Sammath – Across the Rhine is only death (2019)

Sammath returns to the days of its second and third album with a shredding assault that emphasizes tight, technical riffing that keeps to a simple theme and develops it with precision strumming integrated with exacting percussion. This takes the war metal idea into the technical death metal realm while preserving the black metal sense of melody and epic architectures to unite these alienated and reductive riffs.

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Bizarre Curiosities: A brief foray into unexplored genres

Sometimes it is essential to completely stray away from Metal for short periods of time. Like all passions, one must be willing to step aside and to distance the mind from it so that it does not morph into a constantly bombarding blur of tropes. This time I decided to shock my understanding of music by exploring styles that did not interest me or that I had strayed from over the years. Here are some of the more tolerable finding in what can be described as a sea of idiotic music comparable to the like of Metallica’s Lulu

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DMU Song Contest #3: King of the Serfs Edition Part 1

The third edition of the DMU song contest has finally returned and a staggering amount of contestants are ready to prove that they can escape the curse that confronts the modern musical landscape. The DMU team has united in reviewing this large field of hopefuls. Each writer will review a selection of songs and then nominate the two best songs from their song list to the finals where we shall form a panel to determine which of these bands can escape futile serfdom.

Onwards to war!

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The Best Underground Metal Of 2018

The task before a reviewer varies widely. If you want to be a big shot, you need to write about what the labels want, since they are the only source of top-down money coming into the genre. They will then reward your publication with advertising, it will then reward you with a promotion, and eighteen months later, you can ditch it and move up to the big leagues.

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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.

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Necromaniac – Subterranean Death Rising (2018)

Necromaniac hail from London UK which has become a wasteland full of terrible rock/metal hybrids catering towards young childern, and what was once the center for NWOBHM is now the home of mentally deficient hipster/indie music that seeks nothing more than to go viral before being replaced by the next thing. Necromaniac have avoided the toxicity of such a scene in the pursuit of something much more noble. The lost art of making the best music possible. The production is strong, retains the grit and the individuality of the performances while making every instrument listenable without castrating a single thing. Due to this EP only containing two tracks, each track will be analysed separately.

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Deserted Fear – Dead Shores Rising (2017)


Deserted Fear – Dead Shores Rising
Century Media, 2017

Living after the age of vitality of a genre, one becomes accustomed to the process of decay that happens as knowledge of why things are done becomes lost, and people instead fill in with the usual stuff that they do anyway. Humans are experts at dressing up the mundane as the exceptional.

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The One – I, Master (2008)

Hailing from Rhodes, black metal project The One comes to us from the mastermind behind Macabre Omen, who alongside Varathron have been the most consistent artists in the Hellenic scene during the past few years. The One performs a style of black metal that draws from various influences such as Mayhem, Hellhammer, and Bathory, yet it is filtered through the Hellenic prism of longer melodies and warm, ritual atmosphere.

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