CD REVIEWS (A - G) - 10th Edition

 

ABISMO ETERNO – La Ultima Elegia Del Guardian (CD – Black Castle – Ecuador). I admit that was deeply impressed when listening this album, perhaps for being of a Ecuador´s band, a country without any tradition in the heavy metal, I had underestimated the band, but when I listened this CD I was really amazed, and after that I already listened again to it at least some ten times! The band sing in spanish but its music works perfectly in that language, ABISMO NEGRO play a kind of creative e personal melodic thrash metal that looks for influence in bands of eighties, above all bands from South America like CHAKAL, MUTILATOR, SEPULTURA & MX (from Brazil), NECROSIS (CHILE) and POGROM (Argentina), but  the incredible melodic sense of ABISMO NEGRO is the only in the genre, turning the music of the band a very special product. Tracks like “La Delicada Majestuosidad de lo Nefasto”, “Eterea Infinidad” and the instrumental “Hermosas Estaciones del Odio y Olvido” are new hyms for the south american & worldwide headbangers. Great release for the new label Black Castle! Contacts: Blackcastleusa@aol.com  (OE)

 

 

 

AGATHOCLES – To Serve...to Protect/Leads To... (CD – Heavy Metal Rock/ No Fashion – Belgium). The legendary masters of the VEGAN GRIND CORE retturned with a powrful album. AGATHOCLES is one of the fathers of the Anti-Politics Grindcore, made a eternal crusade against nazis, racists, multinationals, animal suffering, war, police repression, and another causes in defense of those oppressed of the whole world. Their music is a crude grindcore that mix the punk groove with the hardcore attitude, creating hymns for all grind lovers as the tracks "Judged Too Soon", "Hand in Hand", "Who Cares", Wrong Ways" & "Cool Fools", expressive attack to kill the traitors bastards!!!! The cover art is symbolic and crazy, portraying in a subtle way a suicidal act, and the booklet include a interesting text about racism. Congratulations to the labels that release this masterpiece in our country. LONG LIVE TO THE FABULOUS AGATHOCLES! Contacts – labels: hmrock@hmrock.com.br / massiser@hotmail.com (OE)

 

 

 

ALGOL – Gorgonus Aura (CD – The Twelfth Planet – USA). Melodic black metal is a metal fashion of nowadays, this kind of music have some real good names that play with feeling and real underground spirit but exist some bands that sold its souls for the money! ALGOL is a real undermelodic black metal based in USA, they play a furious mix of spanish EMPTY´s and french UMBRAKAIL, with climatic keyboards and technical guitars, the band also invest in interesting prog-atmospheric tracks like the deep instrumental “EXODUS” (with more than 11 minutes!) and the beautiful & powerful “Benighted Reflection”. The lyrics of ALGOL is really great too, black and obscure poems full of deep feelings. The work of the band is very good and it deserves a better sound production next time. Open your soul to the hell abyss penetration!!! Contacts: Band – algol666@hotmail.com / Label: planet12@hotmail.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

ALIENGATES – Dark Days Quantum (MCD – Self Produced – Switzerland ). Switzerland is the cradle of great death metal acts and the country made to appear the new label  “Swiss Death Metal”, ALIENGATES is one of the good new revelations coming from these important scene, the music of the band is energetic and technical, including a marvelous work of the guitars played by Filipe Gordilho & Pascal Beer, the musics include a melodic touch and the vocals are very inspired by the 80th thrash metal icons like KREATOR & SODOM. You can listen nothing new here, but ALIENGATES is a good new name for death metal lovers, listen “Dark Days Quantum” and “Blind Leads Blind “ and feel the power. Contacts: Band – loki@aliengates.com (EF).

 

 

 

 

 

ANTHELION – Lines X – (Demo CD – Self Produced – Italy). Italy is a cradle of great bands of genres as melodic/epic/classic metal, now the country present us one of the great promises for the neo prog metal genre and this name is ANTHELION, the band borned in 1999 and put their new demo CD "Lines X" in the list of the great demos now. LINES X have a good production to a demo, the music of the band sound like a good mix of QUEENSRYCHE & FATES WARNING , but sometimes we can listen echoes of melodic metal and progressive rock in ANTHELION´s music (touches of ANGRA , VIPER, VISION DIVINE). This is a good work with interesting details in the sound as in the end of the curious track "Son of a Lie" when we can listen strange words in italian. ANTHELION is the name of the new progmetal italian promisse! Contacts: allanon@stargazer.it , allllanon@hotmail.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

ARABESQUE – The Union (CD – Lion Music – Finland). Experimental jazzy/prog & hard rock act with an incredible team of musicians, ARABESQUE isn´t only another clone of boring prog metal acts like DREAM THEATER & STRATOVARIUS, they create music with a lot of feeling and innovation, the avantgarde experiments of ARABESQUE´s music don't allow that classify its style. It is very curious and groovy, sometimes we can listen heavy guitars and killer thrash drums but it is interrupted by hard rock vocals or pop rock guitars like in the formidables “Haunted” & “Captured”, where the female couple of vocalists: Katja Salemi & Nicole Seriere accomplishes beautiful and sweet duets and Joop Wolters's guitars generate a dream atmosphere. That CD doesn't bring music for musicians, but for anyone that has musical sensibility! Contacts: band – www.arabesque-site.com / label – www.lionmusic.com  (EF)

 

 

 

ASHES TO ASHES – Cardinal VII (CD – DVS Records – Norway). Some bands, in spite of its great talent and brilliant ideas continue restricted to the underground metal scenery, ASHES TO ASHES is one of those examples, the band was interviewedby KREPUSKULUM at that time of the debut´s album release, an excellent work. Of this time, arrives to our hands this Cardinal VII, the second full-lenght, once again an impressive disk, replete of nuances and different climates, with inspiration in the thrash, doom and atmospheric metal, creating a very special music that remember sometimes METALLICA, another times KING DIAMOND and some doom metal icons like ANATHEMA, but the ASHES TO ASHES music is very personal, the voice of Kenneth Brastad is a mix of fury and sadness, Michel Stenberg (Guitars) is a talented guitar and a great composer creating great songs as "Embraced in Black", the instrumental "Dualism" and the deep sad voyage "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi ( with more than 13 minutes!). Listen it now man, it is a real metallic masterpiece. Contacts: band – atoa@ato.net (EF)

 

 

 

 

ASHES YOU LEAVE – Fire (CD – Morbid Records – Croatia). I´m a great fan of "Ashes You Leave" and I believe that this band create some of the best doom atmospheric albums of the metal history, the second album "Desperate Existence" is a real masterpiece of deep climates and dark solitudeness feelings, the third "The Inheritance of Sin and Shame" are simple one of the morecreative and inovative atmospheric doom metal masterpiece of the european scene... I should admit that was concerned when knew that the wonderful vocalist Dunja Radetic was substituted by Marina Zrilic, the voice of Dunja was one of the fundamental marks of the band´s music, but I was deceived because Marina is also a great vocalist that got to substitute Dunja well. Is true that the disk doesn't have the same shine of its predecessor's, but whole the fundamental marks of the powerful and melancholic doom played by ASHES YOU LEAVE are present here, including the wonderful violin arrangements in epic and innovative musics like the title track and the beautiful " Don´t Forget The Planets ". The band are finding their new way and certainty the next work will still be more fabulous. Contacts: band- bobo@metalsoundmagazine.com , label – promo@morbidrecords.de (OE)EF)

 

 

 

 

 

A TRIBUTE TO THE PLAGUE – Alone (CD – Jethro Song/Classic Laser – Brazil). Another great revelation coming from the south of Brazil. A TRIBUTE TO THE PLAGE´s debut is an exemple of the power and professionalism of the brazilian underground, the sound production is perfect, the cover artwork is beautiful and the real heavy metal spirit is the mark of this work. The band mix a lot of influences, including touches of death, thrash, doom, dark, epic & melodic metal, but the best form to called its genre is only “HEAVY METAL”. Some of the best moments of this great album are the tracks: “Dead Seed” – deep and dark heavy ballad with a creepy climate; “Salvation” –  with epic and powerful heavy groove & the intense “Hungry”. Sometimes this band remember another great name of the new brazilian metal, the legendary IMAGO MORTIS from Rio de Janeiro, above all in the keyboard atmospheres created for the guest Fernando Nahtaivel and in the theatrical vocals of Juan Viacava. Long live to “ A TRIBUTE TO THE PLAGUE”! Contacts: band – atributetotheplague@terra.com.br / d-ricardo@uol.com.br  (OE)

 

 

 

 

ATLANTIDA – Vol. 16 (CD Compilation – Atlantida Prod. – Lithuania). 17 bands coming from  from all points of old Europe and USA, various styles and proposals: black, death, epic, thrash and atmospheric metal ! Real underground spirit are the mark of this impressive work, Atlantida Prod. Already put 18 compilations like that in the world scene, more than 150 bands from all world already participated in this great initiative! The volume bring us with some impressive acts like the curious and atmospheric viking RAVENCLAW from Lithuania, the morbid VINTERHEIM from Norway and the deep DE PROFUNDIS CLAMANI. More than 70 minutes of good underground metal music. Contacts: label – atlantida@ukmerge.omnitel.net (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

AURORA K – 11th Hour (Single – Soundmen – Finland). Wow...That single brings a videoclip for the song “11th Hour” and it is a great production but the best aspect is the beautiful & powerful voice of Katriina (it remember Litta Ford), the beautiful (is better to say wonderful!!!) girl that sing in AURORA K. The band play a good hard rock with melodic guitars and heavy drums, very intense and creative, the sound production is great too and the promo pack include a poster sign by Katriina and Johnny A. (guitars) the other mind behind this good act. Without any doubt that is one of the great promises of the new hard rock, we are already anxious for the complete album! Contacts: jr_aurora@surfeu.fi  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

AUTUMN FLOWERS – CD Demo (Self Produced - Brazil) - I can't say so much about the AUTUMN FLOWERS' history, in spite of this band lives in same country than me. I don't have a release in my hands, but I can tell you about their music. AUTUMN FLOWERS is a great Doom Metal band formed in 1998, from Juiz de Fora/MG (same State from SILENT CRY and SEPULTURA). This CD-Demo contains three songs of great quality. The first one, "The Dragon that Burned the Woman" has a great keyboard work, and good rhythm/lead guitar. The last two songs, "Bring Me to My Cradle" and "Lost in the Garden", are very good mixture of Doom/Black Metal, because their music sometimes sounds me very aggressive, not forgeting the atmospheric sphere. That songs also contains female vocals. AUTUMN FLOWERS is another great promise from Brazil. Their music are complex and also has great vocal lines.Contacts: A/C Autumn Flowers – Rua Olga Burnier 379/201 – Costa Carvalho – 36070-190 – Juiz de Fora/MG / autumnf@bol.com.br (Në¢rø¢åññïßaL).

 

 

 

 

 

BATHORY – Nordland I (CD – Black Mark / The End Records – Sweden). If you only love the BATHORY black metal´s phase (up to the classic “Under The Sign Of The Black Mark”) stay away from this album, because this is a powerful atmospheric viking metal masterpiece, the final evolution of the epic metal God BATHORY, the beginning of this marvelouus phase was the album “Blood Fire Death”, there we could listen the first epic & atmospheric experiences of QUORTON, one of the most controvertious figure of the european underground metal scene. NORDLAND is epic, deep, great, an album to put in the list of the best of all times; epic atmospheres and the incredible medieval groove is the mark of all songs, 11 pearls to listen in your more deep voyages into the self! BATHORY is a legend and that album is a legendary opus. We are very ansious to listen the second part: “NORDLAND II”! Contacts: band – bathory@blackmark.net , label – blackmark@tella.com  /  theend@theendrecords.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

BLOOD – Dysangelium (CD – Morbid Records – Germany). If you love the roots of death grind you know the legendary BLOOD, this band exist since 1986 and this is its seventh full-Lenght album. In its 17 years of existence the band never lost the underground spirit that always marked its music, “Dysangelium” is the best production of the band´s career, but the crude, nervous, agressive and purulent energy are intact here, it is a rotten product coming from grindeath masterminds, genious that helped to forge that style, if you listen this album , you can hear echoes of all great grindeath names, but please don´t think that BLOOD copy these bands, BLOOD is their influence!!! The cover artwork is very simple, and blasphemous, the album brings 21 intense and overpowering music, shots in the head as hallucinated " Evil Saints ", Godmorphosis " & the stranger and progressive obscure title track. Long life to the BLOOD warriors! Contacts: Band: blood@onlinehome.de , Label: promo@morbidrecords.de (EF)

 

 

 

 

B-LOW – Demotivation Remake 2 B  / Ground Zero Souvenirs (MCDs – Self Produced – The Netherlands). The two first releases of that great avantgarde "grinind" (grind + industrial) band from the Netherlands. B-LOW are a unusual & creative act that include curiosities like the use of two bassists and the mixture of elements aborted from techno, house  & doom, it is avantgarde music only for opened metal listeners! The first release, MCD demo "Demotivation Remake 2 B" is a good sample of the strange & creative B-LOW´s sound, including industrial mid-tempos mixed with the powerfull massive bass sound producing nightmares like "Death to Dance" and "Natural Suffering" but the masterpiece of the band are the second MCD "Ground Zero Souveniour", a grotesque & cinic conceptual album that talk about the setember 11th two towers crash, the band put all their fury and atmospheric grooves to create a perfect soundtrack for the attack, creating bassindustrial holochausts like " Two Towers Down", "I´m Proud...God Bless...(God Fakes America)" and "Genocide Generation". Crude intempestive music marked by the irony and deep critic created by the psychotic genious mind of Patrick B2 Mangnus (Bass, Vocals, Effects), Jos"Midget" Wubbels (Hammers??, Vox) & Bastiaan "Bastard" Van Zwiten (Bass, Vocals, Effects). Contacts: band – midget@b-low.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

BURIED GOD – Dark Revelation (CD – Merciless Records – Germany). Strong name for an expressive band, the logo is crude and include the unholy inverted pentagram, the cover art is simple and symbolic: only a old grimoire beside of an cradle, the guys pictures in the booklet and in the backcover demonstrate the influence of the band : called traditional/true thrash metal from the 80th , yes crude intense feelings can be listen here, another great exemple of the new reborn of Thrash metal genre in Europe (the label Merciless Records are open the gates for this upcoming wave!!!). If “Dark Revelation” was record in the eighties, BURIED GOD would have gone out in tour with KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION and EXUMER ! You can listen 10 thrash metal hyms in this album, the best tracks for me are: “Conquer Moriha”, “Eyes of the Gorgon” (speed thrash attack!) & “My Dark Revelation” (with death metal groove!). TRADITIONAL THRASH METAL RISE FROM THE ASHES TO CREATE AN ETERNAL KINGDOM NOW, BURIED GOD FOREVER! Contacts: Band: buried_halli@web.de / Label: info@merciless-records.de  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

CANAAN – A Calling to weakness (CD – Eibon Records – Italy). Ambient & atmospheric music is a genre very underground in world metal scene, but  they exist with strong power in every place of the Earth! CANAAN is one of the best avantgarde atmospheric bands coming from Europe, this italian act is a legendary cult for worldwide ambient fanatics!!! The band create a deep and ethereal music inspired by ambient, gothic rock, progressive rock and darkwave, the album "A Calling to Weakness" (released by the great label EIBON RECORDS) is a masterpiece of feeling and emotion, an album to listen in a solitary night, in a solitary life. This is a masterpiece of the genre, music not for metal lovers but for all opened mind listeners, more than 70 minutes of dozens atmospheres from the gothic to the ambient, some superb moments are: "Prayer for Nothing", "Everything You Say", "The Forever Passion", "The Ghosts of my Betrayal" & "A Last Lullaby", an album to listen forever! Contacts: label – www.eibonrecords.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

CARRIER FLUX - : In Waste: (CD – Black Lotus – USA). This band is one of this projects in that is difficult named the style, because it sounds like gothic rock sometimes, another times is melodic black metal , and finally we can hear echoes of darkwave in the line of the new albums of TIAMAT, AMORPHIS & KATATONIA. The strange point is the fact that CARRIER FLUX coming from USA (because it sound like european music...) and the impressive aspect that it is a one-man band, the creative mastermind behind this emotive act is Jeff Philips, great musician and talented vocalist, he create a mix of climates, including deep arrangements and beautiful sound details, producing personal & beautiful tracks as the marvelous “Lustmord”, and the powerful “ The Enemy Within” (melodic elegy for the inner self!). When I listen CARRIER FLUX I remember other great act with similar ideas (based in synths too), the great GODKILLER from Monaco, but I believe that Jeff doesn't know that other brilliant one-man band project... Listen it now, it is the future of heavy metal, it is avantgarde musical opus for emotive people! Contacts: Label – blacklotusrecs@hotmail.com (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

CARVE – Stillborn Revelations (CD – Black Hole Productions – Sweden). This work already begins to impress for the mysterious cover in brilliant paper; Carve is another prominence of european brutal death metal and this debut album has the mark of death gods: visceral and speed riffs, razor edge soles (in the line of old SLAYER), bestial drums and grinded furious rotten vocals. The couple of guitars are one of the most brutal of all times, creating a real sound nightmare in decompositions like the fabulous "Millenium", "Imhotep" & "Operation Re-Crucifixion", darken hymns for real deathbangers! Technic & brutal massacre to kill your last neurons! Contacts: label – mail@blackholemag.com , band – carvedup@hotmail.com (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

CROWHEAD – Frozen (CD – My Kingdom Music – Norway). We are listen the new masters of gothic darkwave!!! Norwegian CROWHEAD  already born with a mark of the Gods, the band is simple incredible for all lovers of the electro-gothic dark wave rock´n´heavy, the ethereal and deep debut album named FROZEN, released by the great label MY KINGDOM MUSIC, is a masterpiece of the genre an CD to listen dozens of times to fell the cold and sweet touch of human solitudenes. The line up is only Jo-Inge Slangsvold (vocals) & Oyvind Trinborg (guitars) but this emotive debut count with the guest musicians Ted Skogmann (drums & guitars) and Fredrik Darum (synths & guitars). FROZEN is marvelous, a perfect album, with dozens of textures, rythms, feelings. It is dark sometimes but is sweet for another times. All atmosphere of the album sound like  a kind of eternal lost, the lost of the love, as in the beautiful “My Angel” (when I can listen: “I seek you in heaven, I seek you in Hell, cause you forgot to say goodbye”) and in “Eternity (Drums of Love)” ( they sing “kill you in the name of love”), the keyboards & synths are strong elements of Crowhead´s music and they sound very progressive sometimes, remember acts like PINK FLOYD and THE MISSION, but the band´s sound also remember sometimes the new phase of TIAMAT. Fabulous album! Contacts: band - crowheead@c2i.net , label - info@mykingdommusic.net (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

CRUEVO/ BRAINOL – Split CD (Split CD – Boredom Noise Records – USA). The legendary Bay Area produced some of the most important names of metal music in the midle of 80th, thrash metal is the main genre aborted in this location but another fucking styles are well represented in that area, this split is an exemple of great new acts born in cult Bay Area. CRUEVO play an intense kind of power thrash metal with hardcore groove and melodic mid-tempos, simple creative and powerful, only 3 musics here but the second “Plain View” and the third “RazorBlades” have more than 7 minutes, insane and killer tracks, CRUEVO deserves to have its full-lenght thrown immediately! BRAINOL is a very, very crazy band, because they mix cavernous grinded vocals with stoner metal guitars, creating an interesting kind of metal, the prominances are  “Bag of Problems”, “I Want Die” & the pisychodelic “Through Silence”. Great CD, a real experience of music full of feeling. Contacts: Label – die_slowly@excite.com  (EF)

 

 

 

DANIELE BRUSASCHETTO – Bluviola / Scassatolive (CDs – Badon – Italy). This two albums are fabulous! Strange, tortuous, dark, indie, metal, pop mix created by the genious mind of this italian multi instrumentist called Daniele Brusaschetto, his music is very experimental and atmospheric, including various industrial passages, trumpet intermissions, sampling grooves and deep climates, in the first album "Bluviola", Daniele are supported by the great musicians: Mirco Rizzi (guitars, programming), Bruno Dorella (drums & percussion), Marco Schiavo (drums) & Silvia Grosso (trumpets, b.vocals), the album is powerful, and the main feeling is the inner-self, Daniele is also a great writer, creating deep lyrics to his band, some music as beautiful " Trascino " & Goffo ", is true feeble and minimal poems, pain & madness manifestos. The second album reviewed here is "Scassatolive", it is an album created in collaboration with the experimental project SANdBLASTING (of Luca Torasso), here the music is more industrial, more experimental and strange, real chaotic symphonies of ambient experimental rock, including tribal batteries (as in the crazy "Structure"), dark/gothic feelings (as in "Sint") and creepy horror atmospheres like in "Puerile". I adore music without limits, and I adored the confusion of sensations and feelings caused by those two works! Contacts: bands  – brusaschetto@supereva.it / Soundwarfare@hotmail.com (EF)

 

 

 

 

DARKTHRONE – Hate Them (CD – The End Records – Norweg). THE DEVIL OF THE THRONE BALED BY THE SHADOWS RETTURN!! DARKTHRONE is a cult, the band live into the hearts of all worldwide real black metal lovers, they are one of the legendary acts from the controversial 90th norwegian black scene, the scene that also aborted BURZUM, MAYHEM & EMPEROR.  Listen “Hate Them” was a great surprise, because I waited an album with a great sound production and some musical concessions (as the new albums of MARDUK & DARK FUNERAL), but I was deceived, this album is a putrid, crude, insane exemple of the best agressive black metal spirit!!!! No great productions, no perfect mix, only underground spirit here, only rough guitar riffs and tribal drums, recollecting the gold age of putrid black metal! No overdubs, no female vocals, no keyboards, no melodic shit here!!! 7 tracks to love the dark forces of Lucifer, the real Satan hordes will love this masterpiece, DARKTHRONE RULES FOREVER! Contacts: Band: www.darkthrone.no Label: theend@theendrecords.com  (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

DECOMPOSING SERENITY – Please don´t die yet...I´m not done (CD – Black Hole Productions – Brazil). The legendary gore grind masters "Decomposing Serenity" released their new aberration!!! This album is fabulous, because the band mixed a lot of your allucinated grindgore tracks (based in tortured pigs grunts, corespeed guitars and fastpussy battery) like : "Piece of Dying Children", "Cut her Throat and Take a Bow" & "Cocks Sewn Around my Thighs" with some improbable covers to "Everglade" (L7), "Gets Me Through" (Ozzy Osbourne), "United Forces" (SOD), "In My Darkest Hour" (Megadeth), Among The Living (Anthrax), Seemingly Endless Time (Death Angel), "Sweet Leaf" (Black Sabbath), "Waiking The Dead" (Suicidal Tendencies) & "Jizzlobber with Zombies" (Faith No More), the idea is great because the goregrind versions are very crude and sometimes funny too, listen the Ozzy song with a pigsty vocalizations is strange and curious. Decomposing Serenity new masterpiece is great by the powerful gore underground spirit  and for the daring and creativity! Indispensable for all the  goregrindmaniacs! Contacts: label – mail@blackholemag.com , band – weeeeeter@hotmail.com (EF)

 

 

 

 

DEINONYCHUS - Mournument ( CD – My Kingdom Music – Gerrmany). The new album of this legendary act is a creepy lament of despair, crude doom dark music with depressive feeling inside, simple marvelous! I have many reasons to believe that this is one of the saddest disks of the history of the heavy music, but the main of them is Marco Kehren's voice (also guitarist and bassist), it is as a despair scream, a feeble lament of somebody that is with the head in the guillotine!!! The doom metal servant for this band is slow and soturn, including beautiful symphonic keyboards played by a master called Arkdae. In some moments the rhythm is so leisurely that you think that the music will stop, but the feeble and suffered echoes of the vocal maintain the melancholic rhythm of the album, creating unforgettable tracks like " Odourless Aliance ", " Selek From Menes " (almost Gothic in the beginning) and the precious cover " Ancient Dreams "  of the legendary doom´s metal father CANDLEMASS ". Freeze your feelings, buy a kinife and cut your soul with this tragic serenades... Contacts: label – info@mykingdommusic.net , band – deinonychus@doom-metal.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

DESENSITISED – Thriving on Carnage (CD – Bleedin’ Hemorrhoid Records)  - DESENSITISED was formed in 1994, the band was called CATAFALQUE at that time. The band line-up: Steven Vaassen (vocals), Susan Gerl (guitars/additional vocals), Rutger Noy (drums) and Mark Raets (bass). "Thriving on Carnage" is basically a brutal Death/Grind album. More grind than Death. I didn't like first track, "Flock", very annoying song, in part because it's annoying guitars riffs, which sounds me very "happy". But the second song, "Torchure", with grind lyric, gives another chance to this band. As with most grind core bands, DESENSITISED has two contrasting vocals: low grunts and raspy hard line screams. "Masochistic Masculinity" and "Sacred Slaughter" is another good song. In fact,  this is not a revelation from The Netherlands, just another regular Grind band. DESENSITISED is searching for a drummer. If you are interested, contact them! Contatc: DESENSITISED – Randenborgweg 119 – 6118 GJ Nieuwstadt – The Netherlands / desensitised@mail.com / http://listen.to/desensitised (Në¢rø¢åññïßaL).

 

 

 

 

 

DEVILCAKE – I Can´t Believe It´s Not Satan (CD – Self Produced – USA).Funny Heavy´n´roll that create a lot of interesting jokes in the lyrics, these guys play a crude heavy rock with cavernous vocals and punk spirit! The lyrics of the music are very entertaining and most of them satirizes the black metal, with unlikely titles as: " Sacrificial Leg of Lamb ", " Bloody Red Steak " , " Frankenstein French Fries" & "Shit Down Your Neck". It is a good surprise in times of dozens of derivative bands, and and besides we should remind that in its rootses the rock was always amusement. Have a good time with that heavy sound! Contacts: band – http://go.to/devilcake  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

DISGORGE – Necrholocaust (CD – Xtreem Music – Mexico). Disgorge is one of the more respected goredeath-grind acts of the new generation, in its 9 years of existence the band made fame for the crudeness and power of its music, a deafening and feeble gore-grind without rest for our ears, its music is a mass of milling meat that invests in the weight and in the darkness, mixing speed and dense climates to generate extreme music of quality. The last album “Forensick” was famous for bringing one of the feeblest cover art of the music´s history and now the band retturn with this insane symphony of decomposition named “Necrholocaust”, maintaining its rottenness and allying technique and still more brutality in this 8 (de) compositions, creating rotten pearls like “ Sodomic Baptism”, “Goremassacre Perversity” and the darkest “Excremential Lust”. A sick cover art complete this pandemonium! Contacts: Band – info@disgorge-mex.com / Label: info@xtreemmusic.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

DUNGORTEB – Intended to...(CD – Perennial Quest Records – France). Interesting melodic death metal coming from FRANCE, DUNGORTEB invest in a kind of technical death based in powerful riffs and brutal/cavernous vocals (in the line of brutal death gods like SUFFOCATION, KRISIUN & SIX FEET UNDER), the guitars are responsible by the personal touch of Dungorteb´s music, it is very melodic and prog sometimes, the soles of Jean-Marc Werly can be played in bands as DREAM THEATER, STRATOVARIOUS and FATES WARNING because he is a great master of the 6 strings, but he has also great feeling. The melodic death played by this band isn´t the bad shit made by bands like IN FLAMES in their last album, this is melodic but the brutality is intact here, listen songs like the furious "Place of Alienation" & The Only Rest" and you will feel your soul frozen! Contacts: label – jean_marc.werly@club-internet.fr  (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

ECZEMA – Soledad, El llanto de la Muerte (CD - Self Produced - Spain). Take a blender, put all genres you know into it: Death, Black, Doom, Gothic, Thrash. Ready, ECZEMA is created. Soledad, el llanto de la Muerte were recorded and mixed at "El Jardim Paramétrico", between September and Octuber 2000. It contains five tracks, connected by a lyric concept. By the way, the lyric concept is very interesting, it's a vampire history, not like classical lyrics, it's like someone telling you what is happening, his/her feelings. Musically, ECZEMA did a great job, very fast music, with guttural and screamed vocal, sometimes with very thrashy guitar, sometimes sounding like a genuine Death Metal band. If you don't like diversity, don't listen to it, but if you like some genres mixture, this is for you. I highlight "El Tiempo", composed by first and second track from this great album, with the second track sounding like a Black/Thrash Metal group. "El Miedo", with gothic-black vocal, it's another very good song, again composed by two songs. This album were financed by "Ayuntamiento De Gijón", due they won a contest there (again!). All songs are sung in Spanish. Contacts: 91 666 5316 / 91 525 3162 / P. O. Box 51 / 28529 Rivas-Vaciamadrid / Madrid / SPAIN / ivaneczema@yahoo.com / darioeczema@hotmail.com / www.rockmusic.org/eczema (Në¢rø¢åññïßaL)

 

 

 

 

ELFFOR – Son of The Shades (CD – Self Produced – Spain). Medieval atmospheric & ambient music based in  keyboards soundscapes and some crude/epic black metal vocals, yes, this is the way of this good band coming from Spain, a new project of the talented keyboardist of legendar melodic black metal act SUFFERING DOWN. More than 44 minutes of deep & astral climates in the line of the best albums of MORTIIS and with a influence of the new BURZUM albums, all the tracks are interesting and the atmospheres is going from the sweetness to the darkness, mixing folk influences and classic touches. If you love ambient metal, it is one of the revelation of this style!. Contacts: band – suffering@euskalnet.net (EF)

 

 

 

 

EMPTY – A Source Of Hollow Essence (CD – Blackened Moon – Spain). One of the most damned bands coming from Spain, and the best melodic black metal act that the Iberian peninsula already miscarried!!! We really love this album because they mixed the crude sprit of the 80Th black metal with some good melodic touches creating a lot of dark & furious climates. The band invests in long tracks, some with more than 7 minutes, and it includes an incredible variation of atmospheres that are going from the total destruction to deep and nihilistic melodies. Almost 60 minutes of pure black metal spirit where stand out some unholy hymns like: “Alone In The Darkness...My Eternal Rest.” & “Worship Me and Die”. I read a review that spoke badly about some english mistakes of EMPY´s lyrics, that is bullshit, the metal is reinventing that language and the important is to understand the message, to communicate, and I guarantee that understood the message of all EMPTY´s lyrics!! Fantastic black metal act, and fabulous album! Contacts: band- emptyblack@hotmail.com  / label – summon@voyager.net  (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

ENSLAVED – Below the Lights (CD – The End Records – Norway). Some names of the european metal scene already borned like legends, icons for the metal world, ENSLAVED is one of these bands, they released some essential albums of the 90th extreme metal like the classic “Vikinglir Veldi” and put her name in the hall of darken heroes. “Below the Lights” is the new masterpiece of the band and they don´t forget the old underground extreme metal spirit mixing it with a incredible capacity to generate atmospheric & progressive melodic mid-tempos, in certain moments creating a not very trivial and highly experimental music. Musics like the unusual, creepy & deep “The Dead Stare” (it remember the great ARCTURUS), and the epic “Ridicule Swarm” are proofs of the inovative genious of ENSLAVED. Another album to register in the heavy metal´s history! HAIL ENSLAVED!   Contacts: label - theend@theendrecords.com  ,  band – info@bergenmusic.no  (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

ESSENCE – Astral Subculture (CD – Self Produced – Brazil). The kings of dadaistic experimental pschy crude rock retturned with one of the worst albuns of all time, that sound is very confused, strange and difficult of understanding. A lot of experimentalism played by 3 guys (Oidicius, Blackbird & Yzag) that don't know how to play, and don´t want play in some fucked knew way. The brazilian metal press hated ESSENCE because they don't get to define the music done by the band. If you are an opened mind listener and you search for new sensations, this is your band, more than 50 minutes of strange ambients, tunes of primitive guitars and vocals, including curious experimentals sounds, bad played keyboards & bass and a lot of real feeling and real underground spirit, listen "Lennon´s Zombie" (the lyric talk about an voddo ritual that revive the beatle but the zombie doesn't want to do the peace just fuck Yoko Ono!) & "The Isolated Cyclop" (dada instrumental progcrude) and feel all your conceptions about the music broken forever! Contacts: kendrakes@yahoo.com.br (RF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

ETERNAL DESOLATION – In The Fields of Silence (CD-Demo – Self Produced – Brazil). True doom metal act aborted in Brazil lands in the beginning of nineties, ETERNAL DESOLATION has some crew problems and they retturn in 1999 releasing this good CD –demo. The band influences is the new generation of doom metal, including MY DYING BRIDE, ANATHEMA & NOVEMBER DOOM, keyboards are very important to create the oniric atmospheres of the band and the beautiful voice of Márcio Souza,  deep & clean sometimes, furious & cavernous another times, are the prominances of the band. They are working in a new release and if it comes as good as this demo the band will enter for the hall of the best doom metal bands of the South America. We will await. Contacts: eternal_desolation@hotmail.com  (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEARER – Confession to Hate (CD – Remission Records – Germany). GREAT ALBUM, magnific pure fucking death metal in the more brutal way, the ferocity of this band remember me the first album of the black metals´ DEICIDE and some great releases of DISMEMBER, MASTER, ENTOMBED & INCANTATION, the guitar riffs are dark and extreme, the vocals is the most cavernous that I listen and the soles is played in the style of old SLAYER. 12 intense (de)compositions to fuck our ears and frozen our soul, some of that are brutal death manifests like: "No Compromisse", "Earth Siege", "Retort Creature" and the last and sickness "Human Camouflage". The cover artwork is another great point of this work, very unholly and blasphemous! Contacts: label – info@remissionrecords.de , band – fearer666@hotmail.com  (EF)

 

 

 

 

FLOODLAND – Decay (CD – W.A.B / SPV – Austria). Is impossible to begin that review with other praise that is not " WONDERFUL ", yes, this new work of FLOODLAND is superb, worthy of representing in the list of the 10 better albums of gothic rock of all the times!!!! Since I received this CD I should already have been listening it at least some 50 times and to each new audition encounter new elements, new sound subtileness and detail that help to create the constant depth and melancholy atmosphere created by the powerful music of FLOODLAND.This album is perfect in all the aspects to begin for Bernhard Wieser's guitars, simply sharp, furious, energeticses, creative, going by the spectacular work in Harald Schmid's keyboards (that is also responsible for the dense bass) and for Markus Schmid's ritual drums, to arrive finally to the incredible and penetrating vocal of Christian Meyer, in the tradition of bands as TYPE NEGATIVE & BAUHAUS. Some music already entered for my list of better Gothic sounds of all the times as " Rainchild ", " Dark Town " & Rejected ". MARVELOUS MUSIC FOR GOTHIC ROCK MANIACS! Contacts: label – weezer@vienna.at (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

FORNICATION – Sectanik Neocide (CD – Battlesk´rs – France). Crude Black metal played in the old tradition of european icons like BATHORY, VENOM, MAYHEM & DARK THRONE, you can´t listen sweet female vocals or another kind of melodic shit here, it is only furious underground satanic sounds made to cut our flesh in name of the devil, black metal pearls like the track "Phedophiliac Abbot", when we can listen: "By the wish of chastity I rape children / god told me to sodomize little boys", cinic and provocative critic to the famous children abused by priests around the world. The band invest also in a kind of sado masochist aesthetic, putting tortured girls in the cover and booklet including another pervertions like corpse pissing and sickness corpse painting. Blasphemous sound for blasphemous mind! Contacts: label – battleskrs@wouaib.com (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

FORNICATION – Descendants of the Degenerated Race. (CD – Black Hole Productions – Brazil). Fucking death metal brazilian aborted foetus!!! Fornication is one of the new revelations of the south american brutal death metal, the band play a kind of sick e brutal music, with american neo death metal influences and some grind core touches, like in cavernous vocals and imperative crude drums (played by the legendary Maurício Amorim from INFERNAL). The great debut album released by brazilian BLACK HOLE is a signature of the crude & intense energy from this tormented guys. The band´s music have a lot of energy and a very special touch made it personal and unique, some of the great moments of this marvelous album are: "Triumph of Evil", "Degenerated Race" & "Malicious Benevolence", another great point of this release are the cover artwork very interesting and beautiful. The gods of death metal forged their new son: Fornication! Contacts: label – mail@blackholemag.com , band – fornication_brazil@hotmail.com (EF)

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUELBLOODED – Promo 2002 (CD – Self Produced – The Netherlands) . Melodic thrash metal combo coming from The Netherlands, FUELBLOODED exist since 1989 (with the old name Sacramental Sachem) and we can see the experience of these guys in this interesting promo, 4 tracks & 21 minutes of powerful music. The band play a furious thrash metal that remember the great phase of Bay Area (METALLICA, ANTHRAX, EXODUS) but they mix it with a melodic guitar groove influenced by  AT THE GATES. The best track of this work is “Dissector of Souls” a intense death-thrash with melodic guitar mid-tempos that frozen our souls! We are ansious to listen the first full lenght! Contacts: band – info@fuelblooded.com  (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUNERAL INCEPTION - Anthems Of Disenchantment (CD –  Waarpath Records - Indonesia) - Death/Grind lovers can feel satisfied with FUNERAL INCEPTION’s debute album. This band, from Indonesia, plays something similar to US Death Metal, like SUFFOCATION, DEEDS OF FLESH and DISGORGE. Just for your information, Funeral Inception is a song name from SUFFOCATION, in “Despise The Sun” MCD.  Well, after this information, you can really know how FUNERAL INCEPTION sounds like… Technical and sickness songwriting, guttural vocals and very, very extreme music, with blast beats and chaotic guitar riffs.  I think all songs are very great and this is a funckin’ repulsive Death/Grind Metal album. Just listen this brutality in music form and you will have to agree with me. “Anthems of Disenchantment” raised FUNERAL INCEPTION to Death Metal elite.Contact: FUNERAL INCEPTION, PO BOX 6660, Jakarta 13000, INDONESIA / funeralmetal@yahoo.com (Mithos) / sulle_gore@yahoo.com (Rio) / http://www.funeralinception.cjb.net / http://www.warpathrecords.com (Në¢rø¢åññïßaL).

 

 

 

 

 

GOBLIN SPELL – Nihilism (CD – Eclipse of Live Promulgation – Germany). Based in the old black metal roots mixing it with a great power to create dark climates and ambient nightmares borned the underground legend GOBLIN SPELL. The band is created by the tormented mind of nihilistic insane couple: Aamon (Drumprog, Keys & Vocals) & Van Hellbanger (Guitars & Vocals), they are good musicians and they know very well the true energy and feelings of the underground music uniting an extreme feeling with some folkloric elements and an atmosphere of medieval music. The spirit of crude black metal are intact in crust vocalizations and torned guitars and the melodic minimalist sense is show to us in some keyboards passages and introspect strings. Some songs are real epic black metal hymns like the powerful "Das Gebirde Der Kallenden Sckmerzen" with more than 9 minutes and the grindattack "Grindbrainfuckpain". This is true experimental black metal, with extreme sound agressions and shadows melodies, only for real blackbangers!! Contacts: m.kreher@web.de  (EF)

 

 

 

 

GODS OF WAR – Postmortem (CD – Heavy Metal Rock – Brazil). This band coming from Germany and produced an inventive mix of thrash, doom, death & heavy metal, with great melodic sense, the music are based in soperb guitars couple: Ozan Sahinbas & Damien Hein, two guitar heroes that put progressive & jazzy feelings in some tracks like the fabulous & heavy "Restless, Atrocity, Intention", and in the melodic death metal "As Night Falls". This CD is a compilation of the demo "God Said War" (1995) and the 1998 Promo CD  and include a unreleased track "Your River", a sad & deep doom death metal with beautiful melodic guitars. We will wait for the retturn of this band, because they are great. Contacts: label - hmrock@hmrock.com.br , band – chrbass@aol.com / honkytonkcarnage@aol.com (EF)

 

 

 

 

GORELAND – (CD Compilation – Black Hole – Brazil).This is the worst nightmare of the grindgore world elite!!! The best putrid gore compilation of the neo-brutal-gods from the dark holes of the underground! GORELAND compilation gathers 29 of the most insane and noisy acts of the face of the planet Earth, goregrind perhaps is the kind of music more underground from  metal of the present time because even the specialized media reserve little space for the style. GORELAND is only in the gender, to unite so much rotten tracks is a heroic act, we can listen sick gods as DECOMPOSING SERENITY, LAST DAYS OF HUMANITY and LYMPHATIC PHLEGM beside revelations as ROMPEPROP & OXIDISED RAZOR, besides other icons as PIGSTY and climatic FUCK THE FACTS, that CD demonstrates the force and solidity of the new millenium goregrind scene, the underground of the underground, as well demonstrates Lee Davis' text in the booklet! If you think that knows septic music, forget everything that already listened, they are lullabies if compared to that massacre called GORELAND! Goresounds to rottenminds!  Contacts: mail@blackholemag.com/ www.blackhomemag.com/bhp   (EF).

 

 

 

 

 

GREENFLY – “Hidden Pleasures of a NonExistent Reality” (CD – Morbid Records – Spain). Morbid records invest now in some of the great prominences of the death grind european scene and  GREENFLY is a great surprise, the band exist exist since 1992 but after a  break they returned now with this incredible work, “Hidden Pleasures of a NonExistent Reality” is a creative death metal masterpiece where we can listen influences of grind core, brutal death and a full of melodic & atmospheric grooves, like in the fabulous neo death hymns “Living Beyond Suffering”, a progdeathgrind attack with more than 9 minutes!! The band´s music sound like a good mix of old death metal feeling with the new death tendencies, including also 80th thrash metal grooves like in the guitar soles. The killer cover version to the DEATH´s classic “Born Dead” put this release in the top of the european death elite. Long live to GREENFLY masters! Contacts: label – promo@morbidrecords.de , band – linoleum@wanadoo.es (OE)

 

 

 

 

 

 

GROSSMEMBER – Leave Us Alone (CD – Bizarre Leprous Productions – Poland). Poland grinded heroes exist since 1991, in this years the band release a lot of split 7´Eps, Split CDs and one CD, this is the second full-lenght of these guys and the music is a grindcore with a punk groove and hardcore feeling, very furious, very intense and killing, you can listen 23 tracks in this album including insane covers of IMPETIGO´s "Boneyard" & SHILICKERS´"War System". I am sure that the Pope likes to hear the sound of those brothers (the Pope are borned in Poland too!) in his nights in the Vatican and that perhaps is one of the reasons of the degeneration of the cerebral cells of the pontiff! GROSSMEMBER ATTACK! Contacts: label - roman@bizarreleprous.cz  (EF)

 

 

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