As the continent was before Britannic penal colonization, Australian black and death metal scene was and is still mostly an undeveloped desert of unexceptional crossover thrash posturing as “war metal”, blackened cheeseball beer metal, AC/DC clones with unclean vocals, and experimental technical deaf metal/post-hardcore/jazz fusion hybrids. Martire rode forth from obscurity to restore fruit and flower to the wasteland, fertilizing the barren bush wielding fire and sword.
Martire is the route that the more violent black metal bands should’ve taken after the classic Cogumelo Records Brazilian bands, Merciless, and Grotesque instead of becoming a hybrid of crossover thrash, the hardcore side of grindcore, and raw noise. Martire blasted the brains of war metal scenesters open in compositions frequently hyperspeed riff mazes resembling Morbid Angel‘s contrapuntal, stop-starts fitting the flexible structures of Sarcofago. Devil may care lyrics resemble the Brazilian deathtrash masters while compositions culminate in solos that are mostly atonal noise bursts in the style of Slayer‘s Kerry King. The end result is a much more competently constructed and memorable version of the blend of black, death, and grind that Angelcorpse would popularize in the late 90s.
Martire ploughed through the walls of the sanctuary in a V8 Interceptor Pursuit Special, smashing the Throne of Isis upon which sat the inbred solar kings now dead and buried. Rather than lead toward imperfect forms of demiurgic good, the swarming mass of twirling follicles traced an ancient Hessian sigil of destruction; a Grigori symbol of uncreation. Martire is a sign leading listeners away from the divine order towards reunion with creation’s most beautiful in the grotesque, infinite unformed matter of the singularity. Martire are the antithesis of Ourosboros.
Tags: 1991, Australia, Black Metal, death metal, dominator records, EP, Grindcore, martire, nuclear war now! productions, War Metal
There’s a bit too much punk hecticness in this for my tastes but apart from that, very nice music.
One of the best death metal albums to ever come out of Australia if you ask me.
Martire released several more albums. Are they worth checking out? Because this one is pretty good. It’s what I wanted to hear when I used to listen to Sadistick Exekution.
Martire have a few EPs, singles, and splits but only one LP/album. Brutal Legions of the Apocalypse will be reviewed shortly.
Eh yeah that’s what I meant, they have a lot of releases between this one and now. Looking forward to the review of the new full-length though, it sounds cool but I’m not sure about staying power.
Early Sadistik Exekution is also killer. I’d like to see a review of The Magus on here. Their later albums like Fukk and Fukk II were not so great.
Retardedly I skipped over The Magus and only had Fukk/II. I’ll go back and check that one out though.
Thank you. I did not know about this.
I’ve owned this EP for about 6 years now. Very good shit! I’m only complaint about that EP is that it’s too short.
I don’t agree that most Australian black and death metal bands are shit, but Martire are definitely supreme. However, I can say a band like Portal is total garbage.