The Pete Flesh Deathtrip
Mortui Vivos Docent
2013 Pulverised Records
This one has been a long time coming. The last we heard of riffmaster general Pete Flesh was in 2008, either on Deceiver's "Thrashing Heavy Metal" or Flesh's "Worship the Soul of Disgust," whichever was released second that year. Depending on who you talk to, either Flesh metamorphosed in the The Pete Flesh Deathtrip, or TPFD is an all new project that has nothing to do with any previous band. Originally conceived as a completely solo band, Pete opted to recruit a couple of session members, mainly Andreas Jonsson drums and Micke Broberg (of Unanimated fame), who contributes vocals and lyrics to some of the tracks. What they've produced is an extremely guitar-oriented death thrash album, and quite possibly the most personal thing Pete has ever done. There's a whole ton of power and majesty in every riff, although I do wish there was a little more of a bottom end with the bass in the mix. As a result, quite a bit of the feeling of Unanimated comes through, even on the tracks where Pete takes the vocal spot instead of Micke. Every track here will defy you in any attempt to not bang your head. The urge is just impossible to resist. Give "Mortui Vivos Docent" a listen, and you'll be quick to understand why it's my favorite release involving Pete Flesh since Thrown's "The Suicidal Kings Occult."
Tyrants Blood
Into the Kingdom of Graves
2013 Self Release
Took me quite a while to get my dirty mitts on this one. It was well worth the wait though. While it's not clear to me why Tyrants Blood released this album on their own, I'm glad they did. Doing so shows a lot of conviction and belief in what they're doing on their part. The cult Ross Bay sound lives on in Tyrants Blood, and in my mind, they're like the spiritual successor to Blasphemy... which in no way do I mean to take anything away from their own merits. It makes sense of course, as guitarist Marco Banco used to be part of that horde. He's pulled out all the stops here with the furious riffing. Drummer Matt Blood is kept on his toes, with all kinds of odd time changes. Some might find the drum tone a little odd, as there are times when they have a kind of "trashcan" sound. That's fine with me. It's good to hear a technical edge like his, combined with a more organic sound. I can't stand the flat, dry drum tone favored by most of the tech types these days. Brian Langley spews forth all kinds of vocal venom, coming across as a rabid Wendigo with his foot caught in a bear trap. Overall, there's a lot more dynamics going on here than you usually hear from bands in this subgenre. Most other bands of the "war metal" style tend to prefer blasting out an album, going at a non-stop high speed pace with little to no variation. Tyrants Blood prefer to mix things up a bit. There's a few places where I wish the guitars were a little higher in the mix, such as in the first half of "Conjure the Watcher." But that's all forgivable, for two reasons. First off, this type of metal has got to be a complete bitch to mix, and second... it's not meant to have a super-polished clean sound!
Temple Nightside
Condemnation
2013 Dark Descent / Nuclear Winter Records
Claustrophobic death metal seems to be all the rage these days, and Temple Nightside is one of the better bands in the style. Combining echoing Incantation style guitar riffs with blasting drums and vocals from the lower bowels of Hell, they've put together something that will haunt you well after you hear the last note of the last song. The slower tracks, such as "Exhumation: Miseries upon Imprecation," have a kind of "lurching" feeling to them, conjuring forth the image of some hulking trollish entity... shuffling through an endless black labyrinth, dragging heavy chains behind itself for the rest of its pitiful existence. The despair he feels is of the slow burning variety that runs deep. So it is with the music of Temple Nightside. Heavy on the atmosphere, heavy on the feeling. Yet not lightweight with the other aspects of their sound. I'd expect nothing less from a couple of deranged guys from Australia, as their country practically invented this style. Want further evidence? OK, between the two of them, they've done time in bands like Naxzul, Backyard Mortuary and Pestilential Shadows... plus a small host of others I've never heard of until now. Definitely one of the better albums I've heard in the final quarter of 2013.
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!
