Earache Records Unveils Morbid Angel Altars of Madness: Ultimate Edition 2CD

Record companies continue digging in their vaults to release rare material and actual remasters from classic underground metal bands, bypassing the tendency for ProTools “remasters” that amounted to compression of tracks ripped from the existing CD, in an effort to appeal to Generation X as they head toward five decades.

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Eucharist “Wounded and Alone” Opening Analysis

Eucharist A Velvet Creation straddled the line between the metal of old and the “melodic death” metal that would ravage the Scandinavian scene. Intelligently the band still remained enough grit and the compositional maturity of the better genre while not being afraid to integrate an overt admiration for Iron Maiden and the occasional rhythmic tool. “Alone and Wounded” is a bonus track that manages to shape Melodic Death metal into what it should have been. The opening sequence however is so remarkable that it merits a closer look.

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Retrospective: Septic Flesh – Ophidian Wheel

In the modern metal lexicon, European metal has often been used to denote bands that relied extensively on Iron Maiden harmonies, keyboards, pseudo-classical melodies, female vocalists, tremolo picked riffs and overall less influence from Pantera and Metallica. Septic Flesh have come to epitomize this style despite adding a lot more Metalcore elements to keep with the times. Before the name change, the band were once an overlooked force and presented many ideas that metal as a whole was never fully able to capitalize on. Ophidian Wheel is the summit of the band’s creativity and pushes the romantic qualities of metal even further.

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The Greatest Idiot Riff : Bolt Thrower’s “World Eater”

Master’s Paul Speckmann is known for taking an idea and squeezing everything he can from it through repetition and then utilizing the most direct route to return to that idea. Though this mentality would fail many bands because the riffs didn’t have the necessary urgency and creativity to work. Bolt Thrower on the other hand took this approach and pushed it to the logical extreme as each individual riff became the central focus while narrative development was relegated to an afterthought despite somehow still being present. What made Bolt Thrower so intriguing was that they possessed powerful riffs that were caveman like and more often than not completely idiotic yet the band managed to soar where others failed miserably.

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Funereal Presence – Achatius

Following the tale of one of the fourteen holy helpers Achatius, more commonly known under the name of Saint Agathius, the patron saint against headaches and more importantly a central figure in the various wars against the Ottomans. His story is that of a soldier who was tortured and decapitated for not relinquishing his faith and therefore becoming a martyr. Funeral Presence expand on this brief tale by playing a form of Black metal that exists within the confines of the first wave yet but with subtle influences in overall scope and direction from the second wave.

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