CD REVIEWS - Miscellaneous - http://maxpages.com/aeazine2/ISSUE_12_CD

ABYSS Consecration Of Emptiness
Eyes of the Dead Productions, http://eyesofthedead.cjb.net
eodprod@interfree.it
Well, my Gracenote on the iTunes didn't read this release at first, but it is not to say that it didn't kick my beloved ass! It most certainly DID kick some of my ass! Italy is home to some heavy-ass bands as of late! Stuff I am continually waking up to, well this really woke me up today, I can tell you. Industrial metal with a tinge of melody mixed in. Just simply that edgy and brutal! Really an industrial tinge to metal that sounds like a bit Marilyn Manson or Anal Cunt but just takes a much deeper and darker direction. Standout songs are: Lotus, Unworld and K - Kaiser - Kamikazi. This release cuts you with finely sharpened razor blades, for damn sure! This is why you should be mindful to listen to the darkness. Contact the band at: http://www.unworld.cjb.net/ or the email of uccidiluomo@libero.it. The mailing address of Abyss is this: F. Zavatti, C.so Canalgrande 90, 41100 Modeno, Italy. Contact this lethal 2 piece Italian band or die horribly and slow! -Mickmo

ADOLF SATAN self-titled
Bestial Onslaught Productions, PO Box 543, Watertown, MA 02471 USA
www.bestialonslaught.com
Hailing from the politically incorrect underbelly of Boston, home to Upsidedown Cross, Killslug, Kevorkian's Angels, Noosebomb, Watchmaker and Hirudinea, Adolf Satan earned the description of "antisocial music played by scumbags for scumbags... fueled by substance abuse and a general disregard for any standards of 'decency'." I caught similar impressions just by listening to the first song. I don't see this band being awarded any points for tightness when they at Bestial Onslaught promote them. However, if you enjoy sludge core or scum rock that sounds like it was recorded under a two-week binge of whiskey, vodka and Scotch they're up your alley. Maybe up your ass with a boot coated with dogshit as well, since sticking one up the ass popular musical standards sounds a high priority. This may prove too offensive even for most fans of stoner rock and doom metal, especially if you're a fan of the artful, progressive aspects of those genres, since this band have seen fit to take their music in the other direction. Not to say they are unable to play their instruments; it's just that spinning this in your stereo is the aural equivalent to coming home in a drunken stupor, laying in bed as the room is spinning, then staggering to the bathroom to heave everything you drank. Vocalist Larry Lifeless sings like he's had enough to drink to fit in this category himself. At one point the band's lineup included Seth Putnam of Anal Cunt. -DW

ALETHEIAN Dying Vine
Hope Prevails Productions, www.hopeprevailsproductions.com
Pennsylvania's Aletheian began in 1997 as Crutch, then changed their name in 2003 when they went through what their bio says was a "major transformation" that involved the hiring of two new members. Their debut CD appearance was in 2001 when they appeared on a tribute for the death metal Jesus freaks Living Sacrifice, covering "Breathing Murder." Two full-lengths, another compilation appearance and a couple of DVDs (including a live DVD) followed. Their work as Crutch and Aletheian has received a small but favorable press reaction, and in recent years they have played with Biohazard, Buried Alive, Cephalic Carnage and Disgorge besides a few live festivals. I imagine more praise will be bestowed on their third full-length. Aletheian have their act together when it comes to songs, as Dying Vine is a prolific unification of black metal, melodic death metal and prog-metal with a high degree of originality. Think of what might happen if members of My Dying Bride (Turn Loose The Swans), Emperor (Prometheus) and Fates Warning (Awaken The Guardian) listened to old Rush and Yes albums while tripping on acid and decided to record together. There's a lot of emphasis on guitar harmonies and percussion fills on this album; the heavy riffs and aggressive vocals make for interesting contrasts. A minimal inclusion of keyboards is here without any possibility of the songs being over-saturated with atmosphere, the guitars with their multiple layers and consistent mood changes do well enough to provide atmosphere. Repeated listens are probably necessary to take in every nuance of these songs. -DW

ASGUARD Dreamslave
Dark Reign Recordings, PO Box 30727, Long Beach, CA 90853 USA
www.devildollrecords.com, john@devildollrecords.com
This is more then just dark music, this is a rivulet into black madness and dark nightmarish dreams. This reminds me sort of the music of Tartharia, but it goes another direction then that. This takes you into a different sweeping omniverse of sounds that take your very breath away. This has 5 acts worth of songs: Under The Silent Moon, Dreamslave, Master Of Everything, Slave Forever, Crash or Hope and Last Day Of Real Existence are all very good! This CD in and of itself is 50+ minutes long and just a nice little odyssey of astrological metal from the darkness. Anyone interested in a contact should go here: The Dark Reign Recordings, PO Box 30727, Long Beach, CA 90853. Website: www.devildollrecords.com. Contact these great people, throw your hands up in the air and demand your Asguard! -Mickmo

BLOODWORK Insufficient Flesh
Tarantula Promotions, PO Box 21700, London E14 3YR, UK
www.tarantulapromotions.com, john_tarantula@hotmail.com
Yeah, they're Jesus freaks like Living Sacrifice and Mortification, but musically they're pretty decent and apart from the abundance of crucifixes on their liner notes they don't seem as avid about flaunting the "Christ Metal" tag as other acts who do Christian death metal. I just wonder how the black metal circle reacted when they performed the Nordic Fest in Oslo back in 2003. Insufficient Flesh is a five track MCD with an overall death metal position and some shades of black metal and thrash behind it. Satisfactory production, heavy bottom, fine transitions from brutal guitar riffs to atmospheric sections and dual lead vocals of the gargling on vomit variety, making a convincing argument as to why Christian death metal is preferred in some areas in the industry and showing potential to appeal to traditional death metallers in spite of the contradiction in terms. Bloodwork hail from London; if interested you can log on to their website through the official Tarantula Promotions website. -DW

BLOODY SIGN Vana Vigala Loits
Ibex Moon Records, P.O. Box 5321, Johnstown, PA 15904 USA
www.ibexmoonrecords.com
Brutally primal death/black metal from France. Forming between 1995 and '96, Bloody Sign released a handful of demos while undergoing various lineup changes during the last decade. Some of the bands they've played with are Immolation along with Impaled Nazarene, Cradle of Filth, Inhumate and Alienation Mental among others. 2004's Vana Vigala Loits is their debut label release; their lineup when it was recorded was Hagend (vocals), Kalevi (guitar), Nathaniel (bass) and Ilmar (drums). The album harbors ponderous overtones of occultism and death worship hovering above its intemperate heaviness and chaotic dissonance, most eminently during "Possessed by the Ancient Earth," "Unleashing the Power of the Bloody Sign" and "Banished." The title song "Vana Vigala Loits" is a mini-epic that is comprised of one song and one intro piece performed by an Estonian tribe known as the Seturnaa people. The mood this intro creates as it builds up to the following cut bolsters the occult sensibilities the tracks listed above establish. A cover of "Parricide" by death metal legends Pestilence and a live recording of "Master of Nothing" (recorded with Archaeus bassist Deimos) are also here. John McEntee of Incantation and Funerus, who works at this label, designed the layout of the liner notes. -DW

CARMINA/AMETHYSTE/ATROPHY/DARKLORD Obscure Infinity
Nihilistic Holocaust c/o Gabriel Skowron, 9 Rue De La Scarpe, 59552 Lambres Les Douai, France
www.nihilistic.ca.tc, gabsk@wanadoo.fr
This four-band split, also released in cassette format, is among many split compilations compiled by Gabriel Skowron who steadfastly supports all forms of brutal death metal on his label Nihilistic Holocaust, and makes little secret of his extreme disdain for what he sees as an oversaturation of the Gothenburg (rechristened Gothenburp) sound. Obscure Infinity is a good representation of French DM, featuring Limay's Carmina, Amethyste from Le Portel and Atrophy from Chambery. Conjointly headlined on this split is an Australian black-death metal band known as Darklord. There are not many social conventions to be found here; no metal-core or groove and most of all no mainstream accessibility; if that is what you're looking for I'd propose searching elsewhere. Here there is only rampageous, turbulent and uncontrolled brutality that doesn't relent until the last song. An extremely dark and chaotic atmosphere ties these bands together in this collection of demos and recording sessions (Carmina's songs were from the same session they recorded for their split EP with France's Morgue, Amethyste contribute a promo CD from 2003, Atrophy contribute their demo from 2004 and Darklord include a demo they released way back in 1993). Contact info and concise biographies are included for each band, in addition to site url's. Featuring 17 tracks altogether, you can't go wrong with this split. -DW

CEPHALIC CARNAGE Anomalies
Relapse Records, P.O. Box 2060, Upper Darby, PA 19082 USA
This is still the same ol’ Cephalic Carnage that you come to have come to know and love, but now their sound is a little cleaner then previous releases. Lenzig and the guys are still up to there pot-smoking ways with this one, and they release a fury of incongruent sounds from the speakers as you can expect! Standouts from this one are: Dying Will Be The Death of Me, The Will Or The Way, Scientific Viewing, Counting The Days, Sleeprace. Piecemaker and Ontogony Of Behavior. Sometimes it sounds like old Pentagram or Black Sabbath in certain parts of this! Yeah, smoke a lot of doobies while listening to this one, then when you get arrested buy the piggies, I can just point and laugh at you on the park bench! Anyway, this is a very progressive grind album by Cephalic Carnage this time around, the latest one out of the 6 that they done. Either way, these guys are still damn hilarious with their antics, now matter how hard you get past it! And check out how fast John can work those foot-petals drumming man! Wow! There website is this: http://cephaliccarnage.infamos.com/ and please do check it out sometime! *Winkie like a Twinkie slinkie!* -Mickmo

COLD MOON/WINDS OF FUNERAL The Black Alliance
Eyes of the Dead Productions, http://eyesofthedead.cjb.net, eodprod@interfree.it
The Italian black metal scene has remained a cult phenomenon from the 90's to today, and this four-song CDR features two upcoming bands that fittingly embody this mystique. Starting around 2003; Taranto's Winds Of Funeral released an untitled promo CD and a demo called Funeral Wintermoon in 2004. For this split CD they have two new songs, "Journey of Damnation" and "The Only Way." These have an agreeable tenebrous sensibility without too much atmosphere, dark guitars, defined drum production and vocals implying great evildoing. Some of the riffs possess an extended, hypnotic quality that reminded me of old Burzum albums (Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem). The vocals could have been mixed with a little more volume but this represents the band well. Cold Moon's songs, "Ravishing Melancholy" and "Old Spirit," are rawer that Winds Of Funeral's, with an intro that sets the mood in about half a minute. This band bring forth images of vampires, werewolves and other night horrors. The drums were a tad sloppy, but the vocals have a guttural quality that creates a diabolical motif next to the guitars' regally Carpathian character and attenuated dissonance. This split is in a limited release of 666 copies. -DW

CRYOSTASIUM self-titled
Bestial Onslaught Productions, PO Box 543, Watertown, MA 02471 USA
www.bestialonslaught.com
This is Cryostasium's debut EP, released in January of this year. In less than half an hour the band carry you off on a headlong sojourn into a post-apocalypse of an inner mind irrevocably consumed by something too horrible to mention, taking you further and further into wretchedness and despair until it becomes apparent it will continue forever. With a ceaseless assailment of ambient noise underlined by black metal ingredients, the five songs on this EP are somewhat related to Celtic Frost's "Tears in a Prophet's Dream," somewhat related to the raw misanthropy of Ildjarn and Vediog Svaor, and most definitely parallel to the awareness of drowning under thousands of miles of water, somehow being able to keep sight of the distant surface above you as it drifts away and grows smaller until it disappears entirely. The psychological equivalent to watching this happen to yourself is frightening indeed. The five songs comprising this EP cascade from one to the next as you travel from stage to stage of the intellectual catastrophe waiting to claim you. -DW

CUM SOCK self titled
cumsock@hotmail.com
Cum Sock hail from Canada and do a style of thrash-core that reminded me of obscure crossover bands from the 80s. It's not math metal, death-grind or goregrind, but rather like what happens when a bunch of bored kids decide to go to the basement, pick up instruments and proceed to play whatever comes to mind. Consider this a compliment because the songs comprising this CD were crack-up hilarious ("Emo Sux" is one that sticks in my mind) and I loved the sense this band project of amateur musicians hoping to crawl under their parents' skin along with the ultra-D.I.Y. fashion the CD was packaged with. The only thing is the vocals drowned out the background music much too often. -DW

DEAD CHRETIENS Hated in Canada/CUM SOCK Fresh & Dead
Dead Chretiens c/o Spunk P., PO Box 102, Cobalt, Ontario P0J IC0 Canada
www.deadchretiens.com, spunkzine@yahoo.com
Cum Sock, cumsock@hotmail.com
The gut-busting Canadian crossover thrashers Cum Sock (see their CD reviewed above) have a split CD with another Canadian crossover band known as Dead Chretiens. Is an 80's thrashcore revival happening in Canada these days? I haven't heard much from either of these bands apart from what I heard while writing the reviews section for this zine, but I noticed from some Internet surfing that Dead Chrietens are getting around nicely and even have a website. Going back to Cum Sock, their songs appearing on this split CD were a bit easier to discern than on their own CD, and I could make out the death metal and grindcore influence more than I could last time I listened to them. Dead Chretiens play the same thrashcore-oriented stuff, only with stronger shades of 70's punk. Musically it was pretty decent, only I thought the vocals and lack of rhymes in the verses could use some improvement in the future -DW

DISGORGE Parallels of Infinite Torture
Crash Music, Attn: A&R, 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Suite 70B-3, Phoenix, AZ 85048 USA
www.crashmusicinc.com, info@crashmusicinc.com
This is what you come to expect from Disgorge, something powerful and grotesque, yet born on a platter of pure death. This is something that just blares out of the speakers in atrocity. Nice cover from Jon Zig. This new Disgorge just tears up flesh and spits it out on the ground in regurgitated form. The blastbeats are supplied with a heavy dose of butchery and deep inaudible guttural vocals. Every song on this slays serious manbeef! Anyone who wants to contact these guys, should do so here. Disgorge, PO Box 381, Vista, California 92085. Website: www.disgorge.us. Things really do slay at the end of he night, and this release is no exception. It totally kills your mother with blunt knives of destruction! -Mickmo

DISSOLUTE Descent
Dissolute c/o Jeffery Salazar, 38 Edgewood Park, New Rochelle, New York 10805
Oh really now, this was not a bad little demo that came across many states to my door. But for what it lacked in volume control, it gained in a sheer heaviness and brutality. This has 3 songs on it: Price of Deceit, To Be Rid Of The Weak and Descent. If anyone wants to contact these guys, you need not look any further. Contact these guys at Dissolute, Jeffery Salazar, 38 Edgewood Park, New Rochelle, New York 10805. The website is http://www.myspace.com/dissolutedeath. Now it is time for your death! -Mickmo

DUL What Is That Fucking Noize!!!
Dul c/o wOrm, 2601 Old 14a, Penn Yan, NY 14527 USA
kworm666@yahoo.com
As put forward by the title, this is freeform, experimental noise abounding with feedback and undulating effects. This CD often reminded me of the Japanese artist Maso Yamazaki's one-man project Masonna, only these songs are much longer, a bit rawer and contain a bit more repetition than I remember from Yamazaki. There are six tracks on this demo running without breaks in between them, begetting a montage of modulation that personates like a representational or an avant-garde film. A recognizably interesting piece of work possessing much potential for a demo. -DW

ESTUARY To Exist and Endure
Ibex Moon Records, P.O. Box 5321, Johnstown, PA 15904 USA
www.ibexmoonrecords.com
Estuary, a melodic death/thrash band based in Cincinnati, Ohio, was formed by former members of Estuary Of Calamity; guitarists Ash Thomas and Brad Howard and drummer Jesse Wilson. Recording a three-song CD demo Riding the Tides of Malice with ex-Garden Of Shadows/Forty Days Longing singer Zdenka Prado in the middle of 2002, they hired Steve Ederl of Morticite as a permanent bassist and released their first CD on Ibex Moon two years later. To Exist and Endure, reputed to have been met with a "killer response," is a fine example of how Ohio metal has improved since the late 90s. The CD, leaning closer to melodic thrash, has a professionalism and proficiency offering promise when displayed on a band's first label release. The intensity by which they show their roots in death metal often travels into black metal turf from the way they throw themselves into the material. As I listened to Prado I initially thought it was a male vocalist, her delivery is that deep and guttural. As a frontwoman in death metal, Prado's got the most potential since Thorr's Hammer hired Ozma. Thomas and Howard play a lot of difficult sounding riffs and time changes here, and their guitar solos are equally impressive. If Estuary had signed to Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast a couple of years ago their recording careers would be taking off expeditiously by now. -DW

Sign Guestbook

View Guestbook

Visitors: 00151

Page Updated Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:30pm EDT