After all these years it does seem very strange to me to hear all these bands playing Thrash/Power Metal and using this “cleanly sung” vocal style. Brainstorm are somewhat unique in that they rip off Overkill a lot more than say Helloween or Running Wild (although they’re certainly not shy about “borrowing” from those bands, too). This guy’s vocals are a bit more reigned in than Blitz’s, but I’m not sure if that works for or against them. Other than that, they play it by-the-numbers the whole way, including a couple “power ballads.”

Pretty decent hybrid of Earth Crisis-style Metalcore and straightforward Rock. Unfortunately, this album has the tendency to seriously drag on. Whether it be too sappy or too monotonous in the basic Hardcore flow, the mind really starts to wander about halfway through this disc. The opening, title, track is cool; a nice forecast of everything this band can do. Then the mood shifts to the emotive cut “Rookie,” which is easily the standout track on the LP (for me at least). But, after that, things drift into mediocrity, not really picking up with a focused musical idea until the very last song, “The Force Majeure,” which is this Delaware quintet at their most aggressive. I know that three good songs out of 13 isn’t really a great score, but they are indeed 3 really kick-ass tunes. Just wait ‘til one of your friends buys this, and then ask to borrow it.

More Progressive Black Metal from this talented band. As expected, the production and songwriting are stellar. Really the only thing that bugs me at all is the fact that vocals are so often “cleanly” sung, and that seems to counteract the intensity of the music. Still, it would be pretty impossible to not like this album.

The first thing I want to say about Bloodshed Divine is that if they made the logo on the front of this CD’s cover any more illegible, they would be up for the world’s record. Not only is it hard to read by itself, but it is in a dark color on a black background. If you don’t look at the cover in the right angle, you’d think that it wasn’t there. Musically, Bloodshed Divine plays Doomy Black/Death Metal that reminds me a bit of Judas Iscariot - though at half speed with Death growls intertwined with the traditional raspy shrieking. The sound on this release isn’t the greatest - there are some inconsistencies in the production - but this is far from the worst I’ve ever heard. There is just enough polish on here to elevate it from the “Necro” Black Metal style but it also retains the rather “cold” guitar sound so common amongst Black Metal bands these days. I personally dislike the “cold” sound because it makes the guitars sound very thin, and Bloodshed Divine could have used a warmer, fuller sound. Summoned to the Ancient Dawn is an album that is solid but a little on the unadventurous side. Their next album should be the one that either defines them as contenders or doom them to mediocrity.

Considering that former Pyogenesis member Roman Schoemsee is in this band, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had really hated the last couple Pyogenesis albums, so I put this in the player with the idea that it probably would be no good. But after hearing it, I’m sort of mixed. It is Doomy, I suppose. The press release says “Gothic Metal,” and I’d go along with that. But, despite the harsh vocals, this really could be heavier. The acoustic guitars and keyboards (neither of which is always present) “lighten” things up too much sometimes. Maybe they’re just trying too hard to create “atmosphere.” Maybe it’s the drum machine. But remember, I’m not machine-o-phobic! I’m not sure what the problem here is. But something just isn’t quite right. Still, this is an interesting album, and everything does seem to come together just right in a few places closer to the end of the disc. A minute or so of the song “Bloodline” is excellent, for example. So, the real problem here might seriously be that I don’t have the necessary time to listen to things 15 times before I review them (once again, count the number of reviews before commenting).

This was originally released as a 10-inch MLP on Hostile Regression Records a while back and has just been re-released on CD format with 4 bonus tracks. The music of Bloodhammer is raw Black Metal in the vein of Darkthrone. As a matter of fact, the vocalist for Bloodhammer sounds a lot like Nocturno Culto, too, come to think of it. Luckily, when recording this album, the band opted for a better sound than your average raw Black Metal band. The guitars are clear and there is even audible bass! The rawer and more chaotic bands in the Black Metal genre generally don’t go for the cleaner sound but it really works for Bloodhammer. I don’t refer to this as “Grim” Black Metal as that usually ends up meaning “underproduced” or “possessing shitty sound so that the band can claim to be ‘cult’ or ‘true’ as well as covering up the fact that they suck.” Yes, the musical style is fairly derivative and yes, this stuff has been done before but it’s really hard to slam a band that can get your head banging like this one can. There are plenty of memorable riffs on Ancient Kings, something that is always a plus in my book. If you like bands like Darkthrone (Blaze in the Northern Sky/Under a Funeral Moon era), Judas Iscariot, early Burzum or the first couple Graveland albums, Bloodhammer will satisfy your cravings.

Considering the all-star lineup (Dan Swano, Anders “Blakkheim” Nystrom, Mikael Akerfeldt, and Jonas Renkse), it’s hardly surprising that this old-school Death Metal is utter perfection. But what is a little surprising, is that after years of moving away form this style (by both the label and bands), Century Media would release this. It’s a real return to the label’s early glory days of Unleashed, Asphyx, and Grave, and I say it’s about time! This is the way it should be done, my friends, and hopefully this won’t prove to be a one-time project - I need more Bloodbath!

Sociopolitical Grind (with some Crust tendencies, such as multiple harsh vocal tracks) this fast and intense has absolutely no right at all to be memorable, but Blockheads don’t give a fuck and went right ahead and made these songs more catchy than I’d have thought possible. And they didn’t resort to any of the normal Grind crutches, like funny samples, to accomplish that daunting task, either. The only thing that I don’t like about this CD (other than the last few minutes of weirdness at the end of the disc) is that everything (over an hour) is rammed together into one single track, so if you want to skip ahead to your favorite song, you’re just fucked. Fortunately, that’s not quite as much of an issue here as it would be with a lot of other CDs, but it’s still enough.

This is being marketed as a full-length album, but 6 songs in 24 minutes is not in any way, shape or form a full length album. And a lot of the time here is also wasted by pointless fucking around. I feel compelled to let my loyal readers know such things. Anyway, when not playing at superluminal speeds or just jerking off, this symphonic Black Metal band does okay. They liken themselves to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, but really they’re no where nearly that advanced. Which might not be bad news for you, but a cut-rate Cradle of Filth doesn’t exactly sound too awesome to me.

Do you remember the cult Canadian Black Metal band Blasphemy? They’ve been silent for quite a while now and I often wonder if they are still around. Apparently, these two bands remember Blasphemy as well. Both bands have that early “American” style of Black Metal sound, which is essentially underproduced, raw Death Metal with snarling vocals that are not brutal enough to qualify as pure Death and not screamed enough to be considered Black Metal in the European style. Of the two, Conqueror sounds more akin to Blasphemy, but Black Witchery is not that far behind. Black Witchery even covers the song “Demoniac” by Blasphemy, and Conqueror has an intro called “Ross Bay Damnation” (for whatever reason, Blasphemy and Ross Bay are seemingly connected somehow). The sound is a bit rough on both halves of this split and I hear that the material for at least one of these bands is a demo repress, so this is explainable. Still, this is some good old-fashioned dirty Black Metal in the vein of the much-overlooked horde up north in Ross Bay.

With a name like Black Abyss and an album title of Land of Darkness, one would expect this to be a low-fi Grim-As-Grim-Can-Be Black Metal assault that rivals Transylvanian Hunger in terms of raw production. Wrong! This is nowhere close to being raw or even Black Metal. This band is one of the second (or is it third by now?) wave of Traditional Metal that seems to blatantly worship Iron Maiden, while totally ignoring the rest of the NWOBHM. Seriously, there was so much more to that period than just Maiden but most people just don’t seem to quite go beyond them when rehashing that style. In effect, Black Abyss doesn’t really go anywhere that Gamma Ray and Hammerfall haven’t gone before. The style is derivative and every song on this CD could easily have been on a Hammerfall album. This is not to disrespect the band’s playing abilities. These guys really know how to capture that Iron Maiden feeling. The problem is that so many other bands are doing the same thing. The production is great and the whole package is fairly solid with the exception of the big “O” word, originality. If you love Iron Maiden, you’ll be guaranteed to love this album. Just don’t expect anything you haven’t heard before.

The only thing that keeps this from getting a perfect 10 is the fact that a good portion of this material is outdated already. Face it, pre-election material doesn’t have much of an impact in February 2001. It’s kind of late to vote for Ralph Nader when Dubya has already been running the country for more than a month. There is, however, a lot of really potent stuff on the 3 CDs worth of Jello going off on corporate America. My personal favorite material was on the first CD. The piece on the school shooters really hit home. Fifteen years ago, that could have been me - and it could have been Jello or any one of us. People give me shit for supporting the “Trench Coat Mafia” but I personally think they were right. Jello’s other material is equally hard-hitting. The stuff about Hacktivism and becoming the media really make a lot of sense in this day and age when we’re slowly becoming as stupid as the public school system is trying to make us. Some might find his rhetoric to be too left-wing or anti-American but my personal opinion is that no matter what you think about his words, at least do yourself a favor and hear him out. You may end up thinking differently by the time the last CD is over.

This sounds like it must be an all “remix” album. Hold on, let me check… Nope, this is really what they sound like now. I hope that the members of Beseech realize that if anyone wants to hear to stuff like this, they could just listen to NIN or some band that actually knows what they’re doing. This is just horrible.

This mess of Industrial Death Metal was quite a chore to get through. It lacks focus and any sense of direction. I have never liked mechanical music, and that’s exactly what this is. It almost sounds like a group of guys got together, snorted an 8-ball, and decided to cut loose in a recording studio with no game-plan whatsoever. There is nothing innovative, creative, or in any way memorable about this release. I see no point at all to noise like this. A complete waste of time.

Do you love Altars of Madness era Morbid Angel and can’t wait for the second coming of Sadistic Intent? Then clearly you absolutely have to own a copy of this album. In fact, you should already own copies of this band’s other two albums as well. Some have called this the shitty Belphegor (preferring the Polish band Belfegor instead, I guess…) but hey, when you’re the first, you’re the first. In fact, I don’t really see how anyone can consider this band “shitty” when there is so much inferior quality stuff on the market that supposedly shares the same genre as this band. I’ve heard plenty worse and just because another band decides to use either the same or similar name to theirs, I don’t think it justifies the name-calling. In fact, there is enough old-school Death Fucking Metal on this album to snap the necks of all but the most jaded of Death Metal fans (and you’re never going to completely satisfy those folks anyway). The sound on this album is a bit on drum-heavy side but not to the extent that it makes this a blast-beat Rap album (where all you can hear is drums and vocals). The guitars are still there, still brutal and there’s enough feeling to make up for the fact that none of the stuff on this CD hasn’t been done before by Morbid Angel, Death or (insert the name of your favorite old-school Florida Death Metal band here).

My only previous experience with Belphegor was about a year back when I heard just a couple songs from their release Blutsabbath. I didn’t get to hear enough of their music to form a solid opinion of this band one way or the other. After spinning Necrodaemon Terrorsathan my opinion is definitely solidified. This Austrian outfit is magnificently brutal! What we have here is an amazing display of heavy Death Metal with an obvious Black Metal foundation. The guitar melodies lean more towards the Black Metal end of the spectrum while the vocals and drumming are clearly of a Death Metal nature. Belphegor’s sound blends elements of Marduk, Myrkskog, and recent Behemoth to create a blasting assault armed to the teeth with hatred and aggression. Make no mistake though, these guys aren’t stealing ideas or riffs from the aforementioned bands. They are listed here simply as a point of reference. Necrodaemon Terrorsathan has more than its share of originality and creativity. So much so, in fact, that I’m surprised I haven’t read more about it in the many zines I collect. I’m a little puzzled with the production. I can’t make up my mind if it favors the Black Metal side or the Death Metal side. Either way, I am very pleased with the way it turned out. This is yet another band whose back-catalog I’ll be investigating because the new release is so incredible. If I’m not mistaken, they have 2 previous releases - Blutsabbath and The Last Supper. Releases like this latest effort by Belphegor are a major reason I live for extreme music. You’ve got to hear this!

Not to be confused with the Belgian band Belphegor, this Polish trio of speed-demons assail your ears with an sound not unlike Immortal’s masterpieces Pure Holocaust or Battles in the North. Now that I have your attention, Belfegor is a lethal reminder that not all Black Metal bands are embracing the electronic age (e.g. Mayhem, Ulver, DHG). Hell no! The Kingdom of Glacial Palaces, the band’s debut, is a non-stop barrage of pure, ice-cold fury. Thunderous drumming, scathing vocals, and mayhemic guitar-riffing solidify the attack. Great production, too. Though these guys may not score points for originality, their execution is dead-on!

Their most brutal and straightforward album so far, Satanica sees this band turning in a very militaristic, rapid-fire drum based approach to what might be best described as Black Grind. The precision level of these songs is utterly off the scale, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they’ve used a drum machine to achieve this level of laser-sharpness. More or less the only thing I can find to bring this down is the not-awesome-but-still-okay “hidden” extra track.

This is the second album by this Minnesota band and unlike their debut, this one actually shows their WP/NS roots. The first disc was pretty much straight-out Black/Death with a Norse influence in the lyrics but Under the Blood Banner comes out of the White Power closet with a vengeance. For those who haven’t heard of Before God, this band is a side project of the veteran White Power Hardcore band Bound for Glory (who have numerous albums available, though finding one at your local record store might not be easy). This album is much more Black Metal (Bathory / Burzum / Darkthrone) oriented, though lyrically Under the Blood Banner has nothing remotely to do with Satan or anything evil. The more Viking stuff is comparable to Darkthrone playing the music of Under a Funeral Moon but using the lyrics from Bathory’s Hammerheart or Twilight of the Gods. I also got the impression that the lyrics for half of this album were written independently of the music because the flow of delivery is just not there. The other half of the album fucking rules because they have the music and the atmosphere and the vocals totally in synch and everything clicks. When things don’t click, the songs sound disjointed and even annoying at times. In terms of consistency, the debut was better. Under the Blood Banner is more experimental in stretching their musical style, but there are still major kinks to be worked out. This is a valiant effort but Before God still has a long journey to complete before they can turn out an album that is a certifiable masterwork.

This is the third release by Macedonian Dark / Black Metal stalwart Baltak, and like their previous album, we are once again treated to a long laundry list of reasons why Greece stole everything from Macedonia. The inlay has some great maps and a lot of info about how Greeks oppress Macedonians and the whole thing is kind of interesting. One thing however… I understand that this band is passionate about all of this Macedonian independence stuff but really, what the fuck does it have to do with any of the material on their CD? If this were a concept album or even one long nationalist rant set to music, I could understand all of this. But it isn’t and I have no idea what any of the songs mean, except the translations of the song titles into English. Musically, this is some ultra-fast Dark/Black Metal that is hard to classify. I’m hesitant to classify this as Black Metal because Satan is notably absent from this album (as he was on just about all of Baltak’s albums so far). Another thing I noticed is that the inlay says a live drummer was used, but if this is a live drummer, I want to know what drugs he’s on that allows him to play this fast without missing a beat. The speed factor hurts Baltak a bit because it makes a lot of their songs sound kind of one-dimensional. The good news is that the ultra-blasting stuff doesn’t comprise the whole album. Things get slowed down a bit every now and then but never really fall below “fast” (as opposed to “ultra-fast”). Even with that, the songs tend to sound the same and it’s then that you realize that Baltak has essentially re-released their previous album with better sound and a few new twists. If you have to buy one Baltak album, I guess this is the one to pick up, but if you already own the other two, this isn’t all that much different than what you already have.