I’m glad to see that the so-called Kings of Metal have finally unleashed a new studio album. I’d say that two 2-CD live albums in a row was plenty of live stuff for the next decade or so. On with the review. The first song, “Call to Arms,” is classic Manowar, and a damn fine way to start things off. This seems to be something of a concept album about freedom and liberty. Sounds good so far. But then the second track, “The Fight for Freedom,” gets started… And I wish it hadn’t. Piano, I know, is not utterly unknown to Manowar, but I’ve always loathed the wimpier side of this band… At least this sappy song is interspersed with bits of heaviness. Not so for the entirely wimpy “Nessun Dorma,” which wouldn’t even have counted as a “power ballad” in 1987. Things stay as flaccid as a Dairy Queen soft serve vanilla cone in the middle of August for the next two songs, almost as if the ‘war men were afraid to really let loose for some reason. What happened to “All men play on ten”?!? And then comes “American Trilogy,” and sanity itself is completely abandoned as the former champions of “Violence and Bloodshed” break into a mind-numbing (and I mean that in the worst possible way) rendition of “Dixie” (along with a couple other old chestnuts). I wish that were a joke. Or a typo. Or anything but the most unintentionally funny thing I’ve ever heard! Is the other half of the album any better? Somewhat. And at least things end on a strong note with the relatively intense “Fight Until We Die.” But, despite a few good songs, this is probably the weakest, wimpiest Manowar album ever.

A new album and yet another new vocalist from the mighty MC. The new guy isn’t bad, he does his best Bret Hoffmann imitation in The Fine Art of Murder fashion, but it is a slight step down. However, when you’re talking about Malevolent Creation, the musical prowess is always the star of the show anyway. When it comes to ultra-tight, ultra-fast Death Metal, you can’t find it any more upfront and honest than Malevolent C. They haven’t changed a bit. The cream: title track, “Divide & Conquer.”

This MCD is the debut release for Judas Iscariot on No Colours records. Ironically, this may also be the last Judas Iscariot CD ever released as rumor has it that Andy Harris has ended this project. If this is so, and there are no further releases, what a fucking way to go. Moonlight Butchery is cold, hateful and as bleak as only Burzum could get during their heyday. In fact, the best way to describe Judas Iscariot is to say that this is what Burzum could have been if Varg had stayed Metal and not gone all Dark Ambient. This CD also proves that grim, hateful music can be created in harmony with good sound and exceptional playing. Judas Iscariot has consistently gone with good, clear production over the “necro” style of Black Fucking Metal where everything has to sound like shit. Also recruited for this release was Dark Ambient/Industrial artists Puissance (who have released a dearth of material through Cold Meat Industries and Regain Records for those unfamiliar with their music), who provide between-track intros. Even though there are only four songs on this MCD, the quality of the music stands supreme. This is what true Black Fucking Metal is all about. The only thing keeping this from absolute perfection is the sound inconsistency between the fourth song and the other three. The final track on this MCD was recorded at a different time and at a different place, resulting in a song that has different guitar and drum tones than the previous material. Even though the song still kills, it throws things off by just enough to call attention to itself.

Judas Iscariot is one of the few “Grim” Black Metal bands that I can stomach listening to repeatedly. If any band captures the “old” spirit of Black Fucking Metal, this is it. The music and the vocals on To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding are just fucking cold. You can just feel the nihilism and hatred in the unholy sound coming from your speakers and the atmosphere totally reminds me of how it felt to hear Burzum for the very first time. The production - especially the drum sound - is much improved over the last album and one thing about this CD that I really like is the fact that the guitar sound is razor sharp. You can hear every note perfectly. Most bands in the Grim Black Metal genre use horrid sound to hide the fact that their playing is very sloppy. If you play fast enough and have rough enough sound, you can hide sloppy playing most of the time, but Judas Iscariot has never had to do that. Even though there is an “error” left on this album, it detracts nothing from the music itself. The flaw had to do with a damaged master tape and could have been digitally repaired but I respect Akhenaten’s decision to leave it in to give you Judas Iscariot in its pure, unadulterated form. My favorite track is probably “In the Valley of Death, I Am Their King” because of the keyboard’s additional atmosphere. This is a band that doesn’t need keyboards to develop an atmosphere, but when the keys are used, they do nothing but enhance the sound and feeling. This album is just fucking evil, the way Black Metal was meant to be.

Decent Death Metal from the East Coast. Very brutal, a little under-produced, and forget about originality. Think a poor man’s Deeds of Flesh with a dab of Old School simplicity. Everything here is just above average enough not to suck, but the bottom line is that I’m bored halfway through the second track. To sum it up perfectly for my generation, if this were the mid-’90s, this band would be on Wild Rags.

For over a decade Incantation has stood strong in the Death Metal underground, and while their albums have always been evil and super brutal, this is probably their most memorable and best effort ever. The slow-death, almost My Dying Bride-esque, “Once Holy Throne” is just beyond belief, and provides a very effective balance and intro to the warp speed of the next track, “Crown of Decayed Salvation.” This is a very well thought out and written album, and with it Incantation has come damn close to Metal perfection (weird outro excepted).

Amazing. Truly amazing. Much like countrymates, and fellow Black Metal pioneers, Darkthrone, the guys in Immortal just keep getting better with every release. Beginning with the path started on the now classic At the Heart of Winter, the music of Immortal has been crafted with such eloquent design and focus while still remaining true to their genre’s primal and barbaric roots. The attention paid to song structure and melody is what has made the last few albums such keepsakes. No disrespect to the Full Moon… or Blizzard Beasts eras and those whose hearts lie with them, but I’m sold on the much heavier, smoother, and more dynamic Immortal, which still contains its fair share of merciless blast. Not to mention the vocals of all that is grim and frostbitten. Cultest cuts: “Tyrants,” “In My Kingdom Cold,” title track.

Immolation, for me, was one of those bands that I didn’t like at first. I thought their sound was a big noisy mess and I just didn’t give them much of a chance. It wasn’t until the late ’90s, hanging out at a friend’s house where Here in After had just been popped in, that I grasped just what this overwhelmingly brutal, anti-Christian trio actually brings to the table. Since then I’ve been hooked, and speaking of Here in After, that album’s formula has been the foundation for the band’s last two releases and Unholy Cult is no different. Mind-boggling guitar playing, sick and twisted time changes, inhumanly intense drumming, demonic vocals bestial enough to trick the Richter scale, and the lyrics of a man disgusted and appalled at Christianity’s influence on the weak minds of our society. Not to say that this band isn’t doing anything new (I’ll be damned if the closing riff of “Bring Them Down” isn’t the most melodic thing Immolation have ever attempted… dare I marvel at the birth of Immo-emo?), but their sound has achieved the level of trademark over the past few years, and you just don’t fuck with that.

In a way, Graveland has evolved into something that more resembles a movie soundtrack score than a Black Metal band. These days, Rob Darken (the sole remaining member of Graveland) is composing songs that are powerful, epic in scope and atmospheric as all fucking Hell. The only band that is really doing something comparable to this kind of style is Summoning, though Summoning has more of a Western European style. Graveland’s medieval influences are much more in line with Slavic Folk music than the grand, bombastic stuff that Summoning incorporates. This gives Graveland lots of memorable hooks, interesting breaks, and adds a certain ethnic flavoring to the whole thing that no other band really has to this degree. Add to this a good, solid production and good packaging, you certainly get your money’s worth and then some.

Rumors had it that this was going to be the Nu-Metal sellout album by Hypocrisy. Well, I don’t know if it is a complete sellout or not but this has a lot more in common with Slipknot that it does to the band that released such godly albums as Penetralia and Abducted. I must have listened to this album a dozen times before I’ve come to the conclusion that if Hypocrisy ever released a dud album, this is it. The first couple songs are just crap. They have great production but when it comes to great songwriting, this is below par. The second half of the album is a bit more listenable, as far as I’m concerned. The tracks here have more in common with the more atmospheric stuff that these guys did back on Abducted mixed with Pain’s Techno/Industrial Metal fusion style. These tracks are definitely better, but the bulk of this album is just not what I like listening to. I avoid Slipknot for a reason. I hate them. Granted, they’re almost like listening to half-assed Death Metal, but I don’t want to listen to half-assed Death Metal. The real deal is always better! This is almost as sad as seeing Slayer ape Pantera. There are some cool songs on this album, but the shit always seems to stand out more.

This is a sad day in the Metal world. After a decade of Swedish Death Metal rule, the almighty Hypocrisy has finally fallen off. The cause of Peter’s insanity? Overexposure to people! “A Public Puppet” consists of a lame Slipknot riff, some Crusty filler, and some mid-paced filler. Then there are songs like “Edge of Madness” which still contain a few good melodies but are desecrated by weak vocal experimentation. This whole album caters to the short attention span of poseurs which solidifies my overexposure to people theory. For a band just starting out, not totally sure how they want to sound, this would be a mediocre effort. But by Hypocrisy standards, this album just completely sucks shit from the dicks of homosexual rapist lepers.

Another Haunted album, another 40 minutes of the same fast drum beat and the same god damn song structure this criminally overrated band has used for every song they’ve ever written. How sad the drummer’s snare must be, for it was not its purpose in life to induce my slumber. The Haunted, I implore you! Stop making records. Don’t do it for me… do it for the snare.

After the disappointing return of my old friends, Unleashed, I was worried about hearing anything new from this other legendary Swedish Death Metal band, Grave, especially considering that the band’s last studio recording, 1996’s Hating Life, was far from their finest work. But I had little to worry about, really. This new album isn’t exactly Into the Grave 2, but it is pretty damn good, and sounds as if it could have come out right after Soulless. This is well done, old-style Death Metal, and while not as perfected as that of label-mates Bloodbath (but what could be?), it’s nice to hear. I remember the first time I saw Grave live. It was the band’s first US tour, in support of Into the Grave, and I went with some friends of mine to the legendary Medusa’s, in Chicago. Sadly that venue is long gone now, replaced with an apartment building, I think. And I thought that Grave was long gone, too. I am very happy to report that I was wrong about that.
It’s my understanding that the real version of this is a 2-CD set, with the second disc crammed full of early demos, which would be a worthy purchase all by itself.

I really miss doing a zine [Jack used to publish Portrait of Defiance zine. - Editor]. Sure, it was a lot of hard work, it was expensive, a lot of dealing with fucking morons and having to wade through landfills of unsigned garbage, but every once in a while you’d come across that demo-CD that stood out from the sea of poopy. You’d get that virgin peak at a gem not yet stained by the masses’ grubby fingers. Listening to Gloria Morti, I am reliving that old feeling. This self-financed disc contains two tracks of flawlessly executed melodic Black Metal in the vein of Cradle of Filth and Hecate Enthroned. The playing, the production, the vocals, it’s all top notch. Okay, so they draw a pretty hefty influence from the aforementioned bands, but I can sacrifice a little originality when it sounds this professional and feels this good. If these guys just keep at it, and do add their own unique spin on the style they’ve apparently already mastered, their future looks pretty god damn bright. Reserve your bandwagon seat now.

Do not be fooled. While the packaging, song titles, lyrics, and image of this band may lead you to believe this is some kind of fuck-around joke band, it is not, I repeat, it is not!! Think Exhumed’s Gore Metal album meets Carcass’ Tools of the Trade era, with subtle influences taken from the ’80s Thrash movement. Influences that become less and less subtle with every repeated spin of their masterful cover of Megadeth’s “Skull Beneath the Skin.” I can’t describe the shockingly awesome surprise it was to discover the extreme grinding, thrashing heaviness that was hidden within my unsuspecting Ghoul disc. I love Ghoul! Ghoul rocks my fucking world!

The Moribund Cult strikes again, this time with raw, hateful Black Fucking Metal provided by Genocide Kommando. This band could probably be classified as NSBM simply from the pictures of a burning synagogue and a pile of dead bodies (a photo I know was taken at a Nazi death camp), though they claim to support only our Lord and Master SATAN (!!!) and the complete genocide of the human species. Musically, Genocide Kommando sounds a lot like older Darkthrone, probably circa the Under a Funeral Moon or Transylvanian Hunger albums, but with much better production. One thing that is consistent with releases by the Moribund Cult is the fact that the sound is generally superior to other releases in their category - be it Death Metal, Black Metal or Grind. Genocide Kommando surprised me by being less chaotic and more melodic than I expected them to be. I expected something rawer and harder on the ears, though this by no means is a wimpy album. Black Metal Supremacy doesn’t break any new ground, but at the same time what is done on this album is done well. The playing is tight, the music is memorable and it gives me a bad case of whiplash every time I throw it in my CD player. I don’t normally mention cover art in a review but I really like the cover photo for this disc. It’s a picture of riot police shooting rubber bullets into an unseen crowd. Each of the policemen in this photo sports a pentagram insignia on his uniform, something I thought lent a dose of cold, hard, realism to a genre that is usually much more fantasy oriented.

When a band is named after possibly the coolest Suffocation song ever written, you tend to have high hopes. For the most part, Indonesia’s Funeral Inception meet the lofty expectations with a non-stop assault of lightning fast, super-technical Death/Grind battery. The drummer is fucking amazing! He finds prodigious ways to cultivate the blast beat a la Pete Sandoval from his Terrorizer days. The vocalist also gives a noteworthy performance. His bestial esophagus wrench echoes the work of Joe Ptacek during Broken Hope’s Metal Blade career. All these attributes mentioned are undeniable, but this could still be better. If these guys would just attempt a breakdown once in a while, my heart would probably stop. Just the slightest touch of groove, added to the dizzying guttural whirlwind these maniacs normally create, would astound the listener to heights of euphoria. As is, they run on sheer brutality alone, which may be enough for you.

I don’t even begin to know where to start with this one. Moribund will certainly take some shit about releasing an album that starts with a song called “I’m a Goddamn Rapist.” The cover of the classic “Just Let Me Rot” sounds extremely natural, since Fornicator is stylistically somewhat similar to early Pungent Stench, although the production here is absolutely beyond belief (somehow both raw and polished at the same time!). But they didn’t recreate my favorite part of the song - the pitch-shifted vocals getting lower and lower during the repetition of the title. They make up for that little flaw with their great version of GG Allin’s “Anti-Social Masturbator,” though. These guys are some sick fucks - maybe the sickest - and so rightfully this is one diseased CD, too.

England’s Forefather has evolved quite a bit since their debut album, Deep Into Time. They started as a raw, treble overloaded clone of what Satyricon was doing back in the early ‘90s with a strong Anglo-Saxon leaning in their lyrics. Now, they most resemble what Falkenbach would be if they ditched the grim vocals entirely and went for a clean “Viking” style instead. The music doesn’t much resemble any of the Celtic or Folk Metal bands very much this time around, and though I think the usage of such sounds on an album like this would have helped it in terms of overall presentation, it doesn’t hurt that they’re leaving it out. Face it, there is nothing like incorporating your own country’s native music when getting nationalistic. Even without it, Forefather packs a lot of atmosphere in their music. This album is full of catchy hooks and memorable moments that get you banging your head and since all of the vocals are understandable, you can sing along with the enclosed lyrics. I’ve been a fan of this band from the beginning and they continue to impress me. What surprises me about them is the fact that so few people actually know their music.

I probably should have had Mr. Painkiller review this, because his appreciation of new-wave Power Metal is much great than mine. But even so, this is isn’t bad. Thankfully the singer is a little gruffer, and the music slightly heavier (usually more along the lines of Testament than of Hammerfall, but sometimes slipping into Scorpions range), than usual, which are very welcomed changes from the norm. But the lyrical repetition, especially in the title track, is irritating.