The Radavist

“Father Midnight” from Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I

Earth were the pioneers of atmospheric and instrumental doom. For decades they’ve been pulverizing amplifiers and droning out epic ballads to the sirens of metal. Much as the name of their newest album implies, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I is an exploration into the dichotomy of good and evil, right and wrong and what happens when the tables are turned. Much as their previous work has explored these notions but it’s never been more apparent until now. How does an instrumental band convey such imagery? Well, for one, through artwork and another way is by cultivating each track with song titles like “Ouroboros Is Broken”. While Earth leaves lyrics and vocals out of the story, their albums always cater to a specific fundamental ideology: you don’t need vocals to sculpt a beautiful landscape.

Check out the rest of my review at the Mishka Bloglin!

God damn, I fucking love both of these bands. Coffins and Hooded Menace are absolutely destroying modern death metal. These two bands have single-handedly been on higher rotation for me than any other band in my catalog. That’s a lot coming from a fanboy of Electric Wizard! Absolutely nailing a throwback mix of doom and death metal, Hooded Menace’s latest full length Never Cross the Dead will land on top of my top 10 in 2010 and in 2008, Coffins’ Buried Dead introduced me to their sludging death metal sound.

Since then I’ve been scrounging up all that I can find from both bands and when Doomentia announced this Split 7″, I went for it. Splits are hit or miss. Especially in the modern digital age. People want more bang for their buck, not less and are often disappointed. That’s not the case now. This is a perfect vinyl album. The sounds that escape from the graves are caught in majestic distortion and the sounds echo through your headphones like a long-sealed tomb.

Hooded Menace’s contribution “The Haunted Ossuary” is one of their most solid performances. Mixing a slow and sedated sound overlaid with creepy death vocals. Coffins mixes it up with a strong d-beat intro and raspy growls their known for with “In Bloody Sewage”. Could you get anymore visceral? No. Bottom line is: worship these bands. I also want to note how fucking killer the sleeve and album art is! These bands can do no wrong. They are exactly what you need to get you through your dismal day. Crank it loud and awaken the dead!

“Smoke Of Death” off Vintage Addiction

The resurgence of d-beat, or in this case, dis-beat over the last few years has been one of the best things to come to metal. From the once black metal act Darkthrone’s take on it to the throwback sounds of Depressor, Sanctum and Dishammer, dis-beat is quickly gaining momentum. Made famous by Discharge, the sounds of dis-beat are easy to recognize: a swift snare, a quick kick and a symbol crash. Lyrics are shouted in quick bursts and the cycle repeats.

“Exterminate The Parasite” off Vintage Addiction

Dishammer’s newest album, Vintage Addiction is straight up circle-pit d-beat at its finest. Dive right in, throw some bows and shred the mutherfuckin’ gnar! Be sure to check out their newest EP, Under the Sign of the D-Beat Mark as well as their full-length Vintage Addiction!

“Acolytes Of The Descent” from Acolytes Of The Descent

If you’re a vile being who despises humanity and all that exudes from this wretched planet then I’ve got the album for you! Blackened death metallers Nierty are back with another swift blow to the head. In their spine-crushing debut on Vrangsinn from Carpathian Forests “fuck you” record label Misantrof, the crew delivers blow after blow of crucially-blackened death metal.

I really have no idea where to start with Acolytes of the Descent. The entire album is just one big depressing clusterfuck. “Acolytes Of The Descent” opens with some classic death metal and then the dark skies set in, creating enough diamond dust to wipe out the scourge known as the human race. As the populace dies and life on Earth ceases to exist, Nierty summons the demons from within and unleases “Ashes To The Grinding Stone”, a sure way to eradicate all evidence. So brutal.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin.

“02 Con Clavi Con Dio” off Opus Eponymous

When someone says NWOBHM do you know what that means? I sure as hell didn’t. Upon clarification this acronym makes perfect sense. I was talking to a pal about Ghost and that’s what they replied to me with. NWOBHM, or New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Bands that embody the sounds of the great metal bands from the early English heavy metal movement. Think Iron Maiden, Venom, Witchfinder General and later, Cathedral. Ghost has made quite the ripple in the sea of metal blogs. Even Darkthrone listed them as an influential band and well, if it’s good enough for them… But these guys are Swedish. What? Yeah. Think about Mercyful Fate, hailing from Copenhagen: stranger things have happened.

At first rotation, Opus Eponymous seemed like a friendly bunch of chaps. After a few minutes you quickly realize that these guys are Satanists. A trip to the band’s Myspace concludes just that, at least in presentation anyway. A lot of bands claim to be Satanists, so it sometimes comes across as cheesy, even when it’s used in satire. Coming from six-unnamed artists, it carries a little more clout. When you really get into Opus Eponymous you realize how chilling the lyrics are. In a world of over-the-top black metal performance where the band mates drench themselves in rotting blood and carcasses, Ghost actually gave me goosebumps. It’s like watching an old Christopher Lee horror movie from Hammer Films. Sometimes the presentation itself is more important than the message and that’s not the case here.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

Wow. Color me surprised. Usually when I find out about a new, modern doom band that classifies themselves as psychedelic doom, I shut off. But that’s not always the case. Richmond’s Cough is just that and more though, making their new release, Ritual Abuse one of the better doom albums of 2010. Five tracks of claustrophobic, psychotic and even hallucinogenic sounds make this one of the most enjoyable 50-minutes I’ve endured in recent months.

“Mind Collapse”, at 12:08 in length might be a bit too much to bite off normally for an opener but holy shit does it deliver. I almost had to book a chiropractor after the first drop. Heavy cymbals, distortion and simplicity through well-executed riffs. Add in some bone-chilling blackened vocals and reverb and you’ve got yourself a demonically-good time. If the first 12-minutes weren’t enough, now you’ve got to endure “A Year In Suffering”. With an opening riff right out of something Earth might have composed. Well, Earth on speed. Which doesn’t amount to that much. This is where you realize that Cough means business. Another 12-minutes of madness? Sure.

Check out the rest of my review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Born Again Satanist” off Infernal Earthly Divine

What. The. Fuck. Or rather, where the fuck. Where did these guys come from? Wait, Stockholm? Damn. Crucifyre is a proper old-school death metal band who’s fucking killing it! Their first album Infernal Earthly Divine is absolutely destroying all other death metal albums from 2010. Seriously, I know I get giddy like this quite often when it comes to metal bands but Infernal Earthly Divine is like manna from the metal gods. The vocals, riffs and drums all deserve accolades. I have yet to hear a complete package like this.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin.

This Tuesday Teardown is a day late due to a scheduling error but it’s too good to not post! If you know me, then you’ll know that I’m a huge Electric Wizard fan. As far as I’m concerned, they are one of the only bands still alive today that have perfected the occult-influenced stoner doom machine. While many try to emulate their sadistic style, only the ‘Wizard can come close to cultivating such an original and ground-breaking sound. Their seventh full-release, Black Masses was released today and I’ve already listened to it a dozen times. Following the hallowed Witchcult Today, Black Masses continues the dark and trippy direction the band had earlier laid forth for their fans.

Don’t expect dumb metal here. The one thing that is most apparent on Black Masses is the songwriting. It stands out from their other LPs and that’s a hard task. Everything on Black Masses is dialed into perfection. The riffs are tight and the drums are sharp. Jus Oborn’s vocals are as sedated as ever and combined with Liz Buckingham, Shaun Rutter and Tas’ creativity, the band delivers one solid performance. Adding to this mix is a clean and crisp production quality while still maintaining the audio patina that makes Electric Wizard’s sound so timeless; something Witchcult Today lacked in my opinion.

Check out the rest of this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Tired Climb” off Spiral Shadow

I’ve got southern pride. This pride goes deep. From food, to culture to music, I can get on a soap box about the South. Particularly the music coming out of the Savannah scene. I spent a greater part of my teen years going to house shows in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Many bands came out of the late 90′s Savannah scene. The most prominent being DAMAD. Their unique sound mutated and evolved into the now Kylesa. Taking the crusty-doom sound to new levels, the Savannah-band just released their newest album, Spiral Shadow. As the name and cover art implies, Spiral Shadow has many psychedelic overtones; personal reflection and survival. Introspective themes litter Spiral Shadow. Coming strong off of 2009′s successful release, Static Tensions, the band has picked up a few new tricks.

Continue reading this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

“Venus in Furs” is the first single off the most anticipated release of 2010 (well, for me anyway), Electric Wizard‘s Black Masses. This single is much more promising than “The Processean”, a previously-released track from last summer. “Venus in Furs” proves that the Wizard still has it, coming through with dark-as-fuck rock and droning amps. All hail Electric Wizard!

Be on the look out for Black Masses November 1st.

Last year I reviewed the Münster, Germany-based d-beat band Alpinist’s first full length, Minus.Mensch. Since first hearing of their work, through Minus.Mensch, I’ve tracked down the rest of their albums and demos. While the former was much more of a Tragedy worship, their newest album, Lichtlærm keeps the d-beat and moves onto a new direction for the band. The love for crusty d-beat is still there but they try harder to not emulate Tragedy’s sound.

Typically, a band’s second full-length is more often than not one of their best albums. It’s like the second time in anything. Sex, riding a bike, etc. You just pick up where you left off and do a better job. Well, that’s what we all hope for anyway. Lichtlærm displays Alpinist’s musical prowess with great success. The first three cuts on the album are brutally-efficient in their d-beat and crusty ways and then comes “Licht”, a lumbering instrumental song, straight out of a doom band. It feeds directly into “Yarncarrier And Break”. Those two track’s pairing is the most successful union on the album but “Neverest” is hands-down my favorite execution on Lichtlærm.

Check out the rest of my review, including a free-download link at the Mishka Bloglin.

Seattle-based Black Breath‘s album Heavy Breathing caught me off-guard. Coming from the Southern Lord label, I expected it to be doom metal. Their playful mix of thrash and hardcore reminiscent of Discharge and Entombed really hits home with me. Yesterday, I caught this video for the song “Unholy Virgin” on the Actual Pain blog and thought it’d make a perfect Tuesday Teardown. I know it’s a bit late in the day but what the hell?

Previously:
Review: Black Breath – Heavy Breathing

“Sadism in the Name of God”

Necro-punkers Fukpig ( @fukpignecropunk ) have returned from the grindcore and d-beat trenches to annihilate us all with their 2010 release Belief is the Death of Intelligence. Coming brutally strong-armed off their 2009 release, Spewings from a Selfish Nation, the UK super-group wants one thing for 2010: your pretty face covered in a gas mask. Social slaughter, eco-terrorism and greed machines aligned to their side, there is nothing that will stop the Fukpig machine!

Check out the rest of my review at the Mishka Bloglin!

About fucking time. I like my death metal like I like my meatballs. Ground flesh, blood and with a kick. I want to feel blood running down my cheek when I bite into my death metal. Göteborg can kiss my meatball-laden ass. Stockholms län’s modern death revival is mincing up some fucking brutal death metal akin to Possessed and Death’s early work. If you fiend for the best, do not miss Bastard Priest’s new album Under the Hammer of Destruction. These dudes have come a long way from the gritty and compressed sound of their 2008 demo, Merciless Insane Death. Expect old school breaks, decrepit vocals and lighting-beckoning riffs.

Continue reading my review at the Mishka Bloglin!

More often than not, listening to instrumental doom is like jerking off and not… Well, you know. There’s this epic build-up and all you want to hear is some vocals. Something human and intense. Instrumental doom by definition lacks this. Few bands can pull it off. In fact, the only ones that I regularly listen to is Earth and Chicago-based Bongripper. With their previous-releases, Heroin, Hippie Killer and Hate Ashbury, they just kinda killed the genre for anyone else.

Satan Worshipping Doom is as much of a satirical jab at the instrumental doom genre as anything. How could something be Satanic without vocals? Duh. Get some evil-ass album art! Opening the abyss is the first track “Hail” which picks up where Hate Ashbury left off. The distinct sound, the picking of the riffs, the colliding percussion and the shear fucking weight of it all. Bongripper is like a ton of bricks.

Picking up the pace a bit is “Satan”. This is Bongripper. Epicly-heavy with a bit more tempo. “Satan” is my second favorite cut on the LP because it’s more akin to modern instrumental black metal than doom. It’s a pace I’ve never heard Bongripper travel at and towards the end, they take it back down a few notches.

With only 4-tracks, my favorite is by far “Worship”. Sixteen minutes of hellish fun. I say fun because once again, have you seen the album art? To end the LP is “Doom”, an homage to the genre. You really can’t beat Bongripper. Their entire catalog is one-long hit and Hate Ashbury solidifies all of their efforts. As an unsigned band, they thrive off of album sales so make sure you hit up their Myspace and buy their limited-edition vinyl! It comes with a free download as well.

“A Curse” off All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood

It is my opinion that it takes unique individuals to create engaging music, regardless of the genre. While genres will influence the individuals, there is something within them that drives and motivates them to create something new and fresh. Countless examples exist and yet only few truly succeed at producing quality and original sounds. Lee Buford and Chip King make up the Body and no, that’s not an homage to the Judea-Christian belief of the body of Christ, more of an allusion. In fact, Buford and King are about as far from religious as you could get, citing influences ranging from Manson to Body Count.

In their first full-length, All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood, they evoke some of that religious imagery in an epic and yet hard to classify doom metal album. It’s not as straight forward as Candlemass and not nearly as quintessential as Jucifer, although the two’s lifestyle does resemble some sort of hermithood. Bearing beards, toting rifles and being tough guys in general. If I had to put a nail on the head of All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood, I’d push it more towards something Edgy would have listened to while recording Burning Witch’s catalog. Depressing and emotional is an understatement.

Continue reading this review at the Mishka Bloglin!

The Boston-bred, North Brooklyn four-piece Concussion has been tearing the local scene up unrelentlessly for the past year. Numerous venues, loft parties and bars will back that statement too. With thrash being on a bit of an upturn in recent years, it’s become kinda kitschy. Mottled with ironic outfits and cheesy lyrics, a lot of the modern acts swayed away from what started as a balls-to-the-wall movement. One thing’s for sure, in Concussions’ first EP Dried Blood, you’ll find no irony, just jaw-crushing brute-force thrash at its finest.

Check out the rest of the review and the FREE download link below.

“The Morgue” off Entrail‘s Tales from the Morgue

Brace yourself for this one! Sometimes it takes a while for a band to get their footing. That’s the case with the Swedish death metal band Entrails. After playing numerous shows and releasing two demos, they finally put out a full-length. Sure, that may not sound like a huge deal but when you take into account that Entrails have been around since 1991 it begins to solidify. Seriously? Almost 20 years of playing and never putting out a full-length? If that doesn’t add some background to the band’s story then I don’t know what will.

In the golden age of death metal, a few bands stuck through the trends and the horrid Göteborg sound I harp on so much here. Entrails is one of those bands and Tales From the Morgue marks this slightly nostalgic throwback in stone. Great songwriting, classicly-compressed riffs and tons of great sound clips will have your feet tapping at your desk. If you can make it through the first track “Intro – Tales From The Morgue”, you’re in for a long ride! Taking older tracks from previous demos and re-recording them in a legitimate sound studio gives the album some extra life. It’s over 20 years in the making for chrissake! “Blood Red” sold me on the album and it’s the first song. Amazing lyrics and composing that took the classic death metal sound and made it into a legitimate genre. No gimmicks just jams.

Continue reading this review at the Mishka Bloglin