Friday, May 31, 2019

Inquisition - Anxious Death / Forever Under (2006)

   Inquisition became known as a genuine black metal band, that was partly influenced by Mayhem, but preferred to go on it's own way. It was a long way, but apart from the main directions of the genre they earned a cultic status with time.
  They formed in the late '80s and debuted as a thrash metal band, and at the beginning their music showed some similarities with the main tendencies of South American metal. Most old bands in that region were like mix of the lately distinguished and defined extreme genres, and at Inquisition on the side of their intense thrashing some affinity to their late style also could be sensed. That was mostly represented in their exaggeratedly aggressive tone and in the vocal style. They also preferred to write way longer songs than it was usual. These songs were free from any frippery, they kept playing wild and intense. At the foot stones the birth of a notorious black metal band couldn't be expected yet, they just sounded like a promising Sepultura influenced band, who might like to show more than other tharsh formations that time. This compilation includes their debut EP "Anxious Death" and the demo "Forever Under" to commemorate condignly how everything was started.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Catacombs - In the Depths of R'lyeh (2006)

   Compared to the classics of funeral doom, the American direction of the style includes more death/doom influences, and therefore heaviness became it's important feature. This wasn't different in the case of Catacombs either, a one man project that gave a new dark shade to the style.
   But there are other differences too. While the gloom of nature, passing away and some cosmic anxiety were in the main focus at the creators of the genre, horror often replaced them in the followings. The one and only album of Catacombs was inspired by the novels of Lovecraft. Normally intense music fits more to topics like horror and gore, but this is a far different aspect. The slumbering terror gets introduced, the inevitable doom that one day will be released to the world to fulfill it's destiny. The seems like eternally idle status of the greatest threat is well illustrated by the extended song lenghts and minimal musical activities. There is something sinister in the simple soft melodies that are following the slow, heavily rolling darkness, that will consume everything one day. Excellent sound quality helps the listener to merge into the depths of R'lyeh to see what the future of this fictional world holds.

Spiritual Decay - Closer to the Grave (2006)

    During it's short existence, Spiritual Decay evoked the old school style of death metal of the early '90s.
   "Closer to the Grave" was almost nearly perfect, but the band also showed some genuine ambitions that didn't let to sort the album to the ordinary '90s nostalgia records. The common switchings between middle speed and fast hammering made their music quite intense, and the deep growling female vocals were also effective, as they sound aggressive and insane the same time. But the atmospheric effects (both musical and vocal) functioned as a strong braking force and took a lot from the effectiveness of their harsh sound. Like throwing a shovel of dirt on fire. The atmospheric and floating parts probably used to give some spiritual impression, but as their appearances getting more frequent, the album sounds more tired with time, and it's able to serve as a lullaby for the listener. That's a very strong contrast compared to how intense the album starts. No matter the heavy sound and lyrics of war and violence, it's like death metal after a peace pipe that was filled with some strong hallucinogenic material. This main view reminds to Fear of God somehow, inner struggles under the influence of self-destruction are easier to expect, than brutality in real life. But except these the themes are well composed and album could be interesting for old school death metal fans.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain (2006)

     A timeless classic mix between melancholy gothic metal and doom, Agalloch created Ashes Against the Grain, an album with huge emotion, exemplified in the first three minutes of the album. Limbs, the opening song, gives us a glimpse of how the entire album flows. It opens melodically instrumental, with an almost upbeat emotion; followed shortly by a turn to melancholy acoustic, more aggressive instruments and vocals. Ashes Against the Grain is another one of those "apex" albums as I've mentioned before. It's the sound you want to hear from Agalloch over and over again. (spoiler, you can, with Mantle and Marrow of the Spirit).
     If you're looking to get into something more grim and ambient than what folk metal Agalloch may have been previously known for, Ashes Against the Grain is memorizing as far as composition for what it's worth. This is hands down my favorite Agalloch album. I was first introduced to this band when I was only 15 through an incorrectly named Limewire song when looking for some ridiculous Cradle of Filth song. For almost 10 more years, I never figured out what this mislabeled "Limbs" song was until a local record store buddy recommended me this album. What I mean to say is, this album is timeless and unforgettable.

Friday, May 10, 2019

Dreams of Damnation - Epic Tales of Vengeance (2006)

   Dreams of Damnation was formed in 1992 as a speed metal band with strong heavy metal influences, but after a single record they turned silent for a long time. In 2000 they showed up again and after a 2 EP's they relesed their first full-lenght album.
   They've returned with a completely new line-up to play thrash/death. The whole line-up changed again before "Epic Tales of Vengeance" and they continued thrashing with a female vocalist. Even though their music definitely has old school influences, the album doesn't count as a nostalgic record. "Epic Tales of Vengeance" starts as intense thrash/death, but the following songs sound like if they were not sure how to mix their various influences. (The album isn't longer than their first EP by the way.) In the guitar themes some heavy metal references could be sensed (this stayed as the only common feature compared to their old style), but they also sympathized with modern song structures and sound. They played sometimes like if they were confused about how to compose the themes together. At the drumms it's the most markable. But the intense hammering and the combination of fast riffings and aggressive vocal style saves the day before things would turn chaotic. In general "Epic Tales of Vengeance" was a promising album, maybe the members just didn't have enough time to find some common ground to be able to work together more effectively.

Skinless - Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead (2006)

   Skinless was known about their high quality brutal death slamming and morbid humor. It seemed like they always tried to exceed themselves in brutality, and their name certainly sounds familiar for the audiences of brutal death.
   The band didn't change much, the concept stayed the same: gore, war and insanity on the most exaggerated level as it's possible. The only feature that was gone is the sick humor and the grotesque song intros. The previous album "From Sacrifice to Survival" completely lacked these, but even though some have returned, the band were not joking anymore. That gave a more serious impression to their music, and by this step they demarcated themselves from the that time uprising pornogrind subgenre, that was filled with countless similar references. The most extreme intensity they have introduced again. The themes, song structures and backing vocals showed modern brutal death tendencies. There isn't any calm moment to find on the album, and by only pure gory intentions "Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead" isn't so easy to go into. The most chilling song is a Black Sabbath cover at the end, that may sound surprising after the brain damaging noisy slamming, but they tried to perfom that classic so insane as possible too.

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Brutally Mutilated - Tortured Fucked and Mutilated (2006)

  Brutally Mutilated was formed in 2001, and during their first active period (that lasted until 2009) they've released 2 full-lenght albums. Their introducing material was a mix of brutal death and goregrind influenced mainly by old school death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Obituary or Broken Hope.
   The first album was self-released and sounded very promising, and together with their returning record "Tortured Fucked and Mutilated" they gave a nice lesson about exaggerated gore addiction. Since their music represents brutality in high quality, it's a wonder why their name isn't widely known. They prefer very heavy, noisy sound and simple themes in middle speed, that are switching commonly into wild grinding and intense hammering. The raw, noisy sound with the deep animalistic growls reminds somehow to Mortician, but while Mortician took in their primitive slow downs only to increase the effect of grinding and focused more on the distortion of noise, the mid speed bouncings of Brutally Mutilated are kind of groovy and counting as the essential parts of their song compositions. They have good sense to put out the maximum from these themes by giving a very sick impression to their music. Their old school-groovy slamming could be very enjoyable for the connoisseurs of extreme brutality.
More information about the band:

https://www.facebook.com/BrutallyMutilatedTX/