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01 Contact
02 What Doesn't Die
03 Superhero
04 Refuse To Be Denied
05 Safe Home
06 Any Place But Here
07 Nobody Knows Anything
08 Strap It On
09 Black Dahlia
10 Cadillac Rock Box
11 Taking The Music Back
12 Chrash
13 Think About An End
14 W.C.F.Y.A.
15 Safe Home (Acoustic Version - Bonus Track)
16 We're A Happy Family (The Ramones Cover - Bonus Track)
Here it is! Long expected new album from Anthrax! All the more: this release was announced as a comeback to the greatest years of these famous thrashers. A combination of music style shown on "Among The Living" and "Sound Of White Noise" - both already numbered among the classic albums of the genre.
The music on the CD has all the features, the release deserving the name of a very good album of Anthrax should be characterized by. Music with appropriate load of speed and imaginativeness, performed with expierience and knowledge about how a modern face-kicking thrash metal should sound like! The crew doesn't belong to the greenhorns at all and I'm glad, that after a several years of lack of music shape the band has something interesting to offer again. The words of recognition due to the new guitarist Rob Caggiano, who also co-produced the CD and brought a touch of fresh air into the band.
The pace is sometimes staggering, double-kick drums are doing their job just like the should do, the riffing is solid and choruses are catchy. Just mosh and enjoy this stuff, until your necks will be killing you. My fave-tracks are "Superhero", "Any Place But Here", "Think About And End" and "W.C.F.Y.A.". Worth recommendation are also "Black Dahlia" with black metal riffing (yeah, you read it right!) in the middle, "Cadillac Rock Box" with Dimebag Darrel's guest appearance (He also plays solo in "Strap It On"), and "Safe Home" belonging to the softer moments of this album. The limited digi-pack edition also contains two bonus tracks.
The whole thing is released very nice, with ilustrations enclosed to all the lirycs inlay and band members live fotos. To add something at the end, I'd like You to know that I've simply enjoyed this music very much during my mountain bike insanity yesterday... It has the power I needed. "Strap it on my old school!" [- Deathox]
01 Trance
02 Hedor Pestilente
03 Asi Te Pudras
04 Corruptus Interium
05 Holocausto Canibal
06 En El Nombre De Dios
07 Mortal Curacion
08 Corpore In Sepulto
09 En Avanzado Estado De Descomposicion
10 Metastasis
11 Engendro
12 Requiem
13 Nu-Metal
14 After World Obliteration [Terrorizer cover]
The Spanish Antropomorfia, founded back in '89 comes with its debut full length album released on Necromance Records. And so we got just over thirty six minutes of raw death metal rooted somewhere in between the beginning and the mid nineties I'd say.
The compositions kept fairly simple without any guitar solos incorporated for instance. Mostly mid paced with some faster passages. Quite a few really nice ideas here and there, some very nice riffs and a good material overall although I found it to be not an easy album to feast upon on its first spin. It reminded me at some point a bit of some South American bands I had the pleasure to listen over the years. Also some pretty attractive instrumental passages in between the songs.
I noticed the album lacks something though, that makes the entire production a little too one dimensional in my opinion. I think that the machined drums made it lack a bit on the part of aggression and that unique feeling only a real drummer can add into this kind of music. Now, if you do like programmed drums, you will like this release without a question. The opener as well as the nineth track are definitely my favorites here.
Antropomorfia has and there is no doubt this band could make it bigger, yet there is still some work to do as see it. Well, "Engendro" as a debut, is a great album and let's make that clear, it does have that little something that makes it pretty enjoyable to listen to it but we do need more these days to break through and make a difference... [- Lord Darnok]
More info: http://www.necromancemag.com or email
01 Psychotic Dementia
02 Scared
03 Messiah
04 Infectious Mind
05 The Last Soldier
06 Outlaw
07 Human Die
08 Hard Drinker
09 Lost Into The Chaos
10 Grind Porc
So we got another release from Diamond Productions / France. Carnal Lust working on their music since 1998, finally after two demos, they released their first full length album. I would say that what we get here on "Whore Of Violence" is - speaking shortly - brutal death metal. Good death metal indeed.
It reminded me in a few moments a bit of the first releases from Grave, a little here and there in the slowest parts and the singing manner. The songs even though are much more developed than those mentioned, they're still kept simple and kicking straight in the face. No remorse here at all - a restless death machine. In fact this trio doesn't just fuck around as some other bands do, even the lyrics burst with anger and hatred towards all the shit we get to witness everyday. I think I could say there is a lot of old school feeling to "Whore Of Violence" and wouldn't be wrong. Harsh and raw sound giving the album that specific feeling. Although mostly mid paced the songs tend to gain much speed at points. Great double vocal work here and there, I enjoyed very much those sick backing vocals. My favorite track would be, without a doubt, "Messiah", which kicked the shit out of my ass right from the start.
This "Whore Of Violence" is a record kept pretty much on the same level of brutality and uncompromising, brain crushing power right through the entire running time with a totally sick last track. It didn't make me bleed my head banging it against the wall, but I felt the need to turn the volume much higher than usual and just let the "Whore..." do its job. And so I can recommend this release for those looking for some raw death metal kept simple and kicking straight forward with some twisted bits here and there. [- Lord Darnok]
Check out the band at http://www.carnallust.fr.st or http://www.diamond-prod.com
01 Intro - Black Metal Warriors
02 Revelations From An Old Age
03 Born By The Rape Of One Beast
04 From The Darkness Comes The Queen
05 Unholy March
06 Memories From The One
07 Battle Of The Honour
08 Conqueror's Saga
Someone stated years ago, that black metal could only come from the Scandinavian lands... but as time showed, that wasn't true of course. Bands like Evilwar are those that come to make that clear. Coming from far from the mentioned northern countries, Brazil that is, show that these guys can play their instruments pretty close to the standards showed on the soccer fields... Anyway, let's go to the essence of all this. "Unholy March" is just about forty minutes of black metal going mostly in the regions of Satyricon or eldest releases of Emperor. The pure cover outwork and booklet is impressive, hundreds of warriors going onto war... just guess whom against...
The music itself, although mostly based on mid pace riffing goes nice and smooth, just a bit too monotonous at times in my opinion. Pretty melodic and technical black metal, which gives much to think of what these guys can show in future time. My personal favorite has to be the title track. This one is really grrrr and penetrated very nicely my ears. Something that kept coming back to me with each consecutive listening to this release is that the sound itself changes a little in some parts into more death sort of sounding, which made me think if this material was constructed over a long period of time and there were many different thoughts put into it. It doesn't really change the fact, that this release is worth to listen to.
Summing it all up, "Unholy March" is apiece of music, that one should not miss. As a debut album has its tiny bits and pieces that one might find a bit holding back the entire release - which is difficult to overcome in fact. Now, if Evilwar shall work a little more on what they do and what they showed on this release who knows if the next record will not bring them success of some kind, or they may as well just fall. Hopefully they'll do the right thing and follow the left hand path... [-Mardead]
Check out the band at http://www.evilwar.com.br
01 The Obsidian Forest
02 Prison Or Poison
03 Dementia
04 Observations Of Another Subjective Mammal
05 Finding Things
Wow! It's really hard to classify this one. Hydra's Nidus, the another (beside Stormweaver) project of Australian Adrian Bedkober, appears to be a very unusual escape from what we used to call a regular music. This 57 minutes long release could be a soundtrack to some kind of bizzare, alternative movie (in type of "Cube" for example). This music is full of strange, disturbing voices, full of twisted samples and loops, all mixed up in pretty sick structure, with loads of echoes and reverbs. Music was made with guitar, bass (!), keyboard and vocals – all distorted and processed through computer. This album KILLS, believe me! The first track is quite "common" one. With the sounds of some cosmic wind and a perceptible melody. The real madness starts from "Prison Or Poison". The track is over 13 minutes long it feels, like We were on board of some alien space ship. There are some hypnotic sounds of computer and engines. The vocals here are just amazing... The third one, entitled "Dementia" (my fave one) is dominated by cough and wheezing. Mind totruring noises and some kind of emergency ringing make the impression of agony of an old, sick man. Just like the title says... It lasts for about ten minutes and ends unexpectedly. Time for the fourth one. There is a quite regular guitar part in the begining, but sounding a little bit schizophrenic because of being discorded, a bit out of scale. Then we've got a lot of noisy, incomprehensible vocals and finally a bass line played on chords. The last one called "Finding Things" is the. After the first two minutes of one annoying, stucking sample we can hear some rhytmic strikes on the guitar, balancing up and down out of tune. After a few minutes we can also hear some piano passage and it all goes faster and faster and pitch-bended. The whole track lasts for over than 23 minutes, but do not think the last 7-8 minutes are silent! The ending is surprising... some swinging cymbals, a piano and a jazz bass line – a positive mood, but pretty twisted (of course!). Wake up! The journey is over! Well, Adrian... I don't know, what kind of shit did you take to have a mood for creating such a music... The devoid of common sense... but I like it! All of You reading this words may call me a Hydra's Nidus fan from now... If someone is interested in this stuff, visit the HN website under the address written below... [- Deathox]
http://www.hydrasnidus.cjb.net
01 Ghost Of The Sun
02 Sleeper
03 Criminals
04 A Premonition
05 Will I Arrive
06 Burn The Remembrance
07 Wealth
08 One Year From Now
09 Walking By A Wire
10 Complicity
11 Evidence
12 Omerta
13 Inside The City Of Glass
"The hardest album, that Katatonia has ever recorded... but it is not a return to the roots of this band." This way - more or less - the already sixth full-length album of the band was announced when these guys started working on it last year. It's hard indeed, but at the same time it's a very clever development of the unique style shown on their previous few releases. It's not any drastic turn point distancing them from the past releases then, as it was with "Discouraged Ones", which set Katatonia free from a black metal tag. It's the same interesting band, but let's focus now on the LP itself...
"Viva Emptiness" contains 13 tracks. The first one entitled "Ghost Of The Sun" brings a dominant, heavy riffing. This riffing was too much "nu-metal like" for me at first, but fortunately this feeling was fading away with every next listening. This is Katatonia! With its characteristic charmonies, note of suffering in Renkse's voice, with backing screaming and perversly gentle choruses. There is a several tracks with this hard verve here. These are "Will I Arrive", "Wealth", "Walking By A Fire" or "Evidence" even - with dynamic guitar upbeat but still melodic, with slow-downs and emotional singing. There are moments here, when Renkse is simply humming his parts, like in "A Premonition" and "Omerta". You can hear modest keyboard passages or piano here and there, and drum-loops are apearing in "Sleeper", "Walking By A Fire" and "Burnt In Remembrance". What about the lyrics? The same as always: boredom and suffering, but with a flicker of hope hidden somewhere between the lines. The CD is ended with insrumental "Inside The City Of Glass". This track has an unusual for Katatonia climate. Slow and a little bit solemn, with an awfuly heart grieving guitar theme and whispering.
...what else then? It's a fucking good release. This band's position is growing stronger with its every next release. These guys cane a really long way and personally I'm very interested in how Katatonia will play in ...let's say 10 years from now. Keep it that way! [- Deathox]
Check out the band at http://www.katatonia.com
01 Rex Infernus In Excelsis
02 Revelations Reflected From A Dead Jehova's Eyes
03 The Oracle Of Annihilation: Eradicating Sanctimonious Existence
04 Anguish Brought To Heaven
05 Invoking The Infernal Majesty
06 Oculus Infernum
07 Mark Of the devil
08 Perpetual Demise Of The Bastard Son
66 hidden track
If You ever thought Florida was all about Death Metal, Don Johnson of Miami Vice and hot chicks posing for Baywatch cameramen, you were wrong as fuck. Kult ov Azazel is here to make you think Black. And I mean Real Black. Ripping its way through since '99 with "The Order Of The Fly" MCD, with their full length debut "Triumph Of Fire" to follow in 2001 and some split releases, they finally came to this day, where "Oculus Infernum" is taking over.
Screaming out my throat dry along the opening track "Rex Infernus In Excelsi" to the words "Ascending my throne, Trampling upon the inferior cross of Christ, His flesh denied, The filthy prophet of life..." left my mind free of any common shit letting the blasphemy flow on its own. And so I sat there mesmerized, feeling the black flame of my soul burning high once more... feeling my blood turn black. These guys learnt their lesson well and there ain't no doubt, they learnt from the best.
Suddenly I felt my balls shiver madly to the sound of moaning women in the background, half way through the title track. I could not expect that and just had to admit once more how sick I am, turning the volume yet higher every time that part would come along, over and over again... but that's not the point... Giving "Oculus Infernum" a spin forget about spare riffs found on other releases - you will not find any false crap here. In fact, the CD might spin it's way through to the very end, before you get your breath back to normal again. Excellent guitar work, vocals spitting venom "directly from Satan". Monster drumming and an overall strong production leaves no room for any weaker points here really.
To my surprise the CD didn't stop spinning as "Perpetual Demise Of The Bastard Son" silenced... and I got another piece of The Devil's melodies enjoying it to the core... We renounce thee Wretched Nazarene... [- Lord Darnok]
Check out the band at http://www.kultovazazel.com
01 Burning Nails
02 Thy Inner Evil
03 Lord Of The Lords
04 Dark Days
05 The Path
These guys, coming from Spain add onto the black metal scene a piece that goes somewhere back into the nineties in my personal opinion, back to the times when underground bands started coming out from the northern lands into the world by the handfuls. This MCD comes as a raw and pretty much mid paced unholy release, with just about twenty five minutes of blasphemy. We are sure served here with some dark melodic riffing here and there, some keyboards well hidden in the background adding those atmospheric touches but mostly it is all going straight forward as we're used to it for this kind of music.
Nothing new discovered here in fact but for those digging the black metal scene, Mydgard might be just a band to keep an eye on. I always say that it is much better to stick to straight forms to state well a point instead of going into some weird stuff, losing it all and missing on the essence of it. I think that Mydgard did the right thing for the moment. This is just their second material released since 2000, when it all begun, and who knows what these guys will come out with yet.
I didn't enjoy that much the minute of silence there at the end of the last track just to hear a kind of spell or something, but well, it probably has that symbolic and mystic thing to it. I did enjoy "Thy Inner Evil" with some nice pace changes here and there. In fact every track has something to it after a consecutive listening. "Decay Of Thy Gods" is certainly a material that would satisfy many diehard black metal fans and it certainly shows potential dwelling within Mydgard. [-Lord Darnok]
Email the band at or
01 I Am Vengeance
02 Black God Aftermath
03 Wrath Of The Fallen
04 Abysmal Descent
05 Devoured by Naglfar
06 Of Gorgons Spawned Through Witchcraft
07 Unleash Hell
08 Force Of Pandemonium
09 The Infernal Ceremony
If You have heard anything from the previous releases of this Swedish quintet, You know, that Naglfar doesn't play the music in "just like that" way. The band performs a melodic, varied black metal and the third just being released album entitled "Sheol" is the superb confirmation of this band's high class. It's been four years since last full-length was released, but when I listen to the music on this 44 minutes long LP, I come to the point, that it was worth waiting for.
The CD bewitched me with its very good production. And You know what? It wasn't recorded in The Abyss, or any else of the greatly crowded studios. The material was recorded in a place called Ballerina Studios, in not large city of Umea, where the band comes from. You'll not hear the roughness and any icy monotony so typical for black metal here. There are a lot of death metal influences, a lot of furious thrash traces... These guys play solid compositions, various both arrangements and dynamics. The varied vocal performance is catchy and very clear, and the rythm section is just phenomenal. The intensive drumming and pulsating bass are in contrast with gentle keyboard background giving a little bit menacing, mysterious dimensions to the whole thing. ...and this specific Swedish guitar melodies and original solos - this is a recipe for a Black Metal dish a'la Naglfar. It's hard to distinguish any of the compositions here. All tracks are simply very good, they live on their own individual life, creating the high-class entirety at the same time. ...well, okay, let it be! I bet on melodic "Black God Aftermath", a little bit solemn "Abysmal Descent", and "Devoured By Naglfar" with solo at the beginning. Worth attention is also "Of Gorgons Spawned Through Witchcraft" known from MCD "Ex Inferis" released last year, but a little shorter here and produced in more excellent way of course. And also "Force Of Pandemonium" - the last of the venomous ones, 'cause track no 9 is an atmospheric outro. The whole thing is listened with pleasure and I'd like to add, that the title of the record means "hell" in Hebrew.
Summing all this up, I say, this CD is really worth recommending. Personally, the musicians of Naglfar did surprise me very nice and let's hope, that they earn the recognition of a wide audience thanks to "Sheol". This band shows a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if Naglfar reached as high someday as Emperor did. [- Deathox]
More about the band at: http://www.naglfar.tk
01 Strife On The Shelter Of Realm
02 Secret Desire
03 The Shadow Of Forgiveness
04 The Lost Innocence
05 Heart Like Stone
06 Throe
07 The Landmark
08 The Forget The Fear
09 Perpetual Tears
So I finaly got to review a band out of Chile here. We got this material from the Brazilian band Perpetual Tears called „Strife On The Shelter Of Realm" that comes much closer to be a full-length release than a demo as it's just over fifty minutes long altogether. At first I thought it was going to be one of those cry-your-ass-off bands but I just got mislead by the name.
In fact what we got here is doom death metal. It has all the diversity starting from the eldest Paradise Lost all the way to the brutality that Nile taught us lately, exploring nicely all that's in between. The vocals are varied as well, which reminded me a bit of the Brazilians Mystifier add to it clean the clean vocals found on In The Woods releases for instance. Personally I found them to sound pretty original although they seem to still be looking for that unique touch of their own. Still, they manage to grab the listener's attention. After listening to this material for a consecutive time there came to mind this antique band called Root and I think that's more or less how Perpetual Tears sound. Tracks I could mention as those that I liked most would be "Secret Desire", " Heart Like Stone" end "Perpetual Tears". There is potential within these guys and we'll just have to sit there and wait what comes next... [- Blasfemo]
Contact the band at:
01 Hydra
02 Lycanthropic Warrior
03 Ice Palace
"Ice Palace" is a recorded in 2001 demo of this Australian one-man project creating under a name of Stormweaver now. This 15 minutes long material brings a dose of raw-sounding Black Metal. The music here is inpired by a simple rhytmic riffing so charateristic of the guitar works of Burzum. Soulblighter has its own noticeable elements, though.
The release begins with a bestial growling "Chaos is truly a beast with many heads". After that invocation we can hear melodic guitar setting the mood peculiar to this kind of metal. Vocal is very furious... but to much obscure for me, to much overwhelmed by this specific sound. You all must know, that this release is produced at home, but despite that, the obtained outcome is quite decent. Anyway, the bass could sound a little bit in some better way in my opinion. Although the drumming could be more complicated in some moments next, the drum machine (or rather drum software, I guess) works really nice. First track riffing is pretty catchy, but my favourite song here is the second one, entitled "Lycanthropic Warrior". We've got some bizzare keyboard work here and the atmosphere of this track is a little bit solemn, middle paced in the beginning and with nice bass work between individual vocal fragments. The tittle track brings a load of rage within. The melody is nice, but this track is a little bit too long for me... Well, I'm too much demanding sometimes, I know...
Maybe im not into this kind of black metal, but I can hear a passion here. This demo took me somewhere deep in the forest, I've had imagined a naked, scarred girl escaping from some evil place, where she was kept... A nice association, isn't it?[- Deathox]
More about the band at: http://www.stormweaver.cjb.net lub
01 Plague Bearer
02 The Moral Epidemic
03 Madness and the Beholder
This MCD has come to me from Australia. The project has come out two years ago under the name of Soulblighter and this 22 minutes long heir to the"Ice Palace" demo brings a dose of even obscure and dirty Black Metal. The rawness of music created by Xeraxis has escalated. Digitally engineered sound is dirty and disgusting, just as ominous as it should be. Damn me, there is a little something within this total underground release!
Let's focus on guitar work. Well, it's far more complicated. Riffing is fresh, still semi-melodic, semi-rhytmic, but the construction of chords and the scales of this noizzy accompaniment show the superiority under the previous material. The guitar is tuned a bit lower (I guess), the bass is rumbling somewhere in the background and the drumm machine is just blasting ones ears. The disadvantage: vocal - a little bit overdrived, very unclear madness turning the throat inside out. Sometimes I think Xeraxis doesn't need any lyrics here ...but of course there are lyrics and they're quite good (check out the band's website). My favorite track here ist the last one. Its furious rhytm has catched me pretty quickly and also the lirycs here I like the most.
What else? Well, I've got more from Stormweaver. The newest stuff called "Macabre Aesthetics"... I guess things will get even better there. Maybe in a more brutal way, maybe faster, maybe much more bizzare... Don't worry! You'll be first to know. [- Deathox]
Read about the band at: http://www.stormweaver.cjb.net or
01 Macabre Aesthetics
02 Lycanthropic Warrior
03 Siren
04 Xeraxis
Here is the review of latest output of Stormweaver. This material is the most mature one. It has a better sound than the previous releases. It's more dimensional, clearer a little bit. There is a bass well noticeable here finally! It was a little bit difficult for me to identify the bass line on the two older CD's of this Black Metal project. It's the best Stormweaver's stuff definatelly!
The first track is quite rhytmic and its melodic riffing is pretty catchy. We can hear a nice plucked bass here. Also the drumming is nicer and more awell-thought-out on "Macabre Aesthetics". The next one entitled "Lycanthropic Warrior" was previously released on the "Ice Palace" demo, but this version is a little bit refreshed and rearranged. Withuot the keyboard chords used then but with a quite decent guitar solo added here. Track 3rd called "Siren" is 10 minures long and it's a real journey. Slowly changed chords are in contrast with double kick-drum tremolos. Then we've got a change there and the music is dominated by real catchy riffing. There a nice solo/tapping at the end and this one is this record's highlight for me. The release is ended with 9 minutes long instrumental track. Pretty atmospheric at start (keyboards and reverbed screams, no drums at all), it becomes a real cacophony from about the middle. This impression is made by a walking type of a bass line and noisy guitar chords out of tune. It's like some kind of bizarre jamming.
The funny thing is, that when I had been listening to this record using my hi-fi set, it just stopped on 38th second of the firts track. I had to use my cd-rom, because the goddamn drive didn't want to play it again... hah! This release is diverse and interesting. It's not only a raw kind of Black Metal anymore. I wonder, what will be the next call of this project... [- Deathox]
Read about the band at: http://www.stormweaver.cjb.net or email the band
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