Uncoffined
Ritual Death and Funeral Rites
2013 Memento Mori
Quite often, when a band plays a mix of death and doom metal, they tend to focus more on the "death" side of things and not the "doom." It's a very fine line to walk between the two, and the result ends up as death metal with doom elements. Nothing wrong with that, but in the case of the UK's Uncoffined, they did the opposite. Uncoffined play doom with death metal elements. In other words, "doom/death" instead of "death/doom." The most obvious death metal element of course, would be the vocals of Kat Shevil (also of Winds of Genocide). For those who concern themselves with trivialities such as having a woman on vocals, know this... Kat is on the same level as Sharon Bascovsky of Derketa. For me at least, that's the "gold standard." She's also not one-dimensional, as the majority of her male counterparts these days seem to be. With that out of the way, let's move on to other things. Lots of distortion on the instruments, but somehow I thought Uncoffined was going to have an even dirtier sound than this. Maybe the song I heard on YouTube was off a demo. If so, then please go that direction for your second album! Guitar solos? Yes, they have them, but they're done in an early Paradise Lost style... simple, effective, and if you get distracted, you just might miss them. Almost forgot... the album closes with a cover of Revelation's "Frustrations." Kind of a departure from the lyrical focus on death and the occult, but it still fits in very well and Uncoffined make it their own.
Pest
The Crowning Horror
2013 Agonia Records
Sweden's Pest have been kicking around for a while now, starting off as a black metal band, and then incorporating a more of a black/death sound with a hint of thrash on their last album, "Rest in Morbid Darkness." It's been quite a few years since that album, and my assumption was that they had called it a day at some point. Usually, as soon as I come to
this conclusion, I am proven wrong. And so it is in the case of Pest. Sure enough, here they are back with a new album after five years. They've changed their sound some, and now resemble what some might term "horror metal," similar to what Denial of God sound like these days. Believe it or not, but I also get the same feeling and vibe from this that the legendary split album between Necromantia and Varathron had, especially on "A Face Obscured by Death." On the other hand, "Devil's Mark" is very strongly in the vein of Sigh's "Scorn Defeat." Maybe the use of these influences was intentional, maybe it wasn't, but the end result is something that I would never have expected to hear from a Swedish band. Whatever the case may be, it's still put "The Crowning Horror" in place as one of my favorites of 2013.
Bones
Sons of Sleaze
2013 Planet Metal
Chicago's tyrants of terror, Bones, are back with their second album. This one's a good way to close out the year, with it's "less is more" approach and bare-bones (any pun intended) sound. Perfectly bleak and barren music to head into the bleak and barren winter. Well... truth be told, there's no real snow and ice to be found in my part of the country, although I did give this a listen for the first time during a rainstorm the like of which I don't think my area has seen since the days of Noah for the sheer volume in the amount of time. Since their debut, Bones have tweaked their sound a bit. In some ways, they got a cleaner mix... yet in others it's more dirty. The core "Hellhammer goes punk" sound is of course intact, although I think they backed off the crust elements from the last one. Instead, there's a little more grind, and you'll realize it when you compare this material to their cover of Terrorizer's "Fear of Napalm." So it's really business as usual here, with the guitar and bass distortion turned up to the max, and Jon Necromancer's vocals coming off as a member of the howling damned. The songs are all fairly simple sounding, but that's what you came here for right? If you're looking for Rhapsody of Fire, you'd best move on because you're in the wrong place and it's definitely the wrong time.
Zombie Inc.
Homo Gusticus
2013 Massacre Records
I'll just come out and say it. Don Cochino (Martin Schirenc) should forget about this Church of Pungent Stench thing and focus his efforts on Zombie Inc. He's got a completely kick ass band here, so why bother living in the past, especially when it may well end with him being sued? For those who missed the debut album, Zombie Inc are all about thrash-influenced songs about the dead and the undead. Each track has a morbid and twisted sick sense of humor about it, like "Cum Undone," with it's tale of a deranged maniac and his soon to be dead "girlfriend." Or "E=Mcarnage²," where the zombies get busy eating all the nerds. And quite frankly, in "Better off Undead," they make a damned good case for joining the undead human-eating legions:
Travails and Fears. Became Outdated.
Belief and Hope. Are Desecrated.
Loans and Savings. Now Obsolete.
Flesh of Man. Is Really All I Need.
No stress? Pffft... sign me up! Just remember to stand up and bang your head... because they are the rocking dead!
Blood Mortized
The Demon, The Angel, The Disease
2013 Chaos Records
Third album in, and Sweden's Blood Mortized haven't changed a damn thing with their sound. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Their music is still in the same style that was prevalent in the Stockholm area in 1990, so much so that the band might as well have been frozen for the past twenty or so years and only recently revived. It's like they have no idea how metal has changed in the past two decades. Change is overrated anyway. People like to talk about progression, but deep down, they prefer things to remain familiar and stay the way they are. So it is with music. While there are those bands that are able to successfully make sweeping changes in their sound and be accepted and appreciated for it, there are also those who don't do any of that and are still successful. There's nothing wrong with finding a formula that works and sticking to it. Blood Mortized don't push the genre, but that's not their intent. Instead, their intent is to write music the way they know best, and give the people what they want: old school (the only school!) death metal with the same feelings and vibe that the music had at the beginning of it all. I'd have to say they've managed to do just that. But I'd expect nothing less from a band made of guys who were there to experience it in the first place.
Wrathprayer
Sun of Moloch
2013 Nuclear War Now! Productions
Chile's Wrathprayer are the missing link between the unapologetic brutality of Archgoat and the esoteric onslaught of Necros Christos. Dark and malevolent sounding? Yes. Fast and blasting? Aye. Swirling maelstrom of metal chaos? You bet. It seems that three members is all it really takes these days to play in this uber-intense black/death metal style (or two if you don't intend to play live), and Wrathprayer are no exception. Three is a number of power. Celebrity deaths and bad news come in threes. Three sides to a triangle, which can be seen as a symbol of strength and power. Three members in a band, all working together with no room for anyone to slack off. Am I at all surprised that Wrathprayer hail from Chile? Not one bit. I have yet to find a band from that nation that is happy sounding and finds pleasure in life. Not even one. It seems to be that every band that hails from that part of the world is angry and hateful, and they're not afraid to express it. This sub-genre of metal, whatever it is termed... (I think "war metal" is the popular term?) has a sound far more sinister and depraved than virtually anything that has come before. Morbid Angel? Lightweights. Venom? A cartoon. Mayhem? A minor menace. Bestial Warlust? OK, now we're talking forefather to this sound. Some would call it ugly music for uglier people. And they're probably right.
The Skeletal
Remains
2013 Metal Inquisition
To the best of my knowledge, the songs here were recorded during the sessions for The Skeletal's debut, "The Plague Rituals." For whatever reason, they saved them for this mini-CD. That's fine with me, although all this really does is make me wish for the follow-up full-length. For those with short memories, the main members of The Skeletal are Kam Lee, who needs no introduction, and Lasse Pyykkö, best known for his work in Hooded Menace and Phlegethon. The four songs here (plus intro) follow the early sound pioneered by Mantas, Death and Master. Simple, straightforward, and effective as all hell. Kam's vocal style is his own, of course. Very understandable and gruff... yet also apparently devoid of the wipeouts and other trademarks. Most of his lyrics here come from the same primeval morass that birthed things better left un-named which then crawled forth from the murk and settled in the brain of HP Lovecraft. No shoggoths or blind idiot gods here though. You'll have to settle for the fetid undead and demon-inhabited bodily remains. But I'm sure you won't mind, not with Lasse's guitar swirling around in between and through every track to tie it all together with a rope of human intestines. While I would not call this music "fun," I would say that it does take up a kind of opposition to the sort of metal preferred by the scowling "I could play that better" types.
