The young band have lots of wind in their sails, and deservedly so. It’s not because their music is original. It’s old school death metal, and we’ve heard it a thousand times before. It’s not because they are any more formidable players than many others, because they’re not. No, the reason is that they strike exactly the right chord with the conviction and heart it takes to make an impression on even old farts like myself who’re convinced they’ve seen it all over the past thirty years. They add nothing whatsoever to the genre apart from youthful enthusiasm and love for the music and culture.
You don’t need much more, do you?
It becomes obvious even before the concert begins that the Copenhell very possibly have underestimated the popularity of BAEST. The Hades stage is simply too small. The field in front of the stage is packed. They could’ve played the bigger Helviti stage without trouble.
I know beforehand that I’m going to leave before the set finishes due to the fact that there’s an overlap between BEAST and the Kiwi boyband ALIEN WEAPONRY who’ll be playing at the Pandemonium stage. Afterall, the likelyhood that I’ll see BEAST again sometime soon is far greater than running into the more exotic New Zealandic phenomenon.
Do I find it hard to leave when it’s eventually time? Yes, I do. BAEST with the highly energetic front man Simon Olsen, are practically brimming with self-confidence, and it is a joy to behold. They are true stars tonight as their death metal roar shakes the ground.
September will see the release of Venenum, their second album. The song “Gulla” has already been released, and is also played tonight. The song shows their true strength, namely the slow to mid-tempo monsters. Sadly, I don’t get to hear “Crosswhore”, the song I think is BAEST’s über-hit, but I’m sure that those who stayed had the pleasure.
Welcome the new death metal stars from Denmark. We’ll be hearing much more from them over the next few years – no doubt about it.
]]>50-year-old Johnny Hedlund is a true death metal warrior. 30 years of Unleashed is no mean feat, and although death metal most likely hasn’t made him a millionaire, Hedlund and his fellow warriors battle on relentlessly.
Kicking off with an intro of Viking horns and then”Blood of Lies”, the opener from my favourite Unleashed album, Midvinterblot, the four Swedes send us a fair warning: They mean business on this sunny Friday afternoon. Only…Anders Schultz’s drums aren’t as ready as the band. A few minutes are wasted on the technical issues, and Hedlund has to improvise in front of the few thousand people, something which can suck the energy out of most bands. Not the perfect way to start a gig.
But, as I said, Hedlund and the rest of his Viking crew are warriors, and as the drums are back in order, Unleashed fire away with “Lead Us Into War”.
Although the rececption is warm, the old school death metal audience is a trifle reserved, and it takes most of the set before an acutal pit opens in front of the Pandemonium stage. Undeservedly, I’d say, because Unleashed unfold a dozen or so hammer effective songs. The Swedes are amazing when they unfold their more groovy material. “The Longships Are Coming” and “Stand Your Ground” stand out as particularly cool.
Approved gig – only major disappointment being that the title track and über-hit from Midvinterblot shines with its absence! Oh, what a shame!
]]>Since 2007, the death metal five-piece around the Jensen brothers, vocalist Scott and bassist/backing vocalist Bjørn, have released a string of consistently strong albums. I’ve always been totally happy with their material throughout the years, but I must say that this latest release is one step up.
First it has to be said that Dawn Of Demise sound like themselves on Into the Depths of Veracity. Even if they lean heavily on the New Yorker death metal scene and have sworn their allegiance to Suffocation from day one, their sound is recognisable a mile away and has been from the beginning. Stylistically, there are no surprises to be found on the new album.
The gutteral roar from Scott Jensen is just as uncanny as it has always been, and the interaction between his bear grunts and his brother’s backing vocals works like a charm and offers the listener great variation.
Back to the step up. It has a lot to do with two factors:
1. Drummer Bastian Thusgaard has gone from great to amazing. Simple as that. His expanded sphere of experience has done wonders for the young man and his surroundings. Soilwork is now on the CV, and his talent has also raised the bar for them. This is certainly also the case for Dawn Of Demise where the underlying structure of the songs has become even sharper.
2. The production quality has gone up one notch since The Suffering (2016). The sound is clearer, sharper, but still with the warmth and fullness that is charateristic for great death metal.
Otherwise, this is simply Dawn Of Demise, but beefed up to stage perfect. Can’t help loving it. Don’t miss this one, death metal boys and girls.
Here’s the title track from Into the Depths of Veracity. The kind of mid-tempo crusher I’m completely in love with. Enjoy!
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The Morbidfest poster should be a salivating proposition to any Metal fan, with the tour comprising pretty much the cream of Death Metal. Old-school Death Metal, yes, but with each band having its own distinct take on the genre. So it was with a palpable sense of anticipation that I descended into the appropriately-named ‘Underworld’.
The first band on, however, wasn’t one I was expecting…..
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Nahemia (https://www.facebook.com/pg/NahemiAband)
Before tonight I was blissfully unaware of Nahemia’s existence…so obviously I didn’t know what they sounded like before they hit the stage. Of course that wasn’t necessarily a problem, it only meant I was approaching the band’s show unfettered by preconceptions.
It turns out the Nahemia are a local band inspired by Scandinavian-style Black Metal. Besides the standard corpse-paint, the stage props included 2 pig heads mounted on spikes at the front of the stage and dripping with blood throughout their show. Nice. Nahemia certainly know how to get your attention.
To be honest, they weren’t bad…in fact I felt the band showed potential. Even the vocalist of Vital Remains, later in the evening, expressed his appreciation for the band’s show. Amongst a handful of original numbers, Nahemia also covered Mayhem’s ‘Freezing Moon’ during which the band’s vocalist proceeded to rip a Bible (or was it a Koran?) to shreds. The recently-released single ‘World Annihilation’ also found its way into their set.
I’m not sure I liked Nahemia’s set well enough to go out and buy their releases but, as hinted earlier, I can’t say I disliked their show either.
Sadist (http://www.sadist.it)
Having high expectations often increases the likelihood of disappointment – so did my overdue eagerness to see these Italians end up badly? Thankfully it didn’t!
Sadist took a couple of songs to get into their stride and from then onwards had the audience in their grips. Predictably the recent “Spellbound” album was showcased but I was happy to hear them play ‘Sometimes They Come Back’, one of their earliest numbers. On the other hand, I was slightly disappointed with the absence of the “Tribe” album from the setlist but as band mentor Tommy Talamanca told me before the gig, choosing setlists is tricky now that the band has 8 albums under their belt.
Bassist Andrea Nasso joined Sadist just before this tour and considering the complex nature of Sadist’s music, I was sceptical he would fit in at such short notice. However not only did he fit in but I was impressed with his skills as a bass player. In fact I was impressed with the abilities of all the band members. Trevor Sadist, the band’s imposing frontman, dressed akin Leatherface from ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ films, gave the horror-themed songs a more visual quality.
That Sadist had great material in their repertoire I had always known but tonight the band also proved to be a very good live band.
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Click/Tap the above link to listen to a brief interview with Tommy Talamanca, guitarist/keyboardist/composer with Sadist.
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Atrocity (https://www.atrocity.de/)
It’s hard to pin down the sound of Atrocity – the German band has straddled between Thrash and Death Metal and even flirted with Gothic sonorities. Tonight, however, they should be focusing on the recent “Okkult II” album as well as early material. So it should be Death Metal aggression all the way. As it turns out, I felt they sounded a bit too flat in context of this bill.
But I don’t want to sound too negative because there was lots to enjoy. ‘Necropolis’, from the band’s “Todessenshuht” album of 1992 sounded amazing. ‘Death By Metal’ proved to be a crushing Metal anthem. Atrocity even gave a rare delivery of ‘Blue Blood’, one of the band’s very first releases.
Oddly enough Atrocity played without a bass player (well, at least without a physically present bass player) and this might partly explain why they sounded a bit flat. If I may add one final gripe, the Atrocity symbol atop Alex Krull’s mic stand kept covering his face and in a venue like the Underworld (with a smallish area In front of the stage), this was sometimes annoying.
An enjoyable, if inconsistent, performance.
Vital Remains (https://www.facebook.com/vital.remains.official/)
Vital Remains were the aural equivalent of an atomic bomb ripping the venue apart. The band gave one helluva killer show. For a start there was the first wall of death I’ve ever seen at the ‘Underworld’, besides stagediving and crowdsurfing galore, including by Brian Werner, the band’s singer. In fact Werner was very much responsible for inciting the high levels of crowd violence – he is for me the quintessential Death Metal frontman.
As a single unit Vital Remains were powerful but always immensely tight. I was also impressed by guitarist/shredder Caio Kehyayan. After the gig I saw online clips of him covering Guthrie Govan and Vinnie Moore and, well, you really have to check those out for yourselves, dear readers.
Vital Remains always had a Black Metal edge to them and the stage antics reflected this, particularly in the last song……while the soundtrack from Bram Stoker’s Dracula blared from the speakers, Werner poured fake blood from a goat’s skull over himself.
In a way Vital Remains bridged the gap between Nahemia and I Am Morbid. Speaking of which…..(scroll down)
I Am Morbid
I Am Morbid were formed by David Vincent to perform material from the Morbid Angel albums that he had played on before his most recent split from that band. If Vincent wanted to prove he can still play that material then there’s no doubt to my mind that tonight he succeeded.
The numbers were performed in an almost chronological order of their release. The more aggressive the number, the better the band sounded. Just before the tour kicked off, Kelly McLauchlin (ex-Possessed) was drafted in as a replacement for Ira Black on guitar. Tim Yeung (ex-Morbid Angel) remains the band’s drummer as does Bill Hudson, playing guitar.
Not too long ago, I had seen (also in London) Vincent play several of these numbers with Morbid Angel. Of course I’d prefer him in context of Morbid Angel but, performance-wise, tonight’s show was as great as the MA show I had been to. I Am Morbid delivered what was expected of them and how it was expected.
I Am Morbid
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Click/Tap the above link to listen to a brief interview with David Vincent, bassist/vocalist with I Am Morbid.
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On April 20th we have released our debut album called “The Light Shalt Be Ungiven” oscillating over death metal genre area with nihilistic and decadent touch. Album is built in a concept form telling a story in a form of a tragedy. Classic riffing, fresh approach and varied solos seek out the origin from scandinavian scene, this time it’s from another side of a Baltic Sea!
Band members are:
Vocals, Bass (2013-present)
Guitars (2014-present)
Drums (2017-present)
See also: Repulsor
Guitars (2018-present)
Short bio:
The band was really formed in 2014, with a constant rotation of members Dreadnought played over 40 shows across the Poland. They found their style when the band was joined by the drummer of known polish formation Repulsor, after second and actual guitarist joined they released their debut album cutting off bonds with the sloppy past, as the band claims that now it’s a real debut of theirs, after not showing up on stage for 1,5 year.
Give it a try!
Bandcamp:
]]>33 years later this 3rd full-length album is being released. With this pace, it will take 66 years after their debut that their 6th album will see the light (or dark!), which can’t be a coincidence! The music has lots of elements of their first 2 albums, only with a better production and more modern sounding. Jeff his voice is as recognizable as always and rasps through all the songs in his typical style. The riffs are razor sharp and the old school thrash/death feeling is a feast for the ears. Sure there will still be people missing that old eighties sound, but we live in 2019 now and production methods are a lot more modern.
After the intro ‘No More Room in Hell’ starts, the song has been on Youtube for a while and will be known by now. Drummer Emilio sounds very tight and the use of the rototoms gives the songs that old school sound. I can’t give you songs that really stick out, just because every track is of a very high quality. ‘Omen’ starts with hell bells and gives me that Seven Churches feeling. If I have to choose a song as one of my favorite, I think I would pick ‘Graven’ today and perhaps ‘Shadowcult’ tomorrow.
Possessed deserves to get the maximum score, and I know there is only one original member left, but who cares!
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TOMB MOLD – New Album ‘Planetary Clairvoyance’ – Details revealed
Toronto based death metallers TOMB MOLD will release their highly anticipated third album, “Planetary Clairvoyance”, on 19th July 2019 via 20 Buck Spin.
The track “Infinite Resurrection” is streaming now at these locations:
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/planetary-clairvoyance
The album was recorded by Sean Pearson at Boxcar Sound and mixed / mastered by Arthur Rizk. It features a cover art by Jesse Jacobi with additional art by Lucas Korte Shoggoth Kinetics.
Tracklist:
1. Beg For Life
2. Planetary Clairvoyance (They Grow Inside Pt 2)
3. Phosphorene Ultimate
4. Infinite Resurrection
5. Accelerative Phenomenae
6. Cerulean Salvation
7. Heat Death
https://www.facebook.com/tombmold
https://www.20buckspin.com ; https://www.facebook.com/20buckspin
*** Photo Credit: Jake Ballah ***
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The year was 1991, a truckload of amazing albums were released and the young me sucked in just about anything metal that he could get his hands on. The list of bands who released fantastic pieces of music that year included Bolt-Thrower, Cathedral, Atheist, Bathory, Death, Armored Saint, Fear of God, Gamma Ray, Dark Angel, Heathen, Infectious Grooves, Metal Church, Metallica, Morbid Angel, Overkill, Ozzy, Paradise Lost, Prong, Savatage, Sepultura, Suffocation, Type O, Voivod and last, but certainly not least, Entombed.
Entombed’s first outing, Left Hand Path, had offered a new take on death metal when it was unleashed in 1990. The characteristic buzzsaw guitar sound was born and would inspire numerous bands out there (Dismember being the most famous of these – since Entombed drummer played the guitars on their debut from 1991, Like An Ever-Flowing Stream, I suppose it wasn’t a pure coincidence that they struck the same chord). No wonder producer Tomas Skogsberg became the man of the day at the time – something special was definitely created.
The sophomore album, Clandestine, for me stands out as one of the best metal albums to come out of Sweden ever (which is no small feat when you talk about a country with bands like Candlemass, Bathory, In Flames, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy and many, many more). The song ‘Stranger Aeons’ remains one of my all-time favourite songs.
The irony, you could say, is that this, their best album, is the one Entombed album LG Petrov didn’t contribute to. On the album, Carnage singer Johnny Dordevic is credited as the vocalist, but it was in fact drummer Nicke Andersson who did the vocal duties. And a great job he did. I always preferred his vocal style to LG’s, but don’t tell LG, because he’s also doing a fab job and he’s one of the coolest blokes in metal.
The recording that’ll come out on Nuclear Blast in three weeks’ time is a live recording from 2016 that was made as a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the album. Why it comes so late, I don’t know. Things are apparently still a mess between Alex Hellid and Petrov who’ve been in a legal battle over the Entombed name for ages now. Which seems a bit ridiculous.
Petrov is recording and touring with Entombed A.D., whereas this live recording was made by Nicke, Alex, Uffe Cederlund, Nicke’s half-brother, Edvin Aftonfalck on the bass and his former Morbus Chron band mate Robert Andersson on vocals.
This is supposedly the first time the album has been played in full live, and it’s interesting to hear how it aged in the live setting. I’ve seen Entombed live a few times now, and I’ve always loved the energy of LG in particular, but impressed by their musical skills I’ve never been. The Clandestine songs I’ve heard live never quite had the same crunch and power live as they have on the studio recording and neither Hellid nor Cederlund are flawless players. This live album basically confirms this.
Additionally, the sound quality of the recording isn’t super clear from the outset, which to me is surprising. This was recorded in a theatre, and one should think with the best possible conditions for an amazing sound and mix. It isn’t.
Bottomline is that this recording is relevant for the nostalgics and the collectors among us, and not so much those who are looking for great live albums to expand their horizon. If you missed Clandestine for some odd reason, I’d advise you to order the original studio album from your nearest webstore as soon as possible because it’s still a blinding album.
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Today, Italian death metal upstarts FULCI stream the new single “Eye Full of Maggots” Decibel magazine’s website!
Recently FULCI released the amazing cover and the details of their second full-length album, “Tropical Sun”, to be released on 31st May 2019 via Time To KIll Records.
The effort is a concept album based on the cult movie “Zombi 2” (1979), one of the masterpieces of legendary director Lucio Fulci.
The film tells the story of a Caribbean island cursed by voodoo, whose dead residents rise as zombies to attack the living.
Watch a short video trailer HERE!
“Tropical Sun” tracklist:
01. Voodoo Gore Ritual (instrumental)
02. Tropical Sun
03. Apocalypse Zombie
04. Splatter Fatality
05. Matul Tribal Cult
06. Legion Of The Resurrected
07. Palms By The Cemetery
08. Witch Doctor (instrumental)
09. Genetic Zombification
10. Eye Full Of Maggots
11. Church Of The Undead
12. Blue Inferno
13. Immortality Virus (instrumental)
14. March Of The Living Dead (instrumental)
Recently Time To Kill Records welcomed FULCI to the roster. Formed in 2013 and hailing from Caserta, southern Italy, FULCI are a death metal band named after legendary director Lucio Fulci, the Master of gore (“Zombi 2”, “The Gates of Hell”, “The Beyond”, “The New York Ripper”, “The House by the Cemetery”, etc).
FULCI fuse old school death metal riffs, groovy slams and horror samples for a malicious medley of controlled chaos that wakes the dead! A non-stop aural assault for fans of Skinless, Dying Fetus, Mortician, Suffocation, Obituary and Devourment.
FULCI line-up:
Dome – Guitar, Synth
Fiore – Vocals
Klem – Bass
Discography:
– Incubus in the Surgery Room / City of the Living Dead EP (2014)
– Opening the Hell Gates (2015)
– Tropical Sun (2019)
FULCI
https://www.facebook.com/fulciband/
https://instagram.com/fulcislam
Time To Kill Records
https://www.facebook.com/timetokillrecords/
http://www.timetokill-records.com/
The Maltese quintet was one of our best surprises as we enjoyed Aalborg Metal Festival in 2013, supporting their record Never to Dawn (2012) www.powerofmetal.dk/reviews13/live/AMF_2013.htm
They now give us a successor to the intense Beast Incarnate (2017).
The concept behind Only Death Can Save You is what happens in our human mind when we are facing death: a very full agenda!
Almost quoting somebody we highly miss, the opening song seems to scream: ‘We are Beheaded and we play death metal!’. This is strong, effective and does not need more than four minutes to meet the requirements, as all the other tunes.
The second shot could have been composed in the early nineties with its irresistible bridge. The band was actually formed in 1991 but has no wrinkle after 28 years and various line-up changes. The new record shows no quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns: tradition and modernity get the same space here.
If you do not feel an uncontrollable urge to headbang on ‘A greater terror’ riffs, I cannot do anything for you.
‘Unholy man’ and ‘Embrace your messiah’ could have the caption ‘From Napalm Death (…but with a melodic guitar solo) to Morbid Angel’: absolutely enjoyable!
The papist devil is a steamroller at full speed, suddenly interrupted by a slower and heavy part. This formula (fatal to the flesh?…) has been used many times but why do without when it works so fine.
The blackened instrumental ‘Gallows walk’ could be the background for a black mass.
The title track reminds me of ‘The Blessed Dead’ by Nile, but do not misunderstand this subjective comparison: this song is excellent and not plagiarism at all.
You will get no compromise from ‘From the fire where’ it all began in conclusion of this excellent record, tailor-made for your stereo this summer and definitely for upcoming live performance.
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