Vader - Litany

VADER - Litany (METAL MIND - CD 2000)

Honestly, it's been ages since I have listened to Vader's fourth attack titled "Litany". An attack is absolutely a proper word for this album, because it is short, fierce, uncompromising assault on your ears - which ends with a total knockout. Yeah, this album is so bloody intense, so furious that for me it's almost like a death metal equivalent of "Reign in Blood" - short, but intense and fast from start to finish, with not even a single second wasted. Take "Cold Demons" as a prime example, where riffs and the ultimate blasting of Doc are compared to the battle, tanks, machine guns or whatever - this album spits forth its ammunition with great speed and simply fuckin kills. 

And that energy, intensity, this savagery of "Litany" is its main strength. Songwriting is not the most exceptional in Vader's career. Actually, I belong to those, who think that all the best songs, which Vader did, all the best ideas and arrangements were on their first two albums. But "Litany" is just different. It's rather focused on simplicity, with shorter, more in your face songs, where you can get three or four riffs only, all crammed in even two minutes of cannonading death metal! Three songs on this album are under two minutes! So, you can imagine how fast, how straight forward this album is. Of course, if you expect something more from your music other than just blasts, then "Litany" may disappoint you. There are obviously slower songs here also, but even they have this brute force and sound only like a short break to take breath before another cannonade. If you like melody, you won't find them here neither. And that’s good!  

Even if sometimes these riffs or arrangements can sound repetitive, for Vader of course (like "Cold Demons" vs "Forward to Die!!"), "Litany" with its 30 minutes is just too short to start to bore me. I fully enjoy the album and even though I had this break from listening to it, refreshing it was a great idea. Powerful, merciless and just awesome high speed death metal and one of Vader's highlights. Oh, re-recording of "The Final Massacre" is another huge bonus also! Fury unleashed! 

Standout tracks: "Wings", "Cold Demons", "The Final Massacre", "The One Made of Dreams" 

Verdict: 80/100 

Depravity - Silence of the Centuries

DEPRAVITY - Silence of the Centuries (THE CRYPT - LP 2011)

I am always glad when I can grab some classic death metal records, especially on vinyl, as this is the format, which I prefer, when I collect late 80’s or 90’s recordings. It doesn’t even have to be first press, I am not such dork. Also, I am happy to see many old albums or even demos released on vinyl after many, many years. That's the case with "Silence of the Centuriess" EP by Finnish band Depravity, which was released on CD only back in 1993. In 2011 The Crypt unleashed the vinyl version – which is awesome, in my opinion! 

This vinyl compilation contains two records. And let me say that LP number two is rubbish. There are two early demos from Depravity, both from 1991: "Demo 1" and "Galvanizer". And I can't say they sound good at all. Actually, they are awful and the only value they have is that, which is historical as demos from Depravity. The music is just primitive and very raw death metal, which is barely listenable. I don’t really care for these demos at all. 

But the first vinyl is a real treat for maniacs of classic death metal and all these killer releases from the early 90's. You'll find there "Remasquerade" EP, "Phantasmagoria" demo and finally "Silence of the Centuries" EP, which was also Depravity's farewell recording. Here the band sounds damn awesome and I can guarantee that all fans of the Scandinavian death metal will like it. Depravity didn't sound as brutal and obscure as some other acts from their country, I think their music had much more in common with the Swedish death metal. And from Finland I would mention bands such as Sentenced on their early releases, Convulse and Demigod. Quite mid paced and fairly melodic death metal, with that dark atmosphere, which embraces these songs from their first seconds... There's a whole lot of good ideas in these songs, I love the riffs, melodic parts, some very good guitar leads, even how the keyboards are included in few parts. On "Silence of the Centuries" Depravity started to sound more aggressive and songs became a bit faster, more nasty and violent, but they kept the dark atmosphere. And in "Vacuum of Thoughts" the music reminds me even Pestilence a bit, with some of these characteristic riffs, which I very cool, I think. i love it, especially the title song. What a nice stuff. 

All in all, this is a great compilation, except the second LP though. I love the gatefold layout, with all these archive materials and even the new artwork by Turkka G. Rantanen looks amazing. It looks pretty much the same as the original one, but had to be painted all over again, and Turkka did awesome job here, I think. That's how a vinyl release should be like. 

Verdict: 90 / 100 (for LP 1) - 30 / 100 (for LP 2) 

Uerberos - Stand over Your Grave

UERBEROS - Stand over Your Grave (GODZ OV WAR Productions CD 2020)

I always have a troubled mind, when I have to write few words about such albums. On one hand they sound solid and there’s nothing really wrong with them, but then a problem comes if I just cannot say that I feel impressed or enthusiastic for the music. That is a case of "Stand over Your Grave" from Uerberos, I am afraid. It doesn't matter how fast and tight or brutal they sound... It doesn’t matter if everybody else will be super positive for this album. As for me, I will complete this review and the final spin and then I am sure that "Stand over Your Grave" will end up catching dust in my shelf for some years, before I grab it again wondering what the hell was it. 

OK, some of you may not like that modern death metal tag, which I will give to this album. But it is needed sometimes, especially as nowadays there's a clear, distinctive line between the bands, which sound like it was 1990 and those, which take this music on another level of technicality, brutality and intensity. Uerberos belongs to the latter group of bands. One such characteristic and important factor for them is the production, which also on "Stand over Your Grave" is very clean, almost sterile... It is powerful, everything clicks very precisely... But I just miss that harshness and mess of more natural old school sound. But that's me! Most of you will like how brutal and powerful Uerberos sounds here. I have no problem with it. 

And as for the music... Well, the easiest would be to say that Uerberos sounds like a combination of some other Polish bands, from Trauma, Hate, Vader, Lost Soul, up to Behemoth even. Of course there's more to it, you can bring comparisons to some American bands or whatever. It is brutal, fast as hell and very intense and vicious death metal. Every song has that merciless, punching sound and Uerberos hardly ever slows down. Of course, here and there you will find a slower part, even some more melodic patterns... I have to say that both guitarists do great job here and their riffs are juicy, with all those nice details and stuff like that. So, you shouldn't feel like every song sounds the same, for most of the time at least. The songwriting is good enough, I like that the songs can still sound fairly memorable, despite their brutality and that it isn’t a mindless ferocity or something like that. Uerberos seems to be doing everything right... 

But if you feel like I am quite harsh in this review and that there's hardly any word of real excitement, then you are right. As I mentioned earlier, "Stand over Your Grave" sounds like a solid and good album. But no more than that, in my opinion. As much as I try, it just isn't able to really catch my throat and crush it. I'm not even sure if I want it to. But I will give it a 70/100 score, as I feel that it deserves that, at least. 

Standout tracks: ahh, I don't know 

Verdict: 70/100 

Archives of the Dead part XXXVI – Abominog – Dark Museum

Archives of the Dead part XXXVI – Abominog – Dark Museum (Demo 1992) 

Line up: Chris Yuastella (vocals), Keith Lyons (guitars), Pete Reid (bass), King Fowley (drums) 

Recorded and mixed at Inner Ear Studios, Summer 1991. 

US based Abominog were definitely not a Uriah Heep type of band, if you know what I mean haha. This death metal band from Falls Church, Virginia was formed very early - already back in 1988 - which means they had to be one of the very first so brutal death metal bands in USA. They did few demos and an EP “Grotesque Humanity” in the early 90’s, before “Chaos Unleashed” full length was also spawned in 1995. I already did a review for “Grotesque Humanity” EP once – which in my opinion was quite mediocre death metal effort from that old era. Not terrible, but not really worth of a longer exposure. So, what about “Dark Museum” demo from 1992? 

This effort definitely sounds better than the EP. Even though the copy of the tape rip, which I’ve found is not the best, I could easily say that the production is more powerful, more vicious and the band played tighter and more skilfully. Style wise it’s very much a continuation of the EP, so you could expect that brutal style of death metal alike to Suffocation, Baphomet, Cannibal Corpse, Rottrevore, Corpus Rottus and such. Massive, chunky riffs soaked in brute, vicious force, a lot of fast death metal, brutal growls mixed with insane screams... You all know it. Even though the production is harsh and messy and Abominog music could not match the quality of music from many other similar bands from that era, it’s still a decent demo. I really like its uncompromising, savage character and songs like “Hypnotic Misery”.  

Interesting fact: King Fowley from Deceased was a drummer in Abominog at that time, he was even going to release “Dark Museum” on vinyl through his label With Your Teeth Records. Another interesting fact: Abominog reformed recently, I don’t know what the hell for, though. 

Verdict: 70/100 

Centinex - Hellbrigade

CENTINEX - Hellbrigade (CANDLELIGHT - CD 2003)

Taking a look at the whole discography of Centinex, I can say that they have some great albums there, but also some very mediocre and boring recordings. I’m great fan of their early releases, not only demos, but also of “Subconscious Lobotomy” and “Malleus Maleficarum” albums, where their music was straight forward, traditional Swedish death metal.  At the same time there’s hardly anything positive I can say about such “Decadence - Prophecies of Cosmic Chaos”, where sometimes Centinex sounds like an awful In Flames. Other time I feel like some of their mid era albums had good songs, but the production killed them. So, there was always something that bothered me. But if I was going to pick one album from their later discography to recommend, then it would be "Hellbrigade", a record which surely stands with its quality above majority of Centinex catalogue and matches even their early stuff.  

Stylistically the band was much different to what you could hear on such "Subconscious Lobotomy", and from the classic Swedish death metal they turned into some sort of melodic death / black metal band, where you could find a shitload of influence from Dissection, Sacramentum and other such bands. Which is a nice change, if it can come together with a solid songwriting and great songs. It didn't work on such "Reborn Through Flames", which is boring and forgettable. But here on "Hellbrigade" it is awesome. 

First off, the production is very good, it's powerful, energetic, the music kicks ass just as it should and that's what I want to hear. It is one of Centinex's better sounding efforts for sure, especially it is good to hear that Kennet Englund started to play drums again, so no more the fuckin drum machine! 

But songs are also superb and within this death / black metal style Centinex came up with a nice and varied effort. You could hear there faster and more savage songs that come in hand with slower and more melodic stuff, but both complete each other perfectly, so the album sounds very dynamic. I mentioned the melody - basically guitar harmonies are present almost constantly, which is why the music can remind you Dissection and that kind of stuff. But there's also a lot of more traditional death metal played here, even a bit of thrash metal in the vein of Merciless, so it all sounds super awesome and diverse. Occasionally Centinex can surprise with addition of clean vocals or keyboards, like in “Nightbreeder” and “One With Eternity”, which can sound a bit more progressive, I am lucky to find out that they don't kill the effect and with them "Hellbrigade" sounds even more interesting. Besides, if along comes a song like “Towards Devastation” - and it is a death metal devastation - then why worry? “The Eyes of the Dead” or “Blood Conqueror” are also noteworthy for me with their death inferno, blasts and very uncompromising attitude. Let me also say that I like Johan Jansson' (Interment, Demonical) vocals more than the Mattias Lamppu's, so it's a nice change here also. 

Finally my CD version contains also a killer addition of "Apocalyptic Armageddon" EP as a bonus and these are another three excellent songs in the same melodic, but aggressive death metal style. It would be nice to catch the original vinyl pressing of this EP, but it’s cool to have them at least as a bonus songs on a CD. Anyway, there’s a lot of good music on “Hellbrigade”, so I can really say that this album belongs to my favourites in the Centinex discography.  

Standout tracks: “One With Eternity”, “The Eyes Of The Dead”, “Bloodconqueror” 

Verdict: 80/100