metalhead gallery

Nice little treat waiting for me in my inbox today...links are supplied by band, so no mediafire today.

Abuse, the fourth full length effort by Italian instrumental heavy psych hypno band Ex, marks a great leap forward in the evolution of their sound. What initially was characterized as "simply" psychedelic or acid rock has now developed to some kind of cinematic desert hypno sound where the band no longer is afraid to use gloomy and intense harmonies.
Eugenio Di Giacomantonio is the man behind the band. Ex went into the studio during 2010-2011 with the intention to do a recording of nine songs he had written since the release of his last same title album. It later turned out that a whole year would pass before he returned to the world outside with what people have heard Ex himself describes as his «Ennio Morricone scores meet Yawning Man». Ex played all guitars, basses, organ, violin and samples; drums and some bass lines were played by friends and special guests. As hard record as it is do describe, as easy it is to love. Enjoy the sonic monstruo!

Abuse (2011)http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T8OG1I7Z

check out the rest...

Cassiopea (2005)http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EL9CW8QA

Sleep (2006)http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N6Y596Q5

Ex (2009)http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T2Z2ACRH

This American thrash band, hailing from the small college town of Lawrence, Kansas, is one of the better and more aggressive bands to pop up in this latest New Wave of Thrash.

Hammerlord plays a dirty Sodom and Kreator influenced Thrash: fast, pissed off and taking no fucking prisoners. Hammerlord may be a bit more messy than say, your Vektor, or your Havok, but they bring the "rage" in "raging thrash" more than either of those two luminaries of New Wave Thrash. While some tunes are fun lyrically (Tombstones Piledriver), every track is intensely aggressive and their love of German Thrash really comes through. To my ears, Bonded By Blood would be the closest of the New Wave Thrash bands to Hammerlord's sound, in terms of production and the gestalt of their tone, but Wolves At War's End clearly has more in common with Kreator or Slayer, than Exodus.

The production is the quality you would expect from a signed band, and is really quite good for a self-produced demo. Adam "Hammerlord" Mitchell actually mastered the album and mixed the tracks himself at his studio where he produces for a number of local Kansas bands.  He told me that he was going for a more full and deep sound on Wolves At War's End than the standard 80s thrash production; more along the lines of death metal or latter day Kreator. Although the drums are occasionally a touch too loud in the mix for my tastes, the production does call to mind the dulcet tones of Hordes Of Chaos or Enemy Of God, minus the brickwalling, so I'd say he achieved his goal.

The "Hammerlord" anchors and powers this little steamboat at lightspeed, which is exactly what we would expect given the eponymous nature of the band's name. Adam plays Thrash drums as fast and aggressive as I've heard anyone do it. There are some nods to modern metal drumming styles which I enjoy, because the modern touches are used very effectively for emphasis, and allow more dynamics in the rhythm section than more straightforward thrash drums. Also admirable is that Adam manages to achieve hammering precision without sounding like a robot.

The vocals are a definitely out of the harsher side of thrash, ala Slayer, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, etc., but they really fit the style that Hammerlord is playing, and lend extra aggressiveness to the album that would be missed if they used a Bay Area style vocalist instead of Steve. Steve Cruz is quite good on this album, comparable to a slightly less guttural Tom "Angelripper". Also, the lyrics are a net plus, but it would behoove Hammerlord if the lyrics Steve was writing were a touch less goofy. To me, their sound fits better with social/political commentary or some evil occult rituals than the goofiness embodied in some of their lyrics, but I'll admit that they do achieve a good balance between fun 80s pop-culture references, and more serious topics. Besides, The Undertaker is still metal right?!

The riffs are fresh and not overly-derivative, as many of the New Wave Trash bands can be (I'm looking at you Bonded By Blood). However, while the riffs aren't boring, they are not necessarily the most catchy either, since aggressive speed is the focus. That's not to say the riffs are bad, in fact the riffs are quite good, just not epically, unforgettably great, though they will get your blood boiling for the duration. In addition, the leads are well done, particularly in "The Anomaly Rue" and "Creating Destruction", but not quite stratospherically amazing or catchy enough to sustain the attention too far beyond the end of the album.

I'm a bit surprised that Hammerlord hasn't been snatched up by Earache yet along with Bonded By Blood, but with the Japanese snatching up copies of Wolves At War's End left and right hopefully their status will quickly go to "signed".  Hammerlord definitely resides in the top end of New Wave Thrash, and while I am still anticipating an Epic Win from them, they have done really quite well here with their sophomore. I recommend this to anyone seeking more of that classic aggressive Teutonic Thrash sound, who is open to good New Wave Thrash.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (working outside the ring)

http://www.myspace.com/hammerlordslaysyou

It was difficult to deliberate as to whether Macabre Eternal is more of a relief or a disappointment, but I'm settling for a little of each. Truly one of the single most anticipated offerings of the death metal genre in 2011, it's the first Autopsy long form in 16 years, or 19 if I can exclude Shitfun (and believe me, I'd love to). In the interim, the band's popularity has not only maintained, but seen an exponential increase. I'll be frank with you, there were not nearly enough folks singing this band's praise back in the late 80s, early 90s (I'm not sure if there was much comprehension or tolerance for Reifert's cunning and crude aesthetics at that time), so it's been refreshing to see them come to life through the years, new generations lavishing praise upon their classics Severed Survival and Mental Funeral.

This is not necessarily the band's 'comeback', since they squeaked out a single and EP in the past few years, the latter of which built my own bloodied expectations to a fine froth. I'm happy to report that there are no redundancies here with either of those releases. Macabre Eternal is a brand new, full-length Autopsy with a number of strengths and weaknesses all unto itself. The artwork is stunning and appreciable (excepting perhaps the logo/title coloring), the production the most bold and bright of any of the band's works to date, and there's a renewed sense of creativity in the writing that I had not expected. Sure, there are nods here or there to the band's formative backlog, and this album thankfully abandons the sludgier, forgettable drivel they churned forth in the mid 90s, but I was surprised that it's no mere product of derivation. So, for instance, you might hear the early Sabbath meets early Death that you expect from the first two records and their moderately death/doom leanings, but even these slower manifestations possess much versatility.

Unfortunately, I found that there were treacherously few songs that truly stuck out to me as I kept listening through Macabre Eternal. "Dirty Gore Whore" is certainly counted among the winners, with its zippy and explosive verse guitars and its torn throat narrative. Fast paced, fluid and original, I enjoyed this from beginning to end, both the searing and wah-wah pedaled leads that transition into the jarring tension of the bridge. Also unexpected was the 11+ minute epic "Sadistic Gratification" which explores perhaps the widest contrasts and emotional range of any Autopsy tune to date. The slower, instrumental doom sequence that inaugurates this track is truly something to behold, culling back to the Retribution for the Dead material if it were more melodic and distinct, parsing from surprising tranquil bliss to jaw crushing force and then back again, once again in vocals that tell a story. I especially loved the trade off between the female screaming and the menacing mockery near the climax of the song (around 9:30 in).

Then there is the rest of the album, which, while 'good enough' never really settled in memory outside of a few scattered riffs. Straight, groovier death/doom pieces like "Always About to Die", "Sewn Into One" and "Seeds of the Doomed" rollick along with a rank, ritual effluvia, but they seemed rather predictable, while the bouncier "Born Undead" maintained its charismatic vocal slather at the expense of its rather mediocre notation. Others are more concentrated and complex, such as the accelerated miasma of "Deliver Me from Sanity" or "Hand of Darkness", with its Leprosy-like rhythm beneath the lead, but they still feel like they're missing that one, inspirational guitar that would force them over the top like their betters here. Perhaps the one constant of quality here is that of the vocals, vintage Reifert with perhaps a hint of influence from Necrophagia's Killjoy (not unwelcome).

The album is not nearly so menacing nor malevolent as Severed Survival and Mental Funeral, but then, that's from the perspective of one inundated with about 20 years of cloying and grisly death metal since hearing such cult fare, and certainly one could not expect their equivalent. However, Autopsy is a band I do turn to for the atmosphere they curry in spite of their lewd primacy, and I feel that in that department, it falls short of even Acts of the Unspeakable. This is more of a clean, theatrical Autopsy prepared to take all comers with a more brazen variety of their old school riffing, and also cite innovation where it can, but too often succumbing to a filler mentality amidst the better elements of the songwriting. A decent album, I think, but not quite measuring up to its preemptive tendrils of vaporous decay, the carrion cloud of cult comforts it drifted in on.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/autopsyofficial

For five albums and about ten years, Six Feet Under had gradually evolved into what must, for all intensive purposes, be the lowest common denominator of US death metal. Pedestrian compositional ability which at best rivals the career lows of a fellow Floridian band (Obituary); failure to even remotely hinge upon the brutality that Chris Barnes made a name for himself with via Cannibal Corpse; the exploitation of cheap 90s ploys like having a rapper guest star (and having that suck) or trendy songs about smoking weed as some sort of promotional element; too fair a share of cover songs choking up the discography; lack of compelling musicianship or quality production values. Essentially this band was the ghetto of death metal's potential.

Still, the band maintained a positive relationship with their label Metal Blade Records, and there were people buying this tripe. Now, there were people buying Insane Clown Posse. Juggalos. People bought Alicia Keys albums. Avril Lavigne. Good Charlotte. I should not be surprised that enough faith was still placed in Chris Barnes to support his vapid bong-addled haze of dull rock aesthetics and death metal fundamentals, despite a career beginning with mediocrity (in Haunted) and then descending into the muck of disbelief. But what the fuck do I know? There was obviously enough interest for him to release a live album/DVD combo pack, to which he would affix some tattoo-like art: enter the Double Dead Redux, 16 apathetic anthems spanning the underwhelming back catalog of 6FU, and about as agonizing as one might expect.

The audio CD and DVD components of this package are culled from two separate performances, with mildly different track lists. The CD itself, recorded in San Francisco in '02, sounds the better of the pair, but that's not really saying much, because it's nearly as ineffective as the band's studio efforts. Basal, 'my first death metal riff 101' material chugged and grooved along with all the splendor of the 90s' most easily forgotten groove metal, spliced with vibrant but forgettable leads which seem to cohesively lack direction. Barnes' blunt throttling throat is bad enough, but when he's alternating with the snarled vocals (as in the first track "The Day the Dead Walked" it becomes downright awkward), and soon enough ("The Murderers") you get an idea of just how cheap and lacking in creativity this band's fare truly is ('it's all fucked up! it's all fucked up!'). I feel like I'm listening to the ravings of a gangsta rap-riddled middle school drop-out after a serious pipe packing as he ruminates over the troubles in the world...

And that's just not what I want to hear. Now, granted, Barnes seems like a nice guy who does indeed appreciate his audience, as he curses constantly to emphasize. He shows this not only in his banter between songs, but also in his balanced selection for the set. There is a measured selection from each of the four studio original full-lengths. From Haunted (their best) comes "The Enemy Inside", "Silent Violence" and "Torn to the Bone", and no surprise that they're the most entertaining of the lot. Warpath is represented by "Manipulation", "4:20" (lulz), "Revenge of the Zombie" and "A Journey Into Darkness". Maximum Violence gets a larger cut: "Feasting on the Blood of the Insane", "Bonesaw", "No Warning Shot", "Hacked to Pieces", and "Victim of the Paranoid"; and True Carnage gets "Impulse to Disembowel", "The Day the Dead Walked", "The Murderers" and "Waiting for Decay". The DVD set is slightly shorter, with "Torture Killer" in place of "Hacked to Pieces", and shot in Minnesota that same year.

Obviously I favor the earlier material here, because it's the only stuff that doesn't completely suck, but the doomy "Feasting on the Blood of Insane" is also one of the better sounding tracks (if you forget the lyrics). It's a fair play length (54 minutes on the audio CD) without growing too bloated or boring, but that assumes you're an actual fan of Six Feet Under, in which case there is a team of anthropologists standing by to monitor your diet, drug use, migratory and mating habits. As far as a fan package, it's not so dire as the Graveyard Classics compilations, and to be fair, Barnes doesn't stink up the set with other peoples' buds (no covers), just his own green and reeking vapors of banal bludgeoning. The sound isn't so hot for a live mix, but the instruments are good and even, including the base, and I've certainly heard worse. I wish I could say the same for most of the songs.

Verdict: Fail [3/10]

http://www.sfu420.com/

Really, it was inevitable. A Florida death metal act to draw influence from the more melodic treatment being given the genre at large. To their credit, Paths of Possession do not approach their writing with the diminishing returns of all the At the Gates and In Flames wannabes, but as more of a halfway point between the local death metal of a band like Death, Massacre or Six Feet Under with a dose of traditional 80s metal and some cursory grooving material which is sadly the bane of this debut album's existence. Legacy in Ashes is before the band acquired the presence of Cannibal Corpse (and ex-Monstrosity) front man George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher, and the vocalist here sounds more like a lower pitched Chuck Schuldiner or John Tardy.

He's not really the problem, though. The issue with Legacy in Ashes is that, while a mix of heavy and death metal is a pretty good idea, one that in superior hands has seen mild success, Paths of Possession don't really do anything compelling with the hybrid, at least not on the debut. A few of the tracks like "Darklands" and "Army of Death" have surging melodies gliding across the loud and plunk bass tone and double-bass infused drums, but the majority of them represent nothing more than half-assed groove/death metal anthems that you could find in any 90s nu metal or bar-core band. "Cold Vengeance" is one such sucker, a song so pathetic in its bouncing banality that I can't believe the band included it here. Or "The Dawn Brings War", which is more redolent of Obituary at their most mundane. Others try to straddle the space between these two poles, like "The Sword Coming" and its glorious but weak melodies, but on the whole the album just never distinguishes the band's ideas beyond their roots.

The production is workmanlike and balanced enough, with the guitars having a nice crunch to them, but there is just no fire in the writing, and the best thing about Legacy in Ashes is the cover art. It's almost a pity, because this was at one point the new vehicle for ex-Morbid Angel axe-slinger Richard Brunelle. Had Paths of Possession pulled this off, they might have served as a welcome contrast to their local peers, who were mostly engaged in releasing mediocre or downright weak albums in the 21st century. Granted, this is before Corpsegrinder entered the picture, and the deal with Metal Blade, but then I wonder how either party's curiosity had been engaged by such a wimpy and indistinct debut such as this? A real 'first and worst' here.

Verdict: Fail [4.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/pathsofpossession

Born out of an obsession with and a tribute to doom and occult psych rock, Italy’s Doomraiser builds their altar to the heavy bands of yesteryear and today, fusing doom metal, psychedelic rock and acid roll. They combine the doom of Black Sabbath, Pentagram and Goatsnake with a psychedelic touch and a ‘70s progressive rock charm into a very tasty concoction.

On one hand, the new album acknowledges previous recordings… On the other hand, there have been some significant changes which have given birth to yet another new sound. Mountains of Madness is an unholy invocation of gritty, sprawling psycho doom. Five tracks that will bring you to the total freaked-out madness.

Mountains of Madness (2011)http://www.mediafire.com/?r6j7hy27nz4n38u

1. Warschau 2: Headhunter Halfmoon 
2. Wacht am Rhein: Drumbeats of Death 
3. Prochorovka: Blood and Sunflowers


Enjoy! 

I know that I haven't posted in a while, but this should more than make up for it, am I right? I won't even write a review because, stop lying to yourself, we all know you want this.

Ghost (2011)

DOWNLOAD

EDIT: LINK IS UP AGAIN! Get onto it fast though, since I am not going to upload it again as it could lead to trouble!

CD1
01. In Your Dark Pavilion 
02. You Are Not The One Who Loves Me 
03. Of Lilies Bent With Tears  
04. The Distance, Busy With Shadows 
05. Of Sorry Eyes In March  

CD2
01. Vanite Triomphante 
02. That Dress And Summer Skin 
03. And Then You Go 
04. A Hand Of Awful Rewards


CD3
1. The Music of Flesh
2. Seven Times She Wept
3. The Burning Coast Of Regnum Italicum
4. She Heard My Body Dying
5. And All Their Joy Was Drowned


Enjoy! 

As cliche would have it, the apple does not often fall far from the tree. When that tree is Malevolent Creation's back log of reasonable riffing onslaughts and street stalkings, then its fruit must bear fists of frenetic violence. The Will to Kill is the band's 8th studio album, and frankly not a whole lot different than a number of their previous offerings: The Ten Commandments (1991), Retribution (1992), and Envenomed (2000) all come to mind as direct references to the songwriting. Simplistic old school speed pickings parsed with concrete chugging sequences bent on snapping marrow. This album marks the debut of Kyle Symons to the fold, after Brett Hoffman would once again take a leave of absence from the lineup, but unlike Jason Blachowicz who fronted the albums Eternal and In Cold Blood, Symons is quite close to Hoffman in his stark lethality.

The Will to Kill is essentially your 'stock' Malevolent Creation album. Tight performances all around, and a few snippets potent enough to whip your ass into a frenzy, but very little to write home about, and even less to look back upon. There are a handful of tracks I admire: "With Murderous Precision" seems to me what Slayer might manifest if they took a slight turn towards a more brutal death/thrash hybrid, with a central riffing momentum that would have been a solid match for any of the Bay Area gurus' 80s efforts. "Assassin Squad" balances a deadly clinical precision with pummeling breaks that catapult the listener into the pit before the dense thrashing of the bridge and its snaking, feral lead. "Superior Firepower" is another machination of high paced warfare, conjuring ample tension and release through its barbaric notation, and the closer "Burnt Beyond Recognition" is also nothing to limp out on, about as straightforward and sadistic as this band has ever been.

Sadly, like so many of their releases, there just doesn't seem to be enough to launch it to the upper echelon of memorable death metal classics. The first handful of track possess the same canter and brutality of their peers, but they never serve up even one riff that to stake my attention, and later there are tunes like the moshing "Divine and Conquer" with promise potential and then deliver about 50% empty, filler riffs. I think Fasciana and Barrett do a good job of capturing the pernicious pace of 80s thrash (Slayer, Dark Angel) within the more bludgeoning context of Symon's vocals, while Justin DiPinto floors the listener with his muscular expedition. But at the end of the day, I don't just want my ass kicked in such predictable fashion, I want it done with a subtle malignancy, a shred of nuance and distinguished horror regardless of whether I'm listening to tech, slam, old school death, what the fuck ever. The Will to Kill does not peddle such wares, it remains too straight on its slaughter-course, with no element of surprise and very little enduring extremity. Better than a Stillborn or In Cold Blood, but not among their strongest outings.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (now unstoppable, this storm of murder)

http://www.myspace.com/malevolentcreation

As strong as the case might be made that Hate Eternal are naught more than a Morbid Angel derivative featuring a member of that very same act, their Conquering the Throne debut was nonetheless the most exciting new career flagship since the late 80s and early 90s, when the 'core' Florida bands were writing their most potent and lasting materials. Three years later, with an adjusted lineup, Erik Rutan would return with the follow-up, King of All Kings, sporting an Andreas Marschall cover redolent of Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle-Earth, production by Rutan himself, and a boast that little to no editing was done during its creation in the studio. The sophomore is a tense, explosive manifestation which follows rather closely in the footsteps of its predecessor, while upping the level of sheer speed and discord woven through the puerile battery.

This is one intense overdose, and the band takes full advantage of percussion mercenary Derek Roddy, who replaces Tim Yeung. King of All Kings is surely one of Roddy's most unrelenting performances, securing his position as an unflinching hired gun across the wide spectrum of extreme metal, shredding out fills nearly as often as Rutan. And speaking of the ex-Ripping Corpse, Morbid Angel speedster, the burden of riffing falls entirely on his shoulders this time out, since Cerrito had also left the band. The result is a mild lack of the preceding album's firm and Faustian structure, replaced by the weaving of entropic threads below Erik's zipping octave rhythms and blustered, processed lead work. It's a fucking tumult, which often suffers from lack of distinction between tracks, but a few of the tracks like "Servants of the Gods" and "In Spirit (The Power of Mana)" show a surprising strength of musicality betwixt the admittedly flashy and ravenous bombardments of "Beyond Redemption", the staggering brutal of a "Chants in Declaration".

The admixture of velocity and taut thrashing execution was something to be feared, even if it does not always produce the most resonant and durable of riffing sequences. King of All Kings is close to an even further hyperized Fatals Formula to the Flesh, or the faster segments of the divisive 1995 Morbid Angel album Domination, and some of my enjoyment of the latter surely bled forth into my appreciation for this. The most destructive of Hate Eternal's full-lengths, if not the best written. Rutan knew his audience and his weaponry well, and brought it to full bearing on the sophomore, but there are stretches of vapid guitar flatulence and dull bludgeoned vocals that fail to overcome the consistency of the debut. Otherwise, this remains one of their strongest albums. There is much to occupy the ear, as you translate Roddy's superhuman applications and Rutan's terse magnificence into a comprehensible, despotic dialect, and surely it's a more tangible and memorable piece than several of its successors.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (I my dominion, my own affliction)

http://www.hateeternal.com/

If You Like The Album, Buy It!!! If You Don't Like The Album, Delete It!!! If You Don't Buy An Album You Like, You Kill The Music You Like.

1. Of Darkness.
2. Vermillion Clouds.
3. Dark Lord.
4. Lucem Ferre.

Enjoy!!!

The Canadian Death tribute band SYMBOLIC has announced the release date for their long awaited DVD featuring former Death members such as Shannon Hamm, Scott Clendenin, Bobby Koelble. This DVD also features Nicholas Barker (Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth), Antoine Baril (Augury, MAG Project), Matthew Sweeney (Quo Vadis) Marc-André Gingras (MAG Project, Quo Vadis), Michael Sweeney (Superior Enlightenment), Jon Lee (The Autumn Offering), Alexis Robitaille and Daniel Perron.

The two hour concert to honouring Chuck was shot back in Quebec City, QC, Canada on December 12th 2007 in front of 700 crazy fans.

The setlist was as follows:

01. Spiritual Healing
02. 1000 Eyes
03. Mentally Blind
04. Scavenger (feat. Shannon Hamm & Scott Clendenin)
05. Spirit Crusher (feat. Shannon Hamm & Scott Clendenin)
06. Zombie Ritual (feat. Jonathan Lee & Scott Clendenin)
07. Perennial Quest (feat. Bobby Koelble)
08. Zero Tolerance (feat. Bobby Koelble & Nick Barker)
09. The Philosopher (feat. Bobby Koelble & Nick Barker)
10. Without Judgement
11. Open Casket
12. Secret Face
13. Lack of Comprension
14. Within the Mind (feat. Marc-André Gingras & Daniel Perron)
15. Bite the Pain (feat. Shannon Hamm, Jon Lee & Scott Clendenin)
16. A Moment of Clarity (feat. Shannon Hamm, Jon Lee & Scott Clendenin)
17. Trapped in a Corner (feat. Nick Barker)
18. Overactive Imagination (feat. Nick Barker & Daniel Perron)
19. Misanthrope (feat. Nick Barker)
20. Symbolic (feat. Bobby Koelble)
21. Cosmic Sea (feat. Bobby Koelble)
22. Pull the Plug (feat. Shannon Hamm, Bobby Koelble, Scott Clendenin, Jon Lee & Nick Barker)



Download

A hearty HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our favorite person residing in Portugal, Mr. José Carlos Santos. I know this post isn't much, but try to appreciate how hard it was to get a black lab puppy to sit still long enough to take this picture. That was my last sheet of doodling paper, too.

33, is it?

Hope it's a good one, buddy.

1. Weathering the Blight
2. Open Veins to a Curtain Closed
3. Cut Up, Depressed and Alone
4. Deprived of the Void
5. An Ill Body Seats My Sinking Sight
6. Despond
7. Shallow Pulse
8. Conceptual Funeralism Unto the Final Act (of Being)
9. Silent and Completely Overcome
10. The Irreparable Act




Enjoy!!!