Music Reviews

Revenge - Victory.Intolerance.Mastery (Red Stream, 2004)

Rating: 10/10

ORDER FROM CHAOS and ANGEL CORPSE remain two of my favorite bands of all time. So, understandably, I was excited to learn that Pete Helmkamp would be returning to aggressive, heavy music after spreading his black wings with his "ambient/noise" TERROR ORGAN project, which was a somewhat interesting listen, but let's level here: the man was born to play blasting, raw, brutal, music.  I liked J. Read's CONQUEROR, and was not surprised to find that REVENGE was pretty much the same band with Helmkamp on bass, spitting out the occasional vocal line here and there. While I did enjoy the debut, Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist, I was also disappointed as every time I heard Helmkamp's voice, it just made me wish he was doing ALL of the vocals, as (in my opinion), there has never been a more emotive and hateful sounding vocalist in black metal.

This brings us to Victory.Intolerance.Mastery. Yes, Helmkamp is still riding shotgun to J. Read's vocals, but the material on this album is so fucking good that I barely even notice, and I have come to realize that Read's vocals fit REVENGE perfectly. Like the music, his delivery is relentless and almost one-dimensional. It is just HATE HATE HATE and REVENGE have really pushed the bar even further into the territory that bands like BLASPHEMY and BESTIAL WARLUST have conquered and reigned over in the past. Victory.Intolernace.Mastery is not an all-out blasting affair (though that is the predominant feel). Songs like "Blood Annihilation" find REVENGE slowing down to a lethal crushing groove, all the more effective as it comes as a moment of cohesiveness out of an otherwise completely chaotic storm. This is the kind of album that clears rooms at parties, which has me wanting to wax historic for a moment, so bear with me.

When I was in high school, we were allowed to bring in tapes (remember those?) to play in the weight room during gym class. Everyone took turns, and each tape was given a full spin, whether the majority liked it or not. Myself and another fella, Alex Reyes, used to bring in the extreme stuff. CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEICIDE and the like (at the time, still very underground) and they were tolerated. One day, Alex brought in EYE GOUGER (the "Ass Rotor" ep). When it came seeping through the speakers like so much glorious musical diarrhea, activity in the room stopped and, one by one, people filtered out, opting to play basketball instead. The mass exodus resulted in the coach coming in to the weight room to find out why everyone was leaving. Two steps in, he stopped, slowly turning his head up to look at the speaker. Know that scene in the movie The Shawshank Redemption when all the prisoners and guards are mystified as opera is playing over the prison PA? Now you have the picture in your head. After standing there, stunned, for a few seconds, he asked, "What the hell is this??" At this point, it was just Alex and myself left in the room, and Alex snapped, "It's EYE GOUGER, man!" Coach stood there for a second more and then burst into motion, saying, "I am turning this shit off" and went in and pulled the tape out, tossing it to Alex. The first, and only, time a tape cleared the room and was vetoed by the powers that be.

Anyway, Victory.Intolerance.Mastery has that power. While the seasoned fan of extreme music will appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into creating this chaos, to the uninitiated, it sounds just like that: chaos, and if you ever find a dozen or so people in your house that are overstaying their welcome, throw this one on and watch them head for the door. You can then sit back and marvel at tracks like the supreme "Hate Oath," with an opening so fucking great, I rewound it three times when I first heard the album. Listen and you'll see... a slow, pounding riff that the average drummer would groove under. J. Read, in his insane creativeness, rapes the riff with an unsteady blast before finding the groove and leveling everything within sonic range like Hiroshima. Victory.Intolerance.Mastery is an album that has set new standards, and one that will remain untouched in its extremity for years, or at least until a new REVENGE album is unleashed upon the world. - Al Kikuras

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Eyetofuk - Wankfest 2666 (self-released, 2004)

Rating:  6/10

It's a very rare cybergrind band who can keep me interested for long, and that probably won't change anytime soon. People in the underground really praise LIBIDO AIRBAG but I'll never quite get why. For the most part I find LA to be quite monotonous and boring.  EYETOFUK however take the sick pitch-shifted vocals familiar in the goregrind genre and do something quite pleasing to the ears musically.  I don't think I will ever be a huge fan of this style but for this type of music, I think this is probably as good as it can get.  The samples chosen are humorous, and at times pretty nasty, the beats on this are actually quite good too, but the comical looping really hurts it I think. Wankfest 2666 is all over the place, its something you'll have to hear to believe as my words can't really do justice in describing how utterly bizarre this is.  I could see putting this on while tripping, or smoking, but as I sit here sober on a Wednesday night I find this isn't quite my cup o' tea. - Rick

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Genghis Tron - Cloak of Love (Crucial Blast, 2005)
 
Rating: 6.5/10
 
Maybe trying to review this with a deep sinus headache is a bad idea.  Actually, I think I'd feel the same way about this no matter what my mental state. GENGHIS TRON can best be summed up as an attempt to fill the void between early DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and later MR. BUNGLE.  In other words, these guys can't decide what the fuck genre they want to play. I'm all for diversity and experimentation. But alternating between blast beats, mosh parts, DURAN DURAN worship and VAN HALEN soloing gets extremely predictable by the third track. If the picture I painted with my earlier comparison sounds enticing, then you're going to shoot you load all over the place while listening to GENGHIS TRON. These three guys are incredibly talented, but man they need the cut down on the Ritalin. - Big Juan

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Graveland - Dawn of Iron Blades (No Colours, 2004)
 
Rating: 5/10
 
GRAVELAND are one of the few black metal bands from the early '90s boom who have yet to throw in the towel.  These relics fall into a few different categories. Some, such as DARKTHRONE have proven themselves relevant no matter what the year. Others, such as CARPATHIAN FOREST have stayed true to their origins, but have displayed a recent tendency to get caught up in their own propaganda. And of course there are bands like Mayhem who arguably still write good music, but seem to be living off a name that bears no resemblance to their current incarnation.

GRAVELAND seems to allude all these categories.  I am definitely a fan of the earlier GRAVELAND material, but I've found their past few releases to be easily interchangeable. This record is no different. At times it feels like GRAVELAND are simply going through the motions of a formula they laid down over a decade ago. And that can work, as DARKTHRONE has proven. But the "lucky charms" Viking metal displayed here feels like it's lacking something. Songs like "While I Ride with the Valkyries," (which may be the worst title ever) are plentiful with intensely absorbing riffs. But nothing that a band like MORRIGAN isn't doing better.

Bottom line, if you've enjoyed most recent GRAVELAND records it's likely you'll enjoy this one as well. But in my opinion they should take a lesson from EMPEROR and BURZUM, who knew when to call it a day. - Big Juan

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Kittie - Until the End (Artemis Records, 2004) www.artemisrecords.com
 
Rating: 2/10
 
So yeah, I went into this with the lowest of low expectations. And for a moment there, I was almost ready to acknowledge how much this band had improved. The opening track, brilliantly titled "Look So Pretty" kicks in rather harshly with some heavy riffing and impressive drumming. The vocals seemed to be on the right path as well.  And then it happened. Suddenly the clean vocals and the mosh parts presented themselves and reality came rushing back in.  There's nothing here that OTEP or any other nu-metal band with a female front person hasn't done better, even including KITTIE themselves.  By the middle of the record I was drowning so far in cliches that I had to pause for a deep breathe and a MORBID ANGEL song for good measure. This band has never been my cup, and they don't seem to be on their way there anytime soon. - Big Juan

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Lividity - Fetish for the Sick + Live in Germany (Comatose Music, 2004)

Rating: 7.5/10

I've heard the name LIVIDITY in underground death metal circles for years and must admit that, until receiving Fetish for the Sick, I never actually listened to the band. This is a re-release of their 11-song effort from 1997, Fetish for the Sick, which is beefed up with some bonus live tracks from Germany to give you more bang for your buck. LIVIDITY have created quite a name for themselves as one of the most respected ultra-brutal death metal bands that are so common these days, and this release gives me a good inkling as to why. Unlike many of their contemporaries, LIVIDITY don't take themselves seriously. Sometimes it is hard not to laugh at these guys when they are writing songs like, "I Love To Stab Women In The Cunt," yet they have day jobs delivering flowers. They are all serious in the band photos, trying to look as disturbed and dangerous as possible, while everyone is laughing but them. While LIVIDITY cover lyrical topics as sick (and sometimes sicker) than the next band, it is obvious they are having a good laugh at themselves, not unlike the recently crucified Australian band, INTENSE HAMMER RAGE, who were arrested and had 1000 CDs destroyed because their lyrics were so taboo. While I am sure they aren't laughing about their legal problems, it was obvious that the lyrics were so extreme, that the band, themselves, realized they ran off the track into self-parody so deep that they got taken seriously by the wrong people. LIVIDITY could grind with the best of 'em in 1997 and Fetish for the Sick holds up well, despite the somewhat thin production, and as evidenced by the live tracks from 2003, haven't lost the ability in the years since.  Their sense of humor hasn’t changed much either, and to quote Forrest Gump, they "like to use the F word!" Guitarist/vocalist Matt Bishop has a very endearing stage banter that is both friendly and repulsive, and the band is as lethal in the live arena as the studio. LIVIDITY fans will want to pick this up for the live material if they already have Fetish for the Sick, and folks into brutal death metal will enjoy this release. I, for one, want to hear some other LIVIDITY material, and if any of the web sites I found claiming to be "official" LIVIDITY sites actually worked (including the URL printed on this CD), I might actually be able to do so. - Al Kikuras

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Lust Of Decay - Kingdom Of Corpses (Comatose Music, 2004)

Rating: 8/10

There are so many ultra-brutal death metal bands making the rounds these days, and 80% of them are a dime-a-dozen. All adept musicians that can write brutal music, but the end result is often so by-the-numbers that from one release to the next, it sounds like the same band took the same album and just mixed up the order of the tracks and put in new packaging.

LUST OF DECAY are a brutal death metal band in every way, but they manage to avoid falling into the faceless sea that many of their peers inhabit by choosing to write often catchy riffs, rather than just showcasing obscenely technical chops. Granted, LUST OF DECAY do delve into the hyper-technical from time to time, but also know when to step back and get simple, be it with a groove breakdown akin to early INTERNAL BLEEDING, or a party of pinch harmonics courtesy of guitarist Steve Green, as you might hear on an IMMOLATION or INCANTATION album. Drummer Jordan Varela is a hell of a player, as evidenced during the frantic fills he unleashes in the romantically-titled "Septic Tank Abortion." Vocalist Jay Barnes is one of the big reasons that LUST OF DECAY has the relatively distinctive sound they do. He does delve into the guttural depths that many a death metal vocalist does, but his phrasing is strong, as he often works off the guitars and rhythms rather than just treading right across them. He also has a knack for long, drawn out roars that sound downright inhuman. Bassist Joe Payne showcases some solid chops with bass runs here and there, also doing a fine job adding crunch to the riffing throughout.

So, while Kingdom of Corpses doesn't land LUST OF DECAY at the top of the death metal pile as innovators or the new "great red hope," it does set them apart from the faceless masses of death metal bands gathering at the doors of the underground like so many zombies milling about outside a mall, lusting for the brains of those trapped inside. Seasoned and jaded death metal fans will find Kingdom of Corpses to be a rewarding listen, and those of you that can't get enough of bands like BRODEQUIN, GUT, SEVERED SAVIOR and the like won't be disappointed either. - Al Kikuras

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Marduk - Plague Angel  (Candleight, 2004)

Rating: 8.5/10

MARDUK have become a black metal institution. Nine albums over a career that has spanned some fourteen years, in a genre that is so fickle that many bands don't last more than one release, fading into the darkness before a spark even ignites... for a band to remain relevant for that long, they must be doing something right, and MARDUK continue to do so on Plague Angel. Yes, they have had their ups and downs through the years, but have managed to stay mostly on the upswing (with the occasional snoozer like La Grande Danse Macabre). Plague Angel finds MARDUK with some new blood in the ranks, and while the formula for what they do remains unchanged, things have shifted a few feet, resulting in a fresh and revitalized sound. Many claim former screamer Legion was treading stagnant waters for the last few albums, phoning in his performance. While I don't agree (I always and still did like his sound), there is no denying that new vocalist Mortuus has brought a lot to the table. His venom is abundant, and his voice sounds especially decrepit and carcinogenic. You can't help but be impressed by the blood-curdling scream he unleashes in the beginning of "Perish In Flames" (incidentally, one of the strongest and slowest numbers on the record) that lasts an awe-inspiring 38 seconds ("Gates of Valhalla," anyone?). Musically, Plague Angel is a varied release, with MARDUK exploring many tempos and feels but without ever stepping away from their pure black metal sound. In all, it is a very good album that does not disappoint in the slightest, and while Plague Angel (or any MARDUK album to come) may never have the same impact again that Heaven Shall Burn or Nightwing or Opus Nocturne did, it won't likely be due to any weakness in the material, but just a reflection of the times. Since those standard-setting albums were released, black metal has been fucked in every hole four times from Sunday, and it is rare that a band really does something shocking or new, or reaches a level that has yet to already be explored, but that does not mean that a band can't still churn our relevant and interesting material with the already tried and true formula, and Plague Angel is proof of that. - Al Kikuras

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Nasum - Shift (Relapse, 2004) 
 
Rating: 7.5/10
 
It's a bit weird to write this review considering that in the last few weeks, it's been confirmed that NASUM's vocalist (and I believe main songwriter) was lost in last year's devastating tsunami. At press time the future of the band has not been decided as far as I know. 

This is also my first exposure to NASUM. I've been hearing about them for years but until now I haven't taken the time to sit down and listen. Well, I'm a bit sorry I didn't listen sooner. 
NASUM play a fairly pure form of grind core that should appeal to anyone who enjoys themselves some DISCORDANCE AXIS, ASSUCK or early NAPALM DEATH.  This record is 24 four lightening quick sonic bursts that will electrify the listener.  The music itself is competent, catchy and over the top.  It's no easy task to put together 24 songs and make them actually stand out from one another.  With this record, NASUM prove that it was all in a day's work. - Big Juan

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Nokturnal Mortum - Weltanschauung (No Colours, 2005)

Rating: 9/10

The whole folk/pagan metal movement has been largely lost on me. A band plays mid-paced black metal, throws in the occasional guitar melody and flute solo and we have a whole new genre. The problem with most of it I have heard is that the black metal is mediocre and the folk elements aren't legit enough to really make the music sound, what I guess you would call, "folkish." Occasionally, a band manages to really combine the elements to a cohesive whole, and I think that is when the whole "pagan/folk" thing really works. SKYFORGER and THYRFING were the two that I have heard that managed to do so effectively so far, and now I am happy to add NOKTURNAL MORTUM to that list.

Weltanschauung is an epic, grandiose album, almost 75 minutes long, with about a third of that being comprised of symphonic interludes that actually enhance the release rather than sounding like filler. The title track is a perfect representation of what you can expect on this album. It is heavy, layered, and spiteful, with strong use of melody, folk instrumentation and "clean" vocals, but it never loses sight of the base elements of black metal... the nastiness and dark feeling. With over 10 years of experience under their belts, NOKTURNAL MORTUM write like the veterans they are, exploring new territories and pushing the envelope rather than just treading safe and proven waters as many other bands that come to mind (one, in particular, one of their most "infamous" label mates. I'll leave it to you to work out who). The music is varied in tempo and feel with lots of dramatic changes throughout, yet it is so well-written that it is never jarring or awkward. NOKTURNAL MORTUM are able to jump about seamlessly, and that is their true strength... the ability to combine all of these elements without sounding like they are dabbling in all but masters of none.

If you are a fan of the "folk/pagan" genre, Weltanschauung is an absolute must for your collection, and if you were never in to this style of music, Weltanschauung may well change your opinion. - Al Kikuras

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Pest - Vado Mori (Ketzer, 2005)

Rating: 8.5/10

The last full-length album I reviewed from PEST, Desecration, was a very raw, ugly, primitive black metal album. Nasty to the bone. The previous release, Ara, was even more raw and vile, but it was multi-faceted, with some moments approaching (dare I say?) beauty. Then PEST released Daudafaerd, which was one 20+ minute track that ran through the woods of both Ara and Desecration and came out the other side with a cohesive track that pillaged all of the band's previous works for one long composition. Now PEST have returned with Vado Mori, a collection of standard tracks (ie, not of epic length) that are considerably more polished than both of the aforementioned full-lengths, but still very much qualifies as ugly black metal. PEST are playing it the way the old masters did... DARKTHRONE, BURZUM, HADES (Norway) and the like, without coming off as a band yearning for the old days and trying to capture some of the glory of the originators through emulation. PEST have taken that formula of carcinogenic black metal and updated it with cleaner sound, sickening melodies, and occasional moments of elegance that call to BURZUM's pre-electronic works and Again Shall Be, the greatest album HADES have released (and one of black metal's finest moments on the whole). With DARKTHRONE still carrying the banner of punkish, raw black metal and BURZUM doing whatever Varg finds himself doing these days when not running from the police, PEST have taken the formula established years ago and brought it to the modern day, refining the music without losing sight of black metal's primal ugliness. Listen to "The Glimmer" as the perfect example of raw black metal for 2005, and Vado Mori as an example of where true black metal is today. - Al Kikuras

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Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer/NATASHA (Relapse, 2004)

Rating: 8/10 (Terrifyer) and 9/10 (NATASHA)

With all the hoopla surrounding PIG DESTROYER's Terrifyer, despite the band name and album title, I expected a much more accessible outing. The general music media tends not to latch on to really extreme albums, but this one is a big exception. Terrifyer is grindcore throughout, and it is the real deal. Granted, there are some elements of thrash, punk, rock and more throughout, but even the moments that call to other genres still GRIND. The band is ravenous, blasting and crunching like a rabid boxer in the throes of pugilism. There are moments on Terrifyer that are catchy and laden with hooks, and other times when it is just ugly and brutal. PIG DESTROYER have a good ear for parts and when to switch them up, which keeps Terrifyer an interesting listen throughout its 32+ minutes. The vocal performance is at its most effective when one-dimensional in its all-out barbarism with no regard for variety, though vocalist JR Hayes does have some varied moments with a slight Patton-ish flavor, like the breakdown in the great "Towering Flesh," where PIG DESTROYER showcases their abilities for writing some downright eerie music. Speaking of which, the bonus audio DVD, NATASHA, is a work to be experienced and ingested with repeat listens. I have heard it twice so far and still am not 100% sure what to make of it, except that it reminds be a big of FANTOMAS' Delerium Cordira in its aspiration to tell a visual story through sound, and at times also brings Jonathan Bepler's great work on the CREMASTER film soundtracks to mind (albums that are as interesting to listen to without the visuals as with). With the bonus DVD and full-length album, Terrifyer provides a lot of entertainment for your buck, both satisfying the craving for primal violence and music to chew over, dissect, and discuss and still maybe not quite "get." - Al Kikuras

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