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Past
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BACK
MANGLED
Most Painful Ways (Hammerheart)
A crisp production allows this perverted quintet to capture their
violent intensity in the studio and channel that viciousness into
a well-structured brand of death metal laden with sick tempo changes,
turbulent riff work, and harsh vocal grunts that sound like a hubcap
being dragged across pavement in accordance with the metre of the
lyrics. The band’s proficiency for blast passages is clearly
on display, but smartly interspersed with segments of cranium-obliterating
mid-paced riffing where the guitar duo spew forth an unholy array
of warped riffs that rank high on the Headbanger Scale. At the foundation,
it is Mangled’s ability to write genuinely good songs and then
execute them with skill and conviction that allows them to destroy
on a massive scale.
<T. Bengtson> -7-
MASTADON
Lifesblood (Relapse)
With ‘Lifesblood,’ their debut release, Mastadon are one
of the brighter gems to surface this fall (along with fellow Relapse
newbies Burnt by the Sun). Tight, fast, and insane, Mastadon (featuring
ex-members of Today Is the Day, Lethargy, and Social Infestation)
deliver an exciting take on abrasive, extreme music with this five-song
offering. From skull-crushing drum intensity to bizarre musical
patterns and chaotic vocals echoing throughout, Mastadon charges
into battle like the massive beast that is the band’s namesake,
stomping everything in its path. Behold this brutal beast!
<A. Bromley> -8-
MAUDLIN OF THE WELL
Bath/Leaving Your Body Map (Dark Symphonies)
Maudlin of the Well has to be one of the strangest metal incarnations
out there. And that isn’t a bad title to be given. Much like
the work ethics of Washington State’s Sculptured or even Finland’s
Amorphis, MotW are not afraid to sample new ideas, experiment, and
channel emotions through various outlets. Their music runs with
multiple styles: choir singing, jazzy interludes, death metal growls,
and heavy guitar playing alongside a tight rhythm section. The two
new releases from MotW, ‘Bath’ and ‘Leaving Your
Body Map,’ see the band laying down a lot of new ideas and
strengthening their love for emotional interludes and jazz-tinged
passages. As I sit here and listen to both discs, I am a little
on the fence as to whether or not I fully understand their progression
and styles. Confusion sets in as both albums flow from song to song,
each track offering a new realm of ideas to take in. Needless to
say, for the most part I find myself sucked into MotW’s world
of exploration.
<A. Bromley> -7. 7-
MONSTROSITY
Enslaving the Masses (Conquest Music)
Monstrosity have released a two-CD set without actually releasing
any new material. Disc one contains several remastered tracks from
their classic debut album ‘Imperial Doom’ along with their
‘Horror Infinity’ demo plus several demo tracks from their
‘Millennium’ sessions. Demo tracks are basically a way
to pad a CD with material. These tracks aren’t exceptional
in any way except that you get to hear what the band sounds like
in their rehearsal studio. Big fucking deal, right? Disc two is
where the money shot is. After seeing Monstrosity live several months
ago, I saw them as an excellent live band, full of energy, presence,
and an unquenchable thirst for metal. You can actually hear the
excitement of the crowd as they break into "Destroying Divinity."
I feel the production could use some help, as it comes across somewhat
muted, but it is a good mix nonetheless. As with any good live disc,
the set combines a diverse montage of their career, spanning all
three albums. Monstrosity is one of the higher-end Floridian death
metal bands, and ‘Enslaving the Masses’ is a good addition
to a Monstrosity fan’s collection.
<S. Wasylyk> -7-
MURDER SQUAD
Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged (Pavement)
Sick, gore-spewing, Autopsy-worshipping death metal, courtesy of
members of Entombed and Dismember. This album possesses a primal
stomp and barbaric buzzsaw guitar riffs that recall the founding
fathers of gore death metal, complete with what might be the quintessential
ultra-raw death metal production. Murder Squad smartly mixes up
the tempo, ranging from upbeat barrages of vomitous riffage and
phlegmy barks to slow, deliberate stompers laden with drawling snarled
vocals and ear-bleedingly raucous riffage (on the obnoxious title
track, for example). "The Probing" begins with an ominous
guitar-led introduction before busting into some terminal ward screams
of anger and pain that sound more like "Damaged" from
Black Flag’s album of the same name with its emotive snarls
and discordant riffage. Suddenly, the violent seventh track busts
open like a well-shaken can of beer, erupting with low-tuned guitar
slinging conducted at a faster pace than "The Probing."
While this album does sound a bit campy on the rather forced "Bloodfreak,"
a slow, mechanically executed track that sounds like a really bad
demo track, there are enough cool cuts on this album, such as the
impressive "Sent Home in a Box," with its Entombed-style
death rock solo, to satiate my taste for raw proto-gore death metal.
This album does suffer, to a certain degree, from the second-half
doldrums, but I dig the approach, and many of the songs are cool,
making ‘Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged’ worthy of
investigation if you happen to be a fan of back-to-basics death
metal in the vein of Autopsy’s ‘Mental Funeral.’
<T. Bengtson> -6-
NEPHASM
Immortal Unholy Triumph (Mighty Music)
Similar in style to Krisiun or Rebaelliun, Nephasm are the European
equivalent to their South American counterparts. Things on this
CD pick up on track three, "Useless Cross," which shows
this band’s capability of playing at extreme speeds while injecting
enough melody and brutality to keep things interesting. It’s
the mixing up of music that keeps the extreme from becoming laden
down with cliché structures that sink them before the listener
can get through half the CD. Nephasm play this style well and have
all of the necessary elements in place, but come off as a lesser
version of the aforementioned bands. The redeeming qualities on
this album are there (the great lead guitar work, the frenzied rhythms)
but there are more worthwhile examples of this style to praise.
<S. Wasylyk> -6-
PIG DESTROYER
Prowler in the Yard (Relapse)
To fully understand the world of Pig Destroyer, you must read the
snippet from the opening track, "Cheerleader Corpses":
"…semen tastes like gunmetal she said smiling/the arms
of boys drowning in fire reaching for the rungs of my rib cage/these
pills I take in the witching hour/I imagine I am swallowing you…"
Now add to those disturbing lyrics one of the most maniacal assemblages
of shredding grindcore imaginable. Sick, twisted, and not for the
faint of heart, Pig Destroyer returns in 2001 with extreme violence
and intensely insane ideas. Pig Destroyer makes Hannibal Lector
look like a retard grocery bag boy. Twenty-two tracks that just
reek of sickness and showcase how fucked up this world we live in
really is.
<A. Bromley> -8-
REPROBATION
The Colour of Gore (Forever Underground)
While this brutal death metal band from the Midwest had something
promising going on for them with the dual vocal attack, it seems
as though the clichéd sounds and repetitive nature of things
has gotten the better of them. Reprobation’s ‘The Colour
of Gore’ is a ‘chug-chug’ death metal record that
tries to change things up quite a bit as the disc goes on, and along
the way they lose the listener. Occasionally technical, Reprobation’s
latest avoids clichés only half the time. But it is the other
half we have to sit through and deal with that makes this quite
irritating.
<A. Bromley> -4-
RESURRECTED
Butchered in Excrement (Perverted Taste)
I couldn’t help but hear every single Cannibal Corpse album
idea pop up here and there as Resurrected’s album ‘Butchered
in Excrement’ went on. Doesn’t the title alone sound like
they stole it from Cannibal Corpse? I am not a huge fan of Cannibal
Corpse, but I do like some of their music and I will stand behind
them this time and say that Resurrection (even thought they are
from Germany) sound like they are ripping the band off. What next?
The singer changes his name from Carsten to ‘Cadavergrinder’?
It could happen. Stick with Cannibal Corpse—at least they are
consistent.
<A. Bromley> -2-
RUNE
s/t (Crucial Blast)
Ah…nothing like sitting home at night with crushing grindcore/death
metal music blaring from the speakers. From the hellhole known as
Dayton, Ohio (I had a bad experience there while on tour with Monster
Voodoo Machine in ’95. I’ll save that story for another
issue…) comes Rune, an incredibly tight and destructive grinding
band that makes no bones about the fact that they want to tear some
shit up. With just three songs ("Call of Hearts," "Four
Season Landmark…" and "106 degrees") to lay
waste to the world we live in, Rune furiously zip through 11-plus
minutes of blissful and calculated mayhem. Rune may not be the best
band, but they’ve definitely got the initiative to go fucking
crazy with their music, even if that means they may not always hit
the target head on.
<A. Bromley> -7-
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