Immolation – Page 10 – Wonderbox Metal

Angist – Circle Of Suffering (Review)

Angist are from Iceland and play Death Metal.

This is Death Metal with mood and presence, as is instantly apparent from the first couple of minutes of the opening track Circle Of Suffering. Also apparent is the band’s Old-School song philosophy and an ear for a good riff.

Taking elements of Morbid Angel, Immolation and Obituary, the band steer a course through paths well trodden but still manage to offer something worthwhile to the discerning listener. They have a good line in some quite Doomy riffs as well; a real sense of melancholy flows when they want it too.

The songs impress with their melody as well as their dynamics and atmosphere. A collection of riffs is not enough for Angist, they demand flow and song structure to be present too, and rightly so.

The vocals are resolutely Old-School in the sense that they are extreme but not overly so and they have that vibe about them; that indefinable something that says “yes, this is the real deal”. They are legible in places and always work well with the music.

This EP is a few years old now, so I look forward to what Angist offer us in the future. Hopefully they will release a blinder of an album.

Give this band your support.

Near Death Condition – Evolving Towards Extinction (Review)

This is the third album from Swiss Death Metallers Near Death Condition.

This is very brutal and very heavy, just as we like it. Coming across as a mix of Hate Eternal, Immolation, Behemoth and Morbid Angel; Near Death Condition have all the essential ingredients of a very filling and very tasty meal.

The vocalist is the proverbial icing on the cake. Whether he is growling or screaming his voice is immense and immediately engaging.

The songs are ultra-brutal with the blast beats played to precision and the guitars aiming to utterly destroy. They have lots of slower riffs that speak of an Immolation/Morbid Angel influence of slightly unusual structures that work very well. The band also throw in some more restrained sections with solos and even a bit of Behemoth-style orchestration here and there.

Near Death Condition offer us the complete package and Evolving Towards Extinction is the kind of album any Death Metal fan should relish getting their teeth into.

Beyond Mortal Dreams – Dreaming Death (Review)

Beyond Mortal Dreams are an Australian Death Metal band treading their own path on their own terms with this 18 minute, 4 track EP.

Three original songs and a Beherit cover are what we get, and this EP is over far too quickly as Beyond Mortal Dreams deliver the goods.

And those lead guitars! I love a good solo and there’s plenty of fretwork on these songs to keep me happy. The guitars generally are both aggressive and atmospheric, in the way that Nile manage so effortlessly; yet also take aspects of bands like Immolation. These are the bands that are not just concerned with aural bludgeoning, but who are also interested in immersing the listener in the mood of the song as well.

The drums form the bedrock on which everything else is built and it’s clear that the drummer is not human but rather some form of multi-armed cyber-mutation that’s been programmed to pound skins for all it’s worth. Impressive stuff.

This EP is a fantastic listen and I can’t wait to hear more from them in the future.

Odem – The Valley of Cut Tongues (Review)

Brutal Death Metal with a malevolent, blackened underlay. Somehow underneath the brutality and blasting the band have managed to inject a level of constant tension and uneasiness into their sound. It’s quite unusual, the closest comparison I suppose is certain Immolation songs, or maybe Arkhon Infaustus, but this doesn’t quite do it justice.

This is undeniably brutal, but it is also very, very evil-sounding. It’s as if someone has distilled the essence of Black Metal, created a foul-smelling tincture and upon consuming immediately vomited forth Odem’s style of Death Metal.

How to describe the vocals? Imagine a condemned, wretched and broken slave dragging a tombstone to his own grave. That is what they sound like.

Exceptional and savage.