Hell United - HornoKracy

HELL UNITED - HornoKracy (LILITH Productions CD 2008)

Recently I’ve learned that Hell United split up, which is a fuckin shame, I have to say, because I definitely liked their music a lot. I hoped that there will be another album after "Aura Damage"... Now I know there won't be, so maybe it's a good opportunity to come back to "HornoKracy", their 2008 debut, released just couple of years after the split up of Eclypse and formation of Hell United. 

This album has two parts: first is the proper new material, which includes six songs. And then there's the second part, which is Hell United's 2007 demo "Extra-Strength of the Obscure" in its entirety. On both of these recordings Hell United blasts like fuckin insane beast. Most of their music is ferocious, aggressive and fast death / black metal, which seeks for absolute destruction. Definitely of the two parts, songs 1-6, so the proper part of "HornoKracy" is the better. This material is killer. While there's nothing wrong with the demo and its very harsh, even more violent and beastly music, newer songs are just better in every aspect, starting with the production, ideas, arrangements, riffs or performance. Of course, it is very focused on fast paced, blasphemous stuff - when "Eucharistik Masochism" opens the album, its sheer power and intensity immediately catches attention! But there's always something interesting going on, Hell United incorporated many nice different parts, like slower riff, breaks, leads or whatever, that it just doesn’t sound boring, but a bit diverse and more interesting. At times, especially in those slower parts ("God Father Goat Father" especially) they do remind me Behemoth's death metal period a bit. Other time there's a bit of Belphegor similarities, or Vital Remains, Krisiun or just the good old Morbid Angel. But it's secondary what bands they can sometimes remind me though, the music speaks for itself, in my opinion! I'm not sure if that intensity and maniacal, chaotic slaughter will speak to everyone, it's not a nice music to listen to while doing dishes. So, if you're wimp, stay away. But let me just mention "In the Name of Hellfire" for being the only slow song on the whole CD, which is why it is a real standout here. It definitely is the most interesting and my favourite track here. 

From the demo I have to mention "Great Expiatory's Suicide", definitely best song of this material. There are some unique parts there, I like especially how they come up with slower motifs, some melodies. There's still a lot of insane blasts, Hell United is not a band, which can live without it ha! But as overall, this song is very, very well written and played. And that’s it. This is an insane and intense musical experience, closed in 43 minutes of madness. Worth getting, you know? 

Standout tracks: "In the Name of Hellfire", "God Father Goat Father" 

Verdict: 75/100 

Megaslaughter - Calls from the Beyond

MEGASLAUGHTER - Calls from the Beyond (ARSENAL OF GLORY - CD 2007)

Here's another lesser known band from the Swedish death metal scene of early 90’s. Another band, which did have some sort of small impact on the scene, small recognition, but never really had a chance to become “top league” kind of band... simply because they were not good enough. I know that nowadays even such bands are often called “cult”, etc, but do not exaggerate, please. Megaslaughter were fine, solid death metal band, but nothing more than that. But I think it’s cool to know and remember also such smaller bands nowadays, because a lot of many were just good and worthy on their own way, even if they never went beyond a demo or a 7”EP. 

Megaslaughter did manage to record one album. "Calls from the Beyond" came out in 1991 on Thrash Records, which was a cool label, I think, because they had a whole lot of killer bands in their roster. Let me only remind you such jewels as Excruciate, Epitaph, Carbonized, Sentenced, Wombbath, speaking of the full lengths. And they also did 7 inches from the likes of Sorcery, Old Funeral, Vital Remains, Revenant... They're all a wet dream of vinyl collectors nowadays. So is "Calls from the Beyond" LP for sure. It's interesting that originally this album was only available on LP, first CD version came out already in the 00's - and it was a boot from Arsenal of Glory, which I happen to have and play now. For a boot, the sound is pretty good, but do not expect anything from the visual side, as the booklet is as simple as it can only be. There's nothing there. But CD contains also two demos as a bonus, which is a nice addition to the collection of old Megaslaughter recordings. So, let's give it a spin. 

Starting with "Calls from the Beyond"... This is your harsh and vicious death metal from the early 90's, one of those, which you could easily put aside to Authorize, Crematory, Uncanny, Interment, Mastication, Therion (very early!) and so on. Megaslaughter did not have much in common with the lantern of the Swedish death metal like Entombed, Dismember, Unleashed or Grave. They hardly used any melodies at all, their sound was also far from the fat buzz of Sunlight Studio. They also did not sound so atmospheric as Tiamat, Cemetary or Edge of Sanity nor as progressive as Afflicted. But even without these trademarks, you could have no problems with guessing where were they from, because Megaslaughter was alike to these harsher, more brutal and obscure Swedish bands (some of which I mentioned above). 

The thing is, "Calls from the Beyond" reminds me old demos, but not necessarily Swedish full-length albums. Usually most of these Swedish bands jumped on a higher level with their albums, speaking of both compositions and production. Megaslaughter didn't really. They kept their death metal as primeval, nasty and harsh as possible, and the production was improved from their demos rather little. But I like their attitude and viciousness of such songs as "Blood Runs Free" or "Raise the Dead" (which do sound more Swedish than all the rest of the album, there're are even keyboards in one fragment, which is awesome, I think). "False Paradise" begins with the typical Swedish melodic pattern as well, so I have point this out. It all adds some diversity to Megaslaughter's death metal savagery. Some slower riffs here and there, like the one, which opens “Death Remains” also caught my attention. So, you can see there are some particular fragments, which stand out on the album, some good songs as well... but the whole album is just far in my ranking of favourite Swedish death metal full lengths of that old era. 

Then the demos... “Death Remains” demo from 1990 has three songs (two of which were re-recorded for the album), but this demo doesn’t really sound that good. The production is even rawer, a bit muffled and musically everything is sloppy and rather primitive... Very forgettable, if you ask me. “Demo 1991” is much better, except maybe the useless intro. But all three songs sound very good, maybe even better than the album. Such “Face of the Deep” is such an aggressive motherfucker, it’s pretty brutal, sometimes fast, but with a killer slower piece in the middle, which I like a lot. Following songs “Afflicted Flesh” and “Suffer for Nothing” are also pretty damn good (all songs would make a killer 7”EP!!!), what makes me think that Megaslaughter was going in pretty awesome direction with their obscure death metal... but all of a sudden, they split up and “Demo 1991” was their farewell recording. Shame, if you ask me! 

I had a laugh, when I've read in "Swedish Death Metal" book by Ekeroth that Megaslaughter was "minor band formed in Gothenburg... (whose) music is a confused blend of Cannibal Corpse and Metallica". Damn, what a nonsense Ekeroth wrote there (his book is full of such crap, so it’s not all such a good reading as it could have been, I’m afraid). Megaslaughter were a small, second rate band, I agree about that, and "Calls from the Beyond" was rather a mediocre album, but not in the vein of bands he mentioned. And after all these years, this album got some charm, which allows me to like it more than I used to in the past. 

Standout tracks: "Raise the Dead", "False Paradise" 

Verdict: 75/100 

Lobotomy - Against the Gods / Nailed in Misery

LOBOTOMY - Against the Gods / Nailed in Misery (THRASH CORNED - CD 1995)

Lobotomy was never a band, which would have similar appreciation and high status as some other death metal bands from Sweden that formed the scene in the early 90’s. And frankly, I agree, because their albums are mediocre, to be honest. I could listen to them occasionally, but I’ve never been a great fan of Lobotomy music. But if I was going to recommend anything from their discography, then I would actually mention all Lobotomy demos, as this is where they sounded the best, in my opinion. I know that it's terrible to get these old tapes nowadays, the price of 40-50 euros for an old cassette is simply ridiculous. But there is this CD compilation from Thrash Corner Records, released in 1995, which will help you find out what two of Lobotomy demos were like. Here's "Against the Gods / Nailed in Misery" CD. 

And I can assure you that if you worship Swedish death metal from the old days, this CD will be up your street. Unlike some of their later recordings like “Lobotomy” album, where they sounded much weaker, demos sounded really great! Especially third demo "Nailed in Misery" was awesome. It contained only two tracks and the original tape from Obscure Plasma (limited to 100 copies) is impossible to find, but on this CD this demo sounds great. Fairly good production, very solid songwriting with their groovy, brutal and hardly melodic death metal. Obviously they had a lot of these characteristics for their native death metal style, the opening part of "Misery End" will leave no doubt where this band was from. But Lobotomy tried to avoid some clichés and never went for strong Entombed influence. Maybe their music wasn't so progressive as Afflicted's for instance, but had enough individuality to sound good and interesting. There's an extra song from the "Nailed in Misery" recording session, which wasn’t released before, which is a nice surprise. This song includes guest vocals from Masse Broberg (then Hypocrisy). It's weird it wasn't featured on the original demo, as it sounds equally great as the other two tracks. Sooo good then it’s been saved from being forgotten. 

And then "Against the Gods", another very good demo from Lobotomy, released in 1992, so it’s an older effort from Lobotomy. The production is maybe weaker, especially the guitar tone is a bit thin. But on the other hand it is exactly what you would expect Swedish death metal band to sound like in 1992! There’s a whole bunch of great riffage, groove and generally I think that this demo sounds surprisingly well for such a small band. The title song for instance rips fuckin guts, what a good piece it is. There are seven songs in total, so I think this demo shows much better what Lobotomy was worth.   

The only shame of this CD is that it doesn't feature also Lobotomy's first demo "When Death Draws Near" (1990). It would be nice to have a whole set of demos, unfortunately we get only two plus an unreleased song. I definitely recommend this compilation, I like it more than any of Lobotomy albums, to be honest. 

Verdict: 80/100