It is good after
all these years, to see that my comrade Blaash (creator of the
mighty Where’s My Skin? Fanzine) and his horde, are still pumping
out horrific black metal. For me outside of Thornspawn & Absu,
Bahimiron has to be the best black metal band that Texas has
produced. I think in some ways you can say they play normal, early
90s black metal. Which is true and they do it very well. But there
are also some smaller touches of the war metal sound and even a
little doom. Just check out the track “5 Chambers Empty” for the
fantastic doom touches and it works better than I would have
thought. It is also no surprise, knowing Blaash as I do, that there
are songs dealing with weapons and specifically guns. The music is
always heavy and dark, but as I alluded to there is a fair range of
emotional depth within musical maelstrom. The vocals have dynamics
as well and you will hear bm rasps, growls and screams that remind
me to the wonderful early works of Impaled Nazerene. Maybe the
vocals do not match the over the top insanity of Impaled, but it is
very similar feel and works nicely. Bahimiron are evil and yet they
are also just a bunch of raunchy scoundrels. Which is also reflected
in their song lyrics and titles such as “Halo of Fliez”, “Pills and
90 Proof”, “War, Whiskey, Sodomy” would attest. They have been going
nearly a decade and this, their second album, sees them at their
best. “Southern Nihilizm” is a cold hearted black metal record I can
endorse completely. - Dale
http://www.bahimiron.com
http://www.moribundcult.com/ |
Ahh, Bethlehem after
purchasing ‘96’s “Dictus Te Necare”, I was completely by their unique
blend of morose, melodic black metal and entirely whacked vocals.
S.U.IZ.I.D. is no exception to this with even more odd flavoring thrown
into the mix such as female vocals and spoken word passages with the
addition of new member Cathrin Campen. My only complaint with this new
album is new singer Marcus Losen who replaced the old vocalist
Landfermann desperately it seems in some parts to emulate Landfermann’s
unique vocal style and comes off sounding quite stupid at times. This is
otherwise an entirely depressing album sure to put a damper on the most
jovial of moods. - Jeffrey Kusbel
Red Stream, P.O. Box
342, Camp Hill, PA. 17001 - 342, USA |
I fully admit to
only ever hearing this bands demo and 7” ep but none of their full
lengths. I’m not so sure this is a great place to start as this is one
for the die hard collectors of the band. It features various different
mixes of album tracks, re-recordings and such - also 2 songs here appear
with their English translation for the first time. Not sure that is
exactly a treat, the English translations show their song titles and
lyrical content to be rather dumb and silly. Even due to the fact of
being at a disadvantage to perusing their catalog, I got into their
brand of darkened metal on here. Very somber and ethereal but more in an
evil sense than the melancholic one I had expected. 5 songs on here, a
must for fans of Bethlehem and an incentive for new comers to search out
the old material. - Dale |
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Wow, Demilich,
now there is an old ass band I like a lot that I have not really
thought about lately and certainly have not heard mentioned,
literally in years. But Biolich took their original inspiration and
modified moniker from that great old Finnish band. This has to be
the first time I have heard a term like ‘Avant-garde death/grind’
and not listened to it and proclaim ‘okay that was as gay as the
description sounded!’ No Biolich are fucking fast and harsh and
brutal but they do get adventurous. Yet they stand on their own two
feet, they do not use a bunch of gay looping, keyboards and shit all
over the place. No they tend rely on their traditional instruments
and musical creativity, something to be respected. Beyond the old
‘lich, I would have to say, especially drum wise they often remind
me of Cryptopsy, from their earlier days when they blazed a trail
around the competition. For me what makes Biolich most effective is
they make avant-garde to augment their brutality and headbang crush
and never lose sight of that, which makes the whole more effective
and it’s spread out use gives the speed and aggression that counter
point which makes it pop all the more. This is only a MCD but it is
healthy taste of what is to come and shows us why we should watch
out for Biolich in the future. Kudos as well to Paragon, who do
great work on their releases and aggressively promote their bands.
– Dale
Paragon Records,
Box 354, Commack, NY. 11725, USA
www.paragonrecords.net
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Well, my friend in
this band Valerio sent me this and their ’96 demo tape and the
progression from that recording is quite evident. Their talent showed
thru on the ’96 demo but they needed to progress as song, writers from
that effort, which they have. Very well played darkened black metal with
slight folkish and symphonic elements. 4 blazing trackson this disc that
all fans of the above described music genre should check out. I only
have the band addy and was not sent the price of the CD so you’ll have
to write.
Black Sunrise, c/o
Valerio Vitolla, Via Lazio 15, 85100 Potenza (PZ), ITALY
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When did vocalist
Hansi decide he wanted to be Dee Snider (Twisted Sister)!? This is an
undertaking (B.G. have been working on this since 1996!) of epic
proportions. This is a concept album based around J.R.R. Tolkein’s
“Silmarillion” . There are some great moments here such as “War Of
Wrath”, “Into The Storm”, and “Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill)”.
Longtime fans will notice a reduction in speed and intricacy but present
are the silky performances all around and choice guitar leads. I think
Blind Guardian have produced a masterwork that results in a decent album
but I think it falls short of the pompous visions they conjured forth.
Still a must for B.G. fans and it is good to see this band no longer on
import in North America.
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Looking at the
picture of these Japanese blokes I am not sure if they are trying to
look metal or attempting to imitate their favourite new RPG video
game. They look like they just walked off the Mortal Kombat movie
set. I just checked out their website and one of them is dressed
like a woman on it. Reading their bio it would seem if they are
rather obsessed with sounding Scandinavian, even going so far as
hiring a Finnish producer to record their album. In my opinion they
have not really succeeded in their goal of trying to fool anyone
listening to think “hey they must be Swedish or something”.
“Idolator” is chock full of melodies, not a lot of change up or
variation but melody after melody. Sort of like that episode of The
70s show, where every door or drawer, his girlfriend opens endless
amounts of women's panties come falling out. I guess you could call
their style melodic aggression (though those 2 words should not go
together but I digress…) on top of some pretty florid synth that
makes you want to dance like a giddy girl, not me but you will want
to dance like that ha ha! Seriously though, no joke, some of these
melody lines are so fruity they would probably be quite popular with
the MTV robot masses. Far too one dimensional and commercial leaning
for my tastes. How about yours cup cake? – Dale
Dockyard
Records, Box 20 31 46 - D - 20221 Hamburg – Germany
www.dockyard1.com
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The first word
in BLACK METAL! This band is legendary. They formed in 1988 and have
a reputable amount of demos out which gave them European worldly
underground notoriety and a fusillade of band problems at times
giving them a disdainful name. They played SA almost entirely with
bands from abroad resulting in the first official CD, FTD, recorded
in Columbia. Musically, it takes me back to 1986 and has the
Sarcofago sound with the true SA sound and for once more slower than
those who’d do 200 BPM for the sake of it. Think of even one more
tuned down Hellhammer meets 1990 Samael. The well played killer
riffage and the incredible solos remind me of ‘Jesus of Nazareth,
King of Jews’ (oops – I mean I.N.R.I) Sarcofago meets “Anno Domini”
Tormentor, and I am just referring to the solos alone! Sometimes the
drums go out of timing, but this is the UG, so fuck off. To focal
point for Black Angel is the vocals. Hector Corpus outdoes
Australian Hellspawn (2000 era) and hints somewhat to ’85 Becerra of
Possessed. Even “Flag of Hate” Kreator, and this is the vox only
that has outdone Abbath Doom Occulta from 1992’s “Diabolical
Fullmoon Mysticism” Immortal! When most of Hector Corpus’
regurgitations and growls end as Enslaved “Frost” era, he can go
from normal to extreme deepness. The vocalizing is so infectious and
inhuman, I believe he’s cursed by price Beezelbub or touched by
Pazuzu. Check out Black Angel as sit on the same pedestal as
Sarcofago had that’s not easy to do. I want to personally thank the
label for giving BA a chance so we may all hear these legends and to
Hector Corpus for sticking it out this long, sometimes you have to
stick your arm out, even if you lose your hand! Till next time and
fan and a writer – Comas Lima Peru!! - Clayton
blackangelcorpus@hotmail.com
http://es.geocities.com/blackangelperu
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I remember hearing
and subsequently liking this bands ’94 demo tape “Cruciform Antithesis”
back in the day. The lyrics deal with the occult and satanism and are
nicely thought out as well as intelligently written. Blood Ritual are
unoriginal but play a very enjoyable form of raw, cult brutal
black/death. They bring to mind Acheron (1st album) along
with Malevolent Creation, Monstrosity with maybe a hint of slowed down
Cryptopsy. Add to this cacophony of extremity, are speedy grinds and
surprisingly guitar solos. Fans of all that is truly dark and brutal
will enjoy this killer (8 song, 43 min) album. - Dale
Moribund Recs., P.O.
Box 77314, Seattle, WA. 98177 - 0314, USA
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Bloodthirst
- Apparently this is a CD promo of a split cassette full length.
Anyway, the sound for the ‘thirst portion is a bit hard to listen
to. The drums and guitars are really low yet the vocals are
really freakin’ loud and pretty much completely drown out the
music. Also the sound over all tends to fade in & out from time to
time. Getting back to the vocals, it is a shame they are so loud
because to be blunt, in addition to the being deafening they also
suck. Just terrible garbled screaming. The music on the other hand
is very good even though it photo-copies Slayer a bit too often. The
music was still enjoyable nonetheless.
Bestial Raids
– Not that much to report except Bestial Raids do a competent job of
copying Blasphemy. They even dress like ‘em. A decent Beherit cover
of “Grave Desecration” wraps up proceedings on their end of the
split. I kept that short as there are actually some bonus Bestial
Raids tracks tacked on but apparently not a part of this release. It
is in fact their demo 2003, apparently also releases on Kampf
Records as well as their 2004 demo on Time Before Time Records. All
I have to say about all of this demo material is it puts to shame
the live show on this release. Sorry but it just does, destroying
war metal! – Dale
www.kampf.ws kampfrec@go2.pl
info@kampf.ws
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Though well liked
and hyped the last couple years, I have yet to hear Borknagar until now.
It is funny how in the bio they don’t even bother to mention the
departure of Garm from the band. I didn’t hear the early stuff therefore
I do not miss him in the slightest. I came into this expecting good
things, as I liked mainman Oystein G. Brun’s former band Molested,
though they played brutal death metal. Borknagar are more accessible
than I had imagined and for once it is in a good & stylish way. Vox from
newcomer I.C.S. Vortex are nothing short of awesome! Thick viking-era
Quorthon but kicked up a notch with more emotive texture and epic
fluidity, offset by sprinkles of black metal cackles and deep half
spoken, half sung clean sections. Moving onto the music, which is very
uplifting, heavy when called for intermingled with some melodic and
memorable riffs and arrangements. I am impressed I expected another In
Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Thy Serpent ect... and am quite satisfied with
this album. Let the black witching winds engulf you.
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Oh hey, loook kids!
It’s the angst ridden hardcore band from Sweden trying to be the next
Machine Head/Coal Chamber/Korn/Skinlab. I am real sick of this kind of
junk. Trendy ass motherfuckers!
Prosthetic Records,
6230 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 128, Los Angeles, CA. 90048, USA Website =
www.hallucinet.com/prosthetic
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By now, any
self-respecting metal head should know the name Bruce Dickinson (and for
the further educated “Bruce, Bruce” even) and own at least a few albums
adorned with his magnificent voice. Personally I have always been a fan
of Bruce’s solo output, but not until now have I finally been blown away
by a B.D. album that is just killer all the way around. 1997’s “Accident
Of Birth” had some great songs on it but lacked just enough intensity to
make it worth repeated listens all the way through. “The Chemical
Wedding” picks up in the intensity dept. and guitarists Adrian Smith and
Roy Z on board again with great riffs and leads of course. Bruce’s
vocals really steal the show here as they are just entirely catchy and
memorable, just try and get some of these choruses out of your head once
you’ve hear them. If your a Bruce fan you’ve probably already got this,
if not get it now! You won’t be disappointed. Personal favorites on
here, is the title track: great riff, great leads, excellent chorus.
Damn!! - JEFFREY KUSBEL
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