Crypt of Kerberos - The Macrodex of War

CRYPT OF KERBEROS - The Macrodex of War (BLEED Records CD 2005)

I've never been big fan of Crypt of Kerberos, to be honest, and among all Swedish death metal bands from the early 90's, they belong to my least favourite. It's all because "World of Myths" album from 1993 is so lame and pissing me off that I just can't listen to it. But Kerberos did also some better and more interesting recordings prior to their debut CD, such as two demos and 7"EPs. And all these rare recordings have been compiled on the CD titled "The Macrodex of War" (called after Macrodex, which was a band, where some Crypt of Kerberos members played previously). 

"The Macrodex of War" contains a whole bunch of cool and rare stuff. You'll find here both demos from 1991, both 7"EPs and some previously unreleased recordings. So, it is an interesting journey into the past and through the history of this rather lesser known band. 

This CD starts with "Demo#1 1991" and I have to say I like this demo a lot. It is so much better from that more progressive music on the debut album that it seems like a completely different band. Crypt of Kerberos present here really great doomy death metal, played in that very harsh and kind of primitive way (all in all, this is a demo), but I can already hear many great ideas, arrangements, melodies, riffs... First song "Sacrifice" is especially awesome, it probably is the best song this band has recorded. I really like that sluggish, but filled with some hooky melodies, Swedish death metal, highly influenced by Paradise Lost, even if it sounds sloppy and coarse. But that harshness gives this music some sort of charm, which I'm very fond of. By the way, I saw that original copy of this demo sells even for 60-80 euros on Discogs, which is just fuckin insane. 

Kerberos' second demo from 1991 contains five songs and is very alike to the first cassette, maybe slightly better produced and a bit better performed. But general idea is the same, so think of death metal focused on slow paced, heavy crushing sound and some mournful melodies. Is it any good? Oh yeah, I like both 1991 demos a lot and I think that in this sort of death metal style Crypt of Kerberos matched the quality of Eternal Darkness, if we speak of the Swedish scene. Here "Yule Horror" is especially noteworthy song. Great melodies, nice gloomy feel, some keyboards... and again, strong influence from Paradise Lost and British death / doom metal in general. 

Next up is "Cyclone of Insanity" 7"EP from 1992, probably a highlight of death metal style of Crypt of Kerberos. Band definitely improved their music in every aspect - from its diversity, ideas, arrangements, performance, etc, to the production value, while the style is pretty much intact (maybe it is slightly more up tempo, which is why sometimes the music reminds me Bolt Thrower). Which means they didn't experiment, didn't come up with that progressive style, which one year later appeared on the debut album. And that transition between both these recordings is even more weird to me. Anyway, both songs from "Cyclone of Insanity" are damn good and I cannot say anything bad about them. It kills me that I used to own the original 7", but sold it along with all the rest of my 7" collection decade ago. 

To be honest, next bunch of songs on this CD are crap. There’s a rehearsal recording from 1992, which is just a mess of a recording, nothing interesting, to be honest. And there’s also a preproduction demo from 1992, where they already sound like the band I know from "World of Myths" - so, this also doesn’t convince me. So, to be honest, I could easily delete these few songs from this CD and there would be no harm. Damn, I hate these clean vocals they started to use in their music. What a joke. 

For the end, there's "Visions Beyond Darkness" left, another 7" from 1991, which is a bit odd, because it should open the whole CD, if they wanted to keep the correct chronological order of Kerberos discography. Anyway, this EP is not as good as "Cyclone of Insanity", it is very, very raw, savage and brute death metal, with that primitive feel of the early 90's demos. As I mentioned, it is not as good as the other 7", their demos were also better. But there surely is a great historical value in this recording, from a band, which just went a transformation from Macrodex to Crypt of Kerberos. 

Verdict: 70/100 

Crusher - Act II: Undermine!

CRUSHER - Act II: Undermine! (SEMETERY Records - CD 1993)

I have to say that I like this EP a lot. Crusher from France may have never been a major league player, this band never got huge recognition, but for underground death metal in France they were as good and worthy band as Mercyless, Loudblast or Massacra, in my opinion. Already as Frayeurs they recorded some cool demos. Then when they changed the name for Crusher, "Corporal Punishment" album was released and it's very good stuff. "Act II: Undermine!" EP was later released in 1993 by Semetery Records and it's just great, groovy but brutal death metal. Definitely worthy to check and a must for your old death metal collection. 

It's quite simple I suppose to describe the music of Crusher on this EP, because it's hugely alike to British death metal commandos, in my opinion. Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Benediction - these bands come to my mind immediately, when I listen to "Act II: Undermine!". Also Gorefest, Obituary... but mostly the British death metal scene, with a small dose of grind! Even the vocals sound a lot like Dave Ingram and sometimes like Barney Greenway! And I don't see this as something bad, because Crusher really nailed some great songs for this EP. They're full of killer riffs, groove, brutality, so it’s a nice stuff, which definitely can give you an urge to bang your foooccciin head!!! With songs like "Storm Brewing" and "Undermine" (the fastest and really crushing song!) they bought me immediately, I always turn the volume as much as I can stand and enjoy this shit! With seven songs and 25 minutes of music, this EP turns into a nice feast... with only one exception, which is "Hell on Earth", a Discharge cover. But that's just because I'm totally not a fan of this sort of music, so I don't like the cover also, I don't care for it and sometimes just skip it, cause I don't want to waste my time for it. Other than that, "Act II: Undermine!" is a nice collection of songs and a solid continuation of "Corporal Punishment". Sadly, it's also been a swansong for Crusher, who split up soon later. But...! But they reformed, no one knows what for, in 2013 and already released a split 12"LP with Mercyless called "Blast from the Past". But I don't know what it's like, never heard a song from it. I don’t even care, to be honest. Old stuff is solid for sure though. 

Standout track: "Storm Brewing", "Undermine" 

Verdict: 70/100 

Azarath - Infernal Blasting

AZARATH - Infernal Blasting (PAGAN Records - CD 2003)

They couldn’t choose a more fitting title, "Infernal Blasting" is the most appropriate name for this album. Azarath sounds like a bloodthirsty, unstoppable beast here, which released such a fury that it can only lead to massacre and chaos. This is Azarath's second album, released back in 2003 by Pagan Records, and I think that not only it sounds much better than the already solid debut album "Demon Seed", but it turned into one of the best Polish death metal albums, which influenced a whole bunch of other Polish bands (Hetzer, etc). 

From start to finish, "Infernal Blasting" is a vicious, brutal death metal offering, which hardly knows the meaning of the word "mercy". Intense, powerful riffage, insanely fast drumming of Inferno, bestial screams of Bruno... This album has everything. Stylistically it's a bit close to Damnation (which is an obvious comparison, due to some line up connections), but Azarath is even faster and more insane and chaotic than Damnation. You could also mention (old) Deicide, Vital Remains, Krisiun, Centurian... This sort of incredibly satanic, violently sounding death metal acts. In "Infernal Blasting" there's absolutely no sign of nice sounding music, not a second of melodic accents nor anything what could be called "catchy" or "memorable". This stuff is just as ugly and chaotic as it can get. But this energy and incredible intensity is a great strength of Azarath. Since "Infernal Blasting" is closed within 30 minutes only, you won't feel that it can sound one dimensional, as it's too short for that. Songs are rather short, only a couple of them are longer than three minutes – what also helps to capture that straight forward and relentless energy with obscure, evil atmosphere. You may moan that some riffs are unreadable - but come on, this is harsh sounding, brutal death metal! If you want something nice in death metal, go and listen to fuckin Kata-wimps-klysm.  

Azarath is doing what they are best at - they perform "Infernal Blasting Death Metal". And damn, I am infected with it 100%. Of course, it's not an album, which you can listen to for a whole day, but it you feel pissed off and want something to free this aggression, then play Azarath.  

Standout tracks: don’t know 

Verdict: 70/100 

Epitaphe - I

EPITAPHE - I (AESTHETIC DEATH - CD 2019)

An hour long album could be a challenging affair, especially if we deal with doom or death / doom metal band. Luckily, it's not a case here, also because this "Death / doom" tag is quite misleading. And also because Epitaphe from France delivers five intriguing and impressive songs, which I enjoyed a lot. I had no big expectations for "I", to be honest, I didn't think it's gonna be as good as it actually is... but the bigger surprise and pleasure is from listening to this CD. 

Epitaphe did a lot to make the journey they take us into interesting. And diversity is one of the key factors here. At first sounds of the opening song, which is a 19 minutes long monolith titled "Smouldering Darkness", I thought that it's gonna be all pretty dull. The way this song begins is quite inconspicuous, with the doomy, sorrowful melodic piece, but rather boring. But suddenly this song takes 180 degrees turn and Epitaphe plays some fantastic bestial death metal riffs and fastens things up into real death metal savagery!!! And if they slow down again, the music remains cavernous, heavy with that obscure, eerie atmosphere, which is something I absolutely love to hear. And that's exactly what I meant about the diversity of "I". Epitaphe is not afraid to bring us some calmer, melancholic stuff, even experiment a bit, but majority of this album is just neckbreaking, vicious death or death / doom metal, which I personally think fits some of these XXI century obscure beasts such as The Ruins Of Beverast, Portal, Embrace of Thorns, Antediluvian, Abyssal, Temple Nightside to name just few. But do not forget also about the old monsters such as Incantation, Esoteric... And it's fantastic, because I didn't think Epitaphe will sound like that and also because they're fuckin good at it! 

And next songs like "Downward Stream" and "Embers" continue with this style, which is all I could want now. Great thing about "I" is that these songs are very far from being typical and foreseeable. Riffs are not simplistic, even if the nature of this style of music can be felt like it's primitive and vile. They often bring a bit weird harmony or slightly progressive chords, like in that fantastic ferocious opening riff in "Downward Stream", which simply rips the fuckin head. These songs are 10 or even 20 minutes long, so it's obvious that Epitaphe had to use this time effectively and make sure that the listener does not jump off the window bored to death. So, you'll be hit with doomy passages, massive heavy riffs, blasting crushing parts, bestial, deep growls... And somewhere in the middle, there's an acoustic piece, which frankly feels to be completely misplaced haha. Just kidding. 

Anyway, I think that "I" from Epitaphe is a bloody good album, it exceeded all my expectations, I can honestly say that I became a fan of this band... and what else can I add... I can only recommend it strongly, because it's an album you cannot miss. Good work, guys. 

Standout track: "Downward Stream" 

Verdict: 85/100