Tag Archives: old-school death metal

Obscene Entity – Lamentia

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By this point, it shouldn’t surprise too many people to hear that Death Metal is stronger right now than it’s been since the 90’s. The renaissance – for want of a better word – has been going on for years now, and the renewed quality and focus has spread to most pre-existing subgenres as well as made some new ones. Among the slew of Old School-, Post-, Blackened-, Progressive- and Abstract Art Tentacles-Death Metal, however, the 90’s American style of DM characterised by bands like Cannibal Corpse has been largely absent.

On their debut Lamentia (Tridroid), Obscene Entity combine this currently underrepresented style with a touch of Ulcerate’s atmospheric, ambient approach. The combination of crushing, rhythmic Death Metal with more progressive passages is reminiscent of fellow Brits Ageless Oblivion, but much tighter and more focussed. Unlike some of their peers, OE understand that a short and concise album is often preferable to a longer one, and Lamentia makes it points quickly and effectively. Some thought has also gone into the structure, with an instrumental separating the more progressive tracks at the end from the more straightforwardly brutal first half.

Lamentia may not offer anything particularly original in terms of its musical elements, but they’ve been combined effectively to make an album with both instant catchiness and lasting depth. Another example that the current health of Death Metal is not entirely linked to the success of a couple of “big name” bands, and another name to add to the list of bands to watch out for.

 

7.0/10

 

RICHIE HR

 

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Bastard Grave – What Lies Beyond

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What Lies Beyond is the 6-track début album from Bastard Grave on Pulverised records. This is Old School Swedish Death metal and damn proud of it, begone the Gothenburg style, all hail the punk infused buzzsaw guitar tone of Nihilist/early Entombed.

As ever the downside of anything ‘old school’ is that you know exactly what to expect. downtuned HM-2 Buzzsaw guitars? Check! Short, simple punk inspired riffs? Check! Abrasive solo’s? Drums that sound like someone falling down a flight of stairs? That sense of not being able to finish the album because you already know what the rest will sound like? Check, Check, Check!

Being old school it makes Bastard Grave challenge to stand out that bit more difficult, and it’s to be noted to their credit that they do indeed achieve it on many occasions.

Starting off with ‘From The Depths’ we’re greeted with borderline sludge levels of feedback and a dry vocal roar, swiftly followed up with a round of rough and ready drums. The statement is made and you know exactly what you’re going to get. The blueprint of Stockholm is being followed closely, so far, so old-school, although there’s also more than a nod to more modern adherents to the sound such as Trap Them.

At times, particularly during the first two songs in the album, the pace can vary and drop a bit; this is most obvious during that opener, which seems to wane somewhat after the first few minutes and the fury seems to peter out. Fortunately by the time we get to track three, ‘Stalker’, the band are showing an upswing in confidence.

Later on in the album, especially with stand-out tracks ‘Bastard Grave’ and ‘Path To Extinction’ the riffs seem to get longer and the song-writing moves away from straight up homage and it’s this feeling of them finding their feet musically which is actually quite potent. Faster and more confident, the riffs chug along like an asthmatic steam train. Crusty, dry vocals and the stuttering yet pummelling old-school drums, it’s here that the promise is by far the most notable.

A début album is still early days for any band but Bastard Grave actually show a considerable amount of promise, they don’t do much which is groundbreaking but what they do, they do very well indeed.

 

8.0/10

 

RICH PRICE

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Grave – Out Of Respect For The Dead

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There’s nothing wrong with just picking something you’re good at and sticking with that. Some of Metal’s most influential and respected bands have become so through a lifetime spent mastering one narrow subgenre, but it’s a difficult road to tread – standing out above other bands while deliberately playing generic music is often a lot harder than being weird for its own sake.

Out Of Respect For The Dead (Century Media) is Grave’s eleventh full-length album since 1991, and anyone who comes to it expecting anything other than unrepentant, old-school Swedish Death Metal has made a grievous error, but you might not be expecting a group of veterans to sound quite so savage. From the moment ‘Mass Grave Mass’ bursts out of its fairly innocuous intro into a full-on face-kicking, it’s clear that over two decades of playing this style haven’t wearied them in the slightest, and the savage pace continues across the whole album, relenting only for the purpose of delivering crushing, Doom-tinged slow passages.

Unfortunately, the price they pay for this level of aggression is a loss of character, and it’s a price that may not be worth it. Old-school Death Metal can’t stand alongside some of the newer hybrids for sheer aggression – it’s the ability to juggle violence with sinister melody that keeps the style so appealing, and Out Of Respect… shows rather less of that than it should. Tracks tend to bleed into each other with little to separate them, and though they can catch your attention through sheer Fucking Hell aggression, they find keeping it much harder. At a time when old-school DM is so well represented by both fellow veterans Autopsy and Bloodbath (whose Grand Morbid Funeral stands as a modern classic of the style) and newer colleagues like Disma and Vastum, Grave are very notably lacking the personal touch that would make them stand out.

Out Of Respect For The Dead is, beyond question, a solid and competent album of genuinely savage Death Metal, but in a field already full of similar releases, it’s hard to really recommend it above anything else.

 

6.0/10

 

RICHIE HR


Cruciamentum – Charnel Passages

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Don’t look now, but I think Profound Lore are starting to resent being thought of as the home of abstract, pretentious “artistic” Death Metal. Though Cruciamentum may lack the ludicrous-beyond-all-reason extremity of labelmates Pissgrave, they open their debut full-length with a thunderous assault of the kind of crusty, punishing Death Metal that can cause your hands to lock permanently into claws if you’re not careful.

Which is not to suggest that Charnel Passages (Profound Lore) is wilfully stupid or simplistic. There’s some very effective use of atmospherics going on beneath the pummelling assault, and the seven tracks all make good use of their extended running time, not outstaying their welcome over eight or nine minute stretches. The core elements of Cruciamentum’s musical alphabet, however, are as crude and unsophisticated as their name would make you hope – ugly, Celtic Frost tinged riffing; unrelenting beats; grimly indecipherable vocals.

The price for Death Metal’s recent renaissance is a pressure on every band to fit neatly into a particular category and not get in each other’s way. Old School Death Metal? Sit over there, please. Brutal Slamming Death Metal? Sit in the corner and try not to drool on the floor. Pretentious Arty Tentacles Death Metal? On the ceiling, by the man with the clock on his head. On Charnel Passages, Cruciamentum remind us that Death Metal can be atmospheric, brutal and cavernous at the same time without having to buy into a particular aesthetic.

A decisive, unrepentant statement of intent from a young band with a clear sense of identity already, Charnel Passages is not only bound to be one of the genre’s high points in 2015, it’s a fitting reminder that Profound Lore’s reputation for quality is not built on anticipating any one trend.

 

8.0/10

(which is also the number of times I’ve said “Death Metal” in this review)

 

RICHIE HR


Portal – Impetuous Ritual – Grave Miasma: Live At Nambucca, London, UK

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It can be difficult with music as inherently niche as Extreme Metal to really know just how “big” a particular band are. From safely inside our little bubble Portal seem absolutely enormous at the moment, a regular feature on End Of Year lists whenever they put an album out. This impression was supported by their performance the day before at Bristol’s Temples Festival, where pretty much everyone present tried to ram themselves into the second stage area to see one of the weekend’s most talked-about bands. Taken out of that context and into the unforgiving reality of a rainy London Sunday, then it’s almost surprising to see them in a tiny pub filled with ferociously dedicated fans.  Don’t take talk of “hipsters” seriously – this is music entirely confident in its own small but passionate niche.

Grave Miasma have made a name for themselves playing solid, no-nonsense old-school Death Metal with a dark, “gothic” atmosphere and a pre-frilly-shirts Peaceville feel, and tonight they demonstrate that it is the strength of their song-writing and the confidence of their playing that elevates them beyond the generic. Further proof that playing within a genre does not necessarily equate to a lack of ambition or skill.

Atmosphere, though, is a fragile thing. Without Temples’ smoke machine and elaborate lighting rig, Impetuous Ritual seem less like four eldritch spectres of doom, and more like four guys in their pants and as many nails as they could afford from B&Q. Live, their music is much more savage and bestial than on record, the abstract atmosphere distilled down to pure aggression and violence. It’s a powerful performance, but a little repetitive, and loses some power towards the end of their set – although perhaps that’s simply because expectation for Portal has reached frantic levels.

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Impetuous Ritual’s underpants-atmospherics suffer slightly from their mundane environment, but Portal are on a different level entirely – beyond anything as crude as geography.  Even seeing The Curator having to push through the crowd in full costume to get to the stage (or watching him be guided on and off the Temples stage the day before) doesn’t detract from the sheer presence they exude once their set starts. Metal is not a genre renowned for its subtlety, but there’s something understated about Portal’s stage craft that’s far more effective than the usual ranting and shouting. The Curator’s deliberate, ritualistic gestures carry a weight beyond the usual air-punching and head-banging, and stage banter is replaced entirely with hypnotic waves of noise which link all of the songs together, so that there isn’t a moment of silence once they take the stage.

All this, though, would be ultimately meaningless if their aesthetics weren’t so perfectly married to their music. Critics attacking them for not having catchy riffs or grooves, or accusing them of being “just noise”, are missing the point – which is that Portal’s uniqueness comes from blending the musical elements of Death Metal with an approach to “song-writing” more akin to Dark Ambient or Noise music. This is particularly noticeable live, where waves of feedback, noise and dissonance flow together in a way which seems almost spontaneously organic – but which is of course planned in great detail. This isn’t catchy Melodic Death Metal, dirty Old School Death Metal or even ten-billion-riffs-at-once Tech Death Metal – this is Death Metal as fully immersive Noise, and live – even to people familiar with their recorded material – the intensity is almost unbearable.

If there’s a single criticism of Portal’s set, it’s how inappropriate some of the fans’ reactions seemed.  A horribly arrogant thing to say, of course, and the idea that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way of enjoying a band should be treated with nothing but contempt, but when confronted with something as alien and distinctive as Portal, the old whoo-ing, punching the air and shouting the band name as if they were Slayer just sounds out of place. The only sane reaction to being confronted with this spectacle is just to stand there and take it for long as you possibly can.

 

RICHIE HR


Audio: Skinless Stream Only The Ruthless Remain Album

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Reactivated death metal veterans Skinless have made their entire new album, Only The Ruthless Remain (Relapse) available for streaming on Decibel Magazine’s website here.  

 

 

Following their performance at last weeks’ Maryland Deathfest 13, the band can next be seen at Hellfest on 6/20.More dates to be announced soon.

Skinless Tour Dates

Jun 27: Hellfest Open Air – Clisson, FR

 

 

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Entrails – Obliteration

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Long regarded the simple cousin of the Extreme Metal family, Death Metal has been undergoing something of a late-stage renaissance recently, with bands developing in more abstract and avant-garde directions, bringing in influences from Noise, Dark Ambient and more dissonant styles of music.

Entrails want it to be known that they have absolutely nothing to do with that at all.

Just in case the album title and artwork don’t make it clear enough, the music on Obliteration (Metal Blade) wastes absolutely no time in punching you repeatedly in the face. Despite what you might imagine from their rather… ah… shameless logo, Entrails are not a straight tribute to one band, but rather a mix of highlights from the more straightforwardly aggressive American and Swedish Death Metal bands of the last twenty-odd years.

Riffs are the main currency here – big, gnarly, ever-so-slightly-Motorhead-y riffs backed by thunderous blasts and that growled but audible style of Death Metal vocals that seems less popular these days than the gurgling-sewage type. The song-writing is simplistic but effective, and often more varied than you might expect, exploring tempo and pace without ever softening up their attack. A sharp, powerful modern production helps greatly, wisely eschewing the muddiness many “old school” Death Metal bands feel that they’re obligated to stick with because the bands that influenced them couldn’t afford any better.

There’s nothing on Obliteration you haven’t already heard before – no envelopes are pushed, no boundaries are broken, all expectations are left firmly unchallenged – but it’s delivered with sufficient skill, power and intent that if you’ve got any interest at all in defiantly non-progressive Death Metal that’s not interested in anything other than punching you repeatedly in the face you’ll welcome the experience.

 

7.0/10

Entrails on Facebook

 

RICHIE HR


Kinder, Gentler Gore – Matt Harvey of Exhumed

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It’s a freezing cold day in Worcester Massachusetts, but nobody on the “Through Space and Grind” tour seems to care. Exhumed front man and guitarist Matt Harvey certainly doesn’t seem to mind it. Hell, he’s having himself a backstage beer.

“The tour is awesome,” says Harvey. “It’s a great package, I think. The bands are all different and yet there’s enough commonality that it all makes sense and it’s not boring for the kids. Everybody is really cool. Everybody gets along good. All the bands hang out and party together.”

Pairing up again with headliners Napalm Death certainly doesn’t seem to hurt either. “We toured with them and Municipal Waste a couple of years ago now. So now with Iron Reagan, Napalm Death and us it’s a little bit of a class reunion kind of thing,” Harvey says.

But the real reason why Harvey is sitting in a cold dressing room in Massachusetts is not the camaraderie, but to start promoting the recently reissued album, Gore Metal – A Necrospective. (Relapse) “Lots of Gore Metal songs on this tour,” says Harvey. “Like, we do one song from Necrocracy and everything else is from the first three albums. I think we play one song from Anatomy is Destiny, one song from Slaughtercult, one song from the Hemdale split which is like a minute and a half, and then everything else is Gore Metal. It’s easy. We can play all the songs wasted, so it’s great for us [laughs].”

Harvey is well aware that re-recording an album isn’t the most popular idea amongst metalheads. Especially one held in such high regard amongst hasher circles like Gore Metal. While Exhumed’s label Relapse Records wanted to include Gore Metal as part of its 25th anniversary batch of reissues, Harvey had his own personal reasons.

“We knew we could do better. The sonic messiness of the album kind of became emblematic for me of the crappiness of that time in our lives and the schism with the band and the chemistry was terrible. So now being able to go back and re-record it in a way that – I like anyway – without trying to change it too drastically, I think for me turns a negative memory into a positive one. I mean that sounds sort of hippie-ish or whatever [laughs]. To me the album today is a lot closer to the way we would’ve liked it to be in the first place.”

Matt Harvey of Exhumed, by Hillarie Jason Photography

Exhumed may be famous for gory lyrics and song titles like ‘Horrendous Member Dismemberment’ and ‘Limb from Limb,’ but the general public’s level of tolerance seems to be changing. While no strangers to some mild controversy: “We’ve been conspicuously asked not to come back by certain places,” Harvey says. “I think in this day and age it’s hard to be like too shocking. I mean if you just look at TV now versus TV in the 80s or whatever. There’s stuff that they can get away with and stuff that people are into. I mean you look at how successful The Walking Dead is. My stepdad who’s a conservative Christian, Fox News watcher loves The Walking Dead. Which is good because it gives us something to talk about aside from politics where we just argue. The appeal is huge and I think people find what we do to be cute at this point. It’s not as shocking.”

While a population being more open to accepting violent content in entertainment signifies less scrutiny for bands like Exhumed, Harvey worries that the “outlaw aspect” is at risk. We do live in a world where chefs are just as likely to have a sleeve worth of tattoos as the metal musician. “There was this shift where everything that used to be on the fringe got co-opted by the mainstream in not really a good way,”. “It’s a weird time you know. You can get a job and have long hair and tattoos. Which I guess is good, but now means that anyone can do it. Doesn’t mean you’re into this kind of music or into whatever. Just means it’s a fashion… A lifestyle, you know.”

WORDS BY HANSEL LOPEZ

LIVE PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON


The Official Ghost Cult Writers Albums of the Year Top 50: 50-41

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It’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the end of another year packed tighter than Joey de Maio’s loincloth with incredible genre-pushing, eardrum-violating, neckache-inducing metal. 

So we can begin to tell the story of a year which saw us give more top marks than any other year so far (and more 2’s and 3’s out of 10, too!), a year that left us inundated with so many great releases, we sought the opinions of our esteemed and respected writing team and we offer forth their albums of the year.  

The countdown to the Official Ghost Cult Magazine Album of the Year for 2014 has commenced. Please consume and enjoy the results of our 2014 Writers’ Poll. We hope it will introduce you to some of the incredible works of art you may have missed that we have had the immense pleasure of listening to and writing about this year.

In our first installment we bring you albums 50 through to 41.

 

 

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50. HARK – Crystalline (Season of Mist) 

Genre-bending aggression with doses of Doom, Prog, Psychedelia and Hardcore. Heavy as a very heavy thing.

 

 

 

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49. THE HAUNTED – Exit Wounds (Century Media)

“The album is filled with urgency and manages to be relentlessly heavy without compromising on those insanely catchy riffs. The Haunted have come back stronger than ever…  easily the band’s best effort a decade” DAN SWINHOE 9/10  Full review here

 

 

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48. THE WOUNDED KINGS – Consolamentum (Candlelight)

“Favouring lengthy yet subtly evolving guitar workouts that never lapse into repetitive dirge territory,The Wounded Kings go about working their dark, smoky magic with grim elegance… Simply put, The Wounded Kings are the quintessential English doom band “ JAMES CONWAY 8.5/10 Full review here

 

 

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47. SCHAMMASCH – Contradiction (Prosthetic)

“The quality of this album is obvious right from the beginning. Schammasch have created a record both challenging and endlessly refreshing, a truly remarkable sonic journey from beginning to end.” CAITLIN SMITH 9/10 Full review here

 

 

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46. AUTOPSY – Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves (Peaceville)

“Tourniquets… continues in gnarly, raw and near sludgy death metal vein, but maintains their run of high quality and in fact tops anything that has come from their return.” CHRIS TIPPELL 8/10 Full review here

 

 

 

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45. KROKODIL – Nachash (Spinefarm)

“With a heavy dose of Mastodon in its veins, Krokodil are a groove juggernaut that pummels all in its path with its three guitarists of fury” DAN O’BRIEN 9/10 Full review here

 

 

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44. INTER ARMA – The Cavern (Relapse)

“The sheer gravity and fulminating power of much of the music here is oppressive yet it carries the weight easily, this blend of raw animal force, aching melody and immeasurable creativity marks out this fantastic band” PAUL QUINN 10/10 Full review here

 

 

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43. DEVIL YOU KNOW – The Beauty of Destruction (Nuclear Blast)

“(with) all the promise of a powerhouse, and it delivers on all fronts. The songs are well-crafted, nicely developed and excellently executed.” LYNN JORDAN 9.5/10 APRIL ALBUM OF THE MONTH Full review here

 

 

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42.BLUES PILLS – Blues Pills (Nuclear Blast)

“…a record that understands and curates its heritage and lineage but is fresh, contemporary and massively memorable. This is the record that you’ll be recommending to your friends for months to come” MAT DAVIES 9/10 Full review here

 

 

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41. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN – Labyrinth Constellation (Profound Lore)

“Technical death metal with sci-fi themes, brilliant, utterly amazing, breath-taking and challenging from the first to the last second.” TIAGO MOREIRA 9.5/10 Full review here

 

 

 

 

 

Compiled by Steve Tovey


Horrified – Descent Into Putridity

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Horrified - Descent Into Putridity album cover

Death Metal is a scene that welcomes reverence to the masters and is happy in its conservatism, providing certain aesthetics are adhered to. So, set your HM2 pedals to stun as Newcastle’s (England) Horrified pay tribute with grand devotion at the altar of Entombed  as they channel the Sunlight Studios spirit to the max on their crunky Death Metal debut Descent Into Putridity (Momento Mori).

‘Tomb Of Rebirth’ lurches into aural consciousness with a crawling opening riff not entirely dissimilar to ‘Dismembered’ by, um, Dismember, from the legendary Like An Everflowing Stream (Nuclear Blast), before the pace is picked up, and Horrified churn down the Left Hand Path (Earache). The lo-fi production gives a sense of timelessness, like this album could have been a product of the Scandinavian Death Metal explosion of the early 90’s. This is also to their detriment at times, as the power and scything rage of closer ‘Repugnant Degeneration’ is hamstrung by a biscuit tin snare and disappearing toms, while the double kicks sound like a 1970’s typewriter.

But the production is only a small element, and adds to the homage Horrified undertake. Dan Alderson’s sandpapered-throat pitches around the Martin van Drunen mark, and helps draw ‘Narcolepsy’ into the Consuming Impulse (Roadrunner) ballpark, before the song swerves off via Leprosy – era Death (Relapse) and ‘Fall From Grace’ (Blessed Are The Sick, Earache) style Morbid Angel tectonics, raging to a close.

Diversity is not necessarily the name of the game here, but neither have we ventured into the land of the pony with one trick, as a slew of gratifying vari-paced old school riffs tick various boxes, with Horrified parading and espousing an obvious love of classic, dirty Death Metal to their benefit.  As the band name may suggest there are also plenty of Repulsion references in some of the grindier and grimier passages, such as the blast that opens of ‘Veil Of Souls’.

You do have to be careful with Death Metal as it’s very easy to end up with a collection filled with thousands of bands not saying anything new or exciting, but all churning out decent enough music that references, but doesn’t better, the greats. That said, a quick dip and a descent into putridity is a good a way to spend half an hour as any.

 

7.0/10

Horrified on Facebook

 

STEVE TOVEY