Death Metal Album of the Week: Dark Tranquillity – Skydancer

For the true disciples of our thanatical religion, Gothenburg exists in the shadow of Stockholm as a spirtual centre for Death Metal; the latter being associated with the nobley barbaric masterpieces of Dismember, Therion, Necrophobic and their Sunlight Studio-powered comrades, while on the opposite coast, the city of Göteborg managed to establish itself as a breeding ground for faggots, feminists and pop musicians to collaborate on what has become one of the most abhorrent and effete styles of the genre. By eliminating the primal sensory and cerebral patterns by which Death Metal defines itself in order to communicate horror-tinged revelations through dead eyes, the Melodic Death Metal sound of Gothenburg relies on a few aesthetic reminders to bestow the illusion of being musically relevant, while remaining based entirely on the harmonic and rhythmic interplay of Iron Maiden, serving as the melodic ‘antitode’ to the chaos of Death Metal, or rather, a cheap excuse not to engage with it and instead delude the mind with pleasant riffs of insignificance that form the basis of roadkill which the most recent incarnations of this style along with metalcore and other forms of rock music that can trace their influences back to early 90′s Sweden all resemble.

Prior to this great epidemic of weakness that has not since ceased, the power of harmony in Death Metal music was becoming integral to the compositional framework of important bands, adding to a melodic lexicon established by the disharmonic experiments of Slayer, Morbid Angel and even Darkthrone albums, moving from traditional riffing to an almost contrapuntal sense of melodic tremelo style in ‘Soulside Journey‘. Atheist’s apex of fusion music, ‘Unquestionable Presence‘, handled Jazz harmony competently within Death Metal epics and back in Gothenburg, At The Gates were synthesising Atheist’s complexity with what began in Stockholm as Dismember and Unanimated‘s more Classically-aware debuts. This incessant emphasis on melodic development would see Finnish neighbours Sentenced refining the use of harmony with their ‘North From Here‘ album that rendered Iron Maiden technically obsolete, and following in Taneli Jarva and co.’s footsteps came Dark Tranquility, representing perhaps the last great height of this scene before Melodic Death Metal subsequently descended towards the cheap and childish music it became. That’s not to say ‘Skydancer’ didn’t verge on the edge of wimpish territory, as this album alongside At The Gates’ ‘With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness‘ could probably be described as the Phyrrhic victories of Melodeath (mellow Death), opening the therapist’s door to concepts like ‘hurt’, ‘loneliness’ and a general sense of agnostic and angst-ridden confusion. Nevertheless, what we’re dealing with in an album like ‘Skydancer’ extends far beyond the broken human spirit, reaching into both the depths of the cosmos and the self to find the same, ultimate source of power.

Where At The Gates’ seminal masterpiece, ‘The Red in the Sky is Ours’ was an autonomous quest for spiritual awareness from out of the ruins of Christianity, painted in all it’s pain, struggle and disharmony, Dark Tranquility’s ambitious sophomore effort exalts the harmony of nature as the goal of union for the human soul, the spiritual imperative of a ‘Skydancer’. The album is built around this ideal in relation to the darkness of modern reality that makes the beauty of the natural world seem like it only exists in a fantasy, and the experiments with harmony and counterpoint represent the voices of the real and ideal in a kick-drum punctuated dialogue. The highly courageous ‘Shadow Duet‘ takes this even further, using two vocal personifications of this theme to battle out in an aggressive, almost Grecian discourse. The riffing style, drawing equally from Scandinavian folk motifs and Baroque melodic interplay is reminiscent of the Romantic composers’ desire to create a holistic music that united the earthy folk tradition with the transcendental heights of Classical music. In the same way that Varg took Paganism away from the neo-Pagans and revealed the underlying Essence of what is usually otherwise depicted as a quaint and obsolete mythology of demigods, the mystical Paganism of Niklas Sundin is totally panentheistic in nature, where transcendence equals the ‘communion with the Oversoul of the universe’. The weak link lyrically, is Mikael Stanne who lacks this dimension, although his nationalistic references add another Romantic flavour to the album. Another In Flames member, Anders Friden, provides the vocal work, which sounds quite drunken and doesn’t meet the demanding lyrical placements within the songs. The yearning in the voice of a Tomas Lindberg is totally absent where the lighter, but still highly emotional melodic guitar work not distorted by discordant riffs would have complimented it very well. On a similar vocal note, the addition of clean vocals (the male singer is very bad) were totally unnecessary but it seems like even at this stage in their career, the band needs to make certain thematic elements and contrasts unbearably obvious, which is why a discriminating listener will stick to this album and not bother with the subsequent exhibitions. Bassist Henriksson draws no such complaints, accompanying the guitarwork to provide a deeper foundation for the melodic development, as expressive as the two other guitarists, adapting the sound to slower, heavier or tremelo riffing.

‘Skydancer’ is often the subject of complaints for it’s relentless flux of melody like an amphetamine-influenced violin concerto but this is not an unfocused, Liers in Wait experiment in seeking the limits of riffcraft. The compressed but pregnant structures bring the listener to focus on the narrative of the melodies and truly experience the restlessness of this spiritual life, rather than just passively drool at the ear-pleasing harmonies and other musical sensations as the success of Melodic Death Metal would later rely on. Hail to this once great band, so full of youthful ambition to widen the musical palette of Death Metal without resorting to cheap gimmicks but exploring the polar opposite of colour and texture in order to see the beauty of the cosmos through the symbiotic language of the Divine.

My yearning to be part
of nature’s truthful solitude
Of wisdom’s inner light
that shines in mystic multitude
The guiding source within,
so few of us will ever know
And few will ever climb
the great world-tree from which we’ve grown
But those who seek will find
the rhythm that vibrates high and far
And rearrange the cosmic threads,
the pattern of the Weave of Stars

Diocletian – Doom Cult

One of the most well known of the close-knit and virile New Zealand death/black scene, Kiwi act Diocletian‘s full length falls and fits clearly within the war metal sound as was pioneered by Blasphemy, and taken to a more nihilist, apocalyptic climax by fellow Canadians, Conqueror and their suceeding act, Revenge.

Structurally, the songs of Diocletian adhere to the musical formulas that define Canadian death/black metal hybrids, but the production whilst still raw, is not as lo-fi and has more streamlined engineering on the guitars and drums, with the bass guitar playing, an unlikely rarity in such high intensity music, thankfully audible. Barked, roaring vocals commonplace within this niche of metal predominate ‘Doom Cult’. The tonal quality of the guitars whilst not trebly are less bass-heavy than what you would expect from an Revenge or Sacramentary Abolishment record, is of enough clarity to possess a harmonic distinction that has a similar quality to a less Norse-influenced Demoncy, and even draws a parallel to the first full length by Profanatica. To add to this, a similarity that vaguely resembles the ‘Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan’ album by Antaeus is present, in that nuances of distortion and feedback, samples of a warlike nature are used to build and intensity the framework of the album.

Along with a savage execution and great understanding of the pattern language that informs this style of music, Diocletian put forth an excellent full length.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Immolation – Unholy Cult

For most death metallers, evil is not spread at the behest of a paranormal entity lurking beyond the horizon, demonic possession or a tempter, but instead there is a devious core of man’s unawareness, parasitic tendency and “blind leading the blind”, leading society to a vicious circle of uncaring mutants annihilating each other through various games and contrivances of modern culture, seen as necessities. Immolation, one of the most skillful yet direct conjurers of death metal art, organized “Unholy Cult” as a series of statements in man’s capacity to evil and the existentialist oblivion in realizing God’s falsehood, because despite the possible existence of transcendental unity the hypocrite “cults” of man wreck the vision into a disturbed dualism. Rarely has death metal sounded as subtle and smooth, yet nerve tingling, as the best line-up the band ever had utilizes its effortless sense of dynamics to “groove in” an approaching storm of apocalypse with subdued counter-rhythm of Hernandez against the dissonant riff, something their obvious modern copycats Deathspell Omega often fail to do because of flawed pacing. Distinct from “Close to a World Below” in fist-pumping doom and black metallic blastbeats interjecting the symphony of diminished intervals, making this probably the first step in the gradual descent of Immolation to “meet their audience”; however here the impression is not pandering at all but perfectly persuasive slithering of a mind-virus that awakens the listener to a moment of tumult realizing retroactively about five minutes of mental build-up having led to an indescribably intense resolution of themes akin to a musical Nibbāna where the tenets of both light and dark are annihilated in a moment of musical nihilism. As is shockingly customary for Dolan, Vigna and company, the songs are riddles and glyphs requiring a reasonable effort from the part of the listener to decipher and actually recombine the parts of the song in one’s mind and through the puzzle man is led to realize an impossible paradox of nature: evil as part of, yet beyond, theology. If blasphemous metal was ever made into a mental exercise, “Unholy Cult” is the crystallized moment of it.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Dominus – View to the Dim

The difficulty of maintaining a sense of brutality by balancing folkish melody with Death Metal’s deconstructionist tendencies is undoubtedly the reason behind the scarcity of such albums as this rare Danish classic that’s now enthroned within the golden halls inhabited by the likes of Unleashed and the previously hailed Asgard, as warriors of Viking Death Metal. Deriving their sound largely from the Swedish scene which housed the former band, Dominus additionally colour their music with the ancient, melodic sentiment of the memorable French beserkers, resulting in an album that sounds like ‘To a Golden Age’ as composed by Entombed from the ‘Clandestine‘ era. Steadily chugging riffs accompanied by a Bolt Thrower style of rolling percussion do battle with bouncy, highly pronounced rhythms in the manner of both Entombed and Seance, from which ominous shades of folk melodies emerge, initially encoded within the nihilistic rhythmic patterns, gradually becoming more independent as the album progresses, highlighting the journey of warriors and their struggles sanctioned by the gods, which reveal to man the true scope of his existence, within the continuum of cosmic action. Avoid all further output by and incarnations of Dominus, so that the memory of this carefully orchestrated saga stands proud over countless, unspeakable populist horrors.

Now as we ride in iron and steel
We know that this is the land of eternity

Death Metal Album Of The Week: Deceased – Luck Of The Corpse

One of the older and more unsung extreme metal bands to come out of North America, Virginia-based Deceased issued ‘Luck Of The Corpse’ in 1991, playing death metal in the most primitive of fashions, in ways not too dissimilar to the likes of Autopsy and Impetigo. The common perception of a musical aesthetic often dictates to the more automative listener that anything that bares an adherence to or authenticity that speaks ‘simplicity’ this conveys the perception that nothing unique is to be expected, and in the case of death metal that it conveys no sense of originality or otherwise is quickly assumed to be something that breaks no ground.

Deceased’s full-length debut serves to shatter a couple of myths, and whilst firmly rooted to the aesthetical mould of death metal’s oldest school, drummer/vocalist King Fowley’s taste for eclecticism makes itself clear in abrasive compositions. The influence of progressive metallers such as Voivod and Prong come through in varied sequences of riff patterns that use a variety of strumming techniques, from low end death/thrash melodic motifs to discordances that have nuances of discordance that also was prevalent on the likes of ‘Killing Technology’ and ‘Dimension Hatross’. The drums are very impressive, sounding very upfront in the mix, and King Fowley’s vocals are that of an animated, puking corpse. His execution and hitting of the skins is quite direct and barbaric like his fellow instrumentalist Chris Reifert of Autopsy, though has a much more varied sense of rhythmic dynamism and interchange that works in solid cohesion with the dense yet flexible musical dimension that this band craft for themselves.

Death Metal Album Of The Week: Carbonized – Disharmonization

The convoluted and nigh-on surreal saga of Christofer Johnsson is one that is ruefully chronicled by old-school death metallers and ignorantly neglected by slavering neophytes. The abridged version: young Christofer made a name for himself by composing some of the finest death metal to have ever graced Sweden, then 20 years later he’s famous for cranking out gothic metal that sounds like Orff locked in HIV-positive symbiosis with Queen. But somewhere along the rough yet creatively fertile beginnings of that timeline — while fronting SweDeath-celebrity grindcore outfit Carbonized — Christofer Johnsson went completely crazy in a manner not unlike the vehement Swedish author August Strindberg, with the same paranoid-schizoid fits and necromantic visions of shadowed beings and Faustian conjurations. Perhaps he was starting to keel under the crushing burden of his own talent. Perhaps he was bewitched by the anti-music of deranged saxophonist John Zorn. Or, perhaps he simply discovered drugs. Whatever the case, it resulted in this moonstruck chestnut that’s still so inscrutable that only a Russian label presses copies of it nowadays.

At the most essential level, ‘Disharmonization’ (the title in itself a bald-faced reference to Disharmonic Orchestra) is still classifiable as a grindcore album, largely for its alternations between blast-beats and other rigid drum patterns to drive forth structurally disembodied, resolutely narrative riffs. Aesthetically, though, the album is strikingly protean, and bears much in common with other early examples of progressive death metal. Immediately noticeable are the production values — courtesy of a surprisingly adventurous Tomas Skogsberg — which are echoic, membranous, and at times even emollient, as if the walls of Sunlight Studios had been transformed into the fleshy, aqueous confines of a giant extraterrestrial uterus, straight out of Away Langevin’s over[re]active imagination. Songs follow a typically grindcore ethos in that they demand to be understood in the context of the whole album, but the growing influence of Johnsson’s neoclassical tendencies pushed this to artistic heights, such that ‘Disharmonization’ could be described as a sort of Swedegrind Suite held together only by a common theme of absurdity; this is certainly the brand of avant-garde that Tom G. Warrior had attempted with ‘Into The Pandemonium’, but where that album had its self-conscious falterings, ‘Disharmonization’ overcomes. A wide gamut of textures (harsh distortion; pristine resonance), styles (jazz-lounge slink; Iberian folk), and moods (madness, exuberance, and everything in between) are fearlessly explored, reflecting more of a musical lineage to the bizarro-wave of Die Kreuzen’s ‘October File’ rather than, say, the aforementioned Disharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Expositionsprophylaxe’ (which served as the template for the debut, ‘For The Security’).

Simultaneously alienating and captivating for its unabashed disregard to conventions, ‘Disharmonization’ dared to probe the outermost boundaries of a genre commonly dismissed as being limited in its expressional capabilities. For its unorthodoxies it may never emerge from its preceding album’s shadow — much less be accepted into the pantheon of grind — but for those whose brainwaves follow frequencies of a deviant pitch, this is a necessary listening experience.

Cryptopsy – Blasphemy Made Flesh

Pre-1994 Death Metal’s dystopian discharge of sobering glimpses into the eschewed nature of reality left in its wake veritable visions of death, fire and unprecedented destruction. Given the release date of “Blasphemy Made Flesh”, we conclude that this album best represents a near last ditch effort on the part of the primordial fire that is death metal to burn with the glory of years past amidst an ominous yet inevitable decline in quality.

A refreshingly explosive album, the intensity of “Blasphemy Made Flesh” reveals an unrelenting desire to exhume much of the prerequisite spirit necessary to create a genuine death metal record. Exuberant, joyful and multifaceted “Blasphemy Made Flesh” employs indefatigably demented and blistering motifs and phrases to create omniscient and nihilistic visions of the perennial struggle between victim and victimizer. In so doing the listener is effectively reminded of this one eternal fact- that wolves lie in wait among the unsuspecting. Exploited down stroke technique combined with the resulting texture compounds this experience leaving one with the impression of being violated both physically and mentally with a blunted weapon. Left battered and bruised the listener is urged to synthesize and understand the presented raging struggles and their psychological implications.

However, despite the pummeling and crushing riff-work an acknowledged necessity of contrast is utilized to create ambiguous moods of contemplation from whence the deranged seemingly view the hideous work wrought upon their most recent victim. In addition to this, the rhythmically dynamic nature of this record fosters the development of a structurally complex album as Cryptopsy utilize a tactful rhythmic precision that through its capacity to delicately change the complexion of motifs, somewhat rivals the expert precision of Suffocation. It is in fact here that we discover much of the vaunted complexity of Cryptopsy, where motifs are manipulated via rhythmic dynamics, and while this may come across as tedious and perhaps overused to some, such technique creates an interesting layer of ever shifting context which listeners are challenged to follow and to interpret. These elements combined with an esoteric yet absurd and morbid sense of melody make this album a twisted and cryptic work whose seemingly contradictory elements point to higher level from whence this work must be contemplated. Although some tracks lack a consistently coherent narrative and may seem erratic at times, expert use of technique, brutality and vision combined with a haughty and commendable sense of ambition makes this work enduring and enjoyable.

July 21st 2010 – Inquisition, Vancouver, Canada

Situated at the edge of the notorious East Hastings St., where the filth and grime of Vancouver gravitates, the little dive bar known as Funky Winker Beans was to play host to the Columbian black metal duo, Inquisition. While it usually boasts a motley crowd of hipsters and various scenesters, tonight it would be assaulted by a crew decoratively attired in combat boots, bullet belts, balaclavas, even fur hunting caps (the guys in Blasphemy also made their appearance).  Contrasting the sickness of the outside locale with a barbarity of our own, the environment was quite prepared for the night’s festivities.

Radioactive Vomit

Opening the show, Radioactive Vomit seized the stage with an appropriate aggression, advancing forth into standard blasting war metal procedure. Obviously not set out to transcend the bounds of convention in the immediate future, this band nevertheless play a competent grinding affair in the vein of post-Blasphemy black metal, perhaps being more inclined to the singular darkness of Archgoat. One cannot accuse Radioactive Vomit of progressing beyond the first dimension of musical creation, but that straight-forward imitation proved to be the perfect formula for introducing the forthcoming acts.

Mitochondrion

The second of three B.C. bands playing tonight, Mitochondrion are a three-piece hailing from the province’s capital, Victoria. Instead of simply marching in the solid tradition of their metal forebears in the Ross Bay Cult, Mitochondrion elect to string together an articulate death metal that is actually quite unique in its vision, in its titanic aura that exudes some nefarious mystery. The ‘typical’ Mitochondrion track moves from an incessant vocal and percussive onslaught to a period of reflection and meditation, and then to a relentless storm that finishes in a brilliant rush of deep, throaty riffing and climactic songwriting. At times doomy, at others ferocious, Mitochondrion are a nascent band that has already advanced far in their development, which showed tonight in their surprisingly long performance (I believe that they had the longest set of the night). Mature and uncompromising, Mitochondrion were in full control, giving us a death metal that was as intelligent as it was brutal; despite a slight sound problem with the guitars, there was never a flagging moment throughout their lengthy show.

Gyibaaw

Crawling out from the frigid bitterness of Prince George, Gyibaaw descended upon the city in direct support of Inquisition, headed by lead guitarist J. Pahl who masterminded the entire tour. While not entirely death metal, black metal, nor entirely ‘war metal’ either, Gyibaaw are quite successful in not succumbing to ‘clonedom’, being able to combine elements from the past and make them into something that fits what they are trying to accomplish. A band that could probably be best described as ‘organic’, Gyibaaw summoned their brand of ‘Tsimshian war metal’ with a natural candour, playing with a fervent conviction that spoke to the youth and the spirit of the performers. Although they played a somewhat shorter set, we were not at all disappointed with the talent and the charisma that makes a band like Gyibaaw worth experiencing.

Inquisition

Most would think that a bassist is an indispensable component of any metal band; Inquisition disagree. Far from the average live band, these two Columbians consider themselves quite adequate at performing between themselves, minus a bassist, despite their reliance on a strong rhythm section, something which was notably present during their ‘ritual’. The music of Inquisition is fairly straightforward, with a steady, pulsing rhythm occasionally giving space for an eerie melody to shine through the tempest; it is simple, almost formulaic, but the key timing and the pure quality of the melodies are what really gives life to the compositions. Anyway, the most important thing for Inquisition to accomplish in the live setting is to invoke a real sense of the ritual, to make manifest the strong feeling of darkness prevalent throughout their post-thrash metal albums. With an identifiable aura of black villainy (achieved using only the scarcest amount of corpse paint), and with a loud, flawless manipulation of their respective instruments (irrespective of the audience’s cries of ‘get a bassist!’), Dagon and Incubus succeeded in demonstrating the nocturnal power of their music through the medium of stage, conquering any doubts that might have been made along the way. On a more personal note, I was most pleased to hear a favourite of mine played, namely, ‘Empire of Luciferian Race‘, off of the seminal ‘Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult’ album. Although it ended up being a bit of a shorter set, Inquisition nevertheless came out strong, and, with at least one new song amidst a number of staples, surely made lasting impressions upon everyone in the audience, bassist or no bassist.

(Photos courtesy of MADDOG from the Bloodred forums)

Pyrrhic Victories: A Brief Study Of Artistic Decline

All historical events at some stage pertain to a barrier, or a Rubicon that when crossed marks a watershed in the life cycle of an organism in which an achievement cannot be matched in terms of it’s overall qualities. In particular instances, these successes are such that what succeeds can only be a steady decline, or an outcome that pales in comparison to the glory that prevailed at a particular stage of time. This feature aims to give insight into some known examples of the ‘Pyrrhic Victory’ in the metal genre and give light to releases that represent strengths of once great acts, and at the same time foreshadowed artistic saturation.

A common thread that seems to run through these turning points in the careers of metal bands is the apparent contradiction between a musician’s personal evolution and the progress of the musical style into more authentic and expressive forms in service of the concept. We all understand that a maturing musician is not going to be satisfied with the same apparently simple techniques he mastered upon his first year of guitar practice for ages. He probably has musical heroes he is looking up to and he always wanted to learn that Eddie Van Halen or Ritchie Blackmore solo.

Vital musical forms rely on creativity, spontaneity and message over matter. It is the curse of the artist that often the best of their work is at the behest of youthful lunacy and drunken madness, the early recordings where they grasp at the straws of vision without quite having formulated the techniques for achieving them – so they improvise and as Nietzsche would say, “give birth to a dancing star“. ‘Human‘, ‘Tales from the Thousand Lakes‘ and ‘Heartwork‘ are all perfect examples of a band with the full arsenal of accumulated weapons, evolved to near its maximum potential in knowing exactly how to compose all the contemporary forms of metal, from death metal and grindcore to pop progressive, even soft rock.

But here comes the paradox. Instead of sounding updated, the recording sounds more dated every passing year, because what has happened is that the band has incorporated a plethora of archaisms to a sound that used to be cutting edge. The bludgeoning dark tremolos of ‘Leprosy‘ that used to climax in nearly atonal solos become melodious post-modernist “cut up” riff salads; the doomy Wagnerian grandeur and slow movements reminiscent of historical battles in ‘The Karelian Isthmus‘ is stealthily exchanged with stoner rock and circular meditations that happen after a couple too many smoked joints; the to-the-point socio-anatomical parody of the hilariously grotesque and twisted ‘Symphonies of Sickness‘ gets discursive and bloated with instrumental worship, as if the band suddenly turned from anarchists into voters. The core question would be: did the band think these are more sensible ways of composition and a better illustration of the topic at hand – or did they forget the composition and the topic altogether in the name of randomly generating “music” with cold technique?

Sepultura – Arise

Coming off the back of the raging, deathly speed metal of ‘Beneath The Remains‘, Sepultura stay true to the compact musical execution that began making itself clear on the ‘Schizophrenia‘ album onwards. There is more variation in pace, with the lower tempo compositions often resemblant of the riotous and anthemic cycles of of ‘Beneath The Remains’ played out in suspended animation. The introduction of the now ‘tribal’ meme that first makes itself present in Sepultura’s music introduces itself through in various songs, and whilst here it is applied in a more than tasteful enough manner it sometimes gives the idea that whilst this indicates an ‘open-mindedness’ to the average listener, on deeper insight it gives light to the possibility that the band by this time may have been starting to run short of creative ideas. Whilst this is a very good record by Sepultura, prevailing characteristics get the upper hand, and in a year where speed metal had long had it’s glory days, and death metal attaining new peaks of aggression in a period of artistic blossom, it’s no surprise looking back that the dumbed down and singularly ‘angry’ mosh-fodder that was ‘Chaos A.D.’ would suceed this work. -Pearson

Metallica – Master Of Puppets

A controversial pick, Metallica’s excellent third album fulfills the incorporation of progressive themes but seems to crystallize them to such an extent that no more creative spark would emanate from their later works. Cliff Burton’s presence in the unit, and his bridging of neo-classicist influences into their progressive speed metal was a defining feature of what many hessians and metallers saw to be the main component of their excellence. Having let this seep in on ‘Kill Em All‘ and fully realise itself on ‘Ride The Lightning‘, ‘Master Of Puppets’ steps further towards punchier and anthemic songs, with a steeping emphasis on percussive, palm-muted rhythm riffs which are the dominant motif in the album’s musical execution. This is structurally still in the exact same mould as ‘Ride The Lightining’, in that despite a different order of where songs are, we get aggression in ‘Damage Inc.’ and ‘Battery’ where there was once ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ and ‘Trapped Under Ice’. Songs such as ‘Sanitarium’ continue a rock music inclined sense of songwriting that continues what started with ‘Fade To Black’ and inevitably foreshadows the growing commercialism of Metallica on later releases. The excellence of ‘Orion’ also signals a continuity shift that began with ‘Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)’ and fulfilled itself with the ‘Call Of Ktulu’ instrumental. This is a great album that solidifies the importance of Metallica in the genre’s history, though the death of Cliff Burton and the lack of creative steam that ensued signalled the artistic decline that came in 1988 with ‘And Justice For All…’. -Pearson

Coroner – Mental Vortex

While the speed and thrash metal boom was crumbling all around in the wake of Seattle and LA-based clothing styles storming the nation, a few European stalwarts lingered on the fringes and while some of them didn’t dare to take up the arms for intricate, narrative death metal, they were influenced by its vicious aggression and psychedelic subject matter. Coroner from Zürich, around Tom G. Warrior‘s circle of the tyrants, never became a vastly recognized or influential name in extreme metal but superceded most of its peers in technicality and consistency, releasing a discography of five albums ranging from the raging “R.I.P.” to the eclectic “Grin“, where the fourth one “Mental Vortex” is where the playing abilities peak but the ultimate purpose of the band is starting to wane. When the idealism of youth fades and with it the spontaneous power of iconographic assault, the only avenue left for speed metal to challenge the moral preconceptions of hypocritical generations was to turn to psychology and explore lies and paranoia in the internal spheres, cutting up joy and sadness into fusion-esque rhythm riff salads (with the timing of an atomic clock) cut up from brilliant small pieces akin to Burroughs’ or Gysin’s style of literature. Such a hectic style provides an engaging rhythmic tension for this album, arguably one of the last triumphs of the entire genre, but it’s also cold and calculated like a scientific experiment. The vastly more popular but not much better Carcass realized essentially the same things many years later on their hit album “Heartwork” and ended up on the pages of guitar magazines, while Coroner was already entombed to the mausoleums of Noise Records’ speed metal roster. -Devamitra

Morbid Angel – Covenant

Among the most ancient, recognisable and influential cults in Death Metal’s history, Morbid Angel’s tale of decline is a prolonged one, and raised continuous questions about the band’s creative state, as though their instruments were being channelled purely at the whim of the Outer Gods. The Floridan giants finally resisted the unearthly impulses that once guided them to create powerful statements of occult awareness bound up with a Nietzschean sense of overcoming and will-to-power, such that with the releases of ‘Gateways of Annihilation’ and ‘Heretic’, the band fell victim to triviality. Incremental lapses in quality can be traced back to much earlier albums however, with the departure of guitarist Richard Brunelle being the first to impact the legendary line-up responsible for two of the finest Metal albums ever recorded, meaning that ‘Covenant’ would initiate the band’s slow decay. In addition, Morbid Angel’s growing populist tendencies were perhaps never more commercially viable than at this time, with the production left in the hands of Fleming Rasmussen, and not one but two music videos filmed to promote the album. Brunelle’s exit would mean that Trey Azagthoth would be fully responsible for filling the suffocating mix with his trademarked guitarwork, to the surprising detriment of ‘Covenant’s sound wherever the album’s conceptual direction becomes overwhelmed by a one-dimensional bluntness. Characterised by unfocused and uniform phrasing and only held in place by Pete Sandoval’s tightly militaristic drumming, the latter half of the album demonstrates little of the dynamism that could be heard on every one of their preceeding songs. The spiritual inversion of Morbid Angel, a transvaluation of religious language to re-vitalise and Paganise the path of transcendence and condemn the submissive and world-denying, corrupt parasites turns into an unaltering, blind rage that’s summarised by the lyric of ‘God of Emptiness‘, “So, what makes you supreme?”, setting a blueprint for the band to follow on ‘Domination‘ and the hordes of imitators that were given an undeserved license to record by virtue of Death Metal’s growing popularity. ‘Covenant’ in this sense is not dissimilar to Deicide’s Pyrrhic fall from the adept demonology of ‘Legion‘ to the dumbed-down ‘Once Upon the Cross‘, though Azagthoth’s wizardry would earn Morbid Angel some redemption with the primordial dance of cosmic energies to be heard on ‘Formulas Fatal to the Flesh‘ before finally digging their own grave without cursing their own reputation quite as badly as the truly shattered idols from the golden age of Death Metal. -ObscuraHessian

Death Metal Album of the Week: Evisceration – Hymn to the Monstrous

The time-honoured, warm and fertile nation of Portugal, once the ruler of the Southern seas, never gave death and black metal movements any immense impact but has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to its vastly larger neighbour, Spain, which probably boasts an even more scant number of memorable little releases from the golden age of grindcore and death metal. While the country’s major global success story, gothic satanists Moonspell, shared thrash and grindcore roots with countless marginal demo level bands, mostly only to be found archaeologically from the pages of dust covered zines, the fruition of the style in the shade of Sintra forests’ timeless sylvan spell was conceived by Setubal’s Evisceration – who successfully, if unpretentiously, combined lurching doom with Carcass-inspired corpse-shredding chaos much like Blood did a thousand miles away in Germany, creating a devastating, desolate atmosphere by manipulating space and tempo across an album formed of short, intercutting scenes of violence.

Effectively a counterpart to the promiscuously eclectic and baroque sound of the earlier covered fusion band Disaffected from the same lands, Evisceration brings simplicity but tenderness to the face of the listener in morbid delight which united early grindcore in a heavy substance of evil, far from the trash entertainment jokes and putrid politics that later on caused a major collapse of interest in the phenomenon, alongside a tendency to musically overemphasize elements such as fast blastbeats and radically rhythmic growls, that used to serve as sensible pieces of an overall emotional, psychological and philosophical architecture. Simply put, this means that while there are no obtrusely “progressive” parts, Evisceration are alike agile in utilizing moody synthesizer akin to early black metal bands in “Consumed Act”, as a quasi-classical acoustic guitar in the intro piece “Farewell to Earth, Heaven and Sun”, not to forget short but gripping Slayer-esque leadwork in “Dead Foetus”. This 35-minute collection of short but easily differentiable songs doesn’t overuse any of its ideas, and this disciplined compactness is, as previously mentioned in regards to Blood‘s “O Agios Pethane”, a testament to the theoretically endless possibilities of grindcore which are rarely heard in action.