Zombiefication - Below the Grief (2018)

If I received only middling returns from the band's 2014 album Procession Through Infestation, that only highlights even more how much of a surprise Below the Grief has proven. Trace elements of their Swedish-derived death metal sound might persist throughout this fourth Zombiefication full-length, but on the whole it's far enough removed from the roots of their sound that it's easy to count it as the most unique they've ever produced. A hammering helping of death metal fundamentals fueled by anger and towering walls of melodic force, helmed by passionate vocals which seem like the singer was just crawling and dragging home from some violent altercation in which he received a number of bruises and cuts. It's also exciting, and unlike its well-produced predecessor, far less of a predictable experience...simple but effective riffs would just burst out of the landscape everywhere and keep me glued to my earbuds as I awaited what would come next.

It's actually a little daunting to describe...like a jarring mesh of death metal, thrash and hardcore with an overall atmosphere birthed from the sheer savagery of its motion. The drumming is extremely loud and crashy, albeit not so much that you can't make out whatever else is happening. This was actually one slight little hangup for me, I think they could have turned those down just a fraction. The bass lines are propulsive and groovy, and the rhythm guitars create this sonic envelope which is aggressive but constantly oozing out desperate or sad, if not entirely creative melodies. To that extent it feels like a natural progression from the album before it, only the way the whole picture comes together here seems much more fresh. The vocals range a little higher before, bloodthirsty and raving grunts and howls which almost feel like he's being slapped in the midsection by 2 x 4 boards while he's in the studio booth barking them out. Lastly, they incorporate these little unexpected twists, like the cleaner breaks in "Deliverance from the Astral Sea", or the tribal, clanging, evil intro to the following track called "Echoes of Light". When that chug rolls in off the beat and then they hit those patterns of interchanging chords it feels like the group has turned over an incredible new musical leaf.

And at that point they're only a short way into the album, interesting ideas persist throughout all the tunes. Below the Grief has a really compelling contrast between thundering unrest and melancholy, and reaches a higher bar of craftsmanship and songwriting than any of their albums before it. The production might have a few flaws for a lot of listeners; it's not quite at the level of the album before it, for which of the mix was the forte, but the ingenuity and emotion manifest here is just so much cooler. I'm not saying it's the most memorable album you'll hear lately, but it's clearly inspired. An effort I could see myself recommending not only to classic death metal fans, or 'death 'n roll' addicts who enjoy records like Entombed's Uprising and Inferno, but also to fans of crushing sludge, or Chaos A.D.-like groove metal, or even metallic hardcore acts like Ringworm or Integrity. It cultivates a worthwhile cross-section of ideas, without ever playing them out cheap, and it also signifies a lot more risk than Zombiefication's backlog, which despite the novel geographical origin could have just fit in snugly with a lot of other old-school Swede-loving tributes. Sometimes you take the chance, you roll the dice and come out with a critical hit, and that's what Misters Hitchcock and Jacko have done here, and it's exciting. Well done.

Verdict: Win [8/10] 

https://www.facebook.com/zombiefication666

Zombiefication - Procession Through Infestation (2014)

Although they possess a whole ton of the elements that make for a Swedish death metal worship band, drowning in nostalgia for those early 90s classics ala Left Hand Path, Dark Recollections, Like an Everflowing Stream, and Clandestine, I thought it was interesting to watch the development of Zombiefication, being one of the rare Central American bands to adopt that sound, whereas so many of their peers are straight from Europe. And truth be hold, there was a sizable payoff when the band's 2013 sophomore full-length At the Caves of Eternal proved a notable improvement over their 2010 debut Midnight Stench in every category: the production, the musicianship, the songwriting potential. Fairly hot on the heels of that record, they released Procession Through Infestation, and it's an effort I'm rather split on, thinking they've once again made a formidable leap forward in one area while not exactly delivering in others...

I'll lead in with the production, which I found absolutely fantastic and the high point of this disc. As a band so thickly rooted in that old, raucous, heavy Entombed aesthetic, I loved how hugely it comes across on the recording. The rhythm guitars are potent and crashing, the bass corpulent with just the right amount of boom and buzz to stand out solidly in the mix. Drums are raw and snappy, cultivating a very live feel that works nicely with the sheer impact of those rhythms. 'Mr. Hitchcock''s vocals are likewise praiseworthy, massive and grotesque and never content to simply emulate themselves, the guy is always reaching deeply into his gut for another Petrov-ian howl or guttural sustain. The higher pitched melodic guitars here are also a nice touch, showing a clear influence not only from those most foremost Swedish legends, but also bands like At the Gates, Desultory and Edge of Sanity, and they never lay them on too thickly, affixing them to the meatier undercarriage of the rhythm in a perfectly bloody marriage. In fact, the way those melancholic or gloomy melodies interact with the other components reminds me a lot of the last two Tribulation albums, only more brute, less elegant.

Sadly, for all the glory of their carnal presentation, the songs and riff choices here really did not stick to me whatsoever. The chord patterns and melodies are all sort of average, without any standouts or climactic surprises waiting around any corner of the catacombs. The album is like wandering through a low-to-mid level dungeon and fighting the same monster in 8-10 different chambers, rather than slowly building towards that climactic boss battle. There were hooks I was invisibly hearing in my head that just never manifest, and while the sound of this record does do a lot to compensate when cranked out at high volumes, I just become too bored as I realize the musical progressions here are slightly bland. To be fair, there's occasionally a little clamor or unpredictable start/stop when they setup a track, but once you're out into the proper depths of the piece, it just becomes a little too repetitious; not that they're using the same chords or phrases over and over, just that it doesn't go through a series of emotional peaks and valleys, rather just stays on a level plane. It's an issue I take with a few of their European counterparts like Revel in Flesh (who they've done a split with) or a handful of Rogga's projects. Well-produced, well-intentioned, just not terribly memorable.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (we resurrect from tears)

https://www.facebook.com/zombiefication666

Mordskog - XIII (2017)

Mordskog sets up its debut full-length XIII quite well, with a haunting, writhing acoustic piece that instantly manifests a dark, unhinged mood through both its vocal narration and accompanying whispers you can hear right at the edge of perception, while a deeper drum beats up a clamor in the background. This isn't the only ritualistic piece on the entire album, and similar aesthetics pervade even some of the more straightforward tracks, but as so often happens with bookend intros and outros, it created an aura of mysticism and the occult which can't quite be captured in the pure black metal that dominates the rest of the disc. To that extent, I suppose I could only have emerged a little disappointed with the rest of the material...

But not because the Mexican trio is incompetent by any means at summoning up vile tremolo picked patterns that straddle the border between black and death metal, or the steady lava floes of hellish chords that seem drawn directly from the roots of the genre, when simpler patterns slathered in rasping vocals were what reigned, and not attempts at orchestration or complexity. At its heart, XIII is a paean to when the style felt  at underground, with a few slivers of novelty in how they'll carve out the cleaner or chant-like vocal lines and aforementioned atmospherics against the grating rhythm guitars. There is a bit of variation in the picking style, for instance in "Aequo Pulsat Pede" a couple of their winding melodic patterns were redolent of old Rotting Christ, and other parts reminiscent of the mood and primacy of vintage Samael. But if were straight down to the riffs, they don't really have a ton to offer that feel fresh or memorable, so you really have to focus in on those little bass grooves, or the wealth of different vocals, or just the overall evil shadow they collectively cast, to find yourself truly absorbed.

Mordskog are no rank amateurs, and several of them have played live or in studio with other bands from Hacavitz to Endstille to Vital Remains, and so there's definitely a level of confidence and maturity in how they put these tracks together which serves to overcome the predictability I felt for some of the playing. The production is clear but moody, with some real solid drumming and a good balance between all the instruments, which in turn doesn't manage to obfuscate the varied vocal tricks and chants they employ throughout the album. They also fill out their songs with just enough of a shift in tempo and riff construction so that they never fall into the trap of dull repetition; and just as they begun the effort with an intriguing opener, they end with a clanging industrial/noise piece which also kind of takes you by surprise. Definitely not a bad listen here, but I'd like to hear them go a little further outside the norm with the riffs themselves.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/mordskog

Sacrocurse - Unholier Master (2014)

Punishment is the design of this international 2-piece collaboration, and punishment is perhaps the one musical region in which it does succeed. Unholier Master attempts to reach the epitome of raw, flesh ripping black/death hybridization through a formula that unfortunately opines for the overuse of a blast beat which can very quickly grow monotonous with nothing interesting happening over it. I'm not questioning the skill of this skin-beater, he's an absolute fucking maniac and incorporates a lot of clamorous crashing and even handles the death/thrashing breakdowns well, which often lend the music a bit of an Altars of Madness-era frenetic aesthetic, but like a lot of infernal war metal, it very often doesn't resonate.

Bass-lines are full-throttle abysmal muddiness, and guitar patterns so forceful and fast that they often become lost alongside the beats and the ominous, sustained growling which represents the vocalist. It's not that the guitars aren't busy, per se, but they rely a lot on pretty standard deathgrind or hyper black metal chord progressions which are performed in such a flurry that there is little emphasis on them being inherently memorable to begin with. At times, this feels like Blasphemy, Repulsion and Bestial Warlust pooled their collective hatred into a single, frothing mass of hell-flumes and chose simply to annihilate everything in their shared path with utter speed and disgust. Frivolous lead guitar frenzies flying all over the atmosphere, lightning fuck bass guitars which are played with the same level of intensity as the rhythm guitars, and a living NASCAR rally on the drum kit. My problem here is just that once I've heard one or two songs I feel like I've heard them all...they break it all up once in awhile, just not enough for my attention to become consistent.

Don't get me wrong, on some level I admire this sort of utter 'fuck off' attitude which courses through the album like burning blood, and in the past there are a few insane albums like this which I have held dear, but other than its pure, violent and visceral atmosphere I never discovered anything here I wanted to hold on to. If someone were flipping through my records and asked me for something sick and headache-inducing, I'd break out Unholier Master in a second. It's THAT relentless, THAT brutal and uncompromising, and it hates your guts, but the only real evil lies in its indiscriminate sense of aggression. All that said, there is a place for this stuff, and a number of individuals will worship the fuck out of its outrageous aural nihilism. This is the stuff I imagine would be played when various domains of Hell lay siege upon one another, the damned crushing the damned in an endless cycle of chaos which can never be broken. Wanna hear that? Then you'll wanna hear this. But check your desire for subtlety at the door, because Sacrocurse will not brook that foolishness.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/Sacrocurse

Serocs - The Next (2013)

Most technical death metal records I get here for review have been so meticulously processed and produced that they seem written directly for the surgery ward, but unlike a lot of today's audience, this isn't something that gets my panties in a bunch. There's plenty of space in the world for both the clinical clarity and muddied, raw, 'organic' approaches to the style, and sufficient examples of quality in both. The most compelling component of Serocs' sophomore, The Next, is how it straddles the prowess and ferocity of one with the atmospheric trappings of the other. This isn't lavished in the sterile polish of bands like Necrophagist or Decrepit Birth, but pursues more of a messy, ripping and fleshy tone; yet you're still hearing a lot of the jazzy/progressive, musical lead guitar sequences and endless parade of riffs you'd expect out of cutting edge proficiency pundits.

That said, I was most reminded here of faster paced, frenetic Floridian forebears like Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, Malevolent Creation or Diabolic, with the underlying chaos ramped up. Loads of psychotic, explosive tremolo picked passages dominate the landscape, very often punctuated with lots of frenzied, muted fills ("Weakness Fed the Fear" being a great example). Yet the band has no reticence against honing in on a mid-paced thrashing progression, keeping the tempos varied enough that the compositions naturally feel more labyrinthine and dynamic on principle. The bass player Mike Poggione, does occasionally get smudged below the force and impact of the rhythm guitar, but this guy is a human whirlwind just like his band mates (no surprise if you've heard his playing in Lecherous Nocturne, Monstrosity or Capharnaum), and his tone and lines are wild. Another international member, Timo Häkkinen (Sotajumala, Kataplexia) rifles through blasts and fills as if he were just tying his shoes, and the drums are treated with a sincere, loud mix that somehow does not detract from the business of the guitar playing.

The vocals are handled by another Lecherous Nocturne alumni, Jason Hohenstein, who barks with a lot of gut-fed hostility, but they also layer in a lot of snarls and rasps which lend The Next a bit of a deathgrind feel (Nasum meets Malevolent Creation) rather than the ominous sort of growling so popular out in the field today. Really, though, the center of the show is Mexican guitarist/core member Antonio Freyre, whose blinding, blazing wall of riffs is going to make or break any listener's enjoyment of the album. To be honest, I did not find a lot of the individual note patterns here to be all that interesting when picked out of a lineup, but the guy just hurls so many in your direction that at least there is some replay value out of deciphering the constants shifts in chords. The energy is incendiary, and once settled into a few of the groove hooks they do become marginally hypnotic, but there are various ideas strewn about the 33 minutes of music that I wish were allowed to hang out just a few measures longer. The Next is occasionally collapsing over itself due to its earnest ferocity and complexity, and thus most of the progressions really fail to resonate beyond just the mere thrill of their pursuit.

Don't get me wrong: this guy is a mad player, and one thing I liked was that he wasn't constantly indulging in wank-fests. The leads are tight and controlled, never excessive or eye rolling and never soused with effects to the point that they sound otherworldly. The focus is very heavily on the mile a minute, winding, contracting and colliding rhythm guitars, which unfortunately didn't connect with me that often apart from the sheer physical contact of kicking my kneecaps and punching me in the face. The other musicians turn in intense performances, but they're ultimately restrained by the scattershot delivery of the guitars, and while I appreciated the voracity and variation in the vocal delivery, and the violent lyrics, there was just not enough to compensate. But these gripes aside, avid death metal fanatics who aren't opposed to a high level of prowess and technicality, but feel often snubbed by the studio apepsis attributed to the majority of modern brutal death recordings, might find an acceptable refuge in the sincerity of Serocs aesthetics. This is currently available as a digital album, but Comatose Records will be releasing a physical alternative in the autumn of 2013, so check that out if it sounds appealing.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/serocsband

Castleumbra - Cthulu Wgah'nagl Fntagn EP (2012)

Mexico isn't exactly the first scene I'd think of with regards to harboring a massive H.P. Lovecraft hard-on, but I'm almost positive the country has featured in some of the broader Mythos fiction down through the decades. That said, after hearing Castleumbra's 2012 EP, Cthulu Wgah'nagl Fntagn, which has seen a more recent re-issue through Greek imprint Nuclear Winter Records, I doubt I'll ever be able to envision that most infamous of Old Great Ones without a bottle of tequila in one claw and a few tentacles wrapped around one or more señoritas of choice (His choice, not theirs). A slimy summer siesta by the poolside, sponsored by Mindsucking Parasites from Beyond the Threshold of Reality, hosted by two of the Central American scene's most storied extreme metal fiends, Antimo Buonnano and drummer Alejandro Franco, who you may recognize from sick acts like Ravager, Profanator, Disgorge and Hacavitz, Antimo having even done a stint with Singapore's Impiety some years ago.

Needless to say, this isn't amateur hour at the shrine of the Elder Gods, and Castleumbra is the duo's entry into the nostalgic death metal sweeps, possessed of a fuzzed out, ominous fury that is unquestionable bound to entertain anyone who enjoys just anything that has manifest in this modern wake of Incantation and Autopsy. Disgusting guttural vocals in the Craig Pillard mold trample a heavily saturated, muddy rhythm guitar tone so enormous (like its fictional inspirations) that it simply cannot be contained within the borders of human sanity, while behind the writhing, grotesque Mass the beats thunder along like a stampede of angry shoggoths just waiting for their own chance to feast upon the Earth. Bass is just as oozing and voluptuous as the rhythm guitars, so during the three full-on metal tracks the listener is placed in an entirely uncomfortable, unwholesome and mind-grinding morass of wretchedness from which surrender and suffocation might be the only release. This is ugly music! Working as intended, but overwhelming to the point at which some might find it confusing, so thankfully they break up the faster bits with grooves redolent of the same Swedish forebears that were also partially responsible for the lineage of the guitar tone...

Now, I always have been and will forever be a riff guy. That is what first drew me into each successive niche of metal since I threw on the training wheels, and in this department, Cthulu Wgah'nagl Fntagn does not exactly excel. Especially when they're bludgeoning or churning along off an intense blast beat and really more interesting in making mince meat out of the audience than grafting some memorable progression onto their skulls. In general, the construction of the riffs is based around a readily apparent selection of old Carcass, Repulsion and Autopsy motifs swathed in the Swedish overdrive and feedback, though they really take this to a lot more brutish level than your average Dismember of Entombed acolyte. But clearly they're capable of conjuring some filthy, evil sounding grooves and melodies when so inclined, as in the closer "Ream of Utumno", which along with "Naamtaar Kingu" represents the most substantial and engaging material on the EP. The titular cut is also interesting: a ritualistic interlude with some chanted vocals, throbbing bass and what sound like primordial distorted electronics, but more eclectic than catchy.

Ultimately, this is not something you haven't heard before, and it's not the sort of material you're going to revisit for particular guitar licks: it's more of a 'package trip' down Revulsion Lane, for listeners who simply want to be suffocated by the sinister implications of the lyrics and the unrelenting rawness and morbidity of the instruments. To that effect, Castleumbra is more than functional, and I can only imagine throwing these guys on a stage with comparable acts like Weregoat, Hellvetron, Beyond, Vasaeleth, or fellow Mexicans Denial and Zombiefication. In the end, it just comes down to how much more of this ghoulish old school death metal smothered in more fulfilling, modern production techniques you can stomach. This isn't the best of its style that I've heard in the past few years, but if there's space in your universe for another of these cavernous, crushing forces, then by all means, thrust yourself once more into the maw of this extraplanar space squid and pray the end comes fast.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://soundcloud.com/galeria-de-muerte/castleumbra

Necroccultus - Solemnelohim, Bringer of Death EP (2013)

Hidden away from most eyes and ears, the Mexican metal region has strung together quite a thrifty little old school death metal scene, with acts like Denial and Zombiefication releasing some worthwhile output in Catacombs of the Grotesque & At the Caves of Eternal respectively. But a few years earlier, there was already an act plying the tepid morass of early 90s atrocity, and that was Necroccultus, whose ranks are in fact strengthened by members of a number of other underground bands from that scene, including a couple of guys from Denial. Solemnelohim, Bringer of Death is not my first brush with the outfit, as I've got some vague recollections of their 2005 full-length Encircling the Mysterious Necrorevelation. What a title, right, because EVERYTHING works better with a necroprefix. See what I mean? Anyway, this latest EP through Blood Harvest has to be one of the most straightforward, down to earth examples of necroretro death metal you're going to hear anytime soon, and considering just how popular the stuff lately, should win them some new fans.

Definitely conjured recollections of the first few Incantation records, only with a more muscular guitar tone, and vocals that are less abyssal, cavernous and unnerving. And when I say 'muscular', I mean that the amps sound like they're about to bust open under the strain of the chords. Most of the material is either molded into steady, mid-paced tremolo guitars that are either muted or writhing open, but they'll occasionally snap off into a solid blast beat, or a seriously weird and evil groove slightly reminiscent of Demilich. The vocals have a dense, bloody brutishness to them which is not exactly dynamic, but rings out like a pastiche of all your favorite death metal front men from the 90s (Benton, Reifert, Dolan, Vincent, Willetts, Pillard, etc). Drums are a bit poppy sounding, especially against the churning necrobulk of the rhythm guitars, but you can still distinguish them through the speakers. Same could be said for the bass, which blends in all too smoothly with the rhythm guitars to stand against them unless you can hear the fuzzy lines alone (like where they hit a few notes in "Aeons of Spectral Morbidity"). But hey, at least the rhythm guitars sound fat and festering, and the frightening, uncontrolled leads that rip off into the atmosphere add a nice ghoulish necrotouch to the proceedings.

I was impressed by the note selection in the first tune here ("Dimensions of Necromancy"), which is also the strongest, since it played with familiar patterns by imbuing some interesting necrolines, but the further I went into the 4 cuts and 20 minutes, the less impressed I became. It's all very consistent in style, but perhaps too much so, and it becomes a bit difficult to pick out much individuality beyond those messy, cemetery necroleads. The last tune "The Equinox of Unburied Ones" had some cool, down shifted 'narrative' vocals that added a nice chill alongside the growling, but other than that this is all straight-to-the-face-with-a-graveyard-spade, wretched death metal that aesthetically, beyond the voluminous production values, tends to ignore any and all developments in the genre over the last 20 years. Which is exactly why some folks are going to love the shit out of it, but I came off thinking it decent yet unable to hold my attention for very long. At any rate, if an unholy union between Incantation, Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Demilich and Blessed Are the Sick era Morbid Angel sounds necrodelicious, then give these guys a necrotasting. Their music, I mean.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Necroccultus/116080975129390

Zombiefication - At the Caves of Eternal (2013)

Mexico's grave robbers Zombiefication had already begun the process of distinguishing themselves from the majority of Swedeath wannabes with their debut Midnight Stench, but it was hardly a gem of an album, so they're making up for that with the sophomore At the Caves of Eternal, which I would dub a dramatic improvement. I daresay I've been hearing an exhausting number of such old school throwback sounds over the course of the past 5 years, and the 'cool' factor is starting to wear thin, but there's still a decent percentage of them arriving, and we can now add this band to that list, because even if it borrows here or there, At the Caves of Eternal is good fun with depth, variety, and perhaps most importantly, a memorable atmosphere.

This is definitely the 'darker' variety of Entombed worship, the sort that makes you feel like you've fallen into a crypt on a landslide of cemetery soil and worms. Comparable to a Miasmal or Tormented. However, heavily melodic patterns run concurrent to the burgeoning rhythm guitars, and the Mexicans do a pretty bang up job of delivering haunted note progressions that make you feel like you're in some idealized horror flick. The riffs here are not always unique, but neither are they just borrowed wholesale from the usual suspects. For instance, there is a grooving, low end pattern in "Disembodied Souls" that draws heavily on a beat from old Celtic Frost. But the Mexicans conjure a number of dynamic shifts through the album that render it an excellent example of pacing. Tunes like "In the Shadowed Garden" make an almost innovative, hypnotic use of tremolo patterns before erupting into the expected, obsidian d-beats. The texturing and layering of the two rhythm guitars in tandem is voluptuous, along with the bass playing, and it just feels like the hungry undead holding an orgy and smearing dirt over one another.

Vocals are a harsh bark, drawing a bit on Chris Reifert or L-G Petrov, but not at all derivative to the point they become annoying. I love it when they're barking out and leaving shadowy echoes hovered over the rhythm section...like a haze of swamp gas. Drums are good and loud, but not enough that they crunch out the guitar playing, which is important, since there are about a half dozen excellent melodies interspersed across the album, including the titular opener. The leads aren't incredibly complex, but they wail away with a bluesy, messy abandon that hearkens back to the Entombed death & roll days. But where At the Caves of Eternal works most is in how well put together it is. The slower and faster tracks combine to create a morbid and apocryphal emotional response, and you can tell these riffs weren't all derivative enough to betray the clear amount of effort being exerted. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a solid step ahead of the debut, and an effort I'd recommend to the obvious cult audience swallowing this style up in the new century (they obviously do exist, or else I doubt the labels would be putting forth so much of this). Good on Zombiefication.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.zombiefication.com/

Agony Lords - A Tomb for the Haunted (2012)

Though the Agony Lords were first formed nearly 20 years ago, and put out a pair of albums in the 90s, this is actually only my first exposure to the Mexicans' rather unique brand of melodic death metal. A Tomb for the Haunted is coming after a few years of reformation beyond the hiatus they took last decade, but it's such a seasoned effort that it must sound as if no time has lapsed. Contrary to the extreme end sounds I'm used to from this country, like crushing cavern death mavens Denial, veterans Cenotaph, or the wildly chaotic black/death of Hacavitz, this is more of a traditional heavy metal fueled sound using harsher vocals; and what I enjoyed most about the disc is the sort of parallel evolution it represents from other bands who pursued a similar path in the 90s...

Don't expect the spastic positivity of Scandinavian dual-melodies circa the Swedish heroes, these guys play a bevy of rock solid riffs rooted in straight old doom/heavy metal, but with more of an uplifting sense of melody carved into the chords and rock & roll leads that erupt throughout. I could make comparisons like a 'happier' Paradise Lost, or a Central American alternative to the Amok-era of Sentenced (the vox redolent of Taneli Jarva's performance there) but these wouldn't fully do the album justice, because it really is its own thing. Thick, thundering guitar progressions amply balance a kinetic momentum with granite tone, over which the emotional leads wail off into the atmosphere. Bright chords are used in pieces like "Emily" to create an almost 80s DeGarmo/Queensryche feel only slathered in the hoarser inflection of the vocalist, and haunting feedback and riffs are often imposed by the guitars to carry the darker subject material. The drums and bass have a very livid, rock feel about them, and this accessible foundation helps create a clarity for the listener that you don't often experience with more brutal bands. There's also a pretty wide variety of riffs, each song written to provide a distinct experience from the rest without losing aesthetic cohesion.

I'd say the album isn't quite so oblique or spectral as the cover might imply, but there's no rule that horror based bands need implement the most crushing or dissonant of sounds. Some will also have a hard time dubbing this 'death metal' as they do with a band like Deceased or mid-period Sentenced. But semantic quibbles aside, they stand out instantly due to just how refreshing they feel against the backdrop of trends that grow tiring with over-saturation. Agony Lords focus very heavily on the songwriting, and they're pretty strong at it. Not that A Tomb of the Haunted is stuffed to the gates with the most memorable compositions out there, but I found myself revisiting pieces like "Raising the Occult", "The Tree of the Hanged" and the titular finale and repeatedly enjoying them. Call it what you must in terms of its genre classification, but this is a good comeback for a band that probably should escape the obscurity they've so far existed in, and if you seek a melodic/death record with a clear difference from the heaps of At the Gates/Dark Tranquillity clones that usually clog this creative drainpipe, you've just found it.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.agonylords.com/

Evil Entourage - The Opposition EP (2012)

Though my exposure to Mexican metal is admittedly far from complete, I've always had a tenuous interest in the bands there, probably because I've been disengaged by a number of the thrash and black metal acts I've heard from the region over the past few decades, and probably also because I'm just an asshole. Death metal is one area, though, in which the nation has held together a more consistent output, not only through cult albums from Cenotaph or The Chasm, but a more recent surge of extremity through the likes of Hacavitz and Denial. Despite already having two full-length albums under their belts over the last five years, Tamaupalis' own Evil Entourage is not a band I've crossed paths with, but while they don't necessarily engage the listener with the same levels of atmosphere or innovation as those others I just listed, they are nonetheless proficient at kicking in the door and then kicking in your face.

This is chop-heavy, 90s-influenced brutal death that draws often on the lurching, chugging squalor of greats like Morbid Angel and Deicide, with a few hints also of Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, and I also picked up a handful of older Sepultura vibes in a few of the grooves. But to take it a step further, Entourage have ingrained this truly rich, brash texture to their guitar tone so that the listener can suffer every single palm mute as if it were stepping on his spine. Where they pick up the pace with a blast beat (as in the opener "Insidious"), the material was redolent of modern Cannibal Corpse (Bloodthirst and beyond) or Severe Torture, where the grooves in other pieces smacked of Morbid Angel circa Blessed Are the Sick or Domination. Footwork and beats are all solid throughout, and I was satisfied that the drums held their own against the crush of that guitar mix. The bassist is quite good, swerving all over the place in Alex Webster fashion wherever he gets the chance to loosen up, and the vocals deliver a stolid, guttural bludgeon that has a bit of the expected Vincent, Tucker, Benton or Fischer inflection. Brief leads and tremolo breaks are spliced through the meat of the potent rhythm guitars, and though this is not a flashy or particularly technical band, they hit the spot more often than not (like the wild solo in "True Rejected").

Still, though the production is an adequate and laudable marriage of past and present, The Opposition really never takes itself beyond any of the myriad acts who have already explored this niche. I dug the synthesizer orchestration in "Oblitus Fidei" for its ominous, martial step, and cuts like "Insidious", "Swathe to Blind" and "True Rejected" are nothing to scoff at, but there were rarely any of those 'money shot' riffs that keep me continuously returning to songs in sweaty anticipation. Evil Entourage is balanced, and competent, and they mete out destruction with avid enthusiasm and fresh, repulsive tone, but there is no truly distinct characteristic that a listener couldn't find elsewhere. The writing is solid, varied enough for 20 minutes of testosterone and neck strain, but the songs just aren't so memorable. That said, if you're heavily into the group's influences and you are seeking more along the same lines, there's no reason to avoid checking this out.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.facebook.com/evilentourage

Ominous Crucifix - The Spell of Damnation (2012)

Mexico's Ominous Crucifix is another of many 21st century bands culling an influence directly from the late 80s/early 90s death metal roots, and yet it takes an alternative approach to the majority of younger acts channeling Left Hand Path, Mental Funeral and Mortal Throne of Nazarene into a reverb drowned present. No, their F.D.A. Rekotz debut The Spell of Damnation might better be compared to the warlike ministrations of classic Bolt Thrower, at least in the drumming and atmosphere, though the vocals have a bit more ghastly breadth to them which recalls a Schuldiner, Reifert, Tardy, van Drunen or Kam Lee rather than the gruffer, drier Karl Willetts. In addition, there is a fibrous, textured guitar style which resonates with the 90s work of New Yorkers Immolation, only the production here is a lot more raw, and the riffs never so dynamic.

A lot of slower, double bass driven passages make for the majority of the album. Bricklayer death metal. One gets the impression that the lower muted rhythm guitar sequences are churning up his or her guts into wet, bloodied cement, and then steamrolling it with mobile artillery. The bass plods along beneath the dense guitar tone as if it were near-coagulated blood streaming through the gutters of the battlefield. Vocalist 'Rubens the Mercurial Herald' hurls a lot of panning, carnal syllables about the primary vocal line, and you definitely get the same sense of up front shock and extremity that you did in hearing those classic 90s death metal records, yet he doesn't ever sound particularly hostile or abominable, and part of this is just the banal lull that the supporting riffs often create.

Tunes like "Putrid Purity" and "Primitive Sun" balance off rather mediocre chugging grooves with the more caustic, atmospheric tremolo patterns, but while I can't claim to have been snared by any of the riffing progressions here, Ominous Crucifix never ceases to create this sure sense of momentum, from the cradle to the grave. One could easily envision fans of primal and simplistic US death circa Jungle Rot or War Master lurching and lumbering about a pit to this music, and they certainly have a penchant for slowly building up atmosphere through the tracks, not to mention an appropriate choice of frightening samples to inaugurate "Defiling the Altars of an Absent God" or "Third Day Resurrection". Ultimately, though, the Mexicans don't hurdle the writing barrier to the extent that I feel compelled to continually revisit their music.

If you're into spacious, simplistic chugging and moiling death metal and you don't set the bar all that high, then there would be no reason to miss this out. The Spell of Damnation delivers what it needs to that it might feed off its own, consistent flow of pummeled viscera, but unfortunately, nothing more.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/ominouscrucifix

Strikemaster - Vicious Nightmare (2009)

Vicious Nightmare was originally released a few years ago through Marquee Records out of Brazil, but due to its relative obscurity, it's getting a new boost through MetalHit.com. The second full-length from Mexicans Strikemaster, it showcases a pretty firm grasp on various 80s thrash influences, from a number of scenes, and fashions them into a competent, if not exemplary burst of action. Clearly the music has a lot in common with the West Coast sounds of Hirax, Slayer, Sadus, Defiance, Vio-Lence and so forth, but I was also surprised to find that the composition and the tone of the guitars often reminded me of Brazilians Dorsal Atlantica. Vocals are fairly average for the faster US thrash or crossover acts of the 80s, but I also heard some hints at Kreator's Mille Petrozza when Col. Kmu shifts into a more violent, sneering territory.

Unfortunately the album doesn't front load it's better material, so for the first 10-15 minutes it feels like a fairly average journey through 'thrash-standard' riffing and muted sequences, paced by a slower, instrumental intro which was, of course, a common trait on many 80s albums. The first few songs "Black Violence" and "Total Disposal" certainly kick up the energy a notch, but I did not find the riffs here to be particularly exciting. Thick, plunking bass lines serves as support to a muddy, raw and authentic guitar tone that occasionally seems cluttered enough to follow just behind the beat. The chorus parts aren't really all that interesting, think earlier Kreator or Dark Angel but far less memorable, but I will say that once the album arrives at the fifth track, "Metal Fastkill", things take off considerably. Between this, "Rabid Abstraction" and "Prophetic Chemical Death", we're treated to some blistering, catchier riffing that infused early Slayer with a bit of Canadians Razor in their late 80s heyday, and some solid gang shouts.

Another highlight would be "Violent Reinvindication", which features some riffs redolent of San Francisco's Vio-Lence or Texans Devastation, but in general, I found that as the album wore on, it suffered from a bit of repetition in the songwriting. The riffs might all be built up a little differently, but the pacing of almost all the songs is similar, with few pacing breakdowns outside of the intro or the acoustic outro with air raid sirens. Strikemaster plays well enough at this faster gait, but the riffs are never lethal enough to compensate for the lack of much dynamic variation. They seem so focused on recapturing the charging precision of their forebears that they forget to incorporate all those great, catchy chorus sequences and unforgettable riffs that made all those bands stand out to begin with. Thus, while Vicious Nightmare is more than tolerable, a sturdily executed 50 minute exercise in workmanlike retro-thrash with mostly decent lyrics, it never really stands far out from the saturated scene of similar acts, and I found it a little sub-par even next to their 2006 debut Up for the Massacre.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/strikemaster666

Majestic Downfall - The Blood Dance (2011)

The Blood Dance spends about 20 seconds teasing you with some glinting illusion of acoustic tranquility, and then bludgeons you over the head with a coarse surge of melody and crushing guttural vocals that immediately conjure forth an atmosphere of anger and decay. The fact that it's largely the project of one man's imagination (with a session drummer) is flabbergasting, and yet it's not just the actual musical ability which impressed, but the massive, flood of production here, incredibly well balanced and more than I might expect of bands with a far larger budget. We're truly living in the future here, and it's about damn time...

But while the Majestic Downfall sophomore seems to take full advantage of its modern recording, the actual music owes fealty to the long lineage of death and doom that started with acts like Paradise Lost, Katatonia and Anathema back when they were all packing a much harder punch of sorrowful release. Like tears of earnest agony, Jacobo craetes these massive melodies in the meat of the compositions that recall the beauty of such albums as Icon or Dance of December Souls. Yet the vocals sound even more enormous than the guy's obvious influences...truly if there were ever a tortured outcropping of emotions on an album of this sort, it was this one. His growls, often panned between speakers are massive and unforgiving and they almost serve as a direct, welcome contrast to the beauty of the music.

Another forte is the ability to languish on long compositions without numbing the listener to the brink of ennui. Many of these eclipse 8 minute durations, with "From Black to Death" turning in at 11.5 minutes, but despite their bulk, tracks like "Dimension Plague" or "An Untraveled Road" offer constant value to the listener willing to plumb their depths. He'll break into these massive grooves ("An Untraveled Road") or eerie, unexpected melodies, well before you'd gotten tired of the intro rhythms, and even instances of pure atmosphere like the bass-driven, howling miasma that arrives before the 6 minute mark in "Army of Salvation". I can't say that every individual riff is all that intriguing, clearly we've heard their sort before and the notes are not always configured to optimal, distinguished patterns that will hypnotize the listener, but in general he does a damn fine job of mixing them up.

At around 63 minutes, the album does seem a little corpulent, but not because the content is choked with musical trans-fats. It's just that the potential audience needs to clear an entire hour out to soak in the sadness, the cries...errr, growls for help and attention, and that does seem a bit much. That said, The Blood Dance is clearly an accomplishment for just one man, and I don't think anyone could argue the heart and soul poured into this, the well executed songcraft and the solid production (without an excess of crippling polish). If you're into the heavier Katatonia records, or modern death/doom acts like Isole, Draconian, Forest of Shadows, or Ablaze in Hatred then you'll want to place Majestic Downfall on your mental map.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/majesticdownfall

Dies Irae - The Secret Veils of Passion (2012)

I can't recall if there was ever a Mexican melodic death metal act that floated my boat back in the 90s, but Dies Irae were one of the ones testing their hands at that genre on earlier albums. About a decade into their career, the band decided to disband after their sophomore outing Naive, but have now returned under a relatively new premise. I would still probably, partly label this music melodic death metal, as there are moments in "Want" and other tracks which reflect that genre to a fault, but The Secret Veils of Passion is clearly interested in avoiding such simple categorization, and instead creates a mix of rather eclectic ingredients which prove both its strengths and, sadly, in some instances, its undoing.

The use of the minimal, one-word song titles is curious, not because I haven't seen it before, but because even such prepositions as "To" and "For" are used as titles, or rather homophones for the song's placement in the track order ("To" is "Two", etc). So imagine my confusion when I was first met by a 3 minute, sparse progressive rock sequence in the opener "Want" (or "One"). After this point, a series of pretty bland power chords erupts into the mesh, aligned with some plucky, clean melodies and soaring, accented vocals. A fascinating shift in strategy, but not one that ultimately manifested into a song I'd want to listen through repeatedly, especially for nearly 8 minutes. There are some other behemoths here, like the 10 minute "E7en" and the 9+ "Hate", but these at least seemed more interesting. "E7en" opens with this lush, airy and sad passage which reminds me of some of Anathema's dreamier modern writing, then inevitably explodes into these driving, Katatonia melodies with harsher vocals. "Hate" seems a bit more disoriented, with jilted grooves alternated to flowing, somewhat forgettable melodies, but not bad.

As for the shorter pieces, they're all over the spectrum. "Tree" is a nice, scintillating post-rock piece of brief duration, but the varied vocal harmonies don't quite feel as stirring as the band might have thought. "For" is pretty much straight choppy melodic death metal, returning the Mexicans to their roots, and to be honest it's quite good...the contrast against the softer elements on the album is immediate, and the heavier shit just wins out here. The band even explores a saucy funk/rock on "Sex", as if channeling some aural porn stereotype, while "Fight" is ironically another psychedelic rock number, with a few bluesy licks reminiscent of Pink Floyd. And then there is the weird, narrative interlude "To" and the closer "Night", the latter of which brings back a bit of the more spicy, explosive death metal licks.

It's one thing to manifest such a broad, esoteric climate in your music, but there is something about The Secret Veils of Passion which unfortunately doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It feels far too scattershot, like a heaping of jarring ideas that unfortunately do not gel together even in an ironic sense. Where the band waxes metallic, they seem like a fairly competent trio with a capacity for well reasoned hooks. But too much time is spent here on those other things, which are all lacking in their execution. In the end, it feels as though Dies Irae were trying to craft some spiritual companion to Tiamat's A Deeper Kind of Slumber, only the songs do not come out quite so memorable or revelatory. Who knows, maybe this was just over my head completely. It's not a complete failure of an experiment, but neither was it so enticing.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/diesiraeonline

Santa Sangre (1989)

Santa Sangre ('Holy Blood') might just be the most elaborately garbed serial slasher/revenge flick in the history of cinema, but that comes as little shock once one takes into account the enigmatic individual at its helm. Those of you who have experienced Alejandro Jodorowsky's prior works El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973) will be attuned to the incessant bombardment of unnerving and surreal imagery he imparts through his films, and his enormous fascination with circus freaks, midgets, amputees, pageantry, and the mentally disabled. Santa Sangre is a surprisingly straightforward narrative from the Chilean master, likely due to the fact that he was attempting to break into a more mainstream audience in the 80s and shared the writing with Claudio Argento (brother to famed horror director Dario) and Roberto Leoni. But fear not, because much of his trademark insanity is well intact.

*Santa Expoliadors*

This is the tale of a young circus magician (Fenix) in Mexico whose mother is brutally dispatched after splashing acid on his father's wang. That's the setup, told through a series of remarkable scenes and scenery which involve an elephant's funeral (complete with peasant scavengers tearing the beasts guts out of its enormous coffin) and father Orgo's seduction by a tattooed lady. Here we are first introduced to the various support case, including Fenix's mother (Concha) and the deaf-mute (Alma) who sort of plays the lead's 'love interest' throughout. The rest of the saga plays out as one of revenge, Concha controlling her son to use him as her 'arms' as she destroys anyone who has hurt her family or comes close to Fenix. Events occasionally jump around in between flashbacks and the 'present' of the film, but it's actually pretty easy to follow and makes a lot more sense than something like The Holy Mountain which is esoteric to a fault.

At its heart, the simplicity of the plot and it's not so unforeseen psychological twists is not really the star of this show, but the amazing flood of imagery manifest in true Jodorowsky style. We see a graveyard of white painted, veiled nudes who represent Fenix's guilt for the murders. Or a noisy, festival-like prostitute market in which a pack of hospital patients with Downs Syndrome are introduced to an obese hooker for a night of pleasure, while the street ladies and various freakish and deformed officers dance away to salsa lines. One of my favorite scenes is actually the morning AFTER the prostitute market, where we see 'day of the dead' skeletons lying strewn about a street, a mariachi band performs and the obese harlot and her pimp (played by Alejandro's late son Teo) embrace, along with two of the officers who patronized the tattooed woman the night before.

Just a prime example of Jodorowsky's consistent reuse of characters and constant 'parade' like configuration he uses in many scenes. There always seems to be something going on that adds a subtle, second (or further) layer to all of the primary action and storyline, and it makes Santa Sangre, like his other films, easy to revisit and decipher. But none of this would work without such convincing actors, and in addition to Blanca Guerra (Concha) and Guy Stockwell (Orgo), special credit should be given here to Alejandro's three sons Axel (Fenix), Adan (young Fenix) and Teo (pimp) who all treat this with the fragile balance of disenchantment and intensity that it deserves. In particular, Axel/Cristobal Jodorowsky is a living storm of talent, which has sadly not been put to use often through the years.

It's not all gold, and with a near two hour runtime, there are some scenes, certainly in the latter half of the film, which do drag just a bit. For example, a lot of the later film is shot in Fenix's Zorro meets Phantom of the Opera like magician hideaway, and some of the 'mom time' didn't really establish anything deeper about the pair's relationship. It seems like Jodorowsky used up much of the film's surreal potential before we get to this point, and it then becomes a more formulaic horror experience. I didn't feel the film was nearly as outrageous and memorable as The Holy Mountain, but then, that's a review for another time, and Santa Sangre seems as if it were intended more as a Central American giallo with a few of Jodorowsky's personal touches, rather than the other way around. Either way, though, it works fairly damn well. Not the sort of story one will easily forget, and easily deserving of its cult reverence.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

Embalmed - Exalt the Imperial Beast (2011)

Well, one thing can be sure after hearing Embalmed's full-length debut Exalt the Imperial Beast: that the next time I need to peel or strip paint from a wall, easy stain or rust removal, I will simply plunk this disc into my stereo and turn the volume to the appropriate level. These Mexicans perform one of the most crude, disgusting and barbaric approximations of black metal I've heard in about 20 years with the second wave of the genre. Curiously enough, they've been around all that time...we've just never really heard much out of them save for a handful of demos and EPs. With that much history beneath their belts, and not much to show for it, you might understand how a band can be so fucking pissed off as to create a godhating claptrap such as this...but that STILL won't prepare you for Embalmed.

This is fucking insane. Simple. Hints of grind and ghastly, abominable rasping that sounds like a mix of classic Martin van Drunen with Varg Vikernes' old school howling are used to flavor the straight ahead, holocaust blasting. There are guitar riffs in there, but they don't seem to matter for more than propulsion. Ripping tremolo rhythms blow past the listener's ears like dense and razor-sharp hurricane winds saturated with human extremities and visceral precipitation. The intro was curiously melodic, with some ghostly shining choirs over an unholy clamor, but once the band bursts into "Vindictiv Armada of Sodom" there is just no turning back. This is an aural end of days, a wasteland of Satanic force that burns every innocent which dares mar its surface. Exalt the Imperial Beast is not about cohesion, intricacy or musicality so much as it's a straight middle finger to the angels on high and their hypocrite master.

Unfortunately, this course of unchecked aggression serves as a double-edged sword, because while it's easy to sit through a handful of the 2-3 minute tunes, most of the record feels so samey and indistinct that it becomes a task to discern individual cuts. "Vindictiv Armada of Sodom" sounds like "Transgression 666", sounds like "Lucifer's Prophet", sounds like "Conflagration". The riffs are obviously not all identical, but there is simply no room for variation in this band's approach: just a hellish, raw production with guitars blazing like nuclear rain, punishing and tinny drums. 'You can stop to rest when you're dead', is the philosophy here, and aside from the intro and outro, expect no deviation whatsoever from its destructive tirade. This is an album that makes Angelcorpse, Impiety and Gorgoroth's Destroyer sound like nursery rhymes, but while it might be successful at scaring the shit out of anyone you hold dear, it's not musically an album that one really wants to return to, unless of course one has an obsession with blasting oneself in the face with a hairdryer repeatedly. The sounds are similar.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

Warfield - Triumvirat EP (2010)

The press release I read for this EP brought up some comparisons to certain Swedish and French black metal artists, and Warfield is really not that far off the mark, but I'd hearken the sound here straight back to the early through mid 90s of Emperor, such as In the Nightside Eclipse, sans the symphonic elements. A lot of shining, higher pitched chords being bled into the blasting tempos, and a grandiose architecture of pain that spans the antiquity of the genre. However, Triumvirat is somewhat of a novelty in that it claims no Norse heritage...Warfield are in fact from Mexico City. While I've never heard their 2009 debut Conquering the Black Horde, the new studio material represented here is quite well written, with a few mildly unexpected turns.

There are but three studio components, opening with the glistening dementia of "The Initiate", a storm of solid drumming and epic notation that creates the impression of threatening winds that gather upon the precipice of nightfall. Nothing you've not heard before, if you've been listening to European black metal for the past 20 years, but the formula still sounds efficient with Hellfire's thick rasping, and I also enjoyed how they just let the track fade out into feedback post-climax. "Divinity" is more of a straight burst of savagery ala early Emperor/Enslaved, with the guitars flexing a frantic subtext not unlike something Samoth might pull, and the third and final new cut "Trinity" opens at a lurch and then builds into a nuclear descent of bright blackness with some poignant, subtle strangeness in a few of the bridging chord patterns. There's also a moody breakdown at its core, a cloud of melancholy that sets like crematorium ashes on the listener.

The remainder of the offering consists of live tracks, which while crudely mixed do cast the impression that Warfield is a fun live experience. In particular I enjoyed the sweeping classical sample intro and then the eruption of "Vomit on the Cross". The sound quality is pretty much crap here, I won't lie, and you can't always make out the guitars through the hammer-like drums and the vocal splatter, but it sounds undeniably energetic, as do the other live hymns like the hilariously titled "Satanic Legislation", which is disgustingly barbaric thanks to the force of the drums. Taken as an integral part of this release, the live cuts do not offer a lot of value, but as icing on the cake for the new studio material, they'll suffice. Otherwise, while Triumvirat is not bringing anything new to the sacrificial altar, the Warfield trio prove that they have the ability and energy to perform a faithful interpretation of traditional black, without sounding tired.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://usuarios.multimania.es/warfield666/

Omision - In the Shadow of the Cross (2011)

Omision are a long-time death metal band based out of Tijuana and Southern California that were formed in the early 90s, but only recently have gotten their shit together to produce some demos and their full-length debut, In the Shadow of the Cross. A number of the members have played in US acts like Incantation and Sadistic Intent, and half the lineup also doubles in another Mexican death outfit, Infinitum Obscure, so they're all fairly experienced for the field, and it shows in the decision to bypass the technicality and crass, spastic flatulence of modern death and make a direct line to the old school sounds of Bolt Thrower, Benediction, Incantation, Death and other acts of the early 90s. The songs and atmosphere always come first here, and even though there are few that stand out to memory, at least they're not jumping on the Swedish or excess cavernous bandwagons that are trending today in the genre.

Most of the guitars are straight up old 90s death metal, anchored by Heriberto Perez' blunt gutturals that remind me somewhat of Dave Ingram from Benediction or Karl Willetts. But the writing is so simplistic that it adds even more pressure to the actual riffs to deliver, and I'm not sure they always do. The band incorporates a lot of dynamics here, from the thick, death/doom awnings of "Wont' Be Saved" to the frantic leads that cut through "Your God", but occasionally the songs feel rather piecemeal as they transition from one piece to the next. Others, like "Assault in the Vatican" flirt with a more memorable quality, tight riffing and flourishes of the acoustic guitars to highlight the slower guitars, or "Pray" which opens with ominous chanting and then cycles through a burst of Morbid Angel style blast and some trudging chords reminiscent of a Death or Obituary breakdown. A piece like "Seeking the Holy Throne" doesn't get much purer, just straight up diabolic low end grooving death, but it still leaves something to be desired.

Omision have done well to craft a consistent, gloomy environment here by using the clean guitars, bells, samples, and other nightmare effects. The album creates a very tangible darkness through which the soul can very easily get lost in nostalgia. It's pure, authentic death and anyone craving for a time warp to clip 20 years off his/her life might find some solace here, yet In the Shadow of the Cross just doesn't have the timelessness of composition to stride alongside the works it so admires from the period. Solid execution, a clean and earthen mix, and varying dynamics simply don't win out over the lack of engaging songs, and it's not much of a grower, but neither is it bad.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/omisionmx

Zombiefication - Midnight Stench (2010)

Despite the lack of constituents breaking out in popularity beyond the country's borders, Mexican metal has always been a very busy scene, with dozens of bands exploring nearly every sub-genre you could dream of. Black, Gothic, death, thrash, traditional heavy metal, it's all been done south of the US border, but Zombiefication might be a first for me: a Mexican band with a tone straight out of the early 90s Swedish death metal scene. Big, chugging guitars laden in that all too familiar tone, and resonant but dim vocals reminiscent of L-G Petrov at his most caustic. Midnight Stench is the band's debut, and it features a lot of dense thrash-like rhythms and a pervasive, dark mood that places it alongside other 'old is new' acts like Brutally Deceased, Maim and Tormented.

I'm not going to claim I enjoyed this album as much as any of those I just listed, but if I can give some credit here it will be for the varied tempos. Many of the retro Swedish ghouls utilize a lot of repeated, paraphrased riffing patterns from Left Hand Path, but Mr. Jacko and Mr. Hitch, the two central zombies here, engage in a lot of slower, churning material that is adequate for pit fighting, like the bridge/latter half of "Anthem to the Deathmarch" or the atmospheric, doomed and haunted walls of "Sleepless Mutter" which is easily one of the most engrossing pieces here. I also enjoy a few of the riffs in "Last Resting Place", "Hitchcock Screaming in Phobia" and perhaps even the mindless wailing and storming of "The Early Years", which is as close as the album gets to sheer Entombed worship.

But then, there are also a few duds here which break up the pace and immersion in the album: "Cryptic Broadcast", "Jacko's Funeral Pyre", "Broken Gravestone" and "Necroambulatory" don't have much going for them outside of their authentic, soiled guitar tones. The vocals retain their bloodied bludgeon pitch throughout the whole playlist, but they're all too rarely configured into a memorable pattern (save "Sleepless Mutter"), and the rhythm section just sits its duff on the backburner, ample and aggressive enough to carry the guitars, but never distinguishing itself independently for a more full-bodied assault. Midnight Stench is not a bad record, if you enjoy the proto-death of Sweden in all its forms, and it's interesting to see the influence such a style has held outside of Europe or the States, but I think these Mexicans need a few better riffs to catapult them further into the rank and file of nostalgia addicts that devour this brand of death.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/zombiefication666

Raped God 666 - The Executioner (2008)

Their name is silly, but Raped God 666 delivered a non-stop thrash attack with 2008's The Executioner. They hail from Mexico, but the German and U.S. thrash influences are immediately apparent. Each song leaps forward at breakneck pace. They don't waste their time with slow rockers or acoustic intros.

The production is rather rough and you might recognize the drums on the opening track "Devilish Aggressor" as being somewhat reminiscent of that time Lars Ulrich tried to sound raw on a million dollar production. This is easy to overcome, however, because this is exactly the type of record that is likely as fun to listen to as it was to produce.

Stand-out tracks include "Massive Destruction Attack," which is pleasantly fast and heavy for the first half, but then guitarist Luis Lee apparently decided they weren't thrashing just hard enough and so kicks everything up a notch at about the two and half minute mark. That is the finest thing about the album: no pretensions to be anything other than fast, heavy and fun.

As you can tell from the hilariously awesome cover, which I'm pretty sure is a Chupacabra blowing Jesus' brains out, anti-Christian, war and death themes pervade the album. They use the word destruction twice in song titles, but one time it is in Spanish so I guess that is ok.

The bad news is that apparently Saul Martinez, the drummer, died earlier in the year, so the fate of this band is unknown. It would be unfortunate if we never saw another thing because The Executioner is a great old-school thrash record.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.myspace.com/therapedgod666