If these Belgian sickos would be so kind as to give up on full-length albums and stick to EPs with Entombed covers on them, I’d be very happy. 2004’s The Haematobic EP contained a stunning rendition of “Drowned”, and this short monsterpiece includes no less than “Left Hand Path” itself! Is “Revel in Flesh” next? I hope so. In fact, stop teasing us and just cover the entire Left Hand Path album! Seriously, who doesn’t want to hear Aborted’s version of “Premature Autopsy”? Get on it, guys! Entombed riffs apparently energize main-man/growler Svencho (the new guitarists, too, probably), and this ferocious Death Metal onslaught is more simultaneously brutal and memorable than I remember Aborted ever being before. You might even find yourself screaming along to “Grime.” Of course, I was just kidding about only wanting EPs from Aborted, but Coronary Reconstruction has set the bar astonishingly high for the next LP, whenever it may be unleashed. Bring to light that day of joy.

This is a fun little split featuring two of the more obscure Finnish Death Metal bands. Both bands contribute one original song and an Iron Maiden cover. For those who aren’t familiar with Sotajumala (English translation - “wargod”), you’re really missing out on high quality, Grind-infused, melodic Death Metal. You may have heard frontman Mynni Luukkainen’s pipes on releases by the depressive masters Black Sun Aeon, but his main band’s attack is a bit more vicious. Their cut, “Sinun Virtesi,” is a 6-minute rager that I have heard will be featured on the upcoming full length, Kuolemanpalvelus. Their cover of “Prowler” is a bit of a dud though. Even guest vocals from original IM singer Paul Di’Anno don’t really help. It is a decent cover musically, but will leave you just sort of wondering why. Deathchain aren’t really on the same level as their splitmates. Not quite as polished, not quite as talented, a touch on the Thrashier side, and their song really fails to do much of anything. Their Maiden cover is even worse. They chose “Purgatory” with guest vocals from the lead singer of Tarot. Once again… why? So, basically one new, kick ass Sotajumala song that will be on their new album anyway and two bum covers doesn’t really make this essential. But the concept is a nice throwback to the days when there was a market for plastic.

Even for those somehow unfamiliar with this Polish Death Metal band, it may come as no surprise that Hate sounds like a combination of Vader and Behemoth. And what could be a greater compliment than to be compared to those two legends? Hate main-man Adam the First Sinner has been delivering the evil for 20 years, and Erebos is so amazing that it sounds as if he’s been working on this album the entire time (actually, this is the band’s seventh full-length studio album). The acoustic intro threw me at first, but apparently it’s intended to lull the listener into a false sense of security before the blast beats kick in and start pummeling your gray matter. Any discussion of the drums would almost have to start with how fast the kick-drum molestation is sometimes, but speed is perhaps the least of Hexen’s awesome skills, as he stands with the true elite in every way. Not to be outdone by anyone, ATF Sinner has composed complex, layered songs that are often intensely brutal, but never sacrifice being memorable to achieve the necessary devastation. The perfect production is the final element, and after about 666 spins (can I still say “spins” if I’m listening to mp3s?), all I want is to keep listening to this and not have to move on to the next review.

As far as Black Metal in the year 2010 goes, I will remember it first and foremost as the year Burzum returned to school all the new jack bitches. Secondly I will remember it as the year scene giants Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth laid huge fucking eggs. Hot off the heels of their 2008 return to form, Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder, I had high hopes for a continuation of the coolness. No such luck unfortunately. Most critics have compared this to the 1998 classic Cruelty and the Beast. I guess in the sense that both are concept albums about hot, evil chicks… but musically this record is an overly orchestrated mess. It is a screenplay first, Black Metal album second. Over an hour of British women talking gibberish, Dani Filth using every vocal style he has except the ones that work, and not a single memorable riff to be found. Not even a traditional Cradle of Filth Doomy ballad! And of course what all bands must do when they’re out of ideas, 765,090-piece orchestras and 456,786-piece choirs. I’ll let Marshall Mathers sum this one up from a 2010 album that hit way harder: “Unfashionable and about as rational as a rash on a fag’s asshole.”

Shut it all down. The facts and the memories. I have been running around inside on borrowed time. The medical poison, it stabilizes and drags me back, though it is against my will. Locked inside this suite of flesh and blood, stranded on clean sheets forever with the parasites in my veins. I can hear your cries. I can feel your breath to the end. You have been visiting me for so long now. Erase the map of the past… I am fighting with my heart as an enemy, falling through a black hole for eternity, caught in an endless sleep with these hollow dreams. Capture the light and pour it over me, a benefactor forbidden to all humanity. Bring me a trail and please let me feel pain. Turn to the next page. Ease your depression. You will find it better when I’m gone… This will lead you insane.

Eight long years have passed since we last heard from these Midwest warmongers, and the time has apparently been kind to them. As respectable and steady as Berserk Artillery Barrage was, this fucking shit slays it in cold blood like a bayonet in the trenches! The biggest difference evident from the press of play is the infusion, no fuck that, the worship of Autopsy-inspired Old School Swedeath. If you don’t hear it, go right to “Firestorm in Dresden” and tell me that ominous crawl wouldn’t fit right in on Into the Grave! But it’s noticeable everywhere throughout this 54-minute rager. From the drumming style to the guitar tone, not to mention the non stop assault of Slayer solos coming at you like napalm from the sky. Somewhere along Pete’s Soulside Journey, he took the Left Hand Path Like an Ever Flowing Stream and ended up Where No Life Dwells. Believe me, I’m not complaining. And Here I Die… Satisfied.

Somewhere along the way, these Canadian Death Metal legends lost me. I don’t think they ever put out a bad album per se, but for a while the fire wasn’t there. That is, until 2006’s flawless masterpiece, In the Arms of Devastation, explosively re-ignited Kataklysm’s fading embers. I don’t know what within the band changed, but somehow they finally remembered how to make memorable, intense Death Metal (although I don’t think that anyone’s going to refer to them as “Hyperblast” anymore, Northern or otherwise). The follow-up in 2008, Previal, so closely followed the blueprint of its predecessor that it initially seemed like Devastation 2 (which wasn’t exactly bad news to my ears), but quickly revealed its unique worth, and sometimes I even prefer it now, depending on my mood. So, has the band strayed from this winning formula? Not really. These Canucks have it sorted now, and aren’t taking any but the most superficial chances here, which mostly works out, although Heaven’s Venom does seem to be slightly missing some unknown, intangible quality that transforms great albums into legendary ones.

The follow up to 2009’s Passiondale serves as almost a part two of that album’s lyrical content, this being a concept album about World War One also. It seems as though military history is an extremely popular topic amongst the Death Metal community these days, but maybe I’ve just been listening to too much Hail of Bullets and Invasion. What a can of worms Bolt Thrower opened up many moons ago. Topics range from The Battle of Verdun all the way to The Red Baron, if that kind of thing gets you excited, but for me, a band as consistently kick ass as God Dethroned have been for the better part of the last two decades could be singing about ducks and bunnies and it would still get me up and moving. New members Danny Tunker (guitar) and Mike Plicht (drums) recruited from Death/Grind sadists Prostitute Disfigurement have noticeably provided a musical spark this time around. The energy they inject is evident from the get go, especially the rapid fire drumming of Plicht. Woven with the band’s trademark saccharine melodies and becoming-trademark clean vocal guest spots, Henri and the boys continue to be one of the best around at achieving a sound that is both furious and hummable. Don’t expect them to recreate their own stylistic wheel, but with these results why would anyone want that anyway?

For the handfuls of disappointments 2010 brought to the table as far as Death Metal albums are concerned, there was no bigger or better surprise than Invidious Dominion. The 11th full-length album from the Buffalo-turned-Floridian legends. Let’s not kid ourselves, The Ten Commandments was one of the best albums of all time, let alone the glorious and mighty year of 1991 (the motherfucking year of the god damned Death Metal record). But the two albums that followed were boring, not bad, but boring. It wasn’t until the Jason Blachowicz-on-vocals era that they really started to knock dicks in the dirt once more. Once that ended (although it should be noted JB still handles bass duties), they still put out a hell of a record with 1998’s The Fine Art of Murder (Bret Hoffman’s second coming), but the subsequent albums that followed saw a return to the doldrums. And to hammer that point home, I’m a Death Metal lifer and I didn’t even know Kyle Symons sang for them for 5 years, nor do I even remember a second of the Envenomed or Warkult albums. They just seemed like a dead band going through the motions at that point. With 2007’s Doomsday X (Bret Hoffman’s third coming), I sensed a spark I hadn’t recognized in a while, although that album did somewhat go downhill after the first song. The reason for this long rant? I had no idea what to expect when I popped this son of a bitch in for the first time. But holy shit! “United Hate“‘s main riff is like a buzz saw to the skull amidst a sea of machine gun fire! “Slaughterhouse” made me want to head bang and I haven’t had hair for 4 years! “Compulsive Face Breaker” made me want to start a fight, get arrested, and once imprisoned, start more fights! There is no filler here, no forgettable moments. It all fucking kills, each arrangement seemingly gift-wrapped for this aforementioned DM lifer. I can honestly say this is easily their best album since their debut. Now let’s just hope we don’t have to wait until album #21 for another masterpiece.

The problem with Funeral Doom is that it is apparently extremely difficult to make interesting. I’ve heard countless bands try to fuse its glacial tempos with Black Metal and/or Ambient, which almost never seems to really work out. There are, however, some artists that make it appear effortless, such as the slow-motion gods of the abyss known as Skepticism, Shape of Despair, Thergothon, Ahab, Wraith of the Ropes, and Asunder. Now add to that elite list France’s Remembrance, which has improved with each recording over the years, and now, with Fall, Obsidian Night, finally reached perfection. Carline Van Roos’s beautiful voice occasionally washing over the exquisite musical oppression is sublime. The tortured vocals of Matthieu Sachs are as suffocating and bleak and amazing as the music itself, which is nothing less than awe-inspiring in its haunting devastation. This is a masterpiece almost beyond description.

A couple years ago, when I first heard that Martin van Drunen (Pestilence, Asphyx) was assembling a Death Metal “supergroup” with members of Thanatos and Gorefest’s drummer Ed Warby, I knew that the result would be amazing. How could it not be? And so it was no surprise to me that Hail of Bullets’ debut album, 2008’s …of Frost and War, was an instant classic. Honestly, I expected nothing less. The next year, HoB released the super-limited edition EP, Warsaw Rising, which I’m sure was illegally downloaded quite heavily since Metal Blade couldn’t even be bothered to release it on CD at all here in the US, so apparently if you wanted one, fuck off. I sincerely do not understand such decisions, but I suppose that’s why Metal Blade is Metal Blade, and my small label, Cursed Productions, is not. But I digress. With On Divine Winds, Hail of Bullets has delivered an album somehow beyond even my high expectations. The riffs (holy HELL!), the drums, the vocals, the recording quality itself (mixed and mastered by Dan Swano!) - everything is so… perfect. Impossibly, it’s almost too perfect, perhaps lacking the wabi-sabi necessary for a 10 rating, I’m not sure. But don’t misunderstand, this is easily one of the top Death Metal albums of 2010 (along with Immolation’s astonishing Majesty and Decay!), and needs to be heard immediately. However, thanks once again to the seemingly insane decisions of Metal Blade USA, you’ll have to track down an import copy, since that’s the only way to get the bonus track, “Sugar Loaf Hill,” and an entire bonus DVD of the band’s live performance at Germany’s Summer Breeze Festival 2008. My friends, it is worth the effort.

At some point, let’s say while composing 2001’s Violence Has Arrived album, it must have dawned on Gwar that a Thrashy sound works best for them, and at long last they ejected most of their other various influences into outer space, after years of failed attempts at disparate stylistic gestalts. Bloody Pit of Horror is the band’s most high-intensity Thrash output so far, with some clear Punk and Hardcore influences, and an absolutely amazing, heavy sound. There are a few clunky riffs, though, and even a couple of lame ones, but the impressive drumming can sometimes make up for such deficiencies. Of course the lyrics are goofy -they’re supposed to be. That’s what Gwar’s about, like a Z-level Japanese gore movie. That said, these songs are as memorable as I can remember the scumdogs ever writing. Seriously, try to get “Tick-Tits” out of your mind! Or “Storm Is Coming” (possibly the best track on here). Or “Beat You to Death,” but maybe that’s because Casey “Beefcake the Mighty” Orr sings on it, so it reminds me of his old band, Rigor Mortis, a little. I’m not sure if it’s cool or not that these sickos recently performed “Zombies, March!” on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but it did get me to watch that bullshit show for the first (and hopefully last, pending other musical guests) time, although I was hoping that Oderus would disembowel Fallon.

I like this album, but I wanted to love it -despite the goofy title. I’ve been a big fan of Nightfall’s blend of Death and Black Metal (and Gothic Metal, and other influences along the way, as well) since the beginning, nearly two decades ago, and I hoped that this, the band’s eighth full-length album, and debut on Metal Blade, would be their return to perfection. Unfortunately, as good as Astron Black… is, there are a few problems. Efthimis’s raw vocals are often excellent (if a little Dethklokish at times), but he just won’t stick with them, and all his various “clean” styles are different degrees of irritation. Nightfall just have too many influences, and occasionally try to cram them all into a song, which typically results in a mess (but a mess with some great parts!). However, when these guys are focused, the results can be truly amazing.

Fucking Nicolas Cage’s ex-wife might be fun, but it isn’t very Metal. Neither is this new output from Dimmu Borgir, which just might be the biggest disappointment of 2010. Probably my favorite Black Metal band for the last few years, not because they were the truest or most kvlt; far from it. Just because everyone else started writing one-man College Black Metal for Hydra Head. What’s wrong with this album? You name it, it sucks. 2,643,098-piece choirs, 745,876-piece orchestras, more experimental vocal mistakes than George W. Bush’s terms, and everything just so over-the-top theatrically dramatized that it doesn’t even resemble Black Metal. Just the name of the album alone reeks of cartoon gayness. It’s like some dark Glee episode, or a Rock Opera about fucking dudes. I know they underwent some lineup changes, but I didn’t expect them to write a play and pass it off as what I’m sure they’ll say is their best album ever. Sometimes you don’t need to hire Brock Lesnar to open the pickle jar. It’s just fucking Black Metal, or at least it was.

I’m going to ignore this band’s 1996 gay porn soundtrack, Swallow the Snake, so let’s pretend that Scars is the long-awaited follow-up to ‘94’s melancholy Death Metal classic, Bitterness. I loved that album maybe ever so slightly less than the band’s flawless 1993 debut, Into Eternity, and so had very high hopes upon hearing that Desultory had reformed and would record again. Counting Our Scars really does pick up right where Bitterness left off, although do I miss the thick Sunlight Studios guitar sound. But that’s the only thing missing. The remaining guys have clearly studied ex-guitarist Stefan Poge’s Thrashy, mournful riffs and solos to such a degree that I was surprised to discover that he wasn’t included in the reformation. I’m tempted to question why some bands get back together after such long hiatuses, but when the result is this good, who cares. Hopefully it won’t be 16 more years until Desultory’s next album.

Fenriz and Nocturno Culto continue to release slop Punk albums under the name Darkthrone only because it would be impossible for Peaceville to sell any CDs by a band called “We Didn’t Want to Completely Shit on Our Legacy, So We’re Not Called Darkthrone Anymore.” What is most disturbing is that there are good riffs here, buried within this weird production, and that it is clear that Darkthrone could easily still be great (possibly even the vox, which are generally fucking horrid - check out the vocal AIDS of the title track, for only one extreme example), but they don’t seem to want to. In fact, they appear to be trying very hard to be terrible. I have to wonder if it’s all a joke to them. I guess that maybe I did know what I was talking about after all when I called these guys out in my 1992 review of A Blaze in the Northern Sky [way back in Metal Curse #07] for their shift from Soulside Journey’s Entombed-worship Death Metal to Northern Sky’s raw, noisy Black Metal. So, to all who doubted me for the last two decades, I accept your apologies.

I’ve been a big Accept fan practically since I was an embryo, so when I heard about this new release, the band’s first studio album since 1996’s Predator, I was ecstatic. And then I found out who the new singer is… I’m sure that there are some who would argue that Wolf Hoffmann’s riffs are just as important to Accept as Udo “Bastard!!” Dirkschneider’s trademark vocals, and that might even be true. But no matter who else is left, without Udo this isn’t Accept. Okay, former TT Quick squealer Mark Tornillo does his best Udo imitation, which is passable most of the time (and probably the best of the guys-who-are-not-Udo Accept vocalists) despite him not being German, and musically this is well done, except for when it ventures too far away from Heavy Metal and into sappy Hard Rock territory. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that these guys are still making music and don’t have to work at Burger Reich or whatever, but I have a feeling (hope, actually) that this is going to be an Iron Maiden / Judas Priest kind of situation, where the band releases a couple albums with a scab singer before making a big deal of reuniting with the guy everyone actually wants to hear.

Imp Naz have long since mastered the art of flawless recording and sound, and Octagon certainly does not disappoint in that respect, nor in any other, really. The sound here is x-ray laser sharp, and the intensity of their Black Metal (Nuclear Metal? Or Goat Metal, perhaps?) onslaught is beyond belief. Sacrificed to that intensity, however, are the slower tempos that the band reintroduced on 2007’s Manifest, other than the very beginning of “Cult of the Goat,” and the ending of the last track, “Rhetoric Infernal.” And that could be what keeps this just short of perfection. Or possibly it’s that the album is only about 34 minutes long, and I want more. Perhaps it’s that I need a lyric sheet in front of me so that I can blaspheme along with Mika’s screams.

I’ve heard this band described as “Black Thrash,” but essentially the only Thrash here is in the minds of listeners who can’t get past the fact that these guys are also in the Hardcore band Kill Your Idols. Having not heard Black Anvil’s debut, 2008’s Time Insults the Mind, I was admittedly concerned that this would be Black Metalcore or Black Hardcore, whatever such abominations might sound like. That couldn’t be further from reality, as there are zero seconds of Hardcore influence to be found here, even in the vocals (which are generally amazing). These guys do a Von cover (“Veadtuck,” minus the short spoken word intro) for fuck’s sake! If you need your Black Metal to be as fast and raw as possible, then Triumvirate isn’t for you. However, if you prefer memorable songs of varying tempos, and excellent recording and production, then do your ears a favor and check this out.

This is a re-recording of Manowar’s debut album from 1982. I must wonder, if this sells, will they re-record them all? It seems like a dick move, but I’m not sure… This new recording sounds 666 times better than the original. But was it necessary? Would a remastering of the first recording have done the job? When I listen to Manowar it’s usually just my favorite tracks, very rarely an entire album, and never all of Battle Hymns. The first half of this album is mostly too Butt Rock for me to take seriously. Def Leppard and Quiet Riot were more Metal than the song “Death Tone,” which I think may contain cowbell. That said, this new 2010 recording/production certainly does sonically impress. Although there are a few good seconds here and there early on, and I suppose that I’m glad that the guys didn’t succumb to what I hope was an overwhelming urge to rewrite the past by reworking some of the music (the cringe-inducing lyrics are sadly a lost cause), it’s best to simply ignore everything until the song “Manowar” starts. Also try to not listen closely at the end of it when Eric Adams sings “Man-UH-war,” rather than “Man-OH-war,” which is insane. Oh, but those familiar with this album are likely wondering who does the narration in “Dark Avenger,” originally spoken so perfectly by the late Orson Welles. I was also curious about who could have the necessary boulders to do it justice. It’s Christopher fucking Lee! He could make reading the Elkhart phone book sound ominously cool, so of course he knocks this into outer space. After “Battle Hymn,” which closed out the original version of this album, as I wish it had also done here, there are now two live tracks, recorded in 1982. Unfortunately they’re “Fast Taker” and “Death Tone.” I can only guess that we got those instead of live recordings of “Manowar,” “Dark Avenger,” and “Battle Hymn” for the same reason that Katy Perry is somehow not deep-throating me as I type this. If you’ve ever thought, “Man, I’ve got to listen to Battle Hymns right now!” then this is probably a worthy “upgrade.” For the merely curious about this venerable band, I’d suggest starting with one of their plethora of live albums.