Infected Virulence - Music of Melkor

INFECTED VIRULENCE - Music of Melkor (RAW SKULL REKORDZ CD 2016)

Isn’t that a weird title for death metal album? “Music of Melkor”. Hmm, obviously those, who have read Tolkien’s “Silmarillion” will know, who Melkor was. And those who didn’t, well let me just say that Melkor is the same evil being that later became known as… Morgoth! So, this album could have been titled “Music of Morgoth”, but that would be silly haha! It’s even more surprising to read that the lyrics are also dealing with the “Silmarillion” concept – was it the first death metal band to have this kind of Tolkien influence in their lyrics, as far as I can remember???

Anyway, “Music of Melkor” was originally released in 1994 in huge quantity of… 300 copies!!! What makes it a damn rare artefact these days and almost impossible to find (although I know someone, who has three copies of it. Insane dude, you know who you are haha!). And as always, it would be just a damn shame to let such an album rot in forgotten tomb, so I welcome an idea for reissuing it with open arms. Such great albums need to be saved from oblivion. Raw Skull Rekordz with Ancient Darkness took care of reissuing “Music of Melkor”, so now you can grab yourself a copy of this legendary German death metal piece quite easily and you won’t end up paying quarter of your monthly wages. And even if I wish the booklet was better – with more pages, archival photographs and maybe some liner notes – nothing will spoil the joy of listening to this killer album.

But let me first say one thing, which I think works against “Music of Melkor”. Obviously it’s only my opinion, but I think that Infected Virulence’s self titled 1992 demo was better than this album! I love all songs from the demo, the dark, brutal feeling they have, all riffs and vocals and just perfect demo production. For me “Infected Virulence” is close to excellence. When speaking of “Music of Melkor”, I can say that the production is maybe not quite as good as demo’s, even though it’s still allright. All songs are good and solid, but maybe without that spark which would set everything in fire. You can notice that Infected Virulence has changed their style slightly, especially with songs like the title track, which I can even say that I don’t like so much, because this song has that groovy feeling, which I’ve never been a big fan of. So, not everything on “Music of Melkor” works well, this album is surely not as killer as the demo, but it’s still damn good piece of death metal, with some fine songs.

“Music of Melkor” is classic death metal record, filled with some excellent riffs, all played in mid paced or slow tempo, with almost no fast parts (they appear sporadically maybe in couple of songs only). But Infected Virulence kept their music all brutal and sick all the time through the album, only sometimes letting themselves to include a small melodic piece like it happens in “Tol Eressea”. Some of these riffs have a strong Bolt Thrower infection (even the vocals sound like early Karl Willets haha), especially in such tracks as “Earendil” or “Doom of the Atani”. Some other time I feel like they sound a bit like the most death metal version of Napalm Death and you know, can we even complain on that?! Nope!

Generally it’s an album that stayed unknown and forgotten for too many years. I realize it was originally released in not the best time, when all the death metal masterpieces were already released and the need for another death metal band was not so high. Bands like Morgoth started to change – progress as they called it… Infected Virulence released this album and then also decided to take this unnecessary step for progression… and quickly died, with not much success. But good thing is that many of these unknown bands nowadays sound better than ever before and their old demos or albums get more recognition today than twenty years ago. I hope the same will happen with Infected Virulence and “Music of Melkor”. It’s very good album, so get the CD. Try also to find their demo CD, as it’s even better… and well, let’s just hope no one will give them a bad idea to reform haha!

Standout tracks: “Doom of the Atani”, “Nirnaeth Arnodiad”, “Earendil”, “The North Aflame”

Final rate: 80/100

Infected Virulence - Infected Virulence

INFECTED VIRULENCE - Infected Virulence (Demo 1992/CD 2015)

Time for a real relic from the ancient death metal past. And band, which I don’t think is known to that many people. Personally I was also introduced to Infected Virulence not a long ago by a good friend of mine. He said it’s one of the best old German bands and that they surely deserve more attention. But sadly Infected Virulence split up way too early. Well, this isn’t surprise for me, because many death metal bands ended in the mid 90’s, when this music stopped being popular. But who cares… Here’s a fantastic CD that was released recently and which contains some of the early Infected Virulence songs. This is their “Infected Virulence” demo in entirety, originally released in 1992. In may 2015 an unknown label OSDM re-released it on CD format, limited to just 150 copies. And I have one of them, what makes me very happy man now. Because this music is absolutely fantastic and it’s better than many more known bands with their full length albums!

I love every song on this demo, seriously. Infected Virulence brings fierce slaughter, tearing apart and crushing with some of the best and most classic sounding death metal riffs you can imagine. Obviously their style was pretty common for the old days’ death scene, but damn, this demo grew old fantastically and nowadays can be seen as a real jewel and finest artifact of obscure death metal from the early 90’s. Oh yeah, this demo sounds so good! Stylistically you can put it somewhere between early Morgoth, Agoraphobia and Fleshcrawl debut CD, along with some similarities to Bolt Thrower (just listen to “From Beyond the Dead”), Asphyx and even some Swedish acts (like more brutallized Unleashed!). Well, for me this is a perfect combination of death metal styles haha and I bet that these sounds should be a wet dreams for all death maniacs. As I mentioned, all songs here are super awesome, I must also say that not only the performance of every member and songwriting are fantastic, but I also love the production of this demo. I can even admit that I love this demo more than the debut album of Infected Virulence (“Music for Melkor”).

Summing it all up, in my opinion this is one of the best death metal demos I’ve ever heard. “Infected Virulence” sounds just spotless and 100% perfect for my taste of this music and damn, I can listen to it all the time. Obviously Germany had many killer bands back in the old days – Torchure, Fleshcrawl, Obscenity, Mangled Torsos, Agoraphobia, Morgoth, Dawn… but it seems like none of them was so underrated as Infected Virulence. It’s about time then to remind you about them!

Standout tracks: ALL, but “Infected Virulence” is especially infectious

Final rate: 95/100

Pyromancer - Demo MMXV

PYROMANCER - Demo MMXV (GODZ OF WAR CD 2016)

This is Pyromancer, an American beast that features Master of Graveyard Torment on drums and Conqueror Horus on guitars, both also performing vocal duties. And both are also members of some other bands, but I honestly don’t know any of them. Pyromancer is reasonably fresh thing. This is their first recording, simply called “Demo MMXV”, originally released on cassette and now Godz ov War Productions has unleashed this filth on CD format. By the first look, I have to say that I love the whole layout. Fantastic logo, great visual side of this release…

And music… well, this is some seriously violent, vulgar and obscure black / death metal. Or war metal or bestial metal… whatever you call it. With just five songs and less that quarter of an hour, Pyromancer delivers just extreme, harsh sounding, barbaric stuff, something that maniacs of bands like Revenge, Archgoat or Diocletian will surely love. The whole aura around these sounds is incredibly dark and hateful, and the chaotic, almost primitive style of Pyromancer music conjures this feeling perfectly. Their riffs are sometimes almost archaic, luckily though Pyromancer had enough guts to come up with some great songs and achieved a harsh, but energetic production, so when played loud, “Demo MMXV” makes quite a nice impression. I like also the dual vocal performance, where growls are mixed with pissed off screams. And I like the whole straight forward, no bullshit attitude of this music.

Yeah, Pyromancer is definitely not breaking the wheels and is not coming up with anything groundbreaking or immortal… but damn, it felt like some intense punches in the face when I played their music. Good stuff for the bestial black metal maniacs.

Standout track: “Inferno”

Final rate: 70/100

Shadows Ground - Mysteria Mystica Calvus Mons

SHADOWS GROUND - Mysteria Mystica Calvus Mons (SCHATTENKULT Produktionen CD 2016)

I’ve never been a big fan of Ukrainian black metal. I do like Nokturnal Mortum a bit, also Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra and obviously Drudkh, but that’s all what’s good there and that I can think of. But here’s band from Donetsk, which I recently liked a lot. Sadly “Mysteria Mystica Calvus Mons” is the first release of them, which I had a chance to hear (and they have three more albums and some demos released before as well). The band is called Shadows Ground. Formed back in 1998, they must be among the longest running and most productive black metal acts from Ukraine. Which is not important for me, really, because it not always means that the music is good. But in this case, it is.

Originally released as tape in 2013, and now released on CD by Schattenkult Produktionen, “Mysteria Mystica Calvus Mons” is in my opinion just perfect offer for the maniacs of traditional sounding black metal. This album has everything that I like about this genre in its purest form and I’m really glad to hear album like that. Why? Well, it’s because these days most of black metal we get is infected with some trendy influences. Which is nothing wrong, as I like a lot of it, but… well, it just feels great to hear pure black metal record with no hype, no trends or other bullshit. Shadows Ground keeps it all obscure and traditional and probably don’t care if it will help them to gain recognition or not. I also don’t care if people know them or not, and as long as this band keeps on bringing such great music as “Mysteria Mystica Calvus Mons”, then it’s all fine with me!

So, we have traditional black metal here. It does have strong influence from classics like Darkthrone, Mayhem… as well as newer bands such as Armagedda (“Unholy Rituals”, first song off the album, reminds me Armagedda a lot), Pest or Craft. It’s got everything I like about this sort of black metal. There are great riffs, fantastic cold, grim and hateful aura, quite good production, which fits perfectly to this sort of music… and very good compositions and arrangements, which you just cannot call primitive or worthless shit. This music is simple, but not in bad meaning of this word. And the performance is very good; drums, guitars, bass, fantastic vocals of Waam (which combine harsh vocals with that eerie howling, which can remind you Attila’s voice like in “I Am Hatred”). The music is mostly fast, but it’s never monotonous. And it sounds equally awesome if it’s slow as when it is fast. I have to admit that I got infected with Shadows Ground music right from the very first time I played this CD and enjoyed it fully. It’s definitely among the best – if not the best – albums from that part of Europe that I’ve ever heard. It’s just very good and I recommend it with all my honesty.

Standout tracks: “Unholy Rituals”, “I Am Hatred”

Final rate: 80/100

Kratherion - Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes

KRATHERION - Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes (OLD TEMPLE CD 2015)

Among all the releases from Old Temple, which I collected recently, this one is surely among my favourites. Damn, what a killer album, what a great surprise to hear such a devastating bestial death / black metal from Kratherion, who I only knew by name before playing this CD. I had read some interviews or reviews about this Chilean commando, but somehow never had a chance to hear their music, until “Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes” blew my speakers off. But quickly this shit excited me like crazy and now I can add another superb band to the list of Chilean unholy forces that are worth of your support. Well, this country is no bullshit, when speaking of extreme metal music.

What you get on “Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes” are 40 minutes of fuckin bestial devastation, of absolutely fierce, violent and morbid black / death metal. Some may call it war metal, some others will name it bestial metal… whatever, dude! It’s just damn awesome music. What I like about “Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes” is that Kratherion has the savagery and viciousness of the so called war metal, with all the typical stuff which the bands from this genre usually have. But they present it in more interesting form. Their music is not one dimensional, boring crap of primitiveness and mindlessness. It’s not pointless cacophony with utterly shitty sound. No. The production of “Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes” is simply good and solid. It is heavy, powerful sound, so it’s not just a wall of unbearable noise. And the songs are not just fast and fast again. They are more diverse, with some splendid slow parts and of course the blasting stuff is there as well. In some way, the whole stuff reminds me Embrace of Thorns, Impiety or Bestial Raids, with Spanish lyrics that give something extra to the whole sound, probably resembling such Morbosidad or Colombian Masacre.

I like the slow parts the most, because they sound so fuckin’ heavy, so crushing. Just give a listen to such “Death Kult Church Omega”, “Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes”  or “Agonia Dantesca y Macabra” and you’ll know why I like it so much. But of course their faster songs are also damn sweet. I like how relentless, how intense and fuckin violent and powerful Kratherion music sounds here and how they evoke this morbid, obscure atmosphere in it. Obviously this is not super technical music; the riffs or arrangements can be sometimes simple, but not primitive for sure. And definitely Kratherion has enough ideas to please all the maniacs of the most extreme of metal styles. So I can easily recommend this album to all extreme metal maniacs. It’s definitely a worthy piece of death kult and well, I can only start looking for some more Kratherion shit. It needs to be collected!

Standout tracks: “Death Kult Church Omega”, “Agonia Dantesca y Macabra”, “Mantra Lucifer Flagelantes”

Final rate: 75/100

Hermodr - The Darkness of December

HERMODR - The Darkness of December (WOLFSPELL - CD 2016)

“The Darkness of December” is another album from Hermóðr, which I was playing intensively through the past few days. And I sincerely don’t know what else can I write about the music of Rafn, what I have not written already. This project is consequently walking its own path of depressive and sorrowful black metal and it looks like nothing will make it choose something different. And that’s good, because why change something if it works so damn well? I can call myself a fan of Hermóðr, some of the albums that I had a chance to hear were just stunning, “Då skogen var ung” being my absolute favourite, along such “What Once Was Beautiful” or split with Kalmankantaja. “The Darkness of December” is another great opus of the Hermóðr that I can recommend strongly, even though I can expect that some of you may have problems with Rafn’s music and its tendency to sound monotonous. It feels almost tiresome and over extensive when you realize that the whole albums is seventy minutes long and it’s seventy minutes of almost one dimensional, constantly slow and utterly melancholic music. My advice then, before you sit and play “The Darkness of December”, is to make sure you’re in a right mood for it. Otherwise it just won’t work for you and you’ll think of it as something way too boring. But if the mood is right, if the surrounding is properly set, then I am sure that music of Hermóðr will devour you with its dark, depressive aura, hypnotizing rhythm and so many enchanting melodies. Quite often it all sounds like clash of the opposites, when you hear raw sounding, minimalistic guitar parts with harsh, screaming vocals along the parts of keyboards that are present basically the whole time, and which sound like they were bringing light and harmony to the world of darkness and chaos.

So, it’s not an easy album, to be honest, even if the music may seem so. But it’s not easy to listen the whole “The Darkness of December” in one take, just as it’s not so obvious if any of the albums parts will really stay with you, when they all feel very similar. My personal impression is that maybe it’s the first time when I started to think that it’s a bit too much, a bit too long album… but on the other hand I like the music of Hermóðr so much that it’s not a major problem for me. This is why I’m not making a big deal with its supposed lack of variety of whatever. I won’t be surprised if you feel so, but as said before, you need to be in proper mood for this album.

Final rate: 70/100

Goholor - In Saeculis Obscuris

GOHOLOR - In Saeculis Obscuris (Schattenkult Produktionen CD 2016)

This week I was introduced to Schattenkult Produktionen, a German label, which has been around for few years and managed to unleash about seventy titles so far. Sadly I didn’t know any of them, but I was lucky to get some of their recent releases… and Goholor is the first CD, which I played from this small stack. This band is from Slovakia and “In Saeculis Obscuris” is their debut MCD, so it’s new band with two members, who also play in Dimonsium Chaotic.

And well, without any expectations or any guess as what this music can be like, now I know that this MCD is a good and solid start for Goholor. I certainly like their music, as it has a great aggressive style of death and black metal, glued a bit in the vein of such Belphegor, with a small dose of more brutal sounding Behemoth. It’s played with good balance between fast and mid paced tempos, with great furious, sharp riffs, evil atmosphere and with growling and harsh screaming vocals. As for technical aspect of Goholor music, I cannot say anything bad about it. Nice production, good performance from all band members, solid compositions… When listening to “In Saeculis Obscuris”, you can almost regret that it all ends so quickly, because four songs and 15 minutes of music showed some great potential that Goholor certainly has. Each song is very solid and interesting, “Obscurus Sacramentum” probably being my favourite piece here…

...and well, I don’t think anything more is need to be said here. If you enjoy aggressive, dark sounding death / black metal, but with relatively good production, not one which sounds like recorded in the fuckin bunker, then this should be a good offer for you. Check it out, also because it’s quite rare to hear as good band from Slovakia.

Standout track: “Obscurus Sacramentum”

Final rate: 75/100

Bestiality - Stuck in Bestial Vision

BESTIALITY - Stuck in Bestial Vision (OLD TEMPLE - CD 2014)

This band came out of nowhere, but turned out to be a big surprise and one of the best newcoming Polish bands I heard recently. Although “Stuck in Bestial Vision” is their second release – “Way of the Cross” being a proper debut, released in small CD quantity in 2014 – only now most of us have heard of Bestiality. And surely I can strongly recommend this band and this CD to all freaks of fuckin morbid thrashing black metal, as this is just killer stuff.

I am really positively surprised with everything what I can hear on “Stuck in Bestial Vision”. All these songs are great; very aggressive, vicious, evil and obscure. Bestiality comes with some fantastic riffs and their music is almost easily listenable, almost catchy thrash / death that can remind you bands like Nifelheim, Destroyer666, Hin Hale, Pest (Swedish, from their last two albums), Necrocurse, Slaughter Messiah and so on. Some of these songs may be almost silly with their simplicity and infantile choruses – like “Raped by the Devil” – but I still like them a lot, because they sound like good company for drunk metalheads, who want to scream some blasphemous lyrics and bang skulls maniacally to their favourite music haha! And seriously, I cannot think of anything that I can point out what has been done bad or what would annoy me. Of course Bestiality doesn’t come with anything spectacular, but their music sounds just super awesome, with songs like “Way of the Cross” (oh, I love how fast it is!!!) or “Ritual Genocide”. I like also the production a lot, because it’s damn energetic and fits this sort of music perfectly… and also the voice of Alberth Dust is super cool.

So, let me repeat again; Bestiality’s “Stuck in Bestial Vision” is awesome surprise and surely one of the better releases from this sort of music, in my opinion. I can hear passion and enthusiasm for the morbid metal from those guys, their music is soaked with aggression and evilness… and damn, I guess this is a band that will come up with some exceptional stuff in near the future.

Standout tracks: “Way of the Cross”, “Crucified”, “Ode to the Dead / Tales from the Crypt”

Final rate: 80/100

Parh - Journey Through Wasteland

PARH - Journey Through Wasteland (Self released demo CD 2016)

No idea if any of you remembers my review of “Nihil”, debut demo of Polish band called Parh. Well, it’s been a while since I reviewed it and sadly I didn’t notice much noise around Parh, but personally I liked this release a lot, so I am happy to see them coming back with their second demo, “Journey Through Wasteland”, which is just as good as the first one! And I hope that more people will start to recognize them, because this is just good shit. Maybe it’s not shit for everyone, but for fuck sake, I bet that there are many followers of the Autopsy / Abscess cult, right? And these two bands are a sure comparison for me, when describing Parh music. It’s maybe not quite pure obscure doomy death metal – although it surely has (Swedish) death metal influences as well – and it’s just more sludgy and crusty, filthy stuff, but the influence and similarity (like for example the horrible (haha!) vomits of Szkielo, reminding Chris Reifert) are noticeable from the first second.

And well, there are just four songs on this demo, but I like them a lot. I don’t know why “Journey Through Wasteland” is so easily listenable and catchy, while being so nasty and disgusting haha?!!! Anyway, Parh is great. When “Hebephrenic Psychosis” starts, I always have a strong feeling like it’s something from very old Entombed or Dismember demos, because this song is soaked with Swedish death metal. Then “Jerusalem Syndrome” is more like the two A’s bands I mentioned above, with killer sludgy main riff and great terrifying atmosphere. And following two songs are also in this vein. I have to say that the whole performance and composition on “Journey Through Wasteland” is very good. Obviously you shouldn’t expect it to be very technical and ultra polished, as it’s just not that sort of stuff. But damn, each time I play Parh, it’s just great fun and kick in the ass for me. Sure, it’s nothing revolutionary or outstanding, but just damn good, in my opinion.

Standout tracks: “Hebephrenic Psychosis”, “Kvlt of Fear”

Final rate: 80/100

Hermóðr - Då skogen var ung

Hermóðr - Då skogen var ung (WOLFSPELL Records CD 2016)

Here’s Hermóðr again, ladies and gentlemen! This time Wolfspell released an album called “Då skogen var ung”, which is sort of compilation with some unreleased 2015 songs plus stuff that was released as so called digital singles (what??) previously, called “Himlen morknar” and “The Scent of Autumn”. And they’re both from 2015 also, so you may remember that Rafn is restless soul, who does nothing else, but play, compose and record music haha. Anyway, this is always fantastic feeling to hear more stuff from Hermóðr and I can say that “Då skogen var ung” is simply amazing release. Even the fact that this album is very long, with some tracks that are 15 minutes long (and “The Scent of Autumn” is 20 minutes long), does not bother me. Because the whole feeling and atmosphere of “Då skogen var ung” is captivating and impossible to resist.

I think that describing each new Hermóðr release becomes quite boring, because I repeat myself each time I review this project haha. Rafn doesn’t change his writing style and obviously Hermóðr will always be a great example for nostalgic, melancholic and sorrowful doomy black metal. This is slow, maybe slightly monotonous stuff, but its atmospheres devours you completely, especially if it comes along with some great melodies or riffs and with just catchy, easily listenable compositions. Obviously with such long songs, the feeling is close to when listening to instrumental music, because the vocals are quite sporadic and you won’t even feel like they has to be there. And that’s because the music speaks of itself and alone paints the pictures of desolate, cold but beautiful nature perfectly. It’s almost charming and beautiful, with these sorrowful melodies and leads, even though the harsh and eerie black metal similar to such Burzum is there as well.

For me personally, it’s perfectly balanced and performed music. I don’t even mind the length of the whole CD and the fact that after a while you have no idea if it’s the same song or next one. It’s one of the very few examples when monotony is not working against the music, but becomes something that will hypnotize you. More so, I can easily say that these are some of the best songs I heard from Hermóðr so far. I definitely like them more than the (still solid) tracks that appeared on splits with Kalmankantaja and Is. Rafn’s music is surely getting better and better, somehow he manages to keep the high quality with each next release and still has enough ideas for it, despite such high recording frequency. And that’s good. This year we also got his newest full length “The Darkness of December”, which I will review soon and I’m sure it’s gonna be another great release of Hermóðr.

Final rate: 80/100

Grey Heaven Falls - Black Wisdom

GREY HEAVEN FALLS - Black Wisdom (Aesthetics of Devastation CD 2015)

Another Russian band has been introduced to me and damn, Grey Heaven Falls is a super sensation in my opinion. Although “Black Wisdom” is their second album, they’re completely anonymous to me, I have not heard of them ever before nor any of the stuff they released prior to this new opus. But damn, I am so fuckin’ happy that Aesthetics of Devastation sent a copy to me, I could now enjoy one of the best black metal releases I heard in long time. And I say so with all responsibility and honest words. Because this is just excellent stuff.

Grey Heaven Falls combines black and death metal, even adds some spontaneous traces of calmer, more atmospheric, almost doomy fragments, all glued in exceptional and hugely inspiring and intriguing form. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in each song from “Black Wisdom”, and my feelings towards the whole music are similar to what I felt, when I played amazing debut album from Maïeutiste. Both bands actually have quite much in common, surely both try to come up with more sophisticated kind of black metal and both are just damn awesome in my opinion. I just love the way Grey Heaven Falls arrange their music, coming up with some of the most diverse stuff, which still sounds solid and not freaking weird. The reason is that they kept the fundamental, traditional ingredients of black metal, with its cold, eerie and sinister aura, but they’re not afraid to have some more progressive influences – which are incorporated with use of guitars and drums only, no keyboards or other additional instruments was needed here. Maybe this is also why they seem to have kind of post black metal feel here and there, especially in long instrumental passages, when the music calms down and have this hypnotizing feeling of the post metal genre. But the aggression and viciousness are still there, their songs are long, so they can take you from fast, ferocious black metal to melodic, slow piece, or at one point even to long dark ambient piece (“Sanctuary of Cut Tongues”), which kind of divides the album into two parts. No matter what Grey Heaven Falls do, it always work fantastically well. And they did have to try to do their best, if the length of some songs reaches almost twelve minutes.

Such “Spirit of Oppression” is among the finest examples of how impressive the music of this band can be, with superb quality of composition and with both intensity of some blasting parts and hypnotizing beauty of the other. It’s very dynamic, never crossing the line of boredom and also never becoming irritating, so the pleasure of listening to “Black Wisdom” is full. And you know what? I could probably describe each song separately here, writing about how they develop, how the tension is built or whatever, but I guess this would be just waste of time. You must hear this and decide if you like it or not.

I am fully impressed. “Black Wisdom” is top quality stuff and I can speak of this album only in positive manner. The performance, compositions, arrangements, finally the production – all are excellent. And the lyrics also! I think there are Russian and English versions of the album, which is good, as with English translations we can read some damn good lyrics here. Get one for yourself then, do not hesitate.

Standout tracks: “Spirit of Oppression”, “That Nail in a Heart”

Final rate: 85/100