If you read a hundred different reviews of this CD, I bet every single one of them will mention the fact that vocalist Attila Csihar did the vocals on Mayhem’s legendary De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. They may also mention that he is a founding member of Tormentor (Hungary) and Plasma Pool. Well, now he continues to sing as only he can as a member of Italy’s Aborym. Okay, so now I’ve said it. Let’s move on.
Aborym’s take on the black metal genre reminds me a bit of Mayhem’s Wolf’s Lair Abyss e.p. It is extremely heavy with a cold and deadly guitar sound. But interspersed between the riffs and tortured vocals are the spacey cybernetic sounds of synths and programmed drums. The result is something of a twist on the traditional cold, grim metal imagery, resulting in a harsher, more technical sound. Once again, comparisons to Mayhem seem in order, especially the middle section of Grand Declaration of War. But there is one thing that may be a bit difficult for some listeners to take: the programmed drums. But actually, it is hard in most cases to even tell that the drums are programmed, while at other times the cold precision of the machine lends to the warlike and spacey sound of the music. So don’t let a minor thing like that deter you from enjoying this unique offering. In other words, this album is definitely a genre piece. It is for the diehard black metal aficionado. Only a black metal purist can appreciate it. After all, who else is likely to recognize their cover of Burzum’s “Det Som En Gang Var”? So, needless to say, this album is not likely to appeal to the general metal buyer.
Regardless of what the popular opinion becomes of this release, it is clear to me that Aborym’s Fire Walk With Us will become a fixture in the black metal hall of fame. And it is to World War III Music that we owe the debt of bringing this album to the market in the United States. Now it remains to see if American black metal fans will receive it with the same enthusiasm they received Mayhem.
Belfegor are another band belonging to the Polish Black/Death Metal assault. They have at once the chilling sound of black metal bands like Mayhem and the death metal production of groups like Hate (label mates) and Damnation (also a Polish band, I think). Words like “intense” and “uncompromising” come to mind. The drums, for instance, are hyperfast and use a lot of the death metal blast beats. The guitars are also super fast and feature a lot of the high speed, staccato, single-note riffing famous in black metal. The vocals, too, are definitely black metal. I don’t know much about the lyrical content as I only have the promo slipcase version, but as expected, the song titles have the nebulous quality of sound fantasy oriented and maybe evil, but not necessarily Satanic. In fact, they sound a little like Bal Sagoth song titles. For instance, “”I’ll Come from Four Sides of the World”, “The Master of the Beginning”, and “The Time of the Beginning”. In any event, like Hate Belfegor doesn’t bring any new sounds to the metal listener, but what they do, they do quite well.
Like Corvus Corax and Averse Sephira, these Americans have captured the chaotic spirit of cold Black Metal. Fog can be placed alongside bands like Emperor and Nokturnal Mortum. While clearly aiming their sites for the Emperor crowd, Fog lean a little closer to the “primitive” side of Black Metal where bands like Darkthrone and Immortal dwell. Nevertheless, their total sound is a hybrid of these various bands and makes for one deadly album. They are at once raw and primitive and also melodic. Occasionally an acoustic guitar surfaces, but for the most part this album is all death and destruction. From song to blizzard-riffing song there is so much controlled power you imagine what it must be like to be holding a live electrical wire with rubber insulated gloves. It is good and refreshing to see more American bands take a more serious approach to Black Metal. And with song titles like, “By this Axe we Rule” and “Through the Eyes of Night Winged They Come” you know they mean business. I’m impressed.
With a name like Hate and a titles like “Holy Dead Trinity”, “No Life After Death”, “God Overslept”, “Pagan Triumph”, and “Satan’s Horde” you imagine these guys are out to offend. But for those of us who don’t take such things too seriously the real concern is with the quality of the music. Hate across as a perfect blending of Polish Death Metal (Vader, Decapitated) and American Death Metal (Hate Eternal). The hybrid puts them in a category with bands like Pandemia. Certainly WWIII Music is likely to get a lot of well-deserved attention because of this release. While this band doesn’t thrive on “creating new sounds”, their combination of the right factors make for a tight, well-rounded album that pleases and never bores. The production is crisp and the blast beats pound your ear drums while the guitars sound like buzz saws on steroids. Perhaps what I find most interesting about their music, though, is the guitar solos. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but they just sound good. I can’t say much more than that. If well produced Death Metal is your thing, you can’t go wrong with Hate.
I wish I knew more about this band. I’m not sure if they are to be called Headhunter Death Cult, Headhunter D.C., or just Headhunter. I assume it would not be the latter as there was a band called Headhunter in Germany fronted by Schmier of Destruction infamy. But of the first two possibilities, I think the second is most likely. Anyway, this album goes back a few years to the days of grinding death metal and this band hails from Brazil, a well-known breading ground for brutal death metal bands. Thankfully, Mercenary Music—distributed by WWIII Music—has rescued this album from obscurity and released it domestically for us in the U.S. As I mentioned earlier, Headhunter D.C. play a very grind oriented form of death metal. Nevertheless, they are quite adept at mixing up the tempos and also at adding some atmosphere. The production on this album is top notch, making the instruments distinguishable. The promo “spiel” that usually comes with promo CD’s mentions two other well-known Brazilian bands, namely Krisiun and Rebaellium. While I enjoy those two bands, I think Headhunter D.C. has them beat in the variety department, and yet they are not less heavy by any means.