Annihilator - Carnival Diablos
I’m not sure if it’s these goofy riffs or the staccato vocal phrasings, but this is fucking annoying, and embarrassing to listen to. I remember liking this band’s first album or two, back in 1904, but I quickly lost interest. Now, after not hearing anything from then until now, I’m glad I missed out. This disc is like every bad idea I’ve ever made fun of all rolled into one big lump of cliche-powered horseshit. Dorky riffs? Check. Butt Rock singer who thinks he is “tough,” but gives in to singing all “sweetly” on their “power ballad”? Check. Lyrics that would have already been so used up as to be unintentionally humorous by 1973? Check. Repeating the song title a million times in a row in every song? Check. Cock Rock song right in the middle of the album? Chec… Wait a second! What the fuck was that?!? Oh man, this is just ridiculous.
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Angra - Rebirth
Angra certainly know how to inject the right amount of variation into their brand of Power Metal. There are tracks with a great melodic flow where the power and emotion really shine, and there are a few slightly more fast-paced songs that let loose some aggression. There are also a couple of nicely-done ballads that manage to keep the listener intrigued despite their much slower pace. Rebirth is a fascinating concept-album, but I won’t give away the plot. Let’s just say that Angra tells a great story through some of the finest Power Metal in the scene today.
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Andromeda - Extension of the Wish
This is a weird combination of a few oddly staccato “Nu-Metal” riffs with more traditional Power Metal riffing and structures, a “guitar whiz,” a sappy vocalist who sounds like he might like to be Queensryche’s squealer, and just horrible keyboards that would make even the most totally lame ’80s New Wave bands laugh their asses off. Destroy the embarrassing keyboards and muzzle the singer, and this might not be too bad. As is, I am left wondering why such a good drummer would bother jerking off with these guys.
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Ancient Gods - Mystic Lands
This is a Chicago Death Metal band with a decidedly “melodic” European edge to its style. However, that’s not to say that this is wimpy in any way, because this band expertly fuses intensity with catchiness in a way I suppose somewhat similar to early In Flames. In other words, to quote a certain bad motherfucker, this kicks rectal padding.
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Amon Amarth - The Crusher
The mighty Swedes are back with their tried-and-true formula of hard-hitting Death Metal. The Crusher presents 9 new tales deeply entrenched in Viking culture and Norse mythology. Cleverly written songs and addictive guitar riffs are typical of an Amon Amarth album, and this one is no exception. As always, Johan Hegg’s unparalleled battle-roar is backed by ferocious drumming and soaring, shredding guitar melodies. Just as with its predecessors, The Crusher was recorded at Abyss Studios. This new recording initially didn’t seem to pack quite as much of a punch as previous efforts. Its full impact didn’t really hit me until about the third or fourth spin. I am now convinced this is easily the band’s best effort to date, and a true masterpiece of Death Metal. By the way, the version of this release I received features an impressive cover of Possessed’s “Eyes of Horror.”
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All Else Failed - Archetype
All Else Failed failed. Noisy, incoherent Metalcore with pathetic vocals. Don’t waste the dough.
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Akrabu - Anunnakian Incantations
For those of you who never got to hear the rather badly underproduced Serpent Lust Arts demo by this band, their style might come as a bit of a surprise. Akrabu is the brainchild of Vampyr Scorpios of Crimson Moon fame and like all of the other bands on Memento Mori, Akrabu is Dark Ambient rather than Metal. The main instrument on this album is an acoustic guitar and the playing style reminded me a lot of the latest album by Melechesh (Djinn). Like Melechesh, Akrabu incorporates the Mesopotamian/Arabic scales into a good part of their music and this album has a very Middle Eastern feel to much of it. The vocals range from whispered incantations to strange drugged out singing to spoken passages. The atmosphere is almost universally dark and mystical at the same time. When you consider that this was recorded in a 4-track studio, this sounds fucking great. You get that dark feeling and at the same time, the sound is polished enough so that everything comes in clearly.
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Agathocles - Mince Core History 1989-1993
What we have here is basically every 7-inch EP the band recorded between ‘89 and ‘93. Includes material from splits with Social Genocide, Violent Headache, Man Is the Bastard, Psycho, Audiorrea, Kompost, and Nyctophobic. This also features the recordings of Anti-Death and Massagraf, two lesser known AG-related projects. If you’re an Agathocles fan, you know what to expect, and you certainly don’t need my loser ass telling you to buy this. If you’ve never heard AG, just imagine the filthiest, rawest, most untamed Grindcore you can think of… now imagine that, but drunk on Ripple. This might actually be the best type of release for a new listener to start out with. Sure, a lot of these recordings sound like shit, and quite frankly, a few songs are nothing more than little noise farts, but this still serves as an excellent 41-track retrospective on one of the most influential bands the Crust/Grind genre will ever know.
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Adversary - Forsaken
Considering how intertwined this band is with Metal Curse magazine, it probably shouldn’t be reviewed by me or anyone else on the staff, but since I bought a copy (yes, I paid money for this…), I figured that I’d throw in my two cents about what I think of it. Adversary has always had a more melodic side to them than most Death Metal bands and Forsaken seems to highlight that aspect with the myriad of catchy, Thrashy riffs on display here. They also have a live drummer in the form of Bob Burns (another long-time associate of Metal Curse magazine, just look at all the covers he’s done…). Unlike The Winter’s Harvest, there are no keyboards and no Industrialized drumming, a-la drum machine. This sort of takes away a bit from their identity though their music is still just as good. One thing about Adversary is that though they are melodic, they aren’t overly so. There is still plenty of brutality to go around on Forsaken and that’s always a plus. The playing on Forsaken is tight and Ray rages away like the bastard offspring of Johnny Hedlund (the singer from Unleashed for the brain dead out there) and Evil Chuck (R.I.P.). Forsaken is more stripped down and Doomier in style than I was expecting, and though I liked the debut album better (I’m a sucker for atmosphere and this doesn’t have the same identity as the debut), this still gave me a healthy dose of whiplash and a concussion that should end my career as a crash test dummy.
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