Death Rock, maybe like Cemetary, but with even worse Pop vocals, and some Techno tendencies. This doesn’t deserve a longer review.

This is not an easy album to describe. DT seems to be channeling the spirit of Cemetary’s Godless Beauty, but perhaps a little more consistently aggressive, despite the use of acoustic guitars layered over the top of everything else. This band’s current Thrashy approach to darkness takes a few listens to really appreciate, but after a few listens, I was glad I gave Haven the time.

This is release number 4 for Dark Funeral - their second EP. Dark Funeral actually surprised me on this one because unlike previous efforts, they actually slow down a little! That in itself is a big change for this band as they made a name for themselves based on their psychotically fast playing and nonstop mayhem. This EP’s sole original track (the other four are covers) shows this change, and boy, was it shocking. The other tracks, the cover tunes, vary in speed according to the original songs. Though I tend to be down on bands that try to cover King Diamond, Dark Funeral’s rendition of “The Trial” was pretty good due to the fact that instead of growling or screaming in traditional Death or Black Metal fashion, they used a female vocalist to handle King’s falsetto. This sounded more natural for this particular song as the falsetto was the part of a accused witch at a witch trial. The other covers, “Dead Skin Mask,” “Remember the Fallen” and “Pagan Fears” (Slayer, Sodom and Mayhem respectively, in case you’ve spent the last 15 years listening to Pantera [and if so, please die -Editor]) are all completely faithful to the originals in timing and execution. All the songs are good, but considering Dark Funeral’s past performances (their ultra-fast playing being the key feature here), it sounds a bit strange to hear these guys play this slow. An added bonus for all you folks out there with computers, Dark Funeral has also placed a video for “An Apprentice to Satan” on here. The video is just them playing the song live and there are no flashy video effects or opportunities to make fools of themselves a-la Immortal’s first video (I forgot which song it was for but it was off their first album and was it fucking funny!). Fans of Dark Funeral will want this one and it was well worth the money I spent on it.

Probably the coolest thing about Dark Faith’s new album are the front and back covers. There are lots of naked women on them. That’s what makes it cool. Their brand of Black Metal, on the other hand, isn’t so great. I swear that I’ve heard all of this before - just from different bands. This doesn’t totally suck major donkey dicks (well… maybe they do, now that I think about it), but Dark Faith has a serious problem in the originality department - not to mention a few others. And the singer… This guy needs to stick some bass in his voice because he sounds like Donald Duck during a Satan-induced psychotic episode. That in itself takes this down a few because it doesn’t sound evil. It sounds stupid. It’s also fucking annoying. The guitars have that “we decided that our guitars needed absolutely no lower end” sound. This would have benefited from a thicker, heavier guitar tone and a singer with a lot more bass in his voice. Dark Faith shows a little promise but I truly believe that it’s much too early to tell for sure. Back in the early days of the scene, a band would have spent years doing demos before ever releasing an album. With the proliferation of labels and the ease in which you can release pro quality stuff, we see a lot of shit like this flooding the market. This band isn’t ready to be releasing a full-length album yet. They don’t have their own style, they don’t have their sound worked out and they seriously don’t have enough good songs to make shelling out money for their album worth it. My suggestion to the band is to spend the next couple years working on your stuff. Play a bunch of shows and rehearse like hell. Do demos and get feedback from labels, zines and your peers. Don’t put out another album until you’ve at least got an idea which direction you’re going to go and how you’re going to progress.

I’d say that this “Gothic Metal” was all Gothic and no Metal, but it’s really not even Gothic. All we have is minimalistic drums and some chick singing. Maybe they want to be Dead Can Dance, but I hope not, because this is a pretty pathetic attempt.

The guys at Dark Realm (Sadistic Intent, as far as I know) sure know their Death Metal. Damnation is probably one of the best Death Metal bands in Poland, though still second in comparison to Vader. This is their fourth release (third full-length album, they also have an EP called Coronation). But in comparison to their previous releases, this definitely took a downward turn when it comes to production. In short, the drums are way too loud. If I wanted to listen to a snare drum all afternoon, I’ll go to my friend’s house and watch him practice his drumming. When I listen to Metal, I want to hear guitar riffs, not the psychotically fast drumming. I don’t know what it is these days but this stupid trend must stop. Having loud-ass drums does not make a band sound more brutal or heavy!!!! Musically, this is much more in the vein of Morbid Angel than Vader (though Vader do a lot of Morbid emulating themselves) and could probably pass themselves off as old-school Florida Death Metal. If it wasn’t for the sound on this album, I would probably have given it a higher rating as the music is that fucking good. When the guitars aren’t getting buried underneath the snare, they really get you head banging and the blood racing. These guys must fucking kill live because it sure sounds like it here. Get those guitars up next time!!!

Perhaps one of the most underrated bands in the Death Metal scene today, Damnation have returned with their third full-length effort, Resist. This release sees Les stepping down from his spot in front of the mic and marks the debut of vocalist Raven, whose voice fits the band’s style perfectly. These technically proficient musicians from Poland really know how to hammer out some complex yet memorable tunes. The guitar-sound is heavy and also gives the music a somewhat eerie atmosphere. The highlight of this release, though, has got to be drummer Varien’s performance. His blasts and fills are jaw-dropping! The production appropriately complements the drum-sound as well. The songs themselves vary in structure and complexity, but all possess speed, aggression, and brutality. Damnation have always delivered chaotic, challenging, and adventurous music. They are easily one of the best bands to ever come out of Poland.

Galloping German Power Metal in the vein of Helloween and Gamma Ray. Also contains some melodic tracks ala Angel Dust. The vocals are pretty standard for this style, but when this guys hits the high notes he reminds me of King Diamond! The production is excellent, but the cheesy artwork has got to go! While not in any way groundbreaking or innovative, For My King is still a very good example of quality German Power Metal. If your CD collection contains releases by any of the aforementioned bands in this review, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this.

These guys have built quite a following since their debut masterpiece, Blasphemy Made Flesh, and it’s certainly well-deserved considering the overwhelming talent they possess and display with fervor on every LP. Musically, this album is a perfect blend of all the patented formulas these Grind freaks have employed on previous gems. I am taken down memory lane by Flo Mounier’s insane high-precision blasting. No one grinds harder than Flo. The vocals are a little different this time - still very abrasive, but more of a from-the-gut Barneyesque garble with a Kataklysmic defiance of typical patternization. It struck me a bit odd at first, but was made all the easier to get used to by the ferocious Death/Grind behind it. This shouldn’t upset.

Early on in their career, Cruachan pioneered a sound that combined Celtic Folk music with Black Metal. The Middle Kingdom sees them leaving behind the Black Metal side completely. There’s often more “Folk” than “Metal” here. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I suppose it depends on individual tastes. These tracks have more in common with Skyclad than they do with the brilliant Primordial. The music is fairly well-produced, but Karen Gilligan’s vocals get overbearing at times. The title track is definitive evidence that a male vocalist would be better suited to this type of music. An album’s worth of Keith Fay’s scathing vocals, such as those found on the title track, would have made The Middle Kingdom a masterpiece! Cruachan does have the potential to be a great band. They are not lacking in the song-writing department. These songs are varied and well-structured. If they could just get past the weakness in the vocals they would be a much stronger band.

This band’s progression from a typical Black Metal sound to a more Pagan/Celtic sound is getting more and more pronounced every release. The Middle Kingdom sounds a Hell of a lot more Celtic than Metal and in the case of Cruachan, this isn’t really a bad thing. Their first album hinted that this would be the direction that they would take and they didn’t disappoint. One of the things that marred their debut was the fact that they seemed restrained by traditional Metal instruments. They literally sounded like they wanted to ditch their guitars and Skyclad-ish vocals but they just didn’t know how. This is a much more solid Celtic Metal fusion though some of it sounds a bit too “upbeat” for my taste. The addition of a female lead vocalist threw me for a bit, but after I recovered from the surprise and got used to the idea that this band wasn’t going to “gloom and doom” me to death, I enjoyed this album quite a bit.

Ultra high energy Thrashy Death Metal, with some sort of weird “Rock” overtones. I’m not sure that I’d say that this is really any more accessible than their previous albums, but it is something of an evolution. Or should I say “evil-ution”?

Four songs really isn’t enough of this great Euro Death Metal. It’s at time same time melodic and frenzied with Black Metal intensity.

I really wish my promo pack had included lyrics, so I’d know for sure if all the songs are supposed to be about Clive Barker’s novel Cabal (or the movie version of it, Nightbreed), or if that’s just the title track and artwork. Hey, I’d like to know! Anyway, this new album - wait! Holy fuck is that Pinhead talking?!?! Okay, these guys wear more gay makeup than a whole stable of whores, but it’s pretty hard to deny that this album is good. Perhaps a bit less “extreme” than their earlier work, and noticeably less keyboard saturated (both of which are okay with me), but all that means is that they’ve concentrated on making the songs more memorable. And there is still plenty of extremity to be found. Just listen to the first minute-and-a-half of “Lord Abortion.” In the press release, lead singer Dani describes this track as “total Death Metal,” and naturally I figured that he was full of pig shit. Well, there are little breaks of more atmospheric stuff and higher pitched vocals, but the majority of this track is brutal. Dani even occasionally uses low, guttural vocals. It’s kinda fucked up, but god damn it’s awesome. And the rest of the album follows suit. There are moments in every song where I wish that they’d not done something musically silly, or that the vocals went into outer space for a second, but the reality of the situation is that Midian is an album wherein quite a few Metal styles are fairly expertly blended together to make a damn enjoyable listen. Now, if I only had the lyrics…

This is not the band from Germany (that also goes by the name Corvus Corax, but plays Folk/Ambient and I believe already has released two albums – check the Gothic/Industrial/Dark Ambient section of your local music store) but the supreme Northwest horde. The music on this CD is so mature that it’s hard to believe that this is their first album! I have this band’s demo and though there were only two songs on it (“Son of the Earth” and “Mystagogue,” both of which are on this album as well), it clearly showed a band that would dominate the scene through superior songwriting. They haven’t let me down, even though I would have bet good money that my expectations wouldn’t be met. They have not only met my expectations but exceeded them. This CD is going to spend a lot of time in my player. The four songs on The Atavistic Triad are all well thought out, and though three of them clock in at over 10 minutes, they never feel overly long or get boring. I didn’t even mind the five minutes of dead silence before the outro kicked in - something that usually annoys the shit out of me! Black Metallers, get this one. Now. Kill if you have to. It’s worth every cent you spend, every drop of blood you shed and every year in prison that you get.

Lame, copycat, cheesy, wanna-be Nordic Black Metal filler. You heard one, you heard ‘em all.

I don’t know if Blackened Moon is the actual label this band is on or if it’s the name they use when they self-release stuff because the version of this that I got is on CD-R and was an advance copy not available in stores at that time. I can say for certain that this is one harsh album. If you like brutal Death Metal with semi-coherent vocals then Corpsevomit delivers the goods. I hear that this is the band’s first album, but I could swear that I’ve seen other stuff by this band elsewhere [1996’s Bastards of Foreverfilth demo was reissued on CD by Wild Rags. -Editor]. Either way, the band swears that this is their only official CD. The playing on this album is tight and the production gives them clarity, yet retains the heaviness in their songs. This is one of the few bands out there that keeps me believing in the whole brutal Death Metal genre. They never degenerate into copying another band, keep things interesting and kick enough ass to make this one worth searching out.

The fear might be subliminal, but the boredom is very obvious. C187 seem to want to have a “modern” sound, but don’t really fully commit to it, which ends up just making things even worse. The vocals never have anything to do with the simple, repetitive, staccato riffs, but it might only compound the problems if they did. I’d have to suffer through seeing these guys live to see if they say stuff like, “Yo, yo, what up? Muthafuckin C. to the one eight seven in the hiz-ouse, mutha fuckaz!” between songs to really accurately determine how much I hate them.

Although there are occasionally some other elements, such as kind of whispered talking, what might be ritualistic chanting, and a great scream at the beginning of “Doppelganger,” this is mostly Dark Ambient. Really dark. It’s all too easy for this sort of thing to just fade into the background, but That Which Remains absolutely refuses to let go of your attention, and remains creeping around at the edges of your mind, occasionally bursting into the forefront.

Heavy and Doomy in more or less the pre-Groove style of Cathedral, Cold Mourning is a very good, but not awesome, band. That’s hard for me to write, but it’s true. What’s also true is that these guys are cool as Hell, and so is Game Two’s main man, Conan. I’ve listened to this dozens of times, trying to find more I could say about it, so that I’d be able to provide a longer review, but other than that the band is good and Doomy, there’s little to really make them stand out. And, honestly, there are even a few seconds where the vocals are overdriven and occasional other things I’d consider to bring this down somewhat. Still, a totally worthwhile release, but simply not the perfection for which I was hoping.