Review -Surrender to Death: A History of the Atlanta Metal Underground Vol. 1

This is a compilation documenting the history of the Atlanta metal underground, which I have first-hand knowledge of. Despite being there for a great deal of this the first two bands on this compilation, most likely preceded my time in Atlanta, the first band is more proto-metal owing more to AC/DC and Thin Lizzy, which is pretty common for bands from this region, as AC/DC was almost more of a punk band in certain respects. This style of harder rock band played at a club called Charley Mcgruders which was just outside of the city limits of Atlanta proper. Fortnox would have fit in with this crowd as well since they seem to aspire towards a sound mimicking Judas Priest's more arena-rocking anthems 

We do not get into the actual metal scene until the 3rd track by the thrash bander Ghost Story.  When it came to metal Ghost Story wrote the best songs during this time. They were like Atlanta's answer to Sacred Reich,   I'm surprised they chose this song to feature as "Anger of the Lynch Mob" would have been a more fitting choice, this song was a staple on the college radio show WREKAGEy which was broadcast Friday nights Georiga Tech's student-run station WREK. Necropolis carried a more feral sound closer to Venom which can be heard on "Water's of Lathe". There was a very deliberate moshy crunch to this one. 

MX was another band that would have been more likely to have played bars out in the suburbs, which brings up an interesting divide in the Atlanta scene. Most metal heads, punks, and goths in bands or in their respective scenes lived in the three-mile radius of Little Five Points, which was the mecca to these cultures with clubs, record stores, and other retail outlets that catered to this misfit culture. It leaned heavily in the punk direction, and many of the latter-day metal bands like Mastodon, Withered, or Death of Kings, all started off in the punk scene.

 This created the more hipster inner city circle of bands who played clubs downtown, and then there were clubs out in the suburbs that fostered bands not in these cliques, like Sinister Angel, who sounded like they listened to more  Iron Maiden than Discharge. Kinect Dissent was certainly one of the more popular bands from this period, though listening back to it "Reflected Fear" has not stood up to the test of time as well as Ghost Story or Necropolis, this also highlights why they faded into the where are they now files, and did not break into even the lower tiers of thrash success occupied by bands like Atrophy or  "Dark Overlord" sounds more like "Kill 'Em All" era Metallica, as a large dose of rock n roll flowed in their veins. 

Unblessed marks a transition from thrash into death metal. It is a reminder of the sometimes unwieldy transition from thrash to death metal. Production-wise, many of these albums were recorded by Skip Bryant, the go-to metal guy, in a local rehearsal warehouse during this time with his studio. Everything was recorded to tape, in the days before Pro-Tools. Lestregus Nosferatus would be the band that birthed death metal in Atlanta. They had a darker murk to their sound. Yet they still cared about writing songs. They still possess the most powerful chug of the bands represented here. 

This compilation shows the progression of the genre, in which regional scenes prove to be a microcosm of the genre as a whole. Rot played a raw blown-out style of death metal that had its charm at the time, the vocals did not have as powerful of a roar behind them, in some ways they reminded me of Rigor Mortis. Avulsion was a step in the direction of the death metal that already sprung from Tampa during this time, which is not far removed from the death metal of today. 

It jumps into the 90s with Dawn of Orion who came from a hardcore background, which can be heard in the stomping nature of their riffing. Death metal continues to be refined while delving deeper into murkier sounds as heard with Haborym. Their drummer tended to rush the songs and bring raw energy to things. Demoncy is the first band that begins to incorporate elements of black metal into their sound with a more tortured rasp, and the buzz of tremlo-picked guitars. The production value also sucked as did many early  "cvlt" recordings of the emerging second wave of black metal. 

The track featuring Necroflesh The track featuring Necroflesh is more groove-oriented reflecting death metal adapting to the influence of nu-metal playing a more dominant role in metal at the time. Sludge must be more of a focal point in the second volume, as the selected tracks begin to lean more into the death metal side of the equation with the more death-n-roll riffing of Procostimus, then black metal is summoned up again with Darkened Skies, though black metal has never been as popular in Atlanta as death metal, thrash or Sludge. So including bands like Vastion seems an exaggeration of the amount of black metal to have come from the city, it’s served more as an influence on bands like Withered, and Cloak than something there is a scene for in-town, since the ‘cool kids’ would be more likely to call it “problematic”. Though overall this compilation does a good job at capturing a sense of nostalgia for an underrated time in the city’s musical history.

    

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