SHADOHM : " Through Darkness Towards Enlightenment"

 Formed from members of some of Poland's most noted metal acts such as Decapitated, Vader, Hate, and Antigama, they make an amorphous metal machine that churns with a grooving darkness. Progressive death metal might be the most fitting label to slap on these guys. They use clean vocals on the chorus and primarily seem to be intent on venting their aggression at you. They hit you with a more djent-minded groove with the riff for "Blurred" which is also haunting in its dissonance. The sung vocals on the chorus work well. 

"Fair Weather Friend" drops into a more atmospheric middle section in a manner that brings Amenra to mind before the spoken word section. Things kick back in with a renewed aggression. The growled vocals are always convincing they just feel like they mean more business here. There is a similar pulsing stomp that dances through the vibe of most of the songs, this can be noticed on "Ripped Apart" it works in the same manner, but does not feel like it flows in the same way as the previous songs. Perhaps this is purposeful. The blast beats come unexpectedly, but in no way are these guys a black metal band,as darkness is just a color used not their prime objective. 

They close the album with what is their most melodic moment yet"Towards Enlightenment" falls somewhere in the middle ground between doom and grunge, while a progressive element flows around the groove and makes them more expansive. The vocals have their strongest moments yet on this one as things open up and allow him to really sing to the best of his ability. It is an impassioned display of his pipes for certain. I will give this a 9.5, it is not what I normally listen to as the prog metal / djent slant can be too technical for me most of the time but these guys balance it out with a darker feel and plenty of emotion. 

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Vader : "Solitude in Madness"

From the opener I am beginning to think Vader are becoming the AC/DC of death metal. I have seen people say things like another Vader album , under the pretense it is automatically going to be good. This is much like how Post-Bon Scott AC/DC all sounds the same. The vocals are almost more gruffly spoken than growled. Given it a more thrash like feel.There is more groove and purpose to "Into Oblivion" with it's more militant goose stepping style syncopation. "Despair" could be any one from Wargasm to Unleashed. The keep things at a racing up-tempo drive. The drumming is as insane as every. Some of the best double bass you are goin to hear. Is that all you need from music. The songs are all in the 3 minute range. Given how they are burning through them it is not surprising.

Without question this is tight as fuck and these guys are very fine tuned at what they do. In fact both of those sentiments are understating what a machine this is. This can play against them as like a machine there is not a ton of feeling in what they are doing and they might s well be punching a time clock. Four songs in I stepped away from the lap top to play video games and left the album playing. It not only blew by in a blur of chugs, but some where along the way iTunes shifted over to "Welcome to the Morbid Reich" and I almost did not notice. Not to say this album is as good as that one, but in the past 9 years not much has changed. "And Satan Wept" is a pretty dumb song title. Lyrically things have been the normal mish mash odes to destruction as your average metal album. I can appreciate this . A lot of the lyrics make apocalyptic references which I like as they are so timely, it's a shame most of their fans pump their fists to this , but if an apocalypse even casts a shadow near by they are hiding under the covers waiting for the government to tell them what to do.

There is a little more of a thrash groove to "Emptiness". The solo is very rock n roll. This is the best song on the album so far. Then the songs begin to all sound the same with the most variation cropping up on "Dancing in the Slaughterhouse". With songs like "Final Declaration" that are just boring. The last two songs are under two minutes and jack hammer through your ears with little regard for dynamics. I will round this one down to a 7.5. The fact they are great musicians elevates it above mediocrity, but I need more than that to listen to an album more than twice/

the Top Ten Death Metal Albums of the Decade

The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre.I am not going for what is the most crushing death metal albums, but the ones with songs worth listening to again and again. There is nothing really tech about these albums as wanking around doesn't make for listening that stands the test of time.  Maybe these are not the hippest albums of the decade when it comes to this genre, but what matters more is the fact these are the albums I listened to the most when it came to this sort of thing. ; Any ways here are the Top 10 Death Metal  albums of the decade.



10-Disma -"Towards the Megalith"- 2011









9-Necros Christos - "Doom of  the Occult -  2011









8-Incantation -  "Dirges of Elysium" 2014














7-Goatwhore- "Constricting Rage of the Merciless"- 2014 












6-Vader  "Return to the Morbid Reich" 2011













5- Acid Witch- "Evil Sound Screamers" 2017













4-Pulchra Morte- "Divina Autem Et Aniles" - 2019 













3-Tribulation- "Children of the Night" - 2015 










< br />The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. This is not something I can just thumb back through reviews for , I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre. Stoner rock in past years was often lumped in with sludge and doom, but this year I seperated everything out. Maybe these are not the hippest albums of the decade when it comes to this genre, btu what matters more is the fact these are the albums I listened to the most when it came to this sort of thing. ; Any ways here are the Top 10 Stoner rock albums of the decade.

2-Mortuary Drape -"Spiritual Independence"- 2014










1-Morbid Angel -" Kingdoms Disdained"2017

Vader : "the Empire"

The riffs feel like they meet more at the place where thrash turned into death metal metal. This of course really brings out their Sodom influence. The second song"Tempest" feels a little more like death metal to me. It also catches my ear with more urgency than the opener that flashes by in a blur of furious speed. "Prayer to the God of War" is from the "Iron Times" ep that came out earlier in the year. It is still a pretty solid song, I think I would listen to it more in the context of this album than on that ep. I do think aside from the sick mosh groove they hit after the solo that the first two song might be a little better.  Things slow down a little for "Iron Reign". This has more of a classic metal feel to it , and by classic I mean post- NWOBHM going into the thrash years.

They slam over you in the rapid fire charge of "No Gravity". This is very aggressive, but the least interesting so far. "Genocidius" finds them resorting to speed again. For some reason the vocal have a bit of an Obituary like feel to them on this album. There is a good trash groove that eventually develops making it more redeemable than the previous song.  By the time I get to "Armygeddon" I am beginning to think this thrash album is so heavy that it feels like death metal, instead of this death metal band has been around for some time and picking up where they left off. They do lock into a more staccato march on this song. "Feel My Pain" comes across like a jagged mess for the bulk of the song as a bunch of guitar is thrown at you with no real direction.

"Parabellum" is the second song on this album from that "Iron Times"  I mentioned earlier. It is fairly speedy and has more of a Sodom like feel to it. There is more groove to "Send Me Back to Hell" which closes the album. At it's mid paced chug it feels almost like a death metal band trying to cover Metallica. I'll give this album a 7.5. It's pretty solid only a couple songs don't really click with me. I don't think it's the band's strongest album, but fans of the band should be into it.

Vader : "Iron Times"

The new ep buy Vader this finds the band back at the place where death metal and thrash met, with the first song reminding more of Sodom. The throaty vocals are a gurgled growl . There is a serious thrashing gallop to " Pray to the God of War". The vocals are spit out here in a more rapid Slayer like manner. There is a more powerful mid-paced chug on "Piesc I Stal"  winks in the direction of classic metal. This might be the best of the three original songs on the ep. The solos seem to serve more of a purpose on this song and while it's a fairly simples and straight forward song the chug is very effective here. It takes me back to a time when things were simpler as the world was not over saturated with metal bands, a good album used to come out every month in 80s. The Polish band spits this one out in their native tongue.

The lyrics are more easily discerned in the manner they are spit out on this ep, which judging from the cover I assumed would be more of a tribute to Motorhead. They pick the proto-thrash of Motorhead's " Overkill" to tackle. Earlier in the album it sounded like the lead growler was making more of an attempt t sing in places. Here it is not as obvious. The do capture the rock n roll riffs well, their drummer is a relentless beast. I'll give this album an 8.5 as these guys are old pros who are clearly good at what they do. If you are not already a fan of this band, I would suggest going with one of their full lengths to get a better picture of what it is they do. It sounds like they are having fun here and it's not surprise like many band's these days it's more economic for these guys to record and ep rather than chase the dying art of the album. If you are are fan of classic metal like Sodom, Motorhead and to a lesser extent here Kreator, then this is worth your time.

Vader- Welcome to the Morbid Reich

In case i'm not covering enough brutal stuff on here , i needed to hit the new Vader album, a band i have a sporadic history with. My first exposure to them was when they opened more Morbid Angel on the domination tour, and i was so stoned i was perplexed why they were so angry, i remember thinking the reminded me of Kreator.
My first thought when checking out their newest effort is this is the album Morbid Angel should have made. Maybe these guys were thinking this as well when they titled the album. To be honest straight forward death metal hasn't been my thing probably since Domination came out. Though some bands ...Ulcerate , would i'm not sure i would call straight forward and Disma, who are getting enough coverage with out my two cents. So for Vader to hook me in is an accomplishment in it's self. Granted i'm have a all brutal day to get pumped for Conan tonight and thought an Unleashed song from 2008 sounded killer ,so we will see when the barbarian buzz wears off.
My other knowledge of Vader is they loan out their drummer to Dimmu Borgir, and he plays with as much fury in Vader as he does in Dimmu, and stacks up well against the likes of Hellhammer. The production on the album stands out the guitar tone in the solo sections is well blended while putting the spot light where it needs to be . The Vocals are more intelligible than anticipated in fact he reminds me of Oderus from Gwar as they are produced with similar effects as those on the scum dogs of the universe album, though think more horror of yig , he never goes into a croon.
Death Metal can become a wall of white noise , the pummeling tends to make all the songs sound the same, this is not the case here,though i can't really say their any tracks that stand out more than others, each has it's own shining moment, if pressed to pick a favorite , would go with come see my sacrifice, the tracks they are coming and ultima thule are segues in the day of the ipod could be avoided. i can see Behemoth comparisons being made and of course those who are still in shock from the great betrayal of morbid angel go find this now .