CD Reviews

AGHORA - AGHORA (Season of Mist -1999): This release is something kind of personal for me. Being a longtime fan of bands such as Death and Cynic, here is the release of a band that has in his line up the former drummer of both bands: Sean Reinert. That is not all, the recording includes Shawn Malone on bass guitar who also played in the classical "Focus" album by Cynic. If you have in a band two fantastic players like Santiago Dobles and Charlie Ekendahl and the angelical voice of Danishta Rivero you can only do a great album and that is what this album is. From the beginning with "Immortal Bliss", a really heavy tune with lots of changes to the closing with Anugraha, there is not one note out of place, everything is used to make the results better. I recommend this CD to anyone that likes music regardless the style. This is a band made of virtuosic people. Favorite Tracks: the whole album. Email: Doblesprod@aol.com

BURIAL SHADES - TO THE FLESHES OF MY LIVING EVERYTHING (Self Produced - 1999): Burial Shades is a band that comes from Russia. The music is a blend of black/ death metal fusioned with classical elements and a great use of keyboards. The quality of the compositions of this band is great and what is above all are the atmospheric passages. The men behind this are called Havox (orchestrations and vocals), Chaosofist (guitars and lyrics), Cerial (guitars) and Demian (bass). The songs are really orchestral opuses and show that this guys know how to compose. There is one song that is more than twenty minutes long and it leaves you asking for more. Hopefully this guys are going to continue doing their music for a long time. We hope to hear their new recording soon. My favorite tracks: "Blood of the Wind" and "Fleshes of my livid Everything" Email: dod666@mail.ru

DEMONICON - CONDEMNED CREATION (Root of All Evil Recs. - 2000) : This band features drummer Umbruskus from THEATRE OF THE MACABRE then, obviously the recording features powerful drumming . The band succeeds in making one of the more intense and brutal albums I have listened to. Still, I think that the better parts of the whole recording is when the speed ometer is not on its maximum, when they let their riffs breathe and their drums play something different from blast beats. The sound of the release is really good and you can hear all the instruments even in the fastest parts ( and that is a difficult task). Maybe in the future this band will develop some charachteristics that can make them unique. My favorite tracks: "The Burning Starts Again", "Condemned Creation" and "Blind Darkness". Email: root@rootofallevil.com

DITCHWATER - 2 SONG PROMOTIONAL CD (Self Produced, 2000) : The problem with really good bands is that they always leave you wanting more songs to listen. In the case of Ditchwater I listen over and over again the two songs and I want more. The band is so extremely powerful (imagine a more melodic Sepultura mixed with bands such as Fear Factory and Pantera. The first song is "10 to 12 - Soul to Cell" and is really a song made for moshing hard with an extremely catching chorus (man, this can be their opportunity to rank among the big bands out there because Ditchwater is much better than some of them). The second song "I.D.G.A.F." (meaning I don´t give a fuck) is a nightmare of double bass drumming in the chorus and good rythms following a pattern similar than that in their first song. Well, after listening the two songs again…I want more!! Email: Ditchwater1@aol.com

EPHEMERON - THE FALSE BISHOP (Scratchbladder Productions, 2000): Ephemeron is a one mand band featuring Jonathan Apgar who conducts all beats, loops and tape manipulations. The music is strange, kind of hypnotic and has this electronic feeling in it. This can be extremely difficult to listen for people that are not accustomed to projects or bands thta put experimentation above all ( in fact there is no guitar, only electronic drums (not always used as one could expect) and no vocals). There are compositions that I consider much better than the others (where an atmosphere is created better), but the overall result is good. Good and strange. My favorite tracks: "Use your illness", "Church ties with No One"and "Evidence and Truth". Email: Naepesh@hotmail.com

EPILOG 6 - WITCH HUNT (Self Produced, 1999): William D. Hodges is the man behind this band that can be considered experimental.. he composes all the songs and plays or programs all the instruments. This album is conceptual and is about the Christian Inquisition that left approximately nine million persons dead. What got my atention in the first place is the sound that is really weird: the guitar sounds fat but different (I think the distorsion he uses is different than what we are accustomed) and the programmed drums are really up there. William is not afraid to experiment and he ocassionally throws in a little bit of accoustic guitar. There are compositions that are heavier than others and there are intros and instrumentals. An album for people who wants something new. The vocals fit the music perfectly and contribute to the final result of adding a painful feeling to the music. My favorite tracks: "Days of Gods", "Lost" and "Into Darkness". Email: epilog6@lakes.com

 

FORGOTTEN SILENCE - KA BA ACH (Red Black Prods. - 2000): This is an awesome band coming from the Czech Republic and featuring a great female singer called Hana Nogolova whose voice can bring shades of Kari Rueslåtten (ex THE THIRD AND THE MORTAL) or Anekke Van Giesbergen (THE GATHERING) but she uses in a different way. The music is death metal but is full of jazz and oriental sounding passages (it seems that the whole album is inspired on Egypt) that give the recording an extreme originality. The songs are not only made to crush you but also are small compositions that leave you asking for more. The sound of the overall product is great (the bass is really up there and you can hear it perfectly contributing to the feeling of the songs and doubling the guitars or pumping with the drums) and make the compositions shine (great acoustic guitars in some places). My favorite tracks: The whole album is really great. Email: redblack@telecom.cz

HORDE OF WORMS - WORMAGEDDON (Bloodbucket Prods. - 2000): Horde of Worms is a death/grind band heading from Ontario, Canada. Is it possible to have a death metal band with a drum machine? Yes, Horde of Worms have done it and the result is extremely good, giving the music a more metallic sound (the drums machine sounding thiner than a real drummer). "Wormageddon" consists on four songs that show how well rehearsed is the band because they play at hyperspeed without missing a note. The four soings are quite similar in structure and the vocals of Peter Cythrawl are extremely gutural aided by the backing vocals of Alexander Erhardt and Brent Assoun. My favorite tracks: "Dead (V.2000)" and "Immortal Coil". Email: wormy_2@hotmail.com

IMPALER - ONE NATION UNDERGROUND (Root of All Evil Recs. - 2000) : The guys from Impaler hev been playing their music since 1984 and they have made such classic albums as "Rise of the Mutants" and "Wake Up Screaming". The music contained in this CD is a mix of punk rock and heavy metal with a dirty voice (that of Bill Lindsey). The songs are simple and can be remembered, they have catchy riffs and drumming. One thing that I would change in the whole album is the sound of the drums that is for my taste a little bit thin ( specially the snare drum) but I think that they have done this kind of sound on purpose to potentiate the effect of their punk side. Overall the tracks are really potent and I think that this band must be a great live act. The album contains fifteen tracks of pure energy and won´t dissapoint Impaler fans and fans of the genre. It contains also a cover of Alice Cooper´s "Teenage Frankenstein" that is a really good rendition. Email: root@rootofallevil.com

JEFFREY RYAN SMOOTS - COMPILATION (Self Produced, 2001): This guy shreds you apart with his guitar. I don´t know why he has not been given the recognition that he really deserves. He ranks with the big ones in the style Vinnie Moore, Chastain, John Petrucci, etc. He knows how to play with a lot of technique but with great feeling too. Plus, he can compose interesting songs as you can see in the songs that are from his other band Inner Resonance. You can hear the influence of great players like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani in his playing but Jeffrey has developed them into a unique style. In the interview that I made with him he told me that he didn´t consider him a guitar virtuoso and prefers to be known as a composer. After listening the compilation I think that he can be considered both things. This songs come grom his releases "Solar Voices" and "Wings of Gold" that are a must for fans of great guitar playing and composition. My favorite tracks: "Broken Stone " and "Living".

KRISTENDOM - OPERATOR DEAD…POST ABANDON (Mystik Prods. - 1999): This is an album that surprised me a lot. First of all, it is a debut album from this French band and it has an extremely good sound (the drums are up in the mix and the guitar sound really fat) and an extremely good presentation and layout with an artistic but morbid illustration from a guy called Benjamin Carre. The band makes a music that we can describe as putting together Fear Factory, Pantera, King Diamond (there are vocal parts that sound like the lower voice of King but deeper), Slayer and Sepultura. The two guitarist are really crushing ( playing all those rythms with no mercy!) and the drums of Olivier Couturier are like a machine. The vocalist is the old vocalist from No Return and is extremely versaltile going from death growls to more melodic without any problems. My favorite tracks: "Freak of Nature" and "Blind World". Email: kristendom@free.fr

KRISTENDOM - FROM WITHIN (Mystik Prods. - 2000): This is the second album from the French band Kristendom and is really much better than the first. A better sound, better songs and the addition of a permanent keyboard player called Valtor are the main features in this recording. The whole album seems to have a concept that is a history in which La Diva and Lucifer are the main characters. The music is extremely powerful and was made to bang your head. The sound that was really good on their debut is better now (it impressed me the sound of the drums that is like an industrial piece of machinery). I think Valtor´s addition to the band has given the band more identity and in the future it would be good to hear more from his work. My Favorite tracks: "The Slave will become Great", "The Diva" and "Rain of Tears". Email: kristendom@free.fr

This is a prelude of what was going to come. Yes, what later became more evident on "Sitting by the fire" is here in a more unpolished state. Lunatic Gods are an extremely original band and their blending of death metal with melodies and rythms from different genres gives birth to their unique sound (that they call Lunatic Metal). This is an album for those fans of musicians constantly evolving and trying to be experimental. Also, I think that Lunatic Gods can create great songs with their technicality, in fact, the songs are not only an amount of riffs thrown together but a big idea with a lot of different subideas flying across it. My favorite tracks: "Fucking Religions" and "The Pigs". Email: pavel@rebeca.sk

 

LUNATIC GODS - SITTING BY THE FIRE (Metal Age Prods. - 1998): This one is destined to be a total classic in the underground. The fusion of styles of the band has reached iots climax in "sitting by the fire". The two vocalists are more original than in the previous records, the guitar is always doing strange melodies (this guy Hirax is someone that can create a mood using simple or extremely complicated phrases, sort of a Greg Mackintosh but faster and wierder) and the keyboards (courtesy of King) give an atmosphere to the songs changing completely the mood of the songs. The sound is better than in their previous album and it seems that the compositions are more elaborated too. Please, check this band, you won´t be dissapointed. My favorite tracks: "The world is full of lies", "Return of Deads Thoughts" and "Echoes of Sadness". Email: pavel@rebeca.sk

 

METH - TRANSFORMERS SERIES: COMPLETE (Scratchbladder Productions, 2000): This is an album of experimental music whose lyrics and esthetic revolve around Transformers. So, here we have main man Bill Sannwald and Jonathan Apgar doing a crazy recording organized in three parts and two intermissions. The music is really dense with distorted guitars and vocals (the vocals are similar to those shrieks in gore metal bands such as early Carcass but distorted with some kind of device). There are also some samples and melodic parts that make the record really dynamic and interesting. This two guys seem to be crazy because of the music that they do but it sure sounds good to me. This is for fans of experimental music and open minded people. A mix of Kraftwerk and Carcass, really avantgarde. My favorite tracks: The whole album must be treated as one piece. Email: keirka777@hotmail.com

PATRIARCH - DEITY (Output Music, 1998): This band has been fighting for a long time since they formed under the name Pariah in 1983. They released their first album called "Prophecy" in 1990 and after that "World Within Worlds" (with their actual vocalist Erik Rinkes) in 1993. Now comes this four song CD called "Deity" and it sees the band following their music over all trends and doing their power-thrash metal style with more power than ever. Not only this, their music has adapted influences from new bands in their style and that makes the final result much more interesting. The sound o the record is a very good one (maybe I would have mixed the vocals a little bit louder but that is a matter of taste). A special distinction must be given to guitarist Freddy Mylemans for his work in the album and for keeping the band alive after all this years. My favorite tracks: "Hatred" and "Enigma" . Email: patriarchfm@hotmail.com

SUICIDE CULTURE - HALLOWED BE THY AGONY (Self Produced - 1999): This is the second release of this band from Seattle (the first one is their self titled effort), this time we have a mini-CD with five songs. This band is really aggressive and sounds like those powerful bands of the middle eighties with lot of rythmic parts and riffs that are made to jump in a mosh pit. Kevin Bedra, singer and guitarist sounds like a mix of Demonic-era Chuck Billy and Max Cavalera. There are not many bands like this one coming out now but this one gives us hope that this style is alive and kicking ass. The recording includes an excellent rendition of Celtic Frost´s "Jewel Throne (a band that Kevin seems to admire, as he told me in the interview). A really agressive records. My Favorite songs: "God Forbid" and "Make Believe". Email: SuicideCulture@webtv.net

 

SWEATER VEST - MANATEE LEE (Scratchbladder Productions, 2000): This is another project from the prolific Jonathan Apgar. This time he plays all instruments and programming but has a vocalist, Peter Owen, who sings and make the lyrics. The music is weird but more accesible than in his Ephemeron project. I liked some of the songs a lot and like the overall felling that sound a alittle bit "industrial". The guitar riffs are good and make a great companion to the funny lyrics of Owen. It is good to see some persons experimenting in different formats the way Apgar does. My favorite tracks are: "Manatee Lee", "Zygote Three" and "Life of a Truck driver". Email: Naepesh@hotmail.com

THEATRE OF THE MACABRE - A PARADISE IN FLESH AND BLOOD (Root of All Evil Recs. - 2000) : The CD opens with a sentence that I think comes from the character from "Conan the Barbarian" Thulsa Doom: "Now they will know why they are afraid of the night, now they will know why they fear the dark" and that leads the listener to an opening passage of keyboards. That reflects the feeling of the whole recording: a feeling of darkness that the use of keyboards contributes to develope. The music is black metal with a lot of keyboards( I think that the band has to use them even more) with guitars putting melodies and riffs wherever they can ( not only como drones but also melodies played fast to go with the rest of the music). Le Rue Delashay ( ex LORD OF ALL DESIRES) shines through all the album and so does the rest of the band. It seems also that their live act is really good as they have played on last year´s Milwaukee Metalfest. My favorite tracks:"Bathed in the Blood of Angels", "Forsaken in the Garden of Earthly Delights" and "Through The Eyes of The Serpent". Email: root@rootofallevil.com

ULCERATE FESTER - PROMO 2000 (Self Produced - 2000): Ulcerate Fester from the Netherlands started as a grind/death metal band in the late eighties and they evolved into a hard rock/ metal band through the years. The main addition to their music was Michel de Groot on vocals. He is an extremely versatile vocalist and has a bluesy tone in his voice. The four songs in this Promo CD have great structure and great choruses and the guitars sound heavier than in a rock band. The band has a lot of groove and rythm and sound really rehearsed and tight. The songs, specially "When I die" have a twist in them that enhances the originality of the band and gives an emotional side to their songs (the guitar playing some melodies in the background for example). This guys rock hard!!My favorite tracks: "Woman" and "When I die". Email: legrand@solcon.nl

WALHALLA - FIREREICH (Root of All Evil Recs. - 2000) : This band features members and exmembers of THY SERPENT, GLOOMY GRIM and SOULGRIND. The music is black metal but there is an abundance of old-school tharsh metal riffs. I think that this is the point that can distinguish this bands from the numerous bands of the genre: the use of more rythmic patterns instead of the abused blast beats. The drumming in this release is excellent and is what gives that feeling of being listening to thrash metal (obviously the influence from eighties band is mixed with newer ones and a better sound than most of those bands ever considered having). The guitar riffs are original and are well more thought than in most black metal bands (in fact the guitarists have a great feeling for making good riffs). MY favorite tracks: "Martyrs Day" and "Firereich". This is a crushing release. Email: agathon@sci.fi