Ananku Out on CD

by Daniel Maarat on December 7, 2016

Serpent Ascending‘s Ananku came out on CD recently courtesy of I, Voidhanger Records. The solo project of Jarno Nurmi of Desecresy, Serpent Ascending compose heavy and speed metal riffs into occult narratives of blackened death metal. Ananku is limited to 300 copies and may be purchased from Jarno Nurmi himself at the Serpent Ascending bandcamp page.

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Bardo Methodology Interviews Angelcorpse

by Daniel Maarat on December 5, 2016

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Webzine Bardo Metholody interviewed frontman Pete Helmkamp (Order From Chaos, Revenge) and guitarist Gene Palubicki (Perdition Temple, Blasphemy Cruelty) of Angelcorpse. Helmkamp talks about music as a sort of arcane magic ritual, quitting drinking, his career, and why Order From Chaos and Angelcorpse both disbanded. Palubicki reflects on the weaklings of modern metal.

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Dead Congregation – Sombre Doom (2016)

by Daniel Maarat on November 24, 2016

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Sombre Doom is the new EP from Dead Congregation. The riffing is in the same Immolation and Incantation style with simple but effective variations as on their past releases while the production is a less compresssed version of Dead Congregation’s prior album, Promulgation of the Fall, some of The Best Underground Metal of 2014. Thankfully gone are the cheesy Kerry King style leads and guitarists AV and TK have markedly improved the song structure.

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Tomas Nyqvist Interviewed by Bardo Methodology

by Daniel Maarat on November 24, 2016

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Tomas Nyqvist, the founder of legendary Swedish label No Fashion Records and the Putrefaction Magazine zine, was interviewed by Bardo Methodology. Tomas talks about his zine and label, the careers of Morbid, Mayhem, Merciless, Dissection, and Katatonia, and how the infamous Stockholm record store House of Kicks screwed them all over. A book compilation of Putrefaction Magazine is scheduled for 2017 too.

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Metal Blade Reissues Immolation Albums

by Daniel Maarat on November 17, 2016

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Metal Blade Records has reissued the three Immolation albums that they hold the rights to: Here in After, Failures for Gods, and Close to a World Below. These three records, the latter two with flashier but less pure drummer Alex Hernandez, are some of the bands peak works and saw them completely leave behind the few vestiges of speed metal that remained on Dawn of Possession, which is perhaps still their best overall work. Following Close to a World Below, the quality of the band’s material greatly declined even though their last record with Hernandez, Unholy Cult, was still a strong release.

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Martire – Martire (1991)

by Daniel Maarat on November 10, 2016

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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.

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Seance’s Levitised Spirit Reissued on CD

by Daniel Maarat on November 4, 2016

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Seance‘s first demo, Levitised Spirit, has been reissued on CD by Mexican label Chaos Records. Fans of Fornever Laid to Rest and Saltrubbed Eyes might want to check this out as the remastering job by Dan Lowndes doesn’t sound horrible.

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Cóndor – Sangreal (2016)

by Daniel Maarat on October 27, 2016

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Condor again present a wholesale blending of death metal, classical guitar, folk, and progressive rock influences into epic heavy metal songs rather than pretending instrumental masturbation is intelligent like Dream Theater or that alternative rock with power chord chugging and a couple angular or dissonant riffs is metal like Bolzer. On Sangreal attempt to convey the romanticism behind the Arthurian legend, particularly the grail cycle concerning Percival or Galahad restoring fruit and flower to the desolate Waste Land rendered infertile by the sins of the maimed and emasculated Fisher King.

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