Spooky

When you think of Hells Headbangers, a few bands immediately come to mind. I am reviewing a split re-release featuring two of those bands; Acid Witch and Nunslaughter who each offer some incredibly unique songs. This sure promises to be one fun record.

"Evil" (Acid Witch) opens with eerie whispers before crushing death-doom riff madness and haunting synths bring in a fresh soundscape of all this is Acid Witch. Piercing riffs and grotesque snarls punch us in with some of the most ferociously gruesome music they have ever performed. Among the gurgling vocals and drudging riffs the upbeat synths keep that 80s horror movie soundtrack touch that the band have used beautifully over their career. There is ambience that gives the terrifyingly esoteric music atmosphere among the signature grooves, gorgeously done. Total headbanger fuelling riffs grind us back in with a whiplash blend of meaty riffs and shredding lead work. Acid Witch are back on top form and what a great way to kick off this split. Excellent. "Spooky Tails" (Nunslaughter) forcefully kicks in with meandering guitars, thunderous bass work and neck-snapping drums, a slower start than I expected from them which drives out macabre vocals over tremolo picked guitar ferocity stunningly. Chugging savagery on guitars, chiming drums and ripping vocals create a tormenting mixture of all the fiercest Nunslaughter sounds but with a cavernously mid-tempo approach to the songwriting that really caught me off guard. With a near infinite abattoir of releases through their career, Nunslaughter still have the ability to surprise me. A crawling affair of morbidity. Brilliant.

"A Sordid Past" (Nunslaughter) churns in with a yell and more barbaric guitars at a blistering pace, much more what I expect from the band. Fiercely invasive instrumentals and insanity-inducing vocal howls give a searing assault of truly menacing extremity that hits hard, with precision, an art the band have certainly perfected. This song offers so much blast-beats, grisly riffing and demonic vocals that the violation is complete in under 2 minutes, but it is damn thorough. Fantastic. "Fiends Of Old" (Acid Witch) sets in with some sampled speech that suitably introduces the finale to this split, provoking all metalheads who will listen. A ripping inferno of crunchy guitar riffs and barrages of drum attacks hit hard with a more blackened vocal approach this time around, certainly seeing a new side to both bands on the split. Beautiful synths and epic grooves quickly delve into a cacophony of delightfully spooky Heavy Metal most macabre. I have to say that although I love Acid Witch best with their blend of death-doom, they can conjure up some monstrously crushing thrashy sections too. This finale is catchy, beautifully atmospherics, haunting and totally spooky! Wonderful.

Both bands offer a deluxe yet unique slab of truly intense horrifying extreme metal that will get you headbanging, creeped out and totally ready for Halloween. I think this is one of the best splits to grace not only Hells Headbangers but the Heavy Metal world in general, it takes two completely different bands but they work together beautifully in creating haunting heavy metal Horror headbangers to the best possible extent. Marvellous material from both bands, hopefully more to come from each soon!

Written for www.nattskog.wordpress.com

With Halloween coming up soon, this just seems a perfect record to discuss. First, there is the sleeve design which is based on old horror comics such as Creepy or Eerie and really helps get the vibe going. As far as just the packaging goes, this one is one of my absolute favorite 7" records of all-time.

The two sides are divided by something of a theme. Side A is "Doom" and side B is "Death", which should be pretty self-explanatory, but in case it isn't, side A features each band doing a doomier song and side B features each band doing a more death metalish song.

First song is Acid Witch doing "Evil", which is not a cover of the Mercyful Fate song by the same name, but is every damn bit as good, in my opinion. It is slow without being a boring-ass, plodding slog through uninspired riffs. Instead, it pulls you in and is very memorable. I usually find myself singing the guitar part along with this one. The organ sounds of the keyboard also bring that "spooky" mood to the song. What else can I say? It is a great tune. This is followed by Nunslaughter's "Spooky Tails". Being Nunslaughter, it should be no surprise that this is a more stripped down, straightforward song than "Evil". It kicks off with a great mid-paced riff that will sometimes just randomly pop into my head. This song overall is faster than "Evil", but it isn't outright fast. It is more of a faster mid-paced song. It is quite a distinct difference from the Acid Witch song it follows, but that is as it should be since it is two different bands.

On the "Death" side, Nunslaughter kicks things off with "A Sordid Past". Here we get Nunslaughter's trademark fast, no-nonsense devil metal belting out of the speakers. Of Nunslaughter's two songs on Spooky I do prefer "Spooky Tails", but "A Sordid Past" is no throwaway song. It is quite good. Finishing off the record is "Fiends of Old" from Acid Witch. This is a nostalgic ode to the bygone earlier years of death metal before every band was getting overly-polished productions and getting fixated on just being "brutal technical death metal" all the time and cramming as many notes into a riff as possible, regardless of whether or not it actually made a good riff. While it is not a moody as "Evil", it is a really catchy song and is just a damn fun one at that. It showcases another side of the band. Plus, it has references to Impetigo and Necrophagia in it, which is cool in my book.

With split releases, one of the bands is typically going to outshine the other. Sometimes it will be by a lot and sometimes it is just by a bit. In this case, I would say it is just by a bit and it would be Acid Witch that does it on this one. This is not to knock Nunslaughter's half, but it is probably due to the fact that Acid Witch has approximately 1/100 of the discography that Nunslaughter has. It doesn't matter though, because both bands deliver some really great metal, making this a split that any fan of either band should definitely pick up.

What happens when you put a psychedelic death/doom band and legendary death metal band on the same record? Well, it either turns out to be a horrible idea, or you get a split like this. While Side Doom is just what the title suggests, a more doom-y and lower tempo songs from each band, while Side Death is the the home ground of Nunslaughter with the classic, fast and destructive approach.

Acid Witch is the band that shines on Side Doom which shouldn't be a surprise since it's their home ground. The song Evil delivers the expected quality from the band. Incredibly heavy hitting riffs and the use of synth complementing each other in a way that only this band is capable of doing. It sounds like a song left out of Stoned, and that's all that I could ever ask for. On Side Death, they took the classic death metal approach, but they didn't left the synth out of the fun. They managed to retain the psychedelic sound even though for the first time in their career, they made a fast-paced song.

Nunslaughter is a band that I barely have any interest in, yet they managed to make two songs, that fit the wicked and horrid atmosphere generated by Acid Witch. Their song on Side Doom has a lower tempo than what you would expect from the band, but surprisingly enough it sounds amazing. The riffs are filled with the doom vibe that you would expect from bands like Asphyx. Their second song is exactly like their other material on their full-lengths. Death metal with elements of thrash, spitting in your face with the aggressive screams and the riffs with the neck breaking speed.

Both bands sound really good in general, but when you put them next to each other you will hear the different production. It's not a big deal, but still kinda annoying. Overall, the album is a great addition to both Acid Witch's glorious discography and to Nunslaughter's pile of splits.

The Spooky split assembles two of Hells Headbangers more distinct and entertaining acts into a union of what I would have assumed to be a contrast of the slower Acid Witch death/doom camp and the more blitzing death/thrash of Nunslaughter. Yet, to my shock, the choices on this EP really seem to complement one another, with the latter putting on the reins for some of their slower, chunkier, and Acid Witch revving up their engines for the closer on the B-side, which places them on an evil motorcycle pacing with the Catholic Church's favorite band. But beyond that, the material both of the band's is spewing forth here is among the best I've heard from them. Nunslaughter is on a tear, granted, their last record Angelic Dread kicking the cathedral doors down and shredding every habit in sight; but I just wasn't feeling the new Acid Witch EP covers EP much (more on that later), so it was a blast to hear that when it comes to their own material, they've certainly still got it.

The Acid Witch tracks are savage, organ-endowed paeans to darkness and damnation with a bit of that ol' tongue-in-cheek nature added in the lyrics and the stoner-Sabbath grooves that occasionally erupt in the rhythm guitars. "Evil" and "Fiends of Old" are mixed a little rough, giving them an airier garage quality, only if that garage was a co-op they were sharing with a serial killer wearing a clown mask and chainsaw in the 70s. The growls and organs in unison sound absolutely fucking amazing, and I hope a lot of this unhinged energy carries through to their next batch of original stuff. On the other hand, Nunslaughter has the tighter, cleaner production punch of the last album, so there is a little bit of disparity, the two bands don't blend so well in the mix alone. It's the style where it works, and "Spooky Tails" is just a slower, doom/thrash bit with a very simple hook and just blood-gorged vocals that reflect a lot of their Teutonic thrash and proto-death metal influences, with maybe even a little bit of a 90s Carcass thing in how the riff grooves. "A Sordid Past" is cast and carved from a similar vein, only with more gusto and triplet chugging.

It's only 12 minutes of music, but it's engaging and fun all the way throughout, nothing wearing its welcome thin and the cover art is just amazing, with that old horror vinyl cover finish and a colorful image that any creepy comic of the 60s or 70s would have been honored to bear. Except lyrics that focus heavily on Midwest death & thrash metal nostalgia, in particular "Fiends of Old" with a few shout outs to other bands. Nunslaughter have a lot of experience on splits, of course, but I believe this is a first for Acid Witch, and they pull out the tops. The songs might not always feature the catchiest riffs in existence, but both of the bands seem on top of their grisly games and constantly remind you what it is about them that you've ever found entertaining. If, in fact, you have. If NOT...well...you are one tough crowd, brothers and sister. Tough crowd.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com