REVIEW: SKINLAB - REVOLTING ROOM

 

SKINLAB - REVOLTING ROOM (Century Media, 2002 )

Produced By: Steve Evetts and Andy Sneap

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Come Get It, 3- Slave The Way, 4- Purify, 5- Anthem for a Fallen Star, 6- Disturbing the Art of Expression, 7- Take as Needed, 8- Jesus Cells, 9- Never Give In, 10- One of Us

Recorded at Hyde Street Studios and Trident Studios

Skinlab is a powerful band that started their musical career in the nineties and soon become one of the most powerful bands out there. With an extremely modern sound with enormous guitars, drumming that sometimes is uiltra fast and heavy with double bass and stuff like that and sometimes is more groovy they developed a style of their own. This one is his new album after three years in silence. And this is a brutal comeback...the songs are extremely brutal and this is even more evident because of the excellent mix that the album has. Here we have ten songs where the guitarists devastate you, the drummer destroys your brain and the singer buries you with his vocals which are extreme but at the same time retain some melodies for the choruses. Modern metal for the masses!!!

Favorite tracks: "Slave the Way", "Take as Needed" and "Never Give In"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com

REVIEW: SERRATED SCALPEL - SUSPENDED IN MISERY

 

SERRATED SCALPEL - SUSPENDED IN MISERY (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Serrated Scalpel

Tracks: 1- Incipient Conquest, 2- Suspended in Misery, 3- Pernicious Encomium, 4- Denudation of the Scriptures, 5- Disinformation, 6- The Emblem of Immortality, 7- I.T.R., 8- Pariah, 9- Arcane Is That Which The Gods Bestow

Cover Art by Robbie Crash

Recorded in the Ammonia Gas Chamber

Serrated Scalpel is extremely brutal. Their music is heavy and deathly as hell but they achieve this brutality and violence through different styles. While there are many fast parts Serrated Scalpels uses heavier riffs than the faster ones...in fact the Serrated Scalpel sound is done by a combination of particular drumming with the guitars and the bass adding a lot of bottom end. The drummer is killer with the double bass and at the same time he is a master in accentuating the guitar riffs. One demonstration of this is the track "Pernicious Encomium". There are also really dense parts that are much slower than the rest and allows the band to change rhythms and riffs before getting into an aggressive aprt again. Lovers of brutal bands should check Serrated Scalpel.

Favorite tracks: "Pernicious Encomium", "Disinformation" and "Pariah"

Contact: www.serratedscalpel.cjb.net

REVIEW: SERPENT ECLIPSE - THE SEVEN DESIRES AND WOLVES BLOOD

SERPENT ECLIPSE - THE SEVEN DESIRES AND WOLVES BLOOD (Void Sector Recordings, 2002 )

Produced By: Serpent Eclipse

Tracks: 1- The Seven Desires...(intro), 2- A Sorcerer´s Suicide, 3- Cosmic Waveform Alchemy, 4- Twitch of the Death Nerve, 5- Scarlet Splendour, 6- Thy Bleeding Heavens, 7- When Purity Crawls to its grave, 8- Daimon Dementia, 9- ...Wolves´ Blood

Serpent Eclipse is pure hateful black metal with interesting features. First of all we have to say that this guys go most of the time at full speed but they make a lot of rhythmic changes and have a lot of diversity in the moods of the songs. Also a main characteristic of Serpent Eclipse´s music is the use of programmed drums that give a cybernetic feeling to the music and also the heavy use of keyboards that are esential for all the tracks. The guitars used by the band are extremely raw and make an interesting contrast with the magnificent keyboards making an amazing primitive-sophisticated antagonism within Serpent Eclipse´s music. A must.

Favorite tracks: All the tracks on this CD. Amazing.

Contact: www.voidsector.com

REVIEW: SCENT OF DEATH - ENTANGLED IN HATE

 

SCENT OF DEATH - ENTANGLED IN HATE (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Moncho Lusquiños and Scent of Death

Tracks: 1- Living Structures, 2- Tortured Mind, 3- Perpetual, 4- Feeling the Fear, 5- Entangled in hate, 6- Epilogue

Cover Art by Jaime Gago and Bernardo

Recorded at Taller de Música, Ourense, Spain

How can we describe this band´s music in one word? Brutal!!!! Yes, the music of this Spanish band is brutal as a hammer through your brain!!! But, at the same time this guys have achieved a good level of technical skills here, specially the drummer with interest patterns in the ride cymbal and in the double bass. There are also blast beats for lovers of the fastest parts. The vocals are extremely guttural and there are also some of the screaming type (but the main one is the most guttural). One good thing here is that despite the brutality of the music the guitarist makes some interesting melodies and solos like the one in "Living Structures" that change the mood of the song before getting into the most brutal part again. I recommend this recording to lovers of extremely brutal music done with good quality.

Contact: scentdeath@yahoo.es

REVIEW: SALEM - COLLECTIVE DEMISE

 

SALEM - COLLECTIVE DEMISE (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Salem

Tracks: 1- Broken Yet united, 2- Coming End of Reason, 3- Slave, 4- Act of War, 5- Collective Demise, 6- Dead Eyes, 7- Feed on Your Grief, 8- Decadence in Solitude, 9- Recall, 10- Inhuman Greed

Cover Art by Nir Gutraiman

Recorded at D.B Studios

Directly from Israel comes to us the pmain black/death metal band from that eastern lands. Here is Salem. Their music is amazing!! From extremely fast parts with almost blast beats (the sound is really good and the drums are perfectly mixed) to melodic intros with clean guitars and dual guitars that play melodies (with an eastern flavor in them like on "Collective Demise"). This guys are excellent musicians and they know how to play from the simplest riff to the most difficult one without hesitation. There are female vocals that give some atmospheric feeling to the tracks while the rest of the band continues to play heavy riffs. And this is one important part of Salem´s music....the mix of climatic parts or melodies with their heavier staff (as you can see through all this recording). A must for lovers of extreme music

Favorite tracks: "Dead Eyes", "Recall" and "Act of War"

Contact: http://all.at/salem

REVIEW: RUSH - VAPOR TRAILS

 

RUSH - VAPOR TRAILS (Atlantic Records, 2002 )

Produced By: Rush and Paul Northfield

Tracks: 1- One Little Victory, 2- Ceiling Unlimited, 3- Ghost Rider, 4- Peaceable Kingdom, 5- The Stars Look Down, 6- How It Is, 7- Vapor Trail, 8- Secret Touch, 9- Earthshine, 10- Sweet Miracle, 11- Nocturne, 12- Freeze (Part IV of "Fear"), 13- Out of The Cradle

Cover Art by Hugh Syme

Recorded at Reaction Studios

Since I am a fan of Rush´s music I could not let this album pass without reviewing it. This album starts with "One Little Victory" that is one of the most energetic tracks by the band since some years ago. As always here we have the combination of distorted and clean guitars used by Alex Lifeson, and here we have Gedy Lee´s bass lines and unique vocals and also we have Neil Peart´s unique drumming style (this guy is extremely influential for progressive bands like Dream Theater or Fates Warning). The songs are more direct than in many of the later albums by the band and that would maybe be liked by fans of the "2112" or "Fly By Night" era of the band (even if Geddy Lee is using now a different vocal tonality). Rush continues to make good albums.

Favorite tracks: "Ceiling Unlimited", "One Little Victory" and "How It Is"

Contact: www.rush.com

REVIEW: RUNNING WILD - PORT ROYAL

 

RUNNING WILD - PORT ROYAL (Century Media Recs., 2002 )

Produced By: Running Wild

Tracks: 1- Intro, 2- Port Royal, 3- Raging Fire, 4- Into the Arena, 5- Uaschitschun, 6- Final Gates, 7- Conquistadores, 8- Blown to Kingdom Come, 9- Warchild, 10- Mutiny, 11- Calico Jack

Cover Art by Sebastian Krüger

Recorded at Sky Trak Studios

Century Media Brazil is rereleasing this classic Running Wild album. This is the album that put the band in the top of the german metal world of the late eighties. With the previous great albums "Under Jolly Roger" and "Gates To Purgatorium", Running Wild established themselves as a great power metal band from Germany. But with this "Port Royal" they made the jump to success. Here we have eighties classics like "Port Royal", "Conquistadores", "Calico Jack" or "Final Gates" that have become icons in the history of metal music. Thumbs up for the release of this classic album from this classic band 

Favorite tracks: "Port Royal", "Conquistadores" and "Calico Jack"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com.br

REVIEW: RISING MOON - AREA 51

RISING MOON - AREA 51 (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Rising Moon and Elegy Records

Tracks: 1- Can´t Die, 2- Thirst of Hydrogen, 3- To Enervate, 4- Nature Killer, 5- Sikoyg-H, 6- Searching Hate, 7- Empty In my Eyes, 8- Forgotten Future, 9-Soulrust C/2010, 10- Area 51

Cover Art by Rising Moon

Having listened the band previous album "European Aliens" I find a lot of improvements on this new album. First of all the sound is much better than "European..."...this time the guitars sound clearer and the band´s complex riffs can be listened in their full magnitude. Then the drums are crystal clear and ypu can admire the double bass drumming that this guys do on most of the tracks. The compositions have improved a lot too, having more changes and more original riffs that are perfectly sustained by the rhythm section. The vocals have become more brutal too and this is fundamental for the mix of technicality and brutality that this band has. Rising Moon is a welcomed band every time that they release a new album!!!!  

Favorite tracks: "Can´t Die", "Natural Killer" and "Forgotten Future"

Contact: www.elegymusic.com

REVIEW: RECTO RECTORS - FIGHT FOR YOUR GRIND

 

RECTO RECTORS - FIGHT FOR YOUR GRIND (Spreadit Agency, 2002 )

Produced By: Recto Rectors

Tracks: 1- Raping the Ripped Reaper, 2- My Dog Was Taking a Shower when the phone rang..., 3- Lord of the Shit, 4- Cut the Cat, 5- More Stupid than a Stupid Idiot, 6- What about the Muck?, 7-21

Cover Art by Recto Rectors

Recto Rectors music, as the title of this CD tells us (and as their music confirms later) is pure grindcore of the fatest and rawest kind. Here we have short tracks that go at hyper speed (some of them, like "My Dog..." start slower but then goes to hyper speed turning slow again later) with extremely distorted vocals and ultra fast drum blast beats. There are 21 tracks on this CD (I only have the names of six of them) and the total time of this CD is something like twelve minutes. So, everything fits in the classic grind pattern. Extremely distorted guitars and bass, blast beats, guttural vocals, raw and primitive sound....if you like all this things then you have to check Recto Rectors music. 

Favorite tracks: "Lord of the Shit" and "Cut the Cat"

Contact: recto.rectors@yahoo.it

REVIEW: REARVIEW - ENJOY

REARVIEW - ENJOY (Independent, 2002 )

Produced By: Rearview

Tracks: 1- 3 Second Sex, 2- Milkway, 3- Enjoy

Here we have three tracks from this extremely climatic band. The album opens with a drum pattern followed by the bass guitar and the guitar playing some natural harmonics. Then enters Natalie´s whispering voice before getting into a heavier passage, then all of a sudden calm parts appear again. But is the calm before the storm. Rearview plays passages with extremely distorted guitars and interesting vocal harmonies. One of the main elements here are the vocals. The contrast between the melodic voices (Natalie is an awesome singer) and the heavier parts is amazing in "3 Second Sex" or "Enjoy". Tracks like those or "Milkway" show us how this guys and girl develope a lot of feelings through their music. Now we await a full length release from this awesome band.

Favorite tracks: The three

Contact: www.rearview.de