Sunday, March 29, 2020

Putrevore - Morphed from Deathbreath (2008)

   Putrevore was founded as the side project of two well known masters of death metal, Dave Rotten (Avulsed, Golgotha) and Rogga Johannson (Paganizer, Sinners Burn). Bands with international line-up was kind of a new issue from the late '00s. The distance is definitely not serving their activity, but similar formations could lead to intersting outcomes.
   The names under Putrevore might be enough convincing for the fans of the genre, to forget about to expect any disappointment. The heaviness and rawness of their music could be compared to Incantation, but only the noisy sound and Mr. Rotten's familiar deep murmurring growling vocal style is responsible for that. The themes are not complex, more like switching between brutal death grinding and the well known primitive, but catchy, typically Swedish death metal themes. This kind of sound is definitely not usual in the Swedish scene, though it's opening a new perspective by turning the main impression as heavy as it's possible. "Morphed from Deathbreath" offers nothing revolutionary new, but enjoyable entertainment as just being all-round excellent, in themes, sound quality, and in filling it's horror/gore based main concept. Strongly recommended for the fans of old school death metal!

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Rhino - Dead Throne Monarch (2008)

   Rhino showed up as genuine band that sounded like to represent the two main directions of the actual modern metal scene the same time: the simple, raw approach that's effective by it's wildness, and the complex style mixes. That might sound as a paradox, but completely correct about their music, since it was definitely not unifacial.
   These two directions might be difficult to manage in one project, and it's kind of impossible to to create this way something unified, except if a band is directly exaggerated on many levels. At Rhino even the style detemination is problematic, since they preferred to show two different aspects: an aggressive sludgy and thrashy approach and a slower doom and progressive metal influenced way. These mostly showing up separately, but to switch for short time from one to another is also not rare.  If it wasn't enough, the album also holds some occasional surprises by instrument selection: an acustic ballad took place there too and if the listener pays attention, saxophone could be also discovered. The main view is quie diverse, but the noisy sludgy sound bonds the chaos into a whole. Their music might be not the easiest to go into after first listening, and both the raw sound and the complexity are responsible for that, plus coordinating them together in mind, but it's definitely worth for more tries. The album represents high quality production and the band counts extraordinary in the main metal scene.
 

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Hellhammer - Demon Entrails (2008)

   Hellhammer needs no introduction for the fans of extreme genres, but still it took a very long time until the predecessor of Celtic Frost earned the release of a compilation that collects all their works.
   On the side of early Venom, these demos and rehearsal room records (on the side of the "Apocalyptic Raids" EP) representing the very basics of all extreme metal styles. And even though Hellhammer didn't reach so wide attention like Venom, still they reached a cultic level, and became a main inspiration for many bands in the followings. Even thrash and speed metal were just about to born in the early '80s, but Hellhammer was already pointing forward with the darker tone that was swolling from their simple and characteristic themes. This exact feeling was recalled only decades later by newer old school styled bands, but back than it proved to be as fruitful ground that opened new perspectives for others. And even for themselves under Celtic Frost as they later showed, but in a completely different way. Their themes and sound became an icon and were incomparable in their time, even if most part of the main impression came from the result of their poor recording circumstances. "Demon Entrails" commemorated worthily the beginning of a new era in metal music.

Frustration - Relax (2008)

   Even though there were tryings to bring back many already nearly forgotten music genres into popularity, still some ideas might sound surprising in the modern scene. Some tryings working out so well, that they're resulting a renaissanse for the exact style, while others are staying as genuine experiments, like Frustration was.
   The band brought back the long time gone post punk/alternative rock feeling of the early '80s, and they did that with such ease that probably nobody could tell the age difference. With very basic, but catchy themes they've recalled the mix of melancholy and intensity with the touch of suspected inner struggles partly based on self-destruction. That might be a quite complex thing to describe, but post punk expressed that with the toolbar of simplicity, a way like no other style was able to repeat. Their simple themes, lyrics, self-expression grabbing the listener to the core and planting there bittersweet feelings. This was the most advantageus feature of the style, and nothing similar effective enough was heard for a long time until Frustration showed up. Some songs are like arsing around, some are depressing, some are gentle and introverted, others are sounding pretty joyful, but even in that case the lyrics are not in balance with the music, so it's almost ending up sarcastic. All sounds all-round nostalgic and in high quality, so the question may stand why that didn't lead to a wider post-punk resurrection? The anwser is simple: the main scene was going into a completely different direction that lacked deep impression, and not many of the old audience of the style kept their interests active enough to keep paying attention and to become the supporting part of a new small movement. However "Relax" is an excellent album that filled an empty space that was left behind since the late '80s.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Necroblaspheme - Destination: Nulle Part (2008)

   Another example of the excellent sound of modern death metal was introduced by the second album of Necroblaspheme.
   The band debuted with the same concept, but with the touch of a more primitive, raw sound. "Destination: Nulle Part" proved to be a great progress both in technical development and sound. The rawness that remained in their music, took another aspect: in this case it was represented in the effect of complexity and heavy sound. This kind of complexity might remind to technical features in some way, but they didn't step through a certain line, and kept staying between brutal death themes and musical diversity. There are no unnecessary fripperies to find, complexity and heaviness are like serving and completing each other the same time. Even though there are no doubts about that it's a modern direction, it's unlike what usually is bonded and could be expected to that term. Even if the old school gory imagery and concept seems already history, there's no reason for death metal to turn soft or to involve influences that may emasculate it's style features like what actually was happening in the main scene. Similar to French extreme bands, Necroblaspheme offered exaggeratedly brutal entertainment in high quality without compromises, and they did that by practically telling the same story in a different way. Highly recommended material!

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Hackneyed - Death Prevails (2008)

   What are the most common teenage boy activities? Probably dating, studying, doing sports, gaming, partying. And in very special cases playing in a death metal band like Hackneyed did.
   The band gained wide attention fast, because of their raw burtal sound and they've proved to be very skillful by reaching this level so young. They were not welcome by everyone, because many didn't find them authentic enough because of their young age, and because of a sudden contract with Nuclear Blast, that is like a secret dream of many ambitious extreme metal bands. Maybe their music counted generic in the main scene, but many bands are not able to reach this technical level even after many years of playing. And it's important to not forget, that almost all bands of the old school metal scene have started to play in the same age and got record contract very soon about 2 decades earlier. Hackeyed didn't show up with anything extraordinarily or revolutionary new, but what they did, they have done good. On their debut the touch of the modern sound of metal based on simplicity (new wave of grindcore, deathcore) can be sensed with the influence gory brutal death metal. On the side of the musical features, the vocal style tells about the same by often switching from deep growls to Chris Barnes-like screams or nearly pig squeels. Death metal stayed as a fixed ground, the other style features appeared occasionally like a little bit from everything. That mainly counts as experimenting to find a unified sound, and partly meant to be to try things for fun. Thanks for the high quality production "Death Prevails" sounds quite devastating and entertaining the same time. Recommended for brutal death and gore fans.

Izegrim - Tribute to Totalitarianism (2008)

   While the mainstream audience was completely impressed by forgettable bands like Arch Enemy or In This Moment to hear aggressive female vocals in front of a metal band (that already showed up in the '80s... Good morning "metalheads", it's always nice to see that you're paying attention), and thanks to the latest one, the whole thing started to develop into a metal Barbie movement; it's always nice to find bands who are unlike them, and are authentic too.
  Izegrim formed as a thrash/death band with quite heavy social criticism as lyrical concept. Catchy riffings are their most characteristic musical features that are like a bridge between the classical '80s style of thrash and the modern sound. Creative drum play is dictating the rhythm that's switching between intense and middle speed. It's far behind the extreme speed of the oldies, but the focus is more on diversity than on endless thrashing. The heaviness of the sound and the excellent cawing vocal style of Miss Marloes Voskuil are responsible for the harsher impression. The lyrics about the religious propaganda behind modern wars and terrorism were kind of accurate in the times of the Iraq war, but there are plenty of historical references for comparsion to find. That's definitely not the mirror whereinto many likes to look, and therefore Izegrim fills an empty space that was missing since a long while in the metal scene. Strongly recommended for both the newer and old school fans of thrash and death metal.