Original proto-death/black metal act Hellhammer created a handful of demos and compilation tracks before vanishing into obscurity, but using what sounds like period equipment and the new Tryptikon lineup, founding member Thomas Gabriel Warriors gives these songs a new life as a live album.
24 CommentsTags: celtic frost, hellhammer, proto-death, thomas gabriel warrior
Two of the best and only worthy modern speed metal bands are embarking upon a European tour together this fall. Ripper and Entrench, who made our lists of The Best Underground Metal of 2014 and 2016, are planning a European tour and need to get some gigs to knock headbangers on their backs. From Ripper’s Funbook page:
6 CommentsRIPPER announces first European Tour together with Swedish Thrashers of ENTRENCH!
Interested promoters please get in touch with Roadmaster Booking.
Available dates between September 15 and 30.
Booking via contact@roadmasterbooking.com
Tags: death metal, entrench, proto-death, Proto-Death Metal, proto-underground, ripper, Speed Metal, upcoming tours
Ripper‘s Experiment of Existence has been repressed on CD after the first pressing sold out. The repress of the some of the best Merciless worship may be purchased from Unspeakable Axe Records.
8 CommentsTags: chile, compact disc, proto-death, repress, ripper, Speed Metal, Unspeakable Axe Records
Solar Mass, featuring former Diocletian members, announced that their debut recording of death/speed metal, Pseudomorphosis, will be released on October 3rd on cassette by Iron Bonehead Productions with the higher-fidelity CD and LP formats to follow afterwards. Iron Bonehead premiered a track, “Weaponised” on Soundcloud while the cover was drawn by Rok of Sadistik Exekution.
2 CommentsTags: diocletian, Iron Bonehead Productions, proto-death, solar mass, Speed Metal
Article by Lance Viggiano inspired by International Day of Slayer.
A candidate for the best work within a genre of music should capture every manifestation as best as it can and be able to answer the question: what is X? One might make the argument that the best album must capture the genre at its summit; still, that is a far more difficult essence to capture as in the case of metal, both black and death metal scaled adjacent but different peaks and therefore offer their own unique views of the same musical landscape.
13 CommentsTags: extreme metal, genre, hell awaits, music analysis, musical analysis, proto-death, Proto-Death Metal, proto-underground, slayer, Speed Metal
Article by Corey M.
Overall satisfying (but not quite inspiring) straightforward songs with equal parts thrash and proto-death metal present. I don’t quite hear the “occult” sound these guys are evidently going for; their music sounds too immediate and, weirdly, fun. The band members clearly enjoy creating this music and therefore their work is free of pretense; no revivalist coat-tail riding here. Expect to hear fairly similar-sounding riffs throughout, without much in the way of dynamics. Compared to their contemporaries in bands like Nifelheim and Aura Noir, Occult Burial are competent and maybe even a step ahead of the more popular bands that mix thrash with modern metal because they aren’t impeded by gimmickry. Their lack of theatrics may work against them because they will probably continue to be overlooked until they learn to cut loose and let their imaginations run a little more wild with their songs. Compared to the more aggressive speed metal classics from Coroner and Razor, parts of Hideous Obscure are downright boring. Even playing a bit faster and cleaning up the recording could do wonders for the effectiveness of these songs. Some parts sound truly terrible. For instance, the snare drum sounds in the words of my favorite robot puppet “like a bag of sardines thrown up against the side of a pole barn.” Nevertheless there is promise here and I would reserve more judgment until Occult Burial release a proper-sounding album or I can catch them live.
22 CommentsTags: 2016, beer metal, Black Metal, death metal, funderground, Invictus Productions, modern metal, Occult Burial, party metal, proto-death, Proto-Death Metal, review, Speed Metal
Article by Corey M.
At the beginning of this album, I thought I was in for some ironically incompetent Venom worship with affectations of naivety: “Metal about metal” as it can be rightly called. The drums are played in a bare-bones punk style. The guitar(s) loop punk riffs in predictable verse-chorus style structures while the vocalist rants in a smoke-shredded voice about typical metal stuff. No virtuosic leads or even harmonies are present. However, as the record progressed, the raw efficacy of the chords overcame my cynicism and my head began to nod to and fro of its own accord. Maybe these guys are a throwback or tribute act. Maybe they have actually never heard anything more recent than the first Bathory album. Either way, their riffs have an undeniable ability to hook energy-pumping tentacles into your brain and stir in your heart the desire to get off your ass and be a living, bleeding, raging human. When it comes to music, is there anything better than that?
Listen to and purchase the vinyl reissue of The Third Storm from Hells Headbangers’ Bandcamp page.
19 CommentsTags: 2005, Apokalyptic Raids, Bathory, beer metal, Black Metal, Brazil, celtic frost, death metal, extreme metal, hellhammer, hells headbangers, pop metal, proto-death, Proto-Death Metal, review, Speed Metal, The Third Storm, venom
The Americans invented speed metal with Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All, which came out the same year as Slayer’s Show No Mercy and early European projects like Bathory, Sodom and Hellhammer. The European scene fused these together into a speed metal that used proto-death riffing as exemplified by Destruction, Kreator and Merciless.
Ripper picks up in the Merciless vein and keeps that Swedish landmark as its guiding force. This band keeps the attention of listeners however through its spirit and its refusal to adopt clichés. It uses riff forms found before, but keeps them specific to the song so that they relate to the other parts, preventing songs from being “grab-bags” of former ideas.
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Tags: 2016, proto-death, review, ripper, Speed Metal, Unspeakable Axe Records
