Ribspreader - Crypt World (2022)

When it comes to Rogga and his thousand death metal projects, I've long since lost the pulse. And who could blame me, because while I was fully on board and interested back when there were just a dozen, I don't think I ever expected the 'central' bands like Paganizer and Ribspreader to remain so prolific through all these years, while so many others were spawned. Yet here we are, with the 9th full-length offering from the latter, and I'm not sure I can properly distinguish it from others by Revolting or whatever else is still kicking around, it's just such an onslaught of middling-to-decent material that I feel like certain chunks could be intermingled, interchanged and none would be the wiser. The rub is that the guy knows his aesthetics damn well, and on almost any album across his career, you can find yourself nodding along or outright headbanging to the finer riffs and leads, and isn't that what matters?

Crypt World has the cool cover artwork that brings you back to the 90s classics, an image that transports you into some cosmic horror/Lovecraftian otherverse where the brutality is the twisted architecture, and sky is grim and you are hopeless flesh to be twisted into the annals of death metal history. The mix is fully competent, with the crunch and burn of the guitars out front, not entirely embracing a typical Swedish HM-2 pedal style tone, but certainly amenable to those seeking that. The riffs range between your fun, flexing d-beat style and then more structured thrashing or Floridian evil. His vocals are gruesome and ugly gutturals, but not too low-pitched, and frankly they feel a little repetitive and underproduced although he does hit some sustain on certain lines and tries not to grow terribly monotonous. I think it's a weakness of this and numerous other efforts, and a bit more time mixing them against the snarls or the thicker riffs would do wonders to make this more memorable. Drums are workmanlike, bass almost never matters through the nine tracks, used only as some concrete reinforcement to the sum battery of the style. The slight industrial metal feel to first verse of "Good Hatchet Fun" is a cute surprise, but not that elaborate.

Quality of riffing itself is solid, nothing too unique or progressive, but there's variation between more open, doomy chords (in "The Bone Church" chorus) and writhing tremolo-picked bits, and some of them sound appropriately menacing and evil despite the factory-churned feel of the production. The leads are a highlight here, whipping and frenzied and often brief, but ramping up the atmosphere that the meat & potatoes death metal lacks elsewhere. Lyrics and song titles are pretty sweet, though they seem like they're pulled from some Rogga AI-generation because of the similarity to so many others, but as I hinted above, the guy just has such a handle on this style that inspired him that he's one of its most ardent emulators and participants. Any time I think I might fall asleep, he knows how to slightly perk my attention with some cutting riff, but as I have thought so many times in the past, what if he merged some of these projects together, took more time refining the best of his ideas, forging the best goddamn throwback death metal the world over? I think he might just do that if he wasn't Rib-spreading himself so thin, and though Crypt World is an effective enough disc, fun for a couple spins, it just can't be more because it feels so slated into a schedule.

Verdict: Win [7/10]
 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044948155884

Lucifer's Chalice - The Pact (2017)

On the surface, The Pact comes across pretty cool, with a simplistic and iconic sort of cover that aesthetically transports me back to the years of the NWOBHM movement, groups like Witchfynde or Angel Witch or Pagan Altar. Noting that this is a four-track album with occult themes would seem to deepen my interest, and once you're listening through you'll note they even pick up some classic samples from 60s and 70s horror flicks like Twins of Evil or City of the Dead. Unfortunately, I felt a little let down by the musical content of this debut, not because it's awful by any means, but because it seems so plain compared to what I might have expected from the title and lyrics, or the fact that it relies on tunes that are between 7-11 minute but doesn't tell a good enough story by way of the musical choices and structures.

The Pact is essentially blue-collar Iron Maiden worship, and while there is nothing at all with following in the footsteps of one of the (justifiably) most popular heavy metal bands of all time, they just don't do anything to further that or expand upon it. Now Eddie's crew have certainly explored a lot of dark and gloomy themes in its time, usually on the earlier albums, but the idea that one could transform that into something more sinister, occult, atmospheric is an appealing one. But when you listen to such basic, repetitive and unappealing riff progressions as you hear around the 3 and a half minute mark of the title track on this album, it's just immediately too bland to leave an impression. The basics are here, with a solid melodic production to the rhythm guitars, and some decent grooves in the bass playing which are reminiscent of Steve Harris, and a couple of the tracks like "Full Moon Nights" border on taking this where it needs to be, but I was constantly wishing the whole mood were darker, that there were some more dissonant and surprising choices in the notes, maybe breaking the mid-paced melodic anthems up to take some more chances.

Vocalist Charlie Wesley doesn't have a bad voice, he's clearly no Bruce Dickinson or earlier Mercyful Fate-era King Diamond, which he also slightly resembles...but who the hell really is? The issue is that a lot of his delivery is monotonous...where some lower or mid-range sneering lines would give this more of the evil vibe I'd have hoped for, he doesn't seem quite confident to spread out the delivery to the point where you get a more dynamic and cinematic personality that would itself help flavor the guitars a lot more. With titles like "Priestess of Death" or "Hung at the Crossroads", you'd expect something a lot more sinister beyond the samples, and The Pact comes up short. They lack the timeless earworm melodicism of the Angel Witch s/t, the doomy overtures of Pagan Altar, and even the more fun naughty hard rock and heavy metal of Witchfinder General and Demon, sticking with the safer bet of the world's most beloved metal band, but not in the same compelling way that they did throughout their classics in the 80s. Going by the fact that several of the members also play in darker bands of the doom or death variety, I would think they'd possess a little darker vibe.

I found much of this would just blend together and lack distinction. I'm not going to shit on this as entirely incompetent or inauthentic, it's not offensive to my ears. They clearly wanna give some love to their influence, and they're not exactly a 1:1 copy, the vocals are a little different as are the moods on a few of the riffs, but even among the ranks of whatever-generation modern throwback heavy metal this doesn't have much going for it. Think darker, more ambitious, if you're going to create such sprawling tracks as the opener here, take us on a journey. Go out on a limb. Make it look like it sounds, and yes I'm aware that history has given us hundreds of records that look a lot more evil than the musical content, but it's the 21st century and we know better. Old Sabbath, old Maiden, or old Hammer Horror films just hit the spot much more than this album can; huge shoes to fill, granted, but this doesn't even get its laces off.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

https://luciferschalice.bandcamp.com/album/the-pact

Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2001)

As a fan of the first three Diabolical Masquerade albums waiting for Blakkheim to finally unleash some inevitable masterpiece, I admit that I found and continue to find Death's Design an obnoxious chore, even if it ultimately has enough to offer that I'll spin it infrequently. At 61 tracks, split into 20 'movements' over just 43 minutes, and a pseudo-score to some nonexistent horror film, one could argue it's the most ambitious thing he's ever produced with this project, and from a technical angle I don't know that I'd disagree. However, the means of its presentation in so many little snippets of what might be better fleshed out tracks, this comes across to me like a dumping ground for all the ideas he couldn't work into any proper successors to the great 1998 album Nightwork.

That's probably not the case, and perhaps this is all planned out exactly like it is, but considering how the different sections of the album might be presumed to stay thematically consistent, a lot of the individual pieces feel jarring and don't flow well as a whole. It's a shame, because the riffing here is fucking fantastic, it just never lasts long enough, and how he integrates the soundtrack components, acoustics, clean and harsh vocals, and symphonics are seamless...just across such short spaces. It doesn't much surprise me that Dan Swanö had a lot to do with this record, because he'd also later put out his Crimson II record for Edge of Sanity which was more of a solo thing, and suffers from a lot of the same issues I had with this...snippets of ideas that deserved far more, generally less than a minute long, and while the flow isn't terrible between them, it just lacks the impact these good riffs would have in full tracks. It certainly sounds like one of his more mature recordings of that time, super clear across all the varied instrumentation, accessible but still capturing a punch to the lower guitars, and the evil rasps of Blakkheim which are admittedly formidably throughout this.

You'll even hear Dan's clean vocals, which are unmistakable if you've heard his myriad other projects. There are a few moments where the drum programming gets a little too obvious and dull, and some ill choices like the clean vocal in "The Inverted Dream: No Sleep in Peace" which I can't quite place, but sounds like the melody is ripped off from a James Bond theme or sci-fi film or something. The roots are still cinematic black metal, but Diabolical Masquerade reaches further away from the structures of Ravendusk in My Heart of The Phantom Lodge. The individual tracks can't reach the creepy majesty and atmosphere of "Astray Within the Coffinwood Mill" because they're never given the space to, and there are plenty of tunes like "Spinning Back the Clocks", "A Bad Case of Nerves" or a few dozen more which could have been developed into stunning evolutions upon the Nightwork style. Had this been condensed together, with a lot of the scraps tossed out and the better riffs expanded into full length tunes, it would easily have been the most progressive and symphonic stuff Blakkheim had put out here, itself a natural successor to the first three albums, but the fragmentation just doesn't work for me.

That goes even deeper into the themes...obviously they cover such a vast array of supernatural and Gothic subjects and images that there's no way this was the real soundtrack to anything, and there too I feel like it comes across as a big jumbled mess of ideas. So many great song titles, too, like "Soaring Over Dead Rooms", "A Hurricane of Rotten Air", "The Remains of Galactic Expulsions", as if Anders was just emptying out a notebook of stuff he had lying around (kind of like the songs themselves). I realize the guy was busy with his other, more successful bands like Katatonia or Bloodbath and this one had to take a back seat, but I can't help but feel a little spurned that this was where it all ended, and in over two decades we haven't heard a peep. It just doesn't seem like a strong note to end off on, and I realize I'm in the minority as some seem to hold this up as a bastion of progressive black metal genius, which I simply cannot agree with as the presentation is so frustrating, even when I play it all straight through and try to blend the components into my imagination as a cohesive whole.

Now, having voiced these complaints, I will say that there is enough ear candy to explore here that I'll still give it a pass. A positive. I try and think of it like the little samples you get on a pre-programmed keyboard or some recording software...short, catchy, showing the range and potential of the technology but not the depth of emotion and composition. Bite-sized morbid bliss, like a grind album of fractured horror metal where you just wish this or that riff would repeat or transform into something more explosive and memorable. It's just all over the place, and at least a few dozen of the tracks could be tossed out and I would never know the difference. I wanted more of what I so enjoyed about the first three albums, and I get it, just in such tiny spurts that the greatness is forever evaded. Once every couple Halloweens, I might loop a few tracks from this, but it's one of the most 'could have been' albums in my entire collection. Blakkheim's Woolgathering Exit From A Fascinating And Underrated Band Which Best Manifest His Individual Personality. Cue the curtain.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

Tenebro - L'inizio di un incubo (2022)

Spawned forth from the same death metal primacy that brought us bands like Fulci or Scolopendra, Italy's Tenebro hope to pay tribute to their rich history of horror cinema, or horror themes at large, with some of the most repulsive tones and vocals they can muster. Another comparison might be Denmark's Undergang in that they stick with their native tongue for the lyrics, and have that utter, guttural sort of approach to the songwriting, though I found L'inizio di un incubo a little simpler and more thuggishly chugged out. Of course, I don't think you can avoid the semblance to Mortician, for the same reason, especially how they switch between the slower chugging and squeals to blasted grind parts in tracks like "Ultima Tomba"; this record occasionally musters more of an atmosphere than some of the NY legends' works, but the bottom end has much of the same disconcerting, unforgivingly brutal effect upon the listener.

The bass is so thick you could like a sewer full of syrup and other goo, and against that the guitars are flexed out with a grotesque tone that carves into the depths. Like their aforementioned counterparts from the Big Apple, they use drum programming here, and while it's good enough to give you an idea of how the tempos are supported, I found it fairly wimpy and completely overpowered by the other instruments and Il Becchino's monstrous gutturals that are almost impossible to trace beyond blunt syllables. The faster it goes, the more it gets lost to me, though there are a few places throughout, like the intro to "L'Imbalsamazione Dell'Amore" and it's weird, almost Godflesh atmosphere where they enter the attention span a little louder, almost like a tribal pacing before the roiling and spleen-rupturing. I'd also add that I enjoy this album more when they pack on some more layers, like higher pitched tremolo guitar lines to accompany the nasty murk. Samples and screams and such are placed in a few strategic places, sometimes effective and others not, and bits like the organ that opens the album are quite cool and I wouldn't mind more of them.

However, those atmospherics often contrast a little strongly against the revolting crush of the metal riffing, and the entire album suffers from an unevenness including the drum machine quips I had already mentioned. It's like the mix just can't carry it when the guitars and bass are fully liquifying your speakers. Some of the uglier atmospheric effects just become obnoxious rather than horrifying (such as the outro), and when it comes to the construction of rhythm guitar riffs, these don't exactly go anywhere interesting. And that might not be the point of L'inizio di un incubo, but I long to explore bands like this that can concoct some more evasive or compelling material that helps define and enrich the basic bludgeoning. That said, the Matt Carr artwork here is excellent, evocative and does somewhat prepare you for the sound, and if you're just seeking out extremity without regards for much form over function, a combination of the band's I compared them to, then this is for sure fucking ugly death metal that creates a foundation the Italians can expand much further, and spoiler alert: they do exactly that with some of their later EPs and superior sophomore full-length.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://tenebro666.bandcamp.com/

Macabre - Dahmer (2000)

Macabre's a band I never get around to revisiting often, but don't let that fool you, I think they're a fairly interesting and quietly influential act that had a pretty big impact on the deep-dive serial killer studies that other bands like Church of Misery have continued with. They also occupied a niche seemingly to themselves, where numerous genres combined, no one of the thrash, death metal, punk or grind really dominating the rest, and then the insertion of humorous elements into the music also transforms them into a carnival of Midwest extremity. The first four albums in particular have the most to offer, with these sprawling track lists, few ideas left on the cutting board, and though the tongue-in-cheek qualities can become distracting, they can mete out some mean fucking metal on your ass.

Dahmer is the band's exploration of its titular serial killer and it spends equal time tackling this topic, comprised of 26 tracks, most hovering around the 1-2 minute mark, a few beyond that, but that's where a lot of the grind aesthetic comes in here, because the band isn't always playing a million miles a minute with the splattering vocals and accelerated hardcore you'd expect. Many of them take a punk rock approach with gang shouts, accessible riffs, and then this is alternated with hyper-thrashing pieces that catapult themselves into the death metal spectrum. But they also delve a little deeper, with some more dissonant thrash riffing that even reminds me of Voivod, like in the opener "Dog Guts", and they'll bust out these solid leads that also seem pretty ambitious compared to the surface level of their style. So the idea that one could ever write Macabre as some group of gory goofballs would be misinformed. They are crazy motherfuckers who put an emphasis on exploring different sounds and then unifying them behind a chosen theme, which is conceptually impressive, even when it's something really zany like the thrashing surf rock of "Do the Dahmer" (something Ghoul might have picked up on).

Ironically, it's this variation that can both work FOR and AGAINST an album like Dahmer, because the shorter track lengths mean a lot of the stronger, evil riffing ideas will be broken up and you never quite get enough if you're digging them. Like the churning caveman death metal of "Hitchiker" ceding to the "In the Army Now" anthem, or the blasting, chaotic "Bath House" giving way for the "Jeffrey Dahmer and the Chocolate Factory" tune, which is essentially a twisted cover of the Oompa Loompa song from the old Gene Wilder film. However, by that same argument, every time I think I've gotten my laughs in and am about to phase out, they'll shift back into some more intense and interesting, so I can imagine that the scattershot inspirations and execution of this album might be an attempt to dive into the psyche of a character like its own subject. But I do think overall this might be an aspect of Macabre that has held them back from greater success, it's not like Mr. Bungle where the musical freakshow is the entire DNA of the writing, but something they swap on and off. It doesn't always land for me, either, but this and a few of their older full-lengths hit more often than not.

The vocals of Nefarious and Corporate Death are impressive in their versatility, from gutturals and sneers to higher pitched wails that you might not expect, and then the gang vocals I mentioned before. The guitars have a nice, organic tone to them which seems to work well across the constituent genres, frilly enough for the crisper thrashing riffs, fluid enough for the punk chords, and then some solid effects on some of the leads. The bass playing is quite busy and plunky, and this is a component which can even be highlighted within the sillier tunes, and I could say the same for the drums, these guys are just an overall, musically impressive act even if they only exhibit briefer bouts of technicality among the more simplistic, accessible writing. All told, there's not a lot I can really compare this with, or maybe just too MANY things to compare it with...some of the faster, thrash/death parts recall some Deceased of the same era, and there are obvious punk and hardcore references, but say what you will, Macabre is quite unique, and if you can pull yourself away from the Netflix documentaries, this is quite a bat-shit but well-rationed exploration of the infamous cannibal and necrophile.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://murdermetal.com/

Old Ghoul - Old Ghoul EP (2023)

Doom is perhaps the most natural fit of all metal styles for the horror aesthetics, partially because it hails from 50+ years ago to align with when and where so many of those post-Monster classics of that burgeoning cinematic field arrived, but also because, by design, it's got the most space to work through its atmospheres and haunted tones if we've approaching through purely aural aesthetics. Italy in particular has had a lot of bands embrace this post-Sabbath mixture, but to an extent, the Americans have also carried that torch, with groups like St. Vitus and Pentagram and The Obsessed making a lot of waves, the first of those probably touching upon such themes the most, while the others only dabble superficially in between the drug anthems and other more personal subject matter.

Old Ghoul is a project from the prolific Chad Davis, who is himself quite versed in doom itself through the excellent Hour of 13 and The Sabbathian, but has also played around in other genres including death and sludge and black metal. For this debut EP release, he sticks right to the source of his inspiration, largely reminiscent of the three US bands I mentioned above, and straight back to the moderately paced, Sabbath sluggers which would stick an accessible groove and thus inspire 10,000,000 stoner acts that followed. To that extent, this material is decent, especially the first track "The Crypt of Night", which of the three flirts around with a slightly darker vibe, vocal effects that help differentiate his delivery from the Ozz-man, although a lot of the pacing in the lines is quite similar. The rhythm guitar tone is another feature for me, just potent and clean and cutting into you just enough to complement his vocals, and then the drums have a nice, raw, live vibe to them which sits well with such simplistic material. Bass is a little weak, it doesn't really stand out for itself and with so much room in which it can maneuver, it just doesn't perform more than the bare minimum.

Where Old Ghoul runs into an issue is that at three tracks, I would have liked Davis to flex a little more dynamic muscle. There are some elements of "The Devils at Brocken" which get a little angrier, but in terms of tempo and riff construction, all three of the tunes are just too similar. Had "The Crypt of Night" balanced off against a faster, groovier number and then maybe an eerier, atmospheric piece, I feel you'd get a better experience and idea of the project's capabilities, unless they simply don't exist, which I'd find hard to believe. The production itself is just right, the tunes are decent, but I found myself a little less interested with each as the EP progressed, and they also transform into something a little more blander that doesn't really manifest the vibes that the cool, cloaked cover creep promises, becoming more of a stoner-by-numbers sort of doom that offers no more surprise than a competent but forgettable lead guitar. Nothing wrong with that vibe, but I want the blood, the bats, the moon, the skeletal talons, the gravestones, and this offering largely just floats around the cemetery like the haze from a bong, intermingling with the fog and gaslight but never drifting too low to associate with the more frightening denizens of its environment.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://regainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-ghoul

Carnifex - Necromanteum (2023)

I dropped off the Carnifex train roughly a decade ago. Not that I was ever a paying passenger, but I had followed the Californians along to experience their evolution as one of the cornerstones of US deathcore. Much to my chagrin, since I despised most of the material they put out in their earlier years, an example of vapid, mosh-over-metal which I simply don't ever jive with. But once they arrived at 2011's Until I Feel Nothing, I felt there were some seismic shifts in the songwriting, an advance in musicality, and that the band might develop into a more memorable entity through trial and perseverance. I didn't care much for the follow-up Die Without Hope, and did listen once through Slow Death, mostly attracted to the creepy cover artwork. I remember that one had dabbled in this symphonic-tinted style, but not much else about it, so I went into torpor over the rest of their catalogue...until now. Call me a sucker for a cool cover, but the sepulchral massive gates, gravestones, and green mist of Necromanteum called out to me. It looks a WHOLE lot like it should be on a Black Dahlia Murder album, but I figured I'd check it out and see if this band had actually managed to incorporate even more creepy atmosphere or horror theatrics until their chug-first, ask-questions-later style.

And I'd say they have done just that, with the implementation of some orchestration that gave me vibes of other bands like Winds of Plague, or the lesser known, excellent Lorelei, or perhaps if we're going a bit more brutal, Italy's Fleshgod Apocalypse. I'll go even one further, and say that Carnifex doesn't merely add these elements, but they do so tastefully. Spectral strings or eerie sounds will break out over some bludgeoning blast beat rhythm, or a swell of a more complete symphony might lurk around a double-bass break. It's almost as if Carnifex have implemented these much like some older bands used industrial sounds, purely as a complementary aesthetic and not to drown out or distract what their core audience comes to them for. There are a few points where an added instrument can sound a little out of place or obnoxious, but I think of it from a horror perspective, it still works well within the concept, and there are some great breaks like the end of the title track where the little choir loop rings out and it's pretty awesome. I can't qualify that this is new ground for them, but it's all a huge plus.

What's even more important, is that the central music of the band itself has dramatically improved. It's still deathcore, but there are lot more melodic death metal ingredients which recall the direction of At the Gates at they gained in popularity, and then further extracted by the Black Dahlia Murder who I just mentioned. Hell, there are moments in tracks like "Crowned in Everblack" where you can almost discern a Swedish melodic black metal influence, often pretty derivative in structure, and predictable in pattern, but when fired up as just another weapon in an arsenal that includes blasting, hammering, grooving, and atmospherics, it adds a lot to what is already a loaded sound. The instruments here are technical marvels, from the dizzying drums of Shawn Cameron to the rhythms and leads of Cory Arford and Neal Tiemann. Anything you'd want out of your modern, polished extreme metal (think current Cattle Decapitation), these guys can mete out effortlessly, if not innovatively.

The vocals are still a slight sore spot with me, not because they are bad, but they're just the typical range of gutturals and snarls you'd expect from others in this niche, including those I've mentioned, but it's not that they are bad...they are professionally executed to a fault, it's simply that they never establish any unique identify for the band. However, I could say this about a lot of death metal or deathcore acts, and they function well enough. I noticed that a few of the tunes here seemed to be playing around with a little more of a progressive structure between the walls of chugging, for example "The Pathless Forest", and I think this is a good direction for Carnifex to explore, as they already have a lot of the moshing crowd pleasers to fall back on in their back catalogue. This album was a really nice surprise, and I was happy to actually buy a copy (for the first time), to eat some serious crow, and put it on the shelf next to my Lorna Shore, Fit for an Autopsy, and whatever scant few albums like this I actually have in the collection. In fact I'll probably backtrack and check out the few before this to hear what I might have been missing. 

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.carnifexmetal.com/

Undead - Existential Horror (2019)

If you put Existential Horror on the turntables for me while you had me in a blindfold, no access to any other information beyond the sound, I'd surmise that this was yet another band playing on that 'uglier' fringe of classic Swedish death metal. The rhythms have a punk-like push to them akin to the Discharge influence adapted by many in that scene, though they don't always do this through the traditional D-beat. A lot of the faster tremolo riffs here definitely take me back to the debuts by Dismember and Entombed, the guitar tone has that abrasive density, and the vocals are just horrific growls, with a good level of sustain on some lines, but they don't really delve far into the morbid guttural depths. The mix of the album is also putrid and raw, clearly not going for that later death & roll punch but something totally putrescent for the cemetery-minded.

So imagine my surprise that this is a Spanish band, and with the blindfold off, I can now see the very cool if minimalist horror film artwork that instantly gives off its Fulci zombie vibes. Which, admittedly, is a great fit for this sound, and not only do I like the look of the album, but also the tunes. In saying that, though, I do feel like I'm breaking a few personal rules, because I think Existential Horror is a record with an overall entertainment value that is sketched together from some fairly average components. Most of the riff patterns play out in accordance with those we've heard thousands of time, there is little variation and they it wouldn't kill them to spurt out some surprising melodies or dissonant twists to help spice up the festivities. The pacing is largely the same throughout the track-list, with a couple points where they break it down to something almost more mid-speed, or early Death-like in the tremolo-picked groove of "Curse of the Undead", and if I'm not quite in the mood, this debut can feel quite monotonous...

But I still like it. The earthy guitar tone feels like dead meat being packed in a morgue, the bass is thick and swarthy, and the tinny crashing of the drums proves to be a cool foil for the other instruments. If a lead erupts, it's usually messy and ugly and distorted sounding but somehow works for all its flaws, and the vocalist has that cool, raving mid-range growl which feels perfectly hostile among the grimness of the band's carnal momentum. I know that if I stop to think about it, parts of this could feel dull, it's certainly not an album I'm listening to based upon the strengths of its individual riffs or solos, but more from a general gore-whore sensibility where I'm beholden to some frenzied carnage and don't need to think much beyond the pain of every blow from the meat tenderizing, every tendon clipped by the scalpel, every limb hacked off by the chainsaw and then used to bludgeoning someone else. It's a sugar rush of morbid intensity that offers nothing more or less than what it promises from the cover.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.curseoftheundead.com/

Xorsist - Deadly Possession (2022)

It's 1991. You've got Left Hand Path and Like an Everflowing Stream. You are hooked. You want more. Sifting through the demos and tape trades, you might come across something quite akin to what Xorsist recorded for their first full-length Deadly Possession, albeit the general levels of loudness and production that mark it as a more contemporary release. This is one of the gloomier bands I've come across using the sound, not only in obvious places like the "Gold Beneath the Sand" intro with its eerie clean guitars, bells and drums, but across the whole of its production. Xorsist seems like an attempt to take that prototypical Swedish style manifest by Nihilist, Carnage, and the aforementioned and then sink it a few feet deeper into that old bog that now doubles as a graveyard.

Does it work? In some ways, I can say that the band pays an adequate homage to their countrymen and forebears. Once the speed picks up and the guitars are roiling around, there are strong Left Hand Path vibes, only with a riff-set that feels derivative and uninteresting. Cast into this murky, impenetrable night that they've chosen for the production aesthetics, I hear a lot of potential, it stirs up the same sorts of feelings that I got back at the turn of the 80s-90s decade when I first encountered the sound. But in terms of writing tracks that are exciting or memorable, they fall behind. The transitions on the album feel a bit sloppy in places, whether by design or not, I never felt like they were capitalizing on the shifts between the blast beats or the loping, primordial grooves. Chord choice is probably also at fault, so much of the material doesn't stick, and though the primitive leads are appreciated when they appear, they too don't cultivate a lot of compelling or eerie atmosphere; like they've clamped on to the correct placement but not yet thought the patterns or squealing effects through.

The bass is voluminous and dense, and the drums have a good natural clatter to them, but they've got little of quality to drive forward and also have a few jarring fills and transitions. Vocals are a nihilistic (ha!) bark that suits the material but doesn't ever feel quite psychotic enough. In terms of the weighted gloom of the production, though, I do rather like that, it definitely matches the spooky horror mood of the album's themes even though the music itself isn't the greatest. There are a few moments where Deadly Possession does actually together, like the lead roaring out into the atmosphere of "Alive", or the punky, thundering energy of the verse to "Cranial Nails", or the title track, which is tucked back at the end of the track list, but warbles between some brighter, grind vibes and ripping death metal, with some cool vocals on the grooves, only the transitions on this one also feel a bit underdeveloped

Does this tide you over in 1991 while you're waiting for the next drops from your Swedish faves? It might, honestly, but considering that we're multiple decades into this niche, the album just doesn't come across as strongly as something like the Katakomba s/t debut I was drooling over recently. Deadly Possession has its black, rotting heart in the right place. Cool cover art, logo, even the band name really brings you back, reminiscent of pre-Obituary. This also has that swampy, frightening atmosphere going for it, through which some lonely wandering soul might not know what could approach behind any gravestone, any withered tree, but the songs and instruments are inconsistent, something they'll actually work on for their sophomore At the Somber Steps of Serenity, without dropping the rawness and ugliness that defines their take on the style. Deadly Possession isn't a bust, exactly, if you want your death metal rough around the edges, putrid, evil and gut-wrenching, but the songs themselves just don't bring as much enjoyment as the atmosphere created around them.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://www.instagram.com/xorsistofficial/

Seven Doors - Feast of the Repulsive Dead (2023)

England's Ryan Willis has become somewhat of a commodity of late within the horror/death metal underground, launching a number of acts simultaneously and maintaining a fairly prolific release schedule over the past half-decade, managing a decent level of quality throughout. I'd covered his campy camp slasher collaboration Blood Rage not long ago, before going exploring through his other work, and one of the standouts was the debut full-length Feast of the Repulsive Dead by Seven Doors. This one caught me for its stronger songwriting, balancing out a number of influences to create something that doesn't fall too closely under the shadow of any one seminal death metal icon of the past. Looking at the cover, or perusing the song titles, you'd think you might be getting something in the vein of Cannibal Corpse or The 'Tish, but it never broadcasts an excess of brutality, honing in instead on accessible structures, solid riffs and great leads.

You can certainly catch a whiff of rancid Floridian gloom, with riffs like the lead-in to the title track channeling a bit of Leprosy or Slowly We Rot, and this is found throughout the album, with some slight touches of Chuck's more melodic riffing elsewhere. However, the meatiness of Willis' rhythm guitars and the blunt guttural catapult this into a more contemporary sound, one that might have populated the ranks of a label like Razorback Records had it come out 10-15 years ago. But Seven Doors goes further, with a lot of mosh-driven groove carving out the grave-dirt, a few tints of the more brutal death metal you'd expect, especially when the riffs ramp up in pace. It's also clearly finding its footing in the thrash roots that would later morph into that genre, in particular where he's let the guitar crunch off on its own to set up some exciting new progression. And that 'crunch' is awesome, a thick and clenching tone without going into HM-2 overdrive. But what really puts this record into the 'must own' category for me are the scorching leads in tracks like "The Morbid Mortician", well-composed and catchy flights that elevate an already-appreciable riff-set into something I want to keep spinning repeatedly. A few of the more elaborate solos do hail from guest guitarists like Paul of De Profundis, but the praise stands.

Drums are mechanistic, suited to the task and never stepping in the way, but this is one area in which the project could probably improve its personality. Don't get me wrong, the rides, the rolls, the fills, it's all placed where it needs to be, but a more acoustic kit would go a long way. I mentioned the gutturals, and they're quite solid if nothing nuanced or unique. He'll add to these some runty snarls so you're getting a more Carcass or Exhumed vibe, and I think the latter band is a pretty apt comparison...Seven Doors doesn't go as grindy as that, but it carries that same 'fun death metal' vibe that I admire so much about Harvey and crew, something I can put in the CD player and listen through without ever needing to skip tracks. Willis varies up the thrashing, the tremolo-picking, and grooves well enough while keeping consistent threads running through them, specifically the more clinical riffs he plants under some of the leads which chop out some of the most memorable moments across the album.

Thematically this guy likes his guts and gore, and Seven Doors certainly sounds evil enough to honor those zombie and slasher flicks, although it's not too heavy on atmosphere or dissonance. This is more 'Hatchet' or its sequels than 'The Shining', if that makes any sense, a workmanlike and entertaining effort with plenty of muscle in the production and performance, but not likely to haunt your dreams in between listens. We're so deep into the death metal generations by now that I'm sure many purists will find this style arbitrary and recycled, but I've found as I get older that I just don't grow tired of a well crafted album like this one. Good for Halloween, good for horror buffs, great for death metal fans approaching from a number of directions, whether old school or more extreme and gore-splattered. I hope Ryan will prioritize Seven Doors among his legion of output so we can get more in the future. 

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://sevendoorsdm.bandcamp.com/