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Music Reviews |
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All reviews are on a scale of 1-10. For the jackasses, one is the lowest and ten is the highest. For an explanation of our review policy as well
as info on how to submit materials for review, click here.
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Spotlight Album:
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aka ”An album that really kicked our asses!”
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Bloodshed Divine - Summoned to the Ancient Dawn
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This Edition’s Reviews:
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Click on the artist’s name to be taken to the review. Scroll up or down to view the rest of the reviews, or to return to the top.
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Cannibal Corpse, Disgorge, Exhumed, Jag Panzer, Lucifer, Luddite Clone, Babylon Whores, End It, Garden of Shadows, Heresiarh, Legion, Mondo Generator, Nile
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Bloodshed Divine - Summoned to the Ancient Dawn (Largactyl Records, 2000)
Rating: 10/10
This is both demos of Bloodshed Divine, one man project of Troy LeBlanc and I can fully understand why this is just a one man project. The material contained on this cd is not for
those who can't appreciate a dark, cold, grim atmosphere, be warned. Listening to this album inspires hatred for humanity unlike any you could have previously imagined, but shock too, as its amazing that one
man can create some of the most hatred filled songs ever recorded. It's quite clear though why this is just Troy, it must be hard to find someone with the same musical vision such as his. In this time
period most black metal bands rehash old thrash riffs, and just play fast. While that is alright, it leaves me usually wanting more, craving something that can make me close my eyes and picture
armageddon. As I listen to Summoned to the Ancient Dawn (A title Al Kikuras came up with) I can do that. Bands in the US Black Metal scene should take something from this gem of a release. Playing
fast and loud can work for some bands, such as Thornspawn, but dark, cold and eerie atmospheres are created by the almost folky basslines on this, the midpaced drumming, creative riffs and some of the best black
metal vocals that have ever been captured on cd. It's almost hard to put into words how incredible and mindblowing this album is, but I think I can sum it up in two final sentences. Without a doubt the
finest hour of the US Black Metal scene, and an instant classic. To deny yourself a listen of this could be the biggest mistake you'll ever make. - Rick
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Cannibal Corpse - Live Cannibalism (Metal Blade, 2000)
Rating: 8/10
 There is an inherent problem with death
and black metal live albums. I think it comes with the genres, as neither really leaves much room for improvisation. Take Emperor's live album for instance... a great recording, the band is 100% on,
but what is the point? You had may as well set the albums to a track of applause and audience sounds. Most death metal bands worth their weight sound as good as the album live, so
the live album does not offer much by way of a particularly exciting listen. There is a very large redeeming quality to Live Cannibalism, however, and it is George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher!
I must admit, I was disappointed when he took over the vocal helm on Vile (although I loved his work on the Monstrosity demo). I was a big fan of Chris Barnes' work on The
Bleeding... decipherable, catchy - worlds improved over the monotone belching on Butchered and Tomb. I am not very familiar with Gallery of Suicide, although I saw them on the
tour and was impressed. On Bloodthirst, however, I think Cannibal Corpse have reached a pinnacle in their career. Fast, heavy, great vocals, catchy music... and George has
completely won me over after listening to the new album and seeing him in 3 live performances. So, what sets this live album apart from others? Hearing him sing the old tunes! He
has been elevated, in my eyes, to one of the best voices in death metal, capable of an insanely deep growl without cupping the mic. He can sing incredibly fast and clean and belt
out INSANE screams the likes of which I have not heard before.
Other than that, if you have seen Cannibal live you know what to expect. They are tight and do the albums justice
100%. There is one extremely glaring omission from the setlist, however, that to this moment still drives me nuts... they do not play "Pounded Into Dust," the opening track on
Bloodthirst and, in my opinion, the greatest Cannibal Corpse song to date! - Al Kikuras
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Disgorge - Forensick (Repulse Records, 2000)
Rating: 8.5/10
 Death metal and grind often stretch the boundaries of music. Sometimes in
the same sense that Gorguts did with Obscura - forging a new sound and pushing the limits of composition, writing music not for a death metal band, but playing it LIKE a death metal band. Then there are bands like
Disgorge that stretch things in an entirely different way and leave you wondering, "is this music??"
Disgorge are extreme to the point of bordering on absolute
noise. The vocals are deep and indecipherable, but often very fast. Picture Will Rahmer on speed. Songwriting takes a back seat to extremity on Forensick. In fact, songwriting isn't even
in the same car, or on the same road. This is the kind of stuff that sounds like a big bucket of slop to the unfamiliar ear and, to be honest, this one pushes the limits so much that even a
semi-seasoned death metal fan may find the album to be too much. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, though - we are not talking the Meat Shits here. This is NOT total noise.
Amidst the chaos, there is a eerie semblance of order that keeps me listening. Disgorge are craftsmen, as unlikely as that may sound, and they know their craft well.
This is one of those album covers that foreshadows the contents perfectly. The image displayed here may be one of the most revolting I have ever seen... an infant with a
smashed bloody face, apparently victim of a late-term abortion, laying halfway out of his mother's womb. If the thought of that has your stomach heaving, then stay away as
the music will send you spinning into a state of severe nausea. If, on the other hand, you are curious and morbidly fascinated, slap on some rubber gloves and dig right in. The buffet is open! - Al Kikuras
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Exhumed - Slaughtercult (Relapse, 2000)
Rating: 8.5/10
 More of what I've come to know and love from Exhumed - sick,
gore-spattered death metal, but this time they have upped the intensity level a notch. The recording and the material are both worlds more depraved than on Gore Metal. The album is absolutely saturated
with puked vocals and non-stop riffing. Unfortunately, things aren't quite as catchy as they were last time around (no track has the same hooks that "Opening the Abscess" did, at least to my ears)
but the sacrifice is well worth it, as what the listener gets in return is a non-stop barrage of brutal and repulsive deathgrind. Exhumed have forged along, not skipping a beat
since Ross Sewage (former bassist/vocalist) left the band. Hell, if you didn't know, you wouldn't even notice he was gone. Someone is handling the deep vocals in his absence and
doing an admirable job (I am assuming it is Mike Burns, as he is credited with "Ribcage Rupture"). So, no, nothing new, but like a horrific car accident, despite what the authorities say,
there is plenty "to see here" if gore and guts are what you want. - Al Kikuras
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Jag Panzer - Thane to the Throne (Century Media, 2000)
Rating: 8/10
 As a classic thrash/power metal aficionado, I have not been impressed by
much of the new blood. Or the new blood being bled by the old blood, for that matter. So, what I usually did with albums of this nature was to pass them on to Piston Rod, who was a little later
getting into the game and had a deeper appreciation for the newer stuff as a result. Well, folks, Piston Rod has jumped ship and is now grazing on different pastures, so the task of reviewing the
power metal albums has fallen directly into my lap, and Thane to the Throne is a hell of a place to start! Jag Panzer have a great album here, laden with strong songwriting - a key of the
classic releases that most of the new ones are sorely missing. Jag Panzer are veterans of the genre, and oh how it shows! This is the strongest power metal album I have heard since
Rhapsody's latest, Symphony of Enchanted Lands. The music is melodic but heavy, with occasional classical/chamber-esque passages interspersed between these metal anthems. The
vocal performance is very balls-out. Vocalist Harry Conklin has a mid-register voice, akin to Joseph Comeau's work on Liege Lord's masterpiece, Master Control. While I am a big fan
of screamers like Mike Sanders from Toxik and Joel DuBay of Powermad, I can get into any singer that has a serious balls. Conklin not only has a set of brass, but he also an impressive
range and passionate delivery that suit the music well.
Thane to the Throne is an adaption of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Unfortunately, no lyrics were included with the promo, so I cannot comment on how true they are to the
original, but even if they were singing about ancient Hungarian cabinet-making, this would still be a very interesting listen. - Al Kikuras
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Lucifer - Watching the Christians Burn (Self-released, 2000)
Rating: 8/10
I almost peed myself while first scanning over Lucifer's bio. Luckily, I was sitting on the toilet opening my mail at the time as I do just about every morning. The bio is
so laden with spelling and grammatical errors that I assumed they were from Latvia or one of those "bonus" countries over there in Europe, so I read closer and discovered, much to my surprise, that
they are from Maryland here in the USA, where English is the native language. Here is the bio, as it appears on the sheet verbatim, all spelling errors and spacing intact:
Lucifer started in 1997 as an original death metal band from maryland,USA the band released their first demo in 98 and is now releaseing the full length album (Watching the christians
burn)it contain's 8 new tracks and will be the first demo is currently being re-masterd for release on CD and will be released along with (Watching the christians burn)
Lucifer is currently looking for a lable and or some type of distrobution to get their mucic available to the world were not
looking to get rich just getting our music available for humans to hear we currently have a few distro's lined up for (Watching the christians burn) and (self-titled).We have had
some sucsess on the radio and are included on the (World Domination 3) compulation by OSMOSE PRODUCTIONS and listed at the bottome of the page are some quotes from z-ines from Lucifers 1st demo.
Due to the lack of drummers in our area we use a drummachine wich is not a permanant member just a fill in intill a talented human can be found to replace it other than
that you should really let the music help you to decide that what really matters at least it used to in the underground
thanks for your time
Well, they are right, the music is what really matters and it is damn good. Lucifer churn forth brutal death metal ala Deicide and Infestdead, using a drum machine, as stated in the bio.
Guitarist Jake White must have a damn good ear because the drum performance (I use the term loosely) is excellent. If it was a real drummer, I'd be impressed, and as is I am
impressed with the programming. Jeff Hubbard's vocal delivery is Benton-ish, alternating between a deep growl and a high-pitched scream, although his voice definitely has its own
quality and bassist Ben Dill apparently does a fine job, as the bass pretty much meshes with the guitars to form a nice, solid wall of sound. Strong riffs and nice short songs that
switch tempos enough to keep things interesting are the key to this album's success - Watching the Christians Burn is a nice slab of modern death metal that any fan would do well to
add to his or her collection. Now, please, get someone to proofread your bio sheet for you... hell, I'll even do it for you! - Al Kikuras
For info: www.lucifernet.com
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Luddite Clone - The Arsonist and the Architect (Relapse, 2000)
Rating: 3/10
 Luddite Clone are from NJ, just like The
Dillinger Escape Plan. Luddite Clone released an EP (The Arsonist and the Architect) independently and, after Relapse heard it, they signed the band and released it, just like The Dillinger
Escape Plan. Luddite Clone don't like to use capital letters or punctuation (like periods) when printing their lyrics inside their EP, also just like The Dillinger Escape Plan, so they wind up looking like this:
luddite clone are just like the dillinger escape plan the dillinger escape plan got pretty darn popular by playing some crazy music and jumping around on stage and falling down luddite
clone are good musicians like the dillinger escape plan not just like them because the ideas and music are not as good i wonder if they jump around and fall down on stage just like
the dillinger escape plan i gave the dillinger escape plan's ep under the running board a 9 out of 10 because it is a really good ep i am giving luddite clones ep a measley 3 out of 10
because although they are good musicians they are trying to be just like the dillinger escape plan and that is like having a really good chef in your house and asking him to order you a
crappy dominos pizza so maybe when luddite clone decide to do something remotely original i will give them more than a 3 out of 10 but for now that is all they are getting so they can
just sit in their milk and like it shame shame know your name and it is not the dillinger escape plan - Al Kikuras
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Babylon Whores - Errata Stigmata EP (Necropolis Records, 2000)
 Rating: 2/10
You ever listen to an EP and almost wish that they would have saved the trees for the packaging, and the time of recording it? I don't see why everyone is making a
big deal about this band. It reminds me of Darkseed but no atmosphere and it's dull. I'm not the biggest fan of this style to begin with but this just showed me why I feel the way I do.
Maybe the full length album King Fear is better but I just don't know, this is an atrocity to music, and the once mighty Necropolis Records. Only for fans of Babylon Whores, and
people who like to waste money. - Rick
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End It - 6 Song Promo (Self-released, 2000)
 Rating: 6/10
This was...interesting. It strikes me as generic metalcore at first but after several listens I grew to appreciate this. It's catchy, pretty heavy and they do one of the best
covers I've heard in recent time, of Entombed’s “Out of Hand” (classic song). The production isn't bad its just this style doesn't leave much room for originality or to be innovative. If they were to focus on a
style that is strictly metal or strictly hardcore I could see big things for this band. Possibly a great stepping stone for the band, and I can see them improving over time. - Rick
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Garden of Shadows - Oracle Moon (Wicked World, 2000)
Rating: 9/10
 I learned about this band from one of the
Grimoire of Exalted Deeds compilations, and then the next day I ordered their debut MCD Heart of the Corona and I still listen to to it quite often, even to this day, a year and a
half later. I was curious if Garden of Shadows could release something just as good if not better then Heart...and I was happy to see they did. Where there were slight imperfections everything seems
to have been worked out rather nicely.
At times on Heart of the Corona the keyboards got a bit repetitive, still atmospheric but just slightly overdone. On this
debut full length the keyboards never once sound like they are taking something away from the rest of the music, a major problem when it comes to bands that use keys. The vocals
haven't really changed, other then the fact that the vocals project a bit better while still being low... but decipherable. Throughout this cd I hear riffs that sound like they belong in
Iron Maiden or Dissection songs, a
definate step up from the last MCD's riffs. The drumming is nothing special but nothing bad and as far asthe basslines
go..they are WAY low in the production, it almost sounds a bit muddy.
The overall flow of the album is great, with songs ranging from 30 seconds to 9 minutes you barely notice the time
pass as this album goes on. Usually bands who play long songs, they tend to drag on and just sound boring (Opeth being the main exception) but on Oracle Moon it sounds like
everything fits perfectly together, almost as if they wrote this originally as one hour long song and then slowly de-constructed it. This cd is as good as it gets for
melodic/atmospheric death metal. Buy this and you won't be disappointed. - Rick
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Heresiarh - Mythical Beasts and Mediaeval Warfare (Demolition Records, 2000)
Rating: 1/10
 Part 1 of the "Dragon Trilogy" of this
strange Melodic/Atmospheric Black metal act. I'm just wondering why they need to put out more then 1 disc of this pretentious garbage. Before I listened to it from the lyrics I assumed it to be in the
vein of Stormlord but was I ever wrong.This is just horrible though, I didn't know how bad black metal could get. I thought Mordeth from Brazil was the pinnacle of shit, but
Heresiarh makes Mordeth look like Darkthrone or Enslaved. I wasted more then an hour of my life listening to this and writing up the review, and I'm quite frankly disgusted with this
horrible attempt to look like "mature musicians". Maybe one day bands will learn that complex time changes, "deep" lyrics, operatic vocals, and keyboards don't all add up and create a
great style. Simply an atrocity to music, and more specifically black metal. Let's hope this band realizes how bad they are and calls off the trilogy. - Rick
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Legion (US) - Conqueror (Dark Horizon Records, 2000)
Rating: 8/10
 This was a pleasant surprise. Unsure of
what to expect from this band from Indiana I threw the cd on and what I heard was some of the catchiest most original death metal around. They have some old school sound and what's really
impressive to me is the way it seems to groove to, groove and old school is hard to play right but they've got it down pretty well. As far as musical influence I think I hear quite a
bit of Possessed and German thrash, a unique blend. The only part of this album that isn't that great are the vocals, I prefer lower and gurgler burp vocals usually but the midrange
roar here sounds good, fits the sound really nicely. The drumming has some really sick and oddly timed double bass rolls too, which I love. While its alright for a band to just blast
and ride the double bass nonstop it's not anything new, bands have been doing that forever. Legion takes a regular blast and bass ride and turns it into a really crazy drumbeat with
some very fast cymbal work too. I haven't heard a guy pound his cymbals like this since Brodequin - Instruments of Torture. The production on this sounds really clear as well,
with one minor problem, the guitar isn't high enough in the mix but it still sounds good. One of the most promising bands from America who will only get better and better.
Reccomended for fans of Vader, Morbid Angel, Profanity(Ger), and all old school-sounding death metal. - Rick
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Mondo Generator - Cocaine Rodeo (Southern Lord, 2000)
 Rating: 7/10
Do you like Queens of the Stone Age? If not then this record is totally not for you. If you answer yes, and even perhaps felt slighted by the slickness of the recent QOTSA LP, then this record will more than
satisfy you. Take the QOTSA sound and mix it up with the Chicago style of rock perfected by bands like The Jesus Lizard, The Dazzling Killmen, Craw and so many more. You've got an excellent
description of this release right here. Add chaos to the mix of recent QOTSA material, and this is what you get. Probably not going to appeal to the average metal fan this record is
defintely interesteing to me, and has my full attention. Like your rock dirty? Get your mitts on this puppy. - Master Shockwave
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Nile - Black Seeds of Vengeance (Relapse Records, 2000)
Rating: 9/10
 Hold on..... I just need to..... pick up my jaw from the floor. Ok, much better.
You see, the new Nile has seriously just kicked my ass. In what has turned into the shocker of the year to me, Nile has unleased a record that is brutal, pretentious, well written and memorable.
My feelings on previous Nile material had always been so-so, but this record is a possible masterpiece! If the new Morbid Angel had not come my way this month,
these guys would definitely be my pick for album of the month. Black Seeds.... is full of all the Egyptian madness you'd come to expect from Nile and then some. These songs
are just so fast paced it's incredible. The sole slow-paced track "To Dream of UR" (and now really, who doesn't dream of UR?!) emits an atmosphere which words cannot describe.
Nile have unleased one of the most complete death metal records of the year, and with songs titles like "Masturbating the War God" can you really go wrong here??? - Master
Shockwave
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