Sentenced 2 Die - Parasitic Infection (2023)

I won't promise you that Parasitic Infection is some extinction level event for the bro-core death metal scene of the 2020s, but this record is super fun nonetheless and a notable improvement over Sentenced 2 Die's 2021 EP in every single department. It keeps some of that hardcore influence intact, but is more than willing to ramp up the 'pure' death metal feel, to take a few chances, and more often to me this feels like a proper, well-written, low-tech slamming DM record that occasionally remembers where it came from rather than a metalcore or deathcore band earnestly trying to 'legitimize' or brutalize itself, not that bands from that scene need to do so, but you get the point. And this record gives ME the point, repeatedly, stabbing and bludgeoning me with its huge grooves, great production and much more memorable material.

"Canopy of Intestines" was one of my favorite death metal tunes of 2023, with its simple but creepy melodies and evil breakdowns, while "Bestial Deformity" took me completely by surprise with the addition of the ominous clean vocals that chant over its depths. The Minnesotans clearly sat down together and decided that what came before wasn't enough, that there was so much more musical quality they could wring from this slamming, basic style, and they accomplished such. The bass tone here is much mightier, bouncing along with a little more personality from the awesome crunch of the rhythm guitars, so they feel more like individual instruments even if the lines go in the same direction. The drums are also much clearer and you can make out the thunder from the fills. Vocalist Dave Sikorski uses the same guttural attack as the debut, but it's better fleshed out here, a little more abrupt and not just hovering in the midst of the musical weight, and when he flashes out some carnal snarl it's pretty effective.

But the production itself might be the star, with everything so heavy and loud and battering that it nearly blew out the windows on our Honda Fit. The album is also quite concise at around 24 minutes, so even if some of the tunes don't really throw out a truly impressive riff or surprise they go about their business quickly, and there's a sweet acoustic interlude right in the middle to let you take a breath before they crush your fucking face again. The leads aren't exactly a major feature of their style yet, but in some tunes like "Splattered on Pavement" they are making the attempt, and since elsewhere they already show their aptitude for nailing a good melody or harmony, this is a good space for further evolution of their sound. Parasitic Infection goes so much further than the EP in presenting the 'total package' of modern death that acknowledges its roots, and if you're into stuff like the grooves off the last couple Dying Fetus records, this is a lot of fun.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.instagram.com/sentenced2die/?utm_medium=copy_link

Sentenced 2 Die - No Reason to Live EP (2021)

Sentenced 2 Die are fairly fresh meat in that hybrid scene of death metal hardcore/beatdown acts, but they're already showing a steady increase in songwriting potential beyond some of their competitors. No Reason to Live was an independently released EP, clocking in at under 11 minutes, which showcased their potential, and was enough to land the group a deal with the fitting Maggot Stomp imprint, and it's a solid pairing since this material is likely to please fans of comparable acts. I'd say that Ohio's Sanguisugabogg is a pretty close style to this, other than the lyrical themes, which don't skew here to the same humorous or perverse level, but more a degree of traditional horror/nihilism and social issues. The four tracks here are a little rough around the edges, but sort of like those earlier Creeping Death EPs, there's an appreciable, ominous bludgeoning vibe that works.

The formula is fairly simple, focused in on slower grooving riffs that are interspersed with tremolo picking, double bass bombardments and a lot of low-end heaviness, reinforced by the rather deep and often monotonous guttural that creates its own atmosphere not above, but burrowed within the rumbling instruments. The rhythm guitar tone is tight but saturated in the fat bass, so they almost combine into one unified blunt force that bounces cautiously up and down like your body hitting and skipping off the pavement in slow-mo. The guitars pop and squeal, little measures of brutality that keep the thick riffs a little more involved than they might have been, but the centerpiece is almost always the walls of mosh pit chugging as in "Life Devoured" where you can just feel the growling erupting about a foot over the pit, bodies flailing around you as they ninja windmill or whatever the fuck kids call it these last few decades.

Hasn't been my scene since the 90s, but even I feel motivated to move when I hear some of these grooves, just because of the enormous production emphasis. However, the sheer heaviness here is just not enough, and I feel like these songs weren't developed with much thought or intricacy, rather to establish the band as a steady steamroller and please a crowd. It's effective enough when you're in its grasp, but there's little to nothing memorable about this material, especially when placing it up against the vastly superior debut full-length to follow. That said, No Reason to Live lays enough groundwork that you can tell if this is something you're going to relate to, and if you're into a lot of the other caveman death metal mavens on this label, this might land for you more than it did for me, as I was more into some of the other EPs by the peers I mentioned above.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://www.instagram.com/sentenced2die/?utm_medium=copy_link

Impaler - One Nation Under Ground (2000)

With all the rage over nasty speed metal acts like Midnight over the last decade, it's a little surprising that Minnesota's Impaler wallows in such relative obscurity. Not that they're entirely unknown or unapproachable, they've got a pretty decent internet presence and continue to record and play gigs even after decades; but their love of horror flicks, wrestling, their mesh of speed, heavy metal, and punk, and the cinematic gore and camp of their stage shows seems like it's a concoction that should have appealed to a far wider audience, especially as they've just been doing it for so long and never really turned from their path. Maybe they don't write the most impressive licks, but they've got the heart and sincerity in spades, a speed metal institution forever destined to sit below the radar.

One Nation Under Ground was their fifth full-length album released through the now-defunct Root of All Evil Records, and while the production had come a ways from their earlier efforts like If We Had Brains ...We'd Be Dangerous or Rise of the Mutants, the style is roughly the same. Simplistic rock & roll riffs played with metallic energy and slathered in Bill Lindsey's signature splatter-punk vocals, which can range from a more meaty bark to something more petulant and punky, with lots of gang shouts thrown in there for good measure. The way he exaggerates his style with that grimy, constipated edge almost reminds me of Alice Cooper, one of his biggest influences, as enforced by the presence of a "Teenage Frankenstein" cover which is second-to-last on the album. The drums have a great tone to them, the bass and rhythm guitar are fairly clean in the mix, but manage to catch a little bit of that infectious punk vibe you'll recall from a lot of your faves in the 80s. There are plenty of lead guitars, too, usually with more of a bluesy, reckless hard rock feel to them, fitting to the rhythm riffs but not too memorable on their own.

There are 15 tracks here, almost all weighing in at around 2-3 minutes, with just a couple that go longer, like the darker, doomier sounding "Under the Dirt". Occasionally they'll incorporate a spoken sample, or some special effects like the bell and howl you hear in the depths of "Dead as a Doornail", to keep you on the page with their horror influences. Once in awhile the riffs can get a little bit more thrashy as in "Call of the Wild", but the majority of them are more rooted in punk and straight hard rock; almost all of them do feel as if you've heard them elsewhere, even by the standards of 20 years ago. Thankfully, the production makes up for this a little, the instruments and vocals sound brash and bright and energized. I guess my other complaint would be one that I'd apply to a lot of horror-punk, psychobilly or horror-influenced metal in that the musical choices themselves rarely evoke the more evil and dark side of the genre. There's nothing creepy ever happening outside of those aforementioned samples, effects or Lindey's gruesome vocals, the tunes could use a little more dissonance, atmosphere or 'evil' note selections to make them stand out...

...but again, I've had this issue since the Misfits. It doesn't make the music bad at all, but it's more like attending a Halloween party with your family, bobbing for apples, carving a pumpkin and having a good cheer rather than getting chased through an abandoned, dilapidated asylum by a serial killer or supernatural entity. The lyrics are fun enough for what you get, tributes to old or campy horror flicks and they even have a nod to Bill's love of wrestling entertainment with "Cage Match Tragedy". The Alice Cooper cover is pretty decent, and the material is consistent over the 41 minutes, but it just doesn't stick with me for long after I'm finished. It seems mostly built to go along easily with their live shows with all the blood, guts and debauchery that ensues, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/impalershockrock

Manifesting - Descension Through the Seven Forbidden Seals EP (2013)

Manifesting is a Minnesotan death metal duo with a pair of evocative pseudoynums (Sepulcherous and Maw, respectively) who have set out to deconstruct the genre into its most primitive fundamentals, creating a quintessence of raw, pummeling downtuned chords and roiling grooves that structurally and stylistically eschew any sort of progression, technical merit or advancement beyond what was created at the twilight of death metal as a musical form. Seriously, the material manifest for Descension Through the Seven Forbidden Seals EP is not unlike the primordial, mucky stew of organisms from which human evolution was supposedly spurred forth. It might be argued that the writing here lacks any real semblance of nuance or grace, or really much of any thought at all...it's as if the pair turned on their amps and let the abyss flow them, churning out the first chord patterns that their muscle memories dictated...

Eerily, and curiously, the EP is bookended by a pair of chanted male choirs that sound like they might have been sampled from some recording of monks, which misled me into thinking the music might seek out a more atmospheric aesthetic, but once those enormous, null rhythm guitars broil and blast through "Asomatous Hubris" you feel like you feel like some ancient prey, clubbed and dragged back to the Neanderthal's lair for consumption. While the track list doesn't exactly follow a uniform tempo pattern, shifting through slower and faster sequences, the guitar progressions are uniformly minimal to a fault, often just a pair of slovenly chords swishing back and forth like a bad breakfast in your gut. Several tracks ("Disciples of Murmur", for example) border on death/doom territory with their slow, steady sense of bombast, but the pair is fully capable of careening into a warped, nihilistic frenzy of blasted insanity to contrast the mournful, soul devouring gulfs of nihilistic lumbering. Drums do take a back seat to the rhythm guitar, but they're really raw with slapping kicks and tinny cymbals that actually fit cohesively into the mix.

The bass lines generally provide a grimy shadow of the rhythm guitars, while the vocals are a 'no holds barred' sustained growl every bit as colorless as the note choices. Lyrically they provide brief, horrific glimpses of necromancy and occultism, generally more interesting than the music itself, but that's not saying much, since what Manifesting have set out to accomplish is to channel some of the filthiest ancient death metal (Incantation, Autopsy, Rottrevore) in reverse, reducing even the formative works of that important early 90s period to soaking wet cemetery sludge. On the one hand, I have to respect the dedication here to cleanse all warmth, melody, complexity and memorability from the songwriting, but on the other a lot of these riffs did absolutely nothing for me, so basal and effortless their construction. Thus, ultimately, Descension Through the Seven Forbidden Seals became something which relied all too heavily on its own sense of voluptuous primacy and foulness, and not on mesmerizing music. This is mad dark due to the clamorous, raunchy production, but not particularly evil in construction. I wasn't completely sold on the material, but other fans of grotesque atmospheric death metal like Vasaeleth, Grave Miasma, Wrathprayer and Hellvetron might elicit a stronger reaction.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/MANIFESTING/161053033964734

Wolvhammer - The Obsidian Plains (2011)

An album like The Obsidian Plains always throws me for a loop, for while I didn't get a wealth of enjoyment from the music itself, I have a very healthy respect for what the band is doing. Wolvhammer is a Minnesota quartet which ably proves that blackened sludge need not be some wholly tortured, sluggish mess that forces a listener to mercilessly snort laced cocaine while tearing out his/her own ears and eyeballs. Granted, that's precisely what some adherents to the genre desire to experience, and thus we have acts like Eyehategod and Ramesses to dispose of them, but Wolvhammer is far more forward in incorporating its punk and hardcore influences, and in asserting a genuine, brighter sense of melody into the fury of their desolate existence.

In short: variation. If you've no interest in this genre outside of slovenly, spirit sucking noise, then The Obsidian Plains might not be the album you're looking for. It's slightly better produced and less impenetrable than last year's debut Black Marketeers of World War III, but they still incorporate a solid range of tempos into the track list that hold the listener's attention far more than some 45 minute harrowing stoner crawl might. "The Gleaming" morphs from wide open, muddy melodic sludge to punk-injected raw black metal and then into a moderately thrashing breakdown while the highly distorted bass glues it all into a singular, sobering expression. That said, I was more the into songs with fattened grooves that channeled a bit of Hellhammer like "Bones of the Pious" with its tremolo black breaks or "A Defiled Aesthetic" which alternates a Scandinavian dissonance with seething hardcore anger. "Shadowhorn" is perhaps the darkest and most memorable of these cuts, with mesmeric clean chanting cast like a shadow beneath the churning propulsion, and I also liked some of the warmer, melodic sludge in "The Sentinels".

Unfortunately, even the best written songs on this sophomore suffer from a bit of filler, and one could probably count the truly engaging guitar riffs on one hand. Left or right, your choice. The black, spacious vocals of Adam Clemans have a grisly sneer to them which sounds more than adequate to the mix and material, yet there's nothing particularly catchy about his phrasing or intonation which would drive you bonkers like Eyehategod or Iron Monkey used to do. The guitars, or at least the rhythms are very often predictable and familiar feeling, and I wish they'd made more use of the feedback and noise that permeates "Ghosts in the Water", because that actually added breadth to what otherwise follows a fairly obvious path. The Obsidian Plains is a loud and heavy record, but not heavy in terms of menace or vitriol, just the volume, so I'd like to hear some more wicked sounding note progressions mixed in with the more consonant choices.

Overall, Wolvhammer manifests the impression here of emerging from some third shift stint at a meat packing facility in the winter, red and tired eyes thrust out into the sun and in desperate need of coffee. Enormous sounding, but more blunt and spacious than abrasive. I admire them for crafting music that's a little harder to pin down in terms of its precise classification, but not all of the tunes here are created equal and too few of them really endure in the memory, nor does the work as a whole. Wanted to like this a bit more than I actually did.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Wolvhammer

Obsequiae - Suspended in the Brume of Eos (2011)

Obsequiae is essentially a reconvening of the Minnesota project Autumnal Winds, who produced a stream of demos in the last decade that led to a brief hiatus, Blondel de Nesle's work in the rustic funeral doom act Celestiial just beginning to take off. Those who are expecting a similar drone-based, spacious and grim exercise in stark natural minimalism might be very surprised here, because if anything, Obsequiae is a cogent study in heavily melodic, unending floods of Medieval/folk guitars drifting atop simpler beats and rasped vocals, almost an antithesis of Celestiial, anchored by the rhythmic skill of multi-instrumentalist Neidhart von Reuental (and no, I do not have a clue if these are their real names).

Suspended in the Brume of Eos is a substantial effort, defined through its contrast of lush acoustic segues and driving, fell glories that feel decidedly European in origin. Obviously the nearest parallel one would find would be the pagan/folk metal genre from overseas, but I liken the material most to the track "Moonshield" by In Flames (before they got all metrosexual). An excellent song, and perhaps an unexpected comparison that many would scoff at, but imagine that track's winding and beautiful string melodies being woven throughout 42 minutes of new, original material, wrought between lovely acoustic shorts like "Sidhe", "Wildes Heer", and thundering, desperate romps like "Altars of Moss", "In the White Fields" and the night overwhelming instrumental "Cabin Lights" which had my thoughts reeling towards the past with its crescendos of dual melody. The duo also provides a basis of straight, aggressive black metal as in "Arrows", which is more of a wall of sound chord onslaught, so there is enough variation here that it doesn't feel like the same gilded guitar graces repeated into monotony.

The production is fluent without being excessively polished, and here is where the band's own rustic tendencies shine, for there's this natural backbone. It's very easy to close one's eyes during this offering and conjure up images of knights and ladies fair gallivanting through the woods, often in bliss and harmony, but often with their heels set upon by the jaws of raving wolves. I can't say I was a huge fan of the vocals here, because they're simply all too common contrasted with the more engrossing and eloquent guitar licks, but in tandem the two function as intended. Suspended in the Brume of Eos is easily recommended for fans of the seasonal and rural in their black metal, perhaps a dash of earlier Agalloch (Pale Folklore or The Mantle era), Opeth circa (Morningrise), or Canadians Woods of Ypres (only Obsequiae is far superior to that lot by any conceivable standard). You're not likely to hear much in a similar vein this year, and this full-length should evolve into an album of choice for fall foliage sightings and stirring regrets. Score another sleeper for Bindrune Recordings.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://bindrunerecordings.com/

Impaler - Rise of the Mutants EP (1985)

With a career spanning 27 years, it's a wonder that Minnesotans Impaler have not built a bigger name for themselves. They're brightest and boldest opportunity was probably their initial pair of releases through the esteemed Combat records in the mid 80s, when the band's blend of shock rock and filthy street/speed metal was somewhat novel, yet they seem as if they've been all but forgotten, relegated to the dark, misty alleys and mad scientist laboratories of nostalgia. I can attest that this is a band better represented in the live setting than the studio, as their performances are full of corny slasher horror charm that seems the natural, extreme metal extension of Alice Cooper or KISS, but the music rarely delivers much beyond a mere accompaniment to the maddened antics.

Rise of the Mutants was the band's first 'official' release after several demos, through Combat, and a fairly accurate representation of such musical shortcomings. There is nothing inherently wrong or negative about the band's style: think dirty, blazing raw guitars performing average speed/punk metal riffs ala Exciter with the occasional lapse into NWOBHM-flavored leads. The lyrics delve into S&M ("Crack That Whip") and bloody stage horror ("Shock Rock"), and serial killers with the band's namesake "Impaler". Two of the four tracks on the EP are notably superior to the others: "Shock Rock" and "Heaven's Force", with bolder chords battering along to Bill Lindsey's snarling, spitting vocals. The former has some decent, breakneck speed metal riffing though it's under 2 minutes in length, and "Heaven's Force" reams along with a whacked out guitar intro and a sufficient boogie to the verse beat, Lindsey getting fairly nasal and vicious like some sort of cartoon weasel or rat. "Crack That Whip" and "Impaler" are both dirty and competent, but the choruses offer little escalation and the riffs are quickly forgotten.

Compared to other Combat acts of their day like Megadeth or Possessed, Impaler were simply not strong enough in the compositional skill to stand out in the crowd. The bloodied album cover begs some attention from a demographic titillated by the increasing extremity of the 80s, but even as far as shock metal, you had better alternatives like Lizzy Borden who musically run leaps and bounds around this material. Granted, the intention here is not to become some Mozart of metal, but to craft barbaric hymnals to accompany the band's stage presence, and I think their material is generally more fun when you can see them rampaging around with blood, guts and straight jackets hanging out. The nearly 10 minutes of Rise of the Mutants serve as an effective teaser to the full-length debut If We Had Brains...We'd Be Dangerous, which is in my opinion the band's best album (with better songs than found here), but in the long term there is no reason to revisit this with so many better alternatives available, unless you just want to shut off your own brain and listen to some superfluous punk-driven speed metal.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (cut the ropes we're free at last)

http://www.myspace.com/impalerhorrorrock

Powermad - Absolute Power (1989)

Perhaps better known known as 'The Field Guide on the Attack of the Disembodied Babyhead Legions', Powermad's sole full-length offering created quite a splash when it arrived right at the end of the 80s, a few years after the promising Madness Within EP. Here was a band not only capable of writing a catchy thrash tune, but infusing it with a classic metal sensibility, big hooks and memorable melodies that were unusual among the street level thrashing aggression that was perhaps all too typical. In fact, the Minnesotans were arguably as much a power or traditional metal band as a thrash outfit, equally accessible to fans of Fifth Angel or Queensryche as the larger Metallica/Megadeth mob, and this saw them not only scaling the ranks of the US 80s metal hopefuls, but also with a cameo appearance in the film Wild at Heart.

Well, the surge ended here, and Powermad would never release another album, going their separate ways and ultimately dissolving into the dusted linens of thrash closets everywhere, but what they left us with was a fairly enduring panorama of promise, a slew of simple but efficient riffs that will still get the head banging when blasted at high volumes, as corny as they can at some times feel. This corniness manifests itself in the bouncy bricklaying mannerisms that grace such milieus as "Return from Fear" or "Test the Steel (Powermad)", in which the vocals seem a little too pedestrian, and frankly loud. Granted, the latter track has an amazing riff structure that saves it from the slag pile, and through almost all of the material on Absolute Power, there is this amazing sense of melody and wonder that fuses itself to the very resonant tones. This is one reverb ridden tumult of an album, but it sticks far more often than not, and when the day is done, it ultimately deserves its place as a minor US thrash/power classic.

There are specifics. Songs that absolutely shatter the expectations of the EP and provoke the drooling, and they arrive in full force as "Slaughterhouse" commences the escalating battery or staggering breaks that soon transform into its core verse riffing. The old 'epic intro' trick at work, and the song itself is quite strong, Joel DuBay howling his clean but far cast tones over the shuffling, march-like war thrash rhythms. "Nice Dreams" is another scorcher, an amazingly melodic piece that would have been in regular MTV rotation had it appeared on Operation: Mindcrime and not this album. The riff is unforgettable, and amazing, like a "Sweet Child o' Mine" or "Speak the Word" if it was being hurled over a Midwest mountain range. Glorious. Once "Plastic Town" eschews its acoustic intro for a happy go lucky, rapid moving riff pattern, it too delivers, and "B.N.R." would be the second most elegant track (after "Nice Dreams"), if only for that excellent intro. "Brainstorms" and "Final Frontier" are also well worth the wait until they arrive at the close of the album, two bombastic pieces with well considered structures.

Most 80s ragers with even the most remote semblance of history or knowledge will already be well versed in this record, but it's 'absolutely' worth the finder's fee if you're a newcomer to the period's more pronounced acts. Powermad are not as forceful or complex as either the Bay Area or German thrash scenes, but they trade that level of callous-causing speed and raw flexibility for some decent (to great) songs with simpler, driving rock drums. It's astounding that the band did not have another in them, because "Nice Dreams" could have been huge had it gained some further exposure, and "Slaughterhouse" and "Final Frontier" (listen to that solo before 3:30) are knockout blows. Absolute Power is not without a few slackers, in which the sum of the riffing feels pale amongst no brainers, but it's not something I'll forget before the onset of Alzheimers.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://www.powermadness.com/