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Fantomas What is there to expect when you receive a Fantomas CD to review? The first material I heard with Fantomas was The Director’s Cut which I liked pretty much and sometimes had great laughs listening to. Then the Delìrium Cordìa album which I thought was more a piece of musical art than ordinary music – yet I enjoyed it. I do not really know what to expect of this. I did not get any press material with the CD. The only thing I know is that on the back it says 30 Miniature Holydays In 43 Minutes, and that there was a limited spiral-bound calendar look-alike version in the stores. This is something typical for Fantomas, I think: you never know what comes. One moment you hear a lot of chimes along with samples of voices distorted so they sound like cartoons; the next you have some unyielding grindcore that just blasts the speakers to their limit. Like if you sampled some Tom & Jerry cartoons together with Napalm Death – Scum. If you are a true Fantomas fan or you are devoted to music that constantly seeks out new borders, this is something for you. I enjoyed this, but I do not have any highlights… It is a CD that compels you to enjoy it in the present moment. MP
Finntroll I
have not heard Finntroll since their debut album Nattens Widunder,
so I will not be the one who voices my opinion on the musical changes
since their previous release, but it is at any rate a more easily
accessible Finntroll you find on Nattfödd compared to Nattens
Widunder, both musically as well as production-wise. Finntroll is
still a very unique band who combines atmospheric black metal with folk
melodies and those polka-like parts that made Nattens Widunder such
an unusual release compared to so many others. Besides the more refined
production the band has added more sing-a-long to it all, but fortunately
not in the crappy power metal fashion. There is a lot of balls in the
tracks, and when the band set the stage for community singing, it happens
with heathen vibes and pride in the music, which support the lyrics in a
very convincing way. I have obviously missed out on a lot, so I have to go
out and buy the missing Finntroll albums – and in the meantime you could
well get a copy of Nattfödd. Bo
Fleshcrawl Bloody hell, all you narcoleptics had better beware! Germany’s bona fide insomnia therapists return to Dullsville with their seventh studio piece entitled – wait for it – Made of Flesh. Now how’s that for a douche-bag death metal title?! To cut the abuse short and spell it out so even the local village idiot can guffaw together with us: this is the same friggin’ band that issued an album in 2000 with the incredibly imaginative title As Blood Rains from the Sky – We Walk the Path of Endless Fire. Pretty suggestive of the amount of brainpower that these fellas run around with, innit? Cut to the bone, the fundamental intent of Fleshcrawl is to present a clichéd and run-of-the-mill emulation of Swedish old-school death metal in the vein of Grave and Dismember in addition to a spoonful of the rumbling, tank-like rhythms of Bolt Thrower. Made of Flesh is simply a natural ‘lack-of-progression’ from 2001’s Soulskinner; just as that album was to its predecessor and so on and so forth ad nauseam... Basically, Fleshcrawl never fail to remind me how wonderfully refined my record collection is, and this their latest effort is about as remarkable to my mind as medium-musty, martially inclined, man-eating Tupperware leftovers. Luckily, it seems that the Fleshcrawlers have chosen to take a breather from their long-term ‘cover track hate campaign’ and not offend their listeners (volunteers and not-so-volunteers alike) any further with daft and worthless renditions of 80’s metal classics. Indeed, we are thankful! Post Scriptum Disclaimer: To tell the truth, I am for the most part a grumpy bitch and I truly hate that Skogsberg-defined guitar sound. Many will possibly find Fleshcrawl’s latest longplayer to be exactly their bland cup of tea. Some day, if Satan wills it, I might be able to understand. MISEREION
Gardens
Of Gehenna Four
guys from Germany, combining the elements of Doom Metal and elements of
Industrial into this piece of music. This could well be the incantation to
your funeral, your body stolen by cultists and now being sacrificed upon
the altar of something sinister. While the guitar riffs are slow and
melodic, the monotony of the rhythm makes it sound like a ritual being
observed in horror. The vocal parts consist of growls, almost spoken in a
slow and deliberate fashion. It reminds me of a combination of Samael –
Ceremony of the Opposites mixed with Paradise Lost – Lost Paradise. Very
nice indeed.
Glittertind I
took the new Glittertind album in with quite some scepticism, but that was
mostly because of the selling points in the biography, which made
references to Glittertind’s appeal to fans of Storm, Dropkick Murphys,
Skyclad, Finntroll, Cruachan and The Pogues. I repeat: Storm and Dropkick
Murphys in the same line... That is not entirely wrong, however, because Evige
Asatro does move from imposing folk songs to punk-like sing-a-long
hymns, and it is exactly this mixture that exposes Torbjørn Sandvik’s
strengths and weaknesses. The best cut on the album is without a doubt “Nordmannen”,
which Storm has also recorded, while “Sønner Af Norge” and “En
Stille Morgen – 1349” prove that Torbjørn also has a talent for
composing atmospheric tracks. Unfortunately it does not work quite as well
with the fast and punk-like sing-a-long songs. Not only do they remind me
a bit too much of Dropkick Murphys, but they also create a sort of
inconsistent ambience on the album. The atmospheric songs hold references
to the Scandinavian moods on Storm’s Nordavind, while the faster
tracks have a more British ring to them and make me think of English pubs,
soccer games and gallons of Guinness – which I imagine is not the
intention with the Scandinavian lyrical concept in mind. Furthermore, I
miss a little more power in Torbjørn’s vocal delivery. Everything comes
across a bit too neat and nice, which contrasts with the assertive message
in the lyrics, and for that reason I could really use some more strong
words and forceful pride on his part. When that is said, however, I find a
lot of potential in Glittertind, and I will look forward to become
acquainted with the future releases from Torbjørn. Even so I hope that he
will focus more on the atmospheric songs in the future and lay aside the
punk elements, because there is no doubt which of the two works best. Bo
God
Forbid Reading
the biography or presentation of the band given along with the promotional
copy I received almost makes me want to throw up. This is presented as
being sublime thrash metal, Americanized so that it should bring every
listener to his knees. The last cite is ‘The new wave of American metal
has arrived’. OK… Why is it then that this reminds me of traditional
Swedish Death Metal like In Flames, added some traditional elements from
bands like Machine Head and Fear Factory? As far as new wave goes, this is
not entirely new. This kind of music has been heard many times before, and
played with better and more combinations in the music than God Forbid. I
am sorry but there is nothing new in this music at all. If you like the
bands mentioned above, this band might be something for you. It surely did
not appeal to me – and the biography made everything much worse.
Gorgasm One of these next days, I really need to set aside a couple of quid to buy myself a Unique Leader hoodie, coffee mug or teddy bear. Barely had I recovered from the skull-shattering introduction to Decrepit Birth’s …And Time Begins before my feline house buddy was clawing away at another fat promo packet from the Evil Editor himself. That accursed cat can smell a sonic brutality from miles afar, I swear! A dozen nasty scratches later I was not surprised to spot the UL-logo amid those various other cardboard and plastic pocket ear-candies. Evidently, the second full-length Masticate to Dominate from the Chicago -based death/grind combo Gorgasm is another profitable leaf on the laurels of those insightful label bosses. So what if the splatter-happy illustration courtesy of Jon Zig is the ugliest cover artwork to cross my line of vision since Depraved’s Decadence & Lust? I find it very difficult to rebuke Gorgasm for anything except their lack of originality – and that is to all intents and purposes not the issue here. Masticate to Dominate is first-rate for what it is meant to be: a brutal US death metal cocktail sprinkled with the occasional chunky Suffo-chords and subtle riff harmonics to make the shit catchy, not at all far from the approach of label mates Severed Savior. Drummer Terrence Manauis deserves an extra slap on the shoulder for his ultra-smooth grind beat variations and in particular those well-timed triplet blasts w/ ride bell accentuations. But hey, that is all terminology... Judging from what limited familiarity I have with the back catalogue of these freaky fellas, Gorgasm would be hard-pressed to adhere more closely to their fetishist formula than they have with Masticate to Dominate. Why, we even have a pair of juicy samples from the ‘dead-hot’ Ted Bundy flick to ensure entertainment value for the entire family! Sickos unite and all that. MISEREION
Halo For the most part, it is possible to brace oneself in advance against Aussie madness and spot their musical mouthpieces from miles off. Band monikers such as Bestial Warlust, Deströyer 666 and The Berzerker leave little or nothing to the imagination as to which brutish and belligerent frequency that is bound to blast from the speakers after a delicate press on the ‘play’ button. Perhaps that is why Melbourne’s noise medium Halo is by far that more of a shocking encounter. The duo’s second full-length release Body of Light is a 44-minute celebration of discordant noise flanked by filmy hints of minimalist doom. Or wait a second, let me render that sketch more precisely: Body of Light is a sludgy party-breaker loaded with erratic feedback, slapdash percussion, wobbly baritone throbs and subsonic vocal antipathy. And mind you, that is all on a positive note! Halo’s stylistic orientation is indeed a hard nut to crack, at least with a view to descriptive logic. Even so I dare to draw references to the most unrefined, low-key extracts of vintage Godflesh and Neurosis. In fact, you could take the eerie ambient/noise piece “Will to Power” off Gorgoroth’s experimental album effort Incipit Satan, blend it with that specific Napalm Death rarity entitled “Internal Animosity”, rid the mixture of anything just vaguely ear-friendly and presto... there it is! Body of Light comes as close as even possible to what can be described as the inward audio track of a metropolitan construction worker, reverberating again and again across the humid and muggy atmosphere of an industrial milieu. Keep this one away from sunlight, domestic animals and any kind of social life – it will plunge right into the nervous system and leave a smoggy hull of psychosomatic disorder. MISEREION
Holmgang Eventually, and something like 18 months after that tireless workaholic who roams the Danish metal-scene under the cryptic-yet-not-so-cryptic stage name Ynleborgaz presented me with a CD-R copy of Runens Advarsel, I sit down in front of the computer with a huge fucking tankard of burning-hot chocolate (very, very nekrotr00kvltic!) and the bleak, cold bluntness of said longplayer blaring out from my headphones. And what is it all about, then? Aside from wearing the Darkthrone and Bathory influences on their spike-bedecked sleeves, this svartmetallic foursome reveal a certain kind of hard-nosed and barbaric aggression that strikes a faint chord with the debut Immortal full-length Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, albeit there is a somewhat more introspective tenor to their songwriting formula. For those ever-sleepless individuals who hound for creative innovation and insurrection in each and every artistic phenomenon they stumble across, let it be said right away that ‘black-metal modernisation’ is far from a sanctified mantra here; rather Holmgang aspire to cultivate wholesome raw material from oft-trodden soil – and that is quite appositely and quintessentially the innate vibe that Runens Advarsel evokes from start to finish. Fellow nitpickers might concur, though, when I call for just a slight extra touch of variation, fervour and sheer vehemence as far as a distinct musical constituent is concerned. Whereas or maybe even because the instrumentation alone shines in its obstinate simplicity, it would do a subtle trick or three to have vocalist Sorg spit out an additional gallon of jet-black vocalic hate & spite; merely to chase off the remaining few tree-hugging hippies from our fecund regions... Right from the initial tremolo-picked note to the final cymbal stroke, these four ‘stolten holmgængere’ shift with fluent ease from faster-paced passages to slower black’n’roll-like interludes in songs like “Mundilsfari”, “I Svøbe Af Blod” and the title track. As it is, Runens Advarsel is an album release for the attentive and voluntarily lonesome listener rather than a vertigo-inducing medium for a drunken all-night convene between cheery friends and an old cookie jar with ancient corpse paint of doom and evil +5. Holmgang could well turn out to become one of the salient forces to further consolidate the existence of a black-metal scene in Denmark. MISEREION
Ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. Please remain in your
seats and fasten your seatbelts, cos’ we’ll be experiencing a deaththrash
storm. Whoah! What a ride. Impious delivers high speed and high quality
deaththrash, that will please any metalhead into the more extreme metal.
These guys are pounding ahead in a manner, that would make even the mighty
Slayer jealous. These guys have an energy capacity that exceede most human
built power stations. Fuck windmills, man! Impious make enough energy to
cover the power consumption of Sweden for decades. A tight, melodic,
aggressive and a very convincing workmanship is on display here from
swedish Impious. More of this, please...
Jester.
Iommi w/ Glenn Hughes This album was
recorded back in 1996, which is pretty evident when you glance at its
title, but for some reason it was shelved back then and it has stayed
unreleased until now. I'm very fond of Black Sabbath's Seventh Star
album from 1986, which also features Glenn Hughes on vocals, and I was
hoping that this album would be just as good as the first one the two
gentlemen did together, but this is unfortunately not the case. Iommi's
riffs and Hughes' vocals are generally pretty good, but the album never
really ‘takes off’ and delivers any real highlights. Also, Glenn Hughes
sometimes gets a bit too funky for his own good and a few passages on the
album end up sounding wimpy as a result of this. All in all, The 1996
DEP Sessions is just a solid metal album made by two veterans who know
how to write decent songs. Nothing more and nothing less!
Svest
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