Broken Gravestones
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
2011 Sevared Records / Comatose Music
If more people in horror films followed the advice of the title of this ep, they'd all live a lot longer. But no... someone always has to read the magic phrase, play the album backwards, or take the cursed treasure. Hopefully this will not just be a one-off recording by Kam Lee and Noel Kemper of Altar of Giallo (plus a couple of other guys of course). The three songs here are just too good. The music is more or less like maybe Bolt Thrower covering the "Morbid Tales" album. The drums are far more energetic than old Celtic Frost material, and the songs are all heavier than hell. Kam's vocals are in a slightly different style than you might be used to. If you're expecting all the wipeouts like he did in Massacre, forget it. Here, he's a lot more straightforward, with deep vocals that you can mostly understand. Kam still does it as only he can. As a bonus, the two tracks from the demo are here. Kam wasn't on those two songs, so it's very interesting to compare those versions of "The Rising Dead" and "Zombies Don't Run" to these versions on the demo. Noel Kemper did vocals on the demo, and his style is very different from Kam's. Speaking of "Zombies Don't Run," that track is a big slap in the face to whoever decided that the infected humans in 28 Days Later were zombies. Moron. Just ask Fulci. Just ask Argento. Zombies don't run! But you should. Head over to whatever online distro you frequent that has this for sale.
Flame
March Into Firelands
2011 Hells Headbangers / Primitive Reaction
Been a while since we heard from Flame. But they're finally back, with a slightly different lineup, and an album boasting of superior production when compared to the debut. Judging by the opening track, I'd have to say that Flame have come the closest to matching the unbridled insanity of the first two Nifelheim albums. They do keep things held together though, so there's no feeling like the whole thing is going to descend into utter chaos at any given moment. Or at least they usually don't have that feeling. The second minute of "Doomed..." stops just short of proving me wrong. With bands like Flame, Urn or Hell Spirit, Finland has really managed to corner the market on the thrashing black death market. Yeah, there's other bands out there from other countries that have been doing it longer, but they're all scattered about the globe. Finland, on the other hand, has a very concentrated assault force, and they seem to be doing the style better. I really have nothing bad to say about this album except that I wish they'd kept the old logo. Ah well, can't win 'em all.
Hellcannon
Infected with Violence
2010 Butchered Records
Very young band here, based out of Buffalo, New York, and formed in 2008. Besides being new on the scene, I think the members are all fairly young as well. But youth has never been much of an obstacle when it comes to good metal music. Just consider how young the members of Possessed were. These four guys crank out some serious thrash metal music, sounding maybe like Destruction in their early days, with Tom Angelripper on vocals and a more "modern" production. I'll admit right now that's a really bad comparison, and maybe just saying they're very "early days of Sodom-like" would be more accurate. But at least I'm in the ballpark and not saying they sound like Autopsy like 90% of reviews do these days regardless of what metal genre the reviewee is in. There's a whole lot of similarities to most of the Australian death/warmetal scene as well. For intensity, Hellcannon are right up there with the likes of Destroyer 666 and Assaulter. Like a lot of what I tend to like in my metal and review on here, Hellcannon are a little off the beaten path, but well-worth checking out.
Bombarder
Ima li zibota prije smrti
2010 Metal Warning
The release of this album came as a total shock to me. "Ledena Krv" was released all the way back in 2003, and having not seen anything else from them over the last eight years (I didn't know of this album until this year), I had figured they had broken up and were done. Obviously, that's not the case. Originally, the band was based in what used to be Yugoslavia, but vocalist Nenad Kovaèeviæ has since moved to Serbia, and I think gathered a new lineup there. "Ima li zibota prije smrti" or "Is There Life Before Death" is a bit of a departure from their previous releases. What I've heard in the past was pure speed metal. On this album though, they've mixed in quite a bit of regular heavy metal. It makes for a slightly different flavor, but not one that will piss off their fans. All of the songs are in their native tongue. Personally, I don't think that's a big deal. Having been exposed to a plethora of "Norwegian weather reports" in the early 1990s, I'm more or less immune to the concept that "metal must be in English." Most of the time, if a band chooses to write their songs in their native language, it ends up being a good thing. Translated versions just never work out right. Still, it is a little odd that even the cover of Nifelheim's "Sodomizer" has been translated. On the subject of that cover version, let me just say that while Bombarder's version is good, Nifelheim's is infinitely superior. Bombarder keep things way too calm, while Nifelheim sounded like the whole thing was going to either collapse or blow up in their faces at any second. Regardless of all that, it's great that Bombarder are still around, and that they've given us this new album to enjoy.
Blaspherian
Infernal Warriors of Death
2011 Deathgasm Records
I've seen a few other reviews of this album, and now it's my turn. Let's set the record straight. A lot of other reviewers apparently don't really know who they're dealing with here. Time and again, I see comparisons drawn to bands like Vaesaleth or Father Befouled. Those aren't bad bands at all, but comparisons like that really irk me because Blaspherian main-man Wes "Infernal" Weaver has been at it for a lot of years now. Maybe these reviewers never heard of Imprecation? The only truly valid comparison would be to Incantation, and calling Blaspherian a clone band would be a mistake. They lack the same twists and churns as Incantation, but make up for it with a far more suffocating and claustrophobic atmosphere. Truly, this is about as heavy as it gets. Forget about trying to decipher the vocals of Lord Apollyon by reading along with the lyrics. Can't be done. You'll get lost almost immediately. Speaking of those lyrics, there's no doubt where these guys have their hate directed, and the blasphemies in each song make those of early Deicide look like a joke (please, no comments about what Deicide are like now). The cover art also reminds me a lot of what was used for Immolation's "Dawn of Possession," only with a much denser composition. Much like the music on the album, you really need to look closer to truly see the details and comprehend the fathomless depths.
Repuked
Pervertopia
2011 Soulseller Records
Old school styled Swedish death metal hits a new high (or perhaps "low" would be more appropriate here) with Repuked's "Pervertopia." Featuring mega-heavy riffs in the vein of early Dismember and Autopsy that have been downtuned to new depths and the ugliest sounding vocals this side of... well... anybody else, it's a safe bet that Repuked are going to be ignored by what has become the mainstream death metal fan. "Mainstream death metal fan" as in "target demographic of the larger record labels." The likes of Deicide and Cannibal Corpse have become the trendy norm, and their shock value has all but worn off completely. Perfect for the casual metal fan looking for something heavier. For us rabid types, it's a good thing we've got a whole underground to retreat to, where profit margins and demographics don't exist. Not that you'll understand a single word that Rob West, Ritchie Rimjob or Nicke Shit spew forth, but you'll be too busy reveling in the pure death metal delight that is Repuked. If you do happen to check out their lyrics, it will be immediately obvious that they make Cannibal Corpse look like a band for the pre-school set. At least the necrophilia in Cannibal Corpse's lyrics allude to attractive dead females. Repuked tend to prefer the rotted bodies of crack whores. They've pushed things well beyond what could be considered socially acceptable, and suffice to say that if we could send a copy of this album back to 1985 and give it to the PMRC, every single member's head would simultaneously explode.
Broken Gravestones
