There aren’t too many bands you can describe with one word. Gothic. That says it all for Paradise Lost. This album reminds me a lot of the Celtic Frost classic Into the Pandemonium, but in no way is Gothic a copy album. Paradise Lost is a very unusual band with a lot of odd, yet interesting, ideas. This LP is a big change from their debut, Lost Paradise, but I feel that Paradise Lost has given this meek world a very new sounding and interesting album to indulge ourselves in.

Unleashed hails from what seems to be the haven of Death Metal: Sweden. They feature the ex-bass player of Nihilist (now Entombed, for the uneducated), Johnny Hedlund. And they sound nothing like Entombed! Having been pretty familiar with their demos (The Utter Dark and …Revenge), I must say that I wasn’t even ready for this. This album just annihilates everything they’ve done before! The production is 100% better for one thing (no, it wasn’t recorded at Sunlight, either). Now Johnny is doing all the vocals, which is cool. I will say Where No Life Dwells isn’t quite the masterpiece, like Left Hand Path, but it’s pretty damn close. For a debut LP, it definitely pulls its weight and more. It’s everything you want in a Death Metal album: brutal, evil, and heavy as fuck! My favorite tracks are: “Before the Creation of Time,” “Into Glory Ride,” and “The Dark One” (far superior to the demo version).

This tape contains the two song Random Decay demo as well as a rehearsal. Both recordings feature the song “Coroner’s Report.” The other two songs are “Random Decay” and “Repulsive Death.” The recording quality is not the best and everything is a bit distorted, but the feeling comes through. This is Death Metal and if you can look beyond the production faults, it’s damn good. The vocals are heavy -real heavy- the music is a little hard to distinguish, but trust me, it’s heavy too. Lyrically is where these guys really grab me: the lyrics are brutal, but not Satanic or even, necessarily, pro-violence or whatever. The only flaw here is that Morgue had a very limited budget to record this on. I have seen this band live a couple of times and I was very impressed. If they could get that sound recorded…

This LP, Morbid Angel’s second for Earache, starts off with the Industrial sounding “Intro,” but quickly regains their well known sound. The lyrics are extremely Satanic, to say the least. Musically this album is somewhat of a departure. There are really strange organ and flute parts, as well as the expected extremely brutal Deathgrind. This makes for a really interesting combination. Also they re-record two songs written before they signed with Earache: “Thy Kingdom Come” and “Abominations.” All things considered, Blessed Are the Sick is very impressive and breaks new ground for Death Metal in general. This album is recommended.

Butt Auger manage to out do the legendary Meat Shits and pack 54 tracks on their side of this 7-inch, as opposed to the Shits’ meager offering of 49. As you’d imagine, this is total Grind/Noise meltdown. Favorite song titles: Butt Auger’s “Cacodemon Up My Ass,” and the Meat Shits’ “Lying Fucking Bitch (Time to Die).”

Okay, in case you don’t know, this band reunites Terry Butler, Bill Andrews, Rick Rozz and Kam Lee. All of whom have been members of Death. And furthermore, it is, so far, the best LP of ‘91, to say the least. And, yes, I have heard Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are the Sick. The only thing holding this back from a ten rating is my fear that somehow their next LP will somehow be even better. The songs are powerful, fast, heavy, memorable, occasionally slow, brutal, and extremely well executed. Kam’s vocals are, in a word, perfect. He is the best Death Metal singer of all time. This even includes the classic song “Corpsegrinder.” From Beyond is mandatory.

Speedy Hardcore with some Death Metal thrown in, plus a cover of Napalm Death’s “The Kill.” To be honest, all 14 songs are really cool. The speed of the music and the Hardcore style vox remind me of the past, but this demo does not sound dated; they just took some cool ideas and updated ‘em. The result is impressive. Check it out.

This is Malevolent Creation’s first album for Roadrunner and it’s an extremely fierce debut. Mark Simpson is really becoming an excellent drummer. And the vox of Bret Hoffmann are powerful and raw in a David Vincent (Morbid Angel) sort of way. This LP was recorded at Morrisound and engineered and mixed by Scott Burns, so that should tell you all you need to know about the recording quality and all that. The cover is by Dan Seagrave, so it’s cool too. Okay, now about the songs: Very brutal, usually fast. “Memorial Arrangements,” “Premature Burial,” “Thou Shall Kill!” and “Injected Sufferage” are all even really memorable, the others are only slightly less so. “Multiple Stab Wounds” is a bit weaker than the rest of this slayfest, but the lyrics are cool, as they are in all ten songs. This is an impressive first effort, and these guys are cool so pick this one up.

Fast, extremely heavy, and extra brutal Death Metal. But wait, that’s not all… Talent. Also reasonably memorable songs. Fucking difficult combo to top. Maimed successfully combines very brutal riffs & drums, and raw, horrific vocals, with technical proficiency. The more I listen to this 4-song tape, the more I notice subtle things, like the very impressive solo in “Of the Dead.” Subtly is new to most Death Metal this brutal. And that is why Maimed is one of the best Death bands around- signed or not.

Interesting… Pretty brutal Death Metal, but it seems to be missing something. Perhaps this is due to the production, which is at best adequate. Yeah it’s heavy, and yeah it’s brutal, but so are about a billion other bands. A little originality would completely save them. That and a better produced effort. However, I do understand that no one puts the money into a 7-inch like they do a full-length album. Anyway, I think their debut album could solve all the production faults.

Fast Thrash. Too bad it’s weak. Maybe not weak, let’s just say average. Nothing sets them apart, except for the very cool instrumental “Spider Jam.” Maybe it’s cause I don’t like the vocals. Actually, I’m almost sure that’s it. This band improves with each release, so maybe in about two more albums I’ll like ‘em enough to recommend ‘em.

This debut from Yonkers, New York’s Immolation is not as good as I had expected. Being produced by Harris Johns (Kreator, Pestilence), I thought it would be a little “punchier.” Having only heard their second demo, I knew they were heading for good things. Roadrunner knew this and snatched them up. They’re not the most technical band, but they are one brutal monstrosity. Ross Dolan’s voice sounds like he gargles with glass. The music is low and pounding. Varying between slow and grungy to super fast Death Metal (not Grind). These guys know how to pulverize you. Dawn of Possession is ten songs of sheer brutality. Favorite tracks: “Those Left Behind,” “After My Prayers,” “Burial Ground” and “Internal Decadence.”

It’s hard to believe that Heathen is finally back. It’s been four years since their debut (on Combat) and they have been through numerous line-up changes, including the replacement of David White-Godfrey with ex-Exodus vocalist Paul Baloff, and David’s eventual return. Even though they did not have a permanent bassist when they recorded this (Marc Biedermann from Blind Illusion played all the tracks), this sounds as if all of them had the same mind, very tight. There are nine songs on the cassette (ten on the CD), including a reworked version of “Heathen” and a cover of “Kill the King.” The CD bonus track, “Timeless Cell of Prophecy,” is really cool. I don’t really like it when the CD has extra stuff, even though I do have a player. [Imagine the horror of the dark days when some poor bastards didn’t even have CD players yet! -Editor] This is really a well-produced effort from one of the earliest Thrash bands.

These guys are freaks. Musically, they are difficult to describe, but usually they are pretty Thrashy. And always entertaining. Okay, I’ll admit that I don’t totally worship each of the 12 songs on this LP- only nine of ‘em, but the other three are still cool. But you are still missing out on something- the lyrics. In the song “Theme,” Dukey (the vocalist) screams out “Just call me Satan of the morning, just suck my dick before you leave.” In the awesome “976-KILL,” he shrieks “I take out a big axe, knock down the front door. I go for their heads, and I make some dip.” These dudes even cover “Psychotic Reaction” and “Hokey Pokey,” although they do add some new lyrics to ‘em. Now, like I said, these guys are freaks, and this album is a wild, insane, horrific, experience. But it’s all in fun and I like it, so I think you might too. Favorite songs: “Bitch Like You” and “976-KILL.”

I have to admit that after a few jillion listens, I still can’t find a single fault with this album. The cover is so cool, you will simply have to see it. Musically, Grave is fast Death Metal. And heavy, don’t forget that. Ola’s vox are super raw and bestial, yet you can make out the lyrics if you really apply yourself. Each one of the eleven tracks is a masterpiece. I wish that the lyrics would have been included, but that is a minor point at best. It really doesn’t get a lot better than this. [I must have been insane to not give this the 10 that it obviously deserves! -Editor]

Finally released domestically by my pals at Pavement. Not as supreme as their most recent album, False, but fairly close. If you don’t own this already, now’s the time. Favorite quote (from “Loss of Flesh”): “I was born alive / Isn’t that punishment enough?”

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Godflesh because they’re on Earache, purveyors of obscenely good Death Metal, but Godflesh are atypical of the Earache label, they fall into a more Industrial pigeonhole than a Metal one. This, their follow-up to the widely popular and acclaimed Streetcleaner LP of last year, is a bit of an enigma. Roughly half the album follows in the vein of Streetcleaner and the remainder sees Godflesh trying a pseudo-Industrial Dance style. Now this could be interpreted in many ways: A) Godflesh are trying something different, but intend to remain Industrial Grind. B) They are changing to a Ministry type sound, or C) They were being leaned on to rush another album out to capitalize on the success of their last LP. I, for one, hope they continue in the tradition of their last album. Old Godflesh was cool because it sounded like long instrumentals. Slavestate has a jerky stop-start quality which makes it difficult to enjoy. Although I admire the band for trying something different, I think there are plenty of bands like Ministry and KMFDM which do this better, and I suggest Godflesh continue doing what they do best: Grind.

Hailing from Holland, Gateway plays that Speed/Thrash mixture that is popular with a lot of European bands. It may not be overly spectacular or the MOST original, but it is excellent. The band has their music down pat, great production, and a kick-ass singer. It’s a great combination.

Now that G.G. is dead, this 7-inch EP will surely be a collectors item. The two musical tracks on side-one are typical Allin: Loud, raw and messy as hell. An added plus is a cool radio spot. Side-two consists solely of an eerie spoken word segment with a bizarre musical background (and is also on the Bulge Penis Rising 10-inch record). As strange as you would expect…

This is one of the best and most Satanic bands from the Chicago area. Mike has an original voice, kinda like a more brutal Cronos. The cover of the album is awesome and will surely offend some people. It features a huge pentagram and a bowl of blood. The drum work on this album is awesome and fucking heavy. The demo songs are are even better than they were on the demo (and it slayed the Nazarene child). The guitar solos are impressive and the bass is great, too. Funeral Nation is one of the best bands out there today.