Drawn and Quartered - Return of the Black Death
This band had already participated in the act of creating some of the most ferociously heavy Death Metal known to man or beast, but on this, their third full length album, Drawn and Quartered have achieved complete perfection. Their demonically brutal sound has descended to the cavernous depths reserved only for legends like Morbid Angel, Immolation, Vital Remains, and Blood Ritual. This album simply has no flaws. It flows with sadistic emotion, from its hyper-speed adrenaline surges to the moments of diabolical crawl. Each song is a weapon, with a deep vocal attack in league with Ross Dolan. The riff writing and song structuring have just been honed to a razor-sharp tee, reminding this elated Death Metal buff of the sheer entertainment value of music that sounds authentically evil. Someone who tells you that Death Metal’s glory days are over should be played this album, then shot.
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Draugwath - Dwellers of the Cursed Forest
This CD is one of those “limited edition for die-hard collectors only” releases that eBay surfers love to hate. Draugwath released a demo back in 1995 and then changed their name to BlackDeath. Since changing their name, BlackDeath has released three albums and a number of lesser releases. Now that their “cult” status is firmly established, demand for their old demo material has arisen and with that, you have the Dwellers of the Cursed Forest limited edition (500 copies only…) CD pressing. Musically, Draugwath sounds a lot like Von or Hellhammer if their music got mixed with Horna or one of the other Lo-Fi Northern European Black Metal bands. They beat one riff into the floor, and with the typical “freezing cold/necro” production, much of this CD is headache-inducing. The sound quality is bad and what you are essentially getting is a demo that is not only a decade old, but also recorded using shitty equipment. If you love it “grim” and “freezing cold,” Draugwath delivers that by the ton. If you want or are expecting something better in either playing or production, look elsewhere. Fans of BlackDeath and connoisseurs of underproduced Black Metal will love this, everyone else will be selling this on eBay.
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Dragonland - Starfall
Power Metal.
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Draugar - Weathering the Curse
I seriously have no idea what Odin sees in these San Francisco Black Metal bands. I don’t even know how he tells them apart. They all suck, and this one-man project is no exception. Feeble, noisy, bargain basement Black Metal with awful production. To describe this as “melancholic” is insulting, as this implies the notion of some kind of feeling other than going-through-the-motions. I guess this guy just needed some kind of aural representation to justify his insatiable need to put on corpse paint and spikes. All hail the new breed of 20th rate imitators.
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Dispatched - Terrorizer
Fast, melodic, and tight Swedish Death/Thrash with a slight Black Metal touch and full-time keyboards. Heavily recommended for fans of Norther and In Flames. Co-produced by Anders Friden at Studio Fredman.
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Dismember - Where Ironcrosses Grow
Compared to their last release, Hate Campaign, this album has a decidedly retro feel to it. Hate Campaign was more melodic and polished, while this one has more in common with their first two albums. This is the Dismember that I remember from Like an Ever Flowing Stream and Pieces. The songs are markedly shorter and though there are still some melodic moments, this is pure brutality and aggression like the old shit. The songs range in length from around two and a half minutes long to just a hair over five. The result is an album that seems to go by a lot faster than it actually does. Where Ironcrosses Grow has few frills, no experimentation, and a whole lot of that good old-fashioned bludgeon-you-to-death-with-a-sledgehammer Death Fucking Metal that we all loved so much back in 1991. If you like that Swedish over-distorted sound a-la Sunlight Studios, you’ll fucking love this album.
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Devastator - Infernal Devastation
Though this was released by Regimental Records, it is supposed to be a demo. Either way, it’s limited to 500 copies, which is probably 450 too many, considering how fucking awful this sounds. I imagine that Infernal Devastation might have been better if they’d actually spent some money and recorded it on something better than a “2-track analog” recorder. For those of us not in the know, a 2-track analog recorder is a boom box with a microphone attached to it. This CD is essentially a glorified rehearsal tape. If you’ve ever heard a badly recorded rehearsal tape, you’ll know exactly how this sounds. The drums are loud as fuck, the guitars are buried somewhere underneath everything and it sounds like it could have been recorded in the ’80s or early ’90s. The five songs on this CD are fairly hard to judge owing to the shit sound. It sounds like a Black Metal band trying to incorporate old Slayer riffs into their Bathory worship. This is a coaster, pure and simple. It’s a waste of money and there’s no nicer way to put it. To the folks at Regimental, either give these guys a budget to do a decent recording or don’t bother next time.
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Darksun - El Legado
Hey, now I have something to listen to when I’m in the mood for keyboard-driven Power Glam sung in Spanish. Which I’m assuming is the same mood most folks are in when they decide to join NAMBLA. This record is the aural equivalent to having R. Kelly pee on you.
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Damnation Army - The Art of the Occult
A second rate rip-off of equal parts Under a Funeral Moon-era Darkthrone and Nightwing-era Marduk from this one-man Swedish Black Metal band. At least he picks good bands and albums to steal from, and the playing, vocals, and drum programming are all done convincingly well. Still, why you would need this over the originals is a mystery to me.
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