“Great, for my first review of 2015 I have a cold. My head is a slime factory, and some genius cephalic operations manager has decided that the best place to store the snot-stock awaiting delivery to my nostrils is behind my eardrums. I’m fortunate that the band I’m reviewing is Desolate Shrine, then, as their ultra-dense death metal is one of the few things powerful enough to penetrate through the aural mucus wall.” Tastes like death, but it’s snot.
“As someone who writes music reviews, I take pride in being able to craft together a 450-550 word essay on why you should pick up an album, or why you should avoid it entirely. Keeping the reader on their tippy-toes while painting a vivid picture for your eyes and ears to digest is a great joy of mine. However, as the world aged by a year this week, I too have added another year to my existence. In doing so, I’ve realized that there comes a time where you have to dispense with the hyperbolic bullshit and just call it as it is.” Such a comment is rarely the prelude to something positive.
“Belgium’s Emptiness are a band that I’ve not paid enough attention to. Sharing their bassist and guitarist with black metal stalwarts Enthroned (who also released an album this year that you might have missed…), and their drummer with Pro-Pain, Emptiness certainly have plenty of experience in their ranks, but given that I’ve never been particularly enamored with either of those bands, I didn’t feel a great urge to seek out Emptiness’ releases. But this year, after reading nothing but the praise for Nothing but the Whole and falling in love with the distinctive, creepy album cover, I decided to give the band a chance. This was an entirely excellent decision.” We make good decisions, so you can have good consumer knowledge.
“Sweden’s Anguish have a lot of hype going for them. Their debut, 2012’s Through the Archdemon’s Head, turned the heads of fans, critics, and foxes the world over, bludgeoning everyone with their massive mix of Candlemass, Trouble, and the *ahem* unique vocals of J. Dee. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to check that album out, but when news hit that their newest release, Mountain, would take their sound and streamline it, cutting out the fat and giving us just the meaty morsels of their maddening dinner spread, I took the opportunity to jump in…” There may or may not be some minor hype about this band, but we ignore the buzz and deal in facts. Just the facts.
“Of all the throwback forms of metal that conjure warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia, the famed Sunlight Studios sound, pioneered in Sweden during the late 80s/early 90’s, remains the most endearing yet oversaturated styles around. For every Bloodbath, Entrails or Blood Mortized there are countless other derivative bands bogged down by their lack of songwriting finesse and fresh ideas. So when East Coast death metal crew Horrendous burst onto the scene in 2012 with their accomplished debut album The Chills, it gave the tired style a welcome shot of adrenaline.” Can this be just as horrendous as their debut? More horrendous even?
“Wondering why the band is called Swallowed? So was I; at least, until I put Lunarterial on for a spin. It was easy enough to work out after their musical palette aggressively assaulted my eardrums; their music swallows you whole and holds nothing back.” Prepare to be consumed by some nasty doom death.
“One of the most frustrating trends in modern death metal is the influx of these so-called “cavernous” bands – groups that huddle together around the altar of Incantation, strumming buzzy nothing riffs over indecipherable grizzly bear vocals, apparently recording everything through two layers of drywall using microphones caked with dried mud. They’re all maniacally focused on conjuring a dark and otherworldly atmosphere, but utterly incapable of writing a single memorable song (I’m looking at you, Teitanblood).” Some people just don’t respect a good murk.
“Steel Druhm loves his old school death metal, but I get tired of comparing every band’s sound to Entombed, Dismember and/or Grave. Thankfully, Corpsessed arrived in my queue with a terrific moniker and a sound that doesn’t require the standard comparisons. That’s because these sick Finnish death mongers deliver a crusty, ugly style that sounds like a mix of Demigod, Onward to Golgotha era Incantation, Autopsy, primitive low-fi blackness and sludgy doom.” They say nothing cleans the palate like sewage spewing death metal. Well then, take a big slurp of this nastiness.
“Alright, enough of the goddamn “V” replacing the “U” in band and song names! It’s dumb, trite, annoying, I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore! Moving on, Lvcifyre is a blackened death outfit from the U.K. and Svn Eater (irritating isn’t it?) is their sophomore outing. Having never heard them before, I admit to being pleasantly surprised by what they’re offering here, which is a fascinating mix of Norwegian black metal circa 1993 and hyper-riffy, technical and mega-brootal death metal. In a nutshell, their sound is vicious-as-fuck, mean-as-hell and heavy-as-a-two-ton-heavy-thing. You can expect to hear traces of old Darkthrone, Behemoth, Nile, Immolation and Deathspell Omega in a SINGLE SONG, all stitched together with power of the almighty riff.”
In the last few years, old school death metal has seen a resurgence in the underground. Gone are the bands trying to blast their way into oblivion by copying the NYDM sound, no more does every death metal band in the scene want to sound like Origin or Hate Eternal. Instead, Entombed and Death have become the ideal and this revitalization has been welcome to these Angry Metal Ears. I find it distinctly more giving to listen to the crunchy riffs and the cavelike production values than what a lot of modern death metal has become. But as has been noted, like any trend these things start to get too saturated and the listener tends to cool a bit on the new material that’s coming out.
