metalhead gallery

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

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/

Fatal Embrace weren't pretty, and they weren't very original, but with the debut The Ultimate Aggression, they managed to drop a decent homage to their German thrashing forefathers, with nods to Venom, Slayer and Bathory. A few years later, they swapped labels (something they've done on each consecutive album) and released Legions of Armageddon, which follows the same course as the debut, only faster, meaner, and just an elbow's room superior. The vocals are pretty great here, often veering into primordial death metal territory, but the real treat is the Harris Johns production, which is nearly as legendary and balanced as his classic 80s arsenal (in particular I was reminded of Sodom's Agent Orange).

The catch is that the sophomore has a fluctuating 'peaks and valleys' quality. The warring sample of "Wishmaster's Revenge" tears into "666 (Massacre in Paradise)", which is a fortress of tight Germanic speed riffing and bloodsoaked, death vocals; and the more measured thrashing of "Legions of Armageddon" itself. But by then, you've descended from the infernal clutches of the hellish heights to the more flat plane of "Mentally Perversion", which doesn't have much to it except some standard, forgettable riffs. "Returned to Hell" and "Trapped in a Violent Brain" pick the pace back up to a violent explosion, the latter with a lot of Slayer influence, and then we run smack into another average track, "Spellbound by the Devil", with only 1-2 exciting riffs. The following "Depraved to Black" slows to a crawl, with a dark, morose opening sequence that splices off into more mediocre thrashing, but thankfully the closer "Wargods of Thrash" goes all epic on us and lives up to its title.

The songwriting is comparable but less exciting compared to Swedish bands like Witchery and Bewitched, and it lacks the feral charms of an Aura Noir, but overall it delivers on a number of fronts, especially for those craving generic occult assault thrash with a thread of authenticity needled through its viral speed. I definitely enjoy Dirk Heiland's style, brooding and angry and capable of a quality growl if the aggression merits such, and the guitars are so crisp and brutal that I'm often willing to forgive the underwhelming note sequences. But in the end, even though they write good albums that please the palette for pain and velocity, they simply don't have the structure or the resonant choruses that their influences made legendary, and thus the label of overly qualified tribute can't seem to be shaken free of their leather and bullet belts.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.fatal-embrace.net/

Despite their general lack of contributing anything new to the genre of black/thrash, Witchburner have kept themselves busy in their adoration of the past, releasing a good number of splits outside of their full-length studio albums. They also released a pair of EPs in the early 21st century that bridged the years between Incarnation of Evil and Final Detonation, and German Thrashing War is the first of these, clocking in at under 20 minutes that unfortunately peaks quite early with the title track. This is a pretty limited release, and Witchburner certainly engaged in the idea of collector's items in the vein of Japan's Sabbat or Abigail (in fact, they've done a split release with the latter), so there's not a ton of value here if you're not the consummate completist.

The title track itself is a finely produced burst of energy with some solid riffing and incredibly vocals that hearken back to Incarnation of Evil, or more appropriately the early releases of Kreator, Destruction and Sodom, and this is certainly one of the band's better songs career-wide, but the other songs manage only to trail behind. "Only Blood Will Remain" and "Arrival of the Last Storm" are both decent (the latter also being released as a 7" EP single the following year), but "Raped in Ecstasy" wins the silver medal here with its wild vocals and more subtly entertaining guitars. The band have also included a cover of "Witchfinder General" from that band of the same name, dubbing it "Witchburner General". The old school NWOBHM/rock riffs stand as a stark contrast to the faster originals, but they do a bang-up job of mashing it into their own beast thanks to the vocals and great, groovy lead sequence.

German Thrashing War is well produced, even more so than Incarnation of Evil which seemed pretty inconsistent despite its superiority to their older records. The guitars are authentic, honest, and very bright in the mix, and the vocals are carnal and memorable. Unfortunately, the music isn't always the greatest, and apart from "Raped in Ecstasy" and "German Thrashing War" itself I can't think of much reason to spin it, even with the classy choice of covers. But if you're a die hard for the style of black/thrash that Witchburner espouses, enough that you tracked down and purchased all their other albums, then you should give it a listen or two and see if it's worth thinning the wallet.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.witchburner.de/

Destruction's 1989 offering Live Without Sense remains as perhaps my favorite single live thrash album of all time, proving the Germans could do a great job with the format; and coming off their studio masterpiece in The Antichrist, I had accumulated some rather high hopes for Alive Devastation, despite the fact that it would only initially be coming out only in Japan (US fans can acquire it within the Live Discharge: 20 Years of Total Destruction DVD package and avoid the steep import price). Unlike it's predecessor, this album was recorded as a 3-piece, so I was a bit curious to see how the guitars would sound in the setting, and since the band had recently swapped out Sven Vormann, it would also be interesting to hear how the new guy Mark Reign would perform (he'd played in some obscure death and black metal acts prior to Destruction).

Well, this is no Live Without Sense, but I am satisfied that the band has at least done a decent job of shuffling their older and new material here, and the stage sound doesn't seem to suffer from the lack of an extra guitarist whatsoever, since Schmier's frenzied presence and the material is simply too strong not to succeed. The tracks from both eras seem to flow seamlessly into one another, and there are a number of favorites to be had. "Nailed to the Cross", "Bullets from Hell" and "Thrash Til Death" are naturally included from their most recent studio offering, The Antichrist, and they've also summoned up "Machinery of Lies", "Tears of Blood" and "The Butcher Strikes Back" from the prior effort, All Hell Breaks Loose. The remainder of the set is rounded out by essential classics like "Mad Butcher", "Eternal Ban", "Curse the Gods", "Bestial Invasion", "Invincible Force", "Life Without Sense", and of course "Total Desaster". It's an extremely safe selection, and granted all of the older material was incorporated on the 1989 album, but the riffs still feel fresh and visceral, and the performances of the entire trio are commendable.

What's interesting is that there are some technical difficulties in the set, Sifringer's amp cutting out, and the band chose to just leave them all on the recording. It's a fairly honest maneuver, and seems to do nothing to dissuade the Wacken 2002 crowd, who merely shout and encourage the band patiently from off-stage. Schmier also drops a lot of f-bombs on stage, perhaps too often that it feels cheesy, as if he's got a serious profanity problem (despite the guitar malfunction), but this doesn't have anything to do with the actual songs being hammered out. His voice isn't as peak and surgical sounding as it might have been in the late 80s, but it's still executed very well, and I'm sure there are many who prefer them on the more recent releases. Alive Devastation is not exactly a fan's dream; I would never choose it over Live Without Sense; but it's good for what it is, and certainly worth owning if you can snag it along with Live Discharge. Just don't bother importing the original live-only album unless you're a glutton for punishment (it's probably about $40 US if you can find it.)

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.destruction.de/

The Master of Disaster EP displayed a returned, reinvigorated Holy Moses with a fresh line-up, but the true test would come with the first planned full-length, Disorder of the Order, which came out the following year, once more through Century Media. Once again we've got a heroine on the cover, fighting demons in a cheesy comic book motif, but at least this album image doesn't seem as self-aggrandizing as the following two. What's better, this is easily the most exciting Holy Moses material during the 'second wind' of their career (i.e. the 21st century), and it brings back a lot of the crisp, barbaric riffing of their classic Finished with the Dogs, flavored with some curious mid-paced tracks that mix rock and thrash to interesting effects.

If you were keen on Master of Disaster, then this is a direct continuation of that sound, but with better overall writing. The highlights are clearly the faster paced pieces like the impressive and filthy blitz of "We Are At War" and "Break the Evil", or the more measured, tempo shifting "Hell On Earth". All of these feature tight riffs and reckless speed circa "Current of Death", and even if they don't quite match that level of sporadic memory punching, they're far better than almost anything the band had released since the 80s. Then there are the more unusual tracks, like the slow-moving groove/thrash of the title track, with gang shouts and some interesting spikes of bouncing guitar melody that tie them together; "Deeper" with its subtle synthesizer atmosphere and roiling, chugging sequences carried along at a march-like pace; or "1000" which features crashing melodic walls of guitar and rock chords. Inevitably, there are some that fall between these two poles, in particular "I Bleed" which features some of Sabina's best vocals on the album.

Of course, they're not all diamonds, and my attention seems to always dive near the end of the album. Not that the final four tracks are necessarily bad, but they're not as exciting, and might have been clipped to preserve the dignity and roundedness of the rest. The tribute to the Big Three in "Blood Bond" is quite a nice tough, but it also seems a little haughty to include this band in the 'Holy Kreator of Destructive Sodomy'. I mean, where's Tankard? And while I truly love Finished with the Dogs, more so than anything Sodom ever released, I severely doubt that this band ever had the same impact as those others. But regardless, this track isn't bad and the lyrics aren't at all what I had feared (most of the lyrics are decent). Sabina turns in a fine performance throughout, mixing her early death grunts and rasped adaptations, and the band blazes along as if they were old hands at this style. Sadly, this is the last album Andy Classen would be involved in (songwriting and some guitars), but at the very least he left his alma mater with a bang.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (recoil the reflexes)

http://www.holymoses.net/