong representation of the resurgence of interest in traditional metal here in the United States.

Musicianship on the album is generally spectacular. Everything is cleanly played, excellently recorded and sounds one thousand percent professional. Particularly of note are the solos across the album, showcasing Potash's guitar playing virtuosity. The leads are all well crafted, and revitalizes the later tracks such as "Decisive Victory" and "Grim Fate." Amadeusz and guitarist Joe Hoyer successfully tackle the rhythm section which is rounded out with a myriad array of drummers. Hoyer also has a handful of solos across the album which match up with Potash's as well as I would expect possible from the pool of guitarists we have here in New Jersey. Potash drums on four of the eight tracks. Gary Breza drums on the other four remaining songs and Greg Seymour of Iced Earth notoriety lends some time on the ol' drumaroos during the introduction to the seventh track, "From Beyond The Grave," in a preamble titled "Exordium." The vocal performance of Potash on the album is of varying quality throughout and is the weakest area as far as the musicianship is concerned. Though doubtless the effort and emotion is there, the vocals retain a certain monotone underlayment that sounds stressed and uncomfortable in the role. The addition of more-than-usual amounts of reverb on the vocals for this style of music also adds to the previously mentioned possible lack confidence in his own vocals.

The songs are generally well written with, "Premonition," the third track, being the first real noteworthy track. It follows a slightly repetitive introductory track and second opening song which I have issues with for the purposes of album pacing. Second song "E.B.E.", which is short for Extraterrestrial Biological Entity (The song is about aliens or something), is slow and plodding and speaks to Potash's fondness for doom more than his fondness for thrash and traditional metal. "Premonition," however, is catchy and flows extremely well. Though I don't know how effective the usage of the bass playing the intro riff is, the song is strongly executed. Potash and Hoyer prove their axe-wielding ability as the song passes through the solo section and the bridges which include several great riffs. With fourth track, "True Metal Never Rusts!," the album falters.

It falters not because of "True Metal..." being a bad track but being such a great metal anthem that the rest of the tracks have a hard time living up to it's glory. The actual content of the song, at least lyrically, is clever to a point that it's hard to believe no one has written the song before. This particular track reminds me of current Heavy Metal product from Italy or Germany. Speaking of which, this is the song that when played in a European country, drunken headbangers would absolutely go nuts over. The song has the best riff of the album after the second chorus and also reeks of attitude which the other tracks don't seem to match. Two solos clamor for your attention but if there is one aspect to this track which is lacking compositionally, it's that the two solos are not back to back but separated in the middle, creating the best example of where the album makes a common mistake - the addition of an unnecessary riff or repetition. A third solo culminates at the end of a song which is more than the sum of the rest of album's parts.

"Decisive Victory" is adequate and fun but haphazardly structured. Instead of being streamlined and simplified, additional riffs with little real meaning stand in the way of the album having two top notch songs back to back. Still, those with a less critical ear or beer-filled gut would most likely go retarded over the track. What I absolutely LOVE about the track is it's lyrical content, centering around both Potash's and my own state's historical importance during the Revolutionary War. The song depicts the events of the Battle Of Trenton, when the American Army defeated the British and changed the momentum of the Revolutionary war. "Grim Fate" follows properly but not outstandingly. It has a neat interlude-like instrumental section halfway through with some Maiden-esque harmonies.

The album resolves with Exordium / From The Beyond The Grave and Stalingrad. From Beyond The Grave is pretty much filler material but Exordium is a neat jam with Seymour on drums and Potash showcasing some nifty acoustic guitar playing and lead work. Stalingrad ends the album on a downer for me. While the song opens with a cool bass line which I always enjoy, the song ends the album with mediocrity. It's like Maiden closing out Powerslave with "Losfer Words." The song is fast but doesn't really do anything for me as a grand finale to the album. "Grim Fate" would have been a better closing track or even "Premonition." Ultimately, I guess my biggest gripe would be the order of the tracks themselves. The album opens with a decent intro but then drops into a meandering plodding track afterward. It's not until the fourth track that the album really starts for me and by that time, half the album is gone already.

At just under thirty seven minutes, the album is pretty short and I think would have benefited from another strong track in the vein of "Decisive Victory" or "True Metal..." both of which hearken back to Jag Panzer, early Iced Earth and the glory days of US Power Metal. One of my more arguable and possibly trite condemnations of the album is that the songs that showcased the USPM leanings of the album proved that the transition from Horrifier's more thrashy beginnings had not completely been finished and that the conflict of the two styles presents us with a less focused final product. I would have loved to see what Grim Fate would have been if the transition into a full fledged USPM / Heavy Metal band had been realized. For me, the most defining attribute of Horrifier's Grim Fate is that it came from New Jersey. It proves to the world that while some of the most awful crap has been spewing forth from the Garden State's borders for past decade or so, there is no hint of our true metal rusting away.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Clamfight Live At Champs


Check out the awesome performance of Clamfight from last week at Champs in Trenton. Killer set and awesome performance. Download the entire performance Here or from the audio archive page. Thanks again to Sean, Andy, Joel and Louis for an awesome show.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Store update

Added the following items to the store:

Mortum - The Rites Of Depopulation CD - $10.00
Mortum - Beyond Which Darkness Holds Secret CD - $5.00
Mortum - Logo Patch - $1.00