Death Metal Underground

Goath – II: Opposition

by Joe Slater on April 17, 2018

Great Goath! First impression is, this new output from Goath is pretty darn good. The artwork seems excellent. Some of their other releases didn’t quite do it for me, but this one hits the spot. There is a nice mix of basic time signature riffs. The main thing is that the high level of aggression in all the instruments and vocals works on this one, whereas the other stuff I heard before was boring and lower pitched, like war metal kinda, with some Deicide. The whole thing sounds really old school underground, not aiming for total show-off or the best production, but instead going for authenticity and aggressiveness.
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11 Comments

Tags: 2018, brutal, deaht metal, goath, heavy, metal, old ways

Atlantean Kodex Live Album is Bad

by Joe Slater on April 2, 2018

At first glance, this album boasts a cool cover and impressively long song lengths, making a strong first impression. Then I hit play. It didn’t take long to realize this is really, really bad live album. It is not tightly played at all. The two guitars are not in sync and neither are the drums. You have to suffer through really bad lyrics like: “Onward to the sun” and “Destiny is calling!”. Everything is really bad waltzy Sabbath imitation but really boring. I can fairly say that this album qualifies as epic German cheese. So of course it will be popular. The singer sounds like the guy who sang those Budweiser ads Real Men of Genius.
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16 Comments

Tags: 2018, Atlantean Kodex, bad music, Doom Metal, Heavy Metal, live albums, metal, review

Violent Opposition – Utopia Dystopia

by Joe Slater on March 27, 2018

This is the awesome grindcore band from Berkeley that predicted sport rioting would totally take off after the election. They are the post nuclear hippie van version of early Napalm Death. The new album opens with a totally awesome grindcore song called Controlled Opposition, which has a series of jagged hammer-on type riffs, followed by a brief rock riff at the end. Everything is crypto now, so let’s get paranoid!

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Lousberg- Wintergemälde

by Joe Slater on March 20, 2018

Now here is a recording I am really quite enjoying, by Lousberg. This captures the spirit of the desolate winter-time, but not in a dreary way. Rather, the elegance of nature shines through. Low drones set the landscape, while tip-toing keyboard patches enunciate the mid and higher ranges. This has a nice balance between droning and suggesting a melody, which does a very nice job creating a virtual landscape. I prefer this to the other black metal I saw on this label such as Goat Semen, which was pretty cool too, since it reminded me of Norz Norz Norz. There is a sophistication to this particular composition, which reminds me of Maurice Jarre’s score to Runaway Train, which is a wintertime classic. Also, the Mosquito Coast, about leaving society for nature, is another majestic score by Jarre that this harkens. It seems easy to the passive listener to create such an album. As a keyboardist myself, I can tell you that it actually takes a lot of inspiration to write an album like this.

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11 Comments

Tags: dark ambient, drearyness, Lousberg, Winter, Wintergemalde

Not Digging the New Cynic Single

by Joe Slater on March 16, 2018

Received a transmission of a new single by Cynic. Feeling a bit disappointed in this tune, called ‘Humanoid’. While it has the great active warm fretless sounding bass-lines, and Y. Malmsteen styled solos, the vocals are a completely different style than on Focus and Traced in Air. Normally their vocals have the flanged-out robo. voice. On this new track, the vocals don’t sound metal enough. They are too Pink Floyd or Lincoln Park-ish for me. The guitars have tons of solos, but leave the bass to carry the rhythm, and this doesn’t work. It makes it too light. The whole thing comes off sounding funky rather than heavy. I would like them to go back and at least out a flanger on the vocals and add another heavier rhythm guitar tracking along with the bass.

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20 Comments

Tags: 2018, cynic, Humanoid, pedal metal, weak

Ulcerate – Shrines of Paralysis (2016)

by Joe Slater on February 28, 2018

These dudes are from New Zealand. Cross A Perfect Circle with Vader, Fear Factory, and Immolation and you get Ulcerate. Taking a listen to this band, I want to thank your country for Dead Alive, but cannot help but think this album begins with an instant headache. I love the mid range DM vocals, and feel that they are really strong. The guitar comes across as missing something. At the 3:37 mark the guitar starts coming through with some darker, catchier moments. I cannot help but think the drums are a bit over-processed, and are being a bit overplayed. The snare sounds cool, but the double kicks are a bit distracting. To its credit, these songs are unpredictable. However, they could use more of a hook. There is a bit of a 90s industrial thing hidden in there, along with a little bit of Immolation off-balanced riffs. You have to listen real hard to hear it, but it sounds like bass distortion with a pick on the low end, adding some gnarleyness.

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11 Comments

Tags: A Perfect Cricle, death metal, fear factory, immolation, modern death metal, ulcerate, vader

Underground Record Labels in 2159 Pt. 3

by Joe Slater on February 25, 2018

The pigeon decided to return. Had it not, the retro-Powermetalers would have maimed him fatally, with buckshot fire. Despite his cute appearance with those tiny post apocalyptic goggles of his, he would have then been eaten slowly by cockroaches over time after falling from grace. Before he returned to Daryl he grabbed a 5 Bolivar silver coin from what was left of Panama. It was hard to fly back over the 500 foot wall that Trump had built, back in the technology age. Not only did it have retracting metal spikes on top, but there was a moat with alligators on both sides. Dead bodies were strewn along both sides of the fence, with vital organs missing. No one ever came in. No one got out alive either. Fortunately for Latin America, the wall mitigated the radiation winds on that side.

Upon the bird’s return, Daryl noticed the silver Panamanian coin in his beak. It was a very low mintage coin and he was thrilled of the indication that there was power still now in that region of the world.

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Tags: 2159, dystopia, fiction, future, Story, Underground Record Labels in 2159, walkman diaries

Accept – Rise of Chaos

by Joe Slater on February 20, 2018

Accept is a band best remembered for their old school song called “Balls to the Wall”, which used to play on the Headbanger’s Ball. Driving my BMV down the Autobahn at 120MPH through the Black Forest, I stopped in Bad Reichenhall. You know how they always have insane amounts of Gummy Bears everywhere in Germany. And then next to them are porno mags and stuff like biker lifestyle mags. Those were where I found out that Accept was still going strong at the time. It never ceases to amaze. This band just keeps hanging around, like a bad STD. Here they are again 20 years later. And they have this new album Rise of Chaos, which sounds like a cross between Sabbath’s Dehumanizer and an Exodus album.

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6 Comments

Tags: 2018, accept, Balls to the Wall, classic metal, Headbanger's ball, Heavy Metal, iron maiden, metal, STDs, The Rise of Chaos, Thrash

Troll 2 and (the Joy of) Miscategorized Metal

by Joe Slater on February 18, 2018

Tower Records and Musicland didn’t seem to have much the other day. So I went by Camelot music instead. I was wearing my old green Slayer demon head shirt. I had built up points at that store, and they gave me a free purple shirt with their logo on it. I hated the shirt and donated it to Goodwill. In the metal section was the cassette soundtrack to Troll 2. I was almost certain this was a mis-categorization. I didn’t have the money to buy it that day and it sold out before I could get my hands on it.

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Tags: bach, burzum, Camelot Music, Dvorak, guitars, kvlt casettes, metal, Raputin, Richard Band, soundtrack, The Omen, Tower Records, troll 2, trve kvlt