Diavolos - You Lived Now Die (2015) (Album Review)

Tracklist:

1. Diavolos Rising      
2. Come to Salem      
3. Hail All Evil      
4. Piss in Holy Water      
5. You Lived, Now Die!      
6. Baptized in Vomit     
7. Demonwhore     
8. Curse, Bleed, Die      
9. Totencorpse     
10. Death Metal 

This is the debut album from the recently formed Greek blackened death/thrash band Diavolos. The band is comprised of Tasos Danazoglou (formally of Electric Wizard) on vocals, Nik Angelopoulos and Bill El providing guitar work, Taneli Jarva on bass and K. Savvi on drums.

This album originally escaped my radar upon its release late last year, but thankfully it came to my attention in a hail of bullet belts and leather. This album has a perfect sound that pays homage to early Slayer, early Sodom, Power From Hell, Sarcofago and even Nunslaughter. The band’s sound is often crushingly fast and powerful, and sometimes slow and purposeful, however it is constantly backed by the raw rasping vocals of Tasos Danazoglou, chainsaw guitars and machine gun drum work.

In just 32 minutes this album tears out your eardrums, reaches into your head and replaces your brain with a filth driven, speed spewing engine of absolute evil. This is a perfect album for fans of the golden age of early black, death and thrash who want to relive the moshing glory of old. I cannot recommend this album highly enough.

Support the band, buy their fucking music!

 

Sanguine Relic - Vampyric Will (2015) (Album Review)

Tracklist:

1. Passage I     
2. Passage II      
3. Passage III      
4. Rest I      
5. Passage IV      
6. Passage V      
7. Rest II     
8. Passage VI      
9. Passage VII      
10. Passage III 

This is the first full length from the underground raw black metal project Sanguine Relic which is based in the USA, this is the projects third overall release to date, despite contributing an untitled track to a split earlier this year for their label Defiled Light.

From the moment this album began I thought I must have made a mistake, and rather than listening to an album from 2015 I had somehow put on a broken black metal cassette from 1990. This is some of the rawest most visceral black metal I have heard recorded in a very long time, this album is able to hold its own against almost any raw black metal album from the 90’s with its pounding drums, sawing guitars and screaming vocals that have to be heard to be comprehended.

The production quality on this album is simply non-existent, it must have been recorded by bouncing one cassette into another to build up the albums layers into what ultimately became a stunning opus of cold, dark, raw vampire hatred of the kind we have not heard since the early works of Mütiilation.

I highly recommend this album to any fans of raw black metal, but be aware this is not for everyone.

           

Is - Glimpses of Sorrow (2016) (EP Review)

Tracklist:

1. Glimpses of Sorrow pt.1      
2. Glimpses of Sorrow pt.2    
3. Glimpses of Sorrow pt.3

This is the new EP from the recently formed but prolific Russian one man black metal project Is, the project is helmed by Nøkken.

Being still fairly unfamiliar with the Is project I didn’t really know what to expect when I gave this EP a listen. So I was pleasantly surprised by the variation throughout the record. All the drum and guitar work is very clear, crisp and has good pace, this is contrasted with raw vocals that are mostly comprised of screaming cries. However almost exactly half way through the EP a new range of vocals are introduced, these are much deeper and resemble death growls more than anything. Once the second range of vocals are introduce the EP switches between the two creating a sound that doesn’t become dull and continues to complement increasingly good riff work.

It can be argued that leaving aside the deeper range of vocals this is a very basic, very uninventive black metal record. However I do think that the changing pace and use of slower more ambient, acoustic and atmospheric parts on the record give it enough of its own style to dispel such claims. It also effectively builds pace until it delivers a rounded and well-crafted conclusion.  

Overall I think this is a good release, and I think that the Is project will continue to deliver very solid black metal throughout the rest of this year. 

Support the project here
    

Lascar - Absence (2016) (Album Review)

Tracklist:

1. Wilderness 
2. Atlas 
3. Regions of Light 
4. Last Sea 

This is the brand new third release, and first full length from the independent one man Chilean depressive, atmospheric blackgaze/black metal project Lascar. The project is helmed by Gabriel Hugo, who provides all instrumentation and vocal work. This release is the much anticipated follow up to the superb EP Depths from 2015, which I both bought and reviewed.

Considering how much I enjoyed the projects last release I was a little nervous as to whether a full length album would be work as well, thankfully I need not have worried. This entire album comes together extremely well with a magnificent combination of intense droning drums and guitars, slow and elegant atmospheric interludes and tortured vocals that project a tortured lament for the natural world.

This album sets out clear and precise intentions, and follows through with them, the album rarely compromises on the droning wall of sound that is created by the distant riff work, but when it does it does so with a slow and melodic rhythm that makes the impact of the more abrasive parts of the album all the more affecting.

My personal favourite track on this release is the last track, Last Sea it brings the album together well and leaves the listener wanting more. Overall this is another great release from Lascar and it makes me very excited for what we might see from this project later this year. 

Support the project here

                 

Tetragrammacide - Typhonian Wormholes: Indecipherable Anti-Structural Formulæ (2015) (EP Review)

Tracklist:

1. Intro      
2. Paramilitant Entropic Initiation      
3. Intricate Acosmic Engineering     
4. Interlude      
5. Extra-Terroristical Chaosophic Intelligence      
6. Eructation of Anti-Existential Consciousness     
7. Outro

This is the first EP from the Indian two man harsh noise, blackened death metal band Tetragrammacide, the project is comprised of ‘Uragnostic Eliminator’ and ‘M.Opium’.

Have you ever tried to tune a worn out broken down old radio set to a channel, but instead all you get is abrasive static? Well if you have, just add a healthy chunk of bizarre esoteric atomic based cosmic Satanism and some drums and you have a pretty good description of this EP.

I should just point out here and now, unlike a lot of people I have nothing against harsh noise as a genre, and frankly I think it serves a purpose in trying to challenge what can really be called music. So I was pleasantly surprised that a blend of black metal, harsh noise and grinding death metal would work so well. This is a blend I have only really come across once before in the music of the band Satanic Abortion who sound extremely similar to Tetragrammacide.

This EP features, as the title suggests, sonically indecipherable instrumentation and vocals that blend into a swirling vortex of misanthropy and hate of that kind that could even put Revenge to shame in terms of its nihilism. To really be able to sit back and listen to this EP you have to be in a state of mind that doesn’t want metal, that doesn’t want familiarity, instead you just want to be fucking destroyed. Most people will hate this, and that’s fine, but I personally think that this is a stunning release that really stretches the boundaries of what can really be considered as blackened music. 

Support the band here

      

Dusty Old Demos - Black Murder - Feasts

Tracklist:

1. Deadsex     
2. Fresh Flesh      
3. The Last Supper      
4. Tower of Tortured Ones      
5. Interlude     
6. Charnel

This is the second demo from the very short lived French Les Légions Noires black metal band Black Murder which was formed of ‘Vorlok Drakksteim’ on bass and vocals, ‘Vordb’ providing drum work and ‘Wlad Drakkstein’ on guitars. Both Vorlok Drakksteim and Wlad Drakkstein are both former members of famed Les Légions Noires black metal project Vlad Tepes.

Being well aware of the reputation for the production of incredibly raw black metal that the Les Légions Noires period had I was prepared for what this demo would throw at me, which turned out to be six tracks of pure hatred.

What the demo lacks in originality, or even technical skill for that matter, it makes up for in unrepentant ferocity with buzzsaw guitars, powerful drumming and vocals that honestly cannot be explained in words. Surprisingly this demo also manages to create a rather unnerving atmosphere at times, similar to that found in the work of projects like Silencer.

This is by no means the best that French black metal has to offer, but it is still well worth a listen for fans of true cold raw black metal who like their vocals as cold and snowy as a week old corpse in the Arctic Circle.  
            

My Top 10 Albums of 2015

No.1 - Revenge - Behold, Total, Rejection

No.2 - Archgoat - The Apocalyptic Triumphator

No.3 - Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction

No.4 - Nocturnal Depression - Spleen Black Metal

No.5 - Pissgrave - Suicide Euphoria

No.6 - Grift - Syner

No.7 - Ethereal Shroud - They Became The Falling Ash

No.8 - Ad Hominem - Antitheist

No.9 - Kalmankantaja - Muinainen

No.10 - Marduk - Frontschwein