Category: Death Metal

Posted on by

SALLOW MOTH – The Larval Hope – Album Review

 

The Larval Hope is an excellent science fiction/B-Movie themed concept album composed by sole member Garry Brents. Get your popcorn ready as you prepare to listen to a brutal tales of celestial humanoid nature preserving moths as they battle an evil human army bent on total space colonization. Think Avatar but actually well worth listening to and fucking metal! There are plenty of bands that write about demons, vikings and dragons, it’s refreshing to see such an original concept here. It is also interesting to note that 90% of digital proceeds of this album’s sales will be donated to animal sanctuaries.

We have some great classic sounding Death Metal here that is reminiscent of the earlier works of Morbid Angel and even Death. While you can hear the old school influence, the album does not rely heavily on the sounds from those classic acts. There are plenty of great hooks (“Death Mutation Vs. Metallurgic Summonings” being a great example) sludgy riffs and plenty of atmosphere that keeps The Larval Hope fresh and original and not just carbon copy of tried and true Death Metal.

This is an album that is best experienced from start to finish as is the case with most concept albums. “Glimpse the Unthinkable” clocking in around 9 minutes is an excellent closer bringing in several Death Metal elements and tying it perfectly fit the The Larval Hope saga. While this album is short, you will want to spin it a few times as there is plenty of high quality material here to interest even the most elitist of metal listeners.

 

Posted on by

SENTIENT HORROR: Morbid Realms Album Review

SENTIENT HORROR: Morbid Realms Album Review
Reviewed by: Shaun

 

Formed in 2014 as Sentience, Sentient Horror are preparing to release their 3rd full-length album entitled Morbid Realms on November 29th (2nd full-length as Sentient Horror).

First thoughts:
In a metal world where OSDM is the latest and greatest trend, some bands tend to over do it…not Sentient Horror, this is rather refreshing compared to other bands that seem to be inspired by the old school death metal bands like Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Autopsy. This album…I can live with this. A perfect marriage of OSDM and Gothenburg influences  mixed with a modern production…and ohh fuck these guitar tones…I am envious. Hearing the production on this album completely caught me off guard because of how well it’s mixed…*checks the credits* of course. the album was mixed and mastered by none other than Mr. Dan Swanö.

If you’re looking for something new that’s heavy with breakneck intensity that doesn’t let up, look no further. It’s fairly obvious what you should expect upon listening to the first track, Call Of Ancient Gods (see below). This band has easily made it into my weekly rotation of Death Metal bands. Well that’s it for me, I suck at writing reviews but I’m here to say this album is a banger.

 

 

 

Posted on by

Metal Detector Finds: FUMIGATED – “Composted”

Here we have Death/Grind band Fumigated from Lima, Ohio, USA with their debut, Composted. It’s a fun little album, for sure.

“Formed in the pungent depths of a Ohio swamp, three of the toughest illiterate rednecks banded together to form the most important band of your puny, pathetic life. FFO, Broken Hope, Immortal Fate, Old Napalm Death, room temperature beer.
WARNING! Not for week pencil necked losers!”
-Fumigated Bandcamp Page

Posted on by

BOTIS – Grand Abominations Review

BOTIS – Grand Abominations Review

Reviewed by Andrew Risch
Philly based quartet Botis, unleash a plague of slick as hell Black Metal that sounds almost too good to be a self produced debut album. Mind you, this isn’t your traditional type of Black Metal either with plenty of Thrash and Melodic Death Metal thrown in for a satisfying and complex listen.

 The opening track fires off with a technical ferocity of killer riffs, pulverizing blast beats and inhuman screams before slowing things down for a brutal midsection piece with some great bass work added to the mix. Taking bits and pieces from across the entire metal spectrum, Botis showcase incredible musicianship on this release. The second track, “Rodente,” is a real standout with it’s trashy almost punk like riffs showcasing how Botis seamlessly blends many different styles into a great and even catchy song. And the eerie chorus at the end of the track? Perfection! “Gullet,” is the longest track here clocking in at a little over 8 minutes, this is an epic track  with a unique piano outro that bears repeated listens. The albums closer, “The Nobel King,” finishes the album up perfectly, not too heavy, not too soft, but enough to leave you wanting more.

 

If this is their first attempt at a recording, Botis proves that they are a band that needs to be on your radar in the years to come.

Catch Botis in this month’s coffee subscriptions, here
Be sure to sign up by midnight (EST) tonight!

 

Botis is:
Erik Levitsky – Guitar
Graham Noël – Bass
Greg Bogart – Drums
Peter Hraur – Vocals

Botis Facebook

Posted on by

VERMENT: Death’s Domain Review

VERMENT: Death’s Domain

Reviewed by: Andrew Risch

Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, Verment perform some killer modern death metal on their recent
EP, Death’s Domain. Containing hints of blackened thrash over some melodeath groves,
Verment is definitely a band on the rise. Taking cues from bands such as

Dying Fetus,Aborted and the mighty Carcass with their style and sound. What keeps Verment fresh and
exciting is that they are not just purely a Death Metal band adding modern twists and different
musical elements throughout this EP. “Amon’s Wrath,” is a real standout here with it’s punchy
beginning, slick riffs with underlying melodies and nasty vocals that leave you wanting to sing
(growl?) along. “Chemical Indoctrination,” is a pure explosion in ferocity that features some killer
guitar work spiraling feverishly across the fretboard. “Wings of Bone,” will satisfy the most
stubborn Death Metal fan with just a little over 2 minutes of pure brutality.
Already a key player in Cincinnati’s metal scene, Verment are a fantastic live band, proving
once again that extreme metal is alive and well. Death’s Domain proves that this is a band on
the rise and are headed to great things in their future.

Be sure to check out Verment’s Death’s Domain EP in this month’s coffee subscriptions!

If you’re in the Cincinnati area and would like to see Verment live, check out their Facebook page here.

Posted on by

DECEASED announce new drummer.

In the wake of the tragic, untimely death of longtime drummer Dave Castillo on November 12th, underground icons Deceased have announced their new touring drummer, Amos Rifkin, as well as structural changes to their recording lineup. Deceased founder and vocalist King Fowley says the following: “Deceased recently lost our drummer and dear friend Dave Castillo. He sadly drowned while visiting family in El Salvador. Deceased is a band that is all about family and friendship above all. The shock is still fresh in our systems as we decide how to proceed with the band’s future. After a few weeks of letting everything sink in, it is now a fruition. Deceased is continuing on! We all know in our hearts Dave would be the very first one to tell us to keep on rocking. The plan now is for me to go back to playing drums on the studio records, and we are bringing in a friend to play live drums for us.”

Continuing, King says, “Finding the right guy to play drums for us wasn’t easy. There’s a lot to what we do drum-wise in the band, and we need a heavy, precise hitter whose 110% always reliable and ready to rock at the drop of a hat. Oddly, how we found this guy is kinda ‘haunting,’ keeping in a Deceased career-long off-kilter kind of way. A few months ago, while playing on tour, Dave fell in love with a band called Death of Kings that were supporting us. He totally enjoyed their in-your-face thrash attack and really dug the drumming in the band. The two bands became good pals and metal brothers over the almost-two-week jaunt. At our last show of the tour in Detroit, Michigan, Dave told me, ‘If anything ever happens to me, you gotta get this motherfucker on drums – he kicks ass!’ Hauntingly enough, we stand here today finding a replacement for Dave. Talking amongst band members, a name kept coming up in every conversation. I put it at my top of the list of things for me to look into. Weirdly, at this same time, I was asked for my address by the guy and a letter came to my house. The letter was a handwritten two pages expressing condolences and had a genuine honesty to it that immediately made me take notice. He wrote of how much he enjoyed playing together on the tour and how Deceased was a powerful entity in the underground music world. About two thirds through the letter, he started to talk of offering his playing skills to the band to keep the entity rolling on. I called him up, and we talked for a good while. I explained how things work in the band and what we’d need and expect from him. He was all in, as were we. Deceased has people living all over the world anymore, it seems, so him being four states over from us is nothing. Homework is the most important thing in this band, and you come in ready in full. After a few video tryouts of him playing to our music, it is exactly as expected – full-hearted and played with passion, and a knack for understanding the wacky traits that are Deceased drums. The band will rehearse throughout winter and into 2019. Look for our first shows April 14th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Decibel music festival, quickly followed on April 19th at the Milwaukee NYDM spring bash.”

Concluding, “So here we are, about to go into our 34th year as a band. And I now introduce you to our new touring drummer, and fellow maniac for the music, Amos Rifkin. UP THE TOMBSTONES!”

Deceased‘s long-awaited eighth album, Ghostly White, is out now via Hells Headbangers. It features Dave Castillo’s final performance with the band, and can be heard in its entirety HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ Bandcamp.
Cover art, courtesy of Raul Gonzalez, and tracklisting are as follows:


Tracklisting for Deceased’s Ghostly White
1. Mrs. Allardyce
2. Germ of Distorted Lore
3. A Palpation’s Warning
4. To Serve the Insane
5. Endless Well
6. The Shivers
7. Thoughts of a Leaking Brain
8. Pale Surroundings

DAVE CASTILLO
November 25th, 1974 – November 12th, 2018

Posted on by

RIP Erik Lindmark, Unique Leader Records Founder

 

 

With heavy hearts, it has been announced that Deeds of Flesh & Unique Leader Records Founder & CEO, Erik Lindmark has passed away.

The following is a  statement released by Unique Leader Records, via social media.

“It is with great sadness that we must announce that our CEO & Founder, Erik Lindmark, passed away today after battling with Sclerosis.

The indelible mark he has left on the Death Metal genre is monumental, both as a business man and as a musician. After building this label from scratch with his Deeds bandmates, Erik took Unique Leader to a level he had never expected it, or the genre, to get to.

During his time in Hospital, Erik was absolutely implicit with his instructions to staff to go full steam ahead with the label in his absence- which is exactly what we intend to do.

That being said, we will not be releasing anything in January so that we can make the necessary adjustments and delegations within the company. We would like to thank you all for your well wishes, support and kindness toward Erik on socials and via private correspondence.

There is a gofundme setup for Erik’s daughter Bella (5) and his wife- link below.

https://www.gofundme.com/bella-lindmark-fund

Rest in peace Erik. You were a true warrior.”

 

Please consider donating, even if it’s just a little pocket change.

RIP ERIK

Posted on by

ABYSSOUS Stream New Mini-Album

Abyssous - Logo

German death metal mavericks Abyssous streamed the entirety of their long-awaited new recording, Mesa, at Revolver magazine’s website (Also streaming at the bottom of this article.). This new mini-album shall be released on November 1st via Iron Bonehead Productions, in conjunction with the Iron Bonehead / Nuclear War Now!-curated Never Surrender Festival set to take place in Berlin on November 1-3. Abyssous will be giving an exclusive performance at this fest.

It’s been six long years since the original release of Abyssous‘ debut recording, …Smouldering. What was first a demo soon became something of a debut album, aided by two newly recorded tracks and a cavernously 3D mastering job by P. Engel at Temple of Disharmony: Iron Bonehead was so impressed by this fresh take on a rotten sound that it released …Smouldering on vinyl LP in 2013. Anchored in the ancient ways of the Metal of Death yet exuding a bold, flowing flair for songcraft, here Abyssous compositionally ran the gamut from teeth-gnashing, tempting-the-corners-of-chaos violence to slowly simmering, doomed-out dementia, taking the listener on a journey to eldritch depths…and beyond, and back. Not for nothing was it titled …Smouldering.

Then came silence, but during that interim, Abyssous have been patiently perfecting their craft. It finds full bloom on the aptly titled Mesa, which presents ten tracks across a surprisingly expansive 35 minutes. With such a setup, one would think a record of quick-hitting constructions; instead, Mesa is more like five proper songs buttressed by just as many no-less-crucial interludes. As such, Abyssous weave a more mind-melting tapestry than before, painting a fever dream in more gangrenous hues of ancient death metal and dizzying tension. It all very much sounds like the band who left us …Smouldering, but whipped into a delirium of fractured angularity and even-more-fractured sanity. Mesa is no less rotten, but paradoxically more regal. Even the language the power-trio is using here – “Fissurge,” “Aerosoils,” “Perlurkural,” “Vesspense,” and especially the climactic “Congealed Lores” among them – suggest that they’re indeed operating on a mesa all their own.

Or, one could simply gaze deeply into the cover art of Mesa and see where Abyssous are going now, and where they’re arriving. Will you step beyond The Beyond?

 Cover and track-listing are as follows:

Tracklisting for Abyssous’ Mesa
1. Aisernal
2. Mesa
3. Perlurkural
4. Impelled
5. Fissurge
6. Ocaeon
7. Diphour
8. Aerosoils
9. Vesspense
10. Congealed Lores

Posted on by

Barús set release date for debut full-length, first track reveal.


Barús set release date for debut full-length, first track reveal.

In their endless quest to push and support underground acts that deliver the goods, unaware and unmindful of trends and hype, on October 22nd, Memento Mori is proud to present Barús‘ striking debut album, Drowned.Hailing from Grenoble, France, Barús formed in 2015 and soon released their self-titled debut EP through Emanations (a division of Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions). Since mid-2016, work has been focused on their debut full-length album. Bearing the ominous title Drowned, this is a bolt-from-the-blue work of unimaginable vision and towering might.

Indeed, the term “βαρύς” evokes a weight, an overbearing burden. Through Barús, this takes musical form through a complex and utterly atmospheric – but, above all, completely and totally visceral – approach to death metal. Call it an alchemy of sorts, but Drowned presents a moltenly monolithic, ceaselessly churning sound merged with palpably progressive structures, frequently stretching into black metal and doom territories – and effortlessly, at that – all compellingly completed by bowels-of-Hell deep vociferations and vocalizations spanning semi-clean moans, spoken word, chants, and everything in between. Truly, it’s a nightmare made flesh, its dissonance instilling an unshakable tension and terror, and yet Barús manage to make it sound so alluring, so tempting…to literally DROWN in the enormity they lay bare for the helpless listener. Drownedindeed!

Memento Mori doesn’t usually dip its toes into “progressive” or “post” waters, favoring the musty odor of vintage death metal. However, when presented with Barús‘ Drowned, the label couldn’t help but submit to their visionary onslaught on the senses. So, while we could describe them as “Autopsy reinterpreted by Meshuggah” or “Gojira and Gorguts jamming out to an old Demilich tune with Ulcerate’s instruments,” we’re confident Barús should definitely appeal to fans of such daring bands Gorguts, Triptykon, Ulcerate, Emptiness, Meshuggah, Portal, Diskord, Akercocke, Gojira, Sumac, Deathspell Omega, Altars, and Chaos Echoes.

Featuring nine songs in a vast yet time-evaporating 56 minutes, the production on Drowned is absolutely stellar; it was recorded between 2016 and 2017 at Plastic Lobster Studios & Eptagon, with drum recording & additional reamping done at Octavox Studio, while mixing & mastering were done by James Leonard at Plastic Lobster Studios. Completed by cover art courtesy of the masterful Timo Ketola, with inner artwork by Stephen Wilson, Barús‘ Drowned is this year’s dark-horse classic in the making!

Hear for yourself the first hint of such with the new track “Descry”

Tracklisting for Barús’ Drowned
1. Descry
2. Graze
3. Engorge
4. Amass
5. Dissever
6. Vitiate
7. Benumb
8. Perpetrate
9. Forsake