Well for starters. Feign's demo boasts a surprisingly excellent production. The drums are full and alive, vocals actually sound evil and don't sound monotone and annoying like other new black metal bands. The guitars have this cool hazy/thin tone to them, something that I can't recall elsewhere. As for the music? Well it is pretty damn good and maintains that Darkthronesque vibe of headbangablity; cheesy, but cool, put together with a cool break in the drums and bass create a chilling atmosphere which explodes into a blast beat. It's cool to see this one man project making genuinely interesting music, even making a chilling atmosphere. Having not listened Black Metal for a while, it's funny to come back to it and realize how evil Feign can sound and the music itself is executed quite well, not to mention good production for a demo. Worth exploring if Norway's your thing!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Monday, May 18, 2015
Electric Vengeance-Manic Possession (2015)
Well this is fairly simple album, so I'll make this a quicker review.This is the kind of metal I could tune into endlessly and listen to all day everyday. Crazy melodic speed / NWOBHM-ish rhythms, layered with awesome bass lines, fast drums, and insanely memorable vocals along with the ultimate chorus itself. Overall though this album really isn't that bad. In final I do feel like I should note that the production is definitely good on this album, give it a shot.This is one for you true old-skool thrashers, like me. All in all then, this is a perfectly respectable debut album!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Heaving Earth-Denouncing The Holy Throne (2015)
This album has the best of two different death metal worlds. The classic old school dark influence of Immolation.That’s what makes this album so interesting. It has waves of that grizzly atmospheric sound that brings images of a dying world under siege by legions of hell spawn, while at the same time having those delicious grooves and headbanging riffs. There’s even a great variety of song structures here, which is something that gives this album a big boost ahead of a lot of death metal albums. I mean some death metal bands (*cough Cannibal Corpse *cough) only know how to make one type of song. And I'm not taking anything away from those bands. Hell I could listen to Vile all day, but it does keep those albums back from reaching that certain level if you know what I mean. Let’s take a look at this masterpieces song structures. The opener "The final crowning", one of my personal favorite death metal songs, is basically a progressive song. So many different riffs assault you, with varying tempos and sections. Throw in a few skull shredding solos as well and you have yourself a masterpiece. Not to mention the epic lyrics, the finest vocal performances in death metal is here. All throughout this album you will be treated to reverberating, spine shattering vocals that are understandable, and when you understand them, you don't feel yourself getting dumber! I feel the need to get a concussion, just try to not bang your head when the concluding riffs kicks in, and kick is a good term, as it feels as if the chords are pounding you right in the gut! This is defiantly a good death metal album and should be added to any metalhead's collection.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Putrid Offal-Mature Necropsy (2015)
I guess not everyone will be instantly hooked by the progressiveness of this album, as in many ways “Mature Necropsy” is not an easy listen. This music is not as straight forward and “catchy” as other bands; these riffs and song structures will sound bizarre in the first impression because of their complexity and frequent rhythm changes, but once you listen to it again and again – and you’ll give it repetitive listens, as this music is just possessing – I bet this will all make sense to you and you’ll start catching every part, every riff, and phrase without any problems. All in all, this album is probably the catchiest and easiest to listen to, i like that opening theme which is just incredibly great! And maybe it is a good thing that this album has to grown on you. I guess I just know it too well and I’ve listened to it too many times, hehe!. So, if you’ve never heard Putrid Offal and want to hear one of the most significant death metal records of all time, then just give it a try. Every instrument is heard just the way I want it to be heard. Hell even the artwork rules on this album. There is no reason for you to not go out and buy this! If you like death metal, go and buy it right now!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Dehuman-Graveyard of eden (2015)
When it comes to instrumentation, Dehuman excels on this album, particularly on artistic vision, incredibly thick and crushing guitar tone present on this release. The thickness gives the illusion of this album being slower than it is, even at extremely high tempos. However, this release also has the blistering intensity of early 90's death metal bands. There’s an undeniable power to this album. It seems that a palpable aura of power radiates off this release, that one can hear seeping through on songs such as ‘Crypts of blood’, with it’s willingly simplified patterns designed to elicit genuine reactions in its listeners. ‘Invocation of sublime death’ and ‘Cerebro Veneficium’ are utterly devastating tracks that remember the best of older death metal while still retaining the modernity of this release. ‘Graveyard of eden’ is a truly brutal and assertive album in an age of compromise, it is a brilliant work, and not to be missed by any appreciator of death metal, modern or not.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Ichor-Depths (2014)
Right from the start of "Depths" the album pummels and plows through all the tracks.The musicianship and veracity of Ichor is no doubt present on this album. The drummer blows us away with pulse pounding blast beats and gut rumbling double bass kicks. Guitars also melts the faces of those who listen with the nice and truly wicked sick guitar solos presented on the album. The lyrical content of course is old themes of war, death, demons,etc..This is a very good album with a few minor set backs. Hopefully they'll get back to what they do best, kicking ass. This is one of the greatest showcases of death metal in a single release, of how to write and play the style with perfection, conviction, brutality and at the same time breaking new ground.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Gravestone-Ancient Spirits (2014)
This is a fucking milestone. It begins with an introduction and after that, the opening riff of "Hidden Remains" sets the frame and for the rest of the album cracks the skulls with their musical assault. All hell breaks loose and the blastbeats are immediately recognizable, and the drumming does not just stay to that, yet flows greatly through the album with insane drum fills and rolls that fit in greatly with the music. Talent, skill, and musical intelligence. Furthermore, equally recognizable in the guitar work, with the riffs and dissonant/atonal leads, the bass lines are complementary to the riffs and sound closer to Morbid Angel.The lyrics are about the ancient gods and all that occult stuff, possessing any superhuman powers in general. There are no actual highlights on the album since every song is brutally punctual, but I believe that my personal favourite would be one of these: "From the shadows", "Pain overcomes the tolerance", and "Satanic rotten tongues". So, I believe there is not much more to be said about this unstoppable death metal beast. If you like extreme metal and you don't like this, you just probably don't really like extreme metal, but you're unaware of that fact. This is simply essential. Southamerican brutality. GET IT!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Infernal Vision-Thanatos Rage (Demo 2014)
Pure old school attack. The members of Infernal Vision are obviously great musicians, this demo is fulfilled with MANY riffs, some are forgottable, but overral it's fucking neat. What I love of this band is their use of blastbeat, most modern death/grinding metal overuse the blastbeat and it become impossible to hear any riffs, they prefer the standard snare-bass-hi hat patern and the doublebass rythm then blastbeat and I think it's freaking cool. A pure assault of death metal with a lot of thrashing riffs. Nothing is bad in this demo, it's perfect. For fans of (All early) MORBID ANGEL, POSSESSED, DEATH, SEPULTURA and SADISM. I present you with this gem: "Thanatos Rage". This is a pure assault of old school death metal (Old school doesn't mean brutal) and yet this release is pretty brutal. I really enjoyed this band.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Atheist-Live in Budapest 1993 ( Bootleg Tape)
Atheist managed to come a long way from Piece of Time to Unquestionable Presence alone in terms of technicality and songwriting. Elements took Atheist to the next level and as such they start flaunting their jazzy side more freely. To this writer, it felt like the band mildly flirted with the idea of mixing death and jazz on their sophomore album, but Elements really puts it in your face. The aggression of past efforts is still there, it's just evolved into a slightly different beast. The riffs became bizarre, the songs present many different paths of construction, but at the same time, not varying so much that it sounds sloppily thrown together just for the sake of trying to blow your mind. There is catchiness to Atheist that is very hard to grasp, let alone replicate, yet they make it seem easy. So many technical bands have tried doing what Atheist do and most of them fall flat on their face and can't write memorable, good songs. This Bootleg is fkn killer , you can hear the intensity of the band , on this tour the original plan was that Dismember would play with Benediction, but in the last moment Atheist came into the picture, thundering bass lines, powerful leads and solid rhythms. The thing that continues to amaze me to this day is that this band was so unique back in the day. If you're a fan of Cynic, and late period of Death then this should be a tasty treat for your ears !!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Unfit Association-Absurd Reality/Flagging Water (Remastered Tape 2014)
This is a remstered re-released of two demos. I was in for quite a surprise. Unfit association from Hungary is pretty much standard simplistic blackened-death metal, with speeds ranging from mid-paced to all out blasting. Production-wise, the recording isn't too bad for a demo; it sounds like it was recorded in a dungeon but the guitar and drums can be heard rather well....that is until the vocals kick in, and here's where a good amount of this demo's power lies. The vocals are absolutely insane - a hellish, frantic howling drenched in distortion and reverb that almost totally drowns out the other instruments. Some may find these maniacal shrieks to be annoying and too over the top, but personally, I think they give this band a sound, style, and intensity that few can match. Highly reccomended for rare demo collectors or anyone who simply loves their death metal with a chaotic, raw, gritty, underproduced sound.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Purulent Rites-13' (Tape-2014)
Purulent Ritesand is considered death metal. This music is really, really slow. It's not really that bad though. The slowness on some of the songs, like the first and second song combined with the atmospheric like guitar riffs leaves a dark feeling. Talk about tone color. This tape is dark and mysterious. The guitar is really turned down, and the bass is like really loud, which is kind of unusual. The drumming is the best part of this album though. Where the bass and guitars are soft and slow, the drummer maintains a steady beat while throwing in some killer drum fills. If you can get by the real slowness of this album, there is actually a lot to appreciate. It is very melodic like, while dark at the same time. If you want to relax, but still feel evil, this album is for you.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Humugur-Endless Cavers ( Tape 2014)
Lyrics are quite simple, but a message is interesting and intimidating. You may find a wide array of social-related themes covered, from anti-religion and wrong accusation by the law to depression and even Rape. That draws even more connections with Grindcore genre lyrically, than to death metal with its usual Satan/gore/violence stuff. Concluding the review, I may recommend Humugur to everybody into extreme metal. Get it straight – back in time Grind/death was very refreshing and interesting effort but this Tape easily may be of value to adepts of "true" metal, so don't be frustrated by the band's industrial touches. These guys deliver!!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Extreme Deformity-Internal (Re-release cassette-2014)
This tape contains remastered version all the band's studio materials. Demo 1992 plus unreleased songs as bonus. It includes new cover too. Riff after riff after riff of solid death metal is all here, even in the shorter songs. Repetitive? I think NOT! There is a distinct identity for each and every song. The atmosphere presented here is that of pure fucking Armageddon, no not fucking Mayhem, but literal chaos. The incessant pounding will actually rape your ear drums and bore into your cerebrum until you bleed. This is indeed the final solution against posers. I can safely use the adjective 'brutal' and not feel like it's a hyperbole. If you're looking for death metal that's loud and proud about it, look no further than Extreme Deformity.
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Age Of Agony-Death Metal Artillery ( cassette-2014)
This is one of the most vicious pieces of music put together by any band these days. It’s abrasively unrelenting, from the opening notes to the last ones. Very few bands have ever been able to reach this level of sheer intensity, for example Deicide with their savage "Legion". This is bone-crushing glory. This is a true death metal gem. From the very beginning, after a great sample to open this cassette, the very first riff lets you know that these Hungarians aren’t fucking around here. This is no bullshit, tear you apart metal from the very beginning. Everything works very well on this to make it what it is. Vocalist, guitars , bass and drummer work fantastically together. Brutal riffs after brutal riffs and shove it right in your face. This 4th release focuses on speed and brutality of the harshest form. This all comes together for an absolutely devastating sound. Not a second that things don’t sound evil and aren’t kicking your ass. Only hearing it can truly give this release enough justice, because Age of Agony will tear you apart like very few have. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Grotesqueuphoria-Euphoric Discordance (2002)
"Euphoric Discordance" is packed to the gills with nothing but superb old-school death metal and should hold a place in every metal fan's collection. In the extreme metal world you need to pick up this album, you won't be disappointed, and if you are, maybe you just don't like death metal. I can safely say that this is an absolute beast of an album and is perfectly representative of death metal as a whole. In short, this album slays!
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Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi
Psychomancer-Inject The Worms (2015)
A maniacal head-cruncher sound and gives us a lesson in old school death metal vocal butchery. Musically, the band are quite comfortable shifting between mid-tempo range and sporadic faster segments, well-structured songs with heavy riffs. The pivotal track for me is the brooding intensity of "Just another victim" with its crushing opening groove and steady ascension of pace where the guitar sounds as if it’s quite literally been plucked from 1991. Other notable tracks are ‘Bastard burn’, with its effective vocal and mix of pace and lumbering menace, plus the bruising "Chant of the war demons". Diehard fans of old school Death metal: Let’s just enjoy Psychomancer in this form, and long may old school death metal continue to reign in whatever shape it needs to take.
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www.orchestratedmisery.com
Review by Paul Caravasi
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Review by Paul Caravasi