Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest

NILE - Those Whom the Gods Detest (NUCLEAR BLAST - LP 2009)

It's incredible how every Nile albums can impress and how they so easily can achieve the highest quality one could imagine. It's almost hard to decide, which album is my favourite, because one day I listen to "In Their Darkened Shrines" or "Annihilation of the Wicked" and think that it cannot get any better than that. And then BANG, "Those Whom the Gods Detest" proves that it is possible to at least equal the greatness of these best Nile albums. It's like there's a never-ending potential in these guys, Karl Sanders mainly, and it is an unstoppable death metal machine - which can easily be called the best death metal band of XXI Century.  

Anyway, I've just spent a whole day crushing this fuckin "Those Whom the Gods Detest" vinyl and I feel my every bone hurts, so intense is this experience. I really love this album. From start it brings some of the best Nile songs and the quality never fails to impress. For me personally the most important aspect of this album is the right balance, which Nile captured here between the technical, brutal and crushing death metal wall and these more memorable, sometimes atmospheric, parts, which always characterized Nile style. "Those Whom the Gods Detest" doesn't bring anything new to their style, it pretty much follows what the previous albums had to offer. But songwriting - which was always so awesome - here is of the highest quality, which is why every song is a pure massacre.  

RIFFS - there are some absolutely amazing riffs, in songs like "Utterances of the Crawling Dead" for instance. But I would really have to mention every track from this album, because it is filled with fantastic riffage. Vocals - I always loved how Nile mixes different kinds of brutal growls, screams, chants, etc. It is one of the most characteristic aspects of their music. "Those Whom..." is yet again perfect with the vocal delivery, as well as the lyrical concept, which is so important for Nile music. And which I always like to read about, with both the lyrics, but also their explanations, which you can find in the booklet. And finally, you can always find impressive influence from the Middle Eastern music, which perfectly fit Nile's death metal and add that atmospheric aspect to it. The title song is the best example for that on this particular album, what immediately makes it also the best song on it. What a masterpiece it is. I feel goose skin, when I hear these monumental, majestic riffs, accompanied by keyboards and chanting vocals. A-fuckin-mazing. 

I also have to give a mention the perfect production of "Those Whom the Gods Detest"... and I better end now. I can only speak in positive words about this album and Nile in general. And if you're a fan of them, you know what to expect and I am sure you love "Those Whom..." already. If you've never liked Nile, then you probably don't even read this review, so who cares... Godly band. Godly album. 

There is no god!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Standout tracks: "Kafir", "Utterances of the Crawling Dead", "Those Whom the Gods Detest" 

Verdict: 90/100

Thorn - The Encompassing Nothing

THORN - The Encompassing Nothing (BRUTAL CAVE Productions CD 2020)

One day I've found a small package from Brutal Cave Productions, which contained a couple of CDs from this label. I have to say that it was a nice, unexpected surprise. And first CD, which I've listened to from this pack was "The Encompassing Nothing" from an American monster called Thorn. This is a debut recording from this project - and I say project, because it turns out there's just one dude in Thorn, Brennen Westermeyer, who's doing all the music and vocals. Well, usually we can be suspicious for the quality of these one-man projects, but in case of Thorn do not worry. "The Encompassing Nothing" is really cool piece of death metal, which personally I enjoyed a lot. 

There are seven tracks here, squeezed into 19 minutes of music. And what can I write... Thorn easily combines the old school styles of obscure death and doom metal, which nowadays may not be something unparalleled or unique, but which is always so damn cool to hear. There are quite few great riffs, I really like the atmosphere of the music, its brutal and vicious feel. Interestingly, here are there Thorn brings some more unique riffs, which can almost remind you the so-called post metal stuff, with its dissonance and sort of mesmerizing, calming feel. “Returning to Dust” is that sort of song and I have to say that I like it a lot, it is an immediate standout here. It works even better when the next track, “Fields of Blight” kicks off with pure Morbid Angel-esque riff. I enjoy this transition between different styles and moods, because as much as I love the traditional means of doom / death metal, it is also always cool to hear bands, which present something more unique and simply different (ha, one riff in “Pagan’s Monolith” reminds me even Gojira!).  

Maybe not everything on this demo is top quality, certainly there’s still room for improvement in the songwriting, especially that I feel like songs could have been a little longer, more complex and more possessing. Usually that murky, ghoulish death / doom metal works best, when songs are like 5-6 minutes long (or even more), this is when the music is the most devouring and possessing. Here I sometimes feel like Brennon didn’t have yet enough ideas for his music, which is also why some of these songs end quite abruptly. But as I mentioned, there’s always time and room for improvement, and for a debut recording "The Encompassing Nothing" is more than just a solid effort. I liked it a lot, so I am definitely looking for more from Thorn. Cool artwork also! 

Standout tracks: “Häxan Womb” 

Verdict: 80/100

Bloodtomb - The Cavernous Ritual Temple

BLOODTOMB - The Cavernous Ritual Temple (FALLEN TEMPLE - CD 2020)

Here comes Bloodtomb from The Netherlands with their debut album "The Cavernous Ritual Temple", released by Fallen Temple. What can you expect from it? Well, definitely everything what would be opposite to a good sounding, melodic and nice music. Bloodtomb's shit is ugly, primitive and noisy death / black metal. The general feeling of the music and its sound are like taken straight from the old Beherit or Blasphemy recordings, maybe in a bit more death metal style... but that should give you a clue what to expect. 

Musical aspects are of simplistic, harsh and extremely brutal, often fast, disturbing death / black metal, which knows nothing about mercy. This noise breeds chaos, destruction and mayhem. And there's absolutely nothing pleasant about it. Bloodtomb doesn't even try to make your life easier and you can be sure that this music will have very limited circle of listeners. Especially that the production is also properly rough. Some of you may know that personally I often get bored by that sort of bands and only very few can really impress and interest me. Too often such music sounds just like a mindless ejaculation of noisy guitar butchery or whatever. Noise, to be more precise. In case of Bloodtomb it isn’t that bad, really. Some of these songs or at least some riffs are really damn good, like "Black Blood Ritual", which definitely is my favourite track here. It's slower, riffs are a bit more memorable, but it's still really vicious and obscure. But such "Skull Tower" is also cool with its fast, one dimensional primitive onslaught. Sooooo.... "The Cavernous Ritual Temple" is not a terrific album, but it surely is good enough to give it an occasional spin which will draw you into the maelstrom of chaos and evil. 

Standout track: "Black Blood Ritual", “Blood of Eratication” 

Verdict: 65/100 

Necrocarnation - Fragments of Dark Eternity

NECROCARNATION - Fragments of Dark Eternity (FALLEN TEMPLE - CD 2020)

Do you know that feeling, when you play vinyl and it turns out that you spin it at the 33RPM instead of 45RPM, so the music sounds more gruesome, way too slowed down, but for some reason quite cool anyway? Ha, I am sure it happened to many of vinyl collectors. Recently I played Encoffination MLP and well, can they play any slower?!!! Sure they do, if you play it at the wrong speed haha! Anyway, that feeling, when you put a slower speed on the vinyl was something I felt, when I was listening to Necrocarnation and their newest EP "Fragments of Dark Eternity". Damn, their music really sounds slowed down and creepy. Especially vocals sound like they went through some effects, so Nocturnal Antichrist Warrior's (yeahhhh, I know haha) vokills really are like deep beastly grunts, echoed in the tomb or cave. Cool effect for sure, and quite unusual also, because vocals definitely do not sound like typical death growls. Maybe they can remind you some old Finnish death metal bands - they always fascinated me with the ultra low sick growls. Here is something I can say the same. 

Anyway, musically Necrocarnation offers really interesting and quite doomy and fuckin heavy and brutal death / black metal. This stuff is harsh, simplistic, morbid and torturous. Did I mention the heaviness? Especially "Antarctic" sounds like a massive monolith of doom / death metal and I really like how Necrocarnation awakes the cold, dark atmosphere there. The title track is also in that same vein and it is also really crushing. But faster songs like "The Call of Tartaros" work very well too, even if they are so simplistic, almost primitive and one dimensional. But there's just something about it that makes me enjoy that music. I guess one of the aspects is that "Fragments of Dark Eternity" doesn't sound like just another death or black metal. There's a bit of more originality, so I have to say that Necrocarnation was a positive experience for me and I am certainly looking forward to hear more from them.  

Oh, the band is from Argentina, which is not a country, where many good bands are located. 

Standout track: " Fragments of Dark Eternity" 

Verdict: 70/100

Ribspreader - Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod (And a Collection of Ribs)

RIBSPREADER - Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod (And a Collection of Ribs) (VIC Records - CD 2012)

Damn, these 73 minutes of ribspreading death metal can be slightly too much even for me haha! And I am talking only about disc one, because disc two has another hour of music! But that's what "Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod (And a Collection of Ribs)" is - it is a double CD, filled with so much music that it takes a lot of patience to get through all of it in one take. Anyway, I did survive, and not just for one spin, bur for more. That's all because of my sympathy for Rogga Johansson and his bands. This dude is a real fuckin maniac. He can play in 432476 bands, but I really enjoy a lot of his works. Many people accuse him for doing more quantity than quality and that too much stuff from him is simply mediocre. Well, maybe it is true, but who will forbid him from doing what he loves and what he's good at? I won't. Although I stopped buying every single album he does nowadays, there are still some projects I keep my eyes open at. And Ribspreader is one of them. So, even if "Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod (And a Collection of Ribs)" is sooo bloody long, it is just a small sadistic pleasure to torture my neighbours with this neanderthal, simplistic death metal filth. 

And what's on "Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod (And a Collection of Ribs)", that it is so bloody long and it had to take two discs and over two hours of material? Well, first off, disc two contains "Bolted to the Cross" and "Congregating the Sick" albums. Since I already have these albums in their original versions, I don't really care for that disc and usually don't play it. I think it is useless, since the original albums are rather easy to find and not so expensive. Instead, I would rather split disc one into two discs, that would have more sense to me. But they did what they did. I never play disc two at all. 

Anyway, disc one has a lot of new material, which is why this "collection of rips" was worthy to get. First off, there's "Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod" album, recorded in 2011. Let me just say here that I'm not going to go deep into how the line up was changing between all these recordings (because every time Ribspreader was recording something, they had different line up). As for this particular album, it was fully composed by Rogga and it wasn't even intended to be released as Ribspreader. But when he recorded these nine songs, they turned out to sound "like Ribspreader". Which is how "Kult of the Pneumatic Killrod" turned into a new album. It was a wise decision, because the album is just very good. Then there's the best material from disc one for me, which is "Serenity in Obscenity", recorded in 2005 and unreleased before. There are great songs of classic simplistic death metal, very harsh, aggressive and just nasty... With some great songs indeed, like "Salvation (Never Came)" it truly is a worthy piece of music, I can say. Stylistically, "Kult of the..." seems to be a bit more groovy and more melodic here and there, especially if you take such a great song like "The Hegemony of the Hammer" (which sometimes reminds me Edge of Sanity a lot!!) and "Macabre Kingdom". It often sounds also heavier and simpler, while "Serenity..." is more straight forward and sometimes also a bit faster. Anyway, these are great albums. It was nice to listen to them. 

Anyway, disc one contains also songs from two 7"EPs, "Vicar Mortis" and "The Monolith", which is a nice addition especially for all those, who do not collect vinyl. These songs are nothing revolutionary or exceptional for Ribspreader, but they are just solid and with such "Domes of the Ancients" these EPs should be a nice collector’s items, if you ask me. All in all, “Kult of the...” is a good example for that ribspreading death metal Rogga Johansson is so known for. This dude has his own style and you could hear it on these recordings. I like it, even if I can moan that it’s a bit too much material to go through in one take.  

Verdict: 70/100