Weird acid dreams washed up onto the shores of desolation. The suffocating insanity of deep space dementia. Hypnotic swarms of pulsating bass with real grooves, pushing their way up through interstellar damnation. Or, as Lemmy might say “a fucking black nightmare.” And, no I’m not talking about Hawkwind. Blood of the Dragon very wisely avoid the one thing that would have likely done them in - vocals. This all instrumental disc engulfs the listener in a subdued storm of multi-layered aural delights, and is not to be missed.

From the initial spoken-word seconds of the first track, I knew that this was going to be a classic. I would quote from the lyrics here, but I’d really have to quote the whole album. These bastards are nice and pissed off about everything, and I couldn’t agree more. Their thick, heavy Hardcore sometimes reminds me a bit of Retaliation era Carnivore, and other times of early Sick of It All (and a little early Suicidal Tendencies on the track “Shut My Eyes Forever”), and exactly matches the intensity of the lyrics and traditional gruff HC vox, while being very well played and catchy at the same time. Victory Records has put out some excellent Hardcore in the last few years, but Blood for Blood are in the elite of even the Victory roster.

“Dark and depressive Gothic Art Metal.” Oh man, what’s next? Can’t anyone think of a way to be “dark” that does not involve vampires, or supposedly romantic “Gothic sexuality.” And I just don’t see how this is “Metal” in any way. I’m not sure there are even guitars on this album. It’s all very friendly synths over top of simple drums and bass. I’m sure they think the spoken-word vocals are plenty “dark,” but really they’re just low-pitched and buried in the mix. Maybe I don’t understand stuff like this, but it just puts me right to sleep. And I mean that in the bad way.

This is the second release of the controversial Blood Axis, a band that has been associated with Nazi ideology and racism by more than a few PC fascists out there. Of course, given the imagery and such, it’s easy to believe that they are just your run of the mill skinhead Industrial act. This CD does nothing to dispel that image, beginning with a speech by British Fascist leader, Oswald Mosley. The production on this is fucking incredible for a live recording. The music is very repetitive but has a certain militaristic feeling. The band also incorporates some Celtic influenced Folk bits into their music and it really adds to their sound. The strange thing about this “live recording” is the fact that you can’t hear the audience at all. Between songs, you get howling wolves in the distance, but no people. Regardless of their political ideology, I like this band. Hopefully, they will be able to actually play live here in San Francisco, but after the PC fascists (one of the protesters had a sign that said “no free speech for fascists” - what a bunch of hypocrites!) ruined things, I doubt that they’ll come back.

Last Episode has once again surprised me by finding yet another talented Black Metal act that isn’t afraid to throw in something different. Admittedly, adding Folk elements (accordion, mandolin, violin and acoustic guitar), female vocals and such isn’t something that’s new, but Black Messiah has managed to produce an album that hints at other bands (such as Cradle of Filth and Emperor), but really sounds like nobody else. The lyrics on this are totally Satanic, and Zagan manages to be coherent enough so that even though there aren’t any lyrics printed in the booklet, you can figure out what most of the songs are about. Besides, with song titles like “Crusade of the Blackened,” “Diabolic Rites,” and “Queen of Darkness,” you really don’t have to guess that these guys follow the left-hand path.

Supposedly this band’s drummer was taught by Satan. That counts for something in my book. Anyway, BM play mid-to-fast paced technical (you won’t believe some of the solos) Death Metal, and I’ll bet they have sick lyrics - the vox are too raw to understand, which is good, but there’s no lyric sheet, which is sort of bad. The sound is passable, and the conviction is super high. Plus, there can be no doubt that any band with a song called “Raped & Killed (But Not in That Order)” is cool.

Give me a fucking break. I hate it when some jerkoff like Mikey Ford tries to pass off this supposedly “ambient” bullshit as music - oh, excuse me all to Hell, I mean “musick.” This is the most talentless, worthless thing I have ever heard. And also the most hilarious! This makes Abruptum sound like they knew what they were doing. I can’t believe that anyone thinks that this is “evil” or “dark.” It’s just Mr. Ford, his $26 Casio keyboard, a picture of some chick, and maybe three hours by himself, thinking how smart he is to be ripping off all the fucking morons who will believe that this is actually “An experiment in sonic magick.” I wish I had the necessary space to print the entire press release - it’s an awesome work of propaganda and bullshit. And normally I wouldn’t comment on someone’s photo, since these reviews aren’t meant to be taken personally, but it seriously looks like Mike is in the late stages of AIDS decay. I guess I don’t totally blame him for stealing the money of anyone stupid enough to buy this, since he apparently needs the cash for AZT, but how can he keep a straight face about it?

After various detours, changes and having experienced all the ups and downs of the music business, finally Bifrost have come up with a third album. Both their previous CDs had been on the infamous Nazgul’s Eyrie Productions and have thus been widely ignored by the Metal press. Now they seek their fortune with a release on their own label, Hammerheart Records. I was afraid they might have fallen prey to the ”Gothenburgh trend” with all its happy melodies but it didn’t happen and even the adding of a keyboard player didn’t do any harm, but added another dimension without noticeably watering down their original sound. The vocals are somewhere between early Skyclad and hysterical Macabre and are less one-dimensional than in the past. I’m not really sure if I like every vocal trick Guido did, but it´s surely original, so what the fuck. I honestly admit I was prepared to rip this CD to shreds, but I like it and so will you. Welcome back Bifrost!

This is a lot less Metal than I remember Pity Love being, but after hearing this, I wonder if I’m just remembering it wrong. They try their best to be “dark” and “Gothic,” but I’m not sure that horns are the way to do that. Revelry isn’t dark. It isn’t majestic. It isn’t even interesting. Simply put, this is an irritating and failed attempt to be different.

Fast Black Metal with keyboards. Not exactly inspirational stuff (except maybe the cover art, which depicts the Old Goat watching the son of dog burning on the cross), but still pretty good.

The press release asks if these guys are “Norway’s answer to Voivod.” Not bloody likely. But what they are is still pretty damn good, and even somewhat original, Death Metal that ranges from melodic to raw. And certainly very memorable throughout.

In trying to be “progressive” and “original,” Bethlehem now only succeed in being pretentious and generally boring. Bethlehem really lost me on their last album, and this is a continuation of that directionless nonsense. There are still excellent elements embedded here and there, but as soon as I start to really like something, it stops and some chick starts screeching, or some other goofiness happens. I’m sure a lot of people think that is really “extreme” and “evil,” but I’d rather hear something I could remember.

Just as dark as their other two CDs, but not as Metal. This is just weird. I’m tempted to say “experimental,” but I think that you have to at least have some idea of what you want to do for that to be true. It sounds as if Bethlehem are getting tired of being a Metal band and are trying as many new things as they can think of. For example, they’ll get a song started, and really be kicking ass, then just stop and have someone scream for a little while. Maybe it’ll simply take more plays (this came in very close to the deadline for this issue) for me to fully “get” what they’re doing, or perhaps they don’t get it, either.

Heavy, depressing dirges, with some female vocals…

[Metal Curse #11 had an additional loose page (“Last Second Additions”) inserted into the centerfold of the zine, featuring a bunch of even-shorter-than-usual “bonus” reviews of stuff that arrived after the deadline for that issue. This is one of those “Last Second Additions” reviews.]

It’s not too often that I hear an album with two cover songs on it, but when one of ‘em is as ass kicking as this version of Twisted Sister’s classic “Destroyer,” I guess I can live with it - even if the other one (Judas Priest’s “Electric Eye”) is sort of less great (still okay, though). As far as the rest of this LP is concerned, it’s sort of far from being brutal, and not really Death Metal anymore (much less Grind), but honestly all these songs are memorable, and despite its lack of intensity, I do enjoy listening to this quite a bit, and can growl along with all the songs. I would have liked this more if Benediction didn’t sound as if they are reigning themselves in so much of the time, but as you can see, it couldn’t have been much more.

Poland’s Behemoth return once more with their own particular brand of Black Metal. Unlike their previous album, this one is more straight forward. There are, however, still quite a few atmospheric elements (acoustic guitars, keyboards, etc.) here and there, they are just not as prominent as in their last album. After the intro is over, this one kicks you in the face with some high speed, brutal Black Metal that is both epic and destructive - often at the same time. This CD also comes in some really excellent packaging - digipak format with great artwork and layout. One to look out for.

I already reviewed the original Hammerheart version of this album last issue [Metal Curse #11 -Editor], but I wanted to raise the fist to Pavement for releasing this raw, intense Black Metal domestically. Cheers!

Except for the intro and occasional weird keyboard parts, Barbatos is a strange combination of Black Metal (which is no surprise considering that this is Abigail demon Yasuyuki’s band) and Hard Rock/Metal of the mid ’70s (Kiss comes to mind). Sometimes this is excellent, but there are also a few attempts at strangeness that just go nowhere. It’s a cool experiment that simply doesn’t always work.

This disc has a lot going for it, excellent and complex sound production, a rich crunchy bass-heavy sound, and an interesting mix of alchemical and cabalistic references in the lyrics. There is even a music video included on here as a Quick Time movie, for the computer-enabled among you, with footage of the band lurking around some European castle with the requisite Goth-babes. Yet this video illustrates my one major reservation about this band, the nagging feeling that these guys are yearning for mainstream attention, which carries over to their music. This causes them to come across like late period Sisters of Mercy crossed with Type O Negative. Their press release labels them as “Death Rockers,” which is a fair description. They wouldn’t sound too out of place on the radio between Rob Zombie and Korn, which I think is what Babylon Whores wants. If you think that’s what you want, give them a try.

This is an interesting fusion of both the “raw” and “majestic” styles of Black Metal. The songs are all well written and played, and to a certain degree even pretty memorable. Except the goofy final track.