Review: Arsis – We Are The Nightmare

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 26, 2012 in CD Reviews

ARSIS
We Are The Nightmare (2008)

US, Nuclear Blast, Melodic Technical Death Metal

I consider myself a very open minded metalhead. I try not to be prematurely judgmental with bands I’ve never heard, bands that everyone seems to hate, bands that confuse people et. al. but there is a noteworthy percentage of metal I just don’t understand. Black Metal bands described as ‘kvlt’, the majority of Power Metal, Yngwie Malmsteen and a fairly recent strain of technical death metal known as ‘Melodic Technical Death Metal’, represented by bands like Allegaeon, Vale Of Pnath and of course, Arsis. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I stopped listening to melodic death metal almost entirely around sixteen years old. Maybe the mixture of melodic and technical death metal is just fundamentally flawed to begin with. Maybe, as many fans of Arsis will no doubt tell me after reading this, I’m just a tone deaf rube with a weedly deedly fetish. I consider the last two explanations to be the least likely, but whatever the case may be, Arsis and I have never been able to see eye to eye. Not from a lack of trying mind you. I’ve listened to a fair share of their material and the closest I’ve come to appreciating their style is on their first album ‘A Celebration Of Guilt’. It wasn’t mindblowing, but I do consider it good material. It managed to strike a nice balance between the feel of melodic death metal and the intensity of tech-death. A mere two albums later and my sense of engagement is fleeting at best. I don’t fully understand why ‘We Are The Nightmare’ is so difficult to listen to, but the bizarre mixture of boredom and restlessness this release gives me is undeniable.

Review: Detrimentum – INHUMAN disGRACE

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 25, 2012 in CD Reviews

DETRIMENTUM
INHUMAN disGRACE (2012)

England, Deepsend Records, Technical Brutal Death Metal

Like schoolchildren, the metal community loves to bicker over sub-sub genres. Clearly technical brutal death metal differs radically from brutal technical death metal, and therefore deserves as its own separate entity. Thrash/death vs. death/thrash, doom death, death doom, slamming brutal death metal, slam death metal, guttural slamming brutal death metal…

Review: Gallows For Grace – A Process For The Destruction Of Tomorrow

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 23, 2012 in CD Reviews

GALLOWS FOR GRACE
A Process For The Destruction Of Tomorrow (2008)

Australia, Skull And Bones, Technical Death Metal

“Death creates nothing.”
“Your death will create an opportunity.”

Part Psycroptic, part Brain Drill, part Dying Fetus and all face melting, Gallows For Grace were quite the young tech-death outfit. ‘A Process For The Destruction Of Tomorrow’ is the perfect combination of sweeps, slams and even bits of outright melody. From the first song outside of the 35 second intro, I knew I was in for a treat. Much like their countrymen Ouroboros, Gallows For Grace knew exactly how to synthesize the elements of death metal they loved into a cohesive and increasingly unstoppable whole. This EP is nowhere near as technical as Entrails Eradicated, Monumental Torment, Viraemia or Hedonistic Exility, but I doubt that was the intention. At their most technical, Gallows For Grace can be compared to a mellowed out Brain Drill via ‘Apocalyptic Feasting’ if they somehow merged with ‘Scepter Of The Ancients’ era Psycroptic and ‘Destroy The Opposition’ era Dying Fetus. Blake Simpson, the extremely talented vocalist alternates between John Gallagher style gurgles, Sean Beasely style barks and Matt Chalky mid pitched and shrieked vocals. No pig squeals, no inhales, no cheap vocal tricks of any kind. The music is that much better because of it.

Review: Mindly Rotten – Proliferation Of Disaster

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 23, 2012 in CD Reviews

MINDLY ROTTEN
Proliferation Of Disaster (2011)

Colombia, Coyote Records, Technical Brutal Death Metal

“Oh.
My.
Fuck.”

That was the most I could muster after listening to Mindly Rotten’s ‘Proliferation Of Disaster’ in its entirety. I’d known of several Colombian Death Metal outfits before stumbling across Mindly Rotten, (Internal Suffering and Ancient Necropsy being the two most prominent) but no predecessors could give me an indication of what was in store for me with this release. I can now say with the utmost confidence that Mindly Rotten renders Deeds Of Flesh jump roping, hopscotching little girls. They make Cattle Decapitation sound like a bunch of month old kittens. This release has singlehandedly raised the bar for unparalleled brutality, all while writing some of the most technically dazzling and innovative brutal death metal of the past seven years AT LEAST.

Review: Xenocide – Galactic Oppression

Posted by Witness to the Void on Jan 23, 2012 in CD Reviews

XENOCIDE
Galactic Oppression (2012)

Canada, Self-released, Progressive / Technical Death Metal

Galactic Oppression via Technical Death Metal? Beam Me Up, Xenocide!

I am a sucker for anything cosmically related in metal. The depths of infinity lends itself perfectly to guitar squeals and rubbery bass. In my iTunes I have multiple playlists devoted solely to those technicians that choose to transverse the cosmos.

In contrast, I am rarely on top of upcoming releases from bands I don’t really know about, especially when they aren’t on one of the bigger metal labels. Hence, I stumbled across Xenocide’s Galactic Oppression album purely by accident – like a small spaceship running into some random object the far off, remote galaxy of the internet. But this is no space junk – this debut fell length contains a wealth of captivating technicality, memorable song writing, and stellar musicianship. The engineers of this vessel, a five piece from Vancouver, Canada, describe their music as “galactic death metal” for fans of “astronomy, death metal, and technology.”

Omnihility – these fellas sure love Origin!

Posted by Goshuggist on Jan 23, 2012 in Now Playing

The Metal Archives is a very hit and miss website; what they do extremely well in publicizing unknown bands and creating a wonderful database of new outfits to discover they ruin with reactionary elitists and close minded trolls. Regardless, while looking for new bands to review and/or enjoy, I stumbled across this Eugene, Oregon based group called Omnihility.

“Sounds quite brutal,” I surmised from the name of the group.

“They’d have to be with a name meaning ‘Absolute belief in nothingness’.”

A quick Youtube search brought up none of their material save for grainy live footage. It was on Reverbnation that I finally got a taste of Omnihility’s material. As I put on the song ‘Abcess Of Oblivion’, I had a sudden, unmistakable feeling that I knew couldn’t be true. After the song played in its entirety, I played ‘Biogenesis’ and ‘Unsummoned’ in an attempt to quell the feeling, but it only continued to grow. After listening to all of the material they had put up, I was forced to acknowledge my initial feeling was correct.

Spawn of Possession strikes. First track from incoming “Incurso” album!

Posted by Rimmon on Jan 18, 2012 in Now Playing

5 long years they kept us waiting for the new album and finally it will be out 13 of march 2012 (Relapse Records). In the meantime, here’s the first track from this album which is called “Where Angels Go Demons Follow”.

Relapse Records comment:

The wait is over. ‘Incurso’, Spawn Of Possession’s Relapse debut and first new record in over five years is a headspinning masterpiece of technically brutal death metal. Featuring current and former members of tech-titans Necrophagist and Obscura, Spawn Of Possession absolutely annihilate with ‘Incurso’. Devastating riffs, jaw-dropping time-signatures and improbably complex and sophisticated songwriting all combine to create an opus of next level death metal. Spawn Of Possession’s ‘Incurso’ is simultaneously fresh and instantly classic, an immediate landmark in the death metal canon.

SPAWN OF POSSESSION – Where Angels Go Demons Follow by RelapseRecords