Faustcoven : 'In the Shadow of Doom"

Falling in the fog somewhere at a dark cross roads where black metal meets doom comes Norway's Faustcoven. The riffs have more hooks in them than your average underground black metal band. The fact things are chugged in a more Celtic Frost fashion rather than blasting at you certainly factors in. The vocals are growled with a more sinister death metal intent as they are lower and almost gurgled. There is a bluesy riff that opens "the Devil's Share" and this certainly casts more of a doom like shadow over the album. "Yet He Walks" is darker , but it is also murkier and come across to me as a song not as well defined as the first two. The bass and drums are not as locked in with the guitar and perhaps things are given too much breathing room.

"Marching In the Shadow" has more form, it also weighs in heavier on the death doom side. The vocals stay in their low growl for the duration of the album. The guitars add a little more melody than what we have previously heard here. "Sign of Satanic Victory" is more straight forward favoring black metal with it's attack. "Lair of Rats " has a more powerful stomp to it's bulldozing gallop. The vocals are still a little more death metal. There is a more Sabbath like feel to the rock n roll injected into the riffs of "As White As She Was Pale".  While it is not the most original thing to do in metal, it sounds good here.

The last song is both a great deal slower and darker. I prefer this mood more, while as far as blackened doom goes I have heard other albums that gets the mix more to my personal liking what he is doing on this song works. As a whole this album doesn't expand upon his own personal style or do much more to further cement his identity. I'll give it a 7.5 as it works for what this is an will appeal to those that are hungry for this sort of thing, suppose I hear so much metal on any given week I need more to make it stand out from the masses.




This comes out July 31st on Nuclear War Now!

Knelt Rote: "Alterity"

This band from Portland has gone through a few changes stylistically over the years and it sounds like they have finally landed on death metal. They do this with enough savage grace to be convincing, but it is far from remaking the wheel. It is intense. If you are really into death metal and not so discriminating when it comes to what you want aside from fast double bass powered drumming and low growls then you might really be into this. The third song is the first one that I begin to hear a shift from what they started in the albums first few blasts. So this should be filed under very straight forward death metal. I would not go as far as to call it old school, as earlier death metal owed quite a bit in terms of song writing to thrash.

They sound marginally more feral on "Genetic Memory". This alone fails to wow me. Iguess their grind core past taught them how to cram a lot into under two minutes. The dive bomb solo at the beginning of "Othering" give it a taste of Slayer. This comparison would be blasted back out of the water when they momentum builds and this song get going. The song eventually becomes a blur of dark distortion and growling. It is not until over half way through the song after this that it begins to take on a musical quality and tries to live off of sheer heaviness alone.

Fortunately this songs are very short so you are never having to endure more than just bursts of this intensity. I'll give this album a 5 as it is too one dimensional. Though that could be said of most death metal as it seems to rely on aggression.If you are into just aggression and not things like dynamic song writing then you won't be able to tell the difference between this and the 100 other death metal albums on your iPod when you put it on shuffle.

Grave Upheaval : "Untitled"

This might be the year of death doom, if my in-box is any indication of what is to come this year. I have several death doom albums that have been in a holding pattern during Black Metal History Month. This Australian band has a hint of black metal to the bursts of blast beats they go into and the vocals are not just low death grunts. Instead they are ghostly gasp and throaty whispers. This band was getting a bunch of hype on the inner webs. So clearly I had my interest peaked to see if it lives up to the hype.It is very dark and more atmospheric than I was expecting going into this. There is a very loose chaos to the actual song writing. This makes the challenge for the band are they able to hold my interest with hellish sounds long enough to compensate.

Not only is he album not titled , but the songs aren't either. The third song starts with blast beats up front. Some of the demonic vocals sound more hellish at certain points. When every thing comes together it is to form a doom lumber. There is a higher King Diamond like whine that comes out of the darkness. The song doesn't really go anywhere, except to offer lingering chugged break downs.It is not until the final minute of the fourth song that it really comes together. So writing actual songs rather than making cool sounds seems to be the challenge here. This is the band's second full length so maybe this is a sophomore slump. The fifth song comes together sooner , but the vocals drift around the guitars and it feels kind of ponderous three minutes in, making me wonder how I am going to sit through the next six minutes.

To the band's credit there is a great deal of originality in what they do. When they play a guitar solo it doesn't fit into the mold of your typical metal solo. They do conform sometimes when it comes to how they approach the blasts of death metal. The vocals which are more on the doom side if we are going to keep score help balance this out. The six song finds them locking more solidly into death metal. But rather than a band like Incantation where something hooks you into it, its like riding a roller coaster through a haunted house. Even though I began to let the 7th song fade into the background, it is one of the more solidly written songs. At this point the novelty of their sound wears thin and it brings me to the question all extreme metal bands must answer..."Ok you are heavy, but can you write an actual song?"

The last song proves my point though it feels more black metal to me in the way that it drones. These guys at their best touch on that place where what was dubbed "occult death metal" met at the cross roads of funeral doom. When they blast off the vocals could stand to conform slightly in order to bolster what is going on, but this is one of the album's better songs. In some ways I guess I need to retrain my brain what to expect when I listen to these guys. However writing songs might help their case as well. I'll give this album a 7, they get most of their points for the mood they create. This comes out April 15th on Nuclear War Now.

Bestial Raids : "Master Satan's Witchery"

Blown out speakers and trash can drums fuel this savage metal assault . These guys feel more like a death metal band to me than black metal. They are at their beast when remembering songs need things to make them memorable and it is not all about the deafening roar. They have forgotten this dire warning by the get to the blur of overdrive and blast beats that is "All Sins Abode". on can be very muddy in many places , but this album does have a density that makes its pretty fucking heavy. Though the question can be begged after your ears have been beaten numb at certain points well what else can you do. The guttural vocals are well layered and agonized, though generally feel more like death metal growls rather than having the kind of passion behind them that I associate with black metal.


Despite this album's crude to the point of being almost primitive production, I will round this up to a 7 for being some savage as hell death metal. If you are a fan of the band they are giving you more of the same and placing the same value on their feral nature. It is hard to say if this is a maturation as their is something inherently adolescent about the kind of middle finger this album shoots conventional music, metal or otherwise and shows aside from the pentagrams there is more in common with punk than this bands fans might care to admit.

Abigail : "the Final Damnation"

The 6th full length from the band who proclaims themselves to be most evil band in Japan. The bar is pretty low for that title. They like to think of themselves as black metal, but they are more of a raw thrash. They have been around since 92, so they Slayer and Possessed influences make sense. Both of those band's were often seen as the first wave of black metal along with Venom. Their attitude is similar to Venom as this is pretty much party metal. The vocals remind me a a mix between early Exodus and Megadeth. Guitar solos that would be shredding on a punk album seem to crawl out from every corner of these songs.

They get more melodic for "Whiskey Coke Bitch". The solo section that consumes the middle of the song is much more rock n roll. The more melodic embellishments continue on " Sex& Metal". There is some attempts to sing on this one that are similar to the attempts made on some of the latter Darkthrone albums. "Open the Gates of Hell" is kind of bland and comes across as filler . "No Pain No Limit" is more of a punk song with obligatory gang vocals chiming in. They invoke "Bonded By Blood" era Exodus on "Sweet Baby Metal Sluts" , which I am not sure refers to the album of the same name or the band of school girls? Things don't get blasting until the last song. There is a melodic little solo section than works well to darken things up and overall this is the most black metal song on the album. So there evil intentions are somewhat suspect and childish at worst.

I'll round this album up to a 7, it's fun. There is not much depth to it, but if you are punk rocker who is trying to get into metal then I can see how this would be a pretty solid entry point to you if you have already skipped out on early Slayer. This album is being released August 15th on Nuclear War Now !

Chaos Echoes : "Transient"

Yesterday I was dotting my eyes and crossing my burning churches to make sure  I had ingested all the black metal I could to solidify my end of the year black metal list, while none of those bands I reviewed yesterday made the list it was good to hear even mediocre black metal to put the best in perspective, so now I am doing similar with death metal today, starting with this band from France. I was just thinking yesterday how some of the best black metal was beginning churned out of France because it was very experimental and the bands all had their signature sounds, now the Deathspell Omega band wagon is being pounced up death metal but we carrying the flames of creativity there. The first song would be an instrumental if it was not for the very ritualistic chanting in the background. At nine minutes it cast a spell on me because it seemed like time stopped.

Entering the next song which breaks the twelve minute mark they begin to push their toying with noise and ambiance much further letting it draw out into something that sounds like Sun Ra playing the intro to " Mob Rules".  Once it gets to the eight minute mark even if  the metal kicks in it will be outweighed by this excursion in the astral plane of free form jazz.' "Advent of My Genesis " finds the metal returning as a  sluggish feedback drenched dirge. The drums take it upon themselves to stir things up to a boiling point, until the vocals finally come in. They have almost more of a black metal snarl , but if you think about it Carcass sometimes uses a similar tone. This almost sounds like what might happen if  Swans played death metal. That is a hard sound to argue against. They follow this up with another excursion into noise. At six minutes you can almost write this one off as an interlude, where their previous piece of abrasion was harder to laugh off at over twelve.

When it's full blast ahead, even the buzz of sonic fury doesn't have the same appeal as the din they raised earlier in the album . This does die down and the more ritualistic chants start back up. To their credit it is a very original take on death metal .The next "Interzone" piece sounds like something from a Fantomas album as the spoke vocals are a low croak instead of growled. The closing song "Soul Ruiner" is really only metal by way of its dna. It's also atonal  jazz rock with a burly bass line driving it until the drummer speeds things up like he took a hit of crack. Even with the obtuse droning portions of noise this still deserves an 8 just because of how original and daring this is . More likely to make my top ten experimental metal albums .

Katechon : "Coronation"

Maybe their last album "Man, God, Giant"took a left turn in my memory banks, but I don't remember it being this in face style of black metal and though it had a more experimental quality. This is pretty straight up there is a good groove to the riff in "Noble Men" and the guitars are pretty ripping from the get go. I wouldn't say that this album has a typical Norwegian black metal sound. Of all their country men I would day Taake might be the closest comparison and even then its a reach as the vocals are more death metal than black metal. "Humanity Diseased" is when the first melodic section appears to take the album down into the creepier depths. This is also where the bass player begins to shine.

The guitar stays in a heavier thrashing death mode, but still retains a darker sonic quality on "Asylum" . The vocals come closer to singing on "Days in Delirium" which takes a turn in a more Mayhem like direction, while throbbing at a mid tempo in-between angry outbursts of thrashing.These guys have their hearts drenched in death metal on "Shroud of Death" . It's not blackened anything, its straight up death metal. "Death is King" keeps them on the same death metal path , despite the melodic leanings some of the bridges in this song have.

They wrap things up with the title track, which thanks to the guitar takes a creepier tone and gives the bass more more to creep around. They blast off and at this point it feels forced, after hearing the range of what they can do. When the get back into the guttural death metal it feels more natural. I wonder if its harder to be a death metal band in Norway these days because everyone expects you to play black metal. I think these guys have the potential to be an awesome death metal band when they come to terms with the identity crisis upon them. But the album sounds great and they are tremendous players so on that alone it deserves a 6.5.

Doom Snake Cult : " Love Sorrow Doom"

So hungry for new doom I am listening to every promo that might be some sort of doom in my inbox. So if you guys have any suggestions of new doom...meaning 2015, that I haven't hit yet lemme know in the comments. So this album is pleasing to my ears in that it owes a lot to Celtic Frost. I alway like the fact these guys don't drag the songs out pat the ten minute mark. They get off to a good start then when they speed up into more of a blackened death metal pace, it gets a little sloppy and sounds like they are going into a rushed punk beat.There is a slight "Altars of Madness" element under the surface, some of the more experimental elements in "Tribal Se'Ance" help keep things varied. I find myself tapping my foot to "Love" but the lyrics are stupid, some one growling to me that we should try to love one another ruins it for me. It is one of the rare cases where they lyrics can ruin the song for me to the point that I could not make it through the whole song.


 By the time we get to "Doom" I fin the album fading into the back ground with little hope of recapturing my attention. We have a bunch or recycled Celtic Frosts riff and little in the way of song writing. I have ton of drugs in my day , but I do not hear any of the psychedelia that is supposed to be here aside from some effects in the intros. I even give "Frozen Doll Land" another listen to hear if I missed something. I like the sluggish beginning then the song goes sideways. "Sorrow" is an improvement, the syncopation varies and gives the song more depth and groove.One thing about this album is the song title always seems to be growled where the chorus should be in a rather juvenile manner that's how I though songs should be written in the 7th grade. In the 7th grade I also liked Impaler's "If We Had Brains We'd Be Dangerous" album, which this album reminds me of in some ways. Since there was no such thing as the internet when I was in the 7th grade I tended to buy albums with cool covers so they would have suckered me in on this one. While they get credit for not going the way of current bandwagons the songs didn't demand my ear consistently but enough to earn a 6.

Embrace of Thorns: "Darkness Impenetrable"

Any band with someone named Archfiend Devilpig is worth a listen in my book. The fact that they didn't come out the gate blasting won them a few more points that can be redeemed for valuable prizes once they reach the seventh level of hell.This was a big surprise and shows how you can never judge something by the initial impression you get from the press release, which was a black and white picture of these guys giving the claw, the horns and the kitchen sink. It's not really black metal at all, but good old school death metal that walked the evil line before any churches were burned in Norway.Bands like Acheron and Impaled Nazerene are both good frames of reference. They have all the elements in place to make some dark gritty and raw death metal, but after the initial smack of heaviness abates then I am wondering can these guys write songs. So here is another exploration to see if this is just smoke and blast beats or are these guys really musicians.

They do have a balance of crunch and speed. Their fast riffs have that savage old school Deicide quality to them. Not Atmospheric enough to be "Occult Death Metal" they do have some chants dribbled into some of the darker corners of their songs. The growls are also varied shades of a lower mid range. This is my second listen to this album. So the density of their sound isn't as impressive now that I know what to expect. The slower pace of the title track gives them a chance to infuse some melody and allow the guitarists to really shine their black light. Toward the end of this song things get a little murky before they slow it back down. Also when I here that a band is capable of more than mindlessly blasting forward, it sometimes feels like they are taking the easy way out when they return to it. "Erect Blood Stained Totems" fakes like it is going to be more deliberately paced and then they jack hammer you. Some of the thrashier riffs help give the songs more definition.

If you really need speed then songs like "At the Antipodes of Chastity" will provide the needed whiplash. The vocals here seems to be almost random barking. Once again when they slow it down to almost a doom pace the song congeals. "I Die Therefore I Exist" stomps in with an older classic metal feel, think Celtic Frost more than Diamond Head. This dies to the blast beats that once again exist. The final minute finds a good gallop. Then Charon takes a much faster ride across the river Styx than I have ever seen it depicted on "Charon's Ride Over Wasteland".  The lyrics are unintelligible.  I like the layered guitar when it slows down two minutes in. There are some triumphant moments for the pit that remind me a little of Altars of Madness era Morbid Angel.The album closes with one of the best songs that is also the shortest. I'll give this one a 7, but round it up if you like your death metal fast and to the point.
6.2

Gnosis:"the Third Eye Gate"

So far death metal with a touch of blackness seems to be the thing for 2015 is the promos in my inbox are any indication. This Florida band  brought to you by Nuclear War Now! falls more firmly on the death metal side. It's a dirty and dark style of death metal not unlike old Incantation. This is about as straight forward of an old school style death metal as you could ever want. There is some groove interspersed in-between the blast beats. The production on the drums leaves a little to be desired as the snare sounds a tad on the flat side, but if you just want raw lo-fi pounding then you are in good hands. As we commonly say around here when it comes to bands like this , is it's easy to be impressed by the sheer heaviness of the band right out from the gate , but then the pressure is on for them to show us if they can ...write songs.

There is a similar formula at work on the second song, though you could not say it's a carbon copy of the first. If you like this sort of thing, how much variance do you want? I am harder to please than your average death metal fan. There are some thrash accents to some of the galloped punches on the second song, but that seems to be the main thing separating it as the vocal are a raspy lower end variety of growl, not pushed out with enough air to be a roar. By the time the album winds its way to"Chariot of the Sun Moon" do the songs become hard to differentiate, though the chugs start to gather a little more gusto. "Cult of the Blood Serpent" even rises up into a battle metal sort of gallop.

It is true these guys adhere to everything you might want out of classic death metal, but they very rarely challenge the status quo and in doing so don't carve out any kind of niche for themselves that would set themselves at the head of the pact. There is a tinge more of effort in the riffs to "Lotan's Dwelling", but the revert back to the color by numbers death metal when it comes to the verses. The phrasing of the growls is pretty predictable as well.They have redemptive value in the aggressive nature the charge the songs forward with, some listeners might want to dumb it down and just need heavy. The infuse this with  punk rock simplicities. At times when they slow you can hear their bassist is doing some pretty cool fills and accents, but he remains buried more often than not.

Lyrical I heard something about Ancient ones, so it's pseudo occult psycho babble, somewhat along the lines of Blessed Are the Sick Morbid Angel, these guys are not trying to be quite so Satanic or really satanic at all instead opting for a more anonymous darkness. The slower section are something this band needs to explore more often instead of waiting until the album is almost over because that is where some of the album's most inspired moments come from. The charge into battle is not over. They pick up the charge on "Gnosis" which must be their theme song. To call the "title track" a song is an exaggeration as it is more of an outro. I'll give this one a 7 these guys haven't reinvented the wheel by a longshot but if you want some no frills death metal they have got it .