Hell-Born / Offence - Hellbound Hearts

HELL-BORN / OFFENCE - Hellbound Hearts (PUTRID CULT - 7"EP split 2019)

It's been nine long years since Hell-Born released their last album "Darkness" (back in 2009), so it's just great to see them back with this new recording, which is "Hellbound Hearts" split with Offence. It's available on CD and 7"vinyl format and I bought the latter, not knowing that the CD has some more songs. Ahhh, who cares... It's too late now. i prefer more collectable vinyl format anyway. 

Both bands did good job for this split and I enjoyed both parts a lot. Hell-Born brings their usual black / thrash metal devastation with two tracks, one of which is a re-recorded oldie called "Hellraiser" from their very first EP from 1996! As for the new version, it is good, of corpse it is, I like this song a lot, although the original one is a bit better, I especially miss those deep vocals from the old version. It's great anyway, shorter, maybe faster, but kicks ass. "Soulrape" is another crushing song, very savage, straight forward and old school... just as it should be. Good to hear this band back in action. 

Offence also sounds awesome, I actually like their part of "Hellbound Hearts" even more, because it's perfectly executed, vicious and kind of obscure and raw death metal, slightly in the Swedish vein, reminding me such Mordbrand for instance. It seems like this band took a great step forward, especially from their debut CD, because their music sounds better than ever before. Awesome riffs, great vocals from Hellscreamaross (he’s also in Witchfuck I wrote about few weeks earlier), dark atmosphere and very nice production... I especially like how they slow down in "A Slave of the Ancient Race", what a killer song it is! I really have no idea why this band hasn't got a wider recognition outside of Poland, as they're better than most of these hyped death metal bands of nowadays. Not my problem though... 

Good split, in my opinion, so get the 7" or CD from Putrid Cult now. 

Verdict: 75/100  

Witchmaster / Voidhanger - Razing the Shrines of Optimism

WITCHMASTER / VOIDHANGER - Razing the Shrines of Optimism (THIRD EYE TEMPLE - Split LP 2017)

Splits are always fun to listen to, I like the idea for that sort of releases a lot, even if sometimes the quality of music between bands is uneven. On "Razing the Shrines of Optimism" we have two great bands, but I also have to say that definitely I like Voidhanger's part over Witchmaster's. One part is killer, another one is a bit disappointing.  

The latter band offers basically one solid song of their simplistic, yet very enjoyable and cool thrashing black metal in form of "Permafrost". This song won't surprise you with anything Witchmaster hasn't done before, I also have heard many better songs from them, but "Permafrost" is fine, I like it. It’s very vicious, nasty and insanely fast, but also kind of memorable and catchy track, and it surely is a solid kick in the face. I would definitely like to hear more such songs on this split. But instead we get Einstürzende Neubauten cover, which is nothing I would particularly enjoy, but I suppose it is cool to hear something so different from the band. And more so, three live tracks complete Witchmaster part of "Razing the Shrines of Optimism", but they're nothing interesting, in my opinion. I am quite disappointed with this part of the record then, I wish there was more stuff in the vein of "Permafrost", not some boring fillers. 

Voidhanger on the other hand never disappoints and once again they delivered quality stuff, played in their already recognizable style. Their music is characterized by mostly fast tempos, viciousness, aggression, it all sounds like a merciless whipping, which will drain the body of all its blood. This is pure slaughter and I like it that way a lot. Here you will find three new songs and I cannot even decide, which one I like the most, maybe "Dyskretny urok upadku", which has such a nice old school vibe. And I still remember Fenriz trying to pronounce the title of this song haha. And “Through the Holocaust of Optimism” is also amazing. But everything in Voidhanger's music is top notch - the harsh, but vicious sound, great riffs, pissed off vocals of Warcrimer. Nothing else is needed. Killer band, in my opinion. 

Standout tracks: "Dyskretny urok upadku", “Through the Holocaust of Optimism” 

Verdict: 80/100  

Empheris - The Return of Derelict Gods

EMPHERIS - The Return of Derelict Gods (OLD TEMPLE / WINGS OF DESTRUCTION - CD 2019)

It's been few years now since I’ve bought anything new from Empheris, last time it was "We Are the Ancients" split CD they participated in. But that was back in 2013 (damn!). Empheris wasn't that much busy in these past few years though, they only released a live album and three splits (all on cassettes, which I am not interest to collect), so I didn't really lose much. But finally, a new album "The Return of Derelict Gods" was unleashed in 2019... and I am really, really pleased to hear it, because it's a very good effort... In my humble opinion, this is Empheris' best album so far, definitely their most mature and simply best sounding material. I like a lot of their earlier recordings, sure I do, but with "The Return of Derelict Gods" this band took a step forward, both with the songwriting quality and production. And they achieved that without losing anything from their viciousness, aggression and harshness of old school thrashing black metal - or blackened thrash metal, however you're gonna call it. 

Definitely "The Return of Derelict Gods" can be defined as a very traditional metal album, where the riffage, the atmosphere and the feeling are all deeply influenced by many 80's or early 90's thrash, black and even heavy / speed metal legends. I'm not gonna bother to mention some concrete names, they should be too obvious and besides, mostly such name-dropping is boring. What matters more is how great Empheris sounds on this new album. I absolutely love that archaic, yet insanely fascinating and catchy, viciously punching riffs, which have such a powerful kick that all I wanna do is play the music louder and break all shit around, while banging my skull like a crazy fuck. This music is very fast, Empheris doesn't bring any of these more epic songs, which they sometimes used on the previous albums, but it works very well, as songs like "In the Name of the Unholy Spirit" are a pure aggressive onslaught and the whole content of the album doesn't bore at all. They added a bit more melodic patterns here and there, but did so without compromising and without softening their style. The performance is excellent, I also like Adrian's vocals a lot, I think he sounds better than in the past, more bestial... And as I also mentioned earlier, the production of "The Return of Derelict Gods" is spotless. I don't need anything else. Excellent album, in my opinion. 

I have a very cool CD version here with me, as normally this album is unleashed by Old Temple Records, but I got a limited edition on digipak from Wings of Destruction, which contains two bonus tracks taken from 2007 demo “Black Pyramid”, which I never heard before – so, it is a very cool thing to have as a bonus. I am gonna play this album a lot, I tell you that. And I highly recommend it to you all. 

Standout tracks: “Rot No More”, “Black Mirror”

Verdict: 85/100  

Sorrow - Hatred and Disgust

SORROW - Hatred and Disgust (ROADRUNNER Records CD 1992)

In case you have never heard about Sorrow before, let me say that this band was formed back in 1988 under the name Apparition. As Apparition they recorded a couple of demo tapes (including "Human Fear" demo) and one single "Eternally Forgotten / Curse the Sunrise" in 1990 (for Relapse Records), after which they changed the moniker for Sorrow. Sorrow was shortly lived entity unfortunately and split up already in 1993 - luckily there's no sign of potential reunion, which is a curse among so many old bands nowadays. What Sorrow left behind was "Forgotten Sunrise" EP and "Hatred and Disgust" album. The latter, released in 1992 by Roadrunner Records, seems like slightly forgotten album, don't you think? It would seem that Sorrow had everything within their reach to become popular and big death metal band. They started to record at the highlight of death metal popularity ad got signed to the label, which was also home to some of the biggest names in history - such as Obituary, Death, Deicide, Gorguts, Malevolent Creation and so on. But when you give one listen to either "Forgotten Sunrise" or "Hatred and Disgust" you could quickly hear why Sorrow never has reached the status of these other bands that I just mentioned. Their music wasn't just quite as good as some other records of that time. I'm not saying it was terrible or unlistenable, but it just wasn't the best quality death metal of the old era. Still, it's good and worthy enough to have both CDs in your collection, it's worthy to give them spontaneous and occasional listen once every few years... and it's always cool to save it from being forgotten.

When compared to "Forgotten Sunrise", Sorrow added a second guitarist to their line up. But I cannot say that this more complete line up had any strong impact on how the music sounds. It still is quite simplistic, not overly technical death metal, with a strong doomy vibe, which dominates throughout every song. In many ways I see "Hatred and Disgust" as less impressive and quite slowed down, lazy version of "Leprosy". But not only it lacks the genius of Death riffage or impressive leads, but also the powerful and crushing production, which would help the songs to have massive influence on the listener.

I like quite few of these riffs, I don't even mind that slow pace, which Sorrow seems to be most fond of. Faster section appear in every song, sometimes can even be dominating (like in "Forced Repression") but generally I like how diversity between the tempo changes and riff style has been done here. And songs like "Separative Adjectives" really do sound great and let me think that there was a lot of potential in Sorrow. But the band was dead soon after the album saw the light of the day…

Standout tracks: "Forced Repression", "Separative Adjectives"

Verdict: 70/100