Angry Metal Guy

Denial Fiend // Horror Holocaust
Rating: 1.0/5.0 —I’m in denial how shitty this is
Label: Ibex Moon Records
Websites: myspace.com/denialfiendband
Release Dates: Out now!

Like a swift kick to the frank N’ beans, the new release by this death metal “super group” is shocking and very painful. I really loved Denial Fiend‘s quirky 2007 debut They Rise. It merged nasty, old school American death metal and punk rock with a party atmosphere and although very tongue  in cheek, it rocked and raged convincingly. To this day it remains in regular rotation at stately Steel Druhm manor. That debut featured some grizzled veterans of the old school scene like bassist Terry Butler (Death, Massacre, Six Feet Under, Obituary) and mega Cookie Monster Kam Lee (Death, Massacre) on vocals. What made They Rise work was the strong similarity to the classic Massacre sound (their From Beyond album is one of the all time best American death metal albums). The songs were savage and raw but also catchy and fun. Basically, it was a damn fine treat for death metal fans. When I heard a new Denial Fiend album was pending, I got giddy like a school girl. When I heard Kam Lee had taken his immense vocal talent elsewhere, I was sad but still hopeful. Well, hope is officially dead. Horror Holocaust features the “vocals” of Blaine Cook (The Accused) and he destroys everything as surely as cops destroy fun and work destroys free time. While there are some decent musical moments, he renders the bulk of the album unlistenable and there’s no denying that it sucks, bigtime. Continue reading

Jungle Rot // Kill on Command
Rating: 2.5/5.0 —Too modern, less rotten
Label: Victory Records
Websites: www.myspace.com/junglerot
Release Date: Out now!

The kings of knuckle dragging neanderthal death metal are back. Yep, nobody ever accused Jungle Rot of being unpredictable or avant-garde. Quite the opposite, since 95′ these Wisconsin blokes have been churning out their primitive, simplistic, groove-based death metal with scant innovation or diversity. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing considering their style was always a like-ably thick headed brand of American death with all the brutality but none of the frills. Albums like War Zone and Dead and Buried were enjoyable, fun efforts showcasing their simple sounds at their best. Now we get  Kill on Command and its more of the same but with a polished production and a drift into deathcore territory, intentional or not I don’t know. Before you start smashing keyboards and such, this isn’t a full blown deathcore album but it has those trademark elements of the style embedded in the writing. How much of it? Well enough to annoy me but not enough to sink the album entirely. Its still that same ugly mix of Six Feet Under and old Cannibal Corpse and its  fairly well written and at times, oddly catchy. However, some other issues crop up and together they drag this album down from good to less so. Continue reading

Six Feet Under // Graveyard Classics 3
Rating: 2.5/5.0 — It’s hard to imagine how it could possibly be better…
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: sfu420.com | myspace.com/sixfeetunder
Release Dates: EU: 15/18.01.2010 | US: 01.19.2010

Six Feet Under is back with the third installment in their Graveyard Classics series, and fortunately for us, this time they’re not covering AC/DC songs. I suspect that the majority of you either know what these things are about, have heard them, or just don’t care at all so I’m not going to spend tons of time on this, but Graveyard Classics 3 is a cover record from the groove oriented death metal band Six Feet Under. Barnes and crew have, this time around, elected a bunch of their favorite tracks from before they were in bands and have warped them into death rock tracks. The result being sort of cartoonish and silly: but mildly enjoyable at the same time.

I’m not a big fan of cover records or tribute records, and I always think it’s really funny when bands cover something that was originally done with clean vocals but instead use growls (I’ve heard some pretty funny covers of Iron Maiden songs done in that way). But Six Feet Under does manage to pull off a few good covers on here and even manage to improve on one track (but that’s partially because Van Halen never had a vocalist I could stand—so of course it sounds better with growls). In my opinion the best covers are on here are Metallica‘s “The Frayed Ends of Sanity”, “Psychotherapy” from the Ramones and Prong‘s timeless classic “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”. Sure, they’re a little silly with Barnes growling over them—but it’s the party novelty kind of approach.

This will definitely be more interesting to longtime fans of the band than to the average listener, but it does have a certain charm to it. But given that the material isn’t even original, I can’t think that I would give it much more than an “OK”. Though, I haven’t listened to these guys in year, now I think I’m going to go back and listen to their discog… I love that track “Revenge of the Zombie”.