REVIEW: CALMSITE - DEADWEIGHT

 

CALMSITE - DEADWEIGHT (Independent, 2002)

 

Produced By: Jani Loikas

Tracks: 1- Payment in Full, 2- Grace the Doll, 3- Heavy Breeder

Cover Art by Calm Site

This MCD left me wanting more Calm Site music. The music here is death metal with a lot of melody and guitar arrangements. Every thing, every note here is designed to create a good son. And that is what sets Calm Site apart from any other death emtal band, their songs. The compositional skills of this guys are extremely well developed and they have created three dark opuses here that get immediately the listener´s attention through the melodies and riffs (the riffs are really rhythmic and catchy). The sound of the recording is good but I think this guys should mix a little bit higher the rhythm guitars in order to give even more heaviness to their music. If you like melodic death metal with many ideas (including some rocking riffs) then you should check Calm Site.

Favorite tracks: The three. Don´t miss a step from this guys!!

Contact: http://listen.to/calmsite

REVIEW: CADAVERIC CREMATORIUM - CRY NOW, MOTHERFUCKER

 

CADAVERIC CREMATORIUM - CRY NOW, MOTHERFUCKER (Independent, 2001)

Produced By: Cadaveric Crematorium

Tracks: 1- Incredible Hulk, 2- Butcher?, 3- Love in Formaline, 4- Cerebral Liquefaction, 5- Your Cat, 6- Emorragia, 7- Cadaveric Crematorium, 8- Outrobus, 9- Cannibal Cops, 10- Hannibal Corpse

Cover Art by Archvile

Recorded at  Cadaveric Studios

Brutality is the main goal of this band and they achieve it in many ways. Not only with speed that this album has and in big quantities (including blast beats and double bass). In fact, the band uses some crushing riffs (with downtuned guitars that sound extremely fat) that are even more devastating than the fastest parts because of their extreme heaviness. The tracks here are complex and have many changes, some of them really difficult to play like the ones in "Love in Formaline" that change tempos abruptly. The vocals are extremely guttural and there are some counterpoints with the screaming voice type. The bass player is a beast behind the bass accentuating a lot the drumbeats and adding a lot of bottom end to the guitar riffs. Brutality at top level!!!!!!

Favorite tracks: "Love in Formaline", "Cerebral Liquefaction" and "Emorragia"

Contact: Ventuz@tiscalinet.it

REVIEW: BOUND AND GAGGED - FORNICATE THE GUTTED

 

BOUND AND GAGGED - FORNICATE THE GUTTED (United Guttural Recs., 2002)

Produced By: Bound and Gagged

Tracks: 1- Seven Bodies, 2- Rape the Dowager, 3- Bloody Chunks of Menstral Flow, 4- Blistered, 5- The Chrome Uterus, 6- Intentional Internal Ingestion, 7- Paraphilic Piquerism, 8- Choking and Gargling, 9- Revel In Ejaculate, 10- XX

Cover Art by Eric Ridgeway

Recorded at RMS Recordings

Here we have this band whose music is brutal as hell grind death with some technical elements. I have to explain this. This guys have super fast parts like a grindcore band and the vocals are extremely distorted as are on the style. Then they have riffs that are closer to death metal in the parts thata the drumming is not blast beats, and then this guys have technical skills that are necessary in order to play all the changes, riffs and rhythms that this guys do through the ten songs that are on this CD. But the main thing here is the extreme brutality thta each of the tracks has (and this brutality is even more effective because of the good sound that this recording has). Lovers of bestial death metal or grindcore with ideas will surely like Bound and gagged´s music.

Favorite tracks: "Seven Bodies", "Blistered" and "Choking and Gargling"

Contact: www.unitedguttural.com

REVIEW: BOETZ - CALL TO ARMS

 

BOETZ - CALL TO ARMS (Balls Out Records, 2001)

Produced By: Ernest Robert Boetz

Tracks: 1- Call to Arms, 2- Green Back Crack, 3- Weak in the Knees, 4- Rock'n'roll is Good, 5-Shinin' , 6- Getting Over You, 7- Oh Boy!, 8- Don´t Mean A Thing, 9- Wish, 10- Almost To Scotland

Recorded at Exocet Studios 

Pure heavy rock and roll is what Ernest Robert Boetz does with his band. The CD starts with full energy with the title track that features Motörhead´s legend Lemmy kilminster trading vocals with Ernest. Pure energy !!! This CD has ten refreshing songs that can remind you to a much heavier Kiss or bands like Motörhead, that is, bands that have made a religion from rock´n´roll. And Boetz is creating their own religion with this pure rock release. The guitars are loud and distorted as the style requires and the bass and drums leave a lot of space for guitar and vocals that are the main ingredients here. The compositions have a lot of power on them and the good sound that this recording has helps a lot to achieve the results that Boetz wants. Pure rock and roll done with a lot of passion and dedication!!!! If you like bands like the ones mentioned before or AC/DC you will surely like Boetz a lot !!

Favorite tracks: "Call to Arms", "Don´t Mean a Thing" and "Wish"

Contact: www.boetz.com

REVIEW: BARATA - REGRESSO

 

BARATA - REGRESSO (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Barata

Tracks: 1- Downnn, 2- Cries, 3- Revelation, 4- Misery, 5- 'Self' Sented, 6- Unity

Cover Art by Barata

Recorded at Threnody Studios 

Barata plays modern metal with some hardcore influences. Ultra heavy riffs that make an emphasis on heaviness and not on speed (even if "Cries starts really fast !!!) is what we have here. All of them seem to have been designed to make the crowd jump and mosh in a concert. The main element here is the heaviness and the power that each of the six tracks contained here deliver. The drums are very rhythmic as modern metal requires and they have been really well mixed. The singer is powerful and is of the type required by a band of this style. The sound of this release is really good and that is really good to achieve what this guys wanted: extreme heaviness.

Favorite tracks: "Downnn", "Cries" and "Misery"

Contact: www.barata.nl

REVIEW: BADLAND - AXIS OF CAVITY

 

BADLAND - AXIS OF CAVITY (Bruce´s Fingers, 2002)

Produced By: Simon H. Fell

Tracks: 1- Axis of Cavity, 2- Arm of The Sea, 3- Groove For Deep Branch, 4- Surface For Talice, 5- The temporal Bones, 6- Birdie, 7- The Scapula Angles, 8- Spinous Process, 9- Bow, Stick and Reed

Cover Art by Simon H. Fell

Recorded at the Steam Rooms 

This month we have many releases that feature great musician Simon H. Fell playing double bass in different formats and lineups. And we will start with this Badland review. Badland is a trio consisting of Fell in double bass, Simon Rose on alto saxophone and Steve Noble on drums. This trio takes a lot of elements from jazz and then twist them into new shapes and forms, experimenting constantly with new sounds, rhythms and musical phrases. Here we have Fell and Noble constructing a musical skeleton with their rhythms and phrases and we have Rose adding flesh to the bones. There are moments that are more chaotic like at 3:00 in "Arm of the Sea" and there are many other moments that are more relaxed. Here you have experimentation on each track, on each minute and on each second. This is music done by musicians who stretch boundaries.

Favorite tracks: "Axis of Cavity", "Birdie" and "The Scapula Angles"

Contact: www.brucesfingers.com

REVIEW: ATROCIOUS DEVOURED - GOLDEN JAIL

 

ATROCIOUS DEVOURED - GOLDEN JAIL (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Atrocious Devoured

Tracks: 1- Hatred, 2- Killer Gods, 3- Golden Jail, 4- Live Murders, 5- I don´t Like it, 6- Murderer

Cover Art by Atrocious Devoured

A bestial band that plays extremely brutal death metal with interesting guitar arrangements. That is what Atrocious Devoured music sounds like. Fats riffs with extremely distorted guitar, drum beats at full speed with some blast beats in some of the tracks, brutal vocals. Everything here is conceived to brutalize the ears. There are some rhythmic riffs in tracks like "I don´t like it" that are designed to add more heaviness to the tracks and that are even more effective than the fastest ones. The sound of the recording is raw and direct so the band has achieved something like a "live sound" on this recording. Here you have a band with power and brutality for headbanging while listening to it.

Favorite tracks: "Hatred", "Killer Gods" and "Live Murders"

Contact: http://perso.infonie.fr/atrocious.dev

REVIEW: ASTRAY - PROMO 2002

 

ASTRAY - PROMO 2002 (Independent, 2002)

Produced By: Astray

Tracks: 1- Welcome To the Cult, 2- Barbed Wire Paradise, 3- Bleeding Here

Cover Art by Astray

Astray has found the perfect way to combine the agression of styles like black metal and death metal with many melodies and arrangements. Their music brings to my mind some shades of bands like for example Primordial, that is bands that have a lot of power and aggression in their music but that at the same time they have the melodic arrangements that give a lot of quality to the songs. Here we have a great keyboard player that adds a lot of melodies and feelings to Astray´s songs giving a lot of identity to the band while the guitarists spit their riffs with total rage. The vocals are screaming ones in total black metal fashion and are fundamental to the aggressive sound of Astray´s music. If you love bands who combine really well extreme agression with quality and melodies here you have a band for you!!

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: www.astrayband.com

REVIEW: ASHES YOU LEAVE - FIRE

 

ASHES YOU LEAVE - FIRE (Morbid Records, 2002)

Produced By: Ashes You Leave

Tracks: 1- Free, 2- In Vain, 3- Fire, 4- Hurt, 5- Ready To Cry, 6- Don´t Forget the Planets, 7- A Crimson Shade, 8- Manservant

Mastered by Peter Neuber

This is the fourth album from this great croatian gothic doom metal band, and this new release finds singer Marina much more confident than on the previous "The Inheritance of Sin and Shame" adding new melodies and showing all her vocal skills. Ashes you Leave have consolidated their style sounding like no one else (the mix here is clear and strange and gives the band a unique sound, specaially on the drums). There are many arrangements that reflect the beautiful and dark feelings that this band wants to transmit to the listener. The guitars are heavy and we have Marta´s violins doing a lot of melodies and sometimes harmonizing the vocals with the instrument (check the song "In Vain"). The guitar riffs have become a little bit more complex and at the same time leaves more room to the vocals, keys and violin to do their job on the songs. A must for lovers of dark metal.

Favorite tracks: All the CD

Contact: www.morbidrecords.de

REVIEW: ASGAROTH - RED SHIFT

 

ASGAROTH - RED SHIFT (Peaceville Recs., 2002)

Produced By: Asgaroth

Tracks: 1- Naked Eye, 2- Lured Decoy, 3- Cyphred, 4- Bluntness, 5- Buried, 6- Mindscape, 7- Descent to Dion, 8- I, Befouled, 9- 6 Bloodmarks, 10- Sharpedge Solitude, 11- Red Shift..., 12- Video tracks. Naked Eye

Cover Art by Asgaroth

This is one of the most powerful releases of the year! Comin directly from Barcelona, Spain, the guys in Asgaroth have surprised us with this powerful album full of devastating guitars and incredibly heavy parts. But what gives Asgaroth their complete identity is the mix of the crushing guitars with the keyboards that play great melodies and arrangements on top of this rhythmic base. There are also amazing guitar solos that contribute a lot to the dark feeling that all the album has. The vocals are brutal and they fit perfectly the music (and as all the album is really well mixed you can appreciate each of the parts and each of the mukltiple changes that Asgaroth´s music has along with the great vocals). You must have this one!!

Favorite tracks: All of the CD. One of the releases of the year.

Contact: www.peaceville.co.uk