Eucharist - Mirrorworlds (1997)

Four years passed and the follow-up to A Velvet Creation would rear its head at last, after another brief breakup. In the meantime, At the Gates and In Flames had blown up into international metal superstars, Arch Enemy and Dark Tranquillity were starting to take off, and At the Gates had already broken up. Melodic death metal was a pretty well established style, a still-rising star that would serve as a gateway to many younger metal fans who were poisoned with nu-metal, and a breath of fresh air for jaded metal fans who found no value in death, black and grind extremity, seeking a return to the accessible melodic songwriting they grew up with in the 80s.

Aye, the world was ripe for the picking, and Mirrorworlds, the second effort from Eucharist, was a more modern effort with a bigger budget appeal than its predecessor. For reasons above and beyond that one, I do like this record a little more. The songs rock a little harder and there are some interesting moments. It's still not a classic, and for some reason, the band once again failed to draw much attention. I half expected this to be huge, seeing as the genre was exploding in popularity, but it only sealed their fate, with Erlandsson moving on to stardom with his countrymen (he had already recorded with In Flames during this band's hiatus betwen albums). Thomas Einarsson and Tobias Gustoffson had left the band prior to this recording, but Markus Karlsson joined on bass, making this a 3-piece effort.

Spacey noises announce the arrival of "Mirrorworld", and though one could immediate note the thicker guitar tones and lavish, newborn intensity of the band, the lack of the A Velvet Creation's sullen atmosphere would likely steer some away from the sound. Granted, Eucharist still had their own, somewhat distinct approach to this genre, but there was an infectious, modern energy that would be able to compete with the Whoracles, The Minds I's and Steelbath Suicides to come. "Dissolving" had an emotional, climactic pace which ran parallel to some of In Flames' work, big hooks and somber melodies that drifted above Johnsson's tortured throat. "With the Sun" blasts and breaks and blasts into another big rhythm, though it slows into more meaty mid-paced melodies and an acoustic outro. "The Eucharist" builds a grooving rock rhythm, crested by dual melodies, and I dug the echoing, atmospheric line that would conclude the lead around 3:30 in the track. "Demons" has some more rock to it (kind of like a premature Hearse), alternating the blues with some great outbreaks of death metal chaos.

In the twilight a bestial drama is being enacted
Her legs are separated as my tears fall on her breasts...
...oh, I fuck her...

Not only had the band upped their ante musically, but the lyrics here are also a little more fiery, if still poetic and lavished in gothic imagery. "Fallen" is my favorite song on the album, with a pensive gait that erupts numerous times into melodic bliss. Once more, there is a rock feel to the writing, similar to Hearse or some of Arch Enemy's material on Stigmata and Burning Bridges. "In Nakedness" makes great use of a horn and some acoustics to build an urbane, folk atmosphere. It's an instrumental track, with metal nowhere to be found, and one can't help but feel it's a dismissal of genre that foreshadowed a dismissal of Eucharist's future. But "Bloodred Stars" rides off into the sunset with a pretty killer, driving hook and some great bridge melodies akin to the debut album, so it all ends on a high note.

Ultimately, Mirrorworlds is superior to A Velvet Creation in many areas. About the only thing it lacks is the raw sincerity of the prior's recording. For most listeners, though, this is not likely to be an issue. The lyrics and most of the songs are more entertaining and energetic, with fine performances from the two original members. You could do worse than reach back to the year of 1997 and give this a spin, and I honestly prefer it to Dark Tranquillity's album that year (The Mind's I). This isn't perfect, and I suppose it doesn't stand on the longest of legs, but there are a few gems to dig up when the urge arises.

Highlights: The Eucharist, Fallen, Bloodred Stars

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (awaiting the sweetest release)

Eucharist - A Velvet Creation (1993)

Melodic death metal is pretty much a household fact of life for the metal head of the 21st century, but 16 years ago, very few bands were promoting it. Eucharist was one of the formative artists to adopt and help mold the path it continues to blaze today, after a few turbulent years that involved an early breakup (the band was formed in '89, but this album did not see release until 1993). Upon your first listen experience with A Velvet Creation, you'll notice that the band did not sound much like their peers, with a melancholic spin on the style that was a little closer to the death metal aesthetic. The album is distanced from the brutal variety, but the melodies were a little more subtle than the classic power metal tint infused into the sounds of Dark Tranquillity (whose debut Skydancer also debuted this year) and In Flames (whose debut Lunar Strain would arrive in 1994). The riffing was more carnal here, despite the gothic elegance of the lyrics and songwriting.

There are some advocates who would tell you that A Velvet Creation, and Eucharist, were superior to either of those bands (even At the Gates), but here I must disagree. Though the album flows from front to back with a delicate balance of grace and terror, the individual songs don't stand out nearly as much as the forthcoming mid-90s classic Slaughter of the Soul, The Jester Race, or The Gallery. In retrospect, this debut is a decent curiosity, but nothing more, and it was soon buried in the piles of praise for its peers. Drummer Daniel Erlandsson would himself leave for In Flames and Arch Enemy, touring and a few substantial paychecks, and original bassist Tobias Gustafsson (who played on this album) would depart to Armageddon.

Alas, my intention is not to sound too down on this album, because it's certainly not bad. But, unlike wine, it has not grown any tastier with age, and my moderate appreciation in birth has not increased through the years of adolescence. Classical acoustic guitar pulls and plucks its way into Erlandsson's double bass and the righteous old school death rhythm of "Greeting Immortality" (from their earlier demo), while Markus Johnsson's vocals tear across the realms of black and death metal infinity and his bass thunders below. The song was pretty popular in its demo days, and a natural choice to open the record with some class and energy. "The Religion of the Blood-Red Velvet" moves at a mid pace, with grim yet festive churning and chugging guitars balanced with simple, complementary melodies. Like most of the material here, it's good, just not great by any means, nor is the following "March of Insurrection", despite its steady thrash chugging and raw, emotional bridge that leads into an average melodic death charge. "My Bleeding Tears", despite its rather emo title, starts with a drum battery over bass plodding and then a pretty powerful rhythm, though this doesn't stand still for long as the guitars erupt into a pair of bleeding tears steadily rolling down the blinded eyes of the cover figure. The bow sound at the 1:30 really adds to the gothic atmosphere of the track, and Johnsson's pulls out some nice bass lines that swagger below the guitars at around 2:10.

Behold my bleeding tears
That fall
Because you will never understand
How I feel

Like a lot of melodic death in these days (as well as early gothic metal), the lyrics read like so much empty poetry. But at least they match the album's atmosphere and the solemn guitars. "Floating" commences with some more acoustic lines, and then develops into some pretty cool guitar effects and leads that wind through the verse, probably one of the deeper and more interesting tracks on this album. The title track is my clear favorite, with some great tone to the dual, driving guitars as they thread their woeful notes through a saddened black heart. When Johnsson's vocals are matched to this rhythm a little later on, the album becomes sheer bliss, if only for a moment. "Into the Cosmic Sphere" has a good charge to it, with even more of the subtle, dual melodies that were the signature for their sound. Another great riff here, at 1:30, gloomy and gorgeous, and beneath the vocals, it bears a lot in common with early melodic doom ala Paradise Lost. "Once My Eye Moved Mountains" is a killer song title and one of the album's better pieces to boot. Though the verse strives over a pretty average melodeath riff (which we'd be hearing, many thousands of times over the next decade or so), the lead is fairly infectious and the whole song quite energetic.

There are no hidden surprises here. The album might sound a little thin to the modern ear, but this is really how its melodies manage to shine through. I rather prefer the honesty of the atmosphere to many of today's severely overdubbed, digitized, sterile recordings. As for the writing: half of the songs are good, the other half average, the lyrics a mixed bag, and nothing here that I'd go out of my way to hear. But if you've got a nostalgia for the roots of this style, you'll find it was a pretty obvious influence on many bands to follow, and it's palatable enough alongside a glass of bitter sweet wine, Skydancer, and the first two At the Gates records.

Highlights: Floating, A Velvet Creation, Into the Cosmic Sphere

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (distant from this world of wickedness)

Decimator - Dirty, Hot and Hungry (1993)

If the Carnage City State Mosh Patrol was an odd little duck in 1989, I can only imagine how out of place its follow up would have seemed in 1993, when brutal death metal, grunge and nu-metal were the new darlings of 'extreme' music and all the rage for legions of angst-ridden tits who were trying to find an identity in a rapidly modernizing Western culture. Decimator had not grown much in the four interim years, and while Dirty, Hot and Hungry has a technically superior production standard, the actual style of their songs had not budged an inch. They also adopted a hot new logo here, and I don't mean hot as in attractive, but hot as in it will burn your eyes out if you stare at it too long.

The pseudo-Judge Dredd motif had not abandoned the band at this point, there are still a few tracks which pay tribute, and even a 'sequel' to one of the songs from the debut. Mad Dog is still up to his old, deep throat vocals, though the band uses a few more gang shouts and a higher pitched, snarling vocal at times. Otherwise, much of what you hear on this is 100% loyal to what they were playing on C.C.S.M.P., and if you got a few gags out of that then this might also bust you clear in the gut.

"Red Eye" has a very Venom party rock feel to the verse, but the riffs are tight and there is at least a little thrashing to be done, though the band maintains its old school metal streak even here. "Dirty, Hot and Hungry" has some interesting clean, surf/spy guitars that ride the wave of the thrash rhythms, like Lemmy and the boys scoring a James Bond parody. But, as lame as that might sound, it simply does not stand up to the horror that is "Sixteen Six", which is as amusingly funny as it is awful. Mad Dogs grunting is offset with some 'narrative' vocals over the subdued thrash bridge, and it sounds like something Ghoul might do, if they were around back then. "Flight 19" is one of the better pure thrash tracks on the album, concerning the great aviation mystery of 1945. "Mutant Lieutenant" starts with a scratch and the sampling of a rapper, and riffs that sound almost exactly like "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" if it were re-arranged with Mad Dog on the vocals. This song is a fucking abortion, and the band should seriously have thought about excluding it from the final product. The fact that it breaks into a half-decent bluesy metal riff with screaming only adds salt to the wound...had they stuck with only that riff and built around it, they might have had a decent song.

Shudder.

The latter half of the album fares little better. "Carnage City Rocks" is fairly low balling, simplistic thrash/heavy metal which might have worked as a bad Saxon or Judas Priest knockoff if not for Mad Dog's very different vocals. How "Stealer of Souls" got a sequel is beyond my comprehension, but here it stands, and surprisingly it is one of the less heinous tracks on this effort, with some nice melodic thrashing in the bridge. "T.R.I.P." starts out as a miserable, swaggering boogie/hard rock song which makes Jackyl sound genius in comparison, and then tries to thrash it up unsuccessfully. The band ends the album with another Dredd reference in "Megazine", an organ opening the tune and Mad Dog sounding like a mix between himself and a little Martin Walkyier (Sabbat, Skyclad). It's a decent tune, but also their last, and I can't really call it a high note to end on.

That's right, folks, two full length albums on the once mighty Neat Records and Decimator would call it a day. The band simply could not achieve notoriety in an age where so many more catchy and complex artists were putting out landmark albums, not only redefining genres but creating new ones. Sadly, Dirty, Hot and Hungry would be a weak effort even if there were no other music heavier than the Beatles at the time. It's no surprise this band went by unnoticed, but if you ever feel a curiosity to track their work down, start with the better debut album. It's not great itself, but less likely to induce vomit and midlife crisis.

Highlights: a few songs of the don't suck...

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

Decimator - Carnage City State Mosh Patrol (1989)

If Judge Dredd was not a comic, but a metal band in the late 80s, it would probably sound a lot like Decimator. Anthrax's "I Am the Law" was the default thrash metal tribute to the cloned law enforcer, but this obscure group took the concept and really ran with it, related lyrics running through both albums of their rather short lived career. As Hawkmoor and Elric were the inspirations for Hawkwind, the titular hard ass future cop Dredd was the inspiration for Decimator. What's even more fun, is that the vocalist Mad Dog seems to place himself within the mythos itself, giving the band a rather interactive conceptual streak which is both cheesy and endearing. If more information were readily available about them, I'd be glad to share it...alas, this is one band that even an underground sleuth like myself missed the first time around.

Now, Decimator were a thrash band, but they had far more of a roots metal influence than many of their more technical peers in 1989, and as a result I think this album makes for a bridge between thrash and NWOBHM. Not only in the riffing, but the deep vocals of Mad Dog remind me quite a lot of Lemmy or Cronos. They've got quite a tongue in cheek charm to them, and I find that necessary here, because the riffs are not all that standout to begin with.

Nobody move, I'm a riot pilot
I reach for my piece
As you reach for the sky
Get off your man
This ain't the mile high club
I'm taking over

"Raider" kicks off the album with some laughable takes of men pretending they are authorities in this violent, dorky dystopia, before Mad Dog exclaims 'I'm Lord Mad Dog, You Move And I'll Blow Your Fucking Head Off!'. I seriously blew the peppermint hot chocolate I was just drinking out of my nostrils when I heard that, and it really hurt! Now, had the band busted out some insane, raging apocalyptic thrash metal after Dog's statement, it could have been awesome. But this is really just a track akin to something Motörhead or Tank would write, with some slightly less bluesy leads. This is not one of the better tacks on the album, but there is just something about it which is enough to spark off the nostalgia. "Mutoids F.H.", or 'From Hell' (why didn't they just spell it out? Must be some Judge Dredd thing) is a a little bit thrashier, and here Dog's vocals really brutalize, while the guitars rock out to some playful squealing licks. "Blood Island" is actually a pretty good song, the best so far on the album, and a very nice mesh of the band's early 80s metal influence and the more modern brutality of the year this album dropped. When Dog rings out, it almost reminds me of old Hallows Eve. "C.C.S.M.P." is the title track, and this seemed built for the pit, with a slow bludgeoning gait and gang shouts over the chorus. Perfect for mangling mutants with your piece as you chase them down the filthy streets of Mega-City One.

"Devil's Bridge" sounds like a live track, since you can hear a crowd, but it may just be a sample or a live track mixed in with the band in the studio. I don't know, and really don't care, the song is reasonably fun, a bruiser with a corny chorus. If Lemmy were fronting Venom, maybe they might have written something like this. "Rogue Decimator" has a strong blues/hard rock influence to it, which is quite funny with Mad Dog's vocals roaring over it, but by far the worst song on this album for the rather generic boogie chords. "Dust Bowl" is all about the nukes, a scorching street metal piece with a dash of thrash, and the album ends with the two parter "Stealer of Souls", with even more of the band's pure Judas Priest-like street metal rhythm, and one speed picked rhythm that feels like its afraid to commit to some momentum, but the drums remain the same and the song never gets any faster than a trot.

Decimator sound to me like a band that were dabbling in the aggressive sounds of the time, but afraid to remove themselves entirely from the old guard of British metal. The result is something which stands out like a sore thumb, and I can see why success eluded the band. However, 20 years later, it doesn't sound any worse than it might have then. I really love the band's concept, and certainly their enthusiasm, but sadly I can't give this a glowing recommendation, other than nostalgic reasons. The songs just aren't that consistent, and of the 8, only 3-4 really rock.

Highlights: Mutoids F.H., Blood Island, C.C.S.M.P.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] (if you ain't got the fare, you can pay it with your life)

Benighted in Sodom - In Hora Maledictus Part II (2009)

Benighted in Sodom has to be the grimmest thing to emerge from the state of Florida since Gatorland Zoo, and while I may slightly favor Matron Thorn's other band Andacht to this, the two have a very similar appeal...hostile and beautiful black metal with more atmosphere than a night on the Everglades with a bottle of Jack and a pistol with a single, reserved bullet. In Hora Maledictus Part II is the last year's sophomore effort, In Hora Maledictus Part I, and it's about as accessible as trying to ford a river of blood. Sure, you might make it, but not without a a glimmer of insanity, as you wade through the very primal sustenance that affords us breath, love, hate, pain, joy and existence. And if anyone saw you stepping out on the other side, they would never be able to shake that image from their memory.

I can shake this album from my own memory, but it's difficult, and requires something else as equally depressing or self-destructive. Or a Pixar movie. But the fact remains that Benighted in Sodom has produced one of its most haunting works to date, a turbulent savagery of some considerable depth and sorrow. Matron Thorn is not going to make this easy on us, immediately clouting us over the head with the intro "Stranded in Consciousness". This first moment of the song is harsh enough to shrink up the skin like a hot wind blowing out from the abyss, but thankfully it emerges as something more palatable and beautiful, if your ears can penetrate the wailing walls of tortured chords and rasping. "Dreary" lives up to the title, with a sparse blueprint of tinny, tin percussion and ringing, distorted notes that weaves a fabric of desolation over a hovering ambiance, until the track tears itself open like a burst womb. "Beauty in Exile" has some gorgeous, evocative synthwork snuggled behind its melancholic black skin, and the 13 minutes of "A Skeptic Between Lovers" transform your world from an asylum of percussive, hissing riffs to a tranquil setting that flowers and atones itself below a steady snare and hi-hat.

"The Constellations of Sedation" opens with a quote from Dustin Hoffman in The Messenger, and the guitar rhythm slowly churns across an internal galaxy of sluggish dementia. This was a very effective track with a dark, submersive atmosphere married well to the garbling rasps. "The Amnesiac Shore" is a beautiful song which reminded me a little of Portugal's Onirik, or Matron's other project Andacht. Such longing melodies, always grating, never taking the safe road. "Gravity Reconciled" builds a somber pattern over a depressive landscape to close out the album, with simple and careful tones that would befit some indie film about suicide, lost love, or addiction.

What could make this better? How about the fact that Matron Thorn is offering it as a free download over at his MySpace site? Since he's giving you an hour of gorgeous frailty and a soundtrack to your own inevitable suicide, why not offer your thanks? Pretty much everything this artist produces is quality, so as your metal attorney I will recommend a lot of drugs, a lot of failure, and Benighted in Sodom.

Highlights: Dreary, Beauty in Exile, A Skeptic Between Lovers, The Amnesiac Shore

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/benightedinsodom
http://aderelictheaven.blogspot.com/

Sidus Tenebrarum - Born from the Dark Rib (2009)

I'm not sure if the members of Sidus Tenebrarum considers their music a black/thrash hybrid, but this is certainly the sound that manifests itself on the Italians' first full-length album Born from the Dark Rib. The obvious starter points are the sounds of Kreator, Sodom and early Bathory, dripping with the ghoulish delights of Satyricon and Mayhem. It's a lot harder to pull off than it sounds, to maintain the energy of the one and create the sickening atmosphere of the others, but here we have some Italian madmen who do it almost with ease, at least on the better tracks.

To begin, "Exerpts of Fury" is a monstrous track to open this album, and quite likely the best. The riffs are fast and vile, capable of crushing a beer can when they slow down to a manic, spike fisted pace. In the old days, if you were at a show and heard this rhythm and did NOT approach the stage and pound your fist in the air, we would have to take you out later for some 'therapy'. Well, those days are back again. This song fucking kicks ass. Giulio's vocals sound like a grisly celebration, like Vlad Drakul if he cheerfully ate the corpse sof Turks after impaling them, while trying to hold a few conversations with his guests. "They Won't Leave" crashes forward with a blackened, ringing rhythm, and then escalates into another wildly thrashing force, with an excellent careening guitar line that penetrates through the end of the verse meter. "Unutterable Worthiness" is another abrasive, violent feast of fist wrenching black thrash metal, glorious in its unswerving hatred. "When Mind Collapses" is likewise very good, though its cruel, enchanting rhythm guitars might become a little repetitive.

The second half of the album does not hold up quite so well. "Vril" sounds like your standard melodic death metal charge rhythm from the late 90s, and the chugging verse below the vocals is not quite enough to save it (though the vocals themselves are decent). "Nothing Foreign" has a higher pitched, thrashy guitar that thrives alongside the rather loud vocals, and in truth this is a decent enough song though it lacks for some of the glistening black blood of earlier tracks. "Lord of the Night" starts with a thick, gooey bass line and then evolves into some pretty violent thrash metal, with a great riff at 1:10, but the closing track "Void" is chunky and somewhat forgettable.

I'd say 6 out of the 8 tracks on this album are exemplary, and the band is actually quite strong in a genre that has been lacking of late. I hope they'll push the thrash elements even further, because the only 'black' element of the music that I enjoyed was the spiteful, venomous vocal stylings. Anyway this is a fairly solid ass kicking if you like similar fare, maybe a Bewitched or Maze of Torment, and certainly the first few Kreator albums.

Highlights: Exerpts of Fury, They Won't Leave, Unutterable Worthiness, Lord of the Night

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/sidustenebrarum

Turbo - Strażnik Światła (2009)

Turbo is a legendary band in their home country, one of the finest offerings in the metal market over there, but they have gone largely unnoticed throughout the rest of the world due to the language barrier. Most people, it appears, simply do not want to listen to music with foreign lyrics...and Polish is not high up on the list of possible exceptions. As for myself, I could care less, and most of my favorite musical artists (in all genres) sing in other languages. I may not understand them, certainly don't have the time to translate them all, and thus cannot praise or condemn them, but they never hinder my enjoyment. It's a shame that more have not listened, because Turbo write some pretty damn fine metal music, with an emphasis on the classic sounds of NWOBHM and 80s power metal, but the ever-encroaching hint of thrash (which has featured more prominently on some of their older offerings).

Strażnik Światła is the 11th album from these seasoned 'bangers, and a fine culmination of form. You'll hear elements from the early years, a little of the youthful thrash energy, and most importanly, an attention to songwriting. Nothing here is going to blow your mind, there is nothing ambitious or fascinating about what Turbo conceives, and if you are under the age of 30 and not cool, just step away. It's just good heavy metal, no more and no less, with as much melody as aggression and can be expected from some guys who grew up in a different time. This is only the first album to feature Tomasz Struszczyk vocals, and his voice is a lot less aggressive than his predecessor Grzegorz Kupczyk, but then, so is the music.

A somber guitar "Prolog" cracks open the album with bluesy abandon, before the distant dual melodies of "Na Progu Życia" simmer, slowly taking form into the rocking rhythm of the verse. Struszczyk sounds good from a melodic standpoint, even if a little safe and reined in here. But "Szept Sumienia" is a little heavier with a crisp, mean grooving guitar riff, and Tomasz gets angrier, but creates a great, climbing melody over the chorus. The lengthy title track "Strażnik Światła" has a great intro, which slowly broods into more dual melodies, and then picks up into another charging rhythm, where the vocals mix pleasure and pain into the big chords of the chorus. Other ragers on the album include the stomping good "Niebezpieczny Taniec", the infectious, Maiden-like "Obietnica Lepszego Dnia" (plus wah wah), and the other Maiden-like piece "Noc Już Woła". The band also try their hands at a 7+ minute instrumental "Tunel", with a lot of hammering and shredding rhythms.

Turbo sound like a bunch of pros here, much like they have for years now. They weren't born yesterday, and there music is not going to appeal to anyone who was. Again, not revolutionary, but it's fairly well written, epic heavy metal which failed to bore me even when the tracks were on the lengthier side. Only the balladic "Na Skrzydłach Nut" would test my patience, as it sounds like a Polish Skid Row doing a power ballad, and the one good riff in there (at around 4:00) is not enough to save it. This is not as thrashy as some of their previous work, so I also would not approach it with any such expectation.

Highlights: Szept Sumienia, Strażnik Światła, Niebezpieczny Taniec

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.turbo.art.pl/

Sjenovik - Zephaniah (2009)

Arizona's Sjenovik are a difficult band to categorize, with a name taken out of Slavic lore and a style that really only begins with black metal, and proceeds to journey into a bleak nether realm of noise and structure. Zephaniah follows the interesting Jouissance from last year, and contains another monolithic implication for the future of US black metal. For, like any of my countrymen to better perform this style, they do so by thinking outside the proverbial box, by initiating a wanderlust that captures the flaking decay of their environment, the corroding heart of our culture as we lose further touch with our roots in the name of glorious, crass commercialization, diversity, and the American Way According to MTV™. Sjenovik offers a release from this, at least for 37+ minutes and six tracks of pensive, brooding indulgence.

"Part I: That Which is Above..." is an extended intro with some haunting and harsh swells of synthesizer, laden in beautiful acoustics, an eerie bow sweeping across the background. It's a gorgeous piece of music, and immediately raised my hopes for the album. Of course, this is only one small part of the portrait that is Sjenovik, as the "Eclipse of Perpetual Loss" immediately corrects any assumption that this will be tranquil, easy listening. A slowly sliding black metal track, with vocals in such torment that I'm surprised the singer was not in the process of killing himself during the track. I guess not, or I would never have heard it. The track does veer into some melodic moments, with penetrating whispers, and flows very well into the acoustics and ambience of the next piece "Flesh of Man: Martyrdom" which eventually transforms into the most vicious and 'pure' black metal writing on the album. More whispers, but they arrive over a thundering melodic wall of soaring rhythm and the painful vocals of James Johnson strike some of their most desperate tones. "Part II: ...is Like That Which is Below" once again delves into some lush acoustics and shrill dark ambient soundscapes, before the short and sharp title track emits another blackened hue of introspective witchery.

But the foundation of this album is really laid late, on the final track "Day of Wrath", an 18 minute excursion which comprises half of the album. Wholly terrible and awesome noise transforms into some killer riffing and drum collapse. Yet, instead of just bursting into another black metal track, the band keeps the noise going over the top, and it becomes a truly disturbing work, by far the apex of Zephania and really engaging. These guys even add some choir samples later in the track. I would pay to listen to an entire album of just this style, but I do appreciate the band's desire to mix it up. Sjenovik capture quite the range of dark emotion on their sophomore effort, and while the intricacies of "Day of Wrath" might reach beyond the average listener, who has no interested in well constructed noise like my drugged (yet sober) self, I have to recommend it. Some of the tracks are not quite so experimental as others, but it is their unusual combination which enthralls, and I daresay we have another artist here who knows how to walk the 'art' side, without the implied pretensions.

Highlights: Day of Wrath is perfection, the rest are just, you know, good.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://www.sjenovik.com/

Urgehal - Ikonoklast (2009)

Urgehal has never been one of my favorite Norse black metal bands, but much of their discography is reliable if you're in the market for some blasting hostility. Ikonoklast is their sixth album and suitable for fans who want a little grisly death injection into the momentum of the thundering black metal holocaust. The band specializes in very thick, simplistic guitar rhythms with an influence of Mayhem or Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, but the real star of this show would be the vocals of Trondr. He knows how to put just the proper amount of reverb on them so that they cast an eerie spell over the blasting undercurrent, and honestly, if it were not for this one aspect, the remainder of the music would feel like mundane energy of ill intent.

"Stesolid Self-Destruction To Damnation" coronates the album with a sweet sample from the 30 Days of Night film adaptation, before some broiling leadwork and the ever churning tempo of the guitar rhythms. I liked the way the bass morphed below the riff at around 1:00, but otherwise this is a come and go song without a great many enduring moments. "Dødelagt" fares a lot better, because it sounds liked a goddamned tank escaped Apocalyptic Raids somehow and wound up rolling over this band's jamspace. "Cut Their Tongue Shut Their Prayer" is much faster than the first two tracks, and develops a nice evil trill to the verse rhythm and some excellent vocals. "The Necessity of Total Genocide" takes the band in the opposite direction, to a slower, evil segment of frightening chords that rocks up to a mid paced level. The bass in "Kniven Rider Dypt I Natt" is pumping, and the track feels like it has a good hardcore injection. Other notable cuts include the vile "Astral Projection to Rabid Hell" and the utter blitkrieg that is "Holocaust in Utopia".

Ikonoklast sounds as cavernous as a war-torn black and white city covered in dark, broiling smog. It's crushing and heavy and does not give a fuck, the way most black metal albums of this variety best operate. Most of the memorable moments are created through the atmosphere and vocals rather than any excessive skill at riffing, but there are a few which do dominate. I cannot say it's the most compelling or blasphemous work I've heard of late, but it is at least solid, and in some places, truly grim. Definitely one for the fans of louder, caustic black metal which can peel the paint off brick and mortar in the name of nihilistic fucking warfare.

Highlihgts: Dødelagt, Cut Their Tongue Shut Their Prayer, Kniven Rider Dypt I Natt

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://urgehal.com/

Vektor - Black Future (2009)

At first glance, I saw this Arizona band's logo and cried out in vain. IMPOSTORS! BLASPHEMY! Who would dare to profane the very Canadian Gods themselves by aping their look and style? Then I actually listened to the album, and found that, while there is obviously some tiny influence from Voivod, the logo is more of a tribute than any statement of stylistic plagiarism. I also discovered that Vektor are a pretty kick ass band with enormous potential. This is tech thrash, with a progressive edge in so much that they very carefully build complex tracks loaded with good riffing that not only flogs your bottom, but actually experiments with mood and atmsophere.

Perhaps a better comparison for this band would be a mix of early Atheist, (sped-up) Death, Deathrow (during their tech phase), Sadus and the obscure NH band Terrahsphere, sans the wild vocals. That is not to say David Disanto does not go off with his impetuous, diabolical snarling, and his delivery certainly cuts through the band's dense rhythmic explorations and 'wall of thrash' approach. Though I don't find this album a be all, end all masterpiece of the genre, it is an extremely refreshing listen, because there simply aren't many bands out there anymore who perform in this style, and Vektor offer a lot more sheer riffing than almost any other young thrash act in the world. Talented is an understatement, because this band's musical skill should turn more heads than Kristen Stewart at the Jr. Vampire Merit Badge convention.

Each track is an exercise in style, beginning with the titular piece, a flurry of intense guitar spikes that flank Disanto's Schmier-like extremities. At the 2 minute mark, the band breaks into this amazing trot with a few layers of guitarwork blowing your mind at once, before a solid thrash breakdown and then some further adventures off into the bleak dystopian rust of the band's lyrical musings. "Oblivion" is given a little kick by Blake Anderson, soon joined by some neo-classic weavings and a good punchy rhythmic thrust. "Destroying the Cosmos" channels everything from Voivod to a little touch of black metallic chord in the galloping riff that precedes the spurious verse. "Forests of Legend" is ambitious, 10+ minutes that kick off with a brilliant acoustic passage lathed in ambient woodland sounds. But fear not, after this moment passes you get nine more in which the band explores a wide spectrum of insanity, and as usual the little plucky guitar melodies that dwell just at the edge of the thick central riffing recall the beautiful surgical misantrhopy of Deathrow's Deception Ignored. The fact you can write a song this long, in this style, and not make someone lose patience speaks volumes.

Voices from inside seem to pull you in
Dark wisdom runs on the still, damp wind
Glow of the eye, fear the gaze
The great ape returns disconnected and changed

"Hunger for Violence" is perhaps one of the most Voivod-like compositions, its opening chords jangle with strange symmetry like something from Dimension Hatross, and as it develops it feels like Piggy and crew jamming with, say, Theory in Practice from Sweden. "Deoxyribonucleic Acid" opens with a classy, Maiden-like riff sped up and ascending into scientific thrashing precision. "Asteroid" tones down the technicality to rock your face off for a few minutes, straying a little further out near the climax of the track as it develops an incredible, thundering extra-worldy charge, the solid bass erupting below like Lemmy if he were to build a time machine and hurl his alma mater Hawkwind a few hundreds years into the actual future. The album then closes with two more epic-length compositions...highly ambitious. "Dark Nebula" is like Pink Floyd's "Astronimy Domine" being covered by alien virtuosos, and no coincidence, another of the few tracks here that really showcases a little of the Voivod influence. "Accelerating Universe" crowns off the album with an initial, anthemic Metallica thrash hammering and then journeys through about 13 minutes of diversity, culminating in the psychedelic, amazing atmosphere beyond the 7 minute mark.

Vektor is simply insane. Here we have a thrash metal band with all the right influence, all the right lyrics, and ZERO retrospective stupidity. For any who doubt the genre's viability in the 21st century, this is another album that begs you to GUESS AGAIN. If you enjoy riffs and technicality with your thrash or death, you owe it to yourself to give this is a listen. I won't say it's perfect, because the actual memorability of the songs could still use some work, but the band excels in nearly every department and there are enough moments of mirth here to grant Black Future some very high honors indeed.

Highlights: Destroying the Cosmos, Forest of Legend, Hunger for Violence, Dark Nebula

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (into the night, seeker of light)

http://www.myspace.com/vektor