This album came out in 2001 to be one of those great come backs that have been taking place in the death metal scene. Benediction gives us a massive and quite varied CD, that could be easily catalogued as one of their best releases but not beating their magnificient "Transcend The Rubicon".
      The record starts of with a real kick in the ass "Suicide Rebellion" with its riffs tipical to the band but some mosh riffing close to Napalm Death's "Harmony Corruption". The next "Stigmata" shows Benediction executing old school death metal, just as on their first releases, reminding some of the sound of the mighty Celtic Frost. A bit wierd comes "Sufering Feeds Me" a bit into Motorhead, but fortunately in a couple of seconds there comes this macabre dance full of marvellous riffing that leaves one twisted. "Diary Of A Killer" comes to be the lowest point of the record, that hopefuly was a side effect of experimets and it should just stay there with its Korny riffs. After that comes a song, that as all of their latest releases is total hard core in a manner they do it best, the weird thing being its name "Temple Of Set" with dark lyrics and to those who've been a bit into satanism, it's sort of a tribute to the Temple's values. "Nothing On the Inside" takes us back to "The Grotesque" years where the mosh-slam-headbanging never stops... sure to be one of the best tracks on this record. Quite doomy starts of the "Easy Way To Die", being a mid tempo track, just to let the listener relax and prepare for what's to come. The last five tracks are INCREDIBLE and it seems to me that that's the path the band is to follow - death metal kept simple and devastating.Overall, this record can be divided in two parts. The first seven tracks, very varied each from the other but keeping it the Benediction way. The other part with 5 very, very good songs, all of which follow the same path. Definitely good work done there to keep in mind this great band! [- Blasfemo]

      Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Daemonlord's (Basque Country/Spain) "The Sign (Key to The Underworld - Regained) Pt. 1: The Towers Of Griefdoom". The band formed in 2000 released a couple of demos and a Split CD with Nocturn as Demonlord and was to change the name to what it's now because of another band of that same name. "The Sign..." released by a German label Medusa Productions on June 2002, represents a two-men black/death metal performed with a drum machine. The vocals of Sixto are darker and much deeper than the usual black metal singing. Although the sound altogether could have been a bit heavier, it does kick ass pretty hard. Kepa's aggressive riffing is a bit in the mid-nineties black metal school, fast and uncompromising through the entire album. Still, there are quite melodic parts but always keeping it more than anything - black. Nine tracks, an intro and an outro make together a just over half an hour long, mind fucking piece of music. I'd say "The Sign..." is well worth checking out by any black metal maniac and it is certainly a good step taken for Daemonlord on it's path onto the wide world scene. "... I raise my sword, as black as my heart... I behold the horizon, there's blood on my hands, immortal pride..." Good debut! [- Lord Darnok]
More info on the band to be found at: http://www.daemonlord.xrs.net

01 Gods Are Aliens
02 War Against Violence
03 Possessed By Greed
04 G7 Ostracism
05 Perpetual Disablement
06 Holy Desecration
07 Massmedia Control
08 Global Terrorization
09 Bloody Killer Trend
10 Dance! Dance!

      Melancholy Pessimism as many of you may know already, comes from the Czech Republic and this could mean only one thing - brutal death/grind material. I don't really know why that is - still, it's an already proofed fact. "Global Terrorization" comes to be the band's fourth album (third for Epidemie Records) and I must say it kicks ass.
      Being one of the eldest bands on the Czech's extreme scene, grinding around since 1992, Melancholy Pessimism came to a point, that... well... they could incorporate trumpets in a couple of their songs and lose not a bit on the overall brutality! We've been also given a sick "jump-around" type of song "Dance! Dance!" ending the record. All this was a huge surprise to myself indeed! Well worked through double vocals - growls and sick as fuck high pitch screams - a duo that has accompanied this kind of music since its very beginnings. Great guitar work, not encapsulating itself within the fastest riffs only but adding many pace changes into most of the songs and a couple of not very common for this kind of music guitar solos. The drumming at first made me think for a moment it had to be a machine... and I was wrong... incredible speed there. Lyrics are all about the hell men do on earth... shit that surrounds us, things we see and hear every day, politics, human greed, street and global terror, mass hypnosis through the media... Very good overall production...
      "Global Terrorization" is a mature album in every aspect. Listening to it, I get the sensation these guys knew exactly what they wanted to achieved and I have no doubt left they've achieved it! A total of ten totally crushing songs that are sure to make you bang your head against the wall and fall to your knees afterwards wondering what the hell happened to your brains... [- Lord Darnok]
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      This EP released in 2001 contains 25 minutes of doom. What Noctus (Chile) present is close to The Gathering when they still realized style that could be named Doom. I say that they go for the side of the Mandyllion. Obviously there sings a woman who does an acceptable work, but who still lacks a bit of overall vocal work into it all but hopefully with time manages to stand out more... that's good work but still lacking something. The vocalist sings in Spanish which is a point in favor of the band.
      To be their first accomplishment it is acceptable enough... remember that there are few bands that demolish the head with their first attempt... it if the first step that costs most to take and they have done it well since it is not easy to manage an independent production. The music is good and has some good strikes there but always keeping it within the style of the Dutch band... to me personally it is the great one... much of The Gathering... but this it is just my opinion... for others there does happen that they might be fascinated with another band that goes for the style of the above mentioned band. I refer, for example, to Cathedral... they are fanatics of Black Sabbath... that is obvious... but if your you listen to a Cathedral's album you know that that is Cathedral and not Black Sabbath.
      This EP includes 5 songs and one performed live as a bonus track and besides a multimedia live presentation. On the video the band demonstrates that they can still give much more within the composition part since they are good musicians. I hope that in their future production demonstrate that they can make something better and much more original in future time. [- Blasfemo ]
Visit the band at http://www.noctus.8m.com or email:

      Here I have the pleasure of giving notice to the newest, sixth yet album of the Swedish Opeth. A year and a half after the excellent "Blackwater Park", the band presents a record being a part of a double release. "Deliverance" is said to be a brutal album, while "Damnation" (announced for March 2025) should be calm and mellow. New album includes six tracks of diverse and characteristic style of Opeth. There are no compositions, that are strictly fast and heavy. With every next release, Mike's growling is lower and more raw, nevertheless there are moments here, where there is no overdrive, just gentle acoustic guitars are accompanying the clean vocal line. Thus it's not a rough material only. Furious at start "Wrath" that's opening the album, contains a guitar solo that is in my opinion a typical for rock …rock, if the rest of the instruments wouldn't sound so. Next title track with a matter of its melody and dynamic (amazing ending) will be surely an excellent killer of public on the live shows. It's over 13 minutes long! Track fourth - pure acoustic one - shows splendidly a composition's artistry of Akerfeldt. The guitar sounds lyrical and very atmospheric. "Master's Apprentices" that's coming next, pulls out a listener from his temporary meditation with its heavy melody and rhythm breaks. And here follows a thing, that is a little bit irritating for me on this release. In the middle of the track we've got a guest appearance (second yet on this album) of Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, who's also mixed and produced "Deliverance". His part here sounds at one moment too much like his mother band. Someone could say, that it is not any Opeth work here in this fragment at all! After all this band is so unusually characteristic and recognizable. But Mike returns after a while, with vocal so low, that Chris Barnes gets off in my judgement. The six one called "By The Pain I See In Others" is typical Opethous, maybe except a few vocal lines, that are close to black metal and a twisted fragment recalling a feeling of some dark waltz . The whole record is ended weird. A reversed vocal seems to me like some kind of mantra. Maybe its connected with the upcoming second part of the double release. Ending this review, I must say that this work is interesting, diverse and worth of recommendation. And that probably already makes it good...[- Deathox ]

      As a beast that's come out of the abyss it flogs our neurons - Sheolgeenna (Chile). Almost 40 minutes of fury and destruction. The production is to any luxury with an incredible art that can be marked as a precedent to Latin-American level. The causer of this was the Czech artist Jaromir Bezruc. This work thrown by the new Chilean label Rawforce is without a doubt the best death metal production realized in this country in the 2002. Sheolgeenna, is a band that gave much to speak of themselves since they released a couple of years ago their demo "Emerged From Outside Skies". Now, with this début "The dark Chambers .. ", they do nothing else than confirm what was expected of them for this malignant work. Unusually marvelous in any sense. Warrior and Draconis go through real battles with their razor sharp guitars, and in order that to say of the great wisdom that they have had to include on the drums the master Pablo Clares (Atomic A., Totten Korps, Execrator, Regnant ..) he does a formidable work. Darkon on the vocals has done a tremendous throat work, comparable to the first Sinister vocalist. These 10 anthems malignant and full of occultism leave one without a doubt that Sheolgeenna have achieved to develop a style of their own inside the death metal scene but with retouches of the gods Morbid Angel from the times of the "Domination" and "Covenant". That is - totally awesome!!! Difficult to choose a song that'd become a favorite since they all are excellent. I can add here that the songs "Apocrifos" and "Arlmagika - Shogel" before released on their demo debut "Emerged From Outside Skies" were included on this release and that now just as the entire CD does, they sound devilish. The entire album is kept on a high note that fills you with the desire of listening it once again immediately after it stops running. It is a production that deserves to be listened by the universe of fans of death metal out there and hopefully Rawforce manages the distribution and promotion that the band deserves, yet already there ain't much left to say than to congratulate the band and also to the label for such an excellent production. [- Blasfemo ]
Visit the band at http://www.sheolgeenna.cjb.net or email:

      With the lugubrious - intense - sick death metal begins this, last year's demo of Torfrom's (Chile). With a sound and athmosphere keeps you captive right from the beginning, since there are some touches of the gods Autopsy (RIP). Jorge Arancibia vocals remind very much of the vocalist - leader of that already gone American band. Recorded on 4 channels has a sound adapted to be a demo, but this band has something that I see in the future can manage that to become kind of a cult material. Hopefully they continue with that sound as it was kind of good choice to record with low budget. In total of three satanic anthems sang in Spanish and two in English. I want to clarify that it is not a band for the masses that look for the typical trendy riffs. If you are one of those that expect a band to give you more than just a copy of such and such band... this could be one of those bands You're looking for!!! "Glory Satan" and "Centurion" are really chaotic. In the end - it is a real pearl for the underground deathmetallers!!! [- Blasfemo ]
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