Demoncy - Within the Sylvan Realms of Frost
This is Demoncy’s second full-length album, recorded back in 1996 but not seeing the light until late 1999. This is one of the first US Black Metal bands to form during the heyday of Florida and New York’s Death Metal scenes. It was pretty much just Demoncy, Masochist, Necrovore and Profanatica back then. I think this was the last Demoncy material to be recorded with a full band. I heard that the original line-up had ex-members of Profanatica in it, but if they remained to perform on this CD, then they obviously changed their names. Regardless, this doesn’t sound at all like Profanatica. The playing is too tight and the general imagery is more along the lines of the Nordic scene than the older US scene that Demoncy came out of. If you remember Faustian Dawn’s raw, Darkthrone influenced Black Fucking Metal with some interesting atmospheric bits, then this new album will not sound unfamiliar to you. The production on this is slightly better than the Faustian Dawn album’s, with a more polished sound and a cleaner guitar tone. The music, on the other hand, hasn’t changed all that much. You still think of Darkthrone when you listen to this band. This album would probably have had a bigger impact on the scene back in 1996 but I get the feeling that Demoncy will get lost in the shuffle in 2000 because too many bands sound exactly like they do.
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Dementor - The Art of Blasphemy
At last Dementor have returned with their follow-up to 1997’s Kill the Thought on Christ. Faster and deadlier than ever, this album is utterly relentless in its evil Death Metal onslaught.
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Le’rue Delashay - Musick in Theory and Practice
I guess I don’t hate this as much as Gerg did Delashay’s previous album [1998’s _ The Court Composer _ -Editor], but it’s still not too impressive. What we have here is a sometimes decent attempt at creating a “haunting” and “epic” soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist. The “borrowing” from other, far more well known, soundtracks gives little credibility to La’rue’s vastly inflated self-image and claims that this album “summons forth the primal majesty of the universe.” It’s not completely terrible, but give me a break! Honestly, I think that as far this type of “soundtrack” work is concerned, there is simply a lot better out there, and the legitimate composers generally don’t share La’rue’s extreme delusions of grandeur.
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Deformity (Belgium) - Murder Within Sin
A fairly decent hybrid of brutal Death Metal, Swedish-like Thrash, and seldom moshable Core arrangements. The vocals go from a somewhat substandard yell to bestial growls of Assuck depth. This has its moments of pure hostile rage achieved through insane tempo changes. Still, it does tend to drag on at times. I found myself also to get into it most of the time, but I don’t know how I’d feel had I spent $16 on it. Certainly it isn’t always the most original composite, but I sense the capability this has to grow on you if you let it. Maybe it’s just because I can’t resist making some sort of contorted spinal movement to the mosh riff in “Speak Out My Name.”
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Defleshed - Fast Forward
Defleshed’s brand of Thrashy Death Metal has been a long-time favorite of mine, and this album sees them kicking just as much ass as ever. As an extra bonus, we’re even treated to live versions of “Under the Blade” (my favorite song form their album of the same name) and “Thorns of a Black Rose.”
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Defiled - Erupted Wrath
Defiled (this one, anyway…) hails from Japan and plays brutal Death Metal in the vein of the Florida bands (Morbid Angel, Monstrosity, Deicide, etc…). This is their debut album and though there are some good parts on it, the majority of it is fairly generic brutal Death Metal that I’m sure anyone who got into the scene back in 1992 will have plenty of already. I know my collection of Death Metal CDs is quite extensive and contains quite a few bands that sound almost exactly like this. I guess the biggest hurdle that Defiled has to clear is the one with “originality” written on it. If you like by-the-numbers Death Metal, then Defiled will be to your liking - though I seriously doubt that it will get more than one or two spins on your CD player. Seriously, there are better ways and better bands to blow $15 on. No offense to the band, but this is yet another release that will be buried and forgotten before it is more than a few weeks old.
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Defender - They Came Over the High Pass
Well, there is nothing that I love more than a 2 minute, 22 second long intro! Why the fuck do bands do stupid shit like that?!? Just start the god damn music, you fuckheads! And then I get my wish - the music starts. Gallop-riffs, pretty guitar solos, and a singer not quite as flamey as I thought he might be. What’s funny is that the press release says that the band “decided to change their music dramatically and employed a real vocalist and started playing Heavy Metal.” So, first of all, they admit to being trend-followers; and secondly they make fun of all Death and Black Metal singers. These are not good ways to get a positive review in this zine. Even if this album were good, which it’s not - it’s a half-assed rip-off of a tenth-rate Hammerfall cover band - I could never recommend it. My only question is why Necropolis would even bother to release it all… But I could guess.
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Deeds of Flesh - Path of the Weakening
What I have here is a three-song promo of their latest album. Innovation is not a prerequisite of mine, but you better make up for it in the brutality department. These songs have poor dynamics from the simplistic drumming to the muddled riffs. The vocal delivery is the worst aspect, sounding like a weak Chris Barnes on Six Feet Under’s debut, Haunted. Peers Dying Fetus and Mortal Decay are a more enjoyable listen. This is harsh considering I ordered their demo, Gradually Melted, from the band and thought they had potential. What an appropriate album title!
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December - Praying, Hoping, Nothing
Any time a press release mentions something like “December is not just a Metal band,” it clues me in that the disc might well be terrible. And this is certainly no exception. Praying… is like a textbook of everything that’s wrong with new “Metal.” I try to distance myself form that crap as much as possible, so I’m not sure if this sounds more like Pantera, Korn, Sevendust, or whatever, but all their attempts at heaviness and extremity fall completely flat and are very unconvincing.
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