Pestilence: Testimony of the Ancients

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Sebastian Gregory
pestilence_testimony of the ancients

pestilence_testimony of the ancients

I feel like the Andy Rooney of death metal at this point and if I start complaining about how today’s kids don’t respect their death metal elders, shoot me full of lethal cocktail and roll the corpse into the river.  Wait… is that too soon?   No disrespect meant to one of the great curmudgeons the world has ever known.

This was Pestilence’s third album and the first one with decent artwork, thanks to Dan Seagrave and his Paintbrushes of Mystery. Compared to the “ant face” of Consuming Impulse, even a static painting of some chained metallic sphere is an improvement. It looked great on the cover of the vinyl; the cassette tape version is cropped a bit…

But who gives a shit about the artwork, right? It’s all about the technical death metal and Pestilence dishes it out like a soup kitchen on smack. The music was mostly written by Patrick Mameli (vocals/guitar) and lyrics by Marco Foddis (drums). Patrick Uterwijk held down the other guitar spot; Tony Choy was on loan from Cynic for the bass because Martin Van Drunen split to form Asphyx. Tony was an inspired choice on bass; not that his work is particularly brought up in the mix (it’s a Scott Burns recording, so… yeah) but he’s comfortable with the non-metal influences Mameli brought to the table and frankly the dude can bend, tear, spindle and mutilate the bass and still make it sound good.

Plenty of ink has been spilled about the technical nature of the music on this disc. Yep, it’s got some jazz-ish phrasing, some ideas outside the typical structure of a metal song, but come one—it’s hardly the Weather Report of death metal. That’d be on the next Pestilence album, the rather stunning Spheres.

To give this it’s due, this was clearly a different flavor of metal for the time. “The Secrecies of Horror” opens the album and after a super quick “intro” it’s all massive riffing and frantic drumming. This is technical death metal, a blueprint for future constructions. Mameli’s ideas are all over the place, the lyrics are semi-ridiculous, but it just works. “Twisted Truth” starts slower, almost blues death metal if there can be such a thing, before going apeshit haywire at the end. “Lost Souls” is a burner, more of a thrash thing. “Land of Tears” finishes off side one and that second riff is just speedy goodness incarnate.

“Prophetic Revelations” is like a lost Morbid Angel song searching for its Azagthoth; lots of lava, especially that huge opening riff. Then we get “Testimony”, which I’m hoping is still in the set list because, damn, what a massive song. Choy gets to show off briefly before “Presence of the Dead” and “Stigmatized” finish it off. Foddis’ drumming is pretty damn fun all the way through “Presence of the Dead”. And check out where “Stigmatized” goes—again with the jazz/blues influence—before launching back into full throttle thrash.

Patrick Mameli reformed Pestilence a few years back and they’ve got a new album out called Doctrine (http://pestilence.nl/) and they’re just a lethal as ever.

 

 

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Righteous Pigs: Stress Related

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Sebastian Gregory
Righteous Pigs: Stress Related

Righteous Pigs: Stress Related

No fucking clue when this entered my life, it was that fuzzy time in the late 80’s early 90’s when Bush Da First was still in power and all seemed bleak and cold in the world.  But maybe that was just the roofies.  So this is Mitch Harris on guitar and vox, better known these days as a stalwart member of Napalm Death and Defecation and side projects galore.  On Stress Related we’re also treated to Alan Strong on drums, Stephen Chatovich on bass and Joe Caper on vocals.  This would be the Pigs second album after Live and Learn.  No one I ever knew heard of that one at the time; they still don’t, the bastards.

It’s quite the steaming stew of extremities, to be sure.  Imagine hardcore, grind, death, and punk involved in a forcibly violent orgy somewhere under the Sarlak’s nutsack.  I love the raw stupidity of this album.  I can’t pretend it’s everyone’s bag.  This ain’t pretty metal for girls and that asshole in the Lamb of God t-shirt at school last week (“Nice shirt, man.” “Thanks. I made it myself, dick.”)  This isn’t for you.  You don’t “get” it.  It’s not “aggro” enough for you. Fuck off to Hot Topic and your caramel macchiato.  That’s what it’s come to, flaying on carrion memes like Hot Topic.  And hasty editing. Then again, the mix of vocals (clean hardcore, raspy metal, and orc grunts) that was sort of unique in 1990 has become mainstream and normal.  Maybe Righteous Pigs time has finally come – America teeters on the brink of a vast wasteland of stupid and this is the soundtrack to the wake.

Listening to the this on loud a few times brings out the old school stompy whiplash thing.  I get all in a frothy rage listening to this.  “Overdose” is on now and I can’t get it any louder… no, there’s no “eleven” on my stereo.  There’s something about those repetitive, grinding riffs that gets the old blood pressure up.  It’s all very exciting.  “Fly the Friendly Skies” barely lets off the full-throttle roar long enough for Chatovich’s bass to get into the fray.  “Crack Under Pressure”?  Yes please.  More of that.

So yeah, twenty some-odd years later and it still sounds fresh and chunky.  Joe Caper’s vocals are a huge highlight; and Alan Strong’s drumming; and of course Mitch Harris’s rather unmistakable crushing riffs.  Love the little vamp of Zeppelin near the end of side two.  It’s all just daft fun, and better than my memory said it was.

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Dismember Disband

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Muxlow

Very sad news from Blabbermouth:

Bassist Tobias Cristiansson of Swedish death metal veterans DISMEMBER has released the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

“After 23 years, DISMEMBER have now decided to quit. We wish to thank all our fans for your support.”

At least they went out on a high note.

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Thursday Three-way : Keyboard Death

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Muxlow

Death metal and keyboards are natural enemies, but sometimes they can come together in interesting ways. I thought this playlist would be easy to compile, but finding real death metal with keyboards is tougher than it seems.

Tampa’s Nocturnus is the obvious first step  and I went with “Gridzone” from their highly underrated “Thresholds” album.

But where do you go from there? It very quickly devolves into two camps: cheesy wanking over melodic “death metal” (i.e.: Children of Bodom & pals) and big pads under slow, atmospheric sections. I dabbled with The Gathering, Dan Swano’s excellent Moontower project, Edge of Sanity, God Dethroned and a few others to no avail but everything was either way too melodic or surprisingly keyboard-free.

Luckily, Hypocrisy has always made excellent use keys, so even if “The Final Chapter” falls into the “big pads” camp, it’s such a great tune that it hardly matters. Two down, one to go.

For the final track, I tried to find a band from a third country but ended up with more Swedes, this time Cemetary with “Dead Red” from their twisted first album, “An Evil Shade of Grey”.

Didn’t any bands play more traditional death metal with keyboards? Post your suggestions in the comments!

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FREE DOWNLOAD: Immolation, “Providence”

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Muxlow
Immolation, "Providence" - 2011

Immolation, "Providence" - 2011

Scion A/V may be corporate marketing scum, but at least they’re pimping some good bands. Hot on the heels of the surprisingly good Enslaved EP comes “Providence”, another free EP, this time from our very own death metal legends, Immolation. Production is right in line with the glorious “Majesty & Decay”, the download is fast and flawless and it even comes with 800×800 artwork. Can’t really ask for more.

DOWNLOAD

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Immolation-Jungle Rot-Gigan October 10, 2011

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Kyle Huckins

Pardon my lack of posting lately; I’ve been rather busy so getting any writing done has just not been possible. I’ll try to pick up the pace with that as I’m rather annoyed with myself over this as well.

First, a bit of disclosure. There was a black metal band on first. I only caught maybe one song and frankly cannot recall their name to save my life. This isn’t nearly enough of a sample for me to discuss them fairly so I’m going to decline comment. Sorry guys, I was running late and needed to get dinner.

Gigan followed this and it was the second time I’d seen them in a month as they also opened for Grave. I was going to do a writeup for that show too but I ended up getting drunk which did not help my already faulty recall. First of all when you have a really technical band like Gigan you need very good sound to be able to appreciate them and for a few songs it sounded like the club forgot to turn the guitar on. I’m not all that big on this sort of thing but trying to handle that sort of music with terrible sound and you have no chance. I’ve listened to their records a bit and this isn’t my brand of Scotch. They just seem like yet another band who can write a ton of riffs and not write an actual song.

Jungle Rot followed them up and I was impressed in the wrong way. I was never really a fan and I haven’t even heard anything they’ve done in over a decade. That said I knew every note they were going to play before they even played it. They managed to make AC-DC sound unpredictable, they were that generic. They had good energy on stage and seemed like good enough guys but that was some of the least interesting music I’ve ever heard. If the set had been shorter it might have been fine but it felt like they went on forever.

Finally Immolation took the stage and all of the earlier stuff I couldn’t have cared less about went away. They were to put it mildly, CRUSHING. The sound was pretty good and they clearly wanted to devastate the hometown fans in a good way. The crowd, which was shamefully small, wasn’t ultra-violent but they were definitely into it in a big way. I can’t remember song titles worth a damn so don’t ask me for a set list in the comment section but they did play a little something off the whole discography. I do wish they would have broken out Higher Coward to start but I have no complaints about anything from Immolation. I just hope next time they bring along better support. Overall I would totally recommend catching them, but it’s probably a good idea to show up kind of late.

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Morbid Angel, “Gateways to Annihilation”

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Muxlow
Morbid Angel - "Gateways to Annihilation"

Morbid Angel - "Gateways to Annihilation"

I admit to completely overlooking Morbid Angel’s “Gateways to Annihilation” when it came out in 2000. I was probably too busy listening to In Flames “Colony” or something equally less-than-good. After Dave’s departure, MA rebounded in 1998 with the Steve Tucker-fronted “Formulas Fatal to the Flesh”. While “Formulas…” has certainly improved with age, at the time, it appeared to kick off a downward slide into awfulness. “Gateways to Annihilation” followed in 2000 with an equal thud and the unbelievably erratic and senseless “Heretic” seemed to seal their fate in 2003. While Morbid Angel has certainly wound up at the bottom (“Kill a cop”), neither “Formulas…” nor “Gateways…” – not even “Heretic” to a lesser extent – are what put them there.

I remember thinking at the time that “Formulas…” and “Gateways to Anninilation” lacked any kind of catchiness or groove and barely gave them a listen. I actually dug “Heretic” more than either of those simply because I could hear some songs going on between all the godawful keyboard nonsense. Long story short, I’ve been rectifying my error the past couple years and am slowly becoming more familiar with both “Formulas…” and “Gateways…”

My current feeling is that “Formulas…” is still very hard to sink into but “Gateways…” has opened up like a vast sucking void and seems to be revealing a lot of very interesting ideas within all that murk. Tucker’s wet-throated roar is more than just an adequate replacement for Vincent’s (who need I remind the court was sporting dyed black hair and vinyl shirts by this point) and the production somehow manages to be both raw and clear at the same time. The riffs aren’t catchy or anthemic at all and the whole thing strikes me as the swampiest, most atmospheric album in Morbid Angel’s catalog. But it’s nearly complete lack of hooks is exactly what gives it a rather ageless, emotionless yet somehow still darkly spiritual feel. Little things like the loop of insect noise that runs the entire length of opening track, “Summoning Redemption” may be harbingers of the madness to come, but at this point, the voices in Trey’s head were still working for him.

Still not 100% sure how I feel about it, but it’s finally growing on me after 11 years. Maybe I’ll love it in another 4 just in time for the 15th anniversary.

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Thursday Three-way : Finnish Death Metal

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Muxlow

Swedes get all the love but Finland has a great history of death metal all its own. Here are two early tracks from well-known Finnish bands that went on to greener (and lamer) pastures, and a song by a band that’s brand new to me.

Big shout out to XysmicExecration from YouTube who’s channel I stumbled upon when searching for these. He’s got a ton of great tunes, each with lots of info like you’ll read below. Check him out!

Sentenced

From XysmicExecration on YouTube: “Sentenced was a death metal band formed in ’89 in Muhos. The band released one independent demo “When death joins us” the following year. 1991 the band was also featured in a four-band split album “Chronology of Death” with Swedish Carbonized, Dutch Bluuurgh . . . and Slovenian Xenophobia. the band also released their second independent demo “Rotting ways to Misery”’91. ’91 they were able to sign on Thrash records and to release their first full-length “Shadows of the Past”. The album and band achieved incredible amount of positive comments. The album itself, aswell as all the demo production earlier , was exceptionally melodic, still not forgetting the crushing Death metal riffs. Swedish Dismember and Finnish Sentenced can be considered ones of the most influencal bands of Melodic Death metal, and also Sentenced was said to have some kind of influence on Gothenburger genre in Sweden. In the middle of their two full-lengths , Sentenced released an independent demo “Journey to Pohjola” year ’92, which consisted of three songs. Their second full-length “North from Here” was released through Finnish Spinefarm label in ’93. The album showed that the band had a huge musical ambition. The second guitarist Sami Lopakka , also dealed with more and more essential keyboards and the technicality and melody of the guitars was brought to a whole new level.”

Purtenance

From XysmicExecration on YouTube: “Purtenance was a Finnish Death Metal band found in Nokia in 1990 (originally with the name “Purtenance Avulsion”). The band recorded one independent and self-titled demo in 1991 with the name “Purtenance Avulsion”. At the same year, they got signed to the Spanish Drowned records through which they released “Crown Waits the Immortal” EP ’91. The next year band released their first ,and sadly, last full-length “Member of Immortal Damnation”’92. Soon after releasing their full-length, band broke up. This is the opening track of their full-length “Member of Immortal Damnation” of 1992.”

Amorphis

From XysmicExecration on YouTube: “Amorphis was/is a Finnish Death metal band formed in 1990, by a few ex-members of another Death metal group :Abhorrence, The band recorded the demo “Disment of Soul” in 1991, and got immediately signed to Relapse ( greatly due to the PR made by Abhorrence ). a single and and their first full-length “Karelian Isthmus” was released in 1992. The album was recorded in 1992 in Sunlight Studios of Stockholm and with assistance of Tomas Skogsberg. The songs recorded in 1991 in Helsinki were featured on the “Privilege of Evil” EP released in 1993 ( the EP was originally ment to release as a split-album with Incantation but due to some problems, Incantation’s side wasn’t released until 2008 ). The second album “Tales from the Thousand Lakes” released in 1994 represented the new musical world of Amorphis, with more extensive use of keyboards, melody and folk music influenced guitar riffs. In 1995, all the rest of the songs ,that didn’t fit on the full-length ,were released on “Black Winter Day” EP . “Tales from the Thousand lakes” has also been considered one of the founding stones of Melodic Death Metal. The lyrical themes of the band also changed during the “Tales . . .” album, and the songs have been inspired by the tales of Finnish epic Kalevala ever since. In 1996 released third album of the band “Elegy” had fallen even deeper to progressive experimenting both in guitars and keyboards and the music had more folk tendencies. This is from their first full-length “Karelian Isthmus” of 1992.”

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Thursday Three-Way : Those Skeletal Swedes

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Muxlow

One of my favorite styles of death metal is the early Swedish stuff that was going on as or before Entombed showed everyone what Swedish Death Metal™ was going to sound like. The guitars aren’t tuned down (or at least not much) and the riffs are very “skeletal”, for lack of a better description. Lots of lots of single-note tremolo picking, more focus on the rhythm section rather than a suffocating blanket of guitars, a more adventurous, almost proggy spirit to some of them.

At the Gates’ first two albums (plus the Grotesque material?) is the 800lb gorilla of this style, but these three bands prove a pleasant listen when you’re sick of hearing “Kingdom……Fucking……GAAAAAAAUUUUGGGHHHHNNNNN” for the bazillionth time:

  1. Afflicted “Spirit Spectrum” from “Prodigal Sun” (1992)
  2. Cemetary, “An Evil Shade of Grey” from “An Evil Shade of Grey” (1992)
  3. Liers in Wait, “Overlord” from “Spiritually Uncontrolled Art” (1991)

Afflicted has one album of bizarre, fragmented death metal. Cemetary went on to become a much more melodic and gothic band, but their first album is straight up death with a nice dose of oddness. Liers in Wait is new to me, but sounds exactly like what you’d expect from one of the main guys of Grotesque (artist par excellence Kristian Whalin) to produce.

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Exhuming The Forgotten: Monstrosity – Imperial Doom

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Kyle Huckins

Monstrosity - Imperial Doom

Monstrosity - Imperial Doom

OK, let’s find out if I have gravely wronged Monstrosity by not listening to this album a ton more than I have in the past or was I justified in doing so. I hate to say this but I think it was the right call on my part.

First the positives as there are plenty of them here. The cover of this album is stunning. While it is certainly a nasty looking bit of body horror that I think David Cronenberg would approve of the use of color here really stands out. No sticking to black and red here, they use the whole palette to wonderful effect. The musicianship is quite solid and Corpsegrinder is a damned solid vocalist and far better than Chris Barnes ever was, though that isn’t saying much. However on this album he does have one problem. His cadence is always the same and this problem extends to the whole album. It is a solid record but it is very repetitive.

While this was recorded at Morrisound, Monstrosity handled the production themselves so it doesn’t sound like Arise or The Ten Commandments and that bit of individuality is nice. However the songs themselves sound like leftovers from Altars of Madness. The tempo runs on the faster side though they do like to get slow and heavy when it is called for. This is not a bad album but it’s one of those that you put on in the background when doing something else. It doesn’t really stand up to a good close listen as it is very redundant.

This is also going to sound bad because of when I’m saying this but this is a very short album and that is a good thing. While they would certainly improve later on I have to say this is a decent start but not a great one. You can hear the seeds of the later masterpiece that is In Dark Purity here but they had a long way to go to get there.

Verdict: A decent record but when I’m in the mood for this sort of thing I’m just putting on Altars of Madness for the billionth time.

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