Iced Earth - Horror Show (2001)

Iced Earth. Damn. Probably one of the bands I've received the most requests to review through the years I've been doing this, and ironically, now that I've stopped taking requests, I finally get around to. In reality, every October I get into the spirit for just about anything Halloween or horror related, cheesy or serious, metal or otherwise, and so in tracking down records to cover for the site I figured it was about time to not pass over one of the most obvious choices. Iced Earth's Horror Show, a huge thematic tribute to both Hollywood and history's most infamous monsters, a few of which you won't be surprised to discover are indeed human beings. A concept album, which aesthetically, I feel must be one of the most abject failures of its kind, even if the effort and budget that were lovingly placed into its conception are a little difficult to shun.

For years now, Iced Earth has been on my backburner as a band to revisit, because to be frank, I'm not into most of their music. The first three discs were solid examples of power/thrash crossover with some creative riffing and a lot of interesting lyrical subjects. I'd even argue that The Dark Saga, the Floridians 'first' horror concept record, was interesting, if flawed, because it chose a theme that was then-current and probed pretty deeply into it. That's not easy to do, especially when the theme was Spawn, the Todd McFarlane 90s antihero vehicle whose appeal was confined 99% to the colorful, muscle-rippling artwork, its characters and plot tossed in as an uninspired afterthought. The fact that Jon Schaffer and crew pulled off a respectable, appropriately angry tribute to that series is not lost on me. In fact, when it comes to the sheer magnitude of the band's production values, consistently impressive logo/artwork, and giving the fan something for his or her money, Iced Earth is among the most steadfast franchises in all metal music. I might not be a fan, and in fact few people I know seem to enjoy them beyond a handful of tunes/records (some outright despising their entire catalog), but there's a reason these guys are so immense in certain regions of the world. They didn't arrive at that success level running on fumes. They busted ass, and it paid off.

But, yeah, taste. No accounting for it, and Horror Show is a prime example of why I'm so rarely able to make that necessary connection with the band's songwriting. Half of that is because there are only a handful of tunes even remotely compelling, and the other that, for a concept centered on some of the greatest horror icons in history, the album is particularly bland, never once mirroring the creepiness I felt towards most of the subjects' individual films and stories as a child. In fact, Horror Show really sounds like it could just be about anything else, with monster movie lyrics thrown on top of it. Oh sure, "Im-Ho-Tep (Pharaoh's Curse)" does sound Egyptian thanks to the opening melody, and "Frankenstein" implements slow, meaty chords and a pace that resembles, to some extent, a shambling golem; but what is missing here is any real sense of depth, atmosphere or genuine tension and horror. Power metal isn't known for its highly kinetic use of dissonance or frightening note progressions, perhaps, but so much of the rhythm guitar playing here consists of bland chug patterns, or Iron Maiden riffage clad in Master of Puppets production but lacking the unforgettable chops that thrust either of those bands into the domination of the 80s.

Iced Earth confuses me, because here is a group with a great drummer (Richard Christy), one of the most well rounded rhythm guitarists and multi-instrumentalists in the genre (Schaffer), and clearly a guy who is among the more distinct power front men from the States (Matt Barlow). Rendered to its components, Horror Show is a beast. When the riffs hit hard, you feel a punch. The production is so blissfully pristine (surpassing The Dark Saga and Something Wicked This Way Comes) that every lead shines, every kick thumps, and Steve DiGiorgio's guest-spot bass lines have the aptitude to stand out. Vocal arrangements here are staggering in detail, with Barlow's air raid siren escalations complemented by whispers, deeper narrative cleans, female guest spots (as in "The Phantom Opera Ghost") and some truly corny narratives that have a hard time sounding convincing. Hell, it's not even that I can accuse Horror Show of lacking variation. They really roll the dice all over this thing, and it's certainly more diversified and orchestrated than the prior album. Ambition and musicianship really aren't the issues, but the execution just leaves so much more to be desired.

A few tunes are alright, like "Wolf" or "Jekyll & Hyde", mainly due to the neck-jerking riffs, madman Matt Barlow interchanges, and brooding acoustics of the latter (one of the few moments on this record I would argue are even marginally spooky). But then you've got a piece like "Ghost of Freedom" which is absolute garbage. A boring, dime-a-dozen 'power ballad' with generic acoustic guitar verses and touching, 'emotional' vocals that I can't make it through without exploding. Weak. Granted, Barlow is trying to sound more like "Cemetery Gates"-Anselmo than Brett Michaels, Jon Bon Jovi or Jani Lane, but it's still goofy and does not belong here. Hell, that particular song doesn't even have to do with a classic movie monster, it's an 'original' story about some fallen soldier which is completely unnecessary, patriotic self-service which would have been better placed on The Glorious Burden. Seriously, once they hit the climactic cliches of "Don't tread or me...live free or die!" I almost died laughing. I know it's supposed to be a tragic character which might work alongside Frankenstein's monster or the Creature from the Black Lagoon ("Dragon's Child"), but this is supposed to be a fucking HORROR SHOW.

Leave the sappy lamentations by the roadside. 'One for the ladies?' Don't patronize them. Why on Earth do you think we all listen to heavy fucking metal? It's to avoid shit like this...but worse, it's not even catchy, so cram those lighters up your sphincters. Another tune that pissed me off: "Damien". I'm sure many of you recall the original film The Omen, which was scored by Jerry Goldsmith, who did a tremendous job of creating an infernal tension with his strings, choirs, and Latin lyrics ("Ave Satani"). Iced Earth goes as far as to do a great job penning some lyrics from Damien the devil-spawn's perspective, but then there is nothing remotely frightening at all about the boring rhythm guitars or vocal arrangement. The moral of the story is: I would not want to meet Jerry Goldsmith in a dark alley on All Hallow's Eve, but if this is an example of the threat Iced Earth can generate, I'd have no hesitation to just them up and steal their candy bags. A sadly common thread coursing through this entire record. "Im-Ho-Tep" is at best a third rate "Powerslave". "Jack" isn't nearly as evil as it should sound, consider it covers arguably the greatest 'monster' of the album (the one that actually existed). "Dracula" is a good use of Steve's jazzier bass tones, a moodier sounding acoustic intro than "Ghost of Freedom", and some nice melodic power/speed licks with Barlow's screaming, but I did not think for a second that it effectively conveyed the atmospheric either Stoker's novel or any subsequent vampire telling to me (luckily Helstar had our backs 12 years prior to this).

Horror Show is essentially an endless tirade of grandiose arrangements that aesthetically fall short of their potential in dealing with the subject matter. I wanted classic horror. I got vapid Iced Earth. I wanted blood and innards. I got dullards. The lyrics are very often better than the music, and while they sound deceptively powerful via studio production, the majority of the riff patterns seem to tediously lack the debatable creativity found on the earlier records like the s/t or Night of the Stormrider. Barlow shines where he can, though a number of the layered vocal sequences seem tacky and needlessly dramatic. Like what Christina Aguilera might pull if she was fronting a metal record. Even if I were to compress this record down to an EP, the highlights still aren't as memorable as a random assortment of tunes off the first three records. And none of those were exactly masterpieces themselves. Horror Show is superior to its own successor, The Glorious Burden, that lackluster collaboration between Schaffer and Tim 'Try Hard' Owens, but that's not really saying much. At the end of the day, this is just a big, glossy package with good intentions, but without the fangs, claws, gills, wrappings, knives or zombie flesh to do them justice. These characters don't deserve such earnest, 'epically' average, charisma-free compositions. You'd be better off dusting your back issues of Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt, because even at their hokiest they've got the atmosphere and charm this so sorely lacks.

Verdict: Fail [4/10] (oh no, this can't be)

http://www.icedearth.com/

Fondlecorpse - Set the Drill to Kill (2013)

Unsung paragons of sleaze and gore, Dutch Fondlecorpse is amongst the most kitschy, campy horror metal acts you're like to encounter on the European side of the Atlantic. Known just as much for their ridiculous collage artwork as their music, albums like Blood and Popcorn and Creaturegore go so far as to feature the goddamn Critters from the Critters film (1986) in amongst the garbage, gore and tits! Try and strike that from your mind...a little harder to do than the songs, which up to this point haven't exactly left me with much of an impression, other than their jubilant use of movie samples. But let's be real: Silvester Koorevaar and the musicians he surrounds himself with are hardly out to rewrite the script on extremity. They're not meticulously penning the spiritual successor to Individual Thought Patterns or Unquestionable Presence, or trying to blast past Origin at some chainsaw murder-derby. Fondlecorpse writes fun, goofy, semi-sloppy death metal meant to help you relive those memories of cracking a beer open in the 80s, kicking back with some of the worst VHS tapes in your collection and just reveling in the triviality side of extreme entertainment.

This Set the Drill to Kill CD single is actually half of a limited vinyl split the band released with the prolific Swiss goregrinders Embalming Theatre, but this particular version includes the sample attachments that were omitted from the 7". Just two songs, but the reason I chose to dive into this rather than one of their older efforts is because Silvester has acquired more or less an entirely new lineup here, including none other than the Swedish underground death metal guru Roger Johansson on the guitar. As a result, I found the riffs here to be a lot tighter and more explosive than, say, Creaturegore, and that's partly a reflection of Rogga's vast experience releasing dozens of records in nearly as many bands over the last decade. If I didn't know better, I'd say Fondlecorpse was making a legitimate run here on becoming a tight and reliable throwback death metal band with a mash-up of Scandinavian and American influences, sort of a middle ground between Death and Dismember helmed by Silvester's gruff gutturals and off-snarls. The guitars here are a grab bag of driving D-beat punk-based rhythms and more intricate tremolo patterns, occasionally conjoined with a simple backing melody, or interspersed with some peppier thrash licks. Admittedly, though, I actually preferred "Rampaging Malformed Monstrosity", which I found the more brutal of the pair.

A great, athletic bass tone and loudly impacting drums help to round out the riffage, to the point where the group can run head to head with the tireless crusade of Swedish death metal impersonators, even though this has the lighter camp appeal that's going to find favor with Razorback Records fans (a brand Fondlecorpse has released material through and Silvester often does the artwork for) or Spanish goregrind heavies like Machetazo, Gruesome Stuff Relish and Haemorrhage. There's certainly also a little of that trickle-down influence from Carcass, Repulsion and Napalm Death, but it's distilled here into something a bit more recognizably 21st century. The samples are pretty sweet, I recognized the first from Driller Killer (1979) which should be obvious, but not the second. I also really dug the artwork on this thing, a nice tribute to the film. As for the songs? Well, even with the band firing on their best production cylinders, these are the sort of tunes you might listen to once or twice, maybe include on some schlock horror/gore metal compilation, but they're not exactly composed of memorable riffing sequences that stand out among so many peers. Not really on the level of, say, some of Rogga's more prolific bands like Revolting and Paganizer, but really there's nothing 'bad' about this release, it just doesn't stand out much. It's got an attitude, just not a very distinct or unique one. If you're really into this cult horror/exploitation stuff, especially the Razorback roster, it might be worth it to kick a few bucks for something that could prove a collectible later on (though the vinyl split might seem a more substantial choice for purists).

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Fondlecorpse

Bloodbath - Nightmares Made Flesh (2004)

Had you asked me a half decade ago, Resurrection Through Carnage would have been the Bloodbath record I championed as my favorite; but in the ensuing years I've found myself listening more and more to its predecessors, both of which exhibit stronger songwriting chops and a fraction more technicality that help to maintain interest. What's more, with Nightmares Made Flesh the Swedes seemed to transform from a 'supergroup homage' to an example of consummate professionalism in the field of death metal nostalgia. As overt as the influences are, many hailing from their very own country, with this album and its successor, I never really had the feeling that Bloodbath were perpetually 'living in the moment'. Unlike a lot of other throwback stylists, Nightmares Made Flesh doesn't feel like they're writing a record for 1993. It feels like they're writing one for the 21st century, which just happens to follow an 'ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality. Hell, by 1993, most of these guys were already putting out music...

This is better refined musically than its predecessor, which was far more of a chunky tribute to Swedish death luminaries like Entombed, Unleashed and Dismember. There were a lineup difference in that the band hired on Hypocrisy main man Peter Tägtgren to temporarily fill the shoes of Mikael Åkerfeldt, who was intensely busy with Opeth at the time; and Martin Axenrot (Witchery, Satanic Slaughter, etc) came on board so that they could have a full-time drummer, Dan Swanö focusing more on the guitar. These changes don't exactly factor into why I enjoy this record more, but certainly I felt that Peter had a better flexibility in his delivery than Mikael, even if his deep growl isn't quite so opaque and caustic. The riffs here are in general a little more frenetic and occasionally higher pitched in nature, and with Hypocrisy's diverse catalog and Peter's experience also in Pain, The Abyss and other projects, I can't think of anyone else more qualified to incorporate into ANY extreme musical project, even on the fly. Ultimately, I enjoyed his presence here more than Åkerfeldt on Breeding Death and Resurrection Through Carnage, but when Mike returned for The Fathomless Mastery, I wasn't exactly disappointed. Really, this shit isn't rocket science, either of the men could handle it, and Bloodbath is more about the riffs anyway.

Which is, of course, where this particular album excels. And there was no excuse for it not to, with two of the best songwriters in the country, Blakkheim and Dan Swanö laying into some corpulent grooves redolent of their peers in the 90s. Heartwork-era Carcass is a solid comparison, laced with the driving overtures of Entombed or Soulless-period Grave, and even culminating in a few individual riffs which feel like they could have been lifted off these bands' cult classic offerings. You can also here some slower Entombed or Bolt Thrower during the few sequences that reference death/doom on the latter half of the album, or even traces of latter-day Death in a few of the more clinical, busy note progressions in pieces like the opener "Cancer of the Soul". But Bloodbath is not beneath grafting a little creative editing of their own onto the style's blueprint, and so you end up with absolute fucking killer guitars like the tremolo picking sequence initiating "Outnumbering the Day" or that incredible, to-die-for d-beat beatdown groove in "Year of the Cadaver Race", which rivals almost anything on Clandestine or Wolverine Blues. I can't say that all of the guitars here are equally as ass-throttling and inspired, but you won't encounter a long, dry period without something entertaining...and across 12 tracks, that means quite a lot of fun.

FUN. Like, invigorating in that way you might have felt when first hearing the supergroup's ghoulish forebears during the actual 90s (if you were alive or of age to do so). But Bloodbath aren't just old hats and writing good songs, they've created an album here with timeless production values, clean enough to sate the fan of more modern/brutal death metal but still packing plenty of punch for the old timer. There's a reason why a lot of younger death metal fans I've come across, who seem to have little tolerance for the decades-old classics seem to be quite fond of this group even despite the lack of brain-spinning technicality they're accustomed to, and that once again points to the Swedes' decision to smooth out some of the grime and not shoot for the 1991 tape-reel production. Loud, pumping rhythm guitars warm and polished enough to wallop you with the deep end, but still very clear when they're racing off into some more intricate, melodic picking. The leads are also very well-defined, ripping and evil, the sort that fire up the excitement level well beyond what is already being played. That's another thing...most of the tunes here sound positively diabolic, due to the craftiness of the riff construction!

Fuck, these are all pretty mainstream dudes in Swedish metal who have broken big with softer acts like Katatonia, Pain and Nightingale, safe to play in front of your grandparents; so the fact that they can churn out wicked and imposing riffs better than the lion's share of 3rd generation Swedophiliacs the world over speaks volumes about how in tune they are with their backgrounds that inspired the project. For a project that's not even meant to be serious, the music here is molded with more passion and effort than you'd expect, and apart from a few lyrics (arguably), there's nothing so explicitly silly about this band. They don't saturate the songs' varied, visceral themes in the most disgustingly descriptive lyrics you get out of the competitive gore bands, but a tune like "Eaten" still makes me squirm a little in how it depicts cannibalistic desires from a perspective you normally don't experience. Or how about "Year of the Cadaver Race" in which undead livestock exterminate humanity. Eww! Truth be told, Nightmares Made Flesh is the total package, the sort of album you'd be proud to own had it come out 10 or 20 years prior, and proud to own now. I realize there's a small minority that will balk at the band because of its members or because retro death metal is utterly uncool, but if Bloodbath had arrived in 1992-4, the poster would very likely be on those same folks' walls, the tees proudly outgrown but displayed in their closets or carved into back patches for that inevitable midlife crisis when the khakis come off and the HORNS ARE THROWN.

So yeah, I have a great time with this record, but it'd be unfair to not point out the few deficiencies. For one, these riffs don't hit with a 100% success ratio, even though there's not really a noticeably 'weak' track over the dozen. A lot are just paraphrased from a few dozen of the obvious influences, from Morbid Angel to Entombed, so when you hear the truly amazing progressions (including those I mentioned earlier), they tend to really stand out and make you wish the rest were quite as great. Also, Jonas Renkse's bass playing, while loud enough, is dubiously dull and noncommittal. I know he's also involved with some of the guitars, backing vocals and overall songwriting...and that a lot of old death metal records don't themselves involve compelling or noteworthy bass playing; but a band like this which isn't thinking entirely in reverse could take an extra few days to pull up some half-decent lines and fills, which are treacherously few here. Otherwise, this is an album I can crank nearly a decade after its release date, inspired by material a decade older still, and it just feels timeless and engaging, despite its lack of novelty. A slab of semi-sickening, confident concussion for those who approach it from either the horror or headbanging angles.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (the pleasure of the torment)

http://bloodbath.biz/

Rigor Mortis - Freaks EP (1989)

The 'deformed' and the 'defective' have always had a safe harbor in the horror genre, playing to the superficiality and commonality of the viewer. So, naturally, this was fertile terrain for Rigor Mortis to continue their tour of transforming classic/cult horror concepts into intense onslaughts of hyper thrashing proto-death metal. I admit to having some trepidation that the band might abandon Mike Scaccia's noteworthy tremolo picking style and prowess for a chunker, more accessible brand of mosh-thrash of the Anthrax variety, but thankfully this was a pretty direct descendant of the eponymous 1988 effort in terms of style and songwriting. I felt next to no disappointment at this fact, but I have to say I'm not of the general consensus on the Freaks EP: its loyalty to the patented Rigor Mortis sound is noted, but for whatever reason the songs here simply do not phase me like most of their predecessors.

Hell, Rigor Mortis was arguably one of the better 'second tier' US thrash records to hail from anywhere other than the East and West coasts, due largely to the guitars and vocals, and I'd even go so far as to say it had a profound if subtle influence on future decades of extreme metal. Many death and black metallers I've encountered have never even heard the thing, but there were not a lot of speed or thrash acts at the time playing with the acrobatic picking technique quite like Scaccia. In fact, I'd say he was so far ahead of his time that most extreme metal groups today don't even compose their tremolo lines with such fervor...he can twist them into a groove, bolster them into a lead sequence and could truly explore the concept of 'speed' itself. I guess without the blasting and constant double bass patterns so critical in the evolution of death and black mediums, Rigor Mortis might be taken slightly for granted while Gene Hoglan and Dave Lombardo are forever lauded, but surely Harden Harrison is a wild bastard playing on the more aggressive end of the thrash spectrum with loads of near-blast beats, constant fills and even having some fun with a cowbell, appropriate to the track "Cattle Mutilation".

The vocal position here had shifted from Bruce Corbitt to a guy named Doyle Bright, and while he doesn't have that same darkness to his bark, he does a pretty vicious impressive mix of Corbitt and other thrash frenzies like Ron Rinehart of Dark Angel. Casey Orr's bass lines here are perhaps the only department in which I actually consider Freaks a step-up from the debut. Sure, the guy's not going to receive the same level of attention as Scaccia, but he is literally fucking flying along those notes, and the relative thinness of the rhythm guitar in the mix ensures his constant presence and mildly muddled tone. Rigor Mortis is at its core about velocity; endless momentum, and this EP is no exception. It's produced cleanly and efficiently, with the vocals barking the loudest, and leads also blaring, but the rhythm instruments each playing off one another seamlessly. This is drag-strip horror metal, with exponentially more tremolo patterns than chords, and even at its slower points like "The Haunted" its still bustling along with great confidence and exploding squeals of guitar notes that dazzled just about every guitarist in the 80s that heard them, yours truly included.

Unfortunately, at least for me, the songs here simply do not have the resonance that gems like "Wizard of Gore", "Bodily Dismemberment" and "Condemned to Hell" from the debut had. I bought this when it was released and quickly forgot about it, perhaps because there was just so much better coming out at the time. In the intervening years I've gone back to it several times, but to the same underwhelming reaction. I find it nearly impossible to remember any of the riffs and notes, because honestly they're a little dull by comparison to their forebears. It's 'high speed boredom', to be sure, but pretty much victim to the same reasons a lot of death and black metal records won't gel with me decades later: lack of inspired, original, and evil patterns of notation that glue themselves to the memory and never un-stick. Tunes like "Freaks" and "Cattle Mutilation" might be perfect for fans of premature ejaculation, who just want something fast and mean and to get the whole experience over with, but there are never any interesting twists or licks waiting in the depths, apart from surface recognition of the members' dexterity. I never feel like the 'knife is in my hand' as I did with "Bodily Dismemberment". I don't feel like a psycho anymore when I hear this. It all comes down to that.

Hell, there's actually nothing 'freaky' about any of this if you've already heard the debut album. The songs here just seem like outtakes that weren't catchy enough to include among their betters. Rhythmically there aren't many interesting progressions, and hell even the "Six Feet Under" instrumental seems like a warm up exercise for the musicians with a little too much repetition. The lyrics are alright, and Bright's presence can hardly be held responsible for the lack of compelling songs (at least on this release), but I felt like Mike's note choices here felt a little dry; and thus I didn't hold out much hope for the inevitable sophomore Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth, which in addition to the lamentable songwriting, likely suffered from the 'thrash fatigue' of the early 90s and the fact that the band had been kicked to their third label home in three releases. Freaks is certainly superior to that, but it's just not that exciting beyond its visceral construction. Yeah, it's faster and arguably 'sicker' than Haunting the Chapel or The Eyes of Horror short-players, but there are single songs on those ("Chemical Warfare", "Confessions", etc) that stand out more than all 5.5 of these cuts combine. So, back on the shelf it goes, not nearly the curiosity that Mark Ryden's cover image suggests.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (hide your disgust as they greet you)

https://www.facebook.com/rigormortis25

Darkwoods My Betrothed - Witch-Hunts (1998)

I first encountered Darkwoods My Betrothed when browsing a specialty record store in New Hampshire, where they had imported a copy of their 1996 sophomore Autumn Roars Thunder. This was in my early 20s, and I was immediately drawn to the artwork, the band's interesting handle and the pagan themes in the song titles & lyrics. I was also interested in a lot of European labels like Solistitium, and more superficially, Fall had long been (and remains) my favorite season of the year. So I'm just a sucker for anything related to it, enough to pop $20 on a CD from overseas even though I'd have probably been smarter to save the cash for my university textbooks the following semester. Wait...nonsense! :slaps self: At any rate, I was not heavily invested into the Finnish black metal scene at the time. I knew and had collected a few of the more obvious groups (Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Barathrum) but hadn't invested much further into their underground, beyond Thy Serpent's Forests of Witchery, which I probably picked up the same day I nabbed this. Still wrapped up in the other Scandinavian nations.

Autumn... was a curious record, with a lot of atmospheric clean singing comparable to Yearning (another Finnish export I later acquired), so I was eager to order their followup when it was available through Spinefarm a few years later. Surprisingly, Witch-Hunts took a few aesthetic turns from the first two discs, and relied more heavily on synthesizers to provide orchestration for the Bathory-styled riffing. In fact, it would not be out of the question to describe this as a hybrid of Blood Fire Death beats and rhythms guitars with the eloquent, sweeping grandeur of Dimmu Borgir's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. A comparison that might immediately turn off a few curious parties who loathe the 'demon burgerz', but an honest one, because Witch-Hunts in some ways bears more semblance to the later 90s/early 00s wave of cheesy but enjoyable haunted house black metal attributed to groups like Gloomy Grim, Soulgrind and early Alghazanth. This stuff was clearly traceable to the symphonic Norse and Swedish sources as opposed to the foundation of Beherit, Darkthrone, and other raw and raucous entities that inspired the popular groups like Horna and their kin that we associate so strongly with the Finnish black metal scene of today. That's not to say we've got an In the Nightside Eclipse contender on our hands here, but Witch-Hunts definitely gnaws at the familiar roots which sprouted such a masterpiece.

This was easily the best produced of the three Darkwoods full-lengths, with a dense and broiling mix which for the most part manages to balance off all the important instruments. Though generally audible, the rhythm guitars do have a tendency to lose some luster when the keyboards are pounding away, but there are other points at which they take the center stage and the orchestration 'backs off'. The dirty grit of the guitar tone is one of the aspects that remind me of late 80s Bathory, but more particular it's the swaggering mead hall feel to a lot of the note progressions, especially where they are affixed to the constant double bass mugging. The leads, to their credit, really do stand out where they appear. This album, like most of the delightfully cheesy sympho-black of the 90s, gives me the impression that I'm riding some demonic merry-go-round on a fire-breathing nightmare steed. Corny but convincing. The keys are actually well arranged between pipe organ tones and lighter, sparkling pads which occasionally feel like you're listening to the incidental music for an X-Files episode. Accessible, safe choices are made that fall within a consonant classical camp rather than some dissonant, jarring, alien tones; the only real aggression is when they're sweeping along above a blast beat and incendiary tremolo pattern, together forming a mighty cavalry charge. Cranked at louder volumes, Witch-Hunts is definitely engrossing and clamorous.

There were synths on the second album, sure, but they were applied with a more back seat mentality, where here they've at least moved up into the front passenger position. Though many probably found the clean vocals from Autumn Roars Thunder goofy at best, I actually missed them here. You get some whispered, evil incantations, and the same salacious snarl you'd recognize from the older works, but there was just less variation over the album. Emperor Natteset is particularly impressive when he unleashes a sustained, gnarled rasp, but in retrospect I don't feel he was one of the more distinctive black metal front men of this period. Enough to do the job, and then some, but difficult to separate from many of his peers. The Hellraiser III sample in "Without Ceremony and Bell Toll" sounds pretty cool, plus it's just cool wanted to quote anything beyond the original film. Interestingly, the keyboardist here (and on Autumn) was Tuomas Holopainen who went on to become famous in Nightwish, so you can experience his bombastic classical roots developing here, and where the metal cedes and you're just hearing the keys or glimmering acoustics, it offers a well placed relief from the hostility. Tero Leinonen really kills his kit here! Unlike his other band Nattvindens Gråt (which also featured Holopainen) he can really open up with the blasting and thundering bass and I felt like he was engaging throughout. You can make out most of the bass lines, and somethings they start hammering themselves into the listener's perception, but normally they were strictly a support unit.

If I have one major complaint with this disc, it's that thematically the music felt more like a raging, glorious battlefield than an actual witch-hunt. It's creepy only in its superficial details...organs, pianos and synthesized choirs all fit the bill, but the level of ballistic punishment in the seething guitars just gives off the impression of murderous midnight black metal circa Emperor or Limbonic Art. Like a war between vampire lords being launched from the battlements of their grim, obsidian castles. Granted, this is an original story here and does indeed involve some warlike behavior by the witch hunters, so your mileage may vary. The latter half of the album is devoted to the actual "Witch-Hunts" trilogy, the strongest songwriting, and the lyrics throughout are quite good, but even here a lot of the content is blasting Scandinavian stuff which I just couldn't associate with the subject matter. However, that's just me...I'm sure most will not have a problem connecting the two, and of course we've had no shortage of intense black metal homages to witchcraft. The music on its surface didn't really leave me with the impression of some innocent (or guilty) village woman being stalked for her believes (real or false), and then there was no climactic, horrifying 'payoff' at the proverbial stake. I guess I never 'felt' the story, it never titillated my fetish for black cats, warts and flying brooms. Kidding.
 
But as a firm piece of orchestrated, savage aggression...Witch-Hunts works, certainly with a more broad appeal for the symphonic black metal fan of its day than its predecessors. I think it does lack some of the charm of the older material, and in the end I actually have come to enjoy the debut Heirs of the Northstar the most, because Pasi/Nattesett's performance there consisted of truly formidable, atmospheric screams and howls that really smothered the acidic rhythm guitars like the ravings of a disembodied specter. This one doesn't possess quite so many memorable moments, and where it does they are usually keyboard lines. Not the spookiest record to invest in this October, but then if you're a sucker for cult classics like In the Nightside Eclipse, Enthroned Darkness Triumphant, Moon in the Scorpio or Dusk and Her Embrace then you might find enough inspiration here to light your own pyres.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (a cult curtained in secrecy)

http://www.sacrifire.net/dmb/index.htm

Blood Feast - Kill for Pleasure (1987)

One of the greatest dangers of an underground metal scene driven by nostalgia is its tendency to inflate the value of nearly any recording written and released during a particular period in time. So it goes in recent years for the early death metal stuff, and so before that it went for the Golden Era thrash metal. Second and third tier bands (at best) are showered with credit, failed records misremembered as successful, and buying trends produce loads of reissues, which is honestly the best part of the phenomena, since it puts some real gems back into print. New Jersey's Blood Feast, through no fault of its own, is certainly one of many indistinct thrash bands of the 80s to have garnered some buzz due to their placement in history. I can faintly remember a little discussion of Chopping Block Blues (their superior sophomore effort) in high school, thanks to one other student owning the cassette, but these fellas were hardly front page news...and for a reason.

Now, before the hair gets ruffled and the panties bunched, I'm not advocating that Blood Feast was some horribly incompetent band. As far as the New Renaissance Records roster, Kill for Pleasure was a rather middle of the road release, hardly the nadir of a label which produced only a handful of gems. For me, though, two of those particular gems, Indestroy's self-titled and debut and the North American release of Sepultura's Morbid Visions help exemplify exactly what it is I don't enjoy about the Blood Feast debut. Both had comparable, filthy speed/thrash aesthetics which could easily be filed under the proto-black/death metal category. Both brimmed with fun, unforgettable songs, dirty and distinct vocals and hooks that felt at the minimum threatening and at most downright Goddamned evil. Kill for Pleasure, on the other hand, just sounds like someone closely memorized a bunch of Slayer songs, trimmed out the infernal nuances that made them so revelatory and unique, and applied a vocalist who at best could be said as a more grotesque attempt to one-up Jeff Becerra of Possessed. Sure, everyone was influenced by Slayer, but if I had a dime for all the half assed "Black Magic" riffs here I'd have made back my money for the record. To dub this debut a bargain bin backup for Hell Awaits and Seven Churches might seem a cruelty or disservice to some, but it's nonetheless the honest truth.

But let me step back and talk about what I feel Blood Feast actually had going for them. For one, though horror influences persisted in the hard rock/heavy metal scene as early as the 60s (potentially earlier), the sort of 70s/80s inspired splatter metal was still pretty fresh by the time Kill for Pleasure rolled out. In fact, part of the charm anyone would feel for this or Chopping Block Blues is the nostalgia for the endless slasher sequels and 'forbidden' mock cannibal VHS tapes that started to thrive through this particular decade. The lyrics here largely revolve around films and stories of serial killers, mythical creatures of the night, and occult fueled apocalypses. It's Halloween metal for those individuals who privately venerate the holiday over the course of the entire year. That doesn't make it incredibly unique in the 80s, but bands like Blood Feast were unquestionably blueprints for the throngs of thousands of gore or kitsch-horror obsessed death metal mavens to follow. If Kill for Pleasure wasn't an inspiration for the roster of Razorback records, for example, I would be completely shocked. So that sense of antiquated slasher atmosphere and brutality permeates the experience here, and really makes me wish to like it more than I do...

Unfortunately, the music is just not up to the task. Boilerplate chord progressions paraphrased from a good number of other records leading up to it, thriving only off the inherent visceral intensity spearheaded by Gary Markovitch, the sadistic vocalist who channels the aforementioned Becerra's style into ghastlier heights of morbid grunts and vicious snarls. Oh, he's a lot of fun on a tune like "Cannibal", but the supporting rhythm guitars fail to stand out, and it feels like you're the target of some foot chase perpetuated by a knife wielding psychopath, only to realize in the middle that this is a pretty boring foot chase. 'Just kill me.' As I've persisted through the record every time I've broken it out in the past 25 years, I've kept waiting to hear those surprise hooks flutter in from beyond the verses, or some climactic chorus carnage that made me wanna flip back the needle for a replay, but they just never happen. Like a lot of its contemporaries (Darkness Descends or Reign in Blood), speed is the general rule, with a couple meaty palm muted breakdown grooves for the moshers, and those are across the board uninteresting. Naturally, I don't have a problem with such a driven, breakneck album, but I at least expect some catchy riff patterns strewn in there, and Kill for Pleasure does not deliver.

The production is a bit sloppy, so several of the complaints I've read are warranted in this area, though I have no idea why one would expect a major budget on such a small label. There are plenty of soiled and amateur sounding records I love to death (like the two other New Renaissance releases I mentioned above), but that's because the studio choices (or lack thereof) seem to emphasize the quality of the songwriting, or at least ensure that the listener is paying closer attention. Kill for Pleasure is dense and workmanlike, with Gary's lunatic vocals up front above the considerable drum mix and wet-ass distortion of the rhythm guitars. The leads are also pretty gross sounding, though occasionally they seem better prepared and more melodic than others, at which they seem like afterthoughts that sadly lack the frenetic capacity of what Slayer were weaving into their tunes. Blood Feast is definitely one of the earlier thrash bands to put such a distorted and sleazy tone on the bass...in fact it's so thick and repugnant that it places Kill for Pleasure almost into early grind territory at times (circa Scum or Horrified). A good choice, but the bass lines themselves are hardly interesting enough to provide more than a gut-spilling accompaniment. Drums are fired up and abusive, to say the least, but rarely if ever enter that extreme metal territory that Hoglan and Lombardo were pushing.

Really, Markovitch is the center of attention and the only component of this record that I found marginally entertaining, because he's just not holding back. He's crazy. Matched up with some truly bewitching or evil progressions of chords or melodies, Kill for Pleasure might have been sinister as shit, even turning the lead vocal down a notch, but this is ultimately 42 minutes of average schlock that secedes from the memory almost as soon as its injected. I mean, take Rigor Mortis' eponymous record, an excellent if imperfect example of how to integrate frightening, morbid rhythm guitars with dark vocals and cult horror lyrical themes, or older records like Hell Awaits, Metal Inquisition, hell even Welcome to Hell and Black Metal leave an infinitely more wicked impression upon the psyche than this; not to mention Chopping Block Blues which is more varied, unusual and interesting, even it trades in some of the savagery. Kill for Pleasure is not a compete dud, some acceptable slasher metal to spin in the background while you organize your Friday the 13th DVDs, but its only merits stem from its over the top frontmanship and unflinching rawness. Your heart won't quicken, you won't jump at shadows, and...no goosebumps. A bloody steak, sure, but not a tasty one.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10] (embedding the terror)

http://www.drinktheblood.com/

Fates Warning - Darkness in a Different Light (2013)

With a 3D origami graphic that seems taken straight from some forgotten prog rock record of decades past, it becomes immediately apparent that the Fates Warning revival, after nearly a decade of studio absence, will not be yanking upon their early 80s trad/power metal roots, but instead dialing to a point later in that decade where they transformed into their more subtle, progressive phase which produced a streak of fine records in Perfect Symmetry, Parallels, and Inside Out, before wearing itself thin with the lazier, inexpressive, weaker songwriting that characterized the three later full-lengths which led up to the hiatus. Or at least, that is what I hoped when I was gazing upon the packaging of Darkness in a Different Light, and fortunately I wound up rewarded with what came across to me like an amalgamation of the mechanical nuance of Perfect Symmetry/Parallels with the cleaner, modernized production punch of Fates Warning X.

Yes, a truly throwback Fates Warning record is not and will likely never be in the cards, but with the advent of the Arch/Matheos collaboration that's no longer really a necessity. While that excellent debut, Sympathetic Resonance had a more contemporary appeal than The Specter Within and Awaken the Guardian, it was close enough in feel to satisfy the nostalgia, and potentially leave us two avenues with which to answer our cravings. What I really wanted out of Darkness in a Different Light was another Perfect Symmetry, a slightly dark, prescient and melodic piece with memorable songwriting that could endure for decades. This isn't nearly on that level, I'm afraid, but certainly exceeds the mediocrity that defined the group's 1997-2004 phase. The sole loss to the previous lineup, drummer Mark Zonder, has returned to his alma mater Warlord and produced a comeback of its own in The Holy Empire (in fact a better album than this); but here he is replaced with Bobby Jarzombek, a player with superior technical ability that could play on almost any recording under the sun. Not to discredit Zonder, whose simple and steady performance was a great match for Fates' aesthetic transition in the late 80s, but just the presence of Bobby alone hints at a more energized, exciting selection of tracks...

...which is, to an extent, an accurate depiction of Darkness in a Different Light. There is unquestionably a sense of revitalization and commitment to the material, perhaps spurred on by Matheos' success with the John Arch collaboration. Fates Warning seems hungry again, and though mechanically there is little here which seems a 'progression' beyond anything they released through the 90s, there is a greater focus on the core strengths of riffing, pacing and melody that kept them near the pinnacle of the niche back in their prime. The songs here will not so much haunt or impress anyone to the point that they'll be hummed on subway trains or in cubicles, but they achieve a median between the gentler emotional moments of their past balladry, and the stolid post-Rush grooves characteristic of Fates Warning X, Disconnected or Alder's other bands Engine and Redemption. Though Jarzombek's drumming is clear and away the most complex and harried component of the music, I like that they've brought back some fairly well developed chorus building in cuts like "One Thousand Fires" and "Into the Black". Though there are a lot of thicker 'boogie' grooves that dominate the harder end of the record, I like that several of the rhythm guitars had a tone and phrasing straight off Perfect Symmetry.

Alder's not exactly taxing himself, and he hasn't for many years now, but his presence certainly carries much of the material with a wealth of subtler dramatic shifts and smooth, sustained intonations (as in "Kneel and Obey"). The guy's not spitting out catchy line after line, but he's also not repeating himself ad nauseum with the boredom I've experienced on other albums, and he really works to contrast the start/stop nature of the grooves in pieces like "O Chloroform". Clean, feely, processed guitars are still pretty common, but there's an appreciable array of metallic riffing that spans from the later 80s material, when progressive metal in general felt more exotic, to the marginal nu- and groove- metal stuff that had started to infect the band in the 90s, but nothing feels cheap or redundant. The leads are definitely cut from a wilder, flashy hard rock cloth in tunes like "Into the Black", but they're not exactly memorable. I also have to say that I'm just not too impressed with the bass lines. Joey Vera is normally fantastic but they seem to subsumed by the rhythm guitars, even though his tone is crystal clear. As unusual as it seems, Alder and Jarzombek are the stars here; most of the guitars serve only as a seat for the vocalizations, and not a lot are interesting independently.

It wouldn't be possible for me to listen through this without consciously comparing it to the latest works of the two other American prog metal bigwigs, and I think it shares that same earnest vivacity for steering the band back to a point at which it truly mattered. Dream Theater might have pulled it off a little better on their eponymous disc, but I enjoyed it more than the most recent by Queensrÿche proper. And yet there's still a sense of a band working hard to where it needs to be, but not entirely succeeding. Darkness in a Different Light is engaging enough where it counts, when you're actually sitting there with the music in your speakers or headphones, but it's very difficult to imagine caring about it a month from now, much less when you're in the mood for one of their classics. If I compare this to any of their first 6-7 albums, whether in the Arch or Alder camp, it falls short in terms of songwriting and overall aesthetic quality. Clearly the time off has aged the band well, and I don't mean to be too down on this, it's a solid record; but I do hope this can prove the groundwork for a record like Perfect Symmetry where most of the songs resonate well beyond their years, despite being well ahead of their original birth date.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.fateswarning.com/

Old Man Wizard - Unfavorable (2013)

What is it with the West Coast producing these distinctive mash-ups of psychedelic/prog rock, folk and traditional metal? First we had Slough Feg and Hammers of Misforture blowing minds out of Frisco, and if Unfavorable is any indicator, Old Man Wizard of San Diego should follow suit through their memorable fusion of 60s/70s songwriting skills and proto-metal chops. The six cuts comprising the debut album reveal glimpses of anything from Rainbow, Cream, Beatles, Tull, or Floyd to the last Opeth record Heritage or the recent works of those aforementioned Californian acts, and all enveloped in a rich palette of clean, modern sound that screams 'here and now', regardless of the nostalgia the group has obviously weaned its sound upon.

Smooth, melodious vocals that range from driven harmonies to shrill, distant wails; all set adrift over a wide array of natural guitar tone and pluggy, voluminous bass-lines and shufflin' beats that thrive off one another in true power trio fashion. The rhythm guitar has just that faint trace of fuzz and potency which dates it to the dawn of metal or hard rock in general, eschewing the saturation of intense distortion for that warmer tone. And yet there is no tradeoff in terms of complexity: no, Old Man Wizard is not some technical/progressive act by any means, but the harder hitting riffs and grooves retain an intricacy you're not going to find out of the Deep Purple cover band at your local watering hole. They're not just bland, pentatonic blues overdrive, but cultivate the structure of a lot of old metal, turn of the 80s NWOBHM licks. The pacing of Unfavorable is also paramount to its success: moody pieces like "Travellers' Lament" weave in dreamy but cautionary acoustic guitars, while others like "Nightmare Rider" mete out edgier, darker riffs that create a median between Sabbath and Rush, and the guitar harmonies in "The Bearded Fool" recollect Thin Lizzy. The lyrics capture a rustic, fantastical 'tell it from the mountain' vibe, seamless alongside the musical aesthetic.

All this would be impressive in of itself, but meaningless if the tunes weren't so damned catchy, and truth be told there was not a single vocal line over the album that was anything less than pleasant or compelling. Nor can I think of a guitar line that failed to titillate, or to provide that level of escapism you can feel just by glaring at the cover artwork. The songwriting could hardly be considered 'wild', but suitably unpredictable in that the diction of tempos and note progressions was never something I could be certain of in advance, and at roughly a half hour there's plenty of variety with obviously no shot at growing bored with itself. Granted, certain psychedelic rock fans might find it a bit brief, but the purpose here is to really test the waters and showcase the considerable songwriting chops, which this does quite favorably. You see what I did there. That is why I'm not a comedian, folks. At any rate, despite Old Man Wizard's handle, and the obvious cultural backlog of sounds they're developing into the 21st century, not once did I feel any gray hairs poking through my scalp. Fresh, rejuvenated, imaginative rock and roll for the lit. The unlit. The soul seeker and the atavist. Perfect it isn't, but it confidently lays the first bricks along that road.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (given to be forgotten by all else)

http://oldmanwizard.com/

Zemial - Nykta (2013)

It's been 17 years now since Zemial's For the Glory of UR, a minor cult classic of Greek black metal which showed the potential to escape that tier of bands loitering the shadow of Rotting Christ's international success. Since that time, the multi-talented Archon Vorskaath has continued to record and release music at respectable intervals, crafting towards a more primitive, blackened thrash/heavy metal hybrid which resulted in some solid material like the Dusk EP a couple years ago (of which one track is actually included here). When I saw the cover for Nykta, I admit to a little confusion, since there was no Zemial logo, and it looked like one of Samael's minimalistic cosmic visuals of the late 90s, or something Hunter Hunt-Hendrix would use to 'transcend' black metal with Liturgy (quite a lot like their debut, Renihilation). But hey, it's not like one can trademark the use of an eclipse, black hole or celestial phenomena, and aesthetically I'm happy to say that this the image fits about 50% of the songwriting, which is in fact quite an interesting spin on the direction Archon was already headed.

At its core, Nykta is still a work of hybridized thrash and epic heavy metal riffing, with a surprising level of detail and atmosphere that hints at far more than just the latest retro tribute to the 80s. Sure, a load of the note progressions here smack of staples like Slayer, Bulldozer, Venom and Possessed, but the songs seem to vary between more direct black/thrashers like "Under Scythian Command" and more extensive, progressive cuts like "Ancient Arcane Scrolls" that thrive off their variation. He peppers the riffs with an abusive amalgamation of blackened rasps and brutish grunts, but also uses some cleaner narrative spoken word stuff, and occasionally a gritty but melodic delivery. The percussion really pokes through the mix, a clean mix of snare and bass with some really loud and busy fills from the higher pitched toms. Actually, a track like "Ancient Arcane Scrolls" half feels like a drum solo smothered in riffs, thanks to the jamming, jazzy fills which would be interesting enough to listen to if isolated from all the guitars and vocals. Another of the techniques that stood out to me were the tones of the leads and melodies, which were pretty stripped down and seemed like they were being performed off some 70s prog rock record. It's just another little detail which one wouldn't normally expect out of this style...and though it's not nearly so dramatic, reminded me of Sigh's playing on records like Hail Horror Hail.

He goes all out psychedelic space-prog thrash on the new, extended edition of "In the Arms of Hades" here which manages to fill outs its 11+ minute length with a spacious bridge and some excellent drums. And I have to say, he might just be on to something here. Combining the dirt, speed and aggression with these more trippy, joint-lighting freakout elements is not something I hear all the time, and really this is a centerpiece for the entire experience. Love the wavering Tom Warrior/Nocturno Culto vocals he dishes out in the first verse. The other would be "Pharos", 15 fucking minutes of cosmic escapism, prog rock/ambient contrasts invested with weird vocals, dirty but faintly shimmering synthesizers, and some excellent guitar lines. I also appreciated the intricacy of a lot of his speedier, thrash riffs, like in the latter half of  "Breath of Pestilence" which is mind-blowingly cool without being exceedingly technical. The rhythm guitar tone across Nykta is quite old school and never over saturated or overdriven with distortion; lending the songs an earthy authenticity which helps the music feel dated despite its obvious nuance. Apart from the gently booming tone, the bass lines don't usually have a lot of presence beyond feeding the rhythm guitars some depth and richness, but this is the only gaffe I could find in the production, and it's excusable.

The other issue I took was with the outro track "Out of the Cage - 333 for Drumset and Mechanical", which just seemed like 4 and a half minutes of silence, with what I believe might have been a faint drum click (?) in there...at least on the digital promo I got. Might be an error, but if not it's entirely useless listener trolling and doesn't belong on what is so otherwise inspired an album. It's like restoring a beautiful old automobile to road worthy perfection, and then slashing the tires. Beyond that, Nykta is accordingly magnificent, an old dog trying both new and old tricks and achieving a result that uniquely fits flush with the wave of 60s and 70s inspired psychedelia and prog rock pervading multiple metal genres in recent years. Of course, if you're not as into the marginal experimentation, and you just desire some of the blazing, infernal material he meted out on the last recording, tunes like "Under Scythian Command" and "Eclipse" will sate the avid fan of groups like Deathhammer, Antichrist, or even the latest few Darkthrone records. Nykta is a deceptively varied work which is hands down the most interesting Vorskaath has released, and while the guy has rarely if ever really 'disappointed', I found this superior even to the debut, and have listened through it (skipping track #9) a dozen times in the weeks since I received it. Hell, in lieu of a few surface flaws, this is quite likely to show up on my personal year's end list...it's really that compelling.

Verdict: Epic Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zemial-Official/199551066758156

Soul Remnants - Black and Blood (2013)

Another bulwark in a strengthening Massachusetts death metal scene which includes Abnormality, Scalpel, Sexcrement and Zealotry, Soul Remnants actually have quite a lot of collective scene experience behind them already, and in a number of styles. Reading through the roster, you'll find guys who have played either live or in studio with locals ranging from the more decidedly brutal extreme of Deconformity and Burial to the more melodic ministrations of Frozen and The Year of Our Lord, not to mention some power and black metal projects. I won't profess to being a fan of many of those acts, but there's no argument that the variation and diversity of sounds there bleeds through into a really well-produced, well-balanced onslaught of systematically intense death metal with elements of grind and technical thrash that span a broad array of influences.

Seriously, all bets are off with what you're going to find buried in some of these songs. For instance, "Dead Black (Heart of Ice)" has a charging melodic black metal surge at its center, while other tunes like "No Afterlife" have these exciting, death/thrash picking progressions redolent of bands like Carcass and Death. It would be a little difficult to corner Soul Remnants into any particular theme or style, and that's not such a bad thing, but if there were some core aesthetic at play, it's probably the sort of explosive, blasting 90s and turn of the century death and grind pioneered by Napalm Death, Malevolent Creation, Morbid Angel, and Hate Eternal. There's a lot of intricacy here, no shortage of riffing patterns being spewed forth at any given point on the album, and the excellent, clear production ensures that you experience all of it. Rich and churning, thrashy palm mutes occupy the lower end of the writing, but they often move at an extremely fast clip with more precise, technical riffing techniques from tremolo picking to clinical hyper-thrash. Thankfully they're not above committing themselves to some slower sequences that prevent this from becoming some monotonous, unswerving ballistic missile.

That's not to say that I loved the material, because while they're masters at throttling the listener with a billion solid riffs, approximately none of them are the sort that will really stick out in your thoughts a half hour after you've listened through them. Soul Remnants generates a precarious balance between the old and new, with ripping, thought out solos, a rhythm section tighter than a damned noose, and no shortage of melodies to offset the sheer hostility (like the bridge in "No Afterlife"). Lots to ingest across numerous listens, and there is enough sum technicality through the four players that this could almost rival another of our Boston heroes, the successful and deserving Revocation. But even after combing through this record a half-dozen times, and appreciating just how much effort this took to put together, I couldn't shake the feeling that a lot of the constituent riffing patterns felt like hollower, less inspired representations of their individual forebears. Like a gestalt of material from Necroticism, Individual Thought Patterns, Conquering the Throne and a dozen other hallmarks of extremity that never really surpasses any of them despite its broader variation.

I also really wasn't into the vocals, not for any lack of trying, because this guy has a raucous and loud guttural which fits the songwriting like a glove; but because it's just not the most charismatic growl out there, and I might not be able to pick it out from a lineup if I didn't have the cover art of the promo staring at me. They'll weave in some multi-tracked snarls and growls, and truth be told he can shift effortlessly between a more rasped timbre and an even deeper bludgeoning roar, but beyond the 'all purpose' sort of delivery they just don't distinguish themselves. Granted, this is a pretty common symptom of death metal in the now, and this guy is by no means incompetent, since he's able to match the exciting pace of the music; but there's really nothing sinister or exemplary about the performance. In fact, few of the riffs or songs really match any of the evil and menacing impressions left upon me by a lot of the records that influenced this. It's exciting but not very interesting. That's a tall order, I realize, but with a few thousand death metal records coming out each year, it's something I personally seek out.

In the end, Black and Blood was an album I spent mostly digging the great sound, the flawless exaction of the drummer, and just the sheer wealth (if not memorable quality) of riffing, in particular the bridges where the rhythm guitars build in intensity to support the flight of the leads. There is absolutely no laziness or half assedness anywhere. No one is slumming. You don't arrive at a result like this without each individual contributing his share and more, and I wouldn't be surprised at all that a younger audience trapped between their generational love of brickwalled tech death/deathcore and an emergent desire to explore the older school roots of the genre that have become so popular anew will devour this like candy. Certainly, Soul Remnants is not pursuing some clamorous cavern-core trend or biting off the Swedish tone that arrives in my mailbox 75 times each month, and that says a lot for them. This set of songs might not have connected with me personally, beyond their visceral and frenetic qualities, but with this much raw proficiency in the lineup, they will no doubt appeal to many fans of the vintage extremity of Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, Deicide, and so forth.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/chopwork