Delirium X Tremens - CreHated from No_Thing
Self-described as “Technological Death Metal hate,” Italy’s DXT do successfully accomplish sounding Old School and modern simultaneously. “Liquefied Emotions” has an old Deicide vibe to it, while standout cut “Trip in Your World” starts out with a Death tease before morphing into an array of swirling start-stop hooks. Elements of old Fear Factory and Spheres-era Pestilence rear their heads throughout also. All in all a solid Death Metal album, save for the occasional tendency to drag on and a few passages of Italian fagspeak.
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De Profundis - Beyond Redemption
Decent Death/Doom offering from the UK. Certainly nowhere near the brink of desolation treaded by the country’s all-time gloomy greats. (Do I really have to name them? Either you know or you don’t care.) Still, a good misery revel nonetheless. I like the vocals, I like the pace, but, there’s really no other way to put it, it needs to be sadder.
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Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
Holy shit! They’re back! Dark Tranquillity is back! They’re Metal again! They’re Metal again! Satan is in his Hell and Dark Tranquillity is Metal again! No longer do they walk the Samael / Tiamat path of gayness. No more getting blown out of the water by bands who have cloned the style they helped create. Not only are they Metal again, this is as vicious and vital as they have ever sounded. I’m not fucking around. Every song is flawless beginning to end. Mikael Stanne’s tormented rasp is back and better than ever. In fact, only “Empty Me” features his clean sung style, and admittedly this is one of my favorites amidst a sea of soon-to-be-classics. I just can’t believe it. Over a decade later, we finally get the album that should have followed Enter Suicidal Angels, and every song is written to perfection. I’m in shock. I just want to scream it from the highest mountain top, Dark Tranquillity is back!
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Daemonicus - Swarm of Death
It is not very often anymore that a 3-song demo blows me the fuck away outright, but this Swedish quintet have done just that with Swarm of Death, their second demo since forming in 2006. Their style flawlessly embodies the work of their country’s Death Metal forefathers. A mid-paced, crushing display of heaviness and groove highly comparable to more recent Grave, but actually much better. Flawless riff follows flawless riff, as the spirit of Nihilist and Carnage is reborn and captured perfectly in a clear, modern production. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In just under thirteen minutes, these 20-something lads have taken me through a whirlwind of nostalgia. Seance, Entombed, Hypocrisy, Dismember, Necrophobic, Unleashed, you name it, the influence shines through these three instant anthems. Comparisons aside, make no mistake, Daemonicus is no tribute band. They are not simply paying homage, but in league with these greats, and I am in awe of them. If only I had a record label. Outstanding. Not one flaw.
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Crimson Glory - Astronomica
After sitting through the gayfest of the Strange and Beautiful reissue, I was not looking forward to reviewing this 2-disc set at all. However, it starts with a pretty good instrumental. Of course, it’s the vocals that I didn’t like before… Then I realize that this album (the band’s fourth) came out eight years later, in 1999, and this is a different singer. This new guy is still very much in the Hard Rock vein, but he’s superior to the old guy. Perhaps not oddly, the music seems better, too. Heavier, even. Well, that’s not saying much, since anything would have been heavier than Strange… But this is a dramatic improvement in all areas, and I’ve never gotten to say that about very many bands. Favorite song title: “Lucifer’s Hammer.”
To make up for there not being any bonus tracks on the previous album’s reissue, this one comes with an whole extra CD of live and demo tracks.
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Crimson Glory - Strange and Beautiful
Of all of the Metal Mind reissues, Crimson Glory was the one band I somehow wasn’t familiar with. Now I know why. This 1991 album was the band’s third, and is not something I’d have really liked much back then. Or now, honestly. There can be no question about the ability of these guys, but this kind of Prog Hard Rock / Heavy Metal hurts my ears, mostly due to the wailing vocals. This is so lame that I’m surprised that Crimson Glory never made it big in the early ’90s. Thankfully, mercifully, this is one of the Roadrunner / Metal Mind reissues without any bonus tracks.
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Caliban - The Awakening
When enough people like something, it becomes cool to say “it’s dead.” You see this in every fucking Metal magazine you pick up. “Metalcore’s dead, metalcore’s dead!” Even the Metalcore bands are saying it. “Metalcore’s over, we should all go listen to god awful shit like Mastodon, Genghis Tron, Baroness and Gojira now!” Then you read the mag and find raving, glorious reviews of nearly every Metalcore album, not to mention 173 Metalcore ads. These cocksuckers were saying Death Metal was dead during the Columbia era. Never afraid to stray from the herd, I still like Metalcore, like everything else, when it’s done well. Which leads me to this review. Caliban’s new album is awesome. They could give less than a fuck about these trendfucking haters, they have essentially not changed a thing since 2003’s Shadow Hearts. Hey, if it ain’t broke… ? Brutal breakdowns, heartfelt choruses, At the Gates-worship, it works when you’re good. Caliban still stand aside Heaven Shall Burn as Germany’s Metalcore kings. Tell me it’s dead after listening to: “I Will Never Let You Down,” “My Time Has Come,” “I Believe,” and “I’ll Show No Fear.”
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Bloody Sign - Explosion of Elements
45 minutes of well-played but tiresomely unmemorable Death/Thrash. I seem to remember liking their last one a lot better. There was at least a cool Pestilence cover. This album is just a boring blur of speed, shredding, and snarling. Nothing stands out except my desire to listen to something else.
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Bitchslicer - III: Lycanthropic Fellatio
About all these guys have going for them is a cool name. Stupid-on-purpose Joke Thrash that isn’t funny in any way. 21 songs, most of them about a “green skull?” That’s probably a hilarious inside joke at the elementary school these guys attend, but nobody who’s ever been laid is going to get it, or want to.
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