DEATHMETAL.ORG: THE ULTIMATE DEATH METAL RESOURCE

Rites of oblivion bathe in execrable light

Gontyna Kry – Welowie

One of the best works of Polish black metal, ‘Welowie’ has the craftmanship and melodic sophistication of Sacramentum’s best work but marginalizes the death metal influences, instead filling that loophole with the post-Discharge melodic hardcore that Graveland had a niche for carving out in their earlier work. Distant screams amidst a melancholic plethora of notational sequences reveal a sense of emotionally fraught catharsis not unlike a more musically ‘learned’ take on Mutiilation’s best works. The eight tracks on here run at just over 26 minutes in total but still in such a limited constraint manages to make the most of epic scope and artful expression within a time constraint that would more traditionally fit a death metal band. In some ways calling this work merely a ‘demo’ does it little justice. -Pearson

War Master – Chapel of the Apocalypse

A young Texan war squad shows you don’t need advanced technique or labyrinthine compositions in order to succeed at pulverizing death metal hostility, as the palm muted chainsaw grind slugs onwards with the determination of a German panzer advancing towards certain death upon the Stalingrad plains. As with most young death metal bands, their earnestness sets them apart from most of the older colleagues and the primitive, architectural weight of “Awaken in Darkness” convinces one of morbid intentions unlike a thousand Necrophagists. Dark atmospherics abound in these documents of fear and rage in chthonic shade, bringing reminders of Amorphis’ and Incantation’s early Relapse days , the five musicians being able to build a solid tribute to their influences on this demo and generate a fiendish excitement for a capable followup. The success of the band in creating an esoteric sensation out of their simple source material is worthy of praise. -Devamitra

Witchblood – Witchblood

As if possessed by the ritual thrall of Walpurgis night, this mostly solitary creation of an individual called Iron Meggido is a clash of smoothly feline aggression of Nordic Black Metal with the Romantic architectural use of Heavy Metal riffs that characterized the occult metal of Celtic Frost, Samael and Therion. Alongside the suggestive and provocative riff stand the invoking voice of an Erinys caustically timed with the bludgeoning tempi of guest drummer L’Hiver. Underlying the beauty of this demo is the illuminated fire of an artistic vision in its birth-throes, painfully struggling against the bounds of convention in order to express the ultimately inexpressible: the twilight zone of fever and mythos where the ‘supernatural’ influences the evolution of man and mind. Hopefully their talisman is effective in order for the legion of Witchblood to fly even higher on these wings of rapture. -Devamitra

Unearthing secrets of power and steel

The noble Deathmetal.Org staff has made the first conquests of desolate frontier lands in the year of our Lord 2011 and the time is right to celebrate it with something special. Across the mighty sea from the dark infested lands of Death Metal and Black Metal there is a realm where knights and dragons fight for prizes of gold and valour, the dimension of metaphysical memories, enchanted rings of power and ghosts prowling in recesses of Romanticism. Power Metal’s mainstream manifestation is rightfully regarded with scorn since there hardly exists a clique with so much repetition and so little content, but no headbanger or Hessian in his right mind can deny the vital impulse and crushing might of the originators who wielded the untamed lightning of the neo-classical solo and the barbarian riff. Also do not forget that Helloween and Running Wild forged unholy alliance with Hellhammer in Noise Records’ 1984 compilation which was unforgettably titled “Death Metal” while beyond the ocean bands like Cirith Ungol and Omen were interchangeable with Slayer and Possessed in Metal Blade’s unholy “Metal Massacre” bloodfeasts. Hail and kill for the forthcoming year, we present you Xavier’s epic journey through Mytho-Medieval warfare and Neo-Germanic heroism.

Of Power Metal and Other Tales by Xavier

Death Metal Album of the Week: Adramelech – Pure Blood Doom

How likely is it for a town of less than 20,000 inhabitants to deliver powerhouses of Death Metal simultaneously in Demigod and Adramelech, only Beelzebuth knows, probability about equal to an asteroid hit upon New York. While Demigod’s fractured melody and driving aggression recalled Swedish Sunlight productions but with the distinct morbid woodland funeral edge of Finnish forgotten death cults anno 1991, Adramelech was sub-technical, incisive, almost dryly surgical in a foreboding riff nightmare of chugging and delving passages akin to an excavator attacking the entrance of a pharaonic burial chamber. The debut “Psychostasia” was already nearly worthy of Demilich, setting the tone for the Rantanen brothers’ mythological and grotesque existential vision which eschewed the more concrete material of gore, suffering and serial killers in favor of archaic symbolism and ancient magical rites, at moments treating its sources uncannily similar to Nile‘s famous egyptological sagas. And like war history in Bolt Thrower‘s repertoire, devaluing and haphazard glorification is scorned as the nearly computerized and emotionally mummified roboto-riff mimics the pattern language of bestial nature, witnessing both the conflicts of gods and men as compulsory synthetic events of opposite principles necessary to fuel an abstract path through the aeons, throughout the universe, man aiming towards the vastness of space yet only descending into the depths of his subconscious mortality.

The frightening, deadset rigidity of “Pure Blood Doom” recalls the relentless, suffocating instruction of ancient Egyptian priests in passage through the demonic gates of the Afterlife, where only the perfect incantation and the straightest line will suffice to evade the Second Death. While simplifying Death Metal is hardly in the agenda of these musicians par excellence, it’s hard to find a more logically functional composition than their “Lord of the Red Land”, which grooves as effortlessly as anything from Carcass’ “Necroticism” dragging its wicked hooks in the skin of the leprous repentant, and alongside “Evercursed” and “The Book of the Black Earth” forms probably the most evil triple-punch of Finnish Death Metal history. Dreamy solos and rather relaxed drumming by Jarkko Rantanen alike to a much more chill Steve Asheim form a perfectly understated counterpart to the ambitious and cool melody lines and the hoarse, powerful but non-drama voice of Ali Leiniö. The fate of such brutal artistry is to be forgotten into the mists of time for the masses wish their metals to conform into aesthetics utilitarian for the current mode of “entertaining slavery” practice.

Death Metal Album of the Week: Necros Christos – Triune Impurity Rites

After the backfire of metalcore and ironic jokes wrapped in death metal clothing, failed reunions and commercially motivated Bloodbath-style tributes a new breed of death metal bands obsessed with funereal, paranormal and asphyxiating atmosphere above all else penetrated the ground from beneath. While originally celebrated exclusively by collectors and geeks who possessed tremendous tape and vinyl collections, gradually metal fans from differing backgrounds gathered to see the tours and savor the albums of new more authentic seeming bands like Dead Congregation from Greece, Deathevokation from California and Deutschland’s Necros Christos. While these bands were all firmly rooted in the abominable legends told by Incantation, Mystifier and other anti-musicians, they took care to use the organized polish and visual design of 21st century black metal to appease also the generation raised on dramatic, ideologically motivated “art”.

As for the music, it’s far from impersonal or humble. Mors Dalos Ra and his team of qabbalists indulge in goofy rituals, hyper-exaggerated pauses and gestures, horror organs, chanted spells and minimal doom riffs almost like going for a parody of satanic metal through the ages. However, the songs are joyous, exhilarating, morbid and alive with unholy fire. The guitarists use their knowledge of classical guitar and oriental scales to wrap the death metal themes in a progressive procession of movements that seem to mimic an inverted Passion play, the journey of a goatborn Christ to relinquish his throne to undead gods, while sodomized angels weep over the mythical ziggurats appearing somewhere in the moonlit wasteland near Bethlehem. Sounds hilarious? Well, that’s what it is – like Impiety or Impaled Nazarene, Necros Christos throws all the mockery and analogy squarely in the face of the philosopher, eschewing subtlety and relishing madness. The music is surprisingly controlled, as there is no chaotic blasting nor disembodied screams floating all over the place. Instead, we get an organized meditation of lurking and crawling Sabbathic (in various senses) melodies, from extravagantly beautiful (“Gate II – Offenbarungen der Mayrim”) to grating and dissonant (“Skulldoom of Sumer”) while many leads toy with Baroque ideas and desolate urges fitting for a Paradise Lost demo. Especially recommended for a listener who doesn’t consider “cheesy” a curse word.