Upcoming Törr Reissues

torr logo

Törr’s first two albums, Armageddon and Institut klinické smrti, and are being reissued on CD for the first time since their original release by Dark Symphonies / The Crypt. Czech black metal completionists should keep an eye out later this year. In the meantime, check out Death Metal Underground’s recent Master’s Hammer and Root reviews.

TÖRR (CZ) Armageddon + Institut Klinické Smrti official CDs / LPs coming from DARK SYMPHONIES / THE CRYPT

We are proud to announce our cooperation with cult Czech Black/Death/Thrash metal band TÖRR to reissue their classic debut album “Armageddon” featuring the bonus tracks from the “Vlalka S Nebem” single, as well as their sophomore album “Institut Klinické Smrti”. Extremely hard to find nowadays, we are pleased to make these long lost gems available again! Both releases will be mastered from the original analog sources for the best possible sound.

Both CDs will be designed after the original 1990 and 1991 CDs respectively, taking elements from the original layout with attention to detail, even down to the logo and typeface for a touch of nostalgia. Also featured are unpublished band photos, lyrics and new liner notes by original vocalist / bassist Vlasta Henych.

CD Limited to 1000 copies worldwide! Stay away from BOOTLEGS! Support the band and official releases!!

Also we will be pressing both releases on vinyl in both black and color vinyl options, limited to 500 copies each and housed in 350 gram gatefold jackets.

Coming later this year

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Tom Araya’s Second Amendment Pragmatism

Article by Corey M.

Recently Tom Araya, frontman of seminal and legendary extreme metal band Slayer, offered some words of encouragement to Swiss concert attendees regarding their ownership of personal firearms. He makes a case for owning guns, saying that there are invaders and enemies all over the world and in your own countries and towns, who may turn weapons against you anywhere, at any time. Because of this constant threat, owning and carrying weapons of your own is advisable, says Araya, making a pertinent point. Though he made a point to use no names, Arya mentioned events “in other countries” that resulted from people thinking they were magically immune to random violence (a transparent allusion to the Orlando, Florida shootings last month, in which nearly a hundred patrons of a nightclub were gunned down over the course of a few hours and half of those ended up dead, all because of one man with a gun).

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Kataxu – Roots Thunder (2000)

kataxu - roots thunder

Article by Anton Rudrick.

Consciously transcendental, voluntarily anachronistic, causing despondent exasperation among the pretentious and the untermensch. Kataxu blends the phantasmagorical reveries of dungeon synth with brief, unidentifiable nods to the nordic triune of atmospheric evil black metal. Kataxu Roots Thunder escapes morphing into ‘flowing black metal‘, layers majestically, layers in hiding, layers hiding, forms and shapes…

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The Difficulties of Folk Metal

Anders_Zorn_-_Hins_Anders_(1904)

Article by Johan P.

I’ve never been overly impressed by the folk metal phenomenon, which emerged in the middle of the 1990s and began to gain popularity some years later. I do not mean to imply that there isn’t any good folk music out there. On the contrary, there’s a lot of rewarding traditional music to discover. Many musicians – metallers included – have realized that their respective countries’ folk music reservoir is a gold mine for potential ideas to integrate into more modern forms of music. It was on these premises that folk metal was born. However, if the source material is to be successfully re-animated and be brought into metal or any other genre, it requires some serious work from the composer and performer. Most folk metal bands fail at this point for a variety of reasons, with the end-result often sounding like bad heavy metal adorned with folk-melodies that have been stripped of all subtlety to fit into a rock-based harmonic and structural environment.

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Absurd’s Der fünfzehnjährige Krieg Reissued

absurd rerecordings reissue

Absurd‘s Der fünfzehnjährige Krieg CD of old tracks rerecorded by the current line up is being reissued by Hammer of Damnation for everyone who wishes Absurd’s older material had a sterile metalcore production. Hopefully the reissue is better than the horrible Asgardsrei one.

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The Mythic and the Mystic

witches animal heads

Article by Lance Viggiano.

Burzum and Beherit each represent two summits of black metal’s many perspectives – in particular its looking back to look ahead ethos. The work of Laiho is exploratory and spiritual while the work of Varg is seeking and religious. Each composer followed a similar trajectory of mapping this landscape through metal first, then ambient. Each phase reveals strengths and weakness in each of their aims which results in a somewhat complementary synthesis between two highly individual bodies of work.

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Hate Mail (#5): Fornicating Freedom of Speech

Fornicator album cover

“666 YOLO SWAG 666” commented on Death Metal Underground’s coverage of the Highline bar in Seattle refusing to let Fornicator open for Profanatica:

I didn’t read the whole thing, just wanted to leave this here:

– The Highline is a bar located in the widely known “Gay Neighborhood” of Capital Hill in Seattle, WA.
– Gay Pride weekend was taking place during this show.
– Owning a bar (or any business) in this kind of a neighborhood is different.
– Sure there’s the whole “I GERT MAH FREEDOM ERV SPEECH”, but come on, with everything going on lately and the environment this neighborhood was trying to provide for this weekend, it only makes perfect sense for the management to make such a decision.

If the lazy piece of shit had bothered to read the article or the actual complaints, he would have realized that homosexuals weren’t the ones complaining. The whiners like “666 YOLO SWAG 666” were crusty, white heterosexual women who felt Fornicator’s incomprehensible lyrics threatened their communist worldviews. I highly doubt a death metal show would be appealing to the stereotypical gay pride festival marcher outside of the leather jackets. Actually, “666 YOLO SWAG 666” is the only person implying that Fornicator actually wanted to physically harm homosexuals like the closeted Islamic fundamentalist turned terrorist in Orlando. Continue pumping Drake “666 YOLO SWAG 666”.

Fornicator bitching

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Morte Macabre – Symphonic Holocaust (1998)

morte macabre - symphonic holocaust

Article by Johan P continuing Death Metal Underground’s progressive rock coverage.

Morte Macabre is a collaboration between members of the Swedish prog revivalist groups Landberk and Anekdoten, who joined forces to create progressive rock that is equal parts beautiful and disturbing. Their only album – Symphonic Holocaust – is a real treat for those who enjoy creepy music in general, especially 1970s Italian horror movie soundtracks. It is a tribute to the darker side of 70s progressive rock, with reference to Italian groups and composers like Celeste, Goblin, Museo Rosenbach, Fabio Frizzi and Riz Ortolani. An explicit Red-era King Crimson influence permeates the album as well.

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Master’s Hammer – Ritual (1991)

Master's Hammer - Ritual

Ritual is the pinnacle of the Central European black metal style characterized by continuing the riffing tradition of traditional heavy metal and strict adherence to speed metal song structure; Hellhammer, Mercyful Fate, Slayer, and even Megadeth influences are easily heard along with Bartók’s folkishness and Chopin’s romanticism. While their compatriots Root presaged the Hellenic scene, Master’s Hammer’s operatic use of the mellotron inspired the divergent atmosphere Emperor employed on In the Nightside Eclipse.

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Bulldozer Vinyl Repress

bulldozer the final separation

Bulldozer’s first two albums of drunken Motorhead, proto-underground metal in the style of Venom and Sodom are being repressed on vinyl from the original tapes for the first time in thirty years by F.O.A.D Records. Neither of these albums ever had good CD releases (the CDs sound like compressed needle drops) so fans of beer-fueled, 1980s first-wave black metal might want to check these  out.


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