I’ve never heard this band, and this post is about critics, not the band:

ABHOR’s masterful (and MORIBUND debut) “Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti” is released! and lately, it’s been slaying the critics worldwide, as these snippets are testament to:

•“Abhor seem to want to transcend, and judging by the quality of the songwriting, musicianship, and esoteric hymns found here, they have succeeded” – Zero Tolerance [5/6 rating]

•“The two different elements, raw and symphonic, combine very well…intersects nicely with moments of despair and melancholy” – About.com

•“Packs in enough weird character to make this well worth the time of occult metal voyagers” – MetalReviews.com [8/10 rating]

•“A pretty successful effort, and an enjoyable and accessible listen” – Eternal-Terror.com [4/6 rating]

•“An epic release and could end up making my top ten list at the end of the year” – Wickedchannel.com

•“So different and a refreshing change from either the full-on symphonic or grim black metal you get most of the time” – Absolute Zero Media webzine

Yes, they rave about everything.

And yet… and yet there’s a lack of real substance.

What can we learn about The Critics?

Bill Zebub has a radio show Monday nights midnight-3am on 91.1FM.

• WFMU live stream

Free Thrash show in Philadelphia
Saturday, October 1
2:00pm – 6:30pm

FDR Skatepark (Entrance at 20th & Pattison Avenue)
Philadelphia, PA

FREE * All Ages

Bands:

Anvil Bitch – Legendary Old School Philly Thrash, Tearing it up since 1985!

Condition Critical – New School Ragers from South Jersey. Think Kreator meets Morbid Saint & Demolition Hammer in the middle of hell.

Bitchslicer – Obscene Philly Thrash since 2001

Possessor – Pure EVIL New School Thrash from Virginia since 2009

God Sex Weapons – New School Bangers from Levittown, PA

Special Guest:

DJ GR/EG – Host of Philly’s Metal Mondays & Hessian Aggression, who will be spinning nothing but the finest old school metal on vinyl between bands.

• Event on FacePalm

In 1994, Nile recorded a demo, Worship the Animal. This is from their early years when they still wrote death metal riffs, before the indie/rock/prog influence took hold. It will be released on October 11 on Goomba Music.

• Nile – Worship the Animal demo (1994) [Mediafire, 32mb]

Rigor Mortis and four modern metal bands are going to tear up the outskirts of Houston, Texas on Saturday October 1 from 8 – 11 pm.

You all know Rigor Mortis as innovators in the realm of non-effete melodic metal, intricate song structures, daring instrumentals and a bizarre and disturbing sense of humor. Now you have a chance to see the original line-up live, after a short drive (by H-town standards) and some metalcore.

• Rigor Mortis, Carry the Storm, Critical Assembly, Decimation Theory, and Mechanisms of a False Reality – Live In Houston, Texas – Saturday, October 1

Review up.

The Dallas Observer has set up a democratic poll to very democratically elect a local band as “Best Metal Act” of the year.

Naturally, every band and their dog’s dogs are gaming this system, in tribute to the true nature of democracy (buying votes with lies).

That means that in order to compete, all contestants need to rig the vote… see where this is going?

• Dallas Observer: Polls: Best Metal Act

Warbeast is the latest band of Rigor Mortis vocalist Bruce Corbitt, who is also interviewed on our site.

He could use your votes.

He appears to be trying to reform melodic black metal, death/black and the hopes/aspirations of the older work. Dissection, Dawn and Eucharist fans take note.

From the waves of time:

The Axiom was a pretty cool club, kinda dark and run down with a good rock n’ roll vibe, kinda reminded me of a club here in Portland called Satyricon. Cool thing that happened during Angkor Wat’s soundcheck was when Rob got up and sang Black Flag’s “Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie”. I was able to record both bands sets from the soundboard that night. Before the first band went on, I was selling merch for both bands and these two super fans approached me who were heavily into anything death metal/grindcore and kept telling me that Cryptic Slaughter had to to play T.D.M.! (To Death Metal) First song (if you can call it that) on side 2 of Money Talks. At first I thought they were joking, but they were dead serious. At the end of each sentence they would give me a complementary Tom G Warrior death grunt, straight off of Morbid Tales. After giving them a few stickers to hopefully shut em’ up, they gave me a demo by NY’s Baphomet and an original copy of England’s Sore Throat demo. You can hear these guys yelling at the band in-between songs on the live songs that are on the “Convicted” and ” Money Talks” reissues on Relapse Records. Check out the cool live footage from this show on YouTube. I don’t remember anything about the opening band Afterbirth, who I assume were from Houston. Once again Angkor Wat put on an amazing energetic live set. Cryptic Slaughter took the stage and ripped into song after song from Convicted and Money Talks before playing a few new songs from Stream Of Consciousness (which went over great with the crowd, even the Death Metal duo liked em’.) After an encore or two the show was finally over. Never thought I would be so happy for a show to be over and to pack up our gear and leave. All of us were ecstatic that no one from Austin ever showed up. Time to catch up on some sleep before we head off for Memphis tomorrow.

Read the rest here.

Pasadena Napalm Division – P.N.D.

This solid slab of “modern crossover thrash” tends more toward hardcore than 1980s thrash but shows the quirky influence of the three bands from which it draws members: DRI, Dead Horse and Verbal Abuse. Showing the evolution of metal since the 1980s, it has the tighter rhythms and more encompassing wall of guitars achieved with more precise tremolo.

In a nod to the NOLA music of the last two decades, it uses “riot vocals” where all band members chant and sing at once in infectious trope; from DRI it borrows the fluid rhythms and almost theatrical interruptions of song structure, but like later Dead Horse it tries to merge blues, rock, punk and metal into something more accessible. More like SOD than the original DRI, it features very much punk-influenced riffs that do not vary in shape or intensity as much, which makes for a more continuous listening experience. Vocal rhythms guide these songs which tend to be longer and more sociable in topic than the old thrash songs.

“P.N.D.” improves on the technical precision (or lack thereof) of older thrash, and by mixing in the death metal influences, makes this music hit more like a linebacker than a cynical kid zinging one-liners over the heads of the Responsible Authority Figures (RAFs) nearby. It’s good to hear Kurt Brecht when they let him do the vocal tracks alone, and he has lost none of his vitriol, but has more of a uniform delivery.

In fact, what makes this different from older punk and thrash the most is that it is more uniform in approach. Riffs are all strummed at the same speed and do not break for weirdness like DRI did. It’s hooky, with the melodic chants dominating the listener’s brain. The somewhat funky rock influence may turn off hardliners from the thrash days, but for listeners accustomed to newer hardcore, metal or swamp-groove metal this will be a powerhouse that may open their eyes to a wider world.