Memphis, Tennessee’s Throne has been active since 2009, but this is the first release by the band that I know of, and I have to say that it’s pretty impressive. The music on Perdition is well thought out and structured. Stylistically, this is kind of a hybrid of Brutal Death Metal in the vein of Incantation mixed with Symphonic Black Metal. The net result is that they sound like a more keyboard-intensive version of Imprecation, or maybe Privilege of Evil-era Amorphis, but with later era (maybe Tales from the Thousand Lakes?) keyboards. While I like what Throne did on this album, I think Imprecation’s take on things may be a bit more effective. They tended to focus on the Death Metal parts, using the keyboards and atmospheric elements to heighten things and to make them more intense. Throne does that, too, but in a different way. The difference is that the level of keyboard saturation is much higher on Perdition, to such a degree that there are times when the effectiveness of the keyboards is diluted. This doesn’t really detract from the songs, but I occasionally asked myself, “Why are there keyboards here? They don’t add anything to the song.” Still, that’s way better than having an additional element in the music that makes you think, “This song might have been cool, except…” Even with the minor detractions, I found Perdition to be a very interesting listen. Given that they’re still a relatively young band, I’m looking forward to seeing how they evolve.

I imagine that writing and recording several songs is a bit difficult when your country is embroiled in a civil war between Muslim radicals and a brutal dictator where no holds are barred and chemical weapons are in play. Such is the case with Syria’s Theoria. That this album is really good is a testament to the abilities of Ahmad and Besher, who are the only members. Ahmad plays all the instruments and does the vocals, but Besher does the lyrics and helps with the songwriting. The two of them also have a Doom/Death Metal band called Crescent Moon, which I really need to check out based on what I’ve heard of Theoria. Unlike Crescent Moon, Theoria is Black Metal. Stylistically, I’m having some trouble finding a band to mention that is similar, because on one hand their playing is very familiar, but at the same time, they’ve included elements that make them different from others in their genre. The keyboards bring a lot of additional complexity and atmosphere to the early tracks. The first two, “Sons of Past’s Decay” and “Inner Tempests,” have very basic guitar parts, sounding the most like standard European Black Metal. The last two (of five), though, are the best. “Theoria” starts off fairly similar to the earlier tracks, but develops into a more atmospheric song that incorporates melodic guitars and a slower tempo. “Narcissistic Veils,” the closing track, is probably the band’s best work. While it doesn’t have much in the way of vocals, the music is dark, heavy and full of atmosphere. I hope these guys keep going in the direction of “Narcissistic Veils,” because it’s really impressive. It easily surpasses the other songs, save “Theoria,” which is similar in style and feeling. This is definitely a band to look out for. If their next release is of the same caliber as “Narcissistic Veils,” this Syrian band is going to be putting the established order on notice.

Though they are certified legends in the storied history of Death Metal, Oakland, California’s Autopsy has always been criminally underrated and often forgotten when a discussion of truly exceptional Death Metal bands comes up. Most people will quickly disgorge the names of Morbid Angel, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Death, but Autopsy tends to be left off of the list by all those who came to the party after 1995. Granted, Shitfun wasn’t exactly their greatest LP, and it was kind of sad to see them go out on that note. Still, Severed Survival and Mental Funeral are among the sickest Death Fucking Metal albums ever recorded. After their 2008 reunion produced two well-received tracks for the re-release of Severed Survival, the band decided to permanently get back together, producing 2011’s Macabre Eternal and this new record, The Headless Ritual. To say that Headless is old-school would be speaking the obvious. This is how I remember Death Metal sounding. There are no blast beats, monotone growls or constant triggered double-bass drums. What you get is solid, old-school Doom-infused Death Fucking Metal that delivers the goods the way they were meant to be delivered. I don’t normally expect Death Metal guitarists to start shredding during the middle of a song about cannibalism or serial murder, but Eric Cutler and Danny Coralles deliver some pretty sick guitar solos on this LP as well. If you’re a fan of Death Metal the way it was played in the late ’80s to early ’90s, you need to do whatever is necessary to check this out.

Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga is the latest release by Saverio Giove, who is the sole member of Emyn Muil and also the sole member of two other projects (Valtyr and Ymir). Each of his bands is different, with Valtyr being Viking Metal, and Ymir more straight-forward Black Metal. This particular project is Saverio doing Epic Tolkien-influenced Black Metal in the vein of Summoning. While many have tried and failed to match the power and majesty that is the music of Summoning, Saverio’s Emyn Muil makes a valiant effort that mostly succeeds. The first thing that really hinders this LP from greatness is the obvious musical influence. This sounds like a Summoning tribute band. There’s very little that Saverio does here that is different or original. I will give him credit for being able to pull that off because few bands can successfully cover Summoning. The second problem is the sound. It’s not nearly as powerful as it needs to be, particularly where the guitars are concerned, which are far too treble-heavy, making them sound too thin. A richer, deeper tone would have given them more power, warmth and it would have also added a darker edge to the music. They’re buried beneath the keyboards. The drums also need to have a deeper bass tone. Part of the problem may have been because Saverio used a drum machine instead of live drums. Summoning uses a drum machine, too, but they’ve figured out how to maximize it for what they want. There are tracks on this record where the drums sound like those old plastic Ludwig drums that New Wave bands used to use in the ’80s. The tone isn’t deep, and the artificial sound doesn’t mesh well with the rest of the music. Guitar and drum tones are production issues that can be corrected fairly easily, so I don’t deduct much for it unless it’s so bad that a semi-brain dead chimpanzee could have done better. The lack of originality really hurts things far more. When I listen to this album, all I can think of is Summoning, because that’s what it sounds like. For a band that wants to be like Summoning, this is as good as you’re going to get. Of course, if I wanted to listen to Summoning, I have plenty of their music already. Old Mornings Dawn goes everywhere that Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga goes and beyond. What Saverio Giove and Emyn Muil really need is that “special something” that makes this band unique as opposed to a clone. Given a choice between the real thing and a copy, I’ll always choose the real thing, particularly if it gives me more of what I want than the clone. Túrin Turambar Dagnir Glaurunga is a good start, though. Hopefully the next Emyn Muil release will be the one that breaks the mold and takes me on a new adventure. This one isn’t bad, but I’ve been to this dungeon so many times that I’m considered one of the monsters.

The marketing of Metal music is always something that I find amusing. Take the promo blurb from Womb of Lilithu for example. The sticker on the front of the CD case reads: “The legendary Swedish Blackened/Death Metal horde has returned with its best album yet!” I like Necrophobic. I’ve followed them since The Nocturnal Silence. But I don’t consider them “legendary.” Bathory is legendary. You can see the influence of Quorthon in every Black Metal LP that came after 1990. Motorhead is legendary. Heavy music owes almost as much to Lemmy as it does to Tony Iommi, and don’t get me started on what the musical world owes Black Sabbath. You don’t see that kind of influence when it comes to Necrophobic. Which brings us to the new LP, Womb of Lilithu. The music here is pretty good stuff, providing melody, atmosphere and also enough ass-kicking Death Metal to satisfy the older fans who liked the early Slayer/Morbid Angel-influenced material from The Nocturnal Silence. Where this record hits a snag is in the vocals. Tobias Sidegard (who has since departed from the band) has a style that is sort of a snarling Hardcore-esque delivery that is at odds with the music a considerable part of the time. The upside to that style is that you can understand most, if not all, of what he’s saying. The downside is that it’s not melodic enough to go along with the music. It’s a bit on the hit or miss side of things. When it works, it’s gold. When it doesn’t, the melody and atmosphere dissipates and the uniqueness of the band’s sound becomes basic Death Metal. It also doesn’t help that he occasionally drowns out the guitars. That leads us to gripe number two about this album. The guitars just aren’t prominent enough most of the time. The other elements that Necrophobic incorporate into their songs often bury the guitars or render them ineffective because they can’t be heard properly. There’s plenty of melody and excellent riffs on display here, but you have to pay attention if you’re going to notice them. Those two things don’t bring Womb of Lilithu completely down, but they do detract from what would have otherwise been an excellent LP. Even with that, I still enjoyed Womb of Lilithu quite a bit. For me, “The Necromancer” and “Infinite Infernalis” are worth the purchase price by themselves. If you can live with the above mentioned detractions, there is still plenty to recommend here.

This 2-CD set is the third full-length release by Battle Dagorath, their fourth overall (including a split with Lorn and Darchon called Enshroudment of Astral Destiny). This band is something of a super-group, consisting of members of Vinterriket (Vinterriket - keyboards) and Lorn (Radok - drums) and two other people with the mysterious stage names Black Sorcerer Battle and ShadowVoid. Over the years, they’ve honed their Burzum-esque droning Black Metal meets Dark Ambient style so that what you’re getting is a pretty refined product. The songs are long and a bit on the minimalistic side, but they never seem overly simplistic. I think the deciding factor that keeps Battle Dagorath from becoming monotonous drone is the Dark Ambient element. The Black Metal portions, while ranging in speed from fast and furious power chord riffing to more Doomy droning passages, tend to be fairly basic in style and sound. The Dark Ambient sections that come in and out of the songs at various times (making them pretty epic in length at times) break things up and throw in some additional atmosphere. If there is a gripe I have about this LP, it’s that there’s very little progression from their last release. As I said, they’ve refined their product quite a bit and may have taken this style as far as they can without going full-on Dark Ambient or retrograding into more traditional Black Metal. This is still a good record, though. If you don’t mind a bit more of the same, Battle Dagorath deliver the goods like only they can.

I used to listen to these guys a lot back when they were a Doom/Death Metal band. Over the years, they’ve morphed into Gothic Rock in the vein of Bauhaus or Love Like Blood. I don’t have a problem with a band changing styles, but Lacrimas Profundere sounds so vastly different from their old material that they really aren’t the same band anymore. This is full-on Gothic Rock with very little, if any, Metal influences. All of the things I liked about their music from their early days (…and the Wings Embraced Us-era) are pretty much gone. Their music isn’t heavy or very dark. The atmospheric elements that they had are barely there, if at all. Antiadore is mostly passive, unadventurous music that even the Hot Topic set will probably think is too lame to bother with. Lacrimas Profundere doesn’t go anywhere that Bauhaus/Love and Rockets didn’t already go decades ago. On top of that, this LP is so inert and lightweight that it makes The Scarred People by Tiamat sound like the last Behemoth LP in comparison. I’d say that I was disappointed, but having caught bits and pieces of their more recent material, I had a good idea what was coming. I’d hoped that there would be something of their old style remaining, even if it’s as small as a guitar tone, but that was not the case here. Sadly, the only thing remaining from the Doom/Death Metal era is the band’s name. As much as I liked this group back in the ’90s, I’m not into this LP or their current musical direction. My recommendation is to avoid this one.

I’ve been following Singapore’s vilest Black/War Metal band, Impiety, for the better part of two decades. Since I first heard them, they’ve changed considerably. Their style has become more and more like a hyper-blasting version of Morbid Angel, though I have to clarify that this sounds closer to later Steve Tucker-era stuff. It’s tremendously technical and because of that and the incredible speed that Impiety plays at, this EP blows by in a blur of blasting drums, shredding guitars and caustic vocals. It reminds me a lot of 2012’s Ravage & Conquer album, though this may be faster and even more complex. The playing is pretty amazing because of both the intricacy and the speed in which the guitars are played. Still, remembering anything about this after it’s done is next to impossible. The closest thing they have to a memorable track is a cover of “Lucifer’s Legions” by Sorcery. Even that, though, is played at least twice as fast as the original. I hate to say that I like the band’s older stuff better, but I do. If I go back and listen to their early material (the demo tapes and ’90s era EPs, conveniently re-released on Vengeance Hell Immemorial by Evil Dead Productions), their music was far more listenable and memorable, mostly because everything was played at a tempo that is essentially half of what their current speed range is today. If you liked Ravage & Conquer, you will likely enjoy this EP because it’s in the same vein. I wasn’t a huge fan of that LP, and although I appreciate the skills that are on display, The Impious Crusade is just too fast and too technical for my taste.

Returning after two years of silence, Mitochondrion has released a 7-inch EP on the highly regarded Dark Descent label. Admittedly, I am huge fan of Parasignosis, so it was a sure bet that I would hear something I’d like. For those of you not familiar with this Canadian band, appropriate comparisons are Portal (Australia) and Abyssal (U.K.). I enjoy all three groups immensely, but Mitochondrion craft the most memorable songs. The fluidity between hyper-blast and Doomy passages is flawless. Karl Godard’s phenomenal drumming is highlighted immediately on the opening track, “Insummation.” The dusty throne once held by Flo Mounier has a rightful new king! The only thing keeping Antinumerology from perfection is the limitation imposed by the format. The mysticism is definitely present, yet the atmosphere from macrocosm to microcosm is hindered. With only three songs on vinyl that needs to be flipped, the element that made their preceding album a work of occult genius is lacking. For you digital purists, the same is true even if these three songs are downloaded. A minor flaw that will certainly be overcome on their next full-length.