Maximum Oversatan Review #3

Another review for the Maximum Oversatan - Too Evil For Hell Demo. This one from a user of Metal Archives.

Additionally, less than 15 copies of the demo are left so if you want to get one, be sure to pick it up soon before they all are gone.

Contaminated Tones Zine Downdate

Unfortunately, I have decided to put Contaminated Tones Zine #2 on the backburner for a while so I can concentrate on doing more demo releases and such. I will still do reviews for all promos sent to me and simply put those reviews up on the blog. The same thing with all the Interviews, some of which are now simply out of date since I started collecting material a year and a half ago. I would rather at least put that material out than have it sitting, collecting digital dust, and not serving it's purpose of promoting the bands and artists that I want to give a voice to. Anyone who has sent me demos, if you don't see your demo or album reviewed, please let me know so I can make sure I get it reviewed. You'll be seeing a handful of interviews and reviews popping up here in the next few weeks.

Aberration - 1994 Promo

When mediocre is truly mediocre you can just feel the indifferent monotony rolling out of your speakers like the passing of a Honda accord in a Wal-mart parking lot. While we all scour the depths of the past and present for that ever so elusive glorious forgotten relic, or lost demo or whatever it is that pressures us to continue our endless search, more often than not we are met with acceptable attempts more often than not. Aberration's 1994 Promo is not one of those. It also isn't a 1968 Pontiac GTO on the open highway. This five track demo is the epitome of a demo that flew under the radar for good reason - sheer blandness.

It's got a mediocre production, with a thumpy bass, rehearsal room tone drums, stock guitars and a vocalist that is there because the band needed to fill the void. I don't know what it is about tracks like "Something Wrong," or "Barbarian Summoning" that just strike me with the impact of a newly purchase pillow, but there is barely enough energy in this demo to warrant the reels spinning in the tape enclosure. It took more effort for a machine to manufacture the tape this demo was printed on then Aberration put into recording the demo. I can imagine the band in the studio, half asleep, possibly slowing down the tempo to the songs so that they wouldn't have to work as hard to play the parts. A song like "Sweet Suffering," aside from requiring a more interesting and less wimpy song title, would gain excitement ten-fold from a slight tempo adjustment of only a few beats per minute.

To the nitty gritty: the songs and such. The tape is in the style of generic US Death metal... the kind every town had in 1994 including the Polish hamlet this crew truly put on the map with their blistering product. The Introductory track trembles along... modestly... trying to be witty with tremelo riffs mixed in with standard eighth note chugging but instead, the song sounds like an embellished series of toss-away riffs. While nothing is particularly offensive, there is little to care about either. I'm not sure who exactly is singing on this demo... there is NO information on the thing. Whoever it is, they lay out a couple of decent Barney Greenway wails at points but majority of grunts - more like grumbles - are not worth the price of the tape. The guitar playing and bass playing is... nothing special. The drums are nothing special, lacking any real charm. The drummer tends to just follow the syncopation in the riffs, adding little rhythmic depth to the songs. At times the toms are buzzy and way too hot.

The lack of proper credits and information includes the lack of a cool demo cover with black and white sketched artwork of zombie penguins eating the goo-spewing-pustule-covered neighborhood children. I don't quite understand why there is a total LACK of effort in this regard. Surely they could have had someone attempt the album cover... anything would be better than the cover of that Mindland disc... I'm afraid to go by the listed lineup on websites because, with a lack of information on the demo itself... who knows where the information on the album came from on these sites. Overall, this is a total pass for anyone really. Unless you really have to own every death metal demo from the Polish town of Plock this is sure-fire demo no one really needs to hear. This review was way more effort than the thing deserves. Hopefully it saves some nomadic Metalhead time tracking this down in the end.

Beyond - Relentless Abomination Vortex Demo

While browsing the Dark Descent Records webshop during my purchase of the Timeghoul reissue (a necessary purchase for anyone who has a cursory interest in death metal) I happened to snatch up this demo from Germany's Beyond. Relentless Abomination Vortex is a dusty mix of death metal predominately influenced by the less technical Dutch artists such as Asphyx, the melodic twistedness of the Swedes, German thrash and sprinkled, rather dripping, with an arcane atmosphere. It would be hard to delineate this demo to any single influence as elements of death metal, thrash and even hints of doom are all available for consumption. This relatively new demo released in 2011, is just another example of the modern death metal genre's desire to return to the roots of the genre, get back to the ugliness and the slime-covered personalization that really was such a hallmark of the genre in the early 90's.

The songs are written by vocalist, guitarist Cadavarous Odour and are genuinely pretty fast and urgent, almost as if everyone else is trying to keep up with each other but definitely not sloppy. The tempo really dictates the energy on the demo. Cadavarous' vocals are somewhere between a bellow and a high growl, somewhere between a lion and a hyena, which I imagine to have a relatively high pitched barking. The second set of guitars is provided by Cenotaph and the classily named Vomitlord handles bass. Drums on the album were sessioned out to A.P, a nameless formless entity of unknown origin, probably just some kid from around the block who they strong armed into doing the drums. The drums are awesome though, maybe they should hire him as a full-time member. D-Beats and slower plodding riffs are abundant and the whole thing sounds like a faster version of Coffins.

Three tracks, Pointless Prayers, Whirlwinds of Chaotic Carnage and Appearance from Beyond are the contents of the demo. I thought that final track, Appearance from Beyond, was the highlight due to the mixture of tempos, the archaic sounding lead near the end of the track and the quickness of some of the d-beat drumming. Pointless Prayers starts out the demo with some typical ambient crap that leads into the track greater, which follows in the band's style appropriately and without fault. The track starts out with a thrashy riff but the song is mostly a death metal affair. The song is obsessed with reaping the benefits of the verse riff which deserves to be harvested. It's a simple four note evil thing that is particularly catchy. Second track is more obscure in it's construction but holds nicely as a second track. It's less gripping and memorable than Pointless Prayers or Appearance...

Overall, a cool demo, nothing to gawk about really but nothing to tear apart to shreds. It's a demo that would be better suited to a death metal fanatics collection for sure but I would wager that anyone into the more weird sounding side of metal would take a liking to the thing. The guitars have a strange, twangy and reverbed production that really sets them apart. Like they were recorded in a hospital surgical ward or in the empty recesses of an abandoned sewage treatment plant. It's a cool three song demo to pick up for fans of Coffins or possibly Autopsy.

Maximum Oversatan Review #2

Reviews are starting pour in. Here's another one from the depraved mind of someone on the internet:

Witching Metal Webzine : Maximum Oversatan

"Do you like d-beats? Do you like Satan? Goats? Hell? Tits? Then MAXIMUM FUCKING OVERSATAN is for you!"

Stench - Primitive, Vulgar and Armed

This one could have gone either way. I could have give Stench's Primitive, Vulgar and Armed the same kind of review that MSNBC would give to Rick Santorum's brain. My entire review would be a condemnation of something so idiotic and immature that only Anal Cunt fans and readers of The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds would be likely to find any of it either humorous or "badass." On the other hand, I could also go the exact opposite and give it the kind of coverage that Mark Levin would give Newt Gingrich should he be nominated the GOP presidential candidate. That review would read something like me explaining how for once someone found a way to inbue some subtle and misguided humor and parody into a demo without it coming across as tedious or weighted down. I would wager that the disc would get these sorts of reviews; no stars or five stars, 100% or -45%.

In reality I have no idea what I would rate this. Tracks like Quickdraw are the perfect blend of "what the hell was that?" and "what did he just say?" and then there are tracks like Troops of Obliteration which pass by unnoticed. The most memorable parts of the disc are clearly the lyrics. Take for instance two sets of lyrics from the aforementioned Quickdraw: "You can see your reflection in a toilet that won't flush," or the always imaginative: "He possesses hairy nuts and the devils own right hand." Elsewhere on the disc the imagery remains similar, with lyrics revolving around crushing things, killing people, raping, feces, more feces, and more killing stuff. The genius of the lyrics is that they are audible and clear. You can literally hear each line, more idiotic and demented than the one before it and presented with the bravado and indifference of a drunken hobo. This works really well in songs such as "Dark Moses," and the always philosophical final track, "Cunt Punt."

Musically, the album retains the riffing styles of sub-par thrash but performed relatively well compared to what you would expect from a trio of individuals that probably recorded this whole demo in the span of about 4 hours and rehearsed the whole thing in even less time. The drums are programmed across the album but I honestly never found them bothersome because, well, I rarely cared what they sounded like. I was too busy trying to put a picture to lyrics in the shortest song on the album, Intergalactic Barbarians. Imagining "Putrid like ass" individuals "flying their ships like Satan's Disease..." could almost be a thought exercise in some college psychology class. Across the album though, the band show some interesting musical styles, with Lingering Demon taking cues from ZZ Top and Steppenwolf and Quickdraw containing an intro with a decisively western feel. The band also utilizes some samples across the album, usually pretty humorously.

For most I could only imagine the listener trying to imagine the men behind this release: Al, Randy, Earl and someone called Uncle Jarek - probably a name included for craps and giggles and not an actual person. Unfortunately, I already know the men behind this project. And all I can say is that Stench is truly the perfect musical representation of main man Al's fecal obsessed drunken indecency. For me, the lyrics are more hilarious because they actually sound less like something dreamed up for a song and more like a conversation I had with the guy two weeks ago at the local bar. When Al proclaims that "Satan's gonna get ya, take his shit into your house and on fire set ya... Satan's gonna eat your dog, Satan's gonna hurl," I almost remember those words last time we hung out. In all honesty, it's pretty stupid but rarely have I heard something that was such an honest interpretation of someone's real life personality in music.

Most people will hate this and throw the disc in the garbage immediately after turning it on but someone who doesn't take metal too seriously will probably find some enjoyment in the lyrics and blatant outlandishness of the whole thing.

Maximum Oversatan Pins

Maximum Oversatan pins are available. $1.00 each or free with purchase of Maximum Oversatan tape. Less than 20 copies of tape are left so get them while you can.

Maximum Oversatan Review

Be sure to read the review of the Maximum Oversatan demo on the release's post here on Contaminated Tones or at the reviewer's site, the always busy and respectable Foul Feast of Flesh blog. Thanks again for the killer review!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Midnight Priest - Interview 12/28/2011

So Pita, we last spoke about a year and a half ago when you did the interview for the first issue of Contaminated Tones Magazine. What has been going on with Midnight Priest since then, have there been any member changes? I know you have a new record coming out. Who will be releasing the record? What will it sound like? When will it be available?

Hey Jon! Yes, it’s been quite a while and a lot of stuff has been going on. The album is out now and going fast! There’s a CD release on Stormspell Records and a vinyl release on A Forja (Label links at end). We’re very proud with the end result, it sounds fucking great and powerful and that’s what we wanted from the start – maddening Old School Metal Mayhem!

There’s been a line up change also, since Nasty Nightmare recorded the album and took off, so we have a new guitar player Johnny Kilmister, who is without any doubt the ultimate axe man for MIDNIGHT PRIEST. He’s mad, loud and nasty just like we all are, so we’re doing quite alright!

You said the album would be out in 2010 but I guess that got delayed. What happened that delayed the album for a full year?

That’s true, it took us almost a year to get the album out, and the main reason’s because we don’t have any management or whatsoever and must take care of every little detail by ourselves before the stuff goes to the pressing plant. We definitely want to have some control over our releases, from the cover artwork to the final mix. We’re lucky enough to have our good friend Zé Metálica - headbanger and graphic artist since the early days, to produce the exactly kind of art we wanted for the record and that took a while. Apart from this, we were waiting for the masters to arrive and had to make a couple of tweaks to the sound, since we wanted a very specific kind of production with a lot of detail and weren’t backing down on anything.

Fortunately the album has been out and doing very well, so go bang your head!!

Are there any songs on this debut full length that we have heard before from either the EP or 2009 cassette demo or will this album contain completely new songs? How would you compare these songs to the previous releases?

The album has a song ‘No Calor do Inferno’ (In The Heat of Hell) which dates back to the demo; we really wanted to make that song justice. ‘The Priest is Back’ demo was a shot in the dark when it came to production and the quality of the release compromised a lot. The label didn’t have much care for the dubbing quality and it came out pretty shitty I must say. Nevertheless it sold out very fast, but I’m still very pissed off with the end result. Nevertheless, power to the label, they put out very good underground bands.

There are only new songs on the album, apart from the above mentioned one, and they are of course MIDNIGHT PRIEST songs, with the same obscure atmosphere and nasty finesse the band always stood by. The production is great and it’s totally analogical, no modern equipment was used and that was our main goal production wise, no modern amps, gear or instruments, if anything further from1989 entered that studio, it got thrown in the fire no questions asked!

Compared to our previous releases, what really stands out is the technical abyss in musicianship. We actually had to learn how to play our instruments or else no album would ever be recorded, and that shows every second of the record; we grind our balls and it was worth every second of it. You take the heat and move on.

You have a track uploaded for people to check out called Sabado Negro. What is this track about? Tell me about why you chose this track to be the public's first glimpse at the album.

Actually it was the Iordan from Stormspell Records who chose that track for the preview. It was a challenge to put that song opening the album since it is almost 7 minutes long, not a lot of Heavy Metal albums start with such a long track, but it brings up that dark atmosphere which gets you into the record. It’s a prologue to insanity and it works pretty well.

The song ‘Sábado Negro’ means ‘Black Saturday’ and is inspired on Mario Bava’s work with Barbara Steel on Black Sunday, which is one of the finest movies ever made. In fact a lot of our songs are based upon horror movies and vintage Portuguese horror tales. There are also some lines on the lyrics taken from the ‘Portuguese Black Book of Magic’ which is an ancient manuscript used for spiritual séances and obscure burial rituals that take place since the XII century, there are a lot of burial sites and graveyards marked with inscriptions on tombs and they’re made to ward off people from those grounds which are said to be haunted.

All cemeteries are confined within heavy gates and walls, where ancient prayers have been written on rock, and they close down before the strike of midnight since a lot of dread and doom surround these places and a lot of obscure practices and covens still go on to this day.

What else could you ask for inspiration?

Any stories about this recording session. You told me an awesome story about voices appearing on Numa Campa last time we talked. Are there any interesting experiences associated with this album's recording as well?

There are no voices this time, but there sure are notable facts! Since we wanted an intro with keyboards, paying our respects to The King, we knew we had to do something special, so our producer arranged for that intro to actually be recorded at the church with a real church organ and real church choir. So we went to the Black Madonna Church, Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland (which is the city where we recorded the album) and were fortunate enough to get this amazingly insane intro. It couldn’t have been better.

Now given the fact that we were five clueless dirty slobs trying to pull off a record of our asses in five days on a top studio, I figure the situation speaks for itself! A lot of shit happened, hadn’t we the dirtiest of reputations around! Between gallons of vodka, arrests, women and barely managing to get out of the country alive, I think we did pretty well. Not to say that Poland is the main amphetamine exporter in Europe and that stuff is cheaper to get than a pack of cigars! I don’t remember sleeping at all, Dalton also, we were on instant coffee, cigars and heavy duty studio work through the whole week; and I would be very happy do it all over again many times.

On a different, more obscure note, if you give the album cover the right angle, you will see something really creepy. And who knows how it got there…!

How have your recent live shows gone? You've played a handful of shows recently. Who have you played with? I saw you did a show with Portrait?

MIDNIGHT PRIEST shows have been growing immensely in crowd attendance and die hard fans. There was a somewhat dead spot for us within the more sceptical part of the underground scene and even though Portuguese magazines still don’t want to believe that we’re the biggest Heavy Metal act in Portugal, we’ve been doing pretty well here, the last MIDNIGHT PRIEST show of the year got 200 metal maniacs screaming their lungs out and partying hard, singing our songs and going mad all over the place! What a fucking badass atmosphere… and taking a few exceptions, I really think the Portuguese metal scene stinks - band wise. There’s no fire, no balls, it looks more like a graduation party if you ask me, but we sure know how to give people a great fucking time, and that’s all we care for; if live shows suck, there’s no point for the band to exist. We aren’t ego masturbators and we don’t live of the “glories from the past” we’re straight forward Heavy Metal Machine and we’ll drink, fight and fuck in the oldest of ways. We’re Punks in league with Satan and a lot of people don’t get that!

Now, on the Ireland shows with Portrait, we actually didn’t make it out there because there was a misunderstanding with the promoter. It turned out that we had to pay for the whole thing, we already had paid for the trips and that’s fine, but it turned out that even transporting and food had to be financed; not to mention shelter because any sewer will do just as any good as any hotel suite. But come one, just take a look at any tabloid and figure out why we can’t afford these kind of touring, we’re even more miserable than we ever were, and it’s impossible to pay for everything. We will go anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE, but you got to give us at least some beer. And been that said, I sincerely hope that we will play in Ireland one day, I know of a lot of MIDNIGHT PRIEST fans in Cork, Dublin, Belfast, all over the place. Cheers!!

You also just put out a T-shirt! How many of these are available? How can people interested in the shirt get one!?

The t-shirt was printed on very short stock, like 30 pieces or so, and they’re all gone, but I guess we’ll print some new ones with new artwork and improved quality. Anyway, anyone interested in merchandise can email the band and we will see what we can do, we want to spread the word out as far as we possibly can, and a few new releases will be out next year in Brazil and Greece, so stay tuned!

What else is there that you would like to say about Midnight Priest? Any touring planned for overseas this year? Possibly the USA?

This year we’ll have a couple of shows in Spain, and are plans are that we will be in Greece too, we have been planning a tour for quite a while and hopefully it will happen this upcoming year of 2012. All Hell Breaks Loose!!!

It would be a fucking blast to play in the USA, what a highlight that would be! I guess my brains would gore out from the excitement!! Man that would be the ultimate thing I’m sure. And if anyone has enough interest to make it happen please don’t hesitate to get in touch, we’re up for anything, and anything will fly for MIDNIGHT PRIEST. We’ll eat sawdust and drink metal for all we care!

Having received several emails from people in the States asking for shows and distributing our stuff overseas, and being our label based in California, I don’t see why not. There’s an uprising legion of fans in the NY, NJ area and on the West Coast, so I figure this would be absolutely doable no doubt about it. And I tell you, you guys will have a great fucking time!!

The Heavy Metal Machine is burning HOT & HEAVY!!

THE PRIEST IS BACK!!!

Thank you so much for having us Jon, and hope to meet you very soon, total support and dedication to the US Metal Underground; it’s all our pleasure to be part of its interest.

And to all the Metal Maniacs out the in the US, we’ll meet you one day and burn those stages to the fucking ground, we were born to fucking ROCK!!!

Thanks again for the interview!

________________________________________________

For more info on MIDNIGHT PRIEST:

Headbang to our album online: Here

For shows, interviews and hate mail: midnightpriestcult@gmail.com
Official Myspace: Here
Official Facebook: Here
Ze Metalica: Here

Buy our records or be damned!!!

www.aforja.org

www.stormspell.com

Maximum Oversatan - Too Evil For Hell Demo

Maximum Oversatan - Too Evil For Hell

Fans of Venom and Motorhead and crusty dirty first wave black metal rejoice, Maximum Oversatan take the formulas of the classics and worship them openly and righteously. Metal demos as metal demos should be. Too Evil For Hell is an unsubtle mixture of alcoholic recklessness, overt satanic influence and total disregard for modernity. Sodom and Venom covers and three original tracks fuming with malice and lust for blood.

To order email: Orion_metalhead@hotmail.com

CTP - 001 - I (QTY = 50 Copies) Sold Out
CTP - 001 - II (QTY = 50 Copies) Sold Out

LINKS

Maximum Oversatan Official Facebook
Maximum Oversatan Official Youtube

REVIEWS

11/06/2012 - Heavy Metal Spotlight

Sometimes, bands and their releases can be absolutely intriguing, and Maximum Oversatan are one such band. As the forum post which introduced me to the band said, "They sound like their name". Frankly, that was enough to get me interested, and if the name hits the same switches in your head as mine, you should be too. The normal order of things is that bands ask me if I'll review their material, but not this time. At risk of sounding like a cheeky bastard, I directly asked for a link to their demo so I could listen to it and review it, and that's precisely what I plan to do.

Picture, if you will, what would happen if a band were to travel back in time and distil the essence of a 1986 not-quite-black-metal-yet Mayhem, and then, to gain incredible devilish metal powers, drink it, presumably with Jack Daniels. Maximum Oversatan are a bit like that. Speed metal, with more than a touch of black-metal thrown in to the recipe. Raucous, raw and with a motorcycle-riding, greasy and dirty sound which the demo's artwork, and the bands name, as I've already mentioned, really encapsulates. The whole demo is a glimpse into a mad and rather satanic world of chaotic, percussive and rabid metal - Thundering drums carry the swift, vicious tracks along with a possessed energy and natural, but also very thick forceful and solid presence - it may be a demo, and quite a raw one at that, but the drum sound is certainly one to be admired - Clearly drums that have been recorded well from the onset, as opposed to meddled with excessively afterwards. Soaring angrily over the percussion, the vocals are caustic and enraged sounding - not strictly a conventional black-metal shriek, but something frequently deeper and more gruff, a harsher and more bestial version of, for instance, Venom, as opposed to a shrill and piercing screech. This has the effect of giving the music quite a muscular edge, which is enjoyable to say the least, and makes for a more raucous and meaty listen. Adding to this is the guitar tone, which while quite treble-heavy, also has a lower end with a rasping, buzzing tone which makes a number of the riffs into the sonic equivalent of an iron fist.

You can tell a lot about a band by the songs which they choose to cover, and on Too Evil for Hell, the covers probably say a lot more than I possibly could about Maximum Oversatan's musical direction. Going by their sound, I can't say I'm surprised by the presence of both a Sodom cover and a Venom one, both of which are done with an enjoyable level of creativity and spiced with Maximum Oversatan's own style, particularly "Welcome to Hell", which the band have taken and made into perhaps even more of a swaggering, spitting occult monster of a track than Venom made it the first time around. Being a demo, one might expect the production to be a little bit rough - and it is, there's no denying that. At the same time, there's not much point in denying it, because the rough and haphazard production fits the music's coarseness like a glove, in fact, I'd be happy to hear an album or EP with this level of neatness, or enjoyable lack thereof. The guitar tone is a little bit buried in places, although in others it sounds great, which suggests a bit of inconsistency in the volume levels, but given that the whole demo is something of a maelstrom, it doesn't have too much of an effect on the balance and flow of the demo. Perhaps the original songs aren't quite anthems or instant classics just yet, but the whole demo has a real sense of solidness and an attitude which metal can never have enough of.

01/04/2012 - Foul Feast Of Flesh Blog

"Maximum Oversatan reeks of old school filth. Upon first listen it should be very apparent where this New Jersey duo pulls their influence from. These dudes harken back to speed metal and the earliest days of black metal, an era that not many new bands seem to be gravitating towards. Often echoing Venom's early material (whom they also cover a track from on this demo) but never to the point where it seems like some shitty tribute band. Consisting of three original tracks and two covers the demo gives a nice sample taste of what this band is all about.

The first thing that one will notice when putting on this demo is the raw, throwback sound. Naturally early demos from bands are fairly lofi but if this were to be played with no background knowledge of the band pinpointing a recording date would be an impossible feat. The vocals are delivered by what appears to be a possessed man on the brink of insanity. Little technique is used and it fits perfectly with the stripped down sound Maximum Oversatan churns out. The three original tracks are fairly straightforward and to the point. Sure, at times some of the riffs may seem vaguely familiar but they hit the mark where it counts with this style, delivery. The thrashier moments on these tracks come with a high level of intensity and are sure to whip your neck into a seizure-like frenzy.

Overall Too Evil For Hell is exactly what the name would lead you to believe, a sinister, primitive slab of heavy metal. Satan would be proud but unfortunately he is not evil enough to listen. Given that we only get the chance to hear about ten minutes of original material here it is hard to form too solid of an opinion. I like what I hear though, and if you like the earlier bands that influenced black metal chances are you will find yourself playing this a lot more then once. Give this a listen, thrash around like a barbarian and perform some sort of bloody ritual. "

02/13/2012 - Witching Metal Webzine

"Do you like d-beats? Do you like Satan? Goats? Hell? Tits? Then MAXIMUM FUCKING OVERSATAN is for you!

Torn from the foetid bowels of New Jersey in 2011, this horrid horde of hellraising miscreants sprang was unleashed upon the world late last year with the debut demo Too Evil For Hell. With production and songwriting halfway between early Sodom and Hellhammer with a syringe full of punk to the arm for good measure, this shit is any beer swilling metalpunk's wet dream.

The demo contains 3 original songs and 2 covers. The originals are rough, sloppy satanic speed metal assaults that follow in the anthemic footsteps of Burst Command Til War, To Hell and Back, etc. Just TRY not to sing along to the chorus of Reaper's Night after a couple listens. The originals all wear influences on the sleeve but the riffs are cool enough that it doesn't matter. The covers are (surprise surprise) Welcome to Hell and Outbreak of Evil, both of which sound great belted out by frontman Atomic Destructor From Hell.

Some listeners might be turned off by the extremely raw production, occasionally off kilter drumming, and overall sloppiness of the whole affair. But y'know what? Fuck you. That's part of the magic. This sounds like it came from about 1984, just before thrash and black metal properly got underway; posers fucking beware. To sum it up simply:

ONLY DEATH IS REAL! FALSE WILL BURNING AND DIED! OUGH OUGH OUGH HEAVY METAL!!!! "

03/07/2012 - Metal Archives - Zodijackyl

There's a Sodom cover, there's a Venom cover, and there are three original songs that I'd believe if you told me were rough cuts from either of those bands. Maximum Oversatan put a more extreme edge on the spirit of these bands - they sound furious, hell bent on making extreme heavy metal at reasonably high speeds. The fierce feel of the music is more like that of the bands who paid tribute to Venom and Sodom in the late 80s, with huge sounding drums and dirty guitars and vocals mixed together quite roughly.

It took a while to get used to the drums being so loud and booming in the mix, though they seem to calm down a bit on the later tracks. The sound of everything is pretty much perfect for the band on the title track, where Satanic speed metal meets Motorhead's rock and roll - the drums get a bit faster, the vocals are coherent and crunchy, and the band fully lives up to its name. It's rough, rockin', and has just enough of an extreme metal tinge to make it really appealing to fans of the retro blackish speed metal type stuff. All of the recordings are first takes, so it's sufficiently rough without being sloppy, nothing at all is polished.

It's easy to describe the band simply - they're called "Maximum Oversatan", there's a Venom cover, a Sodom cover, and the songs in between... and they're good.

PHOTOS

Denial Fiend - Live At Champs 11/17/2011

Another recording from Champs in Trenton, this one of Denial Fiend. Killer set. Definitely check out this band live if you get a chance. Download the live audio here: Denial Fiend Live At Champs 11.17.11.

Check out all the other audio downloads here: Audio Archives.

Midnite Hellion Live At Champs 11/17/2011

Here is another live recording from the same night as the Fiakra show at Champs in Trenton. Midnite Hellion were pretty fun to watch live and their bassist is pretty damn awesome. They did covers of Slayer's Die By The Sword and Iron Maiden's Invaders. Enjoy! Download the show here or visit the archives here.

Midnite Hellion Official Website: www.MidniteHellion.com
Midnite Hellion Facebook page: Midnite Hellion Facebook

Fiakra Live At Champs

Check out Fiakra's live show at Champs from 11.17.2011. Pretty awesome epic metal from Freehold, NJ. Thanks again to Kenneth and the band for letting me record their set and for being a crew of awesome, chainmailed metal warriors! As always, you can download other live shows and interviews by visiting the Archives Page.

Fiakra official website: WWW.FIAKRA.COM

News 11/19/2011

Well, things may seem to have been slow around here but in reality, a LOT has been going on. Let's take things one step at a time.

1. I've amassed about 6 or 7 live recordings over the span of the past three weeks which I hope to put up online for everyone as soon as I get the approval of the bands. You should see one or two up in the next or two. Basically, I have to upload still: Midnite Hellion, Fiakra, Denial Fiend, Buzzherd, Slasherthroat and Gorematory. So, a lot of cool audio stuff to add as soon as Mediafire decided to upload things.


2. Most interestingly, I think, is that I will be doing a cassette release for the Motorhead / Venom crazed lunatics of Maximum Oversatan. Look for that in a week or two. I'm looking to do more releases in the future so anyone who has something they want to release, get in touch and I'll let you know if I am interested. The goal is going to be to do small initial runs of tapes so bands that want to release limited stuff of rehearsals or bonus tracks or whatever, that kind of material is ideal. Black / Death / Doom / Speed / Heavy / Traditional Metal bands are all welcome to submit material. Thrash bands too though, they kind of fall somewhere between everything so... whatever, you get the point.

4. Still interested in doing interviews and reviews of stuff so be sure to email and ask about that.

Bastard Thieves Live 09/09/2011

Live recording of Bastard Theives' 09/09/2011 Show at the Meatlocker in Montclair. Here or Here