Here we have some tracks from the band’s Blind CD. They’re “New Thrash,” something like Grip, Inc, but more groove influenced, and the vocals are kinda of more in the Hardcore realm. It’s not bad, and certainly has some good parts, so I’ll have to wait and hear what they do next, what stuff they think needs “refining” or “fixing,” to really know where their hearts are.

This is Averse Sefira’s debut album and judging by the fact that their label and band contact addresses are the same, I’d say that this was a self-financed, self-released album. For a self-financed release, the packaging is pretty slick with a multi-page inlay and cool cover art (though if you don’t know what the band’s logo looks like, you’d think it was part of the picture). I bet you can smell the “unfortunately” thing coming on by now. I sure can. Here it is. The music is complete and total Darkthrone worship. This is what Transylvanian Hunger would sound like if it was recorded in an actual studio instead of in Fenriz’s basement. This is a prime example of a band not properly evolving before releasing their first album. Almost all of the songs sound the same and all of them are probably overly long on top of that. I don’t mind epic length songs but when you consistently do 7 minute songs that should have only been 4 to 5 minutes long at most, I’m going to have to shaft you for it. The best parts of this album are in the interludes, which are dark, obscure ambient passages. These are the most original parts of this whole album but the moods they evoke are destroyed as soon as the Darkthrone stuff starts. My advice to this band? Diversify things a little bit. Throw in a little atmosphere here and there - like what you did on “Above the Firmaments of Wrath” with the clean vocals. That was a cool idea and this is the reason that song, in my opinion, stands out from all the others. Change up the song structures so that they don’t all follow the same pattern. In short, find something that distinguishes you guys from other in this genre and distinguishes one song from the other. I can’t recommend this album, but I’ll say that these guys have potential and their next release might be something to look out for.

This is the third release by Autumn Tears and the first to not be part of the Love Poems for Dying Children saga. The liner notes that accompany this say that this is a prologue to their next album (which, incidentally, is part of the Love Poems… saga) which should be out sometime in the near future. For those who have never heard Autumn Tears, imagine a band much in the vein of Dead Can Dance or Cold Meat’s Arcana. The music itself is on the Darkwave side with gothic keyboards and operatic female vocals with occasional male accompaniment. There are only three songs on this, which was kind of a disappointment as I paid $12 for this EP, but the good news is that all three of them are great. They all capture a mournful atmosphere and somber feelings, the way good dark music should. For fans of dark atmospheric music and Gothic, this is well worth the money. The only thing that I could find wrong with it was the fact that it was so short. Just when I was getting into it, it was over!

Twenty minutes of fast, keyboard-laden, atmospheric Black Metal from right here in the USA. They have a polished, professional sound, and interesting, memorable songs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see August get signed soon.

Very well done Ambient Folk, I guess I’ll call it. It’s certainly interesting, and makes for sedating background music, but that’s about all I get out of this, as it’s really more Ychoril’s area of expertise.

Gothic-Rock from Finland. Trendy, unintelligent, and uninspired music for 15-year-old girls and boys who wear black lipstick. To sit through this entire album takes the kind of testicular fortitude that few possess. Oh how I wish bands like this would just fucking die!

Can someone please tell me why so many excellent musicians insist on wasting their talents on playing neo-Classical, self-indulgent, pseudo-Metal like this? I mean who the fuck buys this stuff? I certainly can’t dismiss the musicianship on this stroke-fest, but how about less chops and more emphasis on contemporary songwriting. The only thing more annoying than the goofy Rainbow rip-off vocals (a la Joe Lynn Turner) might just be the goofy Rainbow rip-off keyboard solos. Yawn. Uh guys… it’s 1999, not 1979.

Very impressive, speedy, and aggressive Thrash, that includes a great cover of “Symptom of the Universe.”

Clocking in at just over 8 minutes, this is one short CD, and two of these three tracks will be on their next album anyway. So, I was a little hesitant to even review this at all. But we do review everything we’re sent [Yes, we were that insane back then! -Editor], so I put it in the player. And, god damn, man, when the concept of “Dark Ambient” was invented, Arcana must have been exactly what everyone had in mind. The instrumental title track alone is almost beyond description. Using words like “majestic,” “chilling,” and “perfect” hardly seems strong enough to describe it. The remaining two tracks were slightly less beyond belief, but still absolutely excellent.

One of the things that sets Arallu’s raw Black Metal apart is that Butchered does everything himself, which is impressive. There was a time when one-man bands were generally not very good, but it seems that recently I’ve been hearing more and more that are really cool. And it might not mean much to some, but the fact that the bass is mixed really loudly is a real plus for me, and helps to make the songs more memorable, amid the blazing speed and unholy shrieks.

Does anyone out there know what the fuck an Akercocke is? I’ve never heard of one but whatever it is, this band’s members decided to name themselves after it. Akercocke (the band) is from England and plays Satanic Death Metal with a definite Dark Ambient leaning. Or is that Dark Ambient with a Satanic Death Metal leaning? Most of the album, in fact, is in the Dark Ambient vein with weird bits, gloomy keyboard passages, female vocals and Satanic spoken word parts. The rest of the music is fairly brutal Death Metal in the veins of the older Florida scene with hints of the Buffalo scene (deeper, more guttural vocals and muddier guitars). The song structures are kind of weird as it sounds like you’re listening to a Dark Ambient piece and all of a sudden, in the middle of the piece, a Death Metal song will break out. After a bit, the Dark Ambient part will start up again. Kind of schizophrenic, if you ask me. Imagine the bastard crossbreed of Endura and Immolation with the baby taking after Endura but not without Immolation’s brutal tendencies popping up every now and then. An interesting combo of styles to be sure.

The only real flaw with this EP is that the sound is pretty low, even for a 7-inch, but when you turn it up a bit, the quality is there, in both the recording, and especially the songs. Of these four cuts, I really prefer the slower, more sorrowful sounds of the title track, over the other, speedier and more aggressive cuts, but they are all really quite good - or more to the point, evil. As an added plus, they have thoughtfully included the lyrics and also English translations thereof.

I absolutely love that New Renaissance is reissuing all this old stuff! The timing is good, too, with the reemergence of Thrash and all. This album sounds just as good now as it did when originally released in 1988. It’s a real lesson to current bands that Thrash can be intense. If you missed this the first time out, I’d suggest that all fans of bands like Destruction check it out immediately.

[The Russian title of this album looks like Nechb Beneca, but is better transliterated as Pesn’ Velesa, which means Veles’ Song. -Editor]

From Russia with more hate (if you’ll excuse the pun) comes Ashen Light and if you love Graveland and Nokturnal Mortum, you’re sure to like this band as well. This five-piece sounds a bit young when it comes to musical maturity and it’s immediately noticeable that the keyboards are the dominant instrument here. In fact, I kind of wonder why they bother including guitars in many places. The reason I wonder about that is because the keyboards drown them out so much that if these guys are playing actual riffs or just playing the same chord over and over again, you’d never really know for sure. The biggest problem with this album is that none of the songs really reached out and throttled me half to death. They’re all pretty good and the playing is fairly competent but they all follow a derivative song structure where you can - if you really have nothing better to do with your time - predict where and when certain change-ups occur. Nechb Beneca isn’t the greatest album to come out of Eastern Europe, but Ashen Light has my attention and I’ve put them on my watch list. If they can get a better sound and incorporate their obvious Slavic Folk influences more into their songs (instead of overlaying it over noisy guitars by playing them on the keyboards that overpower everything else), then you’ll be able to mention them in the same breath as the previously mentioned Graveland and Nokturnal Mortum without people asking you who the fuck they are.

After the intro, we get right into the symphonic Black Metal. It’s very well done, and actually pretty catchy. As a bonus, you also get the band’s entire 1997 Trapped in the Depths of Eve… album as extra tracks on the CD. That makes the disc a must, if you ask me.

Very intense Hardcore, sometimes bordering on Death Metal. It’s interesting, and pretty well done most of the time, but every now and then they get off track. I’m looking forward to hearing what they think they have to “fix” for their next album, as that will really tell the tale.

Under most circumstances, I give clone bands a real hard time. No matter how good you can play, you won’t score any higher than a 7 if you blatantly ape your main influence without adding anything new, different or original anywhere in your compositions. That being said, I guess you can figure out that Art Inferno blatantly copies somebody famous. Yes, sad but true, Art Inferno is a Cradle of Filth clone. Not a total clone, which means that their rating will be a tad higher than a blatant, shameless rip-off, but a clone none the less. You get extremely high-pitched banshee wailing a-la Dani Filth, lots of atmospheric keyboard bits in the Cradle of Filth style, female vocal parts, spoken word passages and assorted other Cradle-isms. They do add some twists on the Cradle formula, adding more straight out symphonic pieces, a New Age bit that reminded me strongly of Jim Kirkwood (who did the Asatru inspired album Hammer of the North), some female choir work that sounded nothing like Sarah Jezebel Diva and instrumental segments that are truly interesting. If you like Cradle of Filth and just can’t wait for more of the same, Art Inferno is a fairly close substitute. I wish they would have injected more of their own personalities into this. I’m sure that they are good musicians - you have to be good to pull off Cradle of Filth to this degree - but why copy someone so closely? There are some good, original bits on here but not enough to set them apart as a band forging their own destiny.

This is an album of remixes, reconstructions, and other oddities. Some of them are even pretty good, but some are just examples of what happens when you try too hard to be “artistic” and “different.” To paraphrase Dr. Freud, sometimes shit is just shit.

Intense Thrash from this “supergroup,” with some bits of Traditional Metal bursting through every now and then. By the way, Sharlee D’Angelo must never get any rest - I think he’s in about 6 bands.

This band is definitely a contender in the Unreadable Band Logo category, as it looks evil and Satanic (lots of inverted crosses, demon horns and such) but leaves you wondering just where you get the letters to spell the band’s name amidst all that Satanic imagery. Anwyl plays a rather under-produced style of Blackened Death Metal that is definitely in the need of help in the sound clarity department. The problem is not that their songs suck or that they lack ability. This is not the case. Yes the songs are a bit primitive but hey, I’ve heard tons worse. The lyrics are kind of dopey in the “Kill Your Momma for Satan” kind of way, and songs about raping the Virgin Mary are most certainly old hat. The problem that Anwyl suffers from the most is the fact that everything sounds like it was recorded underwater. The guitars don’t suffer so much but both the vocals and the drums have that muffled flange. To top things off, the guitars are not loud enough to keep from being buried underneath the snare when the blast segments cut in. There are times on Bloody Mary that sound so muddled that you just give up trying to follow the song and let the chaos run rampant for a few seconds before the snare cuts out. With a better, clearer sound, this would have been 1000 times better. The net result of this, however, is nothing to write home about. Nor would I recommend chasing this one down unless you have to own everything.