REVIEW: BURIAL PLACE - DAMNATION

 

BURIAL PLACE - DAMNATION (Independent, 2002)

Produced by Burial place

Recorded at No Brain Studios

Tracks: 1- Introspectrum, 2- A Bloody journey to the Land of tragedy, 3- Ancient Gods, 4- Presences

Here we have this band that starts the tape with a great orchestral and extremely dark intro before getting into an original style of black metal full of orchestrations and clkimatic melodies and adding a great female vocalist (with operistic type of vocals). The main thing here is the complexity of the compositions that have many different atmospheres within each of them changing a lot the rhythms and doing many melodic arrangements with the guitars and with the keyboards and female vocals. One thing that I have to praise here is the really good sound that this guys and girl have achieved on this recording that make all the interesting arrangements shine (and don´t become buried in the mix like in some bands happen). I hope this band can really soon release a longer recording for delight of all the metal ears out there.

Favorite tracks: All the ones that are here

Contact: http://burialplace.no-brain.com

REVIEW: BRICK BATH - I WON´T LIVE THE LIE

 

BRICK BATH - I WON´T LIVE THE LIE (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Eric Meyer and Brick bath

Recorded at Brick Bath Studios

Cover Art by Eric Meyer and Ken Seaney

Tracks: 1- Inner Peace, 2- Bone Dry, 3- Pain my friend, 4- Sick of you, 5- Undone, 6- I won´t live the lie, 7- Crucified, 8- Simple Life, 9- So Wrong, 10- Oppression Kills, 11- Need, 12- Legacy, 13- Erased, 14- Die Alone

Here we have this extremely powerful band who is a top number in the underground. This is a self produced CD where they have achieved an extremely HUGE sound, specially on the guitars and drums that smash your brain into pieces. I listened this release at top volume and it surely makes you bang your head along with the drumming and the rhythms. Eric Meyer´s guitars are crushing and they have nothing to envy to the ones of famous bands like Testament, Slayer or Pantera. The same with drumming. Here we have four top quality musicians who deliver a full energetica lbum with no mercy !!!! I like a lot the way in which the drummer supports the changes and the different breaks and shythms. I would recommend you to check tracks like "Pain My friend" to know what I am talking about. The vocals have a lot of power too and Joseph Mc Caw knows where to be more energetic and where to be calmer. A must for those who enjoy powerful music.

Favorite tracks: All the CD is really powerful and energetic. Killer!!!

Contact: www.brickbath.com or www.mp3.com/brickbath

REVIEW: BRENDAN PERRY - EYE OF THE HUNTER

 

BRENDAN PERRY - EYE OF THE HUNTER (4AD Records, 2000)

Produced by Brendan Perry

Recorded at Quivvy

Cover Art by Chris Bigg

Tracks: 1- Saturday´s Child, 2- Voyage of Bran, 3- Medusa, 4- Sloth, 5- I Must Have been Blind, 6- The Captive Heart, 7- Death Will be My Bride, 8- Archangel

Here we have this solo album from one half of the great band called Dead Can Dance. Here Brendan show us really dark and calm compositions that he could have used for Dead Can Dance´s albums but he prefered to use them in a different context here. The songs are mainly acoustic, slow and really climatic with Brendan´s voice singing the sad and almost arcane lyrics over the music. As always, Brendan shows us that he is a great composer who has many ideas going on in his mind and he can translate them to music easily. The songs here are really fluent and have some spontaneity....they sound fresh. This is a good solo album. Now we want a new Dead Can Dance album!!

Favorite tracks: "Saturday´s Child", "Sloth" and "Death Will be My Bride"

Contact: www.4adrecords.com

REVIEW: BRAINSTORM - METUS MORTIS

 

BRAINSTORM - METUS MORTIS (Metal Blade Records, 2001)

Produced by Achim Köhler and Brainstorm

Cover Art by Jan Meininghaus

Tracks: 1- Metus Mortis, 2- Blind Suffering, 3- Shadowland, 4- Checkmate in Red, 5- Hollow Hideaway, 6- Weakness sows its Seed, 7- Into the Never, 8- Under Lights, 9- Cycles, 10- Behind, 11- Meet Me in the Dark, 12- Strength of Will

It is always good to listen to bands like Brainstorm because their music is what you can call heavy/power metal but they never fall in the cliches of that style. Brainstorm prefers to play heavier and more rhythmic riffs instead of the usual galloping and running riffs that most of the bands do (specially those tha are from Germany). Here we have a really heavy band with fat sounding guitars and a great mix that helps a lot to the final result. Here we have also a powerful singer like Andy Franck who is melodic but powerful and he never abuses the high pitched vocals. There are really good guitar solos and many parts on each tracks really well conected: the musicl ideas are really well developed on this CD. Lovers of heavy and power metal who don´t like copycat bands will like Brainstorm.

Favorite tracks: "Blind Suffering", "Hollow Hideaway" and "Into The Never"

Contact: www.metalblade.com

REVIEW: BORN OF FIRE - BORN OF FIRE

 

BORN OF FIRE - BORN OF FIRE (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Larry Elea and Born of Fire

Recorded at Mindz Eye

Cover Art by Born of Fire

Tracks: 1- Centrifuge, 2- Lifemares, 3- In the End

This is a MCD containing three tracks of pure classical heavy metal. Here you have all the elments that the style must have. You have the heavy guitars, then you have melodies, then you have a bass that accentutaes really well along the drummer and you have a singer with a really big vocal range (in the vein of Geoff Tate - Bruce Dickinson). The drummer is good at making interesting arrangements and adding a lot of power to the music along with the guitarist. There are interesting guitar passages (also here there is some use of clean guitars to make some parts more climatic like it happens on "Lifemares"). I would like the mix to be a little bit less raw, specially on the guitar and I think that can make the music even more powerful. I liked a lot the way in which "In the End" starts with the clean guitars and the bass playing interesting notes while the singer makes interesting vocal inflexions. Lovers of heavy metal will surely love Born of Fire. I hope to listen more from them soon.

Favorite tracks: The three here are really good metal songs

Contact: SddDrums@aol.com

REVIEW: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA - SNAPPED

 

BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA - SNAPPED (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Blunt Force Trauma

Cover Art by Blunt Force Trauma

Tracks: 1- String them Up, 2- Snapped, 3- Antichrist, 4- Heretic, 5- Consumed, 6- Blunt Force Trauma

Here we have an extremely brutal band!!! And when they recorded this six song EP they were a trio. Since then, they have added a new member to the lineup so I think they will sound even heavier in the future. The music here is brutal death metal with incredible drumming (this guy is killer with the double bass) and a huge guitar sound that some famous band would envy. I feel some Morbid Angel and Sinister influences here and there that feel really good mixed with Blunt Force Trauma´s trademark sound. The vocals are extremely guttural and they add a lot of brutality to the band´s music. All the riffs here are designed to crush the listener (and I think that is why the bass follows a lot the guitars adding a lot of bottom end to the sound) and they achieve easily the wanted effect. This is waht I call a devastating release !

Favorite tracks: "String Them Up", "Antichrist" and "Blunt Force Trauma"

Contact: www.bluntforcetrauma.net

REVIEW: BIOMECHANICAL - DISTORTED

 

BIOMECHANICAL - DISTORTED (Independent, 2001)

Produced by Biomechanical

Cover Art by Biomechanical

Tracks: 1- The Awakening, 2- Do You Know Me, 3- In the Core of Darkness, 4- Distorted

This band is great, fantastic!!!! Mix the power of a deth metal band in the riffs, add a vocalist in a heavy/power metal fashion but with more quality and vocal range than most you know. Then add a lot of eighties speed metal touches as bands like Hexenhaus or Toxik used to do (I mean, complex riffs and many changes taking the voice to its limits) and then you have an idea of what Biomechanical sounds like. Add to this a really modern sound with devastating guitars and here we have one of the best bands I have listened. Also, you have to know that this band has a lot of melodies and interesting choruses combined with amazing keyboards, great guitar solos and some clean guitars in some parts that make things even more interesting getting easily the listener attention. Check this band or die!!!!!

Favorite tracks: The four contained here

Contact: www.biomechanical.co.uk

REVIEW: BAALPHEGOR - THE END OF DESCENT

 

BAALPHEGOR - THE END OF DESCENT (Independent, 2002)

Produced by Baalphegor

Cover Art by Baalphegor

Tracks: 1- The Pact, 2- Always Here, 3- Eaten Alive

Here we have this MCD from this death metal band coming directly from Spain.This band is extremely powerful and I liked the way they sounded with the drumming which sometimes sounds like programmed specially on the double bass drumming (great one through all the tracks). This guys have really good riffs (I liked a lot the ones for example at 0:30 of "Always Here" and the one that follows it....) and they have a lot of brutality to offer. Each of the tracks have many changes and that gives a lot of dynamics to the band´s music making it really interesting. The band sounds really tight while doing all this shifts and changes never missing a beat. There are some more melodic riffs in some parts of "Always Here" which I would strongly recommend to use more often because they are really good. Now we await a full length release from this brutal guys !!!

Favorite tracks: The three contained here are a great showcase of what this band is capeble of doing

Contact: www.baalphegor.com

REVIEW: ASSCAVERN - GINGY BILLIGUS MOTAMUCHKI

 

ASSCAVERN - GINGY BILLIGUS MOTAMUCHKI (Independent, 2000)

Produced by Donkey

Recorded at The Barn in Palestine

Cover Art by Doey

Tracks: 1- Practice (Intro), 2- Piss Flood, 3- A Niggers Ass is My Lunch, 4-Burnt Priest, 5- The Honkey Donkey, 6- Dirty Baby Born from a Pigs Ass, 7- I hope you rape me, 8- Peel my cock apart, mom, 9- Gingy Billigus Motamuchki, 10- Shit on my Dirty Dick, 11- Piss in My Ass (Reprise)

This guys are porn grind freaks with a scathological sense of humor. Their music is extremely fast and noisy most of the times. There are slower riffs that sound really mechanical as you can hear in some aprts of "Burnt Priest". The drums are programmed and that makes the music more weird and strange. The combination of this programmed drums with the noisy guitars are the main element that makes this machine type sound that Asscavern´s music has. The sound is extremely noisy and in some faster parts is difficult to listen what is going on, maybe a better mix of guitars couls help. If you like extremely fast and grinding music then you would like Asscavern a lot!!

Favorite tracks: "Burnt Priest", "A Niggers Ass is My Lunch" and "Peel My Cock Apart, Mom"

Contact: www.asscavern.com

REVIEW: ARSON - LACERATE THE SKY

 

ARSON - LACERATE THE SKY (Resurrection A.D. Records , 2002)

Produced by Eric Rachel and Arson

Recorded at Trax East

Cover Art by Pat thompson

Tracks: 1- Indefiance, 2- Cast In Shadows, 3- Perfect Truth, 4- My Empty Graves, 5- Remnants, 6- Closed Wounds, 7- Motives for Nightmares, 8- Changeling, 9- Limb from Limb, 10- Proceed To Proceed

Here we have this powerful band whose music is somewhere close to death metal but they are not what you would called a classical death metal band or something like that. In fact this guys make a lot of emphasis on the heaviness of their riffs being them fast or slow (check the second track "Cast In Shadows" to see what I am talking about). The similitude with death metal can be raised because of the vocals that are screaming ones but this band is much more being really technical in many breaks and changes. The guitars sound extremely heavy and the drummer uses a lot the cymbals in order to make things even heavier. There are some interesting guitar solos and melodies and the vocals are devastating too. The sound of the recording is really good in the guitars and vocals, maybe it needs a small twitch on the drums cymbals (not the Ride cymbal that sounds really great). This CD is a must for fans of the most extreme and powerful styles in metal.

Favorite tracks: "Indefiance", "Remnants" and " Limb from Limb"

Contact: www.arsonism.com or www.resurrection-ad.com