Category: Album Review

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GRAVERIPPER – Radiated Remains – Review

Indiana’s Blackened Thrashers, Graveripper’s latest effort, “Radiated Remains”, is going to spend a lot of time on your favorite streaming services, record player, tape deck or anyway else you may happen to enjoy music. It’s that good. While 80’s inspired Thrash and Speed Metal crossing with Extreme Metal is nothing new, Graveripper manages to feel fluid and fresh as well as sick and savage on “Radiated Remains.”  Fans of Midnight and Toxic Holocaust are sure to find themselves loving this release. In fact, the EP itself was produced by non other than Joel Grind! The band has only been around since 2018 and is already riding some impressive waves.

One thing that all Thrash fans can agree on, is that nothing compares to a killer riff and this EP throws more riffs out than the listener knows what to do with. This EP was bred for multiple listens as you will discover and fall in with something new with each spin. (or stream) The vocals are another strong selling point that Graveripper have going for them. Lead vocalist Corey Parks does a tremendous job of straddling the lines of Thrash and Death Metal, melding together perfectly.

While Graveripper certainly aren’t offering anything innovative or new here, their sound feels much fresher and more organic and natural than many other bands that attempt to capture the beloved early 80’s Thrash sound. If you have around 20 minutes to spare and just feel like banging your head to some raw and angry Metal crammed with some amazing riffs, this one’s for you.

 

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INHUMAN CONDITION – Rat God – REVIEW

 

 

It is often said that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I can’t help myself with this one. I would pick this album up based on its artwork alone. With one quick glance at this retro throwback looking cover it looks and feels like it came out of the 1988-1991 golden era of Death Metal where Death, Obituary and Deicide were kings. But holy fuck! Rat God have nailed the old school Death Metal sound. Riffs are filled with hooks, heavy grooves and mid tempo to skull crushing beats. If you are in any way a fan of Death, specifically the “Spiritual Healing era”, this is a must for your collection.  The opening to Gravebound sounds like Schuldiner himself some how appeared on this album. Hell, if you are just a casual fan of Death Metal, this is required listening for the nostalgic factor alone. Hundreds of Metal bands have been riding the retro wagon for years, but Inhuman Condition not only excels well above others but their sound feels true and genuine and not forced.

“Rat God” was originally intended to be a new Massacre album (Notice that logo font?) that was conceived by Jearmie Kling and Taylor Nordberg.  Death Metal god, Terry Butler whom has been a part of more Death Metal bands than I have room to include, teamed up with the duo to help finish the album.  Rat God will pull you in from the opening screams of “Euphoriphobia” and leave you savagely salivating for more by the time you hear the last notes of “Fait Accompli.” Man. What do they put in the (swamp) water in Florida? If you enjoy meat and potatoes, tried and true, classic Death Metal, this one is for you. Highly recommended.

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EMPTY THRONE – Review – GLOSSOLALIA

 

The debut EP from Empty Throne only contains 3 tracks, but with over 20 minutes of incredible and unrelenting blackened Death Metal, your extreme musical appetite will be satisfied. There is little question as to why this EP slaps so hard given the pedigree of the band members involved. Abbath, Possessed, Draconis and Angelrot are just a few of the past or current bands that members of Empty Throne has played for. In fact, if they didn’t come up with something awesome with this lineup, it would have been a crime against not just Metal, but music itself.

The band plays extremely well polished Death Metal that has a hard traditional 90’s feel to it with thrashy riffs and strong melodies. All the hooks are in the right places and tied together with some impressive guitar solos. While there are plenty of old school vibes, Empty Vibe includes a few Black Metal elements that give this EP a darker feel, like the haunting piano intro on, “The Day has Come,” that adds some great variety to an already impressive debut.

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SHROUD OF VULTURE – Upon a Throne of Jackals – REVIEW

Indy’s Shroud of Vulture’s debut release, “Upon a Throne of Jackals,”  overflows with plenty of oozing, sludgy, thick monstrous Doom/Death Metal. Starting things off with the dark and plodding instrumental, “Final Spasms of the Drowned” The faint screams heard in the background of this song really give it a haunting pulse and perfectly set up the mood and feel for the rest of the album. “The Altar,” has an incredible groove that you’d have to be dead not to bang your head to. (even then, that’s not much of an excuse.)”Perverted Reflection,” starts of with a creeping crawl before changing things up and adding some Black Metal influenced blast beats. Clearly the guys in Shroud of Vultures are comfortable in experimenting by adding many different styles and elements to their Doom fueled rage. “Invert Every Throne,” includes some elements of Thrash with its sickened and nasty riffs. “Stone Coffin of Existence,” finds the band at their sickest and darkest. There are still plenty of heavy, plodding caveman riffs to found out throughout this release that keep the album thick heavy and nasty. The vocals are deep, haunting and full of unhuman anger that pair up perfectly with the songs on this album. Perfect listening to pair with a nice black cup of Trve Kvlt Coffee.

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GIRSU – Rotten Earth – REVIEW

Coming out of Philadelphia is the debut EP from Girsu, “Rotten Earth,” the group dosent waste anytime trying to reinvent the wheel with their sound and instead use that time to unleash some brutal and riff heavy songs. From their pummeling opening track, “Remains,” Girsu lay down some killer Progressive Black Metal that slams right through your skull.  “From Blood to Ash” adds some thrash elements to the mix that showcases some impressive guitar work. “Bodies Upon the Tide,” slows the temp down a bit and brings the heavy, vocals become a little more desperate and full of despair at the midpoint, the track takes a turn and ups the tempo and finishes with a fury. The EP closes with the final track, “The Carcass of Consciousness,” a nearly 8 minute long epic that comes in with a frenzy and slows down to a heavy groove before going into some hard hitting blast beats. This song is a great showcase of what Girsu is capable of by highlighting their Progressive Black Metal style as the guitar work here is clean and technical but clearly deeply rooted in the Black Metal vein. Is that even allowed? This EP is worthy of a few spins and Girsu should remain on your radar.

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HUMANITY IS CANCER – Humanity is Cancer – REVIEW

Maybe we are a little biased here at Trve Kvlt Coffee but some of best and nastiest extreme metal music is coming out from our home state of Ohio. Straight out of Cleveland, Humanity is Cancer have just released their incredibly hard hitting debut self titled EP. It took a few years for this project to be released as all band members are involved in various different projects. If there ever was a time to make a statement that “Humanity is Cancer,”with the pandemic, social injustice and environmental worries, now is the perfect time to remind people that humans for the most part suck.

With so much talent and experience in this group, it comes as little surprise that this is a well polished recording. It hits, rips and shreds where it needs to, it’s simple no nonsense, take no prisoners death metal. Guitars are plentiful and powerful packing tons of heavy riffs and down and dirty rhythms. The bass is right there down in trenches delivering a murky beat and blends in perfectly with some incredible drum work on “The Punishment Due.” Now, let’s not forget the vocals. Vocalist Noah Buchanan’s (Nunslaughter/From the Hellmouth) screams and growls create an intense performance on this release that varies enough to keep things moving, exciting and fresh. With a run time of roughly 17 minutes, this is worth a couple of spins at a time. 

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CELESTIAL SANCTUARY – Soul Diminished – REVIEW

 

To start off the band bills themselves at the top of the game in  “The New Wave of British Death Metal,” In addition, the group’s name comes from a track off of the legendary Bolt Thrower’s 1992 masterpiece, The IVth Crusade. Before even starting to listen to the album, Celestial Sanctuary come across hard and heavy with some rather boastful claims. Thankfully, the album lives up to the hype. Having formed only recently in 2019, this is a surprisingly solid debut release that is full of killer brutality from start to finish. If you dig skull splitting, knuckle dragging classic Death Metal, make sure not to let this one slip past you. All the songs are killer with absolute no filler. Opening track, “Rid the Gormless,” comes out with  hard old school, mid tempo Death Metal brutality that instantly hooks you in. “Wretched Habits,” is a great showcase in the slower is usually heavier way of thinking and has some immensely  savage riffs. “Mass Extinction,” is perhaps the standout track here that really showcases the band’s strengths with brutal riffs and savage vocals that will leave you wanting crank it up well past 11. It’s refreshing to hear that Celestial Sanctuary still manage to make their sound their own even as they pay heavy tribute to bands like Obituary and Bolt Thrower. If you are still curious if the underground is able carry the torch and continue the sick mission of classic Death Metal, give this one a spin.

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FLOOD PEAK – Fixed Ritual – REVIEW

Fixed Ritual is an epically heavy EP. The songs contained in this release are full of crushing riffs that submerge the listener into their dark, depressive and gloomy world. While this release may not be for everyone, anyone who enjoys their metal drenched in sludge and dread, this makes for a satisfying listen. You want some Doom and Gloom to go along with your first up of Joe as you begin your work week? The boys in Flood Peak are are ready to take you for a ride in a sludgy sonic scape of misery in their sea of despair. The EP barley clocks in at 30 minutes but you’ll swear this musical journey you are taken on with this listen lasts even longer. The vocals have an impressive range going from haunted howl to mid range melodies. The guitars perfectly blend in a world both absolute bleakness and chaos. Just when you think a song is going to hammer a riff right through your skull, the music becomes calms down to a crawl.

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POISON WIND – Virus! – REVIEW

As we inch closer to shows opening back up and the year anniversary of Covid shutting everything thing down in the first place, we actually starting to see new  projects and albums come emerge from this rather bleak period of time. Poison Wind bills itself as a “Quarantine Band.” The group was formed in the earlier stages of the pandemic by Brian Magar (Cultic, The Owls ANWTS) who brought together some of his musician friends from other groups to remotely compose and record 8 tracks which would become “Virus!” Mager laid down the groundwork with the drum tracks then passed the recording off to the rest of the group who supplied the guitars, bass and vocals. The band did not know who or which members they were working with at any time

With such a unique method of recording it has captured an extreme metal album the encompasses many different elements ranging from Doom, Sludge, Black, Death, Grind and even some Thrash elements. The songs themselves riff of the chaos that has been the last year with such titles as, “Branch Covidians,” “Get me out,” and “Wear a Fucking Mask!”

All of this adds up to a satisfying listen full of diversity ,some killer experimentation and good ol’ fashioned cooped up quarantine fury. More than a novelty album, this is proof something good can come out of a lockdown.

 

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HELLRAIZERR- Life After Death – REVIEW

Here is another ass kicking release courtesy of our fine fiendish friends at Reaper Metal Productions. Hellraizerr is the new solo project from Cursed Moon’s Sal Hellraizerr.  “Life After Death,” is full of 80’s soaked speed metal with a touch of blackened thrash resulting in a surprisingly melodic approach to a usual chaotic assault. As the name would suggest, most songs are inspired by horror films such as 1987 classic, Hellraiser.  Does anything go better together than metal and horror? The first half of the album will leave you banging your head to the blistering solos and early thrash inspired vocals. Retro styled thrash and speed metal have been quite popular in recent years but not many bands have added another well loved 80’s element; synth. “Hellbound” is an incredible instrumental that fully feels and sounds like it was pulled from a mid 80’s Italian splatter film. The second half of the album brings back more balls to the wall speed metal with a little more variation. Chris Hellking who laid down much of the drums for this recording, provided some excellent clean vocals on “Seeing Red,” that contrast perfectly with Sal Hellraizer’s gruff vocal delivery. Overall this is a great release that is full of speed laden hooks, blistering solos and some great synth mixed in for a fist pounding journey in nostalgia.