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Forgotten death cults from Finland: Necropsy

In an era when Finnish death metal was a freaky force of nature, punishing everything in its path, Necropsy from Lahti, Finland, was doomed to obscurity as many of their peers, the likes of Mordicus, Convulse, Funebre and Abhorrence. In five years (1989-1993) they created 7 demo tapes and appeared on one 7″EP and a split LP with Demigod on the infamous Seraphic Decay label. Thrashing and grinding, organic and brutalous death metal of this kind would freshen up the scene of today immensely and thus we welcome the rumours that Necropsy is staging a comeback in true old school spirit to show the weakened versions of Carcasses and Pestilences who still holds the true spirit of unholy death.

Repulsion plays some big festivals

Grindcore originators Repulsion are active on the gig front again and will appear at California Metalfest @ Anaheim on March 28th and later in the UK Deathfest @ Leeds on May 3rd. Their album “Horrified” is an eternal masterpiece, so hopefully these gigs are a true revitalization of that spirit and not merely a cash-in on these big $$$ festivals.

True grindcore reigns!

Clips
Repulsion – Radiation Sickness

Old school Swedish blasters Miasmal are working on an EP

While the old Swedish masters with a few exceptions have lapsed to creating redundant supergroups and crust/rock influenced superficialities, the young generation strikes out with morbidity, sickness and decay. Miasmal possess the touch of evil we experienced with old Grave and Cemetary.

Detest Records

Death metal massacres in southern Finland

Deathmetal.org reporters decided to defy numbness and political correctness by attending the hilariously provocative Arghoslent gig near Tampere 7.3.2009. Despite some drunken skins prowling about and vomiting feces, it was definitely a splendid evening with heavy melodies, historical reminiscence and hope for a new generation and a more successful society.

There definitely isn’t a shortage of good death metal live performance in Finland right now. Last year we got Incantation and Immolation, two gigs that showed both the primitive strength and the progressive ability of those two geniuses. Swedish master Unleashed played a couple of weeks ago. Upcoming this weekend are two dates of Greek Incantation worshippers Dead Congregation and the Necros Christos offshoot Drowned, with Helsinki death maniacs Slugathor.

20.3. Kouvola, Donington: DEAD CONGREGATION (Gre), Drowned (Ger), Slugathor (tickets: 12€)
21.3. Karjaa, Pub Norris: DEAD CONGREGATION (Gre), Drowned (Ger), Slugathor (tickets: 11€)

Too bad the Deathmetal.org crew probably won’t be able to attend but we’ll ask for a report from our comrades. Total support for the Finnish death metal underground activity. Dead Congregation will also perform at Hell’s Pleasure Metalfest in Pössneck, Germany on 17.7. for the hellish pleasure of the Teutons.

New Pestilence album fails to deliver on the promise

Pestilence got its start as an energetic thrashing death metal outfit, one of the classics of the Dutch scene with the utterly classic “Consuming Impulse” album. The infectiousness of tracks such as “Out of the Body” made them an instant favorite in European death metal. The next one, “Testimony of the Ancients”, brought them some more MTV airplay, yet divided the fanbase because of its more clinical and semi-jazzy approach, which was brought to full fruition with the avant-fusion eclectic tour of “Spheres”.

Not many of us were expecting a return of Pestilence because of the traitorous death metal slagging attitude of Patrick Mameli’s media appearances in the last 15 years, yet now on the heels of Obituary, Suffocation, Sadus and others of the era they have also made a comeback to a tremendous hype.

But what is it worth? Read the full story.

If you ask me, you’re better off with Hail of Bullets.

Death metal releases in 2009

It’s not a secret that death metal playlists around here tend to rotate around the older releases, mainly ones up until 1995.

There are plenty of intriguing items announced for release this year, though, so we remain interested and will follow with some reviews and articles.

Obscura – Cosmogenesis
Trepalium – XIII
Hacride – Lazarus
Augury – ?
Kalisia – Cybion
Vader – Necropolis
Church of Misery – Houses of the Unnholy
Suffocation – Blood Oath
Funebrarum – The Sleep of Morbid Dreams
Decrepit Birth – ?
Morbid Angel – ?
Anata – ?
Gorod – ?

Nocturnus – Thresholds

“Thresholds”, the second offering from Mike Browning’s (ex-Morbid Angel) sci-fi death metal tour de force, is an uneven, messy, fusion-inspired, lurid and occult death metal album. The best bits on here such as the sparkling, baroque, Mozart-ian lead guitars on “Aquatica” and the super-addictive chug and rhythmic chant on “Climate Controller” will stick to mind but at times the observation leaps through that Browning & co. are nowhere near the composers that for example Azagthoth & Brunelle were. The polyphony of the looming synthesizers is mostly awkward atmosphere building instead of solid thematics incorporated with the guitars. Browning does have an uncanny primitivistic yet accurate touch with the drums, one he obviously is going for, even naming a track “Tribal Vodoun”. All in all, it was probably a disappointment for many who bought it back in the day simply because Trey Azagthoth was always wearing a Nocturnus shirt in promo pictures. Nowadays as a rare and seldom heard item it has both nostalgic cult value and alongside the equally fusionistic, strange but compulsive “Spheres” by Pestilence shows imaginative directions where death metal could have followed if it hadn’t been abandoned to the blind flocks with their “brutal chugging” and “melodic wanking” trends.

Swedish Death Metal compilation

“On occasion of the release of the German edition of Daniel Ekeroth’s groundbreaking masterpiece book “Swedish Death Metal”, a homonymous 3-CD compilation will be released featuring more than 50 relevant tracks amounting to a playing time of over 200 minutes. Apart from essential classics of the genre, this audio companion will contain many rare recordings and insiders’ tips from the heyday of the Swedish Death Metal scene: CD1 starts off with the pioneers of Swedish Death Metal and documents the genesis of the entire genre. CD2 focusses on the period of the first album releases of the scene, which spread the deadly Swedish sound all over the globe. It naturally portrays the classics of the Stockholm school (Entombed, Dismember…), but also the beginnings of a more mid-tempo and atmosphere orientated variation of the original style (Tiamat, Therion…). It contains early documents of the Gothenburg sound (At The Gates, Liers In Wait) as well as the fusion of Death Metal and the emerging Black Metal (Marduk, Dissection). CD3 eventually overviews the variety and power of Swedish Death Metal in its golden age and draws a bow into the present with a strong newcomer act like Katalysator.

CD3
Evocation / Through the darkened peril / 1992 Demo / The Ancient Gate demo 92
Seance / Reincarnage / 1991 Demo / Levitised Spirit Demo 91
Toxaemia / Beyond The Realm / 1990 EP / Toxaemia EP 90
Furbowl / Shark Heaven / 1991 Demo / The Nightfall Of Your Heart Demo 91
Suffer / Human Flesh / 1991 Demo / Manifestation of God Demo 91
Traumatic / A Perfect Night to Masturbate / 1991 Demo / A Perfect Night to Masturbate Demo 91
Macrodex / Necrophilicide / 1990 Demo / Remains Of A Lost Life Demo 90
House Of Usher / Rather Black / 1991 EP / On The Very Verge 7″ 91
Crypt Of Kerberos / The Ancient War / 1992 EP / Cyclone of Insanity EP 92
Eternal Darkness / Psychopath / 1992 EP / Doomed 7″ 92
Interment / Morbid Death / 1991 Demo / Where Death Will Increase Demo 91
Uncanny / Transportation To The Uncanny / 1991 Demo / Transportation To The Uncanny Demo 91
Sadistic Gang Rape / Die in Agonie / 1992 Demo / Massdevastation Demo 92
Sarcasm / In Hate / 1992 Demo / In Hate… Demo 92
Crematory / Enshrouded (in the River of Eternity) / 1992 Demo / Netherworlds Of The Mind Demo 92
Necrony / Under the Black Soil / 1993 Promo / Promo Tape 93/94
Repugnant / Spawn of Pure Malevolence / 1998 Demo / Spawn of Pure Malevolence Demo 98
Katalysator / Mass Genocide Ritual / 2007 Demo / Mass Genocide Ritual 07″

It’s a sad fact that very little worthwhile historical and analytical literature about metal has been published, while even pop and soft rock get academical musicological treatments in review journals. One of the few volumes to correct the situation was Daniel Ekeroth’s massive Swedish Death Metal which gives the most authentic glimpse to the world of early death metal since the zines of the era. The book is widely available at Amazon and other places and every death metal fanatic should definitely get themselves a copy. Also the compilation mentioned above should be available all over the netstores in the next few days. Especially CD’s 1 and 3 seem interesting, with all those demo obscurities, and luckily he didn’t put any Opeth and the like on the compilation! He also selected a very impressive Therion track.

Interview with Daniel Ekeroth