Elegy composer Clayton Gore pointed out this Fremen funeral chant from Frank Herbert’s Dune series of books which has some similarities to classic Slayer lyrics:
5 CommentsTags: dune, epic literature, frank herbert, lyrics, slayer
Condemner – Burning the Decadent (2018)
Death metal evades acceptance through its embrace of the primitive and threatening. When you take highly detail-oriented thinking and apply it to that basic approach, the result flowers into hidden complexity and covert beauty. Condemner attempts to make interesting music within the most primitive, grinding, and nihilistic death metal vocabulary and ends with a highly listenable album.
7 CommentsTags: condemner, death metal
Deceased – Ghostly White (2018)
Perhaps the best way to describe this album would be as traditional heavy metal crafted with a death metal approach. Monotone vocals accompany a changing tapestry of guitar riffs that relocate melody to the guitar and force the use of a compelling rhythm to unite each song, giving them an anthemic but unstable quality, creating an air of mystery to the album.
3 CommentsTags: death metal, deceased, Heavy Metal
Helstar – Vampiro
Huoripukki – Voima & Barbaria (2018)
Huoripukki – Voima & Barbaria
Fallen Temple, 2018
This reissue of two EPs as one CD/LP demonstrates clearly why the “Incantoclone” bands are all the rage: they take metal backward to rock and carefully disguise this as a wave of noise. To make an Incantoclone band, you forget about all the cool extended riffs and structures of Onward to Golgotha and focus on the rushing riff, which consists of choosing a power chord — first five frets only please! — and then wiggling your fingers in a constant chromatic fill over that note.
5 CommentsTags: death metal, huoripukki, incantoclone
Death Squad – Split You At The Seams (1991)
Death Squad – Split You At The Seams
Ever Rat Records, 1991
Speed metal — rising from Tank, Satan, Metallica, and Mercyful Fate — had a good but short run in the 1980s before enterprising poseurs worked rock and blues back into the mix, taking away the focus on riffs and song construction in favor of what were essentially pop songs with lots of muted E-chords. Split You At The Seams shows a late entry with roll-your-own spirit.
6 CommentsTags: death squad, Speed Metal
Sortilège – Sortilège (1983)
At a time when most of the worthy metal was being produced in England with a few exceptions in Europe and America as most bands emerging were straddling the line between Hard Rock and Heavy metal or resorting to recreating the dirty rock of the early 70s in order to achieve mainstream success as there was much more to be gained financially from such endeavors. Iron Maiden had dazzled the world with Killers, Melissa and Kill ‘Em All were just around the corner and metal would proceed through a very sudden transformation with these releases. In between all this former heroes like Judas Priest,Motorhead and Scorpions were embracing the stadiums. In such a frantic period, in a country where music had never been a cultural strength. Sortilège, after studying their cousins from across the pond would release one of the greatest Heavy metal EPs of all time only for the aforementioned bands to overshadow them and relegate them to cult favorite;
Tags: classic, france, Heavy Metal, NWOBHM, Sortilège
Revisiting the Classics: Fleshcrawl – Descend Into the Absurd
When one hears the name Fleshcrawl, the first thing that comes to mind is the legendary Autopsy song from Mental Funeral, yet a very peculiar German band carries that name. Descend Into the Absurd marks their highest peak musically and rightfully so. Taking more from the fully formed European style of the time that was influenced by Autopsy than Autopsy themselves. Combining Doom dirges that exude morbidity and flowing pensive phrasal riffs, Fleshcrawl create a forgotten classic and an important addition to Death metal.
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Tags: classic, Descend Into the Absurd, fleshcrawl, German Death Metal
Triptykon Presents Celtic Frost “Requiem”
Celtic Frost planned to release a three-part requiem starting with “Rex Irea” which saw the light of day on Into The Pandaemonium in 1987. Now, Celtic Frost continuation band Triptykon plans to perform all three parts at the legendary Roadburn show in the Netherlands on April 12, 2019.
3 CommentsTags: celtic frost, classical music, hellhammer, roadburn, triptykon
Nachtlieder – Lynx (2018)
Lynx keeps a foot in both worlds: the mysterious atmosphere of the classic material, and the more emotional nature of post-metal, but without the self-pitying dwindling melodies of emo. In this way, it keeps what black metal delivered alive, but leaves out some of the technique and structure that made songs the original genre distinctive and expressive.
39 CommentsTags: Black Metal, nachtlieder, post-metal
