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  

Haunted Cenotaph - Abyssal Menace

HAUNTED CENOTAPH - Abyssal Menace (FALLEN TEMPLE - CD 2020)

"Abyssal Menace" is an album, which I really looked forward to hear. In their two previous recordings, especially the self titled EP, Haunted Cenotaph proved to be one of the most worthy new bands in the Polish scene. And one of the more unique also, since there aren't many alike bands in this scene (Eternal Rot is the only one I can think so now). Finally, a CD came from Fallen Temple and I have to say that it's a killer album. I really cannot think of anything what I would not like on "Abyssal Menace" and would want to be done different. This obscure form of death / doom metal suits me fine, especially when it sounds best in its most archaic and purest form, just as it is here on "Abyssal Menace". 

Only two things are always necessary - bands like these need to deliver some crushing riffs and proper, dark, creepy atmosphere of horror. No problem with that here and Haunted Cenotaph very efficiently builds their songs with all these essential aspects. There's great heaviness and brutality, tempo wise the music is mostly slow, but there's just enough dynamics (like in “Cursed Abomination“) to avoid monotony or boredom. Haunted Cenotaph delivers plenty of interesting ideas, there are great arrangements and the band easily creates that eerie atmosphere, which I mentioned earlier - and they do so without the use of keyboards or stuff like that, which is also important, I think, as this way the music is rawer and more savage. 

There are some fragments, where riffs can even remind you the very classic doom metal (Cathedral is a name, which often appears in the reviews... sure). And this combination of obscure doom death metal in its most harsh and dark form with the sludge of classic doom is certainly one of the most impressive aspects of this album. Occasionally I can smell influence from the Swiss bands also, not only the classic like Hellhammer and Celtic Frost (which had to be major influence for Haunted Cenotaph, for sure), but also from such Bolzer - especially every time, when more epic riff comes in and vocals turn into some sort of howling or possessed yell. Oh, I really like that also, it sounds a bit different this way from most of other doom death metal bands like Hooded Menace or Eternal Rot, for instance. But what I like is that all these bands have so much to offer and "Abyssal Menace" is exactly like that also. Good album, good band... Nothing else to wish for. Check this shit out then. 

Standout track: "Abyssal Menace" 

Verdict: 80/100

Stilla - Till stilla falla

STILLA - Till stilla falla (NORDVIS Productions LP 2012)

When "Till stilla falla" came out, I made a purchase of this album without knowing anything about Stilla's music. But I felt that a project made of people who're in such bands as Armagedda, Bergraven or Sorgeldom cannot be bad. And I am certainly glad now that I did buy this vinyl and did not hesitate. First of all, this LP is now sold out and rather expensive and secondly, Stilla turned out to be a brilliant band and "Till stilla falla" is one of my favourite black metal releases of recent years. 

What I love the most about "Till stilla falla" is that screams SCADINAVIAN BLACK METAL loud! And to be even more precise, this album is deeply, deeply influenced by the 90's Norwegian atmospheric black metal bands. When I listen to "Till stilla falla" I have such "For all tid" in my mind. I have "Bergtatt" in my mind". I have "Svartalvheim" in my mind. Also albums from Kampfar, Kvist, Satyrion... Some of the best stuff Norwegian black metal had to offer in the 90's. And that is Stilla, a project which in 2011 recorded an album, which recreates that feeling and atmosphere perfectly and can stand proud aside to the old classics. Basically, everything that "Till stilla falla" presents is ticking the boxes of what such musical style needs. And this music has been written and performed just perfectly. The most important in my opinion is the atmosphere - how the band can create that cold, grim, slightly nostalgic, but also monumental and hateful aura. They obtained the essence of this music and what it should awake. Riffs are splendid and easily manage to balance the harshness and viciousness of black metal (there are even some killer blasting parts like in “Aldrig döden minnas“) with more melodic and melancholic parts, giving us a diverse and interesting record all the way through. Additional instrumentation in this style is also very important, whether they are acoustic guitars or keyboards... Stilla doesn't exaggerate with them, but they do include them when it’s needed to rise the epic, monumental feeling. And vocals - well, Andreas Petterson is a great vocalist, I like his work in other bands he’s involved in, and in Stilla he also did a perfect job. It's great to hear some clean vocals along the raspy black metal shrieks, also. 

All in all, I can only write positive words about Stilla's debut. It is a great album and I am very glad that nowadays there are bands, which can deliver this sort of black metal in such a perfect style. This album can rival many classics, in my opinion, and this is why I immediately became Stilla's fan ever since "Till stilla falla" came out. 

Standout tracks: "Tidlösa vindar", “Aldrig döden minnas..”, “Hinsides dagen” 

Verdict: 85/100