Tribulation - Putrid Rebirth EP (2006)

Although I adore the Gothic/melodic death metal evolution that Sweden's Tribulation has undergone, I was first introduced to the band on their 2009 opus The Horror, which was a much more explosive, energetic sound that felt like your trademark Swedish death metal getting a nasty, awesome thrashing kick in the pants. I would argue that that full-length debut remains their best overall album, a masterpiece of feral ferocity, though I take no issue with their later explorations whatsoever, it's almost as if they've given us at LEAST two good bands to worship over their career thus far (three if we include Formulas of Death as its own weird, psyche/death metal thing). Though I've reviewed a bunch by the Swedes, somehow it evaded my brain me to cover the band's EP PRIOR to The Horror, Putrid Rebirth.

So here I remedy this oversight, and to the surprise of none, this earlier material has the same propulsive and almost spastic energy to it that The Horror perfected later. This is some ghoulish death/thrash with a clear 80s ancestry, a blend of evil grooves circa Death and then the dizzying speed rhythms of a band like Morbid Angel. You can tell that the band was already adept at creating this shit, the only thing that Putrid Rebirth is really missing is a production as memorable as the debut, and to an extent the songs just aren't quite as catchy as what would come later. But it's all here, from the skilled drumming to the effective leads to the rabid barking. There's a bit of a jam room aesthetic to the mix, which is otherwise dry but fluidly captures all the instruments, it's not quite demo level (they have one before this I think), but on the level of some earlier 90s straightforward death metal records. There's not a lot of atmosphere for your imagination to work with, but the central thrust of the riffing and beats won't give you much time to notice.

The two sides of the EP have slightly different production, with the first more blunt and straight to your face, and the second a bit more atmospheric, kind of a bridge to The Horror but again, just not as skin peelingly amazing as that album sounds. Even if you have no interest whatsoever in the more dramatic style the band is exploring now, this and the debut are both fairly easy to recommend to anyone on the hunt for well wrought old school death metal. Putrid Rebirth is frantic and fun, especially if you've got no patience for bullshit and just want everything to sound like your buds' demos in 1991-92 that they were passing out before opening up for something like the Grind Crusher tour. There's nothing atypical about this, but if you like splatter, you like vintage death metal, get a copy.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.tribulation.se/

Witchnight - Old Steel Breath (2022)

Few would argue that they offer much by way of creativity, but so many of these South American bands seem like they are right on the cusp of excellence within the blackened/speed/thrash realm, which is obviously popular elsewhere in the world, but comes out in large concentrations from counties like Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Witchnight's debut Old Steel Breath is appropriately titled and monikered, as a blast straight from the leather-clad 80s with all the appropriated influences, from Venom and Slayer to Bathory and Sarcofago, and an attitude and atmosphere to match. It's another record that could have come out 37 years ago and haunted the record bins until it was discovered as a sort of uncut gem, mainly for such pure devotion to its aesthetics.

It's got a rather clean mix to it, so it's not as muddled as those first two formative Venom records, and I'd compare it more to Brazil's Power from Hell, although it's also a bit sharper than their earlier work. The guitars have a savage but polished feel to them, nasty enough when they're spitting out chords, but also quite clear and strong with the more melodic tremolo picked riffs. The leads are a little more taut and structured than one might expect, and there's just a nice atmosphere to the mix. Drums are rather basic but get the job done, I think if they put a bit more thunder to some fills and breaks then it would strengthen the material, but it's not that I go into an album like this one expecting to hear them. The bass isn't doing much of interest, but you can hear it in there fluttering along to the guitars, and the vocals have a harsh bark to them which is offset by some Schmier-like screams, or perhaps a bit of Tom Araya's first couple albums with Slayer, you know those sorts of stereotypical screams for this particular style which seem almost caricature at first until you realize they are really awesome.

Things like the brooding synth/organ instrumental intro, and the atmospheric, creepy kickoff to "Revenge of the Vampire" really set an appropriate mood, and the metal itself does not disappoint, though they're not working with a very unique tool set. I think the difference Witchnight might have from other bands working in this field, like Midnight is just the clarity of their riffing, which is also a good contrast to the more smothering, mouthy vocals. This isn't super sleazy despite the great cover art, but it's well worth a listen if you're into this inescapable style, whether its contemporary heroes or the earlier works of the Teutonic thrashers or West Coast US dirt merchants. Add the band to a long list of talents including the aforementioned Power from Hell, Whipstriker, Atomic Roar, Cult of Horror and at least a dozen more from this burgeoning South American scene, and it's also a good time if you're into all your classic horror and exploitation from the 60s-80s.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100062809074462

Aset - Astral Rape (2023)

From its creepy, ritualistic artwork to its atmospheric embellishments, Astral Rape is one of the more haunting new records I've come across lately, and I think part of that is due to the pedigree of its constituents, much of which is unknown. But if you've members of great bands like French Seth or Finnish Oranssi Pazuzu in tow, you are bound to come across something interesting, and interestingly, Aset's debut could be seen as a median between those two styles, the scathing, traditional and melodic and the more psychedelic and terrifying. Above all, though, this is a well structured debut which never overstays its welcome, and though it does occasionally feel a little repetitive in its approach and attack, it's nonetheless unnerving as it goes the entire distance.

Obstensibly black metal on its surface and deep in its core, Astral Rape never feels too confined to those parameters, and there are certainly some precision tremolo picked sequences here which fall a little more directly under the death metal paradigm. But the blasting, incendiary drumming and much of the vibe is clearly from the former. The riffs are quite solid, but often slathered in the dissonance we often associate with the more prominent French black metal bands, however Aset doesn't quite go as far out into the cosmic left field as the recent stuff by Blut Aus Nord. There is a thrashing/black substrate they function off in tunes like "A New Man for a New Age", but what makes this album so thrilling is how it balances off the rapid metallic onslaught with a natural ambiance that is caught both at their most extreme and in the little gaps between. They don't go too far with this to the extent that it ever tampers with the metal itself, but a chant, or a brief cleaner passage ("Astral Dominancy") goes a long way to round out the experience.

The vocals are just gruesome, a blackened rasp but with a lot of weight to it, and there's a lot of attention paid to ghoulish phrasing. I already mentioned the killer drumming, but it's packed with fills and thundering that it might be a pleasure to listen through even void of the other instruments. The bass is likewise quite cool, with a bit more groove and progginess to it, shining especially in the slower segments, where the more pinpoint eeriness of the guitars offers it a great counter-balance. All seven tracks here are sleek and sinister, aggressive but intelligent, a nice balance of the band members' own backlogs, and this one is well worth tracking down as one of the better black metal debuts of the year.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://aset-magic.bandcamp.com/album/astral-rape

Ancient - Back to the Land of the Dead (2016)

Ancient is a band that started out respectably enough, then swerved into trendy, goofball territory when they took their vampire shtick a little too far, and since that time have been in a recovery phase as they more or less returned to their roots as pure Norwegian black metal. The horror themes they've incorporated were never quite the issue, in fact I laud having bands like this one or Morgul who center in on the creepy themes, in this case Vampire the Masquerade-like mythologies of the undead, but the issue I often get is that the writing itself doesn't always translate those aesthetics so well into sound. Sadly, Back to the Land of the Dead does suffer a little from sounding too basic for its genre.... lyrically, this could be about Vikings, Satan, or walks through nature and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference...the scary themes are almost entirely restricted to the lyrics themselves.

The main force behind this particular record is Nick Barker's drumming, which is an absolute powerhouse that almost drowns the rest of the album with its intensity. As Ancient have always drawn comparisons to Cradle of Filth, it's only fit that the British alumni winds up in the studio ranks, and as you will hear through the blasting and kicks is that the man still quite 'has it', but beyond that he even grafts in some nice beats and fills to the albums more atmospheric segues (as in "The Sempiternal Haze"), which is cool because they'd be exceedingly bland otherwise. Most of the actual riffing here is entirely too predictable, a bevy of chord-driven grooves you've heard from the Darkthrone or Mayhem school, or the bleeding, faster patterns which unfortunately just don't provide memorable riffs like you'd remember from Emperor or Dissection or any of that lot. In fact I think the sound here overall seems like a midway point between Marduk and Bathory, with some decent thrashing breaks like the intro to "The Ancient Disarray".

Vocals have a good, rasping decay on them and occasionally a little reverb on the right spot which sends them soaring above the nightmarish landscape the band is attempting to concoct. Alas, too few of the rhythms guitars sound appreciably evil; without the army of zombies on the cover art, the title, you wouldn't even guess at the lyrics, which are actually one of the strong points of the release. I'd also say that the production is one of their strongest, especially on the drums and the rhythm guitars as they are churning out some of their lower string riffs. It's a muscular, tireless record, but the regret is just that it doesn't have much interesting to speak, so much of the material plays out exactly as you think it will before the guitar phrase has even ended for the first time. If you want a beefy, traditional Norse BM catapulting through the backdrop of your life, then Back to the Land of the Dead is acceptable, and far better than some of their later 90s offerings, but ultimately doesn't stick its fangs out too far.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://ancient2.bandcamp.com/track/death-will-die

Heading to Summerisle!

Off on my usual summer vacation, stay tuned for October when I'll be back with some spooky metal reviews! OoOoOoOoO or whatever the spirits do. - autothrall

Embracing - Dreams Left Behind (1997)

Ironically, the sophomore Embracing album Dreams Left Behind had slightly superior production to the debut, and in addition I thought that the artwork was also a little better...the band (or label) really likes its purple tones but, hey, that can look flashy with its razor-hone digital logo. That's the thing with a lot of these old Invasion Records releases, there was just this fantastical, dreamy quality to them, even some of the bad ones, which sparks my nostalgia. That said, the mix of this disc is still really weak when compared against many of the other Swedish bands performing in this style, in full froth as it was breaking out all over the world during this period, and while the music here is nothing to really scoff at, it just made me crave a better sounding version of the debut instead...

The volume's a little better with the instruments, from the cleaner strings to the clean vocals which aren't all that good performance-wise, but sound pretty smooth. Piano, synthesizer and other accoutrements are used liberally to contrast against the melodeath moments, which by this point all feel fairly standard and don't have a ton of payoff. In fact, some of the guitar tones in cuts like "Stolen Memories" still feel as if they haven't been mixed so well, a little thicker than on the debut, and not so disturbingly tinny, but neither are they exception. And in other places, like "Killers Nature", they mete out this great winding melody which probably deserved a better song overall. The harsh vocals here still seem a little on the loud side, and it makes it that much more awkward when they alternate into some of the cleans, but this wasn't really a band you listen to for that as much as the guitar-work.

And the guitars are pretty friendly here, perhaps too much in some places, as they almost flirt with a bit of softer rock on their attempts to create acoustic sequences worthy of "Moonshield" on In Flame's masterwork The Jester Race. There are certainly some decent moments spread throughout this one, with a lot of mood or melancholy, but they're almost always botched up by a clean vocal that just doesn't quite reach where it wants to be, or an issue with the mix. Embracing was just throttled by this problem throughout its brief sting, and while it's not as big of an issue with Dreams Left Behind, and this is pleasant enough, I simply liked the songs from the debut much more.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

Embracing - I Bear the Burden of Time (1996)

I Bear the Burden of Time is the textbook example of an album that could have likely succeeded if not for a crippling production that rendered it little more than long demo. Embracing clearly had the chops to reach the next level with a lot of their Swedish peers, and even came up with a few riffing configurations or ideas that felt fresh to me as I was exploring all this stuff in the 90s, but damn does this album just sound rather weak in the execution of its mix. Now I say that as a fan, this is my favorite of their two offerings, and I think it's worth a listen even despite this major shortcoming, but to think what an AAA+ studio production would have done for all these catchy tunes. I'm vaguely aware of a digital reissue for this that came out like a decade afterwards, which may or may not have a remaster, but even worse cover artwork, so I can't really speak if that solves the problem or if it's even just too late to matter...

Early At the Gates or Dark Tranquillity would be your reference point here, with thin and melodic rhythm guitars as the rule rather than constant barrages of thicker chords. Sure, the latter are present when it matters, but this is a band that simply THRIVES on those old classic metal melodies coursing across the verses and chorus sections. Even with this tinny mix, the mood being created by those lines and the chords and bass beneath is ample evidence enough that this was some choice stuff neutered by the low-impact recording. The vocals are actually fairy standard for the style, a protracted rasp that falls more in line with black metal, but it's just too loud in the mix and that sort of grinds against the more beautiful performance of the instruments. You do get some other vocals here, distant shouts of torment as in "Shades Embrace", and those are automatically more atmospheric and interesting, but it's again not that the vocals are bad, they are spot on for the style, just given a little too much heft against the true gifts that the album has to offer.

Clean guitar parts, leads, synths, I Bear the Burden of Time had a lot to offer, total 90s escapism that feels like melodeath flirting with a bit of proggy/Goth atmosphere, but sounding like a bad demo tape that your friends recorded in your basement one soggy afternoon with the early version of some dated digital recording software. If you could bulk this one up like a Whoracle, a Rusted Angel, or even to the level of a Steel Bath Suicide (which was itself a little rougher than normal, but a masterpiece by comparison to this), Embracing would have had their feet in the door towards that upper echelon of Swedish melodic death metal royalty, or at least this debut would enjoy a cult status greater than just a handful of curmudgeons who complain about what might have been...

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

Non Serviam - The Witches Sabbath (2000)

Necrotical was obviously not meant to be the end of Non Serviam's trajectory, as they released another single around the turn of the century, and there was enough interest to get their demos out through Nocturnal after Invasion Records had pretty much folded. Having only a middling opinion of their 1997 debut Between Light and Darkness, I wasn't too excited by what The Witches Sabbath would represent, a re-issue of the two demos the band released leading up to that debut. Also, like the two albums, the band just never had good cover art, it was always a little bland or obscured, and this twisty digitally tooled image of some chicks lusting with the devil or a demon is just another prime example of how this style wouldn't age well whatsoever...

The demos sound fine, however, in fact they probably sound a little more engaging than the debut album, and most of the same tracks appear on both, so it's understandable why the band might want these put out there for the public to consume. That doesn't really improve the musical quality, they were gunning for that nexus between the Swedish black metal and melodic death all along, but I would say that the sounds here, perhaps being slightly cruder, favor the former genre just a smidgeon. A couple of cuts like the title track from that second demo sound pretty decent in this incarnation, wistful and erotic black metal with enough atmosphere to carry you back to that vital 90s era when so much of this was breaking new ground for us crusty old heshers. In fact, I'd say that if you could just track this collection down, and then head straight over to Necrotical, or the Hellspell album; that would be in your best interest, the tunes just seem a little more authentic in this format. But then again, it's not that inspiring when there were so many better choices during these years.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

Miasmes - Répugnance (2023)

Although I have no experience with the band's prior EP from last year, I can say without hesitation that Répugnance is, as its title implies, an all out black metal assault with no fucks given. The very look of the album seems almost ambiguous as per genre, it could resemble anything from a grind or death metal, crossover or even an Assück record, but it does actually do justice to the music content itself, which is ripping, raw, and unforgiving violence. One can infer that Miasmes had a (leather-)vested interested in stripping back the genre to its most violent and primitive roots and then building a sound up from there, so it does bear very little resemblance to the more dissonant, atmospheric or Medieval strains of black metal that generally hail from their national scene.

That is NOT to say the music here is dumb in any way, in fact it's fairly well structured with solid riffing patterns, brutal drumming and most importantly, the blazing leads like in the title track "Délivrance" which add a much needed higher, wilder dimension to the ruthlessness. I would trace the lineage here back to savage, belligerent records from bands like Bathory or Marduk, or perhaps Gorgoroth's Destroyer, but it's also a very well balanced record rhythmically, there is little of the endless blasting patterns, they are instead interspersed with cutting middle-paced rhythms that allow the listener to feel the surge once those higher tempos break out. They also do a lot of great stop/start riffing framework which carries a bit of a blackened thrash feel and makes everything that much more exciting and fueled up. The vocals aren't exactly unique, but they've got a nihilistic, raucous thick rasp that splatters itself right up against the bombardment of instruments so that they can be properly noticed.

I can't say that the riffing selections are all that unique, but they certainly through enough of them at you and they almost all serve the songs, you'll clearly hear an old Germanic thrash influence circa Sodom or Kreator of the mid 80s, only clad in the more muscular rhythm section and black metal intensity. The bass lines are good and thick and clobber you alongside the kick drums and rhythm guitars, and there are a number of opportunities where they plod along solo and it's another great technique to keep the feel of the material brash and potent. This is a fun, ugly, barbaric and competent full-length debut, and another gem for the Les Acteurs de l'Ombre imprint which doesn't necessarily emulate any of its other acts.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://miasmesofficial.bandcamp.com/

Non Serviam - Necrotical (1998)

If Necrotical surpasses the Non Serviam debut in any way, it's that it just remembers to rock your face off much harder; the way they've taken the same elements they were championing on Between Light and Darkness and translated those into punishingly fun tracks. Perhaps they cranked up the death metal influence here a little bit, as you'll feel in a tune like "Hatred Unleashed" in the verses, but you've got still got plenty of that vintage Swedish melodeath, and some surges of obvious black metal. The sophomore doesn't really settle down for any one style more than its predecessor, but it doesn't actually need to, because this time the chords and vocals fit together in more memorable patterns, and they really lose nothing of the wider net they were casting just a year before.

Don't get too excited, because this one can't exactly rub elbows with any of the A- or B-tier successes from that Swedish scene, but if you were into albums like Night in Gales' Thunderbeast or either of the Gandalf full-lengths from Finland, you might appreciate how this is just a simpler and rocking distillation of the black and melodic death metal ingredients. The harsh vocals are more sustained and carnal, and the scarce cleans sound better placed, though still a little awkward. The drums just sound like a thunder sustaining the rest of the instruments, and they'll tear out these brief leads like in "Which Eternal Lie" that soar over the remainder. When the band gets mellow, too, they actually do well to set up the transitions back into the crushing force, but my favorite bits here are tunes like "Haunted Domains" which are just catchy as fuck headbangers which balance off the evil and the melody.

Now two of the members of this band also released Hellspell's Devil's Might, which was clearly a better produced and higher quality extension of the black metal aesthetics from Non Serviam, and I would recommend that album before either of these, despite its ugly cover. But Necrotical is one I can listen to from time to time and won't switch off once it starts, it's very straightforward in catching your attention, and while its own production isn't much better than the debut, it's just denser and darker and effective.

Verdict: Win [7/10]