I’m old. I bought Power from Hell (1985) and The Force (1986) when they were brand-new releases, and probably still have my antique cassettes around here somewhere if they haven’t already disintegrated into dust. They’re classic Thrash albums that have, as far as I’m concerned, stood the test of time, and despite sharing some members (guitarist Nige Rockett, drummer Steve Grice, and believe it or not, The Force’s singer Sy Keeler), this Onslaught might as well be an entirely different band. In fact, it might as well be Exodus, let’s say from their Shovel Headed Kill Machine album on forward. I remember thinking that Onslaught’s 2007’s return-from-the-grave, Killing Peace, was okay, but then never felt like listening to it more than a handful of times. I suppose that for a “modern” Thrash album Sounds of Violence isn’t bad, and Sy’s vocals are absolutely vicious (when he doesn’t foolishly distort/overdrive them as in the title track, or have to shout some of the more stupid lyrics), which in this case is not entirely a compliment. But “not bad” isn’t anywhere nearly good enough for The Devil’s Legion, even with no less than Phil Campbell and Tom Angelripper helping out on the sterile cover of Motorhead’s “Bomber.” All I could think of while listening to this is how much more I’d rather be hearing something these guys seem to have forgotten:
“Hellbound the horsemen ride
Let there be death to all
Ride through the burning skies
See that no one survives
Send their souls to Hell
Let there be death!”

Let me first say that the Macabre guys are among the coolest dudes not only in the Chicago area, but really in the universe. And their musical ability is absolutely beyond belief. Watching this band perform live is nothing less than awesome, in the literal sense of the word. Many in the crowd stand mesmerized by the complexity, difficulty and intensity that appear so effortlessly done. And it breaks my black heart to say anything even a little negative about my heroes, but Grim Scary Tales is cute and amusing when it should be vicious and monstrous. It starts strong, though! The first track, “Locusta,” is everything I had hoped for, and there are other scorchers (“Dracula,” for one, and parts of the others). But there are also the songs (“Nero’s Inferno,” “The Big Bad Wolf,” “The Bloody Benders”) when I roll my eyes in disbelief, sigh, and think about how glad I am that I’m listening to this alone. I expected sing-alongs, but they’re often super-goofy, and Corporate Death and/or Nefarious sing “in character” in nearly every song, so the vocals are always different, and well… let’s be honest, the vox are often Macabre’s weak link, and make the song “Mary Ann” essentially Power Metal, which although possibly the best track here, is not really what I think of when I think Macabre. They also cover the Venom classic, “Countess Bathory,” hands down the most-covered in all Venom’s arsenal. I love it, too, but I’ve heard 666 x 666 different renditions of this, and didn’t need another. How about “Under a Spell” or even a non-Cronos track like “Blackened Are the Priests”? I guess Macabre needed one about a serial killer, though… Perhaps it’s time to move beyond that restriction.
I feel that I should point out, again, the unholy level of musical ability these guys possess. I’m not sure that anyone else is even in their league. And while Grim Scary Tales is frequently supremely impressive, it’s also too often silly, like a cartoon version of the band’s 1993 magnum opus Sinister Slaughter.

The sun has seemingly set on the Deathcore fad. It would appear that this is the 14th minute of fame for the once hyped genre that gave us probably too many quality bands too fast. This is to be expected in the MP3 era and it’s 8-second attention span. One has to wonder if in the future a band like Oceano, who were signed seemingly overnight from their Myspace page, will be able to turn a single head. It’s sad for someone like me, a bona fide music addict, who cares nothing about the category, its popularity or lack thereof. Quality is quality regardless of how many bands sound similar. It’s also sad because bands like Oceano will feel the pressure to alter their proven successful style to avoid being yesterday’s news. Which brings me to why I believe Contagion isn’t as good as debut album, Depths. Fewer breakdowns and less groove, at this point we’ve heard just about every major Deathcore/Metalcore band go this way. I don’t agree. I want memorable songs. Depths had an assload of them, Contagion has very few. That’s not to say this album is completely worthless. Adam Warren’s inhumanly bestial vocals are worth the price alone (as if anyone actually bought CDs anymore). It’s just that as a mid-paced, grinding Death Metal band, Oceano are more in the middle of the pack. As opposed to the slamming, pit riff-driven, groove laden Deathcore beast that lives in their media-oppressed hearts, where they once stood at the forefront. Oh well, here’s to every band being Post-something, at least for the next 8 seconds.

You can always count on Sinister to deliver the Death Metal, and Legacy of Ashes is just overflowing with old school evilness. I’ve heard people -assholes, really- complain that this release doesn’t break any new ground, which I suppose is true. But it doesn’t need to. I don’t have a problem with perhaps a couple of these riffs sounding familiar. Sinister’s main man Aad has been at this for two decades, and he knows exactly how to create intense, memorable songs, which is precisely what he has done yet again. There is a limited edition digipak version of this album with four bonus tracks, but for once there is little need to track it down since the extra songs are rough-sounding “pre-production demos” of songs from 2006’s Afterburner. I’m not in favor of different versions with additional/alternative tracks, but if you’re going to do that, give us a live DVD or something worth getting excited about.

I somehow missed out on this band’s first two albums, 2008’s Pre-Mortal Autopsy and 2009’s Mortuary Rendezvous, despite the fact that initially Sinners Burn was comprised of the original Paganizer lineup. Only drummer Jocke Ringdahl remains from the first album, and each recording has had a different singer. Having not (yet!!) heard the others, I can’t compare them, but it would be difficult to top Insanity Warmachine’s decidedly Old School Swedish Death Metal, and new growler Marcus Ankarberg is just raw enough, without being completely unintelligible. Some of the riffs bring to mind early Grave and Dismember, helped along by the rusty chainsaw guitar sound. Honestly, did you really even need to know more than “Swedish Death Metal” to immediately track this down?

First of all, I’m sure that everyone knows about Behemoth main-man Nergal’s fight against leukemia. I wish him a recovery as speedy as his band’s fastest blast beat.
On to the actual review: If you like Metal (and why else would you be reading this?), then you almost have to worship Behemoth, arguably Poland’s greatest band, and this 3-disc set (2 DVDs and 1 CD) is an absolute must-buy situation, if you will. The video (anamorphic widescreen, of course) and audio (5.1 Surround) are outstanding. You’d have to go high-def to look or sound better. The first DVD has two entire concerts on it, the initial one recorded in Warsaw, 2009; while the second is from Paris, 2008 (the audio of which was released on CD in 2008 as At the Arena ov Aion - Live Apostasy). Behemoth’s high-intensity blend of Black and Death Metal is amazing to see performed live, and the set-lists for the gigs are deep enough to unearth “From the Pagan Vastlands” and “Wolves Guard My Coffin,” both of which I was overjoyed to hear. Of course there is a bit of repetition between the shows, but they’re different enough - my personal favorite, “Christgrinding Avenue,” is only played in the Paris set, for example.
By the way, if you happen to be photosensitive, the strobe lights used in the concerts will probably give you a fucking seizure.
The second DVD features two documentaries (in Polish, with English subtitles), and I think every video clip the band has created to date (plus the “making of” them). The final disc, the CD, is the audio from the Warsaw performance, and a nice bonus for those unable to rip the sound from DVD to iPod.

New singer Jonas Stalhammar (ex-guitarist of God Macabre and Macabre End) seems to have energized The Crown, although I’ll admit to not always getting the lyrics. Of course I know that these Swedish blasphemers hate the Bastard Son, as any rational person must, but I can’t growl along with insanity such as, “There is no God but God / Only The Lord is Lord,” which would make me shatter this CD and then melt the shards had this been an unknown band. Fortunately, in this case, I understand that it’s a condemnation of religion. That said, the music is the super intense Thrashy Death Metal I was expecting, and perhaps more memorable than ever. And although I could have done without the “tribute” riffs, I have to concede that a Slayer homage in a song called “Angel of Death 1839” is kind of funny. Jonas’ voice is not the most raw, but his esophagus-scarring rasp fits the music perfectly, and is understandable enough that a lyric sheet isn’t strictly necessary, although it helps. But what is necessary is tracking down the limited edition digipak version of Doomsday King, as it contains an extra CD with four bonus tracks. And that truly pisses me off. The total time for the album, with the second disc’s extra songs, is only 56:23, so it would have very easily all fit on one CD. If record labels wonder why sales are dropping off a cliff, maybe it’s because it’s easier (and certainly faster) to download something for free and get the “limited edition” bonus tracks, the iTunes bonus track, the Best Buy bonus track, and the WhyTheFuckDoYouThinkPeopleStealThisShit.com bonus track, than it is to attempt to figure out which version you need to buy to actually get the complete thing.

Sweden has done more than its share for the progression of the Metal genre through the years. The land of Vikings has birthed some of the best that Death and Black Metal has to offer, no doubt about it. Once upon a time, it seemed like every month there was a new Swedish Metal act seemingly melting their way through the snow with a fiercely new, exciting sound designed to push the envelope of extreme music even further. Sweden’s latest export: Ghost, ensures that tradition continues… albeit in a bit more retrospective manner.
At first glance this 6 piece band, composed of Lord Emeritus on vocals and 5 other “Nameless Ghouls,” would seem to be just another Metal band milking Satan for inspiration, if not outright shock factor (although, let’s face it… just who is actually offended by the Devil’s presence in Rock music anymore?), but that is where the similarity ends. This band (formed in 2008) is drawing it’s inspiration from the Hard Rock of 30 odd years ago. No blast beats, no demonic gargling (well, a bit…) and no super speedy kick drums chugging along at 280 BPM on this album. Instead you get well-crafted songs that are simply oozing with blatant vocal hooks (all about human sacrifice, women who bathe in virgin blood, and generally raving about how cool it is to hang out with Satan), epic sinister riffs, and chugging, mid-tempo rhythms that seduce the listener with each subsequent spin of this disc.
Imagine Blue Oyster Cult fused with early Mercyful Fate and a touch of dare I say Cheap Trick, and you’d be in the ballpark. Lord Emetrius has an incredible grasp for delivering an emotive, soulful performance that is truly the black icing on this Satanic cake. Obvious comparisons to the legendary lungs of King Diamond are easy to make, but Emetrius’ vox are not really in the same register at all. He sings with a clean, almost reserved quality that rarely enters the falsetto. For me, I like that he’s not trying to sound hard whatsoever; it gives it all a really hypnotic feel. And in this musical climate for Metal, I think it’s a pretty fearless choice. Power Metal screaming would just kill the vibe, and gruff stuff would loose the band’s identity altogether.
What I find to be the most compelling aspect of the band is their seeming disinterest in all the baggage that plagues current Metal trends. No Viking pageantry, or “Troo” Black Metal chest thumping here. It feels like Ghost was frozen in Lucifer’s meat locker in 1981 and unleashed upon today’s world, blissfully unaware of Metal’s last three decades of stylistic evolution. I for one, find it a breath of fresh evil.
I really can’t say enough good things about the sound of this album as a whole. Opus Eponymous sports one of the most honest sounding engineering jobs I’ve heard on a modern Metal album in a long, long time. The band’s choice of tones are superb. No super-digitally compressed, lifeless guitars on this bad boy. Just warm, tube amp crunch very much along the lines of Tony Iommi’s tone back in the ’70s. Same goes for the bass: really deep-and mildly overdriven, providing an excellent low end that is mixed very prominently, but is never muddy. The drum tones, while not quite as old-school as the sound from the Elizabeth 7-inch, or the band’s previous demo tracks, are still refreshingly natural and anchor the mix with a solid foundation. Instead of overblown choirs and cheezy, melodramatic string samples, the band’s keyboardist uses a Hammond organ tone very reminiscent of Deep Purple, with the occasional Prog Rock, Moog synth, or church bell thrown in for good measure. These embellish the tracks, and serve up some dark atmosphere, without becoming redundant.
I won’t waste time going through the album’s individual songs, as I believe it as a work to be digested as a whole; not unlike the concept-album format. Each tune flows seamlessly into the next, and (as is the mark of a great record) all seems to end way too soon… requiring yet another listen. Trust me, it’s been in my car’s CD player for a month straight. There is a lot to like in this music; it’s arranged to perfection. My current theory is that the musicians must be from other bands, because this is not the kind of musical focus and maturity bands usually display on a first album.
I’m really curious to find out just who the dudes are, besides “Nameless Ghoul, Nameless Ghoul,” etc…
This is my favorite album of 2010, and now that it’s been released in North America this past Jan 18th, I believe it’s destined to become many an open-minded Metalhead’s favorite of 2011.

I have to wonder if Thomas Warrior named this band after the evil Decepticon city that transforms into a gargantuan Tyrannosaurus rex, Trypticon. Maybe his next band will be called Starscream. At least he’s not wearing L.A. Guns shirts anymore, but I just don’t know about Triptykon’s… Art Metal, I guess I’ll call it. “Shatter” was the Japan-only bonus track on the band’s debut from earlier in 2010, Eparistera Daimones, so now the rest of the world gets to hear it without paying $50 for an import CD (or just downloading it, you naughty bastards!). You also get two more Tripty songs, although one of them is over four minutes of Ambient soundscape, and two live Celtic Frost covers (“Circle of the Tyrants” and “Dethroned Emperor”). The only real problem that I have with Trypticon Triptykon is how uneven the music is. Some bands can blend every Extreme Metal style together and make it seem natural. Tom doesn’t blend styles so much as juxtapose them, with decidedly mixed results.