For how incredible its album cover is, Savage Empire Of Death does not disappoint. Imagine black metal stylings crossed with sleazy doomy rock (Satan’s Satyrs, Mephistopheles etc.) and you wouldn’t be far off here. In fact, just imagine Black Magick SS with a little less keyboard and a lot less swastikas, and you’re bang on the money. The production is pretty nasty, but that lends much more to the atmosphere and vibe than what it takes away in audio fidelity. Expect such fantastical ditties as “Clandestine Supremacy” and “Sanguine Dreams Of Lust”. Expect to develop a desire to burn candles, smoke opium and watch banned b-movies exclusively in the VHS format.
A timeless classic of the “Dungeon Synth” genreI’ve found that Fodt Til A Herske has always filled me with a profound sadness; a sadness that once again fills me as I sit here late at night writing this review whilst this record plays. When I first got the CD at 15 years old it felt as sad then as it does now, but with the music pressing on different weights from life. I guess between 15 years old and 33 years old there are different things to be sad about. Music is, as it always has been, such a powerful tool and force to reckon with, that it can make you feel these things. Fodt Til A Herske has always been an outstanding record. As good as the first Mortiis demo/LP was, Fodt Til A Herske improves on it tenfold, yet retaining that haunting, forelorn sadness that I speak so much about. The Mortiis stuff after this would go in a more fantastical, bombastic direction, and whilst still amazing pieces of music, they do not connect with me as much as the first two, especially this one, Fodt Til A Herske. Comprised of two parts, Fodt Til A Herske is a minimalist piece at its core, with various fluctuations and meandering paths as the music develops. If you like your music to be busy and all-involving then perhaps this one is not for you. It is a slow burn of magical synthesizers that invoke simple yet immensely powerful tunes. I can only hope that I am still here in anothet 15 years to continue to appreciate this timeless music.
Hmmmmmm that’s some tasty, tasty war metal. Love the sheer sonic obliteration that is the fucking SNARE DRUM alone. That’s my jam. But yeah, in all seriousness, this is heavy as shit. Which is what we want, right? At least from war metal, this is to be expected and I welcome it openly. Is there masses of variation and technical nuance? Perhaps not. Purifying Blade does have more going than your average 30-minutes-blur of a war metal release, but will probably still underwhelm those who are looking for more than sheer sonic brute force. Luckily, that kind of thing keeps cavemen like myself very happy, so I cannot recommend this enough.
This is some super cool shit. I love the mix of melody and absolutely atrocious production – now that my friends, is something to live for. It’s like all the hideously racist shit that comes out of the Finnish scene only without, y’know, any of the hideous racism. Instead we have a pure (lol) distillation of melodic black metal, and it sounds fucking class. Friendship, Love and War is a long album too, clocking in at 54 minutes, so your get your money’s worth, as it were. Some fellow explorers ov the sounds cry that this has heavy metal elements. Whilst they would not be wrong, I find that these are mostly drowned out by the black metal elements and the accompanying production values that come with such elements. I would finally like to give some kudos to the cover art, which is beautiful in its own right, and is what solidified my interest in checking this thing out after it was recommended to me. Ride Forever, my metal brethren.
Charming and lovely and an absolute pleasure to listen to, but also rather uneventful and not boundary pushing in any way shape or form. I feel like I have fallen into some sort of vaporwave mall / backrooms nightmare, or I’m stuck playing SimCity2000 for the rest of my life – which could be a good vibe if that’s what you are after. Take this on face value and enjoy the smooth tunes, but don’t try to dig too much out from it.
Listening to the Sepultura albums chronologically, I was initially surprised by how Against held it’s own – especially after how much I’d read the first transition to a Max-less world (lol) was recieved. Against held its own, allowing the band to continue as a three-piece but also begin flexing their new 4th member. I expected Nation to be more of this, but unfortunately it doesn’t even compare. Nation is just bad nu metal to the absolute core and is the sound of a band at their absolute nadir. That is not to say that there are not some good moments here or there, this is Sepultura after all and I have the most immense respect for Derrick Green. This album though, is exactly what I thought Against would be, but the delayed reaction of that initial release being half decent caught me off guard. This album belongs in 2001, and it needs to stay there, I’m afraid.
One look at that cover art and I had to check this out, even more so when I saw the associated artists for this project were Pussies and Hooded Menace, two bands I would have never put in the same sentence. Hail Conjurer have a ton of recordings but this is the first that I have come across and after a few listens now I’m still not entirely sure what to make of it. The immediate musical aesthetic is one of black metal, but has this weird, off-kilter approach to such that it doesn’t really fit under that banner. Equally, Ouroboros Lust is as doomy as it is black, but outside of some weepy riffs this doesn’t really hold that much in common with doom either. Throw in a bunch of noisy passages and sizzling electronic pads and you’ve got an unholy cauldron of sounds that jumps around in utter confusion. But does it work? One could argue yes, that it does. Others could say that it’s a bit of a clusterfuck. Both would be right. What I do know however is that you’d be best tuning in and deciding for yourself. It is an interesting journey, if nothing else. Stand out track: Two Stars
Cool, calm and clean, Ethereal Tomb first comes on like a fucking Symphony X record or something, until you quickly realise that you are listening to a death metal record, just recorded and presented with a prog-style production. It is a far cry from the muddy yet gratifying CHONK of albums like The Key or Thresholds, but I found Ethereal Tomb to be a very rewarding listen, especially with repeat visits. The drumming in particular, by Rick Bizarro, is fantastic. This is the core of the original band sans Browning and the bassist (whose name I forget), and it’s funny because nobody who is in the current Nocturnus “AD” is on this album – it’s like a completely new band, but one that is closer IMO to the original Nocturnus that Nocturnus “AD” can hope to be, Browning or no Browning. Anyway, this odd outlier in the catalog is well worth checking out. Please do not be put off by the clean sound or the absolutely pants album cover.
Messy, nasty, horrible metal cranked up to 11. You can feel the youthful energy of this thing overflowing throughout the whole record; be it in the raspy vocals, the crazy guitars or the sloppy, scattered drums. This is like combining early Possessed and early Venom in that machine from The Fly and turning it up to 666%. I.N.R.I. almost sounds to me like the accidental template for “war metal” (stuff like Beherit, Blasphemy and more recently Revenge, Conqueror etc.). I love how track 7 is misprinted as “Ready To Fucky” on some versions of this album – that is just absolutely hilarious, and jarring with the sinister tone here (I can’t wait to ask my partner that question the next time she seems even remotely in the mood – I’m sure it will seal the deal, so cheers Sarcofago). Stand out tracks include “Satanic Lust”, “Desecration Of VIrgin” and “Deathrash”.
