Apollyon - Diaboli Gratia
They only give us 19 minutes to begin with and then fuck away almost two minutes of it with some pretty harpsichord gymnastics? Why did anyone think that would be a good idea? After that silliness ceases, they get down to some fast Black Metal. It has a sort of heavy guitar sound, and the screamer is pretty convincing, but it’s hardly anything you haven’t heard, oh let’s say 1000 times before. Then they slow things down to a crawl, eventually speed back up to sort of Thrash territory, and keep changing the tempo around. That’s not a bad idea at all. It certainly saves them from mediocrity.
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Anti-Nowhere League - Scum
It’s hard to not like band with a sing-along called “Fucked Up & Wasted,” and although this could seriously be a lot more high-energy, I found myself thoroughly enjoying ANL’s brand of Punk Rock.
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Anthrax - Volume 8 - The Threat is Real
I’d given up on these guys until they finally kicked Joey Belladonna the fuck out, and got someone with a functional nutbag, ex-Armored Saint frontman John Bush, to do his job. The result, Sound of White Noise, was a truly impressive slab of aggressive Thrash. Then they decided to get retarded again, and had some of the ladies from Pantera “help out” on their next album, Stomp 442. So I stayed as far away from that abortion as possible, to avoid the poseur factor. And now their new label goes and sends me Vol. 8 to review. Once again, they try to cash in on the popularity of Pantera by having Douchebag Darla and Phillis Asshomo make some guest appearances on here. Admittedly, the first two songs are pretty good, and feature no “guest stars.” Then things start falling apart with “groovy” riffs, overdriven vocals, Country twang (seriously), Alternative queerness, blind stupidity, and other assorted bullshit. I just hope that Ian and Charlie don’t infect the newly reformed S.O.D. with this insanity.
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Angra - Fireworks
I seem to recall this Helloween-style Metal band being a bit heavier than they are here. Still you can’t help be to be impressed with their technical ability, but I would have liked a little more meat.
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Angelkill - Casket Lullabies
With lyrics like, “children feast on the deceased,” from the song, “Man Eating Man,” I couldn’t possibly give this a bad review. These guys bring us another full-length album filled with gore galore. This well-produced opus from Angelkill is full of meticulously mastered guitar work, aggressive vocals and morbid lyricism, making it a must for anyone’s collection.
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Angelkill - Blood Stained Memories
Kick ass Thrashy Death Metal.
[Metal Curse #11 had an additional loose page (“Last Second Additions”) inserted into the centerfold of the zine, featuring a bunch of even-shorter-than-usual “bonus” reviews of stuff that arrived after the deadline for that issue. This is one of those “Last Second Additions” reviews.]
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Ancients Rebirth - Damnated Hell’s Arrival
According to their press release “Damnated Hell’s Arrival is an amazing and flawless technical hellwrath black metal assault.” Someone at Necropolis must be a little confused about the meaning of the words “technical” and “flawless,” because this is neither. But, it is super fucking intense. The band’s ultra fast Black Thrash is maybe something like a less memorable (and less awesome) Venom on (more) speed. They also do a really impressive cover of “Flag of Hate.” And at just over 30 minutes, this is long for an EP, so that’s cool, too.
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Ancient Rites - Fatherland
This Belgian Black Metal band has been around forever (or at least it seems that way) and though they have been around a long time, this is only their third full-length album (they have a “best of” album and a couple 7-inch EPs floating around as well). This album’s topic might put off some people as European Nationalism is generally considered along the same lines as Nazism (the Germans refer to their homeland as “the fatherland” as do some other Germanic peoples). Lyrically, this is totally apolitical. They don’t endorse any form of government and I really have no problem with the sort of nationalism that Gunther and the boys are displaying. You can love your land, your country and your people without being racist and this is exactly what they are espousing here. Musically, this runs the gamut of Metal styles, ranging from the Traditional, Melodic Metal to Black Metal with touches of European Folk. While this has definitely been done before, Ancient Rites does a good job of keeping things interesting. The only thing I had a problem with was the fact that I thought that the drums were a bit too loud. There are times when the snare buries the guitar and when you’re doing a guitar solo or a melodic riff, the last thing you need is someone doing a blast beat on an overly loud snare. When the drumming is slow, things are fine, but when the speed jumps to a higher level, things get drowned out. One wonders if they will keep evolving in this direction… I guess the only way to tell is to wait for their next album and find out.
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Anata - The Infernal Depths of Hatred
You know, for once a press release is right. Although they are from Sweden, this does sound like American Death Metal. And extremely well played at that. Also fairly brutal, and memorable, too. Very nicely done.
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