RECORD
REWIEVS
Enslaved: Eld (Osmose)
Their 3rd full-length CD in the case you didn´t
know. Well, what I didn´t like in their previous effort "Frost" was
the sound, which was annoingly over-distorted, but this one has very cool
production I think. And the material is far more better too, being more
in epic metal vein, than the usual fast black metal, what it mostly was
in "Frost". Of course the faster parts are still there and they add pretty
agressive touch to this record of one and only viking metal band: Enslaved.
Again the lyrics are 100% in norwegian, but are printed in english too.
Osmose Productions, B.P. 57 - 62990, Beaurainville, France
Absu: Third Storm Of Cythrául (Osmose)
For some reason being not heard Absu´s
material before this was kind of (positive) surprise for me. Third Storm
Of Cyhtrául really took me by storm! Being honest, first I didn´t
like it so much, but after few listens more it kinda opened for me. Raging
trashy black metal, melody combined with aggression and unique diabolical
sounding vocals. Tunes are quite catchy indeed and though some are 6 minutes
or longer, you certainly wont be bored! Songs are mostly up-tempo, but
they include some epic sounding parts as well, especially in the last track
"Of Celtic fire we are born/terminus", which could be compared to the "viking
metal" material of Bathory, I think. There are two different vocalists,
which adds variation to them of course. Vocals are quite a lot in the 80´s
vein, sounding a bit like Destruction´s maybe, it´s not the
usual black metal screamy vocals. All around a very good release.
Gehennah: King of the Sidewalk (Osmose)
I guess most of people into ug are now familiar
with Gehennah and their style, pure metal that is. This is a bit more rock´n
roll than their previous one, not so brutal and raw... Lyrics are written
in a very smart way, they alone would offer some entertainment, musically
it offers some Venom/Motörhead like sing-along beer metal, which turns
to be very enjoyable at times.Gehennah seems to be totally dedicated to
this kind of starightforward loud and speedy metal... There´s
an Elvis cover (devil in disguise) here and Gehennah have really given
the song a kick to ass. Definately a record worth checking out. Overall,
not any sensational or very in-depth stuff, nor the most original... But
somehow cool and enjoyable! They have their third album already out, I´v
heard it´s lots of better... Try?
Nomicon: Yellow (Shiver Records)
This is the first full-length outfit of
finnish Nomicon... And what an excellent album it is! I know this isn´t
maybe everyone´s cup of tea, especially one´s into easy-listening
melodic metal should stay away from this! It´s very complex
and neurotic (if not psychotic!), varying from obscure atmospherical parts
(even some female vox are used here) to totally agressive death metal blasts.
Technical, disharmonic and highly proficient guitar-playing, agressive
drum-beats, strange synths... I have to admit that this is totally trend-free
record, very original, but not too odd-sounding. So if you want quality
extreme metal go and buy this, on the other hand you can buy your 666th
same sounding black metal record...
Shiver Records, Bossepleinstraat 6, 3128 Baal, Belgium
Old Man´s Child: Pagan Prosperity (Century
Media)
Well, Old Man´s Child has also got somewhat...
big? At least they are on the century media now and even visited the official
top-40 record chart of Finland. Well, anyway they´r done some great
epic black/heavy metal here! It´s very professionally made and surely
it has a little commercial edge in it, but saying that Old Man´s
Child have turned to a metal band for the masses (as many of you probably
are gonna do), wouldn´t be anything but pathetic, since it is all
very geat music! I think this makes their previous album sound like total
shit (well, I never liked it too much, actually). It has got some trashing
riffs which add some real power and heaviness to this music. It´s
like a mix between epic, trash and black metal! A masterpiece! Incredibly
good guitar riiffs, nice synths and great solos as well... Great!
Swordmaster: Postmortem Tales (Osmose)
Yeah! Swedish Swordmaster have taken their trash-edged
black metal even further and have came up with album so incredibly agressive!
Fuck, you should listen to this with as loud volume as possible and drink
some beer, then you probably know what I mean! The playing is tight, production
is supreme, vocals are devastating and so on... They have also a bit melody
here and there, some people have thus mistaken this as a band playing in
the vein of Dark Tranquility and the like... Only bad thing that this starts
to sound boring in the long run, but what the hell, stick your stupid ambient
records up your ass and give real metal a chance!
Thy Serpent: Lords Of Twilight (Spinefarm)
Right... Most of people into underground surely
have heard of these Finnish dark metallers... This is their 2 demos pressed
in CD, but it is not the usual rip-off case, these are re-recorded versions
of the old songs and include good sound quality and real drums, which the
demos lacked, so everyone who likes this band should get this one too!
In the case you didn´t know their style is very melodic black metal
(or dark metal), with skillful playing and greatly structured songs. Quality
dark music! And this has some new synth-tracks, from which I'm not too
found of...
Rotting Christ: A dead poem (century media)
Again, here´s a band that goes for more
commercial direction... Commercial word having no negative meaning in this
case, it´s just that surely RC doesn´t sound underground in
anyway anymore... But why should I complain, since they had their ug-days
alrteady... And they have made a very good album! It´s something
like gothic rock meets heavy metal, with tiny little traces from their
black metal past, especially the vocals. It has been described as a mixture
between amok-era Sentenced and Moonspell, which is a good description,
I think. It´s the guitars that bring sentenced to my mind, riffs
being somewhat technical, melancholic, beautiful and quite heavy at same
time... Synths are very great, too and vocals of Sakis are something like
unique (though his accent sounds a bit funny at times), the songs themsleves
are very catchy and enjoyable! Overall playing time is about 45 min. and
you won´t get bored with this!
Summoning: Dol Guldur (Napalm Records)
These Austrian guys have made their 3rd full-lenght
album to date... Mighty guitar melodies, backed by majastetic sounding
keyboards and quite slow tempo drums... (well, computer drums, actually,
but it sounds very good!) It all has an very epic feeling in it and even
though the songs are a little bit repeative, they do not get boring, they
are more like hypnotic... Yes, it´s all very well done, but still
I prefer their previous album, I don´t exactly know why, but it is
afact. Anyway this is a very good album and everyone into epic and atmospheric
sounding black metal should like this one...
Napalm records, Kumpentaler Straße 3, A-8790 Eisenerz, AUSTRIA
Demoniac: Stormblade (Osmose/Evil Omen)
I have not heard Demoniac before, bit what we
got here is somekinda old school black metal mixed with motörhead
rock and maybe some punk influences... they have somekind of humor too,
though this is not a "fun band", if you care. It´s quite rocking
album, though it gets a little bit boring in long run. Anyway, tracks like
"burn the witch", "red light" and so on are nice pieces of rocking metal
and this kind of totally untrendy records always offer some refrehment,
at least. The mainpart of "Into the cavern light" reminds me from Iron
Maiden´s "Rime of the ancient mariner" in some way...
Demoniac
Irstas: Unluck (E-records)
Yeah, I got an advance tape of this one, so here
we go: Irstas plays fast & agressive hardcore punk with metallic edge
(maybe it is just the production). 14 songs here, most of them lasting
about 2 minutes and everyone of them being more or less a good piece of
aggression. No politic whining here in lyrics, which is a good thing, I
think. Oh, this includes an Impaled Nazarene member (but surely is no fucking
side-project, because this band did started in mid eighties already). I
think this is would be a good investment for your money, if you are into
this kind of stuff, but average black metal fans can safely stay away from
this.This is released in vinyl only.
Legenda: Autumnal (Holy/Spinefarm)
Here we got the new band of Kimmo Luttinen who
leaved Impaled Nazarene. Well, it hasn´t got almost anything to do
with Impaled Nazarene, though the material here can be somehow compared
to those slower tracks on IN`s "Suomi Finland Perkele" album.Kimmo has
almost identical voice when compared to his brother and actually there
is nothing wrong with that, but a some variation in this kind of music
would do just fine.Anyway, those vocals make a great contrast between sometimes
utterly beautiful synths and quite black metal sounding guitars.There are
no blast beats used here, the music just flows smoothy onwards, still it
isn´t without agression. Great feelings of majesty, coldness,depression
and anger... Yeah, sounds maybe like just another synth-black metal band,
but let me tell you, this is something that is really far above the
average unoriginality of all those boring new bands... Definately one of
the best of the Finnish newcomers. If I should compare this to some band,
Katatonia is maybe the only one coming to my mind... (And of course they
do not sound so much like Katatonia, but...) I really do like this one,
but hopefully we get more variation next time, especially in vocals.
Yearning: With Tragedies Adorned (Holy)
This finish gothic-doom act has now released
their first full-length album. Well, I have to say that the vocals are
a little bit annoying at times, though they are not technically so bad,
but not just totally for my taste (it´s not so disturbing anyway).
The music is very heavy doom metal with quite lots of melody and it´s
very good for a debut album. This is a kind of record that I don´t
listen too often, but when I do I usually do enjoy it... a lot.
Holy records, B.P. 59, 77260 La Ferte S7S Jouarre, France
Abigail: Intercourse and Lust
Dirty black fucking metal is what Abigail plays, it´s 9 trax
of total carnage, mostly up-tempo, but also some with more rock´n
rollish aproach and the last song being somewhat strange, but... The production
is quite raw (not bad) and the harsh guitars playing simple, but effective
riifs together with blasting drums and totally bloodcurling and raw vocals
create kind of musical armageddon which is an experience, you should not
live without! Surely a record with no commercial flavor at all!
Mayhem: Wolf´s Lair Abyss MCD (Misanthropy)
Waited for long by some, waited not at all by others, but here it is...
After intro "the vortex void of inhumanity", about 20 minutes of pure fucking
armageddon starts with the song "I am the labyrinth", it´s maniac
evil black metal I think, with Hellhammer´s incredibly fast blast-beats,
ripping guitar-riffs and Maniacs sick vocals... (he´s name has a
literal meaning, it seems...). Some clean voices are also used, which adds
to the obscure and haunting feeling. Fuck, I don´t know what the
hell to say about this one, you just got to hear it, some think it´s
even better material than in "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas", so make your own
decisions! But I think this kicks ass!
World Domination 2 (Osmose)
2 CD sampler from this label, other CD containing previously unreleased
material (well, some of them are actually now released, but anyway). I
think it´s best to tell somethging from those unreleased tracks.
The second disc starts with Impaled nazarene song, "I am the killer of
the trolls", which is like Impaled Nazarene usually: simple, but hellishly
intensive! The sound in this song is better than in any Impaled Nazarene
album. Next we have Bewitched song, which is better than the songs on their
first album, this one reminding a bit more old Bathory records (those two
first ones). Disfear plays totally agressive metallic hardcore (or is it
hardcorish metal?), in very great manner, being fast and heavy as hell!
Raism features a bit starnge song which is something like industrial meets
80´s trash metal? Or is it, I don´t really know. but it´s
OK... Swordmaster kicks ass with their "clans of Death" song, then Tsatthoggua
features a boring song, followed by shit Mystifier track (with cool mainriff,
but everything else, especially vocals is totally shit). But, hey there
is Loud Pipes (which features some members of some swedish death metal
acts!) playing fucking cool fast punk rock! Yes, it´s definately
great, catchy and mean! Rocking Dildos (side project of Impaled Nazarene
members) plays a bit in the same vein, though a bit more metallic... Again
catchy and cool song, but not as great as Impaled Nazarene´s own
material. Sadistik Exekution blasts with some totally maniac grinding death
metal, not in the U.S.A style, though... A bit more old-school sounding,
perhaps? Yep, many seem not to understand their music, but I think it´s
cool enough... And especially this song, it´s better than the songs
on "We are Death Fukk You" album, there´s a bit more to grab from
in this song and you can actually remeber some riffs after listen! Gardenian
plays some kind of melancholic death-influenced metal... In somewhat unique
way, it´s quite interesting song with good melodies and riffs. Devilyn
gives us a song of... death metal, quite simple and effective. Conquer
plays somekind of brutal and ultra-dirty death/black metal in a very ugly
way, it´s got a foggy production and primitive vocals... Good, but
I wonder if an album full of this kind of material would work as a whole?
Then we got Majestic Midnight which is a black metal band from Spain (and
the band photo looks like they were doing fun of Cradle Of Filth), they
play fast black metal with keyborads... I don´t really know what
to say about this, maybe this would be great if there already wasn´t
thousands of these kind of bands? Anyway, it´s not complete
shit... And there is one surprise track "hidden" in this album... As this
double CD goes for a price of MCD, it´s a quite good investement,
especially if you haven´t heard all the bands.
Deicide: Serpents of the Light
Whwn their first album is definately a death metal classic and "Once
Upon The Cross" was something like a lame effort compared to it... Their
newest one is kind of kick-ass album! Doesn´t quite manage to capture
the same maniacally evil brutality as their debut album... Well, it´s
usual Deicide stuff, but it´s done in great way. Powerful production,
very tight playing, the supreme vocals, maniac guitar solos... YEs, you
have heard it before, but I guess there are some new ideas in here! (Compared
to "Once Upon The Cross", which has no ideas at all). There are couple
off riffs that ALMOST could be described as melodic, but this is no way
softer than their old material. The lyrics are very bad. They are simply
bad. Anyway, especially song "Slave to the Cross" is a piece of crushing
death metal. Nothing more, nothing less...
Enochian Crescent: Telocvovim (Woodcut Records) 
Here we got the debut CD of these finnish black metallers, who formed
the band in 95 to embody the very enssence of nihilism, fanaticism and
mysticism in black metal (according to their bio). I was a bit confused
first, since the first song "Kun ihmisliha itki" has a very bad and different
sound compare to rset of album... Anyway, EC aren´t totally new for
me, I remeber listening to their promo some year ago and I reacted something
like, "well, this is OK stuff, but nothing so great".Well, I hace to tell
you that this is clearly better (although some songs are from promo). There
is quite a lots of variation in the songs. Maybe too much, since album
as whole sounds a bit messy and the songs could be more tightly arranged.
Anyway, there are really good songs here, good riffs and melodies. Sometimes
melodic, sometimes atmospheric, sometimes brutal and heavy in other times.
Vocals are mostly screamed in a very great way and they really do sound
fucking raw and evil at times! Enochian Crescent has also gathered quite
many different influences here, so it´s quite far away from the typical
nordic sound! Production is something like in the latest Dimmu Borgir album,
clear and powerful! Yes. As already said, they manage to produce many great
moments, but what sometimes disturbs, is that when there suddenly comes
an acoustic part that lasts for 2 minutes and it doesn´t seem to
make any sense at all, or things like that. But, for a black metal debut
album in late nineties this is far above average! And with bands like Enochian
Crescent the future for finnish metal looks great! Hopefully their upcoming
MCD shows some development, this is certainly a band to watch to.
Woodcut Records, P.O Box 87, FIN-65101 VAASA, FINLAND
e-mail:[email protected]
band website: http://www.grave.com/~mega/EC
Noitapastori: Anima MCD (Woodcut)
Fuck, first when I gave a listen to this, I was shocked, I skipped
to the next song and then played STOP button. Anyway, this isn´t
THAT bad. It´s just that I´m not at all into this kind of stuff.
Finnish art-rock-pop band CMX is what first comes to my mind, but this
is a bit more... obscure maybe. Yes, it´s mostly stuff with clean
guitars and with very annoying vocals (not techniaclly very bad
maybe). It has very well written finnish lyrics, though. This is NOTHING
for me.
Wings: Diatribe (Woodcut)
This can´t really be categorixed, though it´s metal, it
has a bit of heavy, doom, trash etc. Well, it´s mostly heavy stuff
with melodies and variation, like different vocals etc. Actually this bores
me quite a lot. It just let´s me with a bit empty feeling and a thought
"well, what´s actually going on here" or shit like that, but hey,
I guess someone will enjoy this and this just isn´t my cup of tea?
Well, I wouldn´t buy this record, but It´s OK listen for me.
Throes Of Dawn: Pakkasherra (Woodcut)
And again finnish metal band, this time it´s black heavy metal.
Well, it´s mostly somewhat brutal with technical bits, melodies and
cold feeling. Guitar playing is very talented here, it sounds really good
and there are also some hravy metal kind of solos here. Hmm, imagine a
mix between Sentenced´s "North From Here" and Dissection´s
"Storm At The Light´s Bane" and you maybe get somekind of picture
what´s going on here... Well, as you maybe guessed already, it´s
not as good as those previously mentioned masterpieces, but... If they
just could come up with an albumful of songs like "The night belongs to
us" and "Pakkasherra", it would be a very great album! The title track
is definateky the killer track of this disc! Anyway, once again; certainly
not abd for a debut album! Lot´s of better and darker than all the
Dark Tranquility and At The Gates Jr´s in our neighbour country...
Yeah, and the playing and production are both great!
