brutal death metal – Page 26

Hideous Divinity – Cobra Verde (Review)

This is the second album of Death Metal from Italian band Hideous Divinity.

Here we have a blistering Technical/Brutal Death Metal band that plays crushing music with furious abandon.

Mixing elements of Hate Eternal, Decapitated, Nile, Behemoth and Hour of Penance; Hideous Divinity have come to destroy.

Hideous Divinity have a powerful sound and seem more than comfortable with their playing skills. Importantly, the band never neglect the songs themselves; although they have a Technical side to their sound they know that a song is more than just playing in a complex way.

As such, these songs are structured well and use their playing time to good effect. Emotive riffs and studied brutality is the name of the game here, and the band do it expertly.

The band’s twisting, dark music is an exemplar of what intelligently crafted Death Metal can sound like in 2014. Songwriting skills, technicality, brutality and the occasional nod to subtlety – these are key elements in the Hideous Divinity sound and the band have really taken them to heart.

This is an album the band should be proud of, and one I’ll be spinning for a good while to come.

Interview with Lelahell

The début album from Algerian band Lelahell – Al Insane… The (Re)birth of Abderrahmane – is a welcome breath of crushing air in the Brutal Death Metal scene. I wanted to find out a bit more about this exciting new band…

Give us a bit of background to Lelahell

Lelahell are one of Algiers’ newer extreme metal acts, their concrete-crushing death metal bludgeoning skulls since 2010. Founded by Redouane Aouameur (A.k.a Lelahell) who is no stranger to the Algerian metal scene as he has already been in other bands including Neanderthalia, Litham, Carnavage and Devast. Following the completion of 2011’s ‘Al Intihar’ EP, fellow Algerian metallers Slave Blaster and Nihil (who also form the rhythm section of black metal outfit Barbaros), completed the ranks. In 2012 Goressimo Records officially released the band’s debut EP.

The first full length album of Lelahell ” Al Insane …The (Re)Birth of Abderrahmane ” mixed and mastered by Ivan of Anthropocide Studio from Belarus (Abominable Putridity, Aborted Fetus, etc.) was released the 5th of august 2014 by Horror Pain Gore Death Productions (Coffins, Haemorrhage, Abscess,..) from USA.

What are your influences?

We don’t have any particular influences , we get our inspiration from everything which is related to death metal and all brutal stuffs and some local music.

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

Hideous Divinity a great death metal band formed by ex members of Hour of Penance and Eyeconoclast from Italy, their music is technical modern melodic and brutal!

How did you decide on the style of Death Metal that you wanted to play – what appeals about this style of music?

We haven’t decided anything, we just played the music that came from our deep guts!

Do you have any goals for your album?

Our main goal is to make music, play all around the world and of course having fun!

Is there anything on the album you’re not satisfied with?

For a first album we are really 100% satisfied!

Do you want to discuss any of the lyrics on the album and any themes/hidden meanings/etc. that might be there?

The song “Al Intissar” is an hymn to victory and all against those fuckin’ losers who complain all day long without doing anything from their lives. Move your ass fucking assholes! “Voices revealed” is inspired from the memories of Phillip Garrido a serial killer, Hypnose is a message to all our governors in the planet ! Am I in hell? is a question that every one asked at least one time in his life, Kalimet essir is a tribute to our Martyrs, Black hands is about the difference between the rich and poors , “Hillal”, has a more philosophical concept and it is about the interaction of the human with the nature and Mizmar talks about the human pleasures!

What’s your songwriting process?

In general I come with the main guitar riff and structures and other musicians compose their own parts during rehearsals.

How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?

Increasing a little bit the ethnic parts and adding more technical and modern elements to the guitar are the main changes in the future ! Wait and see…

What does the future hold for Lelahell?

For December we have a European tour planned in Germany, Switzerland, Poland and France. It is called Al Insane Tour. After that we’ll start the writing process of our second full length.

Thanks for your great support and stay brutalz!

Support LELAHELL or die!

Coprocephalic – The Oath of Relinquishment (Review)

This is the second album from Coprocephalic; a Death Metal band who have a Taiwanese/International origin.

Coprocephalic play Brutal Death Metal. This is ultra-brutal and not for the weak-hearted. The band manage to pull off something a bit different though than most as they combine an interesting perspective on brutality with dissonant melodics creating an unusual take on Brutal Death Metal that’s refreshing and addictive.

This is pure brutality and the riffs come thick and fast. When they’re not trying to beat you to death with blunt breakdowns and heavy chopping they’re trying to stab you to death with sharp melodics and atypical noises.

This is a band who play thoroughly Modern Death Metal with a twist of the most extreme Deathcore the likes of which is peddled by Infant Annihilator and Rings of Saturn. It’s frenzied, savage and not at all pleasant; just the way we like it.

Utter pig-noise vocals sound like someone’s trying to vomit up their own stomach and even though I’m not normally the biggest fan of this style of vocals here it works perfectly with the music. In this sense they’re not too far removed from fellow label mates Infecting the Swarm.

The Oath of Relinquishment is high energy and it’s hard not to feel excited when listening to this. It’s just pure fucking Metal and more brutal than most can handle.

I love it. Let’s all get behind this talented band now.

Lelahell – Al Insane… The (Re)birth of Abderrahmane (Review)

Lelahell are from Algeria and play Death Metal. This is their début album.

This is Brutal Death Metal played fast and played heavy.

After the usual pointless intro, (mercifully brief), the real fun starts and the band introduce us to their blasting mayhem.

The vocals are the first surprise. Usually with this style of Death Metal we get typical ultra-guttural growls, but the majority of the vocals on this album are higher screams, (although deeper growls are used as well). It sounds good and reminds of a band like Defleshed.

The guitars have a nice tone to them and sound quite thick. The riffs are a bit more inventive than the norm, with colourful melodies and unusual flavours to the tunes. The songs have an exotic flair to them; Lelahell are definitely not your typical Cannibal Corpse clone.

This album is crushingly brutal and has a sound to match that’s suitably huge and clear. Lelahell are a very satisfying proposition and this chunky, thick sound combined with the band’s songwriting skills, dynamics and interesting riffs means this is an album to really get into.

As début’s go, this is a winner. Lots of bands are content to tread water, but Lelahell are more interested in forging their own path, and more power to them for this.

Make sure you get a hold of Al Insane… The (Re)birth of Abderrahmane. It’s well worth the investment.

Bloodtruth – Obedience (Review)

Bloodtruth are from Italy and play Brutal Death Metal. This is their début album.

This is Brutal Death Metal played with passion and delivered with a storm. Crisp, crunchy riffs and blasting drums lead the charge with relentless growls and surgical strikes following up. Oh yes, and Gregorian chanting.

The band boast a crushing sound where everything sounds sharp and ready to maim. It’s heavy and it’s adrenalin soaked.

The singer has a gruff, satisfying growl that fits the music like a glove and he mainly spends his time shouting vicious diatribes and barking like a chained attack dog.

The songs are focused and brutal, with blast beats aplenty and light speed melodics and solos added in at all of the right places. The melodic guitar leads are nicely fused with the music so that they don’t detract from the brutality at all. Even though they frequently do use melodies in their songs this is not a band who would ever be described as Melodic Death Metal, and rightfully so. This is all about crushing, Brutal Death Metal and how they can demolish everything around them.

Obedience has a good pace to it and the guitars alternate between heavy chugs and ultra-blasting speed assaults in a way that flows naturally from one riff to the next. Each track is an enjoyable ride through mayhem and carnage as the band deal out punishment and pain with every precise turn through the Death Metal landscape.

If you like punchy Death Metal played with sheer brutality and clinical precision then there’s nothing not to like here.

Listen. Destroy. Obey.

7 H.Target – 0.00 Apocalypse (Review)

This is the third album from Russia’s 7 H.Target. They play Brutal Death Metal.

This is modern Sci-fi themed Death Metal with enough brutality to leave you bruised.

The band are rhythmically aggressive and technically devastating. Their fury is unrestrained and each track sounds like it’s going straight for the jugular to rip it out and replace it with complex cybernetics.

There’s a healthy Slam component to their sound only this is not quite as blatant as some purveyors of the style. It’s a strong influence nonetheless but it’s tempered by the sheer brutality of the band. It’s not just heavy groove; there’s some serious blasting and grinding going on here.

Add to this the rather more interesting and inventive touches to the music; odd moments of technicality and Industrial Sci-fi influences and this is more than just “another Slam band”.

The sound is heavy, thick and serpentine like a robotic snake, twisting and coiling around its victims before tightening slowly. 0.00 Apocalypse sounds immense and it’s the perfect aural vehicle for their inventive brand of mayhem.

The vocals are guttural nightmares drawn from the bowels of a festering pit of dying servitors. Enough said.

This is a truly extreme work of Brutal Death Metal cyber-art and the songs on this album need to be heard, preferably at ear-bleeding noise levels.

If you’ve a taste for cutting edge brutality then this is a must.

Lago – Tyranny (Review)

Lago are a Death Metal band from the US and Tyranny is their début album.

Lago play a mixture of Old-School and New-School Death Metal and manage to reach a comfortable medium between the two. Think Morbid Angel and Immolation meeting Behemoth and Wormed.

Dark melodies and rampant brutality hold sway here, although the band allow themselves room to experiment a bit with some longer songs and nice touches here and there, (Reckoned features an almost, gasp, Folk section!).

The songs are well-written and feature a good recording that gives the band a wonderfully heavy sound. All of the instruments sound really good. The drums, guitars, bass and even the vocals; they all stand out which effectively means that everything stands out. As I listen to this the old “everything louder than everything else” phrase comes to mind. It’s a class production all round and lends the songs the power they need to make their mark.

The drums pound away nicely and there are a bucketfuls of tasty riffs to get stuck into. They play the heavy, brutal riffs well but also mix things up with darker melodic riffs, some of which have a nice Blackened edge to them.

Tyranny has some good solos on it which stick out against the pitch black rhythm guitars and spice things up a bit.

I keep coming back to the rhythm guitar riffs though as they feature the kind of darkly melodic brutality that makes Immolation so compelling and individual. The wonderful thing is that it may be reminiscent of Immolation but it doesn’t actually sound like them; in other words Lago share a similar stylistic space with the masters rather than ripping them off, which is brilliant as I love Immolation and now I love Lago also.

The vocals are so deep it almost hurts and seem to dominate everything else with their presence. Higher screams are also used for a bit of variety.

Lago have impressed me no end with this release. It’s a strong collection of Death Metal tracks that showcase a powerful new band who have arrived on the scene with the force of a meteor strike.

Highly recommended.

Internal Bleeding – Imperium (Review)

Internal Bleeding are from the US and this is their fifth album. They play Brutal Death Metal.

This is Death Metal that prizes brutality and heaviness above all else. Internal Bleeding were one of the earliest bands who took a so-called Slam approach to Death Metal and this latest album continues this trend.

This means they play heavy Death Metal with lots of chugging and groove mixed in with the blasting; plenty of double bass and mid-paced mosh-friendly chugfests to get you moving around and bouncing like a loon. It’s infectious stuff.

The obvious comparisons would be bands like Dying Fetus and Suffocation, but Internal Bleeding cradle their own inner monster and deliver a collection of songs that really just want to be let loose to rip your face off.

The songs are rabid and nearly unhinged; there’s a very real impression of a band being hungry and wanting to prove themselves. After all it’s been 10 years since their previous album and there’s now a lot more competition in the Brutal Death Metal world than ever before. Based on the evidence here though Internal Bleeding have a made a more than welcome return to the fray and can easily still cut it amongst the newer breed.

Play Imperium at full volume, then quickly get out of its way as it destroys everything nearby.

Recommended.

Phobiatic – Fragments of Flagrancy (Review)

Phobiatic are from Germany and this is their second album of Technical Death Metal.

Phobiatic’s Death Metal is both technical and brutal and takes cues from the likes of Dying Fetus – huge brutal riffs combine with intricate, swirling leads to create a monster of a Death Metal assault.

The songs are largely short and sadistic affairs, averaging about 3 minutes each; every track makes a virtue of aggressive complexity juxtaposed with a simpler and more brutally direct attack.

The production sounds fine and the band know what they’re doing with their respective instruments.

The vocals are deep, guttural and in your face. A band like this, however, has no need for subtlety and the forthright approach goes hand in hand with the nature of the songs.

Fragments of Flagrancy is an enjoyable album that’s short enough to satisfy the urge for instant destruction and technical enough to satisfy the desire for a deeper chaos.

Give the album a listen and see what they do for you.

Torn the Fuck Apart – Sexually Transmitted Torture (Review)

Torn the Fuck Apart are from the US. They play Death Metal and this is their second album.

Torn the Fuck Apart combine Brutal Slamming Death Metal with Technical Death Metal to sound like the bastard offspring of Dying Fetus and Cannibal Corpse.

Heavy riffs collide with widdly guitar leads to create that Dying Fetus-style mix of brutality and technicality that works so well for them. Torn the Fuck Apart then add into the mix a bit more Cannibal Corpse influenced riffs a well as elements from the Slam school of thought.

The songs are good, with heavy riffs flying around and leads slicing through the chaos like knives. There’s plenty to get caught up in and the double bass and blast beats flow freely.

The vocalist uses very deep, guttural growls; his is a very good voice for this kind of music.

Musically the album has a maturity that belies the image you might get of the band from their songtitles, etc. This is advanced-level Death Metal with lots to keep the listener hooked as the band bash you around the head with their aural assault.

Have a listen and I’m sure you’ll get drawn into their technically brutal world.