Conqueror - War Cult Supremacy
This is the debut album for Canada’s Conqueror, and much like their fellow countrymen, Blasphemy, these guys play ugly-ass Black Grinding Death Metal. The similarities to Blasphemy are all over the place. The riffs are primitive as fuck, the guitars are tuned down real low and the drumming is just one long blast beat. The only real difference between this band and Blasphemy is the fact that Conqueror uses some strange vocal effects every now and then. I liked the split CD that they did with Black Witchery, but I think this style is a bit too monotonous for a full-length album. Face it, blast-beat drumming and noisy guitars get boring after a while. In fact, I think the split CD had better production! This one has guitars that are noisy and so buried underneath the snare drum that you can barely make anything out. In effect, you’re listening to a drum solo that lasts for 10 songs and never really changes. What Conqueror really needs to do is change things up a bit. Blast-beats are nice but 45 minutes of constant blast-beating is boring. This whole album sounded like ten different versions of the same song because the drumming was pretty much the same for every song and the guitars were so buried that you could barely hear them half the time. And speaking of the guitars, turn them up next time!!! If I wanted to listen to 45 minutes of drumming, I’d buy a fucking Rap album. I kind of expected this to happen with this band, but I was hoping that they would do something unexpected and different, but they didn’t. Maybe their next album…
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Compulsory - ...and the Death of Vanity
Hailing from Denmark, this group of angry young lads have put together a very tight, brutal package. Big sound keeps the tone of this groove-oriented Metal supported. The songs have a lot of stops that are very tight and precise. Their “verbal agitator” sounds like he gargled with broken glass and is still bleeding in his throat. I usually don’t like this type of Metal, but these songs are well thought out and chug along very well.
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Codeseven - Division of Labor
This has some Thrashy elements and screamed vox, but also some mellow parts and “nice” vox. Apparently this is supposed to be considered Hardcore, but I really didn’t get that out of it. Their press release claims that Codeseven “began life as a Death Metal Punk band.” I wonder what that’s supposed to mean… Still, whatever you’d call this style, it’s not bad. Not great, though, by any means.
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Clawfinger - Two Sides
Oh yeah, this is just what the world needed. As if their “New Metal” wasn’t an unlistenable enough abortion by itself, we’re now treated to some Dance / Industrial / Bullshit remixes, and a couple CD-ROM videos, too. Honestly, I guess these guys suck a little less then most of their peers, but of course that doesn’t apply to these remixes. There are circumstances wherein I might be able to listen to this, but not without considerable incentive. Like a winning 100 million dollar Powerball ticket.
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Clandestine Blaze - Fire Burns in Our Hearts
This band hails from Finland and plays Grim (underproduced) Black Metal. As much as I like Blackmetal.com and the folks who work there, this just plain sucks. I don’t know much about this band, and from the sound of things, I really don’t need to know much about them. The raw-as-fuck Black Metal style has already been done to death by plenty of other people and Clandestine Blaze is just another fish swimming in an overstocked pond. I don’t care how “true” this band is, their music is one-dimensional, all their songs sound the same and the production (or lack of production) doesn’t help. If this had been a demo, I might be a little more forgiving but being that I paid $14 for this, I’m not dishing out any pity or mercy. There is nothing new or different on this and everything on this CD was so predictable that it totally comes off a being formula. Clandestine Blaze literally sounded exactly as I expected them to. I must have a dozen albums that sound exactly like this and to be perfectly honest, I really don’t need another one.
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Cirith Gorgor - Onwards to the Spectral Defile
Fast new wave Black Metal. I’m a little tempted to call this style Black Grind. Anyway, since Osmose had already signed Immortal, I’m not sure why they felt the need to give these second-stringers a deal, too, but I guess they are pretty good. I mean evil.
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Christ Agony - Elysium
This is the latest album by Poland’s second most well known Death Metal act, Christ Agony. One of the things that always seemed to hold this band back was the fact that they always sounded a bit too much like Vader. Musically, that has changed quite a bit since the old days. This album sounds slower and less “Death Metal” than any of the older material. If I’m not mistaken, there are more “traditional” Heavy Metal riffs on this CD and the music itself is not as brutal or heavy. That doesn’t mean that this album is the least bit gay. This is just a different direction (musically) than I was expecting. When a band does Death Metal for a really long time and had, regardless of comparisons, developed a trademark sound, this kind of a change in direction is almost always controversial. After a couple listens, this album grew on me, in the same way that Unleashed’s Warrior album grew on me. It was less heavy than I wanted and less aggressive but at the same time, this is more memorable and more distinctive than all of Christ Agony’s albums combined. All of the songs on Elysium have their own identity, something that was lacking in the older albums. After all of these changes in the music, one thing that has remained constant is Cezar’s lyrics. He still can’t speak proper English but his black heart is still in the right place. Give this one a couple spins before you shelve this album, it takes a while but most Christ Agony fans will not be disappointed.
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Christ Agony - Elysium
This band is always described as Black Metal, but this seems more Death Metal to me. It’s not Black Metal in the sense that Immortal is, at least. In fact, this is often more Thrash than anything. Anyway, whatever pigeonhole anyone wants to cram Christ Agony into, this reissue of the band’s 1999 album was a welcome addition to my review pile. Elysium is well-crafted, if not exactly amazing Thrashy Death/Black Metal, but I had hoped for more intensity.
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Children of Bodom - Hatebreeder
Interesting. New-wave Black Metal screechy vocals, expertly played Thrash, and loud keyboards - but not the usual “symphonic” kind you would expect. Hard to describe, but very nicely done, and well worth a listen.
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