I am speechless with this new album... Angelcorpse have taken the brutality to such new heights that it makes their previous CDs sound like high school garage bands. It is almost as though they skipped an album or two; this one is so different from "Exterminate". The speed and technicality knocked me flat. The most immediate and general description I can give is to say, imagine if Morbid Angel played at the velocity and complexity of Cryptopsy. Then, you might have an idea of what this one is like. To be perfectly honest, it took me 3 or 4 listens to understand and enjoy "The Inexorable" --the rhythms and changes are all over the place. New drummer Tony's style is supreme, giving a nod to Vader's Doc and even Gene Hoglan (check out his stunning technique at 2:26 in "As Predator to Prey"). Although he is much, much better than his predecessor, I would have preferred a louder drum sound in the mix. That is my primary criticism with the disc. A killer release for sure, brutal beyond what you'd expect at this point from Angelcorpse.

Finally, after an anxious wait, I get the new Angelcorpse album in my hands!! At first listen, I was admittedly surprised. Morrisound had changed the sound of the band a great deal. Whereas the first Angelcorpse album, "Hammer of Gods" had a cleaner guitar sound, the guitar production here is solid and heavy; fusing with the bass to form a literal battering ram. While this is a welcome change to many, I think there was nothing really wrong with the production on the first CD. In fact, the guitars and vocals on this album are dominant enough in the mix to kind of squash the sound of the toms, making fills and rolls a little hard to hear. The snare didn't suffer, but in fact grew fatter (which is great). After I had grown accustomed to the sound change, the true beauty of "Exterminate" began to show itself. Truly obscene solos (guitar torture), blasting drums, great lyrics, and standout riffs abound. They have not shed the early-Possessed/early-Morbid Angel influeces, but have forged them into an original amalgam all their own. Once again, Angelcorpse have proven themselves to be among the elite of death metal from the US (or the world, for that matter). Tracks such as "Christhammer", "Into the Storm of Steel", and "Reap the Whirlwind" will soon become new AC favorites, I'm sure. If these guys ever tour with the other Angel, the Morbid ones, you'd better watch you ass!!!

I was not familiar with Behemoth prior to this release. When I friend of mine bought "Satanica", I feared some seriously posing black metal. From the effeminate cover to the glammy sounding title (it just strikes me that way --the word sounds like a store that sells homosexual bondage gear) I expected the worst. Anyway, the music is the important thing, and it immediately blew away all of my preconceptions. This is death/black metal of the modern variety. The music of "Satanica" succeeds where Emperor's "IX Equilibrium" failed (I compare them because they are, in many aspects, similar musically); that is, it uses experimentation, atmospherics, and a mix of death and black metal influences in an inspired (and focused) way. To my humble ear, this is much more to the death metal side of things --blast beats, brutal vocals, and heavy guitars abound. When comparing this one to latest Emperor, the vocals on "Satanica" come across a lot better as well. Instead of the irritating bitch vocals that Ihsahn has taken on lately, here you get a brutal, testicle-straining scream, not unlike the voice found on Nile's "Among the Catacombs.." CD. "Satanica" has one of the fullest and clearest productions of any extreme metal album I've heard this year (partially because of triggers on all of the drum pieces, I suspect), not to mention a dose of refreshing originality. If there is one flaw with "Satanica", it is Behemoth's constant pushing of the genre's boundaries. Unfortunately, it is like "IX Equilibrium" in that some of "Satanica"'s experimentation gets mired down in tangled technicality. You know, the songwriters "try too hard" to impress you with off-the-wall riffs/arrangements. All in all though, it is a success and one of my favorites for the year.

Finally, after putting off buying this album (in favor of others), I've gotten Crown of Thorns' latest. I had a dub of their first release, which was a promising mix of Deicide/ At the Gates (?), so I thought this, COT's second, would be even better. After listening to "Eternal Death" a few times, I can now say... this album is BORING! The songs drag on for far too long, and the intensity level fails to build properly. The production is also another complaint. It seems as though the guitar sound has gotten thinner, and there's an annoying reverb that weakens the punch of the material. Don't get me wrong; COT has a great vocalist, great lead players, and a good drummer. The ingredients just didn't make a tasty dish. There are a few standout tracks, such as "In Bitterness and Sorrow" and "Kill (the Priest)"; but the album is mostly an hour of boredom. How disappointing.

It took me a while to make up my mind about this piece of work. "The Burning" was an excellent fusion of brutality and melody. When Xuthus got his hands on "Eternal Death", I was anxious to hear it. The first track brought a smile to my face because it didn't lack the catchiness of "The Burning". However, after listening to the album a few times through, I must say that I am unimpressed. The tracks that drag on and the production only make this a slightly above average album, that doesn't really stand out like the band's previous work. Best tracks are "Angels Die" and "Kill the Priest". The rest - even though they have decent riffing and good leads and great vocals- is just kinda there.

If you're getting tired of slickly produced black/death or sugary gothic metal, this just may be the remedy for you. Although billed as retro black/death, I'd be more inclined to say that Deathwitch is more like primitive death metal. Terror, the drummer from Swordmaster, sings and plays guitar on this album, although the music is far from the almost happy tunes on a Swordmaster release. "The Ultimate Death" is dark and pummeling, downtuned and dirty, with vocals that sound like a hyrbid of 1987 Tom Angelripper and Cronos. This stuff is not entirely original, and the song titles are far from inventive (ie "Violent Carnage" and "Condemned to the Grave"), but Deathwitch had me headbanging more than most of the CDs I've bought this year. Highly recommended.

Song titles like "Cinderella's Return and Departure" and "Thorns of a Black Rose"... A Norse god-looking character on the cover... A few very misleading hints as to what Defleshed really is. In Flames melodicism? No. Viking black metal? Wrong again. I could scarcely believe my ears when I first listened to these guys . Defleshed's energy had me only an inch away from headbanging right there in the store. Defleshed are almost unbearably intense, with mach-speed blast beats; thrashy rhythms played at a ferocious pace, and bloodthirsty vocals that ring of the singer from Crown of Thorns. The hi-hat is a little loud when the drummer grinds, but this is a tiny problem in wake of such outstandingly great material. This has to be some of the most energetic shit out there. "Under the Blade" is, without a doubt, my favorite fuckin death release of '97 (thusfar, anyway).

Man!! This is fuckin metal, man!! Highly acclaimed by Xuthus, he almost forced me to listen to this. And it wasn't at all what I expected after seeing the cover. I thought I was in for some nordic blackmetal, but was I oh so wrong. Instead I got pounded with some fluently inhuman grinds and highly thrashlike tripled riffs overlaid by some fullthroated screamy vocals. Swordmaster comes to mind, but for some reason the guys in Defleshed have bigger cojones. My personal favs are the titletrack and the Exodus cover. You listen to this and after about two seconds you can't help but bang your head. Thrash, asshole!!!!!!

So here they are, Deicide returning after the rather dull "Once Upon the Cross" album. The title track opens the album and, what, have Deicide been listening to the NWOSDM (the New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal)? The first riff just seems to break new territory for the satanic death-mongers, being quite melodic. Mr. Benton sounds great with his effortless and distinctive growls, and overdubs some of the demonic screams that were mostly lacking on the previous album. The brothers Hoffman have drastically changed their lead style; concentrating on Alex Skolnick-style technique rather than their past whammy bar histrionics. Musically, "Serpents.." is an improved version of "Once Upon the Cross", but with a different guitar tone (bloated would be the word). On the positive side of things, Deicide have put out some easily digestable death with lots of groove. On the negative side, this accessibility makes the material slightly bland and more than a bit formulaic. "Legion" still reigns as the heaviest, most hateful, bruising, and best Deicide record...

Ok, so it's not "Legion", but at least an improvement over it's predecessor. "Serpents..." features some super catchy riffs, very technical leads and awesome drum battering. And Mr. Benton will kick the shit out of you if you don't like his vocals. All in all a well done album and as blasphemous as ever. I yet haven't counted the many times the word DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! comes up.

The movement these days seems to be "going back to the roots". Some bands, like Obituary and (gulp) Slayer, have tried this approach and only achieved lackluster results. However, Dismember is a band that has proven that it can be done. The album's title may be a little pretentious, but I believe Dismember were proud of their accomplishments here. The album opens with the high-octane assualt of the At the Gates-like "Of Fire", and doesn't slow the pace until the third track. Dismember does a fine job of combining the low-end sickness of the slaughtering old-school Swedish style (see "Trendkiller" and "When Hatred Killed the Light"), with the new "the last At the Gates album" style. A very good release, one of 1997's finer death metal albums.

I was curious to check Divine Empire out because I got a postcard beforehand describing the band as having "ex members of Malevolent Creation". I was hoping Alex Marquez came back from obscurity, but alas Divine Empire features Derrick Roddy on drums (from "In Cold Blood"), along with the axeman from that album, and Jason Blachowitz on bass/vocals. Ok, so I'm not a huge fan of Jason's vocals, but I was pleasantly surprised here. His voice, which has gotten deeper, resembles Glen Benton most of the time, and when he reaches his absolute lowest, comparisons could even be made to Masse Broberg (Hypocrisy's 1st vocalist). Jason has also increased his singing versatility by using more screams than he used in his old band. The music of the CD is like a thrashier Malevolent Creation --not thrashy in a gay way, but with lots of triplets and other intricate picking. Derrick Roddy, of course, doesn't disappoint with his blinding single-bass blasts and fills, and the riffs are pretty much all catchy. My only complaint is with the solos. They're a little bluesy for this style, resembling Kirk Hammett almost. That should definitely not dissuade you from buying this album, though. It's really kickass. Hail the return of death metal!

I have to be honest and say that I wasn't fond of Dying Fetus' last album, "Purification Through Violence". The groovy parts reminded me of that retarded music style called Groove "Metal", I didn't like the lyrics (singing about weed.. this is death metal, remember??), and the drums sounded way too artificial. When I friend of mine bought "Killing On Adrenaline" though, I found myself liking Dying Fetus' music! While obviously not an authority on the band, I think I can honestly say that this one is more focused, more intense, and more brutal. It's technical, heavy, fast, and beats you up from all sides at once. "Killing.." is one of those albums that will put you in a violent mood --it sure did that to me.

I am a firm believer in the statement "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is". That's why I guarded my reaction to the fact that Erik Rutan and Doug Cerrito formed Hate Eternal together. But this time, the hype is true!! Holy shit, this is a fucking awesome death metal album! People who have longed for a worthy successor to Deicide's "Legion" album will have their jaws hit the ground! This CD is full of hateful and super intense riffs with blastbeats almost the whole time. Rutan's voice is plenty bestial too, bringing to mind the sounds of Steve Tucker and Benton. Really, the riffing deserves some serious praise --it's non-stop, attacking, catchy, violent... I can't praise this CD enough, it even beat Angelcorpse's new one in terms of quality (which is not easy cos I'm a huge Angelcorpse fan)! Best of 1999?

Ha, so here we are with what the metal press has virtually dubbed "The New Slayer". Don't make me fuckin puke. Normally, if the singer of a band sucks, that can be overlooked in light of the music. With this album, however, the voice is so irritating that I can't stand listening to it for more than 3 songs. Imagine Phil Anselmo's (Pantera) little brother trying to sound tough and you'll get a good idea. Plus, this singer (from some idiotic band called "Mary Beats Jane") writes some really gay lyrics. In the beginning of one song, he whispers something like, "I can hear the animals," and continues by ragging on how destructive and bad mankind is; bla, bla, bla, shut the fuck up!! Take your weeping society lyrics and shove them up your ass! The drumming, by -ex At the Gates man Adrian Erlandsson, is as boring as ever. The guy sounds like he's scared of hitting his toms! On the bright side (ha), there are some At the Gates -type riffing going on here and there (such as in the decent song "In Vein"), but then in comes some of that retarded Pantera "Southern attitude" style riffing to fuck everything up. If you want a new age Slayer, I suggest trying Vader instead. This is just unacceptable to my ears.

It had been a while since I had last heard any new Incantation material when, boom, here was a new mCD. The question is, "how does it compare to the older material?" The most obvious change is in the production department. Their last full-length, "Mortal Throne of Nazarene" possessed a raw production (shitty, actually; but contributing to the dark atmosphere), whereas this one is as clear as Incantation has ever been. However, having listened to this numerous times, I think Incan is perhaps a little less dark than before. That's not to say that they have lost their neanderthal appeal, it just doesn't seem as "abyssic" as before (Is it the production? Are the guitars cleaner?). As you may have heard, they cover Death's "Scream Bloody Gore", which could even be mistaken for an Incan original by someone who has never heard Death's version before. The nightmarish "Outro" deserves mention as well, being a collage of abstract sounds you might hear in Hell. Pretty good, but not my favorite Incantation material.

I suppose the release of last year's "The Forsaken Mourning of Angelic Anguish" was meant as a taster for this, the new Incantation full-length. And, in all honesty, that technique of building anticipation didn't work, as I thought the mCD was only ok. I was thus pleasantly surprised when I discovered that "Diabolical Conquest" crushes that previous release under foot. Incantation has only become more evil as time has gone on. John McEntee's frenzied riffing has a claustrophobic effect on the listener, as if the rapid assault of notes is suffocating him. The trademark Incantation doom segments are still there, only this time with added sick melodies and harmonies. The production on the album is one of it's strengths, with every instrument shining through clearly. "Diabolical Conquest" is obviously Incan's most evolved album yet, with an added edge of technicality. My only real complaint is with the new vocalist. His voice could be compared to the twisted, mid-ranged growls of Luc Lemay (Gorguts) on the "The Erosion of Sanity" album, a singer I was never too fond of. I just personally prefer the gut-wrenching lows of their old vocalist, Mr. Pillard. Definitely check this one out, as it's already one of the best death metal releases this year.

You will be lying near death, in a pool of your own blood if you can listen to all 40 minutes of this album. Coming from Brazil, this 3 piece (of which, 2 are brothers) is one of the most brutal bands on Earth. I'm not shitting you. Fans of Terrorizer take note, for this band grinds on and on and on without mercy. By the 4th song, you won't believe your ears. The vocals are also reminiscent of Terrorizer, forcefully spouting off word after word of hate and blasphemy. To add to this unstoppable conflagration, there are some of the most hateful solos I've heard since Angelcorpse --this guy's guitar is literally screaming out in burning torment! Krisiun is relentlessly brutal. It's as simple as that. Do not buy this album if you have a heart condition.

So, this is what it feels like to have a cocaine overdose. The grinds on "Black Force Domain" are as neverending as they are merciless. This is some of the most hateful deathmetal I have heard since Deicide's "Legion". And damn are these dudes from Brazil angry. The riffing is almost Slayerish and the leads have a nice chunk of technicality added to their speed. But just right and not technical to take away from the chaos and hate. What's actually fun is to listen losely and realize how fast the man is picking. If you're still alive and uninjured after listening to the complete album, you'll find yourself holding your head shakingly muttering ...must...kill....". I've had people tell me that Krisiun is too much. I don't think I agree. Everything else is just too wimpy. The production could be better, but then again WHY PUSSY??!?!?!

The two primary problems of Krisiun's previous album have been cured on "Apocalyptic Revelation". Unlike before, where things were a bit messy soundwise, all of the riffs can now be heard clearly. And, whereas "Black Force Domain" was pretty much a straight ahead speedfest, this CD features more mid-paced sections and harmonies (that's not to say that this one is slow, it's fast as fuck, too!). I'd say the guitar solos are a bit more thought out than before, as guitarist Moyses has abandoned his wah pedal (to my dismay I might add, I love the wah!). "Apocalyptic Revelation" is therefore more listenable than it's predecessor. However, I must state that, for pure cardiac arrest, "Black Force Domain" still reigns surpreme. Conclusion: buy both albums; "Apocalyptic Revelation" for it's warm production and catchiness, and "Black Force Domain" for unbelievable massacrating brutality.

Brett Hoffman is back!! WOOHOOO!! That's the first thing I must get out of my system before I get into my review. Despite the complaints of many reviewers, his last performance with Malevolent, on the "Stillborn" album, was great to my ears. Now, he's lending his scorching, sand-blasting voice to the new Malevolent. Jay Blachowitz has left, but I don't miss him because I found his vocals a little monotonous (Blachowitz' voice has changed now, see the review of his new band, Divine Empire). Enough of the vocals.. The new Malevolent Creation album sounds like the band has new energy. This one is like "In Cold Blood", but catchier and with more variety. It's also the first Malevolent album to feature..acoustic guitars?? Yes, Phil has integrated them into a fine epic track called "Day of Lamentation". I'm sure this one, along with my favorite on the CD, "Bone Exposed" (absolutely fucking violent!!) will join such MC favorites as "Thou Shall Kill", "Slaughter of Innocence", and "They Breed" as some of their best songs.. "The Fine Art.." also features a superb production and the faster-than-fuck Dave Culross on drums, making this one mandatory for fans of brutal death metal.

Sadistic Intent have been a favorite of mine for a while now, even though they have not released that much material (a few demos, a 7", and a mCD in 10 years of existence). Yet, what little music they do put out is done right. In comparison to Sadistic's 1993 release, the mCD "Resurrection", "Ancient Black Earth" sees a noticed improvement in the production. The drums are loud and crisp (always a plus for me), and the bass is audible, making this one appealing even to biggest "production freak". The mix just makes this mCD truly a treat to listen to. The vocals are well done, ringing of Davie's on the "Altars of Madness" LP. Killer Slayer-type leads abound, interwoven with Morbid Angel-influenced riffing. This release is limited to 500 copies, so you guys go out and get one as soon as you can!!

Finally, after buying a number of bland albums (the new Dark Funeral and Naglfar come to mind), I get one that is truly exciting. Vader continues in their brand of powerful and fast thrashy death, but have picked up the speed even more. In fact, the drumming is arguably the best aspect of the album. Fanatics of masterful drumming will find "Black to the Blind" pure ear-candy, as Doc does some faster than fuck double bass and effortless, warp-speed grinds (faster than "De Profundis"!) Despite the album's destructive initial impact, there were a couple of things I found to complain about (heh heh). Many of the Terrorizer-style riffs sound similar to each other (but damn, that drumming!) Also, Peter's vocals are a little weaker than before (but... damn, that drumming!) The actual music is probably not better than the last album (it's about equal), but "Black to the Blind" is undoubtedly a great half-hour blast of ruling death metal.

It was about time that I finally got to hear "Black to the Blind". After having moved to Germany I received a dub from Shetait's new female guitarist. The rumors that it would be "fast as fuck" were true. I totally agree with Xuth that the drumming IS ear candy. Doc's battering brought a smile to my face as I remembered the good ole days of Terrorizer. He has the consistency and accuracy of a machine and incredible speed. Unfortunately, the other aspects of the album weren't quite as good as I had anticipated. But like Xuthus said: "damn...that drumming!!!" Another pluspoint is the production. I'm not a fan of superclinical production, but this album is engineered so well, that it's crystal clear without sounding artificial at all. And I don't know what it is about this album, but I liked it better and better the more I listened to it. And now it's hard not to listen to it. It's just fuckin killer!!!