Sinister - The Carnage Ending

Almost every band that has been around for more than 20 years has put out at least one bad album. Sinister, despite having a quite massive “former members” list, have managed to pull through with each release. In light of the Dutch death metal pioneers’ new album that is set to be released sometime this summer via Massacre Records, I thought it’d be nice to look back to 2012 and peel back the layers of their most recent release, The Carnage Ending. A few years back, I reviewed The Silent Howling, and because I live under a fucking rock, a lot happened between The Silent Howling and The Carnage Ending and I didn’t learn about it until recently. Despite that, I have had this album in my library since its release because of the dependability of this band. Even though I didn’t really have the time to listen to it because of being busy with other things, I knew that it didn’t matter when I listened to it; Sinister has yet to disappoint me.

The crazy thing that happened between 2008 and 2012 was 3 of the 4 members parting ways with the band. So now, the vocalist isn’t just the only remaining original member, but he’s also the only member that has been in the band longer than 5 years…great. And although he is an original member of Sinister, some take the technicality that he was their drummer when Sinister first formed in 1988 and didn’t become the vocalist until he and another member decided to resurrect the band after a 2 year hiatus (which obviously didn’t include their original vocalist). So because he’s not their original VOCALIST, people take that and say that there’s no original members left in the band. And yes, there are plenty of bands out there that only have one original member still standing, but I can’t think of a case where EVERYONE except for one member just left the band at once. If you can name other bands that have endured this type of loss without breaking up, please leave a comment on this post!

Due to the completely different lineup, I’m not going to compare this one with their extensive discography quite as much as I would with any of its predecessors. On top of that, what does it fucking matter? Have Sinister ever gone to shit before? No! And I can reassure you that The Carnage Ending isn’t any better or worse (by a whole lot) than any of their other albums! If you know these guys well, you know exactly what to expect; pure, uncut, straight-up death metal. No excess technicality, minimal melody, little emphasis on breakdowns, and a record that is better sounding as a whole than the individual songs by themselves.

On that note, there are some progressions that have been made. Although not completely necessary, it’s best to have a good variety of different tempos in each track. Sinister have proved to not be the best at this. They’ve made multiple attempts at putting in breakdowns, extreme tempo changes, and oddball breaks in their music, and every album in which they do that, it ends up sounding very choppy. Every time they produce an album like this, they always go back to just sticking to a few similar speeds. Thankfully, the guitar and vocal work have kept the music interesting enough to avoid getting the “monotony” sticker. In my review of The Silent Howling, I did mention that, in order for these guys to keep up on their game, they needed to have some hidden surprises in the next album to keep the predictability level from getting any higher than it needed to be.

I’m not saying that this is because of the lineup being COMPLETELY different aside from their vocalist, but Sinister have finally figured out how to use a magical tool known as a “transition”. Ever wondered why your music sounded so goddamn choppy on Savage or Grace? Because the album is completely void of any attempt at transitions. Something must have clicked this time because this album has everything that they’ve tried to do, only they’re actually succeeding! There are breakdowns in almost every song that are laid out PERFECTLY and aren’t over exaggerated like the breakdowns on a deathcore album would be. Sinister is way too Dutch to turn into a deathcore band; as well as being too old. Anyways, there’s a lot more variety WITHIN each song than anything they’ve ever done before. Yet interestingly enough, when you look at the album as a whole, the songs all generally sound the same (with some give or take of course).

The guitar solos haven’t changed since the band’s return from hiatus in 2005, which is good considering the unique shredding style of the solos are an important part of Sinister’s sound. In exchange for an increase in groove, Sinister have given up some brutality, which is a loss for me because of the PERFECT brutality level The Silent Howling had.

I’m not a fan of the overly processed sound of the vocals. I know this isn’t the raw sound of the vocals because of how much less polished the vocals from The Silent Howling sound. Although it’s a minor alteration, it’s enough to be noticeable by me. Then again, I wouldn’t have noticed that if I wasn’t reviewing this album. A lot of the things that make us reviewers seem nit-picky and snotty are things that we wouldn’t have noticed without analyzing the music closely and paying attention to every individual little thing. It’s something I consider to be somewhat of a curse that comes with the album reviewing process; you start noticing negative things that you wouldn’t normally hear through leisurely playing the album.

There’s one last thing I want to point out: the drummer. This album has the best drum work out of Sinister’s entire discography. Yes, even the drumming off of Aggressive Measures doesn’t amount to the drumming on this record. Maybe the drumming on The Carnage Ending is not quite as tight and solid as Aggressive Measures, but definitely far more creative and intricate. The blast beats are very crisp and a pleasure to the ears. Overall, this is more than any casual death metal fan could ask for! It’s quality! Personally, the interest factor doesn’t match that of The Silent Howling or Hate, but this is a big step in the right direction. Death metal fans need to give this one a listen. The Carnage Ending gets my score of 15/20. 

Autopsy - The Headless Ritual

If you’re going to say that you’re officially back, you’re going to need more than just one comeback record and an EP, no matter how good it all is. Well, Autopsy blew us off our feet with Macabre Eternal in 2011, and they’re saying that they’re officially back. Well, they released an album to get our attention, now they need something to show us that they really ARE back. Ladies and Gentleman, The Headless Ritual is proof enough that these motherfuckers are back and going at full force.

What The Headless Ritual has done for a lot of us is make us realize how overhyped Macabre Eternal was. I mean, it was a hell of a record, but now that we have The Headless Ritual enabling us to view Macabre Eternal in retrospect, it actually wasn’t anywhere near as amazing as we all thought it was! And that’s understandable because it’s Autopsy! One of the biggest and oldest death metal bands on the planet! But I may be wrong, because if this isn’t the case, then it’s just that The Headless Ritual is so damn good that it’s making Macabre Eternal feel less awesome. Which either way, this is what we’ve been hungry for; this is the Autopsy that we’ve all loved since 1989.

The vocals are pretty much the traditional old school death metal vocals. This is pretty much a randomized mash-up of screams, yells, really gritty mid-ranged yells, deep guttural growls, and who knows what the fuck else. This is why there are so many people that are mainly just into the classic shit; the vocals are a hell of a lot more interesting! Most death metal bands nowadays pick one or two vocal styles and just stick to that the whole time. Then Autopsy comes a long and reminds us that it’s much more fun and interesting to just do it all than just stick to what you’re best at. And although I fully understand that, there’s always the case in where you’re doing everything, but you’re not always particularly GOOD at it.

It might just be me, but most of the time, those hysterical grunts and gritty yells that the vocalist does are very hard to take seriously and don’t sound that good. That’s the issue I’ve always had with these guys, it’s the one vocal style that I don’t think he’s very good at, yet it’s always what he primarily does. Even on albums like Mental Funeral, it’s just a little too laughable for me. Then again, it could just be me not fully understanding the whole thing because I have the same issue with those ridiculous grindcore shrieks being used in brutal death music (i.e. Awaiting the Autopsy).

Like I said before, this is a very pure death metal record that sounds like it could’ve easily come from 1993 or something like that. The band doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but it’s perfectly okay because these guys know how to play death metal more than 90% of all death metal bands out there. If you’re a fan of death metal in any sort, you NEED to pick this up because it will not let you down. The slow sludgy grooves of Flesh Turns to Dust will pull you down to the dirt while the blasting riffs of Arch Cadaver tear you to pieces. I would highly recommend this record and give it 17/20. 

Immolation - Kingdom of Conspiracy

Immolation is one of the few remaining old school death metal bands that are still strong as hell. Along with Grave, Cannibal Corpse, Jungle Rot, Sinister, Vader, Suffocation, and a few other death metal bands that have been around since the early 1990s and before, Immolation have remained fairly consistent and are still blowing people into the dirt. In fact, Immolation is probably one of the single most consistent death metal bands ever because of how they’ve never released a bad album. The closest that they’ve ever come to that was with Harnessing Ruin and Shadows in the Light, which aren’t even average records, so that doesn’t really mean much. Especially since the album that came after those two is considered to be one of Immolation’s best albums, that album being Majesty and Decay.

So while in the middle of a shitload of touring (during which I had the pleasure to see them open for Nile with Krisiun and Abigail Williams), the band released what I personally consider to be one of their best releases ever, a five-song EP titled Providence. In my review of that, I simply stated that it’s pretty much a continuation of the growing intensity and energy that Majesty and Decay left behind. Well, here’s the mighty follow-up to that record, and it’s not quite what we all expected.

Let’s start off by taking a short moment to look at the artwork. There’s nothing too significant about it besides the fact of how fucking cool it is. It’s probably one of the best album covers the band has ever released. It’s also just one of those covers that instantly ties in the album title with the imagery. But as amazing as visual art is, we need to look at the auditory art that Immolation just released.

The song structures on Kingdom of Conspiracy are much more interesting and intricate than before, so the band is obviously doing some pushing and exploring. It’s mainly the increased variety in style on Kingdom of Conspiracy that makes it different from the rest of their albums. The same drum patterns that Harnessing Ruin and…well…just about every other Immolation album besides Majesty and Decay brought us are nowhere to be heard on this album, so it’s somewhat of a relief. Although Immolation have finally chosen to move on from their old sound after perfecting it, there are some issues that are starting to pop up on this particular record. The biggest issue is that although the song structures are more complex, they aren’t as solid as they should be. Let’s do a bit of comparison work with Majesty and Decay because this is actually really interesting. In Majesty and Decay, the much more complex song structures were very solid; the band moved on to the next part of the song at just exactly the right time. But in Kingdom of Conspiracy, these transitions are irregular and don’t feel quite as right. There are some parts where the band decides to move on to the next section right when you’re just starting to get into the previous part (annoying) and other parts where everything is dragged out to the point of being really over-repetitive.

This is actually quite a blow because of how high Majesty and Decay and Providence [EP] set the bar. But in all honesty, the uncertain sound of the album is the only con; everything else is exactly what you can expect from Immolation. The guitar and bass lines are casual, but devastatingly brutal, there’s always that underlying groovy feel to everything that they do, and the musicianship is outstanding. Instrumentally, the biggest improvement that Kingdom of Conspiracy brings is the drumming. The drumming is a thousand times more interesting to listen to than on other Immolation records like Unholy Cult and Harnessing Ruin (just to throw some examples out there). What I still would like to hear is some more interesting bass, which is probably not something that will happen since it’s just not the Immolation-thing to do to put the bass out on the frontline like that. But with the increasing complexity of the drums, it’s starting to look like we could possibly see the other members make their parts more complex as well.

Kingdom of Conspiracy is yet another strong album from Immolation. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the expectation that Majesty and Decay and Providence [EP] set, but it’s Immolation, they still have yet to put out a bad album. Fans of pure death metal, you’ve probably already heard this record. But if you haven’t I would recommend it after you listen to some of their other stuff. I would give Kingdom of Conspiracy a score of 15/20.

Blood Red Throne - Blood Red Throne

One of Norway’s biggest death metal bands is back with a self-titled album. Due to the extended relations both former and past members have in the black metal genre, Blood Red Throne has grown to be one of the much more respected pure death metal bands amongst the black metal fanbase. Well, apparently, Blood Red Throne’s release of Brutalitarian Regime in 2011 passed by without me knowing about it, so the last thing that I’ve heard from these guys is their 2008 album, Souls of Damnation. As if that wasn’t enough to make me feel disconnected, the lineup of the band is completely different now than it was in 2008, except for founding member and guitarist, Død. I looked through the lineup to see if any of the members are or were in any bands that I know, and their drummer caught my eye. Not only is drummer Emil Wiksten not even from Norway (he’s Swedish), he’s the drummer of the internationally popular death metal band Aeon. Although I don’t consider him to be anything outstanding, he is one of the more creative and unique traditional death metal drummers out there. But this guy isn’t the only highlight of this record.

The vocalist is, for me, the biggest change that this band has gone through. I loved the deep, moist sound that their previous vocalist had, but in retrospect, he didn’t have much of a pitch range. His vocals also sounded a little too relaxed and emotionless a lot of the time. The new vocalist, originally from this thrash metal band called Concussion that lasted for about two and a half years or so, has fucking range. And after doing some shallow digging, it seems that I’m not the only one that’s the first to hear this guy on a Blood Red Throne album because…this is the first time he’s ever been on one! Well, anyways, this guy is fucking amazing. The first thing you hear from him is an extremely high-pitched earsplitting black metal-styled shriek. Being used to the guttural growls from Souls of Damnation and Come Death, this is alien to me. Then, after the band takes some time to pull you into their catchy groove, the vocalist pummels you with his demonic growls. His growls sound nothing like the ones on any of the band’s previous albums, which is what forces you to realize that the Blood Red Throne that you once knew is no more; Blood Red Throne is back, and this album with its new sound is proof that nothing will stand in their way for very long.

Souls of Damnation won my heart over because it wasn’t pure death metal brutality. It has some of the catchiest grooves and tempos that have ever been pulled off in this particular genre. This element of their sound is what I identify with the most when I think of these guys. When I listen to Blood Red Throne, I love to hear the shit that I can nod my head along to while I’m doing my other work. This new piece of material never fails to that for even a single second. All nine tracks on this album are filled with those catchy guitar chugs and drum lines, even though the people that are playing them here are not the same people that were playing them in 2008. If I were to pick out two songs from this album that express the most of this element, I would pick Torturewhore and Exoneration Manifesto. Torturewhore is also one of the songs where the bassist and the drummer steal the spotlight. The frilly taps that the drummer does on the ride cymbals along with the crazy fills and the extremely tight kick drum work sold me on the spot. When I heard this song, I knew that this album will be on my “best albums of 2013” list at the end of the year.

I also love how the bassist is much more audible than in most traditional death metal stuff. It seems that in a lot of the recent death metal albums being released, including the past four Cannibal Corpse albums, the bass guitar is much less audible because of the increased volume of the overpowering distorted guitars. There are some bands where the only way you can really tell how skilled their bassist really is, to be honest, is to see the band live (The Black Dahlia Murder, Veil of Maya, Trollfest, The Agonist, etc.). That’s how bad it is sometimes. The way I like it, is when you can hear every member without anyone overpowering each other. But then again, there are appropriate times for certain instruments to step out of the light or for a certain member to take the frontline.

The song Exoneration Manifesto shows you the capability of their bassist. The bass lines and walks that he makes in this song not only intensifies the overall song, but also brings all the attention to him. This isn’t a bassist that’s just super technical and fast, this guy knows what the hell he’s doing and how the hell to do it RIGHT. After hearing what he did in that song, I stopped everything and started the album over, this time putting most of my focus on the bass. And this guy tears apart every song, showing everyone that he is a fucking amazing bassist and is currently right where he belongs, in Blood Red Throne.

As I’m writing this review, I’m just now realizing that, no matter how hard I try, I can’t find anything that I dislike (even just a little bit) about this album. What we have right here is death metal done right. Although 2013 is definitely not as good a year for metal as 2012 was, this year is releasing some very good music, Blood Red Throne’s self-titled album is one of many examples so far of amazing albums that have been released this year. This album is unique and pure at the same time. It fits the exact description of a good PURE death metal album, but it also has that unique twist of those groovy and fucking catchy parts to make it memorable. My personal favorite off of this would be the first song, Soulseller for having everything that can be found on this album compressed into one single song. This album gets a much-deserved score of 19/20. 

Six Feet Under - Unborn

Six Feet Under’s 2012 album Undead proved that Death Rituals wasn’t just a fluke. Having loved Undead, I’m ready to see if Six Feet Under can stay on top of things. In less than ten months, Six Feet Under have written, recorded, produced, and released a new full-length! Usually, when bands release new material THIS soon, it’s an EP, but an entire record?? These guys are on a creative writing spree. Although, I honestly think that the writing process of this album had already started before the release of Undead due to it having a similar album cover and a similar name. Six Feet Under’s newest release, titled Unborn, is a fucking monster. Three tasty slabs of death metal in a row is enough proof to safely say that Six Feet Under is on a winning streak and are no longer one of the worst death metal bands of all-time (which is what they were from 2001-2007). When I first saw the artwork and title of Unborn, I immediately came to the assumption that this was going to be an “Undead part 2”. Honestly, I’m totally cool with that because Undead was awesome. As long as they come up with something fresh next, I’m fine with another Undead-sounding record.

Those of you that didn’t like Death Rituals and are still skeptical about Undead don’t need to worry about the vocals. Everything that Barnes did that sounded like a clogged toilet or a constipated boar cannot be heard on this album. The vocals are fantastic, different, but still sound like the behemoth known as Chris Barnes. I’ll elaborate more on this later in the review, but for now, let’s get into the general music part.

The first track, Neuro Osmosis is going to take you off-guard. Six Feet Under likes to do the whole acoustic or melodic intro during the first song of the album before the song continues to dive into pure death metal, but this is different. The entire song sounds really weird. The odd combination of acoustic guitars, droning bass, slow drum patterns, ambient background, and melodic guitar leads that make up Neuro Osmosis makes me wonder if this was just a random jam session that the band decided to put on the album or a strange form of experimentation. Although I’m not a fan of the song, there’s nothing wrong with it on the instrumental side. The bits where the vocals take the lead are slow and sludgy, pulling influence from sludge metal and doom metal. It’s puzzling as to why they chose this song to be the first because it puts the listener on the wrong track by giving them a bad impression on what the rest of the album might sound like. But once the song is over, the rest of the album is pretty much what a lot of people predicted it would be: Undead 2.

The way all of the instruments sound and how everything is mixed is pretty much the same as Undead. There are some differences, though. The guitars have a much dirtier and more crunchy distortion, therefore adding more treble to the mix. The drums are louder and have more treble on the cymbals. Other than that, and the recording volume of the entire band being greater, there hasn’t been too much change. Most of the difference in sound that Unborn has to Undead is due to what the actual members are doing. The guitarist is using the extra distortion by playing more high-pitched guitar harmonics and more chugging riffs that probably wouldn’t have sounded as good with the distortion used on Undead. The first two tracks, Prophecy and Zombie Blood Curse are where the death metal sickness takes action.

Prophecy is probably one of the best headbanging tracks that Six Feet Under has ever written. Starting 30 seconds into the song, the groove that the drums and guitars create will cause any death metal fan to go along with the beat, it’s just irresistible; and it’s fucking great. Although not as good as other pure death metal headbanging sonds like Cannibal Corpse’s Scourge of Iron and Bloodbath’s Like Fire, Prophecy is one of the best ones out there. The biggest improvement on the vocals that the band has made is first heard in this song. The problem with the vocals on the majority of Six Feet Under’s discography is that they sound weak, uninspired, bland, and emotionless. This not only led to an uninteresting sound, it also caused the growls to sound like complete gorilla shit. Starting with Undead, the growls sound a lot more powerful and interesting. The only thing that Chris does with his vocals on Unborn is take them to the next level. So now, the growls don’t sound weak, they don’t sound boring, and they sure as hell don’t sound shitty. Instead, as cliche as this may sound, the growls on Unborn are brutal as fuck. Instead of ruining the music, the vocals take the front of the stage and intensify the entire sound of the music.

Zombie Blood Curse was the teaser track posted on YouTube before Unborn’s release. This song is a perfect example of how Six Feet Under want to approach death metal. The more rock-influenced, groovy death metal sound is what Zombie Blood Curse helps lay out for the listener. The reason why I like Six Feet Under’s rock n’ roll approach on death metal more than other bands that do that (Debauchery, Entombed, etc.) is because it’s still death metal. It’s not rock n’ roll that’s played with distorted guitars and growled vocals; it still has a death metal structure, a death metal vibe, and a death metal attitude. To be honest, I don’t think that Six Feet Under could have created a better concept of the whole rock n’ roll/death metal thing than Unborn, especially Zombie Blood Curse (yes, I know the name is kind of silly).

Unborn is the third solid album in a row that Six Feet Under have put out since 2008. Although it is more of an “Undead part two”, it still delivers its own unique vibe with a stronger rock n’ roll influence than its predecessor. This is an album that I would recommend to fans of traditional death metal. The only downside to this album that has caused me to not like it as much as Death Rituals and Undead is the first track that I just don’t like very much at all. I would give Six Feet Under’s Unborn 15/20.

Decay - Decay [EP]

It seems that we’ve been having a bit of an uprising recently of bands playing old school death metal…or…at least they’re TRYING to do that. Most of the bands that I’ve heard that claim to play “old school death metal” aren’t that good. In fact, some of them are pretty shitty. Decay is, by far, one of the much better ones out there. After receiving several demos and EPs, as well as taking a look into the flow of demos that have been circulating around the interwebs, I’ve come to find several bands that don’t CLAIM to play old school death metal as much as they do actually playing it. One of the first bands that I enjoyed hearing was Lago, a band whose EP I received through Spirit of Metal that I really enjoyed both listening to and reviewing. Decay is a band that takes on less of a deeper sound and more of a raw approach on death metal’s roots.

I give major kudos to the band and/or whoever produced this 6-song EP for making actually sound like a vintage death metal record straight from the mid-90s, but that’s not where the best of it is. The best part is the actual music itself. One of my favorite things about a lot of the older death metal bands is how much fucking groove and catchiness they have in their music. Whenever it comes to these bands that are trying to revive the original sound of their style of music, whether it be thrash metal, death metal, or black metal, the question ALWAYS is are they still being original with the music they’re writing? That’s the primary questions I’m going to be asking while analyzing this 6-piece slab of death metal.

Because of the lack of damn info on this band, I don’t know what bands THEY claim to take the most influence from. But I can tell you this, the vocals sound like something from one of Possessed’s albums or Death’s Scream Bloody Gore. I’m not really a HUGE fan of this vocal style due to its premature sound, but when it’s put in the right context, like this album, everything works out. Because of the unfortunate and slim possibility that you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about those growls that are more mid-ranged, not super powerful ones that have a raspy sound; sort of like the early Bolt Thrower records. Similar to many of the early death metal shit out there from the 80s and 90s, none of the musicians in Decay have any excessive skills or notable talents. The guitar solos that take place during the second half of every song have a classic thrash metal sound to remind the old farts of the Altars of Madness and Slowly we Rot days.

The guitars have a raw, crunchy distortion that can only be achieved through lack of production. The drums and vocals have noticeably more reverb than the rest of the band (I don’t know why the hell all of the old death metal albums sound like that), and the bass, well, kind of lays hand-in-hand with the guitar. UNLIKE a lot of the early death metal records, Decay is extremely tight and makes sure to tie any loose ends before recording. The drummer doesn’t screw up, the guitarists seamlessly harmonize with the bassist without fault, and the bassist reminds me of the bass work done on Death’s Human and Leprosy albums.

All of the tracks on this EP are something to be said about, but none of them spoke out to me in the same way that Armies of the Dead did. The very moment that those extremely gritty guitars came in on full attack, I knew that this was going to be the best song off the record. The drum patterns on this track are pretty much what can be found on almost every early Death, Bolt Thrower, Possessed, Asphyx, and Grave album. But then again, the Decay drummer manages to still keep everything he does as original as possible by throwing in his own twists and fills. Since this is an EP, my review on it is going to be considerably shorter than my review on a full-length because…well…there’s less material for me to talk about. If you can find this rare EP, do not hesitate to get your hands on it because it’s a death metal treat like no other. I would give Decay’s self-titled EP 15/20. 

Lago - Marianas [EP]

When death metal is the topic of discussion, there are fewer things that make me happier than hearing that there are still bands out there busting their asses in order to keep the traditional death metal sound alive, breathing, and killing. We all know that the death metal genre has infinitely branched off into several different sub-categories. Many bands play death metal that has a more profound and soft melody, known as melodic death (Dark Tranquility, Arch Enemy, etc.). Atheist was the first of thousands of death metal bands (i.e. Obscura, Psycroptic, Origin) to play an extremely complex and technical variation of the genre known as technical death. Not only have bands been creating new forms of death metal, but there have also been bands combining the genre with grindcore (Dying Fetus, Wormed), black metal (Behemoth, Belphegor), folk (Eluveitie), and other styles that create an ENDLESS list of not only existing styles, but also of future possibilities. But a tree is nonexistent without a trunk. In other words, a genre is nothing without a healthy “generic” form.

The majority of the bands that make up the “trunk” of death metal started in the early to mid-1990s. Although there are several of those bands that are still alive and (sort of) kicking today (Morbid Angel, Vader, Obituary, Immolation, etc.), they’re starting to grow old (I think David Vincent is almost 50 years old). So obviously, with the proven fact that a band doesn’t last forever, we need an at least somewhat constant flow of new bands that play pure death metal. One of those bands happens to be one of the better ones that I’ve heard in quite some time, Lago.

Although there are some things that I can hear that I know are more recent trends, almost all of Lago’s sound is like a time machine that takes you back to 1992, apparently the year that death metal was in its prime (I wouldn’t know for sure because I wasn’t born until 1994). There are some aspects of early black metal and early melodic death that I can hear in some sections of a couple of the tracks on this EP. On the title track of the album which is also the first track, the really doomy sound in a minor tone reminds me of the first two Deicide records (except not nearly as brutal). There are two parts of this song that have a somewhat melodic vibe. The reason I say “somewhat” is because it seems that being melodic wasn’t the main focus right there. I wouldn’t say that those parts were half-assed just to show some cheap variation in their music, because they fit in with the rest of the song just fine, but there’s a hell of a lot of room for improvement on both of those interludes.

The vocals are just brutal. I have a MAJOR soft-spot for REALLY deep, powerful, guttural, and crisp exhaled growls. I just LOVE it! That’s why I love the vocalists for The Faceless, Opeth, Amorphis, and Spawn of Possession so damn much! His vocals are much deeper than what I’m used to, I wouldn’t say they sound crisp because although they have texture, there’s a mushy softness to them (sounds yummy, I know) that matches the lack of treble that the overall sound of the music has (which is a VERY good thing, by the way). Because of newer genres like metalcore and deathcore getting extensive attention from the media by making breakdowns a huge part of their image and stereotype, “non-core” bands of today have since purposefully steered away from using huge breakdowns in their music. I love how Lago goes back to the 1990s and goes as far as to play the same kind of breakdowns that bands like Dying Fetus, Suffocation, and Grave have been playing since they first started.

There’s just ONE thing that bothers me…those stupid shrieks. Get rid of those, and we’ve got something in the 15-16/20 range. But really, for me, those vocals only work when they’re the primary vocal style that the band uses (which is mainly only found in grindcore). And yes, I know that Vital Remains, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and other death metal bands from way back when used a combination of screaming and growling in their music, but I mean…I just can’t take this shrieking thing seriously; not one bit. This was also the major problem that I had with Awaiting the Autopsy; it just comes out of fucking NOWHERE, it doesn’t fit the music, and it just sounds plain bad. If these shrieks could be changed to a style that’s more like a high-pitched growling or even a vocal-fry style, I can definitely see that working out great. But this? No way, man.

I have to give Lago credit for not only being one of the few underground bands doing what they can to keep the pure death metal sound alive and killing, but also for being GOOD at it. This is an above-average EP and should be picked up if the opportunity presents itself. Although I can see the majority of extreme metal fans giving this at least a positive score, the diehard death metal fans are the ones that would probably get the most enjoyment out of this release. I would give this EP 13/20 and I will be looking forward to hearing more material from this band in the years to come. 

Grave - Into the Grave

Yes, this is the legendary Grave album you keep hearing about. The reason why I usually don’t like reviewing albums like these is because I’ll end up just giving it an extremely high score just because of its status and amount of influence. Well, I’m going to review this album like I would any other album without letting its status influence my opinion, because it’s a damn good record anyways. As most of you know, 1991 was a major hotspot for the death metal genre, especially when it comes to bands’ debuts. For those of you that aren’t aware of that, some of the most legendary death metal and brutal death bands released their first album in 1991. Some of those include Edge of Sanity, Dismember, Immolation, Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, and the band that we are going to discuss today: Grave.

After releasing a few demos and an EP, Grave got their name out in the European death metal world enough to get a contract with the (at the time) very young record label, Century Media. The label saw the band as being the outcasts in the Swedish death metal scene with their much darker and atmospheric sound. When I listen to a lot of these really old death metal bands from Sweden, they all seem to have the same type of material: some of the songs are the really fast and crunchy death metal sounding-stuff that most people know, and then the others are really slow and pull you down to the darkest pits of the death metal sound. Neither of those perfectly describes Grave. In their first two albums, Grave had probably what was one of THE darkest sounds at the time, fairly (but not completely) consistent and predictable tempos, and purely crushing brutality with just a hint of thrash metal-influenced groove.

There are only a small handful of death metal vocalists that could be considered the deepest and most guttural vocalists at the time, and this guy is one of them. There is no voice that can be heard (as opposed to David Vincent, Glen Benton, and Peter from Vader) in the growls on this album, they’re just pure horrifying guttural darkness that sends chills through the spines of the weak. The voice of this demon that has arisen from the pits of hell sits on a support system that has an oily and rough sound. The extremely crunchy guitars are as sharp and gritty as a saw blade, but flow through the rest of the sound like lubricant. The bass guitar has almost as much distortion as the guitars, but the edginess of the treble that the distortion brings is removed in order to enhance the intense (unbearable for some) amount of bass that the drums create.

The only sounds that the drums create that aren’t filled with explosive bass occur when the cymbals and the snare are hit. If you have shitty speakers, the kick drums are just going to sound like weak clicks; but if you have anything that could even be considered as having “average” sound, there is no escaping this one, man. The extensive skill of the musicianship of this album makes me doubt that this was actually Grave’s FIRST album. I mean, they had only been around for four years or so when they released this thing, there are very few cases where the SKILL and MUSICIANSHIP (not the creativity) is as high quality as THIS! I’m serious! Even though Death’s Scream Bloody Gore is filled with an indescribable amount of creativity and power, let’s face it, they kind of sucked at their instruments; they weren’t anywhere NEAR as good at their instruments as they were in Leprosy, Human, and all of their other albums (except for Spiritual Healing). Of course, this probably means that the recording process of this album was longer than usual due to the group of perfectionists that we all know as Grave.

Although the actual composition is different with each song, the whole album pretty much sounds the same. But the fact that each song has a different set of chord progressions and vocal patterns makes up for that monotony, therefore keeping the listener in a merciless grip that doesn’t get old. Although Cannibal Corpse’s Butchered at Birth outshined Into the Grave as being the single most brutal album of 1991, the sheer brutality of this record shouldn’t be left unheard and unrecognized. This is an ESSENTIAL for anyone who even WANTS to say that they know shit about the history of one of the greatest musical genres in history. I would give this pure death metal release 18/20.  

Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos

When it comes to just pure death metal, this album is one of my favorites. When it comes to old school death metal, this is one of my favorite albums. For those of you that may ask, my VERY favorite old school (pre-1995) death metal albums are Tomb of the Mutilated by Cannibal Corpse, Altars of Madness by Morbid Angel, Leprosy by Death, Legion by Deicide, Mental Funeral by Autopsy, Into the Grave by Grave, The Grand Leveller by Benediction, and Realm of Chaos by Bolt Thrower. Being one of the biggest British extreme metal bands next to Napalm Death, Carcass, and Venom, Bolt Thrower not only contributed to the formation of the death metal genre itself, but their music is actually GOOD! Let’s be honest, I could easily write a review on how influential this album has been and how it’s a classic and all (which it is), there’s so much more to this album than the impact it’s created. I want to talk about this album like I do with ever other album.

For me, there are only two problems that I have with this album, and one of them isn’t really a “problem”. The first thing that bothers me is that Bolt Thrower seems to have a tempo issue; they’ve never done the best job when it comes to keeping time and staying tight. In a lot of the breakdowns, the drums and the guitars don’t consistently match up. But thankfully, the breakdowns on this album aren’t as pronounced and obvious as the more modern breakdowns that the younger crowd knows only too well. Some people might beg to differ with me on this, but the drummer (on this album at least) isn’t really that good. He has AMAZING technical skill and really helped solidify the (at the time) brand new genre known as “death metal”. But his timing and strength limit him. In songs like Through the Eye of Terror, the hand that’s playing the snare during the blast beats completely fails at keeping time. And since the snare is the most audible part of a blast beat, if it doesn’t keep time, it completely ruins everything.

Even the kick drumming tends to be off a lot of the time. But the lack of technical skill the drummer has is made up with a lot of innovative creativity. Almost all of the fills that the drummer does are really unexpected and just not something you would be used to hearing out of ANY death metal band! I find a lot of the patterns that the drummer plays during the breakdowns to be really unique. But then again, he’s pretty fucking lucky to have so much goddamn creative talent because if it weren’t for that, Bolt Thrower wouldn’t be NEARLY as legendary as they are.

If you’re someone that really likes the really raspy mid-ranged growls from the REALLY early albums by Grave, Obituary, Unleashed, Dismember, and Fleshcrawl, you’ll like the vocals on this (and pretty much any Bolt Thrower) record. It reminds me a lot of Corpsegrinder’s (post-1994 Cannibal Corpse) growls: a lot of lower end that’s overtaken by a really high-pitched raspy sound. The one issue that some people might have (not including me, in this case at least) is that there isn’t much of a variety in the vocal sounds. I know that in most cases I can be pretty harsh when vocals (especially inhales) sound EXACTLY the same and remain completely monotonous and unchanging for the entire duration of the album, but this is an exception for me. No matter what point the music is in, the vocals ALWAYS give the music an extra spark that helps it reach higher levels, even though the growls sound almost exactly the same everywhere in the album.

Let me change that thought, because I literally JUST noticed something as I’m listening the album while typing out this review. The growls do, in fact, change in several places in the album, but they change in INTENSITY, not PITCH. When people say that the vocals have a lot of variety, they usually mean that the vocalist lets out different sounding vocals that are at different pitches. For example, in order to put some variety in the vocals, vocalists will do both growls and screams. Some vocalists do really low guttural growls and then occasionally do some less-intense mid-ranged growls. When I’m talking about INTENSITY, I’m talking about how hard the vocalist is belting out those growls. There are some parts where he’s growling so powerfully that you’re expecting one of his lungs to suddenly fly out of his mouth. And there are some sections where his growls don’t have as much power or intensity; this is usually when the music is at a slower section or a quieter part.

Anyone that listens to death metal needs to have the first two Bolt Thrower albums because they are ESSENTIALS. For me, Realm of Chaos is better than In Battle there is no Law, but I would HIGHLY recommend both of them to ANYONE who has even the slightest interest in investing a bit of their time in the old school death metal world. But not just because of that, I would give this album 17/20 for having innovative creativity, blasting riffs, and just for the fact that death metal can’t really get any purer and more raw than this.  

Cannibal Corpse - Bloodthirst

Bloodthirst is definitely one of the least talked-about Cannibal Corpse records. In fact, the Cannibal Corpse records that I hear the least about are the ones released within the 1998-2004 time period. Although I’m not the biggest fan of Gallery of Suicide, The Wretched Spawn (released in 2004) is one of my favorite Cannibal Corpse albums. But another record that I RARELY hear about from ANYONE is Bloodthirst. Of course, just like every other Cannibal Corpse album, it features artwork from one of my favorite visual artists: Vincent Locke. Although it’s not one of his best works, it definitely screams death metal all over it.

Obviously, since I wasn’t listening to death metal in 2000 (I was probably only six or seven years old), I can’t say EXACTLY why Bloodthirst never really got any major attention from the metal community (both mainstream and underground). But, I can say that some legendary metal albums were released that year, possibly temporarily distracting the metal community from the Cannibal Corpse craze. Some of these albums include (but are not limited to) Exhumed’s Slaughtercult, Lamb of God’s debut release, Origin’s debut release, Nightwish’s Wishmaster, Decapitated’s debut release, Children of Bodom’s Follow the Reaper, Nile’s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Immortal’s Damned in Black, Mudvayne’s L.D. 50, Pantera’s last album, Slipknot’s debut release, and Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. But then again, that’s not a very valid excuse because…well…this is Cannibal Corpse we’re talking about!

From what I can hear, Cannibal Corpse has made two major shifts in their overall sound. The first one obviously being caused by Vile due to the vocalist change; this sound carried out into Gallery of Suicide. Bloodthirst marks the band’s second major change in sound; which has led to be the sound that they still have today. The instant that my favorite track from the album, Pounded into Dust, starts bombarding the listener with blast beats and Cannibal Corpse-style crushing guitar riffs, it becomes obvious that the band finally got their full footing back after the sudden vocalist change.

I’m not a fan of Corpsegrinder’s vocals in Vile and Gallery of Suicide not only because they don’t sound very strong and solid at all, but also because they sound out of place. Cannibal Corpse was almost done recording Vile when they gave Chris Barnes the boot, which meant that the music on that album was crafted to sound best with the sound of Barnes’ growls, not Corpsegrinder’s. So with that being understandable, Gallery of Suicide was the real test to see if they could make an album that had music that sounded good with George’s unique vocal sounds. Since Bloodthirst (for me at least) is the first solid-sounding Cannibal Corpse album with Corpsegrinder on vocals, Gallery of Suicide seems to be more of a rough transition into the sound that we know today that fits PERFECTLY with Corpsegrinder’s vocals.

I’m not saying that any of the musicians themselves were not as good or brutal as they’ve always been, it’s more of the actual musical structure and sound that seemed too weak for a band like Cannibal Corpse. So Bloodthirst gives you everything that just about every other Cannibal Corpse album gives you: purebred brutality, crushing guitars, bombarding drumming and blast beats, extremely low-tuned bass, and, of course, some of the most violent and disturbing artwork and lyrical content the world has ever seen. But on top of that, Bloodthirst delivers pristine quality through song structure as solid as titanium which has enabled the band to have a blueprint/skeleton to add creativity to with ease. If you haven’t heard this album, I would highly recommend giving it a listen whether you’re a Cannibal Corpse fan or not. Bloodthirst is a SPECTACULAR death metal release and gets my high score of 16/20. 

Benediction - Organized Chaos

Anyone that’s familiar with the old school death metal world should at least already KNOW ABOUT Benediction (it’s understandable if you haven’t heard their music yet). Having released some pretty important classics like Transcend the Rubicon and The Grand Leveller, Benediction has ended up in the same place as a lot of old school death metal bands. This is a place where they’ve mainly just been living off of their first couple of albums, not having released any other fantastic albums since then…maybe a couple of really good ones, but not any that compare to their first couple of albums. Some other bands that have landed in somewhat similar situations are Six Feet Under, Unleashed, Bolt Thrower, Deicide, Obituary, and Malevolent Creation.

The main reason why this album has received so much criticism is not only because this is the first Benediction record to not have Dave Ingram on vocals (who left to join Bolt Thrower for one album), but also because of how much his replacement changed the band’s sound. The new Benediction sound can be described as more of a “death-n-roll” sound (which I strongly despise) than a straight-up death metal sound. But thankfully, the rock n’ roll layer on this album is very slim.

What The Grand Leveller has that most death metal records of its time don’t is a huge variety in song structure and mood. Organized Chaos doesn’t have nearly as much darkness as previous albums, and makes an attempt on implementing various other genres like nu metal and metalcore. I’m not saying that this is 100% true, but I’m definitely hearing some nu metal in this record along with one or two metalcore-styled breakdowns. I’m going to make a comparison with a band that didn’t exist when this album came out: one of the better ways to describe the sound of this album is having the grooviness that DevilDriver has…except Benediction failed at doing so.

I can see how the band is taking advantage of having a new vocalist and using it as an opportunity to change their sound and start doing some experimentation, since they’re practically a whole different band now. Dave Hunt, the new vocalist, is one of the founding members of the progressive grindcore act Anaal Nathrakh (using the name V.I.T.R.I.O.L.). Of course, a member in a band as experimental as Anaal Nathrakh is going to start making some changes when he joins a pure death metal band like Benediction. To be honest, Benediction wasn’t necessarily meant to be progressive, but then again, it’s good for bands to have change and progress. The only problem with that is that when it comes to experimentation, it’s much easier to fuck everything up than make it sound better. That’s why we have progressive bands like Opeth and The Contortionist (just to name a couple) that do their best to make the impossible possible by making whatever experimentations they do sound fantastic. But of course, Benediction’s experimentation went completely in the wrong direction.

Despite all of that, the rock-solid death metal base that Benediction has always had is still there. The headbanging parts have a lot of groove and none of the musicians lack any sort of skill or creativity. The drumming is good as always, the guitars are very deep and crunchy, the bass kills when you have your subs turned up, and the vocals have a good powerful sound. This is a good enough album to make me smile and not skip whenever a song from it pops up when I have all my death metal on shuffle, but it’s not something that I would go “HEY, LISTEN TO THIS AWESOME RECORD!” The Benediction album that makes me do that is The Grand Leveller, which I gave a perfect score in my review of it. So I would pass this album up as being no better than just another record for the ol’ death metal collection. I would give this album 12/20. 

Fleshcrawl - Soulskinner

So many people know about Fleshcrawl. Yet only a handful of those people are actually familiar with their music. Well for those of you that don’t know where to start with these German fuckers, Soulskinner is the place to start. But the reason why people read album reviews isn’t JUST to know what and what not to get, it’s to find out WHY they should or should not get a particular album. This was my first Fleshcrawl record and, to be honest, I’m glad it was, because although Soulskinner has several strong albums, none of the others even compare to the crushing power of this one. Making their first appearance in 1991 with a four-song demo tape under the name Suffocation (for obvious reasons, they had to change it due to the brutal death band that was rising out of New York City at the time), Fleshcrawl got their name out mainly in western Europe where they opened for bands such as Bolt Thrower, Benediction, and Sinister on small European tours and shows.

But enough history, Soulskinner is the topic of the hour! Fleshcrawl uses one of my favorite types of guitar distortion, which is probably the loudest and crunchiest guitar distortion out there in the death metal world. This guitar distortion is also used by Swedish death metal masters Dismember and Demonical. Along with the music already being fucking intense, the guitar distortion infinitely intensifies the music. The guitarists themselves are very solid and have just the right amount of skill and creativity for the traditional death metal genre. In fact, they play death metal SO well that I can’t really imagine them doing anything else. The bassist is right on the dot with everything that he plays and writes. He mainly follows the basic root-note of the chords that the guitarists are playing (although he’s the only one playing them sometimes).

The drummer and the vocalist are the best musicians on this album. The drummer is virtually flawless. He doesn’t do anything amazing or outstanding, but he’s fucking flawless. His kick drumming is NEVER out of time, the way that he plays is filled with power, brutality, and obvious skill and practice. If I had to put my money on which member I thought worked the hardest, it’d be the drummer without a doubt. The vocalist’s growls are fucking outstanding. When it comes to traditional death metal (with the exception of bands like Obituary, Death, and Divine Heresy), I like to hear deep and powerful exhaled growls that send chills down my back. The vocalist on Soulskinner passes that test with flying colors and proves to be a near-perfect example of what a death metal growl SHOULD sound like. On top of that, his screams are crisp and have a unique edge that reminds me slightly (and I mean SLIGHTLY) of Kataklysm’s screams.

Other than that, everything about this album is exactly what you would expect from a good traditional death metal album. The song structure, tempo changes, and overall sound burst with the classic death metal sound we’ve all loved since its formation in the mid-1980s. For those of you that are looking for a good, classic, and pure death metal release, Soulskinner should be on your “to-get” list. I would give Fleshcrawl’s Soulskinner 16/20 for being a VERY solid death metal record and to be my first Fleshcrawl recommendation. 

Benediction - The Grand Leveller

Most of the records that I write reviews on are modern ones. Since there is an increasing number of people (mainly extreme metal newbies) asking me to write some reviews on my favorite CLASSIC (meaning pre-1995) death metal records, I’m going to write some old death metal reviews. And of course, The Grand Leveller is what I consider to be one of the best albums from that time period. I know that Benediction doesn’t really need much of an introduction, but I’ll give a short one for the few that don’t know who they are. Of course, death metal’s earliest bands came from America (Possessed, Death, Morbid Angel, etc.) but in the late 80s there was a growing death metal scene in England too. Some of the most notable early British death metal and grindcore bands include Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Carcass, and Benediction. Although most would consider Bolt Thrower and Carcass to be the most influential out of the four I just listed, I feel that Benediction has been the most consistent and the most reliable out of all of them.

Of course, old-ass death metal records come with shitty quality. Because I’m primarily a black metal guy, I have a hard time enjoying shitty sound quality when it’s not black metal. For some odd reason, when it’s any kind of death metal, I prefer it to have really good production. This is why I can tolerate (and often times enjoy) underground brutal and technical death; because even the debut album of a SUPER underground Ukranian band called Ezophagothomia has much better sound quality than every album ever released by Darkthrone, one of the most famous black metal bands ever. So anyway, The Grand Leveller is a DEATH METAL record with BAD sound quality. But here’s the thing, the majority of death metal musicians from that time most likely barely had enough money to wipe their asses when they first started out, so shitty-sounding albums is going to be expected nonetheless.

So shitty quality can’t be something I can be allowed to complain about because it’s expected (see what I did there?). The first thing that I hear in the music when I listen to The Grand Leveller is Deicide. I know it doesn’t sound likely, but when you listen to Deicide’s first album, there’s a lot of guitar riffs and…well…the overall sound of the record that have obviously had some kind of influence on Benediction’s music in this album and many of their early material for that matter. But it’s not the blazing speed and brutality part that influenced Benediction. If you’re hoping for a much faster, more Morbid Angel-like album, this might not be your cup of tea, because most of the British death metal scene (NOT THE GRIND SCENE) had more of a slower style of doing things. This was probably influenced by the Dutch death metal scene because they have a similar style and the two countries have nothing but water separating them.

The drums on this album aren’t complex at all. You may notice that the typical death metal album has lots of blast beats or certain semi-complex and repetitive drum patters. But the drumming on this record doesn’t follow a specific drum pattern or play lots of blast beats (that’s not to say it’s the only one that doesn’t). The kick drums are drowned out for the most part unless you listen closely. The kick drumming is done at a pretty slow speed (even for that time). The other drum patters that are used are fully dependent on what the rest of the bands is doing. In other words, the drummer changes what he plays with every single tempo change and usually never plays the same drum pattern more than once. The most notable trait of his style of playing is doing quarter-note hits on the snare and the high-hat.

The best member of the band, hands down, is the bassist. He’s the one that’s playing the lead lines of the songs in the background. Jumping at Shadows is one of the best examples of this (especially right in the beginning). He does a much better job of playing the lead riffs than the lead guitarist, and often times plays along with the lead guitarist. As well as that, the way he plays his instrument pays off in a nice, bold sound that can easily punch through the rest of the shitty quality to give the music a HUGE lower end. The distortion on the guitars is an EXTREMELY gritty sound that gives the music its brutality and edge. The guitarists primarily play really low chords to lessen the contrast between them and the really deep bassist. But then again, the contrast doesn’t NEED to be small, but the fact that the band made it fairly minimal makes the music sound dark and menacing.

I’m not a huge fan of most of the old school death metal vocalists. I’m not saying that they acts as a turn-off for me, but I would REALLY prefer it if they had a much deeper growl (that’s why I love the early works of Immolation and Cannibal Corpse so much). Benediction’s vocalist has one of the deepest growls from the early death metal period. It’s not “Barnes deep”, but it goes along with the music perfectly. And to be honest, I wouldn’t change a thing about the vocals.

In fact, I wouldn’t change a thing about this album at all! It’s what I call a perfect death metal record (hence my 20/20 score). If you don’t have this album, get it. If you have it and don’t like it, listen to it again. This is a CLASSIC death metal record that deserves a place in EVERYONE’S death metal collection because it’s one of the most respectable death metal records of its time. 

Sinister - The Silent Howling

It’s funny that I haven’t written many reviews on some of the classic original death metal bands. I guess it’s time to start things up again on one of Sinister’s latest releases, The Silent Howling. Just to let you know, I know Sinister’s music VERY well. If you’re one of those “it’s all about the old school” kind of guys, my favorite Sinister album is Hate, released in 1995. I say that because I write reviews on recent albums released by these really old thrash metal and death metal bands and I get all these conservatives flooding me with the typical “THEY SUCK NOW” bullshit. Yeah, there are bands that aren’t as good as they used to be like Bolt Thrower, Obituary, and Sepultura. But here I am again, reviewing an album released in 2008 by a band who released their debut in 1992.

Sinister has done a pretty good job at keeping up with the constantly evolving death metal sound while still having a strong “old school death metal” vibe. One thing that people notice is that drumming in death metal is MUCH more technical than it used to be. You can see this in Sinister especially when you compare Hate with The Silent Howling. Not only is The Silent Howling much faster and more energetic than Hate, but it’s also more complex and technical. But remember, technicality and speed alone doesn’t mean awesomesauce; there has to be plenty of creativity to back it up. And let me tell you something folks, Sinister has fucking creativity in their music.

Probably what I like most about Sinister is that they’ve managed to gradually evolve their sound over the years, but still have it be all 100% SINISTER. There are a lot of death metal bands nowadays that come out with new albums that sound exactly like the album they released in the early nineties. Of course, there are countless better death metal albums and bands than Sinister, but as far as keeping it all original, Sinister has done one of the best jobs at that.

One thing that I’m starting to notice (I’m preparing to get bombarded) is that the vocalist sound A LOT like the Behemoth vocalist! I’m not kidding! He has that same grunted, forced-out growl that can be heard on Demigod and Evangelion. The drumming could use some more creativity, because although the frequently used blast beats sound cool, he uses the exact same blast beat pattern every time. I like to see it when drummers create their own unique blast beats and keep changing it up every so often to keep things fresh.

The songs don’t all sound identical to the point to where it’s really annoying, but they all have the same general sound. But the band is saved by the fact that the slightly overused sound is a really good sound. On top of these changes, there are a lot more guitar and bass solos than in earlier Sinister albums. So if you’re one of those guys that likes a solo bass riff or a fancy guitar lick here and there; but not to the point where it’s too crazy, The Silent Howling should have a place in your collection. And overall, I would recommend this album to all traditional death metal fans and to people interested in getting into pure traditional death metal. I would give this album 16/20. 

Birth of Depravity - The Coming of the Ineffable

I discovered Birth of Depravity via Inherited Suffering Records. When I saw the fantastic album artwork, I was expecting something similar to Inherit Disease or Spawn of Possession. But I also knew that Inherited Suffering is primarily known for its fantastic brutal death and death grind bands, my favorite being Ezophagothomia. But when I finished listening to the album, it turns out that I couldn’t put this record in either of those categories! What I found was an underground traditional death metal band. It’s not brutal enough to go in the same category as Devourment and Hate Eternal, and FAR from being technical enough to share space with Brain Drill and Obscura. So since I can’t really put them anywhere else, when people ask me what kind of music Birth of Depravity plays, I just say “death metal”. As pointless and miniscule as this may seem, this was actually a big deal for me because I hadn’t heard a NEW and UNDERGROUND pure death metal band since I heard Heresiae’s self-titled EP last year. And when I look at all the bands I have in the death metal section, most of them are the essentials and classics like Immolation, Morbid Angel, Grave, Autopsy, Vader, Obituary, etc.

So in other words, if you’re looking for a new band that plays a modernized version of pure death metal, Birth of Depravity MIGHT be just what you need! Ok, there are both plenty of pros AND cons that I have to say about this record, so I’m going to list the pros first because I need something to put me in a better mood (I’ve had a long day). The overall sound production of the album is VERY similar to Disentomb’s Sunken Chambers of Nephilim. It has a small amount of treble, and the mid-ranges and bass are turned way up. So if you need something to listen to on those shitty earbuds of yours that doesn’t hurt your ears with all the treble, this album is PERFECT for that because the treble is not overpowering at all and the sound is very thick and heavy.

The vocalist definitely has a talent for doing some of the deepest exhales I’ve ever heard. They sound a lot like the INHALED growls the Disentomb vocalist does on their debut album. But damn, this guy’s growls have a very clean, moist, and DEEP sound that really intensifies the darkness of the music. Although screaming in death metal can definitely sound cool, there are certain bands that require the deepest growls possible (like Immolation and Bloodbath). Birth of Depravity’s music definitely has a very dark and menacing sound. And the perfect element to really make that darkness stand out is deep growls.

The drummer also has TONS of technical skill. He does fall out of time here and there (not a good thing AT ALL), but he does a great job of adding an unrelenting amount of brutality to the music to give them more of an underground vibe. The drums aren’t overpowering at all; in fact, they’re almost behind everything else. Obviously, there are plenty of cases where the drums need to be front and center, but in this album, the drums are in the perfect place, working as the skeleton holding the other musical elements together.

Ok, here’s the problem I have with this band: their songs are unorganized and THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME! It’s nearly impossible to tell the individual songs apart. There’s usually AT LEAST some kind of lead riff or drum solo or SOMETHING in each song to help the listener tell them apart; but this album has none of that! And it’s fucking pissing me off! NO, slapping a random recording at the beginning of the song doesn’t count! Also, the sound of the album gets very boring by the time you get past the fifth song and eventually gets irritating. I don’t mind long songs (my favorite band is Opeth for fuck’s sake!), but this thing sounds like one song cut up into ten individual sections, not an album. The album loses its edge very quickly and loses its flavor even quicker. This is such a huge disappointment because I was so excited by the time the first four songs finished because they actually sounded cool.

This band has so much potential, but they express next to no creativity in this album at all, which leaves it for the pure death metal fans to like it the most. But don’t get me wrong, this is a good record to add to the old death metal collection, but it’s nowhere near a classic or an amazing album. I would rate this album 13/20. 

Job for a Cowboy - Demonocracy

If you want a more detailed version of Job for a Cowboy’s history, read the reviews I wrote on their first two albums. Here’s the short version: Job for a Cowboy released Doom [EP] in 2005. The album can only be described as generic deathcore and (for some reason still) Job for a Cowboy’s most famous and bestselling release to date. After withstanding constant harassment and put-downs from millions of metalheads and metal bands, Job for a Cowboy couldn’t take it anymore and have since then released two mediocre death metal albums. Neither of them are horrible in any way other than that their guitarists and bassist sucked, they’re just completely void of any attention-grabbing qualities. Then comes Demonocracy, which thanks to their reputation, I didn’t really bother listening to until last week.

The first track opens up and wait……what the hell was that? This is the first time I have ever been surprised by Job for a Cowboy! Simply because of that intro where the guitars and bass simultaneously move up and down in pitch to then release an explosion of technical chaos, I knew that these guys have finally tightened all loose ends and created something legit. Although they have made millions of HUGE improvements, they do have one problem that bothers me; probably just because I’m a reviewer and a music nerd, I don’t know.

Job for a Cowboy doesn’t really have a signature sound that I can hear. The reason why is because they keep making so many drastic changes in style that there isn’t really much of a thing that they’re known for. The one thing that I guess they’ve always had in their music is in the vocals. The vocalist isn’t one of the BEST growlers, but he sure has a talent for being really fast and laying down his growls in really odd (but cool) rhythmic patterns. Other than that, everything about their music seems to change with every album. They did keep a fairly consistent sound with their first two full-lengths though. But by the time a band releases their third album, they need to have a solidified unique characteristic that can only be found in Job for a Cowboy’s music to use as a blueprint for future records.

But other than that annoying fact, Demonocracy needs to be in the collection of ALL death metal fans. There isn’t much that I have to say about the guitar distortion other than that it’s not overpowering and it’s not overpowered. I can hear the bass A LOT better than ever before, which is probably because they replaced that dude with the huge gauges with a real bassist. Once they had someone that could actually play bass, they turned it up.

The drums are tuned a certain way so that they sound extremely technical. I know that their drummer isn’t good enough to be as technical as he sounds (although he’s improved a fuckton since Ruination, especially with speed), but he electrifies the music by shooting energy through every frequency of the sound with his pummeling speed.

Now that I’ve listened to this album a couple of times, I’m starting have a problem that I’ve had with every other Job for a Cowboy album; monotony. What I mean by that is that all the songs sound the same. Yes, I know that people who aren’t very familiar with death metal say the same thing about Grave, Deicide, Malevolent Creation, and Immolation, but seriously, the only way I can tell the difference between all of Job for a Cowboy’s songs is by recognizing certain opening riffs or “awesome moments” like in Summon the Hounds (the intro) and Constitutional Masturbation (“I….MASTURBATE!!”). Yes, this is less true in Demonocracy, but seriously, they’re not even TRYING to make every song unique! I can’t tell the difference between ANY of the tracks, other than knowing that some of them have epic guitar solos (I might have forgotten to mention that before).

Demonocracy is by far Job for a Cowboy’s best album and deserves a 16/20 for being a technical death highlight of 2012. Currently the only tech death record the band has released, Demonocracy stands alone in the tech death section of my music library, awaiting (hopefully) another Job for a Cowboy album like it. I would highly recommend picking this up, and also catching their set on this year’s Summer Slaughter Tour which features Cannibal Corpse, Between the Buried and Me, Exhumed, Cerebral Bore, The Faceless, and many more. 

Six Feet Under - Undead

If you want the semi-ultimate overview of Six Feet Under’s history, you can read my review on their 2008 album, Death Rituals. But to help kick off this review, I’ll just say that Six Feet Under started off their career in the mid-90s releasing death metal classics. But after the release of Maximum Violence, the albums that followed can be described as unspeakable atrocity; some of them are even considered to be some of the worst death metal albums in history. But then they released an album that I not only consider a HUGE comeback, but an overall amazing album that won back the support of thousands. But the big question that I had was: is Death Rituals just a fluke? Well, this review is the answer to that question.

When I first heard about the release of Undead, I knew what I was going to be looking for. I wasn’t looking for something innovative and progressive, I was basically looking for a more developed and mature version of Death Rituals. I love the sound that Death Rituals gives, but there were still some loose ends and weak spots that needed work. It turns out that for the most part, Six Feet Under gave me what I was looking for. Undead has a sound that’s solid, confident, and proof that Death Rituals wasn’t a fluke. I think that all of you can agree with me when I say that our music library can’t be COMPLETELY made up of progressive bands; we all enjoy our fair share of “generic” bands (even though they might not be our favorites). But there are some people that would say “I fill my generic death metal needs with OLD classics from bands like Morbid Angel and Deicide!” Personally, I LOVE those old-school death metal albums, but eventually I’m going to want to hear something new (but still just pure death metal). There are a handful of bands out there that help satisfy that appetite many of us have, and Six Feet Under is one of those…although not one of the best because of their horrid musical history. But Undead is more than satisfying.

Those of you that know the modern Chris Barnes know that he has the ability to emit one of the most horrendous and appalling sounds the world has ever heard. One of my strongest hopes is to hear a Six Feet Under album where Barnes NEVER lets out that terrible sound. Here’s the good news: the amount of times that he makes that sound has literally plummeted. Here’s the bad news: there are two songs where he does it…but only once. This major absence of that sound makes this record a million times easier to enjoy! Not only that, but his growling has actually improved a bit (he doesn’t sound like a toilet).

I think that it’s official that Six Feet Under are out of the hole they dug themselves into. Undead took me by surprise and obliterated my negative suspicions with demonic vocals, super thick guitar distortions, skull-crushing breakdowns, and colorful songs with creativity yet still staying 100% true to the pure death metal sound. I would give this record 16/20 and would recommend it to all traditional death metal fans.

Cannibal Corpse - The Wretched Spawn

DISCLAIMER: Due to the extremeness of the original album artwork, I have made this post with the alternate album cover. There is a link at the bottom of the review in case you want to see the ORIGINAL album cover. 

Despite majority opinion, The Wretched Spawn is actually one of my favorite Cannibal Corpse albums. Before I first heard Torture, which is now tied with this album as my favorite “Corpsegrinder-era” CC album, this was my favorite Cannibal Corpse album with Corpsegrinder behind the microphone. The Wretched Spawn isn’t a Cannibal Corpse album that you hear about very often. For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to figure out why this album has developed such a mediocre reputation. Since Cannibal Corpse is the most famous and bestselling (at least traditional) death metal band ever, I feel that I should make an effort to get the word out about this album because IT NEEDS TO BE HEARD!

The Wretched Spawn was the first Cannibal Corpse album to feature the much more mature sound that’s in all of the albums that have come after it (Kill, Evisceration Plague, Torture, etc.). I’m not going to say much about Cannibal Corpse’s pre-1995 sound because I talk about that enough in my reviews of Butchered at Birth and Tomb of the Mutilated; but I will mention that during that time, Cannibal Corpse was one of the death metal bands that helped define what a “mature” death metal sound was supposed to be like. Well, when Cannibal Corpse got Corpsegrinder as their vocalist, they went on to release their weakest album, Vile. I’m pretty convinced that Vile wasn’t as strong as their other releases because Cannibal Corpse were still a little scatterbrained and were still trying to collect themselves and get their footing. This isn’t something I hold against them because everyone knew that they were under A LOT of pressure and had people from around the globe waiting to see what the “new” Cannibal Corpse was going to sound like.

After Vile, the band quickly got most of their footing to release the follow-up, Gallery of Suicide. This was a HUGE step up from Vile, but still not what I would consider a completely mature and strong death metal sound. Three albums later, The Wretched Spawn was where Cannibal Corpse came out as strong as titanium and as brutal as a meat grinder. Although Cannibal Corpse’s sound has continued to grow in maturity, musicality, and creativity, the sound that The Wretched Spawn brings still speaks out to me more than the albums that have come after it. Don’t get the idea that I’m saying Cannibal Corpse is going downhill because in fact, they’re going uphill. I’m just saying that I enjoy the songs on The Wretched Spawn more than the others. But why?

The Wretched Spawn has the crunchiest sound out of any other Cannibal Corpse album besides Butchered at Birth. When I’m talking about “crunchiness”, I’m talking not only about the really gritty and rough guitar distortion (which this album has TONS of), I’m also talking about the brutality and the tones the different instruments have. Usually, Cannibal Corpse is known for playing in very low tunings, especially in albums like Tomb of the Mutilated and The Bleeding. But it seems that in this record, Cannibal Corpse is doing some experimenting by writing songs in higher guitar tunings. Even though the guitars have a lot of treble, the bass guitar gives the entire sound a HUGE lower end. This is what creates that CRUSHING brutality, the highly distorted treble in the guitars and the booming deepness of the bass guitar at high volumes.

In the albums previous to The Wretched Spawn, I’m not so fond of the sound of Corpsegrinder’s vocals very much. I guess that the low-quality production of the music made it so that things didn’t match up. So obviously, Cannibal Corpse needs to have very loud, high-quality sounding albums with extreme amounts of bass to help make the vocals be a positive element rather than a negative one. Also, I think that Corpsegrinder really improved his vocals a great deal after Gore Obsessed, the album previous to The Wretched Spawn. This album also has some of the fastest drumming Cannibal Corpse has ever had in their material (it was considered their fastest album until Torture came out and blew it away like sand).

This is one of my favorite Cannibal Corpse albums and would recommend it to any metalhead on the streets. This should be considered a death metal classic, just like several other Cannibal Corpse albums. I would give this 19/20. I would like to mention that in case you haven’t noticed, this album has the most offensive, sick, disturbing, and inappropriate cover out of Cannibal Corpse’s entire discography. Enjoy. 

ORIGINAL ALBUM COVER

Soulfly - Dark Ages

Soulfly’s Dark Ages caused the band’s popularity and recognition to soar. Yes, they were already huge before that because…well…they were fronted by the former Sepultura vocalist and songwriting mastermind, Max Cavalera. But before Dark Ages, every single one of Soulfly’s albums sounded completely different from each other; making them one of the most experimental metal bands of the time. But I personally think that Soulfly’s signature sound that everyone knows today was solidified and bolted to the ground with Dark Ages. Not only that, Soulfly went from playing in almost completely packed smallish venues to playing in the venues that MUCH bigger mainstream artists play at. When I saw them in 2008, they played at the same venue that I saw other huge bands like Sonata Arctica, Arch Enemy, Bring me the Horizon, Dimmu Borgir (which was a sold-out show), and Underoath (which was also sold-out). But not only does Dark Ages represent the solidification of Soulfly’s signature sound, but it’s also an amazing record that I’ve been listening to for almost five years.

 The general theme of this album seems to follow a WWII concept. The part of the album that always reminds me of WWII (obviously) is the beginning of Fuel the Hate where someone states the exact date and time that the first atomic bomb was used as a weapon in warfare. The main sound that this album gives off is a really thick, slow (at times), and dark thrash metal sound which has caused a lot of people to say thrash death. Honestly, I’ve put almost all of their albums as progressive metal because of all the experimentation they do in numerous songs on every album.

Here’s a little fact that most people who don’t know much about Soulfly probably haven’t noticed. Look at Max Cavalera’s guitar (not the ones they sell in guitar stores, the ones he actually PLAYS) and notice how many strings are on it. I find it really interesting that a guitarist of that level of skill and creativity would have only four strings on his guitar. Although he takes out a regular six string guitar when they play their series of softer self-titled songs, Max doesn’t do lead guitar on anything else that Soulfly plays. I don’t know if he has a legitimate reason for this or if it’s just that he wants a MUCH deeper sound (which is heard VERY clearly in this album). This is probably the album that has some of the fewest soloing and lead guitar licks than any other album. I think it’s because of that why Dark Ages sounds like Soulfly’s heaviest and DARKEST album (which makes the name more than appropriate).

The lyrics of this album are interesting. Normally I don’t give a crap about what the songs are about but I can’t help but think in this case “what the hell was Max so pissed off about??” If I was asked what the ULTIMATE venting album is, I would say Dark Ages. Probably being one of the most hate-filled records of all-time, both in lyrics AND in the music. I think that the hate and anger reaches its peak during my favorite song off the album, simply titled “Bleak”, with the line that speaks out to me the most being “it’s the end you fucking scum!!”. Not only are the lyrics hate-filled, they’re also fucked up!

Dark Ages is one of the darkest and angriest albums ever made. Not only did this solidify Soulfly’s signature sound that everyone knows today, it also caused Soulfly’s (already) massive fame to EXPLODE. Although my favorite Soulfly albums remain Conquer and Omen, Dark Ages is one of those “cannot be missed” records. I would give this 18/20.