7^th NEMESIS / PUNISHMENT - SPLIT CD (Skull Fucked Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Skull Fucked Prod.

Punishment: 5-Godsick, 6- Graveyard Earth, 7- The Enemies Behind, 8- Bullet Time, 9- The Die is Cast, 10- Come With Me

 Cover Art by

This is a heavier than hell split and one of the split CDs of the year.

Punishment "Graveyard Earth" and "Bullet Time"

Contact: www.skullfucked.ht.st

A GOOD DAY FOR KILLING - ASSASSIN (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: A Good Day for Killing

Tracks: 1- Let´s Kill Someone, 2- A Good Day for Killing, 3- Deathgate Opened, 4- Ghoul

 Cover Art by Sarawut

 Recorded at 87 Music Room

Four tracks are enough to reduce your brain into a shapeless pulp with the amazing brutality that A Good Day For Killing´s music has. Here you have to take the most brutal and fast elements of death metal and add some grind influences in many parts to have just a small picture of how this band sounds like. Then you have to imagine a really distorted and raw guitar sound with drumming that uses heavily the cymbals to create mayhemic rhythms. And then you have to add some slower parts that add some climatic feeling to the music here. This will give you an idea of how the band sounds and it will give you an idea of how they will melt your brain with their sheer power crowned by the ultra brutal and guttural vocals that are a trademark of this band. This is an album that guarantees you twelve minutes of pure violence and aggression.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.thai.net/agdfk/

ACCURSED DAWN - ETERNAL TWILIGHT (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Acursed Dawn

Tracks: 1- Beneath a Sun so Cold, 2- The Becoming, 3- Eternal Twilight, 4- Dead of Winter

 Cover Art by Josh Woods

 Recorded at Nothing But Noise Studios

"Beneath a Sun So Cold" opens the fire of this aggressive death metal album at full speed. The four tracks here are like an explosion of energy full of guttural and screaming vocals that give a brutal feeling to the music, full of fast drumming with a lot of technical passages (this guy does impressive things with the double bass drums creating amazing passages of bestiality). The guitars create a devastating wall of sound with that low tuned sound that is essential for the death metal feeling, developing many arrangements and changes through all the four tracks (also putting some interesting melodies as it happens at 2:50 of "Beneath..." and some twin guitar parts). One really good thing here is the good sound that the recording has, being raw but powerful and giving the brutality to the instruments that they deserve. Brutality done with good musicinship.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.accurseddawn.com

ACE SOUNDS - STILL HUNGRY (Snapper Music, 2003)

Produced By:

Tracks: 1- Jet from California, 2- Back up, 3- One way love, 4- There´s no pleasin´some people, 5- No fear pf falling, 6- Skiers of Texas, 7- Glass Ceiling, 8- Your face hurts, 9- 45 Grave, 10- Prisoner, 11- This is the last time, 12- Mind taken over, 13- Phoenix, 14- We be

Cover Art by

 Recorded at

This is the solo album from former Skunk Anansie guitar player Ace and it is an album with a lot of variations track by track. No track is even similar to the other one. The music here is pure heavy rock with influences from different styles of music and with great guests participations from other musicians such as Lemmy from Motorhead and Yap from One Minute Silence. Some tracks sound heavier and some tracks sound more straight rock but I have one thing to say for certain: you will not be bored while listening to this album. In fact, you will find yourself guessing what the next track is going to sound like. There is good musicianship here that allows the band to switchfrom one style to the other with solid rhythmic work and interesting arrangements.

Favorite tracks: "No fear of falling", "Prisoner" and "Mind taken Over"

Contact: www.acesounds.com or www.snappermusic.com

AJATTARA - KUOLEMA (Spikefarm Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Ajattara

Tracks: 1- Antakaa Elää, 2- Surman Henki, 3- Haureus, 4- Huoran Alla, 5- Ikiyössä, 6- Musta Leski, 7- Sielun Särkijä, 8- Kituvan Kiitos, 9- Helvetissä on Syntisen Taivas, 10- Rauhassa

Mastered by Mika Jussila

 Recorded at Studiolla Marraskuusa

This is a superb work of art. How can a band combine extreme music and aggression with amazing orchestration and arrangements? Well, ask the guys in Ajattara. The band kicks off with "Antakaa Elää" with the amazing keyboards interacting with the heavier than fuck guitars. Then comes the extreme vocals that add sort of a death metal or more extreme metal feeling fitting the music perfectly. A remarkable thing here is the amazing mix that the album has that allows each instrument to sound clearly even in the fastest parts. The compositions here are grandiloquent and epic and I really loved that. I have to congratulate the keyboardist for adding here an amazing dark touch and a lot of the obscure feeling that the recording has. A must !!!

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.ajattara.cjb.net or www.spinefarm.fi

ALKEMYST- MEETING IN THE MIST (Nuclear Blast Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Alkemyst

Tracks: 1- Spells and Elixirs, 2- Still Alive, 3- It´s Time, 4- Up to Heaven´s Gate, 5- Hold on to Your Dream, 6- A Meeting in the Mist, 7- Passage, 8- Empty Skies, 9- Nameless Son Chapter 1: The Awakening, 10- Nameless Con Chapter 2: The Falling Star

 Cover Art by Alkemyst

A majestic intro with great orchestration sounding like a string section and keyboards opens this album full of progressive heavy and power metal. Drums enters ina really technical way doing nteresting fills and patterns before the full band enters. Here we have a lot of virtuosism from a band that sunds like a mix of bands like Stratovarius, Helloween, Yngwie Malmsteen and others of the styles. THe recording has an amazing sound. There is not that much originality here but this album will be loved by lovers of the style. The singer is a really good one, sounding sometimes close to Michael Kiske and sometimes to Timo Kotipleto. There is plent of keyboards and guitar solos here. For lovers of power metal and good songs in the style full of virtuosism in the guitars and keyboards.

Favorite tracks: "It´s time", "A meeting in the mist" and "Empty Skies"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br or www.nuclearblast.de

ALL SHALL PERISH - HATE MALICE REVENGE (Amputated Vein Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Zack Ohren and All Shall Perish

Tracks: 1- Deconstruction, 2- Laid to rest, 3- Our Own Grave, 4- The Spreading Disease, 5- Sever the Memory, 6- For far to long..., 7- Never Ending War, 8- Herding the Brainwashed

 Cover Art by Ben Orum

 Recorded at Castle Ultimate Studios

A brutal voice opens this album with a long growl and then enters the whole brutality of All Shall Perish. Here every note was composed in order to devastate you with utter heaviness and with extreme brutality. Plus everything sounds even more bestial because of the good mix that this album has (the drums sound killer and this guy is an amazing drummer). I really liked the way in which the vocals are used that instead of spitting the vocals is used to emphasize certain riffs or rhythms (check the end of "Decontruction" as an example of this). One of the most solid rhythm sections in brutal death metal the one in All Shall Perish allows the band to be extremely fast and never loose control sounding always extremely tight. This album is essential to lovers of bands like Hate Eternal that have a lot of brutality and at the same time a lot of technical skills. Devastating !!

Favorite tracks: "Deconstruction", "Sever the Memory" and "For far too long"

Contact: www.amputatedvein.com

AMORAL - OTHER FLESH (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Amoral

Tracks: 1- Other Flesh, 2- Metamorphosis, 3- Nothing Daunted

 Cover Art by Kristina Sundman

 Recorded at Sonic Pump Studios

.Directly from Helsinki, Finland comes this pure death metal band with interesting riffs and some thrash influences. This guys deliver three tracks here that leave you wanting mroe Amoral. The heart and soul of Amoral´s music are the guitar riffs that are really technical and go well beyond those commonly used in death metal, using even twin guitars and many arrangement in the way some eighties thrash metal used to do. But the guys in Amoral have taken this type of riffs and added a more powerful sound. Plus they have a killer drummer who knows how to play double bass drumming and who also does interesting patterns with hihat and ride cymbal. The voice is really extreme as in bands like early Entombed. This is a MCD that leaves us waiting for the new Amoral album full of their good musicianship.

Favorite tracks: the three

Contact: www.amoralweb.com

ANTARCTICA - UNLEASH THE DOGS OF WAR (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Antarctica

Tracks: 1- When Weapons Decide, 2- So many assholes - So Few bullets, 3- Forever Reign in Terror, 4- Peace Means nothing but reloading your weapons, 5- hate domain

 Cover Art by Attila

 Recorded at Mansion Studio

Some issues back we reviewed Antarctica´s previous album, and I have to say that despite being a really good album, this one is a good step forward for this norwegian band. This time the band is even more solid and powerful with their mix of death metal with brutal death and with modern metal. This guys have a lot of good musicianship that allows them to create amazing compositions full of memorable riffs (just check the first track "So many Assholes" to see what I am talking about). There are some blast beats here and there and a lot of heavy double bass work. As I said before the guitar riffs are memorable and are really well developed in order to give the song enoughhooks to remain in your brain after it has been melted by the power of the band. The rhythm section here is killer and the bass playing is mixed louder than in the previous album which is something I like a lot because it gives the opportunity to listen to the killer bass lines that play things that are similar yet very different to the guitar ones. Good musicianship and devastating compositions.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.home.no/antarctica

ANTROPOMORFIA - ENGENDRO (Necromance Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Antropomorfia

Tracks: 1- Trance, 2- Hedor Pestilente, 3- Asi te pudras, 4- Corruptus Interium, 5- Holocausto Canibal, 6- En el nombre de Dios, 7- Mortal Curación, 8-Corpore in Sepulto, 9- En avanzado estado e descomposición, 10- Metastasis, 11- Engendro, 12- Requiem, 13- Nu-Metal, 14- After World Obliteration

 Cover Art by Antropomorfia

Pure brutality at its most extreme level . This is one of the most brutal badns coming from Spain. there are fast guitar riffs all over this recording and the brutal vocals emphasize the rhythms that are played at full speed with hyper fast double bass drumming and interesting blast beats thrown here and there to add that really extreme feeling. There are some rhythmic riffs which I think are the heaviest ones and I think the band has to follow this path in order to develope compositions with even more brutality. Some of teh tracks are in spanish labnguage but that won´t bother people who don´t speak this language because the main thing here is the impact of the vocals sound in the musical context and that is really brutal despite the language in which the lyrics are.Pure bestiality coming directly from Iberia.

Favorite tracks: "En el nombre de Dios", "Mortal Curación" and "Engendro"

Contact: www.necromancemag.com

ANTUBEL - ANTUBEL (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Antubel

Tracks: 1- Days Have Died, 2- The Face, 3- Wretched Spectre, 4- Antubel, 5- Nothing

 Cover Art by Antubel

A climatic yet raw sounding release. Antubel is a duo with extremely dark and sad ideas that they have put into their music. Here the guitars are raw and they deliver many melodies that create passages where you can imagine a landscape similar to the one in the cover art, something like dark woods in a winter day. There are keyboards here that make interesting arrangements and orchestrations in the compositions emphasizing the doom sound of the release and they are essential to generate the darkness that Antubel´s music has. The vocals are really extrems sounding really guttural in many places (they are like another instrument used to describe this dark place where the music transports you). This is what I called climatic music with a heavy attitude. The sound is extremely raw, specially on the guitars which are extremely distorted. Lovers of the dark will surely crave for this good release.

Favorite tracks: "Days have Died", "Wretched Spectre" and "Antubel"

Contact: darkantubel@hotmail.com

ART OF DESTRUCTION - UNDER ATTACK DEMO (Sinternational Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Art of Destruction

Tracks: 1- Under Attack, 2- End of the Suffering, 3- Pay for your freedom, 4- The Blood you Gave

 Cover Art by Art of Destruction

Art of Destruction is really brutal that Sinternational is releasing among their catalog of bestial bands. Here we have a band that delivers four tracks of pure brutal death metal with influences of old school death metal bands like the ones in the early nineties but with a more modern sound. Here we have potent guitar riffs played with a really fat guitar sound (that combined with the heavy bass guitar sounds huge!!) and amazing fast drumming with double bass patterns and almost blast beats in the use of the snare drum. There are climatic moments like in the middle section of "Under Attack" but the main thing here is the brutality that the four compositions have that don´t have mercy for the listener crushing it like a 100 tons hammer. The sound is raw and it can be mixed a little bit more polished in order to achieve a cleaner sound but the overall result is amazingly bestial. Pure brutality with an old school feeling.

Favorite tracks: "Under Attack", "End of the Suffering" and "The Blood you Gave"

Contact: www.sinternational.net or www.artofdestruction.com

ARVINGER - HELGARDS FALL (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Arvinger

Tracks: 1- Ut fra havn, 2- I Skogens Marke, 3- Hyllest, 4- Markets Dal, 5- Tapre Krigere, 6- Kalt Ved Navn, 7- Kongsarven, 8- Fanget av Vinden,, 9- Endetiden

 Cover Art by Arvinger

Pure epic black metal coming from Norway. This band plays really obscure metal with raw guitars and a combination of ultra fast riffs with more rhythmic ones. Plus, here we have an omniprescent keyboard that gives a lot of the orchestration to the compositions adding a darker feeling to them. The vocals are sometimes more extreme, sometimes more epic, depending on the feeling that Hauk and Djerv, the main brains behind Arvinger want to give to the music. There is an acoustic guitar that gives a completely different and magnificent feeling to tracks like "I Skogens Marke". Plus there is heavy use of fiddles and female vocals which are really well used on this album. This album is really powerful and at the same time has many things to discover on each listening. I recommend this to all fans of dark and obscure music that want something new to listen.

Favorite tracks: "I Skogens Marke", "Markets Dal" and "Kongsarven"

Contact: www.arvinger.com

ATROCIOUS DEVOURED - LIVE MURDERS (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Live in Metal and Atrocious Devoured

Tracks: 1- Times, 2- I Don´t Like it, 3- Pain Ecstasy, 4- Live Murders, 5- In the Desert infinite, 6- Killer Gods, 7- Golden Jail, 8- Murderer, 9- Under Your Eyes, 10- Hatred, 11- Ich Will Inhaus

 Cover Art by Mick B.

 Recorded at Studio La Cuisine

Here is the new Atrocious Devoured album and it is a good progression from the rpevious one, specially in sound. This is specially evident on the rerecorded tracks from "Golden Jail". Yes, here the guitars soujnd more powerful and clear while the drums are upper in the mix giving more strength to this wild band´s music. The guitars are fast and wild as always, giving the death metal feeling to the music and adding also some thrash metal to the mix. The vocals are also responsible of the deadly feeling that the music has, being really extreme and screaming (and sometimes guttural). There is double bass drumming and some thrash rhythmic patterns played at full speed thata re the essence of Atrocious Devoured´s music. Plus we have her interesting tempo and rhythm changes that add diversity. A good step forward for this killer band !

Favorite tracks: "Pain Ecstasy", "Killer Gods" and "Murderer"

Contact: http://perso.infonie.fr/atrocious.dev/

BADLY PRESERVED - DECADES OF DENIAL (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Badly Preserved

Tracks: 1- Blueprint, 2- Reasons, 3- D.O.D., 4- Running on Empty, 5- Alteration, 6- Trapped in a Child´s Mind, 7- Silent Scream, 8- Fragments, 9- Clear Again, 10- Random Numbers, 11- Adjust

Cover Art by Saz

 Recorded at BP-Studio

Overwhelming guitars with rhythmic drumming opens this album giving shape to the first song "Blueprint". Then comes a soft type of vocals that soon turns into most extreme voices screaming and spitting the lyrics. The guys in Badly Preserved are really tight, specially the rhythm section that is like a clock because of its precission. There is a lot of difference between the compositions here and that is essential to make this album really amusing and to keep the attentionof the listener. the mix is one of the things that have to be pointed out because it is really clear and gives that extra punch that all guitars need in order to sound like a wall of sound . This guy L-Tone is great in the vocals because he knows how to give a certain mood to the composition and how to sound aggressive and that is extra points for Badly Preserved. Pure power with a lot of intensity and variations.

Favorite tracks: "Reasons", "Fragments", "Random Numbers"

Contact: www.badlypreserved.com

BAG LADY - 6 - BHARATA (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Paul Sven de Haan and Tiemen Seinstra

Tracks: 1- AFUfilt.dot, 2- Anti You, 3- Angrylittleman #2, 4- The throne #2: Dethronement, 5- Region, 6- Karoshi, 7- Insect Life, 8- Who the fucka re you?, 9- Wanted: reasons to be happy, 10- Kaputt, 11- Canicide, 12- Bharata, 13- God´s Own Country, 14- Popus, 15- Zumo de Vivo

Cover Art by Tiemen Seinstra

.A strange sound opens up this of strange yet original music. Here we have a band whose music is clearly metal because of its heavy sounding guitars but they can not be classified within either style known. Just check "AFUfilt.dot" to see the ultra weird and abrupt changes that this band does. The combination of keayboards used in a completely differnt way (really experimental and almost spontaneous in many places) combined with sounds effects and programmed drums give an amazing sound to Bag Lady ´s music. The extreme vocals add an extreme metal feeling, even death metal in many parts. There are infinite changes in rhythm, in tempo, in melodies and in arrangements within each of the tracks here. This is sometimes chaotic and sometimes more song oriented but always experimental and original. You will not believe all the different elements that this band is capable of putting into its own compositions. And this is really extreme music. A weird yet amazing and recomendable album.

Favorite tracks: "Insect Life", "Canicide" and "God´s Own Country"

Contact: www.baglady.nl

BALROG - KILL YOURSELF (DBM Prods. / Aeon Recs. , 2003)

Produced By: DBM and JBRollin

Tracks: 1- Kill Yourself, 2- Neutronized, 3- Kingdom of My Own, 4- Lead the Rats to their End, 5- All Life Will Turn into Death, 6- Funeral March of Mankind, 7-Tyranic Dreams, 8- Agonie, 9- Sword of Death, 10- Black Half

 Recorded at Studio Cube

Balrog is the main brain, heart and soul (a really dark one) of this one man project. He performs all guitars, basses, programs all the drums and does all the vocals here. This album opens with a funereal intro with keyboards where Balrog sets his trademark: the ultraobscure atmosphere that all the compositions here have. Then come the most black metal parts full of speed and hatred. One thing that I have to remark is that this recording has a really good sound that makes the music more powerful and clear. The combination of fast parts with blast beats with more climatic moments is another element that is essential to Balrog´s music. Here he delivers fast riffs and melodies with his guitar developing the blackest of all musics. Unholy souls awake and kneel down before Balrog !

Favorite tracks: "Kingdom of My Own", "Funeral March of Mankind" and "Sword of Death"

Contact: balrog6@caramail.com

BATTLESWORD - FAILING IN TRIUMPH (Neon Knights Recs, 2003

Produced By: Battlesword

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Chapter II, 3- Baptized in Fire, 4- Battlesword, 5- This Silent Night, 6- Fatal Dreaming, 7- Bloody Reign, 8- Last Rising Sun, 9- Stormking, 10- Into the Soul

Cover Art by Battlesword

First you listen some battle sounds and then you have a brutal sound coming when the band enteres. If you expected a black metal band you are completely wrong. Here we have really brutal death metal with origianl riffs and multiple tempo changes that are the essence of the band when they switch from the most brutal parts to the climatic ones. And I think this climatic parts where the band uses guitar riffs more midpaced are the essence of Battlesword´s music. This climatic parts are really dark in nature giving a feeling of darkness to each of the compositions here. The sound of the recording is good and the guitars have the palms because of their compact sound. Brutality mixed with interesting climatic parts

Favorite tracks: "Baptized in Fire", "Bloody Reign" and "Fatal Dreaming"

Contact: neonknights@t-online.de

BIOMECHANICAL - EIGHT MOONS (Revolver Records, 2003)

Produced By: John K.

Tracks: 1- the Awakening, 2- Do You know Me, 3- In the Core of Darkness, 4- Distorted, 5- Hunted, 6- No Shadows, 7- Eight Moons, 8- Save Me, 9- Point of No Return

 Cover Art by DesignerAnimator.com

 Recorded at The Sony Studios

Opening with a fast riff in "The Awakening", Biomechanical shows how hard their mix of heavy metal and thrash metal with some elements and modern metal can be. The guitar riffs sound fast and powerful with a modern sound that when combined with the precise drumming turns the band into a killing metal machine. I find some elments of Vicious Rumours in the band´s music and that is cool because I feel that this is an extremely powerful band. There are great guitar arrnagements done through melodic solos, cool breaks and also interesting keyboards orchestration in tracks like "Eight Moons". The band sounds really modern, specially the drums that are really well mixed adding a modern metal feeling to the music. The songs here are really well developed and are memorable yet devastating. This is pure metal and a good bridge between classic sound and a more modern one.

Favorite tracks: "The Awakening", "Hunted" and "Eight Moons"

Contact: www.biomechanical.co.uk or www.revolver-records.com

BLACKENED - A JESTER´S TALE (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Blackened

Tracks: 1-

 Cover Art by Blackened

Pure motherfucking metal !! The guys in Blackened sure know how to play heavy riffs and how to develope good heavy metal songs. Here we have killer and memorable riffs with an european influence in them (there is no doubt that this guys come from Germany. The vocals are an essential part of the music here because they are really memorable and good choruses are developed in all the songs in this album. The rhythm section is really solid and there are interesting double bass passages where the drumming shines. One fundamental element here are the guitar melodies too that add more arrangements and orchestration to the tracks. This is pure metal with powerful sound and full of interesting ideas. This is one of those albums that you will lsiten over and over again.

Favorite tracks: All the CD. This is heavy metal played the way it must be played

Contact: www.blackened.de

BLACKLODGE - LOGIN: SATAN (Blazing Productions, 2003)

Produced By: Blacklodge

Tracks: 1- Login: Satan, 2- Subject to tragedy, 3- Satanus Sextions, 4- Tormentor, 5- Need a Needle to Tap in the vein, 6- The Empress, 7- Mors Ultima Ratio, 8- Redway.org , 9- Suicide Tutorials, 10- An Error in Darkness, 11- T.A.O.S. (The Arrival of Satan), 12- W.Y.N.F.S. (Whiten Your Nose for Satan)

Cover Art by Saint Vincent

 Recorded at Hellfuck Studios, Northern Sky Studios

Some strange noises and sounds opens this album before getting into ultra fast and furious guitar riffs with high speed drumming and really extreme vocals that have some effects on them to give them an even more distorted quality. The guitars sound extremely raw and they play riffs at fast speed that when combined with the programmed drums add a machine like feeling to Blacklodge’s music. There are moments where the riffs turn into more rhythmic parts like in 2:50 of the title track giving a complete change of feeling to the composition but adding even more interest to the music.The whole recording has a really raw sound that gives a black metal feeling to the music. But the band is more than simple black metal, having their own identity through distortion and some electronics. Really extreme !!

Favorite tracks: "Subject to tragedy", "Redway.org" and "An error in darkness"

Contact: www.blazing.ws

BLESSMON - SACRIFICIUM AETERNITATIS (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Blessmon

Tracks: 1- Carnage of Humanity, 2- Way to Eternity, 3- The Dark Lords Son, 4- Damnation

Cover Art by M. Long

.Fucking black metal full of hatred!!!! Yes, Blessmon is an unholy band that plays the blackest of all metal styles. One thing that I liked is that the guitar is mixed louder than in most black emtal bands giving an extre heaviness to the music. Here you have all the elements that a black metal must have: blast beats, dark atmospheres, an extreme vocal, ultra fast drumming with heavy double bass passages. There are some more mid paced parts where the band developes darker ideas and I think that the band has to use this type of arrangements more often because they sound killer and this gives a lot of identity to Blessmon´s music. The fastest parts are really extreme and the good yet raw mix allows to lsiten clearly (the hihat is mixed lower than in most black metal bands letting all the guitars be fully audible. Pure unholy black metal for each obscure mind and soul !!

Favorite tracks: "Carnage of Humanity", "Way to Eternity" and "Damnation"

Contact: www.blessmon.com

BLOODWORK - IN HIS DEATH (Tarantula Promotions, 2003)

Produced By: Bloodwork

Tracks: 1- Bloodshed, 2- Yet i walk

 Cover Art by Bloodwork

Opening climaticaly with the beginning of "Bloodshed" the guys in Bloodwork show what they are capable of doing in two tracks. The songs are well developed and the band sounds really powerful in both tracks. What I think they should check is the drums sound that has the hihat sound a little bit loud in the mix opaquing some frecuencies of the guitars. The voice is extremely guttural and it is good to see the contrast between the aprts with use of clean guitars such as the beginning of "Bloodshed" with the heavy guitars and the most guttural vocals. This is a good preview of what this band is capable of doing.

Favorite tracks: Both

Contact: www.tarantulapromotions.com

BRUCKMANN / DIAZ-INFANTE/SHIURBA / STACKPOLE - GRAND MAL (Pax Recordings, 2003)

Recorded By: Myles Boisen

Tracks: 1- Catatonic Posturing I, 2- Nervous Tic, 3- Gray Matter, 4- Spatial Agnosia, 5- The final "d" in "grand" is not pronounced, 6- Big, bad, 7- Retrograde Amnesia, 8- Shaking Palsy, 9- Tonic Clonic, 10- Catatonic Posturing II

 Recorded at Guerrilla Recording

.Killer improvisations is what we have here. We didn´t expected any other than superb spontaneous music by Ernesto Díaz-Infante. Here we have three other improvisers with him: Kyle Bruckmann playing oboe and english horn, John Shiurba playing electric guitar and Karen Stackpole on percussion. From the first second the madness and imagination of this musicians is unleashed over the lsitener. Here there are over forty five minutes of pure improvisations and generation of musical ideas. Thisquartet of spontaneous musicians interact really well creating fascinating passages where the moods change fastly alternating fast parts with climatic slower ones. There is also a search for the ultimate sound of the instrument and also for the multiplicity of sounds that can be achieved on each of the isntruments present on this recording. Here you have to be really open minded to lsitenb to all the ten composaitions that the quartet presents here. A must for improvisers ans spontaneous music lovers.

Favorite tracks: "Gray Matter", "Big, Bad" and "Tonic Clonic"

Contact: www.paxrecordings.com

BRUIT´AGE - HILL PAIN(Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Bruit´Age

Tracks: 1- 31.11, 2- Shades of Blood, 3- Tribal Dance, 4- FFYD, 5- Bonus

Cover Art by Bruit´Age

A really brutal band with an extrmely raw sound specially in the guitars. There is a good combination of guttural vocals and more of the screaming type (hardcore type) voices here. The band sounds tight and their music is really extreme but at the same time has enough hooks to be memorable. There are many funny moments here (almost in many places sounding like a fusion between a brutal death band and the funniest Frank Zappa). The use of ultra distorted guitars combined with others that are cleaner in tracks like the fifth one add diversity to the music here. The drums are a little bit buried in the mix and I think they should be mixed a little bit louder (specially snare drums and bass drums). A brutal release.

Favorite tracks: "Shades of Blood" and "Bonus"

Contact: http://bruitage.tuxfamily.org

BURNT BY THE SUN - THE PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD (Relapse Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Matt Bayles and Burnt by the Sun

Tracks: 1- Abril los Ojos, 2- Washington Tube Steak, 3- Battleship, 4- Forlani, 5- 180 Proof, 6- , 7- Arrivial of Nihuru, 8- Patient 957, 9- 2012, 10- , 11- Spinner Dunn, 12- Pentagons and Pentagrams, 13- Rev 101, 14-

Mixed at Avast Studios

 Recorded at trax East Studios

This is extreme brutality. After a short intro with ambient noises comes all the power of this band blending the most brutal death metal with a more modern band such as the one in bads like Machine Head. The band is epert in building crushing guitar riffs and rhythms that smashes your brain against the floor. The vocals are really death metal most of the time but again we have also here some modern sounding screaming which is not as guttural but that is extremely powerful and effective. It is remarkable the good sound that the band has achieved on this album and here it has a lot to do the brilliant production of Matt Bayles who also produced bands like Isis or Mastodon. This is a killer album that will appeal to those loving crunching guitars and heavier than hell riffs and pounding rhythms.

Favorite tracks: "Washington Tube Steak", "180 Proof" and "Patient 957"

Contact: www.burntbythesun.com or www.relapse.com

BYATIS - IN DARK ABYSSES OF MEMORY (Skull Fucked Prods, 2003)

Produced By: Byatis

Tracks: 1- Glorification of Life, 2- The Empire is..., 3- Apology of War, 4- Waiting, 5- Akhilleus, 6- Nornes 1: Urd, 7- Nornes II: Verdandt, 8- Nornes III: Skuld

Engineered by Hubert Letombe

 Recorded at Midnight Studio

A climatic riff with a guitar line played fastly opens this album before the whole band enters (with a cool double bass pattern). Byatis is pure death metal in its most brutal form. Here you have a lot of blast beats, an extremelñy guttural that makes Deicide´s Glen Benton sound like a ballad singer, and also the band has killer guitars with a low tune that adds heaviness to the riffs that they play. There are multiple breaks and changes and the palms here go to the tight as helkl rhythm section thnat is extremely solid and don´t miss a beat through all the tracks. The sound of the recording is clear and I think that I would have mixed a little bit louder the bass and the rhythm guitars in order to make the sound even more compact. One thing to remark is the use of some melodies and riffs that are not typical of the style in order to add a different feeling to the compositions. This is pure brutal death metal full of aggression.  

Favorite tracks: "Glorification of Life", "Apology of War" and "Nornes 1"

Contact: www.skullfucked.ht.st

CALMSITE - BITE THE POWERLINE (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Jani Loikas

Tracks: 1- Dienasty, 2- Melting the Frost, 3- Skinning Service

Cover Art by Calmsite

This is the third recording from this finnish band that we review on Music Extreme and it is possible for us to follow the evolution that this band has suffered since their first one improving with each new release. This MCD opens with one track that is a potential hit from this band. It is called "Dienasty" and is extremely powerful yet it has enough hooks in the guitar riffs and in the vocals (really deathly vocals) to be a hit in the metal world. The rhythm section is now more open than in the previous releases letting the guitar riffs and melodies breath more and develope more crushing rhythms and also helping the keyboards to sound really powerful. The sound is the best up to now and this is essential for the band because they are becoming more polished and effective each time. As always the recording leaves you wanting more from this band but we will have to wait to next time to listen more of them. But the quality of teh band leaves you with a lot of anxiety.

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: http://listen.to/calmsite

CHARLOTTE HUG / CHANTALE LAPLANTE - BRILLIANT DAYS (For 4 Ears Recs., 2003)

All tracks by Charlotte Hug and Chantale Laplante

Tracks: 1- Aujourd´hui j´ai admiré le paysage, 2- Matieres Agiteés, 3- Ciel, 4- Zone of Zest, 5- Brilliant Arch

Cover Art by Barbara Hediger

 Recorded at the Free RadiCCals Festival, at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia

We have reviewed before some work from the amazing Charlotte Hug...here she is joined by Chantale Laplante on laptop and both create sonic landscapes that go beyond imagination. There are times when you think that they will create some chaos by playing really dissonant notes and noises but then they show you that they are in complete control of everything. It is really good to see such diffferent instruments playing together because you can hear them interacting in a really good way. And it is good to listen to Chantale because it is not so common to listen music generated with a computer in this type of live situations. This is pure experimentation and both Charlotte and Chantale have no boundaries in their imagination and spontaneity.

Favorite tracks: "Matieres Agiteés" and "Brilliant Arch"

Contact: www.for4ears.com

COCKROACH - TEMPLE OF MYSTERY (Supreme Chaos Records, 2003)

Produced By: Cockroach

Tracks: 1- Trial, 2- Phantom of the Dawn, 3- total Gym, 4- Temple of Mystery, 5- Underworld, 6- Inner Fire, 7- Fallen Angel, 8- Tears, 9- Cockroach, 10- Suck me beautiful, 11- Personal War, 12- Tekilla

Cover Art by Alexander Rauser

 Recorded at Sub Zero Studios

Cockroach is an extremely powerful sounding band with incredibly heavy riffs played with a really good sound (the mix of this record is really good) that are crushing from beginning to end. The music has many eighties thrash influences but this modern sound that this guitar sounds give a different feeling to the music. There are many guitar arrangements where the two guitars interact with a lot of ideas doing harmonized phrases and riffs and not falling into cliches. The rhythm secrtion is solid and there are good double bass drumming work and also a lot of thrash rhythms. Franhk, the singer is really versatile sounding really heavy on all the tracks, with heavy thrash metal influences but using also a modern approach in the ehavier parts. I have to remark the good sound that this album has making things even heavier and clearer due to the good mix. A powerful and thrashing album.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.cockroach.de.vu or www.s-c-r.de

COMITY - THE DEUS EX-MACHINA AS A FORGOTTEN GENIUS (Messiah Recs./ Jason Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Comity

Tracks: 1- Act III - Scene 1, 2- Act II, 3- Act I - Scene 2, 4- Act IV - Scene 6, 5- Hidden Scene from Act III

This is what I called twisted metal!! Here we have a band that in the surface is death metal with some grind elements but they are much more than that.In fact, their music is full of changes in rhythm, in pace and this guys love to experiment with their instruments making each of the tracks that are on this album really original. The music on this album is not easy listening and you have to be pretty open minded to listen the infinite ideas that this band has. It is amazing to listen this band change from an extremely chaotic part to a really calm one within ten seconds and being extremely coherent. The vocals are extremely screaming and guttural giving the death/grind feeling to the music but this band has no boundaries and they make interesting contrasts between the more extreme parts with the climatic ones. This is a must for any lover of original music, but beware, be prepared to something completely new.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.godsaredead.com or www.jason.fr.fm or www.comity.fr.st

CONSPIRACY - DEMO 2002 (Mad Messiah Music, 2002)

Produced By: Conspiracy

Tracks: 1- Let´s Get Crazy, 2- trapped, 3- Believe, 4- Shine

 Cover Art by Jason Juta

 Recorded at Steel Vault Studios

This four song MCD opens with some acoustic guitar and melancholic vocals before getting into the heavier stuff. And surely the guys in Conspiracy can crush you with their powerful guitar riffs and they demonstrate all their power in this four compositions. Here the main thing are the rhythms created by the guitars and strongly emphasized by the drums and bass but here there is also place for a lot of arrangments and interesting ideas. Everything here is pure metal. I like the tempo changes int racks like "Believe" where the band delivers interesting passages. I have to remark also the good work done by the vocalist (sort of a mix between John Bush and the singer in Trouble because of the melancholic overtone). This is strong metal with a good sound and with some classical influences that are transformed into Conspiracy´s own sound.

Favorite tracks: the four

Contact: www.conspiracyrocks.com

CORPORAL RAID - XENOPHILISM (Bizarre Leprous Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Corporal Raid

Tracks: 1- Assimilation/ Urethral H.C., 2- Proliferation of Fecal Pus, 3- Epathosplenomegalix, 4- Fist Fucking Enema, 5- Headfuck Oral Sex, 6- Abdominal Vaporization, 7- Limphatic Carcinoma, 8- Clitocritical Perforation, 9- Endoentestinal Excrement, 10- Fuck the Nerds, 11- Vulcoxantorrea, 12- Splattered Vagina, 13- Massive Ignorance, 14- Rectal Collapse, 15- Sexual Acceleration, 16- Sacrococcigeal Teratoma, 17- Preborn Pedophilism, 18- Cerebral Menses, 19- Fetish Copro-Dementia, 20- Lesbian Cunnilingus, 21- Star Grinding Wars (the final Chapter)

 Cover Art by Corporal Raid

 Recorded at Moonhouse Studio

Starting with a low volume intro that is really calm yet obscure, the guys in Corporal Raid soon get in the full speed mode that is the essence of their music. The music here is pure grindcore with some elements of the most brutal death metal. Here we have blast beats all over the record and the way they are played proves the amazing physical state and technicque of this killer drummer. Corporal Raid uses the most distorted type of guitars with extremely distorted bass guitar that acts as another guitar doing all the powerful riffs that you can hear on this album. As the style demands the vocals here are extremely guttural sounding as another brutal isntrument. This is pure grindcore/death with good sound that makes things even more bestial !!!

Favorite tracks: "Proliferation...", "Limphatic Carcinoma " and Splattered Vagina"

Contact: www.bizarreleprous.cz or bizlepned@hetnet.nl

CROSSOVER - DEBAUCHERY PROMO (Deadsun Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Crossover

Tracks: 1- World Crescendo, 2- N.M.E., 3- The Pilgrimage, 4- The sign of evil existence (Rotting Christ cover)

Cover Art by

Crossover is a powerful band coming directly from Greece. Are you expecting black metal? Wrong ! This is pure metal with some death metal influences in some parts and interesting vocals that give a different feeling from the one expected (sort of gurttural in some parts and thrash in others). I find interesting how this guys have taken influences from eighties complex thrash and they have modernized the sound and added their own identity to the guitar riffs and to all the music here. The drumming is really good with interesting double bass and changes in rhythm and tempo. There is a lot of technical aprts here and there are some interesting melodies included that give a lot of identity to Crossover. This is a really powerful album judging by the four good tracks (including a Rotting Christ cover) that we have here. I would really like to listen the full version of this killer album that ahs twelve powerful tunes.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: or www.deadsunrecords.com

CRYOGENIC - PARSIFAL 21 (Neon Knights Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Cryogenic

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Cryogenesis, 3- Das Andere, 4- 4, 5- Momentum, 6- Verzweiflung, 7- Synthese, 8- Erste Elegie, 9- Parsifal 21

Cover Art by Cryogenic

This album opens with no mercy showing all the elements that are essential to Cryogenic’s identity: the original riffs that are not of the type that one is accustomed to listen in extreme styles like black metal, then the rhythms that don’t abuse speed, preferring to concentrate in more complex patterns and passages. The vocals here are of the darkest type, mostly sung with a voice that has low and middle range and in some parts screaming and also spoken in others. One of the best things here are the guitar melodies that give a lot of feeling to the music contrasting with the aggression of the riffs and complementing them. The tracks here have a dark feeling that is enhanced with the use of orchestrating keyboards that give an epic quality to Cryogenic’s music. There are some tracks that are sung in german language and that gives a different feeling to the music too. This album is a must.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: neonknights@t-online.de or black-attakk@t-online.de

DAGORLAD - THE END OF THE DARK AGES (independent, 2001)

Produced By: Dagorlad

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Sul Dahr, 3- The Revelation to Mallek, 4- The Cauldron of Death, 5- The Bull of Karos, 6- Neflit, demon from the Depths, 7- the Warriors of the ancient battle of Sulfin, 8- The March of the Dead, 9- The Holy Battle of Vorneas, 10- Epilogue

 Recorded at Luna Mora

A majestic introduction opens this album ...and from beginning to end this album is amazing! The combination of aggression with dark orchestration is really killer and here you can see a band whose music is a great combination of brutality with good musicianship. Here the guitars give a lot of the power to the compositions and at the same time the keyboards give the atmosphere that is needed here. Philippe Gandibleu is the risponsible of the grandiloquence that this album has because he has composed all the tracks here. The album has also the beautiful female vocals done by Tinuviel that constrasts heavily with the more extreme one. The sound is raw and that adds a different side to Dagorlad´s music giving different shapes to the music. A must.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: http://home.tiscalinet.be/dagorlad

DANDELION WINE - LIGHT STREAMING DOWN (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Nicholas Albanis and Naomi Henderson

Tracks: 1- Begin Journey, 2- Light Streaming Down, 3- Les Parapluies Qui Ont Mange Les Paris, 4- To Drown is to Follow, 5- Cella´s Movement, 6- Begin Journey (Rejiggered)

Cover Art by mikegaal.com

An extremely beautiful female vocal open this album (Naomi Henderson is amazing in delivering this lines that send chills down your spine) creating the atmosphere that will prevail through all this amazing recording. The melodies that this voice creates takes you into a journey with a calm atmosphere that when combined with keyboards or guitars brings many pagan images to your mind. This is an album that is ideal to listen with the lights out because in that situation you can appreciate. Imagine a darker Dead Can Dance combined with the most obscure Kari Rueslåtten to just have a small idea of what Dandelion Wine does. Each composition is cleanly and perfectly developed and the use of amazing arrangements is essential for Dandelion Wine´s music. There are parts that have instruments like Cello and flute and this instrumentation add a differnt perspective to the band´s music. An amazing recording

Favorite tracks: All the CD.

Contact: www.dandelionwine.com.au

DANIELE BRUSASCHETTO - POESIA TOTALE DEI MUSCOLI (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Daniele Brusaschetto

Tracks: 1- Canzone per il Disagio, 2- Palla Bianca con Scritta Rossa, 3- Poesia Totale Dei Muscoli, 4- Matilda, 5- Spring Can, 6- Silvestro, 7- Dondolo il Cervello, 8- Arancione d´oro e marrone, 9- Utopico Drink, 10- Se lo Faccio Morirei, 11- Il Bambino Tram

Cover Art by Daniele Brusaschetto

 Recorded at Daniele´s House

Always surprising, Daniele Brusaschetto delivers here a new album full of his experimentation. Here Daniele is not as obscure as in some of his previous albums, preferring to explore a different side of his musical personlaity. As always his guitar delivers interesting arpeggios adn sounds that are created within a song context. There are vocals in italian language sung by Daniele and his voice fits really well the music that he composes. THere are songs that are more calm than others such as "Spring Can" showing an instrospective side of Daniele´s music. Daniele has no limit on this album creating amazing passages and developing new ideas on each track. Pure experimentation with a side where you can listen the album without being overwhelmed by the experimentation.

Favorite tracks: "Poesia...", "Spring Can" and "Utopico Drink"

Contact: www.danielebrusaschetto.com

DARK LUNACY - DEVOID (Metal Blade, 2001)

Produced By: Mike Lunacy and Enömys

Tracks: 1- Dolls, 2- Stalingrad, 3- Forlorn, 4- Frozen memory, 5- Cold Embrace, 6- December, 7- Devoid, 8- Varn Ka, 9- Time for Decay, 10- Fall, 11- Take my Cry

 Cover Art by Pumpkin´s Crew

 Recorded at Sliver Music Studio

This is DarkLunacy´s album previous to "Forget Me Not" and listening to this one is really good to appreciate the evolution of the band in the last couple of years. The ideas that surprised and amazed on "Forget..:" were already present on this superb album. Here the band opens with some violin combined with ehavy riffs in "Dolls". Do you think a band can combine perf4ectly utter heaviness with death metal vocals with technical guitar riffs and interesting orchestration and arrangements. Well, here Dark Lunacy shows how this must be done in order to achieve a masterpiece of dark and atmospheric death metal which I would called atmospheric and progressive death metal due to the complexity of some of the arrangements. There are many melancholic moments with violin and strings and also amazing female vocals. This is a must and this band is a classic !!!

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.darklunacy.com

DARK LUNACY - FORGET ME NOT (Fuel Records, 2003)

Produced By: Enomys

Tracks: 1- the dirge, 2- Lunacyrcus, 3- Fragile Caress, 4- Through the Non-Time, 5- Defaced, 6- Serenity, 7- My Dying Pathway, 8- Fiamm, 9- Lacryma, 10- Die to Reborn, 11- Forget me not

Cover Art by Bloodygirl

 Recorded at Frozen Sound Studio

 "The Dirge" is the name of the violin intro that opens this album full of feelings and full of dark beauty. Dark Lunacy transports us to a world full of darkness with their haunting melodies combined with the aggression of their guitar riffs. Here we have a band that has created this really extreme album with a lot of double bass drumming and fast riffs combined with a string section that clashes and interacts heavily with the band. This is one of the most powerful bands in this style and they have really good musicianship. You can see this in the multiple tempo changes, in the arrangements done with the guitars and with the strings. Also there is a lot of orchestration that is the essence of the band creating the dark atmosphere that Dark Lunacy needs. This album also has a really good mix, specially the drums are killer in the mix sounding loud and almost machine like sounding. A must.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.darklunacy.com

DARKESTRAH - SARY OY (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Asbath

Tracks: 1- Part I: Sary Oy, 2- Part 2: Jashil Oy, 3- Part 3: Kyzil Oy

Cover Art by Kriegtalith

 Recorded at Vladius Studio, Kyrgustan

"Sary Oy" opens with some string instrument that plays a beautiful rhythm with folk shades while the wind blows in the background. Then enters some wind melody played with sadness and a dark feeling on it. This is pure pagan metal and you realize that when the whole band enters getting into an elaborated kind of black metal with climatic guitar riffs that add melodies and heaviness and with keyboards that give the dark atmosphere to the tracks and orchestrate them. There are some blast beats here at full speed and they are accompanied by keyboards that play chord progressions keeping the darkness in the fastest parts. The main thing here is the combination of heaviness created by guitars and the black metal type of voice and with climatic passages created by the keyboards. The band sounds raw and I would mix the guitar a little bit higher in order to give even more heaviness to the songs. Thumbs up for the keyboards that embellish each of the tracks here in a really good way. Dark pagan metal done with interesting ideas !!

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: darkestrah@mail15.com

DAWN OF AZAZEL - VITA EST MILITIA SUPER TERRAM (Independent, 2001)

Produced By: Dawn of Azazel

Tracks: 1- Monarch of Bloodshed and eternal victory (solar invictus), 2- Conqueror Throned, 3- Triumph Upon Equinox, 4- Bloodforged Abdication

 Cover Art by Dawn of Azazel

 Recorded at Helios Studios

"Monarch of Bloodshed and Eternal Victory" opens in a really extreme way this four track release. Here we have the most extreme black metal that can be imagined. Starting with the ultra raw guitar sound that demolish the lsitener with the first riff with their chainsaw like sound. The comes the bestial drumming full of cymbal use and blast beats (this guy Phillip Osbourne is extremely fast ). The vocals are ultra bestial full of screaming and also with some guttural voice that does some bestial counterpoints. There are some riffs that wouldn´t be out of place in some brutal death metal band and those are the more midpaced where the band sounds really heavier than hell. The sound is extremely raw and sometimes chaotic creating a really extreme release. Pure bestiality within a black context.

Favorite tracks: "Monarch..." and "Conqueror Throned

Contact: dawnofazazel@hotmail.com

DEATH DIES - PRODUCT OF HATE (Black Tears of Death Recs. , 2003)

Produced By: Death Dies

Tracks: 1- Thorazine, 2- Death Dies, 3- Sundown, 4- Hateproduct, 5- Day of Doom, 6- False Philosophers, 7- Blasphemous Invocation, 8- Faust 2000, 9- Unholy Revenge, 10- The Circle, 11- Roots of Chaos, 12- Trigger

 Cover Art by Hieronimous Bosch

 Recorded at Infernal Studio

Pure raw yet technical black metal. This band delivers here twelve tracks of black emtal with a combination of fast riffs and more technical and twisted ones. The band sounds tight and this is essential here to make the technical passages and the multiple tempo changes sound correctly. One thing here to remark is that this album has been really well mixed specially in drums and guitars allowing each of the instruments to be heard perfecly and really clear. The dark feeling that this album has reflects all the hatred that the band wanted to deliver on it and they have succeeded in transmiting it to the listener. This is pure black metal full of fast riffs and enjoyable changes done by a really tight band.

Favorite tracks: "Death Dies", "False Philosophers" and "The Circle"

Contact: www.btod.com

DEEP THOUGHT - SOMEWHERE IN THE DARK (Galileo Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Deep Thought

Tracks: 1- Clock, 2- Changing the Rules, 3- Waiting for Darkness, 4- Simple Man, 5- Shadows of the Past, 6- Driving, 7- Ice, 8- Morphios, 9- Mud on the Hill

Cover Art by Simone Stickelberger

 Recorded at DT Air Raid Shelter Studios

Deep though is pure progressive rock and metal. Here the main thing is the excellent development of the songs. Each composition here is really well crafted with multiple instrumental passages. And all of them are full of original melodies. Here we have excellent musicians (I have to remark Dominick´s keyboard thata re omniprescent through all the album playing progressions, melodies and solos. Here you have a band that knows how to make complex arrangements and how to always add new elements to the songs. The guitars sound heavy and interact well with the keyboards, and the vocals are really clean and versatile without abusing high pitches (I liked the middle range of the vocalist). Pure progressive music with multiple ideas and excellent musicianship.

Favorite tracks: "Changing the rules", "Waiting for Darkness" and "Driving"

Contact: www.deepthought.ch or www.galileo-records.com

DEFENDERS OF METAL VOL. 1 - THE SEDUCTION (Man in Black Music, 2003)

Produced By: Man In Black Music

Tracks: 1- JESTERS MOON "Forbidden", 2- MOONLIGHT AGONY "Moonlit Horizon", 3- THE PROWLERS "Incubus", 4- ELEMENT "Pressure", 5- MADOG "Heart of Dragonsteel", 6- HELL CANDIDATES "Dead Keep Dyin´", 7-ANTARES "Shutting the Door", 8- Dr. MASTERMIND "Haunted", 9- METHARIA "Riflesso", 10- VICTIM "Bedlam", 11- ART OF FEAR "Pride of Creation", 12- STILL LIFE "Illusions", 13- RAPID FIRE "Liegia", 14- STAIRWAY "Under the Gun", 15- RAIN "Only for the Rain Crew", 16- MERCURY RAIN "Bride of the Dark", 17- SABATAN "Terror Mind", 18- BABYLON "The Sleeper"

This eighteen track compilation is a good opoportunity to listen to diverse metal genres and to listen to bands that you didn´t know before. Here we have bands like Jester´s Moon , Metharia or Sabatan whose music we have reviewed in the past but we also have the instrumental power metal of Moonlight Agony from Sweden (this guy with a better sound, specially on drums will kick ass!) or we have also the eighties sounding spped metal of The Prowlers or even the rocking sound of Element from the USA. There is a good sample here of many different styles and that is excellent because here you have something for very different tastes. The sound of the tracks depends on the band some are better than the other (for example Rapid Fire from Poland has one of the best sounding tracks). If you want to have a good sample of eighteen bands in metal then this is really a good compilation for you.

Favorite bands: Moonlight Agony,

Contact: www.maninblackmusic.com

DEMONCY - EMPIRE OF THE FALLEN ANGEL (Red Stream Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Demoncy

Tracks: 1- Enchanted Woods of Forgotten Love, 2- The Obsidian Age of Ice, 3- Empire of the Fallen Angel, 4- Night Song (Apocalyptic Down), 5- Sepulchral Whispers, 6- Shadows of teh Moon (The Winter Solstice), 7- My kingdom Enshrouded in Necromantical Fog, 8- Warmarch of the Black Hordes, 9- The Ode to Eternal Darkness

Cover Art by Juanjo Castellano

 Recorded at Dark Art/Finlaggan Studios

If I had to describe Demoncy´s music with only one word I would say: HATRED !! The ultra fast riffs played in the most extreme black metal way fit perfectly the fastest of blast beats that the drummer Ixithra plays here. And the vocals are really extreme adding a lot of the unholiness to the music spitting the lyrics with full hate. There are multiple changes in tempo that add variation to each of the track (I hve to say that this album has a good sound where the drums and the guitars shine and ar not buried in the mix as in many bands of the style happens). There is good musicianship here and that is evident in the way the compositions are developed changing from one rhythm to another without making it sound incoherent. This is pure black metal done in a really good way. Lovers of supreme darkness will surely enjoy it

Favorite tracks: "The Obsidian age...", "Sepulcharal Whispers" and "My Kingdom..."

Contact: www.redstream.org or www.demoncy.net

DENIM AND LEATHER - TOO DAMN LOUD !! (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Denim and Leather

Tracks: 1- Watch out, 2- Fist in the Air, 3- Hatred, 4- Gangland, 5- More You Sweat, 6- Lot to Lose, 7- Free Country

Cover Art by D.A.L.

 Recorded at Estudio Paulo B.

Pure metal from this brazilian band. Here we have a band that has a really eighties feeling in their music. We have on this album plenty of heavy metal riffs combined with some thrash influences in the vein of all the early bands of the style such as early Metallica, early Anthrax or even Exodus. There are multiple changes in rhythms and riffs and I liked specially the rhythmic moments with some technical twists. The album has a raw mix that adds more to the eighties feeling making the guitars sound powerful yet with an early thrash feeling on them. This is a really good pure emtal album and I think this is good for people who like to listen metal in a way that is not so common nowadays.

Favorite tracks: "Hatred", "Lot to Lose" and "Watch Out"

Contact: www.denimandleather.cjb.net

DENY LIFE - FROM THE ASHES OF HATE (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Deny Life

Tracks: 1- Negative IQ, 2- Stone Cold, 3- Obey your television, 4- Killing an Artist, 5- The Kill/Till I Die, 6- Face the Day

 Cover Art by Deny Life

 Recorded at La Grange

This is what I call a rawer than fuck album! On this six tracks you will be blown away by the brutality of Deny Life´s music. Here we have chainsaw like guitars played over a fast drumming that changes tempo turning tracks like "Negative IQ" into slower monsters with utter heaviness. The voices here are really extreme but not totally guttural. Here the vocals are clear and powerful and the lyrics are not buried in the mix thanks to that. I liked that the band prefers to engage in more rhythmic passages instead of abusing speed as most bands in the style do. Here we have some hardcore and some thrash influences, that along some death metal get mixed in Deny Life´s style. There is also on this MCD a cover of Napalm Death´s "The Kill" done in Deny Life´s way. This is pure energy where every fucking note is played in order to blast you !!

Favorite tracks: "Stone Cold", "Negative IQ" and "Face the Day"

Contact: guillotpierre@hotmail.com

DENY LIFE - SOUNDTRACK TO A MASS RIOT (independent, 2003)

Produced By: Deny Life

Tracks: 1- Born to get Bored (Sweet Destiny), 2- Carcerale Sodomie, 3- jah, 4- Lobotomie Televisuelle, 5- Darkness, 6- The Ballad of Seth Putnam

 Recorded at La Grange

Some feedback sound open this newer work from this killer band. This time the band sound heavier than in their "From the ashes..." album that we have just reviewed. Most of this heavier sound is due to the heavier sound and better mix of the guitars. Yes, the sound is still raw but on this album is much more compact allowing the instruments to impact your brain in a more brutal way. The vocals are still extreme and they have some efect on them that distorts them a little bit more than in their previous album. As always the rhythm section is extremely solid and their work is essential for the heaviness of the band. As in the previous album, I liked the more rhythmic (and also the more slow paced) riffs (you can hear plenty of them in "Born to get Bored" just to name a track ) where the band reaches its climax in power and heaviness. This is a band that we have to keep an eye on in the future. Pure blasting energy.

Favorite tracks: "Born to get Bored", "Carcerale Sodomie" and "Darkness"

Contact: guillotpierre@hotmail.com

DESPOND - SUPREME FUNERAL ORATION (Haceldama Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Richard Loudin

Tracks: 1- Rains, 2- Once in the Hole, 3- Serenity in Darkness, 4- Stellar Ways to the Everliving, 5- Grief, 6- Moonlight Suicide

 Cover Art by Richard Loudin and Nicolas Favard

 Recorded at Mournful Studios

The most depressive kind of music is unleahed here by Richard Loudin the brain behind all the music that you will listen on this album. Here everytyhing is dark, oppressive, full of anguish and sadness. Tracks like "Moonlight Suicide" explains all this feelings in their lyrics and through the music. The tracks here are long and well developed combining dark passages with cleaner guitar and more deppresive parts with slow guitar riffs and dark melodies. The vocals are really obscure and transmit despair to the lsitener. I have never seen an album with a title so well used. Yes, "Supreme Funeral Oration" describes perfectly what Despond is about. This could be music for a funeral because of its inherent sadness. Remember old My Dying Bride ("As the Flowers wither" era) ? Well, this is slower and darker and taken to the extremes in every sense: in heaviness, in the doom guttural vocals, in the use of the sadest of melodies. This is the doom metal album of 2003 and I really enjoyed it. A killer release. If you have not comitted suicide after listening to it it menas that you have real strength of mind.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.haceldama.com

DETRIMENTUM - A MONUMENT TO THE SUFFERING (Grindethic Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Detrimentum

Tracks: 1- The first three circles of hell (Epitaph for the disfigured), 2- Regurgitate the Putrescence (Spiritual Scarification), 3- Spell of Miserable Incantation, 4- The Soul Ebbing Away, 5- Odyssey Through Torment ( The Path Towards Ruin)

A release full of bestiality where every fucking note is played in order to destroy the listener with utter violence. This is really extreme brutal death metal with a good mix that makes things even more bestial. Double bass drumming at the speed of sound, blast beats, hyper fast guitar riffs played with a huge sound, guttural and screaming vocals ripping apart the guitar riffs with all their power. All this things and more are on this really extreme album ! Here we have a good sounding album that is meant to be played really loud (check the sound of ths guitars when they are played at full volume ...if you can resist the impact. This is an album full of brutality but at the same time full of good bestial ideas.

Favorite tracks: "Spell of..." , "The soul..." and "Odyssey..."

Contact: www.grindethic.co.uk

DIES ATER - CHANTING EVIL (Neon Knights Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Dies Ater

Tracks: 1- Bitter Winter Waft, 2- Chanting Evil, 3- Dethrone the weak - Mortality, 4- the last of storms, 5- Der Schweur - Part III, 6- Der Wächter, 7- Gentle Eclipse, 8- Rausch der Macht

Cover Art by Dies Ater

An opening with some sounds and a really heartful yet dark melody with keyboards opens this album that is pure black metal played really tight and with and with many ideas in the guitar riffs department. Yes, here the guitars don[t play only fast notes to deliver riffs in the black metal way. In fact, the guitars combine fast riffs with others thata re more twisted and more complex. The band is really comfortable at changing a lot the pace of the compositions and the rhythms and I really liked the orchestrations done by the keys. The more black metal vocals are intertwined with clean vocals that add a feeling of anguish and some beauty to the songs. The sound of the recording is raw in the guitars but very powerful. And the sound is not muddy as in many bands of the style ( I think that this clearer sound gives even more power to the band). Here we have black metal with good musicianship and arrangements.

Favorite tracks: "Gentle Eclipse", "The Last of Storms" and "Chanting Evil"

Contact: neonknights@t-online.de or black-attakk@t-online.de

DIMENTIANON - SEVEN SUICIDES (Paragon Recs. , 2003)

Produced By: Dimentianon

Tracks: 1- Self Inflicted Abuse, 2- A Song for Elisabeth when she is dead, 3- Soulless Extinction, 4- Last of Seven, 5- Brotherhood of the 7^th day, 6- Razorblade catharsys (Selbstmordkönig), 7- Dead + Forgotten

 Cover Art by D.Olivencia

.We reviewed some issues back the band´s previous release and this new one has emphasized the darker side of the band making it sound even more obscure than in their previous effort. Here we have the darkest riffs with interesting orchestration. We still have the guttural vocals (this time witha more introspective approach that fits better the music contained on this album). But the main thing here is the interesting guitar work that is the heart and soul of the compositions here. The riffs are aggressive and original without abuse of the fast runs or one note riffs, using instead a mix of fast riffs with more melodic ones. The sound is a little bit muddy, specially on guitars (that are mixed a little bit low for my taste) but that doesn´t opaque the good work that the band has achieved here. Total Darkness with good musicianship.

Favorite tracks: "Self Inflicted Abuse", "Last of Seven " and "Brotherhood..."

Contact: www.paragonrekords.cjb.net

DISSECTED - HARMONIOUS CONCERTOS FOR CADAVERIC REQUIEMS (Independent, 2000)

Produced By: Dissected

Tracks: 1- Empyaema (liquefy till putrefy), 2- Pernicious Anemia, 3- Cerebrospinal fluid and vitreos humour, 4- Puncture and Pustule, 5- Gorespattered Instruments, 6- Verminous Ptomatophagous

 Recorded at Active Studio

This album opens up with "Empyaema" an instrumental track that is completely different from what I expected. In fact, I thought that Dissected was a straight and simple grind band but I was wrong. The track "Empyaema" opens up in a really heavy rock fashion, full of dissonances and fast parts and then comes the most grinding stuff with "Pernicious Anaemia". This guys are extremely raw and their music is effective in delivering. Tracks like "Cerebrospinal..." are a mix of this two styles with parts that are really fast and wild and other riffs that leave more space for developing arrangements. The combination of blast beats with heavy riffs that are played sometimes at the speed of light and sometimes more rhythmically are a trademark of Dissected´s sound. The overall sound of the recording is extremely raw and that makes their music even more aggressive. Coming directly from Greece here you have really extreme music !

Favorite tracks: "Empyaema", "Puncture and Pustule" and "Verminous.."

Contact: dissected99@yahoo.com

DISSECTED / SLAUGHTERGRAVE - SPLIT CD (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Dissected and Slaughtergrave

SLAUGHTERGRAVE: 11- Epidemic bacterial war, 12- Violation of personality, 13- Slaughtergrave, 14- Death, 15- Hostility, 16- Desecration of domination, 17- Rats in the sewer, 18- Eternal Hypocrites, 19- Dear Stinky Cunt, 20- Grind Prix

A really brutal split CD this album opens up with Dissected and their special type of grind with multiple influences and sudden burst of power crowned by fast blast beats. As we said in the previous review Dissected is not a common grind band because they use elements from other styles into their own music creating a style on their own. Then comes Slaughtergrave which is more of a straightforward brutal death metal band with some grinding elements. Their music is fast and aggressive and they have powerful guitars (even if the mix is not that good on this album). There is a combination here of grinding drumming with blast beats in some parts and some thrash/old school death metal drumming that leaves more space for developing interesting riffs and arrangements. A really brutal split CD !

Slaughtergrave: "Death" and "Slaughtergrave"

Contact: dissected99@yahoo.com or dissected@mail.gr

DITCHWATER - SEES ME THROUGH (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Chris Djuricic

Tracks: 1- Its Over, 2- Sees me through, 3- Thankless

Cover Art by Skube

 Recorded at Studio One

This guys have evolved since the 2 song CD that I reviewed in early 2002. There songs are more concise, they are as powerfula s the old ones and they have some interesting vocals that make them extremely memorable, specially "Its Over" (thius track can be a metal hit). One thing that is much better here is the sound. Yes, the mix, specially on guitars and drums that sound more compact on this MCD. There are influences of modern metal and also of classic bands like Anthrax that in my taste gives extra points to this band. Here you have a good powerful band that is constantly evolving and whose releases are always of good quality.

Favorite tracks: Both

Contact: www.ditchwater.com

DOGMA IVS - DUNKELHEIT UND LICHT (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: andy Wand, Schorsch Classen and Dogma IVS

Tracks: 1- Depression: Parasit: Depression, 2- Europas Sturz, 3- Feuersturm, 4- Hasscontainer, 5- Dunkelheit und Licht

Cover Art by Mero

 Recorded at Stage One Studios

A powerful opening with the rhythmic "Depression: Parasit: Depression" is enough to give you an idea of what Dogma IVS iks about: pure power. Here we can listen to huge guitars delivering riff after riff that are consciously done in the most devastating way that is possible. A good thing here is to listen to this guys playing this brutal riffs with some modern metal influences and combine it with a voice that sometimes sound more guttural and sometimes more shouting givving a different feeling of agression, energy and power on each track. The drumming is crushing, and this guy Sebastian presfers to play open rhythms with more heaviness than simple faster than the speed of light ones. But there are also some thrashing drums patterns in tracks like "Europas Sturz". I have to remark the good sound that this recording has due to the mix that is clear and emphasize each instrument. This is like the missing link between death metal, thrash metal and modern metal. Pure power. Ideal to see in a live situation.

Favorite tracks: The five

Contact: www.dogmaIVS.com

DREAGGAN - STILL FIGHTING (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Dreaggan

Tracks: 1- Return of Wolves (intro), 2- The Hammer of War, 3- Die Bastard Die, 4- Face the Truth, 5- The train of Death, 6- The will to kill

Cover Art by Thomas Lombard

 Recorded at Studio Jalucine

A majestic intro called "Return of Wolves" begins with orchestration and then turns into pure metal with interesting elaborated riffs that alter are combined with some acoustic guitar passage. Up to that moment Dreaggan looks like a progressive metal but with heavier guitars. Then comes "The Hammer of War" that is pure heavy metal with some thrash metal influences in the heavier parts. I like the way this guys have taken elements from eighties metal, added modern sound and influences and turn all that into their own particular and original sound. Plus the keyboards add a different feeling in tracks like "The hammer..." adding an epic feeling to the aggression and power of the rest of the band. The album has a raw sound that gives more power to the band compared if it had been more polished and also adds a distinctive sound to the guitars and the drums. This is pure metal with an eye in the past and taking the music to the future.

Favorite tracks: "The Hammer of War", "Die Bastard Die" and "The train to Death"

Contact: www.dreaggan.fr.st

EDENBEAST - PROZAC PARTYSONGS PROMO 2002 (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Asmus Thomsen and Edenbeast

Tracks: 1- Frameworld, 2- Embrace the Neon Sun, 3- The Heart Cages

Cover Art by Chris Z.

 Recorded at Senderborghus

An intro and two tracks are enough to give us a taste of what Edenbeast is about. This band from Denmark is killer and their style is melodic death metal with technical arrangements. The main thing here are the guitar riffs that constitute de essence of Edenbeast´s music. They are twisted and complex and in some places turn into more open to allow some melody to develope contrasting with the guttural vocals. This melodies make really memorable parts through the two compositions that we have here. There is heavy use of guttural vocal combined with a cleaner one and this contrast in vocals gives variations to the music here. The drumming is killer, fast and precise with no abuse of ultra fast drumming and with a really good sound (the drums don´t get lost in the mix as sometimes happens). A good end for this review is that this band has really good musicianship and this MCD left us wanting to listen more from them. Being this MCD from 2002 we hope to listen more from them in 2004.

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: www.edenbeast.dk

ENFORCE - MESSAGE OF DEATH (Sonic Wave Int., 2003)

Produced By: Enforce

Tracks: 1- Testinal Embowelment, 2- Expression, 3- Sick, sick, sick, 4- the law the many y far in between, 5- Message of death, 6- Afterburner, 7- Constellation of Planets, 8- All of You, 9- Born of two worlds, 10- First Assault

Cover Art by Enforce/Graveyard/Sonic Wave

 Recorded at Kix Studio´s

We reviewed in one of the first Music Extreme issues the previosus recording by this Australian band and this "Message of Death" is a big progress from that one soundwise and compositionally. Opening with an interesting bass passage "Testinal Embowlment" introduces the listener into the powerful reign of Enforce. This band plays death metal with a lot of technical passages, some thrash influences and a lot of brutality. Here Enforce sounds more compact and the guitars sound bigger than in the previous recording. One thing that here surprises again are the multiple tempo and rhythm changes that the tracks have progressing from riff to riff really proficiently without missing a beat. The sound of this reciording is much better than the one in their previous "Campfire Night" and that is much better for the band because every effort that they do is truly reflected in the final recording. Enforce is brutality and quality guaranteed for all lovers of metal music.

Favorite tracks: "Message of Death", "Afterburner" and "First Assault"

Contact: www.sonicwaveintl.com/enforce

ENMITY - VOMIT FORTH INTESTINAL EXCREMENT (Amputated Vein Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Rob Weber

Tracks: 1- Divided by Faith, 2- Extracting the Fetal Christ, 3- Inhumanity, 4- Vomit Forth Intestinal Excrement, 5- Perverting the Ministries of Christ, 6- Emotionless Addiction to Butchery, 7- Fleshrot, 8- Perversion and Sodomy

 Recorded at Earbleeding Prods.

Ultra brutal death grind !! THis band is pure brutal death with a lot of grind moments with blast beats. It is really amazing how guttural the vocals are on this album. they are almost like a background sound adding a really extreme feeling to the music here. From beginning to end we have blast beats here. The guitars play riffs at the speed of light developing crushing phrase after crushing lick demolishing the listener every time they change rhythm or tempo. Despite being raw the sound is really compact, specially on drums and guitars and that is one of the main reasons of why Enmity sounds so pwoerful: that is, because they sound wild, extreme and really tight. Deathsters and grindsters will love this one.

Favorite tracks: "Inhumanity", "Perverting..." amd "Emotionless..."

Contact: www.amputatedvein.com

ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & CHRIS FORSYTH - AS IS STATED...BEFORE KNOWN (Evolving Ear / Pax Recordings, 2003)

Produced By: Diaz-Infante

Tracks: 1- The sun is shining, 2- How little observed...half a mile distant, 3- Tomorrow, 4-some years since (the moon, supposing it to be uninhabited), 5- One Afternoon last year, 6- I once carried...from time to time, 7- This same afternoon, 8- On a morning five years ago (touched my trembling ears), 9- Some weeks of close scrutiny, 10- Six minutes last fal, 11- six years

 Recorded at Black Helicopter

Here is the new album of this experimental duo whose music we have reviewd in past Music Extreme issues. On this new album Forsyth and Diaz-Infante deliver intense experimetnation through the eleven tracks thata re on this album . There are more instrospective aprts like in "How little observed..." where Diaz-Infante plays dissonant clean guitar arpeggios over Forsyths dissonances. On this track there is alos some exploration with melodies that is not typical of both musicians. Through all the album this two amazing musicians never stop exploring new sounds and after listening the whole CD you will have thousands of musical ideas going on through your head. This is experimentation at its best level.

Favorite tracks: "How little...", "I once carried..." and "Some weeks..."

Contact: www.evolvingear.com or www.paxrecordings.com

ETERNAL REST - IN THE OLD OF... (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Eternal Rest

Tracks: 1- Intro (Eternal Chaos), 2- Lycanthrope, 3- Malediction, 4- Satanic War, 5- last Act, 6- L´Eternel Combat, 7- Ithaqua Ode, 8- Outro (Enter in Our World of...Perversion)

Cover Art by Tribalchemy

A long keyboards / orchestral introduction opens this "In the Old Of..." and this intro contrasts heavily with the rest of the music that Eternal Rest does and at the same time it complements it really well. Why? Well, because even if the music that Eternal Rest does is a really brutal kind of black metal with some elements of death metal, it has also many climatic moments that combined with the wilder ones built the band´s identity. In the heaviest tracks the guitars deliver huge riffs and also some melodies that are sad and obscure. Plus here we have a programmed drum that add a cold feeling to the band´s music making it sound different even in the blast beats parts. The vocals are really extreme in the most extreme black emtal vein and this voice is essential to achieve the malignant feeling that this type of music must have. There are multiple changes and riffs like the one at 2:41 of "Lycanthrope" are the ones that the band should use more often because they are killer. This is black metal with a good mix of the most extreme moments and the most climatic ones.

Favorite tracks: "Lycanthrope", "Malediction" and "Satanic War"

Contact: www.eternalrest.fr.st

EVIL SILENCE - NO WILL, NO HOPE (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: German Alonso

Tracks: 1- The final Storm, 2- Evil Silence, 3- Hard to Believe, 4- To Build a Fire, 5- Lyrics

Cover Art by

 Recorded at

Coming directly from Colombia here we have Evil Silence, a complex band with a death metal feeling but with multiple keyboards arrangements, many melodic guitar phrases and interesting rhythms. Here we have a band whose only members are German on guitars and Ivan on bass and that on this album are helped by a special guest that played keyboards and programmed the drums. Many of the riffs here are pure heavy metal but played with a heavier sound and the vocals that are really extreme add the death metal feeling and also add a dark feeling to the music. The keyboards orchestrate each of the tracks in a really good way giving another perspective to the music (I find killer the arrangements done even in the fastest parts). This combination of ultra heavy guitars with keyboards and melodies gives a lot of identity to Evil Silence. Plus here we have a lot of keyboards solos !!! Yes, this keyboards develope amazing solos lines that when combined with the guitars give a lot of virtuosis m to the music here. This album is a must for lovers of dark music and also for lovers of aggression and powerful music. A must.

Favorite tracks: "Evil Silence", "Hard to Believe" and "To Build a Fire"

Contact: emailsilence@yahoo.com

EVISCERATED - GUTTED HUMANS (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Eviscerated

Tracks: 1- Gutted Humans, 2- Grinding Gore Feast, 3- Outbreak of Evil

Cover Art by Eviscerated

 Recorded at Studio Diychon

Three tracks of pure gore grind death !! Here we have three tracks that can blast you with their speed and brutality. Here we have blast beats and also some more mid apced riffs that in my opinion are the heavier ones. The recording is really raw as many bands in the style prefer and with strong emphasis on the ultra huge sound of the guitars mixed with a distorted bass. The voclas are the most guttural that you can imagine fitting the gore characteristic of Eviscerated´s music. This is music designed to grind you with its ultra brutal riffs and with the speed of light drumming that it has. Gore freaks will surely love this one and lovers of the msot brutal death metal and grindcore will surely like it too. Gore brutality at its most extreme level.

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: eviscerated@mail.gr

FACTEUR ZERO - DOUCE BARBARIE (Independent,

Produced By: Facteur Zero

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Assez, 3- Belluaires, 4- Bonheur Perdu, 5- Egoiste Redemption

 Recorded at Heresy Studio

A calm intro opens up this album before getting into multiple riffs. Suddenly the band turns into the first track which sounds extremely thrash metal. There are multiple changes in each of the tracks here and that makes each track a unique experience. The vocals sound more extremely (really death metal and guttural) and the combination of both styles is really original The overall sound of the recording is raw and sounds really eighties in some places (track 3 has a riff tat recalls Metallica´s "Ride The Lightning" in the opening). I think that a better mix will make this good compositions shine more. An original work with great influences.transformed and mutated into the Facteur Zero sound.

Favorite tracks: "Assez" and "Bonheur Perdu"

Contact: www.facteurzero.com

FALL OF EMPYREAN - ANHEDONIA (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Aaron Carey

Tracks: 1- Wounded Skies, 2- This Paradise Crumbles, 3- Drowning in Gray, 4- Virga, 5- The Catatonic, 6- Destructive Light of Dawn

Cover Art by Steven Henson

 Recorded at Studio Z/ Pipeline Audio

Climatic keyboards open this album with a melancholic sound before getting into "This Paradise Crumbles", a track full of sorrow and with an inherent beauty that makes you fly along with the acoustic guitar arpeggios and the melodies that are created before the heavier part enters with a really extreme vocals and heavy yet melodic riffs (alla old My Dying Bride). Fall of Empyrean is really deppressive and their music takes you to a dark realm . This band puts a lot of passion in their music and you can feel that through all this recording. Here we have a good combination of melancholy and heaviness within the same compositions. The sound is raw but clear and specially the cleaner passages have a really deep sound that enhances the feelings that the band is trying to show. A strongly recomendable release!!

Favorite tracks: "This Paradise...", "The Catatonic" and "Drowning in Gray"

Contact: www.fallofempyrean.com

FALLING SILENCE - DOG´S LIFE (Independent, 2003

Produced By: Falling Silence

Tracks: 1- Dog´s Life, 2- The Same way for everyone, 3- Sientate un momento, 4- And the beauty of black covered everything, 5- Lost animals, 6- Special thanks to the shit, 7- One against all, 8- Burning the pedestals, 9- The back of medal, 10- Nelle mie note (tutta la rabia), 11- As perfect as you want us, 12- trapalleiros Forajidos, 13- The darkness look for us, call us and tempt us, 14- This is our rage / outro, 15- Can´t live without water

A funny intro with some singing and a girl threatening to punish those who sing starts this album soon getting into "Dog´s Life", a composition with a lor of modern rhythmic riffs and interesting vocals. Here we have a band that combines heavy riffs with alternative rhythmic ideas that makes them sound really original. The tracks here have multiple changes in tempo (just check "Dog´s Life" to see what I am talking about) and in rhythms. But every tracks seems to be done in order to make the crowd mosh and jump in a live situation. One of the best things here are Lore´s vocal, powerful yet sensual emphasizing the riffs and giving atmosphere when the track needs it. This album has a really good mix and that make the band be heard very clearly through the fifteen tracks contained on this album. A really powerful band.

Favorite tracks: "And the bauty of black...", "One against all" and "As perfect..."

Contact: www.fallingsilence.ch

FLESH DIVINE - NECROPOLIS (Perennial Quest Recs. 2003)

Produced By: Flesh Divine

Tracks: 1- Across the brisge, 2- Sun, 3- Enieak, 4- past Future, 5- My Story, 6- Cold, 7- Procession, 8- Pulse, 9- The monkey´s delirium tremens, 10- Silence, 11- A place where, 12- End of Time, 13- Dreamland

 Cover Art by Franck Moesis

 Recorded at 7 Keys Studio

I think the guys in Perennial Quest records have signed really good bands as is evidenced by Dungortheb and this Flesh Divine. This band has combined elements of pure metal with the vocals of the most brutal death metal creating a brutal yet atmospheric type of music. Yes, here we have riffs that sound melodic yet powerful combined with a potent drummer that creates fast rhythm patterns delivering them in a very solid way. And also we have a very extreme vocalist that uses his voice in a very guttural way. The tracks are memorable because of some melodic lines that are thrown in many places by the guitar player called Necrophis who also plays some keyboards. I have to remark the good developing of tracks like "Enirak" that has a memorable rhythm combined with amazing guitar melodies and a good orchestrating keyboard. This is a band with a good sound (I would have mixed the guitar louder in some parts where it becomes a little bit buried by the voice) and many interesting ideas. This is a totally recommendable album.

Favorite tracks: "Pulse", "Sun" and "Past Future"

Contact: http://perennialquest.free.fr

FREE ZONE APPLEBY 2002 (Psi Records, 2003)

Produced By: Evan Parker

CD 2: Pin Drop, 2- Sense, 3- Phantoms, 4- Pica Pica, 5- MGT4ALL, 6- Morsman Octet

 Recorded in Ancient Space, St Michael´s Church, Appleby, England

This is amazing! Two CDs full of improvisations by master musicians in different formats. Here we have solo pieces, duets, trios and quartets of improvisational musaic. But this 2 CDs reach its climax when the eight musicians play all together in an apotheotic octet piece called "Morsman Octet". Here we have some musicians whose works we have reviewed before and whose talent is beyond any doubt. For example we have Evan Parker on sax, John Edwards on bass and Sylvia Hallet on violin and voice. Each musician here knows how to interact cleverly with the other ones and the solo pieces are as always boundary breakers. I have to remark that the quartet pieces sauch as "Ferber String Quartet" and the trios such as "Subject Matters" are equally impressive and it allows the listener to feel how this musicians develope idea after idea with great solvency and originality. Master improvisations !

Favorite tracks: "Whitethroat", "Subject Matters" and "Morsman Octet"

Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

GEORGE BELLAS - VENOMOUS FINGERS (Lion Music, 2003)

Produced By: George Bellas

Tracks: 1- Discovery, 2- Journey to the Stars, 3- Shedding Skin, 4- Above and Beyond, 5- Lightspeed, 6- Unearthed, 7- the Son, 8- Adrenalin Rush, 9- Symphonia I, 10- Symphonia II, 11- One Last Wish, 12- Run for Cover, 13- Forever, 14- Timewarp, 15- Mayhem

Cover Art by BMS

 Recorded at Bellas Music Studios

For lovers of ultra fast guitars played with amazing musicianship George Bellas is like a constant orgasm. Here we have a guy with a really good guitar sound that reminds me of a mix of Yngwie Malmsteen, Greg Howe and Tony Macalpine. Here is a virtuoso that is not afraid of showing his chops and shred you to pieces through fifteen tracks that are contained on this album. Bellas also plays keyboards and bass on this album embelishing with multiple arrangements and chord progressions each of the tracks. There is a lot of neoclassical metal in the music and also a lot of fusion in many of the guitar lines. Bellas delivers each compositions with a majestic feeling showing at each moment how well he plays his guitar and also his skills as a composer. There are some female vocals in some parts embellishing with melodies some parts that need a majestic atmosphere. I recommend this album to any music lover that likes great musicianship and good arrangements.

Favorite tracks: "Journey to the Stars", "Adrenalin Rush" and "Timewarp"

Contact: www.lionmusic.com

GO-GO FIGHTMASTER - GO GO FIGHTMASTER (Pax Recordings, 2003)

Produced By: Pax Recordings

Tracks: 1- Buffy is dead, 2- Dream Song, 3- Go Go Fightmaster, 4- No Memory, 5- Newts in Space, 6- Mistrophy, 7- House Carpenter, 8- mac Attack, 9- the perfect Man

This is pure improvisation within a jazz context. Here we have Aaron Bennett on sax delivering weird lines with some interesting dissonances. Plus we have also John Finkbeiner on guitar and synth creating some interesting basis for each of the tracks. How does this sound? Well, take some of the most experimental King Crimson, then add some Ornette Coleman to it and put a small dose of Allan Holdsworth and you will have just a big picture of how Go-go Figtmaster sound. This is pure experimentation and musical boundaries stretching with no limits. Sometimes the tracks sound more chaotic and sometimes they are more structured but always the main thing is the improvisation. It is remarkable too the work of the rhythm section of Adam Lane on bass and Vijay Anderson on drums. Pure spontaneity.

Favorite tracks: "Buffy is Dead", "No Memory" and "Mac Attack"

Contact: www.paxrecordings.com

GOLEM - DEATH NEVER DIES (Diamond Productions, 2003)

Produced By: Golem

Tracks: 1- ...From beyond, 2- Death Never Dies, 3- Your Deepest Fear, 4- Here Comes the Dark, 5- Something to Remind, 6- The Last Goddess, 7- Against the Sky

Cover Art by Claudio Grilli

 Recorded at Half Moon Studio

A cool intro with clean guitars creating a mystic atmosphere with good taste and good guitar work sends us directly into"Death Never Dies", a burst of pure brutality with technical skills in the guitar riffs and in the rhythms that are played that are complex. The recording is really brutal and it is remarkable the good mix that this album has, specially on guitars and drums. the vocals are really extreme and it is almost like another instrument twisting and turning to fit the music. The band sounds extrmely solid playing technically difficult parts without missing a beat. The seven tracks here leave you wanting more from this killer band. This is pure death metal with good musicianship and technical skills.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.diamond-prod.com

GORATORY - ORGASM INDUCED DIARRHEA (Amputated Vein Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Goratory

Tracks: 1- George Clinton and the 9 Year Old Gutter Slut, 2- Donkey Punch, 3- Total Eclipse of the Fart, 4- Severed Fuck Stump, 5- The Wrath of Pipers Pit, 6- Kiz Nizel Mi Dills Nufus, 7- Preschool Prowler, 8- Pig Fucker, 9- Golden Shower Gladiators, 10- Cream of Fetus, 11- Cottagecheesecunt

 Recorded at Zing Studios

Goratory opens fire with no mercy with an ultra fast discharge in the beginning of "George Clinton..." (a funny name for such an extreme brutal death track) with ablast beat and intense double bass drumming. And this guys combine perfectly this type of ultra brutal parts with more rhythmic ones where the band can develope riffs with good technical skills (I think that the drummer is really precise and that makes the rest of the band tight as hell in their playing). There are interesting short solos like the bass passage in "Donkey Punch" that add a diferent dimension to Goratory´s music. But the main thing here is the extreme bestiality of the tracks that will make you shit in your pants (taking the title of the album we can say "Brutality induced Diarrhea"!!!). As the style needs Goratory has an extremely guttural voice which emphasizes the brutal death metal feeling of the music here. The recording has a good mix specially on the drums (killer double bass sound) that adds a lot of effectivity to the music. Pure brutal / bestial / destructive metal !!

Favorite tracks: "The Wrath...", "Preschool Prowler" and "Pig Fucker"

Contact: www.amputatedvein.com or www.goratory.cjb.net

GORETRADE - RITUAL OF FLESH (From Beyond Prods., 2003)

Produced By: From Beyond Prods.

Tracks: 1- Piercing her Throat, 2- Ritual of Flesh, 3- Ambushing the Ignorance, 4- Bloodstained Altars, 5- Bloody Beings, 6- Hell´s Dominion Butchery, 7- And your blood will be lust, 8- Born of a murderer, 9- postmortem Incision, 10- Laceration

Cover Art by Jon Zig

 Recorded at Produketion Audio Recording Studios

Goretrade is pure brutality in its most extreme form. This is the band that will not give you mercy while they crush your brain with their hyper fast rhythms full of double bass drumming and deadly guitar riffs. I have to remark the amazing role of the rhythm section in this band that create the skeleton for the compositions and add the most extreme patterns to it in order to deliver the ultra brainsmashing death metal that you will listen on this album. The vocals that are extremely guttural as the style demands, when combined with the downtuned guitars that deliver even some ultra fast grind parts (and interesting riffs with pinch harmonics) give the soul to this pure brutal band. Lovers of brutality…check Goretrade !!!

Favorite tracks: "Ritual of Flesh", "Bloody Beings" and "Born of a Murderer"

Contact: www.goretrade.com or www.displeasedrecords.com

GORTHAUR´S WRATH - PAROXYSMS OF MADNESS (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Insanus

Tracks: 1- Plae Dreams in Vacancy, 2- Hear the Voice of Fire, 3- Shadow Mirrors, 4- Unbounded (crossing the frontiers), 5- Paroxysms of Madness, 6- Sin Incarnated, 7- Execration, 8- Resurrection of Damnation

Cover Art by Insanus art graphix

 Recorded at Dungeon Studios

One of the most bestial releases in 2003. And there is one thing that sets Gorthaur´s Wrath apart from other bands in the style. The heavy use of guitars for putting some melodies or some climatic riffs in the middle of really fast ones adding a different feeling. Also, this guys have a lot of technical skills that allows them to play some complex parts (the drummer is killer doing stops and breaks and changing rhythms). The vocals are really guttural giving a lot of brutality to the music. And the vocals are almost like another instrument adding brutality and also some rhythmic qualities to the compositions. This is pure bestiality with good musicianship and many ideas.

Favorite tracks: "Shadow Mirrors", "Execration" and "Sin Incarnated"

Contact: www.gorthaurs-wrath.com

GROBAR - PROMO 2003 (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Grobar

Tracks: 1- Diclofinac, 2- Worminfection, 3- Demonic Mutation, 4- Disease Called Humanity, 5- 50 Seconds of Immense Pain

 Cover Art by Ron

 Recorded at Grobar Rehearsal Room

This raw recording starts with an intro similar to old school death/thrash metal before getting into the extreme death grind that the band does with a lot of power. I have to say that I think that this five tracks have been recorded live in the band´s rehearsal room because of the raw and unpolished sound that this recording has. Nevertheless, this promo shows a band that can grind your brain with their furious riffs (I think that with a better mix this crushing effect can be multiplied). The vocals are really guttural and there is also a screaming type of voice that shrieks with fury on all tracks. There are some slower riffs which I think the band has to emphasize because they are even heavier than the fastest parts. A good effort from this new band.

Favorite tracks: "Worminfection" and "Disease Called Humanity"

Contact: www.grobar.nl

GRUESOME MALADY - INFECTED WITH VIRULENT SEED (Bizarre Leprous Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Gruesome Malady

Tracks: 1- Malodorous Ejaculation, 2- Foul gases Emanating from a Ruptured Anal Tract, 3- Sodomizing the Infirm, 4- Ingest the Excrement, 5- Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay, 6- Lactated on Festering Mamary Pus, 7- Infected with Virulent Seed, 8- Molesting the Disemboweled, 9- Fermented Urine therapy, 10- Embalmed in Fetid Rectal Discharge

Bestiality from beginning to end !!! this guys from Gruesome Malady don´t have mercy for the listener and they devastate you like a Panzer Division but instead of using war tanks they use the monolithic guitar riffs played at full speed with an almost chainsaw like sound, they use the bestial blas t beats that are all over the compositions here and they also use the hyper distorted and guttural vocals that sound like an infested mass of worms coming from the mouth of a dead corpse. This guys sure now what speed is all about and they show it in this ten rotten tracks full of decomposing vocals and spped of light guitar riffs. It is amazing to see that despite this ultra fast tempos the band is really solid being flawless in the tempo changes and in the changing in different parts. Plus we have a cover here of Autopsy´s classic "Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay" Here is grind at its most bestial level. Pure aggression that will decompose your ears into a mass of maggots !!!

Favorite tracks: "Malodorous Ejaculation", "Sodomizing the Infirm" and "Fermented Urine Therapy"

Contact: www.bizarreleprous.cz or bizlepned@hetnet.nl

GRUESOME STUFF RELISH - LAST MEN IN GORE (Motosierra Records, 2003)

Produced By:

Tracks: there are 36 bestial tracks here

 Cover Art by Paolo Deodato

 Recorded at X Recording Studios and Dirty Recording

Sounds of an Italian horror movie open this album whose shattering violence is its main trademark. Here we have a death grind band that delivers ultra fast tracks with a lot of conviction and all the elements that are a characteristic of the style. Here we have the combination of the ultra guttural vocals and screaming one and the hyper fast riffs. But this guys use another type of guitar riffs and rhythms besides the blast beats. Yes, here we have slower parts with more rhythmic quality, such as in the end of "Zombie Creeping Flesh"where the band seems really comfortable in generating this type of rhythmic lines that are slower but heavier. One good thing is the clear sound that the recording has even in the fastest parts where everything is audible (some grind bands have to learn of this). Here there are thirty six tracks of pure grind death madness that are a guarantee of violence and extreme speed in one of the most extreme recordings in metal.

Favorite tracks: All the CD. Pure bestiality

Contact: www.motosierra.cjb.net or www.gruesomestuffrelish.ht.st

IMPERIOUS - IN SPLENDOUR (Retribute Records, 2003)

Produced By: Imperious

Tracks: 1- In Splendour, 2- Fall Below, 3- From Suffering, 4- Kingdom of deceit, 5- God Lied, 6- One With Nothingness, 7- Somber Rapture, 8- Uncreate With might, 9- Impaled, 10- Descend into Oblivion, 11- Lament

 Recorded at Studio Subsonic

Since the first second Imperiosus delivers brutality with no mercy for you and not mercy for your ears (and the neighbours ears if you are playing this really loud as I do). But despite having hyper brutality and ultra fast rhythms and riffs this guys also have place for short but interesting melodic solos and for multiple guitar arrangments thata re the heart and soul of Imperious music. It is remarkable the good musicianship that this guys have letting them construct really interesting and original songs with their brutality (but don´t being limited by their aggression and brutality). The sound of the guitars here is really compact and gives a lot of power to the music and the drumming is kilñler (good double bass work and interesting use of ride cymbal along with brutal snare drum smashing). The recording has a good mix that emphasis the good work that this band has done hear. Brutality with quality !!! 

Favorite tracks: "Fall Below", "From Suffering" and "Descend into Oblivion"

Contact: www.imperious.net or www.retributerecords.com

INCH - ARE YOU GOD (Lost Agony Records, 2003)

Produced By: Sepp Vaterl

Tracks: 1- Zeroed, 2- Forensic Autopsy, 3- Brain Dead, 4- Are You God, 5- Salem, 6- Punish the Guilty, 7- Resistant Marking, 8- 2.54, 9- Born to Die, 10- Perfect

Cover Art by Inch

 Recorded at Digimobil Studios

 Inch´s music is powerful death metal with some old school feeling but with a modern sound that makes their riffs sound bigger and stronger. The music here is extremely aggressive and each riff, each drum beat, each bass line is done in order to devastate your brain. I have to remark the slower parts, such as the one in the middle of "Brain Dead" where the guitars play one crushing line and the bass doubles it but with a really lower sound making eat really demolishing. The vocals are extreme and give a lort of the death metal feeling to the music. I have to remark the drumming with almost blast beats and heavy double bass that is essential to the band´s compositions. The sound is raw but clear, making the sound even more powerful. Pure death metal to melt your ears !

Favorite tracks: "Are you God", "Forensic Autopsy" and "Born to Die"

Contact: www.inch-metal.de

INFERIA - LIVE AT JYVÄSKYLÄ (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Inferia

Tracks: 1- (Intro) Roadtrain Amputee + Excuse Me are you Cigarez, 2- Cunt, 3- Pussy Farts, 4- Hot Golden Mouthwash + Filthy Two Minutes Handjob, 5- HoleCheck (King), 6- Mortify Ones Flesh, 7- Anusferatu, 8- Mike Horner, 9- Harmless Noices, 10- Fast Cock Story, 11- Balls Nailed to the Kitchen Table, 12- Cum Eye

Cover Art by Inferia

 Recorded live in Jyväskylä

 I always liked bands that can sound as good live as when tehy record in studio. And I don´t really like those that have good studio albums but they can not reproduce that same vibe live. Inferia sounds even wilder live than they do in a studio context and I really liked that. The band delivers twelve tracks here of their pure grind/death played at the speed of light, and here you can feel their energy even mroe than in a studio recording. The sound of this recording is not that good but that is compensated with the energy that the band delivers on stage which is fully captured here. Here you have the chainsaw like guitars, the smashing drums and the extraguttural vocals that are Inferia´s trademark. A good testimony of what a band must sound live.

Favorite tracks: "Cunt", "Mortify Ones Flesh" and "Fast Cock Story"

Contact: www.inferia.net

JACKHAMMER - THE ULTIMATE MARTYR (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Jackhammer

Tracks: 1- The Ultimate Martyr, 2- The Worship, 3- Green Fingers Grey, 4- Anti-me

Cover Art by Jackhammer

A good rhythmic guitar riff opens this four song demo. The music is pure metal with some thrash influences in many parts. In fact, I find really interesting the use of eighties thrash styled riffs and rhythms with a modern sound that adds a lot of power to Jackhammer´s music. The songs here are well developed with many changes within the same track (just check 1 to see how good this guys construct a song with many rhythm and tempo changes). The drumming has interesting double bass drumming and the rhythm section as a whole is really tight. The singer is versatile sounding really heavy and reaching in many places some high pitches in the Rob Halford vein. Pure metal ! To sum up this review I have to say that this is a killer pure metal band whose music we have to pay attention in the future !!

Favorite tracks: the four

Contact: klovmusic@hotmail.com

JERUSOLIMA EST PERDITA - MARSCH DER KOLONNE (Forgotten Wisdom Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Jerusolima est Perdita

Tracks: 1- Es dröhnet der Marsch der Kolonne, 2- Zurück in den Nebel II, 3- Der Stoktrupp, 4-Das Stuka Lied, 5- Rivers of Blood, 6- Hall of the Blind

 Cover Art by Jerusolima est Perdita

It is surprising to listen the intro here. It starts with some flute / keyboards on it and then comes some acoustic guitars and then comes this vocals in german singing like an old german folklore tune. Then comes mayhem in the form of pure black metal with some experimental feeling on it. Yes, the experimetnal feeling comes in the form of a military like rhythm done by a programmed drum and over this beats are played distorted guitar riffs and really extreme vocals. Here we have a band that tells us in their lyrics about war and specifically I think about the second world war. The vocals here are really extreme with some resonance in them that add a darker feeling and a weird sound to the compositions. The drums are programmed here and they sound really mechanic in many places (and I think the composers wanted it to sound like this). I would mix louder the guitars in order to interact better with the drums and give even more power to the music. This is a really extreme release that will appeal to lovers of extreme black metal.

Favorite tracks: "Rivers of Blood" and "Das Stuka Lied"

Contact: jep1333@hotmail.com or lordazmoth@voila.fr

JOHN EDWARDS & MARK SANDERS - NISUS DUETS (Emanem Disc, 2003)

Produced By: Martin Davidson

Tracks: 1- Pointing, 2- Painting, 3- Panting, 4- Peeling, 5- Peering, 6- Pouring, 7- Parting

 Cover Art by martin Davidson

 Recorded at Gateway Studios

Mark Sanders starts this improvisational album with an interesting drums passage and then John Edwards starts interacting with him. The track "Pointing" is the prelude to more than fifty minutes of full free improvisation by this two superb musicians. It amazes me how Sanders can create with his instruments extremely intrincate passages that need of a lot of technical skills in order to be played correctly. And Sanders has no limits in his percussion work on this album. We all know the talent of John Edwards with the double bass, and here whe shows what he can do in a duet format. This is a magnificent duets album full of spontaneity and imagination recorded live in the Gateway Studios. I would strongly recommend this album to lovers of originality and spontaneity because on this CD you can find both of this qualities in huge amounts.

Favorite tracks: "Painting", "Peering" and "Parting"

Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

K.K.NULL - ATOMIK DISORDER (Neurot Recordings, 2003)

Produced By: Kazuyuki K. Null

Tracks: 1- :20, 2- 2:40, 3- 3:48, 4- 2:51, 5- 5:09, 6- 4:42, 7- 5:39, 8- 4:00, 9- 3:46, 10- 4:40

 Cover Art by K.K.Null

 Recorded at Prima Natura Studio

This is pure electronics sounds and experimentation with many soundscapes that come directly from the mind of Kazuyuki K. Null. Millions of different ideas are developed within this album and each track is original and completely different from the others. Here Null takes one sound and make a lot of variations with it stretching it, hitting it, turining it into a completely different noise. It is amazing how Null creates passages full of a cybernetic feeling that transports the lsitener to a futuristic world. This is like the soundtrack for a science fiction movie full of machinery. But above all there is the experimentation that Null makes pouring all his ideas into this ten musical pieces. There is also an industrial feeling in this music due to some machine like sounds and noises but mostly we have heavy electronic explorations. Lovers of experimental music will be delighted with K.K. Null !

Favorite tracks: tracks number 3, 6 and 8

Contact: www.neurotrecordings.com or www.kknull.com

KAFFE MATTHEWS - CD ANN (Annette Works, 1997)

Produced By: Kaffe Matthews

Tracks: 1- 5 = Advent Herring, 6- A Hot Bath, 7- 16 = to manson 13, 17- Bus with Olive Smee

Cover Art Concept by Kaffe Matthews

This is Kaffe Matthews first album and it shows here skills as an improviser and as an experimental musician. A particularity of Kaffe´s albums is that she always uses a different technique to record taking different sounds or instruments to explore and stretch their sounds. Here he uses violin and hidden microphones to get sounds in live performances and then twists the sounds into something that you couldn´t have imagined before. There is some sampling too and that allows Kaffe to play a aprt and then interact with some other sampling always letting her imagination fly with no boundaries. She uses a processing system called LiSa here which I don´t have idea of what kind of device is and I would like to ask her in an interview. This album is pure experimentation and Kaffe always explores virgin land in the world of music with great results.

Favorite tracks: "To manson 13" and "Advent Herring"

Contact: www.annetteworks.com

KAFFE MATTHEWS - CD BEA (Annette Works, 1998)

Produced By: Kaffe Matthews

Tracks: 1- 4 = A Custom Skylark, 5-15 = the Red Room (part one), 16-20 = Long thin Room, 21-22 = Subwired, 23-26= The Red Room (part 2)

Cover Art by Kaffe Matthews

 Recorded at a rock club in Chicago, a bookstore in Baltimore, a cafe in Detroit and a gallery in Philadelphia

Kaffe continues on this second album her exploration of sounds. And it is always amazing to listen her musica and also to read the notes in the CD envelope in order to know how this musical pieces were recorded (they are all live recordings from a ten date US touring) and also to know the feelings that Kaffe was experiencing while recording this. On this album Kaffe uses a violin and streteches the sound of the isntrument into worlds of other sounds developed by her through different means. Here it is almost like having more than one musician experimenting because there are sounds that appear and then vanish and then reappear interacting with other sounds that follow a similar path (I really don´t know how Kaffe does all this music). This are over seventy minutes of improvisations and of sound exploring and experimenting. As always Kaffe delivers the best in this type of music. A beautiful yet intriguing album.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.annetteworks.com

KAFFE MATTHEWS - CD CÉCILE (Annette Works, 1999)

Produced By: Kaffe Matthews

Tracks: 1-3 = Contact C, 4- 12 = My love gave ma a Blue Plastic Watch, 13-19= Skagerrak

 Recorded in Oslo, London and Chicago

 On thsi album Kaffe Matthews shows her experimentations in a live environment using violin scraps and many other elements that she turns into multiple sounds and noises. Here Matthews show how she can distort a sound or how she can make it sound rhythmically like in the third part of "Contact C". The heavy use of electronics that deliver this soundscapes is a trademark of Kaffe´s music. It is amazing to see her develope compositions that are almost half an hour long surprising always with new sounds. This album is almost 70 minutes of originality, improvisation and spontaneity in music with heavy experimentation.

Favorite tracks: All "My Love gave me a blue plastic watch"

Contact: www.annetteworks.com

KAFFE MATTHEWS - CD DD (Annette Works, 2000)

Produced By: Kaffe Matthews

Tracks: 1- 8 = In Search of a Bun, 9-14 = The Last of the Violins, 15 = Pool in the Basement

Cover Art by Patrick. Macklin

 Recorded in Brussels, Bologna and Glasgow

This is Kaffe´s fourth album and here she is experimenting in a live situation taking sounds from this live environment and turning into different soundscapes. Here the experimentation reaches a climax on each of the three pieces (divided in many parts each) and she developes countless sounds, noises and vibrations. It is amazing how this long pieces develope one into another going from one sound to the other and at the same time don´t sounding chaotic. Kaffe Matthews goes from really ambient sounds to static noises within the same track and this changes add a lot of dynamics to her music. Here we have a lot of experimentation and mind opening excperiences. This is an album meant to break musical boundaries.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.annetteworks.com

KAFFE MATTHEWS - CD EB + FLO (Annette Works, 2003)

Produced By: Kaffe Matthews

CD Flo: 1- Much Room, 2- Corner, 3- Mni, 4- In the Dust, 5- Chem Trails, 6- Boy With Dog, 7-Dashes Five, 8- Drop Time

This are the latest two albums by Kaffe Matthews all in one packaging. I wonder why it seems that Kaffe titles each album with a name starting with each alphabet letter (Ann, Bea, Cecile, DD). This is curious as it is the music here full of sounds that are twisted, procesed, transformed, sampled into new forms by the limitless mind and soul of Kaffe Matthews. As always this recordings are taken from Kaffe´s live presentations and I can imagine her audiences with their mouth opens in disbelief while listening her experimentations. Here there are more than 100 minutes of pure experimentation with sound and noises and it seems to me that here Kaffe has surpassed her previous releases. CD EB is quieter and more introspective while CD FLO is more intense and full of sounds. Here you have plenty of compositions where you have to use both speakers because the sounds will appear in the left and then in the right one and stuff like that. This is one of the best experimetal recordings in 2003 and it is recommended to all who love this type of experimental music. 

Favorite tracks: Both CDs

Contact: www.annetteworks.com

KENNY WHEELER - DREAM SEQUENCE (Psi Records, 2003)

Produced By: Evan Parker

Tracks: 1- Unti, 2- Drum Sequence, 3- Dream Sequence, 4- Cousin Marie, 5- Nonetheless, 6- A Flower is a Lovesome Thing, 7- Hearken, 8- Kind Folks

 Cover Art by Caroline Forbes

 Recorded at Gateway Studio

This is an album of pure melody and imagination in different formats. Here we have one composition on each format, except for there are two quintets. Here Kenny Wheeler plays his flugelhorn in solo format, in duos, trios, quartets, quintets and sextets. This menas that Wheeler is here joined by great musicians such as Tony Levin on drums, John Parricelli on guitars and Chris Laurence on bass, among others. The result is eight beautiful compositions where the sound of Wheeler´s flugehorn interacts amazingly with the other instruments (check the beautiful "Unti" to see how amazing can this sounds be). The compositions are in a jazz context which I liked a lot letting melody and spontaneity shake hands while creating new passages of virtuosity and beauty. A must for jazz lovers and also for improvisers and everybody who likes great music.

Favorite tracks: "Kind Folks", "Unti" and "Hearken"

Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

KHANATE - THINGS VIRAL (Southern Lord Recs., 2003)

Produced By: James Plotkin

Tracks: 1- Commuted, 2- Fields, 3- Dead, 4- Too Close Enough to Touch

Mixed by James Plotkin

This is kind of super group of experimental extreme music. Here we have James Plotkin (O.l.d, etc.) joined by Stephen O´Malley (Lotus Eaters) and Alan Dubin (ex O.L.D.) delivering this compositions full of experimental sounds. On this album we have four long experimental tracks (the shortest one is nine minutes long) full of intense sonic exploration with some background screaming and some metal elements (this is not similar to anything you have listened before, this is pure experimentation within a doom context). there are doom sounds here and there and everything is in a really slow tempo. But the main thing here is exploring atmospheres creating sound waves that superimpose one over each other delivering interesting passages full of dark landscapes. This reminds me of the first O.L.D. albums in some aprts but Plotkin and company are exploring here new grounds achieving great results. Pure experimentation taken to the extreme.

Favorite tracks: "Commuted" and "Dead"

Contact: www.southernlord.com

KILL BY INCHES - KILL BY INCHES (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Kill By Inches

Tracks: 1- Man With No Country, 2- Bomb the City, 3- Tear it Up, 4- Seven days till Dawn

 Cover Art by Steve Wacksman

 Recorded at Sabella Studios

A powerful album from beginning to end. Good rhythms and a lot of tightness of the band. One thing to remark is the feeling of the vocalist that knows how to fit the music perfectly. there are many changes in mood and tempo in the songs being some parts more climatic and some more aggressive. The guitars here sound huge !! And I mean it, really big sound with full distortion and a really compact sound that makes each riff really effective. The overall result here is a raw sounding powerful recording with influences of bands like Crowbar, MAchine Head but the four tracks on this album left me wanting more from this band and I hope they record new material really soon

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.killbyinches.com

KILLAMAN - KILLAMAN (Displeased Recs. , 2003)

Produced By: Killaman and Berno Paulsson

Tracks: 1- Game Over, 2- Hatekill, 3- God Told Me To, 4- Pistol Whipped, 5- Breed on Kills, 6- No Hope, no fear, 7- Detected, Selected and Shot, 8- A World of Shit, 9- Nihilist and Proud, 10- Global Murder Cleansing, 11- In Darkness Stalking Human Life

Cover Art by Killaman

 Recorded at Berno Studio

With no doubt this is one of the most aggressive releases in 2003 !!! Starting at full speed with "Game Over" the band delivers devastating guitar riff after crushing riff and they reduce your brain to ashes. This guys have taken elements of death metal, specially in the vocal department and they have taken some other elements of modern metal, such as the guitar riffs (played with a heavier than hell sound) to create the Killaman sound. I have to give the palm to the drummer because he is killer adding double bass drumming, fast patterns, some blasts here and there and never missing a beat. I have to remark also the incredible sound that this album has (put the volume up and you will see). Killaman has come to destroy you all!!!!

Favorite tracks: "Hatekill" , "Nihilist and Proud" and "Breed on Kills

Contact: www.displeasedrecords.com

KING DIAMOND - THE PUPPET MASTER (Metal Blade Recs. , 2003)

Produced By: King Diamond

Tracks: 1- Midnight, 2- The Puppet Master, 3- Magic, 4- Emerencia, 5- Blue Eyes, 6- The Ritual, 7- No More Me, 8- Blood to Walk, 9- Darkness, 10- So Sad, 11- Christmas, 12- nLiving Dead

Cover Art by Brian J Ames

 Recorded at Los Angered Recording, Nomad recording, Solnasound Recording and King´s House

With no doubt this album ranks with the previous "Abigail II" as the best albums of King Diamond in the last ten years. This albums are quite similar to classics like the great "Abigail" or to "Fatal Portrait" which are milestones in the history of metal. This time King tells us a story of puppets made of dead people flesha dn continues emphasizing his horror stories with his heavy music which has developed into his unique sound that is so characteristic. As always he has a solid band with him including his long time companion Andy La Rocque and Mercyful Fate´s Andy Sneap along with Hal Patino on bass and Matt Thompson on drums. The album opens with an intro and the title track which is one of the best tracks here showing all the elements that have made King so famous: heaviness, melodies, dark atmospheres and many interesting arrangements. The master of horror continues his dark career with this new album.

Favorite tracks: "The Puppet Master", "Blood to Walk and "Darkness"

Contact: www.metalblade.com

KLOAK - A TRUE BOHEMIOAN REVOLUTIONARY (Drug(s) Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Anders Bech

Tracks: 1- 80% Bassminus, 2- A Shovel, 3- Contact 12, 4- Konvolut, 5- G-Point/slaughter, 6- Thermopacked, 7- 18 Hz Party, 8- 100º, 9- The Goal is Self-effacing

 Recorded at ABCPS Studios

This is really extreme and at the same time its really experimental. Kloak does a style that is difficult to define with heavy guitars, extreme vocals (more of the screaming ype instead of being guttural) combined with cleaner ones that add a cold feeling to the music. The guitars develop lines that are sometimes chaotic and sometimes more controlled and heavy. But each track here is completely different from the other, some of them closer to death metal, such as "A shovel" (with interestinf twists in rhythm changes and vocal changes) and others are completely different from any other style. Plus I feel a small industrial feeling in some of the tracks in the sound of the drums and the combination with the guitars. One of the things that I liked on this album are the vocals, sometimes heavier, sometimes more climatic and full of anguish

Favorite tracks:

Contact: www.mightymusic.dk/drugs

LARRY STABBINS - MONADIC (Emanem Disc, 2003)

Produced By: Martin Davidson

Tracks: 1- Breathing, 2- Singing, 3- thinking, 4- Buzzing, 5- Loving, 6- Shaking, 7- Sliding, 8- Chirruping, 9- Tuning, 10- Speaking, 11- Blowing, 12- Dancing, 13- Playing

Cover Art by Oktal

 Recorded at Red Rose

A strange album from the beginning with some sounds that reminds human breathing in the first track giving place then to an amazing saxophone improvisation. Here we have Larry Stabbins, an experimetnal and virtuoso sax player who delivers on this labum thirteen improvisations done with his soprano and tenor saxes. Here we have from very climatic moments where Stabbins sustains one note and then delivers a melody to more extreme moments where he takes the instrument to its limit playing multiple lines that are sometimes faster nad sometimes more twisted. Stabbins knows exactly how to retain the control of the sax in order to never sound chaotic and always deliver the ideas that he wants. This is like a text book of wild improvisation with saxophone and it is strongly recomendable to lovers of improvisational music, to lovers of spontaneity and to any musician.

Favorite tracks: "Singing", "Loving" and "Speaking"

Contact: www.emanemdisc.com

LAW OF THE PLAGUE - THE WAR INSIDE (Sinternational Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Rob Soul

Tracks: 1- Moribund, 2- Love your God, 3- The War Inside, 4- Superior, 5- The Suffering, 6- Piss on my grave, 7- Call to Arms, 8- Somethin to Say, 9- Bite it you Scum, 10- Apart

Cover Art by Steven Morris

 Recorded at Reflection Sound Studios

A powerful riff with interesting double bass drums opens this album in "Moribund". Law of the Plague is death metal but with some thrash influences in the riffs and some elements of bands like early Sepultura in some of then guitar licks. This is an extremely wild band, whose vocalists (Rob Soul and Jerm Neegan) know how to be extreme combining some moments of guttural voice with killer screams that rip your ears into pieces. Each of the guitar riffs have a rhythmic quality that seem to be designed to the mosh pit (you can almost imagine the people doing stage diving and all the stuff). There are some parts where the band departs from death metal and that gives them even more identity without losing their strength. A powerful album that combines death, thrash and modern metal.

Favorite tracks: "Call to Arms", "Piss on my grave" and "Superior"

Contact: www.lawoftheplague.net or www.sinternational.net

LEGACY - SICKENING SORESIGHT (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Legacy

Tracks: 1- Psychotic Warfare, 2- Harcvest, 3- Fragile Life Within, 4- Mental Suicide, 5- Human Infection 03

Cover Art by pixelzimmer.de

 Recorded at Green Hell Studio

This album opens up with the track called "Psychotic Warfare" and I think this is a really appropriate name for the killer music that Legacy does. The band plays pure death metal with some old school feeling in some of the guitar riffs and rhythms and they deliver multiple changes in tempo, speed and rhythm on each track, going from slow, to rhythmic and to ultra fast within the same minute. And that gives a psychotic quality to this band’s music. There are many fast blasts in the drumming and the guitars manage to play really complex riffs without missing a beat. The guttural vocal adds an even more deathly feeling to the music giving more brutality if that is possible. There are some breaks where the band uses clan guitars, such as the one at 3:00 of the mentioned "Psychotic Warfare". The five tracks contained on this album leave you wanting more music from this german band. Brutality with many ideas.

Favorite tracks: "Harvest", "Psychotic Warfare" and "Mental Suicide"

Contact: www.legacy13.de

LELIO PADOVANI - UNKNOWN EVOLUTION (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Lelio Padovani

Tracks: 1- Evolution, 2- Il Sofio Dell´Angelo, 3- Reflections, 4- Ballad for S., 5- Field of Stars, 6- Icelandic Skies, 7- Siren Song, 8- Quartet, 9- Restless

Cover Art by Lelio Padovani

Lelio Padovani is a virtuoso guitar player coming directly from Italy and on this album he shows many different sides of his musical personality on the nine tracks. Lelio is always playing interesting guitar phrases on this instrumental tracks taking you to new places one each of them. You have to take your hat off when you listen this beautiful melodies and also when you listen to his technical solos. This guy is really a virtuoso and his music is in the path of masters like Joe Satriani, Greg Howe and even latest Tony Macalpine (not neoclassical but taking many different influences and putting into its own style). Here Lelio has a good rhythm section that backs him up really consistently making each of the tracks memorable. Fans of guitar and virtuosism will surely love this one as I did !!!!

Favorite tracks: "Evolution", "Reflections" and "Siren Song"

Contact: www.leliopadovani.com

LINCOLN LOVE LOG - 2003 DEMO (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Lincoln Love Log

Tracks: 1- Beef Stew, 2- Pink taco, 3- Double Headed Dildo, 4- My Sweet Barbeque, 5- Camel Toe, 6- Dis-in-Bowls, 7- Dutch Oven, 8- Entering Large Spaces

Lincoln Love Log´s music is weird (as it is the packaging of this demo). The music here it surely has distorted and heavy guitars and it surely has an ultra guttural vocalist. It also has some elements of death metal in some of the riffing but it has a lot of other sounds that are not typical of any of the styles. And they combine this with more rhythmic guitar riffs as the ones in "Beef Stew". Tracks like "Pink Taco" have an industrial feeling in them because of the guitar sound and because of the noisy nature of the compositions but Lincoln Love Log goes way beyond this style adding countless different rhythms, sounds and a lot of experimentation. There are some more seventies sounding rhythms like in some places in "Pink Taco" but that is only another side of the demented musical personality of this guys. Lovers of experimentation and original stuff will surely like the band. Music for open minds.

Favorite tracks: "Camel Toe", "Double Headed Dildo" and "Dutch Oven"

Contact: www.beowolfproductions.com or www.angelfire.com/fang/lincolnlovelog

LINGUA - LINGUA (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Lingua

Tracks: 1- Turning, 2- Substance

Cover Art by Lingua

Lingua plays music that is extremely climatic. Here we have SONGS with capital letter. Each song is carefully constructed along the seventies like guitars riff and there is plenty of space for developing interesting vocal melodies here. The vocals sound somewhat deppressive giving this special feeling to Lingua´s music (this guy sings really well, with a lot of feeling). The guitars are distorted in the way old Black Sabbath albums with that sound of the amp cranked and some fuzz and I really liked that. I think that this guys, if properly managed and with a good label can have a hit soon. there are 2 tracks on this CD and it leaves you with the desire of listening more.

Favorite tracks: Both

Contact: www.versionstudio.com/lingua

MICHAEL HARRIS - WORDS COLLIDE (Lion Music, 2003)

Produced By: Michael Harris

Tracks: 1- Shockestra, 2- Wash My Soul Away, 3- Mask of Deception, 4- Myopia, 5- Words Collide, 6- Tears Roll Down, 7- Mr. Strange, 8- Prosthetic Brain, 9- Into the Spiral Rain, 10- Mandy Slang, 11- Incarcerated, 12- The Cozmic Desert, 13- Battle Fatigue, 14- Coffee with Mozart

Cover Art by Carlos at www.nailstream.com

 Recorded at Psycho Sound and Nomad Studios

Being a virtuoso guitar player and surviving the nineties was not an easy task in a world full of talentless pseudo grunge bands that were the main products of without ethics recording labels. But Michael Harris has survived and he is stronger than ever. And he also has evolved a lot since albums like "Defense Mechanisms" or even the duet with David T. Chastain. And on this new album he also sings ! On this album he discharges his usual chops and licks but he delivers them in a more song oriented format. Here you can see that Harris as progressed a lot since the beginning of his career and he has taken all his influences (neoclassical, classic guitar, progressive, etc. ) and he has developed his own style. The tracks here are heavy and here Harris plays the guitars, synth, vocals and bass, with Brian Harris helping him on drums. A killer album from this virtuoso musician that has a lot to offer on each recording.

Favorite tracks: "Shockestra", "Prosthetic Brain" and "Mask of Deception"

Contact: www.lionmusic.com

MIDNIGHT SYNDICATE - DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS (Entity Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Midnight Syndicate

Tracks: 1- Prelude, 2- Troubled Times, 3- Ride to Destiny, 4- The Fens of Sargath, 5- Descent into the Depths, 6- Stealth and Cunning, 7- Behind Door #1, 8- Skirmish, 9- Eternal Mystery, 10- Heroes Valor, 11- Relic Uncovered, 12- Deep Trouble, 13- Chant, 14- Craft ofn the Wizard, 15- Beasts of the Borderlands, 16- Secret Chamber, 17- Lair of the Great Wyrm, 18- Ancient Temple, 19- How Strange, 20- Army of the Dead, 21- Final Confrontation , 22- Ruins of Bone Hill, 23- City of Sails

 Mixed and Mastered at Mandala Studios

This is the new Midnight Syndicate album and is the soundtrack of the Dungeons and Dragons rolegame. This time Ed and Gavin, the two brains behind Midnight Syndicate have constructed compositions with epic yet haunting sounds instead of the darker masterpieces of previous albums like "Vampyre"or "Gates of Delirium" . Here we have a soundtrack that has nothing to envy to the ones of films like "The Lord of the Rings"or "Conan the Barbarian". Here you can almost see the characters of then game moving while you listen to this amazing compositions. Tracks like "Ride to Destiny"add a different dynamic to the album being on the more epic side of the musical specter that we find here. Midnight Syndicates has proven again that they are amazing musicians with limitless imagination on this album.

Favorite tracks: All the album

Contact: www.midnightsyndicate.com

MISERY INC. - SUICIDE SERENADE (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Misery Inc.

Tracks: 1- Suicide Serenade, 2- Darkness, 3- Life ain´t fair, 4- Follow, 5- Hated

Mastering by Väinö Komulainen

 Recorded at Sonic Pump Studios

.A powerful release of this band coming directly from Finland. Their music is a mix of the most energetic heavy metal with some elements of power metal and thrash metal (and a small dosis of death metal in some vocals here and there). Here the main thing are the guitar riffs that have a good point where they are powerful and at the same time are original (and they have a really good sound that help a lot when you want your guitars to sound powerful). Plus here we have a solid rhythm section that constructs the basis of Misery Inc. ´s music. There are many melancholic elements here where the guitars are clean and where there are interesting melodies, such as in "Life ain´t fair". I have to remark the good singer that this band has, who fits perfectly the feeling of the music and who has a good technique that allows him to reach difficult notes. This is a strongly recommended album for lovers of metal with a dark feeling and with interesting ideas.

Favorite tracks: "Suicide Serenade", "Darkness" and "Follow"

Contact: www.miseryinc.cjb.net

MOE! STAIANO´S MOE!KESTRA! - TWO FORMS OF MULITUDE (Pax Recordings / Edgetone Recs., 2003

Produced By: Moe! Staiano

Tracks: 1- 6 = Conducted Improvisation Piece Nº5, 7-11 = Conducted Improvisation piece Nº4

This are over seventy minutes of improvisations directed by Moe Staiano. Yes, here we have two musical pieces in which big ensembles improvise under the supervision of Staiano. And here you can see that what it could be pure chaos it turns into amazing pieces of musical exploration. Here we have talented musicians such as Erensto Díaz-Infante on guitar, Phillip Greenlief on sax and many many more. Every improvisation is carefully developed going from lower to a climax and it is amazing to see how well the musicians interact creating a world of original sonorities. Staiano knows really well his work (as other great conductors as Butch Morris do) and he creates music using the instruments played by other musicians. This album is a piece of history of improvisational music and it is strongly recommended to lovers of this boundary breaking music.

Favorite tracks: Both tracks

Contact: www.paxrecordings.com or www.edgetonerecords.com

NADJA - TOUCHED (Deserted Factory Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Nadja

Tracks: 1- Mutagen, 2- Stays Demons, 3- Incubation / Metamorphosis. 4- Flowers of Flesh

Cover Art by Aidan Baker

Nadja gives you through four tracks contained on this CD a trip into a desolate world of the darkest of musics. Here we have Nadja that is not afriad of experimenting with the music and the results are evident in this album. Here you have distorted guitars that play slow riffs and ther are many sounds and noises in the background that give a darker feeling to the music. Also here we have some keyboards that play some darker than hell chord progressions adding a lot of density and obscurity to each composition. Here we have a limitless imagination that adds new landscapes (or better soundscapes) on each track making each composition really unique and innovative. Three of the tracks are over twelve minutes long and that is enough for Aidan (the composer in Nadja) to develope his multiple ideas.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.desertedfactory.com or www.turn.to/nadja

NEPHENZY CHAOS ORDER - PURE BLACK DISEASE (Baphomet Recs., 2003)

Produced By: N.C.O.

Tracks: 1- Wounds, 2- Thou Who Parts Flesh, 3- Total Abuse , 4- Mental Aggression, 5- Control, 6- Insomnia, 7- Death Manifesto, 8- Pure Black Disease, 9- No Repent, 10- Nephenzy Chaos Order

Cover Art by Ketoladog

 Recorded at Abyss Studios

 Pure aggression at full speed is what this band plays. Here we have a combination of the fastest moments that a band in the black/death metal style can played combined with some climatic passages that are like the calm before the storm. I liked specuially the more devastating riffs like the ones played at the beginning of "Thou Who Parts Flesh" taht give more aggression to the tracks , specially when combined with double bass drumming. The ultra extreme vocals, of the screaming type give an even more extreme feeling to the music while spitting the lyrics and the sopund that the band got in the Abyss Studio it will surely smash your brains into a shapeless pulp. Pure aggression played tightly and with a lot of feeling and guts.

Favorite tracks: "Wounds", "Control" and "No Repent"

Contact: www.redstream.org or www.oblivioncreations.com/~nco/

NEUROSIS & JARBOE - NEUROSIS & JARBOE (Neurot Recordings, 2003)

Produced By: Neurosis

Tracks: 1- Within, 2- His Last Words, 3- Taker, 4- Receive, 5- Erase, 6- Cringe, 7- In Harm´s Wat, 8- Seizure

Cover Art by Tankpictures

 Recorded at

This is an interesting combo !! Here we have a union between the guys in Neurosis who play all the music here and the singing talent of Jarboe who does here the lyrics and sings. As it is expected the music here is wild and experimental. It is interesting to see how the guys in Neurosis construct an atmospheric passage with mid paced drumming and some keyboards and then Jarboe speaks and whispers the vocals. Jarboe´s voice takes different forms through the recording: from enigmatic, to really beautiful, to imperative, to pervert. And everything is done only with his voice. The guys in Neurosis have constructed here eight extremely innovative compositions, some wilder like "Within" some more introspective like "Taker" always combining very violent moments with heavily distorted guitars with others that are more climatic with clean guitars, keyboards and sounds effects. This is like the exact gap between the most experimental of the musics and metal (due to the distorted nature of some of the sounds here). A must

Favorite tracks: "Within", "Erase" and "Seizure"

Contact: www.neurotrecordings.com

NIELLERADE FALIBILISTHORSTAR - EFTERSKÖRD ANSLAG (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Niellerade Falibilisthorstar

Tracks: 1- Förskalstensens Salar, 2- Havande Vanställelse, 3- Motljus, 4- Vämjelse

Cover Art by Niellerade Falinilisthorstar

 Recorded between december 2001 and october 2002

This album starts calmsly with some sounds and background noises and then comes a keyboard and some sound experimentation while some voices do some chanting . The music here is really experimental and it has a sort of ancient tribal feeling in them. Yes, this compositions have some interesting primitive rhythms that sound almost like ancient spirits playing them. Plus there is heavy experimentation with an instrument similar to a xylophon (I don´t know which is exactly the instruments this guys are using) that deliver eerie phrases over this beats. This is a must for people who like to listen to some completely original music full of imagination and ideas. The tracks here are long (two of them are almost 20 minutes each) and they develope amazing phrases and rhythms taht will surprise the lsitener. This si completely recomended to lovers of experimental music.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: http://nfh.dhs.org

NIGHTWARD - FACE THE FALL (Hardebaran Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Nightward

Tracks: 1- Transparent lives, 2- Why so fragile?, 3- Pure, 4- Again(st), 5- Inbred Blemish Fault, 6- Blick in den traum

Cover Art by Si-mone and Jackomo

 Recorded at Master Studio

Nightward is a progressive death metal band. Why do I say this ? Because all over this album they deliver an ever changing music full of interesting arrangements that need of amazing technical skills to be played in the correct way as the band does. Here we have from melodies, to impressive solos, to clean guitar passages to keyboards doing interesting orchestrations. Everything here is done in order to develope complex compositions where you can see how good musicians this guys are. The six tracks here totalize over 23 minutes of impressive music (with a really good sound too!!) and it leaves us wanting more music from them. Here we have the great Carmelo Orlando from Novembre as a guest singer doing clean vocals as a bonus for this great album. This album is recomendable to any metal lover. This is what I call an album that you must have!!!!

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.nightward.com or www.hardebaran.com

NINGIZZIA - DOLOROUS NOVELLA (Haceldama Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Ningizzia

Tracks: 1- Spirit of the Abandoned, 2- Point of No Return, 3- Ode to the Realm of the ancient Wisdoms, 4- Emptiness, 5- Everything Dies

Cover Art by Niclas Frohagen

 Recorded at various locations in Gothenburg and Paris

 I have never heard before any music by this band and I have to say that they have really surprised me with this album. Opening with a composition that is over eleven minutes long and that features an intro with keyboards and an ancient atmosphere, this album is full of amazing music, sometimes magnificent, sometimes aggressive, sometimes extremely beautiful, sometimes heavy as hell. The guitars enter after the keys and they add the heaviness that this music needs. Plus, the combination of the most extreme and guttural vocals with the clean ones that have a feeling of anguish in them are essential to communicate to the listener the multiple feelings that the band wants to transmit There si heavy orchestration in many parts ofn this recording done mainly by the keyboards and the guitars (the combination of heavy guitars with acoustic in some tracks adds another dimension to Ningizzia’s sound). There is also a doom like feeling on the music because some passages have a slow pace on them that gives you an idea of loneliness and despair (such as old Trouble albums). This is a release that allows you to travel through a world of multiple feelings within a little over forty minutes of music

Favorite tracks: All the album

Contact: www.haceldama.com

NORTHER - MIRROR OF MADNESS (Spinefarm Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Anssi Hippo and Norther

Tracks: 1- Blackhearted, 2- Betrayed, 3- Of darkness nad light, 4- Midnight Walker, 5- Cry, 6- Everything is an end, 7- Unleash Hell, 8- Dead, 9- Mirror of Madness, 10- Frozen Sky, 11- Smash

 Recorded at Astia Studios

This is with no doubt one of the releases of the year. The perfect combination of aggression and melodies. The perfect mix of crushing guitars, harmonies and arrangements. Each track here is extremely well constructed with crushing riffs, amazing keyboards that develope chord progressions and solos with accuracy and extreme vocals that give the more extreme feeling that the band has. Here we have a band that blends succesfully power metal, death metal, black emtal and many other styles. THe trademark of the band are the virtuoso guitars combined with the keyboards. This instruments create passages that transport you to a world full of ice and snow. A must for any metal lover.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.norther.net or www.spinefarm.fi

NUCLEAR WINTER - DEMO 2003 (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Nuclear Winter

Tracks: 1-

Cover Art by Nuclear Winter

Nuclear Winter is pure hate coming directly to your brain from Argentina !!!!! Yes, our country has some interesting bands in all metal styles and Nuclear Winter is one of the most extreme in the black metal scene. The band delivers on this MCD four raw black metal tunes full of interesting arrangements that give them a unique sound. Here we have blasphemic screams that are essential to achieve the dark feeling that the music has. And we also have here a really interesting guitar work with a combination of pre black metal riffs with some thrash riffs. And there are also some climatic parts with use of clean guitars and orchestrating keyboards. There are multiple changes in rhythm and tempo here and the band knows how to play them in a really good way. This is a show that black metal can be done in a really good way in Argentina too and I hope many musicians listen this and follow the good path that Nuclear Winter is setting in this most extreme style.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: dr_black_death@yahoo.com

OUTCAST - THE SOURCE OF ALL CREATION (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Outcast

Tracks: 1- No Void of Insanity, 2- Shell Shock, 3- Remains, 4- Wicked Messiah

Cover Art by Julien Beluche

 Recorded by Romuald Herrero

The music here is pure aggresssion, full of thrashy riffs but with a more modern sound and extremely aggressive vocals that makes this album a showcase of aggression and power. Here we have a band whose second name must be "riffs from hell" because of the devastating riffs that they create with their guitars on each of the four tracks that this MCD contains. Here we have some influences from nineties thrash but the band goes well beyond that delivering their songs with a lot of identity. The album has a raw yet clearly mixed sound that enhances the guitars and the good drumming (with interesting double bass parts). The songs here are well constructed and delivered with passion and a lot of feeling and I think that is the essence of Outcast´s music: power, aggression, good musicianship and extreme energy.

Favorite tracks: the four

Contact: http://outcast.music.free.fr

PANZERCHRIST - ROOM SERVICE (Mighty Music, 2003)

Produced By: Tue Madsen

Tracks: 1- Tomorrow, 2- Creature, 3- Lies, 4- Suicide, 5- At the Grave, 6- Death Approaches, 7- Metal Church, 8- Roomservice, 9- The Red River, 10- Evil

Cover Art by www.lassehoile.com

 Recorded at Antfarm Studio

Mighty Music has been releasing some of the most powerful bands in this year. First was Sacrificial and Taetre, now comes this bestiality called Panzerchrist. This is with no doubt one of the best death emtal bands that I have ever listened to. The riffs sound bigger than a mastodon and the drumming is like a machine but with the power and feeling that only one human beast can give to it. The vocals seem to be coming directly from hell and everything is played so tightly and flawless that the final result is a masterpiece of brutality. One thing in which Panzerchrist is superior to almost every band in the style is in their sound that is bigger, more brutal and clearer. The mix of this album is a really good one (Tue Madsen has a lot to do with this). This is recomendable to any death metal fans and for people that have not listened the style vefore and are not afraid of being crushed by this tank called Panzerchrist.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.mightymusic.dk

PIGSTY - SPIDERS (Bizarre Leprous Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Stana Valásek and Pigsty

Tracks: 1- Fly´s Last Minute/ Cobweb, 2- Arachnia, 3- Spider Cannibalism, 4- thank you, mom, 5- Spiders Functions, 6- Malmignata, 7- Cerbalus (White Madam Namibu), 8- Wake Up

 After "The Return" here comes the new Pigsty MCD. This time we have nine tracks totallizing more than 20 minutes full fo grind eruptions full of crushing blast beats and the vocals that have been a trademark in Pigsty´s music in the past. Here everything is pure violence with some death metla influences in some of the more rhythmic parts. THis is ultra speed in short compositions that are memorable because of their choruses (such as "Arachnia" for example). THe sound is much better than in "The Return" specially the drums that are here mixed louder and clearly. But the sound is still raw as the style needs because...would it be true grind with an extremely polished sound? Here we have the newest material from this already classic band.

Favorite tracks: "Arachnia", "Spiders Functions" and "Wake Up"

Contact: www.bizarreleprous.cz or bizlepned@hetnet.nl

POST-MORTEM - MANKIND AUTOPSY (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Post-Mortem

Tracks: 1- Umbilical Strangulation, 2- Bacteric Punishment, 3- Horizon Zero, 4- Collective Hanging

Cover Art by Lionel Vest and Laurent Greder

 Recorded at Bluebird Studio

The first guitar chord that is thrown on this album blast you !!! I mean it sounds with the drums and if you have your loudspeakers at high volume you can demolish a wall !! Here we have a band whose style is extremely brutal death metal but not with emphasis on speed but on crushing rhythms. Here we have some thrash tempo playing but with many guitar riffs that are designed for stage diving and moshing. The vocals are extremely guttural and fit the violence of the recording perfectly. The guitars sound bigger than hell (a really good mix of the guitars that allows them to have that wall of concrete type of sound...you know what I mean). The rhythm section is extremely tight and it is good to see them change patterns and tempos through all the recording. One of the most brutal recordings of 2003.

Favorite tracks: The four. Pure bestiality

Contact: www.post-mortem.fr.st

PRAETORIAN - THRENODY (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Theron Rennison

Tracks: 1- Soul Collector, 2- Wide-eyed Death, 3- All alone, 4- Ravenous, 5- Harlequin Dreams, 6- Incisions, 7- Sarcophagus, 8-Thylacine, 9- Night

 Recorded at Backbeach Studios

Take a pure heavy metal band with two guitars that interact heavily, then add a much bigger guitar sound, then add a death metal vocalist that can also sing many climatic parts (here we have Jonathan and Ian singing and they have a guttural voice, a screaming one and a singing one depending on the feeling of the track), then put a keyboard that developes many atmospheric ideas interacting heavily with the guitar riffs. Then you will have an idea of what Praetorian sounds like. Here you have a band that delivers incredible riffs and melodies with a lot of aggression and great musicianship. The basis for this music is the great rhythm section that delivers interesting ultra heavy rhythms over which are played the crushing riffs which are adorned with the keyboards. The sound is clear yet raw enough to add a lot of aggression to Praetorian´s music. A must for any metal lover

Favorite tracks: All the album

Contact: www.praetorianmetal.com

PRAETORIAN - PROMO 2003 (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Praetorian

Tracks: 1- Unknown, 2- Wisdom, 3- Tunguska!

Cover Art by Praetorian

This is the new material recorded by the guys of Praetorian and it opens up climatically with open riffs and good keyboards (the trademark of the band) before getting into the heavier stuff. THis is a good step forward compared to their previous recording. And Praetorian have managed the way to sound extremely heavy while having new elements that add diversity and beauty to the tracks. The vocals are as extreme as in the previous album but they are more clearly recorded The sound is good but it needs a few changes to be perfect, for example I would mix a little bit louder the lead guitars in "Unknown" . This is a good step forward for this band and it leaves you wanting more from Praetorian. Who knows, maybe in 2004 we will have a new full length from them.

Favorite tracks: the three

Contact: www.praetorianmetal.com

PROGRESSIVE DEATH PROCEDURE - PROGRESSIVE DEATH PROCEDURE (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Progressive Death Procedure

Tracks: 1- According to the Procedure, 2- Global Warning, 3- Cassandra´s Dream, 4- Brave New Fear, 5- White Cells, 6- PdP

Cover Art by Liakos Aravantinos

 Recorded at Purple Studios

This band is extremely powerful with their modern death metal played with a lot of technicality. here the main thing are the guitar riffs played with an awesome clear sound that gives a lot of power to the music. I have to remark the role of the drummer here that is a machine doing double bass passages an drumming patterns with the ride cymbals. the guitar riffs have hooks and are brutal. the vocals are brutal, sometimes more guttural than in other parts but always powerful. Plus the band creates some interesting melodies that are a crucial part of the songs. Again I have to remark the good sound that this recording has that emphasizes the brutality of the recording. A crushing release !!!!

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.pdprocedure.co.uk

PSYCHOFAGIST / HYBRID VISCERY - SELFLESS SPITE SPLIT CD (Amputated Vein Records, 2003)

Produced By: Hybrid Viscery and Nicolas Vandeweyer

HYBRID VISCERY: 6- Grind your head, 7- Green Vomit, 8- Cannibal Theories, 9- Depraved, 10- Scrotum Infected, 11- The liquid of my shit is on my ears, 12-Listen of my intestinal bubbles, 13- Double infections, 14- Testicles implosion, 15- Jeremy´s nausea, 16- I Cum i your baby´s mouth

 Recorded at HM and the Six Studios

What a bestial split !!  This is like a clash of titans between Psychofagist´s ultra brutal death with grind touches and programmed drums that add a lot of clenness in the rhythms and Hybrid Viscery´s ultra fast and violent grind with no mercy for the listener. Psychofagist has a really good guitar sound that is extremely low sounding and that has the power that the band needs. Also, the guys in Psychofagist deliver rhythmic riffs throwing here and there some bursts of speed, but the really essence are the crushing rhythms. The sound of the band is clear and that is much better to give more strength to the guitars. Hybrid Viscery is a more straightforward grind band with some death metal elements in the slower parts and the band devastates the lsitener from beginning to end with their blast beats. Also the guys in Hybrid Viscery have added some sound effects that sound like another isntrument doing some noises here and there and adding some new elements to their music. This is a devastating split that will be loved by fans of the most extreme side of metal.

Favorite tracks: "Asphyxiating Harmony", "Bygone Genesis" and "Scrotum Infected"

Contact: www.amputatedvein.com

PUKELIZATION - INORGANIC FIELDS (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Pukelization

Tracks: 1- Executional Birth, 2- Synchronicity, 3- Fulfilled Instinct, 4- Unseen, unknown, 5- Inorganic Fields, 6- Invisible Shadow, 7- Human Feed, 8- Identical to the Killer, 9- Blood Mirror, 10- Endless Drift

Cover Art by Toshihiro Egawa

 Recorded at Gore Sound Studios

.No fucking mercy for the listeners !!! This japanese guys are a motherfucking storm coming directly to your music device crushing your brain with their ultra brutal music. Here we have a combination of ultra fast moments with some blast beats with some more thrash rhythms and some twisted and technical parts. But everything here is done to give brutality to each of the compositions that are on this album. Here we have speed but that is only one element because here we have also the heavy guitar sound, the twisted rhythms, the mulitple tempo changes and rhythm breaks, and also the ultra guttural vocals that the vocalist delivers on each track. Pukelization is a band for lovers of the most bestial death metal played with good musicianship. Bestiality at its uttermost level.

Favorite tracks: "Fulfilled Instinct", "Invisible Shadow" and "Blood Mirror"

Contact: www.geocities.co,jp/MusicStar-Live/5295/

PULSE 8 - PULSE 8 (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Pulse 8

Tracks: 1- Under my Skin, 2- Pulse 8, 3- Boom, 4- Take it to the Head

Cover Art by Pulse 8

Clean guitars open the track "Under my Skin" and when the rhythm section and later the heavy guitars and the vocals enter you will face one of the better mixed albums of 2003. Yes, here everything sounds huge...from the double bass drumming to the crushing guitars. And the combination of this guitars with the ultra aggressive vocals (not guttural but extremely aggressive and with clean parts and a lot of screaming) is a trademark of Pulse 8´s sound. One of the most original moments here are the combination of ultra rhythmic riffs that are the heaviest ones with more cliamtic moments such as the ones in "Boom". Again I have to point out the excellent mix that this MCD has that allows all the instruments to shine and makes things even more effective. Pure aggression done

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.uwillpulse8.com

PURE UNDERGROUND - NECROMANCE COMPILATION VOL.13 (Necromance Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Necromance Recs

Tracks: 1- MYDGARD "Lord of the Lords", 2- IMBRUE "Two nails pierced it", 3- ROSSOMAHAAR "Praising the departure of...", 4- CRYFEMAL "Unbelivable Storm in holy circle", 5- NECROBLASPHEME "Sanctified in No Sense", 6- THANATOSCHIZO "Of Lunar Water...", 7- TAETRE "Paint a Whore as a Saint", 8- INCINERATE "Denounced by God", 9- SACRIFICAL "Angel Eyes", 10- LUST OF DECAY "Festering Anal Vomit", 11- THALARION "911-As the War Raged", 12-KATAFALK "Cannonfodder", 13-ASHEN LIGHT "Otche Nash", 14- CHAMBER OF SHRED "The Way of Redemption, 15- BLOOD RED THRONE "Unleashing Hell", 16- USER NE "Nivel Um Cix", 17- DISGORGE "Sodomic Baptism", 18 - CUMCHRIST "Crucifixion Must Hurt like a Bitch", 19- DEBODIFIED "Mass Extinction Agenda", 20- THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT "Cathedral of Corpses, 21- CARNAL LUST "Psychotic Dementia"

This is a pure extreme compilationn full of the most extreme bands in the most extreme genres of metal. Here we have really well known bands whose works we have reviewed before like Carnal Lust and The Monolith Deathcult or Lust of Decay, interacting with bands like Necroblaspheme or Cryfemal. Here we have bestial black metal bands such as the beforementioned Cryfemal or Mydgard whose music is extremely aggressive and full of fast blast beats and dark riffs but we also have pure brutal death metal bands such as Sacrifical whose "Autohate " album we reviewed some issues back with all their brutality and their crushing guitars and drums sound. It is really good to listen to compilations like this one because it allows you to listen to all this extreme bands whose music is really powerful and then you can choose which album you want to purchase. And it also gives the opportunity to less popular bands to be in the same compilation as better known bands and then do some promotion. A killer compilation

Favorite bands: Sacrifical, Blood Red Throne and Rossomahaar

Contact: www.necromancemag.com

PUTREFY - LUST SO VILE (Grindethic Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Putrefy

Tracks: 1- Mutilated Slutfuck, 2- Hung by the Tongue, 3- Pigfucker, 4- Twelve Gauge Facelift, 5- Pleasures With a Pickaxe (Live at Giro´s )

One of the most brutal releases of this month. Putrefy plays ultra brutal death metal with some grind elements on it and here we have really devastating guitar riffs played at full speed (the band uses some rhythmic riffs that have a lot of heaviness in them but after a passage with mid tempo riffs they soon turn into a grind holocaust). Each track here have a lot of tempo variations and that is essential to add different flavors to the music that the band wants to transmit. There are many blast beats here and also there is heavy use of double bass drumming which is essential to the rhythms of the band. The sound of the recording is raw but is clear enough to make the recording sound powerful and to give some clarity to the band´s sound, specially to the drums and guitars. There is one live tack and this is a sample of how brutal the band sounds live (they are like a storm destroying the audience with their riffs and blast beats). One of the most brutal releases of the month.

Favorite tracks: "Mutilated Slutfuck", "Pigfucker" and "Twelve Gauge Facelift"

Contact: www.grindethic.co.uk

RAVENCULT - COSMIC CHAOS ( Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Ravencult

Tracks: 1- Pure Hellish Blasphemy, 2-Cosmic Chaos Pandemonium, 3- Deathcult Supremacy, 4- Manifestation of the Essence

 Cover Art by Gustave Dore

 Recorded at Fragile Sound Studios

Pure black metal coming from one of the msot famous countries in the style: Greece. In fact this is black metal but with interesting complexities and with somelements from other styles like death metal or thrash metal. There are ultra fast guitar riffs here played over hyper fast drumming full of double bass passages and there are many tempo and rhythm changes that make each of the four compositions really unique. The vocals are really extreme of te type used in black metal bands and with ocassional guttural voices that add a darker feeling to the music. The guitars are fast but they are mixed woith more bass sound than in most of the balck emtal bands out there making the riffs more powerful sounding. This is pure black metal but with ideas and I think that bands like Ravencult help black meta to not become stagnant. A great band in the style.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: http://come.to/ravencult

REBECCA - TWO VARIATIONS (Charhizma Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Rebecca

Tracks: 1- Variation Nº5, 2- Variation Nº6

Cover Art by Philipp Arnold

 Recorded at Kai Fagaschinski

Here we have two long variations created by Kai Fagaschinski on clarinet and Michael Renkel on guitar and zither. Each of this spontaneous compositions is over half an hour long so here you have over one hour of pure improvisational music full of ideas and experimentation. It is interesting to see the interaction of the musicians: in many places Kai creates an interesting atmosphere with the clarinet while Michael delviers some guitar phrases or chords and then the type of work is reverted playing Michael some chord progression or sounds thata re the basis for some phrases done by Kai´s clarinet. Both musicians imagination has no limits and this is evident on this album where they explore countless musical worlds never stopping their improvisation and developing original ideas on each minute. This improvisations are "once in a life" compositions and I really hope to continue listening creative sounds from this duo in the future because there is something to learn from them always.

Favorite tracks: Both

Contact: www.charhizma.com

REEK OF SHITS - BLOODY OBSTETRIC TECHNOLOGY (Bizarre Leprous Prods., 2003)

Produced By: Reek of Shits

Tracks: 1- Bloody Obstetric Technology, 2- Porno-Hazard, 3- World of Shits, 4- Symphony of Assassin, 5- Death march Slaughter Pics, 6- On the Anatomy Desk, 7- List of Guts, 8- Brutal Date, 9- Grabbing´s Pain of Ingrowing, 10- Anal´s Lesson one, 11- Sadistic Dentist II; 12- Legal Necrofilia, 13- Bloodthirsty Bastard, 14- Condemn to death (Heroin)

Reek of Shits is pure grindcore with some brutal death influence in some of the riffs. Despite doing hyper fast blast beats in some places over some ultra guttural vocals, the guys in Reek of Shits don´t abuse this feature delivering also some heavier than fuck guitar riffs with slower rhythms. The vocals,despite being extremely guttural are clear enough (at least the msot guttural because it is difficult to follow the screaming type of vocals). One thing that amazes are the good riffs developed here and as an example you can take a memorable riff in "Porno-Hazard". This is utter brutality with a raw yet effective and powerful sound that crushes from beginning to end. Pure grindcore with some brutal death elements. A devastating release.

Favorite tracks: "Sadistic Dentist II", "Brutal Date" and "Bloodthirsty bastard"

Contact: www.bizarreleprous.cz or bizlepned@hetnet.nl

ROMPEPROP - PORN FLAKES (Bizarre Leprous Prods, 2003)

Produced By: Rompeprop

Tracks: 1- Intro The Liberation of Eindhoven, 2- Vaginal Luftwaffe, 3- Embyoyo, 4- Vulcanic Eskimo, 5- Coughin´Coffin, 6- Swimming in Neanderthalers, 7- Concrete Hamburger, 8- Pussyjuice Chup a Chup, 9- Hellcock´s Pornflakes, 10- Anal Sushi, 11- R.O.M.P.E.P.R.O.P., 12- Outro "The Sadistic Death of Ruud ter Weijden

 Recorded at Popei Studio

A short intro with voices and war sounds open this mayhemic album full of the most bestial grind death. Here we have a band whose sound is really huge (the guitars sound extremely high in the mix and that crushes your brain from the first riff to the last). This guys are extremely heavy and the good thing is that despite having some fast moments this guys don´t abuse blast beats and they prefer to concentrate in heavier riffs with more heaviness. The vocals are extremely guttural and sound like gurgling and spiting lyrics through all the tracks (the sound is similar to extremely boiling water but with a lot of brutality on it). The drumming is ultra fast in many places but in some partsthere is some simpler, kind of thrashy drumming that gives a different feeeling and adds heaviness when combined with the guitars. The sound is raw and effective and I have to conclude that this guys kick ass and they will devastate you with their twelve brutal tracks.

Favorite tracks: "Vaginal Luftwaffe", "Coughin´Coffin" and "Concrete Hamburguer"

Contact: www.bizarreleprous.cz or bizlepned@hetnet.nl

RUTTOLAPSET - VALA (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Ruttolapset

Tracks: 1- Pahuus, 2- Kuolema Virrassa, 3- Vala, 4- Abeyance

 Recorded at Studio H.

This band from Finland plays a really extreme yet atmospheric kind of metal. With elements of death metal such as an extremely guttural voice, elements of black metal such as ultra fast riffs in many places and extremely dark melodies, this band delivers here four compositions that combine extreme aggression and ultra fast riffs with melodies and more climatic moments. Also there are places where the band uses some old school thrash metal riffs, such as in the middle of the first track. Here we have a band whose sound is really raw but at the same time it is compact and powerful . The beginning of "Kuolema Virrassa" reminds me of early death metal but with a much more modern feeling and much more complex arrangements. Here we have a band that does many changes within the same composition and I think this is one of their trademarks. If you want a good combination of realy extreme moments and some atmospheric parts then you should check Ruttolapset.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.ruttolapset.cjb.net

SAGNTID - CROWS AWAITING MURDER (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Svest

Tracks: 1- Drag the Dead Whore, 2- Crows Awaiting murder, 3- Leave them in the dark, 4- Razor Wielder (Part I), 5- Razor Wielder (Part II), 6- They Speak

Cover Art by Svest

This is what I call a climatic release. Here we have six dark and majestic compositions created by Svest´s mind. Here he plays all the keyboards that are the essential instrument here. On this album we have beautiful passages with piano sounding keyboards and dark harmonies that takes us to a world full of sorrow. There are also some electronic touches in some tracks but everything is done here in order to develope impressive compositions of ethereal and dark beauty. Svest knows how to put together this musical pieces in order to deliver a concept through the six songs that this album has. The musicianship here is really good and it leaves you asking when Sagntid is going to release a new recording. That is, it leaves you anxious for new darkness coming from this depressive mind.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: soulwail@yahoo.com

SANCTIMONIOUS ORDER - ...AND STILL THE BATTLE RAGES ON (Neon Knights Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Sanctimonious Order

Tracks: 1- I.L.D., 2- 13 acres of hell, 3- ...and still the battle rages on, 4- Satan´s Empire

 Cover Art by Lyquida Antomica

 Recorded at Soundbunker Studio

Thisis pure black metal full of hatred and extremely fast. You will find here very raw guitars that deliver fast riffs and guitar lines that are extremely obscure. The band combines the most aggressive parts with more climatic ones achieving a great result full of darkness. There are multiple changes in rhythm and speed and I really liked track "...And Still the Battle Rages On" where a fast riffs turns into a climatic one developing iteresting climatic ideas. The combiantion of black metal rifffs with more heavy metal or thrash ones is one of the trademarks of the band.. The sound is really direct and the band sounds powerful being able to discharge all their agression while sounding tight and effective. Lovers of the purest black metal will surely be delighted by this album.

Favorite tracks: the four

Contact: www.sanctimonious-order.com or neonknights@t-online.de

SCEPTER - FUCKING METAL MOTHERFUCKERS (Merciless Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Scepter

Tracks: 1- Fucking Metal Motherfuckers, 2-Lowest Common Denominator, 3- Bottom Feeder, 4-Slaveship, 5- Time to Bleed, 6- Age of Consent, 7- Do unto others as you wanna do unto them, 8- metal means Stupid, 9- hand of glory, 10- The Victimless Crime, 11- Home Invasion, 12- One for the Road

 Recorded by Mike Sheffield

As the title of this album suggest the music on this album is pure fucking metal with some eighties influence (some early thrash bands like Razor or Exciter seem to have had some influence on Scepter´s music) that are really welcome to my ears. The guitar riffs are the main thing here and they are catchy making each song on this album really memorable and you will find yourself following them closely banging your head along the music. The drumming is solid and it is exactly what this type of music needs: rhythmic beats with accentuation where the guitar riff has to be accentuated and open rhythms that allow the guitars to do some interesting solos or the vocals to develope the powerful lines that John spits here. This is pure metal and lovers of heavy metal will love this one.

Favorite tracks: "Fucking metal...", "Age of Consent" and "Hand of Glory"

Contact: sceptermetal@hotmail.com or www.merciless-records.de

SHEDIM - THE LORD OF THIS LAND (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Josenildo Rufino

Tracks: 1- The Dance of Seirim, 2- Your Suffering, 3- The Lord of This Land, 4- Morbid Pleasure, 5- Diabolical Revenge

Cover Art by Kledmar Alves

 Recorded at Art Music Studio

A keyboards intro called "The dance of Seirim" opens up this MCD with epic overtones and interesting orchestral melodies. Then comes the powerful black metal that this band delivers through all the album. Here we have fast guitars whose main goal is creating dark atmospheres and heaviness along with the keyboards. There are some death metal influences too in some of the guitar riffs that are not typical of black metal style. I have to remark the good musicianship of the musicians in Shedim that is evident when the band changes tempo or does interesting and complex passages that requires good technical skills in order to be played correctly. The vocals are really extreme and they give a lot of the black metal feeling here. Plus we have a really compact sound that at the same time is raw adding an underground feeling despite having a good and clear mix in the instruments. A really climatic yet wild album.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: shedim@bol.com.br

SIC SEED - SIC SEED (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Dennis Solomon

Tracks: 1- Inhuman Existence, 2- The House of No Secrets, 3- Washed Up Gods

Cover Art by Sic Seed

 Recorded at Montana Inc.

Brutal as alway Sic Seed delivers here three new tracks where they show in many parts a different side of their musical personalities. Here they jhave put an emphasis on the heaviness of the riffs which are better constructed than in their previous recording and they have a better sound here. Track "The House of No Secrets" is completely different from anything that I have heard from the band having a calm beginning that builds an interesting atmosphere before getting into utter heaviness. A strongly recommended album for lovers of brutal music (this shows that a band can be brutal without playing blast beats all the time).

Favorite tracks: the three

Contact: www.sicseed.com or www.sinternational.net

SICKBOX - SICKBOX (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Sickbox

Tracks: 1- It begins, 2- My World, 3- Such things Happen, 4- Believe, 5- Wasted, 6- Pumpkin, 7- Absence, 8- Everything you have is mine, 9- Not feel, 10- Like Nothing, 11- No time, 12- What´s Left

 Recorded at Slavery Studio

.What a devastating release !! From the first seconds of crushing guitar riffsup to the last note of "What´s left" this band demolishes you with their ultra heavy riffs, with their machine like drumming (this guy is killer....almost like a machine because of his speed, sound and precission). Influences of bands like Fear Factory are taken to the extreme making that band sound like soft metal when compared to Sickbox. One thing that is for remarking is the excellent sound that this recortding has. The mix here is simply wonderful with each instrument shining, specially the guitars that are like a kick in the stomach. The drums are also really well mixed and the extreme and gutural vocals are really clear allowing you to follow the lyrics and feel all the brutality. One of the mos t devastating releases in 2003.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.itsevil.com

SLITHERYN - SLITHERYN (SNAKE) (Agency Group, 2003)

Produced By: Corey Taylor

Tracks: 1- Lost, 2- Get up, 3- Come + Go, 4- the Same

Cover Art by Stephen Jensen

 Recorded at SR Studio

This guys are extremely young but that doesn´t mean that they are less powerful than bands with older members. In fact I was gladly surprised with the power of this crushing band. Take elements of modern metal bands, add some Machine Head and Pantera and bands in that style and you will have an idea of how Slitheryn sounds. The druming s devastating and is the type of drumming that leaves space for the heaviest of riffs to be developed. The vocals are really aggressive and have enough hooks to make each song memorable. It is remarkable the really good mix that this album has allowing each instrument to sound even more powerful. Pure powerful music !!

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.slitheryn.com

SOMNIAE STATUS - CASSANDRA (Adrenaline Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Alex De Rosso and Somniae Status

Tracks: 1- At the Gates of Heaven, 2- Oracle Dream, 3- Pleasure Essence, 4- Nowhere Run, 5- Where My Thoughts Sleep, 6- Tongues of Flame, 7- Cassandra

 Cover Art by Christian Melk

 Recorded at The Cube Studio

"At the gates of heaven" is the intro that begins this album before the whole ban enters in the progressive sound of "Oracle Dream". Somniae Status is a band of pure progressive metal full of arrangements and interesting solos. Beware Dream Theater!! Here is Somniae Status ! Here the music is complex and at the same time the songs are really well developed creating memorable moments like some choruses and vocal harmonies in "Oracle Dream". There are infinite tempo and rhythm changes here and the excellent musicianship that this italian band has leaves you wanting more Somniae Status after the album has finished. Breeze Danieli is a really clean and good vocalist whose voice fits perfectly the music that the rest of the band delivers. Both guitarists are really good in constructing the everchanging riffs that are the essence of the band. This is a completely recomendable album to any music lover.

Favorite tracks: "Oracle Dream", "Tongues of Flame" and "Cassandra"

Contact: www.somniaestatus.com or www.adrenaline.it

SPAZMOSITY - STORM METAL (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Spazmosity

Tracks: 1- The Curse of Blood, 2- Ocean of Flesh, 3- Enter the Storm, 4- Purgatorio

 Recorded at Necromorbus Studio)

Acoustic guitars open this album giving an idea of calm melody. Then enters the drums with an open rhythm and then things become heavier with distorted guitars and crushing drums passages. But here there is always place for a dark melody played by the guitars. This swedish guys then turn into mayhemic death metal at full speed in "Ocean of Flesh". Here we have ultraguttural vocals and screaming ones thrown against a wall of ultra heavy guitars and killer drumming. And that is what Spazmosity is about: Brutality with interesting climatic moments developedby the guitars. On this MCD we have a raw mix that sounds really loud (if you listen this album with headphones I think your brain will melt). There are some thrashy rhythms that add a different flavour to each of the tracks but the overall result is deathly devastating. Pure brutality with interesting ideas and crushing sound.

Favorite tracks: The four

Contact: www.spazmosity.com

STEELGLORY - WAYWARD SONS OF THE BEAST (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Steel Glory

Tracks: 1- When the Saint is the Sinner, 2- The Last Ride, 3- Lucifer´s Path, 4- Apparation (Spirits Within), 5- Kingdom of Madness 1966, 6- Storming through the Hellion Gates

Cover Art by Steelglory

Move on, bands like Hammerfall and all those heavy metal bands: Here is Steelglory!! The band´s music is pure metal in the msot classic vein with some power metal influences in some parts. With good guitar riffs the band delivers here six tracks that are pure metal in teh vein of classic metal bands. The vocals have a middle range with ocassional high pitches and some bluesy feeling on it . The compositions have been carefully constructed with multiple riffs and interesting drumming (the rhythm section is solid as a rcok) and they have an epic quality in them and memorable vocals and choruses. There are also galloping riffs in "The Last Ride", one of those tracks that the audience can sing with their fists in the air. The sound is a little bit raw for my taste, specially I would mix the guitars a little bit louder and a little bit lower the vocasl. The overall result here is pure metal with good musicianship and interesting ideas.

Favorite tracks: "Lucifer´s Path", "Apaprition" and "Storming..."

Contact: www.metalprovider.com/steelglory

STILLBORN - IN PROGRESS (Independent, 2003)

Produced By: Stillborn

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Feelings for me, 3- 100 Degrees, 4- Mister X, 5- Nothing, 6- Come Back, 7- Without This, 8- Worse, 9- Sneak Eyes, 10- Monster, 11- Unlimited Bitches, 12- Inside

 Recorded at Studio De Bunker

This album opens with a strange intro with some programmed drums that ngive you an eerie feeling (specially if you know that Stillborn uses a real drummer). But then comes the real stuff with heavier than fuck guitars (death metal sounding) combined with modern metal vocals. It is really good to see how well this guys have combined styles and developed into their own sound. One thing to remark is the versatily of the singers that go from being melodic to rhythmic to really aggressive and sometimes guttural adding different perspectives to the band´s music. The drumming is aggressive with a lot of use of moshing rhythms (the one that make you people jump up and down following the beats) and hihat. The album has a clear sound and I like specially the way the guitars sound (really fat and aggressive). Modern metal in its most aggressive form.

Favorite tracks: "Mister X", "Without This" and "Monster"

Contact: www.stillborn.8m.com

SUMMONER - WINTER SOLSTICE (Black Tears of Death Recs., 2003)

Produced By: Alessandro Azzali and Summoner

Tracks: 1- Following your Insight, 2- Winter Solstice, 3- Gaia Flowered Mantle, 4- The Epoch of Stillness, 5- In Dreamy Lullabies, 6- MY Epitaph, 7- Renewed, 8- Forever Fellows

Cover Art by Jamo Lahti

 Recorded at Alfa and Omega and Mirage Studios

Here is the latest Summoner album and, having reviewed their previous effort "Summoner´s Sign", I have to say that this recording is a good step forward in the development of the songs that now sound more complex and have more arrangements and feelings. Nadia´s vocals contrast heavily with the more extreme ones done by Paolo and the way she sings gives a lot of identity to the band. One remarkable thing here is the sound that is really compact and powerful, specially on the guitars and drums. The keyboards played by Stefano are essential for the Summoner sound contrasting with the heavy riffs and adding orchestrations and fills here and there iall the tracks. I really liked this album and I have to say that this one is one of may favorites of 2003.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.btod.com or www.summonersite.com

SWALLOW THE SUN - THE MORNING NEVER CAME (Firebox Recs, 2003)

Produced By:

Tracks: 1- Through her silvery body, 2- Deadly Nighshade, 3- Out of this gloomy light, 4- Swallow (horror pt. 1), 5- Silence of the womb, 6- Hold this Woe, 7- Under the Waves, 8- The morning never came

Cover Art by

 Recorded at

A slow piano intro with a sad feeling on it opens this epic masterpiece in "Through her Silvery Body". And when the whole band enters after a few seconds you have an image of how Swallow the Sun sounds: heavy yet extremely melodic and full of heartfelt renditions of their music. One of the main things to remark here is the great quality of the musicians whose good musicianship allows the band to create eight masterpieces of the darkest metal. Here you have a heavy contrast between the really extreme vocals (sometimes guttural, sometimes screamed) with the instrumentation that uses guitar riffs and melodies and also many keyboards thata re essential to create the harmonies that the band needs to deliver the multiple feelings that they want to transmit to the listener. I have to remark the great sound that this recording has making the band shine and making their good musicianship even more evident. A must for any lover of metal.

Favorite tracks: "Silence of the womb", "Out of this gloomy light" and Deadly Nightshade"

Contact: www.firebox.fi

TERROR OF THE TREES - DEVIL WORSHIP (Destro Recs., 2003)

Produced By: His Eminence the Wicked and Danny Lilker

Tracks: 1- Cleansing the Air, 2- War Weapon, 3- Light the Fire, 4- Grave Blanket, 5- Gallows to Graveyards, 6- I am the Noise they Blame on the Wind

 Cover Art by John Monsees and Jessica G.

 Recorded at The Unholy manor

An arpegio of climatic clean guitar with some background guitar passages open this album of pure raw black thrash metal. Here we have a band that has a lot of speed in some of the parts but that alos uses some thrash metal riffs in order to add variation to the tempos and the rhythms played here. Here we have the extreme type of vocals thata r used on the style mixed clearly (you can distinguish perfectly the lyrics). There are interesting guitar passages where the band develops melodies and arrangements. The recording has a raw souns and I think that mixing a little bit better the guitars this recording can be even more powerful. This is a good black metal attack full of hatred and obscure passages.

Favorite tracks: "War Weapon", "Gallows..." and "I am the noise..."

Contact: www.destrorecords.com

THE ABSTRACTIONS - ARS VIVENDE (Pax Recordings / Edgetone Recs, 2003)

Produced By: Rent Romus, Ernesto Díaz-Infante, Jesse Quatro and Phillipp Everett

Tracks: there are 22 tracks of pure experimentation here

 Cover Art by Tohru Kanayama

 Recorded at Nazmir Kelpkut Recording and Research Ranch

.Here we have a release of this group of impriovisers musician that always surprise with their innovative ideas. This time we have a recording that is really different from what we are accustomed to listen coming from musicians like Ernesto Díaz-Infante or Phillip Everett. This time we have some compositions with vocals and also with some mid paced rhythms over which the improvisations are played. In fact, this give a sense of song to the music on this album even if all is improvised and spontaneous. This "songs" contrast heavily with some almost ambient tunes like "The Tower" where one sound develops into an experimental piece. There are also faster tracks where there is a contrast between chaos and control among the musicians that are constantly playing over the edge. This is an album to listen with an open mind and with your ears trying to perceive each sound that is played.

Favorite tracks: "The bitter undiscovered alienated (male) genius club", "Cultivate the voices..." and "The Thread"

Contact: www.paxrecordings.com or www.edgetonerecords.com

THE CRÜXSHADOWS - L´ETHERNAUT (Dancing Ferret Discs, 2003)