Death Metal Underground

Carcass – “Reek of Putrefaction” Introduction Analysis

by Nicholas Vahdias on September 25, 2019

On Symphonies of Sickness Carcass integrated a stronger Death metal influence into their music in regards to structure as the unorganized noise was given a clear vision and the short blasts of vitriol now communicate sickening short tales that have a greater sense of dynamism and progression. With these added tools, Carcass now had the ability to make the greatest gore related of all time. Though many band would use all the elements present here with varying levels of success as the style fell into the joke genres of Porno and Goregrind. Carcass remain the masters of this through meticulous arrangements as seen in one of the greatest introductions in metal.

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Tags: carcass, death metal, Grindcore, reek of putrefaction, symphonies of sickness

Trench Warfare – Hatred Prayer

by Nicholas Vahdias on August 28, 2019

Trench Warfare finally grace the world with their first full length. Building from the potential of their demo and split, the band finally manage to fuse their War metal with elements of Black and Death metal into creating a highly enjoyable listen that carries a few more subtleties than its aesthetic quality would allow one to assume.

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Tags: Black Metal, death metal, hatred prayer, trench warfare, War Metal

Polemicist – Zarathustrian Impressions (Fólkvangr, 2019)

by Johan Pettersson on August 6, 2019

In the past, metal journalism used to function mainly as a filtering device; weeding out the bad so that the good stuff would rise to the top. Nowadays, it’s more likely the other way around. We’re now searching for potential in a seemingly endless flow of “interesting” or pleasant-sounding junk. This task often requires time and patience, because those rare and far between releases will often sound similar to their lesser peers on a surface level. One illuminating example would be the Pennsylvanian epic death/black metal act Polemicist and their debut album Zarathustrian Impressions. Their music may not appear spectacular on casual listen, but repeated and concentrated exposure reveal unexpected qualities.

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Tags: Black Metal, death metal, friedrich nietzsche, polemicist, zarathrustrian impressions

Sammath – Across the Rhine is only death (2019)

by Brett Stevens on July 30, 2019

Sammath returns to the days of its second and third album with a shredding assault that emphasizes tight, technical riffing that keeps to a simple theme and develops it with precision strumming integrated with exacting percussion. This takes the war metal idea into the technical death metal realm while preserving the black metal sense of melody and epic architectures to unite these alienated and reductive riffs.

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Tags: Black Metal, death metal, sammath, War Metal

Desecresy – Towards Nebulae (2019)

by Brett Stevens on July 24, 2019

Bands that possess both unique style and substance, since these are usually related, face difficulty in maintaining consistency because over time the content builds on previous ideas, and therefore the style slowly mutates. The best bands do so while maintaining continuity to the past and toward the idea they seek to explore.

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Tags: ambient metal, death metal, desecresy

Phantom – The Epilogue to Sanity

by Nicholas Vahdias on July 6, 2019

Phantom are a mysterious band with no information on them apart from various claims that range from their music being called Terror or Phantom metal and that they are there to completely innovate the genre and to create acoustic terrorism. While such claims have been spurted by many artists in easy marketing attempts or to stir controversy before an almost identical band makes the same claim and receives their mandatory fifteen seconds. Phantom unlike other bands, seem sincere in their objectives and genuinely try to live up to these claims.

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27 Comments

Tags: Black Metal, death metal, epilogue to sanity, harsh noise, phantom

Riff Analysis: Unleashed – “To Asgaard We Fly”

by Nicholas Vahdias on June 10, 2019

Unleashed had at this point released two good records that saw the band create Heavy metal songs with limited Death metal stylings and were known for possessing a particularly small set of tools which almost made their previous very repetitive. On Across the Open Sea, the band’s Magnum Opus, the band re-contextualized their previous influences to create rousing and anthemic works while seeking to expand further into Death metal technique and arrangement. “To Asgaard we fly” shows this subtle marriage between the two and how the band were able to combine such styles without to saturate the listener with stolen Iron Maiden leads.

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Tags: across the open sea, death metal, riff analysis, to asgaard we fly, Unleashed

Accidental Suicide – Deceased

by Nicholas Vahdias on June 4, 2019

Accidental Suicide hail from Wisconsin and were formed at the end of the eighties and managed to release one full length in ’92 at a time where Death metal, despite its explosion still remained an underground genre as the band were quickly forgotten before finding a cult following and releasing a compilation in 2017. Accidental Suicide play a Death/Doom style that is firmly entrenched in many schools of Death metal and have managed to produce a minor gem that deserves an occasional spot on any Hessian’s playlist.

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Tags: accidental suicide, death metal, death-doom, deceased

DMU Song Contest #3: King of the Serfs Edition Part 2

by Tyrell Dahlstrom on May 14, 2019

By the Hammer of the Gods, the time has come to round up those contestants who dared to volunteer themselves as subjects to the perennially stern yet perspicacious judgement of the DMU Lords! Let us see who shall emerge from this round victorious, rising unchained while their compatriots be left to live among the ruins!

With all that said, let the judgement commence!

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Tags: 2019, alternative rock, Black Metal, death metal, ferriterium, five minutes hate, france, germany, hungary, iron flesh, Italy, mallcore, meghistos, needless, prog metal, saturnus terrorism, song contest, voldt

Mangled Torsos – Drawings of the Dead

by Guest Contributor on May 4, 2019

Article by Svennerick

Not shortly after its inception, Death metal saw not only a stagnation in popularity, but also in creativity and artistic spirit. A genre that peaked and that had already developed most of its subgenres before even being given a concrete name showed the metal scene something new in the mid 80s and early 90s. But that magic eventually faded and now Death metal has only seen a small amount of innovation or peaks in the last two decades, since we mostly end up listening to band worshipping Gorguts‘ Obscura, yet missing its ferocity, or a band creating an entire album consisting out of blast beats and overly technical riffs, which feel more like filler than forwards moving music. Bands lost the connection to what made Death metal special in the first place and would rather waste their impressive talent and devotion trying to rehash what Necrophagist or Spawn Of Possession did in the early 2000s with great success.

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Tags: death metal, Drawings of the Dead, Mangled Torsos

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