Chapel of Disease - The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art (2015)

The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art seems like a pretty huge step forward for a sophomore outing, trading in the brash (if appreciable) old school death metal overtures of its predecessor for a more expansive, atmospheric, interesting experience without abandoning those same roots. There are structural similarities, this is not breaking the mold and transforming the medium into something necessarily new, but there's a constant vibe of the musicians losing themselves into the world they are creating with their instruments that is rare outside of a handful of other bands like Stargazer, Morbus Chron, maybe some modern Tribulation without the Goth, etc. It's a lot of death, a little doom metal, tremolo picked melodies, decent leads, and a little bit of reverb and airiness that foreshadow some of the even more progressive alterations they'd make in their sound to the future.

It's also a record which is catchy enough, but not so catchy that individual riffs or passages outshine its sum presentation. This is a roadmap with a lot of small details, like brief flurries of acoustic guitars that match up well to the doomy chords ("Masquerade in Red", "Symbolic Realms"), blackened barrages alternated with even more psychedelic, spooky clean guitar segues ("Life is But a Burning Being"), or even some blitzing death/thrash passages like those that populate the 10+ minute half of the 'titular' tracks that bookmark the disc. The vocals still possess the harshness of the debut record, but they also remind me of a more aggressive version of Johannes from Tribulation, that same atmospheric and blunt nihilism to the delivery which works well against either the more sinister or melodic instrumentation. The drums are another feature, rolling and thundering all over the panoply of riffs which are slathered in a stone that feels appropriately distorted but organic, punchy and impactful but also nestling right into the rhythm without blaring over anything else.

Chapel of Disease had discovered a means to take their sound into something more distinct than Summoning Black Gods, not that there was anything wrong with that debut sound, in fact some of the vocals on that record were a lot wilder and more memorable than these. But the production here, while certainly more laid back, just does a superior job at transporting the listener, peaking in the bridge lead melodies of "Lord of All Death" which completely hypnotized me. The Mysterious Ways is a far more balanced and immersive affair, regardless of whatever death metal cred it drops, and it shouldn't, because this record is still metal as hell, never overly polished and occasionally quite ominous, elevating them into one of the better German death metal acts with ease.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/ChapelOfDisease

Skeletal Remains - Condemned to Misery (2015)

Condemned to Misery continues to act as an amalgamation of the same familiar influences that defined the Skeletal Remains debut, but that's hardly a negative when those components are drawn from the rare breed of Death, Pestilence and their ilk throughout their 80s and 90s tenures as spearheads for the death metal genre. That's not to say this band is ever performing a 1:1 ripoff of anyone, but it's clear that some of the riffing patterns and style are drawn from the first three Death records, the vocals channel Chuck with a little Martin van Drunen or John Tardy over the top, and frankly if these first couple records by the Californians arrived in a parallel reality, they might well have been successors to Spiritual Healing had the O.G.s gone for something sideways and slightly more brutal rather than the nerdy and progressive.

I do hear a smattering of new elements here, like the brutal rhythmic choices in "Euphoric Bloodfeast" or the opening to "Atrocious Calamity" which sound as if they might have come from Cannibal Corpse's Bloodthirst, and that's important to note since I feel that, as good as they already were, the more choppy and aggressive the band would grow on subsequent albums would only improve them. In addition, a lot of the palm muted tremolo picked rhythms often have a little bit more harmony woven into them, it's just a fraction different than what their influences would write, but makes a difference. The leads are also a bit more involved here, generally well written and implementing a number of techniques, but I feel that they do often suffer from a little extra lengthiness where they pass some emotional climax and then feel more like an exercise until the band escapes the bridge. The drums are unending thunder, with lots of nice fills, and the bass is efficiently bodied but only gets a few moments to roll off on its own. The rhythm guitar has a good punch to it, a modernized Morrisound vibe but without too much of the muffling that marred a few of those old albums at the dawn of the 90s.

There are a decent variety of riffs, most memorable enough to justify their existence, although I don't feel that the band excels here on any particular tune more than its neighbors, and there's never quite a section that I would have wanted to spin repeatedly. The lyrics definitely read like some of Chuck Schuldiner's darker philosophical musings but occasionally get more visceral and violent like, say, earlier Suffocation. Condemned to Misery is, for my money, just as good as the debut and perhaps a little more advanced, but the derivation does hold it back some, never a facsimile of its forebears, but close enough in certain rhythm guitar riffs or vocal patterns that you feel they haven't quite broken out of tribute mode to their own idols. That said, those happen to also be some of MY idols, so I have a fun time whenever I spin through this sophomore outing, so it's worthwhile, just know what you're getting.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal

Arcturus - Arcturian (2015)

Arriving a decade after Sideshow Symphonies, I recall Arcturian being a relief for me, as I felt I might never hear from this Norse supergroup again, its members so involved with other projects that saw a more direct level of success. When this finally showed up, I was instantly smitten, as it sounded like the band hadn't skipped one scatterbrained beat, with material just as wild, varied and weird as La masquerade infernale or its 2005 predecessor, only catchier like the records I greatly preferred throughout their career (The Sham Mirrors). It's another fusion of black metal, classical influences, and experimentation, but matured and really well balanced to appeal to fans of all their catalogue, with little nods here or there to particular tracks or records from the past, but still feeling forward, grasping at new tricks as early as the tubahorn that blares through the opener "The Arcturian Sign".

And though that's probably my least favorite tune on the album, it's still an intense exhibition of the members' individual chops, like Hellhammer's percussive flexing and ICS Vortex' yowling, atop the sinister symphonic swells that tether it to the genre that birthed it. The songcraft dramatically improves with the lush, swirling "Crashland" and its beautiful strings, or "Warp" which sends the band out across the universe with its infusion of beats, ambiance, and weird sci-fi keyboard sounds, something that was surely hinted at through lyrics and tunes in the past, but here becomes the most apparent. "The Journey" goes even more electronica with those continued seasonings of world music, multi-instrumentation and odd but soothing whispers and choirs that stretch across the atmosphere like a membrane. There are even tunes here like "Archer" or "Pale" that wouldn't have seemed out of place on the debut album, so it's quite cool how this feels like an ouroboros that hears the band swallowing its own tail once venturing past its own brain area.

The instrumentation is supreme, from the little blitzes of flagellant leads to the stark orchestration and aforementioned drumming that is at times as fast and hard-hitting as anything else HH has performed. The production is airy but clear, capturing both the depths of space and the Renaissance quirkiness the group seems to shift between. There's still a little bit of the goofiness you'd expect, particularly in Vortex's vocals and the carnival-like structure of the closer "Bane", but it never pushes it too far so that it takes over the more serious side, it's more cynical than silly. This was just an awesome comeback, the first year or so I might have considered it their best work, but I think The Sham Mirrors still holds that honor, with this a worthy second. Sadly, the band has taken another ten year hiatus from the studio by this time, but they've stuck around for some great live performances, and there are buzzings of new material to come. If that's going to be the cycle, where I get new Arcturus every decade, then I suppose I'll take it.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/arcturusnorway

Satyricon - Live at the Opera (2015)

It is the hubris of many a rock or metal band to perform with an opera or orchestra in either a live or studio setting, to record it for posterity (or bragging rights), and lucky are the few who get to do so. Whether it's through financial ability, or knowing the right people, it's hardly a rare occurrence, and when Satyricon got their chance they decided to do it with style, the product of which is a DVD and double audio CD along with the Norwegian National Opera Chorus, as part of a cultural series that I assume other acts got to participate in. I'll be honest, I'm a little envious, not because I want to do something like this for any of my own music, but because I only dream that a lot of North American extreme metal bands would get to try it. Imagine Cryptopsy or Cannibal Corpse playing alongside an orchestra? I'd love to hear it.

But it's an even rarer occurrence that such a mash-up of musical mediums actually manifests into something as interesting as this effort, one that transforms material from across the Norwegian duo's career into something more multi-dimensional without losing all of its original characteristics. The material has been elevated into a dark-lit escape, a "Carmina Burana" dosed with black & roll guitars, Frost-ian thunder drums and Satyr rasping. I think a lot of the band's slower material off the 4-5 studio albums just before this one lend themselves pretty well to the layering in of the choirs, which is where so much of the content is drawn, with the earliest albums pretty much untouched. Something like "Den siste", which already had choir vocals and such on The Age of Nero, isn't terribly different, but it sounds much more epic in this setting, whereas tracks from the middling eponymous album from 2013 actually are quite elevated..."The Infinity of Time and Space", "Phoenix", "Tro og kraft", all take on new life and I wonder if I just would have preferred that album had it been all orchestrated...

The big one for me, of course, was hearing "Mother North", and this also sounds cool, how the choir voices lift through the faster tremolo riffing. I don't know if it's ultimately necessary to bolster such an already-impressive piece, and the drums feel a bit subdued and mechanical here and elsewhere on the track list, and it does seem a little cluttered as they're trying to weigh down each moment with the added chorus, but when Satyr shouts 'Oslo...' you can tell the audience is into it and this might be the very number the audience was also waiting for. But I think the better uses of this accompaniment come with some of the simpler tracks where it's applied more subtly. As for the video itself, this might be the better way to experience it all, since it's more or less a standard Satyricon live show only with the choir looming behind them, so the obvious passion of the performance makes up for any of its overbearing qualities, especially the more contemplative, evil moments. All together, though, a cool project that isn't wasting anyone's time or money, and one best left to a solitary product like this one.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.satyricon.no/

Blood Incantation - Interdimensional Extinction EP (2015)

Blood Incantation is one of the foremost entities to reap the death metal whirlwind of the last decade, expanding upon the cosmic sound of groups like Morbid Angel, Gorguts and the unknown Timeghoul through intelligent songwriting and really honing down their material to what counts. Hell, not including their ambient distractions and a handful of the demo tunes, they've only got about 14 metal tracks from this Interdimensional Extinction EP all the way to the present on the major releases, but they've made a huge splash regardless, landing themselves onto big tours, topping a myriad of years' end lists from various bloggers and publications, and already establishing some genuine staying power within the genre, assuming they stick with it (more on that later).

I didn't quite clamp on to Interdimensional Extinction at first, it was Starspawn that really drew me into the band's sound, but in retrospect, as I revisit this, I think it might be their best-produced of the extreme material, a compelling burst of slightly technical, progressive death metal which calls on anything from their Floridian forebears to hints of the old Finnish scene. The songwriting is varied, from faster melodic sequences to flailing leads and a few concentrated, mid-paced elements which might even channel a little epic death/doom ("Hovering Lifeless"). There's a little Moog playing here too which definitely exerts the nerdier prog inspirations, and its presence helps place this album into the sphere of related works like Spheres by Pestilence with all its synth-guitars, even though it's nowhere near as out there and not quite so original. This is more playing around in a swirling, pure death metal context and just putting out some feelers into the unknown, like a rocket hurtling to an eldritch universe and making first contact with the spawn of the Old Ones existing there.

What's most impressive to me about Blood Incantation is how they create such an otherworldly sound while remaining so organic. Listening through their first few releases, I always get the impression they can pull this off quite closely in the rehearsal space or on the stage, there's an honesty, where a lot of spacier bands will pull out every studio trick possible or wank off their technical wizardry. The Coloradan trio does none of that here, it's pure raw talent, and warmer tones, with a genuine pump to the rhythm guitars, clear and blazing leads that don't attempt to polish themselves off too much, maintaining just a trace of the unhinged. The drums are very good and there's also a fretless session bassist, the latter reminding me of Tony Choi when he was doing Pestilence of Cynic although I'll admit I can't quite tell the difference with the frets or not in some cases. But in this mix, everything shines, there's nothing repressed and its easy to hear how they've cultivated so much respect.

Interdimensional Extinction is easily one of the better 'introduction' EPs in death metal this last decade, and going back to it I think it might even be one of my favorite releases from the band, if not the singular favorite, though it's not as corpulent or escapist as Starspawn. It's just the right blend of grounded and weird, with a lot of haunting details like the vocal clamor at the end of "Subterranean Aeon", or the creepy clean guitars that herald "Hovering Lifeless" while the snappy, jazzy drums attack right into the blasting, ensuing mayhem. Absolutely worth picking up now as the EP is much more readily available than when the band first broke out.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/BloodIncantationOfficial/

Satan - Atom by Atom (2015)

Life Sentence was one of the greatest comebacks launched in all of British heavy metal history, and as far as I'm concerned, the band could have packed it all up, called it a day, and been content. But that was never an option, because Satan's reformation was going to become the rule, not the exception...they were about to surge into a period of productivity and relevance that very easily eclipsed their 80s cult classics. Touring, studio albums, the works, and not only remaining steadfast to their original sound, but bringing with them the experience that the members picked up in Pariah, Skyclad or Blitzkrieg. Yes, if this album resembles Blaze of Obscurity just as much as Court in the Act, I don't think that's any mistake, these were essentially the same band, and the modern crop of Satan releases are richer for it.

This is another incredible album, full of ceaseless, quality riffing that doesn't just honor the traditions that birthed it, but pushes the medium forward even so many decades later. That's what I love about these newer Satan albums, and why I enjoy them even more than the beloved debut, because there's very little here that seems stuck in the slough of nostalgia. Yes, that's the sound, but Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins are bringing a wealth of creative ideas to the riffing which span all those decades of heavy, power, even a little thrash, and it sounds just as potent in the 21st century as it did during the era of spandex and hair spray. Just listen to the craftsmanship in "Farewell Evolution" or "Ruination", you can't go even a few seconds without some explosive of delicious ear-candy. The variation is expansive, yes they do focus in a lot on flighty, melodic, fast picking lines, but the leads are uniformly exquisite, and there's a lot of glorious emotion packed into every single moment of the experience. Graeme's bass playing is as thick and flexible as ever, still a match against the rest of the band, and even Sean Taylor sounds more invigorated than ever he was in the 80s.

As for Brian, guy doesn't sound like he's aged a day, although he definitely stays in his stronger zone here, with less of the stray screams that occasionally permeated the earlier material. Hell, I think he just sounds better, listen to how his pipes carry out over the melancholic and powerful bridge in "Ruination", or how he can inflect a little nastiness in there like Michael Jackson used to on Suspended Sentence. But most importantly, the guy is just totally distinct...he sounds nothing like Biff, or Bruce, or Rob, or Ozzy, or John G., and yet he's every bit as good of a singer. Sure, he's not who you turn for if range is your only thrill, but his voice flows so well over this material, there's a wavering quality to his performance which seems like a confident, spectral general guiding his soldiers to battle. Add to this the impeccable, organic feel to the production on this record and its neighbors...the guitars are crystal clear and mighty without needing tons of extra fuzz or gain, it all feels so warm and perfect without seemingly like it has some poppy overpolish. Eliran Kantor continues to capture the debut album's spirit with the artwork he's provided for all these new Satan albums, and while it lacks the total surprising impact I felt from Life Sentence, this one is very nearly in that ballpark of quality.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.satanmusic.com/

Armored Saint - Win Hands Down (2015)

I have to admit guiltily, that until I decided to revisit through all the Armored Saint albums, I had nearly forgotten that Win Hands Down even existed. After the lamentable La raza, we had hit a point where the band would sort of continue indefinitely, putting out new studio efforts at least before the turning of entire generations would pass. And while this one is not among my favorites of their catalogue, I can say that it probably wasn't fair to neglect it, because they definitely ramped the heaviness back up for this one, and it kicks both Revelation and La raza sternly up the backside, with the first couple tracks alone superior to anything you'll find on either of those. Really, listening back through this, it feels like a setup for Punching the Sky, which is the disc that really brought back that old magic for me.

This album definitely recognizes a few outside influences, from the groove metal that must have filtered over from John's years in Anthrax, to the Eastern meditative acoustics that feel like Ravi Shankar was sitting in for "Mess", or "Muscle Memory" with its unique sounding chorus and backing vocals.  But it's important that these are just seasonings to what is otherwise a pretty hard hitting, impactful effort. The title track is going for another epic status like "Reign of Fire", not even remotely as good or catchy, but there's a genuine energy and excitement here from the entire band, which has the same configuration as the last 25 years before it. Most of the tunes have some faster or groovier parts, even when they kick off as a ballad like "In an Instant", you're going to be treated to some great riffs and vocals at some point, you can be assured. Even "Dive", which is the GENUINE ballad here, has the same care and catchiness you'd come to expect from their more varied material since Symbol of Salvation, and there really aren't any tracks here that make me cringe...a few dumb lyric lines here or there, some riffs that go nowhere, but by and large Win Hands Down is competent.

Production is super clean and effective, though it definitely has that modern, polished pump to it from a lot of pop and 2000s radio rock. I don't think the band surpasses itself performance-wise, John clearly still has some range to his delivery, but the other musicians aren't pushing themselves, they seem to have plateau'd back in 1991 and are more focused on writing catchy tunes than pushing the envelope of their style any further. In a time now dominated with LARPing power metal nerds that play their instruments like Yngwie on PEDs, it's refreshing to hear Armored Saint aligned more alongside the old heads in groups like Saxon or Diamond Head that are still putting out good music in their genuine style, simply dressing it up like it belongs in today's market and not the 80s. This is not an album I can remember long after listening, which probably explains my initial memory hiccup, but while I'm into it I can fully enjoy almost all of the tunes, even though it's a little bloated at 51 minutes. However, if this album is to be credited with getting them ready for its follow-up, all the power to it.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.armoredsaint.com/

Annihilator - Suicide Society (2015)

And just like that, after years of gradual evolution into an Annihilator that was worth listening to again, the Dave Padden era had come to an end, and Jeff Waters took over the vocal duties himself once more, bringing in some other backups just to round out the production. Mike Harshaw of Feast and Re-Kill remained on the kit, and he gives quite a thundering performance on an album that is at once similar to those before it, but offers an even huger, more modern sound, and a lot more groove through some proggy elements as evidenced by the opening title track. The vocals here have a little bit of a sleazy hard rock vibe to them, but they at least work in the context of the track, and they are also captured really loudly at the forefront of the recording without dragging it all down.

"My Revenge" comes EXTREMELY close to "Damage, Inc." off Master of Puppets, to the point where it gets a little uncomfortable, and then the album continues to go off the deep end with the atmospheric rock track "Snap" and the punky-flavored propulsion of "Creepin' Again". Suicide Society brings in a lot of scattered influences and I think the album has a little more trouble finding its footing than the two before it. There's still a lot of energetic thrash, and some really catchy vocal passages that use the more smooth and melodic style that Dave Padden had also been using on some of the discs he fronted, but the lion's share of this material sounds like its transitional, Waters firing off some ideas and seeing what sticks, and the only reason this is all held afloat is because the production is just so enormous and straight to the face, brightening the punch of even the lamest tracks. I'm not saying its great, and some of the Metallica stuff is distracting (he even says "No remorse..." in one of them), but here's another case where you could render down the fat and come up with a very solid EP of ideas that push the band forward and backwards simultaneously.

Some great guitar parts, some derivative, it's almost as if Waters was trying to dig in and perhaps wasn't quite confident of where to go with this, but at the same time he had grown into a producer that can mix the fuck out of it all. At this point, he really could have stepped down and charged quite lucrative prices to produce and record other bands, because the thing just erupts from my speakers and in terms of 'modern' production its one of their best, again not losing speed or heaviness from the professional level of polish. But the songs here really only fire me up about 50% of the time, and I hadn't found myself ever returning to listen to this one before the review series. But for its flaws, Suicide Society still clobbers all the studio albums he put out from about 1993-2007.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (2015)

Iron Maiden's first double-album arrived at an era in which the band would be highly unlikely to fill 90 minutes with the sort of immortal, quality material that marked their ascent through the 80s, but the hope is that you can pick through all of its bloated carcass and find a few bits of tasty meat within, which you can then carve away from the fat. After years of trying, I can't seem to find enough of that choice protein. The Book of Souls is no hit machine, but rather the sort of record one grows to appreciate merely because of its experiential qualities. A good 90% of the material present on these two discs is harvested from similar and superior songwriting from across the band's past, but reconfigured just enough to feel like it still might be relevant, and the result is a pretty pleasant chunk of Iron Maiden lite that is well suited to background aural radiation...but you see, it's still Iron Fucking Maiden, and that matters.

I enjoyed this one for what it was when it first dropped, but admittedly had it shelved for years before deciding to finally draft up some thoughts on it. Listening now, it's much as I felt back then, professionally and competently executed Maiden with all the trademarks: mid to slow, plodding, majestic rhythms that occasionally stir an emotional response, Bruce Dickinson's distinct pipes sounding as well oiled as they've been in the 21st century, and a lot of interesting subject matter to inspire its lyrics. Toss in a production so clean that you could sniff Eddie's mummy dust off its surface without contamination, and add to that a rather simplistic but effective cover with the mascot looking his creepy best. Being an hour and a half of content with 11 tracks, there are bound to be a lot of overstuffed songs, and few of them really warrant the riffing and arrangement to justify that; but even if you take "The Red and the Black" at its 13 minute whole, there is still enough of the dreamy escapist quality to their classic material circa Somewhere in Time or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son or even Brave New World to not hit the Skip button. "Empire of the Clouds" at 18 minutes seems a little more adventurous, akin to a "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", sans the excellent payoffs and narrative quality of that track.

When they do occasionally manage to pick up the pace for chunks of  "When the River Runs Deep" or "Death or Glory", you immediately perk up, because it just stands out from the more gleaming, polished melancholy that comprises so much of the remainder. Both of these tunes are worth hearing extracted from The Book of Souls as a whole, but even then if I were to compare them to the classics of yore, they still tend to come up short in terms of having legendary choruses. The leads throughout the album are serviceable, but again you rarely get anything past 'just alright', and Iron Maiden is never a band that should settle for 'just alright', or anything less than excellence. I've seen other refer to this album as Iron Maiden 'covering' themselves, and I don't know that I agree with that, it all seems genuine enough, only played too safely, like the well of ambition behind these legends has run dry, and they've sealed it off rather than wait for that rainfall of ingenuity to arrive again. The Book of Souls gives them something more to tour on, to rally around, to churn out a bunch of non-challenging, acceptable tunes, but I'd much rather they tried to kick us all in the proverbial balls again (in a good way, not a Virtua XI way) and fail, then summon up another lukewarm offering like this one.

This album does manage to squeak by on my scale, hitting all the superficial chords I expect, with decent lyrics and production, but there's just no "Wicker Man" here. No "Can I Play With Madness?". No "Powerslave". And hearing how obviously competent the band remains, I think they could still pull such glories off, it's just going to require a little more pickiness in the writing phase, and a long look in the mirror without the shave.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.ironmaiden.com/

Minneriket - Vargtimen (2015)

The first time looking at the Minneriket logo, I am reminded of America's own Leviathan, which is ironic since both bands practice a mix of black metal and ambient, in some cases with a fairly similar sound. Anyway, this is a Norse band new to me, and as I try to keep up every few years with that all that scene has to offer, I was intrigued to find out that this artist, Stein Akslen, has been chipping away quite productively. This debut is rather a mixed bag, in that it conveys some rather generic elements of the style, but it does so with a fascinating atmosphere that kept me engaged even when the riffing and musicianship could not. It's not quite as loose or formless as a project like Abruptum, but it's quite raw, unfiltered and inaccessible, which was likely the point.

The beats are cold, mechanical, lifeless, and while that's a proper companion to the music itself, I did find it rather monotonous, especially when they are being crowned by what seem like bursts of sporadic rasped vocals that don't seem to follow the guitar patterns. Speaking of which, while they often burst out into actual riffing, they often themselves feel like they are being added only as shades of noise to create an evil backdrop. At best, they'll create some dissonant repetition that fades in and out of the clamor, almost more effective in this purely atmospheric capacity than they are at constructing purely aggressive patterns, but of course you do recognize some sequences that are standard black metal with half-step variations in one direction or the other.

In other tunes ("Blodets Hvisken") they are performed as slower, almost droning chords smothered in distorted fuzz that take on a trace-like, noise quality. Neither end of this album's spectrum is particularly compelling, but where the synths or industrial elements show up there is definitely some potential, because you just feel like you're on watching from the sidelines at some societal collapse. Vargtimen is supremely unfriendly, uncaring, mechanistic, the black metal that low-grade industrial robots might compose upon the factory floor, and I think to that extent it works, but lyrically there are clearly some other themes here like "Wolf" and "Fra Yggdrasill". Certainly no trend-jumping here, but Vargtimen is not the best of Minneriket and recommended only to those who want a raw blast of dismal reality to the dome.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Soilwork - The Ride Majestic (2015)

Where The Living Infinite might have had a little too much ambition and material for its own good, Soilwork would return a couple years later with an album that was more reined in, but no less epic in production and scope. The Ride Majestic was impressively arranged, with a crystal clear production that never lacks for punch, and doused in some of the band's heavier material since the first few years of their existence. The tracks here have a lot of layers, balancing off the newfound extremity with the penchant for melodic hooks and choruses which they were in no danger of abandoning. This is also another 'grower' of an album, I know it didn't receive the greatest response when it arrived, but having gone back to it through the years it just feels richer and denser each time, and like Sworn to a Great Divide, it's one of the albums that notched up in my estimation as I've torn back through the whole discography.

If you missed the metal-ness and intensity that the Swedes were always capable of, but only letting trickle through the records over the decade before this one, The Ride Majestic has your back, and this is moored by what might be Dirk Verbeuren's best performance on a Soilwork record. Speed helped write the shit out of this album, but the dual guitar onslaught of Sylvain Coudret and the late David Andersson was all up in your face with great work that melds catchy, potent rhythm guitars and melodies together in new ways that don't sound like the band are merely ripping themselves off. "Death in General" and "Petrichor in Sulphir" are excellent examples of the range here, technically proficient and yet constantly accessible, each track loaded with licks, beats and strong vocals slathered all over the top, even when the instruments are striking their most prog-laden passages. When Speed hits all the cool choruses here, the music remains relatively busy below, and I think if you were to look back at the spread of all their releases, this one might stand as one of their more technically adept.

But that wouldn't mean much without the songwriting, and The Ride Majestic is moving and emotional and inventive without betraying any of the core principles of the band. It's not a stretch to say that I wished this were the album to follow up Natural Born Chaos after a few years, it might not reach that level of veneration with me, but this is far and away my favorite album they've put out since that seminal four-album stretch of excellence which christened their career. There a few softer moments which feel like proggy platitudes, but otherwise this one is consistently rewarding me when I head back to it, and the pristine recording and veritable onslaught of fresh riffing ideas underpin a fire that I had not heard within the band's ranks for nearly 15 years before it, just a great time that I'm almost always happy to listen to when I'm not jerking Natural Born Chaos or The Chainheart Machine off the rack for the memories.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.soilwork.org/

Hooded Menace - Darkness Drips Forth (2015)

Darkness Drips Forth sounds partly like an experiment by Hooded Menace to flirt with a more funereal doom sound, not that it's quick to abandon the trappings that had defined the band to its date, but you can see in the swollen song-lengths and the slightly more glacial pacing that they were going for what might be their most saddening and serious album to its day. Add to that the rather bland (if still cool) cover artwork and you come away with what might be the most color-leeching of all their full-length albums, also fitting that motif. Fortunately, the Finns simply don't know how to fail at writing great music, and Darkness Drips Forth, with its four tracks in 40+ minutes, is quite the grower. I may not have had the same upfront positive reaction as I did with all their other albums, but I can say in all honesty that it has grown on me the most, reclaimed the most ground and nowadays its one I consider when I'm in the mood for the truly monolithic, sluggish death/doom but not quite ready to take the next step towards their countrymen Skepticism (which require another level of pathos and focus for me to handle).

The riffs on this are just as huge as other records, but drawn out appropriately to fill up the epic song lengths, and they all feel like they are being slowly carved into marble or granite, just staggering and Gothic and forcing the listener to abandon all hope within moments. The bass is awesome, slow and spun with just enough buzz on it to contrast against the mournful harmonies that are so vital to this sort of record succeeding, and often left alone a bit which is where the album actually feels more the most funeral. There are some brief flashes of cleaner guitars that are tastefully melded into the slowly lurching obelisk rhythms, and of course the gutturals here sound enormous, the perfect accompaniment to the style. It's not all death-drudging; the pace does pick up to a mid, rocking vibe in some spots, important to prevent any real monotony from setting in, and you often get a warmer sequence like that melody which sets in deep into "Elysium of Dripping Death", but that's clearly not the dominant offering.

Absolutely another quality Hooded Menace record, and it took me a little too longer to come to that realization, but I think this one is best when you're not interested in those little traces of horror kitsch humor that went into the earlier full-lengths. This is the band at its most ponderous and morose, cautiously crushing you through the certainty of their riffing strength and massive atmosphere. More of an homage to their old British Peaceville death/doom or funeral doom influences than their other efforts, perhaps, but still interchangeable with some of the material on the records that sandwiched it, Effigies of Evil or Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed. Realistically, you could dive into any of their works and come away comparably impressed, but just don't expect this one to give quite the same instant gratification that you'll find elsewhere. Persist, and suffer alongside it enough, and it will reveal its morbid magnificence.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://hoodedmenace.bandcamp.com/

Droid - Disconnected EP (2015)

Canada. Sci-fi. Thrash metal. The first thing that comes to mind is obviously Autothrall's favorite band in the world, Voivod, but the idea of hearing other bands from that same neighborhood perform their own spin on the concept is thrilling by osmosis. DBC's excellent Universe was a great example, and certainly we've heard that on the more technical death/thrash end of the scale with groups like Martyr and Obliveon, but the more recent Droid takes on a slightly less intense approach on their Disconnected EP which feels more like a fusion of classic thrash, heavy and speed metal with perhaps a handful of crossover strands in its DNA, and a healthy degree of involved or slightly technical riffing for an added level of depth.

While I'm not going to say that there isn't a little 80s Voivod influence in there, I think Droid does a pretty good job of establishing themselves as their 'own thing'. There are a lot of dissonant guitar chords that might recall Piggy, especially in "Cosmic Debt" which is their most punkiest, quirkiest, and the most similar to that influence; but also they use some other, warmer tones, and the agile licks that occupy tunes like "Breach Oblivion" certainly feel like they have more in common with other thrash scenes like the Teutonic school. The lead-work here is pretty outstanding, and they'll often throw up some nice atmospheric melodies that ring out over the busier rhythmic substrate. The bass-work is solid, grooving along not unlike a Blacky but nicely mixed in to support those crispier rhythm guitar tones. The vocals are a pretty straight crossover/thrash bark, not terribly interesting but certainly fit to the dystopian nature of the lyrics and concepts.

My one other small gripe is in the production, it's clear but fairly mundane and doesn't always emphasize some of the power of the guitars, but this is something they will improve upon their full-length, and to be honest, at worst this one just sounds like a great demo recording. It's authentic and sometimes dirty sounding, but never too splattery like a lot of Venom-worshipping black/thrash acts (which, to be fair, I do really love). I enjoy inventive, interesting thrash and speed metal, and while Droid don't reinvent any wheels on this, they're clearly distancing themselves from a lot of the more generic pizza party re-thrash outfits and coming up with good guitar licks that balance off mystery and melody, and Disconnected was a solid launching pad for something great.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/DroidDroidDroid

Vampire - Cimmerian Shade EP (2015)

I am not a vinyl collector. I've got a stack of old records from back in my youth, and a couple I've gotten through the years, or sent for review, but the CD is my format of choice, and things like the Cimmerian Shade 10" EP are some of the few reasons I regret that. Yes, I'm aware that this was available on a special tour edition of the debut, but I'm stuck with my normal copy of that disc, and a digital of Cimmerian Shade. So be it, but obviousy, you can already tell that I think this is fucking awesome, in fact a few of the tunes on this are among my favorite by Vampire, and that's saying a lot because the band is tremendous, and has yet to fail me in any regard, except for the arguable failure of not having an exclusive CD version of the EP for schlubs like this one...

Not as savage as the albums to follow it, but extremely compelling, melodic black metal ("Pyre of the Harvest Queen") that rages down much of the same roots, while the 'B' side tracks "Night Hunter" and "Hexahedron" are scorching examples of the band's more blackened/thrash, just nasty ass metal that blitzes on past you and leaves you branded with some catchy licks among chords powered by the classics like Hellhammer, Bathory, Venom, Slayer, and their ilk; only with that melodic black stuff mixed in there to make them even more multi-faceted. The instrumental "Sleeper in the Deep" is the odd one out here, a tranquil blend of ambient and acoustic guitars which is totally 'fine', but that's a crime when its matched up with all the rest of these songs. Cimmerian Shade is fantastic and played out like a quick and delicious notification that their excellent eponymous debut was not just going to prove a fluke. Curse you, vinyl collectors! By which I mean 'pity me'. :(

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://vampiretheband.bandcamp.com/music

Denner/Shermann - Satan's Tomb EP (2015)

I can't have been the only one excited when this new collaboration between Michael Denner and Hank Shermann was announced. It had been a good 19 years since they worked together on Mercyful Fate's Into the Unknown, and another couple years added to that since their last truly GREAT Fate work on Time, so I think a project such as this was overdue. Add in their fellow alumnus and prolific metal superstar Snowy Shaw on the drums, and some artwork and occult aesthetics which mirror their formative years of Don't Break the Oath, and the frothing of the fandom would reach pure rabies. It was probably too much to ask that they could also hook in one Kim Bendix Petersen, because then it would have to have become a proper Mercyful album, but they did end up with US power metal crooner Sean Peck...

And he's a capable singer, having fronted a lot of the albums his Cage, and other acts, though I can recall a tendency to go a little too overboard. Thankfully, he's rather restrained here, sounding pretty nasty at his mid-range but then keeping his highs in the range of Harry 'Tyrant', who come to think of it, would have also sounded quite nice on this. The only issue is that his presence thrusts the music itself into a little more of a USPM space, which isn't what I expected. Don't get me wrong, lots of the trademark groove and lead harmonies you'd expect from Denner and Shermann are prevalent here, but the voice and the way the tunes are put together don't always mirror that classic Danish vibe. You get a little Painkiller riffing structure (especially in "New Gods"), and then a few of the lower, leaden heavy parts do tread dangerously close into more of a groove metal thing. That said, for the majority of the four tracks and 21 minutes of material, this is pretty damn exciting, with Shaw and the lead guitars in particular giving kickass performances, and Sean getting to flex those pipes with plenty of personality over new territory.

I do feel some of his chorus lines never quite end up where I want to be note-wise, and there's just a fraction of try-hardness, but nowhere near as much as a Tim 'Ripper' Owens-fronted album, and Peck is genuinely, insanely talented. If you direct that voice properly, you've got an intimidating weapon, and I think for the most part, they do here. I even like the few surprises in store that escalating sequence deep into "New Gods" with the backing choir vocals hovering in the mix. Ultimately, Satan's Tomb does play out like a combination of Mercyful Fate and USPM like Cage, Jag Panzer or the Bruce Hall-fronted era of Agent Steel, and I have absolutely no problem with that. Maybe this is what Liege Lord would have sounded had they originated out of Copenhagen? If nothing else, a strong promise of what this project might pull off with a little more effort.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://dennershermann.com/

Lucifer I (2015)

It's nothing novel to hear some new Sabbath sounding upstart arrive on a label like Rise Above Records, but when the simply dubbed Lucifer dropped its debut in 2015, it was obvious to me immediately that this was something special, something slightly different. Granted, this album is the one we would most correlate with traditional doom metal, there are a lot of riffs here that feel as if Tony Iommi is playing along with a new singer, but other 70s hard rock influences like Heart do enter the picture in a few of the songs, foreshadowing the band's future. The band was formed by German vocalist Johanna Sadonis, and then most notably, the debut featured 'Gaz' Jennings, axeman doomlord extraordinaire via Cathedral, and a mix of other British and German musicians, all of whom, with the except of Johanna, lasted for just this one debut album...

And that might explain why this has a slightly different focus than the subsequent releases, but it's a great record all the same. Bright, catchy, and yet unmistakably evil when it wants to be, Lucifer I plays out like a more vintage rock Cathedral, replacing Lee's divisive grumblings with a voice both melodic and angelic. Jennings' guitars are great, whether he's flexing the doom muscles of his alma mater, or some dirtier riff patterns redolent of American groups like Pentagram and The Obsessed, or earlier influences, there's always something catchy to support Johanna's wailing, which is a lot more atmospheric than on the later records. Granted, there are occasions where the riffs go into some abrupt changes, and the material doesn't always feel the most fleshed-out, but for a debut it was already head and shoulders above a lot of the other 'mama' doom that had been coming out around the same time. Dino Gollnick and Andrew Prestridge round out the rhythm section really well, and the sparse synths and ghostly vocal layering and effects add another, ethereal dimension to the drudging darkness.

No tunes I'd consider weak here, but I most often crave the doomy triad of "Abracadabra", "Sabbath" (lol) and "Morning Star". That said, the acoustics in "Grave" are nice, and it has a nice metallic build-up, and it's all quality enough that the full 44 experience is rewarding. I admit that I do spin this one less than the three to follow it, but if you're most in tune with traditional doom metal, and not so much interested in the higher accessibility of the later albums, do not skip out on Lucifer I because it just might prove your favorite. And it's a testament to Lucifer that, no matter which lineup, the band is just so damned good that I can't argue with anyone's love of any of their output. The hours of enjoyment I've gotten listening to them in the last 6-7 years vastly outweigh the praise and thanks I could ever give them.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/luciferofficial

Helloween - My God-Given Right (2015)

I'd love to know what the band was thinking when they came up with some of their cover art choices...a post-nuclear-winter New York City being ruled over by robotic pumpkin-headed snowmen? It's kind of a neat idea, although the digital artwork is a little cheesy and dated. I also like this version of the logo with the central pumpkin wearing the Statue of Liberty's crown. But you dudes are German! As for the actual musical contents of My God-Given Right, they are definitely not fooling around, because it's another solidly crafted modern power metal album with all the flourishes you'd expect: ace musicianship, polished and powerful production, and Andi Deris flexing his vocals all over the spectrum with another charismatic performance that continues to quell his doubters.

This one goes for the throat immediately with a bunch of harder hitting, anthemic pieces anchored by some pretty heavy guitars and drums, then just built upon with the vocal harmonies and proggy guitar leads. The melodies might not be the catchiest they've ever conceived, but if you're a fan of records like Master of the Rings, Time of the Oath and Gambling With the Devil then this one delivers that particular style in spades, with perhaps a bit more heft to the rhythm section in the mix. I think some of the most memorable tracks come a little further in, with the rousing, mid-paced "Stay Crazy" and that absolutely awesome higher pitched vocal line in the chorus, followed by "Lost in America", which might answer my question above about the cover choice when they're from across the pond. That tune has a pretty plain buildup, but another epic chorus and then some really awesome lead tradeoffs in the bridge. "The Swing of a Fallen World" is another contender here with a groove to it that felt fresh and unique amongst the Helloween canon, and "Creatures in Heaven", "Claws" and "Living on the Edge" will take you surprise once you arrive there...totally hook-laden and formidable.

When this one first dropped, I wasn't too terribly impressed when comparing it with a lot of their other post-millennium works, but it's certainly more than merely solid, and repeated listens have continued to reward me, so it's kind of a shower AND a grower. Then newer Helloween guys Sascha and Dani have really settled into the lineup at this point, and the former even writes a bunch of the songs and lyrics, so we're faced with a group that hasn't really had much of a misstep since the earlier 90s, and they just keep laying it on with quality effort after effort...it's almost the point that its become exhausting. Even where I don't fully connect to a track enough that its going to possess that timeless quality in my collection, there is no possibility I could sit there and listen through this one without thoroughly enjoying it. Approved!

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.helloween.org/

Burial Ground/Grave Wax/Severed Limbs/Crospy Maniac - Four Paths to Horror (2015)

Four Paths to Horror is a 12 track split CD featuring four bands, three of which are projects from prolific death metal gurus Kam Lee, Rogga Johansson and Patrick Bruss, who combined must make up a not insignificant portion of death metal releases these last two decades. The idea of course is that all of these groups have a heavy lyrical bent on the horror genre, something that can probably also be said for the wealth of that trio's constituent bands. That is truly the connecting ligament on this release, because individual, while there are comparable traits between the acts, they often approach their genre with different production values and songwriting quality, and while that's not always an unwelcome factor on a split recording, it sometimes works to the detriment here because the level of professionalism seems highly inconsistent.

First off you have Americans Cropsy Maniac blasting through four tracks and six minutes of Carcass spawned deathgrind, starting off with some samples to their namesake slasher and then just bludgeoning you at high capacity with only a few hints at tossing in some background guitar melody or something that could actually make the tunes mildly more interesting. It doesn't quite work, and though I could say these guys are the most energetic on the split, they also gave me the least return. Belgium's Burial Ground, a group that has existed almost entirely on the demo/split level thus far, dishes up some crude but evil old school death metal that I thought was quite cool, almost like a mix of Autopsy's raw and grotesque punk-death form and the more structural Germans Morgoth on their earlier recordings. The riffs didn't always stick with me so well, but I can at least say I experienced some fond flashbacks for that late 80s/early 90s era, they had some curious quirks like a loud bass tone and even some narrative on their paean to "Last House on the Left". Fans of old Autopsy, Asphyx, and the like might wanna track them down, I believe they've got a compilation out that might have all their split material.

Even uglier is Kam Lee's Grave Wax, who have an even cruder and uglier style than anyone else on the split, and though Lee's vocal effects are cranked up to almost caricature level, these tunes were also quite fun, almost as if you were listening to them live but Lee was too high on the mixing board thanks to some zealous dweeb sound guy that wanted to fuck with the knobs. However, just like Burial Ground, these are actually fun, especially "Transmuting Techno-Terror". Ugly, inspired, no fucks given death metal. And bringing up the tail end of the recording are two tracks from Rogga Johansson's Severed Limbs, a decent project with a chunkier Swedish sound, although not just an emulation of Entombed or Dismember, but a more American style to the riffs, simply dowsed in that familiar production. These are two of the stronger cuts on the whole thing, and like his album Sores Galore that I reviewed earlier in the year, if you dig his other groups like Paganizer or Revolting you are likely gonna enjoy this stuff also. It's not a project he puts much importance in but certainly a worthy one.

In all honesty, I would have dug the Grave Wax, Burial Ground and Severed Limbs contributions as their own individual mCD/EP releases, or at least maybe just a 2-way split from the first two. Cropsy Maniac's inclusion here felt a bit stylistically disparate from the others beyond also belonging to the death metal genre in some way or form, you might have more fun checking out one of their own recordings; and the production across the bands lends to an uneven sort of experience, which I'm not terribly fond of on split recordings, but if you love all the piling on of the retro death metal these last decades then I think there are certainly enough highlights that it just squeaks by on the quality meter.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Burialground666/
https://www.facebook.com/gravewaxdeathmetal/
https://cropsymaniac.bandcamp.com/

Sulphur Aeon - Gateway to the Antisphere (2015)

As fond as I've grown for the older school death metal aesthetics that initially won me over to the genre in the 80s, and the acts that today continue to refine and redux those specific traits, there's something to be said for a band that doesn't strictly rest on the laurels of its genre. Sulphur Aeon is one such band, and within the span of a single decade has risen to stand alongside groups with three times the lifespan behind them; a new bastion of production, professionalism, and style which has become a thing unto itself. That's not to say you can't trace individual components of the Germans' sound back to some of the usual suspects, but it's how they intertwine elements of classic and brutal death metal, black metal, and even melodic death into a daunting, unified whole that gives them a near limitless arsenal of weaponry at their disposal.

Perhaps less distinct is that they tackle the popular subject of cosmic horror, the Lovecraft Mythos in particular, but they've definitely got a focus on the more post-apocalyptic approach vector. The Old Ones have already arrived, their cataclysmic destruction being wrought upon both mankind and nature itself, or at least this is what is captured in the songwriting. Their extraordinary debut Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide definitely had the aquatic/R'lyeh vibe going for it, but here, like the Ola Larsson cover artwork splendidly depicts, they're stretching their tentacles between sea and stars. Musically, it doesn't diverge a great deal from its predecessor, but Gateway to the Antisphere certainly plays around with a greater range of dynamics, from slower, roiling, rumbling atmospheric rhythms to thundering blast sequences which put them right on the same level of finesse as veteran groups like Behemoth, Septic Flesh, Morbid Angel, Nile and Vader which could all be considered peers in terms of skirting the sweeping, epic parameters of death metal's entire potential. Tracks like "Calls from Below" or "He is the Gate" lay it on thick, there is constantly something interesting going on...Daniel Dickmann's frenetic bricklaying, sheens of melodies in the guitars that contain both elements of Eastern influence and beyond, Martin's guttural dominance and sustained growls that mange to have just enough personality where he doesn't feel generic.

Gateway to the Antisphere feels like the aural accompaniment to a plane larger than this or any other, one of controlled primordial chaos machinated by minds older than the universe. A symphony of punishment and suffering. It's not the creeping dread and despair you might expect from a Lovecraft story, but the end-state of having the gates of reality blown apart and all humanity put to knee before its new masters that they cannot comprehend. It's not insanely complex when it comes to individual compositions, but once you weave this all together it's just a magnificent devastating force that maintains a fair degree of musicality amidst all of its violence. All told, I didn't think this one quite as catchy as the debut, but more balanced in tempo and presentation and thus nearly on the same level due to such well-roundedness. The lyrics are good, the packaging impressive, and there's really no expense spared to create a formidable sophomore that is worth every penny. Fans of the aforementioned bands, or others like Mithras and Heaving Earth, should make this one mandatory to at least check out, and really anyone into any mixed concentration of extreme metal and cosmic horror should follow suit.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (scolding summonings at night)

https://www.facebook.com/SulphurAeon

Wooden Stake - A Feast of Virgin Souls (2015)

Another of many projects within the extended Razorback family to cross over members, Wooden Stake revolves around Vanessa Alucarda of Howling, Scaremaker, Orloff, and Surgikill, among many other acts. She was partnered up with the prolific Wayne 'Elektrokutioner' Sarantopoulos for the earlier album Dungeon Prayers & Tombyard Serenades and several other splits and EPs, but here is joined by her fellow Vaultwraith maniac William Warlaw for this sophomore effort, which somewhat steps away from the death/doom of previous outings for a focus leaning more on the latter half of that pairing. She still uses harsher snarls and growls fairly often, but the guitars themselves are written more with a mix of mournful traditional doom and heavy metal aesthetics in mind, a nice complement to the Gothic horror ritualism and occult themes within the lyrics.

If you couldn't tell by the lascivious cover artwork, A Feast of Virgin Souls kind of plays out like an X-rated alternate to a Hammer Horror flick: slow and steadily paced, not terribly action-oriented, with a lavish colorful palette for suffering. Atmosphere is established early on with the bass and synth-driven into "Dead Winter Resurrection" before you are introduced to the reverb-soaked, eerie doom riffing which traces its lineage back to stuff like Candlemass or Pentagram, with a few more Trouble-like groove riffs here or there. The beats are sufficient to create a genuine momentum along with a couple fills, but it's really Wardlaw's guitars and Vanessa's vocals that make this experience. I'm more accustomed to hearing her snarls or growls, which are here in abundance, but generally as a complement to her cleans, which are actually pretty good. In fact, they wouldn't be out of place in trendier groups like a Witch Mountain or Windhand, only Wooden Stake specializes far more in despair and lamentation than the more stoner-heavy vibes from those. In tracks like "Alzbeta: The Devil's Bitch", they actually sound quite effective being matched up with her sustained snarling.

Occasionally this record creates a hypnotic effect with a beat plodding along while William nails you with some of those good old bendy Sabbath notes (also in "Alzbeta") and Vanessa creates a sort of vampiric narration below. Quite evil and cool, but this record is also pretty effective when they veer a little more towards the group's death/doom origins on "Cross-Scalded Flesh". There are few songs that fall behind any others, with highlights coming in the title track, "Hanging from the Inverted Cross" and the finale "Curse of the Cauldron Countess", all stuff that would appeal to a lot of doom and horror fans if this band could ever get on their radars. The lyrics are likewise well written. The one weakness here is probably in the ability of the band to transition, they'll come in with a single pattern or tempo in mind, and offer you some variation, but it always feels uninteresting in its execution. They could also experiment a little more with the atmospherics, maybe some more organs, flutes and so forth could really help flesh this out. But A Feast of Virgin Souls is unquestionably catchy despite this roughness about its edges. I think with busier, organic drumming and maybe some more oversight and editing into how the tunes are structured, you could have a killer band.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/woodenstake/