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Damn, I remember
reviewing this bands demo “Lord Of Chaos” back in ‘94/95 for the
Sepulchral Voice fanzine. The style hasn’t changed much but their
improvement and maturity shows. Adversary play heavy and reflective
mid-paced death metal that is both well constructed and well played.
It’s of note this band has two fanzine editors in it! Ray Miller of
Metal Curse and Jack Botos who publishes Portrait Of Defiance ‘zine.
To close my highest compliment to them is their riffing reminds me
of a death metal version of Motorhead.
Send only $5 US
for the disc to: Adversary, P.O. Box 302, Elkhart, IN. 46515-0302,
USA Email = cursed@sbinet.com |
I’m not much of
a fan of hardcore or the mixing of death and hardcore (deathcore).
It has to be done with a lot of energy and brutality to impress me.
Alterkation fit that bill as they are the above plus a little punk
feel. Good enough for me to enjoy but not good enough to make me
think highly of said genre. Send $10 US/$15 World to:
Alterkation,
P.O. Box 335, Clarksburg, MJ. 08510, USA Web = www.alterkation.com
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Cheers to Glenn
of the mighty Destruktor for pointing this band towards Canadian
Assault. Anarazel (Anah-rah-zel) play great and stylish black metal
which I would consider similar to the Swedish and French black metal
scenes. The vocals remind me to Immortal from their first album
“Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism”. The material on here is really very
quality stuff and I think you should get yourself a copy and hear
this cold band. Send $8 US to:
Anarazel, P.O.
Box 26, South Oakleigh, Victoria, AUSTRALIA Web =
www.alphalink.com.au/~gelman
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This is pretty
damn good heavy Euro styled death metal. Some nice quality material
with fresh sounding, semi-technical song structuring. The vocals are
maniacal screams and growls that give the music a touch of chaos.
Only two songs on here but if the rest of their stuff is like this I
can only highly recommend Aphasia to you. Order their 4 song MCD
with the same title as this promo for $10 US to:
Aphasia, c/o
Steph, C.P. St-Andre, B.P. 32111, Montreal, Quebec, H2L 4Y5, CANADA
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There are a
robust six tracks (“Axenic”, “Reaping Mindless Discord”, “Vexed”,
“Equal To Nothing” and “In Green Pastures”) of thrash structured but
death metal sounding music. The vocals are pretty cool as they are
growled by 3 separate members. I see room for improvement but for a
debut demo this is pretty damn solid.
Axenic, c/o Ji
Taylor, P.O. Box 1735, Flowery Branch, GA. 30542, USA
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Pure raging
chaos in it’s rawest metallic form! Warring hymns in the tradition
of Blasphemy, (old) Beherit with a little early Destruction and
Venom thrown in! They are no retro band though and walk their own
blood stained path. The vocals are rough and inflamed blackened
gurgles and shouts. The metal spirit lives and it has never looked
uglier!!
Bestial Mockery,
c/o Carl Warslaughter, Bjorid 6440, 455 92 Munkedal, SWEDEN |
They say they
play in the tradition of Motorhead, Warfare, Bulldozer and Venom.
Those are some very cult names to throw around! Do they live up to
their billing? Yes and no. There are hints of Motorhead, Venom and
Bulldozer but what takes things down a notch or two for me is it has
a lot of punk rock influence both musically and in execution. I hear
influences like D.R.I. and Dayglo Abortions running throughout. Not
a bad tape at all and the old metal attitude is welcome but it is
too punkish for me to recommend. $6 US to:
Iron Bonehead
Records, Brunnenweg 9a, 36160 Dipperz (Diapers!?
J),
GERMANY Band Email = pranuss@gmx.de
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This is OK. Mix
a little Napalm Death “Utopia Banished” with heavy doses of Fear
Factory’s first album (vocals too) with less industrial feel and you
pretty much have Core. Decent but not much more. It costs $14 US to:
Core, P.O. Box
2040, CEP 86023-970, Londrina-Pirahna, BRAZIL Web = http://members.tripod.com/coredam
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4 songs on here
(“Bodybag Lust”, “Thoughts Of A Graverobber”, “Putrid Mass
Mutilation” and “Amputation Of Vital Organs”). This is my first time
hearing Cranial Torment even though this is apparently their 3rd
demo. I think the drums are programmed or the drummer just has no
style and plays boring. In fact this may be a one man band as the
music as a whole is very uncohesive. Sorry this demo did little to
nothing for me. Send $5 US to:
Cranial Torment,
c/o Bill Benakis, 32 Paradision St. Peristeri, 121 36 Athens, GREECE
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I was chuffed
when I read the bio and seen Cutthroat is made up of Youhei and
Yasuyuki of Abigail as well as Mirai and Shinichi of Sigh! The tape
consists of a live gig where these metallers played 11 cover songs!
They say “this tape shows all these ‘retro thrash’ bands what ‘pure
fucking metal’ means”. That they do as evidenced by this tape. But
if that was their sole intention why did they confuse things by
doing 4 punk rock cover songs!?!? Anyhow they fucking rip and blaze
all in their path with killer covers of such ugly bands as Voivod,
Razor, Sacrifice (I think they like Canadian metal!! Hell Yeah!!!),
Warfare, Hirax, Tankard plus more. The sound on this tape rules and
it only costs $2 US so I can recommend all headbangers with metallic
blood in their veins to order this!
Cutthroat, c/o
Yasuyuki Suzuki, 59-7 Saiwai Cho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-0034, JAPAN
Email = suzuyasu@ma3.justnet.ne.jp
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This is a
perfect example of why I hate keyboards! The tape is filled with
promising dark music but smothered unmercifully with keys. The band
is apparently currently recording their debut album. If you like
your music mid-tempo with obscure feel and tons of keyboreds then
this is the band for you. Send $4 US to:
Dark Vision, c/o
Giannis Konstantakos, 5/Akti Kountouriotou, 18534 Piraeus, GREECE
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Slovak
progressive heavy metal that I found enjoyable. They could be a bit
tighter though and some of the vocals were pretty poor. I was sent
this on a dub and I don’t know if I got a bad dub or this release
just sucks but my copy cuts out from time to time. The talent and
potential is there but I need a better sounding product to truly
judge. Management contact:
Marek Faltan,
Cinobana 295, 985 22 Cinobana, SLOVAKIA |
 
Only 3 tracks on
here (“War Whores”, “It Feeds On Children”, and “Warhammer”) and
apparently all 3 are going to be on comps coming out. I remember
tape trading for two demos of this band in like ’96 or so. Then they
were industrial death metal which is something I dislike but they
were quite brutal so I didn’t mind it so much. It is still slow
industrial sounding but the death and brutality has been replaced by
hardcore/crust elements both musically and lyrically. The tape only
runs about 3-4 minutes but it only costs $2 US so it is your call.
Depressor, P.O.
Box 472007, S.F., CA. 94147, USA
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Technical,
tight, teeth-rattlin’ and adrenaline pumping death metal! There is
only two songs on here but that is enough for one intense juggernaut
of a disharmonic extremity that should not be missed! Send only $2
US to:
Descend, P.O.
Box 770376, Cleveland, OH. 44107, USA |
A 3 song disc
that features Craig Pillard (vocals/guitar) and Jim Roe (drums) who
were of course in Incantation for the first couple albums. The
sounds a bit rough as it was done live in the studio but still very
decent. The music sounds like a slowed down doomier early
Incantation with an own twist. I think most loved Craig’s vocals in
the past and none should be disappointed with his deep bestial roar
on here. This is cult death/doom in it’s truest form. Expect a
crushing debut album from D.O.M. soon!
Disciples Of
Mockery, 153 Oaktree Ave., So. Plainfield, NJ. 07080, USA |
You would think
from reading the song titles to this album that you were about to
here another early Carcass clone (General Surgery, Putrefaction,
etc.). This is not the case however. The lyrics definitely consist
of medical terms rarely used outside the field of medicine but the
music is excellent brutal death metal that will crush you just as
much as the first Suffocation LP's did. If that doesn't sound
appealing enough to you then you probably don't like death metal and
should go and buy the new Twin Obscenity album instead. Here is a
small taste of lyrical content: "Stygmatodermuropyanephrosism on
Imppetiginose Urogenism". You figure it out. – Jeffrey
Kusbel
Disgorge c/o
Edgar Garcia Alvarez - P.O. Box 1-310 - Queretaro, QRO 76001 |
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They call
themselves “prog-core” which seems like a ridiculous term. But after
listening to this CD of rhythmic progressive metal-core it fits. I
appreciate that this is well done but it is surely not my thing.
Send $6 US/$7 World (M.O.’s and checks payable to Patrick Mullen).
Dissent, P.O.
Box 567, Rockland, MA. 02370, USA Web = http://spyjurenet.com/dissent
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This band
Emailed me and said they are a traditional heavy metal band. So I of
course said yes send your stuff and was looking forward to it. They
lied!! They wouldn’t know heavy metal from a loaf of bread! What
they do play is trend ‘jump’ music mixed with even trendier
alternative/grunge music. Not very well played or written either,
this band is a waste of space in a mag that supports real metal!!
Sandra Bee Mgmnt.,
16310 St. Louis Ave., Markum, IL. 60426, USA |
Some solid heavy
and pounding death metal from Pennsylvania. There is room for
improvement but not much is needed to put this excellent band over
the top. Well worth the asking price, 5 songs for $6 US/$7 World to:
Divination, c/o
John Scherrer, 413 South 14th St., Reading, PA. 19602,
USA |
Well this is
poorly constructed juxtaposed death metal. The material, which is
mish mashed together is pretty sub-par to start with. There are 6
songs in their original version and then 5 out of 6 of those same
songs are repeated in their “primal versions”. Primal huh…it is just
the same songs played in reverse and the sad thing is they sound
better backwards. Maybe whenever these guys write a song when they
are finished they should play it backwards because it makes more
sense. They say on their flyers, the songs are thoughtful symphonies
and not any of that “mindless gore-laden grind”. Those gore bands
are not mindless and know how to make better music than this. On top
of this the band sent in a copy for review and then wanted it mailed
back to them – cheapos
J.
You think I don’t drop $1,000 + postage on this mag each issue!?
Well I do and I don’t have 4 other band members to split costs with
either! Any other band writing in that wants to do this I am not
santa claus so don’t bother sending it if you want it back! There is
a promo-video on here that isn’t bad for those of you w/ a computer.
Otherwise average in my personal opinion but the cost is $10 US if
want to get a copy. These guys live on the outskirts of Philly
apparently so I guess they will hate me if I see them at shows -
such is life.
Divine Rapture,
P.O. Box 159, Chester Heights, PA. 19017, USA Web = http://welcome.to/divinerapture
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