Astaroth (Florida - USA) - Lost State of Dreams
Still very intense, memorable, and well recorded Death Metal. Much better production than on their Drowning… demo, and the songs have improved this time as well. As before, excellent vocals: Raw and powerful, yet understandable. Once or twice the lyrics take a leave from coolness (Alicia is still present.), but basically this is great. Don’t miss out.
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Arpia - Arpia
Here we have two songs of heavy, hauntingly Doomy music, which aren’t exactly Metal of any kind. Also, the vocals are as melodic as possible. Somehow they manage to pull it off and this sounds great. I don’t know how this style would hold up on a full length release, but these two tracks are excellent.
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Apostasy (Florida - USA) - Accuser of Brethren
I’m confused. These guys seem to really like Satan, yet their flyer says that this demo, “contains five songs created with the intention of undermining all righteous and pious individuals who worship the lord of lies.” Umm, guys, Satan is the Lord of Lies, so does that mean that you’re really good guys? [I really was confused! -Editor] That aside, what we have here is mid-tempo Death, that is played and recorded well, with an occasionally memorable riff.
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Apocrafyx - Gorgotha
Thick production and brutal music. Raw vocals. Not exactly a new idea, and more variation with the drums would be appreciated, but these songs are fierce - a lot of energy went this recording and it shows. A little time to develop is all that this band needs.
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Decision D - Moratoria
The press-kit which accompanied this claimed that this is a nine-song release on CD only. Well I got an 8-song tape to review. Oh yeah, the press-kit also said this is “…a must have for any Death Metal fan.” Maybe I just got the wrong thing in my package, because this is pretty dismal, although it has moments where it’s only boring.
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Anthropophagy - Secreting, Seeping, Leaking, Spilling
These guys don’t fuck around. From the very first second, this is total devastation. Utterly extreme Grinding Death, that actually has a second or two which is memorable. To really appreciate this band, they must be seen live, since they are zombies, and their bassist disembowels himself with a screwdriver between songs and eats a handful of his own guts (no shit!), but this recording goes pretty far toward capturing that level of intensity. Pretty fucking sick.
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Angelkill - Garden of Crosses
These guys have a real talent for writing extremely catchy riffs, and memorable songs. Styles of music and vocals are both varied from Thrash to Death, with a serious leaning toward Thrash, but the production is so thick, it makes this sound really heavy. Occasionally the drums speed up for a quick blast. All nine songs kill, but my favorite is the utterly stunning “Abominated Son.”
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Ancient Slumber - Abandon Your Voltaire Garden
Their singer sounds like he is trying to emulate the newer work of Paradise Lost’s Nick Holmes, which is not always a bad thing, but sometimes he doesn’t sound quite right. Musically, this is a high voltage Thrash outfit, with, I believe, a bit of old-style Punk thrown in for the hell of it.
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Anathema - Serenades + Extra Tracks
The first thing I noticed is that this is missing a track from the European version of Serenades, the Ambient “Dreaming: The Romance” (which is over 23 minutes long). I would rather have all of one album than parts of two. I realize that this disc is over 75 minutes long, so there obviously isn’t room for anything else on here, but why not release all of Serenades by itself, and put the track exclusive to this release, “All Faith is Lost,” on a separate CD, along with the Crestfallen tracks? Anyway, these guys are pretty Doomy, and very heavy. In places this sounds like the first Cathedral album, but they certainly bring their own style to that sound.
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