Cold Colours play a strange blend of Gothic / Industrial Metal. Try to imagine Fear Factory with heavy Goth overtones. This is just a little too weird for me. I doubt the average Death/Black Metal fan would find anything of interest here either.

This is some really good “old-school” sounding Death Metal. Bands like Immolation, Bolt Thrower, and Morbid Angel come to mind. The songs for the most part stay in the mid-paced range. There are moments, however, where they stomp on the accelerator. There are also some fairly impressive displays of technicality. The lyrical content resembles that of Nile in that they incorporate ancient Egyptian themes. This makes the album that much more interesting. Some serious thought went into both the lyrics and the song-writing. The album finishes off with respectable covers of Slayer’s “Crypts of Eternity” and “Disturbing the Priest” by Black Sabbath. Gods of Creation, Death & Afterlife is solid and heavy from beginning to end. An excellent debut for Coffin Texts.

Is it even possible for Cianide to make a less than perfect album anymore? Okay, I have to admit that I suppose I am a little biased. I mean, I’ve known Cianide for a decade, and I also did the graphic design for the CD version of this album. But these things aside, Divide and Conquer will absolutely kick your ass from beginning to end. Always a band to concentrate on awesome riffs, with this new album, Cianide has delivered a flawless catalog of memorable brutality. And also a textbook example of good (evil) old Death Metal perfection. It’s no surprise if you’ve ever read any Metal Curse back issues that the new Cianide album would get a ten, but they might very well be the first band to ever deliver three flawless albums in a row.

You know, I really should stop listening to this guy. Ignorance is bliss and every time I listen to Noam Chomsky, I get a little smarter and a lot more cynical and depressed. If you are a patriot and believe firmly in the fact that USA is a good and just nation, then you’ll want to avoid this, and other pieces of Dr. Chomsky’s spoken word and written material, as if it were the plague. Like his previous albums, this is a whole lot like listening to a lecture from a university political science class. It’s some pretty heavy stuff and all of it bashes the USA. The purpose of this CD is to make you think for yourself and to not trust everything the government tells you to believe. If you listen to this and can still honestly say that you believe the US government is kind, just and truthful, then I want the drugs you’re on.

Pretty Euro Thrash with Black Metal Kreator vocals and lots of (often dorky) keyboards. It’s very precise and well played, but although there is a lot to like about this, it just seems kind of sterile, I suppose. And the W.A.S.P. cover, which should be raw, is so slick and exact that it’s sterilized and has lost all power and interest (believe me, I’ve listened to the original recording of “Hellion” enough).

You know, I might be one of the few Metal burnouts in the scene today that has a soft spot in my blackened heart for a really good female vocalist. And Chalice has a good one. Though I still think Kari Rueslatten is the best female vocalist to have ever fronted an Atmospheric Doom Metal band, Shiralee acquits herself well and doesn’t disappoint in the least. In fact, the whole band pulls out a really, really good album. The sound of Chronicles of Dysphoria is both crushing and atmospheric, usually at the same time. Imagine the crossing of My Dying Bride and Autumn Tears and you get a good idea what Chalice sounds like. All the songs are solid and the production is great, allowing the guitars to be heavy as fuck yet allows the keyboards to be equally audible. This album is one of the few I’ve heard lately that actually evokes an emotion out of me (not that I have none, it’s just rare that a band is able to emotionally move me with their music). After listening to this album for a while, I found myself getting all Gothic and melancholy - which is when I realized how good of an album it was. Chalice has the recommendation of this beast.

This is a very cool combination of various Metal styles. Musically, it’s Thrashy melodic Death that can also be very atmospheric and Doomy. The vox are raw, but sort of more in a Black Metal way. I’m not sure how much they’re charging for this 40+ minute disc, but you’d be nuts to miss it.

It’s always a good day when a new Centinex album arrives. Hellbrigade sees the band speeding through nine tracks of what might be called somewhat more Black Metal influenced compositions. Nothing really groundbreaking to be found here, but it’s all extremely well executed and produced.

Here we have the re-release of this legendary demo, with five live bonus tracks. While you wouldn’t know it from listening to them these days, but back in 1990 (when the studio tracks were recorded - the live stuff is from ‘91) Cathedral’s Doom was fairly “groove-less” and much slower and heavier than it is today. In other words, it was better. I consider their first album, Forest of Equilibrium, to be not only their best, but an all time classic. This demo recording sees them at virtually the same peak, and with the addition of the live material (although not exactly flawlessly recorded), this is close to perfection.

I reviewed the original release of this album (on Deliria Records) back in issue #10. This reissue features new packaging, but no extra music, so if you already have the first version, there’s no need to get this one. However, if you don’t already own this and you’re a fan of super-brutal and super-sick Death/Grind (including a great Impetigo cover), in this case from Japan, you’d be well advised to check this out.

These Norse Black Metal freaks obviously like bondage and domination, a lyrical topic they tackled in their previous release, Black Shining Leather. Well, that love hasn’t diminished at all, and songs like “Mask of the Slave” and the rather humorous “The Good Old Enema Treatment” are testimonies to how much fun they think it is. The rest of the songs are more in the vein of traditional Black Metal of the Norse sort with lyrics about death, destruction and general all-around evilness. The production on this album is a bit lacking in the guitar department as the bass and drums are quite prominent but the six-string is a little thin. A heavier guitar tone or louder volume would have helped make the riffs a bit more distinguishable. The faster parts particularly suffer from this as the guitars degenerate into what sounds like a chainsaw. When Carpathian Forest slows down and gets heavy, things definitely get better. The song “Cloak of Midnight” in particular is really good. When they slow down, their Celtic Frost influences really show through, and though there are a few blatantly Frost riffs on this, they don’t really hurt the band all that much. Strange Old Brew is a solid album that only adds to Carpathian Forest’s status as one of the leading bands from Norway.

Is this Kreator? I mean, is this what Kreator should sound like now? Maybe, and maybe not… This Death/Thrash is intense enough, no doubt about that, but the aforementioned Kreator always did their best to make sure that in addition to that, their songs were memorable. And, for whatever else is this, memorable it isn’t. It’s not bad, though.

Rap-Core from the Limp Bizkit school of cock-sucking. This is a pathetic excuse for music, and I shit on any band that plays this garbage!

Good grief. Imagine John Zorn’s schizophrenic musical juxtapositions, but without his vision (or should I say “genius”) or real extremity. As you might guess, this tries really hard to be avant-garde, or at least interesting, but in reality, it’s just horrible and unlistenable.

I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of an album being recorded live in Indiana (okay, only 5 out of 18 tracks were recorded here, in my home state, but that’s plenty for me to mention it), but leave it to these sickos to make that happen. Obviously, this is pretty much for fans only, but the sonic quality of the recording (the majority of which is from Milwaukee, at the Rave) is excellent, and they do most of the songs I’d have been yelling at them to do, had I the foresight to have attended. For example, they start with “Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead,” and end with the monstrous “Hammer Smashed Face,” hitting classics along the way, like “Stripped, Raped and Strangled,” “Fucked with a Knife” (introduced with “This next song goes out to all the fucking women out there”), “Devoured by Vermin,” and “Skull Full of Maggots.” As I mentioned, 18 songs in all, for well over an hour of sheer brutality. It’s of course also pretty cool to hear Corpsegrinder singing the older stuff, and generally he does a commendable job, but not surprisingly is the best on the songs on which he initially sang. In fact, the only complaint I can manage is about the packaging. It’s almost nonexistent. I mean, the usual Vincent Locke cover art is excellent, but that’s all you get. There is no booklet to speak of, with the cover consisting of one double-sided sheet of paper. I’m not really sure what to make of that, but it seems like a really cheap-assed way to go to me. And that’s enough to keep this from perfection. But make no mistake, as far as live albums go (especially for Death Metal), this is a classic.

Cage crank out sharp ’80s-style Heavy Metal on their latest effort, Astrology. This release contains some seriously energized tunes delivered by a highly talented group of guys who obviously love to play. Sean Peck’s vocal-performance is powerful-as-hell. He pours strength and emotion into every note he hits. What really stands out is the playing-ability of guitarists Eric Horton and Dave Garcia. These guys have a solid chemistry and tear it up with some wicked riffs and intense solos. I’m slightly disappointed with the bass-sound, though. It is almost buried in the mix. I’m sure they’ll iron this out the next time around. Minor complaints aside, this is great album. Cage is carrying the banner of Heavy Metal with well-deserved pride.

Recorded way back in 1990, this Thrash onslaught, featuring Killjoy on vocals, has held up pretty well. In fact, very well.

I’d really hoped that I could simply type “queens of the world” and be done with it, but this really isn’t that bad. Featuring David Chastain and… Wait a minute! Did this guy really just sing “We’re the kings of the world and we’re gonna get ya!” like four times in a row? And looking over the rest of the lyrics, I see that this is hardly the worst offender. Oh man, how do people feel good about themselves while singing that kind of pap? I’d be too embarrassed to stand in front of a group of people and say shit like “Have no fear, their end is near / They’re Wild / Wild in the streets.” I was considering saying that this proto-Thrash wasn’t so bad, but the dorky and all-to-understandable lyrics have completely fucked it for me. I know they’d never do it, because they clearly think that their shit is gold, but going all instrumental next time would be a great idea.

I’m a little unclear on what’s going on with my review copy, but I think that it’s just the first four (of nine) tracks from this album. Great. Maybe next time I could just get a postcard with a brief description of the album on it, and try to review that. One of the “missing” tracks is apparently a Carcass cover, which I would have like to have heard, considering that it seems to be where the band got its name and all. Anyway, what there is of this is very well played, technically proficient Thrash with some Death Metal tendencies, plus occasional flourishes such as keyboards. It’s odd to listen to this and think that there is a Carcass influence, but there certainly is - just latter-day Carcass, of course. I’m also reminded a little bit of Torchure (if anyone remembers them…). I really like these tracks quite a lot, and I just wish I had the entire album, so that I could have given it the complete review it so clearly deserves. Record labels of the world, please take note: if you want us to review your releases, please do everyone involved a favor and send the complete package for us to examine. It can only lead to longer, more accurate reviews, and we all want that, don’t we? This album probably deserves a higher rating, but having only heard less than half of it, I can’t say with any degree of certainty.

Now this is just blade-to-the-bone Death Metal played to perfection. This will make you start a pit with yourself. Much more bestial than their flawless 5-song debut, Mourning the Millennium, but they have retained much of the infectious catchiness that takes this supreme band over the top. Mind-boggingly technical at times, sparse and blunt at others, but always with a swift foot aimed at the ass. The vocalist has the perfect deep Death growl in league with anybody’s. Fans of Suffocation, Fleshgrind, and Broken Hope pay attention, this band is serious about creating quality Death Metal. (My only complaint: horrible layout colorization!!)