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Malignant Records
Mind melting electronic/ambient/industrial/ power electronics
Hells Headbangers Records and Distro
One of the only exceptions to the PR strike!!!
War Productions Label
Monday, March 19, 2012
What's coming up this week
This last week was intense, hence the lack of new reviews, but there will be tons of new stuff coming including the upcoming Death Factory, Cemetery Piss cassette, Horse Lattitudes (killer Finnish experimental doom), some recent Dissecting Table releases, the recent Varathron 3LP from NWN, a killer black metal re-issue I just picked up, some brutal death metal from Incriminated, and some obscure but essential noise/power electronics finds like the Blood Cement cassette that I picked up for a buck this last weekend.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Desultor – Master of Hate (Abyss records 2012)
Right from the start this album is simply obliterating!!! I
guess the best way to go about describing the Desultor sound would be to say
that it’s the current dark and melodic prog metal brutality of Helstar with
some crushing death metal weight in the riffs, hints of thrash neck snapper
rhythms, and a scorching breath of black metal. The vocals are clean and more
traditional metal than extreme, but thankfully not of the Euro power metal
vain. Desultor really defies definition, songs like “Denied” remind me a bit of
recent Hirax with the clean vocals that still carry an attitude and a bit of
gruffness before belting out some solid highs. The rhythm is solid thrash and
has a definitive assault to knock your block off, as the song literally forms a
cyclone around you creating a vacuum in which you are inevitably consumed, even
in the more melodic breaks between the bulldozing.
“Division Insane” is another blatant assault to the senses
and also has enough catchy phrases that gets inside your subconscious and
haunts your mind for some time to come. Amidst the continual pummeling drums
and battering ram riffing there is still time to throw in a sinister and
majestic lead to hail Hell.
My standout track is “Another World” though, for some reason
the melodic death pulse really gets my adrenaline raging and blood surging through
my veins like being set on fire, but it’s the epic melodic vocal delivery of
the “When you come to this….you
will see….” lyrics that instantly makes my skin go cold and tingly like
electric currents are running along the surface of my skin. “Another World”
almost feels like it’s the soundtrack to the coming of some celestial being.
“And So We Bleed” somewhat follows the same melodic metal
with slight prog leanings of “Another World”, especially in the vocal delivery
and more of the epic and dark cosmic atmosphere screaming through like a bullet
through the ears. The throttle of the rhythms throughout is like a speed train
on warp drive coming right at you while you’re tied to the track.
Desultor seems to have this uncanny ability to craft
brutality, melody, create these almost symphonic dynamical atmospheres, throw
in some prog metal, into this concoction of everything that I love about metal
across the spectrum that is just perfectly placed. Every rhythm is solid, many
are addictive and manage to rewire your neural pathways in order to remain
fixed in them so that you can always feel and recall them. The experience of
listening to Desultor reminds me of that sensation I’d gotten when first
hearing Arcturus’ Sideshow Symphonies,
where the metal becomes physically moving and intense. I can’t even remember
the last time a new metal album made me feel as alive as this one does and that
statement is me writing a check that my ass can certainly cash as even amongst
the great and energetic metal releases out there, Desultor just seems to disintegrate
them in my opinion.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Steel Hook Prostheses – Cut Off the Nose to Spite the Face (Syzmic Records)
Cut Off the nose to
Spite the Face is a compilation/anthology of rare/limited SHP 3 inches: Sadistic Surgery, Cold Embrace of an Iron Lung, Controlled Sense of
Decay, and Violent Cutting Motion;
an OOP 3LP, Hollow Eyes Behind a Sterile
Mask; and a live performance in Dallas, Texas 2008 and at the Firehouse
Gallery.
Live in Dallas, Texas (2008):
“Sickness and Plague” is one of those power electronic
creations that captures that rolling thunder of distorted bass and heavily
effect ridden, but still almost decipherable vocals, that has both a physically
warm feeling from the electronic fuzz being generated that’s hypnotic yet the
vocals come across like schizophrenic experience.
“Bedsore” is a sonic masterpiece of distortion sculpting and
manipulation. The rhythm underneath sounds like machine motor cycling and
creates this steady pulsing undertow that still manages to pull you with it
even though it’s beneath so many other vibrating components, while the effects
on the vocals sound like a scrambling of radio signals with precise and
deliberate metallic scraping as opposed to electronic interference. Then to top
it all off with this being recorded live, I can’t even imagine how intense the
pressure in the room from the engine running sounds and seismic pulses must
have been, I bet it could make someone feel as if they had a couple of lead
vests resting on their chest.
Violent Cutting Motion
3-inch CD-r (2002):
“Violent Cutting Motion” sounds like an electrical storm,
it’s controlled chaos through surgeon-like precision of piecing together analog
whirrs, screeching subway rails, rhythmic bass surges, some vocals coming
through like a news feed of some disaster that becomes entangled in this
intricate web of frequencies and vibrations.
Controlled Sense of
Decay 3-inch CD-r (2004):
“Untold Atrocities” sounds like a muffled field recording
taken inside a wind tunnel, filtered and tweaked to bring out echoes, details,
and then separate the many layers of sounds. It’s ironically droning and fuzzy,
but simultaneously foreshadowing something morbid occurring in or around the
source and coming closer and closer.
“Trepanation” is one of those iconic power electronic tracks
that brings to mind sexual sadism and serial killers. I have no idea why, but
it has something to do with the specific sounds used because they always make
me think of being in a drugged stupor half conscious in some abandoned
warehouse or factory. The constant buzzing rhythms, the machine-like whirring
and “sawing” tones in the background really do sound like murder tools. “Forced
Plastic Surgery” generates a similar scenario, but with more of the wind tunnel
textures and a static saturated voice coming through the electric field, sort
of like being put on the dissecting table and hearing a subway echo as it
passes above the room.
Sadistic Surgery
3-inch CD-r (2003):
“Catheter (Live in Houston,Texas)” reminds me of the scene in A Clockwork Orange where Alex is
submitted to the electric shock treatment in the straightjacket and helmet full
of electrodes.
“Burning Out Their Eyes” reminds me of the sado power
electronic act Navicon Torture Technologies. The humming and droning electronic
backdrop works almost like an anesthetic as the lighter laser phasing and
static layers form a corrosive acid bath over the entire mix. There’s also a
feeling of electrocution present that reeks of torture and an added burning
sensation.
Cold Embrace of an
Iron Lung 3-inch CD-r (2003):
“ Decayed Angel of Mercy” starts out like a storm on the horizon
complete with thunder and a slowly closing in sense of impending Hell, it’s the
calm before the storm, and what a fucking storm it becomes!!!! Halfway through
the tempest brewing the sonic violence and insanity makes its debut as vocals
of a lunatic preaching doom and despair to all amidst a sonic storm of static
and thunder, the storm has hit and you’re in the eye of it.
“Iron Recluse” is a sonic drone on the surface present and a
consistent buzzing that never gives way, but underneath, buried in rubble is
elements of the explosion responsible for that rubble as it’s muddied and
suffocated into a rhythm beneath the drone.
I was going to cover tracks from each of the components, but
it’s getting to be a hearty task. Every tracks is extremely brilliant and the
textures are almost tangible like you could run your fingers across them,
breathe them in, or be painfully inflicted by them, so trying to cherry pick is
relentless. If you are a SHP fanatic or interested in the power electronics
realm, you cannot justify NOT having heard any SHP, let alone not owning this
piece or it’s original components!!!! This 2xCD is limited to 500 copies so get it quick!!!! Nothing out there that I've ever experienced can capture death and insanity like SHP!!!!!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Anuus Altar – Miasmis Worship in Trance EP
As if the name wasn’t enough to make this ~ 10 minute
investment of my time, the contents more than delivered the goods. Anuus Altaar
is an obscure U.S. based artist that is described as black metal fused with
noise, but in actuality it’s black metal vocals and atmospheres created through
doomy industrial soundscapes. Anyone who can scratch their ass without the help
of a GPS system knows what the difference is between noise and Anuus Altaar, in
fact the closest similarities that immediately come to mind are to Reclusa and
Fellatrix Morgue.
“The Shrouds of Megiddo” is a more upfront artillery fire
drum machine industrial clusterfuck with passive ambient moments in between
psychotic percussive bullets, which also lead into “Impious Masturbator” and
show up again halfway through it.
The percussion on “Impious Masturbator” is partially leftover from “The
Shrouds…” but does have this really great almost classic industrial military
stomp rhythm for a brief moment here and there, but the brilliance is in the
timing and placing of the different rhythm components and creepy ambient
blurbs. The atmosphere is always intense and dark, but those ambient pieces
really bring in a supernatural and horror vibe to the entire album.
“Miasmic Worship in Trance” is my standout track. It starts
out as a simple symphonic synth melody, then explodes into a Reclusa like
sludgy industrial fit, and finally back to the machinegun drum machine that cycles
back to the synth, and it’s that continual cycling of rhythmic elements and
tempos that completely defines and glues the album together through all five
tracks, which makes a short 10 minute EP play out like one long pulsing maggot
caccoon. I seriously live for this type of stuff and have a growing pile of stuff to post in this style.
Apparently the name has changed to Jhesu Masturbator
Hellvetron – Death Scroll of Seven Hells and it’s Infernal Majesties (Hells Headbangers 2012)
The entire experience of Death
Scroll of Seven Hells… is a cataclysmic pit of Hell. Starting out with the
painfull agony and haunting supernatural wails of condemned souls, “Sheol-Grave
of Supernals” literally conveys the sounds of human bones beating on stretched
human skin drums, still moist enough to be tunable and from recent victims, as
a kingdom of infernal beings rejoices in a bath of blood. The vocals are
vomitous, wretched, and loathing, the drums are primitive and gruesome, and the
guitar has that diesel engine rumble tone that redefines evil, in fact, I’d
even swear that it makes me think of murder as on “Titahion – Foul Eaters of
the Clay of Death”.
Speaking of “Titahion – Foul Eaters of the Clay of Death”,
there’s literally a sense of murder in every aspect of the song. About halfway
through there’s a sense of feasting/cannibalism and similarities in sound and
atmosphere to In slaughter Natives briefly.
“Bar Shasketh – Fathomless Pit of Destruction” is a nice break from “Titahion…” as it
comes in with some buzzing bastardized black metallic punk riffs to break up
the heavy atmosphere of what does feel like a fathomless pit, all red and
black…blood, shadows, and char. I honestly haven’t heard too many bands that
can capture such a realistic portrayal of Hell as Hellvetron does. Death Scroll
of Seven Hells… is a 25- minute journey paying homage to the Qliphotic Tree of
Death and accurately depicts the ideas behind it and all that it contains and
by far one of the best conceptual portrayals of evil done in a black metal type
style. Not only is this an essential listen, it’s a landmark of how far a band
can push extremes and scare the living and dead shit out of people in the
process. If your parents warned you about the “Devil’s Music” they were
absolutely indirectly referring to Hellvetron.
I can’t even think of a single band/act right off hand that sounds
like Hellvetron in all aspects, this shit is truly unique.
Fans of: Profanatica, Antediluvian, Cultes Des Ghoules,
Inquisition, Malpeste, Beherit, Sperm of Antichrist, and Void Meditation Cult
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Revel in Flesh – Deathevokation (FDA Rekotz)
Named after an Entombed song and living up to it with their
bloodbath of vulgar thrash infected death metal, Deathevokation is this Finnish scum’s debut full length and metal
to my ears. As fellow head bangers and fiends of horror and abomination, it’s
not too hard to remember the thrill of putting on a certain album and instantly
being jolted like being aroused in an electric chair on medium,where it won’t kill you but you’ll involuntary soil
yourself and get your adrenaline surging like the current through your veins.
That’s the sort of high that Revel In Flesh delivers, a barrage of punishing
drum work, guitar riffing that inspires the witnessing of and/or participation
in a random massacre, and decapitating leads.
For example, “Wings of Death” is a swarming pulsing mass of
flesh peeling corrosive leads, a great pit inducing bulldozer of nihilistic
rhythms and riffs ripened by the sulfurous stench of “I want to Kill you” that
crosses classic death metal execution blows with the rioting anthem feels of
thrash, and some damn solid gruff and throaty vocals that embody the desire to
commit bloody murder. “Wings of Death” is a Goddamn warzone!!!!!
“Bloodfeast” is about as passive as shoving a live grenade
up ones nose. The main rhythm is an intestinal churning death metal fist up
someone’s ass, you can also really get the thrash spiraling rhythms pumping
your heart for you as on “Slavish Obedience”, as the 12 ton steel hammer of
damnation riffing whacks down upon you causing your innards to liquefy under
pressure and disperse like an exploding water balloon.
Every single one of these foul, ridiculously intense, and
brain splattering songs brings me nothing but rage and sadistic instincts with
a huge smile to my savage face. There is nothing lacking on this one!!!! You want
classic brutal death metal, then you’ve got it . If you really want something that’ll terrorize the neighbors
and potentially serve as the psychological trigger to bludgeoning one of them
to death, like “Black Paled Elegy” with it’s almost patriotic lead throughout
that salutes your malicious act. I wholly recommend Revel In Flesh for those in
need of the savage, it’s steamroll right over everything else once you insert,
press play, and succumb to its outright violent nature. “Hail the Deathcult”!!!!
Soluthus – Ritual of the Horned Skull EP
Soluthus contacted me a while back about a potential review
for their EP, Ritual of the Horned Skull,
and it’s been in my “commonly
played” pile for weeks and now I can finally get the damn review done. Soluthus
are yet another underground doom death metal band to emerge from the frozen
depths of the Finnish metal pool that completely slay, so fans of Autopsy,
Hooded Menace, Cianide, and Coffins will definitely want to hear this EP.
Only three songs in length, but that’s all that’s needed to
incinerate and crush your being into ash like a volcanic boulder of lava would.
“Throne of Bones” starts out with a rumbling doom bass line, then the guitar
comes in a bit over the rhythm and I’m thinking “raw doom like Burning Witch”,
but then the battalion of bone sawing down tuned riffs begin to rip and I’m
feeling classic Swedish Death Metal as a hail storm of bones buries me alive. I’m feeling a more THC fueled and
drunken Dismember’s “Death Evocation”, Furbowl “ Damage Done”, or possibly
those two songs mixed with some classic Electric Wizard. Seriously, this Son of
a Bitch will rip your torso open with those insane riffs that can almost
redefine “heavy” in death metal all over again. If you feel that in some ways
the ugly, horror and macabre, and importance of down tuning a guitar almost to
the point where the strings are loose enough to sag and delivering blunt force
trauma head wounds with each chord strike then Solothus is for you.
“Embrace the Cold” starts out with another heavy rattling
doom bass beast alongside this really creepy and haunting middle eastern guitar
lead in, which adds a nice tension build up and a charred smoldering atmosphere
of post chainsaw psycho slaughter attack. The band keeps this trudging
massively dense gravitational field of blood drenched death doom going and
building up consistently for about four minutes until they just start with a
melodic shredding of grey putrid flesh and violently cut that tension with a
serrated blade.
“Darkness Gathers Here At Night” brings in more of the
scorching leads and melodic touches and lightens up as if the beast of Solothus
has finally emerged from the beyond to feast upon the living. This is the song
that really shows the bands skills and versatility, the way the guitar and bass
layer each other perfectly and the switches between full on rhythm killings and
topping those moments of helter skelter with shearing leads, and the way they
can switch from zombie doom death graveyard murk to full-on war raging all in
one song.
I love it when bands like these guys find me and wake up my
tired ears with something other than the usual Incantation worship, sludge
project, or the diarrhea of new-old school. Solothus remind me of when I could
pick up a tape or CD or get one from a friend and it would satiate my need for
death and doom head banger vibes, and there was rarely ever two bands that sounded
alike yet they kept true to the style. This EP is actually a Demo and already
sold out, but check the band out and at least hear them and push for them to
keep this madness going.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
M. Todd and L. Kerr - Beyond the Threshold CD (No Visible Scars)
As usual NVS serves up another gourmet platter of dark and
abysmal sounds with this classic nightmarish Lustmord ambient release from the
duo M.Todd (Transcendent Device) and L. Kerr (Steel Hook Prosthesis). Beyond
the Threshold is a droning and rumbling beast of dismal concrete landscapes and
an uneasy “quiet before the storm” sensation running throughout but the storm
never comes.
The first three tracks begin to unravel from an almost silent
muffled hum and resonance to a gradual increase in volume as you begin to feel
as if you’re wandering through the image on the cover. There’s a horror film
soundtrack meets minimalism and sci-fi that builds up in track 4, you can
actually hear sounds in the background that appear to be getting closer of what
sounds like machines breathing. It reminds me of the scene from the Matrix with
the garden of humans being grown, and from the way the electronic sounds are
manipulated an image of something cyborg and diabolical is present in the near
distance.
Track 5 is this humming and almost melodic whirring drone
collage until about halfway in sounds of birds and nature begin to slowly
become audible and a subtle bass tone acts as a beat to give some thrust and
rhythm to the somnial dronescapes.
“6” fades in with a heavy bass tone drone that rattles the
speakers like a subway train passing underneath and muffled audio clips of what
sounds like a television news broadcast or radio broadcast. The way the physicality
of the bass drone combines with the stifled audio, it feels like a dream or
some half asleep insomniac experience.
Although the 8 untitled tracks consist mainly of drone
textures, it’s the way the 8 surreal atmospheres are crafted from proper manipulation
and effects usage that make the entire album cohesive and trance inducing
without falling into the monotonous, sterile, and boring. It’s creations like Beyond the Threshold that mix that sense
of hypnotic droning and dreamlike states with so much subtle detail that you
can literally drive yourself insane trying to get out of that labyrinth of
sound because it’s so complex and fluid, it keeps changing dynamics and
direction within itself that it’s hard to determine if it’s coming of going
although it’s clearly moving. M. Todd and L. Kerr further prove that subtlety
can be more enticing than the blatant and bold.
Alongside Beyond the
Threshold, I have to recommend Yen Pox, Rasalhague, Stem Cell Research
Project, and Death Factory.
Stemcell Research Project – Charnel Houses (Syzmic Records 2012)
SRP is a new dark/horror ambient project from the diabolical
and morose mastermind John Paul Whetzel, also notorious for his suicidal black
metal/harsh noise/ambient fusion project Welter in Thy Blood and the murderous
industrial grind of Pro-Death.
Charnel Houses
accurately depicts what the name implies, dilapidated and abandoned old
buildings with a history of inhuman atrocities that took place inside them. It
reminds me of the documentary Cropsey
and psychological thriller Session 9,
both centered around real mental institutions that were shut down due to the
torture and squalor that were inflicted upon the patients. The use of constant
electronic whirring, many styles of it layered upon each other, with this eerie
distorted screeching sound that fades in and out of the mix and what sounds
like the distinctive whispering or heavy breathing “hoo hoo haa haa ha...” from
Friday the 13th, captures
the haunting atmosphere of an old crumbling house full of death and blood.
“Cutting the Vessel” even has a doctors voice added in talking about cutting
and blood, that is manipulated to where it sounds as though it’s a
hallucination that I’m having through a drugged half conscious state while
being mutilated alive.
“The Rite of Ossilegium” is a fluid and vaporous incantation
that sounds like a voice from a past atrocity calling out as if the event was
still taking place and I’m hearing it underwater, then it becomes a more
distorted power electronic scream of blood choking anger. The handling of the
field recordings, layering of various soft but dense effects to create a heavy
fog, and the gradual changes from the quiet and subtle the dramatic as I
traverse through “Transcending the Threshold” to the final stage of “Blackened
Skeletal Remains” completely hypnotizes me and takes me into a place defined by
absolute terror and sadistic violence. “Blackened Skeletal Remains” even has a
field recording behind the distorted militaristic voice that could potentially be
of a real hospital of institution.
It’s amazing to experience Charnel Houses, as it builds up from a simple and creepy beginning
of “Transcending the Threshold” to the massive and dynamic mindfuck of
“Blackened Skeletal Remains”. With each listen I pick up new details and
horrific images and it never loses its mystery, suspense, or ability to
accurately describe the cruel and abhorring nature of mankind. If you really
want to experience something that will scare the shit out of someone ill
equipped to handle the genuinely depraved and morbid and will definitely play
out like a nightmarish supernatural experience that will take your mind to
places that make your most gruesome fears seem trivial.
Strikemaster – Vicious Nightmare (MetalHit.com)
Leave it to the Riddick brothers to come up with a baddass
label and cover art!!!! The latest CD’s off MH are serious metal spine snappers
that’ll also blister your eardrums, like the uncompromising and old school
thrash brutality of Strikemaster!!!! No fucking joke, Strikemaster is not for
the weak so if you have any sort of heart condition, anxiety disorder, seizure
disorder or are scared of acquiring one from a severe psychological and audible
whiplashing than Strikemaster is not for you.
I know that I’ve reviewed and commented on many a
current/new thrash band, but with few exceptions like Excrutiator and Gae
Bolga, none really feel as though they’re straight outta the mid to late 1980’s
like Strikemaster. Somewhere between the merciless and belligerent blunt force
attack of “Black Violence” and “Violent Reivindication” I managed to bench
about 90lbs today, two sets of 7-8 reps and that was after consistently adding
weight and doing full sets, and
that’s over half my body weight, that’s how energizing Strikemaster is!!!! It
can give you added strength and a thirst for blood and sweat unlike anything
else that doesn’t involve narcotics and/or mental illness.
Aside from the obvious unapologetic aggressiveness of
Strikemaster’s sound, the mastering is so pristine that you can actually hear
and feel the punchy throbbing bass lines on “SBU”, “Black Violence”, “Rabid
Abstraction”, and “Prophetic Chemical Death”. The intricacy of the guitar work
is up there with legendary, the speed and consistency of the leads and riffs,
not to mention some blistering solos that really bring in the old school and
polish it up a bit without removing all of the blood stains from decades prior.
“Prophetic chemical Death” (on right this moment) really gets you going with
it’s thumping and nitro boosted rhythm throttles and the great neck snapper
circular pit inducing anthem vibe, but the leads and the play between them and
the drums and this scathing solo almost two minutes in just blows my skull cap
clean off. The craftsmanship of Strikemaster is almost prog metal quality in
terms of complexity and technicality, yet it smashes your cranium down through
your torso and out your asshole rather than intrigue your brain with noodling
and awkward rhythms.
Listening to Strikemaster gives a new and almost literal
means of “getting smashed” as any of the 11 songs on here will whack you upside
the head like a sledgehammer with a grudge and brain matter will create a
Jackson Pollack right next to what was the place your body was before the event
took place.
Fans of Hirax, Forbidden, early Exodus, Overkill MUST have
Strikemaster!!!!!
Support metal by supporting the bands and labels!!! If you
have cash for ink, beer, and pot, then you have money for buying albums, so put
your money where your mouth and image are and keep metal alive.
Nattfog – Mustan Auringon Riitti (Hammer of Hate 2012)
Hammer of Hate strikes again with a strong Finnish black
metal debut by Nattfog. Maybe it’s my personal bias toward Finnish black metal,
but Isomehow knew that I’d like this one before even giving it a listen and yet
it still impaled with its melodic Nordic warrior spirit and raw, but refined
black metal approach. Hammer of hate compares the Nattfog sound to that of
Horna, Sargeist, Goatmoon, and Satanic Warmaster and they are totally on the
spot in doing so, but there’s also a bit of the supernatural and pagan
atmospheric elements as done by Forteresse and Neige et Noirceur. Instantly
when I heard “Path of the White Wolves” I was caught up in the marching rhythm
of the drum, and then was completely drowned in the tide of melodic buzzing
chords creating this addictive and dense mist of intensity that almost
electrocuted me from its distorted and trebly surge. There’s some pagan
undertones, but overall Nattfog present a fresh and much needed approach to
melodic and lo-fi black metal without losing its abrasiveness and skeletal
form.
“Reaching to the Stars” reminds me of the hazy and psychedelic atmospheres of Nachtmystium and Twlight, partially due to the catchy and memorable melodic riffs, but a lot of it is that black psychedelic fog that comes out in the mixing that really pushes the sound toward surreal and unique. The vocals are behind the mix, one of my favorite features in black metal, but what really gets my adrenaline rushing here is the constant throbbing momentum and how every instrument sounds as though it’s inside the mix, sort of muffled and distorted but still so clear and distinct.
There’s also that shrieking and shredding feel to the vocals
as they lash out from behind everything else going on, and really stands out on
“Mieleni Mustissa Merissa” . Sometimes I can even draw comparisons to a more aggressive
Summoning, that’s how dense, majestic, dark, and cryptic the Nattfog sound can
get, so aside from completely nailing their debut it’s not a far reach to say
that Nattfog have the potential to be one of the next strong cult bands to
remain submerged but highly sought after by those who keep their ears low to
the ground.
http://www.hammer-of-hate.com/releases/hoh053/
http://www.last.fm/music/Nattfog
Annthennath – States of Liberating Departure (WOHRT Records)
All that I can really say aside from
the usual “you gotta hear/experience this for yourself to fully understand...”
blah is that Annthennath deliver misanthropic black metal as many of us can
appreciate BUT they also delve into a sort of mystic journey on here without
copping out to cliché. The album consists of 8 tracks, each representing a
separate state of consciousness as one progresses through the album, and like
many well crafted black metal pieces, you get that feeling of traversing
through varied terrains of both sound and mind through melody, atmosphere and
that certain black realm that puts the “black” in black metal. Even lovers of
the crude and grimy vomitous black metal sounds (like myself especially) sometimes
have to step back and be immersed into the intellectual and atmospheric
territory now and again to keep us sane and somewhat refined (laughs).
check out the "Live and Livid Sounds of Filth and Fury" page for an audio sample of this and other featured releases.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Hypsiphrone – And the Void shall Pierce Their Eyes (Black Plague Records)
Flat out, this is some serious disturbed, perverted,
sadistic and psychotic shit!!!!! I have yet
to have been seriously convinced of someone being able to convey their experience
of inflicting something so terrifying in audio that it could honestly be a
Freudian slip of their sociopathic homicidal delusions taken beyond the point
of a half conscious dream state and into a complete conscious revisitation of
their past crimes, complete with all the vibrant memories right down to smells.
Part post-industrial prison raped black metal (Abruptum,
Gnaw Their Tongues, some Nekrasov), depraved dark ambient and diseased
neo-classical (Megaptera, In Slaughter Natives, BDN), and just sadistic and
bizarre psychotic percussive violence,
there’s absolutely no getting around the criminally insane and
malevolent filth perpetrated on this album.
“Cornucopia Sabatti” is a deranged ambient audio fantasy of
a woman being attacked and mutilated in a swift and spontaneous moment of
inhuman savagery. You hear the rain, the thunder, the clanking rusty metal, the
snapping of bones, the screams of pain form the victim and then the
hallucinations of psychedelic bouts of memories of echoing screams and bell
tones amidst a thick scum layer of electronic distortion. Even writing this
makes me uncomfortable, as this is some seriously graphic and realistic
soundtrack to an abstract serial killer film. So if you’re looking for a
mindfuck, then this one is an essential!!!! You’ve probably never heard
anything quite like this!!!!
“Resurgence of Mors Sexualis” is like a Ride For Revenge,
diesel-doom throbbing black metal experimental shit storm, with some
Militaristic post-industrial flare (sounds like In Slaughter Natives and Brighter
Death Now with a freight train or subway train screeching along the tracks in
the background), and a continual audio clip realistic to the point of possibly
being from an actual documentary on necrophilia as it continually talks about
“fantasizing…rehearsing fantasies…having sex with a corpse causing (some sort
of) erection …”.
Hopefully by now you are either: buying this one (link at
the bottom); vomiting in violent convulsions as you shiver and spasm because
your skin is literally crawling off your bones like a horde of roaches from
being so digusted; or reaping in your own deviant fantasies from the
description.
And if you still aren’t convinced, “Epiphony Written in
Blood” is the female spoken word confessions of her majesty, the sadist behind the treacherous tales unfolded for
our enlightenment. It’s like Countess Bathory speaks through a medium and
divulges her true and uncensored story.
Seriously though, if you’re really looking for something
that’ll absolutely spontaneously erupt one source of your bodily fluids (be it
sweat, urine, spit, vomit….), this is that masterful
a piece of conscious rotting
paraphanalia that WILL do the job. This album could even potentially be banned
somewhere for driving someone completely insane or scaring them into having a
stroke. Horror and twisted minds MUST feed their need with Hypsiphrone!!!!
Limited to 500 copies too!!!!!
Absolutely essential for fans of: Sewer Goddess, Ride For
Revenge, Welter in Thy Blood, Abruptum, Dead reptile Shrine, Havohej,
Profanantica, and anything else mentioned in the review.
Black Plague is a sub-label of Malignant Records
Abazagorath – S/T EP (No Visible Scars 2012)
Here’s a USBM band that carries the black flame of
traditional black metal, full of darkness, melody, and stormy atmospheres like
an official occultic Olympic Torch out from the depths of somewhere unknown for
the last five years to reap new violent metal glories with their S/T EP.
Unlike their prior slaughtering releases ( I do enjoy Sacraments of the Final Atrocity,
Channeling the Ethereal Moons, and Tenebrarum…) , the band sounds a bit cleaner
and sophisticated with this release, but that’s not to say that they are any
less haunting, obliterating, and maniacal. Honestly, it’s more so that the production is cleaner, not
the band, but regardless of the what it’s safe to bow in allegiance to one of
the forebears of USBM. Right after the majestic intro of “Conjuring” the band
literally rips into a torrential downpour of cyclone black metal melodies and
blasting riffs and the thunder of battering ram and artillery fire percussion
on “ The Antigod”.
“The Antigod” will instantly sucks you into this whirlpool
of abysmal supernatural mystery and creates this overwhelming, almost
Lovecraftian, sensation that reminds of some of the best moments from Limbonic
Art minus the symphonic pieces. From this point on the EP continues the spiral
into unusually intense and intricate acoustic arpeggios and melodic leads
colliding head on and explosively with the angst and aggressive spirit of black
metal.
“Lapse” is a great straightforward melodic black metal
piece, definitely carries an essence of Dissection (Storm of the Light’s bane) as
it keeps the whipping speed and centripetal guitar motion going but still
manages to layer some seriously skilled leads and melodies on top of it all
that just pushes the limits of insanity and skill over the fucking cliff!!!!!
Abazagorath has it all right here, that buzzing treble
guitar tone with a slight bit of thrash rhythm here and there that keeps things
throbbing, the riffs at times really do sound like a barrage of chainsaws due
to their sheer aggression and density, and exactly the right amount of
everything dark and metal composed and layered what could be a black metal
masterpiece. I’d honestly take all four of the main songs on here and any one
of them could easily stand on the same throne of blood and steel with metal
warlords: Dissection, Emperor, Limbonic Art, Kult ov Azazel, Immortal, and Abigor. Definitely prepare for an adrenaline rush and possibly a sinister invocation to an outer body experience with this release.
This is a CD release, NVS is now doing CD and vinyl formats
on occasion:
Abazagorath links:
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