Ragehammer - War Hawks

RAGEHAMMER - War Hawks (MYTHRONE - demo CD 2012)

Polish Impaled Nazarene? Yeah, it definitely seems to me that Ragehammer must be heavily influenced by the Finnish cult and I can hear it not only in the simple, straight forward, sometimes almost punkish riffs, but also in the vocals of Heretik Hellstörm, who screams his guts out like a possessed maniac (but surprisingly at few occasions – in “Prophet of Genocide” and “The Wolfpack” – he tries to sing with clean voice, what sounds really cool!). He sounds like he’s been trying to repeat dear old Mika Luttinen’s lunatic and utterly mad screams, which is not bad choice. Of corpse I’m not gonna accuse Ragehammer for copying Impaled Nazarene, but just wanted to point the first impression, which they made on me, when I started to listen to their demo and it was that they really remind me the Finns (hey, just listen to “Hate Command” and what do you think?). Besides, on top of all that one can find some traces of some recent Darkthrone albums, plus a bit of Nifelheim or even Absu (why not?), so anything that can have any signs of pure, old styled and archaic metal – be it black, thrash or heavy metal - as well as a bit of punk rock and stuff like that. Oh, sorry, but have I mentioned Venom?

Obviously one can think that Ragehammer may not be anything interesting, but I dare to say think twice, before you say something like that as really this debut demo – “War Hawks” – is more than enjoyable. It is actually really killer stuff! I myself am pretty surprised how much I like the music of this band and how well it has been played (and recorded). But what else can I say, if every sound from “War Hawks” is filled with hatred, aggression, ferocity, energy (which I always want to have in metal!), passion (same!) and finally there’s such a cool vibe and atmosphere… and again, how nicely aggressive and sharp are those riffs, they really will make you bang your head while you listen to it. And this is what metal is all about, dear friends! Vicious, violent and uncompromising music, full of sulphur and evil atmosphere, with absolutely possessed vocals and bulldozing guitar riffs that crush right from the first second… But I like the fact that along with those vicious songs Ragehammer composed also such a killer track like “Prophet of Genocide”, which is slower, reminding me actually a bit of Bathory (riffs only, definitely not the vocals!) and some Australian bands, except of the “chorus” part, which has been sang with the clean voice (sounding a bit like good old Hades?!) and it gets quite epic then. But it is a great song, definitely my favourite one! Fuck, whatever… “War Hawks” is definitely a very good demo and I must say that I’m really glad that I spent this fortune (which was an equivalent of 2 sterling pounds hehe) on something like this, especially as the demo is limited to 200 copies and is very nicely released in digisleeve. Arrgghhh, keep an eye on this band!

Standout tracks: “Prophet of Genocide”, “Hate Command”

Final rate: 85/100

Scent of Death - Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate

SCENT OF DEATH - Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate (Pathologically Explicit Recordings - CD 2012)

It took me a while, before I finally started to put some words on the laptop, writing this review. Well, but that wasn’t due to my laziness – OK, maybe a little bit hehe – but mainly because I rather wanted to enjoy the music and listen to „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate”, rather than bothering about writing some stupid reviews. You know, it is way better just to play the album fuckin loud and bang the skull, than doing some press. But OK, it’s about time to share some thoughts about „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate”, as it is my obligation to the band, who actually bothered to send me a copy of their new CD. I guess you should guess by know that if I preferred to listen to the album and not doing anything else, then it must mean I like the music… Yes, I sincerely do. If it was shit, then I would just play it once or twice and quickly review it, to move to another album and quickly forget about this one. But that is not the case with Scent of Death’s newest effort. It actually may be a surprise to some of you that I like this music so much, as usually such technical, brutal death metal is not really my cup of piss. It’s true, but there are always some exceptions, otherwise life would be too simple! In case of modern, tech death metal I can consider myself as a fan of bands like Suffocation, Nile, Behemoth, Hour of Penance, and from some more underground stuff I definitely consider bands like Chaos Inception and Beyond Mortal Dreams as a pure fuckin masterpieces. Sure, most of those technical, modern death metal bands is boring for me, mainly because their music is nothing more but a triumph of form over content – read: they offer millions of sounds and riffs, but nothing beyond that, as after listening to such album usually nothing stays in my mind, everything dies in the maelstrom of riffs and fast drumming. That is not the case with Scent of Death and their „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate”!

Sure, Scent of Death’s music can be described as technical and modern, as well as damn fast and brutal, but it also has the essence of death metal and the main influences, which I can point out here would definitely be with bands like Suffocation, Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Severe Torture, Trauma… So, everything what I like most in this sort of music! And Scent of Death’s album is fuckin intense from the beginning, but that doesn’t mean that once they start to shred with fast drumming and complex, mutilating riff, they do the same through the whole album! No way would it be interesting and impress me, if it was like that. Those Spaniards were smart enough to diversify their music and managed to find a key to make it technical, but also memorable and included a lot of… hmm, how should I describe it… hmm, maybe space, I mean their arrangements are not over the edge of being listenable stuff, but they also include a lot of effective and memorable stuff, which is great. So yeah, the fast stuff may be dominant on the album, but at the same time there are such killer songs as “Ego Te Provoco” – which are way slower, with many fantastic, heavy riffs and absolutely awesome guitar solos, which would probably make Azaghoth or Rutan green in jealousy.

But yeah, I definitely like the fact that „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate” is something more than just a guitar masturbation and octopus drumming, as such things usually bring a lot of satisfaction to the musicians, but not necessarily to the listeners, especially in such musical style as death metal, where I always considered the dark and deathly atmosphere as something most important, even more than the pure brutality. I think that „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate” has captured a certain balance between all the aspects of death metal and that’s great. It is enough for me to really enjoy this music and I can even say that I don’t really see many – if any – failures on this album. Hmm, maybe there’s one, which is not even that serious, but which I can mention and that is the song “The Sleeper Must Awake”, which is an instrumental track. There’s nothing really wrong with it, except the fact that the opening theme of it is just clearly taken off the Behemoth’s monumental “Lucyfer” hehe! Other than that, I can just compliment the band – for the technique (all instrumentalists plus good performance of the vocalist Sergio M. Afonzo), great songwriting, very good – clean, aggressive and powerful – production… Yeah, I really like this album.

Here I must add that it is not my first contact with Scent of Death’s music. I actually have got to know them already back in 2002 (or 2003), when I got their demo “Entangled in Hate” (I rated it then 7/10 for the www.nbc.art.pl webzine, not bad!). Later on the band also send me their first album, 2005’s “Woven in the Book of Hate” which I reviewed for my Panzerfaust zine #5 and rated it 80/100. But to be honest, ever since I listened and reviewed both recordings I haven’t listened to them anymore. You know, I’m one of those people, who buy a lot of new / or old / stuff, sometimes few titles per week, plus I also sometimes get some stuff for review… and it’s been like that for many years now, so sometimes it is just difficult to find time to listen to something what for instance I got for review 10 years ago. Ha, I bet there are also some CDs or LPs, which I purchased years ago and probably have never listened to them (yet!) hehe! But these two Scent of Death old releases are still in my collection and now, when I listened to „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate” I really feel like it’s about time to remind myself what were they like and give them another spin, also to see how the music of Scent of Death has evolved through all those years. At the same time I hope that „Of Martyrs's Agony and Hate” won’t be entombed in my closet for 10 years, waiting to be exhumed one day. This album is way too good to have a future like this.

Oh, and just to finish – have they ever noticed a bad gramma in the title of their album???

Standout tracks: “Ego Te Provoco”, “A Simple Twist of Fate”, “Man Kills, God Too…”

Final rate: 85/100

Taake / Vidsyn - Lagnonector / Men of Eight

 

TAAKE / VIDSYN - Lagnonector / Men of Eight (AGONIA Records - 10" Split MLP 2006)

For me every new Taake release is something special, as this band surely belongs to my favourite black metal hordes of all times. But that doesn’t mean that I also take every next release with their logo without any critique, actually there are some releases, which are more a collectable items than something what I really enjoy listening to (vide their split 10”MLP with Amok). When Agonia Records was releasing this split 10”MLP, with their Norwegian fellows from Vidsyn, I was actually very excited about it, as Taake at that time has just released their phenomenal “Hordaland Doedskvad” album (their best one, definitely), so I hoped that the song “Hennes Kalde Skamlepper” will sound as great as that mentioned album, especially as I think it was recorded more or less at the same time, although in different studio. And also Vidsyn is a cool band, I knew them well from the killer “On Frostbitten Path Beneath” MLP, which Agonia also released (this MLP was more known for a vocal contribution of Nocturno Culto than for the actual music, but personally I liked it a lot and even interviewed the band back in 2005 for my Panzerfaust zine #5). Anyway, here is the split release of both Taake and Vidsyn… Released on 10” vinyl format only and limited to 1000 copies it may be difficult to obtain nowadays, but give a try, as I can promise that musically it is a very good release.

Taake’s “Hennes Kalde Skamlepper” is quite lengthy song, as it is almost 11 minutes long, but surely anyone, who likes the band’s style of majestic, epic, but raw black metal will enjoy this tune a lot. I also do, even though I can honestly say that the material from “Hordaland Doedskvad” album is way better than this. But that doesn’t mean that this single song is not worthy being listened to. Surely it is a decent tune, with some good riffs and as usual cold and grim atmosphere. The production is rawer than on the mentioned album, it feels more like a rehearsal recording, really, but with well listenable instruments, etc., only sometimes it feels slightly messy in the sound. Anyway, the song, even if so long, is quite simple in the structure, with one main riff, which has a main focus all the way through, but along the way Taake puts some tempo and riff / motif changes, including a killer slow down somewhere in the middle of the song. So yeah, “Hennes Kalde Skamlepper” (what translates to "Her Cold Labia"… nice!) is a good track, even if it is not exactly on the same killer level as the stuff from the “…Doedskvad” LP.

Vidsyn on side B offers also just one song, called “Men of Eight”. This one is only five minutes long, which is a small disappointment, as there’s surely enough room to put one more track from this band. Anyway, the song is pretty much in the same vein as the stuff from their “On Frostbitten Path Beneath” MLP, so again cold and Nordic black metal, with some resemblances to all the masters of this music, mainly Taake, Darkthrone and Immortal. I must say that I really like this song a lot, it is classic Norwegian black metal and played in quite fast and vicious way, with great freezing cold atmosphere, so definitely Vidsyn proved to be great band. I wonder what happened to them, as I haven’t heard anything from Nattsjel’s band ever since they did this split release with Taake. And that was already 7 years ago.

Final rate: 70/100

Taake - Hordaland Doedskvad

TAAKE - Hordaland Doedskvad (AGONIA / DARK ESSENCE - LP 2005)

People are funny sometimes in their never stopping critique of everything what is Norwegian. Some dull and useless opinions would even dare to say that this country hasn’t produced anything exceptional ever since the early 90’s and the good, cult early releases of Darkthrone, Ulver, Satyricon and Mayhem. What a perfect example for jerkism, jealousy and lack of musical taste… What about all those exceptional and killer releases of Thorns, 1349, Urgehal, Orcustus, Gehenna, Svarttjern, Helheim  – to name only few! – which happened later, in the new millennium??!! And what the fuck about Taake, probably the greatest black metal band from Norway of the past decade? Is this still not enough for you for the proof that this country always had exceptional black metal to offer and often was standing a step forward, comparing it to the rest of the world? Taake… Yeah, this band is the finest example for the supremacy of the Norwegian black metal and their 2005 release “Hordalands Doedskvad” definitely belongs to the finest releases of this band… and to the whole Norsk Black Metal at all. Taake already had a couple of excellent releases behind their belt (mainly the awesome second LP “Over Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik”), but even if I really like both previous full lengths, I must say that they’re just not as good as this third LP is.

I love every aspect of “Hordalands Doedskvad”. Truly, I do. The album is not only amazingly written and perfectly recorded, but also is catchy as hell; which is quite surprising, as we speak of the black metal record, so music which in its nature should be disgusting, obscure and be everything, but no fun. I don’t wanna say that Taake on their “Death Chants from Hordaland” sounds happy and joyful, not at all; it also isn’t quasi symphonic and commercial like Dimmu Borgir. It still is damn vicious, cold, dark and malevolent music, but damn me, if many of those riffs didn’t hook me up immediately and I ended up screaming the lyrics along with Hoest and banging my head in the frenzy rhythm of that music? Right from the very first second, when Hoest screams out “Helnorsk Svartmetall!!!!!” and then that melodic, folky riff blows the speakers out, you’re there for good – right in the middle of that cold and gloomy atmosphere. Actually that opening song “Hordaland Doedskvad Part I” (the titles are not too clever, being just parts I up to VII) is a perfect example for the brilliancy of Taake’s music. Great riffing, quite melodic like I already said, but at the same time one can almost spot how deeply rooted those riffs are in the traditional Norwegian black metal. For me it just sounds excellent, especially as I also really like Hoest’s vocals and probably the only thing, which I do not enjoy so much in this first song – but which doesn’t disturb me totally – are Nattefrost’s guest screams here and there. Anyway, if you don’t believe how great is that song and how brilliant is its atmosphere, then just listen to that break part close to the end of the song... What a masterpiece. It is extreme, but still so beautifully (bllaaahhh, I mean disgustingly) melodic and catchy, that I cannot imagine someone, who’s into this music not to get infected by Taake with this song. In my opinion they have here some of the best black metal guitar parts ever composed by the Norwegian black metal and that is a fact!

But the passion for cold and majestic, epic black metal doesn’t end up on this one, opening song. Sure, “Part I” is an incredibly amazing anthem, but more is yet to come. Every damn track on “Hordaland Doedskvad” actually sounds fantastic and has something exceptional to offer. And since the whole has been played usually in mid paced tempo, the album is soaked with energy and infectious power, there’s no place for boredom and unimpressive playing on any part of the LP… And that riffing, man, I love it. I guess some may find those folkish harmonies as too trivial, but fuck them. This album is filled with passion, great feeling and killer atmosphere and if one will find those folk melodies as annoying, then it only is his problem. Go and listen to your Nargaroth or Mutiilation. But before that, listen to the instrumental “Hordaland Doedskvad Part VI” and tell me, if those riffs won’t fasten your heart beat and really cause some serious neck damage, when you keep banging your skull in excitement. Taake’s songwriting is just superbly good, the band never fails to deliver a killer tunes and whether it’s “Part I”, “Part VI” or another my favourite, “Part III”, the tension is always there and you just must admire how these songs have been built – with many tempo changes, great long instrumental parts, effective breaks and impressive play of every instrument, plus also an extra positive word must be said about Hoest’s rasp voice, which is just great and surely he’s one of the most characteristic and charismatic black metal vocalists out there. On top of everything what I mentioned, I’ll add the production of “Hordaland Doedskvad”, which is just superb; Grieghallen Studio delivered a stunning sound, very powerful, very deep and perfectly suitable for such emotional music. In my opinion this album is one of best productions, which came from this studio – everything, starting with a killer guitar tone and finishing on the great sounding drums, has been amazing and only helps in listening to the music.

If one needs a conclusion, then there can be only one – “Hordaland Doedskvad” is a fantastic record, really. Being a fan of black metal, Norwegian bands especially, I will always treat this album as one of the most thrilling pieces of music that have ever been created up in the North. Obviously I’ll always love “Bertgatt”, “Nemesis Divina”, “Again Shall Be…”, “Under a Funeral Moon”, “Seen Through the Veils of Darkness”, ”Moon in the Scorpio” and “Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk”, plus many more, which I’m not gonna mention now, all those albums are perfect. And “Hordaland Doedskvad” is among them, as equally memorable and classic. This is just pure CULT!

Standout tracks: “Part I”, “Part III”, “Part VI”

Final rate: 98/100