SMR – Descend Into Boredom

Fleshcrawl – In the Catacombs of Flesh
Fleshcrawl return after a twelve year layoff with this abortion of an album that should be avoided. The overall motion of the album is extremely bizarre as the band start with one decent song before slowly spiraling into simple chugging rhythms reminiscent of later Entombed and slowly falling into pure saccharine Melodeath. The vocals have devolved into the almost shouted Nu Death vocals popular in the early 2000s. The weak vocals lead these songs and help distinguish them by shouting each title multiple times. The lyrics perfectly illustrate to what mentally deficient depths this band has descended to with golden quotes likes “Suffer you fucking cunt, die you fucking cunt”. The drums have devolved into follow the riffs without any of the intelligent fills and patterns that were once emblematic of this band. In the Catacombs of another man’s flesh!

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SMR – To Ape Or Not To Ape

Since the dawn of man there have been two kinds of people. Those who are capable of innovating and those who can follow with varying degrees of success. What lies here is some of the first worst Death metal in existence as it poorly tries to capture the essence of the greats and a mix of other bands that do their best to break away from such heavy chains that burden all musicians in the 21st Century.

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Comparing Old And New Peterson Irish Flake Pipe Tobacco

People generally split into two groups: those who want an external order so that they can focus on their inner refinement, and those who want no external order so that they can avoid self-actualization. The former like tradition, where the latter detest it, and claim the former just repeat the past out of fear of the new.

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OPHTHALAMIA – A Journey in Darkness (Avantgarde Music, 1994)

While primarily known for his work with black metal/noise-pioneers Abruptum and assorted non-musical activities in the – at least locally – infamous “True Satanist Horde”, it is the strange entity of Ophthalamia that remains as Tony “IT” Särkkä’s (RIP 1972-2017) greatest artistic achievement. Ophthalamia’s debut album A Journey in Darkness stood out in the early 1990s black metal-environment with its anachronistic and all-around peculiar mode of expression. In rough terms, the music can be described as a blend of black-, doom-, and heavy metal with the conceptual and structural trappings of 1970s progressive rock.

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Ultimate Analysis : Bathory – Twilight of the Gods Part IV

Part IV: The Spiritual Significance of Struggle and the Mountain

“The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction: in the labyrinth, in hardness against themselves and others, in experiments. Their joy is self-conquest: asceticism becomes in them nature, need, and instinct. Difficult tasks are a privilege to them; to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation. Knowledge-a form of asceticism. They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not preclude their being the most cheerful and the kindliest.”

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Ultimate Analysis : Bathory – Twilight of the Gods Part III

Part III: Man and his place in the Cosmos

Perhaps the most anthropocentric song by Bathory. And this is a good thing, since this is not the humanism of egalitarianism and mediocrity, it is rather a vision of mankind’s destiny and potential that should find a good use to our technology and knowledge. This destiny shall propel us towards the stars!

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Ultimate Analysis: Bathory – Twilight of the Gods Part I

(Join Ionnas in this six part epic that will reveal the secrets of one of metal’s greatest treasures)

Part I: Bathory and the Prophecy of the Seeress

In this album analysis, we shall surf the Kali Yuga in quest for the essence of metal, the journey of the human Will from its twilight, through the dithyrambic ecstasy of life’s passion for death. It is truly, a fitting companion through the Age where God is Dead.
Our aim is to find what makes music great, and if we do, we might be able to unveil what makes metal music great. In the end, perhaps we shall manage to see what elements in metal can enhance our lives.

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