When I played this for my associate Count Bacchus, he mumbled something like, “If there were trees possessed of an evil as ancient as the evil of this band, I’d plant an orchard of them in my back yard.” Well, it’s hard not to agree with that assessment. There’s a raw edge here that might be attributed to the vox not being as low as most Death Metal guys, or maybe a kind of treble boost in the production. Whatever it is, it’s working for them. A reshuffling of the lineup has brought them close to their original form, and they are not fucking around. Some of the drumbeats & guitar parts suggest a (minor) Punk influence, and that’s the only incongruous aspect here, detracting a little from the undead feeling that pervades the rest of the album.

Self-described as “Gorecore Rap.” Fuck, what else must I endure? Oddly enough some of this is sorta heavy, in a Sludgy kind of way, but they fuck it up soon enough. I wouldn’t want to be an expert on Rap, but I’ve heard enough to know that these cartoony gore lyrics are very simple and weakly delivered. I’d rather listen to the Geto Boys. The addition of distorted bass does little to help the situation. Even for a “novelty” band, this is terrible.

While very intense Death Metal, the music is not always up to the extreme sickness of the gurgled vocals - but what could be? Excellent playing, stunning production, memorable songs, and vox that would make a vulture puke. They occasionally inject a little Doom into their gory Death-fest, too. It’s an unbeatable monster breathing radioactive fire on the competition.

First of all, so there is no confusion, this is not the Thrash band from my neighboring Illinois. I think that this Avatar have been listening to Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse quite a bit, since they do their level best to invoke the same sound and feeling, and as with all imitators, they pale in comparison to the original. However, in this case, the masters are so awesome that even some of those who have taken a great deal of influence from them can be impressive. Such is the case with Avatar. Perhaps this can help to ease the agony in waiting for the new Emperor masterpiece.

These guys have an interesting, if not exactly compatible, female back-up singer. Her vocals really distract the listener from the music, as they are usually not in the same key. The music is fairly traditional Death, but the vox and drums are mixed noticeably too loudly, so sometimes the guitars get kind of buried, which is a real shame, since (when distorted - there are many clean parts) they have a pretty heavy tone. I’m also not convinced that they are all playing in tune with each other. It just sounds kind of thrown together. And before I forget, the regular vocals have a weird screechy, nasal quality, which I don’t like, but they’re better than the chick’s off-key operatics. Not too horrible, but certainly nothing I haven’t heard 100 times before, and 10 times better.

It’s fairly uncommon for a Black Metal band to use a drum machine [Well, it was back in 1996! -Editor], but Asgaroth is shining example of how to make technology work for you. Amid the (for the most part) simple, yet very effective, riffs there are tons of keyboards, a few possibly Cronos-inspired bass slides, and the most tortured vocals I’ve heard recently. An emotional, and in many ways, majestic release, which is occasionally also a bit experimental.

Fans of Cannibal Corpse style brutal Death should be certain to experience the Art of Butchery. These sick bastards maim for nearly a half hour straight. It’s utter brutality from the first murder to the last. As an added plus, the production is raw and disturbing, but very clear. And the vox are truly impressive, ranging from the lowest of gurgles to deep growls to high shrieks - sometimes multi-tracked on top of one another. In the midst of all this insane horror, Art even remember to make the songs memorable, in fact very much so, by splicing the extremity together with some catchy simple riffs, and some technical workouts.

What happens when you take Ulver’s singer (Garm), the drummer from the legendary Mayhem (Hellhammer), and team them up with a somewhat lesser known guitarist, and bassist? I wouldn’t have guessed that they would make a melodic, atmospheric, keyboard-laden “Symphonic” Metal album. This sounds like they should be signed to Holy Records, if you know what I mean. I’m thoroughly impressed by the excellent writing and the flawlessly technical playing. I wonder how many people will call Arcturus the first Black Metal “supergroup.”

Dark Wave Ambient with beautiful female vocals. Haunting and majestic. I may not know a lot about this kind of music, but I know what I like.

The lengthy intro aside, this is about 40 minutes of Metal that combines some elements of Death, Black, and Doom, with a touch of Folk to create a unique style. This wasn’t always awesome, since they do so many different things (especially with the vox), but it’s interesting.

Brutal, memorable, technical Death Metal. Excellent production. In fact, everything about this full-length release is excellent. I know this is a short review, but when something kicks this much ass, what more do you need to know, other than to check it out?

I’m glad to hear that these ancient bastards are still cranking out Metal. And damn fine stuff it is, too. The excellent production highlights the ominous guitar sound, and Lips’ vocals are as good as ever. I could have done without the odes to weed and jerking off, but other than those aberrations, this is a proud addition to Anvil history.

After the first track of all keyboards and spoken invocations, the actual music finally begins, and when the singer employs his screechy “Black Metal” style vocals, everything is at least passable, but when he tries to really sing, everything just falls apart. The music likewise mutates from good to uninteresting. These guys have a lot of potential, but they need to weed out the weak stuff.

After the spoken word (in Spanish) intro is over, the evil Death Metal starts. Actually, there is a pretty strong Thrash influence in the music, or at least the style of the riffs, if not exactly how they are played or written, but this is still all Death. It’s also very catchy and intense enough to cause severe damage. I wish I could read Spanish. I’ll bet the lyrics are cool.

This must be Hardcore for little kids. Perhaps what it might sound like if Warrior Soul decided to “go Hardcore.” They keep trying to show how tough they are, but everything is sugar-coated for easy swallowing by the MTV generation. The only thing tough about this disc is listening to it.

In places the music has a sort of majestic quality, but ranges from NWOBHM-style riffs and drumming to blast beats, and covers everywhere in-between. The vocals are just as varied, with Lord Kaiaphas taking the expected screechy Black Metal technique, and injecting some Tom G. Warrior grunts, and even some lower Death roars. The music sometimes plays against the vocals, and that really keeps things very interesting. Kim’s sublime backing vocals and synth-work only make things better. Top all of that off with a Unisound recording, and Dan Swano production, and what worshiper of The Ancient Ones could ask for more? Certainly not me.

Somehow this band has become a third-rate Cure rip-off.

As fucking weird as it sounds, Ego Art kind of reminds me of a somewhat heavier version Gorefest’s Erase. Honestly it’s not bad for “new-style” Death Metal, although it does have some of that hated “Power Gayness” in it, but I was certainly expecting a little god damned more from the Youth Against Christ.

The promotional version of this has got a really neat green jewel-box that changes colors to yellow when you get it warm. I think the retail version comes in a normal jewel-box, which is really too bad, since that’s the most interesting thing I could find about this band’s tame Punky Hard Rock.

Excellent Doomy Black Metal with a great production.

[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.]