Dawn of Ashes is hard to classify. I guess the tag “Industrial” is wide enough to cover it. This is very mechanical sounding with robotic beats and effects-laden guitars. What makes this release difficult to categorize is that there are only three “new” tracks on here. “Farewell to the Flesh,” “Torture Device Part 2,” and “Blood-Shed with the 3rd Eye” are all new, but the other songs are remixes of “Carnal Consummation in the Empty Space” (three different versions) and “Seething the Flesh in the River ov Phlegethon.” With the remixes placed in the middle of the new tracks, you get music that covers a lot of different areas. Some of the songs are Techno sounding, coming off as a more Industrial version of Suicide Commando or God Module, while others are closer to Atmospheric Black Metal infused material that sounds something like an Industrial version of Dimmu Borgir. It covers a lot of area, but it still falls under the same mechanical/robotic style that classifies this as Industrial. The remix tracks are a bit hit-or-miss, but the new material is better and more consistent. I would have arranged this differently, with the new cuts first and then the remixes at the end as “bonus” tracks. As it is, the track order throws off the consistency, making Farewell to the Flesh sound thrown together where it could have been more cohesive.

Ever since Sabathan left these veteran Belgian Black Metallers in 2006, leaving behind no original members and prompting longtime guitarist Nornagest to switch from backing to lead vocals, things haven’t quite been the same. Obsidium, the group’s ninth overall full-length, and third post-Sabathan offering, is a prime example of that fact. So much so that perhaps a name change should be in order. This just isn’t the same Enthroned. First off, the production is horrible. I know it’s not the first Black Metal album to feature barely audible bass guitar, but this LP has no bottom end at all. The kick drums sound like empty 2-liter bottles. Aren’t you supposed to have the whole production thing somewhat figured out by the second decade of your recording career? Secondly, the playing in parts is messy, noisy, and rambling. Certain songs lack structure and/or vocal patterns. Speaking of the vocals, Nornagest really sucks… bad. He’s got a convulsive, gruff yell that has no place in their aesthetic. Even the songs that do have throwback elements to the old Enthroned ways —the blinding speed of “Nonus Sacramentvm,” the diabolical melodies of “Petraolevm Salvia,” or otherwise high quality Blackened anthems like “Horns Aflame” and “Deathmoor”— are desecrated by the awful vocals. I am reminded of the pure shit that Marduk has become. Not only because both bands now have these cranky-old-man-with-throat-condition-shouting vocalists, but songs like “Oblivious Shades” and “Thy Blight Vacuum” (which also features gay talking, aka: fagspeak) also hint that these guys have been listening to way too much of Marduk’s recent Post-Metal/Sludge output. I’m all for change, but only if it’s change for the better.

In a lot of ways, Power Metal is a very well defined area with a very well defined sound. When you pick up an album by a Power Metal band like Iron Savior, you pretty much know what you’re going to get. The genre stereotypes are out in full force here. Anthems to Metal? Check. Power ballads? Yup. Blazing guitar solos? In every track. Science Fiction/Fantasy lyrics with heroes slaughtering monsters and faceless evil armies? 90% of the album, buddy. Everything executed with practiced precision? If you’re an Iron Savior fan, you’re getting what Iron Savior does best. Is it anything new or adventurous for the genre? No fucking way. This is Power Metal for Power Metal fans. If you love Power Metal, you’re going to love this - if you don’t already have several different versions of The Landing in various forms from various other bands (including Iron Savior themselves). I’ve heard this from Hammerfall, Total Eclipse, Primal Fear and every other Power Metal band I’ve ever been exposed to. If I didn’t live through the era when Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, Heathen, Anvil Chorus, Brocas Helm and any number of other classic Heavy Metal/Melodic Thrash bands ruled the day, I would think this shit was awesome. Metal and proud as hell of it? Fuck yeah! I’m there with you. The problem I have with Iron Savior is not that they couldn’t pull off an album that kicks ass (this does) but that they couldn’t do something daring or adventurous. This was formula executed to perfection. I’ve been around the Metal block so many times that they’ve named a street after me [Christgrinding Avenue, if I’m not mistaken. -Editor]. Formula executed to perfection is fine, but for a jaded Metalhead like me, The Landing is like Chinese takeout. It’s great when you’re consuming it, but 30 minutes later, you’re hungry again.

What is it with guys named Matti and superb Death Metal? It just seems that whatever project Matti Way decides to sink his teeth into —most notably Disgorge and Pathology— turns out to be guttural gold. His first official release with Russian gore fiends Abominable Putridity is no exception. In fact, The Anomalies of Artificial Origin might possibly be his magnum opus. Eight tracks of relentless, slam-infused Death/Grind that represent a perfect marriage of technical proficiency and barbaric groove. Killing on Adrenaline reborn anyone? You simply can’t put a price on the savage breakdowns found on “A Massacre in the North” or “Letting Them Fall…” The drummer, who goes only by Alexander, steals the show in such moments with a stop-on-a-dime double bass prowess that only high-powered automatic weaponry can match. He has the gravity blast figured out as well. The knuckle-dragging rhythms of “Lack of Oxygen” might even get the jaws in Devourment and Waking the Cadaver to drop. And don’t forget, all the while, Matti Way gargling a live baby. The title track is equipped with enough deedly-doo-deedly-doos to bedazzle the Techgazers… and if you call in the next 10 minutes —’cause we can’t do this all day— we’ll throw in their primitive mosh tactics at no extra charge. “The Last Communion” (which also features new Deeds of Flesh throat Cory Athos on guest gurgles) wraps things up with hooks that could get Stephen Hawking in the pit. It’s unashamedly urban and irresistibly addictive. If there’s anything wrong with the record it’s that it’s too damn short. Mike Muir isn’t the only guy who wants more. I suppose naysayers could also argue that this isn’t anything you haven’t heard before (and from Way himself, no less), but they’re just pissed off at the world because they can’t dance. Neither of these minor flaws will be denying this heavy-hitter a spot in my rotation.

When I saw the Moribund Cult label on this release, I knew that this was going to be some sick ass shit. It is. Azaghal has been at this a long time (since 1995) and this is their third release on Moribund, their ninth album overall. Nemesis kind of reminds me of Dissection at times, particularly where the guitar-work is concerned. It isn’t The Somberlain, but it does kick ass in all the right places. I like that the guitars are front and center with the percussion in the background. The bass isn’t audible but I think the guitar harmonics work better if the six-strings are overpowering. Though the whole album is solid, my favorite tracks are from the second half. The faster, more chaotic stuff comes first, with the more atmospheric and melodic songs saved for later. My favorite track on Nemesis has to be “Ex Nihilo.” It just fucking sounds evil. The riffing is slower and heavier compared to the other songs, but it’s the atmosphere that I really like. Azaghal uses some zoned-out clean vocals, some backwards shit and other effects to inject additional darkness into the track. “Black Legions of Satan” and the title track, “Nemesis,” are tied for second place. “Black Legions of Satan” has a strong hook and an almost Black Heavy Metal feel to it. It’s one that is sure to go over well live because it gets your head banging right away. “Nemesis,” likewise, has a powerful hook and possesses a strong, Bathory-esque “epic” atmosphere, but with a Black Metal sound. This is definitely an album I recommend. The only detraction that I had isn’t even that significant. I would have arranged the tracks in a different order so that things build up to “Ex Nihilo” instead of having that song in the middle of the album. The track is so different from the previous four songs that it’s placement kind of throws you. That’s only a 0.25 point deduction, though. This album is still well worth purchasing and I recommend that folks check it out.

The life of a music addict can be quite fulfilling, yet also very disheartening at the same time. Just like any other junkie, we need our fix, we want it now, and keep it coming. When I first heard Heavy Breathing two years ago, I was immediately hooked. I listened to it nearly every day for several months. I just couldn’t get enough and I ended up burning myself out on it. And then, just like some scatterbrained coke whore with ADD, something else caught my ear and stole my attention, unfairly plunging Black Breath into the backburner depths of forgetfulness (along with ex-girlfriends’ phone numbers and 87% of everything I learned in school). But when I saw Sentenced to Life in my review stack… holy shit, my eyes lit up like a crackhead on Christmas. “The shit be callin’ me, man!!” You see, this Seattle horde’s brew is a potent one, and it’s an extremely unique buzz. They take the early ’90s Swedeath sound and mix it with a pissed off Hardcore urgency. This is high octane brute force, people. The Sunlight tone is nailed harder than Christ’s feet. How authentic is it? A buddy walked in on me playing this album and asked me when Dismember got a new singer. Fans of the aforementioned 2010 masterpiece will be pleased to find that not much has changed. Sure, they may have tightened things up a bit. A somewhat leaner, meaner sound with some of the fat trimmed away. Which sadly means there aren’t any standout Christ-hating anthems as timeless as “Black Sin (Spit on the Cross),” but there’s also no Danzigesque striptease mistakes like “Unholy Virgin” either. “Home of the Grave” is a very different song for these guys, especially the ending, but it doesn’t disrupt the raw, grisly flow of the record. Once again Neil McAdams’ vocals emerge as the star of the show. He’s got a borderline Street Punk/Thrash scream here, yet it lends itself perfectly to the band’s high-energy buzzsaw Death Metal. All I have to say about it is, “FEAST OF THE DAMNED!” Do yourself a solid and pick this shit up. It’s a near flawless ride that’s “hard and it’s heavy, dirty and mean.”

This is not a new Profanatica album, but a compilation of stuff that comprises a new mini-album (the first seven tracks) and the Grand Master Sessions vinyl box set release on CD. The new songs are pretty much in the same vein as the old material on display. Profanatica, even in their earliest incarnation, was more of a Death Metal band than anything else. With a lineage that included Incantation, it’s no surprise that their sound is more Death Metal than what we consider “Black Metal” today. Truth be told, I was never much of a fan of Profanatica or Havohej (basically Profanatica with just Paul Ledney). They were a band that you either loved or hated. I wasn’t really into their kill your mom for Satan / random blasphemy with sexual reference lyrics, or their tendency to appear on their album covers without pants or completely nude. I’m from San Francisco and men who do that kind of shit here are called “fags.” From a marketing perspective, giving prospective fans a really, really good reason to not buy your albums is always bad, and no straight Metalhead is going to want to buy an album with a bunch of nude guys on the cover (unless it’s an orgy scene with an equal or greater number of nude females there, too). Musically, they were never very impressive. Their best material, even here, is their “live in the studio” set (the last nine tracks). The new studio songs have good sound, but the raw, live sound does their music more justice than a sanitized studio recording. The keyboard soundscapes that Aragon Amori made are essentially filler tracks that divide the new music from the old. They aren’t old Mortiis or Wongraven by a long shot. I would have probably liked this more if it was just the “live in the studio” stuff, as the additional material wasn’t very impressive.
[Note: Our review copy has 23 tracks, but apparently some versions of this release only have the first 13. -Editor.]

Holy Hell is it good to hear Crypticus again! I thought Patrick Bruss had fallen off the face of the Earth after dropping 2005’s classic Dedicated to the Impure LP on us. This time he has a real drummer backing him (Brynjar Helgetun of recent Ribspreader/Paganizer fame) and the Crypticus trademark sound of Impaled-gone-Swedeath is still kicking names and taking ass. The vokills are brutally, blatantly, and beautifully pitch-shifted a la Carcass on steroids, adding a nice, thick layer of grime on an already filth-ridden aesthetic. Their half of the split is 11 minutes of gore-drenched perfection.
Scaremaker is the Death Metal lovechild of Billy and Vanessa Nocero of Razorback records-founding fame. I remember Billy from the tangible zine days. The Razorback camp were always some of the coolest folks to correspond with, and they put out some quality underground shit, too. God damn I miss those days. Anyway, they’ve enlisted the talents of Encoffination/Father Befouled skinsman, Elektrokutioner, and the trio’s half of the split is a bit more adventurous. Stylistically a foundation of slow to mid-tempo Old School Death that Impetigo would be proud of, with a few Crust and Sludge hooks thrown in. They also occasionally toy with varied Doom elements, like the mammoth Stoner grooves found on “Demon Slave” and “Mansion of the Macabre” (the former showing that Vanessa is every bit as good a singer as she is a growler). Still, their half is somehow lacking a certain something… I don’t know what. It could just be that nothing sounds as heavy after Crypticus. I’d like to hear what Scaremaker could make of a full-length release with cleaned up, stronger production. Come to think of it, a new long-player from Crypticus wouldn’t hurt either.

This sees the Animosity lineup getting back together for a new album. While I liked Corrosion of Conformity in the old days, I have to say that this album isn’t what I was expecting. There are parts that are heavy, but a lot of this sounds like Soundgarden or some other Seattle Grunge act. I kept waiting for this album to start kicking ass, but it never really happened. The playing was slow, but unlike Doom, it lacked heaviness and atmosphere. You could tell that something was missing. It wasn’t fire-breathing, aggressive music. It was more like Rock & Roll but without any strong hooks or any real groove. At some point, Corrosion of Conformity stopped being angry Hardcore kids and tried to go for some mainstream appeal, but from the sound of things, they’re about a decade late. If these guys can get some strong hooks and memorable riffs into their music, they’ll kick ass. Until then, this leaves me wanting.