Today is the 8th. That was accepted (by me) on the 6th. Been a little out of touch, have we?

You were in the top 5 when you left, and you're still in it now. It would be a shame to stop, though you do not of course owe anybody/thing jack shit.

I just added my first review in what must be a year by now, for Pagan Altar's debut. Damn, where has all that time gone? I'm feeling a bit on shaky ground since it has been so long since I wrote anything critical about music (I've been devoting more time to analysing literature), but perhaps this sudden inspiration will get me back into contributing in ernest. I've definitely been influenced by Thamuz's last few reviews and their somewhat mystical bent, and the technique of spicing up the review with lyrical exerpts is definitely Gutterscream's. I certainly won't be this melodramatic all the time, but I guess some feedback would be appreciated. ought I to go back into obscurity?

Your mastery of language is as incredible as ever, but there are plenty here who can claim that. The thing that makes you so good is that you don't get lost in your own descriptions. I'd say you're the best 'literary' reviewer our site has ever seen. I've missed reading your work!

Do that one for Altar of Perversion that you mentioned some months back.

(Please?)

Mystifier's "Wicca", Rotting Christ's "Non Serviam"

Yes, please.

I'll do both. Which RC album are you contemplating a review of?

I'll throw my vote behind Run to the Light.

You were in the top 5 when you left, and you're still in it now. It would be a shame to stop, though you do not of course owe anybody/thing jack shit.

Messiah's Hymn To Abramelyn is the proof some things that have been done before can be further advanced into something much more reasonable and interesting which coincidencially ends sounding not very alike it was suppossed to originally be. On addition to the obvious Thrash inheritation, this work emanates several peculiarities 'paralel' to Death Metal that appear to be chronologically unconceivable for its time and location. I will further explain some of the characteristics that later were reintegrated to the Death Metal genre. Excellent background lead-guitar orchestation and effects that very hardly fall into a total wanking mayhem and the obtuse incorporation of slower acerbic parts are things most Thrash Metal bands of that time failed to successfully do, but Messiah possessed the knowelge to put the theory in practice in the most [paradoxic] way. While most Thrash bands attempted to either follow the jolly Bay Area sound that generally came up being more so technically advanced and cocky or the German evil tremolo-centred abrupt sound that in some ways preceeded the Black Metal genre, Messiah remained (voluntarily) excluded from both groups (although in some aspects, it would be stupid to deny it resembles German Thrash). This album is indeed malignant but not in the way Bathory and Sodom were, the previous bands incorporated satanic imagery and an overall more 'demonic' sound that was less reflective and crude in nature.

Messiah, on the other hand had little to do with Satanism, it rather focuses on projecting a authoritarian explorative sound through agonizing yelling through somewhat high-pitched vocals, quasi-elemental rigid drumming and exceptional use of background feedback effects and minor melodies that also aggrandize the already evident composing skills of the band in both literary and figurative ways. This is not to say these previous aspects are the only things that make this album somehow singular, as the production and the remaining instruments broaden much of the album maniatic display of sonic revolt. Another surprising (but not really outstanding) thing surrounding this album is the atonishingly comprehensive production. Aye, this is perfect not in the way everything is utterly polished and medically clean to not offend lobotomized organic auditive channels, this is perfect in a way that trascends perfection itself. It doesn't sacrificate the rawness of the album but successfully mitigates all of the annoying strains that would just be stain layers to the album's crust.

The excruciating omnipotent melodic structure of this album, is however, with no doubt the most treasurable thing that integrates within the whole work. All of each players affirm a commutative democratic songwriting where none of the instruments is overwhelmingly independent from the others, leading to a coefficently executed monumentally ultra-violent scenario that doesn't cyclates itself into a rythmical and choral self repetition. It renders a withstanding riff-pattern alternation that frequently overpowers the vertiginousity of the abrupt rythmic structuration in a then-oddly arranged manner. From the uncontrolated thrashing disorder to the harmonically rich twilighted slower powerchord parts and from the texturally mighty figure-rich sweeps and tremolo cohexistence to the Celtic Frost inspired tragic mid-paced melodic constructions and from the cathedratically delayed hoarse and high-pitched vocals to the highly evident bass roar and the rythmically endurant obstreperous drumming this album [coheces] itself in a impressive way.

However, as most things on Earth, this has some deffects I can't pass through, now on a more crude and way less eloquent grasp of the English language I am going to briefly point out some defficent things about this: the vocals that themselves are a cataclysmic high-point on the album's doomiest parts paralelying at times a less exaggerate execution of a style unsurprisingly resembling the techniques used on Triumph of Death, generally get annoying at its faster paces to the point of self-ridiculing themselves in a grotesque way. The bonus-song 'Mortal Bells', although being constituted in a completely different form, has its main riff almost directly taken from Slayer's Crionics. The spoken intros are unnecessary filler that are unintegrally lacking in creative depths (disgusting reverberation).

This is to say that even although the album is not that close to perfection, the low-points prevail brutally overwhelmed by the high-points. The interesting thing of hearing this album is that you can hear and analizate an embryonic version of sharply executed deconstructivist part-atonal songwriting that became a generality on Death Metal (an exception become a rule). Don't let negative arguements foolish you. If you enjoy Massacra, Unleashed and Asphyx you will enjoy this.

Gorod is a band from from France which features most members of Gorgasm. They released their debut album last year, Neurotripsicks, and it didn't impress me that much - as opposed to what most people thought, I thought it was pretty redundant and boring death metal. This new album though, definitely puts Gorod at the top of my favourite death metal list, and it's definitely one of the best death metal albums released so far this year (without forgetting Spawn of Possession and a few others).

First things first, this isn't straightforward death metal. Like the aforementionned Spawn of Possession (whose latest album could be easily compared to this one), Gorod know how to make things interesting: Not too many blastbeasts, no rushed production, a lot of melody, but still keeping an undefiled sound. Some parts tend to fall more into technical grounds (such as Thirst for Power), but they never exaggerate like the successful tasmanian band Psycroptic. Anyway, whenever one of those pretentious technical part shows up, they don't last long and there's usual a kick-ass riff right after. What makes this album so cool is that through the full 42 minutes, Gorod somehow manages to pack in every cool riff and idea that's ever been tried in death metal - without being redundant for 1 second. When it comes to their melodic side, I'm pretty sure I haven't anything Gothenburg in this album - more something of neo-classical death metal or brutal melodic death bands. There's a lot of leads and solos for those who like their Death metal with tons of 'em (the middle of 'State of Secret' comes to mind - awesome solos, a little bit of shredding and sweeping), there's some stuff for those who like some dissonant passages, some brutal-ish parts, you name it. The vocals are nothing remarkable, as I seem to get the impression that most of this album is focused on musical value. I honestly wouldn't mind at all if this had been an instrumental album.

Gorod try every trick in the big book of death metal, and they've mastered their art so gracefully in under one year (Ok, their debut wasn't that bad). I definitely hope a lot of bands can learn from this: you don't have to try some extravagant stuff to be original and awesome. You just have to take all the elements you like from a certain genre of music and make what you can of it. Every member of Gorgasm is an excellent musician, creatively and by playing their instruments. The future of death metal looks promising, if more people can do music like this.

I came across Deathwish’s entry on the metal-archives by chance and so I just read the one and only review for Demon Preacher out of interest and although it’s a short and sketchy review, it seemed to me like something I’d like. Coincidentally, at about the same as I discovered this fine 80’s metal band, somebody put links for both albums to download in the old download thread on the m-a forums, so of course I didn’t pass up this golden opportunity and got both albums. My feeling of interest after reading the aforementioned review lived up to and exceeded all my expectations, both albums are great and since At the Edge of Damnation hasn’t been reviewed, yet, I decided, after listening to it for about half a year regularly, to review it.

I didn’t experience the thrash explosion in the eighties, but this album seems to represent everything what it was all about, the uncompromising aggressiveness, the rawness and the power of the music is just incredible. The fact that it’s under produced doesn’t matter at all, it makes it even somewhat more enjoyable and it adds something interesting to the general feeling of the album, at least for me.

The first riff on the first track, In the Name of God, blows you instantly away, something that happens to you, while listening to all other songs, there’s always at least one guitar riff, solo or break that can keep up with all the other great thrash acts. None of the songs gets boring at any time, something not a lot thrash/speed metal bands managed to do, but also no songs tend to stand out clearly from the others, I still seem to like Demonic Attack and The Exorcist a bit more, but that’s just personal liking.

The music isn’t what you would call technical, but it is highly innovative and intoxicating and that is what really counts. The guitarist supplies your ears with absolutely solid riffs, leads and solos and the bass is mostly audible and the bassist sometimes provides some nice fills. The drummer does what he has to do, not more and not less, but that’s exactly what’s necessary and the vocalist has a powerful voice and he sometimes shrieks, too, the perfect frontman for such a band. As far as I can make them out, the lyrics are quite anti-religious and about darkness and death in general.

At the Edge of Damnation thrashes from the beginning to the end, only when I listened to the last track, Forces of Darkness, the first time, I feared a rock ballad, because the intro is clean guitar picking, but after a minute it starts thrashing and lasts for whole nine minutes, the perfect ending for such an awesome album.

Thanks, Katie. Your review is pretty accurate, althought I haven't heard Gorod that well.

And PerpetualDawn, I'm not completely sure if what you said was good or bad, but why does everyone have to see the peculiar things about any specific thing as a negative point? It's not like I'm going to waste my time eliminating every single word that doesn't truly belong to the established English vocabulary. I'm completely sure everyone got what I meant to say with each of those 'odd' words.

I'll probably do that one, yes, but I might tackle some others first that I feel more strongly about. Right now, for my next review, it's a toss-up between Trouble's "Run to the Light", Mystifier's "Wicca", Rotting Christ's "Non Serviam" and Dai's "The Advent".

Okay, If you wish to apply favoritism then don't let my words stop you.

After all wasn't it 'Napolean' from Animal Farm who distorted the commandment "All animals are created equal" to "All animals are created equal but some animals are created more equal than others".

So, basically mention what I like about the 3 tracks that I mentioned in the review.