This Midwest duo have a few good ideas, the album cover not being one of them. Scary masks, guys. I’m absolutely terrified. Surprisingly the music is a refreshing blend of Ministry and Slayer with a decent Gothenburg-type scream. I like the melodic passage on “Hate Ate the Everything” (yeah, the song titles are a little dumb, too). Save for some experimental weirdness, bad sound, poor drum programming, and an overwhelming aura of unintelligence, Chant of Aggress aren’t really that bad.

One-man, beginner Death/Grind with a drum machine. A broke Mortician, if you will. The ultra-raw bottom-heavy guitar sound, along with many of the riffs, has a real Celtic Frost / Hellhammer quality that can’t be denied, but I really don’t see this material being highly sought after at this particular time. Maybe in a year or two.

Sometimes I get too excited when I see a band is from Sweden. I mean, it’s the country with the highest output of quality Extreme Music in the world for fuck’s sake. Then I see the guitar sound is co-engineered by Andy LaRoque, and one of the dudes is wearing my Possessed shirt. Oh boy! This is going to kill, right? Well, in my over-anxiousness, I neglected to notice that this band is called Chainsaw, this demo’s called Into the Pit, and one of the songs is titled “Lobotomy of the Easter Bunny.” Oh boy, indeed. This is, at best, beefed up, modernized Arena Metal bordering on Bar Rock, with an embarrassingly talentless singer. At ease, gentlemen. It appears that Swedish soil is also very capable of producing rotten crops. Now I have to go listen to Possessed.

Extremely brutal, guttural Death/Grind from Spain. Whirlwinds of pummeling bestiality collide with demonically deep gurgles, and the ferocity never lets up. The listener is kept interested, one of the biggest challenges for a band this heavy. The only thing that prevents perfection is weak, muddy production, which shouldn’t take anything away from the band itself, yet somehow does. Still, all of those underground sickos scouring the internet for the newest, most brutal shit out there would do well to give Cerebral Effusion a download. Or, just plain old recommended purchases for fans of Deeds of Flesh, Disgorge, and Mortal Decay.

Fast, hateful Black Metal that lays it all on the line, yet still ends up sounding like third string Marduk and Dark Funeral. They have the ability to play fast and not much else. Melodies are attempted, but it just doesn’t work. Aside from the speed, there is nothing memorable to speak of. Indecipherable riffs and grating, throaty vocals ensure I’m bored to death two minutes into the third song.

Extremely brutal Death Metal from Spain. Not much in the way of being memorable, but every once in a while they will slacken their Terrorizer-like pace and crush with something slow. These are the highlights for yours truly. They definitely have the right skills to become a great Death Metal band, and as of right now they are pretty fucking good anyway. Maybe it’s just the Spanish connection, but I am reminded at times of the mighty Sepsism.

This being the first new album with Messiah back in the band in over 15 years (as crazy as it seems, Messiah’s last time in the studio with Candlemass was 1989’s Tales of Creation, obviously I’m not including the ‘91 and ‘03 live albums), I was more than a little concerned. Reunion albums always make me nervous. Okay, Halford rejoining Judas Priest was a good move for all, and I was happy to see Bruce and Adrian back with Iron Maiden (although the reformed IM has yet to top the work of Bruce’s “solo” band’s last two or three albums). And no one was happier than I was to see Schmier rejoin Destruction a few years ago. But despite successful reunions like those, just one bad one can sour a person on the very concept. Take Exodus for example. Tempo of the Damned had one good track on it, “Was Is My Shepherd,” and the rest were just varying levels of embarrassment. I won’t even mention their new plastic abortion. Now that I think about it, maybe these reunions are more often than not okay. I even sort of like that new Obituary album. In any case, I should have never worried about Candlemass. With Messiah back on vocals, all is right with the world (of this band) again. I was just annihilated from the first seconds of the disc-opener, the Thrashy “Black Dwarf.” The Doomier “Seven Silver Keys” followed, leaving me stunned in its wake, and even on my first spin, before I listened to the rest of the album, I knew that this would be an all-time classic. The band’s traditional blending of Doom with Thrashier parts is as perfect here as it has ever been. Occasionally in reviews I mention a couple stand-out songs from the album in question, and I was all set to do that here. But as I thought about it, I found it nearly impossible to narrow down the list. Maybe the haunting “Seven Silver Keys” would be my pick, but all the songs are just as amazing in different ways. It is my understanding that some pressings (perhaps the digipak? Maybe only in some countries?) have a bonus track called “Mars and Volcanos.” You’ll want to be certain to get that version.

I always thought by never having heard Buzzov•en that maybe I was missing out on some old, cult sickness. Turns out I wasn’t missing shit. These are the earliest recordings by the band (To a Frown LP, Unwilling to Explain EP, Wound EP), and boy do they suck. Sludgy Noise Rock that fails to inspire on all levels. The nicest thing I can say is that the singer sounds like a constipated Cronos. Some stones are better left unturned it would appear.

I’ve been so spoiled by all the DVDs that Metal Mind has released that I just want everything to be widescreen, and that’s not the case here. Still, the video quality is fine, as is the audio, although it is surprising that there is no surround sound track. The only bonus feature (two songs from the Murder for Hire album) isn’t even on the DVD itself, but rather on a separate CD. But the one real complaint that I have is the this entire concert is one big chapter, so if you want to jump right to “Cop Killer” or whatever, you can’t. That’s lame. Still, I like Body Count, so this video is cool to see. I haven’t witnessed the band live since they literally destroyed the stage (the lighting rig collapsed into the crowd) at the 1993 Milwaukee Metalfest. I’m happy to report that Ice-Muthafuckin-T does not whip it out and tell Tipper Gore to suck his dick this time, as he did at that legendary Milwaukee show. Ice and his mostly new band play pretty much everything that you would want, with the notable exception of “Dead Man Walking,” which is one of my favorites, and not just because Ice says, “I read The Bible ‘bout 25 times, now fuck god is how I think.” If not for the technical shortcomings (no chapter stops, no 5.1, etc…) and the lack of bonus features, this would have gotten a little higher rating.