Arkona - Raw Years 1993-1995

This compilation of Arkona's early demo material and unreleased tracks from the recording of their second album, Zeta Reticuli, showcases how this Polish band was at it's heart a little goofy and yet still was capable of crafting interesting albeit slightly bizarre black metal. Arkona's Raw Years 1993-1995 captures what would become an important band in the Polish scene in their infancy. What is even more significant is the insight this release gives to what Eastern Europe's black metal scene began as. Arkona were one of the first Polish black metal bands and one of the earliest in the east. While most bands fizzled out relatively quickly, Arkona were able to tough out what must have been difficult early years and take a stab at putting out some material. The songs can come across as superfluous with the usage of keys and the drums add a level of pomp rarely scene in other scenes.

With that said this is a must have tape for anyone heavily invested and interested in Polish black metal, especially the formative years. The quantity of ideas here, even if their execution is of questionable quality, is enough to warrant thought and consideration. As mentioned, the drumming is particularly 'out there' and very atypical with strong triplet snare hits and a martial and authoritarian personality. Many of the guitar riffs are two part constructs which fluctuate between two main notes and root notes. The exception to these rules is the first track which is also from those Zeta Reticuli sessions forenamed. It's of a different quality - a better quality overall - but it's also the least interesting and most generic because of the lack of the characteristics of the other tracks.

The real meat of the album begins with second track "Victims of Gore." Kicking off several tracks from the unreleased The Unholy War demo, we are able to experience some of what makes this release a unique listen: back and forth melodies and weird militant drum beats. "The Unholy War," the demo's title track is superior in this style with excellent vocals spat out by Messiah. "Follow Me... And Be Amazed," other than having a title which Richard Simmonds should have used on one of his Jazzercize vhs tapes, is one of the more commanding tracks, once again making use of triplet drum patterns and marching percussion to create a military-like atmosphere. A music video should have been made for this in the style of "Call of the Wintermoon." Even a strong melody on guitar makes itself known. Somehow, this is my favorite track on the whole tape. From the very beginning it captures the imagination of these early black metal years, when everything was still new and a bit special from these parts of the world. The slight rhtyhms and muffled nostalgia here adds to the whole experience.

Keyboards appear for the first time on "Sacred Iced and Bloody Tears." They sound like a Fischer-Price kids toy. This silliness is followed by a cover of Mussorgsky's "Ice In My Heart." Not being able to find a version of the original but being able to find other material from In Harmony With The Universe, I can only say it's an interesting conundrum. Arkona here are covering a track which was essentially written by Arkona (Mussorgsky was made up almost entirely of Arkona members) but under a different band name. They are still officially calling it a cover though. As an educated guess, the original would be much more industrial sounding and contain no black metal influences at all.  The keys are also present on tracks seven and eight - different versions of songs from the An Eternal Curse of the Pagan Gods demo. These come across as somewhat generic black metal however the keys give "W Cieniu Umierających Wierzb" a creepy vibe. The faster "Barbarzyński Ogień Wichrowych Wzgórz" also has some keys though they are brief. This song is mainly notable for it's faster pace. Both tracks have windy and stormy atmospheres.

The release ends with a rehearsal track, "Przyszły Zdrajca Chrześcijańskiej Masy" which was originally on Arkona's debut Bogowie Zapomnienia demo as a proper track. The rehearsal here has two takes of the song. It's an unnecessary addition really though the addition of a live rehearsal of the band might be of interest to die-hards. Ultimately, the tape finishes a bit weak with these other tracks. The track from The Unholy War demo are the real gems here for their personality.

My writing - to know which side was what. The original tape is just a black shell.

Pendulous - Mirrored Confessions

When I listen to metal, I like to connect my audio system up to a lie detector machine to see whether bands truly feel their lyrics, or if it is all just an act for the sake of aesthetics. Pendulous’ “Mirrored Confessions” is my new standard for complete truth, because the heartfelt music on this EP is completely overflowing with genuine doomy sorrow. This feeling is primarily conveyed through the somber singing of E.R.M., but the entire band works well together to create an emotionally weighty release of slow and solemn metal.

This dirge of an EP essentially has two songs with the first being the most striking. There, E.R.M. belts out spectacular vocals that are morose and carry the dulness of muted emotions rather than a lack of musical inspiration. Having the listener feel that the music’s mood is suppressing emotion rather than emotion being absent from the performance is a fantastic achievement because the same approach could have easily resulted in vocals that appear disinterested. This contrasts Pendulous from much of metal’s “sad” music because the band effectively communicates that mood rather than trying only to embody its dullness. While this particular trad-doom clean vocal style is only one part of E.R.M.’s approach, its nasal and almost off-key style is so powerful that these parts unquestionably become the EP’s centerpoints.

Without that particular vocal style the band may not be as flashy, but is still good quality doom. Smooth oohs and aahs also contrast with death growls and the band matches these changes in intensity by dextrously switching between clean guitars ringing out single notes and crushing stretches of power chords. In pulling away from an utterly heavy wall of doom, the band controls both the pacing and mood through musical variety and tension. Importantly, a strong sense of continuity is pretty clear while the band makes these transitions. Note how the solo in “Reflections” mirrors the riff preceding it and how the melody on “Seeds” is preserved as the band switches from clean to distorted guitars. A less visible, but important, part of the band’s cohesion and doomy mood is J. Spitzer’s ability to drum with both variety and restraint. Making an easy rolling feel out of songs that are 9 ½ and 7 ½ minutes long isn’t easy, yet the percussion here doles out triplets at the ends of riffs over and over without getting boring. This pulsing, along with appropriates fills, combines with the more subdued beats to give the EP enough heft to carry the weight of its slow material.

As a closing note, the 20-something minute EP is bookended by what would seem on paper to be really bad ideas - two spoken word depressive monologues. These monologues are sparse with only light somber background tones/sounds in what is an otherwise unadorned approach. No cackling crows, distant thunder, or heavy vocal processing, just a sad story - and one that feels honest and true because of this straightforward delivery. Immediacy is reinforced in the outro by sounds of bells, clocks, and swishing liquid all to show the passing of time. This is incredibly refreshing where many bands, i.e. dsbm, romanticize negative emotions to the point where it is hard to believe they actually ever felt them. Negative emotions aren’t commodities or fun, they are awful and the band is great for tactfully capturing and communicating that awfulness. These genuine intro and outro tracks help to set the EP’s mood and are worth listening to despite not being particularly musical. Doomy context for an emotive and strong EP.

CTP - 004 - II: Aeternus - Beyond The Wandering Moon Patches

Official Aeternus - Beyond The Wandering Moon artwork patches. 4" x 4".

$6 USA / $7 ROW. Postage Paid. Limited to 100 copies.

Venom - Cast In Stone

Venom is a band whose contributions to metal are so powerful that it is difficult to accept that they are also guilty of releasing “Cast In Stone.” The year was 1997, and with worm Castings on Stone the band released their first full-length album to showcase the Cronos-Abaddon-Mantas lineup since “Possessed” back in 1985. Reuniting with the same intensity, chemistry, and passion displayed by a divorced couple chatting while picking up their children from a neutral location, Venom offers definitive proof that an all star lineup can mean absolutely nothing. Sometimes people wonder how bad music can really be when everything is produced fine and everyone pretty much knows how to play their instruments - this is the answer. While production and performance traits are typically regarded as strengths, they only make things worse here by allowing Venom to more clearly convey how awful the album is. Don’t waste your time listening to this. Each one of the 14 songs is awful, each riff is awful, and each syllable gargling or growling out of Cronos’s mouth is awful. Ideas like “passion” and “feel” can be really intangible with music until you hear an album like this that is completely lacking in both. As the band goes through the motions of making music, everything becomes so predictable that you essentially suffer through the entire faux-Venom album just by hearing the first note. Similar to post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Venom probably reunited for around one hour and simply recorded the meeting because there couldn’t have been any premeditated thought behind writing these songs. This process would have meant that everyone was on the same page musically, so the band had to devolve into predictable, pathetic, and poppy song structures and rock pastiches. Now, no one can accuse Venom of having ever been a technical band. But, when you have endless pop-rock styled “hooks” in your songs and pandering choruses, it is a depressingly far cry from the band’s influential and edgier past. Compare the gang chants on the infantile song “Infectious” that stupidly spurt out each of the word’s syllables “In” “fec” “tous” every fifteen seconds, with the classic “Teacher’s Pet” where gang chants of drunken revelry create the sense of genuine juvenile lust and ribaldry. This album is a shamefully bald attempt to go in a more commercial route to become popular again. On each song you can tell which small bit of crap you are supposed to remember and shout to your headbanger friends. Interviews from around the time even show Abaddon citing Marilyn Manson as an influence. If that doesn’t make you reach for the nearest antacid to counteract the vomit in the back of your throat, then maybe this album is for you. But when you have shit like the two notes that make up half of “Domus Mundi” farting around until the sun explodes, it is hard to imagine anyone liking this. (That particular song also has an appearance of “shitty 90’s robot voice,” which for those too young to know, was a megaphone type vocal effect used to ruin songs before musical criminals adopted autotune.)

There is a rocky path for a band once on the extreme end of metal trying to become relevant again as quickly and effortlessly as possible. First, Venom starts ripping unrelated pages out of books like “stock rock riffs that people who hate metal think are heavy” and “song structure for the cognitively impaired” then throws these page into an ugly hat to write the next song. I challenge anyone not to become irritated after the 500th time that: Cronos says “You’re All Gonna Die,” Mantas plays the same pentatonic guitar solo again, or the band uses an obviously stock song idea. For examples of the default-setting nature of the album you don’t even need to look further than the song intros. Clean intro? Check, “Destroyed & Damned.” Drumroll intro? Check, “All Devils Eve.” Breathing intro? Check, some other shitty song. And there’s more to hate! Each one of these intros is completely uninspired and could have been taken from a small cheap sound library and pasted before the songs that also might themselves be compiled from a rotten sound library. This sense of automation is so strong in the songwriting that it would seem like the band was engaging in self-parody - that is if it weren’t so obviously poppy mainstream pandering. One interesting thing is how parts of the album manage to stick out as particularly musically repulsive in an album that has so little musical merit. In fact, the especially awful parts are the only thing clearly showing that the rest of the album is a step above worthlessness.

Even the cliched Eastern mood of the final outro serves as another wink to the listener that says “look at us, we are safe, please buy our album.” Imputing these kinds of selfish motivations onto a series of notes is completely justified here because of how enjoyably filthy Venom used to be. For those who haven’t suffered enough and need more proof, there is also a bonus CD metastization of re-recorded songs that really help to show how a band can destroy songs without playing any notes incorrectly or making productions mistakes. The intro to the second CD is also helpful as an obvious sign of the band’s attitude when they have a spooky voice announce “Ladies and Gentlemen, from the very depths of Hell, Venom!” A window into the band’s thoughtprocess “we are still relevant, look how 90’s tough we are, pay attention” and a stark contrast from the moody monologues from the band’s past. To be clear though, the band’s past doesn’t make this album any worse or better, Castings on Castings would still be an awful abomination of pop ethos imposed onto formulaic metal if an unknown band had released it. That would be fitting too, because this release deserves to be unknown. I’m going to bury this album at the bottom of a 10-pound vat of hemorrhoid cream. That way, if I ever get a hemorrhoid so severe that I need to use ten pounds of cream, I can make myself feel better by seeing Castings at the bottom, all creamy, and thinking: “hey, things could be worse.”

Severed Receptors - Severed Receptors

I never thought I would hear back from the Psychobliss crew after the Dreams of Dystopia incident. I reached out to Dan Stollings during that time to let him know we'd love to hear his next output and there were no hard feelings meant. I never actually expected to be contacted. There was a single new Psychobliss track after the EP that made it's way onto YouTube that actually seemed to indicate some progression in the right direction and then all went dark for a bit. Severed Receptors is the current incarnation of Psychobliss. The name change is appropriate, as the band sounds a whole lot different here. Severed Receptors, the self titled debut is a step in the right direction for the band sonically. However, it's weird. I actually found Psychobliss to be more entertaining, even if Severed Receptors is technically a much better effort. Psychobliss was a really weird textural presentation that failed with the force of a pumpkin being hurled into the air by a trebuchet and consequently coming to rest embedded in the car windshield of the siege device's operator. But at least it was weird. Severed Receptors is generic in many ways, even if it outwardly doesn't appear so. The melodies and rhythms are straight out of the early 00's wave of bands that had that groovy kind of Gothic and dark sound. Within Temptation, Leaves' Eyes... Tristania and Evanescence... the list runs on.

To touch on specific songs, "I Become The Night," has the most memorable intro, but it stands out from a lot of the other tracks in that there is nothing anywhere else on the release that is as memorable or even comes close to being as strong of a hook. It reminds me of some of the slower, catchier parts of Israthoum's Black Poison and Shared Wounds. Opening track "Nothing Remains" is the most black metal track here but the repetitiveness is a bit obnoxious. "Blood Descendants" is basically Evanescence with some screamed parts. Kyla's clean vocals are best on "Ruins of Eden" and she definitely sounds a lot stronger as a vocalist but there is still a sense of reservedness. In some moments, such as midway though this track where she more-than-less talks her way through the lyrics, her vocals can sound a bit amateurish. Her screamed vocals aren't exceptional in any way, can be a bit monotonous, lack inflection and be held back by the strict rhythmic patterns she presents. More flow would add some emotion and depth to what is essentially presented as the standout feature of the release. The music is generally a salad to feature her vocals. Dan Stollings once again offers some vocals, here in "Cold and Callous," which aren't too bad.  On Dreams... he sounded impish, sickly, shy and nasally all at once so it's a big improvement. Another standout aspect of Severed Receptors are some of the in between song ambiance and atmosphere, which is actually done really well but might be over-used. It cuts up the flow and pacing. Some tracks would be best to simply just launch into, like "I Become The Night."

If the Stollings and their now complete band can imbue some of the strange timbres and textures of the Psychobliss material, with the better production and the simple verse-chorus form evidenced in the Severed Receptors material and still somehow manage to incorporate some of the moodiness, they'd have a much more original and distinguishable sound. Still, I don't see this appealing to fans of black metal, or to anything particularly avantgarde, since the material isn't complex or inventive. It's really only going to be enjoyed by fans of the above mentioned bands that want something a little heavier but are too afraid to delve into the real underground. If Severed Receptors can find some sway with these listeners through radio or mainstream publications, their name might become a common utterance in the halls of middle schools and amongst teenagers sporting too-baggy black jeans, wallet chains and spiked chokers. To be fair though, I haven't seen anyone in a hot topic in years and, unfortunately, there is a possibility that Severed Receptors has missed their chance to cash in on this trend.

I was originally going to correlate the whole Stollings / Psychobliss / Severed Receptors saga to the classic 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein but I felt it was going to be too much of stretch to cast Dan Stollings as Dr. Frankenstein's Monster and Kyla as The Monster's Mate since I couldn't really figure out who Dr. Frankenstein would be played by. Abstractly, Dr. Frankenstein could be represented by Severed Receptors - the band as a single entity - and the band actually created the monsters out of two people who prior were normal. It was a humorous thought for me to think of it that way but because this was better than I expected, I can't really call the Stollings' monsters anymore. They're more like Harker and Mina of Dracula fame. Let's hope Van Helsing shows up at some point to remedy some of their musical woes.

Treeweaver - Spirit Worlds

After a brief intro consisting mostly of circusy laughter that may well have been sampled from an episode of the Goosebumps tv show, Treeweaver briefly unveils a wild jangling of riffing with fast paced, energetic, and off kilter notes. This demo could be described as psychedelic black metal. There is an odd and almost keyless melodic approach involving big jumps and exceptionally wide vibrato notes. Reinforcing this mood is how the percussion is clearly programmed, but comes across more like a drum machine. Fortunately, it gives the release a slight industrial edge more often than a cheap one. However, while “Spirit Worlds” has some interesting ideas, they are too sparse, disconnected, and also frontloaded (especially with how the first track is so much stronger than the others.) This scattered fourteenish minute long demo can easily be seen as an ill omen for the project’s future.

An infatuation with homogenized rhythm is a major problem here, and it cuts away the strength of the more intricate melodies. For example, there can only be so many constant eighth note snare or other percussion hits holding hands with changing guitar notes in a song before things get irritating, see “Silencing Void Dweller.” Treeweaver essentially takes a black metal approach in this sense, but isn’t quite black metal enough to build that familiar and imposing soundwall. The result is that the disjointed melodies don’t translate in the same satisfying way that you’d hear from a more heavily industrial black metal approach or a more tremolo oriented band pulling off the same kangaroo melodic jumps. Nightbringer is a better example of the latter. Treeweaver could also benefit from a more rhythmic approach as the melodies lend themselves to a more ample use of rests and varying note lengths.

A minor, but revealing issue is how the third track’s intro is not at all incorporated with rest of the song, and sits as a textural experiment included almost as an afterthought, like an awkward acquaintance that should have been cropped out of a photograph. In the more interesting pieces, the songs maintain energy while touching wild heights yet retaining a heavy low contrast. For example, in “Death Stares Back” this comes through by having eccentric riffs that sometime connect well together, and their high energy helps level out the natural aversion to the overly random chromatic flavor.

On the production end, each instrument eschews bass tones; the crows-stuck-in-a-sewer-drain vocals, guitars, and even the snare heavy kit. Treeweaver ought to throw some more toms into the beats and pour some Budweiser on the sickly bass because this demo desperately needs a thicker low end. Even the lower growling vocals feel thin in this way, which also adds to the industrial black metal feel but subtracts from the music.

Even though the melodies could be technically called dissonant, it is better to think of them as tangential, since that carries less musical connotations. The closest comparison may be something like Trey Azagthoth trying to emulate Furze or Brown Jenkins, especially given healthy population of feral guitar solos that help break up the more intractable riffs. These solos fit really well despite the fact that the riffs have little in common with Morbid Angel other than being metal.

Overall, “Spirit Worlds” is interesting, but this neutral demo’s flaws leave me skeptical. Sure, there is obvious creativity here but it is poorly executed to the point where there is little satisfying momentum to speak of.

Endsight - A Vicious Circle

Ensight are a metalcore/melodic death metal band, pretty much the epitome of the stuff that's called "Gothencore." While I don't normally cite the press quotes in a review, this band's style is characterized by how they fall short of their influences. They play some sort of streamlined metalcore following Killswitch Engage, but they lack the understanding of the function of the chorus - a recurring melodic hook that holds the song together from all sides. They also don't favor breakdowns, a simple groove element that holds together many of Killswitch's heavier songs. They hardly remind me of Darkest Hour - a cited influence and one of my favorite bands - they completely lack that sense of melody, keeping melody up mostly through some directionless string-skipped fragments and clean bits. Hardly a single melody is developed, never mind a sequence of them. That brings us to the primary influence of Gothencore, At the Gates. Despite being a relatively cookie cutter metalcore band, this band has none of the punkish energy necessary to drive the style. Yeah, they copy a few ATG riffs, but they feel more stale than the pure worship of Casketgarden. The plastic production really doesn't help the lack of energy, it's way too clean yet hardly forceful.

Endsight focuses on a lot of slightly atmospheric chordal riffs that are common in hardcore and metalcore to set the tone and build a feeling within a song, but they alternate them hastily with directionless and mismatched string skippers. Neither of those has much effect, there are a few moments when it feels like they might be getting on the right track, but they never get there. Part of it is that the band has little sense of dynamics - even if the drum speed is halved, they don't feel like they slow down. The production feels like an amateur tried to do something halfway between Devin Townsend's wall of noise on Undoing Ruin and Adam D's typical metalcore production and it doesn't hit the sweet spot of either. Worst of all, the vocalist is painfully monotonous.

Bottom line, it's bland metalcore and it doesn't even have the genuine feel of the real-deal American metalcore copycats who did this nearly a decade ago. At least it's not djent.

News!

Alright... So it's been a while since I updated the site and the lurkers of the underground with news about what's going on. Let's get right down to it with the two newest Contaminated Tones releases.

Last week the pre-order period for the Intolerant - Live Intolerance (CTP - 017 - L) tape ended and the tape was officially released. Thanks for all that pre-ordered the release. You already are enjoying some nasty raw black metal. Those that didn't pre-order the tape can pick it up now for $5.00.

What you CAN still get at preorder price of $3.00 is the brand new Clamfight - Thank You Delaware (CTP - 014 - L) tape. This tape features this foursome of New Jersey and Philly monsters hammering out tracks from both their 2010 debut, Vol. I as well as their recent second album I Vs The Glacier. Heavier than carrying a sack of ancient rocks around, Clamfight is an obelisk of monstrous doom and sludge. The tape will be two colors: a blue label and a standard black and white label. The blue labels are limited to the first 20 copies so if you're a collector and you need that limited edition... put one on hold now! Track off the tape below as well as the front cover artwork.

Also, the Midnite Hellion Live tape, Bitchin' At Champs! is of course available so grab a copy of that and their EP, Hour of the Wolf!

 Also on the docket are a few other merch items. I'll be revealing one of these at Maryland Deathfest so keep an eye out the week after for some of that stuff. Before that though, will be the long-awaited follow up to Maximum Oversatan's sold out Too Evil For Hell demo titled Satanic Invasion. Back and more over-the-top than ever, Maximum Oversatan is ready to speed into your soul and tear you apart from the inside out. The band is opening for the Mentors in July at The Paperbox in Brooklyn. Information on that show is available on the Show Listing and the official Facebook event page. Support Signature Riff, Maximum Oversatan and pure, unadulterated sin! For something closer, Tomorrow night the band plays in Philly. Flyer is below for that gig. Artwork for the demo will be revealed very soon.

Big things coming up later this year which I can't say yet since they are not set in stone but I have a feeling that once they are chiseled into certainty, there will be some seriously wide eyes out there. One thing that is certain is that there will be another Okketaehm release... when... I have no idea... but I was sent a half finished track sample from the band in the mail. I listened to it five times in a row in my car. Stones got a lot of great reviews but if the rest of this next release is as good as what I was sent, the release may make some best of 2014 or 2015 lists, depending on when the release comes out.

Also there will be plans for another pro-tape this year at some time from a band that Contaminated Tones has supported but not yet worked with professionally as far as the label side of things is concerned. In addition, any bands playing in the New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia region that wants their show listed on the show listing, let us know via email. Orion_metalhead@hotmail.com. I'm also looking for more bands interested in doing some live tapes. I've got some interest from a few places and with some known bands but I'm always looking for more stuff to do.

Along the same page, I've added wholesale prices to a lot of the CTP items. Also, Free Shipping in the USA if you buy three or more items. Wholesale on the live tapes is also available and it's mix-and-snatch so for $18 you can get five live tapes - just pick which ever you want. The more live tapes that get done, the more options to choose from! In the mean time, you can get an extra one for a friend or for trade or whatever. Something that might not be known about the live tapes but we actually pay the band for each copy sold a royalty that is equal to or greater than many contracts. The more copies of the live tapes sold, the more money that goes back to the artist.

Another thing, something I'm really proud of is that the Contaminated Tones Website is only 6000 views away from hitting 100,000 views. That's absolutely mind boggling for me. When I started this website in 2008, I never expected to have so many viewers from around the world reading the reviews, and interviews. Now, people are also buying stuff and Contaminated Tones continues to grow. I thank everyone that has helped in any way to make this successful. I receive about 15-30 promos a week for review digitally, I receive a handful of promos each week physically... Both Steve and Apteronotus have been a huge help the past year in helping create content and reviews for the site to keep our readers interested and up-to-date on some of the stuff coming out in the underground metal world. We will continue to honestly critique and review the material sent to us.

Thanks to the readers, metalheads and artists out there!

Hellgoat - End of Man

Hellgoat's End of Man EP is a super short release. It's only eight minutes long but for fans of war metal and more aggressive black metal, the two tracks will surely make you want to check out the rest of their discography. This American project has been pumping out throbbing blasts of vitriolic black metal since 2004 and have already built quite the discography. End of Man is more a single than an EP with "End of Man" seeming to be the focus of the release. It's shorter, and more emphasized. "Demonic Worship of the Horned Beast" is fronted by a long ambient intro and at the back door is another twenty second snippet of vocals. "End of Man" starts immediately. Closest comparisons I can give for Hellgoat would be Embrace of Thorns or Blasphemy with higher pitched vocals. The actual songs are quick and enjoyable though. Nasty and noisy bursts of speed with some slower doomy riffs mixed in and a sparse atmosphere. When you die, this is the music you want to accompany you to hell. You'll definitely make an entrance.

Murderbeast - A Call To Severed Arms

 

Murderbeast is another one of Armon Nicholson's projects. While Licrest and Yfel share some  similarities, the final vertex in his trifectum of musical projects sounds as if it could have  been written by a person in a far away land - especially the Phillipines where this kind of  second-rate gore-grind is such a massive export. Where Licrest and Yfel are married with their  blackened subtexts, Murderbeast is essentially a gore-grind-death metal-lite affair minus the  pseudo-shocking album art. It's like going to a bar and getting Miller Lite when you asked for  the bar's best beer. Yfel and, especially, Licrest are much better pours from Armon's tap. Fast  songs, down tuned guitars, brutal(ish) riffs with an element of groove and occasional screamed  accents are par for the course here and even though it's obvious how redundant the album ends  up, Armon performs admirably and respectfully on A Call To Severed Arms.

Chuck Norris Look-alike?

Six songs pass by in as many minutes and without any highlights. The first half of the twelve  song album - more like an EP in terms of run time - is found to be rather monotonous. Opening  track "Screaming Won't Stop The Torture" is less boring if only because it's the first morsel to  touch the tongue. The monotony continues for the second half of the release though two standouts  appear in at the ten and eleven spots. Tenth track "Morgue Feast" features some atonal  scratching techniques which separate the textural blandness of the previous tracks and it's  tailing track, "My Next Victim" features some similar riffing flourishes. I'm not entirely sure  these riffs weren't meant to actually be part of the same song at some point as they are the  only appearance of these techniques on the album.

Final track "Orgasm Through Vivisection" is a contender for the most-awkward-drum-beat-in-an- Armon-Nicholson-death-metal-album award. The verse riff, about as interesting as watching celery  suck up colored water in a third grade science project, is paired with attempted kick drum  variations that often run in contradiction to everything going on around them. I wouldn't say  for certain that they are technically out of time but if a Berkley Music Major told me they were  I wouldn't argue with them.

With an album cover that may have been a lost Jackson Pollock painting of a bloody sewer, groovy  death metal paired with a sludgy production and few highlights, Licrest and Yfel remain as  golden beacons in Armon's eclectic mix of projects. A Call To Severed Arms isn't a super witty  title and the music also isn't impressive. This will be tossed onto my shelf, collect dust, and  I don't see a need for removing it from it's cramped quarters anytime soon. Armon should focus  more attention on Licrest and, to a lesser extent, Yfel. Hopefully he got this out of his system  here.

CTP - 012 - L: Sacrificial Blood - Live At Sinclairs

 

 An hour of pissed off cruddy New Jersey Metal. Sacrificial Blood's mix of thrash, death metal and Heavy Metal is sure to light the fires of old school bangers and individuals with a taste for rebellion, aggression and unsavory attitudes. Contains fifteen tracks, three covers and just over an hour of unrefined energy. This is what happens when you send some guys from the Jersey Shore to Long Island. 

$5.00.

Sacrificial Blood Interview on new album Soul's For Sale as well as a bunch of other crap: Here

 

Agonised - Total Devastation

With Total Devastation, the 2013 demo from Agonised, listeners will be rewarded with proof positive of the still-existent love of Swedish death metal in this modern age. While the demo may seem short with only two original songs and a cover of Morgoth's "Sold Baptism," the two originals present are longer run-time than normal. Together clocking in at almost fourteen minutes, I don't feel ripped off time wise or quality wise with these tracks. They are of quite a high caliber. The efforts of lone Spaniard Bourbon Devastator, Agonised is poised to surprise death metal fans. Obviously there is a huge influence from bands like Grave and Entombed but also an eminent Asphyx flavor runs through the recording. Similarly, Bourbon shares more in common vocally with Van Drunen or John Tardy with his wretched slurred drawls slithering across riffs with ease. Released by Black Mass Records on cassette, this is surely a worthwhile demo to add to any collection, especially those with a love for the Swedish style. The guitar tone is classic, the riffs are memorable and defined and the performance of all instruments is well done. There is very little to complain about.

Opening the demo, an intro with some campy pitch shifted spoken vocals. "Putrid Thoughts" is the opening track really, then, and it starts out fast and with fervor mixing some tremolo riffs over faster thrash drum beats and thick HM2 drenched riffs. The song devolves into a crawl before long with some noise adding texture. At over five minutes long, it's a lengthy opening track but it remains interesting. A solo halfway into the track is reminiscent of Ashpyx. If a gripe exists, it's that the song remains slower too long. The demo's title track rounds out the originals nicely. It too is quite lengthy at eight minutes long but it retains a more mid-fast tempo longer. I might have preferred it as the opener on the demo but midway through the track a harmonized melody riff patiently drifts over long thick chords that end the original material quite nicely. I get a similar vibe with Agonised that I did with Deathevokation's debut demo, especially during these solo sections.

One noticeable aspect to the recording is that it is one-sided and might benefit from a second mind incorporating some different ideas into the songs. This is generic but in this case, it's not a bad thing since the tracks are strong and interesting. With a Morgoth cover rounding out the material, Total Devastation should turn a few heads that keep an eye out for these kind of releases. For those that don't, they're missing out on some great death metal with definite old school charm.

Cult of Fire - Ascetic Meditation of Death

At its heart, Cult of Fire’s “Ascetic Meditation of Death” is a normal black metal album and no amount of Hindi language, sitars, or chanting to Kali change that here. With that in mind, the album is still solid. The band doesn’t need anything special or unique to make good music, yet they manage to thoroughly incorporate some unorthodox sounds into the album. This isn’t like how garbage food marketed to children will often be the same thing as adult garbage food, but shaped like a tiger riding a surfboard or have a different color just for novelty’s sake. While having a fair amount of Hindu influence in their atmospheric styled black metal probably makes the band more marketable, Cult of Fire does more than just add a childish sprinkling of these influences. These elements are enjoyable and well blended, yet the band’s songwriting is still the true engine and that engine is black metal. “Ascetic Meditation of Death” likely could have just as easily had Cajun or Ainu influences if the band put their efforts in another direction. This is in contrast to bands like Melechesh or Negură Bunget, whose differentness and instrumental decisions are an integral part of their music. Cult of Fire’s strength comes primarily from a sense of atmosphere that doesn’t require overindulging in repetition. Naturally, their major weakness on this album is the tendency to stray from that strength and make lazy jam-band styled songs.   

Vocals here are similar to what you might hear from Agalloch, but with a harder driving edge and a more than ample varnish of reverb. This isn’t entirely surprising, given the blurry intersections between post and atmospheric flavors of black metal. Cult of Fire does a good job straddling those influences. On the post side: the seventh track has crystalline high soaring melodies, the eighth track could be some kind of “inspirational” new-age mediation song (not a compliment), and the fourth’s mood is nothing short of a contemptibly triumphant Hindu themed black metal sports montage. Despite all of this, the band never completely looses that sense of black metal grandeur for too long, where many similar bands devolve into limp-wristed post-rock. Yes, the tonal quality is warm, especially with the rounded off bouncy bass and flamboyant organ, yet the mood remains stern for much of the album. This happens because of the band’s overall sense of direction can include upbeat detours and rich flourishes that keep things interesting but without jeopardizing the guitar’s ample melody. Throwing the driving vocals on top of that melody gives the band a real sense of power and everything else is almost ornamental. The band’s approach is highly melodic, which is especially obvious with glissandi like the organ intro to track 2,  the high guitar flourish on track 3, and even in track 4’s cheesy piano interlude. What also helps this style breath is how the drummer is smart enough to know when not to blast.

The downside, to be blunt, tracks 4, 7, and 8. Lazy. Each one suffers from an overuse of repetition. At first glance it might appear from the chant-heavy fourth track and the sitar laden final track that the band is shoehorning hindu influences into their music and would be better off without them. This is not the case, as the band incorporates these ideas better elsewhere and track 7 has none of these influences but showcases the same problem. Cult of Fire is faltering in terms of song structure, and while the band maintains their pleasant sound throughout the album you can’t hide several minutes of trite chord progressions no matter how they are dressed up, if at all. With the last two tracks being problematic this way, it certainly gives off the impression that the band simple ran out of ideas and padded the album. To reiterate, these tracks don’t mar the album’s overall mood, but taken alone each one sucks. This might mean that they would have worked better with more dynamic material to provide context, track 4’s repetition could be generously viewed as a nice change-up if it were the only one of its kind. Instead the band is excessive with the happier breaks from their music. Even something like the fire sounds on track 2 works as a nice break even while other parts of the album feel forced (it says a lot when a band with the word fire in their name isn’t being awful while also using a sound recording of fire.)

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the band’s use of Hindu influences is some kind of revolutionary approach to metal, it isn’t. To repeat, Cult of Fire is a black metal band at heart; and continuing with the organ analogy their particular approach on this album is more like a gallbladder. It is useful, but you can be fine without it, yet no one wants to cut it out unless it becomes a problem. There are no gallstones here. What is more important than the gallbladder though is that Cult of Fire’s body as a whole is strong, if a bit overly fat due to fits of sedentary songwriting.

Chain Of Dogs - Burning Bridges In A World Of Death - De Ep's En Nog Get Mieë

 

Yesterday's Dictionary.com word of the Day was scherzo and while not totally "light or playful", Chain of Dog's take on the pagan metal style which was made so popular by bands like Finntroll is very much in line with the word. Burning Bridges In A World Of Death - De Ep's En Nog Get Mieë, not the most simplistic album title by anyone's measurement, is a mix of past recordings from this Dutch group. It compiles the bands two EPs: 2012's Deathworld and 2008's Bridgeburner as well as their self-titled demo minus a song, a remixed version of "Doa is mie Land" from their 2010 full length and finally an unreleased track. Burning Bridges is forty-seven minutes of frivolous sounding folky thrash. While the band frivols through the tracks impressive musicianship and finely crafted songs allow the strange combination of thrash and folk to at least be taken seriously. Whether its humpaa or a Celtic styled jig, the folk is in full effect across all the releases touched upon and Chain of Dogs tackles them all admirably.

It almost doesn't work though. If it weren't for the amazing violin work of Arne Gerits the album would fall about as flat as a pancake dropped from a high building. The simple instrumental texture it adds to rather mundane riffs and bland rhythms is a blessing for all the songs here. This is evident from first track, "D'r Zjwarte Hond va Krapoel" when, about halfway in, the song runs into an instrumental section which is highlighted by how boring it is without the violin playing. It's not just the violin that picks up the slack however, the band is at their best when incorporating the additional folk instruments into the songs. "Deathworld" uses a mandolin as well as the violin giving the track a very celtic feel and "Bridgeburners" shows Gerits' flute-playing skills. Even though the actual usage of folk instruments in terms of the songs' structures and arrangements remains generic, the end outweighs the means here.

As for a favorite track, I think "Blood Follows" is the strongest track here. Vocalist Olaf Nijssen has a gritty vocal timbre and across many of the songs I continuously keep thinking of Hansi Kursch. "Blood Follows" shows him being more versatile, with more melodic vocal sections and some screamed parts his accompaniment on the mandolin, though subtle is nice as well. In this song, though it remains folky and retains the pagan elements which Chain of Dogs is keen to explore, is just a little less happy-go-lucky and more serious. While not as thrashy as "Bridgeburners," the song which follows, the faster, thrashy ending rounds out the track nicely. Speaking of "Bridgeburners," Olaf sounds most like his Blind Guardian vocal-doppleganger in the verse sections and when he isn't screaming in what sounds like the agony of a thousand burning arrows to the sternum. In a bunch of the songs, we get some really quick spurts of yelled vocals influenced by the band's punk roots.

Weakest point for Chain of Dogs is the drumming of Keneth Martens or Niena Bocken or whoever played on the multiple released compiled. It seems like it's the band's stubborn enemy. A lot of the drumming just stands out as miserably uninspired and lazy. We are given four or five different beats across all the tracks. The thrashy parts continuously resort to snare-beating. There is a monotony to the percussion which emphasizes the monotony in the rhythms of a lot of the songs. For the few measures when the drums skip along in "'t Zjwatte Loak" is one of the few times we get some new looks with the drums. The Unreleased track that is on the album is only fifty-three seconds long. That's ridiculous. Chain of Dogs should have left this a pure compilation instead of add it on for whatever reason. It's not very good and really doesn't need to be here.

Battleroar - Blood of Legends

 

Power Metal can be background music or it can be foreground music. It's very often not both. Battleroar's Blood of Legends is both. While some of the album becomes just something to throw on while you're folding laundry or washing dishes, some moments do leave a more lasting impression in mostly favorable ways. The album can be a very European sounding release with all the additional bombastic instrumentation and choral arrangements but Battleroar have done well to remember that they are a Heavy Metal band and even with all the violins and added backing vocals, Battleroar are heavy enough and hard enough to appeal to those that don't buy into the whole European Power Metal sound that's been immortalized by bands like Rhapsody and Blind Guardian's recent releases. Battleroar don't follow that trend at all, which is a blessing. The band seems to draw more on pagan metal melodies instead of the more classically influenced symphonic power metal bands as well which makes Blood of Legends a less generic listen. The importance of Alex Papadiamantis' violin within the songs is not lost even on the least critical listener. What comes across inevitably is a very dramatic and epic power metal record that grows better with multiple listens and unfolds into a heavy-hitting Heavy Metal record.

From the introduction to first track "Stormgiven" we are placed into a narrative with a tense acoustic passage and sounds of wind and rain. Violin carries the track into the first heavy hitter, "The Swords are Drawn." While this main opener contains some of the epic components that latter tracks fully embrace, it's a relatively simple opening track and, after the grandiose intro, is a bit of a let down. The album really starts then with the excellent "Poisoned Well" which is immaculately crafted with the big slow verse riffs, violin melodies, and the big expansive vocal performance of Gerrit Mutz which blossoms at every moment. "Blood of Legends" picks up nicely, it's a faster track and it once again incorporates the violin nicely. It's tracks like these that makes you pick your head up and take notice. But it's tracks like "Immortal Chariot" that make you look down at the floor with your head between your toes. One of the most tedious tracks on the album, the fifth song seems to go on and on with vocalist Gerrit giving a wholesom performance but just repeating the miserable chorus over and over again to no end. It's the worst part of the album. Also not that enjoyable are some vocal moments in "Chivalry" that include some raspy vocals that don't seem to pair well and some shorter angsty vocals that also seem poorly executed.

After this mishap the album regains it's flavor though and songs like "The Curse of Medea" which makes more use of the violin and the excellent "Valkyries Above Us," which I'm leaning on as my second favorite track pick up the slack to prevent Blood of Legends from dropping off into no-man's-land. "Valkyries Above Us" is a true highlight though and much like "Poisoned Well" is massive and bombastic with huge drumming from Nick Papadopoulos and also some well placed bass licks from Stavros Aivaliotis. Big vocals during the chorus are chilling. Battleroar sounds their best here, with every member taking moments to shine in this track. A risky spoken word part at the end of the track does no harm and adds to the variety of the song. Guitarists Kostas Tzortzis and Antreas Sotiropoulos make a great tandem across the album. Big sounds, big melodies and some really great songs make Blood of Legends a serious must-have for fans of epic metal.

Agiel - Dark Pantheons

Agiel's Dark Pantheons EP is immediate. From the second this five-song romp starts, the listener is gifted with constant blasting rhythms accentuated by computer generated symphonies a platter of vocal techniques which, within the eighteen minute playtime, is concentrated enough to not become grating if still being boring. The overall effect of the keyboards, programmed sounds is not dissimilar to that of latter period Emperor. The production is very modern here and even with all possible methods to get a better mix and better timbre from instruments such as the drums and the bass - especially the bass which sounds more like a pile of slop than a stringed instrument - there is a muddiness that is present. Agiel's product: an over-the-top brutal death metal album that borrows some symphonic black metal elements and mashes them together to mixed effects. Parts of this five-song EP sound absolutely strong and engaging while others are stagnant and - for all the blistering speed and technique - boring.

This is best evidenced by the placement of the stronger "Deeds Rendered Upon The Flesh" between the weaker "The Awakening" and opening title track "Dark Pantheons." Where "Deeds..." creates some atmosphere and direction with the keyboards, outlines some melody and uses the unnatural drum tone to create the effect of a marching army, the songs that bookend are more than not over-expressed renditions. Even strong mid-sections which allow the sampled choral segments to shine in "The Awakening" fail to set the track apart, even though there are plenty of opportunities to let up. The drums are often too overbearing and Agiel would do themselves a huge favor by using them in a manner that better highlights the dramatics of the rest of the music - more as a classical composition would use percussion than as death metal artists usually use drums. "Serpent Masquerade" shines light on this issue from the beginning where obnoxiously fast drums smear interesting ideas in dust and during the Arcturus-esque bridge that follows the drums simply sound as if they don't have any other ideas to offer.

As the EP moves along, we begin to see how Agiel have simply not offered much variety to the listener. We are given fast, blasting segments and very little bit else. Though "Deeds Rendered Upon The Flesh" is a definite highlight, I'm not impressed with the usage of the rest of the material here. Even though there is plenty of room for Agiel to take these tracks, build them as compositions and emphasize the intensity with contrasting moments, they've been unable to do so. Being that these tracks were all taken from their 2002 debut full length, Dark Pantheons Again Will Reign and "was revisited and re-imagined for a new era" it's possible that we've missed out a lot of the context from where these tracks were pulled. According to the Agiel website, this material is intended to bridge the gap from their earlier material to their current material. Having never heard their full length - and probably never will since this material didn't particularly rouse my interest - I feel as if Agiel would have been better served by simply putting out new music instead of older tracks re-recorded.

Sadhak - Sadhak

 

Norway's Sadhak is a project that would be easy to miss but hard to forget if you're a fan of somber and reflective sounding doom. There margin of atmosphere to riffs is wide on self titled Sadhak but it's the generally small number of riffs, their texture, attack and presentation that create that atmosphere. Opening track "On The Arrival Of Man" is a grand looming stumble towards something far away in the future which is hard to grasp now, but will eventually be revealed. It's a lot like what I could imagine as the score to a black and white film adaptation of Stephen King's Gunslinger novels. The track leaves me in dreary thought. Even though we are surrounded in life by those we are close with, we are ultimately alone and it's music such as the ringing twangy chords and mournful vocalizations of multi-instrumentalist Andreas Hagen that inspire introspective thoughts such as this. Two long tracks grace this limited edition tape from Shadow Kingdom and both share in the style which has become popular in the past several years - at least so I've noticed - that draws upon desert / mountain vibes. Second track "The Perfection of Wisdom" moves with a more anxious and frantic motive, much like the end of The Shining when Jack Nicholson can't find his way out from the hedge-maze. Even though this track is deeper in style and substance than Sadhak's opening track, I like it less. The simplicity of "On The Arrival Of Man" is excellent.

It's fascinating to me the influences pulled together here and the different sounds of this release. The whole is draped in the atmosphere of bands such as Velnias and what has come to be known as the "Cascadian" sound but where Sadhak improve upon this foundation is in the incorporation of vibes more like recent Earth releases, especially Hex: Or Printing In The Infernal Method, stoner riffs and - at least in "The Perfection of Wisdom" some home-grown classics such as Burzum's Filosofem and early Taake. Andreas' smooth heartfelt vocals, youthful and pure, pour over a melancholic foundation, and the result is a very tragic sounding two tracks. It's Andreas' vocals really that make this release more than what could have been. Though I would have liked to hear more differentiation between the two tracks, what was offered here is enough for me to want to come back and hear more.This is being offered as a package deal with a shirt and tape... I know I'm pre-ordering.

Phlebotomized - Devoted To God, Preach Eternal Gospels

 

About a week ago, some friends and myself went to a local steakhouse that offered rodizio. Our dinner included about twenty different cuts of beef, pork, chicken and lamb. It was absolutely incredible. We downed a ton of sangria and engaged in gluttony that would make Nero wish he had friends such as us. The most peculiar serving was roasted chicken hearts slid onto our plates from a large skewer. I maintain that they brought these out to attempt to run us out of the place since it didn't seem like we were willing to stop eating. Instead, we toasted the dinner with the tiny little morsels and gulped down the peanut sized flavor pouches. They were dense and mealy yet had a rich chicken flavor mixed with a saltiness of blood. They were actually really delicious. They weren't as appealing overall as garlic roasted steak or cheese infused pork loin but they were the perfect item to remind me of all the things I had been enjoying about, Devoted to God, Preach Eternal Gospels, this Phlebotomized compilation I have been stuck on for the past two weeks. Blood and Phlebotomized go hand in hand - their early 90's demos are one of the best examples of the melting pot of death metal, doom metal and classic slasher movie soundtrack scores. I had never heard of this band before this compilation and to finally get a death metal album sent to me - even if I am about twenty-three years too late - that I can really enjoy makes me shiver with joy. I think the last death metal album that impressed me this much was the Beyond debut full length, Fatal Power of Death, or some of the material I encountered on Leukemia's early albums while doing some research for the review of their third album, Love. Clearly Vic Records is putting out some worthy material to pick up. It just so happens that most of that worthy material appears as old and obscure re-releases.

The key to Phlebotomy's awesome sound is the combination of melody, brutality and horror. These three components of their sound are very well refined to sound perfectly in place with each other. Melodically, the band takes a lot of influence from the early doom stalwarts such as Candlemass and early Cathedral. The first five tracks are from the band's 1992 demo, Devoted To God, with some tracks combined. Opening track "In Search of Tranquility & Subtle Disbalanced Liquidity" is one of these - originally it was two separate tracks on the original release. It's intro highlights the melodic genius which is present in all tracks and draws forth from classic doom albums like Nightfall or Forest of Equilibrium. It's evident that the Phlebotomized members were heavily into all the material coming from numerous scenes. Bolt Thrower riffs are plentiful throughout, and there are shared tendencies there as well, especially from Warmaster. Phlebotomized usage of melody is pristine. It leads and moves the listener into horrific places, foreshadowing a lack of anything remotely happy. On "Fate of a Devotee & Devoted to God" - the other combined track on the compilation - we meander through sections in which the listener is taunted and ridiculed by the mean-spirited combinations of rhythm and melody. Often times keyboards are also used to push the melodies to great effect such as on "Mustardgas" - off the Preach Eternal Gospels demo - or "Desecration of Alleged Christian History" which has one of the best song titles in all of metaldom and is my favorite track of this release.

With regard to brutality, Phlebotomized nails all the components of this integral element of death metal. The production on these demos is absolutely incredible. Thick, deep and gurgling guitar tones provided by Tom Palms and Jordy Middlebosch are an example of what modern bands can't seem to get right. It's a truly natural tone. It lives in the humble recording like a wolf lives in a cave. While the rhythms are murky and sludgy, the guitar leads cut through with a rough and trebly timbre. In addition to this, the vocals of Barry Schuyer and Dennis Geestman are super low-end snarls that are performed with the kind of distraught and malevolence you'd find in the voices residing in the minds of serial killers and madmen. Barry Schuyer's performance on the Devotion of God tracks tops Dennis' on the Preach... songs but both are aeons ahead of most other death metal vocalists. With the sounds perpetrated here very much holding up to the iconic death metal production expected of material from this period, to have songs that are every bit as competitive completes the brutality puzzle. Songs are memorable but never simple. There are twists and turns and numerous riffs and variations in each song to really increase complexity, but whether it's the opening bombardment of keyboards and accents of "Tragic Entanglement" or the unexpected turns and twists of ""Mustardgas" and "Preach Eternal Gospels" the compositions no feel pressured.

That said, there are other albums which have these characteristics out there. Phlebotomized however sets themselves apart with the horror motifs in their tracks. The keyboard parts are integral to this. It's easy to imagine Phlebotomized's keyboard parts being the score to Suspiria or Phantasm or any other number of classic horror movies. Devoted To God definitely is much more consistent with these sounds and overall vibe. Preach Eternal Gospels has moments where this influence is shown however other moments break this feel such as at the end of the title track with a folky interlude. It doesn't detract too much though and when the song ends with a slightly out of tune violin solo, fear is rekindled. This compilation also has three live tracks which are a nice window in what Phlebotomized was able to provide in a live environment; strong renditions of their complex brand of Death/Doom that retain all the essences of their demo and album material. This is a huge release that should be in everyone's record collection, especially for fans of this style of music.