It’s a celebration, bitches. Show Lost Soul your titties! To commemorate 20 years as a band, this Polish Tech-Death powerhouse has released a colossal double-disc compilation of career-spanning material. For existing fans of the band such as myself, this package is an essential treat that pretty much sells itself. Disc One (Genesis) is a fresh take on old gems, plus a few new surprises. You get 1992’s debut demo Necrophil re-recorded in its entirety. You get select cuts from the impossible-to-find Superior Ignotium (1994), Scream of the Mourning Star (2000), and Ubermensch (2002) LPs, again, all re-recorded for maximum-quality sickness. You also get two songs from 1998’s breakthrough Now Is Forever demo (which would later serve as the Poles’ contribution to both the Disco’s Out, Slaughter’s In and Polish Assault 4-way splits), as well as a supremely beefed up version of “If the Dead Can Speak” and two covers. Their sped-up spin on Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” —with drumming faster than Lars Ulrich can think— must be heard to be believed, and to a lesser extent the same can be said for their unexpected choice of “Spitfire” by Industrial/Rap outfit The Prodigy. For posterity and collectors’ sake, Disc Two (Lords of Endeavors) presents original unearthed rarities from the dark past. It features 1993’s Eternal Darkness demo, select tracks from the aforementioned ‘94, ‘98, ‘00, and ‘02 releases, and the previously unheard “Moira.” Obviously, the sound quality of the second disc varies —ranging from “not that bad” to “HOLY SHIT”— but overall it serves as a testament to just how far Jacek Grecki & Co. have come. This blast-happy Death horde may not have always had a studio budget, but they’ve always had wicked fucking chops. For new fans, Genesis probably isn’t the best place to start. A valuable history lesson, indeed, but it’s simply an absurd amount of Lost Soul to attempt to digest all at once. 2005’s benchmark opus Chaostream is more likely the way to go, although my 666th sense tells me that whatever the band does next could very well be their best yet.

<BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!> “Riverside, mothafucka!”
Wait a minute… This isn’t a new incarnation of the legendary Towpath… Dammit! Ray tricked me into reviewing another Prog album [I’m a bastard like that. -Editor]. Oh well, best to ruthlessly make fun of it and move on with my life. Dammit! It isn’t going to be that easy. Truth be told, these Polish Prog Rock veterans are actually quite capable of penning a decent tune when they aren’t going all A Beautiful Mind on that ass. Despite an almost complete lack of heaviness and songs that are often waaay longer than they need to be, this quixotic quartet cannot be written off entirely. A significant portion of Shrine of New Generation Slaves —did anyone else notice that spells out SONGS?— is undeniably moving and beautifully written. That is when they resist the urge to pour the crazy gravy all over everything. Repeated listens have revealed a bad song/good song pattern. Opener “New Generation Slave” is basically a 4-minute intro, but this ultra-mellow appetizer laced with random reflective-thought-vomit gives way to the album’s finest moment. “The Depths of Self-Delusion” is truly an amazing cut. Dark, catchy, and damn near impossible to only listen to once, this gem could probably be a modern-day Katatonia song in some kind of alternate reality. But then “Celebrity Touch” follows with a main riff so corny it could pass for the between-scene bullshit on That ’70s Show. I’m cursed with visions of Topher Grace jumping in slo-mo as I type! Meanwhile, I much prefer Barry Manilow-style piano ballad “We Got Used to Us” and the bass wizardry of the ethereal “Deprived” over the Funk-infused Rush filler of “Feel Like Falling” and 13-minute lullaby “Escalator Shrine” (replete with every spaced-out ’70s Prog cliche in the book). So there you have it. Every other song is a winner. A record of gently giant peaks and low, meandering valleys. If there’s one saving constant, it’s that frontman Mariusz Duda’s hypnotic singing voice and despondent lyrical outlook are consistently all-pro throughout. If they could ever dare to trim some of the Prog-for-the-sake-of-Prog fat, Riverside would become a truly elite artistic force.

So, here we have it. The sixth full-length from New England Metalcore sensations Killswitch Engage; their first to feature original vocalist Jesse Leach since 2002’s Alive or Just Queefing. Before we get into the new record, allow me to give you my personal KSE timeline:

• 2000: Bought their first album. (Pretty much bought every Metalcore band’s album in 2000. People do silly shit when they’re 21.) Wasn’t impressed. Read the lyrics. All songs about deep-throating Jesus’ cock. Broke CD into little pieces.

• 2002: Avoided aforementioned 2nd LP. Not at all moved by “My Last Lemonade” single.

• 2004-2009: Exit Leach, enter Blood Has Been Shed vocalist Howard Jones. Finally digging me some KSE. Band penetrates Billboard Top 40, earns Grammy nomination with Jones behind mic. According to racial stereotype, Jones’ dick also bigger than Leach’s.

• 2012: Jones diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Disease presumably acquired from having to constantly look at Adam Dutkiewicz’s happy, smiling face. Decides to quit band.

Which leads us to the present. Leach is back, meaning more songs about how the plagiarized stories of Osiris —that’s right, Christians… you actually worship Egyptian gods— get him through tough times (such as long drive-thru lines at Starbucks). This time his adoration of the lie is more subtle. In the past he would’ve belted, “Oh, my sweet shepherd Christ / I long for you to shower my back with your holy Jew seed.” Nowadays it’s more like, “I look to the sky and know the time will come.” I will admit, Leach does have his moments… unfortunately all of those moments are on Nothing Stays Gold’s self-titled EP many moons ago. On Disarm the Descent, his harsh vocals sound like an angry bull dyke, his clean vocals sound like sad prayers to Jesus’ gaped asshole. Listening to him attempt bouts of soulful, operatic singing in the wake of the departed Jones is downright laughable. Musically this is Non-Threatening Radio Metal 101. All traces of heaviness, pit riff bravado, and heartfelt melancholy have been wiped clean and replaced with substandard PG-13 melodic sap. No wonder temporary fill-in vocalist Phil Labonte of All That Remains turned down the job. He wouldn’t have been able to tell his bands apart. All of the passion and sincerity left with Howard Jones. The only positive to take away from this lackluster Hot Topic fodder is the hope of a new Blood Has Been Shed LP.

A 10-year wait for the follow-up to a mind-blowing debut LP might be tough to justify for most brutal Death Metal bands, but in the case of Wormed, that seems about right. It’d probably take me a decade just to learn 2010’s Quasineutrality single. It’s not like this Spanish quintet’s jaw-dropping arsenal of unmatched brutality and dizzying technicality can be thrown together overnight. These guys are fucking scientists, musically and lyrically. Case in point, Exodromos is a concept album —no surprise coming from a band that plays concept riffs— serving as the prequel to 2003’s Planisphaerium debut that takes place 5 trillion years in the future. I’m not even going to pretend to grasp the storyline, but it’s something about a quantum wormhole devouring the universe and spitting it out backwards, as told through the eyes of Krighsu, the last known human survivor… you know… the usual Death Metal stuff! (Well, I suppose some DM bands do write about wormholes, but they’re usually talking about some dead whore’s cunt.) But let’s not label them UBDM’s Dream Theater just yet. (Well, maybe we could. I’ve only ever heard one DT cut more than once, and that was “Pull Me Under” — clearly a song about being put in a Dutch Oven.) Above all, Wormed equals guttural heaviness. Frontman Phlegeton takes pig squeals next level, while drummer Riky is a blastbeat cyborg handling with relaxed ease the vertigo-inducing time signatures that the guitar team of Migueloud and J. Oliver fire at him like Michael J. Fox with two Uzis. (Don’t believe me? YouTube some footage of this band live.) However, their attack isn’t strictly limited to multidimensional instrument acrobatics. They also utilize galaxy-sized pit riffs and subtle, eerie melody at will, often within the same track (see “The Nonlocality Trilemma,” “Tautochrone,” “Multivectorial Reionization,” “Techkinox Wormhole,” and epic closer “Xenoverse Discharger”). Wormed’s unconventionality and seemingly inhuman skill level may appear to be an insurmountable quandary for the common headbanger, but trust me when I tell you it’s completely listenable and easy to get lost in. This music is so brutifully intense it’s almost soothing. Of course, it helps to achieve the proper THC/MGD blood ratio beforehand. Only the intrusive spoken-word segue “Solar Neutrinos” —and to a lesser degree, its slam-happy cousin “Darkflow Quadrivium”— prevents Exodromos from total perfection.

I don’t know if Chasma considers themselves to be part of the Cascadian Black Metal scene (they’re from Oregon, which is in the area where that scene is located), but they do have a lot in common with other bands in that scene. The most notable similarities would be with Wolves in the Throne Room and Ash Borer. Chasma is fond of the long, hypnotic, repetitive song structures reminiscent of Burzum or Weakling, but these guys seem to be going for a more “astral” or ”deep space” feeling. One of the primary detractions that I’ve heard about this band from many quarters is that their songs are overly long. This is true. The songs on this album feel like they’ve been beaten into the floor. I didn’t particularly mind that part too much. I’ve survived seeing Burning Witch live (where they did a twenty minute feedback solo in a song that was already dreadfully long) so Chasma has a ways to go before I give up on them. My main gripe with this album isn’t that the songs are overly long. My issues with Codex Constellatia center on the fact that I didn’t think the music was heavy enough. The songs could have been punishingly heavy if the band actually tried to go in that direction. The production itself isn’t to blame. The instruments are all clearly discernible and nothing is buried. If anything, the Moribund Cult has always given us albums that have exceptional sound for the band’s genre, and Codex Constellatia continues that legacy. This sounds like a conscious choice by the band. Chasma isn’t using a lot of distorted guitar and what they do use isn’t really down-tuned or very heavily distorted. The Ambient nature of some of their song structures could have been enhanced with darker guitar tones or a little more distortion. Maybe I’m being a bit too picky. When I hear music like this, I think of bands like Celtic Frost or Triptykon (technically the same band, I know…), both of which are heavy as fuck while still incorporating Dark Ambient and horror soundtrack elements into their sound. Chasma is a good band and this album is also pretty interesting. My fear is that this group is slowly but surely entering the Post-Black Metal genre where they just play weird shit that sounds like it might have been influenced by Black Metal but really isn’t dark, evil or brutal at all. Hopefully, that won’t happen and they’ll rediscover their evil roots and produce a truly dark and twisted album next time.

It seemed like Six Feet Under really turned over a new pot leaf with 2012’s Undead — their best album since 1995 debut Haunted. That said, the comeback effort did wane slightly during its second half, and now another new full-length perhaps a bit too soon in its wake. Normally I’d say it all comes down to the vocals of Chris Barnes. Usually Six Feet Under records are only as good as he sounds. Their mid-tempo, groove-oriented brand of Death Metal is essentially always the same template of simple-but-effective riffage and drumming, so it’s up to Barnes to get those goat heads raised, right? Oddly enough, that isn’t the case on Unborn. Other than a couple wobbly moments on lead single “Prophecy,” Barnes is in consistently awesome form throughout. Forget about mid-career laugher Bringer of Blood. His performance here is more mid-Cannibal Corpse-career! In fact, his tone on the likes of “Zombie Blood Curse,” “Decapitate,” “Incision,” “The Sinister Craving,” and melodic intro/track “Neuro Osmosis” might be the deepest and darkest he’s ever achieved. The problem with Unborn is the lack of the catchy riff — the department Steve Swanson almost always excels in. That isn’t to say the music isn’t headbangably enjoyable throughout, but even some of the most standout riffcraft on display here —the vibrant mosh rhythms of “Fragment” and the fast-for-6FU shredding of “Alive to Kill You”— isn’t necessarily transitioned well. More than not, the phrase “going through the motions” springs to mind. I have to wonder if bassist Jeff Hughell going from the technically dazzling likes of Brain Drill and Rings of Saturn to Six Feet Under hasn’t taken some toll on his vigor. That’d be like Flo Mounier drumming for Pink Floyd. (On that note, Kevin Talley probably isn’t fully utilizing his wide range of capabilities as the sticksman for Death Metal’s answer to AC/DC, either.) It could be the band just needed more time between releases. Or perhaps I did. Either way, Unborn’s reign in my stereo is more than likely going to be brief. Despite a totally refocused Chris Barnes and more uniformly substantial —albeit arguably phoned-in— material than its predecessor, it sorely lacks Undead’s “hits.”

Even if you do try to keep your nose firmly pinned to the underground grindstone, there’s a good chance you’ve still never heard of this Teutonic tribe. The unsigned Black/Death quintet only have one full-length under their bulletbelts (2010’s De Morbis) to go along with this new 5-song EP. (Fun fact: “EPs” from unsigned bands used to be called “demos.”) However, they may not remain unknowns much longer. Forgotten Tales… (is that ellipsis really necessary?) is a surprisingly good listen throughout. Granted, it’s certainly nothing we haven’t heard before. Nevertheless, the band possess a penchant for catchy, high-quality songwriting that cannot be denied, and an all-pro production definitely doesn’t hurt matters, either. These guys shamelessly wear their primary influence on their sleeves, and that influence without question is Naglfar. (It should go without saying that implies an inherent nod to Swedish Black Metal grandaddies Dissection also… but I went ahead and said it anyway.) The chorus of leadoff blazer “Buried in Oblivion” wastes no time revealing that the Aegror gents are most likely no strangers to spinning classics like Diabolical, Pariah, and Harvest about 666 times a day, but who can blame them? In addition to worship of the masters, they also manage to work in an occasional pit riff, as well as subtle nods to melancholy both musically and lyrically. Speaking of the latter, these dudes were kind enough to write surefire crowd-pleaser “Manipulation” about my job. I’ve never even met them, yet they’ve successfully described my workplace environment to a tee. Strange but true. Forgotten Tales… closes out on a triumphant note with the part-Thrash ballad/part-Melodeath anthem “Behind Walls,” featuring a quick dose of decent clean vocals to boot. Make no mistake, Aegror aren’t quite all the way there yet —there isn’t a single arrangement here that won’t have you saying, “That sounds like _______”— but they’re damn close. Seeing as how this puppy is available for free download, you have absolutely no excuse for not checking it out. At the very least, you’ll find a couple awesome tunes to put the icing on that next mixtape.

Misanthrope has been around for ages (since 1988) but they’re one of the Holy Records bands that I never seemed to be able to keep up with. Other groups on that label, such as Nightfall, Orphaned Land, Septic Flesh and many more were on heavy rotation on my stereo, but Misanthrope stayed firmly underneath my radar. They released tons of material that I only found out about long after most of it had gone out of print. That being said, I don’t have a clear recollection of what they sounded like back in their early days. Ænigma Mystica, though, is pretty clearly Progressive Death Metal. Most people know that I generally despise anything with the word “Progressive” in it. Progressive Metal tends to be overly complicated and needlessly meandering. The whole genre thrives on odd song structures and experimentation for the sake of experimentation. This is on full display here. Ænigma Mystica has a lot of weird shit on it. There’s some funky slap bass on “L’arboresence du Lys,” for example. Now, I like the fact that they made the bass audible. I just wish it wasn’t this funky shit that would have only made sense on a Primus record. The main thing that I hate about this album is that there isn’t any consistency. There are solid, atmospheric songs like “Desponsation” mixed in with tracks that are just crap. If the whole album had been like “Desponsation” (or something reasonably close), I would have fucking loved this LP. It isn’t, though. You never know what you’re getting from one track to the next. This whole album sounds like a compilation of random songs that were hastily chosen. Maybe I’m just not “artsy” enough to understand what they’re doing. I’m a Metalhead who wants music that kicks my ass. Some of the tracks do just that. Unfortunately, most of them don’t. If you get the deluxe edition version of this album, there’s a second CD with the same tracks but with English lyrics and a different track order (no explanation for why the songs are in a different order is given). Also included in the deluxe edition is a DVD with a video for “Lycaon,” documentary footage of the band making Ænigma Mystica and some live material. If you’re a fan of Misanthrope and you can’t get enough of their stuff, I guess this is giving the fans what they want. It just doesn’t appeal to me in the least.

Is it just me, or do Death Metal vocalists seem to change more often than the price of gas? Sure, your upper-echelon types such as Suffocation, Vader, Obituary, Unleashed, Cianide, etc. have less difficulty maintaining that same iconic frontman (although, even heavyweight hitters like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Sinister, and Bolt Thrower have had a few shuffles behind the mic), but when it comes to the “ultra-brutal” market? Forget about it. New guy every album. No continuity whatsoever. Why the bitch fit? I’m just a little pissed about A.J. Magana not doing the vocals for Defeated Sanity anymore, that’s all. Chapters of Repugnance was my absolute favorite brutal Death record of 2010, and his inhumanly guttural belch was one of the major contributing factors. Mind you, new gurgler Konstantin Luhring is pretty fucking brutal… he just isn’t ex-Disgorge brutal. (I know, who is, right?) In his defense, he isn’t the only reason Passages Into Deformity fails to live up to its mighty predecessor. The production is significantly weaker. The guitars and bass don’t sound quite as feel-it-in-your-bones heavy, and the recording of the drums is especially suspect. It seems they’ve opted for a rawer vibe and, while certainly not terrible, it’s just not as good. Musically the band still slay on all cylinders. They can give anyone a run for their money in the Tech department —specifically bassist Jacob Schmidt, who pulls off the blibbity-blooblies on a near-Websterian level— and when they decide to go all-pit-no-shit… well, let’s just say I hope you left your glasses in the car. These guys aren’t really memorable in the traditional Lionel Ritchie or Dismember sense; you remember their brutiful pummel more like you remember the SUV that ran over you — from your coma. Alas, minus Magana, it does not seem like the SUV was going as fast.
Favorites: “Naraka,” “Verblendung” (featuring guest vocals from the sorely missed Frank Rini), “The Purging,” and “Martyrium” (featuring guest vocals from the sorely missed A.J. Magana… just to be dicks I guess).