Dead Awaken - "Where Hope Turns Dripping Red" CD

Gutteral and grim death metal with gonads

After more than a decade of demos, Sweden's Dead Awaken unleash their debut full-length, and it's a death metal beast all the way. Certainly, this duo know how to punish their instruments, as it's a tight and precise attack. "Kingdom Of Damnation" is particularly effective and memorable, with huge riffs and the requisite vomited vocals. "Mudhell" is another crusher, and slows it all down to an almost militaristic yet metallic crawl.

All of this is superbly produced, with a thickness and good mid-range alongside a deep and gutteral low-end. Dead Awaken take a proven, even stereotyped genre and present it with more finesse than most, varying tempos and switching up their game from track to track. "Where Hope Turns Dripping Red" is a must-hear for fans of classic death metal.

Abyss Records

Dead Awakenbook

Hordes Of Nebulah - "...And Blasphemous Night Shall Fall" CD

This album collects several demotape releases from an unlikely Crawfordsville, Indiana band who take their name from a Darkthrone song. Originally recorded from 2003 to 2005, these 15 tracks are a little muddy, showcasing the band's intense but ultimately rather generic black metal sound.

The cuts on "...And Blasphemous Night" are pretty well interchangeable, with the trademark black metal blurry guitars, breakneck blastbeat rhythms, and hissed vocals. "A Dark Malediction" stands out a bit, with a clangy, trebly noise throughout the song that, either unwitting or intentional, somehow works. Otherwise, there's not much to say here. It's black metal like the hundreds of others out there. 

(Abyss Records)

Hordespace

Sincera - "Cursed And Proud" CD

A sort of "supergroup", with members of several Norwegian black metal bands collaborating, Sincera's sole release combines 3 studio tracks with 5 live cuts, and this is all of pretty forgettable quality. The raw-sounding "studio" set is fairy typical black metal, with blurry guitars and monotone screeched vocals.  

"Cursed" even goes for an operatic, dramatic direction with a mid-song melodic breakdown, which to these ears is simply silly. The live tracks are of dubious "bootleg" quality and, unfortunately, pretty forgettable. The closing cut, an entrance song for Norwegian wrestler Byron Lawless, titled "Byron Lawless", is another laughable transgression from a band that doesn't really make the cut among their peers.

(Abyss Records)

Sinceraspace

Torture Division - "Evighetens Darar" CD

Compiling 3 of the Swedish band's 2009-2010 demos, this 10-song, 28-minute set shows the Swedish metal band's ferocity amiably, without question. The first thing I noticed here is the clear, punchy sound. Turns out this is mixed and mastered by the legendary Dan Swano, so that explains part of it.

Musically, though, Torture Division bring an ultra-heavy death/power metal sound on their own. The opener, "Traumatic Inhuman Severance" is violent and potent. "Eld Och Plagor" mixes it up with an evil atmospheric breakdown before returning with another fearsome onslaught of machine-like tension and menace. "Righteous Fore Ensemble" is pure death metal, but with such great production, I can't help but appreciate the precision and, though I hate to use the word, brutality. Simply said, this is a superlative recording.

Besides making some tight and devastating metal, the band is known for "giving" their music away. They retain all rights to the music, and invite anyone to download (name your own price) and reproduce for your friends. So, in effect, Torture Division is a non-profit band. Support these guys as they smoke. 

(Abyss Records)

Torture Division site

Diseim - "Holy Wrath" CD

8 songs and 32 minutes of down-tuned doom/death metal, "Holy Wrath" is the debut from this Latvian band, and it works well. Opening with the mid-tempo groove metal of "Black", the band then lapses into more stereotypical, grumbly, rumbly death metal on later tracks. "Sinner" evidences this, being fairly silly death metal, It is simple and to-to-point, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Insanity" fares better, with a rolling thunder rhythm and solid fretwork alongside the cookie monster vomit vocals.

No pretensions here, Diseim are a competent metal act capable of several directions, though they are clearly representing the death metal genre on this release. Here's to them branching out a bit more next time. 

(Abyss Records)

Diseimspace

Bane - "Chaos, Darkness & Emptiness" CD

Bane was a black/death metal band from Serbia, and this 2010 debut album showed great promise. A principal member moved overseas to Canada after a followup 2012 album, and although he hopes to reform the band, it's still dicey whether Bane will continue. Which is a shame, as this is certainly a strong offering.

Separated into three distinct "movements" (Chaos, Darkness, and Emptiness), the Chaos part of the album opens with a symphonic intro before diving headfirst into a strong black/death metal assault ("The True Insomnia"), using alternately screeching/grumbled vocals and a thick, heavy, and propulsive rhythm section. "Pandemonium" is much more technically precise and well-produced than most black metal, though still most certainly referencing it.

Going from the frenzied black & death precision of Chaos, to the introspective, almost prog/doomy Darkness stage, Bane seem to lose a bit of steam on "Lost Shadows" and "Plague Upon Yourself", both of which include melodic acoustic interludes that seem quite out of place. They do provide a fair respite from the typical assault, though.

Emptiness includes the clean and structured "Inherited Infection" (which ends with an almost medieval melodic guitar), and the slower, doomier "The Haunting Presence". "Dysthymia" is another mellow, orchestral piece to (almost) close it out, before the "bonus track", a cover of Dark Funeral's "The Dawn No More Rises" rears it's head in a killer fashion.

The production works well for bane, providing enough crunchy highs and lows and clean mid-range. And the wide array of sounds and styles here are a nice change-up, proving Bane to be a diverse and mature black/death act capable of much more. Superb!

(Abyss Records)

Banespace

Christ Beheaded - "Open The Gates Of Hell" CDEP

The debut 5-song EP from an Indianapolis, Indiana black metal act, "Purgatory" begins things with in a blur of antagonism and an almost Napalm Death grindcore tempo and vibe. The title track is more typical tortured black metal with an old-school feel (dig the solo in the middle). "Decomposed" has elements of death metal within the confines of black metal. Production is solid, and this 5-song, 22-minute set more than satisfies the need for more metal.

But who's really counting? "Open The Gates Of Hell" is a strong showing from some skilled metallic warriors who take no prisoners. This EP (newly reissued) was recorded back in 2008, so it seems the band is on hiatus or split. Here's to a follow-up album. 

(Abyss Records)

Christ Beheadedspace

Corrosive Carcass - "Composition Of Flesh" CD

The debut from a Swedish death/gore metal band, "Composition Of Flesh" is a thick and sludgy attack, with the requisite gurgled vocals. Is this some kind of tribute to early Carcass? Not necessarily, as Corrosive Carcass seem more structured and, dare I say, almost tuneful as compared to Steer and Walker's legendary English gore/grind act. There remains some quality, if somewhat derivative, work here, nonetheless.

"Self Mutilation" is a solid slab of fuzzy, downtuned guitars and a breakneck pace. "Born In A Casket" would be perfect for a frenzied mosh pit (if those exist anymore), with multi-tempoed attacks that divebomb into blurry thrash madness. Other cuts are dynamic and well-produced berzerkers, as well. Corrosive Carcass aren't doing anything too unique, but they do a wonderful job creating ugly, sludgy metal monsters that mosh with the best of them. I liked.

(Abyss Records)

Corrosive Carcasspace

Desultor - "Masters Of Hate" CD

The debut album from Swedish duo Desultor is what the band themselves call "Murder Metal". I dunno about that description, but "Masters Of Hate" opens well with the big thrashy "Black Monday", which is like classic British metal, albeit with blastbeats! Production is clear and crunchy, so this smokes, right out of the gate.

From there, this 11-song, 33-minute album combines the melodic and cacophonous. "Another World" combines slower, melodic, classic falsetto vocal stylings with fearsome blast-thrash riffs and rhythms. There are guitar solos here, too, so Desultor aren't afraid to go "old school". Solid, solid stuff for fans of metal as it once was.

(Abyss Records)

Desultorbook

Maax - "Six Pack Witchcraft" CDEP

5 songs and 14 minutes of rolling black thrash metal thunder from an Indiana group. This EP was originally released in 2010, and the band have since realized a full-length LP, which I've not heard. Regardless, this is a solid piece of evil metal madness.

The opening cut, "Die By The Ax" is a beast of unbridled mayhem, with witchy vocals and a tough thrash exterior. Imagine if Motorhead careened headfirst into Darkthrone, and you'd be close to Maax's ferocious sound. The other cuts, including the blurry and subtle "Go Fuck Yourself", echo this sentiment. The title track is a pure drunken punk/black metal crossover that is as dirty and smelly as can be, which is a good thing. The only thing holding up this brief EP is the muddied mix, in which the lower end seems bottomed out. Nonetheless, these guys bring it in an authentic way.

(Abyss Records)

Maaxspace